Watson's weekly Jeffersonian. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1907, July 18, 1907, Page PAGE ELEVEN, Image 11

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

Tacts and Tancies for the Tireside A STREET PHILANTHROPIST. In his little room in a cheap ho* el in Omaha, Colonel Alexander Hoag land, “the newsboy’s friend,” and author of the Curfew law, was found dead, aged 75. That was nearly all the newspa pers said about the passing of a great soul. For forty years this dear old man went from city to city with a single passion—to make good men out of the boys of the streets. Tn this gracious ministry of turn ing young hoodlums into good citi zens, giving street waifs an outlook upon a better life, Alexander Hoag land spent a fortune. When the fortune was gone he kept on just the same. A few friends sometimes sent him some money. Some newspapers • helped. Tt did not take much to keep the old man’s soul and body together. His wants were touchingly few. It was the glory of Mr. Hoag land’s work to be in a crowd of news sellers and bootblacks—the cheeriest and wittiest of the gang— and so turn the talk as to make the boys think something of themselves and of their future. Few men better knew the way to a wayward boy’s better nature. He was a man of education and re finement with a brilliant war record behind him. His personal graces and tact and ability would have made him a great success among men. He was an eloquent public speaker, and had many elements of popularity. But he chose rather his own mod est philanthropy of the street. Many successful business men re member the grand old man with gratitude. He gave them their first “hunch” toward better things. What, then, is the test of a man’s life work? Who is the successful? Put the life labors of Alexander Hoagland beside the success of the mere money-getter. What an abject failure the latter! He will die and the worms will eat him, while “the newsboys’ friend” will live in the lives made better by his presence, live as long as the race shall live, live a sweet and gracious influence. Through hardness and short din ners and scant comfort the life of Hoagland was a constant martyr dom —and a constant joy. Blessings on the memory of his good gray head! —Fort Worth Tele gram. WILL THE YOUNG MEN DARE? Tn these strenuous times of com mercialism and graft when corrup tion is in high places, "when Mayors of great cities, United States sena tors, congressmen, legislators, judge-: and other officers are using the po sit ions given to them by the peop’o for the sole purpose of enriching themselves by schemes of graft and extortion, we need men who will stand for the right and champion the cause of the people who as a whole a e helpless in the hands of these plunderers. The case is hope less unless the young men dare to take up the fight and contend for civic righteousness. Will young men dare to denounce these rascals and lead the people back to the old time honesty and statesmanship that pre vailed in times gone by, when a grafter would have been hung as a traitor, when men did not hold office for profit, but were really servants of the whole people, and devoted their best energies and brain to try ing to benefit those whom they served ? Let us have the young man Who feels with his veins the throb thing pulse Os power and purpose urging him to dare, And, yielding to the message, treads down fear, Rending to scorn his own innate despair? He is the nobleman! No accident Os ancestry can equal that fine birth Os spirit which unlocks the dormant soul And rounds endeavor to its highest worth. God grant that this generation may see the day when a man to be honored must be honorable, truthful, noble and brave —daring to go for ward in the right though all the,, le gions in earth and hell oppose him. This is the opportunity for young men, if they have the moral courage to accept it and take the risk. — Weekly Sentinel. GOOD THOUGHTS. To obey God is liberty.—Seneca A man must first govern himself ere he be fit to bear the government of the commonwealth. —Sir Walter Raleigh. Plain good intention, which is as easily discovered at the first view as fraud is surely detected at last, is of no mean force in the govern ment of mankind. —Burke. There is really in nature such a thing as high life. A life of health, of sound morality, of freedom from petty cares, is higher than a life of disease and vice, and stupidity and sordid anxiety. I maintain that it is right and wise in a nation to set before itself the highest attainable ideal of human life as the existence of a complete gentleman.—Hamer ton. The wise and good, whose esteem alone is precious, -will not judge of you by the few deeds of philan thropy and honesty which you put boldly forth for the inspection of the world, but by your constant hab its in business, your daily walk, your most private treatment of the hum blest man in your service; in short, by your contribution of mites to in dividual happiness and the public.— C. A. Barol. The object of wrestling and of all other athletic sports is to strengthen men’s bodies and to t n ach them to use their strength readily, to keep their tempers, to en dure fatigue and pain. These are WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN. noble ends. God gives us few more valuable gifts than strength of body, and courage, and endurance. We ought to cultivate them in all right ways, for they are given us to pro tect the weak, to subdue the earth, to fight for our homes and country if necessary.—Hughes. Justice is the great interest of man on earth. Tt is the ligament which holds on the temple of justice with usefulness and distinction, who ever clears its foundations, strength ens its pillars, adorns its entabula tures, or contributes to raise its au gust dome still higher to the skies, connects himself, in name, and fame, and character, with that which is and must be as durable as the fame of human society.—Webster There is an opinion that parties in free counters are useful checks upon the administration of the gov ernment, and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. But in government purely elective, party spirit is not to be encouraged. From this natural tendency, it is certain there will al ways be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be, by force of pub lic opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it de mands a uniform vigilance to pre vent its bursting into a flame, lest in stead of warming, it should consume. —Washington. SUBSTITUTE FOR BRAINS. Mr. Arthur Brisbane is quoted as saying: “Tn this great whirling, pushing, competing world, there is no substitute for brains.” Brains unquestionably constitute a good part of the equipment in the battle of life. Still, “in the final analy sis,” as the stump orator says, Mr. Brisbane’s statement cannot be tak en as altogether axiomatic. There is a subtle and infinite variety of what is commonly called brains and everyone is not agreed on the su perlative quality. A Chicago Uni versity professor, for instance, said John D. Rockefeller’s intellect—gen ius he called it —was superior to that of Shakespeare, and for certain ends this conclusion seems capable of demons! ration. A very good quality of brains sometimes fails to make itself known or to avail anything to its possessor in a material way, while that of the gaudy and meretricious kind often dazzles the gaping public. READ THIS! We will send you Watson’s Jeffersonian Magazine for four months at 50c. No commis sion on this offer. Send subscriptions direct to our office. . • 608 TEMPLE COURT As for substitutes, it has been charged that Mr. Hearst uses Mr. Brisbane to supply some mental de ficiencies of his own. While that may not be an exact truth there are numerous instances in which such a statement is true in “this great, whirling, pushing, competing world.” The man with mere intellect, if that be called brains, without money, without diplomacy, too proud for ar tifice and too honest for intrigue, is very likely to be exploited for the benefit of some one else, and oft en he acts as a substitute for brains in others. A modicum of brains backed by a considerable quantity of audacity will go much further on the road to success than these qualities reversed. And it is true, Mr. Brisbane to the contrary notwithstanding, audacity is often a fair substitute for brains. Give a man both audacity and cun ning and he is often much better fitted for the jostling conditions of the latter day world than one with a strong, cultivated, but ingenuous mind. Audacity and cunning are no more brains in the proper accept ance of the term than pinchbeck is pure gold, but that fortunate com bination often succeeds where brains fail and it passes for brains with the multitude. There was never more room for the charlatan than there is in this bustling world Mr. Brisbane de scribes. The public does not take time to find out what is genuine. On ly the few have the capacity to dis cern the genuine and reputations are often made on the estimates of the million. And it has always been so. The mob crucifies Christ and de mands the releasing of Barabbas. It has no discernment of merit. Cag liostro was better known and more patronized in his day than was any genuine man of science then living. If what Mr. Brisbane says were true we might put faith in monuments and epitaphs and believe some of the windy orators whom the peo ple choose to fill high offices to be great statesmen. We might even ac cept the modern yellow journal as a genuine newspaper and regard Mr. Brisbane’s flamboyant socialistic ef fusions as something better and more wholesome than sane and well tempered journalistic discussion. Verily there are substitutes for brains, and the world has never known a time when they could be used to better advantage.—Nashville Banner. PAGE ELEVEN