Atlanta Georgian. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, December 11, 1912, NIGHT, Image 20

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EDITORIAL PAGE THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN Every Afternoon Except Sunday" VHS GEORGIAN COMPANY At 30 East Alabama St.. Atlanta. Ga. Entered as second-class matter at postofflce at Atlanta, under act of March 3. 1373. Subscription Price—Delivered by carrier. 10 cents a week. By mall, 36.00 a year. Payable in advance. Atlanta’s Real Love of Music Is on Trial tt tt The Size of the Audience at the Philharmonic Concerts Will Be the Test. Atlanta, proud of its annual strand opera season, its mag nificent Auditorium organ, its reputation as a city of culture, has an opportunity this winter to prove whether it loves music for music’s sake or fills boxes and chairs at the opera because it is the correct thing to do. The Atlanta Philharmonic orches tra has become the test. Before a fairly large audience the Philharmonic orchestra, sixty excellent Atlanta musicians, gave its first concert of the sea son at the Grand last. Sunday afternoon. Its work, despite inade quate rehearsals, was a revelation eVen to the most critical music lovers in the audience. Such intricate, difficult numbers as Beetho ven’s Fifth Symphony and the Slavic march of the Russian mas ter, Tschaikowsky, were played with technique and expression in keeping with their importance. Mortimer Wilson, the new con ductor. proved himself fully capable of welding into a harmonious instrument, the sixty individuals he had drawn together for the concert. It was not the Boston Symphony, it was not Theodore Thomas, but it was an orchestra superior to any professional or ganization heard here in recent seasons, and one of which Atlanta may well be proud. The Atlanta Musical association believes the time has come when the city can enjoy and appreciate and support the best or chestral music, just as it has supported the annual season of grand opera. The Philharmonic will not play rag-time, for there is plenty of rag-time at any five-cent theater. But it will give frequent concerts where music of lighter vein, yet excellent music for all that, will be played. It will make an earnest effort to luring about an appreciation of the best work of the greatest composers, and to become as much an important factor in At lanta as its business enterprise, its public spirit and its universal energy. It may be the means of making Atlanta as famous as a center of culture as it is now famous for its commercial success. The Philharmonic concerts are given on Sunday afternoons. First, because many of its members are professional musicians who must play elsewhere every day and night, in the week, and second, because the musical association believes, with a great nrrmber of other citizens, that Atlanta has reached a period when public sentiment demands something on its Sunday afternoons besides the alternative of strolling in the streets or staying in doors with a book. It believes that uplifting, inspiring music may be no less helpful in its influence because it is heard in a theater instead of a ehurch; that the man or woman who profits by a sermon in the morning may profit again by a concert in the afternoon. Atlanta’s real love of music is on trial. The size of the audience at the Philharmonic concerts will be the test. Richard the Lion-Hearted By REV. THOMAS B. GREGORY. SkV H.K hundred and twenty H years ago. King Richard the First of England, better known as “Richard the Lion-Hearted,” vtitie making his way home from the point where he had been ship wrecked on the Adriatic, was made prisoner by the Duke Leopold of Austria and sold for a good round sum to King Henry - the Sixth of Germany, It was the richest prize that had fallen to anybody for a long, long time. We are not informed how much Duke Leopold received from Henry for the regal capture, but we know that Henry made a mighty good thing out of it, for in order to get their king back the English people hud to pay the German mon arch three hundred thousand pounds in gold, or, reckoned in our money, one million five hundred thousand dollars. Aantiment and national pride rariCte, it was a very foolish deal on '.nr part of the English. The Lion- Hearted was not worth the price that they paid snr him. Except as a. trouble breeder, Richard was not worth a penny. The English peo ple would have done better to have left their king remain in Henry’s keeping. But the generality of people in those days, even In Englund, were fetich-worshiper#, anti felt about their "kings” and "lords” as the Aleutian islander doe« today about Ills totem pole <>r the African m - z uro about his "Mumbo-Jumbo,” mid they felt that it was their duty to pay the ransom and get their adored “royalty” back again. The story of Richard's reign is anything but a delectable one. Crowned In 1189, the original “Rough Rider" began running amuck at once, which practice he faithfully kept up to the last. On the very day of his corona tion he gave the order which re sulted in a 24-hour massacre of his Jewish subjects, for no other rea son than the fact that they were Jews. With the blood of his unoffend ing Jewish subjects still undrled on his coronation robes Richard be gan collecting money and men for rescue of the Holy City from the hands of the "Infidels.” We know how utterly fruitless his Crusade turned out to be. and how, after having perpetrated in numerable follies and brutalities, he finally turned his face homeward again, to be shipwrecked on the coast of Italy and, later on. cap tured in the Gwwny. forests. Ransomed by hie people, and re turning home, Richard spent the rest of his life—a period of some five years—fighting his worthless brother John, who, it seems, had designs on the throne. Millions of English money and thousands of English lives were sacrificed In this foolish struggle— u struggle that was happily , uded by the arrow which, on the Sth of April. 1199, laid Richard low before lire eastle of t’hahit, which he w.o» at that time bosleginc The Atlanta Georgian In the Grip of the Antarctic Ice A Study of Captain Scott’s Ship, the Terra Nova, Ice-Bound Near the South Pole • W/- WY a ■ v-t-WX'la : ®U ;■' " *** °— **•*--*• - A . ' * 4 A J • ,'A- ! iII ' ■ - •. ‘ I his picture of the Terra Nova was made 700 miles from land, the soundings giving a j depth of over two miles. It shows the way a vessel is raised by the ice. This photograph was J taken by Herbert G. Ponting, F. R. G. S.* whose moving pictures, taken on the expedition, are s teaching scientists the wonders of-antarctic animal life. Woman’s Most Fascinating Age MISS MARY GARDEN, who is generally conceded to know a thing or two, has an nounced that 35 Is a woman’s most attractive age, and that she never means to go beyond It. Many other women agree In this opinion. It Is, In fact, no uncom mon thing to find a lady so enam ored of 35 that she stays that age for 25 years at a stretch. Indeed, my favorite story concerns a wom an who, when arrested for some offense against the law and brought to trial, gave her age as 35. Five years later she was again haled Into court before the same judge, and again gave her age as 35. "But,” said the judge, “when you were brought here five years ago you gave your age then as 35.” “Very likely. Your Honor,” re sponded the lady. "I’m not the sort of a woman who would say one thing one day and another thing tomorrow.” But when Is a woman most at tractive? It depends upon the wom an and the taste of the judge. Heroines of the Past. In times past men’s fancies seemed to have run to extreme youth. Shakespeare made Juliet a chit of fourteen. Scott’s heroines range along about seventeen and eighteen. The Melissas and Clar issas were all in the squab class. Sir Charles Surface and his fellow gallants toasted “the maiden of bashful sixteen.” We like them older now, and re gard it as the first evidence of senile dementia for a man to ex hibit a marked leaning toward the kindergarten. To most of us no other human being is so absolutely uninteresting as a properly brought ' up young girl who is too old to be told fairy tales and too young to be told anything else. Undoubtedly. however, many women are at their best in the years between sixteen trtid twenty. • They have theh the beauty and the gruci that all young anima's pos ses.-. whether they are kittens or puppies. or humans. They have a certain animation of youth that wants to jump around and play and laugh that w< mistake for Intelli gence. Above all, they are at an age when we do not eximct wisdom WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11. 1912. By DOROTHY DIX. ' or knowledge, and so we do not •: detqjt their lack of brains. Twenty-two Is a charming age. It is the high noon of youth. The bud Is just beginning to unfold, yet the dew is still upon it. It is the hour in which a woman first dis covers she really has a heart, tip to that time a girl has been merely concerned In having a good time, and the chief difference between one man and another consisted in what he could do for her pleasure—how well he could dance; how many theater tickets he was good for; whether he owned an automobile or not. They Play Every Card. At twenty-two a woman's beauty is at its best, her enthusiasms are at full tide, she knows enough to listen intelligently, and not enough to make, her opinionated. Above all, she is ready to love and be loved, and she is still plastic enough to be molded to the hand of the man who gets her. Thirty is the age at which the fool woman is impossible, the col lege woman at her best, and the worldly woman most fascinating. The silly woman, who was a charming little goose at sixteen, has developed into a bore and a bundle of heaviness by the time she is thirty. The college bred woman, who is a late bloomer, has just come into her own, and is a sensible, in telligent companion for men who like women served up with a gar nish of brains. Also they have not yet developed a mission in life, as they are liable to later on, so thirty is their most attractive age. As for the worldly woman, at thirty she is no longer an amateur at the game of life, but a profes sional who knows the value of every card and how to play it. She has learned how to make the most of her charms, how to dress, and, more valuable still, she has acquired the art of playing upon the weaknesses of men as upon a harp with a thou sand strings. Any man who es capes from the woman of thirty who has marked him for her own de serves a Carnegie hero medal, and i- entitled to the world’s .sprinting record. Kt thirty-five, according io Jlm- Garden ami others whew experience entitles their opinion- to respect, a woman is at her best. Certainly she is midway between youth and age, and has some of the charms and advantages of both, but her youth is the youth of sophistication. It is a time when she calls art to the aid of nature, when the bright ness of her eyes, and the roses on her cheeks, and the redness of her lips, and the gold of her hair owe something to the corner drug store; when she enthuses over things with malice aforethought, and loves with her head instead of her heart. It is an age at which a woman is most dangerous because she knows with deadly' certainty what she wants, and is coldly calculating in her way of getting it. It is an age at which a woman marries for an establishment instead of a hus band, and when she would rather have a string of pearls than a heart's devotion. Forty-five is the age of the sur vival of the best fitted among wom en. All the others have gone into the discard. It is the age at which the business woman is at her best, wiien she is sanest, most comradely’ and most interesting. It tg the gold en age also of the spinster, who has given up the struggle to be a fas cinator of men and absorbed herself in other pursuits. Many women who have been unattractive in youth at middle age have an In dian summer of loveliness of mind and person that their springtime never knew. Come Into Their Own Then. There are other women who never come into their own until they hold a baby on their breasts. They may have been homely, awk ward, hard of face and blunt of speech, lacking all grace; but moth erhood turns them into madonnas that send us to our knees before them. And - there are other women whose best hour is almost their last hour. Ugly in youth, they are beautiful in age, for life and expe rience often chisel rough features into beauty, and love lights a lamp within the dull soul of many a woman that irradiates her whole being. Just the goodness and the kindness on many an old woman’s face make it beautiful. A woman is at her best any where from the cradle to the grave—ac cording to the womuti herself. I I; THE HOME Garrett P. Serviss Writes on * Carnegie’s Pension f 7 " Proposal K Reception Accorded Plan to Provide for Ex- " Presidents Proves That We Are Not En tirely Money-Mad. Simple and Digni- \\sg|H| fled Remedy Would Be to Increase Salary or to Provide a Government Pension. By GARRETT P. SERVISS. rrsHE American people needed just such a shock as the rich Mr. Carnegie administered the other day. It has helped to clear the atmosphere, and to give a stimulating fillip to the spirit of in dependence which has made this country what it'is. It has caused the American people to wake up to two important facts—first, that they ought to look out for their own dignity in paring for their pub lic servants, and, second, that money is not everything, nor even tlie greatest of things, in American eyes. The idea of having an ex-presl dent of the United States, or the widow of an ex-president, made comfortable for life by the bounty of an ultra-rich individual is ab horrent to our entire social and po litical system. Very wealthy per sons are liable to catch the Monte Cristo spirit and to think that “the world is mine.” How It Was Meant. Os course. Mr. Carnegie had no thought of assuming a patronizing attitude in making his offer, but if he had stopped to think long enough, and iChe had re-read some of the pages of his own book on "Triumphant Democracy,” he would have foreseen the revolting aspect of his proposal, and then he would never have made it. When a man has occupied the office of president of the United States, the greatest office in the world, he is not afterward an ob ject of charity, even if his pockets should happen to be empty, which is not likely’ ever to be the case. But if it be true that our presidents have to expend, in order to main tain the dignity of their position, more money than their salary af fords them, then it is the PEO PLE'S duty to see that they do not suffer in consequence. The simple and dignified remedy is to increase the salary, or provide a pension from the revenues of the govern ment. If Mr. Carnegie should be permitted to furnish money out of his private resources, the whole world would, justly, point the finger of scorn at this great common wealth. Rich Man's Philosophy. Perhaps we owe a vote of thanks to Mr. Carnegie for shocking us into a realization of the situation. Possibly he intended his offer sim ply as a rebuke to our neglect—if we have really been neglectful. Anyhow, it is more kind to him to assume that he had that intention than to take his proposal as an in-, dication that he believes that the American people need a Maecenas, a rich man to pay their debts and maintain their dignity. This is beyond question a money age. Everything is apt to be meas ured by its money value. If a man gets rich first and becomes a phi- The Song of the Rail By ELLA WHEELER WILCOX. Copyright 1912, by American-Journal-Examiner. OH, an ugly thing is an iron rail, Black, with its face to the dust. But it carries a message where winged things fail; It crosses the mountains, and catches the trail. While the winds and the sea make sport of a sail; Oh, a rail is a friend to trust. _ •** i The iron rail, with its face to the sod, ? Is only a bar of ore; Yet it speeds where never a foot has trod; And the narrow path where it leads grows broad; And it speaks to the world in the voice of God, That echoes from shore to shore. Though the iron rail, on the earth down flung, Seems kin to the loam and the soil, Wherever its high shrill note is sung, Out of the jungle fair homes have sprung, And the voices of babel find one tongue, In the common language of toil. Os priest, and warrior, and conquering king. Os Knights of the Holy Grail. Os wonders of Winter, and glories of Spring. Always and ever the poets sing! But the great God-force, in a lowly thing. I sing in my heart of the rail. losopher after he has established his residence on "easy street,” hie philosophy is sure to be tainted by his previous narrow experience. He sees everything through gold en spectacles. He forgets that the love of money is the root of ail evil, if he ever knew it, and adoptj the belief that the possession of money will cure all evils. He ought to begin by meditating on the words of Confucius: "The sages dealt with riches so that they should not have the power to make men proud, nor poverty the power to make them feel pinched.” Most people think that the mil lennium means the reign of peace. Nothing of the sort. The mil lennium means the REIGN OF CONTENT, and it can only come when all men shall have learned to be satisfied with enough to meet their actual wants. There will be no multi-millionaires and no dwell ers In the slums to be stared at and patronized when that happy time arrives. It is not war that keeps back the millennium; it is the spir it of greed. The young man who, starting out in life, sets the indica tor on the dial of his ambition at SIOO,OOO, and when he has got the SIOO,OOO sets it again at $1,000,000, and when the $1,000,000 is obtained puts it forward to the $100,000,000 ■ mark, AND THROWS HIS SOUL AWAY TO REACH IT, will not be a fit inhabitant of the earth in the millennial age. Industrious Will Get Money. The proposal to provide a private pension for ex-presidents ill be a boon if It sets men to thinking of the relative values of things in tl.i-: world. It should make the young look within themselves to see whether there is not something no bler in their nature than the money-getting instinct. Everybody needs a certain amount of money, and the industrious will always get as much as they need. But there are a thousand things of the highest importance to man which neither breed money nor need it. At the beginning of your career you may have to achieve pecuniary independence, but when you have achieved it, stop and think of more important things. If you do not, you will become among men what Carthage became among na tions —a thing of scorn for histo rians, a money-bag obstructing the path of human progress. Even if you should remain poor in money all your life, provided that you have developed your better na ture, have remained upright and honorable and self-respecting, have recognized the fact that you have an immortal soul and a mind thirst ing for knowledge, and have learned to look broadly upon the earth, and up at the stars, you will be able to meet death with a serenity at least equal to that of "him who . hath great riches.”