Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

jGeorgia’s Most Beloved Mother-in-Law—“Best in World/’ Says Slaton The Governor Frankly Adores Mrs. W. D. Grant, Who Isn’t a Bit Ashamed of Her 75 Years, Can Talk of Constitutional Law and Yet Plays Piano With the Touch of a Girl. By TARLETON COLLIER. THE mansion of Georgia’s Governor is blessed with a mother-in-law. And over at the mansion, they consider her ideal —particularly does her son-in-law. who is Gov ernor John M. Slaton. Atlanta society agrees with the Governor in his estimate of Mrs. W. D. Grant., She is cheery, she is charming. The younger set holds no party complete without her presence, for it is plain that her soul has found the well of eternal youth, and that she is as young and as mewy as the youngest in spite of the fact, as she will tell you without reserve, that she is rounding 75 years. Men of affairs coming into the Slaton home ask first of all for Mrs. Grant. She can talk to them and can interest them about constitu tional law or the cotton crop, or about any thing else as their predilections demand. And with it all. she is the most gracious lady alive. Rut the attachment most marked is that which exists between the son-in-law and moth er-in-law. “She is the best mother-in-law in the world.” said Governor Slaton yesterday. His regard for her. it is widely known— and be will admit it—borders on idolatry. “Nobody can know her but to love her. Her » c-Y/ • Is®*- >«af m J («W . : K ■. 3 W W I F v .■*■'*£* A ’w ’’ I Z a * - W >JK ■ ! ■ k ; ' t i.. * ' J • ■ i ' t ‘ ■ « ’’ ’ ■ ’ '■ ■■'•' ~ S « * * »■-.>. fl I ’ ■■■. '.J I ’ I * *F < •« - -4. -> ■ X' I , I tt.- a I i JR 1' B i MB """ • | • • — z t ’ J ’ ' -**--*■ — 1 ’. . . I r \ ' k charm of manner, her mental gifts, her bright ness, her sweetness, all make her the most at tractive person I know.” The two frankly are lovers. Here is what Mrs. Grant said about her son-in-law: "He is the best son-in-law in the world. He is a good man. Nobody can know him but to love him. He likes tn have me with him.” And then she commented, self-deprecatingly: “As if anybody would enjoy the company of an old woman who is nearly seventy-five I” The dear lady. As if anybody would not en joy her company. She: met a reporter in the hall of her home at Peachtree and Pine Streets, with a hand out stretched in greeting, and with a gay laugh that found its way into every word she spoke. Her dress was white, the color of her hair; her face was surpassingly kind, her voice and her laugh were low-toned and soft, for Mrs. Grant is a daughter of the old South. “You don't want to interview me.” she "pro tested. “I'm just an old woman.” Which drew forth the declaration that she was herself, nnd therefore to be interviewed, as Georgia's most beloved woman and mother in-law. She was reconciled to the proposition of be- HEARST’S SUNDAY AMERICAN, ATLANTA, GA., SUNDAY, JULY 6, 1913. It* iH _ M jpißHgl I mM wMfIM R a s/ k- ■ v R Bk. ’ a A '.blwß// ; ■" ■ -■ 1 V MJIT nJi> 'Slwf liLWt.. iiMTirTtoi i' .< x.V'kr-.v ? A •- **■ w- 4V I 4 ' ' -t- J' _Eg Isy > / I HF f ’ \ W-/1 I\7 rs/»- ' ' I wwH . wwF AiCx r i Sw /A e ) rjfflWiX ’ XA gBA i Ji D l-' \ \ j - ..A/A—ZA\ “ v - / k -»-, // 6>J Ikr \ I irAW V___— v Iwl)I Ing interviewed when informed that the subject was her son-in-law. “I ought to know Governor Slaton." she said. “He married my only daughter, and the.v knew each other as children. At the University of Georgia he roomed with my son. John W. Grant, and the two have lieen life long friends. When I went to Jhe LaGrange Female College in 1849. I knew' his mother as a college mate, and I boarded with two of his aunts. Miss Rebecca and Miss Caroline Slaton.” So the Governor is more than a relative by marriage to his mother-in-law. And she liked him. she said, from the very first, when he was a little boy. He was a good boy, said his mother-in-law. There were no cherry tree episodes nor days of "hookey.” nor anything not circumspect that she could recall. And then he married her daughter, and came to live with her in the Grant home at Peach tree and Pine Streets. The lives of mother in-law and son-in-law have been cast together pretty much all the way. Now a great trial has come to Mrs. Grant. Her son-in-law has become the Governor of Georgia, and he and his wife jierforce must move into the mansion down town. The Gov ernor is begging her daily to move with them into the executive mansion. Her son is as ur gent that she make her home with him, and Law in the Southern States : : By Joseph E. Pottle THE press of the country latterly is full of so-called statistics and unwarranted in ferences relative to the matter of law enforcement in the South, as well as obedience to and respect for the law in the same section. I am not one of those who believe that the law is altogether as well and impartially en forced as it might be in our State and section, or that there is such universal reverence for the law and the courts as the welfare of the people demands. Things might be better—yes; but they also might be worse. I am writing this solely for the reason that I confess to a feeling of some resentment and more or less indignation at seeing my State and section constantly exploited as the chief of fender against the law, and our people held In invidious comparison with sundry foreign na tions. It is declared, for instance, that in Rlrming ham, Ala., and Atlanta, Ga., typical modern Southern cities, a far greater number of homi cides is committed in a single year than in the city of London, with her seven million pop ulation: that while in Great Rritain and Can ada 80 per cent of those indicted for murder are convicted, less than 20 per cent are pun ished here. And the conclusion drawn is to our very great discredit, both as to law obedi ence and law’ enforcement. In making these discreditable comparisons, all sight is lost of the conspicuous, all-impor- Goevrnor and Mrs. Slaton with Mrs. W. D. Grant, “the best mother-in-law in the world.” Below is another view of Jlrs Slaton and Mrs. Grant. she can not decide. “The Governor and my daughter have lived with me all the time,” she said, outlining the argument that has worried her exceedingly of late. "It is hard to lose them, and he likes to have me with him." Then her own son's invitation is alluring. He lives just next door to her, and she argues that if she takes up her residence with him she will not have to close her own home. She is proud of that home, and it is likely that the last argument will win. “Isn’t It a shame to close a house like this?” she said wistfully, yesterday, switching on the lights in the dainty parlor. “We have made it a home.” There was pride in her voice. Her home is dearer to her than the prestige of the State's mansion. In the center of the room was a quaint grand piano. She touched it lovingly. “Rut don’t interview me,” she said. “Sit down, and let me play something.” She opened the piano. She did it herself. Later, when she went out, she put on her rub bers herself, scorning the proffered help of a maid, and admitted that she scorned it. Inde pendence is one of her chiefest glories. And so this lady, who insists that she is near 75 years old. opened the piano, and with a touch as sympathetic and as varied and as true as tant consideration that the criminal element in Georgia and Alabama is made up largely of that class of our population the members of which notoriously, since the war. feel very lightly the restraining influence of the laws of Got!, of self-respect, and the laws of the land. It is no exaggeration to say that in both the States named, and I do not doubt that the rule holds good in the other Southern States, the percentage of indictments for homicides of negroes to whites is as 85 to 15. I have lately taken the trouble to go over the record, insofar as my judicial circuit is concerned, (the Ocmulgee) for the past ten years, the period of my incumbency of the of fice of Solicitor General of that circuit. This circuit, located in Middle Georgia, is, I think, fairly typical of the large majority of the other Georgia circuits. In seven of the counties composing the cir cuit (the Eighth. Hancock, not being included because until recently it belonged to an adjoin ing circuit), the number of homicide indict ments for the past ten years has been 245, or an average of 24 1-2 per annum —an average annual homicide of about 3 1-2 to the county. The counties average, in round numbers, 19.- 000 population, or an average annual homicide roll to the county of about 1-50 of 1 per cent. Again, of these 245 homicides in the period referred to, 151 were either not tried or were acquitted, and the remainder of 94 were con victed, that W, of those indicted at least 65 that of any conservatory girl, played a rippling opera. "Do you know,” she remarked, with her laugh, when she had finished, “I haven't seen the notes to that opera for forty years. They were burned then, but they seem to live in my mem ory. It’s an old opera, called ‘Norma,’ and I suppose you have never heard It before. Pretty good for an old woman, don't you think?” Pretty good from any one, and doubly charm ing as she played it. This wonderful mother in-law. She played another bit of old opera. “Remember.” she said, "I have not said any thing that would do to put in the paper. I have just played you a little music. Let that do for an interview.” As an interview it did pretty well, revealing the charm and the variety of accomplishments and the naivete and the camaraderie of her. She was yet unconsciously to reveal another charm —that of her youthfulness. "Everybody is very good to me," she said, discussing the dilemma that confronts her ns to making her home with the Governor and the Governor’s wife, her daughter, or with her son, John W. Grant. “Everybody is good to me, the young people particularly. I love them.” Then she talker! about Atlanta’s young peo ple, the women particularly, in away to prove that she loved them. per cent were convicted of some grade of homicide. When it Is remembered that it is almost the universal practice in Georgia for grand juries to indict one charged with murder with out anything like thorough investigation of the facts. It will not, I think, be justly contended that this apparently small percentage of con victions justifies the sweeping generalization that our people are careless and indifferent In the law’s enforcement. The statement above that grand juries, as a rule, prefer indictments for murder on slight evidence, involves no criticism of them. They usually take the view, and in my opinion it is the JUST view to take, that a case of that gravity should be investigated by the trial jury, if there, is any evidence to justify the belief that the defendant might probably be guilty. Os the 245 homicides tried in the Ocmul gee circuit in ten years. 225 were negroes and 20 were, white. So it will be seen that of the, in round figures, 150,000 population in the seven counties, two white persons per annum were indicted for murder, or 2-7 per annum in each county. The white population of the seven coun ties is, say, 70,000. So it will l>e seen that in this representative judicial circuit the percent age of homicides by white persons to the white population is for ten years 20 out of 70.000. an average annual percentage of 2 out of 70,000. So, after all, the record does not show that "Now there are the people you should go to for your stories,” she remarked. “Go to the girls and young matrons of Atlanta. They have the Southern culture and refinement that girls had fifty or seventy-five years ago. And added to that they have the advantages of education and of new thought. Worlds have been discov ered since I went to school, Huxley and Dar win and great poets have lived and have done their work. With all this, I think the Southern girl of to-day ought to be the most attractive person in the world. They have had wonderful advantages and a wonderful environment. I think with their advantages I could have writ ten a book, or have done or said something worth while.” Instead, she has become the Ideal mother-in law. She has become a hostess whose charm and graciousness men and women of every section of the United States have praised warmly. She has become a beloved woman. This wonderful mother-in-law. She would not dare tell what It takes to be a perfect mother-in-law. In fact, she Insists that she Is not that. But there is the word of others that she is. And there is the evidence of her own life that the prerequisites of perfect mother-ln-lawhood are independence, an infinite variety of thought to fit every mood and every circle, the charm of graciousness, and always a smile. our folks are so bent on murder, and so thirsty for each other’s blood. It is, of course, infinitely regrettable that our negro population occupies our courts and fills our jails in such disproportion to their relative numbers, but I do not believe in the justice, fairness or expediency of arraigning an entire section because of so unfortunate a condition, and as a citizen of this State and of the South I want to deny that the record authorizes the popular and much exploited conclusion that the white people, the Anglo-Saxons of the South, are one whit worse than any other peoples on this earth, either in their respect for the law, their obedience to the law or their tearless and impartial enforcement of the law. I know one thing with absolute certainty, and that is that in the counties composing the Oe mulgee Circuit, in Georgia, there is practically a universal disposition to enforce the law against all lawbreakers of every class. In my long term of official service there have been few verdicts of not guilty which, parti san prosecutor (in a sense) as I was, I did not thoroughly approve. The much flaunted law’s delays, frivolous technicalities, easy escapes from criminal charges, have shown themselves but little in this representative and average circuit. I believe I do but simple justice to the jurors, the judges and the bar of the other circuits of the State and throughout the South when I ex press the opinion that, in the main, the same Condition exists there also. 3E