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N EDITORIAL RAGE The Atlanta Georgian THE HOME RARER THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday By THE GEORGIAN COMPANY At 20 Eut Alabama St Atlanta, da SJntared aa Mcond-claee matter at poatofflce at Atlanta, under act of March S. i«7S Subscription Price—Delivered by carrier 10 cents a week By mall, $6.00 a year. Payable In Advance. The Pit and the Pendulum. Mr,=.Young Retains Her Place as School Chief—and Chicago Rejoices. Chicago Needed Mrs. Young. Mrs. Young, So Far as Personal Com fort and Ease Are Concerned, Did NOT Need Chicago. (Copyright, 1918.) Ella Flagg Young, perhaps the best of teachers, and one of the ablest women in the United States, will continue her work at the head of Chicago’s public school system. A VERY FORTUNATE THING FOR CHICAGO, FOR THE FATHERS AND THE MOTHERS AND THE CHILDREN. Certain narrow-minded and entirely worthless members of the school board, types of the men who think that woman is fit for no higher oooupation than waiting on THEM, had succeeded in forcing Mrs. Young to resign. These gentlemen have, however, discovered very promptly that the public’s opinion of woman, of her ability and of her importanoe, is somewhat higher than that of the politicians whose chief interest is making money out of school books or ladling out patronage, And Mrs. Young continues with her school woric, thanks to a universal public demand. Inasmuch as the matter is settled, it is well to say that in oontlnuing her work and gladly tying herself down once more to a daily grind of detail and hard work, Mrs. Young is controlled by love of the children and by her sense of duty. She might, had ■he chosen, have taken life very comfortably and leisurely. The editor of this newspaper, while hoping that she would continue her best possible work as the head of a great school sys tem, gladly offered her the position of chief teacher for the fath ers and mothers that read this newspaper. We invited Mrs. Young, in case her ignorant enemies should make it impossible for her to continue in her school work, to write three or four timos a week, or as often as she thought it necessary, letters of advice to parents and teachers and children to be published in our newspapers. And we offered her $10,000 a year to do this work, stipulat ing that while the contract would be binding upon us, it would not be binding upon her at all should she at any moment choose to resume her life of active teaching. This we mention in order that the school authorities, with chins twice as deep as their foreheads and with about half as much intellect in their whole brains as Mrs. Young has in her little finger, may know that she keeps her place as a hard-work ing school chief, not for the salary that is paid, since she might have earned as much by doing one-quarter as much work. Mrs. Young stays with the Chicago School Board and will oontinue the work that uses up every ounce of energy and vital ity from a sense of duty to the teachers, the parents and the chil dren and from a sense of duty to herself. IT IS A PITY THAT POLITICIANS WHO MANAGE THE SCHOOLS OF THE COUNTRY COULD NOT GET FROM MRS. YOUNG A LITTLE OF THAT SENSE OF DUTY. * - V Y •' - 45*. Baseball as an Antidote for Revolution. Osar Nicholas has just issued an imperial ukase creating for his revolution-ridden Russia a “Ministry of Sport.’’ He be- lieves that royal encouragement of athletics will help to stamp oat Nihilism and check the popular and growing diversion of bomb throwing at grand dukes on the Nevskii Prospekt. A remarkable edict for this descendant of Michael Roman off, who has heretofore religiously followed the rigid, conven tional customs of his autocratic ancestors. It is a progressive step, to say the least, and may foreshadow the awakening of “Darkest Russia’’ from sluggish subservience to centuries of despotism or drench the nation once again in blood. General Voyekoff, the first Minister, began the new depart ment by forming a council of leading citizens to prepare athletes for the Olympic games at Berlin in 1916. The nations pre-eminent in commerce and warfare have won great guerdons in the fields of sport. England. Germany, France and the United States furnish evidences of the value of cricket, broadswordsmanship, sculling and baseball. If Ozar Nicholas has the sagacity of a Peter the Great he will have his new Ministry of Sport investigate the splendid merits of American baseball. Then, by drafting unpopular grand dnkes into service as umpires the unhappy populace may change its deadly missiles to mere words and empty pop bottles. Bound hand and foot In the pit I lie, And the wall about me is s trong and high; Stronger and higher it grows each day, With maximum labor and minimum pay. And there is no ladder whereon to climb To a fairer world and a bri ghter time. There is no ladder, there i s no rope, But the devil of greed has given a hope. He swings before me the pendulum—Vice; I know its purpose and kn ow its price, (In Edgar Allan Poe’s story, “The Pit and a huge, knife-edged pendulum which swings back and swing.) By ELLA WHEELER WILCOX. And the world’s good peop le all know it, too, And much they chatter and little they do. I have sent up my cry to th e hosts of men Over and over and over again; But should I cry once to the devil, ah, he Would hurry to answer and set me free. For Virtue to Virtue must ever call thrice, But once brings an answer when Virtue calls Vice. Bound hand and foot in th e pit I lie While the pendulum swings and the days go by. the Pendulum,’’ the victim is bound hand and foot, face upturned to forth across his body, the blade dropping closer to his heart at each When the Wife’s Away. PERTINENT PARAGRAPHS The "^Teaser” may not be afraid of Uncle Sam, but the Texas cow boy can make him jump through a hoop every time. • • • When a woman i» satisfied with her daughter-in-law it is con clusive evidence of the meeting of two angels. • • • North Carolina church loses its members by barring tobacco chewers. Just weeded ’em out. • « t Minnesota taxes 6,009 bachelors and maids. Ought to be willing to pay for the privilege. • • • The philosopher can always make the fcest of the other fel low's woes. • • • Lawyer suing a saloonkeeper Is merely trying to collect hie bar bill. When spring fever grabs some men it hangs on the rest of the year. • • • * All men are born equal, but some have richer daddies than others. • • * Hard muscles are not always accompanied by strength of char acter. • • • Can’t depend on the absent treatment in a case like Mex ico's. * * • Bryn Mawr is going to perfect her "perfect girl." Surrender, men! It is better to have your teeth than your fingers In the pie. * • * Long-distance love seldom sur vives personal acquaintance. £>tNA.K. X Must ha vs - lcFT my Diamond Ring' s&mf* Whites S' in the Room WHEN I WAS PACKING THE trunk Do Hurry and -Look- all oven, the- *aoov> — ill. Hold THE" PHONE-’ —Ion cs ■ TO — SuvimbR- Gotsta * o L -ALL WHAT AU "FOUND, am Some" cwsaretYit STOBS..-Am' SOME" SEES A ASHES -- An’ Some- feEO, AN white:, ah’ Hiur chips !!* Mysteries of Science and Nature. Ultra - Violet Rays Would Destroy Life on Earth Did They Not Themselves Form a Protecting Ob struction to Passage. By GARRETT O NE of the most astonishing announcements recently made In the name of science Is that a means may he discovered, with the aid of the ultra-violet rays from the sun, to free man from the necessity of continually cultivating the soil In order to fur nish himself with food. If this expectation should be ful ly carried out mankind would no longer be forced, as they have been ever since the loss of Adam’s par adise, to earn their bread In the sweat of their brows. That neces sity has hitherto rested upon man because the plants of the fields possess a kind of secret laboratory In which they utilize the power of the sunbeams for transforming mineral substances into foodstuff. But now the French chemists, Berthelot and Gaudechon, have found out a way, with the aid of the ultra-violet rays, to Imitate, to a eertaln extent, the action of the plants. Their experiments give rise to the hope that, after a while-, we shall be able to make In the laboratories, out of nitrogen, chalk, carbonic acid and water, a num ber of alimentary, or eatable, sub stances, like those which hereto- < fore have been furnished only by plants. Believe That Sunstroke Is Caused by Ultra- Violet Rays. The ultra-violet rays, which form the basis of this modern scientific miracle, are contained abundantly in the sun’s radiation, but they are invisible to the eye. They can also be produced artificially by means of the mercury vapor lamp. It is with these artificially pro duced rays that the experiments have been performed. They are of very short wave length, and most of those coming from the sun are Intercepted by the atmosphere. If It were not so life would probably be Impossible on the earth because the ultra-vio let rays have a deadly effect when they fall unimpeded upon an ani mal organization. It is believed that sunstroke Is due to the effect of these rays. They are also fatal to microbes, and have been utilized for the destruction of many kinds of noxious germs. Recently the Automobile Club of Paris has Installed In Its head quarters a swimming tank whose water Is freed from all germs by means of a large mercury vapor lamp Immersed beneath the sur face. The deadly rays pass out P. SERVISS through a lens of quartz, which is transparent to them, and quickly destroy all the floating germs In • the water around the lamp. Drink ing water Is purified in a similar manner. The ordinary mercury vapor lamp would be dangerous to the eyes but for the fact that the glass of the tubes in which the light is produced Is opaque to these rays. It allows the luminous rays to pass, but obstructs the ultra-vio let ones. Quartz, on the contrary, allows all the rays to pass. Ultra-Violet Raya Create Obstruction to Their Deadly Passage. These same rays are being ex tensively employed In medicine. The celebrated Flnsen rays, used for the cure of maladies of the skin, are of this character. They have a strong photographic power and are able to produce many chemical reactions that can not be produced otherwise. One of the wonderful things about the ultra-violet rays proceed ing from the sun is the fact that they themselves appear to produce In the amosphere of the earth the obstruction which prevents their own passage, except In a very small quantity. This Is due to their transforming atmospheric oxygen Into ozone, for the ozone thus formed Intercepts the very rays which have produced it There Is very little ozone In the air, but the quantity existing is usually suffi cient to shield ns from the deadly rays whose action upon the atmos phere has created It If the air were suddenly stripped from the earth it Is believed that the ultra-violet rays falling unim peded upon Its surface would swiftly destroy all animal life. . Rays May Be Used in the Future for War Purposes. A lugubrious suggestion has been made by Professor Houllerljpis. of Marseilles, based upon the de structive power of the ultra-violet May It not bo possible, he says, that some day a wicked magician of science will construct a ma chine capable of sending out an invisible beam of ultra-vlolst radia tion to a distance of hundreds of yards, which will strike blind the eyes of any person upon whom it may be directed? The terrors of such a weapon In the hands of an aviator may easily be imagined without going Into details. Science Questions By EDGAR LUOIEN LARKIN. W HEN the United States Government surveyors divided the land into townships and sections as the bounds of civilization moved ever onward toward the West, they had first to locate standard base lines with all possible accuracy. These lines, marked by corner stones, were located with great precision by means of astronomi cal observations. The standard meridians, lines due north and south, were de termined by observing Polaris, the North Star, when above and be low the true celestial pole. The poles of the celestial sphere are the exact points where the axis of the earth would lie If extend ed out both ways to Infinity. The extension of the north end of the axis of the earth into space Is the absolute north. But this line or point actually moves. And every object in the entire uni verse moves; therefore, if as tronomers at great pains locate a base line in space, then, In a few years it will be useless be cause the equator and axis of the earth are in motion. This mysterious motion com pletely upset the ancient Hindu, Babylonian, Assyrian, Arabian, Egyptian and Greek astronomers. and temple and pyramid builders. They would locate, orientate their huge buildings and pyramidal structures with ail the precision possible without telescopes, and all would be well for a century or two. Then a north and south line through their building would no longer point toward the North Star. And a star that at the time of the building of the temples sent its ray at instant of rising into the center- of the eastern gates now did so no longer. This fact had a profound ef fect on the hierophants of all an tiquity. It was an Insolvable mystery. A number of years ago I published a monograph on this fascinating subject entitled “The Waning of the Light of Egypt.” The Egyptian and Greek astrono mers watched this majestic mo tion of the equator and axis of the earth during centuries with out securing a clew to its cause. None among the human race was able to even surmise the hid den cause until the mighty brain of Newton rose to supernal heights, discovered the true cause and explained it for all coming generations. The equator and axis of the earth move, and, of course, the entire solid globe has to move to displace these imag inary lines among the stars.