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THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday
Ry THE GEORGIAN COMPANY
At 20 East Alabama St., Atlanta, Ga.
Entered as second-class matter at postoffice at Atlanta, under act of March 3. 1878.
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What Sort of Ambition
Should a Man Have?
» » at
The Ambition TO KNOW HIS POWERS, to Know THEIR
LIMITATIONS, and to Work Accordingly.
One of our readers asked the editor whether he thought ambi
tion worth while, whether a man is not as well “if he remains in the
humhle place and station of his birth.”
We replied the other day to the extent of a column in a collec
tion of words that perhaps suggested to some the Scriptural quota
tion: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowl
edge !”
In that editorial of generalities there was not room to be precise
as to what specific character ambition should lake on. We shall try
to enter more into detail now. t
Is a man happy “if he remains in the humble place and station
of his birth?" Our reader asked that question.
A man may find in the lonely cottage, or the village, or the big
city street of his birth full opportunity to develop all his powers, to
do all the good that is IN HIM. to utilize wisely the uplifting force
that we call ambition.
As a general proposition, however, a cultivated and civilized
human being, like a cultivated and civilized shade tree, demands
occasional transplanting. Man s destiny is to move about on the
face ot the earth. If he sits in one spot like a tree or a gooseberry
bush, he doesn't give himself a full chance.
It is good for the country boy to go into the city. It is good for
the city boy to go into the country- it is good for each to study that
which he has not seen.
As to the man remaining in the ‘ station of his birth," that is
impossible.
At his birth a human being is little bptter than a mass of putty.
He is a poor, almost bald, toothless, deaf and blind little creature,
unable to do anything for himself. Erotn this "station of his birth."
which is a condition of absolute helplessness and uselessness, he may
develop to be one of the great men of the world. Or he may stop
and pass his life at any one of a million intermediate stations. He
may stop off in his progress, so to speak, at the first station, which is
that of physical development and commonplace life.
We all feel within ourselves a force stirring vaguely, indefi
nitely. We want to do something, and that desire to 1)0 something,
if it is based on honesty, on a sound desire to be useful to other peo
ple in the world, may properly be called ambition.
The successful, ambitious human being is the one that MAKES
THE BEST’I’OSSIBLE USE OF HIS OR HER POWERS.
The world is full of a perverted emotion which is improperly
Called ambition.
That perverted ambition is selfishness, the vanity, the baseless
egotism that makes us refuse to do useful work that we might do
because it does not seem important enough to our vain idea of our
selves.
The young girl should be ambitious in the fu.ture ami in the
present.
As to her future ambitions, she may let her mind roam as far as i
she will If she wants to think of marrying a king, or marrying the
little boy around the corner and making a king of HIM by her in
fluence, let her do so. If she wants to think that she will combine
the powers of Rachel, Jenny Lind and Bernhardt that won't hurt
her.
But she must have an ambition right in the present a definite
ambition.
She must make up her mind that she will do what she can to be
useful in the house where she lives, and to SET A GOOD EX
AMPLE wherever she may be.
The young boy should be ambitious also
And while he dreams occasionally of being president of the
1 nited States, or making the first good Hying machine, he must
base for his present ambit ion something simpler and more feasible.
It his people are pool, the highest ambition he can have is to
support himself and help THEM.
If they are makinga sacrifice to give him an education that will
help all of them later, the boy s ambit ion should be to do evervt hing
in his work to be worthy of the kindness and the opportunity thev
are giving him.
Every boy atid young man and young woman should have an
ambition to understand the public affairs of the country, and. if pos
sible. to have some influence upon them.
The great thing about the Republic in which we live, one that
we 100 often forget, is that ALL OF THE POWER LIES IN \LL
OF THE PEOPLE.
Every boy and girl and young man and woman should study
political affairs, understand public questions and be ambitious, in a
little or a big nay. to help make this land, which monev is now al
lowed to control, a genuine republic, (It >VERN ED IN 'l’ll E I N'TER
ESTSOF THE PEOPLE.
It is proper that young men and women should have a reason
able desire to accumulate money Poverty is slavery.
• Inly Hie greatest genius can d o real w ork in the face of poverty,
and io do it he must be content to endure suffering and humiliation.
•■.very young man should have a good, honest ambition to make
a reasonable fortune, to put himself ami those dependent on him be
yond the reach, of want, beyond the whims of some other human
being.
But the making of money should be a secondary ambition. It is.
properly speaking, not ambition at all only a development of the
instinct of self-preservation.
The real thought of each of us should dwell on the possibility
of doing something entirely new which will be of benefit to all of the
world—or of doing EXTREMELY WELL something that is neces
sary.
Encourage vour own ambition, nurse it. AND M ARK OUT \
DEFINITE COURSE FOR IT.
A man can no more sail through life without a compass a guid
ing, directing will—than a ship can sail across the ocean without a
needle pointing in one direction all the time.
You may change your course; you may find as your abilities
develop that y ou must change your plans.
Don t be afraid or ashamed to change the course of vour ambi
tion
Bl T HAVE A PLAN, and stick to it until you make up your
mind that it was wrongly selected.
And remember this. No man is worth his salt who does not trv
to do something that will help OTHERS. Everything that we enjoy
on this earth comfort, luxury we owe to the ambition of the
unselfish, brave men that lived hero before us. Try to be like them.
| m a big or a little way, and good luck to you
The Atlanta Georgian
WEDNESDAY. SEPTE MB ER 11, 1912,
| “No; Got All the Help I Need”
Drawn By HAL COFFMAN.
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Here you see the effect of child labor on the CHILD and on the JOB SEEKER; not forget- 5
; ting its very different effect on the manufacturer who employs it. ?
P. _ - ... i
1 he Price of Pleasure
By DOROTHY DIX.
r’T'xH 11 other day the papers print-
| ed a story that had in it a
lesson and a warning that
every girl who read it should take
to herself.
This was the story of a girl who
was a good girl, who belonged to
a most respectable family witli
whom she lived and who was at
work making her own honest liv
'ing, but site loved pleasure and
gayety. just as even girl does,
and she wafln’t as wist to the dan
gers that beset a gill in a great
city as a girl should be.
So this pretty, foolish young girl
let a good-looking, well dressed
masher speak to her on the street
under the pretense that he thought
he recognized her, and then, a/he
apologized in a graceful manner,
she permitted him to walk home
with her. He looked like a gentle
man to her unsophisticated eyes,
and when lie asked her to go auto
mobile riding with him the next day
the temptation to go spinning over
the roads on a hot summer even
ing. as she saw other girls doing,
was too much for her, and she ac
cepted his invitation.
The next evening the man drove
up in a beautiful car. and the girl,
nil smiles and happiness, and Joy
ous anticipation, fluttered Into it,
and they drove rfway, and that was
the last that her family saw of her’
until three or four days later when
a poor, broken, hollow-eyed crea
ture staggered home, and fell,
fainting, across her doorsteps, cry
ing out she wished she was dead.
Tlte doctor said she had been
drugged, and she herself can tell
nothing of what happened on that
fatal ride except that they stopped
for a drink, ami that the next thing
that she remembered was that she
I was in some dreadful house from
which she had just sense enough
to escape, and that some woman
there gave her an old waist to put
on in place of the pretty clothes
that had been taken from her.
The Price She Paid.
This was the price that one girl
was called upon to pay for a bit of
pleasure. Innocence and happi
ness, for an hour's spin in an au
tomobile- it's a pretty poor bar
gain. isn’t it, girls? Yet how
many of you are tempted to make
just as losing a trade as this poor
girl did for the sake of just as
fleeting an amusement! •
Os course. you don't put it that
way to yourself. You don't figure
it out You don't try to balance
accounts with what you want to
do and what the results may be.
All young people are plungers
The.v take what they wan! with t
reckless disregard of t on#e<iuences,
believing that s»ni<ii«n or other
I they all going to is tpe having
to pay the piper. Or that the
score will be light
But they never do, and the bill is
always heavy, for wom
_ en. In the end every woman set
tles her account with life to the
last penni; and for everything that
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DOROTHY DIX.
she has gotten .she pays, and if
there is anything that she should
not have had, she pays for it with
tears, and sorrow, and shame.
The saddest thing on earth is
that when nature gives us tastes
and desires, fate does not always
give us tile means to gratify them.
This Is the tragedy of life, and es
pecially it is the tragedy of poverty.
The working girl on a $5 or $lO or
sls salary has precisely tile same
yearning for pretty clothes, for gay
ety, for companionship, as does the
rich> girl with a hundred or two
hundred-dollar allowance.
The rich girl has her home, her
social circle where she may meet
young men properly; she has her
mother to chaperon her. and so
she may indulge her natural de
sire for pleasure and for mascu
line society safely.
The working girl often has no
home but a hall bedroom: no place
to receive men company except in
an overcrowded little flat or on the
street. She has no way to meet
young men; no amusement save
the dance hall, or a cheap excur
sion: no mother, or a mother too
hard worked to look after her. In
these conditions lies Ker danger.
She craves diversion after her
dull day's work in office or store
and the temptation to take it
without counting the cost is great.
It is the greatest in Summer when
the balann of the world is amus
ing itself, and so 1 say with all the
■ ■ irnestness that I can command,
don t pay too high a price for your
fun. girls.
Because you are bored and lone
ly, don't pick up the acquaintance
on a park bench of some good
looking youth of whom you know’
nothing except that he has a glib
tongue, and is dressed like a
ready-made clothing advertise
ment. It may be very amusing
and romantic tis flirt with him and
meet him by appointment under
a certain tree every evening, and
it may thrill you for him to hold
your hand and kiss you in the
moonlight, but just count up the
cost of the entertainment.
Those kind of affairs don't end
at the altar, girls. That's not the
way men get acquainted with girls
they mean to marry. With the
first cold blast of Autumn your
t butterfly lover will fade away, and
leave you, perhaps with a broken
heart grieving over the man who
looked like a gentleman and wasn't
one. There are no wolves in the
forest so dangerous as those two
legged wolves in sheep’s clothing
who prowl around the city in Sum
mer seeking pretty maidens whom
they may devour.
And there's the temptation to go
off on the excursion, girls. Some
times they are all right, and some
times they are not. Sometimes you
get in with a gay and hilarious
crow d who are whooping things up
and drinking to much, and you trail
along because you don’t want to be
a %poil sport, and high spirits are
contagious and you think it won’t
hurt, for once.
You .can't afford girls. Believe
me. such pleasures as that come
too high and that many a girl who
indulges in one such frolic spends
the balance of her life in repent
ing it.
Don't Listen to Him.
Then there's the temptation of
the automobile. When they were
first put on the market they were
called, in the slang of the day,
“devil’s wagtins.” They are still all
that, and some more, when some
old rounder with pouchy eyes and
a leery look tells you that his
wife's away and asks you if you
won't ride out with him to a lit
tle madhouse he knows where you
can have dinner on the terrace.
Your nerves are racked with the
heat and work, and nothing else
could seem so alluring as the
thought of speeding away from
blistering streets to shady coun
try roads, but before you go count
the cost, and see if the price isn't
prohibitive.
There's nothing for nothing in
this world. For everything we get
we must pay. .Inst remember that,
and don't bux your fun at a price
that will,leave jou a bankrupt.
THE HOME PAPER
Reducing the
Living Cost;
How We
Keep It High
&
Problems Which the Citi
zen Must Study If He
Wants to Cut His Bills.
Beginning of High
Prices Not Due to Na
tional Causes.
By THOMAS TAPPER.
i.
THE cost of living is the best
advertised subject of the
present Jme. Its popular
ity will continue. It interests ev
erybody who spends money; more
particularly those who have to earn
the money before they spend it.
College boys 0:1 a regular allow
ance are not worrying’.
They tell us in books and maga
zines that the purchasing power of
the dollar has steadily fallen, until
what it can do for us as compared
with what It did for our grand
fathers Is a shameful difference.
They point out in papers and
magazines what may he the causes
of the weakness that has assailed
the dollar as its worst disease.
Some of these causes are: (1) The
over-production of gold; (2) the
control of corporations; (3) the
government purchase of railways;
(4» the necessity for getting divi
dends on watered stock out of the
general public.
Read each one of these causes
* again, slowly.
You Are a Voter.
You are a voter. You have been
told about the dignity that the
franchise bestows upon you. That
dignity is a real thing. Your Amer
ican citizenship is held up to you
as a great possession. It is a great
possession. The power of your vote
has been sung to you for years.
And it has power.
But, on the other band —(1) You
have a home in which your interest
is centered; (2). you have a job that
takes your attention all day long;
(3) you have a body that needs rest
all night long.
Now, what can you do today be
tween sunrise and sunset to make
dealers sell you the necessities of
life at a cheaper rate than you paid
yesterday?
You are probably convinced that
you can do nothing. And you are
pretty near right.
But still you are interested in the
cost of living, because you find it
harder and harder to make both
ends come near each other. Must
you sit down and take what they
hand out to you, or can you do
something about it some time?
You probably can do something,,
or help to do something.
Two problems are before you:
1. An interest in your own affairs.
2. An equal interest in public af
fairs.
You will never make good with
the contents of the pay envelope if
you dodge either of these.
The first means an intelligent
administration of your own affairs
NOW.
The second means an equally in
telligent administration of your af
fairs as a citizen AEL THE TIME.
The Parting—A Dialogue
By CHESTER. FIRKINS.
A so it's all over; tomorrow
Your motor will whisk you away.”
‘‘l don’t think twill briny much sorrow;
A ou ve boon so—so stupid today!”
I “I m sorry: I ought to be jolly;
lt.s been my best summer —and you—”
“Oh. what do [ matter? What folly!
< Os course, as vou say, it's all through.”
‘‘By Jove! But I wish it WAS easy;
A man doesn't take things that way.”
I "No. Men just grow tired and freezy,
And say, ‘Lovely summer—good-day. ’”
‘ Why, Polly, you don’t mean I've hurt you-:
You don't mein to say that you CARE!”
• ‘‘No. no. no! I hate you! You flirt, you!
I—don't —see- -how—ever—you—dare !”
\ou do!—No, you CAN'T! Why. I've told you;
I'm only beginning; I'm POOR!”
“Co on then; I'm not going to hold you;
1 II not be your burden, I'm sure!”
B\ Heaven, you SHALL be! I love vou!
1 don t care a rap for your gold.”
‘ Dick! Slop it! How impudent of you!
dearest \\ hv \\ ERE vou so eold"
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n.
These statements ■are true:
1. The necessities of life cost
more than formerly.
2. Wages have not increased as
rapidly as the cost of living has in
creased.
Which Will We Do First?
But these statements are also
true:
1. The moving picture shows are
crowded every night.
2. The slot machines are full of
pennies.
3. Saloon keepers are not failing,
4. The tobacco companies are
paying large dividends.
5. The brewery output of New
York city alone is reported to be
sixty-four millions a year, and still
rising.
The first question, then, is this
Shall we begin to reduce the high
cost of living, or shall we begin to
study THE COST OF HIGH LIV
ING?
Both these questions are right at
the front door, like hungry wolves.
Which must be killed first?
It has been stated repeatedly—
and probably with truth—that the
automobile craze has mortgaged
more homes, furniture, jewelry,
clothing, furs and the like than
any other form of extravagance.
Now, an automobile, on these
terms, to a man of three or four
thousand a year, is no more extrav
agant than many small forms of
temptation are to a shop girl on
three dollars and a half a. week.
But we must have some fun
some time.
Certainly. But don’t take it out
in trouble.
111.
Undoubtedly, the first wolf to kill
the one that answers to the name
of the COST OF HIGH LIVING.
Once that animal is out of the wai
it will be easier to get down to
business, and to see what is in
volved in killing the other—the
high cost of living.
The Trouble Is Individual.
The. beginning of the trouble Is
not national. It is individual. We
are, most of us, poor administra
tors of our mopey and our time. In
short, extravagance is in the air
and we all catch the disease. A
man into whose family there
comes twelve thousand dollars per
annum told me that when he had
to bt*y a new suit, he didn't kno"
where to get the monev to pay the
bill.
But he has an automobile, a
house in town, and a house out of
town.
Noh. comparatively few earn
twelve thousand dollars per v< i>.
but a great many do not know hov
to pax for a new suit when they
need it.
Probably there is something in
the cost of high living, after all.
