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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 eecond-class matter at postofflce at Atlanta, under act of March 8. 1873.
Subscription Price—Delivered by carrier, 10 cents a week. By mail, 85.00 a year.
Payable In advance.
How to Have Good Luck
Always
M « M
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’ tdbrer to cross me palm Than 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 som» ragged
The Gipsy Duck I’ll learn ya. thing.
An’ etill be barefoot goin',
Tell need a staff from a yaw-tree Ar ye count, nine nights, in a fairy
lopped, ring.
Where one ye loved be lyin’: The first nine stars a-showln’.
An’, to stick In yer cap, a featbe’
dropped Then, though all earth an' heaven
From a Mnd above ye firin'. above
Sends none to -help or h»ed ye,
Hex’, sling yer old shoes over yer Just ask what ye list, or seek yer
back love,
An’ carry a four-leaf clover; An' the Gipsy Duck’ll lead ye.
We are all interested when somebody talks of "hick.’’
Probably ten thousand individuals have told bow they "al
most’’ sailed on the Titanic, and how hick saved them.
‘‘Luck’’ did nothing of the kind, of course. They simply did
not SAIL.
Almost every human being has superstit ion '
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 nf those who see this newspaper
will at least begin to read this editorial, because it. talks about
"hick.’’
If we should proceed to toll 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 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 he
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 ‘‘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 “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.
‘‘LUCK’’ has nothing to do with it.
Yet in the East today the natives fight the cholera with charms
and incantations and religious appeals. They bathe in the Holy
Ganges, where putrefying 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 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 tight the scientists, denounce them
and accuse them of murder.
Yon 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.
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 hick or magic, to good or evil spirits.
Our savage ancestors went about loaded down with charms
• o 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 were all attributed to evil spirits
And there was always some cunning individual, even among
the ignorant, ready to invent an explanation, ready to create a re
ligion, 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
the sale of “lucky stones” or other talismans. But if a man should
announce the distribution of real knowledge, of facts in regard to
health, education and work that will actually give the results that
luek 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.
We are far still from the real civilization and knowledge which
are our destiny.
The Atlanta Georgian
A GIRL’S VIEW OF POLITICS
Ife
' J
T ■ 07'A-
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This cartoon was suggested hy Nell Brinkley and drawn by Tad. It shows that woman's
touch can make even the prosaic beautiful.
HOW TO BUILD A FORTUNE
No. 7.—Taxes
£-5 ' i.M ETHI N< I h.: already bcori
said about the value of small
.sums of money saved regu
larly. To cite one instance again:
live cents a day amounts in ten
years, at four per cent compound
interest, to a trifle over Two Hun
dred and Twenty Dollars.
Rut there is absolutely no way in
the world of making a man prefei
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 banks 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
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 he
will begin early enough in life and
give time, a chance. Even men of
40 and 50 can begin to 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.
Hut ft 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 has
a job. and Is in fair health, and Is
seared to death lest he be in want
at 70, he may be able to brace up
and give time a chance to work Its
wonders for him on his nickels and
di inc*.
H
Much old age poverty and want
are due to waste In early years
We complain of taxes. Rut the
willingness with which we pay
tuxes of our own assessment is
amazing. We pay willingly for
countless things we do not need.
When want pinches, 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.
Rack of countless old people who
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
and daily economy. Self-denial and
economy are common sense applied
to everybody’s money transactions.
A man witli 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 his
habit of waste. He may b> 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 who sports an auto
mobile only by having mortgaged
bis furniture and his wife's furs
bad to state that fact on his li
cense number plate, there would
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1912.
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.
HI.
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-Examiner
(“Since Sirius crossed the Milky Way, sixty thousand years have gone.
-Garrett P. Servins.)
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 he moved to 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 be brought
By pigmy creeds presumptuous man
Sends forth as God’s primeval thought.
Perchance from half a hundred stars
He hears as many curious things:
From Venus. Jupiter and Mai’s,
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 mat see souls
Whose span of earthly life is done.
Still .iourneying up to higher goals.
And on dead planets gray and cold
Grim spectral souls, that harbored hate
Life after life, he may behold
Descending to a darker fate.
And on his grand, majestic course
He may have eaught 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, v what was before;
To God he glory 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
I IAVE rcccivcH 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 Mo?’’
Learn how to w rite, little sister.
Get you a copy book, and pen and
ink, and sit down at a tabic and
never get up until you have mas
tered the art of chirography.
Spend hours, and days, and weeks,
if necessary, acquiring a plain and
legible handwriting. ’ Eat pot
hooks; dream upward slants and
downward slants, and curves, and
curiecues. Give every particle of
intelligence you’ve got, put every
ounce of determination in you to
learning to w rite, and, my word
for it, you will soon have Jim the
Penman looking like a carver of
Egy pt ian hieroglj hics.
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 t-he 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
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 self-made 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
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.
I know dozens of girl? who have
chosen stenography for a. profes
sion. who blandly say, "1 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
line fiber of silk in the center 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 sec it.
Get a good telescope and you
By DOROTHY DIX
learning to spell, and that they . ln
find the whole art of how to get
there in the dictionary. 1 | inw
cooks who have cooked for 40 yr d - f
without ever learning how to make
bread, or boil a potato properly, ar ,-
will still e wonder why they are < .
ways changing placer.
T know dressmakers who admit
that they are bad fitters, yet Lo
go on ruining people’s cloth y,
after year, and complaining abmi
the fickleness of customers w in,
never come back.
These women know where th
fault lies, but they are too lazy and
too Indolent to correct It. And
they are always poor and ill paid,
for there's just one kind of work
that commands a high price In the
market, and that is first-class wok
If you can do that you can write
your own price tag for it.
Why can one dressmaker get Jt;r,
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.
Mhy can one cook command t
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 otlu
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 arc
ways advertising for a job? Be
cause busy men are willing to i i>
for expert work that is alwaj
right, and nobody wants to pay f<>
bungling, blundering work that *
full of ill-spelt words and erasu < -
and that can never be depone
upon for accuracy.
It pays to learn how to do thing*
well, little sister. It pays to be on
the job, and if you know wherein
you fail to make good you’ve go
signboard pointing you to the w. j
of success. Just correct your fault -
and make of your weakness \
strength.
Don’t say you can’t write, or yri
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 y<■ >
want to. Any girl with ordina '
intelligence and a particle of baG.
bone in her body can make her e '
an expert in any of these lines '
she will give it half the time an-:
trouble and serious thought that
she does to the way she combs h. r
hair.
Os course, girls are like bo =
they succeed best in the occupation
for w hich they have a natural ap '-
tude. In selecting one's lifewmk
it is important to pick out som
thing for which one has a turn aG
a liking, and which one enjoys do
ing, but having once made this s- -
lection, stick to it and learn to <i"
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. "
singing grand opera, it’s up to th
individual. If you have the det. ’
mination and the energy, and I
courage to work, and work. air
work until you conquer your dif
ficulty, and learn how to do th.i
particular thing just right, yo-i
will succeed. Otherwise you wil
be a failure. It’s all up to you
might just see the ring against
sky on a white background:
the diamond would be invisible.
Come up here, get the 16-ii
telescope, try it and the diarm
sphere could not be seen. Go g<
40 or 60-inch telescope, still
diamond would not come into ' 1
Then get a 3.000,000-candlepo'
electric arc searchlight, and
means of a big lens concentr
the light on< the diamond; thet
much smaller telescope would
veal it.
Go to ttoe giant star-sun. Sir
the dog star; take a very large
escope with you, turn around
look back this way.
Then the orbit of the cart 1 '
ring 186,000,000 miles in diam
would appear to be as three in
in diameter viewed from
miles. And the sun as the l
of an inch in diameter.