The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1913-07-17

est city of the South. For good
many years the people of Atlanta
have striven for this label, and they
seemed to lose sight of the fact that,
in trying to make their city the larg-
est they were bringing about condi-
lions which might offset the glory
they hoped would result from the
afluence of bigness.
And they have achieved great
deal more, besides the bigness striv-
en- for; if half the police court rec
Ords are to be taken as facts, the
city is the rottenest, civically and
morally, of any that has permitted
it's private record to be published, in
all the Southern States. One has
only to read the daily news papers
of Atlanta to prove this, and the end
is not yet in sight. The police force,
as revealed by the new administra-
ton, seems to be in as bad condi-
ton as that of New York, and the
blindness of the police, for a price,
to all that is meant when one says
morality is shown every time an
edition of an Atlanta paper comes
off the press.
One of the most horrible of all
the cases came up before the Recor-
der last week, when girl less than
nineteen years of age was arrested
and brought before the Court on the
charge of vagrancy. 1t was found
she had left her home to go to one
of the amusement parks aon the
Fourth of July, and had from that
time till the time Of her arrest, on
the tenth, passed her nights in the
woods, on the streets and in out
houses, in company with men and
another girl, of the same class as
herself. These girls had parents,
and the Recorder sent for them to
learn why these girls had been per-
mitted to remain away from home,
with no investigation on the part Of
the parents as to their whereabouts.
One of the most sordid of stories was
brought out when the parents in
each case confessed they were not
able to control" the daughters, and
they had simply let them drift as
they had, because there was nothing
else they could do. In each case at
tempts had been made to place the
girls under restraint in one Of the
homes for hayward girls" and in
one of the cases the girl had mar
ried man who had abandoned her
less tha-4 month after she was mar
ried.
The Recorder scored the parents,
and he was right in doing it.
Tragedies lik@ these are too COM
mon now to cause any comment
from the press; scare-heads on the
papers proclaim to the world at large
the conditions which exist in every
city and town. North and South
which are parallel to these. Not
more than month ago, a girl typist
was found dead at her desk and the
mystery for long time as to the
manner of her death seemed never
to be solved; in the unexplainable
way which always happens, one clue
led to another and it was finally
found the girl had died as the result
of criminal operation and her
body placed at her desk, where it
was found. To the parents, the
shock was frightful; she had lived
at home, was apparently regular in
her habits-and yet she had been 1iv
ing a phase Of life which the parents
were utterly ignorant of; her mother
was not in her confidence, and her
tragic death was the means OF max
ing that mother acquainted with her
own daughter.
An automobile party of "joy-rid-
ers" went into creek, and two girls