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EDITORIAL PAGE THE ATLANTzX. GEORGIAN Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday By THE GEORGIAN COMPANY At 20 East Alabama St., Atlanta, Ga. Entered as second-class matter at postoftice at Atlanta, under act of March 3. 187 S. Subscription Price—Delivered by carrier. 10 cents a week. By mail, $5 00 a year. Payable In advance. The Gunmen of Atlanta r r r Any Way You View the * Pistol Toter” He Is An Undesirable Citizen. There have been ninnv unnecessary shootings in Atlanta * within the past few months - not a few of them fatal in conse quence. ATLANTA MUST RID ITSELF OF ITS GUNMEN. The “pistol toter” invariably is a coward. As a rule be is a loafer. Any way one views the “pistol toter.” he is an undesirable citizen He shoots when lie has the advantage, and rarely before. Nine times in ten his victim is infinitely more worth while than he! There is a certain quality of manhood in the fellow who. with a grievance to redress, resorts to his fists. There is no manliness in the sneak who arms himself with a concealed pistol and shoots when be thinks it safe—or when he is drunk. There was a .jfidge in northwest Georgia once who made himself a terror to “pistol toters.” and just about put them out of business in his vicinity by keeping everlastingly after them. He never charged a grand jury that he didn’t charge it specifically on the subject of “pistol toters.” He never got a chance to sentence one that he didn't give him the ultimate limit of the law! He made it plain to juries that he regarded the crime of “pistol toting’’ as one much more to be deplored and sternly suppressed than the crime of “blind tiger ing.” And he was pretty hard on “blind tigers,” at that ! This judge—his name is Wright, and he sat on the Rome bench—had the correct idea. Gunmen learn to leave their guns at home in communities where they KNOW the law will be relentlessly applied, if once they are brought to the bar of justice. Ihe “pistol toter has no taste for the judge ami the jury, particularly when he is assured in advance that no quarter will be shown him at their hands. Atlanta must not be known abroad as a city where gunmen » ply their calling unmolested, or in any wise unprotected. It must not be known as a city wherein life is cheaply held, NOR ONE WHEREIN COWARDS RESOLVED INTO WALKING ARSEN ALS ARE PERMITTED TO RUN AT LARGE. Atlanta does not realize, perhaps, how lax it has been with respect to the “pistol toter”—it has never stopped to count up the appalling instances of the “pistol toter s” work in this com munity. The courts of Atlanta should let it be known that “pistol toters” brought before them will be given all the law allows FROM THE CHAINGANG TO THE GALLOWS! And they should insist that every case of shooting -every criminal incident occurring, in which a “pistol toter” is involved shall be brought quickly to trial and severely punished. The law is ample against gunmen-—it should be sternly, im partially, and impersonally invoked when broken! THE SUPPRESSION OF THE GUNMEN OF ATLANTA TS SQUARELY UP TO THE AUTHORITIES. Doomed to Baldness If you could open your eyes suddenly five hundred years hence you would see many strange things, but perhaps the one that would cause you the most regret would he the universality of bald heads For. according io Dr. Wells, brain specialist, both men and women will be without a hair on their heads in that highly developed <ra. flnd more than that, baldness will be fashionable. This will be due to the brain activity of the American peo ple. who. with the French, already take the lead in the number of hairless heads. As the brain power develops the supply of hair lessens Within three centuries the male sex will have smooth pates, and two centuries thereafter a single hair on a woman’s lo ad will be a sign of lack of mentality. Merely a Suggestion . < >nce a day at least some letter sent to this office causes a consultation between experienced typesetters and others as to the letters contained in the name signed at the bottom of the letter. II is possible t<> GUESS names however interesting and important. There is an idiotic notion that illegible writing is a sign of genius ]' s. on the contrary, a sign of slovenly carelessness. We may not all be able to write interestingly, we ma\ not b< aide 1., hav. ideas of actual value. BUT WITH EARNEST l'RA< "lit E WE CAN AT LEAST SIGN <»l R < >\VN N \MEs si) THAI’ THEY < AN BE READ Please be lls do it- at least in writing to this office The Atlanta Georgian The Great Political Show By HERSHFIELD. wM®! lioL rtERStiFIZLb' There was an Old Man who supposed That the street door was partially closed; But some very large Rats ate his coats and his hats While that futile Old Gentleman dozed. :: The Decline in Matrimony :: Bv DOROTHY DIX < DISTINGCISHED English scientist now visiting this country is much disturbed over the future of the race, and, Adanilike. he blames the decline in matrimony, and consequently the falling off of the baby crop, solely on women. He declares that the most menac ing portent of our times is the fact that the educated, athletic, bril liant. capable woman, who has been evolved by modern conditions, will not marry and burden herself with children and humble domestic duties This woman isn’t a man-hater. On the contrary, she is fond of masculine society, but she prefers man as comrade rather than as a husband. Above all. says the doc tor. the young woman of today has tasted the joy of having her own pocketbook, and she prefers finan cial independence to love She can earn as much money as the aver age young man does and the idea of living on half that a man makes, rather than the whole that she makes, does not allure her. In a word, she would rather be single and comfortable, than married and poor. This is an interesting, and so far as women are concerned, a flatter ing explanation of xvhy people don't marry as early and as often as they used to. The learned scientist is. at least, gallant In attributing the falling off in matrimony wholly to woman’s disinclination to marry Every spinster likes to have It as sumed that there were rows of suitors sighing at her feet, and that it was only her disinclination to ward the holy estate that kept her from the altar. I nfortunately. however, a strict veracity will not permit us to lay the flattering unction to our soul that women are entirely to blame for the lack of weddings Truth compels us to admit that men also share in the condemnation. One of the things that a woman can’t achieve by herself is a marriage, and either our grandpapas were much easier to catch than men are nowadays, or else our grandmamas were superior to us as fishers of men. As a matter of fact, at this pres ent time, marriage is not a popular institution, and both men and women are inclined to tight shy of it < >nly the young and foolhardy tush blythely into it. and when men and women reach th' age of disc etion still .-ingle, and begin to eons'd'.'r marriage seriously, they also begin to acqulrt cold feet. The risk is out of ptooortlnn to the THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1912. •• prospect of gain. It takes a good •> sport to gamble on a hundred-to one shot. Os course,, in the days when mat rimony was the only way by which a woman could make a living, she had to marry and to take what she could get. Doubtless a kind-heart ed man thought it his duty then also to marry and support some hapless female who but for his condescension must ‘almost starve. But now, xvi.cn women are just as capable of supporting themselves as men are. there is no compulsion toward the altar on either side. Marriage is a matter of inclination and people are less and less in clined toward it. Os course, the high cost of living is the main reason for the decline in marriage. A man who finds it hard enough to take care of one hesitates a long time before lie un dertakes the responsibility of a family. Poor little Cupid has been choked to death on beefsteak at 35 cents a pound, and if we want to promote our most important infant industry, we have got to find some way to fill the market basket cheaper. Another thing that discourages matrimony is that under the condi tions of modern society men and women are not necessary to each other. In a primitive state of civ ilization. a woman had to marry because she had otherwise no home, no occupation, no weight in the community. A man had to mar ry to get somebody to cook his meals, ami sew on his buttons, and make him comfortable. A Balladette By MINNA IRVING. I TE was a gay young aetorette. 5 ( i I And met a golden-haired co- ( <iuette; ( i She wore a stylish turbanette, < They took a motor landaulette. 5 < He owned a well stocked cellarette, ? l And she diamond hair barrette; ? ? They found a youthful parsonette, > Who soon performed the mar- ) J riagette. I I They journeyed to a villagette And hired a house and gardenette, 5 , W here they could plant some mig- x nonette And stand a marble statuette. But dining in the kitchenette, S I’pot a little oysterette, ;He earned she was a suffragette, s I Which enus their little storiette. \ Now the unmarried woman may set up a home of her own. may en gage in business or the professions, or be active In some movement and have a life overflowing with inter est and be the most sought-after person in her vicinity. She has no necessity to marry unless she wants to. Nor has the man, whose club and club valet feed him better and take better care of him than the most devoted wife could. Still another reason that people do not marry as much as formerly is that the spirit of luxury has gotten into our blood, and we find it easier to deny our hearts than we do our stomachs or our bodies. The girl who has been accustomed to be waited upon by servants, to riding in an automobile, to having pretty clothes, is not willing to marry if marriage means living in a cheap cottage in a cheap suburb, doing her own housework and wearing made-over clothes. The man who is used to clothes by the best tailors, fine cigars, first nights at the theater and dinners at smart restaurants doesn’t want to marry if the price he pays for a wife and family is having to smoke stogies, wear hand-me-downs and push the baby carriage when he goes out on Sunday byway of amusement. These men and women ask themselves if marriage is worth the crucifixion of every taste ami they answer it in the negative. Perhaps, though, the final reason for the decline in marriage is to be found in the fact that people are not as sentimental as they used to be. To prove that you have only to note that the theme of the popular play and the popular novel is no longer love. The heart interest is an aside. Tin real problem is the working out of some sociological or political question. Love is not the whole of life any more. People do not die of broken hearts The maiden who is the victim of blighted affection doesn't go into a decline, she rises up and goes to a breach of promise lawyer. 1 he jilted swain does not commit suicide. He takes another think on the matter and blesses heaven for his escape. This practical point of view makes people look before they hap into matrimony, and those who hesitate are apt to stay on the safe shore of single blessedness. This max be good for the individual, but it isn't good forth. race. So th, danger that the seieniist points out Is a Vi - v rial one. but women are no more to blame for it tiian men a re. THE HOME PAPER Ella Wheeler Wilcox Writes of The Blind © © Suggests Giving of Music and Flowers to Afflicted at Regular Intervals. Written For The Atlanta Georgian By Ella Wheeler Wilcox Copyright, 1912, by American-Journal-Examiner WHEN first the shadows fell, like prison bars And darkness spread before me like a pall. I cried out for the sun, the earth, the stars; And beat the air. as mad men beat a wall. I turned my vision inward. Lo. a spark— A light—a torch; and all my world grew bright. For God’s dear eyes were shining through the darS. Then, bringing to me gifts of recompense, Came keener hearing, liner taste and touch; And that oft unappreciated sense \\ hich finds sweet odors, and proclaim them such. And not until my mortal eyes were blind. Did I perceive how kind the world, how kind. fTHERE is so much we could alt 1 do by a little concerted ef fort to brighten and sweeten the lives of the blind. The benevolent people of wealth in America are many; and they give largely of their means to im prove the condition of the blind, deaf, dumb, lame, halt and shut in. But 'I doubt if there is any or ganized plan in America to pro vide music and flowers regularly for the blind. It Would Cost Little. it would cost little to give these pleasures once a week to all in mates of blind asylums; and it would afford enjoyment almost in comprehensible to those of us who possess all our five senses unim paired. In Japan blind people alone give massage. The bus.ines is wholly reserved for them, and the government pro vides schools where they are taught the Swedish movement and all sys tems of massage. Good Queen Elizabeth of Rou mania has built a city for the blind in her land: and she has had the blind people brought there from every part of Roumania, and taught The School Path By WILBUR D. NESBIT. > In Good Housekeeping Magazine. s I \N the path and up the path to school he goes today. Little does he know the path will lead so far away; I But I linger at the gate and wateh him trudge the street. Sorrowing for all the frets that wait his little feet. Until now he was mine own. his only path led home; Now it is a world-old path that ho sets out to roam. lie thinks that he will come back, hut when he comes again 1 In bis eyes will be the light caught in the world of i en I Always on, and never back, the path he takes must lead Out of all the world of dream, into the world of deed. Trials there, and victories, and futile war and quest. Now he takes the age-old path that never gives us rest. ‘ But the wonder of it all! The folk that he shall meet. ? Heroes that are bis to know, and royalty to greet: lie shall sail the sullen seas Magellan-wise and reach s Alien land and barren strand and storni-sw e.nt reef and bea'-li. } He shall fare through wondrous plains and climb the highest ' peaks; S Hi' shall know the wanderlust that conies to him who seek-. < lie shall hear the cannon roar and see the saber gleam, ; lie shall hear the bugle call across the redened stream. ; Oh. and he .shall brother, too. with all the marvel mind'. Kind the hidden truths that only he who conquers finds: lie shall tread the dusty halls where learning has been stored- ( lie shall share the treasury of learning's miser hoard. Bui lie laughs and runs along, nor knows how far it is; , He must plod in weariness upon this path of his. ; lie hears the music in the tone that urges from the bell. < Yet all selfishly I hear the measures of a knell. I I’own the path and up the path to school he goes today. Knowing not it leads him to a world so far aw ax. He will conic back horn* again, but will have left the ,i'>. i That was mine until Imlay when still I had my boy. Bq SW'' 1 iA.. * ' all kinds of occupations possibit for them to acquire. That was indeed a queenly act. It is the impulse of every humat being, no matter how ignorant oi how wicked, to be kind to the blind But many of us, If not most ~| us. fail to do all we could do to render existence less melancholy to the sightless ones of earth, I! there is a blind asylum in you town or county, try and intepst your friends to make up a purse tiie next holiday, and buy generous gifts of flowers to send to the in stitution. And send one or mors of your friends with the gifts: el<e they may never proceed* farthet taan the office of the asylum or tht loom of the attendants. Would Make Them Happy. Then the following holiday ar range with the officers of the in stitution to have some of your mu sical friends sing or give instru mental music for the pleasure ol the blind. These little acts will cost you little In time or money, and they will not only give others happiness but they will sweeten and softer your own character, and rendet you more sympathetic and more • lovable.