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i editorial, page The Atlanta Georgian the: home rarer THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN Entered an second-rln Subscription F Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday By THE GEORGIAN COMPANY East Alabama Ht . Atlanta. Oa. At 20 East Alabama St . Atlanta. Oa. cond-claas matter at postofflee at Atlanta, under act of March 3,1873 Price Delivered by carrier, 10 cents a week. By mall, J6.00 « year Payable in Advance. What Kind of a Game Do You Play? Is Your Mind on the Real Game or On a Dozen Outside Ones? All from the Same Glass This is an editorial which might he headed “KEEP YOUR MIND ON THE ONE IMPORTANT THING.” It is an editorial about concentration, about putting your REAL thought on your real WORK You don't need the editorial and ought not to waste time reading it if you are quite sure that the best that is in you is be ing used every hour, and used to give you the best chance pos sible Among a million men there may be one or two that really play the game of life as a good player plays the game of chess. The one or two men in a million do not need to talk, or think about the importance of concentration—but all the rest of us do need to realize what intense concentration might mean for us. There isn't a man who doesn’t WANT something that he hasn’t got. There isn’t one that isn’t planning in a more or less aimless way to do something, to get something, to BE some thing. And there really is not one that could not succeed fairly well, at least, IF HE COULD ONLY KEEP HIS MIND ON REAL THINGS AND OFF OF OTHER THINGS. Have you ever seen two men play chess, a good player am} a bad player? The bad player begins apologizing for himself , before the thing starts, apologizes all the way through, and loses at the end, even though the queen or other pieces be given him in advance. The good player sits down, looks good naturedly at his op ponent, watches his first move, plans the thing out, wins smil ingly and easily, BUT HIS MIND HAS BEEN ON THE GAME Life is a game. Every one of us must play it whether he wants to or not. And every one plays the game with the same old partner—TIME At life’s table, opposite you, sits Time with his scythe, and at his elbow the stakes—SUCCESS. Anything that takes your mind off the game gives Time the advantage. That is to say, anything that does not at the same time add TO YOUR POWER of work and thought. Time plays against us all, and he nearly always wins. Mil lions of men and women in the world are saying every day, ' ‘ If I were YOUNGER I would do this” or ”l would do that.” Every man thinks of what he would do if he had to live over again the hours during which he let Time win while he lost. There is no use going back over the moves that have been made foolishly. The game is still on, and it is never too late to win it if you will MAKE UP your mind, concentrate your mind and brush aside interruptions. Time is a good-natured old man; he plays fairly and ten iently. He is relentless in his steady onward pace; he never gives you back the day that you have given him for nothing. That is one day OFF THE BOARD. But you can win and beat him in the days that remain, if you will. Lectures on concentration are needed by YOUNG men es pecially. For their temptations are the most numerous. Much intelligence is used up trying to get their minds away from the real work. Foolish fashion makes them waste on their clothes, their hats, THEIR LOOKS, when those looks amount to nothing. The man of brains should simply make up his mind TO LOOK CLEAN, TO SHOW SELF RESPECT; nothing else matters. The hard thing for young men and others to remember is that THEIR WORK is their real occupation. Take the average young man playing a game of cards, of baseball, or any other MERE AMUSEMENT. If you should try at THAT time to in terest him in some outside thing, some new kind of a hat band, some new color for the cravat, he would say to you, “Don't bother me, I am busy NOW. you will make me lose the game. ” How many know enough to say the same thing when they are playing life’s REAL game, which is the game of work? Many young men act like a man who has forgotten the road, or like a drunken man staggering to the right and to the left, falling down, getting up and finally landing in jail instead of landing at home. The road before every man is perfectly clear, and there is only just ONE way of getting over that road, which is TO WALK STRAIGHT AHEAD TO THE END OF IT. Suppose a man were locked up in jail and had to make his way out. What would you think of him if one day he started to bore a hole in ONE spot and next day started a hole in an other spot, and kept on all his life starting little holes in differ ent spots and never going on with any one of them? You would think him a lunatic. Yet that is exactly what ninety-nine men out of a hundred do in this life. We are all of us locked up here, all of us imprisoned by conditions through which we must bore a hole if we want to get out and amount to anything. We try this way and try that way and try the other, and do noth ing, WHEREAS BY TRYING ONE WAY AND KEEPING AT THAT WAY WE COULD OET OUT IN THE END. We have talked on this subject of concentration to young men before. We shall talk about it again. YOU CANNOT SUCCEED IN THE BIO THING IF YOU LET THE LITTLE THINGS TAKE UP YOUR MIND AND YOUR TIME If your best thought goes to the selection of a straw hat, and your second best thought to the selection of your clothes, and your third best thought to some profound speculation on the races or the result of the baseball competition, WHAT KIND OF THOUGHT IS LEFT FOR THE REAL WORK? And what in the world can help you or give you any kind of success, except steady grinding at the real work? When you wake up in the morning say to yourself, I am guing to keep at my work and think of nothing else to day.” Don ’t think with how little work you can get through to day, but, on the contrary, HOW MUCH work you can get into it. Whatever you have undertaken to do, do it better than the next man, and not only better than the next man, BUT AS WELL AS IT IS POSSIBLE FOR YOU TO DO IT. We do not share the comfortable theory that ANY man can achieve anything that he desires if he will work hard enough. That is not true. Edison could not possibly have painted as well as Sargent, and Sargent could not possibly have developed Edi son’s inventive genius. But neither Edison nor Sargent, nor any other man that you hear about, would have been a success if he hadn't KEPT ONE THING IN HIS MIND ALL THE TIME Your mind is the tool that you have got to work with. Hand and feet are the small tools, the servants of the working brain, the real tool Keep the brain clear, clean and concentrated. Don’t load it up with unnecessary burdens, unnecessary inter ests. Toward life's frivolities and useless discussions—except ing those that really improve the mind—let your mental atti tude be “I don’t know and I don't care. I am playing a game against time and against life. I have got to win it, and I can’t let other things interfere with it.” How Volcanoes Pro duce Refrigerat- ingBlanketsScien- tifically Explained Eruption of Katmai in Alaska Last Year Lowered Earth Sur face Temperature Ten Per Cent—Similar Occurrences Before. By GARRETT P SERVISS, There is a Talmud parable which says that Satan came one day to drink with Noah and slew a lamb, a lion, a pig and an ape to teach Noah that man, before drink is in him. is a lamb; when ho drinks moderately he is a lion; when like a sot he is a swine, but after that any further excess makes him an - ape, which senselessly chatters and jabbers. Waste or Penury Equally Sinful By ELLA WHEELER WILCOX. Coj^PHght. 191o. by Star Publishing Co. I T IS A grent thing for the re former and the altruist to uae common sense and logic with his ideals. Next to faith, they are the most valuable qualities for any human being to possess. Ex travagance and wastefulness are sins: so are stinginess and parsi mony. The woman who wears ex pensive gowns onl\ once, and votes her whole energies to the purchase of new cost tunes, sins against her best self and good taste. The woman who wears old and cheap clothing when she can afford to procure new garments sins against good taste and good sense. Much Need for Right. There was a man of fortune who was so economical that he trundled his invalid wife about in a wheelbarrow to save the ex pense of a carriage when the phy sician recommended a daily drive He believed equipages were wick ed extravagances. He commit Ted a greater sin than the man who sports three motor oars, if the money which purchased them came honestly and he uses them for the benefit and pleasure of others as well as himself. There is much that needs right ing in the world to-day, much that is being righted, and great changes are imminent. Never were so many intelligent and cap able people working together in their various ways to better hu manity as now. and never was the condition of the working masses to hopeful. Read an> reliable history Tom Watson's History of France, for instance—if you want to rejoice that you live in this age and not in any other past era. Never since the spiritual man took on material form and began to evolve back to the spir itual has there been such hope for struggling souls as now. Had ELLA WHEELER WILCOX. as the worst conditions of the la borer are. they are better than were many of the best conditions for thousands of years. Back to Nature. Humanity is coming into the consciousness of its own divine power to change and alter any s> stem w hich is oppressive. Give it faith in itself and in the over ruling God of Justice, and leave sorrowing hearts with their faith —in worlds beyond—where love shall find its own. These worlds exist. But while we live in this both let us try to look on the sane sicle of every question, on all/sides, and avoid becoming warped in judgment, or fanatical or incapa ble of holding a Just and fair opinion on unv subject of the day. Many peopel who are clamoring for the Simple Life, and who are condemning every phase of luxu ry. fail to realize that all luxury is comparative, and that to the na tive Indians of America the sim plest house and clothing would seem luxuries, and a bath tub and a swimming tank inexcusable ex travagances. j Back to Nature is a popular phrase, hut there is a dividing line In each mind between the possible and impossible limit of that jour ney back ward. Opinions Differ. One man may insist that the proper boundary lies in sleeping out of doors. Another on an out er balcony, and still another may be quite satisfied with a good sleeping room well ventilated. Yet the Indian would consider all of these conditions far from Nature. Only by rolling himself in his blanket on the earth could he feel he was back to Nature. One woman may feel she Is dressing simply if she wears a shirtwaist and plain skirt, and anther may feel she is equally simple in her attire if sh% wears an artistic creation made by a good dressmaker who lives by her trade. But the squaw would con- 1 er and simpler to adjust. Since feature adorns its animals and birds and fish and insects in such beautiful attire, and in such splendid colors, it would seem that man was not presumptuous or vain if he believed he had the right to provide himself with at tractive apparel. Man has been given the mental power to obtain whatever he wishes. He was horn naked, but even the most fanatical reformer can not say that he believ* was intended by Nature turc's God, to remain naked. Powers of Achievement. And if he is I F, in the middle of a hot sum mer night, a chill breeze sud denly enters a bedrom win dow'. the sleeper® awaken, with a shiver, and pull up a sheet to re store their comfort by restraining the escape of bodily heat. The earth, according to the re sults' of recent investigations, sometimes does practically the same thing, but in a reverse way. using ITS blanket to promote in stead of to prevent the escape of heat. And. most remarkable thing of all, the earth obtains its cooling blanket from volcanoes! It is as if the globe were a gigantic gnome who, finding himself un comfortably warm, opens a magic bottle, out of which issues a re frigerating ^loud. Most readers will remember the great eruption of the Katmai vol cano in Alaska early last year. It was one of the grandest displays of volcanic forces on record. The top of the mountain was blown off. as a cork is shot out of a i hampagne bottle; volcanic smoke and dust were hurled many miles high in the atmosphere, thousands of square miles of the surround ing land and sea w'ere buried un der white ashes, and wherever the mighty cloud passed overhead im penetrable night prevailed. Cool Summer Followed. The dust that reached an ele vation above the level of the sea at which rain and snow clouds are formed was borne swiftly round the earth, and within a few months its presence was detected all over the northern hemisphere by its restraining effect upon the light and heat rays of the sun. A fall of temperature resulted and a cool summer followed. If this experience were an iso lated or unprecedented one, the conclusions that* have been drawn from it would be less convinc ing than they now appear to be. But the same thing has happened at leapt three times within the memory of the present generation. In 1883 occurred the tremen dous explosion of the volcano Krakatoa in the East Indies, in which not only a mountain, but an entire island, was demolishedl. The sounds of that explosion were ac tually heard/ like the booming of distant artillery, THREE THOU SAND MILES AWAY, and It sent sea waves completely across the Pacific Ocean! It blew millions of tons of dust into the upper at mosphere, and thi9 dust, circling rapidly round the earth, produced for several years afterward the most magnificent sunsets that have ever been known. But this was not all. During 1884. 1885 and 1886 careful ther- mometflc observatjons showed everywhere a lowering of the genera] temperature, amounting to several degrees below the av erage. This is now ascribed to the screening effect of the vol canic dust in the air. In 1902 the slumbering volcano of Mont Pelee, in Martinique, was uncorked, with the most terrible consequence* to the inhabitants of that beautiful Island, 30.000 of whom perished, almost in an in stant. from the blast of withering fire that swept the city of St. Pierre out of existence. Pelee also blew its vast dust clouds into ths upper air. Screened Off Solar Light. And during the following year they produced the customary ef fects by screening off the solar light and heat and causing a no table lowering of the temperature of the earth. Now, to return to the eruption of Katmai. which, being the mos’ recent occurrence of this mag nitude, has been the most careful ly studied. Professor C. G. Ab bot, of the Smithsonian Institu tion. reports that, being in Al geria last year, he found the sky obscured to such a degree by volcanic haze, which he does not doubt proceeded from Katmai, that the mean temperature whs lowered several degrees, and he calculates that over the whole northern temperate zone the available solar heat was dimin ished 10 per cent from this cause Professor W. J. Humphreys ex plains the action of the volcanic dust blankets in this way: The fine dust scatters the short waves of light and heat proceeding from the sun, but has little, if any, ef fect upon the longer thermal waves radiated from the earth, which pass through the dust, and escape into outer space without obstruction. The consequence is that the earth's radiation of heat gets out more easily than the sun’s radiation can get in, and thus the equilibrium of tempera ture at the earth’s surface is upset and the earth grows colder. Our Intellectual Duty. He even suggests that the mys terious glacial epochs of past time, when ice covered what are now some of the richest lands of the Northern Hemisphere, may have been Induced by volcanic dust blankets more extensive and more impenetrable than any that have been thrown round the globe within historic times. Are these studies and specula tions worth while? Most surely they are. Perhaps we shall never be able to interfere with such tre mendous exhibitions of nature's powers, but, even so, it is our IN TELLECTUAL DUTY to under stand them. Our physical exist ence is the least of the gifts be stowed upon us :: Charles Bradlaugh :: By REV. THOMAS B. GREGORY. o he clothed, sure- rivilege to decide and coloring of his u be his pleasure and aim to make himself as agreeable to the eye as God has made the lesser animals. The world in which we live is There are trillions of precious gems in our rocks and seas: our fields are fertile: our industries are unlimited: and better still, and more important. MAN'S P' I'd'KKS OF ACHIEVEMENT ARE I NI.IMITED. HE CAN DO AND HAVE, AND BE, WHAT EVER HE WISHES. IE HE WILL RECOGNIZE HIS OWN POSSIBILITIES. And no Powers or Princlpali- T T was 33 years ago that the famous battle between Charles Bradlaugh and the British Parliament began. In 1880 Bradlaugh was elected to Parliament by the Northamp ton constituency, and, being an atheist, he asked that he be al lowed to "affirm.'' instead of tak ing the oath in the usual form. The privilege was denied him. Of fering, then, to take the oath, he was declared to be disqualified, was ordered to leave the House, and upon refusing to do so was placed in custody. His seat was declared vacant by the courts. In 1881 his constituency re turned him. Upon his again pre senting himself he was denied the privilege of taking the oath. Was again ordered from the House, and upon his refusal to leave was forcibly ejected. His Northampton constituency stood faithfully by him and re turned him in 1882 and 1883. whereupon the same scenes oc curred in the Parliament. In the meantime he brought suit against the sergeant-at-arms for unlaw ful ejection, and won: but later t ie Invalidity of his title to a seat in the House was reaffirmed In 1885 he was again returned to Parliament, when the same old tactics were resorted to, with the same result, but upon his being returned in 1886 he was permit ted to take the oath and occupy his seat. The man of the iron will and unconquerable spirit had worn them out. By and by both the House and the country learned that Brad laugh was as honest as he was courageous, as grand a man as he was a fighter, and before he died. In January, 1891, the House voted to expunge from its journal all the ugly resolution* that had been passed against him. It was a double victory, , a victory for Bradlaugh. and a victory for the members of the House of Conv- mons, for when that vote to ex punge the resolutions prevailed, their good sense and finer human sentiment triumphed over their inherited ignorance and bigotry. Bradlaugh was bom in London, in 1833. of the poorest of parent^ and at the age of 10 began life as an errand boy. His education, such as It was. was self-acquired. He was a natural-bora orator anfJ ruler of men: a man of rugged, but powerful mentality; big- hearted. and rough in his waya. but honest to the core and a great lover of everything but oppressor* and oppreasion, hypocrites and hypocrisy.