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EDITORIAL PAGE
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 postottlce at Atlanta, under act of March S, H7»
Subscription Price—Delivered by carrier, 10 cents a week. By mall, $5,00 a year.
Payable In advance.
For the Sake of the Cat’s
Tail---For Your Own Sake
and—For Humanity's
Sake-
* r
Yov Ought To Want Your First Child To Be a Daughter.
A poor, I earful lady the other day asked for a divorce. Her
husband had treated her badly because her first child turned out to
be a girl instead of the boy that his lordship desired.
She got her divorce and she deserved it.
We get many letters from women, sad and worried, because
they bring little girls into the world when some self-sufficient, fool
ish husband wants a boy.
On this subject we purpose to write very seriously. The fanci
ful heading to this editorial referring to the eld 's tail was intended
to catch the '■)<■ of foolish men and make them read on.
It is a blessing for e\ery family w hen the first child born is a lit
tle girl- here are some of the reasons:
'fhe girl inherits the qualities of the father. .\nd the mother,
being devoted and unselfish, is always anxious to hand down to fu
ture generations something wonderful about her husband, 'fell
your foolish husband that ONIA Ills DAUGHTERS inherit his
qualities that is to say, only the daughter inherits his greatness
if he has any. Gallon's great work on heredity proves that the
genius of the man descends through the daughter almost exclu
sively.
(We know only two exceptions- the younger Pitt and Fillipino i
Lippi do you know of any others'.’)
Conceited fathers, if you want to live in history, pray for '
daughters. So much for man's vanity.
Parents should pray that the first child may be a daughter lie- I
cause that gives to the hoys as they come along the example, the
gentle guidance of an older sister.
If little Willie is born first, he says to little Susie when he is
five and she is three, “Watch me pull the kitty’s tail. Watch me
pull the dog s ear." Later he says to little Susie, who tags along
behind him, "Watch me put a pin in the chair for somebody to sit
down on. Watch me put pepper in this bunch of flowers for some
one to sniff.” et cetera, et cetera. ‘
When a little daughter arrives first, the mother is made happy
by the possession, and gives to that daughter her own gentleness and
kindness. And little Willie, from his earliest, blinking, bow-legged
days hears from little Susie things like this:
“No. Willie, you All STN’T pull the cat's tail; it. is wrong.
You MUSTN'T pinch Fido's ear; it is wicked. You mustn't make
grandma sneeze: it is naughty. You mustn’t put a pin in the chair;
it’s cruel.”
You know, of course, that woman, the older sister in the human
race, has taught men all the gentleness and kindness that is in them.
Woman’s teaching and pleading has gradually brought man up from
horrible savagery and cannibalism to the semi-civilization of today
and will make man a civilized being eventually.
What woman has done for man and the human race, the older
sister does for the boys in the individual family.
The family that begins with a girl begins properly with the
right foot forward.
A girl is easier to bring up—doctors know that; thus a daugh
ter first makes life easier for the inexperienced young mother.
The daughter helps the mother, comforts her, and even makes
her forget, how preposterously she overrated her husband when she
married him—that is a GREAT comfort.
The daughter helps to civilize her father and make him better,
no matter how good or how bad he is when she arrives.
A son makes the average egotistical man brag and think about
himself. A daughter makes him gentle, makes him think about
others and especially makes him kind and considerate to the daugh
ters of others when he thinks of his own little girl.
Therefore, for the sake of the poor kitten and its tail, and for
the sake of the human race as above mentioned, pray that your first
child may he a daughter, and tell your wife what you are pray
ing for.
Nobody Ldows how many poor women fret, fearing that they
will iioHj a hoys io flatter Hie vanity of conceited husbands utterly
uuwortv; ’of the unselfish goodness of their wives.
The Ministry at Big Colleges
- - - --
That the big colleges are becoming more and more business
men’s institutions appears to be the discovery of the bureau of
education, which has issued a bulletin describing the distribution
of the professions among graduates.
Originally the college mission was to prepare men for the
ministry. Harvard, founded chiefly for that end. now gives to
that profession loss than two per cent of her graduates, and Yale
less than three per cent.
With this decline has cornea corresponding increase of those
entering law and business. In the older days boys looking
ahead to business careers never thought of a higher education.
It was considered a waste of time. But the march of events has
changed all that.
After the Revolution the ministry yielded to the law in the
number of graduates at Cambridge and after 1880 business
claimed the lead. At Yale, law kept the asceudeucv until 1895.
then business stepped to the fore.
At the University of Pennsylvania, where once one-tenth of
the graduates went in for the ministry, now only about one-fif
tieth do so.
Out of fifteen thousand graduates of the University of Mich
igan only 188 have become ministers
Summarizing the bureau's findings at thirty-seven colleges,
leaching looms up as the dominant profession with twenty-five
per cent, business comes next with twenty per cent, law can
claim only fifteen per cent, medicine between six ami seven and
the ministry about five per cent.
These figures reflect the spirit of tin age. They do not
mean that men are less religious than they were a hundred
years ago. but that men do not make their religion so much a
matter of outward observance.
Then. too. Hie business man with a college education feels
better equipped for success, since all the world is steadilx nun
ing forward on the road to higher ideals and more general in
formation.
The Atlanta Georgian
The Inventions of Warped Genius
Hoiv the Brilliant Minds of the Underworld Outwit Their Victims
THE SIMPLE. BUT EFFECTIVE COIN STEALING DEVICE AT WORK.
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A Wax Equipped Shoe For Stealing
Jewelry,
By GARRETT P. SERVISS.
IF there were no geniuses in the
lower world there would be no
mysterie.- of crime. Detec
tives would be unnecessary, and the
simplest precautions would suffice
to protect property and life against
thieves and burglars. But, unfor
tunately, ingenuity is not always
allied with morality, and some of
the most ■ Ingenious contrivances
that man has ever invented are due
to brains that have gone astray.
Everybody knows this, in a gen
eral way, but ocular proofs of the
ingenuity of criminals are always
interoßtlng, and more convincing
than any description. Here are a
few photographs, taken In the mu
seum of the Paris police, which will
serve to show how criminals some
times use their wits more effect
ively than honest people.
How Women Thieves Work.
One of the most baffling species
of thieving, is that which is con
tinually going on in great depart
ment stores. The police say that
women are the great experts in this
kind of crookedness, partly because
they- are the principal frequenters
of such places, and partly because
their style of dress enables them to
conceal their booty more easily
than men could do.
One of our photographs shows
the method which has been suc
cessfully used In Paris to enable a
woman thief to stem costly laces
without danger of detection. The
end of the stocking is cut off. so
that the toes, trained to their work,
egn be readily brought into play.
Around the inner edge of the skirt,
at the bottom, runs a capacious
pocket to receive the stolen goods.
I The thief seats herself besld* a
counter and has the laces displayed
before her. At a favorable moment
she causes one of them to fall to
the floor. Instantly her dress cov
ers it, and the thief slips a foot
out of its shoe or slipper. The
trained toes come into play' while
the saleswoman is engaged in con
versation, and in a second the pre
cious lace is safely deposited in
the pocket of the skirt. The thief
slips her toot back into the shoe
and is ready to depart, without
having made a single movement
calculated to arouse suspicion.
Different Criminal Species.
The shoe prepared for stealing
jewels by having a mass of soft
wax attached to the» bottom be
tween the heel and the sole ap
pears like a very crude device, but
the police say that it has often
been successfully used. Tin great
difficulty would seem to be in get
ting the piece of jewelry upon the
floor, to begin with, but this diffi
culty is often surmounted without
attracting attention. No suspicious
movements whatever are required
to secure the bootv when ome it is
within regch of the toot.
Tile apparatus for be ing holes
In safes is more complicated, and
belongs to a different species of
criminal. Tin goblet-like vessel Is
composed ot a material refractory
to heat A Jund wooden pincer is
used to handle it. Placed upon the
safe, a quantity of thermit, a sub
stance which, in burning, without
explosion, produces a degree of heat
capable of liquefying iron, is put in
the goblet and Inflamed with a
heated wire. One hole after an
other is thus silently made in the I
WEDNESDAY. JANUARY 1. 1913
L <5 A)
"Ooci Bite” Machine for Inflictiog
fefflSbg V'.'o-.inds Through Which Damages
May he Recovered, and (Above) Ap-
A ~ ' ZJ paratus for Opening Safes.
=====
How the Shoplifter Has the Use es Her *
Toes.
safe, until the burglar is enabled
to remove a piece large enough to
admit his arm.
The ‘‘dog-bite machine” is a true
curiosity. It was made by a man
who used it to produce upon his
arms and legs the semblance of se
rious bites from the teeth of a dog.
Then, showing his wounds, he ac
tually succeeded in exacting,
through a court, a substantial sum
in damages from the owner of the
dog, which had never bitten him.
The simple apparatus for stealing
coins from a box having a slit at
the top—and children's “banks" are
not the only depositories of money
that are so poorly provided with
safeguards—explains itself, al
though its manipulation, no doubt,
demands practice. This recalls the
story of the vicious small boy who.
the Paris police aver, was the first
to invent away to rob the “pen
ny-in-the-slot” machines. His in
vention seems absurdly simple,
whence, perhaps, its success.
The Greatest Moral Force.
All he did was to bore a hole in
the edge of his penny, tie a string
to it and then drop it into the slot. •
The Parcels Post
By MORTON BIRGE.
A MONG the New 'I earthings to swear
Is that you'll use a little can,
And not start out and try to scare
The Parcels Post.
Don't think this new device will do
Such hefty work as moving you.
Remember, there's a limit to
The Parcels Post.
Don’t trj to buy electric light.
Or hall’-a-ton of anthracite.
Or set a blast of dynamite ?
By Parcels Post.
Don’t try to mail a cart and horse,
Or call a copper from the force.
Or think of getting a divorce
By Parcels Post.
Don’t think that you can set a glass,
Or sail a boat, or mow the grass,
<>r get a man Io fix the gas
By Parcels Post.
Don t lake it for ;)n army corps.
Express train and department store.
It s onlx this and nothing more
■file Parcels Bust.
J
The piece of candy duly appeared
and was pocketed by the young
I thief, who next proceeded to pull
' out his penny and pay a visit to an
other machine, where he repeated
the operation. Thus he was not
long in acquiring, without the ex
penditure of a single cent, a stock
of candy sufficient to satisfy even
a small boy’s appetite.
His penny, with Its string at
tached, is now an exhibit in the
museum, for all such Inventions
eventually get there, while their
contrivers go to prison. It is said
that the discovery of this method
of robbing the machines, which
ought to. have been foreseen, led to
a fundamental alteration in their
design, rendering similar proceed
ings henceforth impossible.
It is well enough to smile at and
even to admire the ingenuity of
these criminal inventions, but the
lamentable fact exists that some
people of small moral sense admire
them to tile extent of wishing to
imltafe them. It is useless, on that
account, to ignore their existence.
The true remedy is to show how
misplaced and, in the end, disas
trous they are. And this is the
work of EDUCATION-—tile great
v est moral force in the world!
THE HOME PAPER
Atlanta's Great Need of a
New Charter
« » M
Defects in the Old Charter and Suggestions For a
New One Will Be Pointed Out by the City’s For
mer Mayors.
■■»■■■—Ml' IMI ■—l’—anas■MMM
The report of Herbert L. Sands, the municipal re
search expert, on the city government of Atlanta is of
tremendous interest and iniporttince.
Tin* document points out undeniable inefficiency
in many city departments. It shows that government
is enmeshed in endless red tape. It proves that there
is waste of money in almost all work done. It attacks
Hie board system, declaring it a hindrance. It laments
the mayor's lack of power, insisting that the chief ex
i eeutive, aside fr >m veto power, is little more than a fig
urehead.
However, Mr. Sands lias failed to point out reme
dies. except in a few instances, such as making the
head of the construction department an appointive offi
cer.
Little can be done toward bettering municipal con
ditions generally under the present charter, which
prescribes the conduct of each department.
\\ ith a view to laying before the public various
plans for charter reform, The Georgian lias secured
articles carefully prepared by former mayors of At
l I anta.
These articles will deal with the defects in the
present charter and the beneficial changes that should
, be embodied in a new one. Each writer will base
his opinions on conditions as he found them during his
tenure of office and his observations since that time.
The first of these articles will appear on this petge
tomorrow.
© The Actor Folk ©
By ELBERT HUBBARD.
THERE was a time when actors
and actresses were supposed
to be eminently naughty.
Then they exercised for us a won
derful fascination. Now that we
have reached mature years, more
or less, and know' humanity in Its
varying phases, in degree, we real
ize that members of the theatrical
profession were never any worse
than the rest of us.
Quite Like Other Folk.
Actors and actresses are just
men and women, W’ith all the in
stincts, ambitions and limitations
that the rest of us possess.
Heine said: “There are three
sexes—men, women and actors."
But that was only jolly' josh; that
“listened” good.
The actors used to hoodwink us
with the thought that they were
> very, very ba-a-a-a-d, and for a
[ time this make believe was so well
> carried out that the actor was an
i attraction. We read stories about
[ his peccadilloes; and the records
> of divorce courts were laid open
’ before us. He was a great adver
tiser. And so we used to go and
’ buy seats to see him strut and hear
> him rant.
But now all this shotvy shadow of
veiled villainy' has been blown
! away, and we know that the actor
> in private life is even quite as
other men. He studies his part
; feverishly, watches the clock and
i counts the hours before he will go
> on. He is nervous, irritable, touchy',
J absurd before the play. After the .
; performance he is apt to be frisky
’ and frolicsome—until he thinks of
i the next night.
Preachers Used To Warn Us.
So long as he makes us laugh, we
get our money’s worth; hut as for
I
> waiting around the hotel to catch
’ glimpses of “the p>erfesh,” or lying
j in wail at the entrance to the alley
I —forget it!
And for rascality, some of us can
give them pointers as ten to one.
They have to walk the moral chalk
line. otherwise they could not do
their work right out in the lime
light.
And they are the most generous
and charitable folk you over saw.
•h Their work evolves imagination
and sympathy. Whenever a great
calamity happens, some one always
suggests a “benefit” for the suffer
ers, and the player-folk are always
the first to volunteer.
When the preacher used to w arn
us against attending the theater,
the play was much more mysterious
that it is now. Those who can re
member the rolling accent, as well
as the rolling eye of Edwin Forrest,
never tire of telling the thrills he
imparted—at $1 per.
Edwin Booth and Lawrence Bar
rett came on, mildly imitating the
mighty Forrest.
John McCullough gave hope that
the race of barnstormers was not
yet dead, and then his light went
out in darkness • because he took
himself seriously.
Then we had Mary Anderson,
Clara Morris, Lotta Crabtree, and
a woman of wonderful shape whom
I remember by the name of Lydia'
Thompson. Alas! these are all gone
from the boards and have left no
successors.
They Idealize Actual Life.
One reason why we loved the
actors in the old days was because
we were so impeccably respectablo.
We acknowledged our respectabil
ity and our virtue was ever be*
fore us.
And to equalise matters we got a
fine tang out of the wickedness or
supposed wickedness of others. We
were eminently proper ourselves,
but we reveled in the thought of
impropriety in others.
Actors idealize actual life; and
no doubt actual life is often a
beautiful take-off on the stage.
“1 believe the gentleman acts.”
said some one to James MacNelll
Whistler; and the answer was, "He
does nothing else.”
Nowadays, we are all encroaeh
’ng on the actor’s preserve. If a
fish could ask a question it would
be. Oh, where, oh. where is the
sea?” And we are prone to ask,
“Oh. where, oh. where is the stage?"
And the answer to this question
is: “it is right under our feet.” W,.
are all playing parts, not just pre
tending we are playing. 4
