Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-10-25
BY BISHOP w

IN explanation of the fact that religious
fervor is less common with the present
- generation than with its forbears it is
+ often said emotion is less and intellectually
greater in our day.
But this is mistaken view. No genera
! ton was ever more emotional than is the
/ present.
Men, women and children crave the eX-
element Of their emotions, and pay to have
their sensibilities stirred.
Books of serious Significance that pro-
woke thought. are by no means sought with
the ea@erness with which shallow and super
fetal volumes that appeal to this baser SEN
sibilties desired and devoured.
Humorous publications are priced far
above works on history or treaties on phi
| losophy, or discussions of theology.
The emotions are debauched by the mat
ters upon which they are bestowed. Truth
and right and purity are set aside for
''thrills.''
Recently the Nashville (Tenn.) Tennes-
sean published a suggestive article SHOWING
specimens of degraded sensibilities. The ed
itor said:
Cup in Grand Rapids a woman-a wife
and mOther-is under arrest because she
stole dresses from department store-not
because her circumstances influenced her to
do so, but because she wanted the thrill
of it.
in Maine fine young boy was caught
while driving a bootleggers automobile. He
wasn't a member of the gang. He cared
nothing about liquor and did not drink
himself sell drink to others. He liked
the thrill of being chased by the prohibi-
ton officers and just stepping on 'er.
''In little town of the middle west a
boy of IA is in the hands of the constable
because he has been scattering tacks and
screws along a much-traveled highway ada
cent to town, much to the damage of auto
mobile tires and otherwise comparatively
Ha had q ILL
will against machine or driver, just liked
to hear the hiss and pop of air-filled tires
and the vocal outbursts of outraged auto
lists He liked the thrill of it.
"A young man in New York has been
caught by the police, after long quest.
He had set fire to some twenty-odd empty
houses. He was possessed by an irresistible
desire to hear the catter of fire apparatus,
the shouts and screams of men and women,
and to see the rush of crowds and the roll
of the ominous smoke He liked the thrill
Of it,
These instances of unwholesome emotion
alism are not unlike the cases of Loeb and
Leopold, the youthful murderers who were
tried in Chicago some weeks ago and sem
fenced to Imprisonment for life They kid
mapped and slew a defenseless schoolboy for
the thrill of the thing. The lawyer who
defended them sought to excuse their hid
eous crime by attributing it to demorallzed
emotions. He admitted that they were
young men of superior intellects, but at
firmed that their sensiblities were incapa-
BILE of responding to thoughts of right and
wrong. He affirmed that their minds were
strong but their moral natures were wholly
confused and enfeebled on this account
1t is quite probable that the zeal of the
advocate moved their attorney to press this
view to an extreme. But there is no ques-
ton that Loeb and Leopold were deranged
to degree in the realm of their feelings.
They felt not for the things of right and
wrong but craved and INDUCED the most
intense feelings for base matters.
Popular education is taking too little ac-
count of the necessity of cultivating the
emotions while informing and quickening
the intellect BY consequence there is
prevalent much lopsided culture, out OF
which immortality and crime spring newt
ablv