davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-15

in the castle of Highcliffe. Every corner and stone of that interesting dwelling are well known to me, as 1t belonged origi- nally to member of my family, Lord Stewart He was ambassador in Paris for many years, and during the time he lived in France bought an ancient abbey in St. Wandville on the Seine. which he removed stone by stone to the English coast The result Is a curious mixture of domestic and ecclesiastical architecture, but the stone gallery that runs round the house Is a quaint device which is very unique and interesting. The fir woods stretch down to the sea and the beautiful Italian gardens are the foreground of its broad horizon.
 Lord Stewart had no son, and the two children who inherited his property were Charlotte, afterward Lady Canning, who lived through the terrible time of the The dian mutiny, and will be remembered as one of the most famous viceroys wives, an accomplished and beautiful woman, and the other was Louisa. marchioness of Waterford, who was equally noted for her beauty and her talent. Had she not occupied a high social position she would have been one of the best artists of her day. G. F. Watts always maintained that sine had feeling for color which placed her by the side of Bellini.
 The Empress is very typical German lady, merry and wise, good musician and a good housefrau. fond of seeing to every detail of her own domestis ar rangements. To the surprise of her large army of chefs, when Prince Hohenlohe.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-15

A DEEP, broad, sound culture is re-
 "A quired in order to discern and to 4 A combat the spacious and fashion able forms of christianity" without Christ, and of regeneration without a change of heart. It is true that a l5nowi- edge of chemistry Is not necessary to success in cooking food, but such knowl- edge becomes immensely important when the food Is suspected of being poisoned. The lives of thousands may then depend upon 1t.
 But the world was full of errors when Christ came; and why did He select H. literate men as His first ministers?" How do you know that he did? True. we find In Acts 4th chapter and 18th verse. that when the Jewish authorities saw the bold ness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men. they marveled; but is 1t not also true that the Greek word 'agrammatof' (unlearned), has reference simply to Rab- binical lore, and that the word "idiotaf' Qgnorant), means men who were not In professional life-not in official position not of the teaching class? According to the usage of the language, these words might have been applied to what we should now call men of quite respectable general culture. Further: It may be doubted whether the writer of the Acts meant to be held responsible for the opin- ion that Peter and John were unlearned and ignorant, even in this qualified sense; for he may mean only that they appeared so to the Hebrew rabbis.
 Moreover, it is pretty certain that these
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-15

character and the learning and the purity of the men who have been elevated to that bench, and this, too, despite the fact that politics had entered into the selec- ton of more than nine of every 10 of the more than threescore judges who have worn that ermine. Nay. Marshall himself the greatest judge who ever expounded the politics and abjudged the statutes of a free people, got his place on the bench for his politics. General Grant made two men judges of that court to get decision that greenback is a good legal tender under the constitution.
 John Randolph of Roanoke was as brilliant man as ever sat in political council in our country. The books that Livy and Tacitus wrote and are lost; the circumstances that Macaulay, Thackeray and Dickens fell in their prime, and ere their tasks were complete-these were ealamities to letters, ancient and modern. But there was a man named Niles, who reported the American Congressional de- bates some 100 years ago. and he took it on himself to exercise a censorship on American forensic eloquence and re- fused to report some of Randolph's great est speeches, for the reason that he did not have sense enough to follow the ex- cursions of that wonderfully scintilating and luminoas mind. John Stuart Mills servant maid kindled fire with the orig
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-15

who was nearly related to her, dined at the palace at Berlin, she, knowing that he had a weak digestion, herself ordered every~dsh that was to be placed before him, and gave the most minute directions, and herself showed how the dish was to be prepared No crowned head in Europe possesses a greater wealth of jewels. Her diamonds, which are her private property, are said to be worth more than 9lOO,OO0. A special strong room is kept in the palace for these treasures, and the court jeweler examines every stone before any state function to see that the settings are In proper order. But the order which IS most prized by the Empress is the Order of the Hohenzollern Swan, for no one else in the world possesses it. The order was named by Friedrich II, surnamed ."The Iron Teeth,' in 1443, but after cen- tury it fell into abeyance. It was, now ever, revived. by Friedrich Wilhelm " in 1S43, on the understanding that the only person entitled to wear 1t should be the Queen of Prussia. From the chain or rubies and diamonds depends swan, and the German Empress wears this order on all great occasions.
 It was characteristic of this gracious lady that among all her engagements in this country she should have found time to go to the German hospital, where she brought comfort and cheer to her own compatriots, and the welcome given to Her there by little German children must have been among the most delightful rem iniscences of her visit.
 London. December. 1907.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-15

"HE visit of the German Emperor to
 England is not without significance.
 X There is no figure in Europe today who holds the balance of peace or war more securely. He is one of those who can never be dubbed a figurehead. His extreme personality and the streak of decided genius which characterizes him, won,d have made him an outstanding figure wherever he might have been placed. Ubiquitous he certainly is, and there is no role that he is not prepared to fill not purely from egotism, I ven- ture to think, but rather from a sense of adequacy and an eager understanding of how any particular thing can be done. So that be it military maneuver or a sermon to his crew, he feels prepared to step into the part with determination to carry the thing through.
 A story is told of his interview with Cecil Rhodes. Each recognized in the other a man of genius and at the end of . long talk on many and varied subjects the Kaiser said: "If you were German, MT. Rhodes, I would make you my Im- perial Chancellor"
 And if you were an Engiishman, sai1 Rhodes. 'I would make you my business manager"
 A rest cure has now ben prescribed for this untiring worker, and he has sought It on the beautiful coast or Hampshire,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-15

ments and forensic eloquence, the first constituency in all America. In 1851, which Clay yet lived. John c. Breck enridge, then fresh from war in Mexico, redeemed it and sealed it to the de- mocracy, defeating Leslie Coombs. Two years later he beat Robert P. Letch CT. In 1855 he retired and was succeeded by a Marshall, a know-nothing. In 1857 James B. Clay, son of the great Henry and a democrat, beat Roger Hanson, one of the most brilliant men the Ashland district ever produced, and who in less than seven years was killed on the field of battle. the commander of the famous orphan brigade.
 In 1S53-in those days Kentucky chose congressmen in August of/ the odd years after the term had begun in March previous-in 1859 the opposition nominated Johe M. Harlan, then 26, and never in this big Union was there more brilliant canvass than he made. And he would surely have been elected rett Davis, his friend. who got into u correspondence for a duel with Simmc, the democratic candidate.
 It is pleasing to note that after Har- Ian got on the supreme bench he was instrumental in having the disabilities of Simms removed by act of Congress for his participation on the southern side of the war.
 And now came troublous times, and more troubles in Kentucky than else where. unless in Missouri. As late as midsummer 1861, men-honest, sincere. patriotic, noble, willing to fight and to die for belief-changed in political opinion in the twinkling. Let no man
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-15

say what he will do in time of revolu- tion. John M. Harlan became Union soldier, colonel of the Tenth Kentucky infantry. That. same Roger Hanson went south, colonel of the Second Ken lucky infantry though he was a bitter and an eloquent Union man very little time earlier Who shall say Har- Ian was more patriotic than Hanson? The bgot and the fool.
 Kentucky's heart was southern: her head was Union. It was father against son, brother against brother, and these opposed one another on many a stricls en field. At Murfreesboro the Twenty first Kentucky Federal regiment met and grappled with the Sixth Kentucky Confederate regiment in as bloody a battle as the war afforded, and kindred slew kindred.
 In 1863 Harlan, after gallant service, re- signed from the army to administer his fathers estate, who had just died and was that year elected attorney general of the commonwealth, a station that his father had filled years earlier. In 1867 political Kentucky was again in state of chaos. The state had welcomed the returned Confederates with open arms and killed the fatted calf. Now they did more-the state nominated them Tor
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-15

people to be prosperous and allowing them to govern themselves to bring that con dition about, the policy of England has been to pauperize and depopulate In 50 year0s nearly 100000 have left the country; It's industries and manufactures have been practically crushed out, edn- cation restricted to the degree almost of extinction and taxation piled up until the nation groaned under its weight. How the people survived at all has been the wonder of the world and only proves what they would have been under ad- vantageous circumstances. Discomfort, disorder and industrial destruction are the results of the interference which Ire land has received and nothing was left undone to achieve these results
 The sole request the people of Ireland make today is to be allowed to govern themselves so as to bring content, order and progress to their island. If they fail to achieve these results they will have
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-15

brother, gives unmistakable evidence that he was a man of point, fine sense, extraordinary knowledge of human na- ture, especially of Hebrew nature, and of sound, practical judgment. It Is what John M. Daniel used to call "in- cisive." And. strange to say, the Greek of this epistle Is about the purest in the New Testament.
 Jude's epistle is one of our finest models of the graphic and picturesque style. It is a prose poem.
 Mark gives us a rare specimen of condensation and minuteness-a com bination especially indicative of mem tai training. The Apostle John has been characterized by Professor John son of Chicago university as the greatest literary genius of his age" l will not go so far as this: but l will say that the profoundly ideal tone of the fourth gospel reminds us of Plato; while the deep spirituality of the style points to the man of thought and study. The author is perhaps the most contemplative writer in the New Tes- lament.
 These facts, taken together, seem to form a conclusive argument against the loose popular notion that the gospel was originally committed to very ignorant men, and that the most sue cessful preachers the world has ever seen were illiterate Galilean peasants.
 It Is very generally held by scholars that the great body of the Christian converts of the Apostolic age came from the common people. This is prob ably true; but there were many excep- tions. Sergius Paulus, who was con-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-15

presson of 700 years "Let us," said MT. Gladstone in closing his speech intro ducng the Irish Home Rule bill, 'let us close this book and open 1t no more," and .as he said the words he threw down the book of Irish history, book every page of which is written in blood, blot ted by crime and wet with the tears of heartbroken millions. The old statesman sought to close for ever the book whicn has been. is and will continue to be the source from which the implacable enmity between two peoples takes its rise, and which Is as much a cause of shame to one as a cause of sorrow to the other. It was no wonder that statesman tried to close the book, but the gusts of pas sion and prejudice blew its pages open again and its tale of horror aroused the world to a condemnation of the perpe- trators of the wrong.
 What difference would 1t make in Ire- land were the words which President Roosevelt uses in reference to the Queen
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-15

verted under Pauls preaching, was a Roman judge. Dionysius, the Arcopag- ite, was a justice of the supreme court of Athens. In one place we read of the conversion of "the chief women not few" In another "of honorable wom- en which were Creeks" Paul's preach Ing somehow invaded the palace of the Caesars at Rome, and made converts there.
 We know, too. that later on, some of the ablest men in the world become Chris- tians. Tertulian and Origen, both born in the second century, were splendid lights in the church. The first was 8 great theologian, and the last a superb scholar He lived sa long before our old- est manuscript of the New Testament was written. that his quotations are still authority in settling the text"
 But, coming back to Paul. Though born a Jew, and carefully trained in the tradi- tions of the elders, the Apostle evidently had Greek education. His writings are aglow with images taken from the Greek games Time and again his speeches and his epistles give manifest traces of his Greek culture.
 Tarsus, the city of his birth was as he said, mo mean city" Under the early, Roman emperors it was renowned as an educational centre. In this respect Stra- bo compares it to Athens, and to AleXan- dria, and says that the zeal for learning was greater at Tarsus than at either of the other two famous cities mentioned.
 Tarsus was the residence of some emi- nent Stoic philosophers. Here lived Athe- nodorus, the preceptor of Augustus, and Nestor, preceptor of Tiberius We may reasonably assume that the young Saul
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-15

THERE were no state common schools
 in Alabama in 1880. Nevertheless.
 l an eager ambition to acquire seho- lastlc education pervaded the population. The state now, even in the life time or men then living, devotes ten times it's total revenues of 75 years ago to maintain its common schools. Education was the open sesame to personal distinction when La Grange college was first thrown open. The genius of democracy is attempting now to bring educated people to level. The experiment Is green as yet.
 In the time when education made the man there was no doubt of the efficacy of the means An educated man was known from his exterior. The words he spoke were simple and well pronounced. The words he wrote were in the right place and were correctly spelled out His de- meanor was pitched on a plane of refine ment not to be mistaken. His education had created in him a new force for his elevation among his fellows. It was a force that never failed.
 Are the state common schools that con sume more than half the state revenues on an enormous tax rate lifting the funda- mental principle of scholastic education upward or are they employed to sink that principle from tho original scheme of La Grange college to the level of the common schools?
 My observation is that very large pro- portion of the pupils of Alabama public schools do not leave school able to read with ease sufficient to make reading an object. The man or woman who comes home wearied with the days toll of bread winning must be able to seek relaxation and rest in the pages of his book or news paper if the art of reading is of much
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-15

institution They tend powerfully to throw light upon the animus of the peo- pie of Alabama in the most sublime characteristics of human experience. Be- meath the tale of wars and of heroes, the sub-stratum of instinct of patriotism as the sentiment controlled the people in their homes, is of prime importance to be recognized and of transcendent glory to pages of the worlds annals
 At the reopening under the military system February, 1858, the superintend ent was Maj. James w. Robertson, also professor of engineering The attend ance was about 125. They came from the upper counties and from Marengo, Dal- las, Macon and other black belt counties. The faculty consisted of six professors. The school was organized on the general plan of the United States Military acad- emy Report of the military ardor that distinguished the faculty and students reached the invader of the state in the war time. Long after the war had ab- sorbed teachers and pupils, the colonel of the Tenth Missouri cavalry marched his men to the buildings, set fire to them and withdrew from the mass of ruins.
 Superintendent Robertson was educated at the Charleston, s. C., Citadel academy, a military school of the first rank. Gen eral E. M. Law of Alabama and num- Der of other distinguished soldiers of the Confederaey were educated there. For time he was commandant of cadets at the Georgia Military academy at Ma rietta.
 Early in the war Major Robertson of fered his services in the field to Governor Moore. The offer was supposed to in- volve the whole cadet corps. The gov ernor of Alabama was a cool, brave, farsighted man. He replied to the let ter with characteristic frmness, saying: T am anxious above all things, to keep
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-15

value to him or her. If reading be diffi- cult by reason of want of school training, the school has done but little in its theo- retical sphere of influence If the school has failed to teach the art of writing, so that the pupil may ever after express his ideas on paper with fiuency and ease it has done little to widen the intellectual range of the pupil.
 MT. Jefferson wished to pbe immortalized as the founder of the University of Vir- ginia and his dominating thought was to set up a system of education whose prac- tical operation would be from the top downward from the matchless university downward to the common schools. The public wealfare has never been promoted by reversing the public ideals of Thomas Jefferson.
 The eleventh year of state4od for fair Alabama came and the northernmost counties had received enough immigrants and wealth and refinement to justify the erection of a college for youths. The paths over the mountains to Tuscaloosa were fewe and rugged, the intermediate territory unsettled and barren. Into Franklin county, as the county boun- daries then lay, a spur of the Cumber- land mountains run. From this densely wooded elevation there was a fine reach of view over the rich Valley of Tennessee, along which the cotton plantations four ished The purest spring water was found in abundance. Here the necessary build- ings were set up and on January 10, 1S9O, LaGrange college opened it's doors under the privileges of its recently obtained charter. The name chosen was in honor Of the famous estate of General La Fayette, near Paris. The site of the college was within four miles of the Mem phis and Charleston railroad.
 No college stands on the spot now. No memorial to mark the place where the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-15

ties sustain it, and Paul confirms It in Titus i:1S.
 Epmenldes was quite free-spoken in dealing with the sins of the people to whom he prophesied. He was not ot the order of kid-gloyed preachers. In- deed, he seems to have been the Sam Jones of his day. Ills wholesale denunci- ations, however. seem to have produced small results; for We find that the Gre tian vice of lying was just as notorious in Paul's time as It was In the days of Epimenides-i. G., it continued to be 0 race characteristic for nearly TOO years.
 But though these Cretians had secured for themselves an immortality of infamy by their lying, their laziness their bru- tality and their gluttony. Still Paul did not despair of them. He had himself been in Crete, where he had been veXed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. He had stayed long enough to learn that the people were notorious liars; that they We're idle, brutal and gluttonous. And yet when the time comes for him to go to "the regions be- yond" he leaves with them that vigorous, faithful preacher, Titus, his own son after the common faith, to 'set in order the things that are wanting among those same disreputabe Cretians.
 Paul evidently thought that the gospel was meant for bad people. The truth IS it was made for them. and 1t will do them more good than 1t will any others. That bad boy in your Sunday school class not only has the more need of your help, because of his badness, but he will be more open to improvement, and for the same reason. If, at his home, he hears little but quarreling and hard
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-15

apostles spoke and wrote two or three languages. They seem to nave had a profound and accurate knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures, and especially of the Mosaic economy-a system of edu- cation in itself. Did you ever know any uneducated man who was deeply versed in tho constitution of the United States?
 From the occupations of the apostles we can learn nothing decisive, for the most learned Jews had trades; and the scholarly Paul himself was a tent-maker.
 There is reason to believe that the apostles were not altogether unac- quainted with current theories of spec ulative philosophy; for we find some allusions to these in the New Testa- ment; and the curious question (John K p Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blfndY'' naturally connects itself with the metempsychosis, or the Pythagorean doctrine of the trasmigration of souls, or with Plato's idea of a pre-existent state: for how could man be born blind as punishment for his own sin, unless he had existed as moral agent before his birth?
 The rhetoric, as well as the logic, of the Epistle to the Hebrews, whose Pauline authorship Is by no means settled, mark it as the production of an admirably trained mind, possessing conscious mastery of his grand sub ject, profoundly versed in the Mosaic economy, and displaying a marvellous combination of judgment, reasoning, imagination and taste.
 The Acts of the apostles is one of the best managed stories extant The style of the Epistle of James, the Lords