The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1914-01-08


with more abject terror, than the
moving about of familiar things to
unfamiliar locations, and the tear
ing up, and down, of much that has
meant comfort to him; he has been
blissfully ignorant of the dirt at the
back Of the pictures; of the dust I'M
der the carpets; of the germs in the
rugs; of the seaminess and shabbi-
nes Of the window shades, where the
sun shone SO steadily on them: of
the rips and tears in the curtains
which the clever fingers Of the house
wife have so long hidden and he is
perfectly willing to let things be as
they are, lest his bodily comfort be
disturbed while the new order of
things is being established, and the
renovation and general furnishing is
going on.
Municipalities and States have this
same thrifty habit of the housewife,
and it is all done under the head of
statistics" Usually at the end Of
the calendar year, figures are COM
piled by the officials at the head of
the finances, the police, the fire de-
partment and all the rest Of the mu-
nicipal and State families which rem
der tribute or have tribute paid them
from the public funds.
1t is an appalling thing, sometimes,
to wade through these statistics, and
one feels that, while God may be in
His Heaven, all is not we'll with
world where SO much that is horrible,
is growing in proportion not to the
population, but in proportion to the
trend Of ignoring or destroying the
Home.
In, every tabulated statement from
the police reports which have come
under the eyes of the one who is
penning this, there is the same
dreary statement: ''Vice has been
more rampant in the year 1913 than
for many years previous. There have
been more desertions Of homes by
parents, more children committed to
the homes of the friendless; more
suicides and more sensational muir
ders" This is not the exact wording
of the reports, but it contains the
gist of them.
We have been assured by the
frOnt-page-writers of every one of
the big daily papers, that there is
more money, more prosperity and
more general ground for a better
condition of things all around, than
ever before in the history of the
country.
Let us take up another phase: we
are assured by the Domestic
Courts" in such cities as support
them, that the problem of keeping
husbands on the job Of providing for
their families has been harder in the
year 1913 than it was in any year
previous, since the establishment of
those Courts. For the benefit of the
benighted, in communities where
such Courts have not been estab-
lshed, it is only fair to state that
they were established for the pur-
pose of listening to the complaint Of
Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Jones and Mrs.
Brown, who have been left with
more or less family to provide for,
while the Messrs. Smith, Jones and
Brown left for parts unknown, and
without providing for their spouses
and their offspring.
The attendance at one of these
Courts would sadden any human who
looked below the surface. And
the first thing that strikes the
thinker is: the utter tawdriness, and
the effort at "style" in the apparel
of the women, and sometimes of the
children they have with them. You
would scarcely looE for the "slit"
skirt and willow plumes in the