Tag constitution

Entries 17 Total

Governor Bans ‘Special Weeks;’ Has Had Enough

Nov 23, 1922

The Constitution: Atlanta, GA – Thursday, November 23, 1922

Executive Thought the Limit Had Been Reached by Latest Request.

By Paul Stevenson

Setting aside certain weeks in Georgia as “special weeks,” such as “rub your rheumatism week” and “wash your neck week,” and et cetera, has ceased, as far as official proclamations of the governor is concerned. Governor Thomas W. Hardwick said as much Wednesday when he declined to issue a proclamation setting aside some approaching week as “rat killing week.”

The worm turned up at the capitol Wednesday and slapped the early bird or the perpetual pest or whatever it was right smack dab in the face.

If accurate statistics had been compiled in the office of the governor of Georgia for the last several years the figures on how many “special weeks” are asked and the number of “special week hounds” who want to set aside some week to do some fool thing would prove to be astounding.

Within the last few months the present governor has been assailed, assaulted, bull dozed, threatened, beguiled, implored and begged to “proclamate” on something so many times that the whole business has well nigh become a joke.

“Rat killing week,” which was tabooed by the governor Monday, was the predecessor of a dozen or more, among which were the following: “Wear cotton week,” “eat peaches week,” “eat watermelon week,” “fill coal bin week,” “buy a tire week,” “change your undewear week,” “write a letter to the editor week,” repair the doorbell week,” “trim your corns week,” “wear ear muffs week,” “take a bath week,” “learn the saxaphone week,” “razor week,” “read a book week,” “lawn mower week,” “clean towel week,” “pay the luncheon check week,” “honest golf score week,” “get somebody out of jail week,” “feed a flapper week,” “jazz week,” “vote agin’ sumpin’ week,” “flowers for your mother-in-law week,” “renew your note week,” “return borrowed books week,” don’t eat with your knife week,” “press our pants week,” “don’t flirt week,” “no make-up week,” “shoot after dinner speakers week,” “tea-hound week,” “cheers for Harding week,” “cheers for Wilson week,” “Andy Gump week,” “find your collar button week,” “wear a clean collar week,” “eat an onion week,” and innumerable others.

It has been estimated that no less than 1,250 weeks in the year would be required for the governors of various states to observe the “special week” calls made on them.

“We’re through for a while up here,” the governor said Wednesday.

Comments Off on Governor Bans ‘Special Weeks;’ Has Had Enough

Feb 14, 1921

Comments Off on

Handsome $200,000 Home at the Grady Hospital Now Tempting Girls to Become Trained Nurses

Jan 9, 1921

Photo by Francis E. Price

Did you ever go into a hovel and then visit a beautiful building of marble and luxurious furnishings?

If you did, then you know the force of the contrast that nurses of the Grady hospital feel in changing their abodes from the former ill-equipped and unlovely home to the splendid, new structure in which they have been living since last September, and which is now practically complete.

Located behind the main building, connected by corridors and built right against the hall of the little building, which the nurses formerly called “home,” the handsome brick structure that has cost more than $200,000 and rears its head six stories high, is a palace in comparison to the old.

Built of brick and concrete, with spacious parlors, recreation rooms, a big auditorium that may be used for dancing and entertainments, a beautiful dining room, a big, cool porch on every one of the six floors and many other features and comforts to the corps of nurses, the new nurses’ home is one of the greatest inducements to young women to take up nursing as a profession that could be provided.

Urgent Need for Nurses.

There is an urgent need for more nurses, officials state. The reputation of the old nurses’ home had spread far in medical and nursing circles, officials say, and proved to be one of the greatest drawbacks to a full staff at the Grady.

With a new home offering comfortable surroundings and every modern convenience, however, the nurses are answering to its attractiveness and are fast filling up the alarming gaps in the force of Grady workers.

The first floor of the new home is given over to a large parlor for student nurses, parlors for graduate nurses and officials, a big dining room and other recreation rooms.

The second, third, fourth, and fifth floors provide rooms for the nurses, there being 16 single rooms and 40 double rooms, each fitted to fill the needs of their inmates and to provide comforts that were totally unknown in the old home. On each of these floors also, there are shower baths and tubs, and an elevator in the center of the building makes walking up and down stairs unnecessary. On the top floor there are a library and demonstration room and class rooms. The home was made possible by generous donations by the heirs of the late Joseph Hirsch, who was chairman of trustees until his death, and has been in course of erection for a long time. Its value from a standpoint of nursing efficiency cannot be over-estimated, officials assert, and it also means much to Atlanta from a standpoint of civic progress.

Three Years’ Training.

The Grady Hospital Training School for Nurses is established to give three year’s training to women desirous of learning the art of caring for the sick.

Those wishing to obtain the course of instructions must apply personally or by letter to the superintendent of nurses and principal of the training school, who will furnish printed instructions respecting the personal information to be given by applicants. At least two years high school training is required, and letters of application should be accompanied by a statement from a clergyman, testifying to good moral character, and from a physician, certifying to the sound health and unimpaired faculties. Applicants must be between 18 and 35 years of age, of at least average height and physique, and must give satisfactory evidence of a general fitness of disposition and temperament for the work of nursing.

If approved, applicants are received into the school on probation. The terms of probation to extend over their first year.

At the termination of three months the applicant must be prepared for an examination in reading penmanship, simple arithmetic and English dictation. The examination is to test the applicant’s ability to read aloud, to write legibly and accurately, to understand mathematics as far as fractions and percentage and to take notes of lectures. Two years of high school are indispensable for a member of the school, but applicants are reminded that women of superior education, intelligence and cultivation will be preferred.

The course of instruction is given by visiting and resident physicians and surgeons, by the superintendent of nurses and head nurses. A regular course of lectures, recitations and demonstrations is given with examinations at stated periods.

$15 Monthly Allowance

An allowance of $15 monthly will be given to each pupil nurse during her three years. This is not to be considered as a salary, but to cover expenses of uniforms, textbooks, etc.

Having faithfully and satisfactorily filled the requirements of the school in all departments for the term of three years, and passed the required examinations, the pupils will receive the diploma of the training school.

The fact that only high-class candidates are admitted to training in the Grady school is evidenced by the fact that recommendations from two reputable citizens are necessary before entrance is allowed.

Officers of the Grady hospital nurses training school are:

Miss Lillian D. Nelson, R. N., superintendent training school; Miss Carrie Farr, R. N., head nurse in the men’s ward; Miss Laura K. Chapman, R. N., head nurse in operating room; Miss Margaret Cheshire, R. N., head nurse in women’s ward; Miss Bell Farr, R. N., head nurse in children’s ward; Miss Grace Owens, R. N., head nurse in maternity ward; Miss Louise Lowry, R. N., social service department; Miss Hester Henderson, R. N., night supervisor; Miss Thelma Sandifer, R. N., night head nurse; Miss Elizabeth Horne, R. N. instructress of nurses.

Comments Off on Handsome $200,000 Home at the Grady Hospital Now Tempting Girls to Become Trained Nurses

Platonic Kiss Is O.K. Even at Five Points Asserts Police Chief

Jun 21, 1913

The Constitution: Atlanta, GA

Saturday, June 21, 1913 p1

Chief James Beavers Gives Analysis of “Divine Mode of Greeting,” and Tells When It Is Alright.

“A light imprint of the lips, gentle, brief and dispassionate. A heavenly collision of the lips or the lips with the cheek.” – Chief James L. Beavers’ analysis of a kiss.

Atlanta lovers need have no fears that the kiss will soon be taboo in Atlanta. Kissing is all right, so said Chief Beavers yesterday, thus setting at rest all the reports that he was an enemy of osculation.

Since the recent arrest of an amorous couple in a cab at the Terminal station, who osculated too openly and too drunkenly, the kissing public of Atlanta has been rather dubious of the attitude of Chief Beavers.

Not the Slightest Reason.

But there was no the slightest reason. The chief is a champion of kissing—in fact, he believes in it strongly, declaring to a Constitution reporter Friday that so long as a kiss was a kiss—the genuine article passed upon by the board of censorship—it was perfectly proper anywhere, even in a taxicab.

A kiss, he said, is a divine mode of greeting. It is the sweetest of all salutations, and if folks shake hands on the street, why shouldn’t they be allowed to kiss as well?

“A platonic kiss,” the chief declared, “would be permitted in the very heart of Five Points. A couple could greet each other kissingly in a Whitehall street show window, just so long as they didn’t overdo things.

Nothing Wrong With Kiss.

“There’s nothing wrong with a kiss, the right kind of kiss, and police interference need never be feared. No policeman is going to make arrests for kissing alone. The most moral member of the ‘vice squad’ would even disapprove of an osculatory greeting.”

After which discussion the chief gave the definition of a kiss:

A light imprint of the lips, gentle, brief and dispassionate. A heavenly collision of the lips or the lips with cheek. He declared that the man and woman arrested in the cab at the Terminal station were not indulging in kissing alone. Both were intoxicated, he said, and intoxicated persons should not kiss. Their conduct was unprintable, he said, and both should have been fined. The woman, said the chief, was so drunk that she had to be sent to Grady hospital.

Comments Off on Platonic Kiss Is O.K. Even at Five Points Asserts Police Chief

Atlanta’s Gulch

Apr 23, 1913

THE CONSTITUTION, ATLANTA, GA, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 1913.

Page Four.

There is a distinct connection between grand opera week and the revival of the projects for sinking the tracks of the Georgia and state railroads and building viaducts over Pryor street and Central avenue. The town is thronged with representative visitors from every portion of the south. Most of these people are well-traveled. They have a basis of comparison gained by visiting other large cities. And to them the sight of the hideous gulch running through the heart of Atlanta, the necessity of waiting for the passage of trains at Pryor street crossing, must seem an anomalous experience in a city otherwise metropolitan in appearance and appurtenances.

The plans so laboriously drawn up in Chief of Construction Clayton’s office and so glibly and inexplicably turned down by council offer at least a step in the direction of abolishing the canon that splits the heart of the city. They are not so complete nor so ornate or far-seeing as the civic center designs drawn some years ago by Harralson Bleckley and submitted to the legislature. Our judgment is that sooner or later Atlanta will come to an improvement of this magnitude. It is unthinkable that a city of our rate of growth and prestige should tolerate the inconvenience, the danger and the unsightliness that now attends the railroad approach to the union passenger depot.

It will require the expenditure of some millions of dollars and co-operation between city and state and property-owners to solve this intricate problem in the right way. But the need of its solution is so obvious, and the eventual profit from the improvement so tremendous, that early consideration urges itself upon the Atlantan who does not confine his mental processes to the needs of the moment.

Comments Off on Atlanta’s Gulch

“JAY WALKING” IS A DISEASE IN ATLANTA DECLARE THE WORRIED TRAFFIC OFFICERS

Aug 27, 1912

THE CONSTITUTION: ATLANTA, GA. TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 1912.

What! Don’t know a “Jay Walker?”

Never have seen one?

Then you have never been at Five Points, nor Whitehall and Alabama streets, or perhaps you are one yourself.

Quizz the first cop you meet, inquire of your family physician, or one of the bonesetters at any hospital, or ask the guy who holds the inquest.

This Will Be Verdict.

Some of these days coroner’s juries will return verdicts which will read: “Came to his death from ‘Jay Walking.’ ” It used to be a habit—persons who claim to be authorities on the subject say—but now it is a disease. And it’s catching, just like chickenpox, a thirst for something cold to drink—the morning after.

A traffic policeman at Five Points designated at least fifty persons who were “Jay Walkers,” or who have dangerous symptoms. And the strange part of it none of them realize it. Few have even thought of such a thing, and if you should happen to accuse them they would probably knock on your ding dong for the information.

“You can stand on this corner any busy afternoon and count nearly twice that number,” the cop declared.

“See that guy over there, well he’s a ‘Jay Walker.’ Some day there will be nothing but a grease spot here, and his family will point to the spot where daddy was last seen. He is what they call a busy business man in the story books, but he is what us cops call a nuisance, a ‘Jay Walker,’ a man who is always in his own way.

“Looker there! I told you—”

Mr. Jay Walker in Danger.

And the cop pointed to the Decatur street crossing. The “Jay Walker” had started across the street, nose pointed heavenward, and all unconscious of the fact that a lumber truck, puffing and snorting, and shrieking under the sudden pressure of the brakes, was bearing down on him. Instead of beating it for the nearest sidewalk, Mr. “Jay Walker” stops in his tracks and continues to gaze complacently at the negro washing a second story window in the opposite building.

“Can you beat that?” demanded the cop, and he hastens over to inform Mr. “Jay Walker” that the driver of the truck is entitled to about ten feet of the street.

“See that dame flirting across the street?” exclaimed the cop, pointing to a vision that looked like a rainbow shooting across Peachtree. “Well, she is a ‘Jay Walker.’ ”

“I don’t get yer, Steve—explain?”

“Well, Bo, ‘Jay Walkers’ are persons who cut across corners—dash across the streets cat-a-cornered—who have not the time to walk along the sidewalk to the proper crossing. ‘Jay Walkers’ are people who are always flirting with death—who will run right in front of a street car, an automobile, or a fire engine, and if they happen to get splattered with mud will curse the driver to a fare-the-well. And if—”

“Hold on you bonehead!” shouted the cop at a chauffeur who was about to run his motor over a group of women who stood in the center of the street to exchange greetings, “ain’t you got no respect for ladies what hold reception on the street—”

Then to the ladies—

“Misses, won’t you please move to the sidewalk and let that fathead with the ice truck go by? Thank you ever so much

“Gee, but it’s getting fierce.”

Comments Off on “JAY WALKING” IS A DISEASE IN ATLANTA DECLARE THE WORRIED TRAFFIC OFFICERS

No More Tinkering with Streets’ Names.

Dec 21, 1909

The Constitution: Atlanta, GA

Tuesday, December 21, 1909

The announcement made in council yesterday afternoon that the street committee would meet in special session on Friday of next week for the purpose of reconsidering its recommendation to change the names of Marietta and Decatur streets, indicates very clearly that not only the committee, but council, is about to escape the mess in which both committee and council were in a fair way to become entangled.

It is worthy of note that only a few years ago a street committee of council recommended the change of names of these two streets, and when the report was submitted to council, so emphatic was the protest that even the members of the street committee adversed their own report and voted against the very change they had recommended.

It  is to be hoped that the present street committee will do itself the credit of adversing its report in this instance, for there can be no doubt that the city is overwhelmingly opposed to this proposed change of name of two historic Atlanta thoroughfares.

The word “Atlanta” itself is no more indissolubly identified with the city than are the names by which a few of the principal residential and business streets are designated in history, in legal matters, and in everyday usage.

Pryor and Peachtree, Whitehall and Capitol avenue, Peters and Courtland, Washington and Ivy, Walker and Spring, West Peachtree and Gordon, and so on indefinitely – each one of these names recalls to the Atlanta of both generations clear-cut and tangible associations.

Marietta and Decatur streets are no less permanently connected in the public mind with evolution, growth, business and tradition.

Because here and there undesirable or unpleasant elements have projected themselves, there is no more excuse for abandoning appellations that are of honored derivation and of honored present significance, than there would be in changing a man’s name to reform him.

Both streets are now being rehabilitated, and can be further rehabilitated by means more lasting and effectual than an appeal to unthinking flippancy.

It is a reflection on the dignity and the high functions of the city council of the south’s metropolis, that it should be called upon to invest time in even rejecting such superfluous and frivolous proposals.

And yet, periodically, some member is inspired to agitate innovations of this nature, and always with the same inevitable result.

Every previous suggestion to alter the name of some central or well-established thoroughfare has invariably created a storm of popular protest.

In no important instance has council acceded to the scattered and finicky hysteria to tamper with the titles of prominent thoroughfares, but continued and emphatic rebukes of this character seem to glide harmlessly off the backs of one on to the next council that feels called upon to grapple with the same old question.

But we believe this lesson of the pending episode will settle the question for at least a few years.

It is high time for this “up the hill and down again” horseplay to come to an end.

Formidable problems face the council of Greater Atlanta.

Its members have not the time, certainly they should not have the inclination to fritter away energy in bubble-blowing of this kind.

They have more serious business on hand!

Comments Off on No More Tinkering with Streets’ Names.

Smith Street Must Keep Name.

Oct 22, 1903

The Constitution: Atlanta, GA

Thursday, October 22, 1903

Mayor Howell announced yesterday morning that he would place his veto upon the resolution which changes to Whitehall place the name of Smith street from Whitehall to Glenn street. This he will do for the reason that there is already one Whitehall place in Atlanta. The city code shows that it runs from Brotherton to Fair street.

The proposed change in the name of Smith street has attracted considerable attention, mainly because of the opposition of the real estate men and the members of the bar to the measure. Forrest Adair made speeches before both the street committee, of which Alderman Terry is chairman, and before council, but the members of both bodies disagreed with his views and voted to change the name of the thoroughfare.

When the resolution went to Mayor Howell for his consideration Mr. Adair again appeared and presented arguments against the proposed change in the name of the street. Mayor Howell announced that he would hear from the other side before reaching a decision, but before those who favor the change of name could be heard Secretary Goodwin discovered in the city code that there already exists a Whitehall place and he so informed the mayor yesterday morning which resulted in an immediate veto.

Comments Off on Smith Street Must Keep Name.

MAYOR HEARD ARGUMENTS.

Oct 21, 1903

The Constitution: Atlanta, GA

Wednesday, October 21, 1903

Proposed Change in the Name of Smith Street Was Discussed Before Him Yesterday.

Arguments against changing the names of streets were heard yesterday morning by Mayor Howell. Forrest Adair, who appeared for the real estate men and attorneys of Atlanta, spoke against the custom. Representatives of the other side will be heard by the mayor whenever they desire.

The speeches were based upon the measure which changes the name of Smith street, between Whitehall street and Glenn street, to Whitehall place. Mayor Howell has until next Thursday evening to decide whether he will approve or veto the measure.

The resolution changing the name of the street was vigorously opposed by Mr. Adair both before the street committee and during the session of council, but notwithstanding his objections and despite the petitions from real estate men and members of the local bar, council voted to change the name of the street.

Comments Off on MAYOR HEARD ARGUMENTS.

Changing Street Names.

Oct 20, 1903

The Constitution: Atlanta, GA

Tuesday, October 20, 1903

The protest made by Mr. Forrest Adair to the city council yesterday against the frequent and often capricious changing of the names of streets in the city is deserving of that body.

The value of certainty in the metes and bounds used in describing real estate grows in importance with the growth of the city. The activity of the real estate market is dependent in large measure upon the accuracy and permanency of such descriptions, the more so as the city fills up with new citizens. They are unacquainted with our old maps and the metamorphoses of local names. They look only to the chain of titles and, as Mr. Adair says, they frequently refuse a property because of the vagarious changes of the names of streets that occur in consecutive deeds.

A yet greater reason why council should be slow to change the names of our thoroughfares is the fact that already the names of landmark streets have been changed, the honors paid to pioneer citizens obliterated and names that should have remained linked with localities and thoroughfares crossed off our map for fanciful and unsuggestive substitutes, in some cases these changes have almost amounted to a profanation of the fathers of the city. The names of former mayors, even of that one who heroically bore the interests of the city in the awful days of Sherman’s siege and occupancy, the noble James M. Calhoun, have been sacrificed for meaningless titles.

Change Whitehall street to “Commerce avenue,” Marietta street to “Bucephalus boulevard,” and Peachtree street to “Elite avenue,” and by those three simple substitutions that can be adopted in three minutes in council, the Atlanta of history and of common knowledge and pride throughout Georgia and the union will be obliterated.

Patriotic and commercial reasons, especially the important one of making readable and acceptable titles to real estate, are plenty enough to cause council to deliberate long before it takes down the names of well-known streets to replace them with the tony and pride-tickling titles that have been invented without rhyme or reason. We trust the city is at the end of that sort of uncalled for vandalism.

Comments Off on Changing Street Names.