davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-11-28
Tomorrow is the day we eat.
SPOT STRANGERS BY HAIR.

From the New York Press.
 "There is always one sure way to tell when a man is a visitor in the city, said the talkative barber, "and that is by his back hair. Every now and then d stranger drops in here. and during the conversation willie I am shaving him, l say to him, You're a stranger in town, are you not? And then he looks up in a surprised kind of fashion and says, Yes, but how did you know?' And then I tell him 1 knew it by the way his back hair Is cut.
 You see, all New York barbers use the clippers on q mans back hair and shape it down his neck The old fashion of rounding off the hair and shaving the neck went out of style long ago. But it doesn't seem to have gone out of date in the west and south yet, Even in big cities like Philadelphia and Baltimore and Washington the barbers still shave the back of their customers necks. So Tn ninety-nine cases out of hundred, when you see a man with the back of his neck shaved clean no matter how spruce his clothes are, you may know he doesn't belong mn New York;"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-11-28
Col. Goruas' Record.

It is reported that the President has decided, after personally inspecting the work done at the isthmus, to ap. point Col. W. c. Gorgas d member of the Isthmian canal commission. Ala bama is complimented by this appoint ment, for Colonel Gorgas is an Ala bamian. His mother is the librarian at the university, and good part of Colonel Gorgas life was spent in this state.
 dent by his excellent work at the isthmus. In a comparatively short period he succeeded in driving out the disease.carrying mosquito from tie canal zone, and in that way he has stamped out both yellow fever and malaria, those twin plaques of the tropics in the Americas. The reports show that not a single native of this 
 miles wide and forty miles long, in the last three months. In October but two whites died Colonel Gorgas is now battling to cut down the death rate that springs from pneumonia, and when he has accomplished that task he will have made the zone as good a place from a health point of view as any other strip in the western world. He is chief sanitary officer at the isthmus, and in all the changes that have oc- cured there he has never failed to gain confidence and support in that capacity. His education and inclina- tons hold him to the medical profes. sion, and his success in sanitation at the isthmus makes him successful canal digger as well, for canal could not well be dug by men afflicted with yellow fever or, malaria.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-11-28
WONDERS OF ToyLAND.
Pink Cats and Orange Dogs Leave
 Much to Imagination.
.om the Chicago Evening Post

From the Chicago Evening Post. l The purple COW may be a thing of the
 future, but the cat with the salmon pink ears has arrived. Perhaps you never
 hope to see one," but you can't help | yourself if you venture into the top de- l partments of the stores. The impression | ists, not content with pictures of women l nine feet high with orange hair and pink eyes, sitting upon purple grass and 1 holding green roses, have invaded the l domain of the children. and they have | run riot So may the, children when they | see the alleged playthings which are be- | ing shown in the stores in these days of | the good year 1906.
 l The cat with the salmon pink ears is | not lonesome It has for companion a | bull dog of massive build painted burnt | orange. A green horse with a wonderful red tail but only two legs stands-or does | its best to stand-near by.
 Leave something to, the imagination" | is the motto which guided the makers of | these toys and it has been lived up to | as few mottos ever are. No unprejudiced | on-looker can say the imagination has | been sighted in connection with these | wooden toys.
 l It was a peasant in the Black Forest | who first made the toys. He knew no | more of the impressionists than he did of | l cut from a block of wood q few play I things for his little boys and girls who | were his. They have been dead for years, | but before they died they made the same kind of toys for the little boys and girls | who were theirs.
 Down in Berlin and Hamburg great fac | tories were built where playthings of the | most wonderful kind were made for little
 boys and girls who lived in homes not at | all like the huts of the Black Forest. Each year these sent out toys more deli- | cate more intricate.
 And now, perhaps because the limit of | delicacy and intricacy had been reached. | or perhaps because the simple life'' per vades all things. the fad of the hour in | toyland is the heavy wooden toy. with which the peasant children have played i for generations.
 The first of these toys were imported, but now they are made in this country. | craftsmans guilds having stood sponsor | for them. as being the most approved of playthfngs
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-11-28

England Public opinion rose up in that free trade country demanding the crushing of the trust organized to crush competition. No one went into the courts to do it. No one denounced on the stump massed and predatory wealth, but all refused to buy trust soap. That did it. But that would not be possible in this Dingleyized coun- try. A soap trust could be organized behind our sacred tariff wall as the tobacco trust or the beef trust or the steel trust have been, and the people are helpless. In Free trade England buyers could order soap made n France, Belgium or Germany, and in this way the soap trust saw ruin be- fore it, and it was speedily and utterly dissolved. We submit 10 the robberies of the trusts simply because our noble tariff leaves us helpless against them. England has no Dingley tariff Hence the difference in the handling of trusts.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-11-28
Boycotting a British Trust.

Ten of the leading Soap plants in Great Britain were consolidated along American trust lines, thus forming an apparently inyincibe trust capitalized at $6O, 100000. It was to be a genuine monopoly trust of the American sort, for the first thing it did was to reduce the pound package to fifteen ounces. It began, too, to crush out weaker rivals, to corner raw materials, and to compel retailers to handle trust soap only. It had studied methods that Americans submit to without a mur. mur, and it felt confident that it, too, could stifle competition, and thus have the soap trade of all England at It's fingers ends to be manipulated as to it .seemeth best.
 But England is not America. Eng. ]ishmen will not stand still to Se feeced as Americans will. We indulge in a good deal of loud talk and some prosecution, but we go right on buying trust goods on trust terms. Not so m
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-11-28
SECRET OF PICKING A SAFE LOCK

From the Louisville Courier-Journal,
 "Milner James was the most artistic safe breaker in the business said Le- coz. the detective. "He is dead now. He opened in his time more than 700 safes without tools or unpowder-solely by working out the combination with his fingers.
 Tt took me year. he once said, to learn the trick of picking combinations. I studied all the locks there were, and l had three safes of different makes to practice one. The ear is the most impor- tapt factor in my method, and it must be held tight against the safe door on a line with the tumblers. When the knob of the lock is turned slowly and one of the tumbers reaches the notch corre- spending to the first number of the com binaton, the tumbler will fall with a little click. Care must be taken not to displace this tumbler. You keep on try ing the knob back and forth gently till each of the tumblers drops. Then the door opens. Hardly one man in thou sand has an ear delicate enough for this work, and to be a success at it you've got to give up tobacco and alcohol.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-11-28
NEW STYLES IN GAMES.
"Piggery" Not So Easy as It Seems.
 Electrical Amusement.
From the New York Evening Mail

From the New York Evening Mail.
 There is small doubt that the game man has been decidedly busy since last season, for there is no end of fascinat- ing new games that are warranted to amuse children of all ages, the grown ups as well as the small fry,
 "Piggery" is the latest bit of foolish ness that is we'll calculated to enliven long winter evenings and to furnish un- limited fun.
 little house of wood that looks not unlike Chinese pagoda is approached on the four sides by ladder-like eontrivances fitted with tiny grooves. Four wooden pigs, each furnished with a spring that moves it's legs in a very Jerky fashion, climb the ladders by means of little cards attached to the spring. The point of the game is to get one pig in the house first. It is not so easy as it seems, for piggy s way Is a most uncertain one and he is liable to back unexpectedly half way down the ladder just as he seems to be peacefully entering the door
 Electricity plays part in children games as well as. in everything else in this electrical age.
 A game of electrical questions and an swers is played with large cards, on half of which are printed the questions, on the other half the answers. The cards are perforated and fit over disc on which are a number of steel pegs, one for each question and answer. Attached to the disc is a small battery with posi- tive and a negative cord tipped with steel In asking a question the peg un- derneath is touched with one of the steel-tipped cords, while the other in searching for the answer touches the pegs In the answer card until the right one Is reached, when there is a buzzing sound made with miniature "buzzer.' Connonade is warranted to furnish amusement by means of little wooden cannon mounted on wall opposite a for midable looking castle wall. Balls are pro- iected from tho cannon which contains spring, and the players score depends on the part of the castle that he hits, the best shot striking d swinging piece that throws open the. front doors.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-11-28

when an acquaintance of mine made large sum of money-s30, O00-and it was all due to a common little hotel toothpck. It was over three years ago when my friend was dining at this hotel, and after he had left the restaurant he directed his steps toward Broadway. He had walked scarcely block when his tooth began to ache. A particle of food had wedged firmly between two of his teeth, and finding that he was without a toothpick he started back to the hotel to get one. When leaving the hotel the second time he overheard John w. Gates remark to a friend that he felt positive that Steel common would be selling at 10 before the end of the summer Now, my friend was not well posted on the steel market, but knowing that it was Gates who made the remark and also the great weight his word carried in such matters he de- cided to take advantage of the tip and it did not take him long to place his or der with a broker to sell 1000 shares of steel at 42 Well, everybody knows what Steel did in the summer of 1904. going down below 9. but my friend ordered his trade to be closed around 10. and he cleaned up a profit of $30,000. which he never would have made had 1t not been for the little toothpck.'
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-11-28
A Wide Rance.

q often wonder at Captain Frank T.. O'Brien's memory and his wide infornla" tion," said a friend of the captain yes terday. "I often am thrown with Cap tain Bren at the theatre, and he know' the history of all actors and actresses, of the plays in which they have appeared and frequently he knows the members of their families and their family h'S- tores
 "I was struck recently by his extensive knowledge. We were at the Gayety the- atre during the act of the Busch-DeNere trio in which several Irish songs are sung, and a number of beautiful scenes of Ireland are thrown on the canvas, Captain O'Brien knew every one of them, and could call the name of the place from which every picture was taken.
 Captain O'Brien is fortunate in having a wonderful memory for people and things he has travelled extensively, and he has known a world of people who were worth knowing-people whose names are now as sured history. He knows little stories about people, their eccentricities and al- ways has something amusing to tell about most men and women of prominence"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-11-28
GOOD TIMES IN NEW ZEALAND.
Industrial Peace There Has Brought Prosperity and Happiness to All.

Charles F. Russell in Everybody's Nigga
 zine
 For thirteen years New Zealand has known industrial peace; the population has grown more, rapidly than at any time since the days of pioneer settlers; the amounts of business transacted. of commodities manufactured of crops pro- duced, have eclipsed all records; the credit of the colony has never been so good; the bankruptcies have never been so few; nothing approaching the wealth, progress and prosperity of the last thir- teen years has been known since this beautiful country was discovered by white men.
 That is not all. Manufacturers, whole sale and retail merchants, employers great and small have again and again assured me that if they had unlimited power they would not change the pres ent system; it suits them we'll enough, labor laws and all, arbitration, minimum wage, eight hours, all the rest of 1t; they want no change. They know now just what their wage scale will be for two years ahead, they know that what they pay all their competitors must pay; they know their business will not be plagued with strikes. Contracts can be made and bids submitted with perfect confidence Hence the old animosities between en- ployer and employed fade out. the idea of a community of interest begins to appear with the idea of equality and fel- lowship. No capital has been driven from the country, no industry has been crip- pied nor injured. Not long before l reached New Zealand the leading com mercial association of the colony had held It's annual meeting in Christ church and manufacturers and merchants had testi- fled there, voluntarily and without a dis senting voice, to the peace, welfare and prosperity that the dreamers had brought to them as to all New Zealand.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-11-28
WAITING FOR THE STORM.

Croker seems absolutely convinced that MT. Cochran is a chevalier dindustrie of the most raffish and voracious type. MT. Cochran, on the other hand, pro- ceeds to bawl aloud to the effect that an indictment by Croker is certificate os virtue. He also adds, in the course of supplementary rumble, that the only way to appraise a public man with any thing like accuracy is by the standard of his public utterances. All of which leaves us as completely in the dark as we were at the outset; for if MT. Crokers accusations lack something in the matter of detail and definition, MT. Cockran's reference to his public utterances casts us helpless upon the bosom of a raging and uncharted sea of language, the shores of which no mariner may hope to touch within an ordinary lifetime. It is mighty interesting, to be sure. MT. Croker has the air of one who could fairly burgeon with specification if only he were scientifically watered. Mr. Cock ran suggests with great force the idea that if pressed too far he might throw off the naughty reserve which now en- velops him as though it were kingly robe, and then release torrent of vo ciferation calculated to submerge the very 1oftiest surfaces for twenty miles around. Certainly, the generation will have just cause for umbrage should nothing come of a perihelon so opulent in promise.
 Meanwhile we can only wait with such prayerful patience we can summon to our aid, buoyed and sustained by the thought that any passing incident may tap the fount of revelation.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-11-28
STOVES IN THE SHOES.

From the Philadelphia Record
 People who are troubled with cold feet may take heart. In Germany there has been patented contrivance described as a ''heatable shoe"
 The heel is hollowed out. and in this hol- low is a receptacle for glowing sub- stance similar to that used in Japanese hand warmers. Between the soles, imbed- ded in asbestos covers, is rubber bag which is filled with water
 The heating substance in the shoe keeps the water warm, and it cireulates while the wearer is walking, thus imparting a pleasant warmth to the foot A small safety valve is provided, so that the bag cannot burst.
 The warmth given by the sole never rises above 70 degrees Fahrenheit. and will last about eight hours. It is claimed that the sole is not unreasonably thick, being only slightly thicker than that of wet weather shoe.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-11-28
From the New York Sun.


 HE Hon B1urts s"a ,ss.,a~ c09san nt has 'n
 his reply to, certain vulgar and injurious insinuations emanating from his quondam boss and patron, the Hon. Rich ard Croker, now, residing somewhere abroad-Ireland or England, we are not quite sure. The Hon. Bourke Cochran smites his resounding brisket with that impressive thump which has done such execution in the past, and hurls back at the Hon. Richard Croktr defiance which, Nor reckless and indomitable val or, has never yet been equalled or even approached by the most tempestuous and unbridled eruption of the Hon. Ariosto Acapulco Wiley of Alabama or the Hon. Thetus Wilrette Sims of Tennessee. All of which is highly impressive and pie turesque, though ii leaves us to grope for further information among the sor- did, neglected and inconsiderable facts of the melodrama.
 What the plain people really want to know, however, is the true relation of Croker and Cochran. With that knowl- edge well in hand, they will be enabled 
 sations and to measure the significance of Cocl<ran's noble and furious retort As between the malignant innuendoes of the former and the tempestuous if vague ebullitions of the latter, the ordi- nary, simple and plain searcher for the light feels very much like one who plays a complicated but not particularly fruit full game of blind mans bluff. MT.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-11-28
Date of the Primary

The shrievalty race, together with the state election, covered ten months of the calendar year, and the people desire a rest from politics, and their desire is natural, reasonable and com- mendable. There is no reason what ever for bringing a municipal cam paign upon this city this winter-none whatever If all would consider the primary the real election-for that k what it is-it would not be called until a late day in April. The ratification of the primary selections would follow i'll May, and In that way the annoyances of long campaign would be avoided, and no harm would be done, for the subject would be discussed in the meanwhile in a mild manner without becoming at any times acute or excit- ing.
 But an April primary is especially desirable next year. because the legis- lature will sit until some day in March. and it may make laws that will ma terially change the municipal situation here. Time in which to digest the possible laws is needed before the city selects officers for the ensuing two years. An April primary would there- fore fit the case excellently, and there is no reason whatever for speedier actinn
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-11-28
A Great Cathedral.

"All good architectural says Ruskin, lis the expression of national life and character. it is the work of good and be- leving men.'
 The new cathedral of the Sacred Heart, just completed in Richmond, Va, and which will be consecrated tomorrow, is an complication of the truth of Rusk'n' s words. In size, in design, in the mate rials used and location chosen, the church stands equal to anything of it's nature in the country. The description given by the architect, Joseph F. Mcclure of New York, will convey some faint idea of it's size and magnificance:
 "The cathedral is a domed and porti- coed structure in the Italian Renaissance style. The basement is of Virginia granite, the superstructure of Indiana limestone, with roof of copper and unglazed green tile. The exterior dimensions are as follows:
 Extreme length, 206 feet; extreme width, IA feet; height to ridge of maln roof, 7l feet: height of tower IA feet, height to top of cross on dome, IA feeg from ground
 "On plan the church is in form of 8 Latin cross. Passing up the exterior ramps and steps, and through the portie9, whose Corinthian columns are 32 feet high, the vestibue Is entered. On either side of the vestibule are the baptistry and the stair tower. Crossing the .port- co the church Is entered. This consists of nave aisles, transepts and apse. over tba of tra ts placed the dome.
 "The aisles are carried around the sanc- tuary to form an ambulatory (walkway), a feature not uncommon in some of the churches of Europe, but very rare n America The sanctuary is separated from the ambulatory by elaborate wrought-iron grill-work. At the ends of the transepts are the semi-octagonal chapels. and additional chapels opening on the ases and the ambulatory.
 "The sanctuary itself is one of the largest in America GAO feet by 60 feeO and, being raised four steps above the audi torium of the cathedral, will afford ample space for the imposing ceremonial of the Catholic church in full view of all tine congregation.
 "The clerestory arches are carried lpon monolithic marble columns IS feet high, set upon 4-foot marble base. The walls are wainscoted in marble, and the pillars are mosaic and terrazza. The ceiling is vaulted an deeply paneled and al the intersection of nave and transepts rises into the dome, giving a clear height of 96 feet"
 This great cathedral will be consecsatod tomorrow. November 29. Cardinal Gib- bons will offcate. The papa1 delegates and many great dignitaries of the church will be present, including the Right Rev. F. P. Allen, bishop of Mobile. The entire cost of the cathedral and all the furnish ings represent an outlay of about SS00,c9o, donated by Thomas F. Ryan.
 The grand organ was specially designed to correspond with the architectural style of the building, and is one of the largest in the country.
 Everything in conn sction with the ca thedral, inside and outside, is significant of the spirit which the Catholic church expresses in the phrase, "Ad majoram Del gloriam'-to the greater glory of God.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-11-28
SimpIiiied Spelling in Congress.

The judicial wing of the government speedily repudiated the Carnegie scheme of spelling, and the advanced guard of Congress is doing likewise. The subcommittee of the House com- mttee on appropriations is on the spot, and when it called upon Public Printer Stillings for the book of estimates tor the net fiscal year, it got the estimates in true Carnegie style and fashion.
 This raised an issue. The book of estimates thus called for is congress sional document prepared by and foc the use of Congress. Congress is the judge of its own spelling as well as of It's own members. No one is author ized to say how it shall spell, even though he be a multi-milllonaire or a president. MT. Stillngs will have to explain why he thrust a Carnegieized public document upon Congress- Who told him to do it? What was the cost of this example of freak spelling?
 The public printer not only mutil- ated the language, but he also attempt ed to dictate to Congress. MT. Stillings' defense is awaited with interest. If the other end of "the avenue" is at. tempting to say how Congress shall spell, an issue has indeed been raised that goes to the foundation of the gov ernment at least. The issue is upon us, and the country awaits it's develop ing features with breathless interest.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-11-28

be able to satisfy a discriminating class of customers without so much vexation of mind and consequent physical exertion to get pure food. The matter of colorins and adulteration in condiments and canned goods had pretty well reached the limit The law is timely and can be made to work great good to many people, but particularly 10 consumers