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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-clas matter at postoff <e at Atlanta, under act of March * IST?
Subscription Price —Delivered by carrier, 10 cents a week By mail. 55 00 a y<*ar
Payable in advance.
How to Have Good Luck
- Always
r * *
You Will All Read Tins. Although You Know, or You Ought to
Know. There Is No Such Thing as Good Luck.”
GIPSY LUCK.
A bit o’ silver to cross me palm Then put a white atone Into yer
» • • pack,
So • * now to East’ard turn v An’ turn it throe times over.
An’, for day or night. for storm or
calm. An’ last, ye must wear some ragged
The Gipsy Luck I’ll learn ye. thing.
An’ “til! bo barefoot goln’.
Ye’ll rn-.d a <taff from .1 y. w-tree A- uni nine nights, in a fairy
lopped. Ung.
When- one ye loved be lyin', The first nine stars a-showin'.
A n'. to stick in yer cap, a f.. 11 he
iliopu.-d Tit, n. though all earth an’ heaven
F >in bi ■! :il>o\e ye livin' above
Sends none to help or heed ye,
N> x s m y r old shoes ovei yer Just ask what ye list, or seek yer
back love,
An’ (.111. ■ > four-'"iif clove! . An' the Gipsy Luck’ll load ye.
We are all interested when somebody talks of ”luek.”
Probably len thousand individuals have told how they “al
most sailed on the Titanic, and how luck saved them.
"Luck did nothing of the kind, of course. They simply did
not SAIL.
Almost every human being Ims superstition!
•Gamblers are made up of superstition, because gambling re
quires no real effort of the intellect.
Ignorance is made up of superstition, because superstition re
places knowledge in the mind as weeds take the place of grain in an
abandoned field.
Xinety-nine mil of one It mid red of those who see this newspaper
will al least begin to read this editorial, because it talks about
“luck.”
If we should proceed to tell what is lucky and what is not
lucky, if we should describe the wonders of lucky stones, ill luck
charms and so on. readers would go through to the end, not believ
ing. perhaps, but still interested.
If this article \vere to change and talk about “How to be
healthy.' instead of “How to be lucky, ’ half, at least, would stop
reading it.
Yet it is easy for the average man or woman to be healthy if bo
or she will. There is such a thing as good HEALTH, and he or she
can get it. There is no such thing as good "luek.“
What a pity so much talk, emotion and time are wasted on luek
that does not exist and so little devoted to health and knowledge,
so easily obtained.
in the old days when the plague probably a form of Asiatic
cholera devastated England thousands had tattooed on their arms
the mystic word “abracadabra.”
Those that had it got the cholera ami died the same as anybody
else. If. instead of tattooing "abracadabra ”on their arms, they
had drunk water carefully boiled and eaten only food not exposed
to contamination, they would have been safe. You have to SWAL
LOW the cholera in order to get the cholera.
‘‘LI CK’' has nothing to do with it.
Act in the East today the natives tight the cholera with charms
and incantations and religious appeals. They bathe in the Holy
Ganges, where put 1 < lying corpses spread the disease, and the bath
ers swallow it.
Or they go to Mecca to pray near the Holy Stone on which
“Mohammed stood when he went up to heaven,'' and come in con
tact with the disease down there and catch it.
When i'mropean scientists, among the miserable inhabitants
along the banks of the Ganges or among the ignorant Mohamme
dans. try to replace magic and heathen religious nonsense with
actual knowledge, the natives tight the scientists, denounce them
and accuse them of murder.
A ou realize, however, when you read such verses as those which
we reprint at the top of this column, what a hold superstition and
the ’’lucky idea have upon the mind
I hat is due to the tact that only yesterday as time goes in
this vvorid. a Lav hundreds ot centuries at the most —everything
was attrdmtto lic k or magic, to good or evil spirits.
Our savage ancestors went about loaded down with charms
ol diilcrent kinds to keep otl evil And they hired magicians to
take evil away from them ami unload it on their enemies.
Ihe thunder in the mountains, the lightning in the clouds
strange noises in the cave wm-. all attributed to evil spirits.
Ami theje was alwavs some cunning individual, even among
the ignorant, ready to invent an Aplanation. ready to create a re
ligion. ready to name tlm evil spirits and quiet them for a fixed
price.
If the postoffice authorities would allow it a man could readily
build up a great fortune in the I nit.<| States today by advertising
the sale of ‘’lucky stones' or n’G r talismans But if a man should
announce the distribution of 1 .d knowledge, of facts in retard to
health, education and work that wi;| .mtuallv give the results that
luek XEVER gives, he might sla--., to death He would, al least,
arouse little interest.
Thai leaches us that we are still very neai to our ancestors
that saw the demon in the holes in tin hills, that believed in fairies
and goblins and gnomes, that imagined <> ■ gml <»• manv gods will
ing to be bribed on a cash basis.
k We are far still from the real civilization and knowledge which
are our destiny.
The Atlanta Georgian
’ THE ARTILLERY OF THE SKY
• It Ciin Shoot Ten Miles, But it Cannot Destroy a City
By GARRETT P. SERVISS.
IT was a lucky photographer who
caught with his camera the pic
tun which we see here of a great
storm of thunder and lightning rag
ing over the city of Parts on the
night of July 27 last. This picture
shows graphically, and by an ac
tual example, what I tried to tell in
words In The Georgian a few
months ago—viz, that a great
city is far mote secure against the
d( tru< live effects of lightning than
is the open country.
The view was taken from the
heights of Montmartre, looking in a
southerly direction' over Paris.
Away off n< ar the horizon is the
lofty dome of the Pantheon; to the
left of the center appears the huge
bulk of tile Grand Opera House.
Look at the three vicious strokes,
descending simultam ously upon the
city. The central one seems to
strike close to tile i.neicnt cathedral
of Notre Dune. Tills, remember,
was the work of an instant. Dur
ing the continuant e of the storm,
hundreds of bolts may have been
shot from the sky upon Paris, but
no damage was done, although the
power of any one of them concen
trated might have sufficed to de
molish a building.
It is < ven possible that a greater
number of lightning stiok-s be
tween the earth mil the clouds oc
cur when a storm is passing over a
large city than when it itas only
the unobstructed country beneath
it. A city is bristling with points—
church spires, towers, tall chimneys,
etc.-—and there is nothing which
‘‘draws’’ lightning like a pointed ob
ject. especially if it is composed
of metal. A storm may exhaust all
its ammunition.
Hut in this very circumstance re
sides the security of the city, it is
so filled with metallic objects, all of
them offering ready paths for light
ning, that tile latter is weakened by
dissipation. A great bolt is instan
taneously divided into a vast num
tier of branches, and the force is
lost. The inhabitants of the city
who keep away from parks and
open places are almost as secure
against lightning as they would lie
if they were shut up inside a huge
box composed of an iron grating
Hut in the country it is different,
and the need of properly adjusted
lightning tods is greater there.
Greatly Dreaded.
l ightning is greatly dreaded in
France, and no wonder, since sta
tistics show ill it 10,000 people were
killed by lightning in that country
during the nineteenth century.
Nearly all of these perished through
neglect of the most ordinary pre
cautions. They may be said to
have invited death by placing them
selves in tile way of its darts,
A remarkable example occurred
early this summer, when a light
ning bolt instantly killed one of the
greatest noblemen of France, the
Your Best Manners and Impulses |
z By ELLA WHEELED WILCOX
Copyright 1912, by Ainei ar.-.lourqal-Examiner. ■
I' F you are going away witli your
friends or your family for a
vacation take your very best
manners, your very kindest and
sweetest impulses with you.
There is no benefit in a change of
scene or t espite from labor if ill
temper, nervousness, irritability
and fault-finding rule the mental
domain.
All benefit which comes to us
must come from WITHIN
The woman who stays at home in
a happy, cheerful state of mind, de
lighted with small pleasures and
bent on making everybody about
her better for he companionship,
will gain more benefit from her
vacation than one who goes tour
ing in motor cars, sailing in yachts
or sojourning in great hotels, a 1 !
the time complaining of her sur
roundings and he: associates and
finding fault with people and
t hings.
A titan may far better refuse to
go away on a Journey than to go
and east a pall of gloom over his
companions by indulging his most
unamiable aqd disag: cable habits
A change of scene and thought is
to be recommended to every human
being who can possibly arrange
such an event
Take Two Vacations.
Not once, but twice each year,
should every busy worker in the
physical o mental domain of labor
get away into new surroundings
and among new people or alone
with Nature
The vehicle which rolls contin
ually over one track wears ruts. S >
one kind of thought wears ruts tn
the mind, and the mind wears ruts
in the face, and premature old age
comes.
Woim-n in lorn Is count' s place-,
who have fess diversions, and who
go to sleep with the chickens, and
who breathe fresh country air, and
ent wholesome food, age sooner
than tin cits woman fashion
because tiny hive no variety o.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 31. 1912.
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'
, A Storm Raging Over Paris,
Marquis of Montebello. In defiance
of many warnings he ventured out
in n fierce thunder storm, passing
on foot through open fields and a
woodland. His b< dy was found,
half stripped of its clothing, near
some trees. He carried an um
brella. with a steel point, which
may have divirted the stroke from
a tree to him. Only a week before
this tragedy, a gendarme, in a lit
tlij country village near me, was
killed by lightning when he w -nt
into his garden during a thunder
storm.
The r< aeh of lightning is some
times appalling. It may go a mile,
it may even go TEN MILES and
< reach its victim. It can not lie
dodged even when it conies from
afar, for it travois with almost the
speed of light. Some districts are
particularly dangerous because of
the existence of deposits of iron
beneath lite surface 1 the earth.
The neigh borhoud of a body of
water or a stream is always dan
gerous during a thunder storm.
Ev> ii subterranean water may "at
tract” lightning.
It is rare that lightning enters a
room. If it striki s a house the
damage is usualh confined to the
exterior, the roof r. the chimneys.
During a violent storm the safest
place is the center of a room,
where there is no op. n communu a
tion, such as a li epluec, with the
mental food and dwell on a monot
onous les- I of unchanging views.
Therefore, vacations and little
journeys ami visits and trip- are to
be recommended as beauty treat
ments and old-age preventives as
I
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ELLA WHEELER WILCOX.
well as ett: s for mental anil physi
cal maltdii's.
And the) are helps ■ > suw-ss in
any line of endeavor, since they
enlarge' the vision and im r-- -.se the
mind's capacity.
Hut none of ben-fits result
from vacations if the mind is tilled
with discontent, ill temper and
carping criticism.
Should Have Stayed Home.
A man was urged by his wife to
tak.- a w . *'k's vacation w ith het .
The m. n wanted to g,, into the
country . tile wife urged tin sea
shore. and the man yielded.
He Wet ’ Wit’ - W if, blit ey. I’’
mile of the journey was devoted to
grumbling and ill humor and eyerv
hour of the vacation was spent in
regret that he had not gon else
w here, and win n his w .1- I- .1 ill In
said he km w something of the kind
exterior. If you are very fearful,
you may insulate you: self by sit
ting in a chair witli its legs rest
ing in glass tumblers, or, as some
do. by lying upon a feather bed.
Naturally you would not choose an
iron bed.
Some Warnings.
But these are extreme precau
tions, and few would think it worth
while to adopt them. You are
practaeilly safe if you stay indoors,
closing windows and other open
ings, and keeping away from
stoves, stovepipes and fireplaces.
If you find yourself perforce out
of doors during a thunder storm,
avoid the neighborhood of tall, iso
lated trees, and do not follow a
stream or the border of a lake.
Keep away, also, from wire fences.
Most of the destruction of cattle
by lightning, tn recent years, occurs
whore they have huddled close to a
metallic barrier. Don’t carry an
umbrella in a thunder storm. The
Matqttis of Montebello’s fate is a
sufficient warning on that score.
Submit to be soaked with rain
rather than take shelter under a
tree, and. for your comfort, remem
ber that, in almost any ease, you |
have many chances In your favor to
one against you. and that death by
lightning is probably the most
painless to which a living being can
be subjected. It is quicker than the
nerves.
would happen, not realizing that his
state of mind was one which would
attract and produce misfortune.
Far kinder would it have been
had he remained at home or quietly
insisted upon going to the country.
To yield a point to another is not
a courtesy or a kindness unless it is
yielded graciously, amiably and
1 with every effort to make the sit-
I nation agreeable and pleasant.
Two people may leave a palatial
and luxurious home and go into the
discomforts of a small hotel room
, or a farm house, and yet they may
find delight and benefits untold of
in the change if they ire good com
rades. refil friends or tender lovers.
•The delights and benefits are all
results of mental conditions—an un
selfish desire to please your asso
ciates. happiness in seeing others
enjoy life, satisfaction in getting
and giving the best of life in every
situation.
These are the qualities which
in ike every vacation a success, I;
every journey one of benefit, every
change a pleasure and the return
home to work a new delight.
Husbands and wives, parents and
children jog along in the home for
months without really seeing one
another as they are.
How to Get Benefits.
But in the close intimacy which
travel and boarding house or hotel
life neyes-itates the prominent
traits and characteristics stand
forth prominently revealed.
Therefore, before you go away on
y our vacation it is well to brush up
y our manners, to take a fresh hold
on y our w ill powei and to fertilize
your affectionate nature so that
your family and your friends and
tin strangers you will meet may be
benefited by your companionship.
And in doing this you will re
ceive teal benefit yourself from
yourself and return refreshed and
happy and -elf-respecting when the
outing is over. |
THE HOME PAPER
Elbert Hubbard
Writes on
The Assassins
. . BIHI
In the Days of Old the “Assas- MUx
sins” Devoted Their Lives
to Truth, Justice, Purity,
Right, and Their Business
Was to Give Everybody a
Square Deal.
By ELBERT HUBBARD
Copyright, 1912, by International News Service
z | s Hi; word "assassin" was once
J eminently respectable. It
was first used in the twelfth
century in Persia. It signified a
'member of a Mohammedan relig
ious order. assassins devot
ed their lives to truth, justice,
purity, right, and their business
whs to give everybody a square
deal.
They took th- if name from the
leader. Hassan, and wore called
Hassanites. or Hassassins. Then
some enemy of the order’ called
them Ila-lia sins, or hashish eaters.
These men were tiled by religious
zeal until they ran amuck, killing
every one who tried to oppose them.
People thought they were Intoxi
cated by hashish, or the juice ot
the hemp plant. This may have
been so, but a man Intoxicated by
religious zeal, or drunk on success
and his own oratory, is quite as
dangerous ns an individual who is
simply plain drunk on dope and
drugs.
The word "assassin” was taken
up by the Flench and circulated,
first as a slang word, and then it
got fixed’ in the dictionary, and
when the English adopted it, it be
came legitimate.
Proud of the Name.
These Assassins of Islam were
proud of the name and gloried in
it. The secret Order of Assassins
existed from the twelfth century
down praeti'-ally to our own time,
and members of the order still en
dure.
They were fatalists, and were
taught that if they died in the par
ticular work to which they were
assigned, their souls would imme
diately gravitate to Paradise.
For 200 years the Order of Assas
sins held al! Asia Minor in terror,
and instituted some very Dark
Ages.
The Assassnns struck in the dark,
and the government was powerless
to locate the murderers; in fact, of
ficers of the government themselves
were often members of this Order
ot' Assassins. The whole thing was
very much tiki the Camorra of
Italy, or the cheerful White Caps,
of which America has had quite a
taste.
The world should beware of men
who come in the name of reforma
tion. demanding that the world
should be made over according to
Ideal plans which they themselves
have formulated. Any man who is
better (or who thinks he is better)
than the common run of humanity
is apt to be a dangerous individual
and may easily gravitate into the
sacred Order of As.-assins.
The Mahdis that have appeared
from tikie to time in the Orient, es
pecially in Asia Minor, Persia and
Turkey, have belonged to this Or
th r of Assassins. The word "Mah
di" means one who leads us out of
captivity.
Each of the dqzen or so Mahdis
that Mohammedanism has pro-
Vastness of Stellar Depths
By EDGAR LUCIEN LAKE IN.
GO dig a hole in the ground and
r st t a post five ot six fe< t
high. Nail a stick across
the top. Th a tine string to a ring
three Inches in diameter and sus
i pend it from the end of the stick.
Break tip a diamond—if you
make the error of wearing one
and cento; ing your mind on the
useless bauble rather than upon na
ture ami her majestic laws; select
a minute fragment so small that
if spherical 71 side by side would
nntkt a row one inch long, and 911/-
■ pend the tiny globe by means of a
fine fiber of silk in the cent-r of
the ring.
Then walk away on a straight
line 9.31 miles, turn around and
look back. The ring would be in
visible, and it would require the
keenest eye to see the post, if in
deed any could see it.
Get a good telescope it’d you
duced has called himself ’’The
Mahdi.”
There was one particular Mahdi
that turned the Soudan into a trail
of danger and death about the year
1880. This Mad Mullah's business
was to restore the Soudan, and
eventually the entire world, to a
condition of pi sice, equity, justice
ind prosperity through destruction
of) the forces that he said were
strangling the plain people.
He Took to the Desert.
This man took to the desert with
a few hundred followers. At first
they were unarmed. They lived on
the contributions of the Faithful.
A little later, when contributions
were forthcoming, they made
raids into the towns and villages,
and collected their own. Soon they
wore transformed into a formidable
mass of cavalry, riding stolen
horses. The restless, the worthless,
the uneasy, all those who had noth
ing to lose, quit work and followed
the Mahdi.
Ideal communities were to be or
ganized. A new distribution of
goods was to be the rule. The rich
and the governing classes were to
be eliminated. The rule of the
people was to be supreme.
The revolt grew so great that the
Khedive abandoned the Soudan.
General Gordon, known as “Chi
nese Gordon.” was sent out by the
English government to treat with'
the Mahdi, and, if necessary, to de
stroy him.
Gordon arrived at Khartoum in
1884. He issued a request to the
*hostile Soudanese to lay down their
arms, and return to their homes
and go to work, promising them
immunity from punishment for
their offenses.
The reply of the Assassins was
to cut off Gordon’s communication
with Cairo. Gordon did not have
any idea of the number of men he
had to deal with, and nobody yet
knows how this disorganized, un
organized mass of humanity, that
fed off the land like grasshoppers,
shut Gordon up with his 10,000 sol
diers in Khartoum.
Held Him a Captive.
The besieging hordes held him
captive for ten months.
Finally, Great Britain dispatched
an army to the relief of Gordon,
under General Wolseley, who ar
rived within two days march of
Khartoum. But through the treach
ery of certain people in Khartoum
—for whom Genera! Gordon was
fighting—the gates vere thrown
open and the hordes' came tum
bling through, and Gordon went
down to his death.
Only the death of Gordon aroused
thi British nation to the danger of
this rule of the mob. Kitchener was
sent to the Soudan with an army,
and it took him twelve years to
put down the rebellion started by
those religious prog: essives who
thought to make the world over.
might just see tin ring against the
sky on a white background; but
the diamond won! I bo invisible.
Come up her., get the Ifi-tnch
t<le<iope. t; it and the diamond
sphere could not be seen. Go get a
■lO or 00-. inch telescope, still the
diamond would not coma into view.
Then get a OOO.nOO-eandlepow r
electrit are searchlight, and by
. '■ans of a big lens concentrate
the light on the diamond; then a
n. ic'i smn'ler (• i s> ope would re
veal it.
Go to the giant star-sun, Sirius,
tht dog star; t tke a t ery large tel
escope with you, turn around and
look hack this way.
I en the orbit of the earth, a
rl ng 18«.< .000 nit •- tn diameter.
tippe.,! ’o b s three inches
in diameter* vi ..1 from 9 . 31
sun as th ; l-71st
of tin inch in diameter.