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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-claes matter at postoffice at Atlanta, under act of March 8, 1879.
Subscription Price—Delivered by carrier, 10 cents a week. By mail, $5 00 a year.
Payable in advance.
Two Enemies of Us All
r «?. r
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 yon will perhaps he impatient in the reading of
it. Nevertheless, at the risk of seeming tiresome and fond of
platitudes, we propose to discuss the enemies of mankind nfld
the possibility of conquering or avoiding them.
Ninety-nine out of every hundred human beings may be
called FAILURES.
A man may do fairly good work, he may make a success
in comparison with his fellow man, and yet be A FAILURE.
A man who fails to do THE BEST THAT IS IN 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 ?
“VICE” is a name that covers many human weaknesses.
Drunkenness is a vice—one which viciously suppresses,
J DROWNS the very force, THE MENTAL UNREST THAT
OUGHT TO BRING SUCCESS.
Self-indulgence is another vice. It makes us devote our
energies in the present to our various tastes and likes, instead
of controlling the present in order to provide for the future.
Vanity 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 energy—that tear men down and make real growth and
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.
Many a man able to control the actively vicious side of his
character is destroyed by laziness, by the peculiar hatred of
effort so hard to overcome in millions of us.
The world is full of men and women who seem intelligent,
WHO MIGHT SUCCEED, and yet go plodding along in their
little clerkships or other little routine places. BECAUSE THEY
LACK POWER TO FORCE THEMSELVES OUT OF PRO
CRASTINATION’S Rl’T. They expect to begin the struggle
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.
Slot fulness, procrastination, laziness are harder to get out of
the system than vice.
Thev mean, unfortunately, very often AN ABSOLUTE
LACK OF ENERGY.
And that is a thing that should be borne in mind by all of
the good, ordinarv, average, well-meaning, well-behaved people
THAT CAN NOT “SEEM TO GET ALONG.”
You have got to kill the 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.
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 nee is killed.
What do you need in anv kind of a fight? YOU NEED A
GOOD WEAPON.
In a fight against yourself you 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 beginning.
BUT THAT IS FALSE.
A man CAN change himself. The drunkard in the gutter can
rise to the highest place. IF HE WILL TRY HARD ENOUGH.
The way to bring about the change is through STEADY,
DAILY. CEASELESS EFFORT. There is no use in making a
violent effort, lasting a few seconds and leaving you weaker in
strength than you were before.
The way to get up early in the 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
LATE—or if you do got up early you will be tired and your work
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 1U ADDING T<» YoUR STRENGTH.
Good sleep, wise eating, A WELL NOLRISHED BODY, will
do a gn at deal to overcome a desire for drink
If your mind is given to foolish amusements. dissipation,
gambling, remember that before vou can take awav that interest
YOU MUST REPLACE IT WITH SOME OTHER.'
Get a real interest in your WORK, begin saving vour mon
ey, REALIZING THAT < \PIT\L MEANS INDEPENDENCE.
Make plans, carry them • ut, TRY TO BE AS MUCH INTEREST
ED IN YOUR OWN POWERS OF SELFCONTROL AS IN THE
FOOLISH RUNNING 01- SOME HORSE OR THE TURNING IT
OF SOME CARD.
For young men unmarried MARRIAGE IS PROBABLY THE
BEST POSSIBLE THING It fore- , serious thought, it brings a
great interest with the children and a steadying sense of responsi
bility.
In proportion to their numbers UNMARRIED YOUNG MEN
COMMIT TEN TIMES AS Ml CH FOOLISHNESS AS THE
MARRIED MEN.
The unmarried man is like a ship with no rudder, going in
any direction, erratically.
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
- •...
™ -- -A /yJwi -
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0
No. 7. '
Ynm’s job in the case held out until his voice
went back a bit. The boss came up one evening
and told him that “No bloke with cracked pipes
could chirp there.” so Yum was given the gate
and forced to seek pastures new. He was a smart
young fellow, though, and knew that he could get
in around the gambling district. A fellow didn't
need to know the war was over to horn in there,
so Yum grabbed a job as lookout and assistant
stick man in a crap game.
All he had to do was to watch for suspicious
persons who might want to shoot craps, and then
when the stick man was out be would handle the
coin and call the dice.
What to Do in a Thunderstorm
Its Perils Can Be Eliminated If the Proper Precautions Are Taken
THE season of thuftder storms has
opened, and in no country ate
the electric marvels of the at
mosphere more imposingly displayed
than in the United States. They are
among nature’s most magnificent spec
tacles.
We should learn to look upon these
without fear. They are full of danger,
but their perils can be almost com
pletely eliminated by proper precau
tions. All fatal accidents from light
ning are clue to neglect of such precau
tions. Lightning rods, properly placed
and cared for, furnish an all but abso
lute protection for buildings. Great
cities are so full of ready made tracks
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 than 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 the year 1900. 713 j ersons
were killed by lightning in the United
States, and the greater number were
in the Rocky Mountain district and
the upper Missouri valley. In the same
year 1,842 domestic animals were killed
in the United States by lightning, and
1.547 buildings were struck. Cattle
and sheep are apt to gather about Iso
lated trees, or.along wire fences, dur
ing a thunder storm, and they are
sometimes killed in groups. A person
caught in a thunder storm while in the
open country should keep 100 yards
away from any tree that may happen to
stand in the 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
lightning, and offers it a ready path to
the ground. One should also avoid the
neighborhood o's a body of water.
Electrical Charges in
Clouds Cause Lightning.
Th- i iuse of lightning is the accurnu
! lation of electric charges in the clouds.
: Thes- charges grow stronger as the
parti* les of water in the cloud coalesce
t * form larger drops. Electricity re
on the surface of the charged par
ti* les, and as they coalesce the surface
increases proportionally less than the
volume. The consequence is that the
el< ’r>c:ty contributed by each particle
I to the united mass has less space to
j spread i - >’.t net than It had when the
TUESDAY, JUNE 4. 1912
It was a soft job. There was really no hard
work about it. Every night from 8 to 10 you
; eould hear Yum calling out: “Who shoots?
There you are; hands up and money down, boys;
he’s coming out! Ha! ha! he shoots a seven;
that’s the old house number, boys. Get down on
the line; the next man is ready. Hands up and
, money down!”
Yum. of course, was merely the assistant up
there, but he had enough for eats and a haypile.
> In his opinion, it was better than a job at S2O
i per week working from 8 till 5. Yum knew; you
‘ couldn’t fool him.
(To he continued.)
y GARRETT P. SERVTSS
particles were separate. It follows that
the combined charge on the surface of
the larger drop is more intense than
were the charges on the separate parti
cles. In other words, the “potential” of
the charge is increased. 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
beneath. As these 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 lightning stroke. 9
Lightning Stroke Is
From 1 to 10 Miles Long.
The spark from an electric machine
is a baby lightning stroke. As the disk
of the machine is turned, more and
more electricity accumulates on the
polished knob, called the conductor,
until the surrounding air can no longer
resist the strain, and then a spark
passes 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 electric' machine is but a few inches
in length, while a lightning stroke may
be from a mile to ten miles long! No
sudden 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 severe thrunder storm, it
seems wonderful 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
for 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, especially if thev are metallic,
serve to draw off the electricity from
the clouds without an explosive dis
charge.
The danger from lightning at sea was
greater in the old days of wooden ships.
Then serious damage, or even destruc
tion from lightning was not a very un
common occurrence It has beer,
thought that some cases of the disap
pearance of ships at sea may have beer,
due to lightning A British ship, the
Resistance, was struck by lightning in
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 the 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 conies down
from a broken 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 force, and immediately; the vacan
cies are filled again, thus producing at
mospheric waves, which impress the ear
as sound. If the stroke occurs near by,
the thunder follows almost instantly, in
a sharp clap. If the lightning is at a
distance from the observer, the thunder
follows the stroke at an interval .de
pending upon the distance. Sound
travels 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
’ stroke are due to the successive arrival
of different sound waves produced at
varying distances from the observer by
the passage of the lightning. As we
have said, a lightning stroke may be
miles in length. Variations of density
in the air tend to separate the sound
waves and make them arrive in peals
instead of in a continuous roll.
It is an old adage that “thunder sours
milk." If there is any effect of this
kind it must be due to the electric state
of the air rather than to the thunder
The great heat which often accompa
nies a thunder storm may cause a sud
den development of ferments in the
| milk.
THE HOME PAPER
Dr. Parkhurst’s Article
on /IriSfc
What the Voters Must F *v
Now Decide
—and—
Public Opinion as a <■ A
Moving Force
Written For The Georgian
By the Rev. Dr. C. H. Parkhurst
... _ . X _ ..ma.~ — fha
LTHOUGH the American mind
is liable to violent spasms of
44. Tita turn 11X7 Stfltmd
A’
hysteria, it is naturally souna
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 w-anted 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 majority 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 Snder
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 fit 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
tunity to face the question in a
manner of cool calculation 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 unsettlement 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.
If a man has brains, now is the
time to use them, and if he has a /‘a
conscience, now is a good time to
set it to work.
* • •
NEWSPAPER criticism was
passed the other day upon
Police Commissioner Waldo
A'
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
that is the moving force in all civic
operations, a force that extends it
self to the three departments of
administration—legislative, judi-
cial and executive.
In a country like our own, any
movement that can be named, hav
, ing for its object the enactment*
of law, its interpretation or its ex
ecution, will succeed if it has pub
lic sentiment behind it.
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, can become a definite
and productive factor in the com
munity in the way 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.
At omen 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 1
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 wom
ei> 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 also which, if
they will., they can probably exer
cise more effectively than the oth
er sex.
The practical question which con
fronts them, and to which they do
not seem to have given specific at
tention. is whether, in the exercistf
of that prerogative, tfie vote is go
ing to help them or to hinder them.