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EDITORIAL PAGE THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday Bj THE GEORGIAN COMPANY At 20 East Alabama St,, Atlanta, Ga. Entered <a eecond-class matter at postoftice at Atlanta, under act ot March S. 1879. Subscription Price—Delivered by carrier, 10 cents a week. By mail, 95.00 a year. Payable in advance. How to Have Good Luck , Always r » •> You Will All Read This, 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 stone into yer * * • pack. So * • * now to East’ard turn ye An’ turn it three times' over. An', for day or night, for storm or calm, An’ last, ye must wear some ragged The Gipsy I.uck I'll learn ye. thing. An' still be barefoot goin'. Tell need a staff from a yew-tree Ar ye count, nine nights. In a fairy lopped, ring, Where one ye loved be lyin’; The first nine stars a-showin’. An', to stick in yer cap, a feather dropped Then, though all earth an' heaven From a bird above ye flyin’. above Sends none to help or heed ye. Nex’. sling yer old shoes over yer Just ask what ye list, or see.k yer back love, An' carry a four-leaf clover; An' the Gipsy Duck'U lead ye. We are all interested when somebody talks of ‘‘luck.’’ Probably ten 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 has 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. Ninety-nine out of one hundred of those who see this newspaper will at 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 were to change and talk about “How to he 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 he or she will. There is such a thing as good HEALTH, and he or she can get it. 'l’h ere is no such thing as good “ luck.' ’ What a pity so much talk, emotion and time are wasted on luck 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 and died the same as anybody else. If. instead of tattooing “abrm-adabra 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 got the cholera “LI CK" has nothing to do with it Yet in the East today the natives tight the cholera w ith charms and incantations and religious appeals. They bathe in the Holy Ganges, where putrefying corpses spread the disease, ami 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 European 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 light the scientists, denounce them and accuse them of murder. You realize, however, when you read such verses as those which we reprint at the top of this column, w hat a hold superstition and the “lucky" idea have upon the mind. That is due to the fact that only yesterday as time goes in this world, a few hundreds of centuries at the most-—everything was attributed to luck or magic, to good or evil spirits. Our savage ancestors went about loaded down with charms of different kinds to keep off evil. And they hired magicians to take evil away from them and unload it on their enemies The thunder in the mountains, the lightning in the clouds strange noises in the cave w ere all attributed to ex it spirits And there was always some cunning individual, even among Hie ignorant, ready to invent an explanation, ready to create a re • igion, ready to name the 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’nited States today by advertising lhe sale of “lucky stones" or other talismans But if a man should announce the distribution of real know ledge, of fads in regard to health, education and work that will actually give the results that luck NEVER gives, he might starve to death He would, at least, arouse little interest. That teaches us that we are still very near to our ancestors that saw the demon in the holes in the hills, that believed in fairies and goblins and gnomes, that imagined one god or many gods will ing to be bribed on a cash basis \Ve are far still from the real civilization and know ledge which our destiny. The Atlanta Georgian TUESDAY. SEPTEMBER 3, 1912. AGIRL’S view of politics F*, ‘ ♦ * 1- c J , J ’ ■ 00, ' LtT W Ihcahsgu) <1 jc stop V A \ 'Tlx- W' // i ■ ■ w fy if R /■WWi /yvv -- u B A XM aF I : £g V ... | fsgsW u .'I JX \ _ fcr | ‘ th ——, -~- rx - - _ J/ r ~-y - "■ T-■ ~ ..... ’ ' - vxsiA-w'sJ' Til# _ ( . ' / 1 This cartoon was suggested hy Neil Brinkley and drawn by Tad. h shows that woman’s touch can make even the prosaic beautiful. I. SOMETHING ha- already been said about the value of small .sums of money saved tegu larly To cite one instance again: l ive cents a day amounts in ten years, at four per cent compound interest, to a trifle oyer Two Hun dred amt Twenty Dollars. But there is absolutely no way in the world of making a man prefer to have Two Hundred and Twenty Dollars ten years from now, at the cost of five cents a day. as against the remembrance of having swal lowed three thousand six hundred and fifty glasses of beer. The choice of this is, you see, entirely up to the man. Some savings l>anks have tried to encourage thrift by printing tables that show the growth of money regularly deposited and left at in terest. Few of them, however, take the trouble to rub in the principal fact hard enough The principal fact is this: When you deposit money at in- 1 terest you must also deposit Time. For Time is that which per mits interest to get moving, to create a momentum, and finally to work up a good total for you. Any one can build a fortune, ac cording to his status in life, if lie will begin early enough in life and give time a chance. Even men of 40 and 50 can begin Io save small sums for a pension at 70, for there are 30 or 20 years available for in terest to do its work. Difficult at Forty. ■ But it is hard for a man of 40 or 50 to accomplish this, and for this reason: It is difficult to establish a new habit, that demands regularity, so late in life. But if a man of 50 lias a job. and is in fair health, and is scared to death lest he be in want at 70, he may be able to brace up ami give time a chance to work its wonders for him on his nickels and dimes I » Much old age poverty and want are due to waste in early years. We complain of taxes But the willingness with which we pay taxes of our own assessment is amazing. We pay willingly for countless things we do not need. Wlien want pirn lies, in later years we grumble at the times, at hard luck, at never having had a chance. And yet few of us are such fools a to believe the lying reasons we give for our own poverty Baek of countless old people w ho have nothing stretch years of im providence. So it is true, as one writer says: 'Society suffers more from the waste of money than from the want of money.” To be well to-do is the result of self-denial an<l daily economy . Self-denial and economy are common sense applied to everybody's money transactions. A man with a little extra change in his pocket can buy a lot of things he does not need. If he does buy them, he has paid a tax on bls habit of waste. He may be skilled in earning money, but he is a flat failure in governing his own use of It. The man spoke truly who said: "If every man w ho sports an auto mobile only by having mortgaged his furniture and his wifi's furs had to state that fact on his li | tense numbei plate, there would W HOW TO BUILD A FORTUNE No. 7.--Taxes By THOMAS TAPPER. fewer of them in the streets.” This is paying taxes on vanity. Many a man at Ten Thousand Dollars a year is farther behind in the game than the economical la borer who puts a dollar or two a week aside from his wages. An unwise man, with a love for dis play. can be awfully foolish on Ten Thousand Dollars a year, and a man on Fifteen Dollars a week can be very wise. It all depends on whether self-government has been set up and the man knows how he stands every night. Hl. Don't pay useless taxes, but tax today for tomorrow. By following this rule you can not remain poor. It braces up the mind, and the re- Sirius By ELLA WHEELER WILCOX. Copyright, 1912, by American-Journal-llxaminer. ("Since Sirius crossed the Milky Way , sixty thousand years have gone." —Garrett P. Serviss.) Sirius crossed the Milky Way. Full sixty thousand years have gone, Yet hour by hour, and day by day. This tireless star speeds on and on. Methinks he must be moved Io mirth By that droll tale of Genesis. Which says creation had its birth ' For such a puny world as this. • To hear how One who fashioned all Those solar systems tiers on tiers. Expressed in little Adam's fall The purpose of a million spheres. And witness of the endless plan. To splendid wrath he 'must Im brought By pigmy creeds presumptuous man Sends forth as God's primeval thought. Perchance from half a hundred stars He hears as many curious tilings; From Venus. Jupiter and Mars, And Saturn with the beauteous rings. There may be students of the Cause Who send their revelations out. And formulate their codes of laws. With heavens for faith and hells for doubt. On planets old ere form or place Was lent to earth, may dwell—who knows?— A God-like and perfected race That hails great Sirius as he goes. In zones that circle moon and sun. 'Twixt world and world, he may see souls Whose span of earthly life is done. Still journeying up to higher goals. And on dead planets gray and cold Grim spectral souls, that harbored hats Life after life, he may behold Descending to a darker fate. And on his grand, majestic course He may have caught one glorious sight Os that vast shining, central Source From which proceeds all life, all light. Since Sirius crossed the Milky Way Full sixty thousand years have gone; No mortal man may hid him stay. No mortal man may speed him on. No mortal mind may comprehend What is beyond, what was before; To God be glorv without end. Let man be humble and adore suit of that is that you will get on better in life, for the mind is the motive power. Don't believe in influence, in pull, in better days to come unless you make them come. Be your own banker, and account for all that comes and goes. A man earning Ten Dollars a week, or Five Hun dred and Twenty Dollars a year, is an investment representing 5 per cent on Ten Thousand Four Hundred Dollars. That is, if he should die his family would need this sum to .keep on as they had been going. This shows how necessary it is for a. ten-dollar-a-week man to be a banker, and keep joint accounts with present and future. THE HOME PAPER Dorothy Dix Writes on Doing. Things Well By DOROTHY DIX lIAVE received a letter from a young woman, who says: "I am a working girl. It is absolutely necessary for me to earn my own living. I have had several good places since I left school, but I have lost each one because my handwriting is so bad. What shall I do?” Learn ho« to write, little sister. Get you a copy book, and pen and ink. and sit down at a table and never get up until you have mas tered the art of chirography. Spend hours, and days, and weeks, I if necessary, acquiring a plain and legible handwriting. Eat pot hooks: dream upward slants and downward slants, and curves, and curiecues. Give every particle ot intelligence you’ve got, put every ounce of determination in you to learning to write, and, my word for it. you will soon have Jim the Penman looking like a carver of Egyptian hieroglyhies. You’re not going to sit down be fore an ink pot and pen. and give up, are you? You’re not going to admit that you have so little in telligence that you can't learn how to write decently, are you? You haven’t so little ambition that you are going to be a quitter the first time you strike a real difficulty in life, are you? When we find out what is our handicap in the race for success there is just one thing to be done, and that is to over come that particular drawback. There’s just one way to get on in the working world, little sister, and that is to do good work, and the sooner you master the fact the bet ter it will be for you. There are plenty of good places for the com petent, but there's no room for the clerk whose sales slips look like chicken tracts, or the bookkeeper whose ledger won't balance, or the stenographer who can't spell. Therefore it's up to you to decide whether you are going to be one of those invaluable employes who climb up to situations of trust and honor and profit, or whether you become one of the shifting army of incompetents who are always look ing for a job. Why They Fail. People who fail in life always lay the blame on circumstances, or fate, or the state of politics, or heredity, or some other convenient scapegoat. This lets them down easy, and gives them a chance to sniffle, and cry. and make a bid for sympathy when they strike us for a loan. But the truth is that I we make our own luck, little sister, and we are the architects of our own misfortunes just as much as we are of our own fortunes. The drunkard and the beggar on the street are selfynade men, just as much as are Mr. Rockefeller and Mr. Carnegie. It doesn't make a bit of differ ence what we choose as a life work i if we do it well. Success or fail ure in any line depends upon the ' kind of handiwork that we turn out. and this is something that wo men have yet to learn. 1 know dozens of girls who have chosen stenography for a profes sion. who blandly say, “I never could learn to spell." and it never seems to occur to them that their whole future success depends upon their Vastness of Stellar Depths By EDGAR LUCIEN LARKIN GO dig a hole in the ground and set a post five or six feet high. Nail a stick across the top. Tie a fine string to a ring three inches in diameter and sus pend it from the end of the stick. Break up a diamond—if you make the error of wearing one and centering your mind on the useless bauble rather than upon na ture and her majestic laws; select a minute fragment so small that if spherical 71 side by side would make a row one inch long, and sus pend the tiny globe by means of a fine fiber of silk in the center of the ring. Then walk away on a straight I 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 and you learning to spell, and that they can find the whole art of how to get there in the dictionary. I know cooks who have cooked for 40 yea:s without ever learning how to make bread, or boil a potato properly, and will still wonder why they are al ways changing places. I know dressmakers who admit that they are bad fitters, yet they go on ruining people's cloth year after year, and complaining about the fickleness of customers who never come back. These women know where their fault lies, but they are too lazy and too indolent to correct It. And they are always poor and 111 paid, for there’s just one kind of work that commands a high price In the market, and that is first-class w o k. If you can do that you can write your own price tag for it. Why can one dressmaker get $75 for making a gown while another can only get $5? Because one woman turned out sloppy work and the other turns out a perfect job. " hy can one cook command a salary of SIO,OOO a year while an other can only get $5 a week? Be cause one has raised the art of cookery to a science, and the other never takes the trouble to learn even the rudiments of it. Willing To Pay. Why can one stenographer com mand a high salary while the town is overrun with girls who are al ways advertising for a job? Be cause busy men are willing to pay for expert work that is always right, and nobody wants to pay for bungling, blundering work that is full of ill-spelt words and erasures, and that can never be depended upon for accuracy. It pays to learn how to do things well, little sister. It pays to be on the job. and if you know wherein you fail to make good you've got a signboard pointing you to the ways of success. Just correct your faults and make of your weakness your strength. Don't say you can’t write, or you can't spell, or you can't add up fig ures. or you can’t cook, or you can't sew, because you can if you want to. Any girl with ordinary intelligence and a particle of back bone in her body can make herself an expert in any of these lines if she will give it half the time and trouble and serious thought that she does to the way she combs her hair. Os course, girls are like boys, they succeed best in the occupation for which they have a natuial apti tude. In selecting one's lifework it is important to pick out some thing for which one has a turn and a liking, and which one enjoys do ing, but having once made this se lection. stick to it and learn to do that thing supremely well. That's the open sesame to suc cess, little sister. It's just doing things well, and whether it's learn ing how to write a legible hand, or singing grand opera, it’s up to the individual, if you have the deter mination and the energy, and the courage to work, and work, and work until you conquer your dif ficulty, and learn how to do that particular thing just right, you will succeed. Otherwise you will be a failure. It’s all up to you. might just see the ring against the sky on a white background: but the diamond would be invisible. Come up here, get the 16-tnch telescope, try it and the diamond sphere could not be seen. Go get a 40 or 60-inch telescope, still the diamond would not come into view. Then get a 3.000,000-candlepower electric arc searchlight, and by means of a big lens concentrate the light on the diamond: then a much smaller telescope would re veal it. Go to the giant star-sun, Sirius, the dog star; take a very large tel escope with you, turn around and look back this way. Then the orbit of the earth a ring 186.000,000 miles in diameter would appear to be as three inches in diameter viewed from 9.31 miles. And the sun as the l-71st of an inch in diameter.