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The Atlanta Georgian
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
Published Fverv Afternoon Except Sunday
By THE GEORGIAN COMPANY
At 20 Kaat Alabama St . Atlanta. Oa
Kr^ered ns Hcrond-clas* matter at postofrtre at Atlanta, under act of Man'ti .1.
fcubscrlpUon Price Delivered by carrier. 10 cents a week By mall, $0 00 a year
Payable in Advance.
France Always the Friend England
Usually the Enemy—of This
Country and Its Progress
However. Americans Fee! Quite Cheerful About It. Certain
Kinds of Dislike Are a Pleasing Tribute to Success.
Copyright. 1913, Internationa) News Service
France, a nation of thinking men, a people that has taught
other nations for centuries, is friendly to the United States, and
will share in the great exposition OF CIVILIZATION in Cali
fornia.
England, hostile to the United States, irritated because the
United States presumes to control its own canal, is not friendly to
American progress and refuses to share in the Panama Exposi
tion.
This does not irritate the people of the United States. It
interests them and it amuses them.
The situation now in 1913 is about as it was in 1776.
Then, as now, the French people and her ablest men sympa
thized with the Americans and shared in their fighting.
Then, as now, England disliked the suggestion that this coun
try should manage its own affairs.
In those days, when we announced our intention to govern
ourselves, the English, badly advised, decided to fight us.
With help and sympathy from France, we did what was nec
essary, and England 's authority moved up to Canada and across
the ocean.
To day again the United States declares its intention to man
age its own affairs, and specifically the Panama Canal, built with
our money, through territory which belongs to us.
England doesn’t like the idea of our managing our canal in
1913 any more than she liked the idea of our managing our gov
ernment in 1776.
But she is wiser now than in those ancient days.
Instead of sending over ships and gentlemen with red coats,
TO MAKE US BEHAVE AND TAKE HER VIEWS, she sulks
like a nice little Eton boy and will have nothing to do with us,
and, above all, won’t exhibit in California.
The attitude of England is childish and undignified. But for
some time to come probably no other attitude can be expected.
This country is amused and instructed; it is not annoyed by
the English refusal to share in the exposition.
Indifferent to the attitude of England, based on the childish
notion that she ought to be able to do in 1913 what she couldn't
do in 1776, this country is delighted with the friendly attitude of
France that has 1 istod through so many years.
To have the iriendship and sympathy of the French nation
this country may well be proud.
A very great people are the French, genuine democrats,
MEN ABLE TO GOVERN THEMSELVES IN THE REAL
SENSE OF THE WORD, thinking men, and teachers of other
men. ,
The French people for centuries have taught the rest of the
world to think and to act.
Our statesmen in 1776 re-echoed the sentiments that the
French leaders had been uttering since the days of Louis the
Fourteenth.
Our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution and our
rebellion against England were really the fruition of French
thinking and French teaching, part of the work of the French
encyclopedists, grafted upon the mixed race on this North Ameri
can continent.
To-day, as of yore, the French are leaders and teachers, and
to-day, as in the days of 1776, the American people are proud to
have the French as friends and sympathizers.
They will be welcome indeed at the great exposition which
will celebrate the opening of the canal, the close union of the east
and west coasts of the United States, and which will emphasize
in 1913 the determination which we expressed in 1776 TO MAN
AGE THIS COUNTRY IN OUR OWN WAY.
Those Shadow Gowns
Next in importance to the Mexican situation, the Tariff
and the Currency bills comes the shadow gowns.
The attitude of different parts of the country toward this
diaphanous draping of the human form divine is so varied that
the question has become a vexing one morally as well as a tangled
one legally.
The spirit which closed the United States mails to "Septem
ber Morn" has worked to the disadvantage of the wearers of
scarcely more material—and man has smiled.
But now comes a Judge of the Golden West and fines an on
looker ten dollars for following a diaphanous maiden. The lady
Demg haled to court, it was proven that under the beneficent
rays of the declining sun, her gown was even as a veil. The
erring man was attracted by the novelty. ‘‘I had never seen one
before,” he said, "and wanted to get a good look at it,”
Two prosecutors and a patrolman examined the gown and
agreed that it was almost like glass. Nevertheless, the Judge
was inclined to fine the seeker after truth twenty-five dollars. He
compromised on ten because the offender was married.
Diaphanously speaking, it does look as though mere man is
up ^jainst it. '
A WORD CONCERNING UNNECESSARY NOISE BY AUTOMOBILISTS
The Problem of
Creating Pleas
ant Homes Is
One of National
Importance.
Cheerful Surroundings
Affect One Mentally,
Morally and Physically.
France Is Solving the
Problem Through Gov
ernment Aid.
By GARRETT P. SERVISS
G OOD health and good cheer
produce good work.
Man did not begin to be
come civilized until he had learned
to build houses and to practice the
first elements of hygiene, a science
that takes its name from a Greek
word for health.
When men and women live in
pleasant homes, amid cheerful sur
roundings, they are twice as effect
ive, mentally, morally, and physi
cally, as when they are herded in
gloomy hovels, like the peasants of
the Middle Ages, and like, too,
many of the working people in mod
ern cities and manufacturing towns.
These statements are so self-evi
dent that they hardly need to be
made; and yet it is only quite re
cently that their truth has been so
generally recognized that some
thing has begun to he done on a
large scale to remedy the evil ef
fects of bad housing and of un
sanitary and uncheerful surround
ings.
“Good houses, at a slight cost,”
says Senator Paul Strauss, of the
French Senate, "is the problem of
the day, occupying the first place
in public interest.”
Pleasant Home Building
Promoted by Society
in France.
In France there is a “Society of
Cheap Houses,” whose object is to
promote and assist the construction
of healthful and cheerful homes for
those upon whose daily labor the
maintenance of civilization and the
progress of humanity depend.
About 375 minor associations have
been formed there upon the same
basis. There is also a law which
enables the Government to aid in
the work by offering credit on
easy terms, and by granting cer
tain advantages in regard to taxes.
Recently the Municipal Council
of Paris has voted a credit of two
hundred million francs (about $40,-
000,000) “to procure decent homes
for those who are without them.”
The same families which were
formerly compelled to pass their
lives in the long row of gloomy,
melancholy barracks, with a single
roof for a dozen dwellings, with
doorways resembling entrances to
tool houses, with sills on the level
of the dirty sidewalk, without
proper lighting, without trees or
shrubbery, or any green thing
about, and without cheerful color
or ornament, can now dwell, with
no greater cost, in clean, bright,
well-made and well-lighted sepa
rate cottages.
The uplifting effect of this change
is plainly evident The whole at
Biosphere is altered. When the
workman returns from his daily
labor, he finds a real home from
which he feels no temptation to flee
In order to seek the abasing pleas
ures of the cafe and saloon. Hi*
family has become more attractive
to him because now they are mors
cheerful and happy, and less sub
ject to the attack of disease.
Take Pride in Preserving
the Attractiveness
of Home.
A hundred better instincts awake
in all of them. The children have
a decent place to play, and more
things to interest them. The wife
has well-lighted rooms, which she
can adorn and keep In order. They
all have more respect for them
selves and for their neighbors.
They begin to feel a proper emu
lation. and take pride in preserving
and increasing the attractiveness
of their home.
One detail that I observe in these
French homes for working people
Is worth special attention. Every
effort Is made to avoid a dead uni
formity in the 6tyle of the houses.
They are not all built precisely
alike. Each has an individuality of
its own. The variety thus produced
in the appearance of a group of
houses is extremely pleasing, and
the effect of this variety is felt by
the dwellers themselves. It gives
them a sense of Independence. It
promotes the social instincts by
affording something novel to the
view of visitors. Each housewife
is enabled to find expression for
her personal tastes, and to take
pride In her own manner of arrang
ing things.
Time Fast Coming When
All Who Labor Will
Have Homes.
The societies of which I have
spoken also interest themselves in
rendering it easy to procure good
furniture at moderate prices, and
in encouraging the adornment of
the interior.
The time is fast coming when an
who labor will have pleasant,
cheerful homes to live In. and when
that state of affairs has been at
tained, the work of the world will
be doubled in quantity and halved
in difficulty.
The Shadow Before
By LILIAN LAUFERTY.
Editor The Georgian
I am glad to see that you have
called attention to the manner 1n
which the city’s ordinance con
cerning cutting: out the muffler on
automobile* within the city lim
its Ub being enforced. And 1 am
aJso pleased that Chief Beavers
has taken immediate steps to see
that the law is enforced. You have
taken the right line and merit the
applause of all citizens who have
had their night’s sleep disturbed
bv thoughtless Lautoists who
wanted to make
in air
machines just because they could.
I am afraid that there are a good
many people in the world, and At
lanta has a goodly share of the
number, who fall to think of the
duty they owe to their fellow cit|-
«ens. They seem rather selfish, to
int that the law
is to be looked after more keenly
I am expecting to enjoy these nice
cool nights on my sleeping porch,
serene in the. thought that w hen
my fortunate friends in their au
tos pass my door they will do so
with the soft pedal on. ^
SLEEP I HE./ \
A LITTLE maid wrote tragedies,
And all the people questioned, "Lo,
She is a child, a very child!
How comes It she has suffered so?*
She wrote of life, in accents dark.
The sufferings of a woman’s heart.
Of love, of passion’s bitter throe,
Of things from her young life apart
The people marveled it was so,
“She is a child—how can she know?*
She was a child, but womanhood
Came, as it does, unbidden quite;
She was a simple-hearted child,
But grew a woman overnight.
The cruel words, the bitter thoughts
So strangely born from that young mind
Were understood—she knew at last
The heritage of womanhood.
Then bitterly she ma rveled, “Lo.
I was a child—{low did I know?”
And now again she wrote—but now
Her knowledge sacred was. and so
It must be hidden from the world
Lest men should look, and looking know—
So lilting songs came from her pen—
“What pretty little things she writes!*
The people marveled once again.
Still older grown, she’s lost her power.*
! wonder too—do you suppose
Our hearts have their prophetic hour?