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THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday
By THE GEORGIAN COMPANY
At 20 East Alabama St.. Atlanta. Ga.
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The Open Season for Polit
ical Sour Grapes
The agit.ition for ;i commission government charter, credited
to the Chambers faction, conn's at an inopportune time. The cir
cumstances surrounding it make it ridiculous.
It is ridiculous because only a year ago Councilman Cham
bers. supported by what is known as his faction, vehemently
led a successful fight against the “ inicpiities” of commission
jrovernnieiit. and because since the Chambers faction has just
met a <lc isiv. defeat at the polls, the clamor now can only be
taken as the wail of hard losers.
It is inopportune because Atlanta has just chosen a mayor
ff
for two years, and fairness to the people who nominated him, as
well as to the nominee, demands that -lames G. Woodward be
given a chance to demonstrate his fitness for the office of mayor.
The Georgian has no special interest in Mr. Woodward. It
did not indorsi him or support him during the primaries. Rut if
does feel that he is entitled to a square deal and to freedom
from such babyish annoyance as a commission charter agitation
by those who have always been opposed so such a form of gov
ernment.
The commission government movement had better be left to
those whose pnlffic record will not make their sponsorship absurd.
Wilson, Civic Engineer and
Man of Science
"When we act. we should act with caution and prudence, like men
who know what they are about, and .not like those in love with a
theory. But.we shall not. on that account, act with timidity, for we are
certain of our ground and of our object.”
With such words as these Wilson began his campaign.
They are not the words of a preacher. They are not the words
of a lawyer. They are the kind of words that engineers prefer
to use.
The campaign of the Third Party is being' conducted in the
spirit of a tremendous evangelistic revival. The campaign of
the Republican party is being conducted in the spirit of scrupu
lous legal technicalities and precedents. The campaign of the
Democratic party is being conducted in the spirit of a great
constructive enterprise. •
People who think the proper business of polities is to set
tle the issues of Armageddon—to divide the good from the bad,
the saved from the lost, the sheep from the goats will naturally
vote for Mr. Roosevelt.
People who think the proper business of politics is to estab
lish abstract juristic theories and exact legal definition—-will nat
ural!' vote for Mr. Taft.
But peojd ■ who hold that polities is the art of mobilizing the
working forces of society and making the wheels go round—will
certainly vote for Woodrow Wilson.
There was a time in the early Middle Ages, when preachers
and lawyers had the lield of public lift l pretty much to themselves.
In such a time a man like Mr. Roosevelt or a man like Mr. Taft
would have been sure to win the suffrages of the multitude—
from a man like Mr. Wilson.
But the m >dorn man everywhere and especially in America
has a strong bent toward practicality such as the early Middle
Ages did not know. He does not believe that fields can be
plowed or cities built by legal theories, or that spiritual judg
ments can be settled at the polls. lit' is. at all events, deter
mined to be his own providence in politics, and to conform the
law of the land Io the facts of the outdoor world. lie is looking
for political leadership to the men who have the engineering
point of view.
Governor Wilson's temper is the present temper of nine
tenths of the American people. In his recent speeches he ex
presses exactly the feeling of the American people. He has the
kind of scholarship that the people are spending the annual
budget of an empire to pul into their public schools the schol
arship that hates pedantry and cares for knowledge only because
of its use.
\\ ilson brings the resources of an accurate science to bear
upon the practical problems of public life
He is the most modern of all high-placed public men. He
speaks plainly, with scrupulous consideration.
His administration will inaugurate a new “era of good feel
ing. because he will deliver us from the leaven of the Pharisees
and the wrangle of the lawyers.
He refuses to he a “judge and divider.*’
lie is an engineer, absorbed in a splendid enterprise.
The Atlanta Georgian
Watching the Embers
By UAL COFFMAN.
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“And the flickering shadows softly come and go.’’
« <8 THE IDEAL WIFE 8> 8>
e |■s H K other flay I discussed in
j this column the ten attributes
that, In my opinion, went to
make up the ideal husband. Xow a
man asks me to tell what ten Qual
ities I think necessary to the per
fect wife.
< >f course, a man’s idea of a good
wife, and a woman’s idea of a good
wife may differ, but if I were a
young man, any girl who succeeded
in luring me to the altar and get
ting me to stand for her board bill
and shopping ticket the balance of
her life would have to show the
following ten earmarks:
First - Looks. Not necessarily
beauty, though 1 shouldn’t object to
having a living picture sitting
across from me at the breakfast
table, but the girl I married would
have to look healthy and sensible
and placid. No tense, drawn, nerv
ous-looking ladies for me. There
is plenty of excitement in married
life without adding hysteria to the
bunch.
Second —Clothes. Dress may not
proclaim the man. but it does the
woman. The girl who wears thin
silk stockings and pumps on the
streets in midwinter shrieks aloud
her lack of judgment. The girl
whose clothes always look mussy
and as if they had been thrown at
Iter shows that she is lazy and a
sloven. The gill who dresses be
yond her moans advertises just how
selfish she is. and how little con
sideration she has for her father—
and will have for her husband when
she gets one. None of these for
me. I’d pick out a girt for a wife
who was neat and tidy, and suffi
ciently up to the style, and if she’d
made her own frocks, so much the
better.
' Inside the Skull.
Third —Intelligence. I’d pay more
attention to the gray matter under
a girl’s skull than 1 would to the
golden hair outside of it, for I’d be
wise that, while a pretty little inge
nue might be interesting to talk to
at a ball, I’d get mighty tired if I
had to listen to her babble for forty
or fifty years at a stretch.
Fourth—Domesticity. I wouldn't
trust my digestion to any girl who
didn’t know how to cook. 1 wouldn’t
look forward to spending my days
in a hotel, and so I'd sound a girl
out on the housekeeping problem,
and if she didn't think that making
a home was about the best job any
woman ever tackled, she wouldn't
get me.
Fifth—The maternal spirit. I
wouldn’t marry a girl who called
babies "brats." and kissed a bull
dog. not if she were as beautiful as
Venus and had every hair on her
head strung with diamonds. And
this would go not /only as regards
the little children I that I should
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22. 1912.
By DOROTHY DLX.
hope to have ab ut my knees, but
myself. For a man never gets so
old that he doesn’t want his wife
to mother him, as well as be his
wife. It's the matern il spirit in a
woman that mak- s her able to for
give her husband seventy times
seven when he zig-zags off of the
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DOROTHY DIX
straight and narrow path, and to
take him back and love him the
more, the more he needs her love.
The man who is married to a w om
en on whose breast he can’t bury
his face and fes- up, as he used to
do on his mother’s, hasn’t got a real
wife. He’s got a judge—and may
the Lord have mercy on his soul.
Sixth—Amiability. I should con
sider that I got all the scrapping
and fighting that 1 really cared for
in business, and I should look for
ward to having a home that was a
place of peace and rest. There
fore. I should pass up any girl,
no matter how attractive other
wise. who gave evidences of hav
ing a temper that was hung on
a hair trigger. I shouldn’t wish to
he one of those meek and cowed
men who have to walk on eggs
when they are in their own nouses,
for fear of saying something or do
ing something that would rile their
better halves.
Common Sense.
Seventh—Common sense. Daily
life is made up of disappoint
ments and worries, and unexpect
ed contingencies. 1 should marry’
no woman that didn’t have enough
common sense to meet things as
they came, and make the best of
them. 1 should marry no woman
who did not have enough common
sen«e to know that if 1 were a doc
tor 1 had to visit women patients,
and that I wasn't in love with
every female invalid that came to
my office; that if 1 were a lawyer
I couldn't tell her all of the secrets
of my clients no matter how thrill
ingly scandalous they were; that if
I were a business man that there
were times when I was hard up,
and that I wasn't stingy because I
asked her to economize. Common
sense and intellectuality' don’t al
ways go hand in hand, and if I had
to choose between the two I’d take
the common sense every time.
Eighth—Cheerfulness. None of
your morbid, introspective, female
vivisectionists for mine. I’d come
nearer to picking out a wife by her
laugh than anything else on earth.
The woman who meets all the little
misadventures of life with a great,
big. merry ha ha is a mighty
agreeable person with whom to
live, no matter what other tailings
she’s got. A cheerful woman is
sunshine in the home. She is w’ine
and meat to her husband’s soul,
and lucky' is he who gets her.
Ninth-—Liberality. Before I’d
propose to a woman I'd put in days
and weeks of careful measuring
and sounding as to her breadth
and depth of character. I'd know
that my future freedom depended
on that, and that if a woman is
narrow, and provincial, and preju
diced in her views, that a man had
better get himself locked up in jail
at once, for if he marries her. he's
got a life sentence at hard labor
and close confinement. Not all the
tyrants wear trousers. Some of
the most grinding autocrats that
live are little two-by-four women
who have their husbands under
such subjection that the poor
slaves quake whenever theyXcatch
their wives’ eyes on them. The
first question I should ask a girl,
when I found myself falling in love
with her. would be. What were her
views on the latchkey proposition,
and if she considered that a man
has any rights that a wife was
bound to respect. And I'd be guid
ed according to the fervor of het
replies.
A Real Chum.
Tenth—Comradeship. I would
try to put love to one side, and
find out if a girl was really’ inter
esting to me apart from firing my’
fancy—if we could talk together
for hours without wearying of oth
er topics than our mutual heart
thrills. For I should know- that
after people are married they no
longer sit up and discourse on the
state of their affections, and. then
if they have nothing else in com
mon except the physical attrac
tions that drew- them together, they
are bound to bore each other to
death.
In short, my idea of the perfect
wife is a woman who is healthy,
tidy, domestic, cheerful, liberal
minded and a good pal. Can you
beat it?
THE HOME PAPER
DR. PARKHURST
Writes on
Teachers and
Parents
They Are Charged With
Heavy Responsibility in
Directing the Desti
nies of Children
Written For
By the Rev. Dr.
THE following is a message to
our school teachers, to par
ents, and to all who are
charged with the heavy responsi
bility of giving first direction to the
impulses and ambitions of the chil
dren :
The idea that anybody, no matter
who, is qualified to shape the initial
stages of a child's development is
as disastrous as it is unphilosophi
cal.
The notion is that any old piano
is good enough for a child to com
mence practicing upon, any old
book good enough for it to use in
learning to read, and any nine
penny teacher ample for cultivat
ing the rudiments of character and
culture. No teacher is too good, no
salary exorbitant, when it is a mat
ter of putting a child's feet upon
the pathway of life.
* There is no getting away from
beginnings. The beginning lasts
clear through to the end.
More depends on what the little
boy gets in the nursery and in the
primary school than on what the
collegian gets in the university.
A good start means a grand fin
ish.
There is no place in the world
where so much carelessness is dis
played and so much blundering
work applied in th^ laying of foun
dations as in the instance of chil
dren—the one place of all places
where one would naturally suppose
that only the extreme of considera
tion would be exercised or toler
ated.
Learn to Hate That Which
Nature Meant Them to Love.
Whether it is because people are
not taking things seriously or be
cause it is devoutly supposed that
God is so fond of the children that
He will see them through anyway,
however adverse the conditions un
der which they are reared and their
fii st start given them, the fact re
mains that, so far as human re
sponsibility is concerned, our little
people do not have a fair chance.
One point in particular that I
want to make is that there are few
teachers that have to such degree
the peculiar tact and genius of their
profession as to be able to keep
alive in the child that love of
knowledge that the child is always
bom with.
When he begins thinking he pres
ently blossoms out into a persis
tent interrogation point.
. To want to know is as natural
to him as to want to eat or to play.
And yet it would not be an over
statement probably to say that
three-quarters of the children, aft
er they have been held to their
studies for one or two years, enter
the school room with a sigh and
quit it with a shout.
In other words, they learn to hate
what by nature they love.
Truth is the mind’s natural food,
but either through the fault of the
teacher or through the fault of the
existing school system, what is at
the outset appetizing to the child
becomes repulsive to him, and the
poor creature is fastened down by
the imperious regulations of the
Battle of Choctaw Bluffs
Bv REV. THOMAS B. GREGORY.
rr-HE Battle of Choctaw Bluffs,
the first warlike encounter
between white men and In
dians upon the North American
Continent, took place October 18,
1540.
In the romance of history there
are but feXv more fascinating fig
ures than that of Ferdinand De
Soto, the Spanish captain and ex
plorer. the first of white men to
gaze upon the "Father of Waters”
or to traverse the magnificent val
ley through which it flows.
De Soto, born in poverty at Es
tremadura, Spain, came to the New
World with "nothing but his sword
and shield,” and returned a few
years later with a fortune of a
hundred and eighty thousand du
cats, married the daughter of a
nobleman, and in his splendid es
tablishment hobnobbed with kings
and queens.
In the year 1538 he set sail from
Spain for the New World with 600
men. Landing in May of the fol
lowing year at Esplratu, Santo
Bay, on the west coast of Flor
ida, he immediately set out on the
most remarkable exploring expedi
tion in the annals of the contin
ent. For four years the great Hi
. dalgo, looking for gold and the
"Fountain of Eternal Youth," roam
ed through the forests and over
the prairies of what is now the
southwestern portion of the Unit
ed States.
Through Florida, Georgia, Missis
sippi. Alabama, the insatiable, In
defatigable knight wandered on,
searching for the yellow metal and
for the waters in which he who
bathed found youth and strength.
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The Georgian
C. H. Parkhurst
school room, to the desk that fet
ters and confines him, while the ill
tasting medicine is being adminis
tered to him.
All of which is so much accom
plished toward defeating the pur
pose of the school room, the prime
purpose of which Is to nourish the
mind, not to medicate it.
There is a volume published bv
Dr. Maria Montessori, an Italian
lady, who writes from her own ex
perience as a teacher of children
and who expatiates with intense
feeling upon this whole matter of
treating little people as so tnanv
helpless slaves, to be driven and
scourged to their work.
A Child’s Success in
Keeping olj Instructor.
it is a hook that should be In the
hands and heads of those who are
charged with the responsibility of
shaping methods of school room
administration.
In a volume by Professor Muns
tei berg, of Harvard university i»
an interesting chapter on educa
tion, in which he recounts his own
experience as a school boy. and how
it came about that without friction
or overstrain he had reached, at the
age of eighteen, as advanced a
stage of training as the Harvard
student has attained at his gradu
ation.
In explanation of his devotion to
study, which was to him more play
than toil, he says: “The real secret
of it all was this, that my teachers
were enthusiastic on the subjects
they taught.
“I had no teacher who hastily
learned one day what he must teach
the next.
“Even the first elements of Greek
and mathematics, of history and
geography, were given to us by men
who had reached the level of the
doctorate.
“They had seen their work with
the eye of the scholar, and thus
even the most elementary material
of their science was raised to the
height of scholar)}' interest.”
There is no good work done in
the school room that has not a de
gree of enthusiasm, of scholarly fire
in it.
If Teaching Is Drudgery It
Makes Drudges of Pupils.
The teacher to whom teaching Is
drudgery makes drudges of his or
her pupils.
The lesson that is hardship to the
instructor is medicine to the pupil.
Enthusiasm begets enthusiasm.
When I taught in a high school and
in a fitting school I had no slight
est difficulty in making my pupils
happy and impassioned workers
along those lines of study in which
I was myself a thorough and en
thusiastic student.
The state would get more In re
turn for its school tax if it would
move out of the school room some
of its traditional machinery, and
replace It with more teachers who
are thoroughly in love with the
truths which they teach, and.
therefore, passionately zealous In
communicating to others that
which is so precious to themselves.
It was while he was looking for
these things—for the gold prob
ably more ardently than for the
waters —that De Soto found him
self In the southern part of what
is now Clarke county, Alabama, at
a point known today as Chocktaw
Bluffs, on the Alabama river, some
sixty miles north of Mobile.
in that region, a veritable mon
arch among his red men, lived ths
great chief Tuskaloosa. Tuskaloosa
and ills braves did not run away
from the white men. It was th*
first time that they had ever seen
the “pale face,” but they were not
afraid. The sight of the Spaniards'
horses called forth deepest excla
mations of wonder from them, but
failed to frighten them.
History does not tell us which
side was to blame, but the hospi
tality with which the red men wel
comed the Spaniards turned t®
hate, and on the day indicated
above De Soto and his 600 men
found themselves in battle wit.i
Tuskaloosa and his 6,000 warriors.
For nine hours the unequal strug
gle went on with unabated fury.
Outnumbered ten to one by as stal
wart an array of savages as * v *
sounded the warhoop, the Span
iards finally succeeded in cutting
their way out. leaving behind them
nearly a hundred killed or mormi
ly wounded, anti over fifty horst s.
It is said that the Indian loss <«•
fearful, amounting to nearly a thiro
of their number.
In the first battle in this coun
try between white men ano '
dlans, It is to be noticed th it
latter put up a good fight, an<
is almost certain that but for
firearms the Spaniards would ha'
been annihilated.