The looking glass. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1894-????, December 25, 1897, Page 2, Image 2

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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,