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EDITORIAL PAGE 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; 1879. Subscription Price—Delivered bv carrier. 10 cents a week. By mail, $.'.00 a year. • Payable in advance. If You Get Mad, Chew a Toothpick or a Piece of Straw M R M It Is Easy to Calm Your Temper—if You Don’t Forget About It. One of our readers, a woman, confesses that she is cursed with a violent temper, and wants to know what she can do to cure it. High temper is usually temperamental—that is to say, it is part of the individual’s make-up. And there is nothing harder in this world than to change one’s TEMPERAMENT. Os all temperamental qualities a bad temper is, perhaps, the most difficult to get rid of, since the attacks of temper shut out judgment at the start and make reform almost impossible. This woman, however, is on the right road, SINCE SHE RECOGNIZES THAT HER TEMPER IS BAD. Most of us imagine that we have not bad tempers. We think that we are subjected to irritation more than others, and that we are justified in getting mad. There are certain ways of mechanically calming a violent temper. Our reader has, perhaps, heard of them. One plan that is recommended is for the angry person to repeat, the Lord’s Prayer in his mind, or to count up to twenty before saying anything. A more practical suggestion, and one with a physiological rea son behind it, is this: If you are in a rage and fear that you will say something fool ish, put in your mouth something that you can chew on—a piece of straw, a button, or even a ball of paper. There is an actual, material explanation for the good results to be derived in this way. Temper is accompanied almost always by a sudden rush of blood to the brain. Sometimes this rush of blood is so great as almost to cause temporary insanity. If you put something in your mouth and chew it, yon will find it very quieting. The process of chewing causes activity of the salivary glands, and this in turn draws the blood to the stom ach and away from the brain. Another very valuable plan is always to apologize to every body concerned after a. display of temper. This is very apt to bore those who receive the apology, but it makes the hot tem pered one feel foolish, and he will realize as his temper comes on that he must soon be apologizing, his mind takes a different turn and he can learn gradually to control himself. A very sad fact is this, that many men and women are dis tinctly GLAD of having a hot temper. They feel that there is something very creditable, something aristocratic and noble, in getting angry on slight provocation. They are encouraged in this belief by better-natured people around them, who give in to their whims out of dread of their temper and flatter their vanity. As a matter of fact, the person who habitually shows temper is apt to be a good deal of a bully. If you watch him carefully you will find that his high temper is usually aimed at those UN DER him, who can not resent his rudeness. The hot-tempered floor walker or manager, even the MOST hot tempered, is apt to be as mild as milk when his employer comes around. The woman who is hot tempered with those whom she con siders beneath her is extremely apt to be very sweet in her manner with those to whom she looks for favors or social prefer ment. This class of hot-tempered humanity consists largely of born bullies, and they are not easily cured. Old Age and Mental Activity “We are dying too young,’’ declares the brilliant Professor Maria Sanford, now seventy-five and retired on a Carnegie pension after thirty years of active work. “I have heard it said that among animals the time of life is five times the age that required to reach maturity. 1 can not see why mankind should not come under the same law. As thirty years are needed for a man to reach maturity, then under natu ral conditions he should live to be a hundred and fifty, so you see our race is dying in what might be termed childhood.’’ As a factor in attaining this advanced age she advises active mental exercise. While it is true that many of our greatest men have reached advanced age, thus seeming to bear out the soundness of Pro fessor Sanford’s theory, yet. on the other hand, scores of illiter ate persons live beyond the century mark. Metchnikoff, work ■ ing incessantly, is at great age apparently in robust health. The other day there died in Mexico an Aztec said to have been one hundred and eighty-five years old. With present day scientific knowledge we have already reached a greater average age than our ancestors, but it is safe to say that few of us would care to drag along to a toothless, hairless, wrinkled century ami a half unless effective means shall be found to rob old age of its helplessness. Harvesters Arc Needed With harvest in full swing in the Northwest the farmers ean not secure hands enough to gather in the enormous wheat crops. At wages ranging from $2.50 to $3 a day it is estimated by the railroads that there is work for 3,000 men in the Dakotas and Montana alone. In other states the story is the same—bumper yield and lack of force to take advantage of it. It seems a pity that the thousands of men wandering the streets of our big cities, anxious to work, can not be transported to this land of plenty, where their wages would be clear saving. The time is sure to come when the tenement dweller, strug- along without sunlight and in noise and want attempting to up a family, will realize that tie open country is the place for the man who wants physical, mental and moral, as well as financial value for the labor of his hands. The Atlanta Georgian Our Antediluvian Ancestors! Copyright. 1912, by International News Service. /TA TEW. er', /1M SORRV, ? OISTRICT trtouuuS . /<3uT TOU i-U t+AVE \ GIVE ME < /.■ SHUT POWH k . >.T // WONEST JOHA/ - -• UY / 'i 9L « 5 / AL; JI \ OTWyZ il l TWs If / an l —r-x ; UU G fY« TuEY $aV those A I/O I'D? AN L /Je? u ' o w? k m>To PAY the) (Awful state) pouce vlo humprep r NjYVZfZ///,. G qT TAlr-t<36> j \ 5/1 >4s A Mohthj jßjgt “There seems to be something unusual going on in town’’’ “Yes, the police graft in Cliffville is being exposed! They’ve got some of ) them in jail already! ThaVs Mayor Skinclothes, signing an order for an inv.esti- I gation! He didn’t want to do it but he had to! Say, he’s the maddest man in town!” ::: MOTHER’S WORK ::: • r-w->HE son of a woman who is I said to be worth seven million dollars got married, and after the manner of the sons of rich and doting mothers conducted hitnself in such away that his wife was obliged to sue him for divorce. Then the question of a support for his wife and two children came up, and the young man protested that he was poor; that he earned only a. small salary, and could pay but a pittance of alimony. But the judge may his tribe in crease —overruled this plea, and. in awarding the wife and children enough money to insure them a de cent living, said: "If a woman brings up her son in idleness, with the Idea that he is to inherit wealth, then what the mother is worth is clearly admissi ble in determining what alimony the son shall pay." And so mamma has got to go dow n in her own pocket and pay the alimony. This is a righteous decision that every just person will applaud. If a woman rears her son to be a waster and a spender, instead of thrifty and it is no more than right that she should be forced to support the wife and children she has not fitted him to care for like a decent man. It is her fault that he worthless, and it is not fair that his family should expiate in poverty his mother's crime. As a cold, plain matter of fact, every mother is responsible for the kind of a husband her daughter-in law gets, and the tragedy of it ts that w hen the daughter-in-law gets a bad husband, it is only when it is a question of money that his moth er can make any reparation for the deadliest wrong that one hu min being ean do to another. In the matters that really a fleet a woman’s happiness such as kind ness, consideration, generosity, ten derness, chivalry, every'man is ab solutely what his mother makes him. It he has these good qualities his wife is blessed among women, though she lives in a hovel, and wears calico. If he has them not she is accursed, though she may dwell in a palace, and cover her bruised and aching heart with point lace and diamonds. The wedding present that the bridegroom’s mother makes a bride on her w edding day is, literally and FRIDAY. AUGUST 9, 1912. By DOROTHY DIX. truly, her happiness or her misery for the balance of her life. She is responsible for the weal or woe of her son’s wife. If she has trained him to habits of self-control; if she has tqught him to be just and fair in his deal ings with women; if she has made him umU'istand how full of suffer ing a woman's life is at best, and so m iYj DOROTHY DIX. filled him with compassion and sympathy for even the humblest of the sex; if she has made him real ize how sacred is the responsibility a man assumes when he takes a woman's life into his keeping, then his mother may hold her head proudly erect, for she knows she is bestow ing upon the girl at the altar a gift beside which family silver and tiaras and ropes of pearls are but baubles, not worth the having. But, if when a woman watches her son being married, she knows that she has raised him up to be undisciplined and untaught; if she knows that he has an unbridled temper and a tongue that stabs like a dagger; if she knows that he is selfish and grouchy and tyrannical; if she knows that he will make of his wife a plaything that he will throw away w hen he is tired of it, or that she will be a slave who wi. tremble before him, then she must also know herself a criminal, and that she would do a kinder act if she shot the bride dead where she stood in her bridal robes than to let her marry her son. And the worst of it is that the woman w r ho gives another woman a bad husband can never undo her wrong. There is no place for her for repentance, though she seek it with and tears. Her op portunity is gone with her son's plastic childhood. Then she might have trained him to make a good •husband when he was grown, but after he reaches marriageable age it is too late. There is nothing else on earth so I ' cynically humorous as that most of ‘ the women of civilization are band ed together in churches and altru istic societies to make the world better and happier, and yet the one thing that they could do to bring on the millennium they never even i I think of doing. Every’ other sorrow in existence is as nothing to the anguish caused by unhappy marriages. That is the very fountain of tears, the founda tion of the mountain of broken hearts, yet women have within their grasp the panacea for all of this woe, and they do not use it. It is within the bounds of pos sibility that there would be no more unhappy marriages if moth- I ers would only train up their chil dren to make good husbands and wives, and when they fail to do this they make themselves acces sories. before the crime not only of divorce, but for all the wretched ness for which it is the inadequate cure. When a man turns out to be fine and brave and wonderful, and achieves a great success, we like to give much of the credit to his mother, and tell how she inspired him. and molded his character, and helped to make him w hat he is. Let us not forget that the man who is mean, and little, who is trifling and worthless, who is a failure, and who is a curse to all who come in contact with him, likewise had a mother. He is also mother’s work. It was her influ ence that molded him, her weak ness that is responsible for his failure. Many a mother looking at the sort of a job she has turned out in her son must be conscience stricken at the way she has acquit ted herself of her task. It is the mother who is responsi ble for the kind of a husband her son makes. Think of that, moth ers. What sort of a husband are you rearing for your • neighbor's daughter? What sort of a hus band is >he 'bringing up for your daughter? THE HOME PAPER Elbert Hubbard Writes on ||||| The IQ Gambler g|P|s By ELBERT HUBBARD ' Copyright, 1912, by International News Service OF the “morality” of gambling nothing need be said. All I affirm is that it is simply ab surd to enter on a habit where success is defeat and to win is ca lamity. The successful amateur gambler graduates into a professional—he has to, for business men shun him. No man who plays cards for money can keep his position long. The fact is, none of us has a sur plus of brains, and If we are going to succeed in business all the power we have to our credit is demanded. The man who can play cards at night and do business in the day time hasn’t yet been born. Life is a bank account with so much divine energy at your dispo sal. What are you going to do -with it? If you draw your checks for this, you can not draw for that. Take your choice. And, above all, do not draw on the Bank of Futu rity by breathing bad air, keeping bad hours and bad company. The man who succeeds in busi ness is the one who goes to bed before 10 o'clock at night, and only one thing is he jealous of, and that is outdoor exercise. Gambling robs a man of rest, and the keen edge of life is lost in shuffling the pasteboards. All he gives to his employer or the world is the discard. Outside of his play he is a weak, inefficient per son, and his weakness is very apt to manifest itself in burdening his friends. The curse of gambling does not fall on the gambler alone, any more than the drunkard alone suffers for his fault. Suffering falls upon every one within the radius of the gambler. If your gambler Is on a salary, he very often comes around for his wages before pay day. then he gets to discounting his salary to a mon ey shark; then, if he can, he will “borrow'” his pay before he earns it, without first consulting you. He in tends to pay it back—oh, yes! He wins and pays it back. This encourages him to borrow more the next time. He takes more in order :: Love’s Supremacy :: By ELLA WHEELER WILCOX. AS yon great sun in his supreme condition Absorbs small worlds and makes them all his own, So does my love absorb each vain ambition. Each outside purpose which my life has known. Stars can not shine so near that vast orb’d splendor; They are content to feed his flames of fire; And so my heart is satisfied to render Its strength, its all, to meet thy strong desire. As in a forest when dead leaves are falling From all save some perennial green tree, So one by one I find all pleasures palling That are not linked with or enjoyed by thee. And all the homage that the world may proffer. I take as perfumed oils or incense sweet. And think of it as one thing more to offer. And sacrifice to Love, at thy dear feet. I love myself because thou art my lover, .My name seems dear since uttered by thy voice; Yet. argus-eyed, I watch and would discover Each blemish in the object of thy choice. I coldly sit in judgment on each error; To my soul’s gaze I hold each fault of me, Until my pride is lost in abject terror, Lest I become inadequate to thee. Like some swift-rushing and sea-seeking river. Which gathers force the farther on it goes, So does the current of my love forever Find added strength aq.d beauty as it flows. The more I give, the more remains for giving, The more receive, the more remains to win. Ah! only in eternities of living Will life be long enough to love thee in. to win more. He is now obliged to play heavily because his debts are accumulating. It is an old story, and dozens of men in prison can tell you all about it. To do business with gamblers leads, as a rule, to disappointment, because with gamblers the idea of reciprocity, mutuality and co operation, except to skin some body, does not exist. From betting to beggardom Is only one step. No man can play the pasteboards or the races con tinually and win. Mathematically he Is bound to lose at last. And of all fools the biggest is the man who bets on a “sure thing.” John Madden has followed the business for a quarter of a cen tury and says: “I quit betting years ago .and If I ever bet again It will be because the disease has gotten the better of my business judgment.” ■, The bookmaker gets it all—he has but to wait and the whole thing Is his. It is just like the game where the dealer takes care of all the bets and gives the first booster an ace in the hole. If the boosters do not get the “live one’s" money the dealer will. He gets all the others have, as sure as death, If they continue to play. Do not imagine that all gam bling is done in the cities. "Man made the cities, God the country, but the devil made thq small towns.” Hardly a village -in America is free from the scourge. Gambling means blurred vision, weak muscles, shaky nerves. Loss of sleep, lack of physical exer cise, irregular meals, bad air, ex citement, form a devil’s monopoly of bad things—and the end Is dis grace, madness, death and the grave. I am not a member of the Christian Endeavor society, the Elpworth League, the Baptist Union, the Knights of Columbus or the Society for the Suppression of Vice, and all I say here is sim ply a little plain talk by one busi ness man to others, with all soft sentiment omitted. Boys, we need all the brains we have In our work.