davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-21
JAMES IFS AMBITION
THE CRAZE THAT ONCE EXIST
 ED OVER MULBERRIEs.
Everybody Expected to Get Rich Six ty Years Ago by Raising Silk Misunderstanding Blow to
 Silk Culture in America.

James L. who almost insanely hated tobacco, was determined that silk worms be reared in Virginia, mainly because he thought he could thus destroy the tobao 70 culture, which he ordered to be aban- doned. says The Scientific American.
 For time silk culture met with a great success In Georgia. Tn 1759. 10000 pounds of raw silk were thence exported to Eng land. Connecticut was, however, the center of the industry. As late as 1925 the culture of silk was very general there and also 1ourished in Massachusetts.
 Silk worms were fed on the white null berry (Morus alba) until 1880, when there appeared the Chinese mulberry or Morus multicaulis. It was predicted that by 1t culture two crops of silk could be raised annually. Soon all the agricul- tural literature and the newspapers of the country became surfeited with de- scriptions of this wonderful tree.
 Many documents relating to sericulture were published by Congress. The Legis- lature of nearly every State provided for the payment of liberal bounties for planting mulberry trees and raising CO., coons
 Thus it was that a speculative furor, veritable madness. seized upon all classes of people. and particularly upon the shrewd. calculating Yankee. It ragged like an epidemic. Not only agricultur- ists, but doctors of divinity. law and med icine, scholars, tradesmen and mechan- ics men and women. old and young. were infected with an insane passion to raise mulberry trees
 Every one thought the glorious day was dawning when each farm would be a nursery for the young trees. and every house have its cocooneries and it's silk worms yielding two or more crops of CO.,
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-21

coons yearly. The farmers wives and daughters when not feeding the worms, were to reel the silk which would become as cheap as cotton, every woman having at least a dozen silk dresses.
 The large profits anticipated in produc- ing silk were insignificant compared with the fortunes that all expected to make by raising the new mulberry tree. In 1884 trees of seasons growth were sold for B to 8 a hundred. but they soon sold at $25. $50. $100 and $500 a hundred, and sometimes 7 apiece.
 There is recorded an instance of two trees of one seasons growth, raised by one Elder Sharp in North Windham, Conn.,, which were sold at auction The first brought S1O6, and the second s1OO. Further sales were then withheld because the bidding was not considered to be suf- ficiently spirited.
 When the craze reached its height but little silk was produced, for everyone was busy raising the new mulberry tree. Men expected to make fortunes in a few months buying land and planting null berry slips. and the silk companies al- most without exception sank their capital in this way. many fully equipped mills being closed.
 One farmer planted $1.OOO worth of trees in three-quarters of an acre, and sold them the next year for $6,OOO.
 
 their senses, a nurseryman sent an agent to Trance to purchase several mil lions of young trees He carried $sO, 900 in cash as first payment When the trees Arrived the inevitable crash had come. and the, nurseryman failed for so large an amount that he could never reckon up his indebtedness. His trees were offered in vain at s1 a hundred for pea brush.
 When the fever was over and the peo- pie realized that their capital stock was suddenly worthless. they pulled up all the mulberry trees. in a rage, and burned them as brushwood.
 Tn 1s44 violent storm, following a gen. eral blight. destroyed most of the remain ing morus mnlticauis trees. and even the more hardy white mulberry variety. This was the finishing blow, and thus silk culture in America practically ceased to exist. No industry ever in this country received such crushing stroke.
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-21
BY HENRY PEMBERToN.

or philosopher. the adventurer need not be: but a confident critic of science and philosophy, lie certainly must.
 The author. in the present casc. Is neither. Tn bulk, the work Is re-hash; and none of the pages but might have been amply supplied from the pages of any responsible cyclopedia. The pleasant sense of overflow is never anywhere conveyed of facts and ideas out of the fullness of knowledge and mastery. con vincing by their mere serenity and weight; nor is there evident anywhere the balancing of argument, the willing ness to suspend judgment, the apprccia- ton of obstacles, which are essentials of sane criticism in philosophy or science.
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-21

naner which reviews for us MT. John Bell Henneman's view of the passing Of It. erary provinclalism. He Is reported as saving that the most conspicuous charac- teristic of literature at the Deginnlns ol the twentieth century is TO oreak uo"h all barriers of speech and race, and be- come world literature" He does not claim that the tendency to cosmopolitan ism is peculiar to recent years. but more distinct. He says that the hrst great conscious cosmopolitan in modern litera- ture was Goethe" Such Americans as Fennimore Cooper. Edgar Allen Poe. and Walt Whitman. he thinks, have pro voked counter current of thought and art in Europe" Mir. Henneman thinks that the French. Scandinavian and Russian Iiteratures fulfill the broadest conditions of a world literature. The Digest gives the following quotations from Mir. Hcnne- man, which express his ideas of our widening conceptions. and growing stan dards:
 There has become one standard of comparison and thought everywhere-a breadth of view which is co-extensive with that of humanity itself. The test is more and more growing to be the truth of common human impulses and living. It is as characteristic of our literature as of our life-our social experience. our dress. our manners and our habits. The cosmopolitan is at home everywhere; he feels intuitively the demands the occa- sion makes. and finds 1t natural de- light to respond to them. Therefore the passing of all purely provincial literature, whether in Europe or In America, in the New England or in the Southern States. Not that literature may not be located anywhere. and derive from any sourcD: but, however seemingly local in origin and provincial in outward aspect, it's ultimate appeal must be the wider reaches of a common humanity and that of truth itself.
 We do not think of Ibsen and Bjornson as isolate in their Scandinavian peninsu- lar. and as provincial from writing in a comparatively unknown speech. They are soon translated and read of mankind. A critic like Mir. George Brandes. recalling the days of Sainte-Beuve and Taine. the belonging to as inhnitesimai portion of the globe as Denmark. may have his opinions remarked upon at the antipodes It may be affirmed of both the young Hauptmann and Sudermann that they be- long in common to Europe as well as especially to the new German empire And Neitzshe. demoralizing and upturn- ing as his doctrines seem to be, has had to be reckoned by thinkers and moraIists of every race. The vogue of the BelRian n Maeterlinck is as marked in the salons of Paris, as of his own Brussels and the echoes thereof are not wanting in New York and London. The appearance of A book by the late NJ. Zola in France was world occurrence and we are not vet done discussing the finer art of Daudet and de Maupassant"
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-21
The Supernatural.


 The supernatural has not engaged the minds of many of our later day novel; ists. Ghost stories of the old sort can never again excite the popular igamina- ton; but if our writers can weave into their friction any indefinable manifesto tions of something in nature not yet un- derstood by us, they will receive a well come. Mir. Howell has given some super natural creation, with a decided modern interpretation: and Miss Wilkins fails to give us the "creeps' with her antique representation; but 1t remains to MT. Crawford to make his ghost to eat and smoke and whistle Mary E. Wilkins has gathered many old New England super stitions and legends and calls her collec- ton ''The Wind in the Rose bush" As usual, her delineation of character Is of the flnest-but she might we'll leave to her predecessor, Mary Shelley, the task of writing the best supernatural fiction But Miss Wilkins's tales are interesting and are somewhat mysterious. To feel that you can unravel a mystery makes it lose its mysterious impression. James Weber Lynn in his book The Chame- leon" describes a railroad wreck with great accuracy and a remarkable coin cidence connected with it is his having given the description to his aunt Jane Addams of Hull House to read, on the car from California to Chicago; he never having seen a wreck wished to get her opinion of its accuracy. A wreck occurred to the train on which they were travelling and almost exactly of the description he had written, and his aunt was injured in the accident.
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-21
~ THE BETTER WAY 3
BY CHAs. WAGNER.

Those who have read "The Simple 1ife,' by this same author. will ind in the present volume much the same sort Of precept and council toward ways and means of living the life of the spirit as was found in the former volume. to which President Roosevelt called attention The little book is most intimately helpful. and makes reading which may in truth be called delightful
 The diction Is of limpid clearness One feels that the original French in which 1t first appeared must have been as the mother tongue to the one who turned 1t Into English. The contents are arranged in sections. with headings showing the reader where to look for council in every crisis of life that may assail him.
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-21

The value of biology, and of the biolog- ical method. is inestimable; and anything is welcome which may tend to spread the interest in them.
 The author of "The Path of Evolution" doubtless realizes this; and we may credit him at least with high intentions; but beyond this. it is doubtful If the book, or the class of books to which it belongs. are much worth while. Indeed. they may be positively hurtful, as indifferent things usually are.
 The book intends to sketch the develop ment and results of what might broadly be termed the cosmic philosophy; an un- dertaking which would pre-reduire quail fications of considerable so-t. Scientist
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-21
A The Path of Evolution. &

On points. for instance, which are the battle ground of Investigators at the present day, and on which positive pro- nouncement is impossible. we find glib certainty; and the passing reader would never guess that he had crossed the bor- der lines of the definitely known. We have the doctrine of relativity explained, and the next page finds the author spin ming yarns about the absolute and writing of the alI-wise and beneficent Creator. Scholasticisrn was fruitless of any good results. we learn: and the monads are gifted with Consciousness and ,yolition. when investikAtors agree pretty much eh masse that they are possessed of neither. These merely as examples.
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-21
A Southern Book.

Martha w Austin Is a new candidate for public lfavor-and she has made those places in Louisiana in which she has located her scenes. so wonderfully charm ing that we are possessed of the desire to "see for ourselves" Veronica" Is not a nature book, hut 1t might be placed on the shelf with the new popular litera- ture. Such pictures of flowers, fields and forests are ideal-but those of us who want something more of ideality in our everyday lives. something to tone us up to that etherial plane at least in our thoughts. will find no fault with a book that attempts to portray very ideal wo- man.
 But if one wishes to read a real pretty, sweet. love tale. and one laid in an en- vironment new. and therefore interest ing, let him run through From the Un- varying Star" by Ellsworth Lawson. The little tragedy is something which we doubt not might happen any day in real life. The character work is we'll done; and the scheme of the book is logically wrought out. But the real feature to re- member Is athe beautiful opening chap ters, and the scene in Northumbria. You feel that you have been in love with Northumbria. and you have a picture of 1t enshrined in your heart.
 The pathetic history of the strenuous life of young man, who must battle his way to success through benumbng diff faculties, is one that we doubt not, Is be- ing enacted about us day by day We do not give ourselves time to think about it: or pause to search out the victim of hard circumstances that we may at least give him the hand pressure" To bring our selves to think, we have but to read Adam Rush. Lynn Roby Mcekin's lat est. If you can read it without the ris- ing moisture behind the eyelids: or withA out a new resolve to try to understand what we owe to each other in a common Srotherhood-you are hardened But Mir. Meekin prevents us from giving away to unself-respecting lacrimose condition, by his subtle humor, and so we close his book with a quiet gratefulness for hay ing had our better nature appealed to in a very wholesome way
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-21

reminds one of. the time approved volume The Eayman's Breviary" The thought, while of the highest is too impersonally spiritual-or rather, too laic-to give of- fense to the most bristling sect or creed. It's tone and phraseology is quite distinct from that employed by teachers of 'The New Thoukht'-so called; yet its ethics are essentially the same as those held by New Thought advocates at their highest and best. This spiritual breadth and height. this large ca.holicity ought and doubtless will. commend the book to wide- ly diverse readers. It is more than a tonic; it Is daily bread. Mcclure, Phil lips & Co.,. New York)
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-21

There is an odor of brine and the winds blow fresh from the sea on the morning in August when this sweet story of the Nova Scotian coast begins. On the hill top, looking out over the sea, and down on the white cottages of Fishers Grant, nesting In a cleft of the rocky shore, stands the modest home of Charity Penn and in the midst of It's garden of holly
 hooks sweetpeas and mignonette. Here Charity dwelt alone, waiting the return of her husband, William Pennland, a
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-21
With Makers an0 Lovers of Literature
@ Three Good Novels 4S

Set Publishing Company. New York)
 When one has pruned out muct irrele- want material, trivial episode and weari- some detail there is in Rye Owens Red Headed Gill" the making of very in- teresting original love story. The tale centers about a red-headed young Bar bara, who marries her cousin for the sole reason of assisting him (with her money and care) to restore the neglected family estate. Subsequently husband and wife fall in love with each other, but not be- fore some unique complications, due to the occult properties of a valued piece of Indian silk, have nearly ruined their chances of happiness. The writer has gained in many instances piquantly de- lightful effects in description and charac- ter drawing.
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-21
Tn the Garden of Charity.

came into the life of Charity Pennland- these are the things that form the ma terials of the story. It Is an admirable story of two women. brought by the sell fishness and sin of one man into singular relations to each other. There are ample possibilities for blunder in dealing with the situation thus created. but there Is a fine delicacy in Mir. Kings handling of 1t that never falters. There is a realism of local colofing that adds greatly to the interest of the story. CHarper & Bro, New York; $l.50)
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-21
BY BASIL KING.

handsome, rowing artllleryman in the English service. whom she had met asd welded in Halifax years before, and to whom she had given all the love of her pure and noble heart Soon after their marriage he had sailed away promising soon to return. But no tidings of him reached her The years went by, but she still loved, and waited for his return, con fldent that some day he would come. How he returned at length, and under what circumstances, and how Hagar Levanti
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-21
THE LrunTENINa CONDUCTOR,
 By Williamson. THE vULGARIANs.
 By Fawcett RED-HEADED GILL,
 By Owen.
By Owen

The Frightening Conductor is story about. charming American girl, chape- rcned by a maiden aunt, who undertakes an automobile tour through Europe. The machine meets with mishap. young English gentleman comes to the rescue, and becoming interested in the girl, passes himself off as a chaffeur and cou- rier, earning the sobriquet of The Tightening Conductor" The coiloquial manner of the tale and the descriptions of scenes cannot fail to interest those who
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-21

Telfair is a town of the middle West
 Into it's rather narrow and provincial life there suddenly appears the Priestly fam fly from New Orleans. rich, cultured. ex- elusive. After a brief residence they as suddenly disappear. and their great house stands silent and deserted. It Is the re- turn of two of the daughters in reduced circumstances. the rest of the family hav- ing been swept away by the yellow fe- yer, that introduces the events that form
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-21
Conducted by Edward Young Clarke. Jr.

have visited Spain, Provence, Italy, Cor sica. and Capri. The talk Is sprightly and humorous.-Henry Holt & Co.,. New York.)
 The vulgarians are three young West erners, two sisters and brother, heirs to a fabulous fortune, who come East where, after a brief and disconcerting standstill, they find themselves directed along a royal road to the inner circle of New York and Newport society This en- viable journey is accomplished through the trios acquisition of an unerring social guide and mentor in the person of a charming young widowed member of the Four Hundred, who (for consideration attaches herself to their interests. What she does for them and how she does 1t make the burden of the novel.-(Smart
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-21
A Little Sermon.

If we may be excused for the foregoing inserting a little sermonizing into this column-we will ask the readers still fur ther indulgence. and give a beautiful thought from Van Dyke which we have clipped from The Christian Herald It Is Dr Van Dykes admonition to seek the ideal"
 ''The strength of your life is measured by the strength of your will. But the strength of your will is just the strength of the wish that lies behind it. And the strength of your will depends upon the sincerity and earnestness and tenacity with which you fix your attention upon the things which are really great and worthy to be loved. This is what the apostle means when he says at the close of his description of a life which is strong, and lnwardly renewed. and grow ing in glory even in the midst of afflic- lion while we look not at the things which are seen. but at the things which are unseen. It is while we look that we
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-21
Responsibilities of the Novelist.

The books of fiction appear seemingly without limit. Almost a hopeless task 1t is to keep up with that which is really worth reading. Frank Norris makes a change in his promise to give us a book of essays-dealing with The Responsibil- ities of the Novelist" If we judge by the strength of his own purpose. in his short stories of the wheat his message to companions in fiction work will be sound and inspiring
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-21

issue through scenes and circumstances of unusual interest, There is an indi- viduality about the characters that at once .arouses and holds the reader. There Is enough action to keep the attention alert There are touches of genuine hl- nor hero and there, as, for example, the account of the happenings of Old Settlers
 Day, while pathos is mingled with humor in the death-bed scene of Old Milly Man derson. Harper & Bro, Now York; $l.5O.)
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-21
% The Pride of Telfair. ss
BY

the framework of the story. central figure in it is Morris Davenport a young and successful lawyer, known, honored and trusted by the entire community. The habit of people far and near to come to him with their difficulties and prob
 lems. sure of wise council and helping hand. soon brings Josephine Priestly to him. Thus an acquaintanceship begins which has its influence on other lives than their own, and which moves to a happy
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-21
Remarkable Detective Ability.

Kansas City Star
 MT. Bryan can be relied upon to ais- cover some connection between ChanceITor Andrews renunciation of silver and MT. Rockefeller's recent gift to the University of Nebraska
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-21

Young Lawyer-Madam. you need some one to take care of your property and protect your interests.
 She-Young man, I've just got married Yes. l know your husband. Detroit Free Press.
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-21

If three men sat over whisky and ci- gars and talked of the things that three women will over their embroidery, the skin would scorch of their faces from red hot bushes.
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-21
A Reassessment of the Value of Poe.

Professor Harrison of the University of Virginia. in his book. The Life and Letters of Edgar Allen Poe" allows his reader to judge for himself of the work and character of this variously estimated genius He has taken the utmost pains that the likeness of the man shall be life like The two volumes one the life and the other the letters, gives the student ample material by which to make the estimate of this interesting literary man. Through these letters of Poe. many of which Is new material, we are given a view of this mind in a wonderfully criti- cal sense. So bold and true judge Of imaginative work has never written In America. His sensitive insight is appa- rent with the passionate nature-and we leave these letters with a forgiving sense of the authors weakness, shown in the lack of that self-control which we are led to realize could have been the means of development of a rounded mental ca pacity, unequaled but by the few shining examples of literary geniuses. At least the questioning as to Poe being equal with the greatest literary genius would have been unknown.
 In the Studies in Contemporary Bi- ography," by James Bryce, we have pre- sented to us twenty character sketches of men whose names are familiar to the educated world. Justin Mccarthy com piled a wonderful collection in British Political Portraits and Mir Bryces col lection is of men English born; but who of us is in any sense provincial enough not to feel personal interest in such characters as Gladstone. Stanley, Disraeii and Manning. These men shaped the af- fairs of empires stamped their impress upon churches as theologians and more than all were rulers fin the world of Iit erature. The Literary Digest contains a
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-21
Busy Biographers.

The biographers are busy The stories of the lives of those great reformers the Wesley brothers is timely, as well as won derful. The two hundred and fiftieth birthday of John Wesley will soon be the occasion of celebration by that enorm- ous body of his followers, the Methodists. Copies of the portraits of these two brothers are decorating the magazines. and all will have more or less blographi- cal sketches. One book written anony- mously, except that he gives his identity as "A Methodist Preacher" is a me mortal biography. showing the finest judgment and literary attainment. A photogravure of that ideal portrait, which has been so admired by J. w. L. Forster, is the frontispiece of this volume. Be- sides this the whole book is made irtcr- esting with many portraits. pictures of historic scenes. and views of buildings as- sociated with the life of Wesley. A pros- itable hfe-study is this, both to the Meth odist and to his brother Protestant