Newspaper Page Text
i
EDITORIAL RAGE The Atlanta Georgian THE HOME RARER
FS
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
Published by THE GEORGIAN COMPANY
At 20 East Alabama St,. Atlanta, (la
Rnt*r«<1 a* n#con<J-rlasH matter at poatoffW at Atlanta. art March 3. inil
HE AR8T*8 6VNHAY A M ERICA N and THK XTGAN’TA G I-.'-ID .IAN will
ha mallad to subscribers anywhere In the United !-tnte fanadn r«nd Mexico,
ona month for $ «0. three months for 11 7R. change • f ad lr* - made aa often iM
4 wired Foreign subscription rates on application.
To Help Out His Thanksgiving Gift
W
The Hopeless Scramble of
Atlanta's Street Numbers
In The Rome Tribune-Herald of recent date there appeared
this editorial paragraph:
"The homes and business houses in Atlanta should be
renumbered. It is almost impossible for a stranger to find
his way about in that city. ’ ’
Mrs. William Lawson Peel, in a contribution to the columns
of The Georgian, points out this same trouble in Atlanta, and
pleads for its abatement.
There is not one Atlantan of intelligence, perhaps, who will
not instantly and cordially agree that both The Tribune Herald,
an outsider, and Mrs. Peel, an insider, ARE ALTOGETHER
AND ENTIRELY RIGHT!
The homes and business houses of Atlanta are fearfully and
wonderfully numbered!
The only thing about the present numbering that suggests
system is the utter lack of system apparent on all sjdes!
It is well-nigh impossible to direct a stranger in Atlanta to a
home a dozen blocks away. Streets start with any old number
and run along helter-skelter, every person apparently choosing
a number for himself, and without regard to the number his
next-door neighbor may have selected!
As an example, take those three beautiful resident thor
oughfares, Juniper, Piedmont and Myrtle. Between Seventh and
Eighth on these three streets homes correspondingly located are
numbered respectively 143, 290 and 731.
That is to say, No. 143 on Juniper would be No. 731 on Pied-
ment and No. 290 on Myrtle, as they now are laid out!
Could anything be more palpably absurd?
And the very same conditions as to numbering that prevail
on those streets prevail all over Atlanta with respect to other
streets!
If Marietta street, say, began at Five Points, at the inter
section of Peachtree, and ran east in blocks of one hundred, it
would be perfectly possible to locate in one’s mind No. 467 Ma
rietta, and to indicate it instantly and understandably to a
stranger anxious to know. But the stranger in Atlanta starting
out to locate No. 467 Marietta nowadays would find himself
embarked upon a voyage the indefiniteness of which would appall
him before he reached its end!
If you wished to locate No. 457 Piedmont avenue, you would
not know whether to guess between Fourth and Fifth or between
Twelfth and Thirteenth. No. 457 ought to be located between
Fourth and Fifth, to be sure, as it is indicated for the 400 block.
The only guess in Atlanta, however, is that wherever a home
OUGHT to be located, according to its indicated number, there is
where it most probably ISN'T located!
And the significant, compelling and embarrassing thing
about that statement is that it is not in the slightest exaggerated
or overemphasized!
ATLANTA S STREETS OUGHT TO BE RENUMBERED—
THE SOONER THE BETTER!
Already Atlanta has waited unpardonably long—so long
that outsiders are gibing us and criticising us about it. And
Atlantans KNOW that the gibing and criticising both are de
served.
The city should be divided into East, West, North and South
sections, and the blocks in those sections numbered after the
simple method of one hundred numbers to each block.
Next spring Atlanta will entertain the Imperial Council of
the Mystic Shrine of North America. That gathering will bring
to Atlanta perhaps fifty thousand of the very flower of American
citizenship. It will bring the best business men of the nation
here for a good time.
One of the things every delegate surely ought to feel he may
be able to do in Atlanta is to get about town intelligently, and
WITHOUT having to inquire every hundred steps or so how
much farther it is to where he is going!
The Georgian suggests to Council the wisdom of considering
IMMEDIATELY the wvatter—the very IMPORTANT matter—
of renumbering Atlanta’s streets.
Atlanta has been called, and justly, Dixie’s City of Beau
tiful Homes.’’
The beauty of those homes should not be marred by a per
fectly crazy and insane system of numbering.
Nor should the business houses be jumbled together, with
out rhyme or reason as to indicated location.
Ella Wheeler
Wilcox
-ON—
The Life Hereafter---There Is
No Death: Other Lives, Other
Realms Await—One of the
Greatest Teachers of This
Was Emanuel Swedenborg.
BY ELLA WHEELER WILCOX
Consider the Poor Salesgirl
These paragraphs from a recent report of Admiral Fletcher,
commanding the United States squadron at Tampico, compel
thought:
"The steamer Logician, which has been chartered by the
British admiral and manned by a crew from the British cruiser
Suffolk, has all the British residents of the town on board. All
the Germans are aboard the steamer Cecilie.
"NO STEAMER IS AVAILABLE FOR AMERICAN REF
UGEES ”
Of course, the United States warships will receive refugees
of our nation, but that there should not be a single merchant
man flying the American flag in Tampico harbor ought to be im
possible.
The fact affords a striking and mortifying illustration of the
decay of our merchant marine under a blighting policy which
the Administration utterly refuses to correct.
By DOROTHY D1X.
T O YOU Christmas is the season of peace on earth and
good will. To her it is a time of terror, a time of ex
hausted body and tortured nerves, a nightmare that she
looks back upon with, horror, and forward to with dread.
And it’s you, who put off your shopping until the very last
minute, who turn the sweetest and the gayest festival of the
whole year into this Inquisition for her.
Merry Christmas! What a mockery the words are to the
poor shop girl who lies on her bed on Christmas morning too
tired to get up, too tired to even turn her weary eyes to see if
Santa Claus has visited her or not. Every muscle in her poor
little body is exhausted. Every nerve is worn to the quick.
Her very brain is numb with fatigue. She’s a wreck in mind
and body, and feels just as bedrabbled and slimpsy and
frazzled out as the pink chiffon blouses that the crazy horde of
late Christmas shoppers have been pawing over at her counter.
Merry Christmas! There’s nothing merry in it to her. It
has been a battle, a st niggle, an endurance contest in which
she has put every ounce of her strength, every particle of her
grit All that she’s thought of, all that she’s prayed for, has
just, been to be able to fight on to the end, and not to lose her
grip on her politeness, or get rattled by the hundreds of ques
tions fired at her by a hundred different w'omen who were pull
ing and hauling at her, and trying to get her to do a dozen
different things at once.
A gav and merry Christmas! Her gay and merry Christ
mas is just to lie in bed and rest, and have somebody poultice
her poor, blistered, swollen feet, and to try to keep her brain
ftom automatically repeating t.he prices of celluloid handker
chief holders and near-silver backed hair brushes.
And yet this girl is as young and as fond of fun and
amusement and life as your own daughter, sir or madam. She
would like to enjoy her Christmas just as much as your Ethel
or Mamie. She’s got just the same interest in pretty thing's
and Christinas frolics as your girls.
How would you like it if your own precious girl had been
so hard worked, and was so worn and weary on Christmas
morning that she had no spirit la/t for the enjovment of the
day!
^ on would think it was a hard and cruel thing, and your
heart would be bitter against those who had robbed her of her
innocent joy in the day. Won’t you, then, try to think a little
about other people s daughters and show to them a little of
he mercy and consideration that you would like to have shown
to your own?
Y° u can do this by shopping early. You can
keep from making the last days before Christmas
an orgy of buying that riots around the salesgirls
and drives them almost mad.
You know how exhausting it is to battle your wav in
the Christmas crowds that almost tear your ciothes off of
your back \ ou know how nerve-wearing it is to try to find
presents that will please the half dozen people you buy things
1 l ou know how your feet ache when you have stood up
tor an hour at a counter, trying to match a piece of ribbon
or select a necktie that will cost but seventy-five cents’,
and that you can fool some man into thinking cost $2.50.
Vou know how your temper gets on a razor edge when
you can t get instant attention from the clerk.
Kindly multiply your tribulations in Christmas shopping
by a hundred thousand, and then some, and you will get a
taint idea of what the salesgirl goes through. She hasn’t
contended with the Christmas crowd for an hour or two. She
has fought with it for a month. She hasn’t tried to answer the
questions of one woman She’s tried to pacify and please a
multitude. She hasn t had the outlet to her nerves of snapping
back at you. as you have at her, when things went wrong.
because her job depended on her keeping up a pleasant smile
no matter how she raved inwardly. And if one day’s Christmas
shopping leaves you as limp as a dish rag think what it must
do to her.
It’s nothing but pure unadulterated selfishness that makes
people put off their Christmas shopping to the last minute.
You know just as well now as you are going to know on the
23d or 24th of December that you’ve got to get some gift for
Aunt Sara, and Cousin Sallie, or a present for your wife. Then
why not go this very day and buy it, instead of waiting to the
last minute before the shops close to do it, and thus adding
another burden to the weary, patient little shoulders of the shop
girl that are already breaking under the load they must carry!
Look at the picture that the artist has drawn for* this'
article. Note the weary droop of the figure, the tired lines in
the young face of the poor little shop girl, and particularly
observe that all of her forlornness is made up of late shopping.
Let this picture make you think of what your carelessness
and lack of thought may cause you to do.
Surely the brightness of your own Christmas day will he
dimmed if you realize that somewhere there is a little shop girl
as weary and forlorn as the one pictured here who might have
had a happy Christmas if you had only done your shipping
early.
Have a heart. Do your part toward making this a
Merry Christmas for the salesgirls by buying early and
getting out of the stores.
ft
ft
STARS ANI) STRIPES
Copyright, 1918. ho Star Company
BEYOND.
I T seemeth such a little wav to
me
Across to that strange coun
try, the Beyond;
And yet not strange, for It has
grown to be
The home of those of whom X
„ am so fond:
They make it seem familiar, and
most dear,
As journeying friends bring dis
tant countries near.
So close it lies that when my
sight Is clear
I seem to see tne gleaming of
that strand;
I know I feel those who have gone
from here
Come near enough to even touch
my hand.
I often think but for our veiled
eyes,
We would And Heaven right round
about us lies.
I cannot make It seem a day to
' dread
When from this dear earth I
shail Journey out
To that still dearer country of the
deaa
And Join the lost ones so long
dreamed about.
I love this world, yet I shall love
to go
And meet the friends who wait for
me, I know.
I never stand above the bier and
see
The seal of death set on some
well loved face
But that I think—One more to
welcome me
When I shall cross the interven
ing space
Between this land and that one
Over There;
One more to make the strange
Beyond seem fair.
And so to me there is no sting to
death.
And so the grave has lost its
victory.
It Is but crossing, with suspended
breath
And white, set face, a little strip
of sea,
To find the loved ones on the other
shore,
More beautiful, more precious than
before.
"Darwin responsible for the
tango." declares a preacher.
Doubt if it’s a simian dissipation.
• • •
Miss Gind-af-HaKeby says kiss-
ins is perfectly harmless. Why-
try to rob it of its principal
charm?
Prom their talk, we are often
convinced that some children
have neglected to bring up their
parents properly.
• • *
Mona L.isa's smile will broaden
into a laugh if she gets more
Florentine receptions.
It's a poverty-stricken Christ
mas than can be estimated in
dollars.
* • *
There is nothing so discourag
ing to the young husband as a
rich father-in-law who does not
give up easily.
One might as well try to sweep
back the waves of the ocean as to
silence the whine of a profes
sional martyr.
* * *
There are occasions when it is
better to wear thick-soled shoes
when you toe the mark.
A MAN who says he is a great
student and that has stud
ied all the religions, urges
me to be “sensible” and discon
tinue writing or talking about
"God” or "Heaven” or “Future
Life.”
He says all these things are su
perstitions. which people of in
tellect must abandon, or hesign all
claim to intellectuality.
This man Is, of course, an ego
tist of the rankest order. He is so
blinded by his self-conceit that he
cannot see Truth.
He is like an individual who sits
holding his own photograph close
to his eyes and says, “There Is no
universe, no sun or skies; there Is
only this card on which I see my
face.”
The perfectly balanced human
being forms a complete triangle.
Physically strong, mentally strong,
spiritually strong; the three na
tures are in perfect harmony.
We find few such beings, and
consequently the world Is filled
with those who are in some re
spects dwarfed or deformed.
There is the robust athlete,
whose prowess lies in the phys
ical realm. He had not developed
his brain or his spirit.
There is the hysterical spiritual
being, who thinks only of the world
beyond and neglects his mind and
his body.
There is the intellectual giant,
vho has a stunted body and no
spirituality, or who has two sides
of the triangle developed, body
and mind, and only a blank space
where the spiritual line should be.
No one of these individuals is
living the life God wants man to
live. Each one must be sent back
to earth in many incarnations un
til he learns to make the perfect
triangle of himself, and then, be
ing complete, he can pass on to
other work. In other Mansions, in
other Realms
My correspondent may be a
strong man physically and men
tally, but he is dwarfed and
stunted spiritually; and because
he is so. he thinks there is no
spiritual truth in the universe;
as the man born blind might think
there was no light of sun or moon
or star.
Fortunately there are hundreds
of brilliant minds ready to give
their testimony to the contradic
tion of this man’s statements
that earth and human life are
accidents, and that chance rules
all things, and that there is no
life beyond this life, and no realm
beyond earth.
One of the greatest men who
ever lived on earth, a great scien
tist, a great humanitarian, a great
scholar, was Swedenborg. And
this man gave up position and
power and place among the ambi-
tiotrs people of earth to devote his
mature years to telling the world
the marvellous facts he had
learned about Realms within
Realms and Life beyond Life.
When he was dying at the ad
vanced age of eighty-three, he wa»
offered all the solaces of orthodox
religion if he would say that he
had not heard these voices or seen
these visions. “But I did see and
did hear,” he replied. And thobe
were almost his last words.
Swedenborg's opinions on poli
tics or science left no marked im
pression on the world; very few
people even know that he was
renowned in those days. But
Swedenborg's great religious
philosophy 1b the comfort and the
strength of thousands of intel
lectual and useful human beings.
There is an old Hindoo phrase
Which reads thus:
He who knows not, and knows
not that he knows not, he
is a fool; shun him.
He who knows not, and knows
that he knows not, he Is
simple; teach him.
He who knows, and knows not
that he knows, he is
asleep; wake him.
He who knows, and knows that
he knows, he is wise; follow
him.
Swedenborg was the latter. H«
was the perfect triangle. Great in
all ways. There are thousands ot
other human beings living, and
thousands who have lived, strong
of intellect, clear of mind, who
have given to the world their tes
timony of absolute knowledge of
the existence of invisible worlds
about us, and invisible helpers
near us. just as travelers on our
earth report different conditions
and different scenes in Northern
and Southern and Arctic and
Equatorial locations. So the va
rious SEERS observe various con
ditions in the spiritual worlds.
There is just as much variety in
these realms as in our own, and
each Seer sees according to his
own powers of sight and accord
ing to his own mental and spiritual
development.
The architect, on earth, who Is
absorbed wholly in buildings,
takes a walk with an artist who
cares only for nature, and one re
turns unable to tell anything about
the plants, trees, flowers or scen
ery, but everything about the
style of houses he has seen; while
the artist has not even noticed a
house, but is filled with facts con
cerning the landscape, the streams,
the trees, the verdure.
Precisely so with the man who
has the open eye in spiritual
realms. I know a quiet, indus
trious business man, respected by
his fellows, loved by his associates,
w ho seeks neither glory nor riches,
and who is ever ready to serve his
friends or his enemies with good
deeds. This man has the open eye
and he is privileged in being able
to see the invisible realms and the
invisible helpers who move about
among us.. Naturally possessed of
the clear seeing eye, he has de
veloped the power of the “initiate”
by high thinking, and living, and
preparation. There are a few such
on earth, and to meet and talk with
them is to gain a great spiritual
uplift.
Without a faith in other states of
existence, this life at its brightest
and best would be insupportable to
a finely organised and loving soul.
The sudden calamities which be
fall dear ones, the sorrows and
tradegies which come into every
life, would make this brief earth
stay a ghastly jest were it not that
we know tt as only one room to
our Father's mansion, and that we
are to enter other rooms, dressed
In other bodies, after we have
passed from this.
Other realms, other lives await
us.
Earth is but one of many
spheres through which we pass.
We shall meet and recognize
those who were our spiritual kin.
in these other realms.
Vital, deep, beautiful affec
tion can never die.
Only ephemeral loves die with
death.
Ambition for worldly honors, en
joyment of wholly physical pleas
ures and all that lg based on
selfishness and avarice eventn
ally die with the body. They
continue for a time after death,
because they have fettered the
spirit and prevented it from pro
gressing at once. They make the
aplrit earthbound for a season, but
after a time the spirit gains Its
knowledge of hlgheT Ideals of hap
piness and goes on to the various
heavens, and from those higher
heavens it Is allowed to come at
times to earth to sustain and up
lift and help those who remain
There is no death. Thors are
no dead.