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EDI'TORIAL PAGE
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
Publfshed Every Afternoon Except Sunday
By THE GEORGIAN COMPANY
I At 20 East Alabama St., Atlanta, Ga.
Entered as second-class matter at postoffice at Atlanta, under act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription Price—Delivered by carrier, 10 cents a week. By mail, $5.00 a year.
k Pavable in advance.
■ ,
Two Enemies of Us AH
On the Road to Success Almost Every Man Meets These Two
Enemies: Conquering VICE and Slothful PROCRASTINA
\ TION. Few Succeed in Passing Them.
Readers, this is such a commonplace, obvious sort of an
. editorial that von will pernaps be impatient in the reading of
Jc£.it. Nevertheless, at the risk of seeming tiresome and fond of
> - 'platitudes, we propose to dismiss the enemies of mankind niia
the possibility of conquering or avoiding them.
Ninety-nine out pf every hundred human beings may be
called FAILURES.
A man may do fairh good work, he may make a success
in comparison with his fellow man. and yet be A I* AILI ift.
A man who fails to do THE BEST THAI IS IX HIM is a
FAILURE, whatever he may do, no matter how he may impose
upon the world with his work.
Os all the failures you have known, can it not be said that
VICE or PROCRASTINATION might account for every one of
them i
| ' VICE" is a name that covers many human weaknesses,
y" * Drunkenness is a vice—one which viciously suppresses.
1 DROWNS the ven force, THE MENTAL UNREST THAT
OUGHT TO BRING SUCCESS.
Self-indulgence is another vice. It makes us devote our
energies in the pr sent to our various tastes and likes, instead
of controlling the present in order to provide for the future.
Yanit x and egotism in all its forms are vices. The vain man
wastes, in self-approval, in the decoration of his person, or in
foolish self-confidence, the time, thought or money that ought
> to be spent on improvement.
Then there are all the other vices—foolish, perverted forms
of human eiiergv that tear men down and make real growth and
1 accomplishment impossible.
Gambling, drink, love of display, lack of moral purpose—all
‘ these vices, positive or negative, meet mankind on the road to
■ward good results; only a few get by.
i.
Many a man able to control the actively vicious side of his
character is destroyed b\ laziness, by the peculiar hatred of
. effort so hard to overcome in millions of us.
i The world is full of men and women who seem intelligent,
I WHO MIGHT SUCCEED, and yet go plodding along in their
/ little clerkships or other little routine places. BECAUSE THEY
I LACK POWER TO FORCE THEMSELVES OUT OF PRO
/ CR ASTI N A TION "S Rl T. They expect to begin the struggle
f SOMETIME, but the time never comes.
Which of these two enemies of mankind is responsible for the
greater number of failures'?
LAZINESS, lack of will power, is, in our opinion, man’s
most dangerous enemy.
Vice in a man is often only ENERGY GONE WRONG. If the
man can direct into channels of effort power which he has been
* wasting in vicious self-indulgence, success will come to him. and
the monster of vice will be passed and left behind.
Slotfulness. procrastination, laziness are harder to get out of
lhe svstem than vice.
■
Thev mean, unfortunatelv, very often AN ABSOLUTE
LACK OF ENERGY.
And that is a thing that should be borne in mind by all of
the good, ordinary, average, well-meaning, well-behaved people
THAT CAN NOT "SEEM TO GET ALONG."
You have got to kill tin* vice that stands in your way. You
have got to KNOW that it is there, and then fight it. realizing that
UNLESS YOU CONQUER IT IT WILL CONQUER YOU.
A When you have rooted out the viciousness in your disposition,
then go at the laziness, which is slow and sleepy and can wait
until the vice is killed.
»
What do vou need in any kind of a fight? YOU NEED A
GOOD WEAPON.
In a fight against yourself vou need the one great weapon
which is WILL POWER.
WILL POWER—the force which makes possible repeated, de
termined, steady effort—is the only thing that will help you in
life's fight.
There are those that say that we can not change ourselves,
that we must always*remain as we were made, with our weak
nesses and our strength as at the Iteginning.
It - BUT THAT IS FALSE.
A man CAN change himself. The drunkard in the gutter can
rise Io the highest place. IF HE WILL TRY HARD ENOUGH.
The way io bring about the change is through STEADY,
DAIIA. CEASELESS EFFORT. There is no use in making a
violent effort, lasting a lew seconds and leaving you weaker in
strength Ilian you were before.
■Bi The way to get up early inthe morning, for instance, IS TO
GO TO BED EARLY THE NIGHT BEFORE.
.As long as you go to bed too late, YOU WILL GET UP TOO
p: LATE—or if you do get up early you will be tired and your work
• ’a will be of no use.
Reform must be begun at the RIGHT end.
If you want to get out of some vicious habit, remember that
you can only do it BY ADDING 'l’o YOUR STRENGTH.
Good sleep, wise eating. A WELL-NOURISHED BODY, will
«:•»- a jfrvat deal to overcome a desire for drink.
U yyiur mind is given to foolish amusements. dissipation,
jrir-Dling, remember that before vou can take away that interest
YOU MUST REPLACE IT WITH SOME OTHER'
Get a real interest in vour WORK, begin saving vour mon
ey. REALIZING THAT ( APITAL MEANS INDEPENDENCE.
fAlake plans, carry them mil. TRY TO BE AS MUCH INTEREST
ED IN YOUR OWN POWERS OF SELF-CONTROL AS IN THE
FOOLISH RUNNING OF SOME HORSE OR THE TURNING UP
, • OF SOME CARD.
Eor young men unmarried MARRIAGE IS PROBABLY THE
BEST POSSIBLE THING. It forces serious thought, it brings a
great interest with the children and a steadying sense of responsi
bility.
Tn proportion to their numliers UNMARRIED YOUNG MEN
COMMIT TEN TIMES AS MUCH FOOLISHNESS AS THE
U MARRIED MEN.
The unmarried man is like a ship with no rudder, going in
Un 1
I |
The Atlanta Georgian
TUESDAY. JUNE 4. 1912.
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
-—,
O " rj O'
z//
* ®®iij' ;
y' •. "-U
, A’
A
No. 7.
Yarn’s job in the case held but until his voice It was a soft job. There was really no hard
went back a bit. The boss came up one evening work about it. Every night from S to 10 you
and told him that "No bloke with cracked pipes could hear Yum calling out: " Wh<f shoots?
could chirp there.’* so Yum was given the gate There you are; hands up and money down, boys;
and forced to seek pastures new. He was a smart he’s coining out! Ha! ha! he shoots a seven;
young fellow, though, and knew that he could get that's the old house number, boys. Get down on
in around the gambling district. A fellow didn’t lhe line; the next man is ready. Hands up and
need to know the war was over to horn in there, money down!"
so Yum grabbed a job as lookout and assistant Yum. of course, was merely the assistant up
sfick man in a crap game. ~ there, but he had enough for eats and a haypile.
All he had to do was to watch for suspicious in his opinion, it was better than a job at S2O
persons who might want to shoot craps, and then per week working from S till 5. Yum knew; you
when the stick man was out he would handle the couldn’t fool him.
coin and call the dice. ■ (To he continued.)
What to Do in a Thunderstorm
Its Perils Can Be Eliminated If the Proper Precautions Are Taken
Bv GARRETT P. SERVLSS.
THE season of thunder storms has i
opened, and in no country are I
the electric marvels of the at- 1
mosphere more imposingly displayed
than In the United States. Thev are ‘
I
among nature's most magnificent spec- (
taeles. ,
We should learn to look upon these 1
without fear. They are full of danger,
but their perils can be almost com- 1
pletely eliminated by proper precau
tions. All fatal accidents front light- |
nlng are due to neglect of such piecau- j
tions. Lightning rods, properly placed t
and cared for. furnish an all but abso- 1
lute protection for buildings. Great
cities are so full of ready made t t acks ■
for electric discharges that violent
thunder storms passing over them
seldom cause any serious damage by
lightning. The sudden gusts of wind
do more harm titan the electric dis
charges.
Statistics show that the danger is
greatest in the open country, and par
ticularly in hilly and mountainous dis
tricts. In tlte yeak 1900, 713 persons
were killed by lightning in the United >
States, and the greater number were
in the Roek.t Mountain district and
the upper Missouri valley, in the same
year 1,842 domestic animals were killed
in the United States by lightning, ami
1,847 builttings were struck. t'attle
and sheep are apt to gather about iso
lated trees, or along wire fences, dur
ing a thunder storm, and they arp
sometimes killed in groups. A person
caught in a thunder storm while in the
open country should keet> iw> yards
away from any tree that may happen to
stand in tlte field, in a dense woods he
is safer if he does not place himself
under some tall tree. Eight or nine
persons have been killed by a single
stroke of lightning while sitting under
an isolated tree. Such a tree invites
l lightning, and offers it a ready path tel
• the ground. One should also avoid the !
i neighborhood of a body of water.
Electrical Charges in
Clouds Cause Lightning.
The cause of lightning is the aectimu- [
latton of electric charges in the clouds.
These charges grow stronger as the
particles of water in the cloud coales, e j
to form larger drops. Electricity re
sides on the surface of the charged par
ticles. and as they eoalesi e the surface
increases proportionally less than the
volume Th*, consequence is that t’ne
electricity contributed by each particle
to the united mass h.i- <-ss -|>a« to
spread I'-elf oyer than it had when the
particles were separate. It follows that
the t ombined charge on the surface of
the larger drop is m. re . intense than
were the charges on the -• parate parti
cles: In other words, l a "potential" of
the charge is im l eased. The whole
cloud becomes heavily charged as its
countless multitudes 'of drops grow
larger and larger.
At the same time, through the ef
fects of what is called “induction,” a
charge of the opposite kind is produced
on a neighboring cloud, or on the earth
ben.-alii. As those charges increase in
intensity they strive to burst across
the intervening air. and if the potential
becomes sufficient they do so. The re
sult is a llgh*ning stroke.
Lightning Stroke Is
From 1 to 10 Miles Long.
The spark from an electric tn tchine
is a baby lightning stroke. As tile disk
of the machine is turned, more and
mote electricity accumulates on the
polished knob, calk'd the conductor,
until the surrounding air can no longer
tesist the strait- and then a spark
piss’-s between the knob and some ob
ject placed near, on which a contrary
charge has been produced by the cu
rious property of induction.
But the spark from the most power
ful ehetrie machine is but a few inches
in length, while a lightning stroke may
be flout a mile to ten miles long! No
sutldt n phenomenon of nature, except
pe: haps a volcanic explosion, is more
startlingly suggestive of terrific power
than a bolt of lightning. Considering
the immense number of strokes that fly
from cloud to cloud and from cloud to
earth during a sevete thrunder storm, it
seems wonde’fnl that lightning is not
more destructive than experience has
proved it to be. Our relative security is
due to the fact that most of the dis
charges take 'ace between clouds, and
that when the lightning strikes earth
ward it usually has an infinity of points
[presented to it, which offer ready ways
I tor its escape and dissipation. This is
[why isolated objects, especially if they
are long and pointed at the top. are the
most liable to be struck. Tall, pointed
(objects, espeetallv if they are metallic.
I serve to draw off the electricity from
the clouds without an explosive dis
charge
[ The danger from lightning at sea was
greatei in lhe old dtys of wooden ships.
Then serious damage, or even destruc
tion fr.cn lightning was not a veiy un
eommon occurrence It has been
thought that some i.t-es of the disap
pearance of ships at sea may hav< been
due to lightning A British Ship, th'
Resistance, was struck b» lightning m
the Straits of Malacca, the powder
magazine exploded and every soul was
lost except three sailors. If that had
occurred in the middle of the ocean, no
doubt th' 1 ship would have been added
to the list of the mysteriously missing.
Modern iron and steel ships are in
little danger, They present a broad,
conducting surface for the escape of
the electricity. The latter, like water
is only dangerous when it is. so to
speak, crowded into a narrow channel,
with a steep descent and no ready- way
to escape. The flood that comes down
from a b.oken reservoir through a nar
row ravine destroys everything in its
path; but it spreads out harmlessly the
moment it enters a broad plain. So a
charge of electricity dissipates itself
without violence if many ways of es
cape are presented to it.
Thunder Increases
Grandeur of Electrical Storm.
The grandeur of an electric storm is
vastly increased by the thunder. Many
persons find that more terrifying than
the lightning. Thunder is due to the
rush of air to fill partial vacancies made
in the atmosphere by the sudden ex
pansion produced,by the passage of the
lightning. The heated air expands with
: great son . . and immediately the vacan
cies are filled again, thus producing at
-1 mospherie waves, which impress the ear
as sound. If the stroke occurs near by.
the thunder follows almost instantly, in
' a sharp elap. If the lightning is at a.
' distance from the observer, the thunder
follows the stroke at an interval de
' pending upon the distance. Sound
travois in the air about 1.100 feet per
second. The distance of the lightning
' stroke can easily be calculated by ob
- serving the number of seconds which
elapse before the thunder begins. It is
! only necessary to multiply this number
by 1,100 in order to have approximately
' the distance of the lightning. Success
' ive peals of thunder following a single
■ [stioke are due to the successive arrival
’[of different sound waves produced at
■ [ varying distances from the observer by
lithe passage of the lightning. As we
. [ have said, a lightning stroke may be
i [ miles in length. Variations of density
■ [ in the air tend to separate the sound
I waves and make them arrive in peals
-■[instead of in a continuous roll.
.[ It Is .in old adage that "thunder sours
-[milk" If there is any effect of this
■ i kind it must bo du>- io the electric state
i of the air rather than to the thunder
[The gt«at heat avhich often accompa
nies a thunder storm may cause a sud
den d> velopment of ferments tn the
t milk
THE HOME PAPER
Dr. Parkhurst’s Article
on
What the Voters Must F i O
Now Decide
—and— ”
Public Opinion as a ||||||| «
Moving Force
Written For The Georgian
By the Rev. Dr. C. H. Parkhurst
ALTHOUGH the American mind
is liable to violent spasms of
hysteria, it is naturally sound
in its operations and ordinarily re
turns pretty promptly to its normal
condition.
It may do a good deal that is ir
rational and silly while its intelli
gence is out of commission, but is
a thing that is, on the whole and in
the long run, to be trusted.
At any rate, that has been the
case in times past.
A whirlwind campaign, like that
through which we have recently
been passing, in which the two
most conspicuous figures in our
national life have met in combat
as critical as that of David and
Goliath of Gath, has. been as fran
tic as it has been barren of sub
stantial results, and has thrown
the general mind into a turmoil of
distraction, absolutely disqualify
ing it for reaching well-thought
out conclusions.
A man can not think and shout
at the same time.
The case is like that of a certain
big locomotive, said to have been
built for one of the Southern rail
roads. in which the whistling ap
paratus was so immense and re
quired so much steam to fill it that
when the engineer wanted to whis
tle he had to stop the engine.
It wouldn't whistle and go at the
same time.
The nominating stage of the cam
paign is now nearing completion,
and it is to be expected that the
general condition of exhaustion
consequent upon the performances
of the past month will be followed
"by a lull precedent to the election
eering campaign proper.
Time to Think, Now
That Engine Is Silent.
And now that the engine has sus
pended its whistling and the people
their shouting, it is devoutly to be
hoped that conditions of political
feverishness will be so far abated
as to allow for a brief season, at
any rate, of temperate and serious
thinking.
Enthusiasm is not a state of mind
to be utterly decried; at the same
time, great and complex problems
require for their solution delibera
tion that is quiet, careful and free
from heat and passion, and that is
something which we have had little
or nothing of.
We can not suppose that the
great rfiajority of our citizens are
so destitute of patriotism as not to
desire what is best for the country,
or so intense in their personal likes
and dislikes as not to be willing to
take into serious consideration the
revolutionary and turbulent temper
of the times the world over, and in
view of that situation to candidly
inquire whether a leadership that is
itself effervescent and revolution
ary or one that is deliberate and
self-poised is the safest under
which to place the vast and com
plicated interests of the country.
Any man who supports a candi
date for the presidency of the
United States for no other reason
than that he likes him is not tit to -
have an opinion or to cast a
ballot.
Now Is the Time For
Voters to Use Their Brains.
Whatever conclusion a patriotic
citizen may arrive at, this, at any
rate, is obligatory upon him—that
he do some solid thinking, that he
break free from the constraints of
mere personal preferences, and
now that there is no more ap
plauding just at present required
of him that he avail of the oppor
tunit- .. fa.-, the q U < -tion in a
tii&nub *<* <alcu!a tion com-
porting with the urgency of the
crisis. (
We are not pleading for or
against either candidate of either
party, but are urging that in view
of the unsettlemept of mind just
now prevailing in regard to almost
every great question, a blunder
committed at this juncture is cer
tain to be a momentous blunder
and liable to be fraught with in
calculable disaster. 'g
If a man has brains, now is the I
time to use them, and if he has a
conscience, now is a good time to
set it to work.
« • •
A NEWSPAPER criticism was
passed the other day upon
Police Commissioner Waldo
of New York for giving to the pub
lic his information regarding the
delinquencies of certain of our
courts, instead of putting that In
formation in the hands of the bar
association or of other parties qual
ified to take action in the premises.
To criticise the commissioner's
policy in the matter is to forget
that it is public sentiment really
tnat is the moving force in all civic
operations, that extends it
self to the three departments of
administration—legislative, judl- *
cial and executive. <4
In a country like our own, any I
movement that can be named, hav- r
ing for its object the enactment
of law, its interpretation or its ex
ecution, will succeed if it has pub
lic sentiment behind it. i
It is the people really that gov- ’
ern, and if at times it seems to be
otherwise, it is because such sen
timent has not been put forward
with that unanimity or insistence
that constitutes it a practical
force to be respected and taken ac
count of.
So that while, as It appears, the
bar association is shaping its own
investigation in away to lay a
foundation for possible definite ac
tion, the commissioner, by exploit
ing his own information, is creat
ing a force of public opinion that <
will promote and give efficiency to
the bar association's action should
it see its way clear to take action.
In that way any man, official or
otherwise, cm become a definite
and productive factor in the com
munity in the waj of giving di
rection to the course of events and
giving complexion to the color of
administration.
And not only is that true of any
man. but also of any woman.
Women are liable to forget that
power does not RESIDE in bal
lots.
Votes are simply the way by
which power registers itself and
has its measure computed. , >
The power exists prior to the *
registration,
[Women Better ‘‘Sentiment I
Makers’’ Than Men.
The thing is settled before the
votes are cast.
It is settled by the condition of
public sentiment as that sentiment
exists, even prior to going to the /
polls; and the point at which worn- /
en in all these years past have
been recreant has been in their
failure to assert their prerogative*
as sentiment-makers, a prerogative
belonging to them as much as to
the other sex, and one alao which, if
they will, they can probably exer
. else more effectively than the oth
| er sex.
The practical quest ion which con-
fronts them, and to which they do Ji
not •'' tn to have giver, spe-itle at- Uy
tention. is whether, in the exercise
of that prerogative tin- vote is go.
I ing to help tiiein or to hinder them.