davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-23

tnguished traveller that he was sorry he sought to arrest him and the next morn Ing was conducting him to Carson's ferry on the Tombigbee river, that he might reach Pensacola, from which point he might sail for Europe. Perkins became weary with waiting. and being convinced that it was really Burr, rode to the home of Joseph Bates, Sr., and procuring from him a canoe and negro. padded down tho river, arriving at Fort Stoddard about daybreak. He related his susp- oions to Capt. Edward ?. Gaines. Hasty preparations were made and Gaines and Perkins with a file of mounted soldiers, rode off in the direction of Hinson's home, and about o'clock that morning, February 1s, 1907, they met the myste- rious travellers, near a wolf pen. two miles from where they had spent the night before, in company with Bright we'll, the infatuated sheriff Burr pro- tested vehemently against being arrested, but the young officer was firm and he was placed under arrest by Gaines. The party returned to Fort Stoddard, where the prisoner was held for about two weeks, during which time preparations were made for conveying the distin-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-23

town, it makes little matter to the sailors who are out to raise storm. After several drinks have been taken by the customers, the Chinaman modestly re- quests payment before supplying any more Nothing is farther from the sailors mind than the idea of paying, so a rough house starts up at once. The sailors finding themselves about to be surrounded make a dash for the door and up the street towards the bridge. Every sailor on the street goins those running and scores of Chinamen join In the chase. The ex- bridge who attempt to stop passage and then the fight Is on good. The European who can't whip twenty Chinese Is not worth his salt, and acting upon this the ory such another scene as that enacted at Lodi or Arcoa is here presented The Chinese don't box, they scratch and scream like cats; and after the general melee Is over each side retires to find relief for the cuts and bruises received in the battle. The sailor who leaves Shanghai with a whole skin is regarded as no credit to his profession.
 If a person wants to get an Idea of what a congested population means he should visit a city fin China. The streets are not more than ten or twelce feet wide and are thronged with people. The houses are generally two-story high, tho lower part being the store and the upper part the dwelling rooms. In the stores all that's quaint and curious is on sale, and
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-23

Along the river front runs the main street of the city, a broad boulevard about three miles long and divided into sec tons by bridges over little creeks which flow into the river These streams and bridges serve to divide the city into sec tions in which the representatives of for eign government have their official resi- dence. Thus, there is that part of the city known as French town, American town, German town, English town and at the extreme end, China town, which latter is the original town of Shanghai Although the population of each of these foreign towns Is largely Chinese, yet these Chinese always speak the language of the country after which the town Is named, and the jurisdiction of each of these towns extend to the limits inside the dividing creeks and brides. The fact Is often taken advantage of by sailors who commit depradatfons In one town and find safety in another town. The policemen are Chinese, and as no Englishman would submit to arrest by a Chinaman if he can fight his way out, 1t Is nothing un- usual to see battle being fought at the bridges any time during the night There are always fifteen or twenty po- licemen stationed at the bridge to inter- cept fugitives and these policemen are re- inforced by the storekeeper and his friends who are in hot pursuit of the sailors
 The trouble starts when four or five sail- ors go to a saloon kept by Chinaman; 1t may be in English town of French
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-23

the process of manufacture can be seen, there being no Chinese factories as they are known in this country or in Europe. There are two things that predominate over everything else in these Chinese cities, the smell of cooking at the ever lasting talk. Everyone is talking and no one listening running fire of conver- sation is kept up between the people in the street and those in the stores and up- per windows. It is perfect babel or voices and all the time the crowd Is surg ing in opposite currents moving at the rate of less than a mile an hour.
 But the Chinaman Is in no hurry; noth- ing Is further from him than any unusual exertion It is not laziness nor tndolence, but a peculiar characteristic of these peo- pie. It takes twenty Chinamen, that Is Shanghai Chinamen, to do the work of one European, and the childlike way they have of working is not the least interest," ing part of the performance. A China1nan carries nothing in his hand exoept fan or an umbrella, everything is carried sus- pended from the end of bamboo pole borne on his shoulder. He would just as soon carry two sacks of rice as one. be- cause ono sack will balance tho other on the pole whereas if he has only one sack of rice ho will carry rock or some other weight equal to the sack of rice on the other end of his bamboo. The Chinaman is not governed altogether by the weight of the article he carries, the size has much to do with 1t and 1t Is
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-23

a quarter of an hour since his inaugura- ton the democratic President had given an ex-rebel an office. Edmunds and liar rison maintained that the Senate was the butt-cut of the appointing power. and that 1t should force the President to dis close his reasons in writing for taking ex-rebels into partnership in the admin istration, Cleveland responded that that was bold "innocuous desuetude,' and Pugh of Alabama made a report on the constitutional phase of the subject that convinced George F. Boar, and the Sen ate receded from It's position, though Ed munds insisted ,hat the President of the United States should come before the committee of the Judiciary to be interro- gated about practical politics and badg- cred about constitutional law.
 Judge Gray is a modest man. and ob- served the traditional dignity of tho Sen ate fin serving a noyltiate before he took prominent part in debate. He was in thorough accord with the President, and defended the administration against all corners. A tariff reformer of the tradi- tional democratic school, he was also 0 sound money man Of that school, ths school of Jackson and of Benton. Tn de- bates on these two great questions hs was tho equal of any senator in Con- gress. A learned lawyer, a ripe scholar, an able debater, he welded Q great infiu- ence ais speeches on economic subjects were of immense value to his party and to tho country. He belabored the Mo- Kinley tariff with all his might, and dealt cruel blows to that subterfuge, the Sher- man silver law. He tore the Lodge force bill into fragments and thus helped to continue to tho south the right to vote
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-23
.VJDGE GEORGE GRAY OF DELA WARE

this passage from one of his political writings of that epochi
 Cato lost the election of praetor and that of consul, but is anyone blind enough to truth to imagine that these repulses reflected any disgrace on him? The dig nity of those two magistrates would have been increased by his winning them, They suffered; not Cato.
 And 1t is now agreed that British elo- quence suffered. not Bolingbroke, by his exclusion from the forum where govern ment was made for the British people. And so with us. American eloquence, character suffer. when from the Senate are banished Gray. Carlisle, Carmaok, spooner, Lindsay and mayhap, soon to be. Foraker. The defeat of Conkling for the Senate cost the republican party a President.
 George Gray was in the Senate from March 19, 1885, to March {. 1899. We all know whom he succeeded. Can anybody tell who succeeded him? When we con- slider what a little state ft is, and the long line of illustrious statesmen Delaware has contributed to the national councils. commonwealth whose inhabitants num- Der into the millions might well be en- vious of.
 When Gray got into the Senate tho first issue raised was whether 1t comported with tho dignity and patriotism of the republican party for Grover Cleveland to be President of tho United States. George F. Edmunds, Ben Harrison and John J. ingalls, argued that 1t would not. Ingalls held MT. Cleveland to be ineligible. be- cause every time the clock had struck
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-23
BY F. I. MONKS.

the house boat and at night returns ten or fifteen cents richer than in the morn ing. The children spend most of their time fishing or searching around under the wharf for any sort of shell fish they may find clinglng to the piles. while the women spend hour after hour In fixing up each others hair. A Chinawoman may be clothed in rags but she will have her hair dressed up to perfection.
 A mistaken idea exists about the Chin csc women having small feet. As a rule the Chinese women are small and of course thei hands and feet are in propor- ton to their bodies. but 1t Is only the wealthy Chinese. the society belles, who wear shoes about three inches long and one inch wide, and even then they can not be said to wear shoes. as what should have been a foot is a deformity and no earthly use as a means of locomotion. 1t Is one of the most ptabe sights to sec one of these beautiful, young girls, dressed In embroidered satin and silk, her black hair studded with flowers and jewels limping along supported by a walking stick in each hand. As rule they don't walk at all but are carried about in a palanquln. The Chinese girl makes her debut Into society the day after she Is born when her foot is put Into the lt- tie leaden shoe. There are no Newcomes in China.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-23

nothing unusual to see ten or twelve men carrying a plank, suspended from their bamboos. the weight of whics Is not too much for one man. Their method of pile driving is primitive in the extreme. How they ever get the pile to stand on end cannot be told but having placed 1t in position they build a framework around 1t consisting of seven or eight stages on each of which about twenty-five or thirty men stand, nearly two hundred men in all. Each man has a rope which is at taohed to a large rock, and at a given word everyone lifts and drops the rock on the head of the pile. The rate of progress is slow to the last degree, but that does not seem to enter into the matter at all.
 The process of loading and unloading vessels is another illustration of their method of work. A ship with cargo of 2000 tons Of coal comes alongside the wharf. Nearly 1000 men start to work to discharge the cargo Three or four double lines of men arc stretched from each hatchway on the ship to the dumping place about 100 yards away. Tn coal, in little baskets containing about two or three pounds each. is passed along the line from man to man and the empty bas- kets returned by the other line. Thus tho work goes on day and night, until the cargo is out At first appearance 1t seemed as if it would take six months to dis charge the cargo. but the work was done in ten or twelve days. Before quitting
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-23

work every man was searched for coal and generally every one of them had a lump hidden away in his clothes. The piece might not weigh over half pound. but among a thousand men that meant nearly a ton of coal a day, or ten or fifteen tons by the time the cargo was discharged These mon were paid cents day and then fought to get work at that wage.
 It would be difficult to say how many people live on the water in Shanghai. but judging from the number of boats at least 50000 of the inhabitants of that city, if they can be called such, seldom put foot on the solid earth. The san-pan is a dat-bottom boat, about 20 feet long and feet wide, the space between the deck and tho bottom Is about three feet high, and in that space parents, children and ducks have their dwelling place. Every morning at daylight the whole crowd comes on deck. The ducks dive into the water and mingle up with hun dres of other ducks from other san-pans. The rice for breakfast Is prepared on a charcoal stove and the children are dipped in the river for their bath After break fast the man dfqppears, or else he may have work for lis san-pan md then the whole family goes with him. The san pans are the delivery wagons of the city and are in constant use between ships and the shore. In case the man has work ashore he leaves his family aboard
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-23
BRILLIANT AND ERRATIC AARON BURR

boats and men, and proceeded with the arresting officer to the town Of Wash ington, a prisoner of the United States for the second time. The people sympa- thized with him, honored him greatly, and readily made bond for him In the sum of S10,000 The attorney general ruled that the offense with which he was charged did not come under the juris- diction of Mississippi, and insisted on his being sent before proper tribunal
 His counsel demanded his release from bond, and his discharge. The attorney general was upheld by the judge, but the application of his counsel was over ruled. The next morning he did not appear, and it was soon ascertained that he had fled. A reward of 5000 was of- fered for his apprehension. and troop of cavalry was sent out in pursuit of him. In the village of Wakefield in Washington county, Alabama, on a cold February night in 1907. two young men, Nicholas Perkins, a lawyer, and Thomas Malone, clerk of the court, seated in their cabin. by the light of a pine knot fire, at 10 o'clock at night, were ab- sorbed in a game of backgammon when two travellers rode up to the front door.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-23

given 10 this period of his life was not due to lack of interest on the part of those biographers, for they well knew that every intelligent reader would be glad to know how Jackson taught his classes, and what sort of impression he made upon them
 But the truth Is, that of this depart ment of his work there was very little to tell He assigned the lessons" and he "heard" them; and this was about all. Discussions" in the class room were un known, and even "explanations" were few and far between, and when they did occur they usually left the matter where they found it. Saying the lessons" was our sole business in the classroom-that Is, when we could say them; for most of us commonly couldn't. The text books were the efMechanics,' the Optics and acoustics" and the Spherical Astron omy' of Professor Bartlett of West Point; and they were about the hardest reading that this scribe has ever attack ed They bristled with equations formu- lac and demonstrations from the calcu Jus, which we were all supposed to have mastered; but the supposition was a very violent one, though we had all "graduated" on the calculus before we fell into Jackson's hands.
 l have never known any human being of sound sense and good atainments who was more utterly destitute of the teach CTS instinct and faculty than was Jack
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-23
BY J. C. HIDEN, D. D.

on our daily recitatlons, his standard of graduation was absurdly low. He grad uated me on a book of several hundred pages not one page of which except the title page) did I ever read, and I did not even own the book.
 One of his graduates in optics told me seriously, in reply to a question, that "halos" were made by light freezing up around the moon and thus they never occurred in low attitudes where 1t was not cold enough to freeze the light
 Jackson was not a military looking man. His clothes seldom fitted him. His feet were enormously large. His walk, or rather his stride was almost ludi- crously ungainly He seemed 10 ride awkwardly and yet was never thrown. His voice was not loud, but his words were eurtly and vigorously uttered though his pronunciation was sometimes oddly at fault. No sign of genius was ever detected In him by his pupils, hls co-professors or his neighbors. Indeed except in his moral and spiritual char acter he was generally regarded as a sort of commonplace oddity, if this he not a contradiction in terms. But put Banks or Fremont or Pope before him. and he became another man. Genius then blazed In his eye Battle trans transformed him. Explain It? No. I can only say 1t was "Stonewall Jackson way"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-23

had a collar made to order out of soma three quarters of yard of linen, and upset the class with inextinguishabla laughter by the gravity with which he wore that collar in the class room. Jack son could not look at him without smil- ing. and he could not report him, for the collar was the sole visible article of a cadets wearing apparel of which the multitudinous regulations did not rig idly prescribe the form and substance.
 Davidson Penn. a portent of mischief, would put on the gravest face. and ask Jackson: Major, can cannon be so bent as to make 1t shoot around a cor ner. And the professor of artillery, after a moment of apparently sober re- f1ection, would reply: MT. Penn. reck- on hardly" Whether Jackson's gravity on such occasions was real or assumed, no one ever discovered.
 I have often wondered If he managed to keep his countenance when he read certain excuse" handed in by Ham, brick The "Plebes' and "third-class- men" drew the cannon by hand at artil- lery drill, as we had no horses. Jackson had given the command-a favorite one with him--"Limbers and oaissons, pass our pieces, trot, march," Hambrick was a little slow getting into a trot; and was reported by Jackson. The next morning he handed in the following document; Report Cadet Hambrick, not trotting at artillery drill. Excuse: I am natural
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-23

lio prayer; but when I heard him in our cadet prayer meeting there was no sign of embarrassment; and no preachers prayers have ever impressed me as more sincere, devout and fervent. On occa- sion, too, I have heard him speak in pub lie, and though there was nothing of what usually goes by the name of "elo- quence," he spoke sensibly, vigorously and to the point. He had given some real study to the subject of constitutional government, and as the result of that study he became an intelligent and un- wavering supporter of state rights, though he lived and taught in a commit nity in which, from time immemoral, the intelligence, the wealth and the cul- ture were largely on the other side. It
 is not improbable that his state rights principles were strengthened if they were not originally imbibed at West Point, upon which institution the Vir- ginia Military institute was carefully modelled. Col. F. H. Smith, the superin- tendent and professor of mathematics Major Thomas Williamson, professor of engineering; Major Gilman. the com tendant, were all West Point men. The institute was expected to train soldiers; and not few of its alumni highly dis tinguished themselves in the Confeder army. Colston, Malone and Rodes were all old cadets of the institute.
 It is curious fact that while Jackson was extremely strict in marking us
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-23

pacer" If Jackson did laugh when he read this none of us ever found 1t out, as the excuses were read in private.
 No man that I have ever known has more profoundly impressed mo with belief in his deep-toned plety than did this mighty man of war. He may al- most be ranked with the Centurion of whom Jesus said: "Verily I say unto you, have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel" He Is commonly said to have been a Presbyterian Ruling Elder. The title Is perhaps fixed upon him by one of the best of our Confederate poems, "Stonewall Jacksons Way" in which he is called the Blue-light Elder" but the historical fact is that he was deacon of Dr. William s. Whites Presbyterian church of Lexington. I knew Dr. White personally, and held him in high esteem as an admirable man and an excellent preacher. But Jackson was almost as good at sleeping as he was at fighting, and even Dr. Whites sermons did not always keep him awake. On long night march he would sit on his horse and sleep like a log, while Dr. Mcclure of his surgical staff rode at his side and held the general on his horse "EIe used to promise" said the surgeon, that he would do me the same favor some time; but my time never came"
 There is a thoroughly trustworthy tra- dition that Jackson found 1t an uncom- monly hard task to learn to lead in pub
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-23

conquerable leader this republic has ever produced. His power over men was mar velous. Travelling through Kentucky and Tennessee in 1895, he was received by many distinguished people, among whom were Clay and Jackson. He captivated the people easily, wherever he appeared. It is said his eyes sparkled like dia- monds
 Burr had purchased portion of the lands lying between the Sabine and Natchitoches. granted by the King of Spain to Baron Bastrok. It appears to have been his design to colonize these lands by driving out the Spanlards, con- quering Texas and ultimately Mexico. He was raising an army, building boats and having them stored with provisions and concealed arms, when President Jeffer- son ordered his arrest at Lexington. Clay defended him, and he was discharged from custody. He then began to des- cend the Cumberland and Mississippi rivers with thirteen boats Gan unlucky number). and sixty men when a few miles above Matches he was again ar rested by Col F. l.. Claiborne, under an order of the governor of the ter ritory of Mississippi. He surrendered his
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-23
BY SAVOYARD.

tho democratic ticket as long as that section chose to be democratic.
 When MT. Cleveland was inaugurated the second time Gray was one of his staunchest supporters In the Senate one of the administration stoutest cham pions. He helped to repeal that make shift and monstroslty, the purchasing clause of the Sherman silver law, and did his utmost to keep party perfidy and party dishonor out of the Wilson tariff bill. When his party deserted the Pres ident and embraced the dogmas of the popullsts. he refused to shacke his mind and outrage his conscience. And thus he went from the national legislature
 A profound lawyer of judicial rather than controversial temper, Judge Gray Is an ornament to ne bench and bar. He helped to compose a quarrel with Can ada; he was of the commission that made peace with Spain; but perhaps the great est service he has rendered the American people was his conduct as member of the commission that settled the great strike in the Pennsylvania anthracite re- zion in 1902
 Judge Gray has been suggested for President because he is big enough for the office. He could be elected if every man who thinks himself q democrat would vote for him. So would MT. Bryan have been in 1898 and 1s00-so would Judge Parker have been in 1904.
 But 1t i5 absurd for anybody else to be talked of for the democratic nomination for President in 1908 until William J. Bryan gives his consent. He Is absolute autocrat of the party.
 Copyright by E. W. Newman.)