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EDITORIAL RAGE
The Atlanta Georgian
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THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday
Hy THE GEORGIAN’ COMPANY
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What Kind of a Game Do
You Play?
Is Your Mind on the Real Game or On a Dozen Outside Ones?
tfltS-
This is an editorial which might be 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 and
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 “I 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 goodmatured old man; he plays fairly and len
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 Anally 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 GET 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 BIG 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
going 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.’’
AH from the Same Glass
There is a Talmud parable which says that Hatan 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 he 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.
Cojffi-ight. 1913, by Star Publishing Co
I T IS A great thing for the re
former and the altruist to use
common sense and logic with
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 evohe back to the spir-
shall find its own These worlds
exist.
But while we live in this body
let us try to look on the sane side
of every question, on all sides,
Since Nature 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
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.
I F, in the middle of a hot sum
mer night, a chill breese sud
denly enters a bedrom win
dow, the sleepers awaken, with a
shiver, and pull up a sheet to re
store their comfort by restraining
the escape of bodily heat.
The earth, aooording to the re
sults* of recent investigations,
sometimes does practically the
same thing, but in a reverse way,
using TTS 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 gigantio
gnome who, finding himself un
comfortably warm, opens a magic
bottle, out of which issues a re
frigerating cloud.
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
champagne bottle; volcanic smoke
and dust were hurled many miles
high in the atmosphere, thousands
of square miles of the surround
ing land and sea were 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 least three times within the
memory of the present generation.
In 1883 occurred the tremen
dous explosion of the volcano
Krakatoa in the East Indiee, in
which not only a mountain, but an
entire island, wa* demolished!. 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 this dust, circling
rapidly round the earth, produced
for several years afterward the
most magnificent sunsets that
have ever been known.
But this was not ail. During
1884, 1885 and 1886 careful ther
mometric observations showed
everywhere a lowering of the
general 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
consequences to the inhabitant*
of that beautiful island, 30,000 of
whom perished, almost in an in
fant. from the blast of wltheiTng
fire that swept the city of PL
Pierre out of existence. Pelee also
Mew Its vast dust clouds into the
upper arr.
Screened Off Solar Light
And during the following yww
they produced the customary ef
fects by screening oft 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 most
recent occurrence of this mag
nitude, ha* been the most careful
ly studied. Professor C. G. Ab
bot, of the Smlthsontan Institu
tion, reports that, being In Al
geria last year, he found the sky
obscured to such a degree by
volcanic haae, which he does not
doubt proceeded from Katmai,
that the mean temperature waV
lowered Beveral degrees, and he
calculates that over the whole
northern temperate sone the
available solar heat was dimin
ished 10 per cent from this cause.
Professor W. J. Humphreys ex
plains the action of the volcante
dust blankets in this way: The ‘
line dust scatters the short waves
of Mgtit 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 coldeT.
Our Intellectual Duty.
He even suggests that the mys
terious glaolal epochs of past
time, when Ice covered what ar#
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 ao, K Is our IN
TELLECTUAL DUTY to under
stand them. Our physical exist-,
ence Is the least of the gifts be
stowed upon u*.
:: Charles Bradlaugh ::
By REV. THOMAS B. GREGORY.
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 only once, and de
votes her whole energies to the
purchase of new costumes, sins
against her best self and good
taste. The woman who wears old
and cheat* clothing when she ('an
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 committed
a greater sin than the man who
sports three motor cars, 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
•o hopeful. Head any reliable
history—Tom Watson a History
of France, for instance—if you
itual has there been such hope
for struggling souls as now’ Bad
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
system which is oppressive. Give
it faith in itself and in the over
ruling <^od of Justice, and leave
sorrowing hearts with their faith
I -—in worlds beyond—where love
and avoid becoming warped in
judgment, or fanatical or incapa
ble of holding a Just and fair
opinion on any 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 A meric* the sim
plest house and clothing would
seem luxuries, and a bath tub and
a swimming tftnk inexcusable ex
travagances
Back to Nature is a popular
phrase, but there is a dividing line
in each mind between the possible
and impossible limit of that jour
ney backward.
Opinions Differ.
One irmn 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 wdth 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 she wears
an artistic creation made by a
good dressmaker who lives by her
trade. But the squaw would con
sider the garments of both super
fluous. since blankets were cheap
er and simpler to adjust.
or vain if he believed he had tbe
right to provide himself with at
tractive apparel.
Man has been given the mental
power to obtain whatever he
wishes. He was born naked, but
even the most fanatical reformer
can not say that he believes he
was intended by Nature, or Na
ture’s God, to remain naked.
Powers of Achievement.
And if he is to be clothed, sure
ly it is his privilege to decide
upon the style and coloring of his
garments.
And it should be his pleasure
and aim to make himself as
agreeable to the eye as God has
made the lesser animals.
’/he world in which we live Is
opulent.
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
POWERS OP ACHIEVEMENT
ARE UNLIMITED. HE CAN DO
AND HAVE. AND RE. WHAT
EVER HE WISHES, IF HE
WILL RECOGNIZE HIS OWN
POSSIBILITIES.
And no Powers or Principali
ties or Monopolies can stop him
or hinder his progress if he de
termines to go ahead.
Therefore let each one of us
think largely, live wisely, work
jusily, and win worthily.
And let us not limit our
achievements hy narrow Ideals or
I parsimonious rules of life.
I T was 38 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, wa*
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 1888,
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
the 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, wfth the
same result, but upon his being 1
returned In 1888 he was permits
ted to take the oath and occupy
his seat. The man of the Iron win
and unconquerable spirit had
worn them out.
By and by both the Honee and
the country learned that Brad-
langh was as honest as he was
courageous, as grand a man as he
was a fighter, and before he died.
In January, 1MJ, the House voted
to expunge from tte journal all the
ugly resolutions 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 Com
mon*, for when that vote to ex
punge the resolutions prevailed,
their good sense and finer human
eenttment triumphed over their
inherited Ignorance and bigotry.
Bradlaugh wae born In Ixmdon.
In 1888, of the poorest of parents,
and at the age of 10 began tire as
an errand bop. Hie education,
such as It was, was self-acquired.
He was a natural-born orator and
ruler of men: a man of rugged,
but powerful mentality; bfjy-,
hearted, and rough In his way*,
but honest to the oore and a gresw
lover of everything hot oppresses*
and oppression, hygjorrltas and
hypocrisy