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TTEARST’S SUNDAY AMERICAN, ATLANTA, 0 A., SUNDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1913
:: At
lar
ita Again a 1
Battl
legroui
nd—But I
t’s a Cam
pai
ign ft
)r 1
Hu
man
ity ::
State of Siege Begins in a Week, When Fair
Warriors Will Occupy Every Strategic Point,
Selling Ammunition Against the Great
Whifr Plague, 1,000,000 Red Cross Seals.
Mrs. Hugh Willett, in charge of the anny, at the left, above; Mias Margaret Bivins, center; Misa Laura Featherstone, right. Below,
Miss Caryl Greene, left; Misa Olive Capps, right, offering Red Cross Stamps to passershy.
By TARLETON COLLIER
W HIPPING the white plague is the en
trancing occupation that demands At
lanta’s attention from this good day
until Christmas. And Atlanta is ready and
girded for the task to-day, which, be it known, is
Tnhercnlosis Day, set apart and consecrated by
proclamation of Governor Slaton, for thought
and study concerning man’s fight on his heredi
tary enemy, Tuberculosis.
Tt will be a pleasant enough fight, this war
that Atlanta will conduct, so pleasant that even
the grim old demon Tuberculosis himself should
not mind capitulating graciously. The ammu
nition will be the smiles of girls and women,
and their soft spoken petitions. The weapons
will be the cheery red and green Christmas
seals that will cost you one cent each.
Atlanta Is going to purchase 1,000,000 of the
seals. The fact Is stated calmly and without
thought of being gainsaid by the workers in the
Red Cross Seal headquarters in the Gould Build
ing, by girls and women who are wage earners
and who will help in the fight, by girls and
women of Atlanta society—all of whom are en
listed in the task of selling the seals.
Atlanta Is going to purchase 1,000,000 of the
seals. That will be five seals for each person
in the city. That will he a greater relative
purchase, a greater relative contribution to the
fight against tuberculosis than auy other city
has ever made. Atlanta is going after a world's
record.
In about a week the city will be In a state of
siege. At every strategic comer there will be
a wooden booth, garrisoned by girls who will
smile at you. Timid young men soon will be
come accustomed to the salutation of strange
young women, because these young women will
be everywhere, In the postofflee. In the office
buildings, at busy street oorners, in depart
ment stores. And not only will they smile;
they will speak to yon.
‘‘Won't you buy some stamps?" they will ask
yon In a soft sort of way that will make their re
quest more compelling than any command could
be.
And you buy. If you are In the postofflee
you always give them at least the pennies that
you have left over after paying for the postage
stamps. In the other places you fish for the
odd nickels and dimes, and maybe a quarter
or a half.
You will not be able to escape buying the
seals, even If you so desired. And certainly
the desire not to buy is the impulse furthest
from your mind.
At the entrance to your office building there
will be a girl or two, and a smile or two, greet
ing you. A seal will be thrust under your
nose, and yon will be asked to buy.
In front of your favorite department store or
grocery store or toy shop or book store, there
will be a girl or two. If you are coming to
Atlanta for the holidays, the first person to
welcome you to the city will be the girl with
the seals at the railroad station.
If by chance you visit the police headquarters
tor any purpose, whether because of your own
moral turpitude or that of another, there will
te a girl and a smile and a Christmas seal to
lighten the drab dreariness of the prison.
If you drop Into the drug store at the corner
for your morning’s mild beverage, you will
leave the price of another chocolate milk with
the girl with the Christmas seals. She will be
there.
She will be everywhere. If you reach your
office without buying, and are sorry in your
soul that you did, you are likely to be cheered
by the figure of the stenographer as she rises
to greet you with the request that you please
buy a Christmas seal.
These are a few details of the plan of cam-
"■*, insistent army of workers are all volun
teers. Probably that explains their effective
ness. Mrs. Hugh Willett, whose husband Is
president of the Atlanta Anti-Tuberculosis As
sociation, and who l. herself as active ns he.
Is In charge of the Volunteer work. She has
marshaled her forces during the last two
weeks, until she has, she thinks, a light ef
fective oorps of workers.
Mrs. J. O. Bagwell and Miss Genevieve Saun
ders are able lieutenants, organizing a small
army of workers among the business women
of the city. Efficient, capable, dauntless work
era they are, these business women of Atlanta.
Cast year they did valiant service, and it was
as much through their efforts as by any other
means that 400,000 seals were sold In Atlanta.
Another division of Atlanta’s army in this
fight are the Boy Scouts, under Philip Weltuer,
all of whom have volunteered their services
during the month of December toward the sale
of the seals. Boy Scouts have come to be re
garded as notably effective workers, and the
central seal committee is elated at enlisting
them.
All the work is to be directed from the offices
in the Gould Building. There M. R. Duffy, sec
retary of the Red Cross Christmas Seal Com
mittee, affiliated with the American Red Cross
Association, and Miss Rosa Lowe, secretary of
the Atlanta Anti-Tuberculosis Association, are
the executives for the campaign. This is the
first year that an officer of the national organi
zation has been in charge of the Christmas
seal campaign. East year the work was ac
complished by volunteers under direction of
Mrs. F. G. Hodgson.
Under the circumstances, last year’s success
was remarkable. Under the present circum
stances, and with an augmented organization,
the workers think this year’s success should
be even greater. They are confident 1,000,000
seals will be sold In Atlanta and Atlanta’s dls
trict, which Includes East Point, Hspeville,
College Park, and Chattahoochee.
The entire territory will be worked thor
oughly, too. East week a committee of young
girls, many of them this season's debutuntes.
went to Fort McPherson to ask the soldiers
there to buy. Sales of between 5,000 and 10,-
000 stamps were the result.
Returns from the sale of the Christmas seals
are devoted toward paying the expenses of the
anti-tuberculosis campaign In Atlanta, aDd to
supporting the organization of the local work
ers. The fight on tuberculosis, conducted on an
elaborate, effective and exiienslve scale, la made
without help of public appropriation. The
funds for the work are provided by the annual
sale of Christmas seals and by private sub
scription.
Naturally the work is straitened and ham
pered by lack of funds very often. It requires
money to maintain two free dispensaries for
victims of the white plague who are too poor
to undertake the treatment themselves. It Is
costly to retain four trained nurses who are
constantly engaged In visiting the homes of
Indigent consumptives, teaching them lessons In
cleanliness. In domestic economy, In cooking, In
determining the pare and the Impure, the whole
some and the deficient in foods. The system
of public education In the cause and cure of
tuberculosis costa money. All of this must lie
paid out of the funds that come from the sale
of Christmas seals, and from occasional pri
vate subscriptions.
So when you buy the seal from that smiling
girl, and drop a penny or a nickel in her hand,
yon have done something for a great crusade,
however small your act may seem to you. There
is a significant sign on all literature of the Red
Cross Seal Committee 1 :
“EVERY 1,000 SEALS SOLD MEANS A EIFE
SAVED.”
The significance, then, of the sale of 1,000,000
seals becomes tremendous.
And the seals themselves, one cent each, be
come the symbol of a real benefactlofi. A pic
ture which is displayed often In the literature
of tlie Red Cross Association bears to you that
realization.
It is a gripping picture, showing a sea of
hands uplifted, eager, expressive of a great
desire. There is not a face, not unother Image
except that of grasping hands. And they arc
all reached toward a croaa which glows from the
sky. The cross Is the two-barred token of the
anti-tuberculosis crusade. And the name of
the whole picture la “Hope.”
According to the figures of the local asso
elation, 906 cases of tuberculosis were exam
ined la the first nine months of 1913 by physi
dans of the medical staff. Of these, 400 are
under treatment at present.
Examination, diagnosis, medical advice and
treatment nil are supplied as far as possible
by the Atlanta AntlTuterculnsts and Visiting
Nnrae Association to those indigent consump
tlves who can not provide for themselves means
of treatment.
Something as to the organization of the Antl-
Tubcrculosls Association whose work you are
asked to help by the purchase of the seals, one
cent each:
The officers arp Hugh M Willett, president;
Howard K. Cole, first vice president: Mrs. II.
W. Salmon, second vice president: Mrs. Nellie
Peters Black, third vice president: Miss Rosa
I,owe, secretary.
There are three working committees, each
of them representing a salient part of the or
ganlzatlon. One Is the finance committee,
whose chairman Is David Woodward. Sub
sidiary to thia la the Relief Committee, made
up of organizations In churches and women's
clubs. The function of this committee Is to
direct and provide immediate relief for the
sufferers who are unable to work for themselves
and their families because of extreme Illness.
This temporary relief Is urgent, at times, and
many Is the occasion. It is announced, that dire
suffering and wretchedness have been allayed
The educational department Is in charge of
Mr*. J. Wade Gonkling, chairman. Here la the
significant work of the association—not In the
treatment of tuberculosis sufferers, nor In the
alleviation of Incidental misery, but In teach
ing the prevention of the disease. This is ao-
com plashed through propaganda of a varied ap
peal, working through elementary schools, high
schools, churches, clubs, newspapers, and, be
fore all else, through the negroes of the higher
schools. Mrs. Edward Ware, wife of the presi
dent of Atlanta University, Is In charge of the
work among the negroes.
The education la effected by means of strik
ing pamphlets and placards, stereopticon slides
accompanying lectures, and by means of mov
ing pictures showing the beauty of cleanliness,
and the undesirability and danger of filth.
One of the missions of Mrs. Oonkling’s edu
cational department is the advocacy of open
air scffioola for tubercular children. Several
hundred children there are In Atlanta, mostly
of the poorer classes, who are barred from the
public schools liecause of their conta mtnation.
It la In the interest of these that Mrs. Gonkling
Is working.
The third department la the medical, whose
chairman la Dr. Theodore Toepel. Two free
dispensaries are maintained by flu- association,
one for white patients, on the seventh floor of
the Gould Building, and the other for negroes,
at 221 1-2 Auburn avenue. Twelve physicians
of the city have given their services to the
wards of the association, without cost to either
the patient, or the organization. Besides the
physicians are four trained nurses who visit
the homes of the sufferers, instructing the fam
ily In right living, anil ministering to the sick
one. Three free clinics are operated at each
of the dispensaries, one for the trentmeut of
dental troubles, one for nose and throat ail
ments, and the third for gastric disorders. The
association co-operates with the city and State
boards of health. The Battle Hill Sanatorium
receives patients on Its recommendation.
Thus, In a general way, Is outlined the scope*’
of the work which you by your purchase of
the stamps, one cent each, can help.
The Anti-Tuberculosis Association is not con
ducting the sale of the t'hrtstmas seals directly.
For this there Is a Rod Gross Glirlstmas Seal
Gommlttee, authorized by the American Rod
Gross Society. The chairman of the committee
Is H. S. Gole, and his two lieutenant* are Ken
dall Welslger and G. R. Solomon. There Is an
advisory board composed of prominent men and
women of Atlanta. Including representatives of
all religious faiths. The members of the board
are Rabhl David Marx. Bishop G. K. Nelson,
Father RHpler, .1. K. <>rr, Mrs. .1. K. Ottle.v,
Walter Rich, Mrs. Ed T. Brown, F. ,1. l’axon,
Mrs. Nellie Peters Black. Mrs. F. G. Hodgson.
One of the agencies in the combined task of
selling the Glirlstmas seals and of educating the
public toward the prevention of tuberculosis
and other disease is the Ghild Welfare Exhibit.
The Industrial Gommlttee of the Atlanta Wom
an’s Club, whose chairman Is Mrs. Frank H.
Neely, has prepared hand bills, displaying the
economic loss resulting from Illness, and pro
claiming the fact that disease may lie prevented.
Then it announces that at the Ghild Welfare
Exhibit there is Instruction In the essentials of
sanitation and self-protection, and urges at
tendance. These bills were distributed by the
Anti-Tuberculosis Association as one part of
their general scheme of war on tuberculosis.
Another agency In the work Is operative to
day. This Sunday Is Tuberculosis Day, so pro
claimed in every State of the Union by the re
spective Governors. From nlmost every pulpit
men and women will he asked to join In the
anti-tuberculosis war. and to realize that tuber
culosis Is Indeed a problem for the Individual
as well as for society In general. The designa
tion of the day was effected through the efforts
of the National Association for the Study and.
Prevention of Tuterculosis, who for four years
have obtained the dedication of one day to their
purpose.
Governor Slaton Issued the proclamation des
ignating the day In Georgia. In the conclusion
of hla proclamation, he announced:
“I call upon all citizens to observe the day
In such manner as In their Judgment will fur
ther aid and advance the world wide move
ment against the spread of this disease and
thereby redound to the highest glory of hu
manity.’’
And all the activity, all the devoted work,
is symbolized in the little seal of red and green,
one cent each, which smiling girls and women
will offer you, with a request that la tanta
mount to a command:
“Won’t you buy a seal?”
:: The Reason It’s ‘Miss’ Instead of ‘Mrs.’—A Wartime Romance ::
M ISS AEMEDIA HARRIS, who is a most
sprightly and Interesting lady, sat In the
living room of her home at No. 71 Ven.
able street, and mused as she figured the letter
just received from Mrs. Joseph H. Morgan,
president of the Pioneer Women of Atlanta.
The letter asked for a record of any reminis
cences Miss Harris might retain of the times
that tried men’s souls, when Atlanta was a be-
lengured city, with General Sherman and his
mighty army in bine at its wall*, when
every home was a target for shells, and every
woman was forced to watch death and suf
fering.
A tender smile lighted the face of Mis* Alme-
dia Harris.
She was merely a little girl In the days of the
siege and battle of Atlanta, but a real romance
had come Into her life when the Northern army
entered the city.
It was a very Intimate story, this recollection
that came to her. She wondered whether It
had a part in a record that the public might
lead. Then her smile broadened. Miss Harris
is a very human person.
“I’ll do it,” she said, and began to ponder
over the manner of telling her romance.
The yegrs rolled back, like a etage curtain,
to reveal to her retrospective eye the picture
of a dreadful smoke pall shot through with oc
casional spurts of fire from the mouths of can
non and with flashes of flame which came from
the burning of houses of her neighbors and
friends. There was another picture of her
strong father weeping like a baby when the
news came to him how ills much-loved younger
brother had been killed at the front.
Then another Image came to her, and she
smiled.
• * • *
A brown-eyed girl, who could not have been
more than 14 years old, sat on the gate post in
front of a house at Mangum and Mitchell
streets. There was something of bitterness In
her heart, a bitterness that matched the feeling
of gloom in all the city of Atlanta.
Sherman had entered. Houses shattered and
blackened by smoke and fire, ugly bomb-proof
sheds everywhere, the roadway covered with
refuse and strange fragments of cloth and pa
per and splintered wood. All these were evi
dences of the fierce battle that had raged for
days.
The little girl sat on the gate post and hated
all Yankee.-! with an active, vengeful hate.
There were three of the blue-coated officers in
side her own home, quartered there by com
mand of thir general to guard against pillage
by the victrolous Federals. How she despised
them!
A long line of men in dirty, campaign-worn
blue uniforms marched by. They were men
bearded and tanned and rough, and the little
girl conceded in her Innermost heart that they
did not look so awfully much like devils incar
nate, as she had always pictured all Yankees.
In fact, they were very tired and pitiful looking.
Gaining courage from the ordinary appear
ance of the Yankee soldiers who were entering
her city, the little girl called loudly to her
brother, who sat on the post Just across from
her:
“You better go In the house, brother,” she
said, “or these old Yankees will take you away
with them.”
One or two of the tired men looked at her
as they marched by, and smiled. A Yankee of
ficer, who had teen quartered in her home as a
guard, stood Just behind her. He smiled, too.
“Never mind, Miss Almedia,” he said, reas
suringly, “they won't hurt him, or you, or any
body. The boy can Hay what he pleases, anrl
stay where he wants to.”
Brown-eyed Almedia Harris only sniffed
scornfully. The blue line marched on and on.
There seemed to be no end of the Yankees.
After a while a young bluet-ont rode by on a
shiny brown horse. Almedia stiffened at the
, sight of him, unconsciously, and watched him
as he rode toward her.
He was not worn and travel-stained like the
others. His uniform was rather new. His face
was clean-shaven. He was very young, and
was altogether a gallant figure as he rode.
Under his iirm he bore a bonk.
Ills eye caught that of the Southern girl, and
he stiffened In his saddle. Just as she hud sat
up very straight on her post. He pulled up his
horse to a slow walk as he came near her pre
carious reviewing stand, and he would never
take his eyes from hers.
Nor could Almedia look Hnywhere but at him.
Tie was a gallant officer, Indeed, she thought.
Maybe all Yankees were not demons of cruelty
and maybe there were some who had hearts and
souls like the good Atlanta people.
Ah the young officer walked Ills horse past
her, Just a few feet away, he pulled off his
slouch hat with a cavalier sweep, and bowed
low. The little girl smiled. Hatred of Yan
kees was gone from her heart for n moment,
and she forgot the flying shells, and the death
of her boy uncle, and the dead body of her next-
door neighbor, and all.
At her smile, the Northerner drew rein, and
his horse stopped. The young fellow seemed
about to speak, when from In front came a
loud, imperious command from his superior of
ficer. He frowned, but spurred Ills horse to a
trot, looking back, however, at the little girl.
Almedia followed him with her eyes, wistful
brown eyes they were. Maybe he wasn’t so bad
a Yankee, after all. Maybe he was too young
to know what he was doing, anyhow.
She smiled at him, as he rode on, and at the
farewell from her eyes the young Northerner
stopped his horse, and turned Its head toward
her. On his face was a determination to return
to her in spite of all the officers In Eincoln's
States. He rode back to the post.
He took the book from under his arm, and
drew a curd from hla pocket. He scribbled
hastily a few words on the curd, put it within
the book, and handed it to Almedia. Then,
without a word, he spurred his horse to a
gallop, and was away This time lie did not
look back, and within a minute lie was lost to
the sight of the little brown-eyed girl, as he
galoped Into the midst of the marching files
of the men in blue.
The little girl sat on the post and looked In
the dlroctlon he had gone, for a long time. The
rest of the world was lost to her. The dirty
street and the blackened houses and the ragged
men were nowhere, as far as she was conoemed.
The bitterness was gone from her heart. The
book lay unnoticed in her lap.
, It was some time after that Almedia’s sister
found the book, and dragged the story from the
dreamy brown-eyed girl.
“What was on the card?” asked her sister.
Almedia started, guiltily. She had not looked
at the book nor the card until that time.
When she looked, she found the book was an
old “Robinson Crusoe.” But the card bore a
story that was much more wonderful than De-
Foe’s book. Almedia blushed us she read it.
"If I ever come back to Georgia to get a
wife,” it suid, “I am coming to Atlanta and get
the little brown-eyed girl that I left sitting on
the gate post."
• • • •
And now, Miss Almedia Harris, at No. 71
Venable street, smiled tenderly as she fingered
Mrs. Morgan's letter. After a while she found
paper and ink, and wrote something of her
story. And when she had come to the part
about the gallant young officer afld the “Robin
son Crusoe” she concluded her story with a
summary that bore a hint of romance. She
wrote:
’’Doubtless this is the reason why I still sign
my name MISS ALMEDIA HARRIS,
"And my address is No. 71 Venable street."