Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1912-02-13
INsENsATE FOLLY IN HANDLING
FIREARMS.

The evening pare tells of a man
who was shaving himself a few days
ago and his little 3-year-old son bothered
him. The father told him so a time or
so, then picked up what he supposed
to be an empty pistol and playfully
pointed the weapon at the noisy little
one. I'll shoot, if you don't behave"
the father said, and snapped the pistol.
The little tot was dead in a second with
the bullet in his head.
/ have no idea that the father intend
ed to wound the child, but the trouble
lay in careless fooling with the pistol,
without examining the deadly weapon.
If he is possessed with average sensi-
bility he would greatly prefer to be the
victim of his own folly, rather than the
guileless little prattler, who loved his
parent so fondly.
The object lesson in this case land
there are thousands of just such trag-
edies) is the danger in keeping such
weapons within ready reach.
1 saw a crowd gathering at a neigh
boris house a good many years ago and
when / entered the room found a little
S-year-old boy. who had died in the
identical same way, his next older
brother having climbed in a chair pulled
down a loaded pistol and fired on his
little brother. Without the slightest in
tention to do more than scare his lit
tie playmate he killed the child, with
the pistol so near it's little face, that it
was powder blackened all over. Eter-
nifty alone can tell how much mischief is
continually being done. by such careless
handling Of firearms.
Such poisons as strychnine are sold I'M
der very restrictive regulations but there
are very few dwellings in this land of
ours that are not equipped with deadly
firearms with no regulation whatever
THE wIFE'S POCKETBOOK
1 read a very interesting magazine ar
t!cle some time ago as to what share in
money the wife should be entitled to, in
the marriage partnership, because it is a
partnership, which is solemnly entered
into at the marriage altar. When this
partnership is considered as to its in.
f1uence on the unborn there is no other
agreement or contract which holds SUI
perior Importance las to results and con-
clusions), over this marriage agreement
or partnership.
Marriage is the result of romance in
many cases and is very lightly entered
into, in thousands of instances, but it
means superior responsibility and more
vital infiuences-as to the progress of
mankind than anything else known to
human history or lasting benefits of the
world. The mothers relation to her off
spring and the fathers duty to both
mother and child, are the very forces
which make or unmake the happiness of
this old world Of ours. Nothing else is
so vital or compelling.
To be a partnership where equal adj
vances must be furnished and equal ben
efits received, the wife must not be a
servant to, nor a parasite on, her hus-
band. If she Is either of these she is
not his equal in the business Of peopling
the world with their descendants their
offspring.
Unless she can stand by his side as his
equal In all essentials Of parentage, there
will be serious lack in the mothers side
of the partnership.
Just as there is serious lack and griev
Gus wrong when children have drunken
diseased and lustful fathers, where their
present and eternal destinies are mould
ed, distorted or destroyed by the infiu-
ences of hereditary and environment
The mothers mind-her character and
her aspirations-are sensibly affected by
her recognized position in her own house
hold If she has weight and Importance
in the counsels of the family-she re-
ceives respect and attention from both
husband and children. If she has moth
ing but burdens, she becomes a slave
and gets what slavery stands for, in the
eyes VI the hOAlu II SiiSs ID a 1OOAASA Va
silly woman, she amounts to nothing,
save as she brings more and other silly
people into the world to plague It,
To come to the point in question, the
mother should stand upon an equal plane
with the father, and be as vitality con-
cerned as to recognizing her obligations
and privileges as the man of the
house"
All the unrest, which is complained of
by anti-suffrage orators, has its foun-
dation-its basis, in the unequal .privi-
leges which have marked the marriage
relation for more than a century-the