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THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
- • Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday
V'.IJ . . v By THE GEORGIAN COMPANT
At 20 East Alabama St., Atlanta, ‘
Entered aa second-elaee matter at postoft.ee at Atlanta, under aet of Mareh I. 1170.
•übscriptlen Prlc*—Delivered by carrier. 10 eents a weak. By mail. |5 00 a year.
Payable In advance.
How to Have Good Luck
Always
». at at
You Will AH Read This. Although Yon Know, or You Ought to
Know, There Is No Such Thing as “Good Luck ”
GIPSY LUCK.
A Mt n' enwee’ts rrwss me pelrn Then .’put. a wijite stone into yer
«-• •a. y « . pack.
So • • • nr>» t-o 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 '•aggt'l
The-Gipey Luck I’ll learn ye. thing.
An' still be barefoot goin .
Tell need a etaff from a As ye count, nine nights in a fairy,
lopped. ring,
Where one ye loved he lyin'; The first nine stars a-showin’.
An. to stick in yer cap. a feather
dropped I Then, though all earth an’ heaven
From d bird" atxive ye flyin'. above ,
Sends, none to help or henfl ye„
Rex sling yer old shoes over yer Just a«k what ye list, or seek' yer
back love,
» An' can-v a four-leaf clover; An’ the Gipev Luck'll lead ye.
A
Wp are all interested when somebody talks of “luck. ’’
Probably ten thousand individuals have told how 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. 't - uv’sas ..... . j .
Almost every human being has superstition!
Gamblers are made up of superstition, because gambling re
quires no real effort of the intellect.
Ignorance ig made up of superstition, because superstition re
places knowledge in the mind as weeds take the place of gram in an
abandoned field.
Ninety-nine out of one hundred of those who see this newspaper
will at least begin to read this editorial,’“betanse'- itvtalks 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 hick
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 he lucky." half, at least, would stop
reading it.
Yet it is easy for the average man or woman io he 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
1 t 1 t - E.» 1.
cholera—devastated England thousands had tattooed on their arms
the mystic word “abracadabra."
Those that had it got the qholera 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 w ith 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 eon
fact 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 fight the 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, 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
-his world, a few hundreds of centuries at the most—everything
was attWMited to luck or magic, to. good ?>r. evil spirits.
Our savage ancestors went about loaded down with charms
•»f 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 United States today by advertising
lhe sale of “lucky stones" or other talismans. But if a man should
" annouhee the distribution of real knowledge..of facts in regard to
health, education and work that will Actualh- 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 out 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 he bribed on a cash basis
We arc far still f rom the real civilization and knowledge which
are our destiny.
t. - -
The Atlanta Georgian
A GIRL’S VIEW OF POLITICS
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This cartoon was suggested by Nell Brinkley and drawn by Tad. It shows that woman's
I touch can even the prosaic beautiful.
HOW TO BUILD A FORTUNE
SOMETHING has already been
said about the value of small
sums of money saved regu
larly. To cite one instance again:
Five cents a day amounts in ten
years, at four per cent compound
interest, to a trifle over Two Hun
dred and Twenty Dollars.
But there is absolutely no way in
the wbrld of making a man prefer
tn haw Two Hundred and Twenty
Dollars ten years from now, al 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 saving's 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 mot Ing, 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
ifive time a chance Even men of
MO 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.
But it is hard for a man of 40 or
bO to accomplish this, and for this
reason:
It is difficult to establish a new
habit, that demands, regularity, so
late tntl<y. But if a man, of 50 has
ar>t>, gnd 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 hint on his nickels and
dimes
11.
Much old age poverty and want
are due to waste in early years.
We complain of taxes. But the
willingness with which we pay,*i»
taxes of our owti assessment is
amar.lng 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
as to believe the lying reasons wa
give for* our own poverty.
Back of countless old people who
have nothing stretch years of im
providence. 8o 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 with a little extra change
in his pocket can buy a lot of
things he does not need. If lie does
buy thorn, he has paid a tax on his
habit of waste. He may be skilled
in earning money, hut he i« a flat
failure in governing hi' own use
of it
The man-spoke truly who said:
"If every man who sports an auto
mobile only by having mortgaged
his furniture and his w ife s furs
had to state that fact on his li
| censt number plate, there would a*
TUESDAY. SEPTEMBER 3, 1912.
No. 7.—Taxes
By THOMAS TAPPEIL '
fewer of them in the streets.”
This is paying taxes on vanity.
Many a man at Ton 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 hks wages. An
unwise man, with a love for dis
play, can be awfully foolish on Ten
Thousand Dollars a yefth and a.
man on Fifteen Dollars a week can
he very wise. It a]) depends op
whether self-government ha.s been
set up and the man knows how he
stands every night.
tn.
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, American-lournal-Examiner.
("Since Sirius crossed the Milky Way, sixty thousand years have gone
—Garrett P. Serviss.)
CRINGE Sirius crossed the Milky Way.
Full sixty thousand years have gone.
Yet hour by hour, anil 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 spleijdid' 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 Mars.
And Saturn with the beauteous rings.
There may be students of the Cause
Who their revelations out.
" A.tjfl formulate their codes of laws.
With lieavens for faith and hells for doubt.
OtV planets old ere form or place
Was,lent to earth, may dwell—who knows?—
A 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 hale
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 bid him stay.
No mortal man may speed him on.
No mortal mind may comprehend
What is beyond, what was before;
To God he glory without end.
~ . - Let man be humole 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
IIAVE reeciveri 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
J have lost each one because my
handwriting is so bad. What shall
1 do?”
Learn how 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,
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
Egyptian hleroglyhics.
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, js 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 worn, 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 th,? 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. Camogie.
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.
T 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
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
By DORO
THY DIX
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 ?
without ever learning how to make
bread, or boil a potato properly, and
will still wonder why they arc al
ways changing places.
I know dressmakers who admit
that they are bad fitters, yet they
go on ruining people’s cloth y <
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
100 indolent to correct It. A n j
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-cla-s wo k
if you can do that you can write
your own price lag for it.
M hy can one dres-smaket get J 75
for making a gown while another
can only get $5?
Becg.p§e one woman turned out.
sloppy work and the oilier turps
out a pet feet 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 lias raised<4he an of
cookery to a science, and the othi -
never takes the trouble to learn
even the rudiments of ft.
Willing To Pay.
Why can one stenographer com
mand a high salary while the tow.n
Is overrun -with girte- who are al
ways advertising for job? Be
cause busy men are willing to 1 ■
for expert work that is alwnvs
right, and nobody wants to pay f..
bungling, blundering work that is
full of ill-spelt words and erasu:»s.
and that can never be depended
upon for accuracy.
It pays to learn how to do things
well. little sister. It pays to br n n
the Job. and if you know wherein
you fall to make good you’ve got a
signboard pointing you to the ways
of success. Just correct your fau ;
and make of your weakness your
strength.
Don’t say you can’t write, nr you
can’t spell, or you can’t add up fig
ures, or you can’t cook, or yon
can’t sew, because you can if you
Want to. Any girl with ordina '
intelligence and a particle of back
bone in her body can make hers? '
an expert in any or these lines if
she will give it half the time and
trouble and serious thought that
she does to the wa.y she combs her
hair.
Os course, girts a?e like boy«
they succeed best in the occupation
for which they have a natural 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’* the open sesame to suc
cess, little sister. It’s just doinc
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 thr
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-inc,h 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 t- '•
escope with you, turn around an l
look back this way.
Then the orbit of the earth. ’
ring 186.000.000 miles in diamet
would appear to be as three ini i
in diameter viewed 'from
mile . And the sun as th l-7lst
of an meh in diameter.
