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1 THE HOME RARER EDITORIAL RAGE The Atlanta Georgian THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday By THE GEORGIAN COMPANY At 20 East Alabama St.. Atlanta. Ga. Entered as second-class matter at poatofflce at Atlanta, under act of March 3, 1873 Subscription Price—Delivered by carrier. 10 cents a week By mail» 15.00 a yeur. Payable in Advance. Gertrude Atherton*-We Regret to Say It--Talks Very Much Like the White Slave Dealers Since Her Views Are Published Widely, It Is a Painful Duty to Tell Her That What She Says Is Worthy of the Woman That Used to Traffic in Girls for Stanford White's Benefit. (Copyright, 1913.) Gertrude Atherton, good and intelligent woman, has of fended decency and the public welfare in one of many attempts to attract attention and be “different.” She praises Stanford White, who was as vile a brute as ever disgraced the human race, and permits herself to publish the statement that White was justified in ruining the life and char acter of an unfortunate girl. This is what Mrs. Atherton says of White: “He (Thaw) killed a man who was of some use to the com munity, a genius. He killed him for a girl who was only made to be cast aside when people tire of her. She was born that kind. If White had mined the lives of ten like her the world wouldn t have been out anything. I hope they get Thaw back in the asy lum, where he belongs, for he is certainly a menace in any com munity. ’ ’ That statement is disgraceful, criminal, and worthy of a thoroughly bad and unprincipled woman. No girl was ever made to be “cast aside when people tired of her,” and to publish the contrary is to encourage vice. To say, as Mrs. Atherton says of Evelyn Thaw, “if White had mined the lives of ten like her the world wouldn’t have been out anything,” is criminal and shameful. In talking thus, Mrs. Atherton, you talk just as the women talk who provide unhappy girls for such vile beasts as Stanford White. You furnish them and men like White with the excuse they seek. The woman who for pay mins the lives of perhaps a dozen girls is not as harmful as the woman of intelligence who would excuse such an act. We beg to tell Gertrude Atherton th^t if Evelyn Nesbit had been treated decently and kindly instead of falling into the hands of White and of a woman who thought ‘ ‘ ten like her were nothing,” she might have been as good a woman as Gertrude Atherton, or better. And if Gertrude Atherton had fallen into the hands of Stan ford White through some vile woman who thought some girls were “only made to be cast aside when people tired of them,” then Gertrude Atherton would have been all that Evelyn Thaw has been, and might be less of a woman to-day. No flower is made to be cast into the manure pit. No girl is made to be cast aside by such a degraded brute as Stanford White. No woman possessing a thin shred of self-respect should write as Gertrude Atherton has written. And this newspaper will give to frank criticism of her opinions as wide publicity as she has given to the infamous statement that a man of genius— which White never was—had the right to destroy the body and spirit of any woman. As for Thaw, if sane, he should have been punished for mur der. No provocation justifies killing. If insane when ha killed White, and sane now, he should be set free. Sane or insane, he will be remembered, as least, as one who did much to discourage the Gertrude Atherton theory that one miserable girl more or less amounts to nothing. Thaw killed a man who needed killing, if ever man did. And what is more important, he put the fear of the bullet into several of White’s associates who were going in his path. Thaw, crazy or sane, made several men realize that Evelyn Thaw “and ten like her” DO amount to something. The white slave trials in California have made others realize that girls are not made “only to be cast aside when people tire of them.” We invite Gertrude Atherton to amend her views on the im portance of a helpless, unhappy girl, “or ten like her,” as com pared with the infamous pleasures of a degenerate man. We may feel sorry for the Chinese mother who throws her superfluous daughters into the water. But it is not sorrow we feel toward the woman who declares that it “wouldn’t have been anything” to treat ten girls as White treated his victims. To advocate or palliate a crime is wholesale criminality. The Fall of New Amsterdam By REV. THOMAS B. GREGORY. N EW AMSTERDAM became New York 249 years a*o, September 4. Charles II and their "High Mightinesses” of Holland were on the best of terms, but Charles wanted New Amsterdam, and not withstanding the fact that the two governments were at peace, the English monarch proceeded to lay hold of the coveted prize. Four ships, with 500 veteran troops, were dispatched to Boston, and from the “Hub” the fleet leis urely bore down on New Amster dam. Anchoring Just below’ the Narrows the British commander sent out a company of soldiers and captured the blockhouses on Staten Island. Governor Stuyvesant, brave as a lion and never known to show the white feather, was at his wits end. He had only 150 trained soldiers, kuided by some 250 citizens capa ble of bearing arms. The 20 guns of Fort Amsterdam had next to no powder and no chance against four British warships with 120 guns. In spite of the great odds against him. however. "Father Wooden Deg" resolved to fight. A more courageous man than old Peter Stuyvesant never lived, and, of course, he would fight to the last ditch. But the old man was overruled. DeSille, command er of <he fort, said to him: "To fight is madness." and Dominie Megapolensis laid his hand gently on the old Governor’s shoulder and said to him: "It is w’rong to shed blood to no purpose.” To cap the business women and children crowded about the man and beg ged him to make no resistance. Finally yielding, he cried out, “Well, let it be so. But I had rather be carried to my grave.” And so the British flag went up on the rampart of Fort Amster dam and Dutch rule in America came to an end. In the Movies In Real Life The Problem of Navigating Space It Will Not Be Solved by New Gas Discovery, but May Be Solved by Other Means in the Future. T HE statement has Just ap peared in print that, owing to the discovery ot Sir Wil liam Ramsay of a gas sixteen times lighter than hydrogen, it may be come possible to send a balloon from the earth to the moon or to other planets. . If this could be done it would l>e the most wonderful thing ever accomplished by man. A voyage lo the moon would be an expe rience of Indescribable novelty and infinitely more marvelous than Co lumbus' first crossing of the At lantic. Trip to the Moon May Be Made Possible Some Future Day. Bnt the reasoning on which the statement is based is entirely er roneous, and the fact that it is credited to a “scientist” only shows how Ignorant the majority even of educated people are of the real difficulties to be overcome before a voyage in open space can be un dertaken. This seems a good occasion for showing how a trip to the moon could actually be made—provided we had the means. Suppose that this strange gas of unexampled lightness were pro duced iu sufficient quantity to charge a balloon, the result would only be that we should be able to go a few miles higher than w’c can now go with the aid of a balloon filled with hydrogen. It would be impossible for any balloon, no mat- By GARRETT ter how light and buoyant its gas, to escape from the shell of atmos phere that surrounds the earth, and which at a height of a hun dred miles becomes so rare that it is practically insensible. I know that some persons think GARRETT P. SERVISS. that if a balloon could be made to rise with so great rapidity as to reach the upper limit of the atmos phere it would then continue to move, with the momentum acquired by its ascent, out into space, and would go on" uninterrupted because the resistance of the air would be gone. But this is a wrong notion. If we could give a projectile a velocity of about 7 miles per sec ond. then we could shoot it straight up from the earth and cause it to P. SERVISS. escape from the earth’s attraction. But the highest velocity that could be given to a balloon with any gas whatever would be incompar ably less than this. Moreover, the velocity would rapidly decrease as the balloon got into the rare atmos phere a few miles up, because its | buoyancy would depend upon the relative weigh* of the gas as com pared with that of the surrounding air, and the latter become rarer and rarer until it practically ceases to exist. The balloon then would come to rest, being unable ever to get out of the atmosphere. In the present state of science the only solution of the problem of navigating space appears to be indicated by the property of elec tric repulsion. If a car could be con structed bearing an electric charge opposite iu kind to that of the earth, then perhaps it could be made to fly away in spite of grav itation. and if the repulsive force could be caused to act continuous ly it might go as far as the moon or farther. But this is only the statement of an idea. We have no means of making such an electrically charged car, and the charge that would be required is so enormous that its production seems impossible. Then, of course, there are other im mense difficulties in the way. It is sufficient to state only one of them. We can not live without breatiling that mixture of oxygen and nitrogen which we call air. If a man undertook to cross the air less space between the earth and the rnoou he would have to carry with him some substitute for air, to say nothing of the cargo of eat ables and drinkables that he would require! Yet I personally have little doubt that if humanity continues for thousands of years to make prog ress in its knowledge of the laws and forces of nature comparable with what it has made in the last hundred years, and in continuation of the same, the problem of hu man flight in open space will be solved. But it will not be solved by the use of any gas, however buoyant. New Gas Discovered Will Aid Possibilities of Flight. The new gas, however—if a new gas such as is described has really been found—may add Immensely to the possibilities of flight within the limits of the atmosphere. A relatively small vessel containing such a gas would possess the lift ing power of a large balloon with out presenting as great a surface to the wind, and it might easily be employed as an accessory to the aeroplane, enabling the latter to rise more directly and to ride the air more steadily. There would be no danger of a fall with an aero plane furnished with receptacles containing a gas sixteen times lighter than hydrogen. Then, too, the planes might be made smaller and more manageable, while the lifting power which mauy invent ors have been trying to obtain by vertically acting air-screws would be rapidly supplied. i Ella Wheeler Wilcox Writes on Sex Distinction Which Church and Society Make, Allowing Man Every Freedom and Forgive ness, While Condemning Wo man, Is Unreasonable and Un just to the Latter. Written for The Atlanta Georgian By Ella Wheeler Wilcox (Copyright, 1913.) P ERSONS of large intellect, who have given years of their lives to profound study of life and all its mysteries, make bold to assert that long and long ago, in a prehistoric period, there was but one sex. Yet that one sex was bi-sexual, both man and wom an; and when that race occupied the plane of manifestation beings were created by other laws than those which now govern nature. Gradually the masculine element in some of these beings began to be accented, the feminine element in others; and so after many eons of time the two separate sexes were established. At first the all-male creature or the all-female was regarded as some strange specimen, a distor tion, an abnormal creation. But gradually they increased in num bers until they became universal. And then followed all the evils of sex excesses and abuses which have made so much trouble in the world ever since and have about culminated in the present Iron Age of the earth. And now, it is said, the pendu lum is beginning to swing back to ward the bi-sexual standard of mas culinity of the female and the growing femininity of the male in dicate. And all this is watched over by the Great Lords of Karma, who have givefi souls this experience in order that they may learn by pain and suffering the folly of seeking for happiness in any paths which lead away from the spiritual. One of the first evils of the sex separation showed itself in the two distinct codes of morals estab lished for men and women who broke the laws of the world in sexual matters. Sex Distinction Drawn by Society Is Unfair to Women. Through some strange and un reasonable course of reasoning it was supposed that the feminine being must be all chastity, all vir tue, all spirituality and wholly beyond and above temptation of any kind, and that she must be kept in ignorance of sex matters until she w'as a wife and mother. Yet she must prove perfect in both relations and fill those positions with unerring skill and wisdom. Meantime, the man was expected to be sensual and polygamous, to make and break his own laws, to follow his impulses and use no self- control, because he was a man, and to be forgiven and accepted by so ciety at large, no matter what his record. Then the race began to study in to laws of heredity, and it was ob served that daughters more fre quently resembled the father than the mother, and that they quite as frequently inherited the father’s nature as his features, and some inquiring minds asked why the daughter of the sensual, pleasure- loving father, who was the living image of her sire, should be ex pected to grow into a miracle of modesty and virtue without any guide from her parents, or society, or any special effort made In her behalf, but merely on the supposi tion that she was protected by her sex, or why she should be punished more severely than man if she failed. Some wise minds of an Inquiring tendency are asking that question every year, and more minds of a conventional mold are finding it a difficult question to answer. Gradually it is being borne in upon the public consciousness that men and women are created by the same Powers and with the same tendencies and emotions and pas sions and temptations, and that they should be protected and judg ed by the same laws. Gradually, but very, very slowly the trend of public’opinion is toward a larger view in these matters of sex. It is a curious thing that the Christian Church has been so very tardy in making the path of the repentant woman sinner eaeier. since of all sinners mentioned by Christ the Master He was moet, lenient toward the Magdalen and the woman taken in adultery. His most severe word toward them was “Go and sin no more.” It is a misfortune for the world that there is no fuller record of what He did to help them after they went forth and tried to Bin no more. If the gentle Master had realized just how hard and cruel and severe his avowed disciples were to be in these later centuries toward the women who sought to reform after having fallen He surely would have given more ample in structions for both the erring ones and the disciples. “Woman Thou Gavest Me’’ Attacks Conven tional Standards. Hall Caine, in his remarkable story, “The Woman Thou Gavest Me,” in Hearst’s Magazine, has at tacked the conventional standards of the Christian Church and so ciety at large on the subject of marriage and sexual relations with a courage that is almost appalling. The woman in this story is pre sented to the reader in a position which thousands of women occupy in European lands and hundreds in our own country—the position of a young girl who is reared in ignorance of all the great laws of life and sex, and who is urged by her family into a marriage which offers her a good social position. The Church approves and society approves. But after marriage the girl's mind awakens and she refuses the obligation of marriage. Then she meets the man who awakens her soul and she becomes the mother of his ch<ld. Here she is an outcast—* the Church, society, family, friends, all regard her as the vilest of sin ners. Had she become the unwill ing mother of the child of a man she abhorred she would have met with universal sanction of all good people, because the Church had pronounced its blessing. It is a great subject, and it is handled with great skill and power, It is a story which must be read and thought over, a story which each mind must analyze and find for itself its moral and its mean ing; a story which ought to make the Church and society pause and consider their methods as related to the greatest of all questions of the world in every era—the ques tion of the law's of sex. Just as this story is reaching a climax Mr. Eugene Debs has brought the glare of publicity upon himself by taking Into his home a young woman w»ho has missed the right way in her search for happi- ness. Debs Is Giving Erring Girl Chance to Re deem Herself. And he is giving her just as good a chance to get* back on the right path as a thousand people give erring young men every day. When a man goes wrong in the path of the senses, and when he shows a desire to reform, he is al most universally accepted by so ciety and by tender-hearted women. Not infrequently he Is idealized into a hero. How many will show a spirit of chanty and Christianity and good will toward this young woman—not by patronising pity, but by treating her as Christ treated the fallen women and by helping her to put the thoughts of her past mistakes and miseries be hind her and to push forward to a life of usefulness? It would be interesting if this young woman kept a diary of her experience In this effort to re-estab lish herself among the respectable women of the earth. It might make valuable literature in the future- (An Installment of “The Woman *mee Gavest Me,” and a special article on Half Caine’a famoua atory by Dr. Charlea H. Parfthurat, are printed on to-day’a mag azine page.* ... .