Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

EDITORIAL RAGE The Atlanta Georgian THE HOME RARER THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN Publish**! by THE GEORGIAN COM PA NT At 20 Eut Alabama St. Atlanta, Oa. Entered aa second-class matter at poatofflre at Atlanta, under act of March 3. HEARST’8 SUNDAY AMERICAN and THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN will bo mailed to subscribers anywhere In the United Stat- t’anada r ind Mexico, one month for $.60, three montha for $175. chanae of ad dr* mh made aa often as desired Foreign subscription rates on application The Puzzle or “Labyrinth of Life” Here You Have an Ingenious Picture of It. Life Has Other Laby rinths and Other Puzzles. pertaht. ISIS, be BUr Crmapaa* Dr. Young, Chicago Health Commissioner, knows how to in terest the public in questions of health and to make the public think intelligently. In & recent bulletin Dr. Young issued the diagram reproduced in this column. We print it exactly as he gives it to the public—but instead of giving it to a few people in a few pamphlets we put it into the hands of at least five millions of Americans who read the Hearst evening newspapers. Every one of them is interested in this picture. Many will not take the trouble to read numbers and the letter-1 ings that correspond, so we write about life's "Labyrinth’’ to make. the subject even simpler than in the diagram. We begin in the cradle, weak little creatures, and the first danger is BLINDNESS that comes at birth. The nurse and the doctor save you from that danger by washing out the eyes immedi ately with a strong disinfectant solution. Men had to live for hundreds of thousands of years on the earth before they knew how to do that. If you enter life the wrong way, taking the first road to the left from the top in this diagram, you bump up against number one, which is the blindness of infancy. If you take the easy road around to the right you run into number two, as dangerous as number one—and so on. According to the doctors the next great dangers are measles, whooping cough, diphtheria, scarlet fever, pneumonia, typhoid fever, tuberculosis, smallpox, influenza. The diagram which you will find below seems complicated. And all these names of diseases seem complicated and ter rifying. But there is really nothing complicated about life, or the problem of old age. Your body is a marvellous machine, provided with tiny micro scopic soldierE in your blood that will protect it from disease, if you will do YOUR share. What you really need to do IS TO KEEP YOUR BLOOD IN ORDER. Thousands of millions of living cells make your body, each ore eating, breathing, drinking—LIVING A SEPARATE LIFE JUST AS YOU, THE GREAT BIG CREATURE, LIVE, BREATHE, EAT, DRINK AND FINALLY DIE. In your blood are the leucocytes, or phagocytes—the white blood corpuscles. Those are big names for tiny creatures that at tack the germs of disease as soon as they get inside your body. From outside come disease germs, attacking the cells in your body, just as wolves and serpents and bears used to attack the whole body. Man has killed off the bears, wolves, lions and tigers, and is safe from them. In dayB to come he will kill off the disease germs, and get rid of them, driving them from the planet on which we live. In the meanwhile you must keep your blood in good health, so ® that the little fighters inside of your blood, the white corpuscles, shall be vigorous and ready to attack the disease germs and destroy them as soon as they get inside of you. If you are healthy, if your mind lives in a body well fed, with pure blood, if you sleep well and regularly, eat and drink temper ately, live wisely a moral life, you need not fear the dangers in this “labyrinth of Ufa.” Study it, show it to your children. A picture will interest them where words are dull. And after you have looked at this picture, which the Chicago Health Department wisely issues, remember that there are many other labyrinths, many other puzzles far more complicated. Care of the body and its development are simple. But the care of the mind, its protection against inherited ten- 1 denciee, is complicated and very difficult. Eleven main obstacles stand in your way on your road from birth to old age, according to this diagram. Eleven million temptations stand in your way, from the igno rant animal childhood of the brain to the adult, peaceful, dignified sge of a thoroughly developed character—and story. that is another The=Mother=in=Law and the Wife Answer to a Woman Who Says She Is Un happy in Her Son’s Home—It Is Sug gested That She Pack Pier Trunks and Move Away Immediately. Here is the diagram: THE LABYRINTH OF LIFE From infancy to old age our lives are endangered by the avoidable diseases—we have about an even chance to dodge them or to die from them. Try going through this maze without stopping to plan your way and you will see how it la. H ’ ERK Is a story' of the strange effects of the telephone upon the nervous system and mental state of a woman. From this story It Is possible to learn, or guess, a groat deal about these curious bodies of ours, with their five limited senses and their im prisoned minds, for whose in finite needs a thousand senses would not siiftlee. I get the story at. second hund from two French physicians. A young married women, 25 years old, physically rather deli cate, but mentally very Intelli gent and very cultivated, has developed a singular form of what the physicians call "telephono- phobia." Not New. Whenever the telephone hell rings she is taken with a kind of mental anguish, resulting from the state of uncertainty into which she is immediately thrown as to who the person can be that 1» calling. She becomes so par alyzed by this state of mind that usually she is unable to answer the call. In case she does take up the receiver and put it to her ear she is seized with a violent oppression In the head and a flut tering of the heart. Her voice fails her, or, If she succeeds in making any response to what she hears over the wire, it is in al tered tones, «jnd in broken, dis connected words. This results from the fact that her mind is continually distracted by thinking about the person at the other end of the line* arid wondering what that person really thinks of her. Physicians accustomed to study the mental aberrations of their patienth will And nothing very wonderful in this story, which simply offen one among many examples that might be cited of the curious ways In which new inventions react upon the human organism. It is not unusual for people to be nervously disturbed by the sudden ringing of a tele phone hell, which is a sound hav ing a character peculiar to itself because of the associations that it awakens in the mind. Those as sociations have a certain element of mystery about them. For many pereons, perhaps the ma jority. telephoning is still a kind of scientific magic, and the voices of the wire vibrate strangely on the nerves of the hearer. Every invention that comes into general use has some effect of this kind, and thus becomes an element in the development of the human race, for man, by the ex ercise of his inventiveness, Is constantly changing his environ ment and thereby directing the course of his own evolution. Natural Evolution. We can see what one result of this self-induced evolution will probably be when we notice the fact that the nervousness inspired by telephone calls, rushing auto mobiles In the street, and other striking phenomena resulting from the progress of modern In ventions, usually develops a more or less complete paralysis of the will power. The nervous person who sees an auto speeding to ward him is seized with hesitation and indecision. He can not move, or he suddenly moves in exactly the wrong direction, because his perceptive faculties and his men tal activity are too weak or too uncertain to enable hint on the Instant to form a sound judg ment of the situation and decide what should be done to meet It. The consequence must be pre cisely what has occurred again and again In "natural evolution” —that is, evolution based only on the slow changes produced by na ture's unaided forces. That con sequence is the gradual elimina tion of the unfit, and in this case the unfit are individuals of weak wills and slow or muddled per ceptive power. The humanity of the future, just by virtue of Its Inventions calling continually for more and more rapidity of men tal action, will be characterized by firmness of will, quickness of decision, clearness of thought and freedom from mysticism, and these qualities will be largely the Indirect gifts of the telephone, the automobile, the aeroplane, wire less telegraphy, and the hundred other concrete forms In w hich human intelligence has crystal lized itself. The world spins faster and faster; It is already going at a dazing speed which daunts the faint-hearted and the slow of thought, but those who ride with it in future will have to think faster still and hold the reins with heart and will of iron. LOUIS AGASSIZ By Rev. Thomas B. Gregory. THE OBSTACLES. 1. Ophthalmia neonatorum. 4. Whooping cough. 2. Diarrheal diseases. 5. Diphtheria S. Measles. 6. Scarlet fever. CONTINUED IN LAST TWCf COLUMNS. I T was Just 40 years ago that Agassis died, and the sorrow born of the tidings that the great scientist and Incomparable man had passed out from the ways of men ia still keenly felt by the hearts of those who knew and loved him. Agassiz was an extraordinary man in many ways. His very' make-up was such as is but sel dom seen in great men. There are plenty of men with big brains, there are plenty of men with big hearts, and there is no dearth of men who possess winsome per sonalities. along with a keen ap- . for tut of a better term, we call the spiritual; I but it is only now and then that a man combines within himself all of these gifts. They were com bined In Agassiz. He could think straight as the path of a cannon ball; he could love as tenderly as a child; he could astound by the profundity of his scientific acu men, and. without the least ef fort, and apparently without any consciousness of what he was doing, he could make everybody who came in contact with him love him like a brother. The name of Agassiz is immor tal. Ills labors in paleontology, in ichthyology, in geology and in other fields will keep his memory forever green; but high above even his splendid fame as a scien tist looms our recollection of him as a Alan. QUESTIONS ANSWERED LORD NELSON. J. J.—Horatio (Lord) Nelson was born at Barnham. Thorpe. Norfolk, September 29, 1758. He died on October 21, 1805, in the midst of his splendid victory at Trafalgar. His remains were con veyed to England and Interred in St. Paul’s on January 9, 1806. HONEYMOON AND CHIVALRY. C. R.—The word honeymoon owes ite origin to a custom of an ancient Germanic people who were In the habit of drinking mead mingled with honey for 30 days after a wedding took place. Chivalry cymes from chevalier. which is just a cheval—ler—a horseman, from the fact that the knights-errant rode on horseback. APELLES' MASTERPIECE. J. H. R.—The masterpiece of Apelles was the Venus Anadyo- mene, “Venus fusing From the Sea.” The falling drops of water from her hair form a transparent silver veil over her form. It cost $121,500, and was painted for the Temple of Esculapius at Cos, and afterward placed by Augustus In the temple w hich he dedicated to their illustrious patron, Julius Caesar Part of the famous pic ture was injured and no one could be found to repair it. ^ T O MY mind the most tragic thing on earth is the un necessary trouble that we poor, foolish mortals make for our selves. It would seem that there are enough unavoidable griefs— death, sickness, poverty, loss—to tear like vultures at our hearts without our going out of the way to manufacture for ourselves a million torments that flay us alive. But no. We court sorrow, and out of conditions of life that should be filled with nothing but joy and gladness we make misery and tears for ourselves and those nearest to us. The best Illustration of this un accountable human weakness Is to be found In the relations-in- la-w problem, where people who should dwell together In peace and amity seem to take a fiendish delight in quarreling and bicker ing, although by so doing they ruin their own happiness and make life a hell on earth for all about them. It is literally true that not drink, nor gambling, nor im morality, nor any vice whatso ever, brings a thousandth part of the misery to humanity as does the inability of relations-in-law to be friendly, or even treat each other with decent politeness, for pitiful and petty as a family quar rel seems somewhere in it there is always a broken heart. In the course of a year I get thousands of letters from women on this subject. Sometimes it is a daughter-in-law who is victim ized by a selfish and tyrannical and quarrelsome mother-in-law who feels that she has a perfect right to run her son's home and who jealously resents her son’s affec tion for his wife and the money he spends on her. The Mother Who Has Spats with Her Son’s Wife. More often the letter is the piti ful wail of some poor old mother who is made to feel that her daughter-in-law begrudges her the very bread she eats, or a daugh ter-in-law who sets herself deliber ately to wean her husband from the mother who bore him. To-day I have another such letter as this. It Is written by a lovely, cultured, gentle lady, full of tact and kindli ness, who asks for help In solv ing a problem to which no wis dom has yet found the key. This woman has a son to whom she is devoted and a grandchild that she adores. She would glad ly love her daughter-in-law, too, but the daughter-in-law repulses her at every turn. She is not even civilly polite to the mother- in-law, but criticizes her and sneers at her, and maintains toward her an attitude that is a covered Insult In itself. The man loves his wife, but he loves his mother also, and he is made so miserable by his wife’s conduct toward his mother that it has seriously affected his health. The mother fears that he will die in the atmosphere of such an un happy home, and she asks what I think she had best do. My advice to her is to pack her trunks and leave her son’s house Immediately. Fortunately, this woman has plenty of money, but even if a woman had to go to the poorhouse from her son’s house 1 should still urge her to go rather than stay In a home where she was a bone of strife and the source of discord. This may seem a hard saying. But when does motherhood ever flinch from the cross when, by sac rifice, it can secure the good of those It has borne in travail of body and must so often cherish In travail of spirit? By DOROTHY DIX And it is the wonder of lore that that which we give we keep. The woman who stays In her son’s home, making perpetual friction there for him, may ] os » some of his reverence and affeo. tion, but the mother who sub limely renounces all for his hap piness remains forever a revered saint to his vision. It may seem hard to her to go away from one she loves so dearly, but in an- other house she will he nearer to him than she would be under the same roof with him, with a spite- ful daughter-in-law always inter posing her watchful suspicions be- tween them. Mother-in-Law Should Eliminate Herself from Home. Unhappily, there Is no panacea for changing a selfish, narrow, jealous daughter-in-law Into a broad and noble woman who Is capable of appreciating the fact that next to her own mother her husband’s mother is the woman whom it is her duty most to love and cherish. You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, nor can you convert a stingy, venomous little woman into a big and generous one. So the only thing the mother- in-law can do under such sad cir cumstances is to eliminate her self. That saves her son, at least, from perpetual nagging from his wife, and the sorrow of seeing his mother suffer from humiliation! and insults from which he is pow erless to protect her. Sometimes when the friction of daily life to gether is removed it Is possible to establish a truce with tbs daughter-in-law, so that it makes it possible for the son to visit his mother in peace and without pre cipitating a family row. But al ways it is best for the two wom en not to dwell under the sams roof, and wise are those who never make the foolhardy experi ment. There are two strange things in this antagonistic attitude that so many women take toward their husbands’ mothers. The first is the incomprehensibility of any woman having so little sympathy toward a fellow woman as to want to separate her from the child that she has suffered for, sacrificed for, and who Is the very bone of her bone and flesh of her flesh. Yet you see mothers with sons of their own treating their husband*’ mothers as they pray God no other woman may ev« r treat them. Wives May Lose Love of Their Husbands by Nagging. The second thing that is strang* is that any woman could be fool enough to take such a risk of alienating her husband from her as to be cruel to his old mother and drive her out of her own son s house. A man would have to be the lowest dastard on earth not to resent that with every fibre of his being, and though he may. for the sake of peace, let his mother go in silence or sit in silence while she is mistreated, it ' s something that he never forgive his wife. She has laid the axe to the root of his respect and affec tion for her. Remember that, you young wives, when you make your hus hand’s mother unwelcome in your homes. Ten million beaut*- 1 - 1 sirens could not wean your hus band from you so quickly, and s effectually, as your unkindim-s v that poor old gray-headed worna. going with wet eyes and an ac. ing heart from her son’s door. The Puzzle or “Labyrinth of Life *9 CONTINUED FROM FIRST TWO COLUMNS. 7. Pneumonia. 9. Tuberculosis. 8. Typhoid fever. 10. Smallpox. 11. Influenza. The Health Department is asking for means to remove the obsvac that block the road from birth to old age. Will you help us get them? P. S.—This interesting picture was designed by Dr. 0. St Cl& lT Drake. Honor to him for an intelligent plan to arouse in man ap preciation of the text, “I will praise the Lord, for I am fearfw tand wonderfully made*’’.