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» * I EDITORIAL RAGE THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday By THE G ICO HO! AN COMPANY At 30 East Alabama St.. Atlanta, Ga. Entered as second-class matter at postoffloe at Atlanta, under act of Mar<*h 3.1871 Subscription Price—Delivered by carrier, 10 cents a week. By mall, 35 00 a year Payable in Advance. The Atlanta Georgian In the Run of the News THE HOME RARER The Beginning of Marriage Haphazard Reflections on Grave Topics (Copyright, 1(11) At stated times we mortals have stated visitations. One day it is the grippe, next day the financial problem. Then it is the marriage and divorce question, with much learned expounding by the good and the pure, such as bishops and ujfe.' bers of Sorosis. What ia marriage? How did it begin? Whence does it come? . Why ia it a feature of human life wherever that life is found? You must begin with such questions. Always study begin nings. Nothing can be learned by taking hold of a thing in the middle and examining its imperfections. The first priest to join man and woman together was no benign being with lawn sleeves and soul-stirring words. Marriage was brought about on this earth by the will and wisdom of God Almighty working through primitive babyhood. In the old days, when the world was cruder, men and wom en ran wild through forests and swamps. They fought nature, fought each other, as savage as other beasts around them. There was no love; there was no marriage. The instincts of self- preservation and of reproduction worked alone to keep the race here through its hard childhood. IMMODEST But in cold stone caves or in rough nests under fallen tree trunks savage children were born and nursed by their savage mothers with savage affection. Through those infants of the stone age, or of ages much earlier, marriage and pure affection came into the world. It is not hard to reproduce in our minds the picture of the first #narriage. A savage woman, half human, half ape, with rough, matted locks hanging round her face, sits holding her new-born baby, protecting it from wind and cold. It is a queer baby, covered perhaps with reddish hair, its brow no higher than a rat's. Its jaw protrudes; its tiny, grimy hands clutch with monkey power all things within reach. Along comes the father, full of plans to kill a mammoth or a cave bear; interested in his stone-tipped club, but caring noth ing for the mother, who has been for some time only a whining nuisance. He stops for a second to look at the small creature which he has added to earth’s animal life. Its misshapen skull, ferret eyes, miniature shoulders—some thing about it reminds him of his royal self, as studied in the pool. He stoops to look closer. His bristly hairs are grabbed, and a weird, insane, toothless grin lights up the little monkey face. Then the savage takes a new view of life; there the mar riage institution and the marriage problem are born simultan eously. Says the mammoth hunter, with whistling words and hoarse throat sounds half articulated: “I like this baby. He’s like me. Let me hold him. Don’t you go out with him looking for food, and don’t leave him alone while I’m gone. I’ve got a bear located. No one can beat me killing bears. I’ll bring the bear's heart to you this evening. You can give this baby some of the blood. It will do him good. Don t have anything to say to that mammoth hunter in the next swamp. I want you to stick to me. I’ll look after you. I have taken a fancy to that baby. He looks very much like me.” Off goes the father, and that savage mother, in a primitive way, is a wife. Hereafter she is to be cared for. Bears will be killed for her, even while she has children to keep her busy and unattractive. Society takes a new turn and the red-haired baby has done it. To childhood, helpless and beautiful, we owe marriage and all that growth of morality which is gradually making us really civilized. The basis of -all real growth is altruism; and altruism, the inclination to think more of others than of yourself, came into the world through the cradle. The influence of childhood has transformed mere animal at traction into unselfish affection. It has substituted family life for savage life. The interests of childhood demand that mar riage and its responsibilities be held sacred. Duty to future generations demands that divorce be made difficult and considered a misfortune. Marriage, brought into the world through the influence of children, should be dissolved only with due regard for the inter ests of children. Crn'T Too invite. Me To YooR MOUSE To DINNER A^TeR- The lecture■? the pot KfcTTLE black. ~r — if CATs Turk mio fioN-e. strikes dMt> pish T uRN 'nTo < * Lut - W1LL GRASS TORN into hopper* - 1 DON’T KNOW- bo Yoo? HEW PoE-T laureate, in e.N<jLArie> Drawn by HAL COFFMAN, the Famous Cartoonist. Ella Wheeler Wilcox Writes On Women Smokers Smoking Is Serious Drawback to Equal Franchise, and in Additiou Is One of the Greatest Beauty Destroyers Women Contend With. An unhappy marriage is earth’s worst affliction. Quite true. But it is not affliction wasted. Examples are needed to warn the young against the matri monial recklessness which underlies most unhappy marriages. Unhappy wives and husbands are human lighthouses— lonely, but useful. A man who marries a woman undertakes to make her happy and keep her busy. If he keeps his contract, she will keep hers. If he fails, he has no right to experiment on another un fortunate. The divorce class is a self-indulgent, malformed class, not worth notice. As a matter cf fact, there really is no marriage or divorce problem which sensible beings need consider. At present men are not good enough to be trusted with lib eral marriage or divorce laws. When they are good enough the aws will not be wanted. For the man fully developed and fully ^oral will know what he is doing whey he goes into a marriage Contract. His stability of character will insure permanency. There will be no need of laws. By ELLA WHEELER WILCOX. (Copyright. 1913. by Amerlcan-Joumal- Exa miner.) I T is unfortunate for the great and good cause of equal franchise that women are growing into ungraceful and un hygienic habits in the world we call civilized. Smoking women are every where evident; and the habit once indulged in occasionally by the few daring ones is now in dulged openly and almost con stantly in European lands; and, of course, American women are .following suit, as is their custom toward older countries. A middle-aged woman or an old woman smoking in a public place is a sight to make angels weep and men sigh over the memory of their mothers. The young girls who smoke in public or anywhere else ought to make men pause and hesitate before thinking of asking these young women to perpetuate their species. And to perpetuate the species and bring normal, healthy and moral men and women into the world is the real business of every young woman, however we may regard other occupations for her, and however wide we are trying to make her sphere of usefulness. Nerves and Nicotine. Field Marshal Lord Methuen has now eom| to the front in an open denunciation of the smoking woman. He declares woman has not man’s “sense of proportion" and does not Know when to stop. But he also believes the smoking habit, especially the cigarette habit, a serious detriment to 4 men. Lord Methuen says: "A man is constitutionally stronger than a woman, and his nerves will stand tfie strain of nicotine much better than hers will. “Then, again, the throat, chest and lungs, whibh are some of the principal organs affected by ex cessive cigarette smoking. are more susceptible in the female sex, and consequently irritation is set up the more quickly. "But I think it is the eyes which are most affected by the habit. After excessive indulgence, these organs generally become weak- looking and uncertain, and often assume a watery appearance. “Another symptom of the habit ual cigarette smoker is a nasty, troublesome cough, particularly in the morning, which arises from the irritation caused by the nico tine to the throat and chest. This is more often the case with the person who inhales the smoke—a habit which. I am sorry to say, is pretty general among cigarette smokers. "I think you will agree that these ailments do not add to the attractiveness or the charm of the gentle sex, but then, in addition, strong to overcome. Many wom en who are subject to nervous breakdowns and who are sent to “rest cures” and sanitariums to recover from "overwork" or “over- pleasuring’’ are really suffering from nicotine poisoning, were the truth known. It seems appalling that such a condition of society should exist; appalling that smoking among women has attained such a hold upon the community that men like Lord Methuen are alarmed. But it is well that one such man has raised his voice in pro test. The craze for smoking started with the English women, and it is befitting that English men should make some effort at mitigating the evil. For evil it is, and one which menaces the generations to come. If woman is to have the fran- ELLA WHEELER WILCOX. you have to consider the dele terious effect cigarette smoking has # upon the heart and the nerves. “The cigarette habit among la dles is deplored by all doctors, but particular^* in regard to the younger members of the sex. "At middle age the effects are not so much pronounced, or. per haps, not so noticeable, but in the case of a young girl her develop ment is undoubtedly Impeded, and this must have a detrimental ef fect upon the future of the race." It is gratifying to lovers of the human race to ha\;e a man of braid and position take this stand toward the smoking habit, espe cially an Englishman, for it is English women of prominence who have made the unwholesome custom fashionable. There are a million more wom en than men in England, and perhaps the habit first originated in .woman's desire for man’s so ciety. and In her loneliness she found even the smell of his cigar smoke solace. There was once a romantic girl living in a retired country place who asked her lover to smoke into a bottle that she might let the smoke escape some lonely evening during his absence and imagine him present. Present Smoking Craze. However the present smoking craze originated, it is most unfor tunate. It is bad enough for pos terity to have the vices of the fathers to combat, but what hope can the world have of a higher humanity when both parents have vitiated their blood and destroyed their nervous svstefns by nico tine? * A young woman on one of the large ocean liners was seen al ways witji a cigarette between her lips. She rejj^rked to some fellow passengers that she had taken the cure once at a sanita rium, but that the habit was too Positions Wanted By THOMAS TAPPER. A BOUT this time, as the al manac used to say, there will be lots of young men looking for jobs. They are graduates. Everybody loves to give a graduate*advice, to tell him how and what to do that he may suc ceed. The reason why people do this is not that they love to preach. It is because, having grown older, they have discovered w*hat a precious thing it is to be YOUNG, what an amazing op portunity there is for anyone who is about to go to work with the STRENGTH AND FAITH OF YOUTH in the right hand. The business world is a place of keen competition. To look at it from the outside makes one think that the effort to walk in, find a chance and make good is impos sible. But It can be done. ^ Once landed on the job, the graduate wrill probably be too busy to remember the advice he has received. This will do him no serious harm if he becomes a dis coverer. He must discover these facts: 1. Success never comes by parcel post. It is the blossom on the slow-growing plant which PERTINENT PARAGRAPHS Hammerstein finds a Caruso laying bricks. "Gold" ones? * * * "I should worry about a nation al crisis and get a wrinkle In my lecture roll." * * * Lawyer whose wife has been awarded alimony should have had her for his client. Mysteries of Science and Nature Force of Gravitation Controls Cannon Balls, Baseballs, Moons, Planets, Suns and Stars Without Visible Means of Connection. By GARRETT P. SERVISS chise, and use it to better the world, let her not emulate the vices of men to prove her worth and ability. And let her value her beauty and health and attractiveness enough to enable her to give up the disgusting cigarette habit. Let ils hope Lord Methuen Is a prophet when he says: Should Give Up Smoking. "I do not think the time is far distant when there will be as strong a crusade against smoking to excess as there has been against drinking to excess. “I believe it will be the doctors w*ho will lead the crusade against excessive smoking. "They will tell a person plainly tnat it is ruination to his nerves to smoke cigarettes, as some peo ple do. from the age of 10 years onward.” starts as a seed and is watched, watered and nursed for about half a century. 2. To stand up to the swiftness of the business game demands a clear mind, a clean body, an ac tive imagination, the capacity for silent observation and a spirit of good nature that takes a blow* the way a punching bag does. 3. At ten dollars a week these five qualities are being financed at tw*o dollars each. The rate is low. But this standard of value is not fixed. It can be run up to any figure one likes. 4. There are no rules of suc cess that apply equallv in all cases. But no man ever lived who could get along, who could succeed in his own way, without the Great Five we have named. 5. But there are absolutely def inite rules for failure. And the basis of them is an unclean mind, a body thrown out of tune by dissipation, affection bestowed upon a couple of bad habits, the inclination to tell shady stories and a tendency of dodging the truth. These and their kind will put a young man on tfye scrap heap and keep him there. And a scrap heap is a most un comfortable substitue flbr a mattress. T HE mystery of mysteries in science is the attraction of gravitation—that very force of nature that is the most fa miliar to us all! It seems strange that the most familiar thing in the world should be, at the same time, the most in explicable—but so it is. In order to see clearly wherein the mystery consists, let us first consider what gravitation appears to be. It is gravitation that gives the property of weight to all bodies. If there w T ere no gravita tion, we could float like thistle downs, and infinitely better than thistledowns; for they, too, are finally brought down by* gravita tion. It is gravitation that brings a cannon ball eventually to the earth, no matter how swiftly it may be projected. The faster it starts the farther it will go, but during every second of its flight it drops the same distance vertical ly toward the earth, w’hether the speed imparted to it by the pow der is 500 or 3,000 feet per second. Gravitation acts on a moving body exactly as well as on one at rest. It is gravitation that curbs the motion of the moon and keeps it in an orbit of which the earth is the active focus. Governs Earth’s Motion. So, too, it is gravitation that governs the earth in its motion around the sun, preventing it from flying away into boundless space. Astronomy shows that gravita tion acts betweA all the planets and all the stars and controls their motions with respect to one another. Now*, this mysterious force ap pears to be an attraction, as if there "were elastic cords connect ing all the bodies in space and tending to draw them together. But space, as far as our senses can detect, is empty. There are no elastic cords and no physical connections whatever between as tronomical bodies, or between a flying stone, or cannon bah, and the earth. How*, then, can there be an attraction? In order that a body may be attracted or draw*n, there must be something to draw it. Gravitation does the trick, but completely hides from us the mechanism through w’hich it acts. ’We can discover no mechanism at all. When an unforturtate acroplan- ist drops from his machine ht a height of a thousand feet, he be gins at once to fall toward the earth as if it were pulling him; but how can it pull if it has noth ing to pull with? You may think at first sight that it is the air which acts as an intermediary; but that is not so, because the earth and the moon "pull" upon one another w*lth a force equal t .1 —— the strength of a steel cable fiv hundred miles in diameter; bu J there is no air, and no other tar ££ gible thing in the open spaci * 240,000 miles across, that grapS*" between the moon and the earth u Then gravitation exerts thejl t % same force at every instant. NcT matter how fast the falling aero ~ naut may be descending at an *d moment, gravitation will keep adding speed as if he had ju ’T. started. Disregarding the slieK-- retardation produced by the re sistance of the air, he will fal,3 16 feet in the first second, 48 feet7 in the second second, 80 feet in" the third second, gaining 32 feet in his velocity during every sec- . ond after the first. Falls 10,000 Feet in 25 Seconds. From a height of 1,000 feet he will come down ih about eight seconds, and will strike the ground w r ith a velocity of about | 256 feet per second. From a height of 10,000 feet he would fall in about 25 seconds, and would strike with a velocity of 400 feet per second. The same kind of calculation can be applied to the gravitation between the earth and the moon. If the moon w*ere not in motion across the direction of the earth’s "pull" it would fall to the earth in about 116 hours. Now. to return to the mystery, how is this force exerted? Is it really a pull as it seems to be? The answer to which science is tending is that instead of being a pull, gravitation is a push; in other words, that the falling aero naut is pushed toward the ground and the moon is pushed toward the earth. On the face of it one might think that nothing w*as gained by this theory, because it seems as impossible that a push should be exerted without a tangible con nection as a pull. But the clew is found in the supposed properties of that invisible, intangible, all- pervading medium called the ether. Waves of Ether. This, to be sune, is explaining one mystery by another,, tor we know nothing about the ether except that it conveys the waves of light and electricity, but, at any rate, it affords a conceivable explanation of gravitation. I have no space to go into this ex planation, which has recently been developed by Dr. Charles F. ferush, but 3n idea of its nature may be formed from the state ment that it regards the ether as being filled with a peculiar form of waves, and that material bodies may intercept these waves in such a way as to be pushed toward one another on account of the diminished effect of the ether waves in the space between the bodies. A Basket of Figs ;; By REV. THOMAS B. GREGORY, I Poverty is often wheel of virtue. the balance Members who took a trip under the sea were looking for a naval training station, not a site for a public building. . t . Wouldn't take the chance of sending that J5,000,000 American Express Company melon by freight. \ ... Pennsylvania abolishes State conventions. Breaui line for poli ticians will form on the left. ' T was 266 years ago, in the city of Naples, that a basket of figs created a revolution which resulted in the death of 500 men, many of them members of the ancient nobility; the burn ing of scores of villas and palaces, and the elevation to power of a peasant whose entire possessions would not have brought the price of a decent suit of clothes. The owner of the basket of figs ,was asked to pay the royal tax upon the fruit; he refused to do so, and emptied his basket upon the street. Close by stood Masa- niello, the fisherman, young, handsome, brave and "chock full" of the old eternal sense of jus tice and right. Poor and humble as he was. Masaniello possessed a commanding personality, the “gift imperial" of magnetizing men, and outraged by the .injustice he had witnessed he sounded the call of arms. Arming themselves, the popu lace, with Masaniello at their head, drove out the Spanish Vice roy, liberated the prisoners of the customs, burnt the houses of the King's creatures, destroyed the offices of the tax collectors, and made short work of ridding the city of tho tyrannical nobility and their henchmen. In a trice Masaniello was mas ter of Naples. The Viceroy was forced to remove the hated taxes, and in his rude shanty heme the barefooted fisherman, in rude, democratic fashion, but with an eye single to justice and human ity, disposed of the petitions and complaints that were handed to him. But Nature is inexorable, and in establishing her balances she is worse than a thousand Shy- locks. For an entire week the entire care of a city of hundreds of thousands of inhabitants had fallen upon Masaniello. He was general, judge, legislator, and for the whole time he had hardly- slept or eaten. The combined physical and mental strain was more than he could bear, and the fisherman's brain began to reel. He became a maniac and did all sorts of violent things; and in stead of loving him and caring for him until he regained his san ity, the fools killed and buried him like a dog. But despite this the name of Masaniello will live forever in the memory of the lov ers of liberty and justice.