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Ulj/Ulkii M JL Uili i i. Ai, vm., kjl/iiL/iV 1 , iuai -1 i., iOlU. 3 n Striking Picture of Work on the Panama Canal—Building Locks at Gatun Dam Why the Insurance Disasters Record the Gallantry of Atlanta’s Shoj 3gi irl! Concerns Dislike Women The floods and fires and tornadoss She’s a Nea r Angel % Women as Risks that recently rent the Middle We3t tried the souls of women, tried and found them gallant. A word never before applied to women passed Into current use. It was gallantry. Of Good There are some women in Atlanta quiet i and t breeding vhen to talk. And she A iVELL known Atlanta woman wrote a letter to the Sunday American and complained that she had found it next to impossible to have her life insured. There are a whole lot of life in surance companies over the country who are skittish about writing poli cies on women's lives and there are a number right here in Atlanta. It doesn’t make any difference if a woman goes down to their places of business and talks herself tired try ing to persuade them that she is a perfectly healthy subject and in need of insurance, the presidents of the companies kindly but firmly inform her that they will not pay her a cent to die. it isn't because a woman drinks or carouses or does any of the million and twenty-five other things that a man does to shorten his days, and it isn’t because she doesn't live as long as a man, because, as general thing, after she passes the 50 year mark, i she lives longer. Why They're Not Wanted. The principal reason in the case of single - women is because they are likely to marry and won’t need it, and in the case of married women because their husbands may specu late on making money out of their demise. “We don’t want to give men any excuse for killing their wives,’’ said an insurance man of one of the big I Atlanta concerns laughingly, “TheyJ have enough excuse already.’’ ' "Seriously speaking, though,” he> added, “there have been many cases of that kind, and we have to take that into consideration. Not that a man might deliberately shoot or poison his wife. But say she were sick or an invalid, and needed spec ialists or a trip to the mountains. If she had a big policy on her life and he needed the money he might be tempted to neglect her.” Officials Give Reasons. Here are other reasons, gleaned from several Atlanta fields, why it’s as impossible as the camel’s effort to get through a needle for a woman to get life insurance: 1.—One firm doesn’t consider that the class of working women or widows with children or oth ers dependent on them is large , enough to be worth going after. * 2.—It’s too great a risk to in sure women during the mother hood period—from 21 to 50. 3,—| n the case of married wom en with husbands paying their policies there may be a hidden reason of spoculation behind ft * and under such circumstances it’s hard to get at family history about it. 4, It's useless without wom en’s husbands are physically or mentally disabled, 5.—Physicians cannot examine women as they can men. Need a Man Most. "Most women don’t need life insur ance,” remarked one mere husband, straightening shoulders up and look ing satisfied with himself. “They need a MAN.” "But suppose they can’t get one?” inquired the mere girl reporter who ■was open to suggestions. He glanced around the room to make sure his wife had not acciden tally 'dropped in. She had not, and he became pom pous. “Let ’em work overtime at it,” he advised, his fingers seeking the armholes of his vest,” that’s the way Mrs. Blank got ME.” The outside door-knob turned. ‘Why, as I tyas remarking,” he de clared, “the reason we don’t give women life insurance is because we think the men cf the household should carry the domestic burden.” But it happened to be only the of fice boy. "Funny thing, the difference be tween men and women,” he daclared a little later, “You’d think that if we considered it a temptation to a man to have a big policy on his wife’s life, we’d think it a temptation to a woman to have one on her husband's. But we oon’t as a matter of fact, and except, of course, as in a very few rare instances, it isn’t.” He picked up a pamphlet to show the reporter statistics on the ques tion. Income Versus Sentiment. "I suppose the reason for it is be cause, in the first place, a woman just naturally thinks more of love than a man does. Then again if she thinks about it at all, she’s bound to figure out her husband is worth more to her aliv- than dead because he’s a constant source of income. On the other hand, if a woman dies, a man doesn’t suffer any loss but a sentimental one which, of course,”— he smiled—he can shortly remedy.” Another insurance man said that a thing he objected to in writing insur ance for women was that he found it embarrassing to ask them if they were married, and if they weren’t why weren’t they. While there are some Atlanta com panies who write insurance for wom en on the same basis they do for men. it was found that a number of them charge either higher rates or limit tile amount of women’s poli cies. The reasons given for the high er rates were practically those held by the companies that do not write women’s policies at all. “As for limiting the amounts," said one man. “we do it because we’re afraid of speculation somewher: along thu line. Our particular limit for women is $10,000, but of course sometimes we make exceptions in certain cases. For instance, if the woman asking the policy were some body lik-* Hetty Green, or the owner of some big concern where her death would mean a loss to the business, we would give her the privilege of taking out the same amounts as a man.” Gallantry, which heretofore we as sociated with men, is heroism. It *s a high and splendid courage shown in word and deed. It is bravery and generosity, a complete forgetfulness of self ifi an exceedingly thought fulness for others. Unless you shift the accent mark from second to first syllable, you will have a very differ ent impression of the word. Fine, with the accent on the first syllable, it is tawdry when the stress is laid upon the second. So throw the force of utterance where it/eonveys valor arid forget the mincing gait, the handker chief picking up, the eye-rolling and head wagging meaning of the word of the same spelling but world dis tant meaning, and crown women with the laurels of it. Two telephone operators sat at their switchboards, facing deat£, but defying it while they warn® the town of its danger. The dispatchers forgot the names of those girls but their names should ring through- the world. Paul Revere’s has rung for two hundred years. They are braver than the Revolutionary rider, for at most he only nearly killed his horse. There was no hazard of death in that wild ride for himself. He had the thrill and stimulus of action. The wind from the sea cooled his cheek. The tonic of the salt air was in nis nostrils. The horse ppunded ahead In unison with his own. The calm stars looked down upon him and guided his course. These two young girls sat in a stifling little town that was grow ing every moment closer and more stifling. The blood pounded in the pulses of their temples. Their faces were w.hite. They went on pulling out and pushing In plugs, calling again and again, endlessly, it seemed to them, the news of the flood, the disaster that overshadowed the city, that hung heavy above themselves. Frightened? Of course they were. Don’t believe anyone who tells you that when floods or fire or any other peril that threatens life besets him he is not frightened. To say so i3 to confess himself a dunce. The quick working mind grasps a danger, fore sees all its developments, fathoms its fearful possibilities. Such a mind knows. Yet knowing these girls staid in the little room, saving other lives, forgetful of their own. Gallant girls. Braver were they than Paul Revere, because they were in danger and knew it. Braver than he because they had not the relief of action. There was no rushing through cool air, no inspiration of the galloping steed for them. They sat and 'Waited, perhaps for death, but while they waited they went on with their work of saving. Those girls whose names were for gotten in the dispatches should have a monument erected on the site of that telephone exchange, and ; t should be erected while they still live. On the base of its pedestal there should be inscribed: “Erected to com memorate the gallantry of women.” Out of the dimming memories of the Johnstown flood stands forth the vivid figure of a girl who died at her post overtaken by the flood because she lingered too long in her deed of warning. Forgetfulness of self in ex ceeding thoughtfulness of others. I hope there is a monument to that girl, slim and graceful, like herself, and like her of granite strength. Sweet be the sleep of the brave. They and others like them, have added a new word to the vocabulary of womanhood, the splendidly earned word, gallantry. who come so near being angels you oan all but hear the fluttering of their wings. The reason is that they possess all the attributes generally ascribed to angels. In patience, they have the monu ment variety beaten to a standstill. In long suffering, they could join a Job society as a life-member. And when it comes to rioft an swers turning away wrath, this is the way they vanish the wrathful: Look him calmly in the eye. Straighten up imperceptibly. Draw a deep breath. Smile. AND GO RIGHT ON BEING NICE AND PLEASANT TO HIM. Now those are some angels. They are the women and girls in our department stores, and in addi tion to qualifying at the angel bus- ness, they are perhaps the best bred, all-round bunch of women you'd find in a far distance. The reason is that Atlanta shop girls are not the common or garden variety of shop girls at all. They do not chew gum. They are not over- inquisitive. Mighty few of them are silly. Standard Higher Here. At least that’s wbat heads of the big stores here say, and they assert that is what makes Atlanta shops different from most others over the country. They are more like fam ily establishments than anything else. Their slogan from the begin ning has been “Pull together.” The care taken in choosing employees and the regard for the education and brains they possessed has raised the standard of Atlanta, clerks far and away above the average. Customers remark it continually. As for the saleswomen develop ing into angels, it wasn’t anybody's fault but their own—they had ten dencies that way and just naturally dropped into the habit. In at the J. M. High Company’s store, W. H. Brittain, president of the firm, said he would back Atlanta saleswomen against any anywhere over the country. "They are just naturally business girls,” he declared, “and they have the Atlanta spirit down to the ground. There isn’t anything too hard for them to do to make a suc cess of and they are among our greatest bosters.” He said they knew how to meet people and make friends, and they had excellent good taste and judg ment. "Some people may think it's an easy job to be a clerk,” he mused as he gazed around over the big crowd of girls busily showing merchandise to early morning shoppers, "but it's one of the hardest things in the world to be a good one. A girl must be resourceful and quick to catch the idea of a shopper. She must be informed on what, the latest styles are so that she can give suggestions, and be able to plan out the color tones of an entire costume if nec essary. She must know when to be must keep sweet, no matter what happens, and no matter how it hurts, if she wins out in the long run.” Golden Rule In Vogue. Mr. Brittain said the firm’s advice to girls just going to work was sim ply to treat customers as they them selves like to be treated when they go into a store to buy. In other w’ords, the golden rule doctrine, and the girls found out it worked well. They were all very contented to gether. They practically spent their walking hours together, and they played at entertaining the public as their guests. When the reporter went into Da- vison-Paxon-Stokes establishment to ask Mr. Davison about his girls, she found him up in his office behind a big desk. “To show you how we regard our employees,” he said, “it may inter est you to know we haven’t got a person at the head of any of our de partments who lias been with us less than 12 years. We try to treat our people as if they belonged to us, and we’d all practically fight for one an other. The personal touch enters very much into the conduct of our store from the customer down to the very humblest of our employees. And we give employees a chance to rise.” He was enthusiastic over the firm’s new store, and said the em ployees were just as pleased as he was at getting into new quarters. "They feel they have an interest in it, too,” he declared, "as they really have.” At the Keely store, R. E. O’Don nelly, one of the firm said the proof of the ability of his saleswomen was the fact that they were able to meet the public trade and satisfy it. “Not only in our store, but all over the city, the salespeople are high grdae,” he told the reporter. Calls Girls “the Finest.” D. and M. Rich said the girls in their store belong to “the finest.” “We think our saleswomen are just as pleasing as any town can show.” H. York and I. J. Cassett declared. "In the first place we get the best as we know they are before we employ them. Then after they come in, the heads of our depart ments take them under their wing, as it were. We like to see them go ahead.” Some of their best girls, they said, had begun at the wrapping counter and worked their way into substan tial salaries and good positions. “We teach them to treat custom ers just as if they were callers, and to learn how to suggest things to buyers that will make shopping easy for them.” They said, along with other firms, that they found the Atlanta public particularly easy to please, and con siderate about waiting until clerks found what they wanted. Optimism Over Big Store. “I’m not going to tell you any thing at all about our girls,” said H. S. Johnson, of Chamberiin-Johnson- DuBose. "I’m simply going to give you the names of some of them and let you go around and see for your- ATLANTAN, IN LETTER, TELLS OF WORK IN THE BIG DITCH George H. Shepard, who is helping in the great undertaking, writes of the progress being made by the engineers. An interesting letter regarding the work on the Panama Canal has Just been received from a young Atlanta engineer, Mr. George H. Shepard, who is connected with the McClintick- Marshall Construction Company in the building of important masonry on the big ditch. The letter from Mr. Shepard was received by bis* sister, Mrs. Wylie Jones, of Decatur, and Mr. Shepard enclosed a number of striking photo graphs of the danal work, one of which is reproduced here. This pho tograph is of one of the locks of the Gatun Dam, and represents one of the most important units df the canal. The picture of the locks reproduced above was* taken' from the light-house on the extreme end of the center wall and next to Gatun Lake. The picture was taken by a photographer in Colon and is the best ever taken of any of the canal work. In the center fore ground shown the two emerging dani3. These machines swing on a pivot at the center, and when in use are at right angles to the locks. There are several folding leaves in this rpa- chine that are lowered by electrical machinery into the locks and stop the water of Gatun Lake. They are in tended for emergency use only, in case the guard gates—which are the fir^t set of gates on each side—are carried away. These machines were designed by a man on the isthmus and are the only ones of their kind in the world. There will be six of these: two at Gatun, two at Pedro Miguel and two at Mira Flores. Wall Is 90 Feet Wide. In the center is shown the center wall of the locks. This wall from the north to the south end is about a mile and a quarter long, 76 feet high and about 90 feet wide. There are three tracks on this wall, the two on the edge being the towing tracks and the one in the center the return track. The towing locomotives are run on these track* and the power is taken from a third rail. The two outside tracks are provided with a rack arid the locomotives have a pinion which fits into the rack, thus getting a great deal more power. There is also one towing track and one return track on each the east and the west. wall. The water shown in the locks is that of Gatun Lake. In this pic ture it 1s about fifteen feet deep. The final stage will- be about seventy-two feet in the locks. There are no more gates -this side of those shown. The first gates shown—the ones closer—are called guard gates. They are 48 feet high and are not used when the locks are in operation ex cept in cases of emergency. All the other twenty gates here are from 72 to 74 feet hight. A gate is composed of two leaves; each leaf being 70 feet wide and 62 feet long. As the locks are only 102 feet wide, it will be no ticed that the two leaves are ten feet longer than the width of the locks. This extra ten feet of width is caused by the gates being what is termed mitre gates. When not closed the.“e leaves swing back into a recess in the lock walis and are perfectly fiush with t^e walla Each leaf of a gate swings in perfect unison with the other and with th« ease which one would use in opening or shutting a gate in a fence. This picture only shows the uppei level. In this level there are ten gates, five on each side. In the mid dle level, there are only four gates, and in the lower level there are nix Two of thope in the lower level being guard gates to hold back the sea water. On the right of the last wall are the concrete light standards. They are about 22 feet high and will have two powerful lights on each standard, These are spaced about 60 feet apart, .There will he one row of them on th* east wall, one row on the west wall and two rows on the center wall, the entire length of the locks. To give an idea of the size o1 things, the light- house shown on the hack-ground of the west, wall if a hundred and ten feet high. In the cfmter hack-ground can be seen the canal at lea level with dredges work ing in it. Just beyond the end of the east and west walls are seen dim ly a number of towers. These are the cable-way towers. These cable- ways handle all the concrete in the locks. The big building shown just over the top of the emergency dain is the Administration building for the Atlantic division. self. If you don’t come back saying they’re sane, common-sense, level headed, I’ll miss my guess. And then he called Mrs. Margaret Saunders, who by the way is the only woman floor walker in Atlanta’s de partment stores and who knows how to show the big store off down to the ground, gave her the names and the two made a tour of the building. Everywhere Mr. Johnson’s words came true. Hands were out on ev ery corner, optimism shone over the big store like sunshine on a dark day. Giddy shop girls! If there were any, they were all out It was a revelation, each saleswoman, it was found, had the job of keeping close tab on what she sold, how r things went, and the heads of the departments practically conducted little businesses all their own. The store looked to them to make ends come out ahead, and it required brains to do it. As in the other- stores, they go north twice a season to do their stock purchasing. “Mr. Johnson treats us just as though he was our father," they all declared. “And so do the other members of the firm. We don’t feel like employees at all.’’ At J. P. Allen’s Mr. Allen said that another reason why Atlanta’s sales girls are high class is because they are paid better than in many cities. “I think all Atlanta merchants realize that girls cannot live on a mere pittance,’’ he asserted. “While the salaries are not fabulous, they will feed and clothe a girl very nice ly, and she has an opportunity for better pay when she shows ability. Our girls are mostly those who live in Atlanta and whose families live here. We don’t pick up girls who happen to drop In. And we know our girls are liked, because our cus tomers tell us so." “Kathleen Mavourneen” Brings Childhood Back When Played by Instinct Home Recipe for Gray Hair This Home Made Mixture Stops Dandruff and Falling Hair and Aids Its Growth. To a lalf pint of water add: Bay Pain ■ •,: 1 . oz - Barbo Compound ... .a small box Glycerine % oz * ! These are all simple ingredients that you can buy from any drug- , gist at very little cost and mix Lhem yourself. Apply to the scalp once a day for two weeks, then once every other week until all the mixture is used. A half pint should lie enough to rid the head of dandruff and kill the dandruff germs, it stops the hair from fall ing out, relieves itching and scalp diseases. though it is not a dye, it acts the hair roots and will larken streaked, faded, gray hair n ten or fifteen days. It promotes he growth of the hair and makes tarsh hair soft and glossy. GIRLS WHO “NEVER MEAN TO MARRY” = By Jean Roberts “F ipon OR 'good or evil, the girl of to-day has become vastly more independent of mar riage,” wrote Mrs. John Strange Win ter. ‘‘Till recent years a giri had to marry to secure a livelihood. Now she has grown capable of earning her own living, and she is under no necessity to marry for food and a home. The girl who really does not care to mar ry—who imagines she has some voca tion in life to which marriage will he an obstacle—has liberty to go her own way.” And she does. There was a time when the girl who didn’t get married was popularly supposed never to have the chance, but you will be remark ably mistaken if you assume to-day that the single lady could not have married if she had cared for It. ‘‘If women don’t want husbands to day," I read in a ladies paper, “whose fault is it? Is it because women re volt against household duties or that they have come to know better what husbands really- are? Women read the papers. They know that, marriage does not mean ‘happy ever after.’” That’s awful, isn’t it? But it’s my belief that husbands are as good as they ever were—better In very many ways—and that jiris of to-day are far too sensible to judge husbands by the awful examples the newspa pers chronicle simply because they are too exceptional. No, there’s some other reason why, in the girls’ minds, husbands have depreciated in value. There was a cause in one of the papers the other day which perhaps throws light on some of the reasons that induce many women to look askance at marriage. A gentleman with a salary of $2,500 a year found himself in a dis agreeable predicament through his wife being “wound up.” She had opened a little business in a town, and had run it with some considera ble success till things went wrong, and the poor lady’s efforts to put them right met with failure. So he r creditors came down upon her, and the business was wound up to the tune of thirty cents on the dollar. Then some of the creditors suggested that her husband ought to do the handsome thing and make up the de ficiency. Wasn’t the lady his wif**? The poor man pleaded that he had really never_drawn a penny from the business—that he loathed it—that he had done all he couln to persuade his wife tG give it up. But the good lady declared that it was absolutely im possible $he should stop at home “doing nothing.” She had no chil dren to look after, and she found housework so dull, after years of work in the city, that she ‘‘could not stand it.” The official receiver .who had the conduct of the winding-up business declared she was a sample of the woman of to-day “bitten with a mania for business.” The young lady who has been ac customed to daily ^excursions into town and the hurry and bustle of the world no doubt looks upon existence in a little suburban home as likely to be abominably dull. That feeling makes her shy of marriage. * Besides, what about the cooking and things of that kind? In a book upon home management I was reading some time ago the au thoress stated that the work in :i home was to-day at least one-third lighter than it was some twenty or thirty years back. The wife, as far as labor in the house went, has an infinitely better time of it than h r unfortunate sisters of preceding years. Just look at what science has done for her? Hundreds of ingen ious brains have been working to de vise means ofr making cooking, wash ing, sewing, carpet brushing, floor scrubbing, and everything else more easy. In an hour to-day the house wife can do what once took a wife two or three. Just think what sew ing must have been before we hail the sewing machine! “A very large number of men,” she remarks, “have found out how’ re markably easy it is to mend for them selves. 1 know bachelors who live in flats whose rooms are stocked with every time and labor saver in house hold work. Women do not appear to be so well acquainted with them, and it is to be feared that a very large number of young girls, having no ac quaintance with household work, are shy of marriage, preferring the work in offices or other work places to work they dread because they are ig norant of it.” Is that the reason 'why the busi ness girl so often turns a cold eye upon the unhappy gentleman who seeks her as his wife? If girls are going to give up things when they marry, they will only do it for a husband that will compensate them for th,e sacrifice. You fellows must look about them and qualify themselves to be tht? husbands girls want. A friend of mine was rejected some time back by a lady, who after wards confided to me that he was “really a dear, nice, kind creature, but she could not stand the Idea of spend ing all her evenings in his company. He has not two ideas in h.is head, and the prospect or passing me ioag ev ening hours with him while he read to her the reports of the day’s foot ball was simply too much for her. What would a husband think a wife who read a cookery book to him for a couple of hours, every evening. The bachelor girl trots here and there and tastes a vastly large amount of pleas ure in her spare hours than she tped to. Sometimes, no doubt, she becomes a mere pleasure seeker. But even those w’ho do not want more amuse ment than the girl did once upon a time. “The modern girl will do her fair share of “mending something” but j it strikes' one that ten or twenty : years of evenings of that kind is a I rather monotonous prospect. Girls to-day want brighter evenings than I that. The young man who wants to get “her” to say “yes” needs to He more interesting than he was once I upon a time—or needs longer purse to supply the deficiency. Real Experience with the /Veto Instinctioe Playing. No. 5. 14 ¥ SAT at the Virtuolo Player Piano, a strange yearning in my heart. 1 The few, poor, loving words of a letter had touched me—a letter A from the old people in the old land. "I put the roll of ‘Kathleen Mavourneen* into my Virtuolo, closed the panel, closed my eyes. I didn’t want to see. 1 didn't need to see with the Virtuolo. i wanted to put my whole self into the music. “I touched the time-lever as in a dream. 1 moved it hack and forth by Instinct to make the time please my ear. 1 didn’t think about how to do it. My heart told me. 1 pressed the wohderful Acsolo buttons, softening or making tremulously strong, the pure, clear music. “I pressed instinctively—just as 1 felt — and the music came. "There rose before me the old land, the dip of softened emerald bills, the lover waiting at a window, his heart trembling in his voice: “ ‘Kathleen Mavourneen, the gray dawn is breaking', The horn of the hunter is heard on the hill. ’ "The music swelled, throbbing into intensity—just as 1 pressed— just as I felt. 1 was back with the gay tender colleens—their eyes pure as their hearts, in the wonderland of the lost years. "Soft as a fantasy the music died. Kathleen and her lover faded. I opened my eyes at last. They were wet. 1 looked at my wife; she was crying too. " ‘My dear,' said she, 'I didn’t know yon could play like that.' "I didn’t know it either. 1 can’t play ihe piano. But 1 can play the Virtuolo by instinct. I can play the songs of my childhood- not as other people play them, but as / feci them. 1 can go home again. ” Have you wakened in yourself this Magic Witchery of MuSic? Do you know how to waken it? When you actually hear and play the hallet & Davis VIRTUOLO you'll see how it isn’t necessary to un derstand music in order to express your own feelings — to play instinctively. The Virtuolo is built by the Hallet & Davis Piano Co. of Boston, who have been making art pianos since 1839 ond have been awarded 140 different medals THE INSTINCTIVE PLAYER PIANO for fine piano construction and tone. You can get a Virtuolo in a Hallet & Davis Piano or in a Conway, the "Home” Piano. Find out how easy it is to own one. Send attached cou pon for complete information. Send it today—then you won’t forget. HALLET & DAVIS PIANO CO. / Established i8jq) 50 N. Pryor S’ lianta, Ga. COUPO.V Send me full information about l he Virtuolo, and your East Buying Plan. m - ' ■ “ N -10 s. v.— rnmmmmmim, t V . . - ■ fomm;**** A ■ fi