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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-class matter at postofTlce at Atlanta, under act of March 3,18 TS
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Melancholy and Quick
Lunch
Accordinj? to Professor Juns?, one of the country’s best
known authorities on gastronomies, the question of when, how
and what to eat is one of the most serious problems confronting
the nation.
“The health and happiness of our men and women.“ he
says, “rest on the abolition of the quick lunch counter: for as a
result of improper food, improperly eaten, comes melancholy,
and after meloncholy nearly anything. Bring hack the good old
home cooking; let a wife's love for her husband be borne out
by her cooking. - '
Says Meredith: “Civilized man can not live without cooks.”
Professor Jung recommends that every man learn to cook for
himself. *
The trouble with most of ns is that we sit down to a meal
M we go to the dentist’s chair. The hour comes for eating and
we eat ; the process is regarded as an evil to he ended as
quickly as possible. We do not think or care what we are eat
ing; we talk incessantly, we swallow without chewing and we
get up with an air of a martyr as though we would say,
“There, that's done.”
Professor Jung’s recipe for conquering the problem is worth
noting:
“Assume a pleasant frame of mind before eating; think
cheerful and happy thoughts before each mouthful, for. as Pro
fessor Pavlow says, the beginning of digestion is a psychic im
pulse.
“Don’t talk too much; forget everything except that you
are going to eat and intend to enjoy it.”
Then you will emerge smiling—not a prey to indigestion
and the blues.
, Crusade Against the Hobble
Throughout the West the hobble skirt has come in for gen
eral condemnation. Ministers and club women unite in calling
it immodest.
The Civic League of Chicago voices its protest in the fol
lowing resolution sent to the chief of police:
“Clean men constantly condemn by word and act men who
speak to girls and women or treat them in such manner as they’
would not tolerate from any man toward their own sister, sweet
heart. wife, or mother.
“Men and women alike insist upon a decent standard of
dress among girls and women becoming, charming, but not sug
gestive. and insist that no girl or woman who is a true, thought
ful lady' will dress suggestively.”
“Year by year and month by mouth.” says Miss Baleomb,
president of the league, “the garb of women has been growing
shorter and tighter.”
Bishop Dowling of the Catholic Diocese of Des Moines, de
clares that the present styles are astounding. He thinks, how
ever. that American women do not wear modern clothes to be
immodest, but to follow the dictates of fashion.
“Women’s gowns.” he declares, “grow more immodest every
year because they are designed in a country which is frankly
immoral.”
In Omaha the Women's <lnh will visit all dressmakers to
urge them to discourage the making of tight gowns. Merchants
will be asked not to sell objectionable dresses, and women who
wear clothes which make them objects of marked attention will
be requested to put on more modest attire.
Women should regard this growing agitation as a compli
ment. In no country are they so looked up to by husbands,
fathers, brothers and sweethearts as here. It is unfortunate that
they’ should do anything to forfeit this respect which once lost
is hard to regain.
Yet the tight skirt is bringing about this very result. Since
women pride themselves upon their advance in all the mental
as well as physical attributes, why should they recklessly throw
away one of their chief charms- -modesty ?
It is a question demanding their consideration.
i ~
Latent Powersof the Schools
Last October the Social Center Association of America was
organized at a national convention held at Madison under the
auspices of the University of Wisconsin. Governor Wilson was
the principal national figure on that occasion.
On the 23d of next October the second annual convention of
the association is appointed to be held at the University' of Kansas,
with_a special rally at the great convention hall in Kansas City,
Missouri.
This movement is trying to help the American people to realize
greater dividends on its enormous investment in public schools.
Its leaders insist that the public school system of the United
States is the nation's partnership or incorporation of the arts and
sciences—its inheritance of all the powers of the mind, derived
from many ages of history in many lands These powers of the
mind consist of all the inventions and discoveries of the past, all
the good ways of doing things that have been handed down to our
time and country from the world at large and from the generations
•that are gone.
Most of the wealth of the I nited States has been produced
through the application of this heritage of common knowledge to
the bare lands of this continent.
The land has, for the most part, passed out of the immediate
control of the commonwealth But the vast, the inexhaustible
powers of knowledge are still a part of the public domain. This
domain is ruled over by the public school house. It seems to be
the mission of the Social (’enter Association of America to awaken
the people to a fuller knowledge of these latent powers.
The Atlanta Georgian
WEDNESDAY. SEPTEMBER 4. 1912.
© ® A Mystery of the Far East © ©
The Wonderful Description of a Snake Charmer in Nigeria
Who Handles Deadly Reptiles With Freedom
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Ready to Strike.
By CAPT. D. H. MAC DONELL.
AT Sokoto, in Northern Nigeria,
there lives a man named Da
dali, who is a “snake charm
er" in the true sense of the word.
This man is a naturalist who, it
would seem, has the power of
catching and handling poison
snakes and scorpions without fear
of danger.
Dadali was well known to the
Europeans at Sokoto; but it was
believed that the snakes he han
dled had been tamed or drugged.
This tnan got into trouble and was
put In Jail. After he had been in
prison more than a month, the
British Resident went to him and
asked if he could catch and handle
a snake if he were taken to any
place which the Resident should
choose. Dadali agreed to do this,
and was taken under guard to a
swamp at some little distance from
the station, where snakes were to
be found. After some search and
digging a black cobra was driven
out of its hole. Dadali sprang to
it. s< ized it in his hand ami brought
it to the Resldeiyt. It is not possi
ble that this man. who had been
more than a month in prison,
could have arranged to recapture
a tame snake in such a place, and
without having the knowledge be
forehand that he would be called
upon to do such a thing
A Wonderful Feat.
Some little time afterward Dadali
brought a large black cobra, over
five feet long, to the compound of
the writer. This snake he handled
with the utmost freedom, teaming it
until the reptile got angry and sat
up hissing, spreading out its hood,
while the native servants kept a
most respectful distance. (See
photograph.)
Dadali then (probably for the
benefit of the native servants)
dared the white man to pick up
the cobra. 1 called my native sol
dier servant and told him to lo id
Woman and the Economic Problem
I T is ths fashion with certain
writers nowadays to call every
woman who does not earn her
living outside of the home, "a para
site."
This term of reproach is even be
ing applied to the wife and mother
who cooks and scrubs and sews
and mends and baby tends, and who
works eighteen hours out of the
24 at the never-ceasing labor of
making a home and rearing a fam
ily. To the lay mind it would seem
that if anybody on the face of the
earth earns her hoard and keep,
and is not a dependent, but a self
supporting member of society, it Is
such a woman.
This appears, however, tn he an
erroneous view of the matter and
the poor domestic drudge who
works herself to death in her own
home is being denounced in scath
ing term- as a parasite, a despic
able leech who lives on her hus
band. and pei mils herself to lie
supported by him
it is a bromide to say that the
welfare of humanity rests upon the
stability of the home, and that the
woman who brings up noble sons
ami daughters has made the most
precious gift possible to the world.
It can do nothing but harm to
teach this woman that he: work is
not worth while, that It is without
dignity, and that she who is only
wife and mother is a figure of con
tempt.
The majority of women are only
too much of that opinion already.
And in that attitude lies the great
tragedy of the average woman's
life. Iler pork of making a home,
of making a man's happiness and
comfort, of rearing children, has
never been recognized as the great
est work to which any human be
ing may turn a hand, as the great
est career that am ambition might
pursue, or even as ju-t a plain
trade that was worth paying for
When this
snapshop was
taken it was
hissing, its
tongue darting
in and out and
its hood dis
ended.
. i V
wWi ’■■
Tire picture
above shows
Dadali and a
small cobra.
Although very
small this cobra
was no less
deadly than the
big one shown
in the other
pictures.
his carbine, and said In the na
tive tongue; "I am going to pick
up that snake. If it bites me, shoot
that man," Indicating Dadali. The
snake charmer was then asked if
he still wished the cobra to be
touched, upon which lie laughed
and said:
Handling the Snake.
‘‘Pick the snake up>—if you do
not fear." 1 then picked up the
cobra, taking hold about the mid
dle of its body. Tile creature kept
quite still while it was being lift
ed, writhing its head gently in the
air. while tiie snake charmer kept
in front of it. It is probable that
thisi man was capable of exerting
some kind of mesmeric power over
snakes and possibly something in
his sense of touch enabled him to
handle thejp without their wishing
to hurt him.
I have seen him take four or five
poison snakes out of the pocket of
his robe, holding the wriggling hand
ful as if they had been a bundle of
sticks, while the bite of any one of
the snakes that he held meant death
In something under half an hour.
Tiie photographs were taken by
myself at a distance of about six
feet from the snake, after it had
been made angry. In one it w ill be
seen that tiie cobra has its mouth
just open and is in tiie act of
striking.
With regard to this. Professor
Boulenger writes: “The snake is,
no doubt, Naia nigricollis, a com
mon species in Nigeria, of which I
have on two occasions received ex
amples from Sokoto, It Is known as
Bv DOROTHY DIN
Wo actually sneak of the woman
who is engaged in this tremendous
labor as being “supported” by her
husband. We regard her as a de
pendent. and she has no financial
status. She draws no wage for her
services, and even the government
census report refuses to enroll her
among those women who are en
gaged in "gainful occupations."
No wonder the indiscriminating
and those without a sense of hu
mor call her a parasite! No won
der that she even looks upon her
self as one!
With their growing freedom in
other matters it becomes more and
more humiliating to wives to be
forced to go to their husbands and
ask. like beggars, for every penny
they spend. Every woman with her
own pocketbook tills the woman
with no pocketbook with an envy
that turns her thoughts toward the
outside world. The wife knows that
she labors harder than the business
or professional woman, and that her
services are better worth paying
for. and she rebels at the injustice
that makes her a dependent, sub
ject to the whims of her husband.
It does not take any prophet to
foresee that the job of wife has got
to have a pay envelope attached to
it hereafter, or else women will fol
low the advice of those who tell
them to put their children in
creches, or some other kind of in
stitution designed for incubating
human chicks, and that they will go
away from home and follow some
pursuit that will furnish them with
at least enough money to preserve
their own self-respect
This would be a most unfortunate
state of affairs, since the consensus
of experience shows that no scien
tific care of children can take the
(dace of mothering, and also that
women succeed best in the occupa
tions that belong to them by reason
of their sex
the ‘spitting snake’ of West Africa,
being in the habit of ejecting pois
on through its fangs, often at a
Considerable distance. In his work
on Liberia. Sir Harry Johnston has
the following remarks on this much
dreaded reptile:
"Naia nigricollis is not infre
quently seen in native villages,
which it visits on account of the
rats and other vermin that form
Its food. The snakes frequent the
Getting Angry.
thatch more especially, and do not
generally interfere with human be
ings unless first attacked. Even
then, instead of striking with
their fangs, they seem to prefer to
eject the venom by compression of
the muscles of the poison gland,
so that . . . The natives say
that the snakes aim at the eyes,
and that if the venom enters the
eye it causes a very severe inflam
mation. but nothing worse.-
“‘One fact is certain (from my
own observation,) that fhese Afri
can cobras are very slow to strike
with their fangs. I have once or
tw ice trodden on one, and the snake
his rapidly' withdrawn to a safe
distance, and then adopted its at
titude of menace.
Are Unwilling to Bite.
“The fact that some cobras are
unwilling to bite is corrobated by-
Mr. H. M. Ridley. Writing on the
Malay cobra know n as Naia sputa
trix, he observes that ‘When an
noyed, thte cobra sits up in the well
konwn manner and makes a very
curious snorting noise, holding its
mouth open in tiie form of a circle
and every now and then spitting
its saliva (read shooting its pois
on I at its opponent. It never at
tempts to bite, but spits witli great
accuracy, at a distance of feight
feet.’ “
As the man Dadali is a natural
ist. he is probably w'ell acquaint
ed with the behavior of the Sokoto
cobra. Many of tiie most poisonous
snakes, tiie Indian grait, for In
stance. can only be induced to bite
by inflicting actual pain on them
as when stepped upon, for instance.
It is folly to talk of any woman
snaking a real home, and being a
real mother in the fullest sense of
the term, and following a career, or
carry ing on a successful business at
the same time. No woman has the
health or the strength to do both,
to say nothing of the impossibility
of giving all of one's time, and
thoughts, and aspirations, and hopes
to two divergent things at the same
time.
No hired housekeeper, however
competent, no trained nurse, how -
ever skillful, no governess, how
ever faithful, can rake the place of
a w ife and mother in the household,
or give to a home just that brood
ing atmosphere of love and tender
ness that a home must have to be a
success. It takes the one woman in
all the world to whom the house is
the be-all and the end-all of life to
make the real home.
This is woman's ancient occupa
tion. the one she was ordained to by
nature, and in following which she
finds not only her greatest happi
ness. but her greatest profit, for
few women can support themselves
as comfortably as they live in their
husband's home.
But tile bread of independence is
sweet, and the cakes and ale of de
pendence bitter, and henceforth the
domestic woman's position in the
family must be recognized as that
of one of the partners in the firm,
not as a hanger-on. who takes what
stray coins are thrown her way. and
is expected to be grateful for being
supported.
In a word, wife and mother is
going to strike for her own. She is
tired of being called a parasite
when she works harder than any
body else in the family.
But if she ever gives up the cook
stove and the cradle for the desk
and the typewriter, it—'will be be
ta us< men have driven her to it.
THE HOME PAPER
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Writes on
The Indifference of
Most People To
ward Cruelty to
♦
Animals
Written For The Atlanta Georgian
By Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Copyright. 1912. by Arnerican-Journal-Examiner.
ITTILLIAM G. SPRAGUE, of
V V the American Humane as
sociation. offered a prize
for the best essay on “Humane
Education."
It was won by Mrs. Hugo
Krause, of Louisville. Ky.
Speaking of the indifference of
well born and well educated peo
ple toward lesser creatures. Mrs.
Krause says:
“Here are some of the forms
this indifference assumes. The cru
elties of commercial greed and av
arice. such as killing the animal
parent and leaving the young to
die of starvation and exposure.
Ten thousand seals die annually
of starvation because their moth
ers are killed in the breeding sea
son.’ — David Starr Jordan in Maf
ka and Kotik. Depriving the par
ent of its young and leaving the
parent to be consumed with the
agony of grief over its loss. ‘When
a mother loses her child her heart
gives a cry like the cry of a wild
beast; when a wild beast loses its
young' it gives a cry like that of a
human mother.’-—Victor Hugo in
’93.’’
The horrors of the Western
plains during the snow season —
so forcibly brought to public at
tention by tile action of the Amer
ican Humane association, in pro
curing photographs by a special
agent sent out for investigation.
Crowding cattle when transport
ing them in such away they can
not He, and keeping them thus 28
hours without rest, food or water.
The cruelty of trap and spring
pole. when the death of the dumb
victim comes after hours, some
times days. of suffering from
broken limbs, lacerated flesh and
the agony of fever and thirst
caused by these, not to mention
all the terror and fright endured.
Woman’s Vanity Causes
Much Useless Slaughter.
The vanity which leads to all
this trapping and hunting, the
adorning of the body with the
heads, claws, tails and skins of the
little furry brothers, the decking
forth with the beautiful plumage
of the kin of wood and glen.
The cruelty of sport w hen inno
cent and beautiful creatures like
deer, moose, wild song bird and
fish are sacrificed to the human
delight in slaughter and bloodshed.
Rut sacrificed to a still greater
degree when wounded and left to
die slowly of wounds and starva
tion.
The cruelties practiced in con
nection with the exhibition of trick
animals. Lions beater) over the
head with clubs till the blood flows
from nose and ears; horses, dogs
and cats whipped unmercifully in
being taught: elephants urged by
the jerk of an iron hook inserted
in the ear.
The neglect, indifference, igno
rance and cruelty of which domestic
animals are the victims.
And the crowd of cruelties per
petrated by man, the unmention
able secret crimes of the vivisec
tor’s laboratory.
These are the practices, not of
the ancient days of bloody sacri
fices, nor of the middle ages of
dark and secret ciimes, but of the
open, progressive, moral nine
teenth and twentieth centuries.
l-’or all this. Mrs. Krause thinks,
with every intelligent and kind
hearted being, that the remedy lies
with the mothers and teachers.
Sue suggests what has been said
in this paper many and many a
time, that Sunday schools should
teach children to love and under
stand animals, and tha ministers
should preach on this subject from
the pulpit, and that classes should
be formed to educate mothers how
to • dueate their children.
*
B# •'
I
OSK23J
Ana added to all this that:
Humane education should h, ,
part of the curriculum of the reg
ular school course.
First—Because of its value in
racial evolution, national progress
and individual development, as
set forth in the preceding para
graphs.
Reasons For Teaching
Humanity in Schools.
Second —Because this wou’d hr
the best means of extending hu
mane education to ALL CLASSES
of children, irrespective of er. . ’
class, nationality, etc.
Third —Because human educa
tion. when taught pedagogical I v
and correctly, is so closely related
and corelated to the other courses
essential to the curriculum that its
omission mars the presentation
the former.
Nature study, civics and ctlii. s
are so co.dated with humane edu
cation that to omit the latter i .
mar the presentation of the f. -
mor.
Fourth —Because educators a
generally advance guard In rr.
form measures, and arc. therefore,
the most easily approached an
convinced by argument for it
tablishment.
Until humane education Is ■<>
regularly constituted a part of th”
public school course in a commu
nity, those interested in its p .>-
motion should classify the city ...
community into districts with the
various schools as nuclei.
A place of meeting should be
selected in each district. Thes“
places might be a room in the pub
lie library, Y. M. C. A. building,
tiie school house, a church, private
home, hired hall, etc.
The children of the school or
schools which arc the centets d
the districts should be invited m
come to the respective me. to g
places and lite officials of ths
schools be urged to co-operate m
the work of their district.
Each group of children should
be under the guide-of a volunteer
worker in this great cau-,-. Ami
all the groups .Jio'tld I e under Hr
leadership of one general lead- r
m order to promote h irniony ii"i
a systematized unification of Up
work.
After organizing on the same gen
eral parliamentary plan througu
out the several districts, the work
should be carried out by following
a prepared outline, also uniform in
the main features throughout tin
districts. ,
Meantime, here is an cxeclEt'i
thing for every mother to do wlm
wants tier child to grow into u • •
ful. constructive and noble ma
turity, and to escape destructive
Ignoble and unworthy propensi
ties.
Literature About Birds
of Interest to Children.
Let her write to the Audubon
Society. 1974 Broadway, New York,
and ask for literature about bird
suitable to interest a child. She
must inclose a stamped and ad
dressed envelope, and then sli
must be willing to read this liter
ature and to give a little tim
daily talking with her . children
about it.
This society 1s organizing man)
thousands of school children and
other young people into class'-
for bird study, and aids in man;
other ways educational work along
the lines of bird study.
It publishes and dlstrlbui
thousands of illustrations of N r
American birds, accompanied by
leaflets containing tn popular for'i
a resume of the latest known fact
regarding the feeding habits '
general activities of the birds de
scribed.
It will show the mother how
be a factor for helping to nu» p
the world better In generation
come.
Be sure to send stamped en" ■