davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-01-03
Giving Away Franchises.
71S' Toopeka (Kan,) Journal.

Toopeka QAan,) Journal.
 The franchises in a city are most val such an unaeemiy @ scramble to @Sr secure them. Ths-,e is, therefore, no reason why municipality should vote them away without receiving one cent in return, as has just been done in the case of a street with all other franchises under which corporations are now doing business in Topeka.
 is wideawake, courageous business man, and when the Metropolitan Railroad ask ed for 8 franchise, he said in plain words that if new franchise was granted the city must be paid for 1t, There was much objection to this on the part of the of- for the favor, but Mayor CFaddoek was firm and the consequence Is that Kansas City will receive revenue of at least $s0.O00 a year from the city railway fran chlse, besides 6 city park and a material reduction in the cost of city lights. which are now furnished by the street railway company,
 Here are some of the principal features of the Kansas City franchise;
 An annual payment to the city of per cent of the gross earnings, the company guaranteeing not less than s50,0O0 year, taxes, on the railroad property to be de- ducted.
 The gift to the city of park of 100 acres by the company,
 A reduction Of the price of electric lights to s6b year, an annual saving on the present. number of lights of Sl0,6S2.
 The filling of the Sixth Street tunnel and running ears on Minnesota Avenue to Fifth Street and north to Washington Avenue.
 Universal transfers.
 Use of company's tracks by inter-urban lines.
 Paving between the tracks and IS inches outside.
 Maintenance of bridges and viaduets,
 If 8 street railway company in Kansas City will pay per cent of it's gross re. eeipts for the privilege of operating cars in that city, it is absurd to presume that a company m Topeka would not nay for the ' Teaeka City Council asked ISe nothise SiS and of course got nothing. The granting of free franchises amounts to nothing more nor less than robblng the taxpay- CTS,
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-01-03

dormitoFy for women and trRdes.bnfld- ing
 The above is from The Industrial stu- dent. a monthly published in the interest of the industrial school for white boys and girls at Camp Hill. MT. Ward is doing great work there and deserves active aid and sympathy. While % much is being said about schools for negroes. an sftort to establish a great industrial school for poor white children ought to receive the earnest support of all Ala bamians, It has so far been sadly neg lected. but Mir. Ward continues hopeful and cheerful in. the prosecution of his great work
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-01-03
WOMAN SUES Rouss ESTATE.
Alleges That Millionaire Agreed to
 Pay Her S36 Weekly.
fO HaItInOre Sun,

New York Special to Baltimore Sun.
 oe ms l hsfs S.n wsi as @ Mss wsSe apth Street, and who is g years old and an attractive brunette, has presented a claim for S2,7Oo against the estate Of Charles Broadway Rouss, who died March 2 leaving property valued at several mill lions of dollars. While this is the direct amount at present involved, much more Is indirectly at stake.
 It was after consultation with her coun;
 sei, Howe and Hummel that she brought the suit, which Is based upon the asser-
 ton that MT Rouss in 1900 agreed to pay
 her e95 weekly. He Is declared to have
 made many payments to her during his Si. .si6; until october, 1901. The purpose of
 her present suit is to compel the exeeutor
 of the estate, William w. Rouss, of 24l
 Park Place, Brooklyn. to fulfili the terms
 of the contract, which, 1t is set forth
 I. Charles broadway Rouss, do hereby agree with Edna Weller Mcclellan that if
 she will agree not to bring suit against will pay her sss each and every week du-
 ''S @itnessASaroiins asa Ssii M. MccIeiian. Ia 4'H'' Mrs Mcclellan, who Is declared to have
 signed the paper as witness, Is the moth, oiir,
 ia given why such an agreement was en- | tered into. and Mir. Hummel declined to
 reveal any facts in connection with 1t except what Lne coHlpldindHt sSL LoTln' It was learned that Miss Mcclellan was
 in the habit of going to the residence of MT, Rauss and attending musicales and receptions that he gave, She says she | considered she was on terms of friendship
 with the millionaire. If this claim is up- held, assuming that she lives to be 50 or l 60 years of age, according to the estab-
 lished tables she will receive from the estate about ei50,0O0. Miss Mcclellan | spent considerable time in Paris after the | agreement is said to have been made, and | while there, 1t is said, she received pay ments from MF. Rouss, also letters which
 she is- prepared to introduce in evidenoe when the case comes to trial.
 As the executor of the estate denies any knowledge of such an agreement and | says If one was made 1t is void, his coun- | aeI J. J. Rooney, obtained an order for | the examination of Miss Mcclellan before Paul Halpin as referee, Application was | made to Judge Fitzgerald to vacate this order by Benjamin Stelphardt, who urged l that under a decision of the Court of Ap- | peals a contract of this character having | been made the facts and details surround | ing 1t cannot be reviewed unless there is some allegation of fraud. As MT. Rouss had sanctioned the agreement by making | payment under it. counsel argued, the
 heirs of his estate could not now ques- | ton 1t. Judge Fitzgerald took the motion under consideration.
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-01-03
ADMIRAL scHLEY SURPRISED,
Less Than $1.OOo from Miss Edna
 McClellan's Home Fund.


 Rear-Admiral Winfield Scott Schley, who came here today to spend the New Year with his son and daughter, is much interested in the claim against the estate of Charles Broadway. Rouss. the blind millionaire, by Miss Edna Weller MeClel- Ian. The Admirars interest arises from the fact that Miss Mcclellan was the young woman who started to raise fund by popular subscription of the American ful remembrance of the service he per formed in the Spanish war.
 'I was greatly surprised" said he, to learn that the fund amounted to anything like @000 or S6,O00."
 The Admiral would not state the exact amount he had received, saying that II might cause an unjust reflection on the young woman, Nbut that the check sent him was for much less than sl,0oO'
 T met her only onoe." said the Admi- raI. "Shs was introduced to me at a re- ception, The first knew about the fund she was raising was Wheh ! IetuThso from Southern cruise; pernaps SIX months or year after she, had started the fund, She did not have my permis- sion to collect money"
 Alexander W. Webb, Secretary of the New York Security and Trust Company, said:
 Miss Edna Mcclellan opened an ac- count here several years ago for money sent to the Schley home fund and named herself as trustee. We never knew ok an executive committee, when the ihIeEssI i,S died out she withdrew the money: l WI not disclose the exact amount, but It was less than slOOO, I believe Admiral sehley received it."
 who Is a personal friend Of Admiral sehiey, said she had allowed the use of her name as a patroness of the fund, but a few days later went to Washington and saw Mrs. Schiey. who said 1t would be against the Admirars wishes According I,9 sba v,yrotn Ngigs McClellan refusing the nse of her name. Mrs Roger A. Pryor, a well known member of the Southern colony, also allowed the use of her name but said she had never received any re bonaId Mclean a former Marylander, made a similar statement. At Mss Me CleiIan's home it was stated by her moth CT that she was out of town.
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-01-03

members of the senior class a short time ago unconsclously gave himself away" in this fashion: Now, let me Illustrate that point. One day & celebrated psychologist, world renowned psychologist, I might say. was walking down the street when met little girl, and I said to her." What the professor said was drowned In the outburst of laughter from the stu- dents,
 Arthur GambelI, a resident of Cincin- natl, fell and broke his leg on Christmas eve. Similar accidents have befallen him no less than forty times and he has spent nearly half of his life in bed because of broken bones. Henri Rockefort, the editor-in-chief of The 1ntransigeant, has summarily dis- missed three members of his literary stan because they attended a funeral of a deceased colleague at which religious ceremony was performed.
 Atchison., KRs., is putting forth a claim to the possession of the youngest grand mother In that State and possibly in the
 United States. She is a Mrs Coons, who IS but 33 years old. Her daughter is 16 and her granddaughter almost a month. Mrs. Albert Burns of Laurens.. s. C.. has had very busy life. In twenty-two years she has raised thirteen children. | Tn addition to this she has started and run sawmtll, run ginnery, which in the
 busy season she feeds herself; does gem
 
 takes in sewing
 Col. John E. Pencell, the famous horse breeder announces himself as a candidate | for Governor of Virginia and says his
 campaign slogan will be Look out for | the honey bee One of his horses, The | Honey Bee, won first honors at the New York show. last fall, a fact of which the
 Colonel is exceedingly proud
 All the women who have written to the | bachelor Governor of Kansas proposinR marriage will receive courteous replies but not from the pen of Governor Bailey | His private secretary has begun deelinins ] with thanks his offers, saying to each 1 mat Governor Bailey is not in quest of s wife About fifty photographs will be re. l turned to the senders Slxty-six declina. | tions will go to New York women ana more than 100 to New England States
 Not one of the proposals came from a l Kansas woman.
 Robert Philip, Premier Iof Queensland Who, according to the latest telegrams. is | heading a movement in the direction ot
 secession from the commonwealth. is a | native of Scotland ana at the age of l( | accompanied his parents to Queensland | MT Philp was the only Australian Pre-. | mler absent from his State curing the | visit of the Prince and Princess of WaleS | last year, and 1t was said at the time that ne took trip to Japan to esca ne | knlghthood. At the coronation he uaMsed l the pronered knighthood on to his Attor-
 ney General, Sir Arthur Rutledge, an ex- | Wesleyan minister
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-01-03
ELOQUENT FIGURES.

It is a common feeling amongst men that while figures may not lie, figures are stiil very tiresome, and knowing that popular prejudice against statistics, all of us who write for the daily press strive to use as few figures as possible to make ourselves understood. But here are facts in figures that are most profoundly in- terestng to every American, for they tell him more clearly than whole volumes of argument could the wondrous story Of his country's great growth in national riches They tell him story in material advancement that is without parallel in the long story of the trading nation, a story more fascinating in cold, hard facts than all the romance ever spun out of the brains of those geniuses who charm us in their visionary world of fiction in its form of imaginative stories.
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-01-03
yANUARx 3, leoa.
DOUBLE GOLDEN SYMBOL.

The American Newspaper Directory uses cer- ain signs to denote the relative standing and merit of the whole field of nswspaperdom which comes under its notice, and one of these hsns the mystic symbol Gl dsnotias golden" which stands for high quality. and la thus explained;
 -Aayertisers value this paper more for the class and quality of its circulation than for the mere number of copies printed
 Such papers are credited with a single sym bol; but there is higher grade. according to lhis standard authority. which have BOTH DUALITY AND QUANTITY. and require the DOUBLE GOLDEN SYMBOL 9D to describe adequately their standing.
 The Advertiser has been accorded tAir double golden symbol Ic0l and is the only paper so distinguished In this section of the South.
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-01-03
Rural school libraries.

Joseph s. Stewart, in The Alkahest.
 Arizona gives $50 every year for books for school libraries to every district hav- ing one hundred children, California has a district law and makes annual contri- buttons to the libraries. Colorado gives one-tenth of 8 mill school tax to It's rural libraries. Illinois allows an amount not to exceed two mills, Indiana one-fpurth to one-third of mill, Iowa one mill. Kentucky two years ago enacted a law allowing the commissioners to use a part of the school fund for libraries, one to be at the commissioners office aud then as much as Sl0 for each school district If the people would raise $l0. As a result, In two years. every county has local library in the court house and there Is a library for every 72O children in Kentucky and one book for every ten children. Maryland allows the superintendent to give Sl0 if the community will raise BIO. Massachusetts S15 if the district will rais1 SIS. New Jersey appropriatss S2O the first gan has it In the Constitution that the Legislature shall provide for tt least one library in every township. Minnesota has similar law: Missouri passsd In i9oC withhold i've cents for every child en- rolled Tn school, and appropriate that money for a school library if the com munity would raise an equal amount un- der that law last year, the commissioner writes me, they spent Sle,000 for libraries, and he says there never was money spent that brought a richer return, Kansas, Nebraska, New Hampshire, the Dakotas Oregon, Pennsylvania and Vermont have district laws. Wisconsin sets aside for district libraries 10 cents for every child enrolled North Carolina passed a law yoar before last appropriating $5, 900 from the State funds to be paid out sl0 to every school district that would appropriate $10 and whose citizens would contribute sl0 Mir. Joyner, the State Superintendent, told me few weeks ago that the 45 000 was taken up in three months; that they bought in North Carolina last year 2 400 books for their school libraries and he said, "Wa propose to keep that up-Ss GOO yeaF-untll every school and every boy and girl has access to the best literature of the world"
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-01-03
ANoTHRR DpzAM.

That Cheese man who proposes to har- nsss the electricity of the atmosphere by polxing wire 25c miles high has nice job ahead of him. His idea seems to be that when he gets his wire fairly started upwards 1t will keep on going up as long as 1t is paid out at the lower end. The fact that we are unable to under stand how this can be done probably doesn't worry him any. and If he suc- eeeds in getting the upper end of his wire out of sight he can as well claim that 1t Is 25o miles as 25o feet. for nobody can disprove 1t.
 The theory this dreamer expects tc work out. ss well as we have been able to understand what we have seen about 1t. Is that after getting above the earth's atmosphere the attraction of gravitation pulls the other wse. so if he can get the end of his wire beyond our atmosphere 1t will naturally pull itself away from the earth and he wih have no trouble about getting 1t as far as needed. It is beautiful theory. if it will only work as ell can understand.
 The other theory upon which the man depends for success is that all the vast regions of space outside our atmosphere are filled with electricity, wandering around loose. as 1t were. waiting for some one to come along who can corral it and put 1t to doing something. That being the case if a, wire is projected into this great reservoir the electric fluid will settle on 1t. like . swarm of bees on a limb. and come right down to earth. It is beaa- tiful dream. even if It should never get any further.
 Mir. Whitney Is the man who is going to accomplish these wonders, and he talks of 'pro3sctIns forty miles of cable above the atmosphere" with as much confidence as he might speak of sending up kite. It is proper to add, also. that moneyed men of Chicago are backing hls venture and some of the newspapers declare that he can get all the capital he needs to give his project a fair trial. Of cauFss 1t Is very easy to say that his scheme is impossible. but we really don't know what is possible these days. The next we know he may have his- wire hanging on nothing and be gathering electricity as easily as one gathers peas. But we denx want to bs caught hanging to the lower end of his aerial cable.
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-01-03

The Alabamian. published at ,Birming- ham. was the close personal organ of sx-GovsrnoF Johnston during the recent State campaign and Is still very much in harmony with his views. In re- cent number it shows decided hostility to the plan adopted by the State ad- ministration for the working of con- victs. Among other thinss 1t says.
 There ia & much better system that may he adopted. Let the eonvlcts be employed in building good roads through out the State. Let roads De putt sc'sn- that when Q road Is completed 1t will last for centuries with slight repairs, Dump ing a load of gravel or roek anu scat teFing t about over the ground is V, not n et could bS employed the entire year in con- strueting good roads, and that will not compete with free labor, and when 1t Is done the people will have something to show for their money. Good roads mean valuable Improvements and greater riches to the entire State.
 During his four years of service no effort was made by Governor Johnston or his Convict Board to work State roads, because 1t was his desire to pile up as big an amount of cash as possible and the working of the eoRvicts in the mines seemed to be the surest way of doing that The new plan is infinitely to be preferred to the old one because of closer supervision of the convicts, better control of their labor and greater care for health and proper sanitation, Governor Jelks and the satte Board are to be commended for the new departure. It Is inspired by high and humane motives and the re- of the State and the eonviets.
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-01-03
PARTY ORGANS.

The Brooklyn Eagle, speaking of party organs, says "there Is no more reason for newspaper to be the organ or the mouthpiece of either party than there is for 1t to stand in that relation to religious sect" The Eagle certainly cannot bs ignorant of the fact that all the great religious denominations have their organs, and in many cases they are strictly partisan. if that is . correct ex- pression. If those organs devote them selves to the work of advancing their own religious principles. without abuse or misrepresentation. we fail to see where harm Is done. There are many such papers. at all events
 As to the proprety or desirability of political organs 1t depends very much on what Is understood by the word. A paper which abuses, misrspresents and vilIifies the opposition. which can never see anything sood in but one political party, and which will resort to any ur- fair and disreputabie methods to advance the interests of its own party-that kind of organ is fast passing away, and ought to pass. but q newspaper can be the organ of a party, loyal to tt in all things and at the same time be ,ir and just. As The New Bedford Cdass.) Standard says,
 A newspaper has got to give the news about It's political opponents, and 70 stve that news with reasonable fairness or 1t loses It's business. And as the habit of doing this has grown. newspaper mana gers havs come to place less and less dependence on their connection with poll tical parties and more and more on giy- irg all parties a fair show. The result IS that the papers which do this best find the most readers, and this also weakens the hold of the partisan spirit upon the newspapers.
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-01-03
THE VALUE or IT.

Within three-score feet of the room oi toll in which these facts are recorded for seeing eyes and listening ears, there is enough gold of the people to spin wide and gleamlng band of the precious stufi to reach from Pennsylvania Avenue to the old State House of Alabama on the historic Montgomery hill There was never anything like 1t known before in the long and troubled history of man. And yet in these piping times of plenty. how many of us pause to give Q thought to the vast store of more than fabulous wealth of garnered gold?
 And how many of us stop 10 think that this store of gold gives value to the half billion of a eoarser metal called money that is banked up hard by and which may never again be brought from the huge barn-hke vault2
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-01-03
nprnoAr1D no THH CELLAR.

The nortraIts of all the Presidents of the United States which used to adorn the walls of the executive mansion in Washington have been removed to the basement of the building. The excuse given is that the architect who planned and superintended the improvements lately made in the building failed to pro- vide" any place for the pictures Com mentins on this The Hartford tconn0 Times has such c good article, although written in a sarcastic vein, that we ap- pend it herewith:
 But Is there not A certain harmony in the transfer of the White House por- traits to the cellar, with the spirit which now seems prevalent in the government at Washington? We are constantly told that the natien has entered upon a new and srandsr period of develapmsnt sihes the first century of the republics exist ence somewhat stale and out of date. We were an Isolated nation, uneonscious or our own greatness and of the grandeur of our destiny, the imperiallsts constantly remind us. before the days of Mckinley and Roosevelt Under the guidance of the presidents who lived in the White House from the time of John Adams to that or WllHAm lu0AinAog w HUI count for much In the affairs of the world. We did not in the course of all that long period learn how to conquer and asunie authority over weak and subs feet peoples. We did not learn how to eonstrue the constitution so that our Congress could legislate in accordance with It's provisions at one moment and in complete disregard of them the next. We had not learned the lingo of "oene- volent assimilation" for the beneht Of the assimilators. We continued to re- gard the men who established our gov- ernment and administered 1t as not only admirable men but great men, We did not realize their infertority and our own superiority.
 It really seems as if the relegatlon of the portPaits of Washington, Jefferson, Jackson and the rest of the earlier Presl- denta to the corridors of the basement of the renovated White House is in ac- cordance with the spirit of the time, es illustrated in much of the politicai argu- ment of the day.
 We see no reason why the next na- tional Republican convention should not put a plank in It's platform heartily in- dorsing the action of the leadership which sends the portraits cf the first twenty-three Presidents Of the United States to the kitchen floor of the Presi- dents mansion.
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-01-03

Every farmer in Alabama could raise dozen or two hogs every year If he so desired. But 1t seems a large majority of them would rather pay almost any old price for bacon than to raise 1t them selves.--ehelby Sentinel.
 Where is the farmer in Alabama who car deny either one of the above proposi- tionsP Now at the beginning of the new year they ought to resolve that such a charge shall never again be truthfuliy brought against them If the resolution is made and adhered to 1t will keep mil- lions of dollars at home.
The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-01-03
Largest Tortoise Ever Reported

A tortoise whose estimated age is 400 years ana known weight Is 600 pounds. making 1t the largest one ever reported' mas crossed the United States on a limit, land to the private zooiogicaI garden oe the Hon Walter Rothschild, in London, Tn civilization cabbages are given him in lieu OF the cacti of his native heath.