Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-05-26
THE NEW THINGS ARE DANGEROUS

THE NEW THINGS ARE DANGEhOOS
/ have never had a doubt concerning
the danger that turks in automobile
machines, especially in careless hands.
more people than railroads. They scare
me all the time when 1 am out on the
road with my old pony. She seems to
have largely outgrown her horror of
them, but 1 have not.
1 saw a small youth the other day
taking in the town with somebody's au-
tomobile. He gave a free show in our
part of town. Round and round the
block he whirled. and the little niger
boy on the seat with, him had white
rings in his eyes, he was enjoying him.
self so hugely. If the whole affair
had busted 1 should not have cen sur
prised, and that's the way so many
are blown into kingdom come! Wheth-
er the little boys had cribbed the ma
chine and were making free use of 1T,
or whether some reckless parent or
guardian had turned 'em loose, I am
not able to say, but one thing I do
know, I returned thanks that I and
my old pony did not chance to get in
the way of that wild, reckless ana
seemingly uncalled for performance.
But the automobiles are not the only
new death-makers in this day and time.
On yesterday the cables brought a
story of the massacre of some of the
highest dignitaries in the French pres
idents cabinet. vast multitude had
gathered in the suburbs of Paris to
watch certain aviators perform with
their flying machines. The police helG
back the common folks but the big ones
were allowed to stand closer, so as to
see better. To make the story shors,
one of the flying machines got tangled
In its gearing machinery and made a
dart to. the earth, like a hawk after a
chicken. 1t acted like a hawk in that
it went after the choicest lot of the
spectators, and the next thing that was
known was the actual destruction of the
big men who were gazing aloft, nevea
dreaming of danger.
SO we discover that it is not safe 10
ride in flying machines and unsafe TO
look at their flights in the air. Auto
mobiles have been known to leave the
track and destroy folks looking on,
and now we are told that the flying
machines are playing like hawks ana
striking at the people on the GROUND.
1 read in my Bible last Sunday that
notable prophecy of Nahum: The
chariots shall rage in the streets, they
shall iostle one against the other in
they highways, they shall seem like
torches, they shall run like the light
nings."
We have got the jostling chariots,
for a certainty, and we have got those
air ships, which run overhead like
lightnings And it seems they can
strike like lightnings, also!
l am not one of those who want &c
go back to the old times. where there
were no railroads, no telegraphs and
no swift-going steamers, but 1 wish
lived in an age where people were not
quite so rash, so risky and so indiffer~
ent to the safety of other people.
But they might say, I'VE hurt our
selves as badly as we hurt YOU" So
you do, and that is what am complain
ing about.
1t will not matter very much with
me whether I am killed by an auto
machine or a flying, overhead hawk,
run by gasoline, but prefer to dH
some other way, If I can get away
from the foolhardy folks who don't
care snap what happens while they
are going.