davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-28
Benefited By Selfishness.

'It is strange how much benefit has come to the world in general from the selfishness of people" said a prominent devine yesterday. We get untold bene- fits from selfish acts on the part of peo- pie.
 Just think of the number of people who are benefited by the man who cleans up his yard, keeps it in perfect order and has a beautiful lawn. He does it for selfish purposes to a large extent, but then he benefits hundreds of people. Everyone that passes by a beautiful lawn comments on it, and is pleased by the pleasant picture it presents.
 There is a certain selfishness in the fight to remove the county jail from it's present location. for the movement origi- mated by those living in the neighbor hood who would be most benefited. But still their selfishness affects favorably every one in Birmingham. and a great many people, who do not live here, but come to this city frequently.
 "On the other hand, selfshness has caused an immense amount of trouble in this old world Think of the thousand and one selfish acts which have benefited no one but the person who performed them. and think of the misery the sefishness of some men have caused to millions"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-28
TWO WAYS OF GETTING RICH.

Jasper in Leslie's Weekly.
 There are two ways of getting rich, one as bad as the other. First, by get ting control of great corporation and using its funds and the power their pos session gives, for selfish purposes In dis regard of the rights of shareholders. This is the method resorted to by some of the get-rich-quick millionaires in our indus trial and railway enterprises. Their ex- ample has had a very bad effect. It has created a spirit of antagonism which has resulted in a concerted effort to devise a second way of getting rich. And that is by taking from men of wealth, regard less of whether they accumulated their wealth fairly or unfairly all but enough for living. The advocates of socialism are openly proclaiming the doctrine of a new distribution of wealth. The fight is made all along the line. A socialist on a jury, seizes every opportunity to decide a case, regardless of it's justice or injustice, against the defendant if he be a man of wealth. The socialists in the legislatures are ready to tax wealth. Politicians seem to curry the favor of the masses, and are constantly suggest ing legislation against corporations and in favor of onerous taxes on inheri- tances, incomes, etc. The purpose of this is to distribute the wealth of the rich. When it cannot be confiscated for the benefit of the people, 1t is taken for the benefit of the state or the nation, so as to lessen the taxes of the masses.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-28
COURSE OF HISTORY IS
 TRACED IN PETTICOATS

Venetian trade, Byzantine luxury, Ro- man civilization. Grecian legends
 Life moved slowly in those remote glens of the mountains. and when a new master came the patient peasant learned his new lesson-but he did not forget the old. In one institution or another he stereotyped each civilization as 1t passed over him. His is one of the most typical illustrations of highly interest," ing ethnological fact. When we admire the "artlessness,' as we call it, of peas- ant costume. our admiration goes out to what is really some forgotten classic of a highly cultivated intelligence.
 The customs of country districts ara often the survivals of some pagan civili- zation, the frayed memorials. it may be, peasant dresses and caps that delight the tourists in the Tyrolese valleys each 'thal" having It's distinctive style, are not indigenous mountain products. Gen. turies ago fine ladies wore such agowns and headdresses in court cities. These naive country people go h reproducing the designs with which some forgotten excursion into civilization had acquainted them-converting it may be. sweeping train Into tidy petticoat that shows generous inches of white stocking.
 When people interest themselves in country naivete they simply take a look ai their own past.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-28
Move the County Jail.

The agitation to move the county jail from it's present location in the heart of Birmingham to some place on the outskirts of town is one that will meet with the approval of many citi- zens It is pointed out by persons resid- ing in the neighborhood of the jail and others owning property there that 1t is an eye-sore and a nuisance which should be abated. Its presence tends to depreciate the value of adjoining property and affects that section of town as a residence district. Under ordinary circumstances, the jail is re- pulsive enough, but when hanging is scheduled, especially if the criminal to die be widely known, morbid crowds gather about the jail and people living near are depressed by the gruesome ceremony which they know is taking place within it's walls.
 The suggestion that the jail be moved to an outlying location where there would be more room is good one. If there were spacious grounds, instead of very small courtyard, as at present, prisoners could be put to work, and, in addition, would have the benefit of light and fresh air, two blessings that the law has no right to deny any man, even when he is crim- inal
 The strongest argument advanced however, is that the jail is too small It is old antiquated and thoroughly newer and a larger structure. A visit to the present jail will convince the most skeptical that the plight of un- fortunates confined there Is distress ing.
 The property now occupied by the building could be sold for handsome figure and a purchaser or purchasers would be easy to find. Citizens who are circulating petitions to be pre- sented to the Jefferson County Board of Revenue for the removal of the jail should have no trouble in securing a formidable list of signatures.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-28
Coosa and the Warrior.

Amos L. Griffith of Pell City de- sires those who are working on the water problem of this district to take D into consideration the building of a canal from Riverside on the Coosa to the head of Village creek near Huff man. distance of about thirty miles. The canalizing, of Village creek would then connect the Coosa with the War rrior, and the entire cost of the work would be less than the cost of needful dams and locks in the Coosa, which would be expected to improve as the years go on.
 The proposed canal would not be a sea-level canal, that is plain. It would necessarily be a lock canal, fed by a dozen small streams, each perhaps equipped with reservoir The subject is not one of sentiment or even of patriotism, but of attitudes and water possibilities. A canal connecting the two rivers would tie Alabama together neatly. and give the Upper Coosa slack water navigation to and from the sea. The Lower Coosa would be opened in connection with the Tallapoosa, and the Alabama river
 - The scheme is a pretty one, but it's attitudes and its locks. remain to be ascertained, weighed, analysed and put in dollars and cents. Only civil en- gineer can do that with accuracy and definiteness. Until that is done it would be premature to say the canal proposed by MT Griffith would be feasible
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-28
ALABAMA HOMECOMING.
rom the Mobile Register.

From the Mobile Register.
 Birmingham will take the opportunity offered by the holding of the October fair to invite all Alabamians living in other states to come home and have a reunion. The Birmingham Commercial club has started the movement and calls on the press to help make 1t success. As the Register said some days ago, the date Is not propitious for South Alabama, and November would be better, or some spring month; but, as Birmingham is to act the part of host that city has the right to name the date of the entertain ment. Accordingly, count upon our CO., operation to the extent of our ability. Kentucky has just had homecoming week, and made a great success of 1t. There are thousands of Alabamians scat tered over the United States. who pre- serve happy reeollections of the old days, especially of their childhood, and who will be glad to come back and review the old scenes, and meet their old friends. Bir- mngham will throw open her gates and bid them a hearty welcome and the home people will gather there to meet their relatives and friends from afar. It will be a good time. long remembered by those who participate
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-28

Washington which confirms his repu- tation for good sense. He has no fault to find with the word negro" He pre- fers to write it, however, Negro, with a capital letter. He says that the word "colored" is inexact and inde- feasible. It, too, sewers the race from it's history-from it's rapid rise from slavery to civilization. The words, 'colored people," have no history in them. For my part" says Principal Washington, "I believe the memory of these facts should be preserved in our name and traditions as it is preserved in the color of our faces. I do not think my people should be ashamed of their history or of any name that peo- pie choose in good faith to give them. " The word "Afro-American" might do this and it would be more scientific, put words In popular use are not se- lected by scientists.
 Looking over the subject from all sides, Professor Washington concludes that the word Negro should be ac- eepted, and if all of his race should take this view of the subject all would soon lose sensitiveness over the sub ject, and would cease to search for euphemisms. The word carries with it a long line of history and race de- yelopment, and it carries with 1t noth- ing that any honest son of Africa need be ashamed of.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-28
----sos------- SENATOR MORGAN USEFUL.

From the Binghamton Press.
 Senator Morgan is S5 years old, and is getting younger every day. He knows how to fight the whole Senate and how to bring individual senators up to the rack He deserves the thanks of every citizen of the Empire State for his time ly remark in regard to MT. Platt's ab- sence He does not deserve credit be- cause he succeeded in recalling MT. Platt but because he called attention to the condition existing in this state. The pres ence of Mir Platt in the Senate can do the people of this state neither good nor harm. It would not make much difference if he should stay away from the Senate all the time. MT. Morgan brought out clearly the important fact that New York has no real spokesman in the Sem ate Every time that is emphasized the present intolerable situation is brought nearer to an end.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-28
NOT HIS AGE.
om the American Spectator.

From the American Spectator.
 The oldest youngster in the Senate of the United States is Pettus of Alabama. The Southerner says that man who does not grow old as rapidly as do his friends is at a certain disadvantage in their presence. The senator is moved to this reflection by an incident occurring at the recent ceremonies attending the laying of the cornerstone of the new Senate office building.
 A venerable old fellow, much bent and broken. approached the Alabaman, whom he took by the hand affectionately inquir- ing as to his health.
 q am In excellent health,' briskly re- sponded MT Pettus, not recognizing tho old gentleman.
 Why, don't you know me- Pettus?' came in surprised tone from the other, who gave such clear evidence of the flight of years; i've were classmates"
 Whereupon Mir Pettus remembered; and the two had a friendly chat.
 When the old chap had departed, MT. Pettus turned to colleague, observing
 q knew that gentleman was just my age, but, God bless me, I didn't dream that I was hisi''
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-28
Enthusiastic Fan.

Of the many baseball fans in Birmng- ham, there are few more enthusiastic than M. l.. Semon, the popular manager of the Bijou theatre MT. Semon attends the majority of games played at West End, and is interested from the beginning to the end He generally chooses his seat with the newspaper boys in the press box.
 MT. Semon was at one time ball play CT of some repute. He generally stood upon the slab, and did the twirling act. He declares that he can yet throw a big curve, but that his speed is limited
 "I remember" said MT. Semon in speak, ing of his baseball days, sthe first and last home run that I knocked I remem- Der how the ball looked as it neared the plate. l remember I closed my eyes, and swung. When l opened them again, l saw the sphere glide over the fence. It has always been a mystery to me what caused that ball to clear the enclosure for l am certain that 1t had little force behind it.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-28
WASHINGTON POST ASKS
 WHAT IS. A GENTLEMAN?

tailor and be addicted to all the vices, promptly, and would brook no personal insult. Gamblers speak of each other gentlemen, and Bret Harte has de- picted one, who comes very near meet ing the requirements It Is very in- elusive term here. In a narrower sense 1t means one of good birth and breeding. who is at the same time man of probity and honor. In its broader sense it includes every one who is re- spectacle. Every miscellaneous audience is addressed as gentlemen" though most speakers would be unwilling to guarantee the entire correctness of the designation. To get definition meaning every one to whom the word can be fairly applied we can hardly do better than to go back to Blackstone, to old Chaucer. He says:
 Look who that is most vertuous alway Prive and apert, and most entendeth ay, To do the gentil dedes that he can.
 And take him for the greatest Gentil-
 man."
 How. next to produce gentlemen; the stock no doubt counts heavily, but train ing Is much. Among the Persians at the time of Cyrus, the boys were taught to ride, to speak the truth and to draw the bow. That meant manliness, truthfulness, and courage, all essential to the character of a gentleman. The knights of chlvalry who were the gentlemen of their time, ad- ded the duty of rescuing the oppressed and distressed, and this completed the ideal, by teaching unselfishness and ser vice. If a boy is taught to be always self-respeeting, courageous. and truthful and invariably considerate not outwardly, but as the expression of true kindliness of spirit, of the rights and feelings of others, he will grow up. whether he be rich or poor. professional man, or laborer. to have the right to claim not by any artificial distinction, but in his own right. with all that 1t implies ''the grand old name of gentleman"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-28
Work for the Leuislature.

The Montgomery Journal thinks the , next legislature will be overburdened with business. It names the subjects that will demand treatment, as fol- lows: ' 1. The lengthening of the legisla- tive term.
 ?. The relief of the overburdened courts.
 g. The surplus in the treasury, the schools and the veterans.
 l. The extension of the back-tax law.
 3. Protection of human life.
 These are not all the subjects that need treatment. for there are at least five more of deep and wide importance. These are: .. I. A new uniform school book con tract.
 ?. Repeal of the cumulative feature of the poll tax. s* 3. Local taxation for public schools,
 4. The fee problem.
 5. Care of county convicts. e Here are ten subjects, and the rate question, which is always with us, Is not included. The legislature is linn | tied to fifty days, and it is plain that its members must come well prepared to do business rapidly if the work in sight is to be disposed of, and the state put on footing to go four years with out additional legislation.
 The question of quadrennial legisla- x lures is itself on trial, and the state < is by no emans a unit in favor of the { present constitutional provision Were an amendemnt submitted providing for biennial terms it would doubtless be ' accepted at the polls. Perhaps the best Z way to render the constitution of 1901 acceptable and even popular is to sub init amendments freely thus giving the people opportunities to pass upon its provisions and to bring it up to the present needs of the state
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-28
REGIS ESSIONAL.

By Rudyard Kipling. God our fathers, known of old
 Lord of our far-fung battle line Beneath whose awful hand we hold
 Dominion over palm and pine; Lord God of Hosts be with us yet, Lest we forget, lest we forget. The tumult and shouting dies
 The captains and the kings depart Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
 A humble and .contrite heart. Lord God of Hosts be with us yet, Lest we forget, lest We forget! Far called our navles melt away
 On dune and headlands sinks the fire. So. all our pomp of yesterday
 Is one with Nineveh and Tyre, Judge of the nations, spare us yet. Lest we forget. lest we forget. If drunk with the sight of power. we loose
 Wild tongues that hove not Thee in
 awe
 Such boosting as the Gentiles use,
 Or lesser breeds without the law Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet. Lest we forget. lest we forget. For heather hear that puts her trust
 Tn rocking tube and iron shard- All valiant dust that builds on dust And guarding, calls not Thee to Euard, For frailties boast, and foolish word, Thy mercy on Thy people. Lord! Amen.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-28
American Cotton.

Some country always is engaged In disputing the supremacy of American cotton. but no country has ever suc- ceeded in even endangering our posi- tion in the commercial world. Just now Argentina says she has an i'm mense cotton zone, embracing 375,000 square miles, but her zone is far from Buenos Ayres, with which it has no connection with railroads. Japan, too, says she can grow all the cotton she needs in Corea, and she is preparing to do it. If any one can, the Jap can, but it's Corean experiment remains to be tested. Corea lies well up north. Scarcely any of it is south of the thirty-fifth latitude, and in this coun- try not much cotton is grown above that latitude. The spinners of Lanca- shire are also trying to grow cotton in West Africa, and the Germans also have African dreams.
 But none of these attempts have thus far endangered the control of the commercial crop of this country. It has. however, been all along believed that cotton at high ylevel-at ten cents or more-would lead to the cul- tivation of cotton in other countries. The desire to do so is ever present among European consumers and grow CTS here and there in warm districts, but always some obstacles appear to defeat all plans in British Africa or German Africa or wherever else ef- forts have been made to grow cotton.
 The present production of cotton in this country barely suffices to meet the worlds needs. As those needs are in- creased the production of this country must be increased if we are to retain our supremacy in the commercial world. We have the soil the climate, the transportation facilities and the area, and all we lack is an adequate labor supply. and that will be within reach if New Orleans becomes one of the big immigration depots of the country. X
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-28
From the Washington Post

From the Washington Post.
 @ HERE has been recently revival IVY of the time-worn discussion as to exactly what is covered by the l word gentleman.
 In England, where social rank and
 precedence is fixed by law, a gentleman
 has recognized legal status. which is limited to certain occupations. In re- cent lawsuit in London, where a school
 master sued for the recovery of fees al lowed a gentleman, while it was agreed E in the course of the argument that Black
 stones definition of a gentleman as "one who bears coat armor' was obsolete, the judge held that the schoolmaster did not rank as a gentleman. He said in his
 opinion: ''No schoolmaster must think ! that he Is insuHed: that he is to be no gentleman In fact. He is only to be no gentleman in law" So, too, in England barrister is a gentleman, but an attorney is not. A parson is gentleman: not so
 doctor. The dividing line there as to oc- cupation seems to be very arbitrary and freakish. Land owners not in trade are
 let in, and so are brewers and bankers,
 but ordinary tradesmen never.
 1 It was one of the fortunate results of
 our separation from the mother country that We did away with such artificial dis tinctions and established conditions un-
 der which every man who, by education, | occupation, or income, holds a position above menial service may be regarded as | a gentleman. In the true sense of the | word, even that should not bar a man out, for wl.at we want Is gentlemen in fact. and not gentlemen in law An early significance of the word was one
 who was exempt from manual labor as shown by the old lines
 When Adam dolve. and Eve span, | Who was then the gentleman"
 Then it was sometimes said to be equivalent to man of honor man of honor being one who might cheat his
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-28
From the New York Mail.

From the New York Mail.
 N URRENT manifestations of inter
 ". est in peasant customs, peasant ~ costumes, peasant industries arc not the mere reaction of the jaded or so- phisticated urban intelligence against it's own environment They represent some thing better than the ennu of the modern Horace. longing for his Sabine farm. President Frost of Berea College. coined several years ago a description of the mountain populations of the south that embalms the philosophy of the modern peasant cult. He called these Appalach- ian Americans our 'contemporaneous an cestors.'' which implied that the interest we feel in remoter districts has the his- tcrical curiosity rather than mere fad as its foundation.
 Athens has been learning as one or our consuls reported a while ago. that the Thessalian peasants, evicted rom their mountain glens by the disastrous result of the Greco-Turkish war, are its own "contemporaneous ancestors. The embroidery on tho skirts of the mountain women's dresses discloses influences that record every step in Thessalian history back to the epic period. These elaborate dress borders repeat the design of the cypress, emblem of Turkish domination: the Byzantine double eagle. which figures in the insignia of three continental em- pires: the characteristic forms of vene- tan lace, the patterns found on Pompeian vases, the carvings on the prehistoric pal ace at Orchomenos, even the mural dec orations of the Mycenean and Cretan pal aces which were contemporary with Hom- eric Greece. Thus the humble but pie turesoue garments of these women record the Theesalian story-Turkish conquest.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-28
Chanqe of Opinion.

Tt is a rather peculiar fact that after sixty citizens of Fairview petitioned the judge of probate of Jefferson county ask ing for an election on the incorporation of the place that only nineteen votes were cast favoring the proposition" said citizen of Fairvew yesterday.
 "It was generally understood before the election that a large majority of the citizens favored the incorporation and it was believed even on the morning of the election that the incorporation would re- ceive a good majority of votes.
 Everyone seems to be surprised at the result since 1t was generally believed that at least the sixty petitioners desired the incorporation"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-28
PLANTING GARDEN JULY 4.

I. M, Angel in Garden Magazine.
 Many would-be gardeners who change their place of residence about the end of June miss the delights of the garden be- cause they fear 1t Is too late in the sea- son to make the effort. But l have had great success in the vegetable patch when not a thing was planted before the Fourth of July. These kinds of vegetables have more than paid for the risk of late plant ing; cucumbers. squash. carrots corn. lettuce, bush limas. pole string beans, parsley, radishes and WAX beans. Others that give fairly good results are pole limas, tomatoes. potatoes beets and kohlrabi