Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-02-19


that of a working family of
poor people cruelty robbed by an
electric belt" cure.
The father was an invalid, but
he escaped the infection Of delud-
ing hope by reason of his hope
lessness! He was so Ill that he
did not believe that an electric
belt could cure him. The mother
was only semi and she
leaped for the electric belt. The
patflos centered round the figure
OF the daughter. She was a
young woman who toiled for long
hours in a hosiery factory, getting
UP early and working late, and
even then doing lace work at
home. She earned a weekly wage
of nine shilling (s2.75) and about
three shilings more (75 cents) by
labor done at home by candle
light She had always been what
we used to call delicate" She
was weak, anaemic, thin and pale.
Her courage was wonderful.
Advertisements of an electric
belt appealed to this family. Stag
gering visions of cure, complete
cure, perfect cure, carried them
Off their feet. An electric belt,
worn next the skin, for three
months, would make Amazons of
them. flushed with life. full OF the
Joy of living!
How they toiled and savedl
How that lace work hung about
their house into the wee sma'
hours" on the hither side of mid
night. How they ruined their
eyes, and toiled on with aching
head, but heart beating high with
hope! They saved the money.
They visited the quack. They
bought the scoundrel's belt. Like
Nora in "A Dolls House." they
waited for the miracle.
Then the bitterness of hope de-
ferred. First the attempt to per-
suade themselves that the cleo
tricity was working; the rising
fever of expectation; the relent-
less evidence of the days broad
ening into weeks resisted until It
could be resisted no more; the
slow and Supplying conviction
that they had been robbed, and
the deadening acceptance of
weakness and sickness againl
Tribute to DR.. Wiley.
If the man who reads these
paragraphs does not feel his own
blood boil at the thought of this
swindle, it is for one of two rea-
sons-either he has never been i'll
or he has never been poor.
have been i'll when was not poor
and poor when I was not Ill; but
to be poor and i'll together, and
deceived and robbed into the bar
gain am Tolstoian, and I am
ready with Eniliais cry:
o hedUen, that such companions
thOU'dst unfold
And put in every honest hand a
tchip,
TO lash the rascal naked through
the 1orld.
Failing such Shakespearean
methods, 1 am profoundly CRATE
full to the proprietors of a maya
zine called Good Housekeeping,
and I lay my tribute of respect
Mt the feet of Dr. Harvey W. WI
ley l do not know how many
hundreds of thousands of dollars
have been saved to innocent fam
lilies by the exposures made in the
pages of Good Housekeeping,
and the day will never dawn when
the most accurate statistician will
compute the heartache and the
heart-break which conhding men
and women have been spared.
A Socialist the most doctrinaire
would be ready to admit that
there is at least this compensa-
ton for the possession of great
wealth by one man, that the man
is able to take risks which in the
nature Of things one of US could
not take. The proprietor of
Good Housekeeping is so rich
that he is utterly reckless of ex-
pense or OF risk. His wealth en-
ables him to do what lagos wife
wanted to see done; he puts in
the honest hand of DR.. Wiley
whip to lash the rascal naked
through our world He is too
rich to be inundated; too big to
be blackmailed; too strong to be
xilenced
He has gtren DE- Wiley q posA-