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THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday
By THE GEORGIAN COMPANY
• At 20 East Alabama St., Atlanta, Ga.
Entered as second-class matter at postoffice at Atlanta, under act of March 3, 1873.
i Who Are the Five Greatest
Women in History?
» * 9>.
Probably the Five Greatest Women Are Not IN History at All—at
Least Not in History as Little Men Have Written It. Luckily,
the Great Women That We Know Are Numbered in Thousands,
and Those Greater Still Are Unknown. - -
Between “votes-for-women” parades'there is discussion of the
question. “Who are the five greatest women in history?”
The question is interesting, but it can not be satisfactorily an
swered.
You may pick out a thousand great women one after the other,
and yet you would not be satisfied to put any one of them among
the five greatest. For instance:
Catherine of Russia. She was a big woman, in size and in
brain. She did one big thing when she overcame the disadvantage
of birth and surroundings. She was a camp follower, not better
than other women of that low class. She established the Russian
Empire probably, and saved Peter the Great, who married her,
when she brought about the defeat of the Turks and the destruction
of Charles XII of Sweden. She did it very simply, by giving the
Turkish general all her jewelry and all the money she could get and
persuading him to go home and consider himself defeated, betray
ing Charles XII. She was useful to Russia, a big and an able
woman —but she was NOT among the five greatest women.
Then there was the other Catherine of Russia—a German prin
cess married to a Russian emperor. She was an able woman. The
less said about her private character the better—and in that she
resembled many great MEN.
She gave a good organization to Russia. But she probably
would be placed properly among the five worst women rather than
among the five best.
THE MOTHER OF THE GRACCHI She was a fine woman,
and she bore fine sons—which is about the best thing that any
woman CAN do. A woman is a CREATOR of human beings, not a
PERFORMER in the human arena. Her boys were probably as
good, as unselfish, heroic and patriotic as any that evqr lived. And
if they had lived one or two centuries later they might have saved
Rome a great deal of trouble and postponed the downfall of civiliza
tion and the overwhelming inrush oX barbarians.
But the mother of the Gracchi was not among the five greatest
women.
QUEEN ELIZABETH was a wonderful woman—she did a
great deal for Engalnd. And England did a great deal more for
her. If she had lived in a smaller country she would have been less
of a woman. She shines in the light of the greatness that surround
ed her, rat her than by her own light. But she was great in a way—
great as a diplomat, more than a match for the cunning Spanish
and French ambassadors at her court. And she knew enough not
to get married, not to let some man do badly the work that she
was able to do well. But she was NOT among the five greatest.
Marie Theresa of Austria was an able fighting citizen. And
even against one of the greatest of men, Frederick Hie Great, she
made a noble struggle for the welfare of her successors and her na
tion—as she understood it But she was only a determined woman,
allowing the men in her service to fight when they suggested fight
ing. SHE was not among the five greatest.
Joan of Arc—a beautiful character. Everything that we know
about her is good. But wo do not know very MUCH about her. It
is perhaps ‘rue that history, studying her more accurately, will find
in her the •’MASCOT” of the French nation and the French army,
rather than the LEADER oi" that army.
Her courageous and beautiful death—burned alive hy the
church at the command of England, because when her woman's
clothes were taken from her she put on the clothes of a man—is one
of the greatest tragedies and crimes in history. She was a girl of
faith and courage, inspiring the Frenchmen, no doubt, to fight
bravely. Intellectually, however, she was probably not a great
woman.
Madame Roland was great in her way, and charmingly weak
in her way also. She made a great many Frenchmen change from
stupid conservatism to radicalism. She talked for the revolution
which the world needed—radical talk—and she complained not at
all when tlje revolution finally cut off her head. She gave to the
work' ii interesting sentence, on her way to the gullotine, “Lib
erty. . ;>.t crimes have been committed in thy name!” It is prob
able that she would have lived to a peaceful old age, if she. hail not
foolishly fallen in love with a very much younger man. That hurt
her judgment. She is NOT among the five greatest.
CHARLOTTE CORDAY has been praised for more than a hun
dred rears for stabbing Marat to death in his bath tub. The admi
ration for this young woman who committed murder is based large
ly upon misunderstanding of the character of Marat.
Until recently, all those that talked of hint, including Carlyle,
whose statements concerning him ■were nearly all false, were too
near the French revolution to see anything but the blood As Burke
said, they saw only the feathers, the aristocracy, and forgot the
dving bird, which was the French people.
After Charlotte Corday had committed her murder and given
up her life for it, she was admired because it was thought that she
had killed an ignorant, bloodthirsty tyrant, whom Carlyle spoke of
as a “horse-leech ’
As a matter of fact, Marat was a gieat doctor, the first ♦hat -ever per
formed the operation for cataract on the human eye. and he was probably the
only man that could have carried the French republic upon a firm basis with
out any intervening Napoleon, or any of the other slips and accidents and
breakdowns of history A great and powerful man was murdered when Marat
was killed And Charlotte Corday at oest was a woman who meant well.
You might write ft>r a good many hours mentioning the names of great
women, from. Zenobla to Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt. You might print the
a*mes of hundreds of thousands of able, courageous women—and yet not print
any one of the FTVE greatest that have lived
The five greatest women, cY course. ARE THE MOTHERS OF THE FIVE
GREATEST men.
The five greatest tnen that have ever lived undoubtedly—among those that
the world now knows—were Aristotle. Michael Angelo, Newton, Beethoven
and Shakespeare. The mothers of those five men were probably the fire
greatest women that have lived on this earth. For a great man IS WHAT
YIIS MOTHER MAKES HIM. And the five women that created the greatest
philosopher, the greatest scientist, the greatest poet, the greatest musician
and the greatest artist in all the world were the five greatest women.
But back of them, in the night of time, in the hundreds of centuries be
fore history began, when the women of the stone age were cultivating the
weeds and developing them into every grain that we cat today, when soma
woman was bringing up the courageous boy that first crossed the big lake or
the river when women had to subdue the brutality of men. protect the chil
dren tame the wild animals and slowly change a savage, wandering, hopeless
race’to a fixed and stable nation ay cultivating the soil and sticking to the
tome i n those dd days probably the greatest women of all were bom and
worked, unknown.
T'n» of the five greatest women are not so important, however, as
the PROBLEM OF GIViN G WOMEN OPPORTUNITY. AND THUS EN-
!HUMAN RACE TO PRODUCE FIFTY GREAT WOMEN IN
Future for every one that we have had in the past.
Ind to this end the giving of the vote to women, the giving of intellectual
interest, the giving of a share in making laws and In all intellectual occupa
tions will be the first step. ,
And the man who doesn't help that step : unworthj of the mother who
gave him whatever power he maj possess.
The Atlanta Georgian
HE NEVER HAD A CHANCE
That Is What Nine Men Out of Ten Who Are Failures Say. Look Out That You Don’t Say It Yourself.
By TAD
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NO 2.
Yuffl was quick to learn anything out
side of geography, arithmetic or history.
He could do tricks with his hat, imitate a
calliope, sing popular ditties, and at base
ball was the idol of the gang.
The school teacher called him a master
of the breadless arts.
He carried bats for the city team and
learned to pitch. He could do most any
thing the regular pitcher could with the
DOROTHY DIX WRITES
The Hard Lot of Stepmothers
IHAV® recently received two let
letters from young women who
married widowers with chil
dren. and who are finding the road
of the stepmother a thorny one to
travel.
One woman, delicately and lux
uriously reared, declares that she is
forced to be nothing more nor less
than a slave to her husband's chil
dren, and that they receive all of
her ministrations without gratitude
or appreciation.
The other woman says that she
has a lot of unruly youngsters to
deal with. who are prejudiced
against her by their mother's peo
ple. and she wants to know how- to
stop the interference of these rela
tives. and whether she should pun
ish the children herself, or till their
father on them, and let him chas
tise them
To these ladies, and al! other
stepmothers. I extend my heartfelt
sympathy. And the same to the
stepchildren Undoubtedly the job
of being a stepmother ft the hard
est one on earth, and the one with
the least pay to it Nor it is a
picnic to be stepchild
Artificial Bond Is
Easily Broken.
The bond between mother and
child is the strongest and sweetest
one in nature, but when this bond
is artificially forged there is some
thing in it that almost always
makes it gall both the necks of the
mother and the child beyond en
durance. There is an instinctive
antagonism and jealousy between
the children and the woman who
stands in their mother’s place and
the woman and the children who
are her husband's, but not hers. No
child is capable of dealing w Ith this
situation, and few women are big
enough and broad enough to meet
it in the proper way.
To begin with, all children are
trying. They are noisy, dirty,
greedy, careless, mischievous. They
call for endless labor, inexhausti
ble patience and sympathy. The
wise providence of God gives this
to the mother, so that she thinks
the ugliest and most stupid little
brat a miracle of beauty and intel-
WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 1912
Bv DOROTHY DIX
ligence. The yells of a squalling
infant .are not maddening noise to
her, but sweetest musiw
But heaven works no such mir
acle for the stepmother. Instead of
seeing her stepchildren through a
rosy mist of mother love she be
holds them surrounded by a pea
green aura of jealousy. Their faults
are not hidden, but magnified, and
it takes almost superhuman
strength of character to make her
deal with them justly and Jtindly.
And this difficulty is exaggerated if
she has children of her own and is
called upon to hold the scales be
tween her own infant phenomenon
and the first wife’s ordinary off
spring
Women Heroic Who
Weds a Father.
Nor is the stepmother’s position
rendered easier by the stepchil
dren’s mother's relatives putting
their finger* into the pie. They
make a bad matter worse by con
stantly blow ing about the slumber
ing feud between the two factions.
Certainly any woman must be of
heroic mold, or else fond of taking
foolhardy risks, who marries a wid
ower with children. But having
done so, she should reflect that the
position she finds herself In is of
her own choosing and that she vol
untarily took upon herself its ob
ligations. It Is a hard thing to be a
good mother. It is a much more
difficult task to be a good step
mother. But it can be done, as
thousands of noble and devoted
women have proven who have
taken other women's children to
their heart and mothered them so
warmly that they never knew they
were motherless.
There have been many cruel step
mothers, but there have been many
other stepmothers who have been
better, more intelligent, more lov
ing and tenderer mothers to their
stepchildren than their own moth
ers could have been. There are
many stepmothers who have come
like an inspiration into the lives of
motherless boys and girls, and w ho
have been more loved and revered
by their stepchildren than they
w’ere by their own.
ball, and the boys were certain that his
curves “broke better.”
On Saturdays and Sundays Yum grab
bed a piece of change here and there toss
ng them over the platter for the home team.
His life was wrapped up in the game now
and he quit school entirely.
What did a ball player want with pen
manship and algebra?, Nothing' They
couldn’t fool him; he knew.
In dealing with stepchildren
there is only one rule to follow,
and that is the Golden Rule. Treat
them as you would have some other
woman treat your children were
you dead and another reigned in
your stead. When the youngsters
are bad, or mischievous, ask your
self if you could rest in your grave
if some other woman w-as beating
your child’s tender little body for
an unthoughted prank. When you
are tempted to scold a child, or
send .him supperless to bed, ask
yourself if heaven would be heaven
to you if you could look down and
see your baby’s trembling lips and
hurt look, and hear your little child
sobbing himself to sleep. •
As to my correspondent's ques
tion as to whether she should pun
ish her little stepchildren, or tell
their father on them. I should say:
Do neither The only way that any
human being can be ruled is by
love. To beat and punish children
does nothing but make little hypo
crites and sneaks and liars out of
them. and. at most, the rule of fear
Is so short! There is such a little
time that a. child stands in bodily
fear of the whip, or the cor
ner, or whatever instrument of tor
ture you devise for it.
And when that is over, when the
child is as strong as you are. if you
do not rule it through love, you
have absolutely no hold upon it
whatever. It laughs at you and de
fies you, but if you have made it
your slave through tenderness and
love, you mav rule it to the longest
day of your life.
Use Diplomacy to
Win Childrens' Hearts.
So I would advise this young
stepmother to forget everything
else and go to work to win her
stepchildren's hearts by using as
. much tact and diplomacy and
charm as she did in catching their
father, and she will find that they
will do for love of her they
would never do through fear. More
over. when she makes the children
love her she can snap her fingers
in the interfering relatives faces,
and her husband will rise up and
call her blessed if she is. indeed,
a mother to his motherless little
ones.
THE HOME PAPER -
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Writes on
The Crosses We Build
in Youth
--and--
How Our Nobler Selves 1
Are Born
Written For The Atlanta Georgian
By Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Copyright, 1912, by American-Journal-Examiner.
PAUSING a moment ere the
day was done
While yet the earth was sciri
tillant with light.
I backward glanced. From valley,
plain and height.
At intervals. • where my life-pa v th
had run. t
Rose cross on cross; and nailed
upon each one
Was my dead self. And yet that
gruesome sight
Lent sudden splendor to the fall
ing night,
Showing the conquests that my
soul had won.
Up to the rising stars I looked and
cried:
There is no death! For year on
year, re-born
I wake to larger life; to joy more
great.
So many times have I been cru
cified,
So often seen the resurrection
morn,
I go triumphant, though new Cal
varies watt.
EVERY man, every woman
who has made use of life,
and grown in nobility of
character with the years, haij been
many times crucified; many times
nailed to the cross of his own crea
tion; and many times has known
the joy of resurrection.
We build our crosses in early
youth; our crosses of mistakes,
ambitions, and false pleasures: of
self-centered hopes; or of idle
ness, and love of ease.
Then come the relentless years;
Alas, the Poor Bachelor!
By ADA PATTERSOX.
THE world *seems to have con
spired against the peace of
mind of bachelors —both
kinds. A Boston woman wants
them to wear labels, "Not taken,”
or words to that effect, like the "To
let” sign on a vacant house.
Another says she is quite willing
to see the rule enforced with both
sexes, the word “maid” being bla
zoned in a conspicuous place on the
Apparel of the woman who is wth
out a husband.
A famous woman declares that
women who will not wed should be
fined; that a bachelor sex-tax
should be imposed upon the skirted
as well as the trousered bachelor.
And now comes from a pulpit the
sweeping statement that all bach
elors, regardless of sex, are useless
beings and should be banished to
an island, there to get along as
well as they can, but to finish their
work out of sight of useful citizens.
So Jane Addams, who founded
Hull House, and Clara Laughlin,
who has guided the destinies of so
many maidens' by her tender pen
that she is known as "The Girl's
Fri’end,” and Mary Garrett Hay,
who is the president of the Federa
tion of Women's Clubs in the Em
pire State, and Miss Mary Dreier,
who directs the Women’s Trades
Unions, and Gertrude Barnum, who
is similarly active, and Florence
Guernsey, who is arranging the
transcontinental excursion of the
women’s clubs to San Francisco,
and Ada Rehan, who never married
because she was too busy immor
talizing the characters of Shake
speare’s women,, and Maude Ad
ams, idolized by the young girls of
this country . to whom she is ar ex
ample of the studious life, of the
gospel of self-development, of quiet
charity, are useless.
And Harrison Fisher, who draws
the new beauty in her perfection
of health and character, setting a
new standard for womanhood; the
Wright brothers, who blazed some
Bank Goblins
By WILLIAM WALLACE WHITfiLOCK.
ONCE there was a little bank.
That got itself in bad.
And couldn't pay depositors.
Who acted quite like mad,
And stormed around Its doors and
cried:
"We want our hard earned pay!"
And wouldn’t hear a word of sense,
And wouldn’t go away,
So 'long there came a great big man
And gobbled it like that’
And J. P M l! get you
'Fore you know where you are at.
and they tie us to our cross, and
nail us upon it: and they leave.us ..
there until we die.
Until the Self which cared for
- things dies, and a nobler
and truer, and wiser, and more .
spiritual self rolls the stone away ..
from the door of the sepulchre, and
comes forth. ’ ’’
Yet even this Self comes forth
only to be again crucified; and
again buried, and again resurrect
ed to a still higher and finer Self. •
Whatever you are suffering to
day. whatever despair, disappoint
ment and anguish may be yours,
think of it as a crucifixion of some
lesser and baser part of your mul
tiple Self, which is to be followed
by a resurrection of the REAL.
Self; the Real YOU; strong, and
wise, and brave, and made more
useful and universal by this ex
perience.
And just in proportion to your
acceptance of this truth, which
life is endeavoring to teach you,
will be lessening of your cruci
fixions.
Once the lesson is perfectly
learned, the teacher does not ask
its continual repetition. When the
illumination comes and your old
self is dying upon the cross, you
will lift your eyes and say, “It is
Finished.” and then the Spiritual
You will be born; to live evermore
in the Light of knowledge and
power and love.
of the first paths to the skies;
George Ade, who has furnished the
>onic for dispirited lives by making
laughter, and James Whitcomb Ri
ley, who has sunk the pummet to
the very depths of feeling by his
homely verse; Brand Whitlock, who
practices the Golden Rule in the
city government of Toledo.
Suppose they were all banished
to a far island in the Atlantic or
Pacific. Harrison Fisher would
cease his sketches of splendid,
long-limbed young women and pee
vishly set about crayon drawings
of landscapes without allure or
promise. The Wright brothers
would dabble no longer in aero
nautics, and would sullenly try
their constructive skill at plows.
George Ade, with no masses of hu
manity to inspire him to jest,
would compose- dirges for the fu
nerals on the island, and James
Whitcomb Riley would lose his in
terest 'iii humanity and write about
squirrels. Brand Whitlock, having
no scope for his. organizing powers
and no inspiration for his novels,
would turn sullen misanthrope.
Jane Addams could build no more
Hull Houses except for the bach
elors, who would probably ungra
ciously refuse to live in. them. Miss
Laughlin might pen essays on
"Suggestions for the Greater Ami
ability of Men,” which would not be
appreciated and certainly not fol
lowed. Miss Dreier, Miss Hay. and
Miss GuernsA- would grow, fretful
because they bad nothing to do ex
cept for themselves, and Adi’ Re- "
han and Maude Adams would play
for each other, and each, unstimu
lated by large . audiences, would
turn acid critic.
Better not banish them, Mr.
Preacher. The world is not of your
opinion, of their uselessness. And.
doubtless, each of these distin
guished individuals and al! the less
er company of bachelors by choice
know better than you. whether they
would make good husbands or
wives
Then there was another bank
That tried a lot of stunts. *
Hypothecatin’ bonds and things.
And some too more than once.
And when the bank inspectors came
They covered up their tracks.
And laughed and wene on doin’ tricks
And laughed and went on doin tricks
But. oh’ that great big man he knew,
And watched ’em like a cat—
And J. P. M 1! get you
’Fore you know where ■'•ou are at.