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Tftfi TRJ-WEEKLY JOURNAL
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THE TRI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, Athinta, Ga.
The Middle IFest Rallies to the
Cause of Southerri Ports.
’\npHE earnestness with which Mid-West
£ ern centers of industry and, oommeroe
v are enlisting in the movement' to pre
serve equitable freight rates to Southern
ports is
of St. Louik In the* reception it's, recently ac
corded the touring p\irty of business leaders
from the South 1 Atlantic States, that city
showed enough how it appreciates
its own and this ’s mutual
and how readily ft fd>r their
protection.
This is the characteristic attitude iof the
entire Middle West. Tiie manufacturers and
merchants of that territory are aware ‘of the
advantages which Southern ports afford
them in a large portion of their ocean bound
shipments, particularly those destined for
Latin American rnarkets. They are aware that
for long years Northeastern raalroads, by
imposing discriminatory jrates annulled the
natural inducements which the' Southern
routes and Southern outlets possess but that
now through a just parity of rates, inaugur
ated last December by the Federal Railroad
Administration, those inducements are in
force and those advantages available, know
ing the situation as they do, the Mid-West
erners spontaneously protest against pro
posals to restore the old inequitable rate
which virtually compelled them.' to
y ; p by Northeastern roads even when ■. the
Leathern lines were muctix the shorter and
in. Ve economical.
i 'er their part, the Southern interests are
siek Vg no privilege but contending for
tig Vt and a principle that are of as much
con?V V-ence to the common -country as to
•‘ <L V” O£ ’- era contending that all
ports', should have a fair deal* in the matter
of rat\ s from the interior andjthat only thus
can tlu' nation's commerce prosper as it
should.\ When that principle is contravened
in the social interest of Northeastern roads
Injury is \done not only to the \South but to
the West well, and in the lonfc run to the
entire country. Hence the far-reiaching im
portance of 'khe movement to maintain the
present between Southern and
North Atlanti&ports; and hence the gratifi
cation which cKmes of\greet; cities like St.
Louis leaguing tvemselVfes in support of this
just cause. \
—i 1
Opportunity In liberty Bonds
APROPOS oft the transient decline in Lib
erty bonds the New York World inter
estingly points oat that the average
price of forty different securities of large
private corporations is not quite seventy-two,
while Liberties at their lowest averaged far
above eighty. “They have been sold in a
pinch,” the World* adds, “because they were
the best securities that men had and could
be marketed at less loss than, anything else.”
This striking evidence of the inherent val
ue of Liberty bonds should be duly pondered
by small holders. Big concerns need no
argument on this score. When they sell their
holdings on a large scale it is because re
stricted credits and high-priced money make
it more advantageous for them to dispose of
their Liberties than to pay prevailing dis
count rates. For the rank and file, however,
except in cases of vital emergency, it is poor
business to sell on a low market one o fthe
best securities ever to be had, when an ad
vance to par or beyond is as certain as is
the existence of the United States itself.
If the time is now unfavorable for the
seller of Liberty bonds, it is/ most auspicious
.for the buyer. “The small investor,” a wise
observer counsels, “never had such easy
access to the bargain counter; he ought not
to wait until the bigger operators with their
stronger buying make the prices less attrac
tive.” Soon or late these adamantine securi
ties are certain to rise above the temporary
depression. Their redemption at par, to
gether with a regular yield of interest, is
guaranteed by all the wealth and power and
integrity of this republic. Fortunate indeed
is he who owns and holds them.
IChy Belgium Thrives.
STILL grows the wonder of Belgium’s re
habilitation. Recent reports ehow
that her collieries have not only re
gained their 1913 rate of output, but acutal
ly are exceeding it, their present production
being three per cent above the pre-war nor
mal. She depends, of course, upon foreign
sources for much of the coal needed for her
industries; but when this supply becomes
adequate her factories, all of which have been
re-established, will resume fully their long
interrupted operations. As it is, they are
producing with prodigious energy. By the
end of the current year, it is predicted, the
nation’s industrial recovery will be com
plete. As for commerce, her exports to Hol
land- France, Italy and Germany exceed her
imports from those countries, while trade
with England is almost balanced.
Back of all this constructiveness, and
chiefly to be credited, are the vigor, loyalty
and sagacity of the Belgian character. “Our
workers,” says Mr. Emile Francqui, presi
dent of the Societe Generale of Belgium, who
is now in the United States, “are not Bolshe
viks, they are not anarchists, they are not
radicals, they are producers; we can rely on
them right up to the opportunity afforded
them; our socialists are as loyal nationally
as are our conservatives.”
THE ATLANTA TRI-WEEKLY JOURNAL.
IChat Atlanta's Census Shows
And IChat- It Fails to Show.
THE figures announced from Washing
ton for Atlanta’s 1920 census, while
obviously below the community’s in
corporated population, to say nothing of its
suburban thousands, nevertheless compare
very favorably with the national average.
Having increased from 154,829 a decade ago
to 200,616, according to the present Federal
reckoning, this city’s gain is 2 9.6 per cent
as against a mean of 20.6 for others thus far
reported. This appears the more significant
in light of the fact that while for the country
as a whole the census gain from 1910 to
1920 is seven and four-tenths per cent less
than from 1900 to 1910, for Atlanta it is
nearly two per cent more. Scores of cities,
including St. Paul, Kansas City, Mo.; Albany,
N. Y.; Columbia, Louisville and Jacksonville
protest that the population officially credited
to them is far below what they actually have.
Rarely, indeed, have the bureau’s figures in
the present census fulfilled expectations.
Atlanta’s growth in the last ten years has
been both intensive and expansive. The busi
ness district has pressed more and more upon
the residential lines, thus sending the home
seeker farther and farther out. To- this
strong tendency, add the effects of the great
fire which swept away some seventy blocks,
mostly dwellings, and forced an exodus of
hundreds of families to points beyond the city
limits; add the war-time restrictions which
shortly thereafter were placed upon building
operations, and the ever-climbing costs of con
struction material; add the natural drift of
urban population into the outlying country,
wherever trolley car communication, good
roads and motor vehicles offer encourage
ment; consider all this, and then reflect that
Atlanta’s municipal boundaries, embracing
only twenty-six square miles, have remained
unchanged during the decade. The logical
conclusion is that a great part of the com
munity’s increase is in the suburbs—people
who in every essential are Atlantians, but
who are excluded from the city’s formal cen
sus. That this is indeed the case a glance
at the remarkable development of Decatur,
Kirkwood, College Park, Hapeville, Buck
head and other adjacent districts will show.
Decatur alone has attracted a multitude of
discriminating home-seekers, many of whom
moved directly from the city, and today
probably numbers more inhabitants than did
all Atlanta only two generations ago. These
facts considered, it cannot be reasonably
that Atlanta’s virtual population,
'that is to say, the population which really
counts in the city’s business and social activi
ties, and which really contributes to its
wealth and progress, is in the neighborhood
of at least two hundred and fifty thousand.
Warrantably proud we may be over the in
crement which these ten busy years have
brought. And with what zest the hale spirits
of the pioneers-—the settlers of Marthasville
and builders of Atlanta—must have rejoiced
when tidings reached them in Elysium that
the town of their loins and nurture has grown
to a metropolis of more than two hundrdti
thousand six hundred souls! Those pioneers,
having even more of the Atlanta spirit now
than when they tarried in the flesh, will
understand, of course that “200,616” is but
a ghost of the city’s real population. They
will not accept a tittle less than 250,000, nor
fail to recall that only twenty years ago the
figures stood at 89,872, forty years ago at
37,409 and sixty years ago at 9,554.
History has made it plain enough that At
lanta was born for greatness. Decade by
decade she has moved toward her destiny
with ever rising fortunes. Let us of today
see to it that she grows not in stature alone,
but also in wisdom and in favor with the
best; in schools and libraries and playgrounds
and parks, in efficiency of government, in ad
vantages for the rank and file, in all that
makes for civic character and comeliness.
Produce Food.
THE danger of a world-wide food short
age is serious, in the opinion of
authorities who are familiar with
conditions in America and Europe and who
have watched the trend of developments
during the past year. The situation, they
say, is far more disquieting than, the aver
age person realizes, and, according to re
ports, shortage of labor accounts for the
conditions.
About one-third of the farms of Massa
chusetts have been wholly abandoned. Con
ditions are nearly as elsewhere in New
England; and, even more surprising, pro
duction in lowa, Kansas and other great
farming States of the West has been mate
rially decreased owing to the inability of
farmers to get help.
Attractive wages, short hours and amuse
ments have drawn thousands of laborers
from the- farms of the country to the cities,
and there is small likelihood at present of
any considerable exodus back to the farms.
There is a shortage of this kind in the
South, but it is less pronounced in this
section. The danger in the South, agricul
tural leaders say, is that the farmers may
go in too extensively for the production of
cotton, when sound judgment counsels
more extensive effort in diversified crops.
It is, as Richard H. Edmonds, editor of
the Manufacturers’ Record, declared in a
recent telegram to the American Cotton As
sociation, in session at Columbia. “It is
vital for Southern farmers, regardless of
the price of cotton, to raise all of their own
grain and provisions and at the same time
do as much as possible in helping to feed
other sections.” The safety of the country
and of civilization, in the opinion of Mr.
Edmonds, depends upon the efforts of
Southern farmers to increase the food sup
ply. In diversified agriculture lies safety
for the South and for the common coun
try.
The farmers of Georgia are in a posi
tion to render invaluable service to their
State, their Nation and to the world It is
their duty as well as interest to engage
more extensively than ever in the produc
tion of foodstuffs. Cotton should be a sec
ondary crop consideration. They will ren
der inestimable service by raising on their
J™ a ? ° f the grain and Provisions
Required to feed their own families and to
nelp supply the requirements of the mil
lions who are not so fortunately situated.
Freak Taxes.
THE subject of taxation has been a live
issue with all countries ever since the
beginning of governments, and the
costly business of war has always occa
sioned the necessity of extraordinary taxes;
these have ever been a bugbear to the
governments that were forced to levy them,
so that the dilemma in which Congress
now finds itself is not unusual.
Englishmen, in the seventeenth century,
paid a “hearth-money” tax—a levy of two
shillings on every hearth in every home.
Tax collectors Invaded the homes to count
the. hearths, and the tax was bitterly re
sented as an Intrusion upon their personal
liberties.
England abandoned this tax and sought
funds that might be assessed without in
vading the homes’. It levied a tax of two
pence on windows. They might be seen and
counted without entering the home. But
this tax was resented because the English
paople regarded it as a tax on sunlight and
UNAPPRECIATED FRIENDS
By H. Addington Bruce
HAVE you ever studied the" ways of an
earth worm? Probably not, for most
people have a profound dislike for earth
worms, deeming them unpleasant looking nui
sances, fit only for bait.
Yet earth worms are actually among the
most useful friends and greatest benefactors
of the human race.
If it were not for earth worms the vegeta
tion of the world would be scant indeed. They
plough the soil, they fertilize it, they loosen
it about roots, they even play a part in the
planting of trees.
Their castings on hill slopes, carried down
by wind and rain, go to enrich the bottom
lands of valleys. They level inequalities to
make possible the wide expanses of smooth,
verdant turf, pleasing to the eye and refresh
ing to the soul.
So varied and serviceable are their benefi
cent activities that that greatest of all natu
ralists, Charles DarwiiT, once declared in
speaking of earth worms.:
“It may be doubted whether there are
many other animals which have played such
an important part in the history of the world
as these lowly organized creatures.”
Don’t you think that your estimate of
earth worms had better be revised upward?
And as with them, so with bats, which also,
[ imagine, you heartily despise—and of which
you perhaps stand in some fear.
“Nasty, clingy, clammy things, of not the
slightest good whatever!” is the common ver
dict concerning bats. And, without doubt,
it is scarcely pleasant to have them com#
blundering near one’s head.
Yet, like earth worms, they are faithful
friends of and workers for man.
The earth would be far more crowded with
insect pests if it were not for the tireless
efforts of bats. In especial, they are prodig
ious hunters of the baneful, disease-spreading
mosquito.
Many a winged malaria carrier has been
cut short in his dread career by the timely
intervention of some bat. Defenders of the
public health is what bats may truly be
termed.
Notable as a mosquito hunter, too, is an
other unappreciated friend of man, the drag
on fly, so mistakenly dreaded because of its
really ferocious aspect as it goes darting
through the air.
“Devil’s darning needles” is the name that
aptly expresses the popular misconception of
dragon flies. Nursery legend to the contrary
notwithstanding, they do not se./ up the ears
of sleeping children. Nor have they a terri
ble sting.
They have no sting at all. They are ab
solutely harmless to man. But they are death
to mosquitoes.
And to this little list of unappreciated
friends let me add the good old toad, who, for
all his ugliness, is beneficence incarnated so
far as concerns humankind.
Favored is the garden wherein a toad
makes his home. In three months, it has
been calculated, he can put a quietus to ten
thousands insects. Here is a portion of his
bill of fare:
Beetles, snails, grasshoppers, crickets, wee
vils, caterpillars, wasps, and yellow jackets.
All of these we can easily do without, and
to their destroyer we may well feel grateful.
Certainly, at all events, we can and should
refrain from doing any harm to our friend
the toad and those other friends we are too
prone to hold in abhorrence.
And we should see to it that our children
do not harm them.
(Copyright, 1920, by The Associated News
papers.)
GOOD WORK
By Dr. Frank Crane
I wish to preach a little sermon to that in
numerable company who want to write. The
woods are full of them. They shower their
manuscripts over every editor’s desk. They
besiege every successful author questing his
secret. Some of them will achieve; most
will not; as in all other fields of endeavor.
And I wish to make one point, which is
about all any preachment should have.
And that point is that success demands
two things, the Inner Impulse (or the divine
spark, or genius, or natural gift, or what
they may call it), and Skill (or craftmanship,
or that dexterity that comes only by ififinite
practice).
Wherein you will perceive that good writ
ing is come at by precisely the same road as
good piano playing.
It takes Hand as well as Head.
Thousands of mistaken folks think they
could write if they only had time. They have
such grand thoughts. All they need is just
to dash them off.
But nay, nay! Good writers are as scarce
as good carpenters.' And for much the same
reason.
And let me point my text by a book enti
tled “From the Life,” by Harvey O’Higgins,
I mention this book, not because it is pe
culiar (though it is), not because its author
has vision and is naturally clever and all that,
but because he knows the craft of writing.
In the days of the Renaissance a great
Italian master sent, along with a letter, to a
great German master, a drawing, “to show
him his hand.” Not his soul, mark ye, nor
his novelty of invention, but his hand.
I would like to put O’Higgins’ book into
the possession of every writer “to show him
his hand.”
Os his genius the world cannot tell until
some time after an author is dead; but of
his craftmanship we can tell at once.
In the great days of Florence young men
studied and worked in the shop of one Ve
rocchio, whose name signifitd “the true eye”
He was more than a master. He taught mas
ters.
For the Renaissance was more than a new
inspiration; it was an era of Good Work.
O’Higgins’ stuff is not “literature,” as the
high-brows use the term. God forbid! It is
not poverty of conception tricked out in stu
ped fol-de-rol of fancy phrases. It is just
good, honest, clearly seen ideas expressed in
vivid, terse, swift and easy English.
I love it, as I love a wall put up by a
bricklayer who knows his business, or a bis
cuit baked by a cook who knows how, or
piano music played by Paderewski, or the
flute played by George Barrere, or a play
staged by Belasco, or an editorial by Frank
Cobb, or a good shave by Joe the barber,
or anything that is Good Work.
(Copyright,. 1920, by Frank Crane.)
QUIPS AND QUIDDIES
It was foolish of Jones to make a wager
that he would eat a peck of peas with a hat
pin if his college football team lost their
next game.
But, having done so, he had to make good.
“There’s only one thing I ask,” said he to
the winner.
“What’s that?” Inquired the winner.
“If you’re going to stand by and see that
I eat all these peas with a hatpin, I want
you to admit that you won the bet and are
insisting on its payment. Don’t you pretend
that you are my keeper!”
air. The indignation resulted in the repeal
of the assessment.
Later, the British government levied a
head tax on servants as a means of reach
ing its richer classes, but this has long
since been abandoned. The United States
considered such a tax during the war, but
the suggestion aroused a storm of protest
throughout the country and the plan was
discarded. ,
Mrs. Solomon Says:
Being the Confessions of The
Seven-Hundredth Wife
BY HELEN ROWLAND
Copyright. 1920, by The McClure News
. paper Syndicate.
HEAR now, my Daughter. These
polite proverbs for damsels,
which are Mrs. Solomon’s.
Lo, in the daily communion
of matrimony, a cheerful disposition
io mere to be desire 1 tun blond
hajr, and a sense of humor more
comforting than a Scotch conscience.
But a little artistic temperament
is a terrible thing!
Think not to know a man before
marriage. For courtship is only
the “prospectus” of matrimony, and
resembleth it no more than the? ad
vertisement resembleth the summer
resort.
And how 'shalt thou ’ know any
man, until thou hast shared his
breakfast, his troubles, and his news
paper—and gone through the pockets
of his fishing clothes?
Wit attracteth the ear and a bright
hat the eye—but a damsel who can
hotel her tongue and look inscrut
able, can hold any man!
When other women pursue a man,
be npt tempted, but stand discreetly
aside. And, behold, when he is
“backing away” from his pursuers,
he shall, peradventure, back into
thine arms—for consolation.
Scprn not the folly of thy friend
who married first, nor say “what
could she see in him?"
For, verily, thou knowest not what
thou mayest see in ’ any man, when
thou art dazzled by the moonlight in
his eyes.
Sigh not for a Prince Charming,
made in the image of Lou Teilegen
and William S. Hart. For, alas, in
real life, there is no such Paragon.
And a pleasan'-faced youth with
$5,000 a year and a flivver is not to
be despised, because he lacketh x a
Greek nose, and maketh love like a
freshman in a college of courtship.
Yearn not for a man who "under
standeth” thee. For when a man
hath learned to understand women,
they are all as yesterday’s newspa
pers—and he still seeketh for one
Seek not tobind a man with proni-
Seek not to bind a man with prom
ises. For a promise turneth a kiss
from a pleasure into a duty, and
a lie from a luxury into a neces
sity.
When a man praiseth “rational
dress for women,” hearken sweetly
and let him raVe. But be not moved.
For no woman hath ever walked
over a man’s heart in eommonsense
boots. And many a man hath mis
taken a pink chiffon hat for the aura
of a beautiful soul.
While a man saith, “All thy ways
are perfect, and all they words are
wonderful!” be not puffed up. But
when he turneth critical, and seeketh
to improve thee, thou mayest choose
thy going-away gown.
For, he hath already begun to feel
“husbandly.”
Go to, my daughter! As one that
seeketh a job in an artificial-flower
factory, because she understandeth
botany, so Is a damsel who goeth
into marriage, with only her own
theories and a cooking-school di
ploma.
But a wise virgin delighteth in In
struction and keepeth my precepts.
Selah.
foyDsilea w. shrd shr sh setaoa
THE CHILDREN’S”
MUSEUMS
By Frederic J. Haskin
WASHINGTON, D. C., May s 4.
A middle-aged Irishw<>fean
was hustled by a proud ton
into the Children’s museum
in Boston the other day.
“See, mother,” he urged in an Ex
cited whisper, “here’s that fllnfc I
found in Mike’s back yard, and it
has my name by it.”
The mother admired the Bit ftf
rock, and then was hauled wipidly
around to see the butterflies, >
Japanese village, and other ex
hibits, and wonders of which hdr
son lovingly described.
Then Mrs. Finn must meet “the
lady.” So she was dragged puffing
to the desk of the director. By the
time she left she had absorbed
some of her son’s enthusiasm.
“Sure,” she told “the lady,” "this
is a foine thing for the childern.
It’s a lot they- need to learn in the
world besides an iducation.”
According to the director, Miss
Griffin, this is a typical incident in
the routine of the Boston Children’s
museum. Few visitors, however,
sum up the function of the museum
so aptly as did Mrs. Finn.
The need for boys and girls to
learn in other ways besides through
formal schooling is more and more
realized, we are told by museum
officials attending a convention here.
In this connection, they say, the
children’s museum is coming to be
regarded as an important means of
developing the child mind. Numerous
cities here and abroad are planning
collections for the children, either'
in the form of independent mu
seums, or in connection with schools,
libraries, or other institutions. These
museum officials predict that to fu
ture generations children’s museums
will be as familiar as children’s
libraries or playgrounds.
Three Stow in Operation
There are now three well-estab
lished children’s museums in this
country, and a number of variations
of the idea. The first one was start
ed in Brooklyn, New York, twenty
years ago. There is another in Bos
ton, six years old, and one was
started this winter in Cambridge,
Mass.
The idea of a museum for boys and
girls first came up when a house was
willed to the Brooklyn Institute of
Arts and Sciences. The house was
taken for a storage place for extra
exhibits. Then a curator cleared out
one room and fixed it up with shells,
flowers, and birds for the be refit of
children visiting the main exhibit.
Word of a museum just for children
spread through schools and play
grounds until the room became so
popular that the whole building was
given over to a regularly organized
museum for school children.
Some years later the public school
teachers of Boston were complaining
that it was impossible to teach nat
ure study in bugless and plantless
sections of the city, and to children
who had no personal experience with
plant and animal life. To meet this
situation the Boston children’s mus
eum was established out of funds
from the public school system and
private subscription.
A real children’s museum is a place
arranged entirely for boys and girls.
The exhibit cases are low enough so
that a si -year-old can examine com
fortably everything in them. La
bels are in god print and plain Eng
lish, with no dry technical descrip
tions but lots of really interesting
facts. The curators are always
watching to see if the labels are sat
isfactory to the children. If a feroc
ious-looking beetle is not accompan
ied by information showing whether
he will bite and what he does with
his horns, and the children seem In
terested in these points, the label is
revised to include them. Then, the
chairs in the lecture hall are chil
dren’s sizes, and the books in the li
brary are on low shelves and right
where a young scientist can refer to
them without stopping tiresome
formalities.
The children like to share their
information and thrills. Thus one
very little girl was heard describing
the model of a dinosaur to a little
boy.
Sarah Simpson is a very strong
minded woman If you don’t bfelieve
it ask her husband.
“Now, Samuel, remember! If that
man Johnson offers you anything to
drink you will refuse!”
Samuel sighed as he agreed to her
edict.
Later as they started for home,
Sarah eyed her spouse with gloom
in her face.
‘When Mr. Johnson made that pe
culiar sign to you,” she began, "and
shortly afterward you both hurried
from the room, where did you go,
Samuel?”
“Oh—er—yes, my dear! He mere
ly asked me to step into his study
to look at some old books he bought
recently. You know I have a taste
for books.”
“Yes, Samuel, and from what I
heard, your taste—for books—was
highly gratified. You forgot to
close the study door and I heard
a smacking of lips and then you
.exclaimed:, ‘Ah, that’s the stuff!’”
SATURDAY, MAY 29, 1920.
DOROTHY DIX’S TALK ON
Don’t Write Discouraging Letters
The World’s Highest Paid Woman Writer
BY DOROTHY DIX
D'JRING the war the families
of the soldiers were constant
ly urged not to write them
gloomy letters, for it was
found that nothing so effectually
and quickly took the heart out of
the men, and broke down their
morale as to get letters from home
filled with wdils and weeps and dis
mal news.
The ban on the doleful letter Is
one of the war-time measures that
we may continue in peace with ad-.
vantage. Most of us are every day
at grip with life in a battie that is
just as fierce as any ever fought on
the bloody fields of France, and that,
calls on us for just as much cour
age, and endurance, and as high a
spirit, if we are to win out, and we,
too, need words of cheer to back us
up, not screeds of woe to depress
us, and take the last bit of fight
out of us.
The writing of blue letters is a
crime against our peace and happi
ness that is chiefly committed by
those of our own households, for it is
only those who love us best who
feel that they have a perfect right
to make us miserable.'
And it is a crime to which the
female sex is as prone as the sparks
are to fly upwards. Heaven knows
why, but generally when a woman
sits down, and takes her Pen in hand
to indict a letter, she seems not to
dip into ink, but into a well of tears.
Pessimism of the deepest, darkest
dye pervades her every line. Funer
als, and divorces, and hideous acci
dents, and bankruptcies are the tid
bits of gossip she chronicles. She re
calls the sorrows of the past. She
dwells upon the harrowing state of
the present, and draws a melancholy
forecast of the future. The lamenta
tions of Jeremiah have! nothing tn
gobs of gloom over the average fam
ily letter.
Not long ago a woman who has
many cares an’d anxieties of her own,
and who is making an heroic strug
gle to support herself and her two
children, said to me:
"I adore my mother, but when I
get a letter from her it is sometimes
two or three days before I can sum
mon up nerve enough to even open
it. The very sight of her handwrit
ihg on the envelope sends my spirits
down to zero and makes me feel
that some awful calamity is hanging
over me.
“For mother’s letters are simply
sodden with misery. She begins by
reminding me that she is getting old,
and will be with us but a few years
more. She (Jwells on every little pain
and acne until I fancy her mortally
ill, and twice have I fled to what I
supposed was her deathbed to find
her well and chipper.
"She tells me about everybody who
Is sick, and has had an operation, or
who has been run over by an auto
mobile, or lost their money, or had
any untoward misfortune. Then she
begins on family news, and really
gets down to business. John isn’t
getting along well in business, and
She foresees that his family will land
in the poorhouse. John’s wife hp.s
been nasty to her and I get a de
tailed account of the perpetual moth
er-in-law and daughter-in-law war
fare.
"Sarah’s husband stayed out until
? a. m., playing poker, and Sarah
and he are at outs, and she only
hopes for the children’s sake it won’t
come to divorce. Tom has a cough
that she fears means consumption,
and there follows a long chapter
about aunts and cousins who have
lost their money, and their cooks,
or broken their legs, and who seem
to have bunched every ill that flesh
is heir to.
"And then mother pities me until
I want to sit down and howl because
I have to work for my living instead
of being a millionaire, and because I
am a business woman in place of
being a queen, although ordinarily I
think I’m lucky in having a good
job, and am merry as a cricket.
CURRENT EVENTS OF INTEREST
Information received from Wash
ington states legislation providing
for a national system of civil serv
ice pensions, was completed recently
with the adoption by the senate of
the conference report on the Ster
ling bill. General retirement of all
government employes at the age of
seventy is provided with the retire
ment of mechanics and artisans at
sixty-five and railway postal clerks,
mail carriers and one or two other
special classifications at sixty-two.
Pensions ranging up to $720 a year
are to be given to individuals Os long
service out of a fund provided for by
direct appropriation of the govern
ment and by assessments from sal
aries.
Reports of the discovery of gold
in northeastern Siberia have reach
'• ed Nome, Alaska, and many boats
; are awaiting the opening of naviga
t tion in readiness to carry “stamped
ers” to the new fields.
Ice is reported broken five miles
out in Bering Strait from Nome, and
the schooner Polar Bear has been
hauled out a considerable distance.
Holes are being cut in the ice for
her launching so that she may get
an early start for Siberia.
, The Ming tombs, near I?ekin, are
#the most famed tombs of China. But
tin the matter of tomb building the
emperor of the “Three Kingdoms, ’
220-265, A. D., greatly exceeded the
Mings. He ordered his son to build
for him 72 tombs, so that his ene
/mies would not know which contained
his body. t
Another Chinese emperor built,
peopled and garrisoned a city near a
tomb he had built to contain his own
body. The tombs of the kings of the
“Six Kingdoms,” in Shantung, though
now only earthen pyramids, terraced
with little fields, have the air of the
pyramids.
The Manchus followed the Chinese
customs arid law in respect to their
ancestors. Solemn juniper forests in
close their sepulchers, which are ap
proached through magnificent p’ai
lous, and preceded by stately build
ings.
There are fiVe Imperial Manchu
burial places. The ooiginal is at
Hsin-King, Eastern Manchuria, and
Ms called the Yung Ling. Two are at
Mukden and two in the region of
Pekin.
Jewels valued at $1,500,000 the
property of Prince William of Wied
and other German noblemen, which
were seized by Swedish customs au
thorities last August when they were
brought into this country by air
plane, were released recently. For
feiture of the gems was claimed on
the ground they had been smuggled
into Sweden. The court held the
charge of smuggling had not been
proved.
The honor system of handling con
victs is a failure, according to a
statement issued by Warden Everett
J. Murphy of the Illinois State Peni
tentiary at Joliet, 111. The warden
said that under the honor system
prisoners were given position of
trust without showing conclusively
that they were entitled to such posi
tions, while under the merit system
the reverse was true.
Governor James P. Goodrich and
the state courts were charged with
failure to do their duty by Judge A.
B. Anderson in United States district
court of Indianapolis, after he had
Sentenced several persons who plead
ed guilty to theft of automobiles and
transporting them in interstate
traffic.
The national congress of the Sons
of the American Revolution adopted
a resolution favoring passage of
Federal immigration law that will
place burden of proof on the immi
grant as to his desirability for enter
ing this country, in order that unde
sirables may be barred. The resolu
tion was presented by the Ohio so
ciety.
Fifty-one freight cars loaded with
3,060,000 pounds of sugar are being
sought in the railroad yards in
Chicago by federal agents.
It is said the sugar has been
shifted around on side tracks for
two weeks and, according to infor
mation in the hands of District At
torney Charles F. Clyne, no attempt
has been made to unload the cars.
Sugar is being sold at 31 cents a
, aoimd retail. ’
"Mother writes the same sort of
indigo letter to all of her children
who are away from home. I often
wonder why she does it, and if she
never realizes that after we have re
ceived one of her pessimistic epistles
we feel that the whole world is a vale
of trials and tribulations and that
there is no use in trying to achieve
ai y happiness or success in it.
“She knows that I have about as
heavy a burden to bear as I can stag
ger along under. Why, then, add to
it the sorrows of those I love, and
am powerless to help? Why sadden
me with the worries and troubles of
others, when it does no good? •
"It takes the heart and courage
out of me. It lessens my efficiency
because I’m grieving over Susan
when I should be eoncentrat
ed on my work. It depresses my
vitality, and makes me nervous and
jumpy. It breaks down my morale
and makes me feel like turning
coward and quitter.
“Surely if Mother and the other
people who Indulge their morbid love
of horrors by wjriting gloomy let
ters, realized how far-reaching and
disastrous was' the effect of their
wails on the recipients, they would
refrain from ever burdening the
mails with another cerulean mission.
“For my part I think that the
writing of discouraging letters'
should be recognized as a crime pun
ishable by law. If people can’t
write bright and cheery letters we
should be able to get out an in
junction prohibiting them from
writing at all.”
There are two explanations of the
melancholy letter. The first is sel
fishness. The writer wants to en
joy her troubles by telling them to
someone else and she does so by
first, regardless of how they may
affect another. It is not easy to get
some one to listen to the recital of
your grievances, but when you
write them you are sure you have
gotten the sad, sad story of your
wrongs over to one person, at least.
He or she ‘can not help but hear
them.
The second reason for the gloomy
letter is that women think it is
romantic and poetic to be miserable.
Therefore they let themselves go
when they sit down to write. Their
correspondent isn’t there to see, so
they pose as martyrs, and exagger
ate every scratch on their hearts In
to a compound fracture that is bound
to be fatal. They blot their letters
with their tears because it looks
highfalutin to do so, forgetting that
the person at the other end of the
line won’t know they were property
tears.
They do not realize how much
more final an Impression the writ
ten word is than the spoken word.
When Betty comes to tell her that
her marriage is a failure because her
husband doesn’t understand her, and
that he is a brute who has reduced
her world to cinders, ashes and dust,
we do not suffer unduly with her
as we observe that she is tucking
away three cups of tea and Innum
erable olive sandwiches, and that
she is arrayed like Solomon in all
his glory, and looking uncommonly
well and fit.
But when we get a letter from
Betty detailing her domestic woes,
and representing herself as a mel
ancholy wrfick we are simply dis
solved with pity for the poor darl
ing and we go through agonies of
sympathy. , _ ,
And just because there is this
power in a scrap of paper we should
be careful how we use it. It should
always be with us a bit of white
magic that carries good luck to the
one to whom we send it. It should
be filled with cheer, and courage,
and love and laughtef, never with
bad news and raven croaking. There
is no place for the gloomy letter
except the waste paper basket.
Dorothy Dix articles will R PP ear
in this paper every Monday, M ed
nesday and Friday,
A forest fire is sweeping Belle
hasse county, threatening destruc
tion o fthe villages of St. Camille,
St. Fabien, Panet and Daaquam,
according to telegraphic appeals for
aid received at Quebec. Daaquam
was said to be in immediate danger
and the inhabitants were reported
leaving their homes.
Several scores of women and
children, refugees, were brought out
of the fire district by a Quebec
Central train which had to fight
its way through the flames. Water
had to be drawn from the tender
to quench the blaze about the
coaches as the train pushed through
the burning woods.
Timber valued at more than sl,-
000,000 is reported in peril. Vol
unteers with fire fighting equipment
and Red Cross supplies have been
sent from neighboring districts into
Bellechasse county. Public prayers
are being offered by persons in the
threatened districts that their homes I
be spared.
Japan immediately will open ne
gotiations with Russia for a buffer
state in Siberia, it is reported in
a Tokio cable .to the "Nippu Jlji,”
a Japanese newspaper in Honolulu.
The Japanese war office has an
nounced that the first detachment
of Japanese troops was landed a
few miles south of Nikolaevsk re
cently, beginning their operations
against the Bolsheviki, according to
a Tokio cable to the same news
paper.
Senator Louis Martin, at a confer
ence with the French Union for
Woman Suffrage in Paris told the
women that he would bring up a
motion before the senate next month
to give women the vote. He said
he was not optimistic of success at
first, but he requested the union to
continue its propaganda, declaring
that if it did so the women of
France would enjoy the privilege of
suffrage within a year.
Bates Huntsman, 83, lowa’s “man
of mystery," is dead. Huntsman was
a member of a band of treasure seek
ers whose efforts to locate $90,000
buried on the “Klondike” farm in
Taylor county caused blasted lives,
untimely deaths and an unsolved
murder.
Huntsman came prominently into
the public eye a few years ago when
he was made a defendant in a mur
der case involving the slaying of a
wealthy cattleman in 1868—a crime
once laid at the door of the James
boys.
HAMBONE’S MEDITATIONS
MISTUS TALKIN' ? BOUT
DEY AIN' NO CQMP'TIT4ON
Twix' folks in Biz'ness
NO mo' , but she wrong
BOUT DAT---DEY TRIES
T' SEE WHICH ONE KIN
'CHARGE D>E MOSTEST.'!.
OMT
Copyright, 1920 Dy McCiur* NowspapDr Syntflcpto.