davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The San Francisco call., 1905-08-13

ball season when the deadly pigskin
was raging and the gridiron was claim
ing its daily roll of the young blood of
the land. The day after he struck the
town there was a big football fest
scheduled between his old college and
kalamazoo University, and the Old Grad
bought box seat in the front row and
assured his offspring that if there was
anything doing he wanted to be in at
the death. When the time came for
the slaughter to begin he was in his
place and painting for the fray. He
had never seen game as 1T is played
in these degenerate days, but he had
been on the floor of the stock exchange
when the shorts were being pinched on
Hot Air common, and he had ridden the
storm-tossed elevated from Rector
street to Harlem twice a day, six days
in the week, for a large number of
weary years, and he thought he was
up on conflicts Football as he had
known 1t in the early seventies, was
very mild ladylike game, about as
much like the modern article as to-
mato can is like an-of-war.
The game was started by the young
gentleman with the longest hair making
an earnest Christian endeavorl to kick
the unoffending hall over into the next
ward. Another Young man with q pair
OF sofa pillows tucked into his trousers
The San Francisco call., 1905-08-13

pulled 1t down out of the atmosphere and
set off In the direction of South America
In more or less of a hurry This so
eDraged the others who were running
with open arms to greet him that they
threw him down and jumped on him to
keep him amused till the doctor came
After the pile of arms and legs had
been blasted away they did the same
thing over again with variations.
That was about all that the Old Grad
could make of the game. Sometimes
by way OF change they would let the
man with the ball get start and then
grab his heels from behind and break a
nice round hole in the ground with that
part of his anatomy that is commonly
called the head. When they did that the
Old Grad thought that he understood
what his son meant when he said that
football was a great game for head
work. 1t seemed to him that a head
that could stand that kind of work should
be made of three-inch armor plate with
water-tight compartments and celluloid
lining. The old boy was not to be out
done in enthusiasm. however, and when
the crowd Of youths along the sidelines
broke up the cfrcurpambient atmosphere
with an imitation OF a Couanche war
whoop, he got under his voice and tried
to raise 1t UP few octaves. About half
The San Francisco call., 1905-08-13
The aimlcss, mirthless men in varying

The aimless, mirthless men in varying
stages of inebriety.
The spiritless clatter and marrnur and
shuttle of forced hilarity.
And Anonyma-always Anonyma-some-
times in evening dress. sometimes IN the
liberty and abandon of the variety stage
dress, sometimes In sleazy silk or f1imsy
satin, but ofttimes in shirt waist and
skirt. Always Anonyma-smiling, srnil-
ing drearily, mechanically. Anonyna.
young and old, fat and lean, white and
black and brown, in the gaudy, glitter
ing. spacious music hall, the basement
dance hall, the saualid eubby holes that
honeycomb the Barbary Coast.
The sophisticated man or the plain
clothes man tells US he is taking US
down the line and his phrase is un-
consciously, unintentionally graphic.
So he is in very truth. from the
first insidious sparkling sip of folly
down through all the nice degrees,
graduating so imperceptibly into the
dark and bitter waters OF the last
vanquishing drink.
The San Francisco call., 1905-08-13

The Summing goes even TO the
Cuckoo's Nest. that marks the last de-
gree in the low degrees of the Bar
barry Coast
The plain clothes man himself needs
the help of the special" to discover IN
the murky fag end of this Coast or the
Derelicts the feeble glimmer Of the
Cuckoo's Nest.
If Summing should be done at all II
should surely include the Cuckoo
Nest, and if every pair of little hlsn-
heeled shoes that are tripping need
Iessly into the path that leads TO IL
were guided there first there are few,
I'm sure, that would travel that swift
descending way.
The swinging doors, greasy to the
touch, that open the way into tne
Cuckoo's Nest, show a saualid saloon
interior, an interior in truth Of saloon
Junk over which smoky oil lamps throw
an orange glow.
Wnted curtains stringily covering
doorway, also greasy to the touch, give
perpendicular strips of still more
squalid interior in a sort of panel-pos-
ter effect a few scattered dishes with
unpleasant broken food on a bare table,
two awful ancient harridaps picking at 1t
with their fingers, smiling hideously at US
out Of their drink -bloated, evil old faces
as we part the curtains, another sitting
on hurnpy, lumpy greasy sofa putting
the last bandage around an ailins foot.
with her remnant of late supper on
chair beside her.
They give US, heaven pity them,
chirpy, cheerful welcome.
Sure, tits not very LOVELY this noight.
an we're glad enough for company, and
they set chairs for US, first dusting
them with a whisk of their limp drag
gled skirts.
They greet the special with senile en-
dearnent as ''Jce," and Joey, dear" and
make a feint to claw him into the playful
embrace of dirty. withered old arms. He
sIdesteps brusqueiy and yet not un-
kindly-somewher in the bottom Of
every even fairly good mans heart there
is that everfiowing spring of ehivalTy that
makes him gentle with even the worst of
women.
They prattle to Us the gossip of their
fetid neighborhood-how the Spanish
woman on another bIock-'a young thing
an pretty TOO, tne LOTU nave neIcy Oh
her. dthrank carr-boIic an committed
500 eide the lasth week" and how the
young woman next dhoor-f'om Portho-
r!cky-took the same, and what row.
1T made.
They cackIe in their cracked old voices
over the events, and one looks on them,
these evil old women, so simple in their
vice. with their matted struggling locks
over their faded eyes, the old. old wo-
men who make gay with the old, old, bat
tered, tattered wrecks stranded on the
Barbary Coast. and one thinks that per-
haps the way of the Spanish woman who
"dthrank carr-bolic" and 1.-The woman
fom Porthoricky who took the same"
was, after all, the better way.
There are only two stages beyond the
.Cuckoo's Nest, and we make them-as
the Barbary Coasters do-in order.
The first IS the City Prison.
There at the booking desk. his dirty
finger nails clutching the counter. is one
of the "drunks' are pages and
pages of them on the big register-sath-
The San Francisco call., 1905-08-13

a stein or the slender stem Of a glass:
everywhere is heightened color and the
rowing eye.
Anenyma is here everywhere we
are sure she is-in youth and beauty
and insolence and fine raiment, fatter-
ed and courted; faded, battered, ugly.
tlwdry. impudent, seeking prey and
pelf; and on the spot we confess to
ourselves that it is Anonyma we have
come to see-that Summing, after ALL
through all the letters of it's alphabet
is spying upon Anonyma on her native
heath.
Anonyn:a pervades; We feel sure she
is everywhere-over there at the table
in the corner in haunting hat and gar
ish silks ogling the man at her side,
and another over his shoulder We
see it all by the aid of the lorgnette.
Here at the very table beside our own,
where we are holding stems and stems
ourselves-for one of the piquancies of
Summing is to do in Rome as the Ro-
mans-is Anonyma again, in dcmure
tailor mades and modish turban,
really very presentable," we are de-
Gliding when, gracious goodness. we
discover her to be the bride on our
block, our very neighbor in very
exclusive neighborhood.
After that things are confusing. 1t
is very much like attending dance at
an asylum for the insane where your
partner may be a lunatic or may believe
you are one.
You study the scene from stage to
door, from wall to wall, seeking it's spirit,
and it seems singularly like the egg with
out salt.
The men, for the most part, look
bored and over-red when they do not look
over-far in liquor; the tables are sloppy
with little pools or uniformly moist after
the hasty swipe of the waiter; the at
mosphere grows heavier and heavier;
the talk and laughter have too much noise
The San Francisco call., 1905-08-13

"a nee upon a time there was an
OLD Grad who had not sat at the
Ofeet Of his alma mater for 10.
these many years, or about that
long An old grad, it must be
understood, is not generally speaking a
man; he is an institution designed by
nature and the college faculty for the
express purpose of impressing on the
so-called minds OF callow undergrad
ustes the fact that the old college is
not what il was in the early 'To's. His
chief function is 20 show up about the
time that fresh bunch of enterprising
youngsters is being turned loose on a
helpless world snd tell the particular
bunch that happens TO be going over
the bars what q green and generally
unfinished lot OF specimens they are.
At other times he is supposed to drop
in occasionally TO sit on the chapel
platform and look wise and weary and
envious Of the carefree life of the col
lege youth. On special occasions the
carefree youth is allowed to lap up
little distilled wisdom as il flows from
the lips Of the old grad
Then is when the latter gentleman
gets in his fine work. In impressive
tones that come straight from, the
northeast corner Of HIS manly chest he
assures the budding inteilects that the
only sure way 10 be happy is TO be
good; he knows because he has been
told by man who tried it once, but he
usually neglectS TO add that they are
not apt 70 have any fun. 1t is one OF
The San Francisco call., 1905-08-13

cred IN from the Coast, with trembling
legs and tattered clothes and glazed ewes.
giving his name and his age-ffty,xour-
in cuavering voice.
did ye have good time. Pat?" asks
the sergeant.
Gran tinle-haddagran' time" rnuttered
the lettering dereict as he tacls TO
a cell in the wake Of the turnl,ay,
and then-this also being part OF the
merry stunning expedition-we see
him slowly sink in a dirty heap on the
floor. signing and ruttering
Girls are brought In, girls with vacuous.
glazed. set eyes and shrill laughs and
pretty. red lips dripping ribaldry, and
they Ieer at the sergeant the while they
answer his questions, and then they
are hustled away 10 the women's quar-
ters. where the Summing parties can't
follow them, unless they are specially
privileged stunning parties. for even
the big. husky police. used. and presum-
ably hardened to such sights hold a
deterring hand between woman's shame
and idle laughing curiosity.
From the city Prison-where?
Where would you think2
To the
To Dunbar Alley
Where the lights shine down upon
the still cold forms waiting to be
claimed.
Oh. dear moths isn't the end OF
fashionable Summing expedition.
There are still other sights to
seen--as many as you can stand
OF course the stunning path lies
through Chinatown whefe you stop for
a moment to see old Charley Lee and his
pipe and his opium smoking cat. and
where, hanging at the Chinaman's portal
waiting for the crumbs that may fall S4eu
the yellow mans platter. is the white
man. your brother in blood waiting
with his little candle end and his cocaine
needle to demonstrate TO you what his
particular kind OF fend is-selIing his
depravity grain by grain as 1t were. He
is mere incident. OF course. this broken
brother OF ours giving his eurbstOne show
by the light of the candle end.
But there are other sights to tTbs
seen-undefned. unspeakable sights.
some OF which the unhappy Mrs. Tag
gart OF the divorce suit is alleged to
have witnessed.
What they are only the men and the
women with the money 70 command and
the skamelessness to behold them may
say. The plain clothes man plants him
self on the steps Of the Han Of Justice
and says:
THIS is as far as go. What I
haven't shown you you've no right to
see."
He laughs. but he means Just what he
says.
The natural histories tell Us thar 81
hyena, lifting his head and shifting THE
breeze. can scent the carton from afar:
that tie buzzard circling. a mere black
speek in the vaulted blue. can discover his
putrid food in the hollow Of the hillside.
Perhaps it is some like instinct that
stirs in the Summing woman the will
ingness and eagerness TO sound the
depths of depravity-to go on from
where the plain-clothss man leaves on.
Yet she is. after all. the exceptional
Summing woman.
But the ordinary woman who sluns.
The San Francisco call., 1905-08-13

ard too little mirth and Anouynla. poor
aAnonyrna, plies her arts with too much
eagerness-as though the haymaking sea-
son were Shorthand too little of the Ian
guorous fascination that makes her
feared as an unknown quantity.
When y represents Anonyma she is
far more formidable than when she sits
at the next table but one.
The sophisticated man who is host or
the quiet man in plain clothes. lent you
by the police if your party is of sufficient
consequence to be personally conducted.
points out the celebrities of midnight
life, this character and that, man and
woman, who has made a mark in the
devious ways, and they seem not very
different to the characters in life
aboveboard- merely human and some
times pitiful.
There are more music halls which your
sophisticated host or the plain clothes
man guides you to and Throughout
there is no more variety. They differ
only in degree
You. go up Kearny street and down the
Barbary Coast, out even upon the water
front, diving down stairways and
through swinging doors. and always it
is the same:
The -thickened, beer -moistened
atmosphere.
The tinkle-tinkle or twing- -twang of
tawdry music
The San Francisco call., 1905-08-13

~ LUMAfING is fashionable pas
~ time
smart folk
Stunning is part Of the timer
sry Of the silk-lined touris,. just as see
ing the missions and the Seal Rocks is.
Smart New Workers slum in San Fran
cisco. and equally smart San Franciseans
slum in New York.
You are invited to a Summing party
as inconsequently as you are TO a bridge
party and as confidently expected to
participate.
Smart young matrons. bellies who are
yorld-seasoned by a season or two. who
need no longer play the ingenue. even
precocious debutantes slun now and
then, for the piquancy of it-as one puts
the shake Of paprika on the melon, the
ash Of tabasco on the oyster. the soup
con Of garlic in the salad.
Stunning crops Up in polite conversa-
ton so casually that it might be the most
innocent. the most wholesome. the most
natural, the most harmless diversion in
the world-like golhng, or gathering
daisies on an upland meadow.
Indeed. there are good souls who
think that it is.
Here and there you will hnd this
6clusion is still retained by the old
fashioned few who take things on
trlst. whose worldly wisdom is in state
Ct arrested development. and who still
believe. that Summing is. as it once
was, a philanthropic exercise engaged
in by the more venturesome good.
Not infrequentIy these good but un-
enlightened folk are the papas and
mamas, the papas-in-law and mamas-
in-law Of the progressive young wom-
en- who slum now as it is Summed, and
such expurgated histories as they get
Of the Summing expeditions do not. of
course, disturb their happy belief
The veiled revelations in the Taggart
divorce trial may Go that however, may
excite an uneasy wonder and may, in
deed, temporarily discourage the fad for
Summing
what is it," they viii ask themselves,
that is so very dreadful in Mrs Tag
CARTS stunning that it has TO be told be-
hind closed doors2 OF course, 1t is some
thing NY Gwendolen. MY Muriel-who
have been Summing, too-would never
see"
Which. no doubt. is true. for there are
degrees Of Summing, Just as there are de-
grees Of depravity-snd curiosity
The fashionable Summing of to-day is
e very different sort Of stunning from
that which these good folk knew-that
Lady Bountiful sort, that left its carriage
on the highway and went through the by
ways, its basket on its arm and its purse
and heart open, pouring balm on the
wounded.
Common words with new customs take
or new meanings.
Stunning is now a lark-a newer, later
social dissipation.
II you are behind the times and would
know what 1t is and low it is done. come,
join one Of these merry stunning parties.
And, while we are about It, we may as
The San Francisco call., 1905-08-13

once that the sad condition was relieved.
That was all that the Old Grad could
remember. however. when he awoke in
his room in the hotel about noon the
next day and made dash through center
for the ice water pitcher. Before he Xad
succeeded in inducing both OF his eyes
to stay open at the same time his son
sauntered in, looking as though he had
iust been unpacked from his bandbox.
with a flower in his button hole and
complexion as rosy as the dawn. The
oil man gasDed when he saw the dewy
condition of his offspring, but that was
nothing to what he did when that young
man cheerfully inquired why he hadn't
been TO church
The Old Grad, after mature deliberati
came to the conclusion that when a man
had reached his age and condition OF
servitude IL was too much OF a strain to
attempt 10 renew his youth all at once
and the next day saw him once more IN
the haunts of the peaceful ticker and on
the floor OF the restful Stock Exchange.
His brief but strenuous sojourn in the
clustered halls Of learning had given him
very positive opinions on two subjects:
namely. the cheerful Individual who be-
sought some person or persons. names
and addresses not specified. to give ms,
oh. give me my childhood again. was
either trying for record in the long
distance jolly or else wasn't aware that
his particular brand of childhood was no
longer kept in stock. Furthermore the
Old Grad was convinced that people who
prate of the desirability OF inducingA Ire
growth of old heads on young shoulders
are not aware of the amount that the
youthful variety of heads can stand IN
excess OF the capacity Of the old kinds.
Copyright 1908. by Albert Britt
The San Francisco call., 1905-08-13

who makes diversion Of this dreary
round-how about her? Why should she
go Summing?
Nothing could be more dreary and de-
pressing and spiritless than these sights
she sees when she makes one OF a party
seeking recreation in this strange way
nothing could be more dispiriting except
a great railway station in the small hours
of the night, when the lights blink (and
the trains are few and the waits lGAg.
1t is perfectly true-and there's no use
lodging or denying it-that II Is Anon
yma she wants to see, Anonyma in all
her variety.
Why?
Why should the fortunats woman, the
respectable woman. the sheltered, pro-
tected. cared-for woman. the gentle. mod
est, virtuous woman-who can afford to
be gentle and modest and virtuous-wish
to go forth with her mantle Of righteous
ness about her to spy upon and make a
holiday Of her sisters wretchednesS?
She doesn't go in charity. with a help
ing hand outstretched-
The chances are she'd be hooted II she
did.
But she does go with lorgnette ard'a
laugh, for the amusement OF the thing
and to tell clever stories about 1t altar
ward.
To make such painful study Of our
poor human weaknesses IN the interest
os art, Of science and OF charity Is ad-
niittedly legitimate.
But in wanton frivolity and prurient
curiosity-for a nights recreation and
sensation-and by women
Then this fashionable fad for slurn-
ming seems very like vivisection.
The San Francisco call., 1905-08-13

To Dunbar Alley
Where the lights shine down upon
the still cold forms waiting to be
claimed.
Omaha daily bee., 1905-07-02

this time, however ana smaller hags OF muslin and
silk used in large numbers
During the last fifteen years July has slowly
been giving way to May 80, far the demand for
nags is concerned. Not that the spirit of patriotism
regards Independence day is lessening but that
each years sees the number Of soldiers graves in
creasng and consequent addition of interest to Me-
mortal day The Spanish-AmerIcan war seems to
strengthen the popular desire to observe May 80.
Up to 1898 flag sentiment seemed sleeping With
the outbreak of the Spanish-American war came a
change. Not only more hags wanted, but the
demand for better materials grew apace. Where for
instance the tiny paper flags had been used for din
ner favOrs, silk flags sought Gradually this
feeling has extended until the silk and the wool bunt
ing flags chief In favor the most popular of the
larger flags being 5xS and 6x10 feet The tendency
is toward long flag, for the economical that
when the end of such a banner has been whipped
into rags by the wind it be cut Of hemmed over
and remain in proportion.
The government hags OF which there are many
different varieties exclusively of silk and of wool
bunting. The sizes most in use are 412xS and OKLA
feet More hags made for the army than for
the navy. but the quality of the latter averages
higher. The flags flown by the cruiser Olympia
when as Admiral Dewey's flagship. 1t led the mem
orable parade in the Hudson river New York City
in 1899, were perhaps fine sken specimens OF the
hagmaker's art as ever existed.
The government makes some OF its flags in its
factory the Brooklyn navy yard but ma jorlty
are from private establishments In fact SIS per cent
OF the annual output of United States fags is made
in New York City although the western factories
Omaha daily bee., 1905-07-02

nave gained In the last five years
Throughout the western states the tendency
toward a enthusiastic observance of all patri-
otc occasions is rapidly growing. Most active among
the observers OF Independence day so far as the flag
demand indicates. are foreign born citizens the ma
jority Of whom came to this country In the steerage
This is especially noticeable in the grain growing
states-in Minnesota, the Dakotas, Nebraska
then through the southwest whose stretches of
virgin SOIL touched by the magic wand of irrigation
have within the last three years put forth crops that
have given cause for rejoicing. These huge crops
apparently have stimulated the flag demand, and the
flag distributing houses in Chicago, St Louis and
Kansas City have this sent out % per cent
flags than before II would SEEM therefore
viewed from the flag sale standpoint, that the ma
Jortty Of immigrants not only really adopt this coun
try as their own but develop genuine spirit of pa
trotism, form Of which is lavish display of the
nations flag
Making the American flag is the work Of skilled
labor. Girls and women alone possess the degree of
ability required to obtain best results. Only the
heaviest and least complicated features OF the work
fall TO the First the stripes are cut from huge
rolls of red white silk bunting Then they are
basted together and later turned over to girls opelat
ing sewing machines that stitch at the rate Of 2iOO
stitches minute. The lock-sttch is used, and the
thread fed from spOols each holding 24OOO yards
The stripes stitched together. the flag is ready to
receive the union. Red is the predominant color in
flag The union is the blue field which appears in
the left upper corner Of flag and It contains forty
FIVE stars for each state. silk flag stars are OF
embroidered silk. On wool bunting flags they are OF
muslin. The union itself is Of the material as