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EDITORIAL PAGE THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN Every Afternoon Except Sunday £♦> Tfflß GEORGIAN COMPANY At 20 East Alabama St., Atlanta, Ga. Entered as second-class matter at postoffice at Atlanta, under sot of March 8, 1878. Subscription Price—Delivered by carrier, 10 cents a week. By mall, |F> 00 a year. Payable tn advance. Your Thoughts and Con duct Make Your Face MUM The Man Who Posed as Jesus and as Judas. Leonardo Da Vinci painted his “Last Supper’’ on the rear wall of a church in Milan. Napoleon stabled his horses in the church. The horses kicked away much of the painting. People from all lands visit the old church each year, and as they study the beautiful faces, now grown dim, they moralize about Napoleon, about Da Vinci’s peasant mother, about time’s ravages and other things. They might well moralize over the story of Da Vinci’s great model —if they knew it Here is the story; it applies to every human being. You can make it of use to yourself without going to the church in Milan. The artist sought to express the widest possible range of char acter study in his great painting. Laboriously, during many years, he sought and sketched types of men. The eleven good disciples were first painted, and then Da Vinci began eagerly seeking for a face worthy to serve as a founda tion for his inspired portrait of Christ. He found a face that pleased him at last. It was that of a young man singing in the Milan < athedral. It was a beautiful face, breathing a spirit of truth and of lofty idealism. The young man gladly accepted the honor offered him. and posed for the face that, today looks out so calm and gentle among the twelve disciples. Only one face then remained to be painted that of .Judas, the traitor. Throughout the jails and through haunts of crime. Da Vinci sought a face that should embody the hideous depravity, the utter baseness of a spirit that could betray the gentlest of men. Hi' found his model at last, in a prison cell in Rome. The face was not that of an old man. But vice, evil thoughts, evil living gave it the stamp of sunken humanity which the painter sought. That face was painted as the face of Judas—and after the work was done Da Vinci learned, through an accident, that the young man who had posed for the face of Jesus was the same as he in the prison cell who had posed for the face ot Judas. A few years of evil living had done the work. Such a change had been made in those few years that the painter himself, familiar through long work with the model’s face, failed utterly to recog nize it. This slorv is often heard with incredulity. But why should it be heard with incredulity? Can vou recognize a stream of pure spring water after it has run through the gutter of a city.? Can you believe that the face twitching under the black mask as the hangman moulds the scaffold was once the face of a pretty young child, loved by its mother and seeming in every man s eyes the embodiment of permanent innocence? Each city magistrate, when he climbs to his police court seat, sees a row of unhappy women before him They vary in age from twenty to sixty. Listlessly he sentences these women- sometimes for drunkenness, sometimes lor “crimes" in which the responsible criminal goes free Would one of these miserable women be rec ognized by those who knew her when her face reflected a pure mind Not one. except, perhaps, some mother whose eyes see through all the marks of a hard world and into the soul that can not be destroyed Have you ever seen a photograph of yourself made when you were a child You have laughed at the old picture, probably, at the old fashioned clothing, the “best suit" with the wide black braid, or the funny old dress. Look again at the picture of your childhood, and look se riously You will be a fortunate man or woman if you can look and not miss anything. Look carefully at the eyes and the mouth Study the expres sion Do you find none of the frankness, freshness, truth or other good (pialities missing? The woman who has devoted her life to pleasure, to dismal social vanity, to eager pursuit of worthless excitement, looks bit terly in her glass as the years go by The peace has gone, the youth has been replaced mH In calm, self respecting age. but by bitter regret that stains all the expression, deadens the eyes and makes the face look out at its owner as different from the girl of ten or fifteen years ago as in the face of Judas from that of Jesus in the great picture of Milan. The moral in the story of Leonardo's model does not apply to extreme eases alone It applies io ihi middle aged man made hard - hard inside and out by | > r.->ill. selfish hunting for monex It applies to the gourmet or gourmand who has devoted his intelligence exclusively to the service of his stomach. Il applies to th. newspaper man who thinks that “journal ism makes men pessimistic." but who ought to know that lack of s'ne.er. inloroi in other men is what makes men pessimistic." 'T en vour life is ended, so tar as material accomplishment goes, you may have mom y. you may have fame, you may be envied by others. But for yourself you will onlv have ONE possession reallv important vour opinion of yourself, based on your knowledge of " ’'on )> .\. really aimed at and really done Yu ' ■ will tel) the story of your life at its various phases 1’ o 1 " ole storx towurd the <])d, as you look in the glass i!ll<! '■ ■ e\. r\ line and in the whole expression whether vou have 1 ’ ' “F “ils. to the start and the possibilities that nature gave The Atlanta Georgian : THE DIFFERENCE HURRAH ; NO WoRA< FOR •* Two ... I / ----- £ ** ~ !■ r [| j| .J. J- ,jy ; fGJ fee Jj ' t mbxl|lj| -_t - Z - -—■* 11 -r? i 1 r r ■ 1 v f 1 ,X ) THE VIEWPOINT OF AGE By DOROTHY DIX. AN interviewer asked Thomas Hardy the other day why he was so pessimistic, and the great novelist replied: "The cruelty of fate becomes ap parent as people grow older. At first one may, perhaps, escape com ing in contact with it. but after living long enough one realizes that happiness is very ephemeral." Mr Hardy is a very great genius, but a very morbid and melancholy one, and. it seems to me, he does not see life from quite the angle that we ordinary, common-place f<>lk do. In his novels there is nev er anything but great (lots of gloom, and misfortunes follow fast upon the heels of his heroes and heroines, while for most real peo ple there is as much Joy as sorrow, as much feasting as starving. Certainly, to the normal Individ ual with the average experiences of existence, age does not necessarily bring pessimism. The lesson that the years teach Us is not despair but confidence, and the proof of this is to be found in the fait that old people are nearly always calm ly cheerful and untroubled. Youth is the time of optimism only In the sense that it is the sea son of bubbling hope and enthu siasm, and over-weening self-con fidence and self-conceit. Our pow ers are then untried and we are like soldiers who boast before the battle of the prodigies of valor that are going to be performed and the medals that will be won -Tiler. is nothing great that we do not figure ourselves as doing, and we have no doubt that the world will stop it usual round to applaud. Blind to Dangers. X young man is optimistic in that he is too Ignorant to perceive any of the difficulties that lie tn his way. or to take account of any of the obstacles he must encounter. He shuts his eyes to the dangers, he the strength of the ene my. Hut his cheerfulness is that of one dr-ink on the w ine of his own egotism, and it gives away at the first sobering i nt c t with the stein reality of tin struggle of life No old man believes tn hints, ff as a boy believes In himself, nor does he indulge tn t> . rosy dreams Os effortless and sure sin. . s> the boy does He can fore. ast the dlf Acuities to be ■n. .wintered H' 1 knows that we never aeho ve all w< set oqt tc- do but I . r. , knows that sincere and honest effort nevei quite falls, rnd that, while we mat have missed the star at which we aimed w at- sm, to hit th. bain door Youth Is a Him of ail . Hialmn THURSDAY. AUGUST 1. 1912 between the seventh Heaven of joy ami the deepest hell of despair. It plunges from the pinnacle of joy to the blackest abyss of woe. because to the young everything seems final, every catastrophe irrevocable, every disaster irremedial, every disappointment a blighting sorrow. jp. *t»»W A *>4 1 a ko® DOROTHY DIX. It is the young who .lie of broken hea'ts when some love affair goes awry it is the young who commit suicide. .No rainbow of hope spans their tears. No philosophy gives them courage to face misfortune. It is only tm w ho can smile in tin face of dis i ppoln t met; t, be cause they hav teamed that laughter and weeping both endure but a night, and that if we didn't get th< thing w w ante I there is something else Just ~- go..d ahead. \V. art alwavs talking about tin joys of childll but I qu.-tion if any middti aged person is capable of sutler ipg as a l :l d d. ■ s 1»o you tememle th. black disap pointment that ti .-.I y...i whole horizon on th. day of tin picnic when It r.tim'.l, ami bow you t.’. that you might as tv. 11 .|. -Ini', there was nothing else in J. worth living fat " Do you the fury of ba ... . ambit, n I! -.1 tor. your soul when you fai . d to g. t th. -.hnoi ptiz. D-. you |. n.emb. I .. o J ■>t 1 1 J ' ■ . . ■ Ip.im with Sally Smith instead of you? What could move you that way now? Nothing. You have learned that if it rains today the sun will be shining to morrow, and that picnics are messy affairs anyway. If you didn't carry off the first prize, you got the con solation one. and you've lived to see the day that you thank your heavenly stars that you missed Johnnie Jones and got Tommy Smith, and so nothing fills you with despair because you have realized that the law of compensation never fails. Age, that takes the keenest edge off oui enjoyment, also dulls our capacity for suffering It dries up figuratively, as well as literally, the springs of our tears. i The Real Optimist. Youth is likewise the time of pes simism as regards the world, be cause youth is the time of intoler ance. of impatience, of merciless hard judgment. Every young man thinks that the country will go to the dogs if his political candidate is not elected, an<| that anarchy will ensue if the theory' he advo cates is not enforced. He believes that everybody who does not agree with him is a thief, a liar, and an assassin, and that every sinner should be brougth forthwith to jus tice. and he is filled with gloomy forebodings when he contemplates the future. It is the old man who is optimis tic, because he has seen so many dark prophecies unfulfilled;-he has seen the world go on in its old accustomed way after so many pre dictions that the end was about to occur, he has seen the deluge peter out so often in a mild and benefi cent shower. Experience has also taught him that youth is wrong in thinking everything black and white, because it is mostly shaded down into gray, with so much more good in the bad than we believe, and so much more bad in the good than we expected. Ag< is the time of optimism be cause we have learned to trust life, and to realize that, as the homely old phrase puts it. there is n 6 use in worrying because the things we worry about in advance never happen and most of our troubles ar. about things that never trouble us \\ . have seen changes that we .Ir.aded make our greatest happi ness. and disappointments turn into i hob • st blessings, and so w e learn to look f rward with confidence to wb.it the morrow will bring us No, ytr. Hardy Is w rong Old age Is not the ..<son of pessimism. It ii» .i time of <a)m philosophy, of ■ r.-ii. and hopeful confidence that whatever is l» best It Is when 111. clock strikes twelve that we know mo~t surely that 00. l teigns n His heat ii and alls Well with lib world," THE HOME PAPER Elbert Hubbard Writes on Elimination of the *\ \ WtX, Beggar Copyright. 1912, International News Service. By ELBERT HUBBARD NOT beg and to dig I j am ashamed," said the col lege bred prodigal as he asked for a hand-me-out. If one wants to get a little glimpse of the way the times are changing, please make note of the fact that the general government in Spain has recently passed a law making begging on the public streets a misdemeanor Any individual so begging is lia ble to arrest with a fine from one dollar to ten. For second offenses imprisonment is provided, without the privilege of paying a fine. Third offenders are liable to be sent to prison for the rest of their natural lives All a-down the centuries men have been urged to give to the poor and we have always taken the view that poverty was a virtue and riches a disgrace—that poor men were good and rich men bad. Che Only Way Co Help People. When wealth was only obtainable by robbery, this view of things had a certain basis tn fact. But wealth obtained by rendering a service to humanity is a thing of which to be •Justly proud. The parable of Dives and Laz arus has gotten a firm grip on the imagination. Lazarus in heaven and Dives in hell is a particularly pleasing proposition for the great family of Lazarus. The only way to help people Is to give them a chance to help them selves. That is all any one should ask for—opportunity. Giving to the poor is lending to the devil. Money earned moans manhood. Money gained by an appeal to sympathy is tainted, and it stains the soul of him who gets it. Now, when things are coming around to where most everybody owns a home who really wants to, we are getting a new focus Italy and Spain are the homes of beggardom. But now Spain penal izes beggary and Italy is introduc ing the Montesorri system of edu cation. which means eventually earning your living, not merely se curing it. « The church has always cast a mantle of sympathy around the sick, the lame, the decrepit, the un fit and the poverty-stricken. Scientific sociology, with its high-power lens, shows us in the distance an ideal world. Poverty will be done away with, disease eliminated, crime abolished. i The Old Orchard I j ' By MINNA IRVING. /JH, T know an ancient orchard Where the trees are all in bloom; ‘ You will find it if you follow Bee and butterfly and swallow And the wafts of rich perfume. There the robin builds his dwelling On a pink and dewy spray; When the wicket clicks behind vou Care and pain can never find you. Bor the world is shut away. Gray the broken fence around it (Painted by the suns and rains'), But the hand of Time embosr.es With the green of velvet mosses • Every picket that remains. Overhead the apple blossoms Spread a tent of rosy snow. Marking off the golden minutes Eor the thrushes ami the linnets With the flakes that fall below. ’Tis the orchard of our childhood Where all day we used to swing. When the winds were sweet as Imm-v And the hours long and sunnv hi the bridal bowers of Spring - .— _ Self-sacrifice, abnegation, affect ed humility are all more or less forms of hypocrisy. Indiscriminate giving pauperizes. Enlightened self interest gives freedom. We have lived in two worlds at a time. The earth has been for saken in order that we might gain the good will of the skies. As Ab dul Bana says. "Man must be con ciliated to man—not God to man.” God loves men who love each oth er, simply because no other kind are lovable. Begging is a bad business. The more the beggar succeeds the worse off he is. Beggars breed beggars, and thus make beggardom perpet ual. Spain is right—begging must be made disgraceful. it would be almost unkind and indelicate to call attention to the fact that this was one of the chief planks in the platform of Francisco Ferrer. The "modern schools” taught that beggary should be abol ished. Ferrer was destroyed because he expressed himself in undiplomatic language, and was ahead of his time. But by his death and through his death he convinced Spain that he was 51 per cent right. And so now. behold, Spain, as if to make amends—for you can't bring back the dead—is now en couraging the modem school and inaugurating many of the Ferrer ideas. Francisco Ferrer, having gone swimming in the water of Lethe, certain cowled sons of Mendax, wHn worked his ruin, have stolen his clothes. Aye, verily, in actual truth they r have divided his raiment among them, and for his vesture they have cast lots. Typewriter Is Greater Than the Sword. Thus does the world move. Gali leo was right in that remark, "It stands still, all right—aber nicht!” Let us hope that Galileo, Co lumbus, Copernicus, Bruno, John Brown and Francisco Ferrer can get together these days at a round table in Valhalla and talk it over, • and with Walt Whitman say, "Death is just as good as life, and a deal luckier." That is something the world did not know at the time when martyr fires hovered over Smithfield Mar tlet and when Torquemanda drove the Jews from Spain. The typewriter is greater than the sword, and it is good to know that even the Spanish hidalgos ac knowledge it. Amen and amen!