Atlanta Georgian. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, September 02, 1913, Image 16
EDITORIAL. RAGE
The Atlanta Georgian
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A Poet’s Preaching to the Rich
It Will Interest You for a Change—Although Prose Is Usually
Better Than Poetry in Our Day.
(Copyright. 1913 )
The most tiresome of living creatures—and that is saying a
good deal—is the prosperous man or woman who lectures the
poor on their shortcomings.
A woman, very comfortable in her well-padded automobile,
with a footman to open the door and a maid waiting when she
gets home, will say to some unhappy woman with a half dozen
children and a worthless husband, "You might at least keep
your house CLEAN; surely, water does not cost anything.”
And you will hear her tell the mother of the children that
she could at least teach the children to be polite, for politeness
also ‘' costs nothing. ’ ’ She goes away, giving or not giving some
trifling sum as the humor seizes her.
And the successful man, excited with his business, full of
eager interest, busy every hour of the day, conquering other
men—you see him solemnly preaching total abstinence to some
poor devil who has nothing in the world, perhaps, to keep him
from insanity or suicide but the momentary forgetting of anxie
ty and poverty that drink gives to him.
Prosperous stupidity refuses to recognize the fact that it is
POVERTY THAT CAUSES DRUNKENNESS, not drunkenness
that causes poverty.
The days of useful poets, in our opinion, are gone. Poetry
is childishness, an aid to memory, a substitute for thought that
relies upon no fancy trimmings for its power.
But occasionally, as we are still children, a thought ex
pressed in rhyme is pleasing.
For those that dislike the solemn preaching of the rich to
the poor, we print to day some lines from John Masefield’s “The
Everlasting Mercy.”
Masefield tells of hypocritical, ignorant charity as it is in
England.
It is not very different in any big city.
The rich and prosperous know as little about the miserable
poor as the elephant knows about the insect that he crushes as
he walks along.
Luckily the human race need not depend upon charity, or
the silly advising of poor men by rich men.
What charity can not do, KNOWLEDGE WILL DO.
What solemn advice from self-satisfied prosperity can not
accomplish, JUST LAWS TAXING PROSPERITY CAN AC
COMPLISH.
Here are the lines from Masefield. You will like them:
"And you whom luck taught French and Greek
Have purple flaps on either cheek,
A stately house, and time for knowledge,
And gold to send your sons to college,
That pleasant place, where getting learning
Is also key to money earning.
But quite your damnedest want of grace
Is what you do to save your face;
The way you sit astride the gates
By padding wages out of rates;
Your Christmas gifts of shoddy blankets
That every working soul may thank its
Loving parson, loving squire
Through whom he can’t afford a fire.
Your well packed bench, your prison pen,
To keep them something less than men;
Your friendly clubs to help ’em bury,
Your charities of midwifery.
Your bidding children duck and cap
To them who give them workhouse pap.
0, what you are, and what you preach,
And what you do, and what you teach
Is not God's Word, nor honest schism,
But Devil’s cant and pauperism.
The New Agriculture
By REV THOMAS B. GREGORY.
In the Movies In Real Life
Parents, Make Your Children Respect You
And Beg in While They’ re Young, or Your Task Is Hopeless---Ances
tor Worship Is Not Half So Dangerous as Child Worship.
By DOROTHY DIX
WINIFRED BLACK
Writes on
Deceiving Your Wife
You Can Make Her Believe
You Are W ise When You
Are Not, but You Can’t
Make Her Believe You
Are True to Her When
You Are Not.
By WINIFRED BLACK.
T HE “New Agriculture, 1 ” which
is working such wonders all
over the civilized world of
to-day. may be said to have had
its beginning fifty-four years ago
this month with the publication
of Liebig’s “Letters on Agricul
ture.’’
As is the case with thet planted
seed. Ideas must wait for their
fruitage, and consequently Lie
big’s teachings did not at once
realize their harvest, but with the
birth of the twentieth century we
began hearing of the great things
that were being done at the “ex
perimental stations" of the State
and National Governments—how
they were tickling the earth and
making her laugh with harvests
that were little short of the mi
raculous.
Spurred on by these reports,
individual farmers began to prick
ur> their ears and to look for bet
ter results from their labors. In
quiries b-gan pouring into the
stations, the agents of the Gov
ernment went out to meet the
farmers, and as .« consequence
tgricuiturt ali over the country
is undergoing :« radical change
for the better.
Before Liebig’s day the chem
istry of soils was but poorly un
derstood, and scarcely any one
knew the way in which plant#
were nourished; but the great
German, by throwing daylight
upon the matter, laid the sure
foundation for one of the most
important revolutions of history.
The present-day achievements
of agriculture surpass in wonder
fulness the tales of th<* “Arabian
Nights." and the end is not yet.
Steadily the wonder grows. Every
day, aided by the science of or
ganic chemistry, for which we
must largely thank Liebig, the
farmer is working miracles upon
his land.
The one-time widely accepted
doctrine of Malthus, that the hu
man race was rapidly encroaching
upon the producing power of the
earth and that by and by people
must starve to death, is now
shown to be sheer nonsense. We
are assured, by the actual
achievements of present-day
scientific agriculture that Mal
thusianism whs never more than a
baselteMS dream.
A CHINESE scholar, who re-
jL\ cently lectured in this coun
try, says that a great deal of
the late progress in China has
been due to the respect and affec
tion in which young men hold their
mothers, and that it is not sur
prising that Chinese children hon
or their parents, since they are
taught to do so by means of the
First Reader.
1 wonder if it would be possible
to borrow auv of these Chinese
First Readers for use iu American
schools and homes?
Here’s a Chance for China
to Teach Us a Needed
Lesson.
We have spent a lot of effort
and money in sending missionaries
over to the so-called heathen
Chinee. Here’s a chance for
China to repay the debt and send
over some First Readers to hood
lum America.
While the good ladies in China,
however, are holding oyster sup
pers and church fairs and sewing
bees to raise the money for their
missionary enterprise for our bene
fit. it may not be amiss for Amer
ican parents to take note of the
fact that the volume that is found
so efficacious in instilling respect
for parents in the youthful breast
is the FIRST READER. It is not
the Differential Calculus, or Kaut
on Cure Reason, or any of the high-
browed literature that a man pe
ruses In Ids mature years.
Which is to say that if you
want your child to treat you with
reverence and respect, you must
instill those sentiments in him
while he is young and not wait for
him to acquire them when he
conies to the years of discretion.
Conduct is nine-tenths habit. Un-
cousciouslv we go on treating peo
ple the way we have always treat- j
ed them, and the son and daughter
who have run roughshod over
their parents in their childhood
continue to run roughshod over
them in their manhood and woman
hood.
We Americans are very scorn
ful because the Chinese worship
their ancestors, but ancestor wor
ship is a much less dangerous
religion than the child worship
that prevails among us. It does a
great-grandfather’s spirit no harm
to be prayed to, but it everlast
ingly ruins the child for its
parents to kowtow and knock their
foreheads before it.
How other godlings act we do
not know, but it fills the American
braud with an insufferable self-
complacency and self-esteem, and
makes it a grinding tyrant who
tramples its slaves into the dust.
The modern car of Juggernaut is
the perambulator, and millions of
American parents cast themselves
before it and let it crush out all of
the comfort and happiness of their
lives.
Practically in every family you
know the children are the Ones
Who Must Be Obeyed. Their will
is law Their opinions decide mat
ters They have the best clothes.
They go to places of amusement
while the parents stay at home.
The father and mother are merely
upper servants to look after the
children's wants.
And the children repay this at
titude of their parents just as you
would expect. • They are insolent
and overbearing, and selfish and
disobedient, because they have
been taught to be. They have
been brought up. tacitly at least,
to look down upon their parents
and despise them. They have
never been made to consider their
parents, and it never occurs to
them to do so
The other day a prosperous look
ing man entered a street car with
a much dressed up little boy about
six years old. There was only
one vacant seat and the child made
a dart for it and got it. The maji
said: “Sou, let father have that
seat and you can sit in his lap.’’
“Huh,” responded son, “I got it
first, and I'm going to keep it.”
And he did. while the man hung
on to a strap.
Children Raised in That
Way Are a Curse to the
Community.
Everybody round about looked
balefully at the child and as if
they’d give five dollars to have him
turned across their knees in a
good slapping position for about
five minutes, but I thought
there should be some sort of a
commission appointed to commit
such parents to the asylum for
the feeble-minded.
For that man. and parents of his
ilk, are not only raising up their
children to be a heartbreak to
themselves but a curse to the com
munity. It is these children who
are brought up without any respect
for their parents, or regard for
others, and who are greedily in
tent on getting the best for them
selves, who make countless thou
sands mourn by their inhumanity.
Of course it seems to the ador
ing parents that it's cute for a tiny
tot to defy them. They make a
hundred excuses when Johnnie is
impertinent to them, and Mary
talks back when they dare to re
prove her. They even think it
funny when their child openly
criticises their ways, because they j
are so sure that when It grows up
it will appreciate all they have
done for it and the sacrifices they
have made.
It is a fallacious hope. Unless
you have established an authority
over a child before it is three
years old. unless you have bred
respect and reverence in it from
its very cradle, you will never get
anything from that child but con
tempt. And it’s really all you de
serve, because you had your chance
and you threw it away. The
Chinese are an older and in many
respects a wiser people than we.
That's why the child's lesson in its
duty to its parents begins iu the
First Reader.
There is no other feature in
American life that is so pathetic
and so altogether wrong as the
relationship that exists between
parents and children, and the fact
that in the average family the
father and mother are so afraid of
their children that they dare not
call their souls their own must,
make angels weep.
Often the parents have given
the children, at incredible sacri
fices to themselves, advantages
that they never had in their own
youth, but instead of the sons and
daughters being filled with grati
tude and appreciation they are
ashamed of their father and
mother, and correct them so often
about their grammar and their
manners, and their way of dress,
that tfie poor old people go trem
bling before them.
It is for these young upstarts,
without reverence for age or re
spect for their parents, that we
need a hundred shiploads of
Chinese First Readers. There
can be no better education for
boys and girls than to be taught
to honor their parents, and the
only time in life in which this
lesson can be thoroughly learned
is in early youth.
And this is something for par
ents also to remember—if you
want your children to reverence
you when you are old. you must
make them respect you w hen they
i are young.
((i LOVE my wife,” said the
J. man who is in love with
another woman, “and I
don’t want her to know anything
that will hurt her. I protect her
from her own foolish fancies. I
believe it is my duty to do that.”
And then he went and sent his wife
a box of roses and went to dine—•
with the other woman.
I wonder if that man believes
himself?
I wonder if he thinks that any
one else on earth believes him
when he says that. Why, you poor,
blind, foolish fellow, you are lie-
ing to your wife not to protect her,
but to protect yourself. You find
her convenient—a comfortable ap
pendage, a good thing to have in
the family—that wife of yours—
and you don’t want to let loose
of her, that’s all that makes yon
lie to her.
Why Not Let Her Choose?
You want to keep her—and the
other woman, too. Well, then,
why don’t you look yourself in the
face and see what a coward looks
like, a coward and a thief.
Why don't you give your wife a
chance to choose her life? If she
knew she might leave you. Pre
cisely—why not?
Why not let her leave you—is
that the sort of bargain you made
.—a bargain that binds her and
looses you, whenever you feel so
inclined? Why don’t you tell your
wife the truth and let her choose?
Don’t you owe her at least that
fairness? Why not?
What is it about a woman that
makes it fair for you to cheat her,
and then say you do it to “keep
her from worrying?” What if your
partner did that way? What if he
stole from you and then said he
didn’t tell you about it because he
didn’t want you to worry? What
kind of an excuse would you call
that?
Would you pay much attention
to it—you. the same, reasonable,
business man? You would not.
You would call him what he was,
a coward and a thief. Why aren’t
you just those two things, exactly,
when you deceive your wife and
then don't tell her, “to protect
her ?”
Nonsense, man alive, stuff and
nonsense! That sort of argu
ment might hold water fifty years
ago; it won’t do now.
That wife of yours is something
besides your wife, "he’s a woman,
a human being, with a human be
ing’s right to choose. If you are
worthless, unfaithful, a fickle, fool,
with your eyes everywhere but at
home, why not let her know the
truth and do as she thinks best
about it?
Maybe she wouldn’t leave you.
After all, some women are like
that. Maybe she would cling and
cry and beg and make you wince.
Well, you know you aren’t the
first to pay the piper. Would you
get all your joys for nothing?
They aren’t worth much if you
can’t pay the price, are they?
Give Her a Chance.
Maybe she would give you the
liberty you think you want, just to
see you beg for her charms again.
Maybe she is just waiting for an
excuse to get away from you her
self. She may not he so dead in
love with you, after ail. Perhaps
she just sthnds you for the same
reason that you deceive her. to pro
tect you. Why don’t you tell her
the truth and be done with It, once
and for all?
Give tlie woman a chance, give
her a show. You demand that
much for yourself, why not give it
to her, you who are so brave, so
noble minded, so kind? What?
Send her away where she is “safe.”
Put her where she can’t make you
any trouble, and where she won’t
hear anything to make her un
happy? Why, you poor fool, every
word you speak, every look you
give, every tone of your voice, ev
ery turn of your hand tells her
what you try to conceal “for her
sake.”
She may not know that she
knows, but she knows all the same
—and all the lies you can tell won’t
deceive her, really, at all?
What are you thinking of? You
can’t compete.with a woman in af
fairs like this. Love is a woman’s
business. She knows it from be
ginning to end. backward and for
ward—in and out. You're just an
amateur at the game, you, or the
wisest man who ever lived. You
just play at off hours, she makes
it her whole life.
You can make a woman believe
you are wise when you are a fool;
you can make her believe you are
rich when you are poor; you can
make her believe you are noble
when you are mean, but you can
never, as long as the sun goes
round, make her believe that you
are true to her when you are not.
All the time she knows, don’t for
get that—Mr. Amateur—you’re
playing her game, when you play
at love—and you’re playing it pret
ty badly, according to her stand
ards, too.
You Can’t Fool Them.
“Protect” her, if you will. Tell
her all the elaborate tales you can
—if she be ignorant as a Russian
peasant—that one thing she knows,
better than you, with all your
wisdom, will ever dream of know
ing. And the Other Woman knows
she ioiowa. no matter what she
tries to make you believe, for she,
too, is a woman, and to her, too,
the game is life itself.
What a fool you are to try to
deceive either of them—when you
try a fling at it—in your bungling
amateur way.
By LILIAN LAUFERTY.
H AIL! radiant Summer, ’mid vistas of gold,
Luring to promise of joy untold!
Flaming with sunshine,
With color ablaze—
Hail! brimming, pulsing Summer days.
Hail! langurous Summer of shimmer and gleam,
Of whispering grass-blade and murmuring stream!
Silvered by moonlight,
Perfumed with flowers—
Hail! care-free, love-lit Summer hours.
Hail! lingering Summer of softness and glow,
Of purple-clad twilight reluctant to gol
Caressed by the Autumn,
Bewitched by Frost’s spell—
Hail the Summer—Hail and Farewell!