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THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday
R> THE GEORGIAN COMPANY
At JO East Alabama St., Atlanta, Ga
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This Is No World for Pessi
mists
» It S
| It Is an Encouraging, Hopeful World—Despite the Misery and
Injustice That Still Disgrace It.
There are men who are genuinely discouraged, genuinely pessi
mistic, who feel that the world has gone wrong or that the develop
ment of our social system is too slow.
The fact is that the kind of civilization which we have now is
about the best that WE are capable of. We are building upward
slowly, through the dark waters. We shall see some improvement
in the future, as we have seen some in the past. The great scheme
subject to which we labor is a merciful scheme, and we are allowed
to see a little progress at least—although some of us imagine that
we arc going backward, AND NONE OF ITS IS CAPABLE OF
REALIZING THE GREAT ULTIMATE RESULT.
To any man who feels pessimistic about America and about
civilization in general we offer these statements of fact :
A great curse of humanity has been drunkenness. DRUNKEN
NESS HAS SYSTEMATICALLY DIMINISHED EVERYWHERE
OUTSIDE OF THE SAVAGE RACES.
The greatest of all curses in this world has been ignorance.
IGNORANCE HAS DIMINISHED IN THE PAST HUNDRED
YEARS AMONG THE INHABITANTS OF THE WORLD TO AN
EXTENT IN KNOWN IN A 111 N'DRED < ENTI RIES PAST
The printing press has done for the brain, for education, the
greatest conceivable work, a work far superior to that done for
transportation by the steam engine. No man has a right to talk
pessimistically when he realizes that for the first time in the world’s
history the man WHO CAN NOT READ IS AN EXCEPTION.
Another dreadful feature of life on earth has been poverty.
Poverty we still have with us. and only too much of it. BUT POV
ERTY IS DIMINISHING. Men's wages within the lives of those
now struggling have been doubled and quadrupled.
The long hours of work that deadened the brain and made
progress impossible have been very much diminished.
No man has a right to talk pessimistically when he sees about
him hundreds of thousands MILLION’S—of working men and
women earning at least a decent livelihood, able to feed their fami
lies. ami. above all, FREE FROM SERVILITY, ABLE TO LOOK
AN EMPLOYER IN THE FACE.
Superstition and brutality and cruelty bred by it have been
curses of humanity. SUPERSTITION STILL EXISTS, BUT IT
HAS NO GOVERNING POWER AMONG L’S TODAY. There are
no bonfires where human beings are burned alive, “TO THE
GLORY OF "GOD.”
No man who has looked into the past, who has seen the rack,
the burning fire, the wretched creature tortured with all the inge
nuity that superstition could devise, has any right to talk pessimis
tically about the present.
As for government, it is true that we have not by any means ob
tained perfection. But we have at least escaped from hereditary
brutality in this country and nearly everywhere else. We no longer I
have vile kings breeding degenerate monsters called princes, inher
iting the power to cut throats by the hundreds of thousands and set
one country fighting another.
We DO tight still as the dogs fight, for wo are not yet civilized
•—but we at least tight more or loss of our own accord.
We have at this moment in the United States a rule by money.
Money, which means power, is organized for its own protection, and
it DOES oppress the people.
But how superior it is to the superstitious government of the
heathen world in the dark times How superior to the feudal gov
ernment by disorganized armed bands! How superior to the abso
lute monarchy that succeeded feudalism!
It is true that the people ARE FOOLED. But while the people
have their votes, and while it is within their power to control them
selves and bet ter 1 he if com] it ions as soon as t hey M A KE CP TH El R
.MINDS TO. no man has a right to talk pessimistically.
There was a day when the prisons of the country cost a hun
dred times as much as all the schools and libraries put together.
Think how that has changed ! How splendid a thing it is when you
go into an American town to set'the’biggest. the finest, the costliest
building, a FREE AMERICAN PCBLIC SCHOOL! This country
has everv reason to congratulate itself upon what it has achieved.
AND I I’ON THE POSSIBILITIES BEFORE IT ESPECIALLY
\ll that is required from the citizens is INDEPENDENT
THOLGHT AND INDEPENDENT ACTION. In the past they have
been too much taken up with their individual supplies of money.
They have taken government too much for granted.
They can better that. AND THE\ WILL. There is no ground
for pessimism.
Illusions of “Wealth Per
; Capita”
A New York paper argues that the American people are in a
state of fabulous prosperity because our "wealth per capita'' in
1850 was $307.60 and in 1910 was $1,310.11,
Average American families of average size, who are wondering
what has become of their five times $1,310.11, or $6,550.55, may be
interested in a word or two of explanation of the illusions of
“wealth per capita."
In the first place, it is to be remarked that there is no known
way of stating the wealth of a great nation in a gross sum. Everv
attempt to do so in tables of statistics is made up in part of ac
tually existing values, in part of speculative values, in part of le
gally enforceable claims held by one class of citizens against an
other class, and in part of more or less romantic guesswork.
In the second place, if is to be observed that a really prosper
ous country is a country where honest and industrious human be
ings have a high purchasing power ou r the necessaries and con
veniences of existence. No country in which it is hard to make a
living can I ailed rich even though every man had a high
figured bankbook and a big stack of watered stocks, bond* ami
other certificates of indebtedness aeainM society at large
► Finally, take notice that aioiui of a hundred million paupers
and om- trillionaire would have a w alth per capita ot about
ten thousand dollars.
i
The Atlanta Georgian
His First Drink---and His Last
By HAL COFFMAN.
iff ' I All
1 ’fl fe 1® il A :
KW ’ | Mu Ji
Wsii s llii!
w’ i • wter jL MW HI i iSiMw
■wi
Demanding the Impossible
A WOMAN, who has been mar
ried six years and says she’s
never had a single peaceful
day In them, wants to know how
to please a hipercritieal husband.
She says:
“My husband is very particular
about his food, and complains if
everything Is not perfectly cooked,
yet after I have spent hours over
the stove preparing a dinner to his
liking he grumbles because 1 smell
of the kitchen.
“He says I don't read enough,
then when I read he complains of
my wasting my time over novels
instead of looking after my house.
"He finds fault with tne because
I am not stylishly dressed, yet
when I want a new gown he com- |
plains of my extravagance,
"He says I'm not companionable
enough, yet when I go out with him ‘
he shows that he's bored to death
and wishes that I had stayed at
home
“How can I please such a man
as this?"
You can't. A lady angel from
I heaven couldn't. The only ««y to
deal w ith that kind of a disgruntled
grouch is to let him alone, and go
along and do the way you want to
without any reference to him He
wouldn't l>e pleased, anyway, so
y ou had as well please yourself.
This man has an aggravated
case of a very common failing
among husbands, and that is they
I expect the impossible from their
wives They demand that their
wives shall be lightning change ar
tists, who can be household drudges
one minute and society butterflies
the next, who can do the cooking,
and washing, and ironing, and sew
ing and mending, and baby tending
for a family, and yet always appear
with beautifully manicured, lily
white hands, and dressed in silk
and lace party gowns, and be able
to hand out a line of bright and en
tertaining small talk when hubby
cornea home.
Very Unreasonable.
of course, this is utterly unrea
sonable The woman who doea her
own work is bound to have rough
ami work-hardened hands She is
bound to be tired and nerve
w rot ked. It takes money and
leisure, and ease of body and mind,
fol a woman to be able to keep
lu rn ls calm and serene and beau
tifully dressed, and up to the min
ute in converMtion.
Honestly when you see whst
’»!#-( I i | *»f | It* *1 (****>
l*»*iK * if # h> ■]» ft I !*»
| i- sn fevot of poi gamy < ertatn- i
MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 1912.
By DOROTHY DIN.
ly being a wife is a two-woman job,
for if any man got what he thinks
are his just deserts in matrimony,
it would require one wife to look
after his physical comfort, and bear
and rear his children for him, and
another wife to entertain him and
go about with him, and always look
Z
'rp® 1
i
i
DOROTHY DIX.
like a living picture. And both
ladles would have their hands full,
believe me.
The law of the land and the high
cost of living preventing this sim
ple* solution of the problem, a man
falls back upon the expedient of ex
pecting his wife to combine all
sorts of antagonistic qualities in
her one person, and to be able to
turn out every sort of varied per
formance. He expects her to be
Maty Ann in the kitchen and
Uueen Ann in the parlor, to be able
to get a dinner with one hand and
play the piano with the other, to
dress like a fashion plate and
sp« nd no money
H> even marries on this platform
Ho picks out foi w lf> a silly little
dr outanti who rot’s her n him
and .«-k- him f •ollsli queM!■ mr and
th n he if i .irribly dlsai pointed in
I lo
rienced. broad-minded, sane wom
an. He selects a girl because she
is beautiful, and dainty, and help
less, and then complains if she isn’t
practical, and economical, and a
good manager. He will even mar
ry a professional woman and then
feel himself ill-used because she
knows more about temperament
than she does the proper tempera
ture to bake bread.
Yet. the very man who expects
the impossible of his wife is not
illogical enough to look for mira
cles to happen anywhere else. He
wouldn't buy an automobile and
expect it to turn into a church or
gan. He wouldn't pick out a steak
in a butcher shop and expect to
find ft converted into ice cream
when he got home. He wouldn't
expect his dog to suddenly burst
into song like a canary, hut he
does expect just as utterly incon
gruous things to take place in a
woman as soon as the marriage
ceremony is read over her.
Nor are men alone in expecting
the impossible of the ones they'
marry. Women have a talent for
that, too, and nine-tenths of the
complaints that you hear from
wives are simply the result of
ladies demanding that their bread
and butter shall also be caramel
cake.
You hear plenty of women, re
splendent in imported finery, sigh
ing because their poor, dear Johns
are so absorbed in money-making
that they haven't time to attend
Browning circles, and Ibsen mati
nees Sometimes these wives even
go so far as to consider that their
husbands' lack of soulfulness justi
fies them in having long-haired,
high-browed affinities with whom
they can discuss the w harness of
the ain’t and other throbbing prop
ositions.
Another Side.
Again you see other women mar
ried to literary or artistic men who
lament that they have more com
panionship than dollars, and who
are dissatisfied because their hus
bands can’t make as much money
as a Wall street broker.
In short, the feminine idea! of a
perfect mate is as impossible of
realization as the masculine X >
man is at once a gteat money
maker and an idealist, no man inn
make a fortune In the grocery
trade and hold his wife’s hand at
the same time, any more than a
woman can be both a leaflet of
fashion and a household drudge
It is because men and women ex
pet I the impossible of each other
' ; ,> iTl.igr .» often i l.n li
THE HOME PAPER
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Writes on _
The Failure of Wo-
men To Be the
Best Mothers
Possible !
—
Written For The Atlanta Georgian
By Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Copyright. 1912. hy Amerlcan-Journal-Examlner.
{ tF the parents of a rough dfa-
I mond could only realize the
handicap they place in their
child by starting him out into the
world without polishing him as
much as possible, I am sure every
parent would do his utmost to add
a touch here and a touch there to
the personality of his offspring dur
ing childhood, for it is during child
hood that the little habits are
formed, which, taken as a whole, do
so much to influence his future
career and station in life, I refer
to habits of tidiness, manner, de
portment. carriage, table etiquette,
care of the toilet, etc. There comes
a time in the life of every child
when habits of this class have to
be formed, and there is no reason
on earth why they should not be
formed in such away that in later
years they will not be a source of
embarrassment to him.”
HERBERT A PARKTN, M.D.
IWIRH these words, by one of
America's most gifted and dis
tinguished physicians and met
aphysicians could be written in
letters of gold and hung where
every mother and teacher in the
land might read them dally.
Children Show Their
Mothers’ Teaching.
Women are pushing forward their
claims for higher recognition,
everywhere and every day; and
women are succeeding in almost all
the arts, professions ttnd trades for
merly pursued by men exclusively:
yet women ARE ALMOST UNI
VERSALLY FAILING TO BE
THE BEST MOTHERS POSSI
BLB.
You who read these words may
take exception to such a statement.
Yet, employ your leisure hours the
next week in looking about you
critically and dispassionately for a
really perfect, or even "near per
fect” mother of boys and girls of
that embryo age, from eight to
fourteen.
It is during that period children
show forth the training and teach
ing which has come to them from
close association with their moth
ers.
To again quote from Dr. Parkyni
"There are great possibilities in
a new wooden barrel; provided it
is empty. It is very easy to fill
it with syrup or kerosene, or any
other liquid. But if a barrel be
filled first with kerosene it is very
difficult to so completely get rid
of its impressions on the barrel
that the barrel can be used after
ward for syrup, the barrel as It
were, having formed an auto
suggestion which is hard to over
come.
"A young child's mind is very
much tike a barrel, so far as its
first impressions are concerned.
Its mind is an empty thing, wait
ing to be filled with any kind of
impressions, and the impressions
of childhood are by far the most
lasting.
“Childhood is the most favorable
time to develop the little habits we
carry through life, and the im-
I *
:: Virginia Dare ::
' By REV. THOMAS B. GREGORY.
\tIRGINIA DARE, the first child
' of the English race bom
within the limits of what is
now the United States, had her
natal day three hundred and twen
ty-five years ago.
In the light of present-day events,
there is something thrillingly sig
nificant in the fact that the first
English child born in this country
should have been a girl—a mem
ber of the sex which is today al!
over the earth making congresses,
legislaturesand parliaments "sit up
and listen” to its demands for rec
ognition as a factor in world gov
ernment.
The circumstances in the midst
of which little Virginia was ush
ered into the world were not of the
fairest description.
The gallant knight. Sir Walter
Raleigh, in 1583 sent his half
brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, to
make a settlement in the New
World On the American coast
probably that of Newfoundland
Sir Humphrey lost one of his ships,
with nearly all of its , rcw. and in
attempting to reach home in the
other vessel sank tn a great storm
near Eat al, exclaiming ia lie went
down The wav to heaven is as
n< ar by s< a as bv land.”
in 1584 another expedition. >,nt
out by Raleigh under Vine is ind
Harlow, i cached tin counti . n a
known a; Nvith ta.oiuia. p.< .id '
portance of giving attwntfon M
these little habits cannot be ton
strongly impressed upon tho ,
minds of parents of young ehU-.
dren. So many parents believe
that if they teach their ohildren
what 1s right and wrong, from • I
moral and ethical point of
clothe them and send them to
school, they have done all that 1a
required of them, and that th*
children will do the rest them,
selves and make a auccess in Ufa*’
Mothers of culture and ednea* J
tion are to be found all about u»
who have allowed their fitti® sona
to pass through ha formative
period of childhood without ona
distinguishing trait of habit erf re
fined. considerate manhood, and
who consider the brusquenMt and
boorish deportment of their aff
•prtng as natural phases of boy
hood, which trill be evwntn.ny
outgrown. In America, children
are allowed tn occupy an unngtnnaJ
position in the home, and are per
mitted to demand favws of their
elders, where foreign ohndrso
gently request; to dispute, and
flatly contradiet, where other*
would only question or remain
silent, and to sit tn the presence
of their parents and grandparents
without waiting for permission or
observing whether any one Is dis.
commoded by their conduct.
Mothers permit their Httle some
to interrup conversation; to enter
a room noisily, without removing
their hats; to be first at the table
without showing the courtesy
sentlng the mother or sister or
guest, and to air their Ideas and
opinions aggressively in the proa,
•nee of older people.
The very greatest work a woman
ran do on earth Is to guide and
train the mind and manners of a
little child into gentleness, kindli
ness, courtesy, consideration, po
liteness, respect and reverence for
whatever is great and good, and to
teach the embryo man or woman
those small refinements of deport
ment which mean so much tn life,
No matter what other work a
mother may be doing in the wertd.
if she Is neglecting this worit
which is the work God has giver
her. she le miserably failing as an
individual and a citizen, as well as
a mother.
Not One Woman in 100
Is a Scientific Mother.
However bright a boy may he in
his lessons, however he may excel
in the athletic field, he is not
growing into admirable and excel- •
lent manhood unless ha la receiv
ing the delicate and gracious
touches of educatton which a
mother should consider ft her great
privilege to give. Bnt this can
not be given In a day or a year. Tt
must be done day by day and year
by year, unobtrusively and tactful
ly. until the child has absorbed the
wholesome and refining system un
consciously. And we do not find
one American mother in one hun
dred who Is unselfish and patient
enough to bestow so much time and
thought on the profession of srign
flfic motherhood. ,
into Albemarle and Pimlico sounds,
touched at Roanoke island and re
turned to England.
The following year (Uffl) Ra
leigh sent out a colony of a hun
dred or more men under I.ane to
make the beginning of a aettle
ment, but nothing caine of it, and
the remnants of the colony were
taken back to England by the old
sea fighter Drake.
I nw filing to abandon the project
that was so dear to him, Raleigh tn
the spring of 1587, made still an
other attempt, sending out some 154
men and 17 women under the gov
ernorship of John White The set
tlers reached Roanoke island the
last of July, and there, on kuguat
17, was born Virginia Dare the
daughter of Ananias and Eleanor
Dare.
Whites settlement perished, be
ing known in a* ibe
t’olonv ” Say» EUhe. When tne
JatncMowr. s<tt ~ »ume Uiey »cie
*
people left at Roanoke had mmgi r o
with the natives and lived with
tnem for ome 'isis on iiiUK.Ut
terms, until at ti instigation of
been murdered. . f O ui ~.€ l
two boys and a young woman »&•»
■ 1
• |>t *e have no m.au* of gac*-
