Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-11-13

girl to take her ioyridng at midnight
would knock him off the face of the
earth. I tell YOU if automobiles and
carriages could talk there would DC
something donG.
Girls. when some young fellow comes
lsp to YOU and asks YOU the greatest
question that you will ever be asked
or. called upon to answer. next to the
salvation Of your own soul, what would
YOU say oh. this is so sudden That
is all bluff: YOU have been waiting for
it all the time.
But girls. never mind now. get down
to facts. When he asks you that great
est question. the most important one
that any girl is ever asked. next to the
salvation of her soul. just say: sit
down and let me ask YOU three ques-
tions. I want to ask YOU these three
questions and il I am satisfied with
your answers IL will determine my an
swer 10 your question.
Did you believe me 10 he virtuous
when YOU came here. TO ask me to be
your wife," "Oh, yes. I believe you to
be virtuous. That's the reason I came
here. Violets dipped i'm dew would he
as COW fodder compared to you" The
second question: Have you as a young
mar lived as YOU demand of me as 4
girl that 7 should have lived?' The
third question: "If I, as a girl. had
lived and done as YOU. as a young man,
and you knew it, would YOU ask me to
marry you?'
They will line up and nine times out
o. ten they will take the count. You
can line them MP, and [ know what I
am talking about and J defy any man
on Gods earth TO successfully contra
dict me- have the goods. The aver
age young man is more particular about
the company he keeps than the average
girl. I'll tell you. IT he meets some
body on the street whom ne doesn't
want 10 meet he will duck into the first
omen doorway and avoid the publicity
of meeting her, for fear she might smile
or give an indication that she had seen
him somewhere and sometime before
that. Yet our so-called best girls keep
company with Young men whose char
aCter would make a black mark on a
piece of anthracite Their characters
are foul and rotten and damnable.
like to see a girl who has a good head
choose right because II is right. never
mindinE the criticism. Choose the good
and he careful Of her conduct, careful
of good company and good conduct, ana
keen company with a good young fel-
low Don't go with fellow whose rep
utation is bad. Everybody knows II is
bad. and if you are seen with nm you
will lose your reputation as well, al
though your virtue is intact, and they
might as we'll take you to the graveyard
and bury YOU when your reputation is
gone. If man like that asks you 10
go with him. say to him If he will live
the way YOU want him to you VIII go
with him. If you would take stahu
like that there wouldn't be so many
wrecks If our women and girls would
take higher stands and say, NO. no. we
WIN not keep company with you unless
YOU live the way we want you to- there
would be better men.
.Ieprosy ia an infectious disease like
t,-nboid fever. smallpox or diphtheria.
and goes through a community like an
endemic: when one leper comes In con-
tact with the clean, he becomes inject
ed And so il is with sin. Sin begins
I'm a so-called innocent filtration. Inc
old God-forsaken scoundrel of liber-
tine. who looks upon every woman as
legitimate prey for his lust, VIII con-
taminate a community; one drunkard
STAGGERING and Numbering and mutter-
ing his way down to perdition Will de-
banch a town.
$50 with the boy He will sit at
vour table and drink beer, and want
to tell YOU If you are low down enough
TO serve beer and wine in your nome
when you serve it you are as low down
as the saloonkeeper. and | don't care
whether YOU do IL for society or for
ANYTHING else. If you serve liquor or
drink Won are as low down as the sa-
loonkeeper in my opinion. SO the BOY
who had not grit enough TO turn down
his glass at the banquet and refuse
10 drink is now a blear-eyed. staggering.
I'd
hell He couldn't stand the sneers or
the crowd: many a fellow started out
10 play cards for beans, and tonight
he would stake his soul for show
down The hole i'm the gambling table
is not very big: it is about big enough
to shove a dollar through, but 1T is big
enough to shove through, but it is big
enough to shove your wife through; big
your home through; your salary your
character; just big enough to shove
everything that is dear to you in this
world through. the little solid top OF the
table
Listen to me. Bad as 1t is to be
afflicted with physical leprOsy. moral
leprosv is 10000 times worse ! don't
care if YOU are the richest man in the
town the biggest politician in the con
cressional district or in the state.
don't care a rap if you carry the poll
tical vote and if you can change the
vote conventional after your worldly
career is closed my text would make
YOU a fitting epitaph for your tomb
stone and obituary. notice in the pa
pers. then what difference would 1t
make what you had done-'He was
leper' He was a great politician-but,
lie was a leper.' What difference
would It make?
II tell YOU. I was never more in
terested in my life than in reading the
story of an old Confederate colonel who
was a . sticker for martial discipline
one day he had a trifling case of in
He ordered his men
to halt. and he had the offender shot
They dug the grave and he gave the
command to march, and they had stop
ned lust three minutes by the CLOCK
At the close of the war they made him
chief of police of "A southern city, and
he was so vile and corruptible that the
people arose and ordered his dismissal
Then a great earthquake swept over the
city and the people rushed from their
homes and thousands Of people crowded
the streets and there was great excite
ment
Some asked, Where is the colonel"
and they said, You viii find him in one
Of two or three places So they serch-
ed and found him in a den of infamy.
He was so drunk that he didn't realize
the danger he was in. They led him