davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-06-26

five per cent interest during the time
the currency is out
The plan is based on the belief that
whenever money is scarce the banks
would desire to issue more currency;
but as soon as the pressure became
less they would desire to retire the
extra issues because they would be
paying five per cent interest upon It.
It could be retired by the deposit Of
an equal amount of lawful money at
any of the sub-treasuries.
The plan does not call for a strictly
speaking credit currency, because the
government, according to Mr.. Shaw's
plea, would guarantee the additional
circulation. Mr.. Shaw believes the
interest charged would more than
cover any possible loss. Mr.. Shaw is
unalterably opposed to any bank cur
rency that the government does not
guarantee, and he wants the govern
ment secured by the payment of in
terest.
The scheme would certainly render
the national bank currency elastic in
pinch, but it would carry the govern
ment still deeper into the banking
business, thus carrying it still farther
away from its ancient mornings. In
ment should begin to wade out alto
gether. There is no warrant in the
federal constitution for any of the
post-bellum banking business of the
government.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-06-26
SECRET OF JAPANs STRENGTH.

From the Baltimore Herald
Though manufacturing industries have
had remarkable growth in Japan durin.;
recent years. agriculture still maintains
its own as the leading source of wealth.
The oriental country can feed its own in
habitants and does not have to keep it's
eyes upon the granaries of other nations.
To the fact that the country Is mainly
agricultural some eminent Japanese
statesmen have attributed its ability to
continue long and grueling war The
battles on land and sea- the interruption
of commerce, and the use of the railroads
for military purposes do not disturb the
peaceful progress of agriculture, though
they would ruin industries. The men who
labor the earth get their reward, war or
no war, commerce or no commerce, and
while the national debt must increase
enormously through the war the country
can maintain itself indefinitely without
the terrible burden that a arrangement
of vast industrial undertakings, with the
consequent beggary 90 workingmen and
their families, would entail
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-06-26
PLAQUE in the Punjaub.

The Punjaub lies in northeastern
Hindustan, covering just about as
many miles as Mississippi and Ala
bama contain combined. In that dis
trlct lived in 1891 people to the num-
Der of 20,S66,S47. The population in
cludes many Afghans and Tibetans,
for the Punjaub includes numerous
spurs of the Himalayas, some of them
being 10000 feet high.
1t is this district that has been and
still is so terribly afflicted with the
plague In the months of March. April
and May the government admits that
the deaths from the plague on the
Punjaub exceeded 100000 1t is ex-
pected that the disease will be dimin-
ished during the summer months, but
its recrudesence next winter is
equally expected.
The government of India is doing
its utmost in combating the plague.
Every practicable measure is resorted
to. Special medical officers are CO.
operating with the civil officers in
advising and assisting the people
Laboratories have been placed con-
venent to the afflicted families and
medicines and disinfecting fluids are
supplied without cost.
The government sees, however, no
prospect that the disease can be speed
lily stamped out in the Punjaub. The
government has many difficult prob
lens to solve in the dense Indian
populations, but perhaps 1t never EN-
countered one worse than the one 1t
is confronted by in the Punjaub,
Science and even energy are to some
extent paralyzed when so virulent a
disease attacks so dense population
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-06-26
A Texans View

F. NJ. Maxwell of Waco, Tex, prom
inent attorney of that city, is at the Nor
ris. Mr.. Maxwell is native Albanian
and a member of the well-known Max
we'll family of East Alabama.
Birmingham" said Mr. Maxwell, has
certainly grown at marvellous rate dur
ing the past ten years. l hardly recog-
nzed the place. Everywhere 1 see signs
of prosperity and thrift and I am ex-
ceedingly glad to claim Alabama as my
native state.
1T is my opinion that when the Pan
anna canal is completed Alabama will
be the leading manufacturing state in
the country. Owing to natural eondi-
tions. Texas Oklahoma and other south
western states will be producing the bulk
of the cotton crop and Alabama will be
manufacturing the raw material into fin
ished products to be shipped to the
Orient"
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-06-26
MY OWN SONG.

By Harriet Prescott Spofford.
o glad am L that I was born,
For who is sad when flaming morn
Bursts forth, or when the might night
Carries the south from height to height?
To me as to the child that sings,
The bird that claps his rain-washed
wings
The breeze that curls the sun-tipped
flower,
Comes some new joy with each Lew
hour
Joy in the beauty of the EARTH
Joy in the fire upon the hearth,
Joy in the potency of love
In which 1 live and breathe and move.
Joy even in the shapeless thought
That, some day, when all tasks are
wrought.
l shall explore that vastly deep
Beyond the frozen gates of sleep.
For JOY attunes all beating things,
With me each rhythmic atom sings,
From glow till doom. from murk till morn
0 glad am l that was born!
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-06-26
Polite Negro.

1.-THE most attentive and the most polite
negro / have run across in the south Is
Grover Cleveland Walker, the night porter
for the Hotel Hlllman, who meets pas
sengers at the station" said a northern
drummer last night
Il don't know whether his name has
anything to do with 1t or not, but he Is
the best | have ever seen, and | have
travelled over the country for years. l
can understand something of the value
of the old time negro by watching this
one asked him about himself the last
time l was here and he said his parents
were old time negroes and that accounts
for his politeness.
Grover Cleveland Walker is always
alert and never keeps his hat on his head
when he speaks to a white man. You
can trust him with anything, and II he
tells you he will have a grip waiting for
you at a certain train. he will have 1t
there.
"A travelling man always appreciates
good service from hotel porter. They
are frequently Indifferent and sulky and
it Is a treat to reach Birmingham and
give Grover Cleveland Walker quarter
for his earnest effort to please"
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-06-26

TERMS OF PUBLIC OFFICE.

From the Portland oregonian.
There is a growing tendency in Ameri-
can politics toward lengthening the term
OF service of executive officers, both in
state and municipal affairs. The doc
trine or principle of rotation in office was
once supposed to be the bulwark of rep
resentative government. That idea has In
q, great measure been dispelled. The pub
lie office Is more of public trust than 1t
was in the days when the victor captured
the spoils without restriction of civil SER
vice rules, Conditions have changed. The
complex problems of state md municipal
life call for expert assistance of high
class. Hence II is that the terms of exec
utve service are being heightened and
well proven ability is protected in subordi-
nate places in government.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-06-26
IN HOTEL LOBBlES
Miss TarbeII's Work.

"Miss Ida Tarbell. the biographer OF
John u Rockefeller and historian OF the
Standard Oil company said lawyer
Yesterday, rs easily the most diserimi-
Mating and most convincing of all writer's
who attempt to expose the repelling Tea
lures of modern industrialism.
Miss Tarbell. like George Eliot has
rare gift of psychological analysis and
singularly judicial temperament. Unlike
many other women, Miss Tarbell thinks
with her brain rather than with her
nerves. She is ruled by her reason rath-
er than by her emotions. Her character
sketch of John D. Rockefeller in the lat
est number of McClures Magazine illus
trates these characteristics. In it Is no
denunciation, no vituperation. All her de-
duetions are supported by facts, ard
these are set out in a style so tempered
that they appeal convincingly to Every
thinking person.
say that Miss Tarbelrs articles are do
ing for the work of industrial reform
what Harriet Beecher Stoves Uncle
Toms Cabin and Julia Ward Howe's
1.-THE Bate Hyman of the Republic did
for the adjustment of slavery forty years
ago. There is. however this great diff
ference Miss Tarbel's work appeals to
the intellect rather than to the magma
ton, while that of her predecessors APP
pealed to the Imagination rather than to
the intellect"
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-06-26

In the case of woman the revolt is
far greater 1t extends from the sheriff
and the hangman to the governor. No
one of them wants to take any respon-
sibility for the killing of woman.
The poor governor can hardly sleep
O. nights. for after all, nominally, the
final responsibility of I he execution
rests on him. His sense of justice of
course compels him to resist the weak
ness which prompts him to save from the
penalty of the law a woman justly con-
vcted of murder. 1t is the law, the ex-
preston of the public conscience, which
sends her to death, not he; may, she her
self brought on herself the terrible judg-
ment by committing the crime. All
this is clear, yet governors are men, and
they hate TO take the decision which
reason and duty force on them. They
do not relish the though. of the killing
of a woman by judicial sentence whose
Communication is within their preroga
tive. Ought such a strain to be put on
any man?
IT, however, the acuteness of the pub
lie sensibility is now so great that the
judicial killing of a woman is intolerable
TO 1t, is not the time approaching when
the administration of the death penalty
to anybody, man or woman, will be too
much for its endurance? At a period
when the sight or the though of any
physical pain inflicted on any creature,
human or brute, revolts men and women
generally, when children go unwhipped
for offenses meriting the lash-at least
according to the old notion-can the
scaffold and the electric chair remain
in civilization?
But how can the necessary discipline
of society be maintained after the ex-
treme penalty is aboished2 Society
revolts at the old religious dogma of the
retribution of hell, yet the church still
| retains it as essential in its terrible dis
suading appeal to the imaginations OF
] men.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-06-26
An Elastic Currency.

Secretary of the Treasury Shaw
went all the way to a bankers meet
ing at Jacksonville, Florida, to explain
his elastic system of dollars. He ad-
mitted at the outset that the national
banking system lacks elasticity He
suggested that the national banks be
permitted TO issue a certain volume OF
additional currency, either proper
tened to the capital of the issuing
bank or to its bond-secured currency,
the bank to be charged not less than
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-06-26
THE BIGGEST SEWER.
1t Is Planned to Relieve the Flooded
Districts of Brooklyn and Queens.

From the New York Sun.
President Littleton and City Works Com
missioner Breckenridge. OF Brooklyn, sign
ed the map yesterday laying out the lines
for the proposed big relief sewer to run
through Queens and Brooklyn boroughs.
AS soon as 1t has cen approved by the
board of estimate tn various local boards
having jurisdiction gill take action.
AS planned the sewer will be the larg
est ever constructed in the United States,
being seventeen feet in diameter, two feet
more than the great Bay Ridge tunnel
sewer through which Mayor Mcclellan
and other city officials rode about year
ago Its length will be about four miles,
starting from Forest park in Queens and
extending through Myrtle avenue to st.
Nicholas avenue. through st. Nicholas
avenue to Scott avenue to Newtown
Creek 1t is intended to drain the badly
flooded district of Ridgewood, the Twenty
eighth ward Glendale and Middle Village.
The estimated cost is about s4.o770oo, for
which Brooklyn's assessment will be ST.
077,OOO and Queens sso0o,OOo.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-06-26
Alabama and Georgia Politics.

Benjamin II. Hill of West Point, Ga, a
prominent and well known attorney, is
stopping at the Metropolitan. Mr.. Hill is
a nephew of the late Senator Hill Of
Georgia and is connected with many of
the leading families of the south. Dir
mingham, In my opinion, has the great
est future of any city in the country"
said Mr.. Hill. This district Is develop
ing at a remarkable rate and 1 am told
that the vast resources have been barely
touched.
II see that Alabama, like Georgia. is
having a warm time politically. In Cur
state the fight between Clark Howell and
Hoke Smith for governor promises to be
one of the most interesting ever waged in
that state.
I'm Alabama I find that public inter-
est seems to have conferred on Lieuten-
ant Governor Cunningham and Mr. B. B.
Conner. DIR. Cunningham seems to be
very popular with the people and from
the way they talk is apparently the
stronger candidate of the two.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-06-26
The Stock Market.

Henry Clews' Wall street letter of Sat
urdays date says:
"A large-almost a bumper-winter
wheat harvest is now practically assured,
and 1t would take an improbable combi-
nation of untoward developments in the
spring wheat section to eliminate the
wheat situation as a whole from the list
of favorable stock market influences, in
which, at the present time. 1t holds
commanding position But 1t Is the mn
provement in the great surplus crops
corn and cotton-that has been the most
encouraging feature. In both of these
there has been the usual indication or
how rapidly a short period of ideal grow
ing weather will counterfeit the disad-
vantages incident to a late and other
wise unfayorable start.
An additional factor Is the highly re-
munerative prices of which the farmer
Is already assured for his products, the
September and December deliveries OF
wheat now selling.f Notwithstanding the
favorable crop oTf 9bout cents per
bushel hiehf,' tbf time last year.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-06-26
THE PARAMOUNT ISSUE.
IN Tom watson's Magazine.


"Ar-harr wrathfully calculated the
honest agriculturalist, who had detected
a gentleman of color in the act of en-
bezzlng sundry of his hens at the dead
hour of night. so I've ketched you. you
Internal black rascal. have L? Well, now,
what have you got to say for yourself?"
what l has to say fun muhsef," re-
piled the colored brother. with overpow-
ering dignity Jam a plenty, sab; and
when / feels declined to say 1t. I sho'ly
says 1t loud and coa'se! / may be black,
sab. as yose'f has done specified, sab,
and comm plumb down into the pinch I
mought be internal and all dot but l
neber was one of desc yeah moufy pus-
sons, sah dat am alus pow-powin about
deirse'fs Nussah. nussah! De question
dat am agitatin' de American people at
de present time amt whedder rs black
or blue or green or yaller, sab, but what
about the trusts?-dat's de burnin' prog
nostication, sah What about de trusts?''
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-06-26
UNCLE ADLArs LINCOLN STORY.

From the Boston Herald
In his newly published autobiography
Andrew D. White tells a good story that
Adlai Stevenson told him about Lincoln.
At one time when Lincoln had a visitor
he glanced from window and saw Sum-
ner, Wade and Thad Stevens approaching
the White House. They had been poster
ing him about emancipation and Lincoln
said they reminded him of his school days
His class had been trying to pronounce
the names of Shadrach, Meshach and
Abednego, and finally had succeeded.
Then the teacher insisted on repetition,
beginning with Lincoln, and the smallest
boy at the foot began to cry. When
asked the reason the youngster blurted
out: Don't you see them three eusses
are coming this way again?"
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-06-26
MEN NOW REVOLT AT THE
IDEA OF HANGING WOMEN
From the New York Sun.

From the New York Sun.
NNNNE phase of the woman question
w is brought up by the reprieve
for the third time of a woman in
Vermont convicted Of numbering her hus-
band and sentenced to death. That this
woman killed her husband in a peculiar
ly brutal way is unquestionable and de-
MED by no one, not even by herself; vet
public sensbility revolts at the thought
of her being hanged. The imagination
of men at this time turns with horror
from the picture it conjures up of the
scene on the scaffold when men shall
tie up a woman and kill her
OF course, this acuteness of sensibillty
Is altogether modern. In the past the
heads of numberless women have been
cut off by men in pursuance of a judi
cial sentence. Queens and ladies of beau
ty and refinement, gentle women whose
real or imaginary offenses were political
or religious only, have had their heads
chopped off, and even have been burned
at the sake yet the society of the
period looked on without a whimper
against the proceeding in itself, though
ion as to the guilty desert of the par
ticular women burned or deeapitated.
That women should be held amenable
TO the same punishments as were inflict-
ed on men was never questioned until of
comparatively recent years.
Now 1t has become almost a foregone
conclusion that no woman will be exc
cuted, no matter how completely her
guilt of murder is proved. Men revolt
at the job of killing in cold blood even
man judicially sentenced to death.
Sheriffs resign their office rather than
be concerned in 1t, even indirectly; and
if they accept the responsibility of pre-
siding at the execution they usually
delegate the actual killing to a profess
sional executioner, a man who lives I'M
der a social ban. and he no longer Yields
the ak, but simply pulls string or
touches an electric button.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-06-26
An All Year Town.

81 saw more persons on the streets Of
Birmingham Saturday night" said q
travelling man yesterday at the Morris,
than I've seen on the streets of any
other town in the south on Saturday
night in the last five years.
where do all these people come from?'
he inquired. And why is it that busi-
ness is so flush here in these midsummer
days?"
Almost all southern cities are what
we call eight or nine months towns. That
is. business is good in them about two
thirds of the year, with a sharp falling
off in the summer months.
Birmingham is the one exception.
Flush times seem to be the rule here
the year round"
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-06-26

These figures show that the percen-
tage of our sales to Japan to all her
purchases abroad is constantly rising.
Our trade with that country is increas-
ing faster than Great Britain's. We
sell to Japan nearly sixteen per cent
of all she buys abroad and we take
in return nearly one-third of her ex-
ports, We took from her last year
raw silk, silk manufactures, tea,
mats, porcelains, earthenware and
other commodities to the value Of
$50,5O0.000. Japan cannot afford to
lose Uncle Sam as customer, and
as long as we buy from her literally
she will be apt to buy from us. The
yellow peril is in fact a bogy pure
and unadulterated.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-06-26
A NEW IDEA.
From Life.

from Lie
What are the suggestions for the day."
The greatest phi,anthropist of the age
turned anxiously 20 his private secretary
"Remcmber," he said half severely. we
must give away ten millions more before
the week is ever. l simply can't stand 1t
to have money accumulate in this reck-
less manner. We must get rid of it,
The secretary did not Immediately re-
ply.
81 am afraid it's hopeless" said the
great philanthropist 1.-THE National the
alter says they can't take another cent.
Every missionary society is black with
cash. The old sailors are all smoking dol
lar cigars. Universities are storing bonds
in barrels in their cellars. Speak. man,
your face is lighting up. Have you an
iuea?"
II lave. indeed said the private secre-
tary. Have no fear all will be well.
Here's man who has given me clue
And with glad smile of relief the
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-06-26
From the Brooklyn Eagle.


Va HILE the grim old Mt. Pelee of
WIZ Martinique, with its fury les
w sened, but still unspent, looks
on and growls, with now and then a
spiteful roar, remorseful nature Is doing
her best to hide, under a mantle of green,
the remaining evidence of the VOLCANOES
burst of anger which destroyed 10000 peo-
pie in a twinkling. And so luxuriant is
the growth of vegetation in this beauti-
full Isle of the Returners" that she is
pradily succeeding. The buried city is
no longer swept by the clouds of explosive
and poisonous gases, deadly alike to ami
NAL and vegetable life, shot off by the
volcano, which now are discharged to the
northward and the better side of nature
is asserting itself. Fertilized, perhaps,
by the uncounted dead beneath it, the
rich volcanic ash has produced tropical
trees and tall grasses in such profuson
that little can now be seen from the sea
of the crumbling fragments of walls that
mark the graves of Pelees victims. On
the surrounding hills the sugar cane has
sprung up from the old roots, proving
that while the blast which wiped out St.
Pierre was so intellectually hot that it
instantly consumed great trees it passed
so quickly that 1t did not exceed below
the surface of the ground.
With the passing of the horrible pic
ture left by the eruption-the sickening
waste OF gray, with it's blackened ruins
which the growth of green now is oblit-
Grating, the greatest tragedy of nature in
history apparently is forgotten. The ma
tives have recovered from their fear and
returned to the old life. They do not talk
of the volcano and a stranger arriving
at Fort de France in ignorance of the
disaster of three years ago might be
there long while before he learned of 1t.
But, if the eruption is not talked about,
the dead are not forgotten, and st. Pierre
Is as much Stunned as 1t was a week
after 1t was destroyed. No one is at
work there but few legalized grave rob-
bers, who. with the permission of the
government. are digging in the buried
homes of their relatives for money and
Jewels st. Pierre was rich city, with
much gold in it's homes, in coin and
ornaments, and there have been many
valuable finds in the little family vaults
or close to glistening skeletons. The vast