Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-03-22

YOUNG MEN IIAAI DE1AJ1A'-AAA1'
II ought to be a useful picture and a use1ul
editorial for all human beings that go through
life as mere spectators, looking on at game
in which they take no real part, watching tnOse
that accomplish results or achieve distinction
AND THEMSELVES ADDING NOTHING TO
THE RESULTS OR THE DISTINCTION OF
THEIR DAY.
Here in this picture comes man winning
great race.
He is engaged in what was once an important
wOrk-wOrk that might save nation or city.
In the days when mans speed was important
there was no telegraph, telephone, no way OF
carrying news except by the swift running
man or animal, and he who could run fastest
and farthest might become at any moment the
protector of his country by giving warning of
danger, and he might delight his country by
bringing first the news of victory.
So, in centuries past, the best youths were
trained as swift runners. The great games in
Greece were more important than any cOnsttu-
tiOnal convention of our day. And the hero
who had won came home crowned with glory
and it was the custom to knock hole in the
wall of the city, that he might come in by gate
never used before
Those days have gOne-and the usefulness
of running has gone.
The Swiftest, most valuable horse is slow and
feeble compared with the cheapest kind of an
automobile.
The value of mems legs for running has
fallen so low that it scarcely counts. The legs
of little messenger boys alone remind us of
marathon days-and we use them less and less
as the telephone makes them useless.
=
But in the picture, this man running is at
least, DOING SOMETHING. He is proving the
good results of careful eating and seIf-cOntrOl.
He is showing to the world the possibilities of
perfection in the human body.
He hasn't the right brain or the right ambi-
tiOn-he lacks the power to do something bet
ter-sO he is runner, and is doing what he
can.
Look at the men watching him.
THEY ARE DOING NOTHING.
The excitement in their faces-the fierce in
terest in the cunningham have no meaning, no
useful result.
Any man can WATCH Any man without
self-cOntrOl, character or special fitness can
look on while others DO the thing that is to be
done.
This editorial is printed in five great Sunday
newspapers-in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles
San Francisco and New York Two million
separate copies of it are printed-and at least
six millions of readers see the papers,
Of the millions of men who look at this pict-
ure-hOw many are DOORS, and how many
are mere WATCHERS?
How many go through life watching what
other men do, and doing nothing for them
selves?
AS we have said, we intend this especially for
the great army of boys and men whose chief
occupation in the months to come will be
WATCHING others play baseball.
Baseball is good as an exercise; it is utter
waste as thing merely to be looked at. 1t is
thousand times better for a group of young
men to go out into a corner lot, take their bat
and their ball. play their game, breathe the
fresh air, engage in friendly rivalry, and then
90 home, than to spend the afternoon watch
ing others doing that which they might do, even
though less skilfully.
Please do not imagine. young men, that this
is preaching against innocent enjoyment"
To see wonderful game of skilfuI baseball,
occasionally, is a good thing. To watch the
wonderful skill of trained billiard players
VERY RARELY-is good thing.