About Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 29, 1916)
4 THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL ATLANTA. GA.. 5 WORTH FOBSYTH ST. i>:.-red at the Atlanta Poatorfice as Mali Matter ot the Second Class. JAMES B. GRAY, President and Editor. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE. Twelve months ...75c Six months 40c Three months 25c The Semi-Weekly Journal is published on Tues day and Friday, and is mailed by the shortest routes for early delivery. It contains news from all over the world, brought by special leased wires into our office. It has a staff of distinguished contributors, with strong depart ments of special value to the home and the farm. Agents wanted at every postoffice. Liberal com mission allowed. Outfit free. Write R. R. BRAD LEY. Circulation Manager. The only traveling representatives we have are B. F. Bolton, C. C. Coyle, L. H. Kimbrough, Chas IL Woodliff and L. J. Farris. We will be responsible only for money paid to the above-named traveling representatives. X _ / NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. The-label u*.«i addressing your paper shews tae time your subscription expire*. Rr raoewiug at least two weeks be fore the date on thl* label, you insure regular service. In ordering pater changed. be snre to mention you* old. as well as your new addrvss. If on a route, jb-ace give the route number. We cannot eater subscription* to begin with back number*. Remittance should be sent by pos tai order or registered zuail- ? re !T. ,n or ' , * r * « cJ notices for this Pepartment to THE BBMI-WI.LKLY JOLKNAU Atlanta. Ua. _ 7 he “Big Drive” Yet to Come. The Anglo-French offensive which began last July i s commonly spoken of as the Big Drive; and for intense, sustained effort, it is certainly the greatest operation the war has yet witnessed. But according to correspondents who usually are well informed the pounding and pushing ot the.last three months, gigantic though it has been, is mere ly a prelude to the supreme onslaught which the Allies are preparing to deliver. Herbert Corey, whose illuminating articles on the war appear from time to time in The Journal, writes from Paris that the offensive on the Somme has been primarily a trial heat, ‘ in which the great new war machine was warmed and gauged and jolted down to its work": "‘The Big Drive itself will be a far more comprehensive affair than a battle on a twenty five kilometer front. It is to be an attack east and west, in which every nation of the Al lies will exert every pound of weight against . the powers of the center. It is to be consid jfldered not merely as a military offensive on the western front, but as a ring around and a compression of the Central Emoires. When Bulgaria quits—and if Bulgaria is given a chance to quit that may come before water - freezes in the Balkan lakes—Germany and Austria will be fairly well cut off from their Turkish allies. There is to be a true concert of action in which Italy and Russia and Ru mania. and perhatis Greece and Denmark, may take part. Portugal is to send 60,000 men to the western line. The smaller states will be linked in that chain which is to strangle the central lowers today and which is to reduce them after the war to a condition in which they will be unable acain to set fire to Europe.” Mr. Corey ventures a guess that the supreme offensive will begin around October the first. Present developments in the Balkans and the not able gains of the French and British in the West make it supposable that the Big Drive already has started. The Reichstag. The Reichstag which opens today promises lo be ot extraordinary interest because of the mo mentous things that have come to pass since it was last in session. The Verdun adventure has pal pably failed. The trench deadlock in the west has been broken by the Franco-British drive. Austria has reeled under Russian and Italian blows. Ru mania and Greece have joined the Entente. On every front, the Central Empires have lost the initiative and are reduced to a hard-pressed defense. What effect, it any. will these events have on the temper of the Reichstag, its attitude toward the Government, its policies' and conclusions? Neutral nations are keenly interested because there is rather a strong element in German politics which urges an unrestricted use of the submarine against the enemy’s commerce. Should that element gather support from present conditions and succeed in shaping th< Empire's future policies, the dangerous problems which supjiosedly- we>e settled by Ger man: "s last note to the United States might be re vived; and there would be scant hope of settling them amicably a second time. Indications, however. i>oint to a continuance of Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg’s control. The Chancellor, together with most of the Empire's clearer heads, stands for due respect for neutral rights and, accordingly, against indiscriminate sub marine warfare. If he succeeds as heretofore in outgeneraling the extremists on this issue, the Ger man people will be indebted to him and the future will praise his sound judgment. Other questions iff crucial import will engage the attention of the Reichstag. The session will be a crowded and. perhaps, a stormy one. Editorial Echoes. The Herald s straw vote shows President Wil son as getting IT.G per cent of the “drift” from Roosevelt and Mr. Hughes 82.1 per cent, which is not enough for Hughes to break even on the gen eral vote. The Herald's own composing-room is 86 for Wilson to 30 for Hughes, against 73 for Wilson in 1912 and 33 for Taft and Roosevelt to gether. Mr. Hughes can salve the wounds of a faithful friend by reflecting that straw votes prove little. —New York World. Mr. Hughes' definition of a true American does not include the qualification of refra.ning to fur ther the interests of a foreign place of birth at the expense of the rightful claims of the United States. Why doesn't he include it? —Springfield Repub lican. “This would be a good time for me to lake a vacation,” remarked the secretary and treasurer of a city concern. • • “But you returned from one only a week ago,” -aid the president. . .'.’Uh. that was my vacation as .secretary; I wish to go now as treasurer.'" —Boston Transcript. THE ATLAN TA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1916. An Extra Legislative Session To Deal With the State Road. For years the extension of the State road to the sea was discussed as an interesting possibility. Today it juts out as a definite opportunity. If the State so wills, it can press this project to achieve ment, thereby incalculably increasing and forever safeguarding the value of its railroad property. But it must act with vigor and decision. Private capital, convinced that the extension idea is sound, stands ready to carry it forward on liberal and inviting terms. Two propositions of the kind have been laid before the Western and Atlantic Commission by responsible interests. Mr. William Hurd Hillyer, of Atlanta, and associates offer to deliver to the State, free of incumbrances, an extension of the Western and Atlantic from Atlanta to Savannah, together with valuable port terminals and all other needful facilities, and to accept in payment therefor fifty-year, four per cent State of Georgia bonds to the amount of approximately ten million dollars. They propose, further, to lease the entire line from Chattanooga to Savannah for a term of forty-seven years at an annual rental which would yield the State a return on its present line ‘‘substantially in excess” of what it now receives and which also would pay the interest on the bonds and provide a sinking fund for their retirement. Earlier in the year Mr. J. A. J. Henderson, of Oscilla, and his associates submitted a proposal to the same general effect, but different in several important particulars. Under their plan the ex tension would reach from Atlanta to St. Marys and thence to Jacksonville, Fla. They would accept ten million dollars of State bonds, bearing interest at the rate of four and a half per cent and maturing in ten-year periods of equal amounts. They would lease the new line for fifty years at a rental sufficient to pay the interest on the bonds and to maintain the necessary sinking fund. They would also lease the Chattanooga to Atlanta line for a fifty-year period ot a monthly rental of $35,250 for the first ten years, $37,500 for the second ten, $12,500 for the third ten, $45,000 for the fourth ten and $50,000 for the fifth ten years. The interesting aspect of both these proposi tions is that they make it possible for the State to extend its railroad to an ocean outlet and to gain the inestimable advantages incident thereto with out actually spending a single dollar. The West ern and Atlantic is now a local line, dependent largely on other railways for its more profitable traffic. Having no port connection of its own and no permanent guarantee of connections with the West or the East, it is obviously at a disadvantage. The problem can be solved only by carrying out the plah on which the road originally was built, that is by extending it to the sea so that it will have an assured and independent hold on the larger tides of commerce. Besides the propositions we have noted, the city of Savannah and the business interests of Bruns wick announce their readiness to co-operate gen erously with the Slate in carrying out the exten sion project. Savannah is so keenly interested that it offers to defray the expense of a special session of the General Assembly if such a session is called to enact needful legislation; and Bruns wick offers the State a coast frontage of forty miles for terminals, together with valuable rights of way. Thus an enterprise which a few years ago was merely a vague though splendid possibil ity, has resolved itself into a clear-cut, practical opportunity. But if the State is to profit by these circum stances. if it is to utilize the private capital and the civic aid at its command, it must place itself in a position to deal conclusively with those who are prepared to serve it. In short, it must take prompt steps to authorize the bend issue which is necessary to finance the extension plan. Not until that is done will the State be able to trade on this piatter, which is peculiarly urgent because of the fact that the present lease of the road is nearing expiration. . A bond issue of this kind calls for a Constitu tional amendment, to be ratified by the people after having been sanctioned by the General Assembly; and Constitutional amendments must be submitted at a general election. The forthcom ing election in November is unavailable for this purpose because a sixty-day notice must be given after the amendment has passed the Legislature. But on the first Saturday of December next there will be a Justice of the Peace election which is of a general character and which the Legislature could postpone by a special act to the fourth Sat urday. December 30. That would give sufficient time for the adoption of a bond issue amendment through an extra session of the Legislature and for its due advertisement before being voted on by the people. After this year there will be no other general election unUl 1918. The extension project is so profdundly impor tant to the future interests of the State Road —its rental value as well as its safety and develop ment —and so important, too. to all the material interests of the Commonwealth that an extra ses sion of the General Assembly to deal with the situation seems abundantly justified. At the last regular session a bill providing for the very thing which is now needed passed the Senate and re ceived a large majority vote in the House, but failed of the requisite two-thirds simply because of the absence of many House members at the time. It is hardly to be questioned that the legislature, if now called together, would pass such a measure overwhelmingly, or that the people, If given a chance, would ratify It; for it would merely place at the disposal of the Western and Atlantic Com mission the financial machinery needed to clinch an extension deal in case the Commission found such a deal advisable. It would seem, therefore, that prompt steps toward a special Legislative session should be taken. The Commission itself might well recom mend such action. The opportunity the State now faces is one that may never return, Certainly not for generations, if it Is allowed to go ungrasped. Whatever is done must be done speedily, for the present lease of the Western and Atlantic expires in December. 1919. and plans looking to the exten sion of the road must be perfected soon If they are to be carried out in time for the beginning of the new lease. In any event, the Western and Atlantic Commission should go very slowly in considering any re-leasing plans that do not con template an extension of the State road, because the value and development of the road are insep arably bound up with the extension idea. ft is earnestly to be hoped that means will promptly be found to enable the Commission to deal definitely with extension proposals. Note.—This story is published juat as received from the Italian censor. It shows peculiarly stupid work by him. He has erased the name of a moun tain in the second and third parag-xuphs, and sub stituted the letter G, despite the fact that the name of the mountain becomes plain in the latter pait of the story. Mr. Corey gave his word to the Italian government that the stories would be pub lished as the censor left them. THE ITALIAN ARMY IN THE TREN VV TINO. —Many little gray figures ran up the hill in the glare of the afternoon sun. Shells broke among them. The tap-tap of the mlltrailleuse came to our ears. The little gray-figures hesitated, then they stopped. Then they ran down hill again. At the foot of the steep slope were thin black lines which the glasses showed to be trenches. “They are taking shelter,” said the officer with me, with a sigh of relief. We were watching the attack on Mount X. Four times that day the little gray figures toiled up that hill. Three times they were repulsed. Each time they -found shelter in a trench a little nearer the top than the one they had left. The fourth time they straggled over the summit in a disorderly crowd. Here and there were groups of four or five or perhaps a dozen. Again one man might be seen, running madly all alone toward the crest. Sometimes there was the semblance of a line. It does not sound exciting, does it? Yet taking a fortified position by assault from the open was one of the most gallant feats the Italian army has accom plished in this mountain campaign. From the summit of Mount X it is possible to shell one of the roads by which the Austrian army obtained food and munitions. That fact explains the bitterness of the fight by both the defenders and the assailants. The taking of it was one of the items that forced the Austrian retreat. Fresh from watching the 'trench warfare in France, I felt peculiarly fortunate in viewing this charge across the barren slopes. It is a privilege that has been accorded to few correspondents in the’west since the early war of movement settled into the monotonous one of position. We had been riding all day on roads crowded with big guns, with heavy lorries, with pack mules, with one-horse carts, with the odds and ends that follow an army with supplies. Sometimes we had ridden for hours through long lines of Italian infantry men toiling through the dust. Now and then the scream of a motor horn from tjie rear told of the stormy approach of a general officer. “We are getting near the front,” said my com panion. We were meeting the first of a dolorous pilgrimage. The slightly wounded were on their way to the dressing stations hidden in thd wooded hollows of the hills. One thought of them at first as very tired. They limped along, using their guns as crutches, or some times leaning heavily on a dry stick picked up by the roadside. Black-red patches on their clothing told where the enemy’s bullet had registered. Invariably their uniforms floated in rags where they had torn or cut them to locate and dress the wound. Then came the somewhat more dangerously injured men. Now and then one little soldier would stagger along under the weight of a comrade he was carrying pick-a-back out of the fire. The brancardiers began to appear, three men or sometimes four to a litter. Not one of the wounded groaned, but many were ghastly pale. Here and there a man in a litter might be seen pressing his hand against the wound to still the pain. The road filled with them. We came to a little house, which had been torn by the shells. Behind the ragged remnants of the walls a group of soldiers sat chatting. They seemed entirely unconcerned. On the open hill nearby a company of men slept in the sun. They had just been relieved from duty and they were exhausted. Later we walked among them, and hardly one stirred. Most had wrapped their coats about their heads to protect their tired eyes from the glare. The sun scorched us. “We will go to an observation station,” said the officer to me. • That observation was on the bare top of a round hill. Shell holes pitted it. My glasses revealed on the slopes near by little tumbled heaps of clothing. The hobnails of a heavy boot sparkling in the sun—an Austrian cap—a rifle —alone told that these little tumbled heaps had once been men. Except for these signs there was nothing about them to suggest the fact. They were neither ghastly nor pitiable. One glanced at them and looked away.- They were com pletely negligible items of the landscape. In the hollow below us was Asiago—held by the Austrians, taken by the Italians, retaken by the Austrians, carried by storm again by the Italians. It was so near we could see the holes torn in the white walls of the buildings by the shells. Smoke rose where incendiary shells had exploded and where houses burned. In Asiago were the dressing stations nearest the front line. The Austrian shells fell In Asiago with, a monotonous regularity. Big shells, evidently, from the muffled thump of the explosions. On the other side of the valley was bare, brown Mount Rasta. To the right, were Mount Interpotto and Mount Mosciagh. both held by the Austrians. Their black woods were spotted with puffs of white smoke where the Italian shells were falling. It is a parklike country, hereabouts, ringed in by the high Dolomite Alps. The slopes where the men of the seven communities feed their cattle and sheep in peaee were rich in grass. The hills are crowned by precipitous cliffs and dense forest. Only Mount Rasta was bare and brown. On its very top a white building shone in the sun. it might be the home of some well to-do farmer —or perhaps the summer home of a rich lowlander. The well-to-do Venetians come to Asiago in the summer to escape the heat. I swept the land scape rather idly with my glasses. One does not expect to see very much of a modern battle. "What is going on over there?” I asked. “On Mount Rasta?” The moment before the slopes had been empty of any living being. As I looked the hill began to fill with little figures. They spouted out of shell holes and leaped from the thin black lines that examination proved were trenches. They began to go forward, up the hill, at a lively dog trot. It was not a charge in parade formation, as one sees in pictures. Each man, or eacli group of men, seemed to be acting separately, often there were wide spaces where there wer no men. Then a few would appear. Then one might see a thick clump, all running toward the summit. From the dis tance we could hear the pounding of the mitrailleuse, other mitrailleuses joined the first. They made an irritating, carpenteriike clamor. Shells begjxn to fall'among the little, running men. The Austrians bad this barren slope in perfect range from Moscaigh and Interpotto and half a dozen other hills whose names do not matter. One big shell burst in a group of perhaps fifty men. Every man went down. Then most of them got up again and began running, in a confused way, down the hill. Not many had been killed, apparently. They had either been thrown down by the concussion or had fallen to escape the shell fragments. The number of shells increased. The hillside became indistinct to the view in places where the torn earth filled the air. The irregular line of running men stopped. Then all turned and began to run down hill again. ‘ Watch them,” said my companion. “See what they do.” There was a significance in this that at first escaped me. Then J saw that the men did not run in panic. They were seeking shelter. At the foot of the hill ran a sunken road. Many hid themselves behind its banks. Half way down the hill were lines of shal low trenches. From our hill thej' seemed mere scratches. We could see the curled up legs of the men in some places. They had managed only to get their heads in cover. Hereabouts a six-inch blanket of soil covers the granite of the mountains. That does not lend itself well to trench making. The shell storm had slackened, but the obus con tinued to drop with a sickening regularity among these figures clutching at the thin furrows of earth. There came a recrudescence of activity ch» the slope that a moment ago had been empty save for the little graj’ figures that did not move from where they fell Here and there wounded men came down the hill, sometimes supporting each other in pairs. sometimes alone, stumbling, falling, getting up again, lying still. Other men went up the hill. Some were stretcher bearers— the bravest men in war—climbing tinder a constant fire to bring out the wounded Others were soldiers running forward, seking new places of concealment, THE WAR IN THE ALPS. .by HERBERT COREY ready for the word to go forward again. I-or four hours that continued. Not a man was left in that sunken road at the bottom of the hill when the word came to charge again. “That one,” said my companion, judicially, was meant for us.” I had been firm of the opinion that other preceding shells had borne the same'good Intention Os this one there was no doubt. Our hill was a well-known obser vation point, and the Austrians had an unpleasant habit of shelling it whenever little figures appeared on its bare and rounded top. Here and there were broken guns and torn rags of uniforms and castaway caps, to prove that others had suffered there for curiosity. The latest and most convincing shell was a 210, appar ently. It exploded perhaps twenty yards away. Dirt and stones and shell fragments fell in the hole where we were crouch ng. W e moved a little to the side of the hill, and a malevolent shell followed us. Then we gave it up. In the valley again that procession of dolorous pilgrims had increased in numbers. The road along which they trudged, tired and bleeding and sick, was being constantly shelled. Perspiration was streaming down their faces, yet those not in the greatest pain were quite willing to stop and talk and even joke a little. These were in good spirits. They were winning. They were sure of it. “The next time we will get Rasta.” one man said, in turning. “Look.” ’ • Only the top of Rasta was visible from the depres sion in which we had taken shelter. The little white bililding on the summit sparkled in the sun. The brown slopes, sprinkled with motionless graw figures, were hidden from view. We could see smoke clouds curling up from them, and could hear the wooden clatter of the mitrailleuse, and the constant thumping of the exploding shells, but in this tumult of noise this had told us nothing. We turned with the wounded man, and saw little gray figures—pathetically little they appeared—climbing slowly the last steep rods of ascent. They ran toward the little white building. Then it seemed as though they fell. Along the road leading from Asiago we heard a thin, cracked shouting. The dolorous pilgrims were cheering. The capture of Rasta had not. been completely achieved Those little bayonet fighters we had been watching did not gain quite to the top as we watched. That level top was swept by Austrian artillery. But thev “dug in,” and remained there all the rest of that day under a continual fire, as only first-rate troops can do. That night they met the Austrians hand to hand and steel to steel, and battled man by man. Quips and Quiddities “Do you think any girl ever proposed in leap year, as they say, Mary?” he asked. “Not unless she was obliged to. ’ was the reply. “Mm! I never thought of that,” he said, after a pause. . • “But, Tommy," she said, laying her hand affection ately on his arm and looking into his eyes, “you, I am sure, will never <orce me to that humiliation!” „ ••No —er —that is to say—of course not! 1 —” And the banns will be called very shortly, and the local jeweller is doing very well this week. “Young man, did you kisfs my daughter in the hall last night?” said the girl’s mother sternly. ■T thought I did,” said the young man promptly. “But really you look so young that I can t always tell you and your daughter apart.” The impending storm did not burst. , NEW LIGHT ON CRIME. ll—Measuring Minds | — — BY IREDERIC J. HASKIN —————— ' CHICAGO, 111., sept. 23.—The first duty of a psycho pathic laboratory Is to look like something else. The psychopathic laboratory of the Chicago municipal court is a suite of three cheerful rooms looking out from the eleventh story over an every-day commonplace tangle of roofs and chimneys, with the roar of the street tempered by distance to a reassuring murmur. There is none of the atmosphere of the unusual or the mysterious that an array of strange scientific apparatus gives to an office, because there is no strange scientific apparatus present. They minds here, and minds are not measured with calipers. In order to be accurately measured, minds must be at ease. It is an expert job to put a mind at ease when it is the stunted mind of a child or a mind deranged, and its owner has been arrested and faces the prospect of appearing before a judge and hearing sentence upon him. But the laboratory does the trick, and th s unconcerned, business-like simplicity of furnishing is an important step in the process. ( • • • The psychopathic laboratory can not do more than sample the cases that come before the various orlminal branch courts of the municipal court. There are about 125,000 such cases In a year which have to do with offenses against city ordinances and state laws. Those cases go to the laboratory when the offender seems to the judge to be abnormal, or where the nature of the crime seems to argue an abnormal mind. In addition a selection is made which shall represent fairly the general run of a day’s work in the courts, and thus give data on which conclusions as to the whole may be based. No prisoner is examined against his will. • • • The laboratory is in charge of Dr. William Hick eon an American physician who has studied In the European clinics where the widespread relation of ob scure mental disease and crime was first recognised and intensely studied. • • • A man in Dr. Hickson's position needs to have many qualifications and a varied equipment of scientific knowledge. He has to be a skilled physician of the ordlnarv sort for a mere starter, as an astronomer needs to be skilled in the principles of surveying. He has to be a nerve specialist on top of that, a psycholo gist. versed not only tn normal psychology, but more over and especially in abnormal psychology, and an expert alienist as well. Criminal psychology as prac ticed today Is an abstruse science in itself, and the work of a few men in Europe has turned It upside down in the last decade. In a word, to hold Dr. Hick son's job you have to combine the training of a college professor of psychology with that of the head physi cian of an Insane asylum. And all to find out why some exceedingly grimy and ragged youth of uncurbed speech saw fit to assault a policeman. Such a youth is brought in by the bailiff, sullen and hostile. He views the world as his enemy, he has the restless alertness of the city streets, but beneath it is a certain vacuous stolidity that tells why the judge thought the laboratory might well take a look at him. For all that, he would pass any cursory examination as a boy of ordinary intelligence. As such he would be treated in most courts. He is about twenty years old • • • Tn the preliminary testing Dr. Hickson’s wife takes a hand. Mrs. Hickson is something of a specialist In these matters herself, with a European training. The laboratory employs two or three assistants for apply ing the simpler tests, and each of these assistants has had special training for the work. One of them Is a physician. They put the subject through the more elementary stages of the examination, and the doctor Inspects and interprets the results. Cases with special and unusual features are continually arising that de mand his attention, for this is the greatest clinic in abnormal psychology in the world. It draws on the abnormals in a population of 2,500,000 people; 5,000 policeman bring it naw material as their daily work. There is, for example, a certain very rare form of nerv ous disease connected with criminal impulses. When the European clinics chance on such a case, invitations are sent to specialists all over Europe to come and study it. Before Dr. Hickson had been in charge of the Chicago laboratory a week, the first case of this sort was brought to hirn. • • • In the meantime Mrs. Hickson hae taken the youtk wno wars on the police into the inner room where tests are made in quiet. She has a wonderful knack for making these human wrecks and misfits feel that they are in the hands of a friend. Tn giving the simple but significant mental tests it is essential that the subject be free from fear or sullenness or embarrassment. The Fixed Ideas BY' H. ADDINGTON BRUCE. FIXED ideas, as commonly understood, are dis tressing ideas which take possession of the mind with such intensity that no amount of argument, ridicule, - or persuasion will dislodge them. Fixed ideas, that is to say, are generally considered to be most undesirable. The use of the term, derived from medical ex perience, is too narrow. . In fact, it is sadly misleading. For-there are good fixed Ideas as well as bad ones. And often it is exceedingly desirable for a person to become dominated by a good fixed idea. So true Is this that certain people Actually need to surrender themselves completely to a good fixed, idea if they would have their lives amount to any thing worth while. I have in mind particularly that numerous class of people who, for one reason or another, refuse to exert themselves usefully. They pass their days in slothful indolence, in a laziness that is harshly condemned by their relatives and friends. • Such people usually plead that they are ‘‘too tired to work.” This plea is contemptuously re jected, especially when it happens that the lazy one looks healthy and strong. In reality, the offered excuse may be quite valid. No matter how healthy they look, it has been found that chronic idlers as a rule are victims of a pecu liar weakness of the nervous system. They need medical attention rather than re bukes. They need tonics, suitable food, exercise in the open air, a general physical upbuilding. . How is this to be done? Let me tell you in the words of a French specialist. Dr. Maurice de- Fleury, of wide experience in the treatment of idlers: “To induce a lazy person to become possessed, of a good fixed idea is not a superhuman task for those who know how to set about it. The means to be employed remind one of a woman who wishes to make herself loved. “First of all, she dresses herself with care, so as to show off her charms to the full. Then she finds opportunities for constantly being seen, in creases the number of meetings; her presence must become habitual —in fact, necessary; Re must suf fer when she is no»longer near. “She kindles the flame of jealousy, to make it understood that she is an incomparable treasure, and that another will grasp her if he does not> stretch forth his arm in time. “Imitate her, you who wish to learn the mar* velous art of reclaiming the indolent. “Help your patient to choose a work really suited to his abilities. Embellish the idea of this work with all' the hope that it is possible to raise—' self-content, glory, and fortune to be won. “Talk about it without ceasing. Like a Wag nerian motive, repeat it again and again, and soon you will find that the mind seizes the idea, and can, no longer exist without this good obsession. , “Finally, when the idea becomes cherished, when the mind loves it as one loves and desires a woman, make it to be understood that another, brave and more worthy, may step in and carry It As with idlers, so with people of other bad habits Thev too need to be brought under the in fluence of good fixed ideas if they would be saved to lives of usefulness. And the wise physician, the wise friend, the wise parent, need only act as de Fleury suggests to bring about their salvation. } (Copyright, 1916. by the Associated Newspapers.) The Journal Information Bureau is prepared to furnish reliable information in answer to al most any question that you choose to ask You are invited to make free use of this service. There is no charge of any sort except a two-cent stamp for return postage. Address THE JOUR NAL INFORMATION BUREAU, FREDERIC J. HASKIN, DIRECTOR. WASHINGTON. D. C. boy slouches over the table, with a broken nose rudely patched with dirty plaster and one hand swollen to the site of two. He has told the judge that he passed the eighth grade before stopping school, which is a strong argument against there being anything the mat ter with his brain. Mrs. Hickson leans over the table and pats the swollen hand. '•You oughtn't to get fresh with a cop. kid?” she says sympathetically, but without making too much of his injuries or weeping over them, which would embar rass him because he could not understand. "Now tell me, on the level, when did you quit school? You know I'm your friend, and I want to know.” "I stopped wid de third grade,” says the boy shamefacedly. Whether he lied to the judge from shame, or out of that sus picion which makes the outlaw He to authority without reason is hard to say. At any rate, he is telling the truth now and will do his best on the tests. • • * The tests used are the Binet-Stmon scale and sim ilar ones which are baaed on the performances of large groups of average children of different ages and thus standardised. If a test is passed by most nine-year olds and failed by moat eight-year-olds, its passing is taken as one indication of a mental development equal to a normal age of at least nine years. Os course, if a feeble-minded subject of thirty scales only nine years old on the tests, it does not indicate that he is abso lutely only -the equivalent of a nine-year-old child. He may have acquired some worldly wisdom and sharp ness. some knowledge of trick and subterfuge beaten in by life on the streets. But fundamentally, his brain is the brain as a nine-year-old. The tests go deep; they strike at fundementals. Utterly uneducated ne groes from, the cotton-field who had led the simplest and least stimulating of lives have passed the Blnet scale with flying colons, simply because the tests are directed at finding out if the normal brain la there or not. • • • Tests such as those of Binet determine only whether the subject is feeble-minded or not. In oeee of the presence of some form of mental trouble, Dr. Hickson determines the fact by means of other and more tech nical methods. In fact, he finds that pure feeble mindedness is only one of the less frequent brain trou bles that are associated with crime. A form of unbal anced mentality named "dementia pacecox” by Kroep elin, the German scientist who was the first Vo recog nise it, is even commoner; and this malady grafted on feeble-mlndedneaa is so common in criminals who have come under Dr. Hickson's observation that he calls it the "criminal psychosis par excellence." It is charac terized by a "loss of affectivtty”—-that la, the subject is untounched and unmoved by sensations and emo tions that move the normal man; by a splitting of thought processes—ho thinks dlsjointedly and iltor ically; and by sudden character ehangea Hitherto this malady has not been recognised in its earlier stages; but it is easy to see the acts which an individual who suffers from H may commit, especially when hie brain is sub-normal in addition. • • • To desoribe adequately the work of the psycho path 1c laboratory, or even a day of R, would take a volume. The cases oome and come, dipped from the inexhaustible stream that flows endlessly into the criminal courts, and every one ie different, every one is a life and a tragedy, and stands for other lives on the outside shadowed and saddened. The laboratory scales and tests; the results are noted on a card, ini tialed and filed. The presiding judge is notified of the finding, and there is one more element to be considered, one more factor to make decision and sentence more diffi cult. Some day the card may be dragged from the file and Dr. Hickson called to the stand to testify and in terpret as expert witness in a major criminal case, where the unfortunate whose shortcomings are recorded on that bit of paper baa followed out his destiny. 9 9 9 The time may come, however, when preventive means will have been devised to save this man from himself, as soon as the laboratory of the law has ana lyzed his case. Some men are bo mean that they oven refuse to let their wives have the last word.
