davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-10

skilled Iaborers are the bellows-blowers; as insignificant but as essential.
 Now for the remedy. The average school boy in working out the sum of A. B.'s savings would bring out for an answer. and he would not be far wrong. But A B. has worked for 45 years and no man can work without benehtting the community or nation in which he has done the work. Let this fact be always borne in mind. that no man can plant a grain of corn or make two blades of grass grow where one grew before without doing that amount of good to the nation. Human effort may be for in dyidual profit the part of the person who makes the effort but the body poli- tic is the real beneficiary of all such effort If the farmers of the United States were to cut down their crops Just to supply their own particular needs Tor one year who can tell what the conSe- uuenees would be? It. therefore, fol- lows that the workman who has given the golden years of his life to labor, no mat ter for whom or what at, he is entitled to pass his old age free from the fear of poverty or the humiliation of the aims house, and the nation being the beneficiary the nation should provide for him.
 II is to be presumed that every em- blower makes a certain profit out of the labor of each employe. If A. B. worked for 100 employers during his 10 years or
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-10

toricaI investigation and archical enlarge ment carries with it a blemish of phrase ology which amounts to paradox in its present place. Before we read to the end of section 1 we find the "Confederate' soldiers of the title were engaged in d War of Seeession!' The types are made to give emphasis to the phrase War of Secession There was only one war the war of the Confederate States for independence The country was large and great. A single state, Texas, was larger than France and of greater natural re- sources. The Confectionery was more pop ulous. white people alone estimated, than the kingdom of England was in the time of Napoleon. Many writers and many orators v The United States have ad- mitted that the north could not of itself have conquered the south The north re- ceived Hundreds of thousands of soldiers for it's cause from without its limits. while the south got none to affect the result.
 There was no :'War of Secession; no flag of Secession; no organized govern- ment of, Secession" When Lee made terms with Grant, and Johnston made terms with Sherman, and Taylor made
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-10

preaching and writings. No intelligent and candid student can spend much time and thought upon Paurs sermons at Athens and at Lystra, without reaching the conclusion that. in this sense those discourses are strlkingly philosophical.
 The study of the best literature will often be of signal service to the preacher by teaching him what not to say. A steamboat on the Mississippi was be- logged. A reward was offered for a pilot who could steer the boat out of her diff culties. man, who did not look promis- ing, offered his services. Do you know where the snags are?' said the captain, No" said the pilot, but I know where they ain't."
 One of my hearers once complained that in my preaching dealt with objec- tions now current against Christianity and attempted to refute them. Tn this way" said he, you acquaint your hear CTS with objections which, but for you, they might never think of You ought to preach as if there were notsuch thing as inndelity in the world" Did Christ do it2 Are not most of His discourses contro- versial that is. aimed at existing errors? Did He let the Pharisees and Saddueees alone? About the best knowledge we have of them is derived from our Lords g refutation of their errors.
 Did Paul preach without reference 10 the forms of unbelief prevalent in his day? The 18th chapter of 1st Corinthians is an elaborate argument against the Greek skepticism which was still holding it's own in q Christian church. If Paul had proceeded according to the advice or my critic it is doubtful if he would ever have written three of his epistles-cer- tainly not six.
 But the very atmosphere is so satn- rated with doubt-the books. magazines and newspapers are so full of it-that my critics objection suggests the condemned felon, who. as he stepped on the cart to go to the gallows asked for the loan of an umbrella, as 1t was q damp morn- ing and he was afraid of catching cold.
 But this kind of preaching raises more doubts than it settles" Even if this were true, it would amount to little, unless 1t
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-10
OLD AGE PENSION AND HOW 70 PAY TT

who can find fault. None of these de- nuneiators of existing conditions have come forward with a plan which will im- prove them or even prevent them from becoming worse. Tolstoi has written sev- eral volumes in which he undertakes to portray the miserable lot of the toiling masses and to awaken sympathy for them but what the toiing masses want is relief not sympathy what the times require is man with a plan not with q complaint
 when the problem of old age pensions presses as hard for solution as it does in England and other European countries but that time will come and wise states men, like old sea captains, always keep their eyes to wnidward. That problem must be solved or else it will solve it. self It statesmen don't solve it. anorch- ists will; if reformers retire, revolution ists take their place. This is d problem that men should 'ponder boldly" if they would act wisely; hesitation now may lead to haste later on.
 The problem stated, as the arithmetic would state, a sum Is simply this: "If A B., an unskilled laporer begins work for $1 day at the age of 20 and works as am unskilled laborer at the same rate of wages until he is 65. and if, during that time he has gotten married. clothed, fed and educated his family, paid house rent, taxes. doctors bills ard church dues; has been idle, either enforced or
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-10

conditions-frst a conclusion, founded on mathematical precision, and second. venture that virtue demands and instinct justihes. In either predicate there s risk The Confectionery took a risk No doubt about that But the Confectionery was an ideal, all the same. It was not an insurrection, not a rebellion, but an ideal generated from the latest axiom of organized life, to wit: "A people have the right to change their form of government at will" When finaneier J. P. Morgan came to Richmond recently and paid Sooo0 rent for a residence for use for three weeks; when Bishop Potter came to RichnSnd at the same time and gave private dinner to an African. they rep resented a type of people who did not, half century ago. assimilate with the south and who introduce strange prae- tices to the south now. Hence, secession as an incident in a political process.
 There was no War of Secession wonder how many legislators of Alabama took pains to recall the pivotal fact. that in 1S6O-6l, southern leaders sought, while as yet no state had seeded to persuade the 16 northern states, in open nulliica- tion against the federal constitution, the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-10
BY JOHN WITHERSPOON DUBOsE

ures the books. The cause and the valor of it's defenders should not be separated. under the auspices of a state institution. The cause and the valor of the Confed- crate veterans ase welded. never to be dsioined Let no Neal-kneed sentiment come between them. with it's snake in the grass practices.
 Why was not MT Davis tried, convicted and executed? Because he led one party to a war that was legitimate, in the spirit of American system of government. The Northern Confederaey Of nullifying states conquered the Southern Confederaey Of seceding states. The conqietror had no greater legal rights after the war than he possessed before the war. That Is q fixed principles with enlightened nations who go to war. True the conquerer pos sesses a certain physical power, the re suit of conquest. but legal right over the conquered is another thing.
 No right was ever more firmly fixed in a political system than the autonomy of the American states. The necessity for it's defense in 1S61-65 has become palpable The several ordinances of secession were more in the nature of protest than any thing else They were ehivalrous acts of notice to the world.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-10

dramas of the Elzabethan age. So there is just as real, though not so great d difference between Isaiah and Hosia-be tween Paul and James.
 It is not fair to insist that we ought to find as wide differences between the pro- ductions of the different inspired writers as we find between the productions of or dinary writers, for the prophets were writing on the same general subject what God would have men to know; and they were aiming at the same general ob- ject-to regulate the character and con duct of men. It might be worth while for some people to ask themselves if Peter could have produced the Epistle to the Romans. If the mechanical view of in spiration be sound, how Is it that James, the Lords brother, though a Hebrew of the Hebrews, has left us about the best Greek composition in the New Testa- ment? Why is it that the Greek of John gospel is better than that of the Apoca- typse? Nay, how is it that the same speaker, Paul varies his style according to the character and the culture of his audiences-speal<ing in one style at Ath- ems and in a very different one at Lystra and that when the substance of the two addresses is the same?
 The Scriptures themselves indicate to us the importance of the preachers seek ing for acceptable forms in which to com municate truth. Of course we should not pander to a vitiated rhetorical taste. Splendid divisions" with nothing to di- vide should be studiously avoided. Still, let no one think the form unimportant. Compare the Language of the mob at Ephesus with the Frenchmans transla- ton. The cry of the crowd was: Great is Diana of the Ephesians. It was just such slogan as would stir and strike mob. How tame the Frenchman's render ing: Diana of the Ephesians is one great goddess!''
 The rhetoricians give another case: Milton introduces Satan as Lucifer fallen from heaven into hell; and the arch fiend grests his internal dominions with the cry: Hail horrors. hailr' The French mans rendering makes it: How dye do, horrors; how dye do!'
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-10

greater as years go by until finally the man becomes unserviceable and worth less. But the man lives, flor it were as nothing could he d1e," and while he lives his requirements are as much, if not moreN than they were during the days of his greatest productiveness. It is against that day, that winters day, that of white hairs bleached by 70 sum mer suns and winters snows that that the poor unskilled toiler seeks to make provision. and seeks in vain.
 Vital statistics are frequently quoted to prove the reduction in infant mortality. and increased longevity due to the ad- vance n medical science. While the form CT is very properly considered a great blessing to the human race, there is much doubt concerning the latter If the twilight of life were gided with the golden glories of g tropical sunset it might enjoyaby be fingered out indefinite ly, but when the shades of evening fall amid gloom and cold ana poverty the sooner night follows the betteu- Unless old age Is made happier and easier for those who attain it the prolongation of human life is as questionable a gift as was immortality to the Struldburgs.
 It is the common practice with most per sons who write or speak on the subject of old age pensions for workmen to refer to the injustice which these work men suffer from the hands of capitalists, but copybook headline tells us that one man with a remedy is worth ten men
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-10

senate, take him at the bar, take him al Ghent patching up a peace after dis astrous war, take him on the stump, or in private station, drawing room, or In the throng of court day street ana, py God, he's captain of every crowd he gets in Henry Clay among men. as Eclipse among horses-frst, and the rest mo- where
 Alexander Hamilton Stephens a Whig, represented Charlottesville district SIX teen years before the war and ten years after the war. He was a remsrkaDie man run to intellect His book. "The War Between the States" is the best conception of the moving causes of that mighty struggle yet printed. He made Charlottesville illustrous, He shed luster on congress.
 had nearly forgot the Nineteenth Ohio. lEIisha Whittlesey represented that district In the Eighteenth congress-1S23 Henry Clay Speaker: Ezra B. Taylor re- tired from congress-the Fifty-second- in 1893, Crisp, Speaker. and between Whit tlesey and Taylor were Giddings, John Hutchins, and James A. Garfield. Here was q period of seventy years and only five men came as members from the "Western Reserve" There should not have been more than Tour. Hutchins served only four years
 Just like shoemaking. solonism Is a trade We rarely change our shoemaker. We frequently change our congressman. Had either Pit or either Fox lived in our country he would have been sent to the rear, as Kentucky sent Carlisle; as Tennesse sent Carmack.
 But
 Copyright 1907 by F. W. Newman)
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-10

through Hines, at such time and for such a length of time as usually happens to men in his class, how much money will he have saved or how much property W he have acquired when he is 65 years of age?" This is the case of man who has given 40 years of his life, the best years of his life, to hard, honest work. At 65 this man is no match for the man of 20 and the employer does not hesitate to tell him so. His employer is his last employer, for it must be remembered that during these 45 years service A B. has worked for at least 100 employers for periods varying from one month to one year or more. But the fact remains that, notwithstanding whether A. B. has worked for C. D. or E. F., he has worked; he has fulfilled the duties of the station in life in which his lot was cast and now. at 65 he is a mendicant or an h. mate of an aims house.
 A celebrated organst once gave re- cital in the Crystal Palace in London. At the conclusion of one of his per formances the audiences thundered forth its applause which the musician appro- prately acknowledged. Turning around suddenly he discovered the man who had been blowing the bellows also. bow ing his compliments to the audience. Get out of theSe" said the organist, this applause is meant for me alone
 "All right" said the bellows-blower, play your next piece alone The un-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-10

existed many ages before printing was known. Many of the worlds great masterpieces were in manuscript. Neither is the art of writing absolutely essential to literature. Poems were composed, sung and repeated, and legends and traditions handed down from generation to generation for ages, before they were ever written. Men had memories in those old days. It is by no means certain that Homer could write. Literature, then, is accessible tn ought.
 But the preacher has his thought fixed for him by inspiration; and what has he to do with merely human thought, which is part and parcel of the age-the out growth of the intellect in certain stages of development?" According to the iron clad mechanical" view of inspiration, l suppose, not much. But 1 rejoice to be- lieve that any view which destroys or ig- nores the literary characteristics of the inspired writers can scarcely hold It's own in the light of modern investigation. The truth is that between the different in spired writers there are literary chasms as real though not wide, as that be- tween Macaulay and Carlyle.
 Some of the noblest strains of poetry in existence are those of Job, Isaiah and Habakkuk. The book of Nehemiah is as prosaic, practical and business-like as an invoice, bill of lading, or muster roll. Indeed, no small part of it is composed of muster rolls.
 By actual experiment l find Peter s Greek to be the most difficult in the New Testament, while the Greek of the Apoca- lypse is the easiest. After l have done with translating, however, l find that Peters subject-matter is usually clear and simple. while that of the Apocalypse is often and utterly beyond my ken. Such phenomena as these seem to be inexpli- cable under the mechanical theory of in spiration.
 In the earlier periods of the worlds lie we should not expect to see the literary differences so wide as they are in the production of our own age; and yet the variety is just as real, though not so great in the old Greek tragedies as in the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-10

terms with canby, they signed their great names as generals of the "Confed- crate States army They stipulated for terms for soldiers of the Confederate States. and these are the very men now to be enumerated and none others.
 The phrase is unfortunate. War of Se- eession." It is absurd. Coming from the state of Alabama, upon whose soil the Confederacy was born, as by selection. it is most inappropriate.
 No self-respeeting man, born to a name would impeaeh his ancestry by surren- dering 1t without cause Why deny the name of our country? Davis and Stephens Lee and Beauregard, Hampton and Forrest gloried in the name. A mil lion "Confederate soldiers" militia and homeguards, without pay, unfed, unclad, lived and died for a country with name Why this precipitate denial of that name?
 There is a remarkable evidence of ig- norance in the phrase, War of Seces- sion" Either ignorance, or there is evil dence of an attitude of mind towards the facts that is menaeing to some of the most sublime features of the civilized worlds history.
 Human performance is based on two
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-10
BY J. C.. HIDDEN, D. D.

with the literature of his day: for the quotation, Evil communications corrupt good manners" is from a Greek com edy of Menander In his speech at Ath- ems he quotes Aratus, the astronomical poet: We are also his offspring" In his episte to Titus he quotes Epimenides Of the sixth century before Christ, and ap- proves of his criticism of the people of Crete.
 What was Christ's attitude towards literature? Did He study? l ask the question with reverence. and would an- swer 1t in the fear of God. He did study. He was familiar with the current thought of His day. He had a minute and accu- rate acquaintance with the literature Of His age-the Old Testament Scriptures, and the current expositlons of them. He attacked the prevailing exegesis of His age
 Time and again the great field-and- street preacher. Jesus, retired from the people. and went away into solitude to mediate. 1t does not detract from the dignity of Christ that He counted it worth while to think. God thinks. He prepared the heavens, and preparation involves thought. He says that bis thoughts are higher than our thoughts. The Bible is full of the thoughts of God.
 1t is hard not to believe that Jesus
 
 tried to entrap Him with questions. He "ncreased in wisdom" He threw Himself into the circumstances of His time. and intelligently applied means to the accom- plishment of His ends
 Timothys gift was imparted by prophecy. The Greek text points to a special divine influence employed in It's communication. He was diVinely in- stalled and yet Paul strongly and re- peatedly advises Him to be an assiduous student. Neglect not; but stir up the gift of God. One of the most prevalent sins of our age Is this of neglecting the gifts of God Be not deceived. If you are advised to "stop studying and 20 to preaching, you can preach easily enough remember that easy preaching means | hard hearing. II is the solemn duty Of every one of HIS to make of himself the very best preacher that can be made out | of the materials.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-10
THE PREACHER'S ATTITUDE TOWARD LITERATURE

could be shown that doubt is necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes doubt Is very healthy thing. On many questions which an ignorant and narrow mind can settle at once, skeptiosm is the only ground which any intelligent and candid thinker can hold. Further: How can any man q am hot speaking of vegetables live in our time without learning that there is much skepticlsm in the world? If you do not preach upon the living issues of today, you leave your people at the mercy Of goddess editors of infidel magazines, not a few of whom are advocating the most dangerous views of these issues, some or which are of vital importance and absorb ing interest.
 But much study is a weariness of the flesh" Very well. then, weary your hesh' and it may revive your sluggish spirit, and arouse the spirits of your sleepy peo- pie. Many churches in this land are half dead now, mainly because their pastors do not weary, but do indulge the flesh.
 But ignorance Is the mother of devo- ton" 1 do not know who originated this maxim, but l am pretty sure he was an inhdel; and if l may be indulged In little plain Saxon, 1t Is lie.
 But Paul said: "I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucifed." Few passages of Scripture have been so perverted as has this. Does Pauls language make you determine not to know Don | trouble yourself. for it Is foregone con- clusion that you will never know enough 10 make you dangerous. l knew an em- inent lawyer who held that God did not know all things: for there are some things SD supremely contemptible that the Almighty chooses to know nothing about them" An old negro. replying to this, said: 'tHow He gwine to choose not to know em. If He don't know 'em2'
 It is clear that Paul did know the things which he purposey ignored in preaching to the corinthians-thngs which they wished to hear This deliberate choice on his part necessarily precludes the sup position of his ignorance. Indeed. thif very epistle proves Paul's acquaintance
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-10

|YyYYALK into the first newspaper N/ office YOU come to and ask the w editor who succeeded Roscoe Conklinp as a senator in congress, ana the chances are as twenty to one that ne ...;u onsver. "Search mel But every one of then will tell you who succeeded Aien | Ic. Thurman. who was succeeded by two ,,ar in fact-James A. Garfield and John Sherman It was in the month of May, ,r,orious in her effulgent efforescence, the good year 1SSO fhat Tom Young, then men,her of congress from one or the .ua,nilton county districts, linked ms arm | in that of Garfield, at the south eno or the capitol edifice, and said, wax "ith ,a,e ?, They proceeded to the north end, entered the senate chamber, Garfield all wonder Young all solemnity. Young es-
 sar,ad him to the seat of Thurman, and
 .,,sd "can YOU fill it?" Garfield had haa,, chosen to the succession. Giant ,,,nd that it was. the fullest or acquired i.,sa,.n,ation since Caleb Cushing left the I,istrict of Columbia, boy that ne was in 1is daily walk and in his buoyant spirit, serious expression came on ,, ms count9o ,, t9o aanee and he gave reply. I'll try He i'',a,v wnat a big job it was. But he was
 a,.aa from if. Of all places, the senate
 r.as carfe1d's place, and of all places, .,,a white House was not his place. on
 ,'ie ,ie feet in forensic discussion, he was ms ,s futiie mind of Nestor and the heavy ba nd of Ajax. As an executive he was th;ne of wax to melt in the fervent heat
 os fsction. Lincoln was little less for t',,,ate in his cruel and violent death than
 was Garfield in his.
 Well. an old fellow by the name or anba,n succeeded Conkling in the senate and answered yea or nay on roll call It was said that he was good lawyer: but for his work in the senate he might as well have been good shoe- maker. Conkling was nearly as mean as i,a was great. It was his plan to en-
 fro nchise the negro at the south ana aitbhold the suffrage from him at the ,'ortb and that was one of those in- n,,merable conceptions known in politics as .Obio ideas" Intellectually, ConKiing vas perhaps the greatest senator the
 renublican party ever produceo-apove Sumner. above Blaine, above carpenter |atove Morton. above Fessenden even and it is a mystery of the mysteries tnat such giant mind could deiude itseir with the idea that the proudest people that eyer trod this earth could be held in subjection to their former slaves or the most inferior of all the races Of the human family.