davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-13
A FAITHFUL CAPTAIN

Earth, with Gods bright sky for a roof In the midst of this simple ser vice, a knot of horsemen rode up. It was easy to recognize my old class mate. Walter Taylor. the author of that noble book. -Four Years With Lee" In the midst of this cavaleade was the chief, mounted on splendid gray, and riding with careless ease and grace worthy of the glorious fame of his father, Light Horse Harry of the Revo- lution. He had not the white beard and silver locks of the days after Gettysburg, His irongray moustache and ruddy, smooth shaven face pointed to the we'll preserved man of 52. l never saw more superb form.
 He rode with his staff straight up to the regiment to whom I Was preach ing; looked around for moment;l ar once took in the situation and I can see him now, as he draws up Travel er," lifts his hand, reverently uncovers his head and then quickly moves on to another part of the field
 Some two years later when he was facing Meade on the Rapidan. I met him at my old home, Mont Peloso,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-13

fees and costs; and fines and costs are the only source of revenue available to carry on the government Bonds are foated and schoolhouse built, The teacher is called before the city council for examination. Do you teach that the earth is round or flatss' queries the mayor. and the teacher, sorely in need of work says: (Which do you want me to teaeh2" The mayors own views not being very clear on the subject, he coh- suits the aldermen who unhestatingy declare that as much of the earth as they have seen was flat and they had no req son to think it was round anywhere else. If the teacher wants to job he had bet ter not question such knowledge.
 People will ask how such a man as He had never been a day to school He had passed the best part of his life scratching the surface among the stumps on his piney land.> He traded, and twisted and turned, until one day a man came along and found coal or iron under that barren surface and MT. Jake became a rich man, lived in a fine house and became prominent citizen. The aldermen also came in for a little of the blessing which the discovery of the metal or mineral deposits brought, and were also pprominent citizens and suitable per- sons to examine school teachers and pass city ordinances. The mayor is the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-13

TNHE Thirty Years War" caused the
 ancestor of these boys to leave Ger
 \ many and settle in America. The Puritans left England because the law of the realm allowed subject of the King to worship God after forms and ceremonies the Puritans did not approve, and so they came over here and set LID a theocracy and would not let Quaker or Baptist worship God at all. Yet your American of average intelli- gence will tell you the mission of the Purtans was to set up in New England "a government that allows a man to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience" Rufus Choates eoquence, beginning "There was state without King and a church without "a bishop" is one of the finest specimens )of hyperbole in the language.
 But the Landis family left Germany be- cause it was In the army only that man could worship God at all. The land was devasted from the Baltic to the Rhine and Catholic andfLutheran prae- ticed the gospel that the one way to serve God was to slay their fellow men. Some years ago the Hon. Boutell of Chl- caeo delivered a lecture on GustaVus Adolphus in this town that contained more sorts of impossible historical cock and-bull-ism than anything l had ever before read. I am sure the Hon Boutell never read Schiller, or he would not have pictured the ''Lion of the North as the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-13
BY F. I. MONKS

hack takes him there. No self-respeetng man is going to tramp the streets of a city shaking hands with everyone who has a vote and soliciting that vote. No candidate who appeals to the prejudiees or passions of any element is fit to hold an office for the public good. So long as these conditions exist the men who would fill the office of Mayor or al- dermen with credit to themselves and profit 10 the community will not enter the ranks in competition with men who play politics." which translated means pulling the wool over peoples eyes.
 When the people come to learn that mu- nlcipal ordinances touch them more close ly in their lives and their homes than do the acts of Congress: that the Mayor of a town is d man of more local importance than the President; that police and fro protection is as essential as protection from the Japanese, they will begin to think some previous experience or knoWi- edge of municipal business is required by the men seeking the position of general manager and department managers in the big municipal store. One well qualified and well paid man. holding the reins of all the offices in his hands; a man re- moved from the influences of party eabal and not the nominee of the Jake or the Josh ticket; municipal Napoleon, if such were possible is the remedy for municipal rottenness.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-13

possible to find suitable men to fill and discharge the duties of municipal offices.
 But the first thing to do is to consider municipal government as 1t is. certain number of people living inside certain area decide to incorporate for the pur- pose of levylng taxes to build a school. The citizens of this new municipal cor poration call an election for mayor and certain number of aldermen to whom the control of the corporations affairs thing dear to the peoples heart there must always be more candidates than there are offices. There must be win ners and losers: every man goes in to win, and to win he leaves nothing un- done. The eventful day of election ar rives in Bingville and excitement is at fever heat The Jakes are opposed to the Joshes; there's the Jake ticket and the Josh ticket. The question is, shall the schoolhouse be on the hill or in the hollow? Shall eggs be cracked at the little end or the big end? Afterl day of turmoil and excitement, duringl which 109 votes were cast, the Jake ticket wins and Jake is mayor To the victors belong the spells, Jake supporter is made town marshal, his salary to be paid in fees.
 Municipal ordinances follow in quick succession. Unless there's some ordl- nance there can be no violation, and un- les there's a violation there can be no
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-13
The End of the Play.

By William Makepeace Thackeray. The play is done-the curtain drops,
 Slow falling to the prompter's bell; moment yet the actor stops,
 And looks around, to say farewell It is an irksome word and task;
 And, when he's laugh'd and said his say, He shows, as he removes the mask,
 A face that's anything but gay. one word. ere yet the evening ends;
 Let's close it with parting rhyme, And pledge a hand to all young friends,
 As fits the merry Christmas time; On lifes wide scene you, too, nave parts' That fate ere long shall bid you play; Good-night.-wit honest gentle hearts
 A kindly greeting go alway' Cood-night.--rd say the @lefs, the joys,
 Just hnted in this mimic page. The trlnmphs and defeats of boys,
 Are but repeated in our age; I'd say your woes were not less keen,
 Your hopes more vain, than those or
 men,
 our bangs or pleasures of fifteen
 At forty-hve played Der again I'd say we suffer and we strive
 Not less nor more as men than boys, With grizzled boards at forty-.Ve, AS erst at twelve in corduroys, Anu if in time of sacred youth.
 We learn'd at home to love and pray. Pray Heaven that carly love and truth May never wholly pass away And in the world. IS in the school.
 I'd say how fate may change and shift 1rI,e prize be sometimes with the fool The race not always to the swift; The strong may yield. the good may fall, The great man be vulgar clown, The brav.r.Se lifted over all,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-13

government, or the relations which exist between private, quasi and municipal cor porations? The ignorance of the Mayor and aldermen of these subjects is no bar to their fitness for office if they are other wise good fellows for whom we can't refuse to cast vote when asked to do so. and when refusal means to make 8 lifetime enemy.
 It is a grand thing to live in city where, no matter who Is Mayor or who are aldermen, or how much the individual knowledge of each or the aggregate knowledge of all amounts to. the business men will bring prosperity fin spite of op- position or ignorance. When q radical member in the house of commons sup ported his advocacy of some measure or reform by stating that the plan he pro- posed met with success in the United States, MT. Gladstone replied by stating that the United States prospered in spite of legislation rather than as result of it. It is the same with some cities. The Mayor and aldermen might be given a 12- months leave of absence with no differ enee to the citizens except the loss of the little fun provided at the meetings.
 The way that municipal campaigns are conducted Is not calculated to bring out the best men as candidates for office, The citizen who has not patriotism enough to go to the polls unless taken there in a hack is going to vote for the man whose
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-13

which was near his camp. Two Of his nieees were then guests in our house. and there In the social circle, the mighty "Belona's Bridegroom" unbent himself. and showed the style and manners of the quiet, unpretending gentleman
 His great lieutenant. stonewall Jackson, though of widely different mould, was yet man of genuine humility. My read ing of secular history has discovered to me only one man--Julius Caesar-who was almost equally distinguished as war rior statesman, scholar. orator and writer If the advanced" critics would hold their tongues l might find a parallel in Moses Caesars '.Veni, vidi, yiei'-I came, l saw, l eonauered-has become classic; but the vain man has managed to put every one of his verbs Into the first person, singular-'I. I. l." Com pare Jackson's humility in the now elas- sic report: God blessed our arms with victory at McDowell yesterday" Though he said: Lee Is a phenomenon. He is the only man I would follow bindfolded," !" vet, when, after his fall at Chaneellors- vile, he received Lees note congratulat-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-13

owned some 15OO slaves, born in his house and bought with his money. Job per feet and upright man. who feared God and hated evil, was a slave owner; and our centurion, to whose faith Christ pays the very highest tribute. was no better than Abraham and Job. Uncle Toms Cabin was not yet.
 The eenturian was conspicuous for his humility. Military life is not favorable to the development of this virtue Alex ander, Caesar, Frederick the Great and Napoleon were all men of portentous van ity and overweening self-asserton.
 Gen. R. E. Lee was remarkable for his reverential humility. Can l ever forget the first time I saw him? Wise with just 1880 fighting men, had made a stand against some 5000 under Rose- crans, one of the ablest of the Fed eral commanders. The regiment with which I was quartered was bivouacked on the top of Sewell mountain. It was calm, quiet Sunday afternoon. The enemy's tents were in full sight from the brow of the mountain The men were standing, sitting, stooping, lolling in the grass, and l was telling them the story of the cross. l had no pulpit. l stood on my Mother
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-13

ing sessions of the New York legisla- ture Fields maintained in Albany fine residence known as the House of Mirth, wherein members were welcome and the companys interest protected. The Mutual paid all the bills.
 The Yellow Dog was concealed Tn the supply kennel and fed on fictitious ana padded bills for printing and station cry. The printing firm of l.. w. Law rance, in the Mutual building, was complacently in the game, and through it's padded bills Fields secured at least $l0O,O00 every year for his corruption fund, with knowledge of the companys s officers. If Lawrence printed 300 copies of an annual report bill for l0oo copies was passed by Fields to snow on the records, while he took half the amount paid to maintain his House Of Mirth and to smooth down hostile 1n- terests in many quarters.
 The New York Life Insurance com pany's "YelloW Dog" ate up $l,54i,- 3S2 Al in twelve years. Andrew Hamil- ton. prince of lobbyists and secret ma nipulator, fed the dog with money poured out to him by the late John A. Mccall, former president of the com
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-13

general manager, and the aldermen tho department managers of the firm of Bing- vile & Co.,, with a capital stock con sisting of the liberty and property of 800 citizens These are the experts, the men of knowledge, gained by training and experience that Bingville expects to man. age it's business profitably.
 Occasionally, although not often, a man is to be met with who thinks he is not intelligent enough to preach the word of God, but no man has ever been found too stupid to be an alderman. .Wanted-A Mayor and 10 aldermen for a city of near ly 75,00O inhabitants. No previous eXper- fence required" That last clause does the trick. "No previous experience required.' Just as easy as selling a cake of soap and a teaspoon for a nickel. or tacl1ing signs on fence rails. No previous experi- ence required. A railroad company or a steamship company wants a general man. ager and 10 managers for its departments, freight passenger traffic etc. No pre- vious experience required? Try 1t, ye inexperienced. No. the inexperienced are required for general managers and de- partment managers in municipal corpora tions. What does it matter how little an alderman knows about sanitation sewer age or water supply? The city engineer is paid to know that, and he ought to know it. Why should a Mayor be eXpuected to know anything about the science of
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-13

other secret and illegitimate schemes for corporation profit.
 The first of these yellow dog funds brought to light was that of the Equit- able Life Assurance society.
 To conceal the payments to politicians, strikers, legislators and campaign funds, the Equitable adopted a scheme of hiding them through a subsidiary organization, the Mercantile Trust company Thomas D. Jordan, for many years comptroller of the society, was custodian of the yellow dog. When he made shady payments the trust company would supply the money and charge it up to this U. w. A. Ac- count No. g. the initials being those of President Alexander.
 This account was started in 1898 and In the seven years that elapsed up to the time of the exposure it amounted to the enormous sum of s1,794172.7S
 In the Mutual Life Insurance com pany the Yellow Dog fund was handled differently. It's custodian was Andrew C. Fields, nomnally head of the com pany's supply department, but In real ity it's chief lobbyist, legislative ma nipulator and secret paymaster. Dur
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-13
POEMS YOU OUGHT 70 READ

A river ark on the ocean brine, Long I've been tossed like the driven
 foam;
 But now, proud world I'm going home. Goodbye to fattery's fawning face; Ia grandeur with his wise grimace; To upstart wealth's averted eye; To supple office, low and high To crowded halls, to court and street. To frozen hearts and hasting feet; To those who go and those who come; Goodbye, proud worldl I'm going homo. Pm going to my own hearthstone, Bosomed in yon green hills alone A secret nook in pleasant land. Whose groves the frolic fairies planned; Where arches green, the livelong day, Echo the blaekbird's roundelay, And vulgar feet have never trod: A spot that is sacred to thought and Cod. Oh, when l am safe in my sylvan home. l tread on the pride of Greece and Rome {; And when 1 am stretched beneath the
 pine. Where the evening star 90 holy shines, l laugh at the lore and pride of man, At the sophist schools and the learned
 iclan;
 For what are they all, in their high con-
 ceit,
 When man in the bush with God may
 meet?
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-13

"HE Presidents trip down the MIS-
 sissippi river has turned the eyes ! of the nation on the lakes-to-the- gulf deep waterway project The Presl- dents approval does not mean that the improvement will be begun at once, but it may mean that a definite plan looking to the eventual execution of the project will be settled upon so that all the money hereafter appropriated for the improve ment of the Mississippi and It's tributaries may be spent in this general direction, and not wasted in driblets on minor pro- 1ects, many of which will have no connec- tion with the construction of the proposed trunk line from the lakes to the gulf. Since the civil war 1t is estimated that the government has sunk more than S225,- 100000 in the Mississippi and it's more inn portant branches. Yet the results have been far from satisfactory, and the reason is not hard to find. The money has been spent piece meal, and without any definite plan in view.
 The agitation for the improvement was, of course, started in the central west, where the pinch of traffic congestion and high freight rates are felt. The agitation is being carried on with the slogan that River regulation is rate regulation.
 What needs to be driven home to the country at large is the countrywide ef- feet on freight rates that will follow the construction of a great inland water trunk line from the lakes to the gulf such as will be afforded by a 14-foot channel from Chicago to New Orleans,
 Now that the C1foqOO Drainage canal has been built at cost of over $50, ,OO0,0OO, the first link in the lakes-to- -the-gulf deep waterway project is an accomplished fact It is estimated that it will cost in the neighborhood of s32, ,OOO000 to open up a 14-foot waterway from Chicago to the Mississippi river, and to continue a chan nel of this depth theme to the gulf will cost a sum which is variously estimated at from s9OO.00O,0Oo to s50O.OooOo0.
 The engineers who made the survey | for the project, under authority of Con- press estimated that 1t would cost be- tween s25,O00 900 and so. 100000 to construct the channel from Lockport to the Missis- sipni river This channel will connect with the Chicago Drainage canal by lock Tn the dam, which is now under construc- tion bv the sanitary district of Chicago at I,ockport. It will run by way of the Desplaines and Illinois rivers to the mouth of the Illinois, and it is proposed to canal ize the river from Lockport to Utica by nine locks and five new movable dams, and to utilize the open river from Utica to Grafton by removing the four existing dams and dredging channel 200 feet wide at th3 bottom It is believed that such channel will have the requisite depth oi IA feet when the natural discharge of the river is augmented by the contemplated flow of about 10000 cubic feet per second from the Chicago Drainage canal.
 To provide for the channel from the mouth of the Illinois to St. Louis, 1t IS proposed to construct movable dam at Alton to pool the Mississippi river up to tbe month of the Illinois river; to build
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-13
BY J. c. HIDDEN, D. D.

ing him upon the victory due to your skill and courage" he. for once in hid life, ventured a gentle criticism upon his great chief, saying: "General Lee should have ascribed the glory to God
 Our eenturians humility was great enough to subdue national prejudice. The educated Roman of the period de- spised the Jew as a slave Of credulous superstition. This contempt has been inn mortalized by one of the greatest of tho Latin authors: "A Jew may believe Ii; not l." And yet this Roman soldier humbly asks favor Of a Jew who had not where to lay his head.
 Christianity invented the virtue of humility. "The meek shall inherit tho earth,' was a strange saying to the ago of the Caesars.
 The wonderful discipline of the Roman army has been immortalized by the dead sentinel dug up out of the ruins of Pom- peii. Our Roman soldier says that the disease must march when the captain of salavtion gives the order. His creed was short and simple What would he have said if he had been questioned about "The Federal Headshp of Adam?"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-13

die not know, and said You tell us, Mr. Merryman. Whereapon the clown said: Men for they spend great deal of time, money, thought and labor in going 10 war to kill one another; and the fools know that if they will let one another alone they will all die themselves.
 The world. however, has not vet learned to appreciate the profound wisdom of Mf. Merryman's philosophy; nor is there any probability that The Hague conference will damage the sale of the biographies o1 military heroes.
 Froude's Life of JulTus Caesar will still be read for it's highly entertaining style, though Froude will not a round, unvarnished tale deliver. about anybody, or anything. Louis Napoleon's Life of julius Caesar will continue to interest even the sober-minded Englishman, though the book is one of the most in- tensely French that was ever written.
 In the Gospel by Matthew, Sth chapter, 10th verse, Jesus pays q very high tribute 10 8 soldier; sVerily, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith. no, not in Israel"
 The Christian religion was born in q military age and among military peo-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-13

| pie Even if secular history did not teach this, we could learn it from the New Testament, which bristles with camps. armor castles and guard rooms Pales- tine was a part of the Roman empire. Soldiers were posted at various points. and Jesus lived in town garrisoned by Roman soldiers.
 Soldiers play a conspicuous part in New Testament history. Even John the Bap- tist. the forerunner of Christ could not get through his work without coming in contact with Roman soldiers. Paul had a large experience with them, and his Epistles are aglow with military metaph- crs.= The great apostle, himself a Roman probably had his life saved by soldiers on three several occasions.
 The attitude of the New Testament to- ward war is not settled so easily as the sentimental peace societies. imagine When John the Baptist was asked by the soldiers What must We do?' he did not say Tdisband' nor ''desert.'
 Our Captain was a slayeholder. and we are told that he loved his slave. The Bible gives no countenance to the mod ern maxim that slavery is the sum of all villainles" Abraham, the father of the faithful and the friend of God"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-13

sonage, the editor of a rural paper. It is the brightest publication in Indiana, one of the brightest in the country. When there was a democratic party in Indiana Landis' paper kept it in fighting trim. year in and year out. Never malicious, he eternally suggested disagreeable things that set all the republicans a-laughing and all the democrats a-cussing. I wish I had 1t before me to quote Balzacs famous analysis of your newspaper man. It applies to every editor fit for his job What a splendid office 1t is-the editor- ship of newspaper widely read, or CO., piously quoted-if you have the glorious gift of truthful speech and exercise it fearlessly!
 It Is an immense pity that Charley Landis Is not a democrat at this time to give us his opinion of the great epicurean and ethical question now agitating the G. o. P. of Hooserdom and the Methodist church, touching the relative virtues and vices of butter milk and cocktails. General Jackson drank butermilk, but General Jackson never drank a cocktail Gen. William Henry Harrison ate potlicker and but termlk together, but General Harrison never drank a cocktail. Abraham Lin coin took a drink of raw liclUr out of the bunghole of a full barrel that he .'histed up in the full strength of his brawny arms but we have no rec ord that MT. Lincoln ever drank