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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 postoffice at Atlanta, under act of March 8. 1878.
Subscription Price—Delivered by carrier, 10 cents a week. By mail, J 5.00 a year.
Payable In advance.
The Curse of Poverty
Poverty Is Slavery. Keep Out of Debt if You Would Be Happy.
Young men and old men. fight, poverty. Ask the old around
you, and they will tell you that poverty is flic great, widespread 1
curse.
Not wealth is necessary to happiness, hut. freedom from the
poverty that grinds, poverty that worries, poverty that makes a
man the slave of any man that has a dollar—THAT is necessary
to happiness.
Keep out of poverty—keep out of debt.
Remember that the dollar you spend so quickly today, and
the other dollar tomorrow, and the day after, might mean later in
dependent manhood, power to control your own time, direct your
nwn career.
Money enough—though it lie but ten cents a day more than
you spend—means freedom, independence, the right, to look any
man in-the eye as his equal.
And poverty, debt, the spending of ever so little more than
you actually have, mean' slavery now’, anxiety, humiliation in the
futur<
Poverty deprives children of education—and so it means igno
rance.
Poverty deprive?, children of rare and good food—and so it
means disease.
Poverty takes away men’s courage, drives them to despair,
makes them seek relief wherever it can be found—and so poverty'
means drunkennes.
Whereier you find men miserable, poor and underpaid you
will find ignorance and drunkenness.
Wherever you better conditions and lift the weight of pov
erty. drunkenness and ignorance diminish.
Whatever your age or habits, or condition, there are two
things that, you can do—-you can better yourself, or you can
make things worse.
If you are .a young man or woman starting out in life, or one
young enough to have many good years ahead of you, it is abso
lutely in your power to make your life dignified, independent
and satisfied.
However old you may be. or discouraged, it isn’t too late to
fight against the curse that weighs on millions of men, the curse
of present poverty, and that other curse, almost as great, the dread I
of poverty in the future.
It is in your power to be free if you will do it. Spend less
than you make, and you will find spending less means, in al
most every case, earning more.
If a man puts into learning and thinking the hours and the
vitality formerly devoted to frivolous spending he will soon find
his power Io earn increased.
You must remember, however, that if the majority of men are
w orried, hard up, living along from day to day, it is because going
in debt is very easy and keeping out of it is difficult.
Every day the temptation comes to spend this and to spend
that.
On a certain day everybody must have a now hat, and he gets
it; In thinks he must spend as much as anybody else does—there
goes one chance of saving.
Each man thinks that he must dress as well as somebody else
does.
And a million young fools think that they must take a drink
when it is offered to them—and also that they’ must buy a drink in
their turn, which is idiotic.
And tens of thousands of married men are kept poor because
they imagine that they must do as well as somebody else does—and
100 often their wives help them to keep poor.
Try to bear in mind that a few years from now it won’t make
much difference to you whether you got a new hat on September
15. 1913, or not—but it will make a very big difference at that
time whether you have a few thousand dollars saved up or a few
dozen men trying to collect bills from you.
Remember that when you are well off, when you can say truly
that you owe no man a dollar, people always like the way you look.
They find no fault with your dressing.
Remember that all the varnish, all the fine clothing, new hats,
new shoes, can ’t do you a bit of good when you and everybody else
know that you can’t afford those things
It isn’t easy to save and be independent. If it were every one
would be prosperous and independent. But it is possible to keep
poverty away .
It is possible to be a free man. afraid of no one, controlled and
bossed by nobody .
Many a man will see this article today’ who. if he could see
it again twenty years from now. would wish with bitterness of
heart that he had paid attention to it and realized that it was in
tended for him.
Few live happy, independent, free from the control of other
mm—and a great majority live with poverty of hands always
above them, in fear of the future, pinched and anxious in the
preseyf.
But you can he free if you will. It is in your power to sav to
yourself: "1 may not he rich but 1 will never be poor. I’ll earn
all that 1 can in the present and 1 11 save so much of every dollar
for the days that are to come.”
>nd ninety-nine out of a hundred know what poverty means,
bill •more the knowledge.
I hey know perfectly well that if they can not save and begin
get ahead today ther. i- no . artlily reason why they should
later day—yet they ignore that knowledge.
The Atlanta Georgian
He’s the Limit
5 Copyright 1912 by International News Service. <
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Gossip and Gossipers
AN Indiana woman, with a be
draggled past, was going to
be married to a nice young
man. She heard that some of the
episodes of her unsavory life had
been discussed by a neighbor wom
an. and so she went-to this other
woman’s house and shot her down
dead before her little children’s
eyes.
The murderess has been sen
tenced to prison for life, and from
her cell she exclaims: "Oh. what a
terrible thing Is gossip! Let this
be a warning to all women to re
frain from talking about other
women who have things In their
lives that they are ttying to forget,
and have other people forget.”
Did you ever hear anything to
equal the nerve of that? It seems
to me that the shoe is on the other
foot, and that the lesson in the case
is not against gossip, but against
doing the things that give people
the right to gossip about you.
The men and women who con
duct themselves properly, and who
live decently, and honestly, and
cleanly, never have cause to com
plain about gossip. They never
lose any sleSp fearing what their
friends and acquaintances are say
ing about them.
When the Cap Fits.
It is only people who have some
thing shameful to hide who worry
about the gossiping proclivities of
their neighbors. They are hard
and bitter about the old cats, of
both sexes, who talk about their
failings.
Yet. when you come to think of
it. what right have we to expect
that our neighbors will be more
discreet with their 'tongues~'than
we are in our conduct, or that our
friends w ill enter into a conspiracy
of silence to protect us from the
results of our evil deeds?
Mrs. A., for instance, is a frivol
ous married woman, who receives
attentions from other men in her
husband’s absence, and neglects
her home and her children while
she gads about. She also hns
clothes and jewels far beyond what
her husband’s modest means would
provide. Th< neighbor talk
TI’ESDAY, DECKMBKR 24, 1912.
By DOROTHY t)IX
• • her goings-on, s and there are tears ’
Ln her eyes as she tells you what a
terrible thing it is to have to live
among such a lot of long-tongued
gossips.
Mr. 8., with a quiet little wife '
and half a dozen children tucked
away in. a suburban home, is met
out. time and again, by his neigh
bors at some lobster palace, where
lie is buying champagne for a cho
rus girl young enough to be his
daughter, and spending money as
if It grew' on trees, while it’s well
known that he is in arrears in his
payment to the butcher and baker
at home. Mr. B. says things that
no respectable newspaper would
print when he hears fragments of
the gossip that floats around among
his commuting acquaintances.
Scorns Conventions.
Pretty Sully C„ young and fool
ish. and mad for pleasur. ami the
admiration of men. scorns the con
ventions of society, and drinks
cocktails and smokes in public res-
, ' i urants, and pi
ances with strange men. and flirts
with married men. and writes com
promising love letters to Tom, Dick
and Harry. And her little heart is
broken when she finds out how the
cruel world is talking about her,
and that her reputation is irretriev
ably soiled by gossip.
'Pom D. gets into bad company
and drinks and gambles, and loses
money he can't afford, and robs the
cash drawer, or falsifies his books,
or holds back on his collections.
To keep him from going to prison
his people mortgage the home and
pay him out. and the matter is
hushed up as much As possible. Hut
some inkling of it leaks out, and
people talk about it. and remember
it and repeat it as long as they
live. And Tom curses tip gossips
to the day of his death.
None of these people seems to re
flect that the fault is their own and
not the gossips. If the married
woman had been the right sort of
wife and mother, gossip would have
found noflling to ray about her
that she would object io hearing.
If she didn't choose to run straight,
what rig!' l i.td she to demand .that
1 •
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V other people should take better care
of her name than she took of it
herself?
If the married man had spent his
evenings by his own fireside, and
his money on his family, gossip
would not have found him an in
teresting subject of discussion. If
he didn't want people to talk about
his taking Tottie Coughdrop out to
supper, why did he' do it? There's
no law to keep observers from re
marking on what they see.
Greatest Moral Influence.
If a girl doesn’t want people to
comment on the mud on her skirts,
all that is necessary is to keep them
clean. If a man doesn’t want gos-_
sip to recall the sins of his youth,
all that he has to do is to hold him
self above reproach. And if we
don't care enough about our own
honor to protect it ourselves, su>h
we have no right to loolv to the gen
eral public to perform that servii •
for us.
We ’talk a lot about the sin of
gossip, but as a matter of fact
gossip is tite greatest moral in
fluence in the world. It’s literally
the hangman's whip that keeps th.
trembling wretch in order.
It’s the dread of what their
neighbors’ eyes will see and what
their tongues will tell that keeps
thousands of weak and wavering
brothers and sisters from straying
off the straight and narrow path.
They have no real sense of right
and wrong, of honor or dishonor,
but they stand in terror of being
pointed out as the hero or heroine
of some scandal, of being talked
about, laughed at, shrugged at.
If it were possible to do away
with gossip and people united to
cover up the slips and weaknesses
of their fellow creatures, It would
mean the total demoralization of
society, for it’s old Dame Gossip,
with her hundred tongues—and not
high, moral principles—that holds
the curb on temptation.
Gossip is a good thing. Those
who behave themselves need not
fear being talked about. Those who
misbehave themselves deserve all
they get when the; ar. talked I
about. I
THE HOME PAPE R
Garrett P. Serviss
Writes on — w
The Energy of the Earth
Equal to 270 Million Billion |L
Billion Horse Power Per IL J"
Second—-If Man Could
Utilize This Power He
Would Drop His Present
Petty Occupations.
By GARRETT P. SERVISS.
LIFE Is a constant search for 4
more power, and progress '
depends upon the amount of
new power that is found.
Since man is still a mere baby as
far as the development of his men
tal capacity is concerned, the me
chithical power that he has man
aged to get hold of is so insignifi
cant that his greatest engines aro
only pitiful toys. He has discov
ered one substance upon the earth
that he can utilize, very wastefully,
to obtain power, and, like a child
that has found a dish of candy, he
is devouring it as fast as he can,
blissfully unconscious that there is
no more candy, and that he will
need something else when he grows
up.
It may be true that man is
watched over by some parental in
telligence which supplies his needs
as they are developed, but he would
be wiser if he assumed that he will
have to depend upon his own Intel
ligence and that the gods will help
him only if he helps himself.
Look at the situation! We boast
of our progress, but what are we
doing? WE ARE BURNING COAL,
that is about all! We have found
out that we can turn heat into me
chanical energy, and since there is
not much else left to burn besides
coal, we burn that, and from it, at
the expense of frightful waste, we
develop steam and electricity, and
with them we make our engines go.
Mechanical Energy of Nature.
We know perfectly well that na
ture is full of mechanical energy all
. ready made, but we are content to
take a little power from the water
falls, and still less from the winds,
and a trifle from the tides, and al
most nothing from the free sun
shine, and even when we utilize
sources of power we still be
have like children, for we take only
what is put Into our laps and thrust
under our noses.
If man WILLS TO DO IT he can
have power practically unlimited.
But he must use his brains to get It.
"Every breath of air .that a man
takes into his lungs contains, locked
up in its atoms, enough energy to
drive all the. workshops in the
world.” Just sit down and think
over that sentence. Ponder on ft.
If you can think of any possible
way to get at that energy, try It. or
ask some one else to try. Study
science and see what investigators
have already done in tile effort to
unlock this energy of the atoms and
turn it to useful account. Experi
ment yourself if you have the op
portunity. If you succeed you will
be the greatest man 1n the world’s
history, and SOME TIME SOME ’
ONE IS GOING TO SUCCEED.
Have you ever reflected upon the
fact that we are living on a tre
mendous flywheel w-hich is posi- .
i j Z Z
:: The Reason ::
By GENE BUCK.
| Y ' think I m gettin stingy. Yon fellers ought to know
T never had compunction in biowin' in my dough.
I here s a reason for my-savin' a dollar now and then—
An object in refrainin' from spendin’ five or ten.
B ♦ ~T . "
■ < “I never was a tightwad, I never want to be>—
I' e spent my money freely like a sailor home from sea;
If you will only listen I'll tell you why it is,
The reason 1 am drinkin' beer instead of silver fizz.
' hristmas time is comin . and it gets here once a year—
And with it comes a teelin’ full of kindliness and cheer.
1 sort a-like to enter the spirit of it all—
And feel about its coinin' like I did when I was small.
“I used to save up pennies, and hide ’em all away—
On a shelf up in the closet, and I d count em every dav.
At Christmas time I d take em from where they all were hid.
And purchase little presents, just tokens from a kid.
“I couldn't buy ’em jewels, or expensive things like that—
But 1 got each one somethin’ and placed 'em where they sat,
And I recall how proud I felt givin’ those little things—
-1 think I tasted all the joys ot which the poet sings.
’ “That was many years ago. Still. 1 never will forget
Ihe teelin that was in my heart—it lingers in there vet.
So that is why 1 'm savin', savin' as J can be.
I> •»«<! < hristmas Dav. here s hopin- you're all as happy as m>
f tively almost bursting with ener
gy? The earth weighs six sextil
; lions and turns with a speed of
I nearly 1,500 feet per second at the
equator—as fast as a cannon ball!
A rapid calculation, in round num
bers, shows that the energy devel
oped by the rotation of the earth
on Its axis is equivalent to a con
stant supply of two hundred anil
seventy million billion billion horse
power per second. If you multiply
or divide that number by a billion
it will not make much difference as
far as the power of the mind to
comprehend It is concerned.
Centrifugal Force of the Earth
Did you know that the centrifu
gal force of the earth’s rotation
makes the Mississippi river flow
thousands of feet uphill? If the
earth stopped turning the waters of
the Gulf of Mexico would rush up
the Mississippi valley and Inundat'
Canada! A man who weighed 191
pounds at the North Pole would
weigh only 190 pounds at the equa
tor, the difference being produced
by the "throw" of the spinning
earth. If the speed of the rotation
were increased about seventeen
times, bodies at the equator would
have no weight at all, for the cen
trifugal force would balance grav
ity.
Now, what have we done to util
ize this stupendous store of me
chanical energy in the earth? If
we lived OUTSIDE the eartk then,
by putting a belt around ft, or con -
necting cogs to it, we could employ
its power. But we live UPON ft
and hitherto have been as helples:
to utilize its force as would be a fly
spinning around on the circumfer
ence of the flywheel of an engine.
That this may not always be so
is, perhaps, Indicated by something
else that our brain power HAS en
abled us to do. Living on the earth
we have, by observation and calcu
latlon. found out that it DOES turn
on its axis, although we can not
feel It turning. We have found out
that it has other motions also.
Earth Flies With the Sun.
It goes round the sun and it flie
wlth the sun through space, in a
tremendous journey among tl <
stars, the speed of which we have
ascertained. We know when it I s
slowing up and when it is going
faster, and we know the reason so
these changes. We have discov
ered and disentangled these thing-
, because we have brains and MIND
POWER. But the human brain is
only In Its infancy, and since we
are aware of that, we have good
reason to hope that in the future
we shall not merely know that the
earth is full of power, but shall
make that power, in some way.
v serve our uses.