Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

Atlanta Georgian OVER tOO,000 THE SUNDAY AMERICAN'S NET PAID CIRCULATION EXTRA for Profit—GEORGIAN WANT ADS Use for Results 1 hr National Southern Sunday Newspaper EDITION ght. 1906, Georgian Co PAY NO MORE. DEATH BARES SECRET OF RICH CITY HERMIT Charles B. Gas kill, Atlanta's "man of mystery, ’ ’ who was found Hearst Bill of 8 Years Ago Urged U. S. Wir eControl The hermit is seen above, with one of his pets and com panions, a chicken. Below is his flock of pigeons, which now coo mournfully about their dead master’s silent home. EIGHT YEARS AGO almost to a day Representative William Ran dolph Hearst introduced in the Fifty-ninth Congress “A bill to enable the United States to ac quire, maintain and operate elec tric telegraphs." etc. The bill pro vided a specific method of fair, legal purchase of "any or all ex isting lines," and their operation for the benefit of the people as the postoffice is operated. A stand-pat Republican C onress regarded Mr. Hearst's bill as dan gerous, if not revolutionary. Mr. Hearst’s bill of EIGHT YEARS AGO was reintroduced in substance in the Sixtieth and Six ty-first Congresses. TWO YEARS AGO Postmaster General Hitchcock, a Republican, recommended it in a report to President Taft and to Congress. TO-DAY a Democratic Postmas ter General makes the recommen dation the principal feature of his annual report. The sehsationa! report of Dr. S. A, Visanska’s committee exposing; milk- supply evils in Atlanta was still th*> object of careful and even cautious consideration by the directors of the Atlanta C’hamber of Comment Thursd ty. After another meet ins; Wednesda y afternoon and a. prolonged discussion, in which Dr. J. P. Kennedy, of tin* City Health Office, and Dr. Claude Smith, City Bacteriologist, took part, the following information was given out Thursday morning: It was agreed that additional milk inspectors and a City Veterinarian are needed. In view of the fact that the present city force of milk inspection consists of two dairy inspectors, one sampler and no veterinarian, and that this force is expected to look after the 6.000 gallons of milk furnished Atlan ta daily by 700 dairymen and handled by 235 dealers and 41 dairies in the city, the foregoing attitude does not appear startlingly revolutionary. New Committee Named. But further than that the famous milk report continues to be shrouded in mystery. # By way of clearing up the situation, Advises Destructor and Fire Alarm Companies Against “Spend ing Money to Beat Him.” Famous Chicago Surgeon Also Predicts That Operations for Disease Will Be Rare. 3n Calls Acquisition on Only Method of Solving Monopoly. or Woodward practically placed ii sell squarely in the race for re- . . lion Thursday when he told of re port? of sinister efforts to oppose him. I have been informed from several i sources that the Destructor N-.rip.tny of New York, the builders the crematory, and the Okonite ompany of New York, the builders ;’ie new fire alarm system, don’t intend to try to make any settlement wit-i the city during my admlnistra- ioo, but are endeavoring to get out m o other candidate who would ap prove the contracts. Then, when my administration is • they would get their contracts nproved without friction. His Advice to Companies. "I have not said whether I would •»r would nof run for Mayor. I can fell those companies, though, that if 'Tey w ill use the money it would take to beat me with a candidate who "oulrl approve their contracts, in re- ucing their prices I will approve the purchase of their plants at once, and everything would be settled without further worry of taking any chances.” Mayor Woodward said that while the last crematory contract had been approved, no effort had been made by the Destructor Company to get a final settlement with the city. He said ' e plant w as not coming up to speci- tications and it would do no good to to him for money until it did. The plant is completed and has been burning garbage for several months Likely To Be Big Issues. Mayor Woodward has refused to recognize the $106,000 moral obliga tion contract for the fire alarm sys- >tu. He has intimated that he would • y a lump sum of $85,000 for the system, but the Okonite Company infuses to make a greater reduction 'han 2 per cent. Unless these two contracts are set- "d before the next election they un- •>ubtedly will be important issues in 'be Mayoralty election, without re- *A r d to the reports heard by Mayor Woodward. Council will attempt to make agree- i,enr< when the new budget is made : P in January. The coming of a virtually “love less” age. when the doctrine of eugen ics will be in general application and when marriage contracts will be based more on the laws of health than on sentiment, was predietji Thursday morning by Dr. A. J. Osch- ner, of Chicago, one of Americas most noted surgeons, who is in At lanta attending the convention of the Southern Surgical and Gynecological Association at the Georgian Terrace. “Mankind is unmistakably drifting toward an era whep health will play a most important part in marriage, said Dr. Osehner, 'and it is not Im probable that there will come a time when sentiment will be a minor fac tor in the formation of marriage con tracts. The doctrine of eugenics is rapidly coming inlet greater favor p.i! over the world, andlhe trend of mod- WASHINGTON. Dec. 18— Govern ment experts estimated to-day that the cost of taking over the operation of telegraph and telephonic lines, as recommended bv Postmaster General Burleson in his annual report, would be more than $1,000,000,000. The Postmaster General's recom mendation projected into Congress an issue over which there is already marked difference of opinion and which President Wilson himself may have to determine. A party caucus may be held for the purpose of get ting the exact view' of the President and a majority of the party leaders. Burleson’s report follows conferences ont he subject between .»e Postmaster, General and President W r ilson, and reports that the President was about to make P'ederal ownership of the Wilson Will Spend Xmas Vacation of 3 Weeks in South WASHINGTON, Dec. 18.— Presi dent Wilson will take a Christmas va cation ff about three weeks, begin- ring probably next Tuesday. He will leave Washington for the South as soon as he signs tlie currency bill. "The President has not yet decided where le will spend his vacation.” said Secretary Tumulty to-day. “He will stay away from Washington all iof three weeks, but his plans wiil largely depend upon what Congress does.” President V\*i son was feeling some what improved to-day. and took an automobile ride. Suffrage League to Probe Atlanta Vice Headed by Mrs. Amelia Woodail, the Atlanta Equal Suffrage Associa tion soon will prosecute a searching probe into vice conditions in Atlanta. Prominent vice crusaders and po lice officials will be railed upon to as sist. U.S. Employees to Get Month’s Pay Dec. 23 •• WASHINGTON, Dec. 18.—A merry i Christmas to Uncle Sam s thousands of i employees is assured by the issuance of | an order permitting them to draw full I December nay on December 23. three Stamps Found in Garret Bring $150 THE WEATHER. Forecast for Atlanta and Georgia—Cloudy and cooler Thursday night; Friday fair. XING. N. Y.. Dec. 18.—Three stamps, SObyears old. found in a b Elliott Bunt, were sold for two utilities an administration pol icy- Mr. Burleson points to the suc cessful inauguration and extension of the parcel post system as a guar antee that the Postoffice Department is capable of handling further coun try-wide business of great magnitude and importance. U. S. Should Control. The report asserts that there is a surplus in his department for the year ended June 30, 1913, estimated at $3,841,906.78, and that* this is the first real surplus since 1883. In regard to taking over the tele graph and telephone systems, Mr. Burleson says, in part: “A study of the constitutional pur poses of the postal establishment leads to the conviction that the Post- office Department should have con trol over all means of the communi cation of intelligence. The first tele graph line in this country was main tained and operated as part of the postal service, and it is to be regret ted that Congress saw fit to rnlin- A myster> r which has puzzled many Atlantans was somewhat qleared Thursday by the death of Charles B. Gaskill, the eccentric and wealthy old bachelor who lived a hermit in the heart of busy Atlanta, and who was found dead in the bathroom of his solitary little home at No. 126 South Forsyth streer Wednesday afternoon The Coroner’s jury returned a ver dict of death from heart failure and complications His death was sim ple and not unexpected by those who knew r him, but his ways of life had been one of the city’s Stranges: mys teries for many years. Alone he had lived in his little house until the steps had decayed and the ever closed green blinds at the front began to rot and fall apart. People saw him walk out to the gro cery store and, with a few packages under his arm return. Sometimes he i would extend his journeys to a stroll j about town, but the secret of the in side of that siient house and the cause for his queer wavs he kept a mvs- know that he was quite sane, but that was all. It took death to draw* back the veil. He needs, but it was unusual that he did not surround himself with more com forts and a better home. He even cooked for himself, which is not so bad on a trail in the woods, but rather monotonous in a city like Atlanta, especially w r hen one has money. One of his acquaintances revealed why he live 1 this life. As a young man he had gone to old Oglethorpe Gollege He was a. class mate of ex-Governor Joseph M. Brown His instincts there were so cial and toward good fellowship. He was a charter member of the chapter of tire Phi Delta Theta Fra ternity there, and founded the chap ters at the University of Georgia ant* at Mercer. No matter what his views of the world became later, he held to that bond of brotherhood. When he avoided almost all mankind his inter est In his fraternity still lived, and probably the only true human asso ciations he* knew in later years was to attend a banquet of his young fra ternity mates in Atlanta occasionally To one of thesA he told w hy he led such a lonely existence. Once hr had fallen in love—desper ately in love—and the woman had dis ap potnted him. So he with drew from tb*> world, and ■* vorld forgot him—until he became mystery. it was decided to try another commit tee on it, and these were named: Ivan E. Allen, chairman: J. R. A Hobson, V. H. Kriegshaber, John S. Ow ens and B. JVJ. Hood. This combination is now' scheduled to grapple with the milk report, .which, dealing with so presumably in nocuous a fluid, appears to the cas ual outsider to contain considerable “pep,” judging by the gingerly way it is being handled. Since the submission of the report last summer, meeting after meeting of the directors has approached that for midable document, and, so far as all publicity is concerned, has rebounded in disorder from the attack Prom the known circ urns lances it might even be fair to infer that the energetic Dr. Visanska is in danger of deportation for revolutionary politics, should the unexpurgated report be made nubile Certainly the original Continental Congress spent a good deal l**ss time qonstdering the Decla ration of Independence, NEXT Sunday’s American IS BARRED FROM THE Atlanta Penitentiary was found dead on the floor of his home by Mr. Derracote. He was fully dressed. That was cause I lor the few who knew tils history to talk and for the curious to look into the house Around the envfv* of the little house a huge flock of pigeons hovered and moaned—-one wmuld vow—in sorrow. In a corner of the living room of the house sat several cats in uncanny silence, their green eyes gleaming at the empty fireplace. They were the mourners. The people there w'ere Because it contains an expose of that insti tution. written by Julian Hawthorne, but Atlantans can secure this great story by or dering from a dealer, or by phoning Main 100. There ai - e dozens of interesting features in it. Continued on P