The looking glass. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1894-????, December 25, 1897, Page 2, Image 2
2
WAS IT TRUE?
THAT’S THE POINT.
(Continued from First Page.)
In recapitulating these facts in detail
the LOOKING GLASS stated very dis
tinctly that it did not desire to pose as an
apologist for gamblers or gambling. At
the same time it insisted that some dis
tinction should be made between a party
of reputable citizens who were playing a
friendly game solely for pastime and pro
fessional card-sharps. In that connec
tion it then made three statements, as
follows:
First. —That Judge Berry agreed to
continue the cases, provided Solicitor
James F. O’Neill would consent, and that
Solicitor O’Neill said that Judge Berry
insisted on prosecuting.
Second.—That the friends of the ar
rested parties charged that both O’Neill
and Berry had played poker themselves
at the Hotel Oglethorpe.
Third. —That they meditated having
them indicted for gambling as a measure
of retaliation.
Now, bear in mind, if you please, that
the attack made on me in the Kimball by
O’Neill was based on his assertion that
these three statements were false, and all the
miserable aftermath of the case, including
the unutterably cruel and infamous villifi
cation by Harvey Johnson, rests after all
on that assumption. In other words, the
first question, as 1 take it, is this :
Did 1, or did 1 not tell the truth about
Solicitor James F. O’Neill and his court?
If what 1 wrote was TRUE, it must be
apparent to every fair-minded person that
the crucifixion 1 have received at the hands
of these men and their creatures was
partly mere revenge and partly to divert
attention from their own misdeeds.
Last Monday in court Solicitor O’Neill
read a letter from Mr. W. W. Osborne
which appeared on the surface to flatly
contradict my article. When examined
more critically, however, it will be seen
to be merely a diplomatic disclaimer that
he had anything to do with its prepara
tion. It should be remembered that Mr.
Osborne and Mr. Lawrence are still, so to
speak, in the lion’s mouth. Their cases
are pending and their fate rests with Berry
and O’Neill. Naturally they are anxious
not to antagonize the powers that be.
Most prominent among those of the
party who have paid their fines and are
hence no longer in any fear of the court is
Mr. Jacob S. Collins, of Savannah. Mr.
Collins is one of the most prominent and
widely respected business men of the
State. He was formerly president of Sa
vannah’s street-railway system and is
now at the head of the extensive commis
sion house of Collins & Grayson. Both
partners are in public office, Mr. Collins
being city clerk and Mr. Grayson chair
man of the Board of Fire Commissioners.
Mr. Collins was my chief informant in
regard to the allegations of poker-playing,
the proposition to swear out warrants, and
the claim that the cases were pushed to
satisfy the rapacity and avarice of the
court officials. On the first page of this
issue is a reproduction of a letter from him,
completely covering the ground and abso
lutely confirming the statements made in
last week’s paper. Mr. Collins wires me
that he will be in this city on Monday
next. He is one of the manliest of men
and there is no doubt whatever that he
will stand by what he says to the letter.
As to the allegation that both O’Neill
and Berry professed willingness to allow
the cases to be continued provided the
other would agree, such a statement was
made repeatedly by members of the Sa
vannah party in my presence and once at
least, to my personal knowledge, in the
presence of the Hon. Fleming G. Dußig
non, who happened to be at the Kimball
House.
1 think that any unbiased man will be
constrained to admit that 1 did not slander
either O’Neill or Berry, but kept strictly
within my information. 1 should explain
at this point, by the way, that the words
“Oglethorpe Hotel,” in the original story,
were a mere slip of the pen. 1 was in
formed that it was at St. Simon’s and in
tended so to write.
Will O’Neill deny that he has played
poker at St. Simon’s since he took an oath
as Solicitor-General to uphold the laws of
the State ?
His assertion that he “has not played
poker in Fulton County” is simply tanta
mount to saying that he has not broken
the law in localities where his own court
could punish him.
But what 1 undertook to do, and what
1 think ’ have done, is to demonstrate to
the public that my article was not “a lie”
but a fair and truthful report of the asser
tions of responsible gentlemen, and that
it is because of its truth that these unpre
cedented and infamous attacks have been
made upon me.
A few words as to generalities. An
effort has been made to create the impres
sion that the LOOKING GLASS is an in
vader of homes and a defamer of respecta
ble people. Its many thousand readers
need no refutation of such a baseless
and preposterous slander, and I will
waste no time on the subject. 1 know, of
course, that everybody on whose toes
we have happened to tread for years past
rejoices at present in the opportunity to
throw a few stones. 1 may say to this
yelping pack that since Johnson’s outrag
ous attack upon me 1 have had abundant
evidence through scores of letters that the
best people of this city do not indorse the
methods that have been used against me
and will amply sustain the LOOKING
GLASS in telling the truth.
As 1 said at the outset, however, 1 do
not desire to discuss my personal griev
ances in these columns; the only reason
why 1 have made this statement is be
cause 1 feel it a primary duty to demon
strate to the public that we were in the
right. To call names is cheap and easy and
it would be no satisfaction to me to vilify
men who have offered me insult. But 1
think everybody whose opinion I value
understands the present situation perfectly
and knows that I could not have asserted
myself on the spot without foolishly and
wantonly throwing away my life. I
promise my friends that I will attend to
things at the right time and in the right
way. ORTH H. STEIN.
The Talmadge.
Among the leading family hotels of At
lanta is the Talmadge. They will serva
an elaborate Xmas dinner and every at
tention will be paid to private families or
parties wishing to eat the best 25 cent
dinner laid in Atlanta. Mrs. A. P. Tal
madge, 37 and 39 Walton Street.
The Giass.
“APOSTLE” BRANN
DEFENDS DIVORCE.
A Remarkable Article by the
Editor of the Iconoclast.
He Holds That Strict Divorce Laws Do
Not Promote the Morals or Happi
ness of the Community—A
Much-Mooted Subject Con
sidered From a New
Point of View.
Mr. W. C. Brann, the gifted and fa
mous editor of the Iconoclast, will lecture
here on the 10th of next month and, for
that reason, special interest attaches to a
remarkable article from his pen which
appears in the Christmas issue of the St.
Louis IMirror. The article is entitled
“Marriage and Misery,” and deals with
the divorce problem from an entirely new
and original' standpoint. Here is the
larger part of it:
“There are probably a million women in
this land living lives of legalized prostitu
tion; who conceive children in hate of
husbands they abhor, bring them forth in
bitterness of spirit to be reared in an
atmosphere of discord—offspring stamped
from their very conception with the die of
the criminal or the courtesan. Yet the
purists and pietists ‘view with alarm’
the vast increase in the number of
divorces; are weeping and wailing be
cause women will not suffer in silence a
bondage that is bestial—a prostitution
pre-eminently the worst in the world, that
of loveless marriage. Day and night the
doleful jeremiad goes up from these pious
pharisees that the laxity of American
divorce laws is imperiling the morals of
the people, sapping the sanctity of the
home and threatening to topple our entire
system into ruin irredeemable.
“And what remedy do they propose?
Uniform divorce laws and a reduction of
the number of causes for which marital
bonds may be legally broken. This
would be equivalent to enacting a law
that people should not summon a physi
cian except in certain dire exigencies.
Those who would elevate public morals
by repressing legal separation appear to
consider lax divorce laws the cause rather
than the result of marital 'misery. They
are pounding away vigorously at the
shadow, leaving the substance untouched.
“These foolish philosophers appear to be
harboring the hallucination that where
divorce is not difficult, husbands and
wives are taken on trial; that matches are
made just for amusement or to gratify
a prurient passion, and that women pre
tending to respectability change their law
ful companions much as men of the world
do their mistresses; also that where it is
next to impossible to break the marriage
bond it is regarded with greater venera
tion.”
* * * *
“To guard against hasty and ill-consid
ered action the law might provide that
application, for divorce be followed by a
separation of six months, during which
period the marital relations would be sus
pended in law and in fact. At the expi
ration of that period, an application that
the divorce be made absolute should be
followed by a decree to that effect, proper
provision being made for the children, i
any, resulting from the union. Unques
tionably such a regime would increase the
number of divorces. More people would
‘have the courage’ to seek separation
from uncongenial mates if they did not
have to go into court with a lingering
tale of woe—to explain to all Christen
dom, through the columns of a sensation
seeking, garbage-grabbing press, why
said mates were to them a source of mis
ery. It would afford relief to many cul
tured gentlemen and refined ladies to
whom our present barbarous system of
procedure offers only a cure infinitely
worse than the complaint.
“The objections that libertines would
wed young ladies with deliberate intent to
secure divorces is not without weight; but
we can not well condemn those already in
the Slough of Despond to remain there
because to help them out will afford a few
fools a golden 'opportunity to fall in.
With the law as suggested, young ladies
really deserving our consideration would
not be so ready to contract hasty mar
riages with men of whom they knew little.
As matters now stand many incautious
women are victimized by adventurers who
do not hesitate to marry as often as
opportunity offers.
“While we may properly look to law
reform to relieve much of the marital
misery now existing, we should strive to
prevent rather than to provide a panacea
for this ill in the future. The church
might profitably allow the heathen a holi
day and devote a little more of its energies
to teaching the American people that mar
riage is more than a ‘civil contract’ that
may be entered into much as one does
into a contract for a car-load of cotton or
a pound of putty. It should set ;its face
like a flint against ‘marriages of conven
ience’; should launch some of the
thunderbolts it is now wasting on the
heads of harmless agnostics, at those
pious people who teach their daughters
that the chief end and aim of their lives
must be to marry money instead of men.
Our public schools should not waste quite
so much time ascertaining the number of
bones in the caudal appendage of the
ichthyosaurus, or determining just when
the paleozoic gave place to the mesozoic,
and that in turn was tumbled into the
unlamented erstwhile by the cenozoic
time; but should devote an hour occasion
ally to teaching the rising generation
something of the sacredness of Lamar
tine’s trinity—the trinity of the father,
mother and child.”
For Rent.
The pleasant residence, 686 Peachtree
Street, will be rented, fully furnished, to
desirable tenant at very reasonable price,
For further information apply to Venable
& Collins, 30 and 32 Loyd Street.
Dainty Books.
All the popular books in dainty bindings.
Children’s books, Christmas cards, toilet
cases, albums, games, etc., all at cut
prices. The Columbian Book Co., 81
and 83 Whitehall Street.
We Have-
A large and elegant assortment
of Decorated and Sterling Silver-
Mounted
SILK SUSPENDERS.
And many other things suitable
for Xmas
THE GAY CO,