Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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. ;zz ' ’ - - ■ ii . ..... " Z... .. I W ■ - a'l' ■- •' GS •e”. j ' , 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 W" 3 ’JI J W Or R < .... ’ >■** r \ ... 7 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.