...rward a way as he. Those who doubt the capacity of the mass of men in our former slave states to listen to plainness of speech should turn with interest to Atkinson's plain talk to the leading men of Atlanta, Georgia , in October, 1880. He says, almost at the beginning: Now, gentlemen of the South, I am going to use free speech for a purpose and to speak some plain words of truth and soberness to you. . . . I sp...