Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-01-05

The house next door would have
bright and shining windows, with
clean. freshly starched muslin cur
tains and a gay red geranlum IN
not showing between them. Flow
ers would be blooming in the yard
and a vine trained over the door
way, and the place would be a
| home, bright, cheerful and at
tractive. Yet the two houses were
exactly alike. The only difference
was in what the people in them
made Of them.
One cook can take a cheap cut
of meat and ndful of vegetables
and make Of them a ragout, over
which an epicure would smack his
lips. Another cook will take the
same meat and vegetables and make
Of them a watery stew, with neither
flavor nor nutriment to it. 1t is
| the same material, but the difference
| is in the cooks.
That is the way 1t Is all through
| life. There are a few fortunate In
| dividuals who seem to be the dar-
1ings of the gods, and with whom
| Lady Luck walks hand in hand. And
| there are also a few miserable ones
who appear to have been born dou-
ble-crossed. But the great ma
jority of us get a pretty even deal.
| We have the same family relation
! ships. We go to the same schools.
| We have the same chance to work,
and the balance is up to us. We
| are happy or miserable, successful
or failures, rich or poor, according
| to what we make out of our lives.
We marry, millions Of us. And set
up homes. More than three-fourths
! of those marriages end in divorce.
More than three-fourths of those
| homes are wrecked, not because
there was anything especially wrong,
not because either husband or wife
was an outbreaking criminal, but be-
cause they were too ignorant or too
selfish to make their marriage sue
| cess.
All husbands and wives are cut
off the same bolt of humanity. No
man is perfect. No woman is an
angel No domestic machine runs
along without a jar or hitch.
Every marriage calls for sacrifices,
for patience, for forgiveness, endur-
ance, and you get out of it just what
you put into it-heaven or hell.
| You go to homes that simply ir-
radiate peace and love and good
cheer, where there is q happy and
contented man, and a smiling and
blissful woman; where there are fine
children growing up in the right at
mosphere. And you go to another
home that is a place of torment,
where .surly man snarls and snaps,
and a disgruntled woman whines and
complains, and unruly, uncontrolled
children fight like the Kilkenny cats.
Yet both Of these families started
out with the same equipment. Both
couples were in love when they were
married. Both had about the same
amount of money. Both were called
Both had the same chances at hap
piness Yet one made a success Of
marriage, and the other failed.
We talk about opportunity, and
when we fail we lay the blame on
luck. We say we never had
chance. But the truth is that we
are our own luck, that we make our
own opportunities.
Did you ever think that every day
in the year there are thousands of
green country boys going into every
big city, seeking their fortunes, and
thousands of city boys leaving those
same cities because they thought
that everything was overcrowded
and overdone, and that they had no
opportunity there? And many of
those country boys will find the