davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-04-26

down today. Gates and an apparently very strong following is gunning for Nor gan and the world is wondering what will be the result in the financial arena.
 The complications in the far East are in favor of the Gates element. Russia is evidently determined to hold Man churia whatever be the cost.
 Japan Is preparing for war. if neces- sary, to prevent it. England is eonspiring with Japan and attempting to persuade the United States to join in a general protest. Secretary Hay Is apparently in- clined to do so and general far eastern imbroglio is imminent. Should Russia and Japan clash the civilized world would be involved Fearing such complications there is a feeling of decided financial un- rest here.
 met some of the Tennessee company directors here today, who have just re- turned from Birmingham. They are much mingham district. and are talking about Tennessee coal and iron stock being worth par. They likewise think dividends are not far off.
 Unless foreign complications effect the stock market next week I look for a decided rise In Tennessee. The insiders are very much inclined to buy.
 These same men were much impressed with the growth of Birmingham and I am told that several shares of Birming- ham Realty company stock has changed
The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-04-26
No Lonoer Militant.

The retention or abolition of the military feature of the State universi- ty has been left to President Aber- crombie, and this means, says the Montgomery Journal, that the students of the university will never have to buy another uniform.
 There is no reason why the univer- sity should retain a method that none of the larger colleges employ, and that has very little relation to student work unless 1t be that it teaches the value of discipline and compels many to take physical exercise who other wise would not.
 The legislature at its recent ses- sion authorized the discontinuance of all military instruction, and the board of trustees has rendered it possible to bring the long-standing custom to an end. This change may disturb some fond recollections of those who have been students of the university, but the alumni will not let sentimental considerations stand in the way of the good of the university. Alma mater first, and sentiment afterwards.
 President Abercrombie will doubt less dismiss the cherished practice after commencement, and the univer- sity will then fall in line with the greater educational institutions of the country, none of which are schools mil itant except so far as error and ig- norance are concerned.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-04-26
In an Aae of slanu.

This is certainly an age of slang" remarked the proof reader. who is also a baseball fan. We hear slang from many pulpits, we hear 1t in many drawing rooms, we read it in the newspapers, and recently a certain university professor has advocted the teaching of slang in the English course.
 T believe in a little slang. but grow weary when l hear much of it. It was singularly refreshing to me, therefore, to read the proof of a two-colmune baseball story for Sundays Age Herald, In which not a word of slang occurred. can easI- ly imagine that Dr, A. P Montague, pres ident of Howard college. and men of his class, find no difficulty in confining them selves to pure English undefiled,' or words to that effect, but I think it is quite feat for the sporting editor to write any sort of breesy story and not inject some of the phrases of the rooter. But he has done it.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-04-26
FITTING UP PRIVATE CAR.
Decorators at Work on Mir. w. K. Van.
 derbilt's Railway Carriage.

From the New York Herald.
 MT. William K. Vanderbilt's private car, No. 101 on which there has been a rumor that he and his bride, now Mrs. Lewis M. Rutherfurd, will go on part of their wedding journey, is being elabor- ately refitted under one of the train sheds at the Grand Central station. The fact that preparations are being made at Tranquility, the home of Mrs. Ruther- furd, and that there are signs of activity about the house of MT. Vanderbilt, at the northwest corner of Fifth avenue and Fifty-second street, have given rise to re- ports that MT. Vanderbilt and his bride are to shortly come back to the United States.
 Car No. 101 bears the initials of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern railroad, and unlike many of its kind, it Is not dis tngushed by any fanciful name. It ar- rived from the shops near Buffalo last Wednesday, where it underwent many changes in it's construction and was equipped with an electric light system. All of the furnishings and upholstery, which were comparatively new, were removed and much of the woodwork was torn out and replaced with the finest mahogany. The original cost of No. 101 was sS5 900. It Is said that the decorations, the new furni- ture and the repairs will amount to sl0OOo
The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-04-26

must change-all must keep Tn touch with the times One individual cannot control other individuals, and so from time to time he must conform to changed or changing conditions If he is to maintain his usefulness. A party must do likewise, and so must na- tion, unless, indeed, as Rome did, t controls the known world.
 Just as far and just as readily and cleverly as man or party or nation keeps out of a rut just in that degree will he or it succeed in this world and be ready for the next. The man or party that falls into a rut is the man or party that stagnates or stands still, and the public soon has no use for such man or party.
 The democratic party must therefore catch up with present living issues, ap- plying, of course, the underlying and eternal principles of the party, even of Jefferson, but taking good care that even the principles are not held to so rigdly that they cannot be fitted to new conditions. Even principles are not immutabe, and issues come and go year by year. and almost season by season. This is a world of constant change, and the man or party that can the quickest and the readiest and the Attest meet new conditions Is the win nor
The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-04-26
Income from Mortgages.

Solvent credits are debts due from solvent debtors, and such debts are now taxed as are other real or per sonal property, but under the new rev enue bill all solvent credits secured by mortgage are to pay as taxes fifteen cents per each one hundred dollars in lieu of all other taxation on such debts. The Greenville Living Truth has as- certained that in Butler county solvent credits now yield $3,299, whereas, un- der the new mortgage law, they will yield but s3SS-a loss in Butler alone of $1,6S4 in revenue.
 This, of course, will be the case if no new solvent credits are unearthed by the new law. The belief is that a large amount of solvent credits now escape taxation, and that they will pay the light tax imposed by the new mortgage, thereby securing the validi- ty of their debts and mortgages. IT this expectation should fail, then, of course, the Living Truth is correct when it says the new law will lead to a diminution of revenue instead of an increase in 1t.
 The Living Truth also calls attention to the fact that the new mortgage tax turns all revenue from that particular source over to the state or the county, depriving the cities and lesser towns of all help from the taxation of solvent credits. The city of Greenville will ~.ose $700 year in this way.
 All in all 1t seems probable, as the Living Truth urges, that the new mortgage law will not become, at least at the outset, a great revenue pro- ducer. The law does not go into force until October 1, 1903, and its full eff fects will not be known until next year, and it will have to remain the law of the state nearly four full years. In that time It's merits and demerits will be fully tested.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-04-26
Politics in the Merner Case.

The political effects of the merger decision deserve consideration. It is full of political bearings, and these bearings relate directly to the cam palgn of 1904. In the first place the President and his friends will use the decision to silence the discontented vote in the prairie states that demands revision of the robber tariff. The Presidents friends will urge that the merger decision will alone suffice, and that there is no need to pursue tariff revision further as a remedy against the trusts, especially if the decision be sustained by the Supreme court, as It undoubtedly will be. The decision of the Circuit Court of Appeal Is very sweeping, and if that of the Supreme court be equally strong the President and his friends can plausibly claim that they possess all needful power for the regulation and even suppression of the trusts.
 But this claim will involve dan gerous responsibility. If the President insists he has sufficient power, then the democrats will from every stump hold him to his new power and re- sponsibility. They will say he should attack this or that trust, according to the locality in which they speak, and if he does not assail them all he will lose votes. If he does attack them right and left" he will lose campaign subscriptions, and he will create ene- mics so powerful that they niay en- danger his nomination. He is thus placed between two fires-we might say between Scylla and Charybdis, if those figments of the ancient brain were not thoroughly outlawed.
 It is reasonably certain that the President dare not enforce the Sher- man law against many trusts and mergers, and it Is equally certain that the people in the prairie states will be- come restive if he does not. The polit- ical capital in the decision is therefore of the two-edged sort, and there is great deal of such politics to the acre in it.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-04-26
In Touch With the Times.

MT. Cleveland, in his letter written in honor of Thomas Jefferson, declared many incidental truths. He mentioned the party's need of keeping in touch with the times, and of meeting new issues fairly. This coming from a man nearly seventy years old is creditable, and is proof also that party nearly one hundred years old is in no danger of becoming fossilized.
 A party one hundred years old or a thousand years old cannot stand by teachings that gave it birth, but it must change as circumstances change. A party that falls into rut is a party that cannot serve the people and it would be quickly repudiated.
 An individual that falls into rut Is an individual that cannot succeed. All
The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-04-26
DISPUTE OVER RESURRECTION.

From the Chicago Tribune
 Denial of physical resurrection great ly agitated the Methodist ministers at their meeting yesterday. The denial was made by Dr. R. H. Pooley of Rockford, and the assertion was at once attacked. Some of the speakers declared the doc Urine would, if accepted. nullify the New Testament, while pr. c. E. Vaudeville said 1t was idle to "babble" over such a subject. Dr. John Thompson approved the views expressed by Dr. Pooley, while the Rev. W. E. Tilroe advised the preach CTS to take up some other topic. Dr. M. S.. Terry, student in the Garrett Biblical in stitute. quoted the Bible both for and against the resurrection theory, but the Rev. w. H. Burns and the Rev. c. L.. Shute bitterly attacked pr. Pooley's de- claration, MT. Shute asserting that 1t struck at the foundation of the Christian religion. It was with rather ruffied feel ings that the meeting adjourned.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-04-26
Harpoonina a Tarpon.

From Country Life in America.
 Twenty feet-nneteen and the harpoon is cast. There is a crash in the water, and big wave rolls outward. As the skiff is driven forward by your boatman you recover your harpoon-pole. As you take It aboard. your first spare glance discovers the line drifting rapidly over the bow.
 The line Is seized loosely, and paid out hand over hand. If clutched tightly, there win be torn and blistered fingers. If the line is hard twisted, it will suggest redhot wire. It will tear the fiesh 1t will kink and squirm and writhe. Beginning gently, an increasing strain IS put upon the line until the boat is in rapid motion. As the tarpon feels the strain, gyrat- ing, glistening silvery mass hurls itself six or eight feet clear of the water.
 The sight of the skiff gives him new life. His next dash carries him through a narrow channel. and you lose line to him, In making a sharp turn your skin grounds on an oyster-bar By the time YOU are again afioat you have out nearly three hundred feet of line. with not a dozen coils left. But the boat Is soon under headway. the boatman pushing frantically. and the stretching of the line helps You have taken up the tarpons gait, his speed slackens; once more you recover line and again breathe freely.
 Fifteen minutes of alternate rushing, leaping and sulking with bubbles of afr rising more and more frequently to the surface, and the end comes. The great fish rises to the surface, and, rolling over on his side, surrenders as completely as he has struggled tenaciously.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-04-26
Opening of the Baseball Season.

Tomorrow the first game of the new season will be played, the Birmingham team being pitted against the cham pions of the Southern league. It is the opinion of close observers that faster ball will be played this season in the south than in the two preceding years, and that the champions will have to work much harder and more skillfully than in the past if they win the pen nant the third time. There always comes a time when a pennant-winning team, like a prize ring fighter, falls from the head of the list, and some times it is found on toboggan slide.
 The national game was never, per haps, more popular than it is today. In the two big leagues of last year the attendance rose to 3,900,000, as against 3,60O,000 in the previous year, and the number of minor leagues is constantly increasing, and their bus mess is ever showing gains. It Is em- phatically the popular and favorite game of the American people, and there are no indications that it is los ing ground in any respect-on the con trary there is exceptional promise this year of excellent and orderly sport and large patronage. All disputes have been settled, and all are content with the terms of settlement Players must live up to their contracts, or not play at all. Contract jumping and un- seemly wrangles are thus eliminated, and everything seems to make for the general good of the sport.
 The teams in the Southern league are well organized, and each one is worthy competitor. Each one will give any other team in the league all the work it can stand up to, and the rival " among them will keep all on their mettle and good behavior, fully up to the possibilities of this excellent out door sport and recreation.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-04-26
The New Rifle,

"The new United States army rife Is remarkable evolution in small arms since the old Springfield slngle-loader had it's day, said military man. Practically twelve years covers the period of this de- velopment although the experience of the Spanish and Philippine wars has naturally made the progress more rapid since 1898 than before that time. When the Krag was made the basis of the army maga- zine rife, there was more or less criti- clsm, but 1t was poorly conceived.
 "The ordnance department has never regarded any model as necessarily final ity. but has ever been bent on improve ments. Consequently notifications have been numerous and steady, and there is no reason why, with this constant appli- cation of experience and inventive genius, the United States service magazine rife should not be equal to any in the world"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-04-26
N. Y. PRESBYTERIANS ARE
 MAKING SPECIAL EFFORT
From the New York Sun.

From the New York Sun.
 Presbyterian churches of New York omitted their usual midweek prayer meet ings last evening at the request of the Presbytery, to unite in a mass meeting at Carnegie hall in the interest of church extension with the aim of starting a fund which 1t is hoped to make $750O00. The meeting resulted in a collection of pledges and contributions to the amount of about s100OO0 and the managers were so well pleased with this beginning that they led the meeting in the singing of the doxology twice.
 The church extension committee. which called the meeting, made these terse. if not arithmetically accurate, statements in its appeal:
 In the face of rapidly increasing popu- lation, the Presbyterian church has re- mained for the last ten years stationary.
 In 1890 there were fifty-six Presbyterian churches in Manhattan and the Bronx. In 1900 there were fifty-two. During these ten years the population increased 3S per cent.
 NACA CAACStiNtly lO punt lHtlf the committee announced that in 1901 the Roman Catholic church started to build three new edifices and added "The He- brews added eight properties to the tax exemption list of the city"
 All the Protestant gains in buildings were balanced by losses during this period, the appeal said. The committee T Il, on forward movement sS95,0Oo of the sum to pay off old debts and the rest for new work.
 Carnegie hall was filled on it's main floor and in the two tiers of boxes and on the stage when the meeting opened, with Morris K. Jesup in the chair and the pastors and church officers seated about him on the platform. MT. Jesup said in opening the meeting
 Religion is better than finance, com merce, literature or art. From religion we make the best fathers and mothers, the best people. It is well that the com mittee has called us together less as Presbyterians than as workers in a com mon cause. It is an indication that all past disputes and disagreements on non- essentials are put aside. The old Presby- terian creed Is not dead. The meeting signifies not only church extension; but church retention. Let us carry the ban ner-Presbyterian. if you choose but call it the banner of Christ-throughout this imperial city.
 MT. Jesup introduced the Rev. pr. Hen- ry Van Dyke. Dr. Van Dyke, who is short, announced himself by his title, which Is long, saying that as moderator of the general assembly of the Presby-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-04-26
NED BRACE GIVES THE TALK OF NEW YORK
 AND TELLS OF OPTIMISM ON BIRMINGHAM

hands as result of the trip, and that much more is in demand.
 -N
 I also hear today that the Illinois Cen tral people have decided to get into Bir- mingham immediately over their own tracks; that they are to have their own freight terminals in the city, but are to use the Belt and Frisco tracks for sur rounding towns. including Bessemer and Ensley Indeed one can hear much mora optimistic talk about Birmingham in New York than one hears at home. For instance, it is said here that the Virginia Carolina Chemical company, owner of the Birmingham Fertilizer company, is to replace the plant recently burned with one several times as large. and make Bir- mingham a great distributing point for fertilizers Also that the car plant pro- posed for Ensley Is to be one Of the greatest plants in the world. And thus the New York talk about Birmingham goes. You hear ten men talking of Bir- mingham to one about Atlanta or any other southern point. Indeed, I have felt today that I am unfortunate in not hav- ing all Birmingham under option. But we all know that optimism in talk and Tn actual investment sometimes varies in a marked degree and public sentiment is susceptible to many changes. However, I look for great and long continued growth of Birmingham.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-04-26
SUNDAY IN OLD ENGLAND.
A Day of FestNity Under the Sanction
 of the King.

From the Baltimore American.
 For considerable period prior to the English revolution Sunday was a day of great festivity and high revelry in the old country. Incredible though it may ap- pear, it's observance was governed and ordered by paradoxical royal declara-' ton issued by James I. This document is generally known as the Book of Sports" In it's preamble 1t recites a royal rebuke administered to some Puritanes and pre- else people" for prohibiting O un- lawful punishing of Our good people for using their lawful Reereations and hon est exercises upon Sundayes and other holy days after the afternoone sermon or service" and then he refers to "the gem erall complaint of our people, that they were barred from all lawful Recreation and exercise upon the Sundaye after noone. which cannot but produce two evils. the one the hindering of the con version of many, whom their priests will take occasion hereby to vexe, persuading them that no honest mirth or recreation is lawful or tollerable in our Religion which cannot but breed a great discont- ment in our peoples hearts. The other inconvenience is that this prohibition barreth the common and meaner sort of people from using such exercises as may make their bodies more able for Ware when we or our successors shall have oc- casion to use them."
 Then follows the royal mandate that no lawful Recreation shall be barred to our good People, and 'the Bishop and all other inferior Churchmen and Church. wardens" are enjoined to "bee careful and dilligent, both to instruct the ignor- ant and convince and reforme them that are misled in religion Our pleasure likewise is that the Bishop of the Dio- cese take the like straight order with all the Puritans and Precisians within the same, either constraining them to con- forme themselves or to leave the coun- try, according to the Lawes of Our King dome and Canons of our Church." This declaration proceeds to define lawful Recreation" as Dancing either men or women; archerie for men, leaping. vault ing or any other such harmless Recrea- ton, including May games. Whitsun-Ales and Morris-dances and the setting up of May poles and other sports herewith used. But withall wee doe here accompt still as prohibited all unlawful games to be used upon Sundays onely, as Beare and Bull baitings, 1nterludes and at all times in the mearer sort of People by Law prohibited, Bowling. penalty was in-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-04-26
TWO SIDES OF DIVORCE QUESTION

From the Kansas City Journal
 Bishop Satterlee of the Episcopal church declared in a sermon at Washington last Sunday that tine great evil-the most frightful danger-of our age is divorce and the breaking down of the family in- stitution. If 1t is not stopped the wom- en of this country and our race will be degraded within fifty years"
 Everybody knows that a vast majority of the petitioners for divorces are wom- en. May we not be permitted to conclude that the increase in the number of femi- nine petitioners Is closely connected with the improvement that has taken place in the condition of their sex? Is 1t not pos- sible that 1t Is due, not so much to in- creasng immortality and domestic unhap- piness as to womans increasing independ- ency and her growing unwillingness to submit to the shameful indignities which many of the married members of her sex formerly were bound to endure, whether they would or not?
The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-04-26
DAYBREAk.

By Longfellow.
 A wind came up out of the sea. And said, 70, mists, make room for me" It hailed the ships, and cried. Sail on, Ye mariner, the night is gone"
 And hurried 1andward far away, Crying, "Awakel it is the day." It said unto the forest. "Shout! Hang all your leafy banners out?' It touched the wood birds folded wing, And said. 70 bird, awake and sing. And o'er the farms. 70 chanticleer. Your clarion blow; the day Is near" It whispered to the fields of corn,
 Bow down, and hail the coming morfl.S It shouted through the belfry tower.
 Awake. O bell; proclaim the hour" It crossed the churchyard with sigh. And said, Not yet! in quiet lie" i,