davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-22

mind ir q fever for years. Washington, Franklin, and Lafayette were all Masons, but thousands of patriotic men of the succeeding generation came to believe that Masonry was murder in secret con- clave. plotting the extermination of all men not of the brotherhood.
 The next political frenzy was the Know Nothing movement that swept over the north in 1854, and found lodge ment as far south of Maryland and Kentucky. Henry A Wise met it at the |, Potomac, and hurled 1t back; Andy Johnson expelled it from Tennessee, and stephen A. Douglas successfully held Illionis against it's invasion. It car ried Kentucky against John c. Breck- enridge Joseph Holt, Elijah Hise and Beverly L. Clarke. but its victory was due to the butcheries and the arsons of Bloody Monday" In Louisville, August 6. 1855. The following year the party died, when its candidate for President carried but one state-Maryland-w the aid of the fierce and ruthless Plug Uglies.
 The Know Nothings made war on the Catholic church, and professed to be- lieve that the Pope of Rome had malevo- lent designs on the liberties of the American people. More than six cen turies earlier a Catholic archbishop of Canterbury had wrested from King John the liberties of England. and 1t was a fruit of the tree stephen Lang ton had planted at St. Edmondsbury that afforded this very Know Nothing party the right to exist. Nay, the very first auth entic declaration of liberty of conscience came from the Catholic col ony of Maryland. But frenzied poli- ties is not only ignorant, but incapable of reason. The craze swept over state after state, and Protestant churches
 Il. 1c t@ n1I 7atf1- bership of Know Nothing lodges. Lock smiths reaped rich harvests, securing the doors of brave men against the Pope of Rome, one of the kindliest and most benignant old men then living, who wished no more harm 10 the con tinent of America than he did to the planet Mars.
 The next action of crazy quilt poli- tics we had was the Granger movement of the earlier '70s. Its basic belief was that the men, women and children Nef the Atlantic slope, who subsisted on the food products of the Mississippi valley. were in dark and goddess con spiracy to make fruitless the energies of the western farmers, who fed them. At that time the treasury department was busy paying off the floating debt, evidenced by greenback promises to pay. Demagogues taught the 1arfners that the greenback was the peoples money" whereas IL was the people $ debt-and the costliest and most ruin ous debt this people ever had saddled on them. Not only that, 1t had been the instrument of private repudiation to the amount of hundreds of millions, and had wrecked the public credit until it was less than 40 per cent of par. Congress had insulted the public in telligence and debauched the public conscience by enacting that an ire q worthless scrap of paper was legal ten der for debt in esse, and contracted when coin only was legal tender. In morals fraudulent discharge in bank ruptcy would be no more dishonest. greenback party was organized, whose
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-22

Hughes compelled the production of the book. Then he announced that he would call Odell and Platt as witnesses. A member of the committee objected.
 "Of course the committee Is always in control of Its counsel" MT. Hughes replied smllingly, but 1t must not be forgotten that it was expressly agreed that if I should find myself unable to carry out the oommittee's instructions 1 might resign my fec and make public my reasons for so doing"
 There was no further effort upon the part of the committee to interfere with it's counsel.
 Odel was not slow to grasp the fact that Huhges was the man destined Co make trouble for the bosses and he triad even before the insurance investiga- tion was over to sidetrack him as the republican nominee for mayor of New York. But he had misiudged his man. Hughes refused the nomination and stuck to his job as insurance lnquisltor Then came his nomination for governor the politicians being overthrown by q word from Roosevelt. Nothing more apty H. lustrates the chief characteristic of the man than conversation he had with President Roosevelt soon after his nom nation. He told the President that he did not want the state campaign to be q Roosevelt campaign, he wanted 1t to be q Hughes campaign.
 There are few of the good stories" usual in the lives of big men, told about
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-22
CHARLES 4. HUGHES OF NEW YORK

Charles E. Hughes before the public for the senator whom he had tried to make his dupe, being chairman of the invest- gating committee, hired the lawyer as counsel.
 MT. Hughes record in this investiga- ton was the forerunner of much greater things. Next came his work in the h. surance investigation and with 1t the fame that placed him in the governor chair Throughout this great inquisition in which so many regulations were shat tered he never made false step, Ills purpose from the beginning was H idos out evil wherever 1t was to be found and to spare no guilty person. From this policy he never swerved, though im- portuned at every turn by politicians and financiers.
 Tn the midst of the investigation Mir. Hughes demanded certain book Kept .bv Mir. Perkins of the New York Life Insurance company. It was known that this book contained a record of the cam paisn contributions of the insurance com- panies through Odell and Flatt. odell sent for Senator Armstrong, the ehaaf- man of the committee Hnd told him tha. if would be mistake to insist on the production of that book. The senator re- piled that 1t was his intention that the committee accepted the task With the understanding that il was to go 10 the bottom of everything.
 "I fear that it will lead to the very door of the White House. said Odeil in q last effort to gain his point.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-22
BY J. c. HIDEN, D. D.

makes me suspect that any brute has the -t .-aee af conscience. and I believe that the whole brute creation Is utterly ,..a.llLoe o1 ethical perceptions, l, C., Of d capacity to appreciate the difference be- tween right and wrong. Man is the only ethical animal known to us. The fact that there arc various degrees of ethical capacity in different men. or even in the same man at different times. does not touch my argument. If man, as man, is an ethical being, and If he Is the only ethical animal upon this earth. this is sufficient proof of my contention.
 z Man is the only animal that is cap able of producing or of apprecating witticiam. He is the only laughing ani- maj. I never heard of any brute that ever made q joke. The sense of the ludi- crous seems to be A peculiarly human sense.
 Now, if I have made out seven separate and distinct powers which man, as a race. possesses and commonly exercises, and of which we discern not the slightest trace in any of the lower animals. l think am Justified in asking that these missing links" shall be supplied before I can be- lieve that man Is only a 'deveioped' brute. Such development" I suppose would be expected to leave It's traces all along It's course, and when such traces utterly fall to appear. must be excused from believing that the development has taken place on that line.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-22

drive off the little one and rob him of his bread; and the little dog will rsen slink off with the bone which the big dog has left; but there is no thought of an exchange
 2 Man is the only cooking animal The savage Mohawk has learned to boil his hominy and to parch his corn. Now, the use of fire in the way of securing com fort on a cold day is not unknown to the brutes; but the idea of kindling a fire, or of keeping up a fire by supplying fuel, seems never to have entered the head of any brute. A pointer dog is es- pecially sensitive to cold. Ponto loves to lie on warm rug close to the hearth on cold day, but as the fire burns low and furnishes less and less warmth, though he plainly shows his discomfort, he never seems to think of putting on a stick of wood though the wood box Is within easy reach.
 In Africa, when a travelling party breaks camp, and moves off without extinguish- ing the fire, the apes will gather around it and greatly enjoy warming them selves; but they will huddle around the dying embers, and the hot ashes, till the last spark dies out, and not an ape of them will have the thought to re- plenish the fire, though the woods all around them are full of dry sticks, which
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-22

existence today which propose to visit with pains and penalties every violation of good manners and morals, if they be not to take the place of the lessons of obedience which the youth was never taught? Is it in jails and penitenttaries that obedience must be taught? It is far easier to bend the twig than the tree. it Is better to prevent thnn to cure. If there were more legislation in the home there need be fewer laws on the statute books. if domestic authority Is respected equally as well as public. Disobedlenee of the laws is disloyalty towards the state just as disobedience to parental author ity Is equivalent to disrespect
 Obedience is the grand training of the mind in self-restraint, and self-restraint is the quality that distinguishes the man from the brute. Whenever there Is no self-restrant danger lies near the sur face. The thousand and one victims Of the habits" which ruin the minds and bodies of so many young men are nothing
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-22

IA R. CURTIS. the author and Jurist,
 MI did a notable piece of work 4 4 In his discussion of the evil dence adduced by MT. Darwin for his hypothesis of natural selection" He undertook an examination of this evil dence from a jurist's point of view, 1. e., to apply the recognized laws of evi- dence to the case. and to determine how far the theory of evolution Is supported by what would, in @ court of Justice, be accepted as legal proof
 It is not my purpose here to review Mir Curtis work; but to give some in dependent views on the same ger>Tal subject.
 l do not believe that the hypoth esis of natural selection" Is altogeth CT des titute of foundation in well established facts What I do hold, however, as distinctly made out is that, in the pres ent state of our knowledge, no un- broken link can be established between the several species of the same group; to say nothing of the more numerous, and more strongly marked divergences of group from group.
 MT. Darwin has shown that very considerable differences are product ble between various kinds of pigeons, but he does not pretend to show that
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-22

ure? Do you call it letting your girls have pleasure if you allow them to pa rade the streets of the city with young men of questionable morals at hours ap- preaching midnight? But you say you can't prevent 1t. Certainly. That is the spirit of disobedience now grown beyond control because not checked in infancy,
 When the marriage ceremony of this disobedient daughter is about to be per formed, she iterposes an objection to the word obey" and in compliance with the objection the word Is omitted Not that the admission or omission of the word means much, If anything, but 1t implies a restraint upon her self-will which is not to be tolerated by a girl who has never shown obedience to anyone. Into the do- mestic affairs of that household 1t is not necessary to make any investigation, nor need the world wonder when the home built with brick and sand tumbles to ruin.
 What is the purpose of all the laws in
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-22
BY SEWELL HAGGARD.

Governor Hughes-almost nothing in the way of humor. He has been too busy to supply copy for the newspaper blo- graphical department Few persons really know the man for he avoids inti- macy or rather does not invite it. It is said of him that no one ever slapped him on the back His chief character istics arc his self control and his wonder full industry.
 When he was three and a half years old he could read. Before he was five he prepared a paper on Charles E. Hughes Plan of Study" The days of the week were marked Into hours and the various subjects properly allotted When he was six he noticed that he did not keep his body still when reciting his lessons before his mother. Without sug- gestion from any one elsa he made 1t a rule to toe a cerain mark in the carpet during his recitation until he was able to keep his body motonless.
 If he has any fads as Il man they are ocean voyagng and mountain climbing. Ills chief recreation Is reading the novels of Dumas. In his campaign. if he had undergone hard day, he would retire 10 his room at night and read "rhe Three Guardsmen" or "The Count of Monte Cristo."
 "lf thls campaign lasts much longer he said to a friend. T will be through Duma"
 But he did not begin novel reading until late years. All through his boyhood and his early manhood he was loyal to the promise to his father not to read fiction. but 10 look for substantial knowledge
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-22

on whom authority has been conferred; but if the authority of the ruler is ig- nored the mandates issuing from that source are of little force or effect.
 Obedience is the earliest virtue that should be instilled into a child's mind and that lesson Is taught by the due enforce ment of reasonable commands. In this respect the duty of teaching this lesson devolves upon the parents of the child even in the days while yet the infant mind is incapable of being convinced of the reasonableness of the command. The mere fact that the father or mother says do" or "don't' should be quite suf- flcient to ensure obedience without fur ther question on the part of the child; but is this so?
 A most common cause of complaint among men and women of mature years is the precociousness of children of the present day. The silly parents of such children consider it something to be
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-22

TyEW of the present inhabitants or
 N Alabama stop long enough to 4 breathe in the atmosphere or TO- nance that surrounds the state. In the hurry and hustle of the great deVeiop- ment that Is upon us we haven't tune to annreciate our romantic history, and we scarcely realize that this was once the borne of other races, who lived here long years before our day, and have left around us many evidences of their stay.
 The Indian, the native of the country the Frenchman, the Spaniard ana the Englishman have all controlled the terri tory embraced In the present state or Alabama. Indeed. the state was the meet ing point of English and French coloniza- tion. and furnished numberless oppor- tun,ties for intrigue and collision with the Indians by both French and British.
 Foremost among the evidences of these former races and their sway are the ruins of Fort Tombicbe on the Tom bigbee river in Sumter county, near the present town of Epes. The fort was erected in 1736 by Monsieur de Lusser, who had been sent up the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers by Bienville to estab- lisa a depot of supplies for the war to be made against the Chickasaw Indians, wh, were shielding number of those inveterate haters of the French, the Natchez.
 After the erection of the fort, Bien- vile proceeded up the river on his eH- petition. Brown, in his history of Ala bama. says that orders were sent ahead to have bread baked for the expedition. Some trouble was had in the baking. be- cause. perhaps, the lime around Tombic- be injured the quality of the clay for oven baking. When Bienville arrived at the fort, he was joined by 600 Choctaw allies Here the commander called out his little army for review, and there gath cred on the high bluff overlooking ,ne river a strange company of French sol diers ready for the Journey, and Indian allies, arrayed in their dress of feathers
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-22
IN THE TWILIGHT.

From the Chicago Post when the children come home fin the twilight, come home from the field and the street. Come home from the paths that have tempted the recklessly brave little feet,
 Come home from the sun and the shad- ow, come home with Their laughter or tears, They find in tho home place a balsam for all of their frets and their fears The lamplight gives all of them welcome: not one ylll be turned from the door, Their footsteps make merriest music as soft they trip on the floor, And sheltering arms creep around them and fingers of love drive away The strains of the tears and the frown- ings that somehow have come with the day. And all of the ehildren-they know It, they know that when twilight Is With stars creeping out through the hazes, when all of the bees hush their hum When oyer the hills and the valleys each bird hutters home 10 It's nest, They know that the playtime Is ended, that home and its shelter Is best. And some have been given to mischief. and some have been truant and wrong,
 And some have been gentle and kindly and cheery, with laughter and song But they that were bad are forgiven. and they that were good given praise,
 And all are rejolced when they gather si home through their devious ways. wonder and wonder and wonder If we with our codes and our ereeds. If we with our jeers and our judgments of words and of dreams and of deeds.
 Will find when we come in the twilight, a-weary of life and It's way. That we come good and bad children creep home at the end of the day.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-22

TSHE first batch of frenzied politics
 the American people invented and
 \ turned loose was anti Masonry. That was in 1926, when John Quincy Adams was President and De Witt Clinton governor of New York, in which state the thing first broke out. It seems that fellow by the name of Morgan purposed printing a book that purported to be Q revelation of the secret ritual of the Ma soni; order. Soon thereafter Morgan van ished from Batavia, where he lived, and it was known that he was either kid naped by Masons or pretended to be kid naped by men who sought to make the order odious. Subsequently a dead body was fished out of the lake and there arose a babel of dispute as to whether 1t was Morgan. Thurlow Weed declared that it was good enough Morgan till after the election" and in a short time the entire state was in a blaze that ex- tended into New England, down into Jer- sev and Pennsylvania and out into Ohio and Michigan, dividing and bringing fa- natic discord to every community, dis rupting politics, and distracting religion itself. Friendships lifelong were broken, father was arrayed against son and broth CT was opposed to brother
 There were numerous criminals trials in New York growing out of the abduc- ton and the alleged murder, and there were verdicts of guilty on indictments charging the former. Willard Fillmore, afterward President of the United States; William H. Seward, afterward governor, United States senator and Secretary of State, and John W. Taylor, who had been speaker of Congress and who worked as- slduously during the quarrel over the ad- mission of Missouri as a slave state to saw the dragons teeth that, thirty-four years later, yielded the harvest of one of the bloodiest wars of history, were active in the creation of the nti-Masonic senti- ment. Garrett Smith and Francis Gran ger were also leaders in the movement The new party was set on foot and boiled sa.Ooo votes at the succeeding election, thus composing the election of Martin Van Ruren, the anti-Adams candidate, for governor
 And so the new party was formed. rbaddeus Stevens was leader of it In Pennsylvania, where it became very strong Thurlow Weed believed that CIay would have beaten Jackson for President in 1892 if he had not antagon- ,zed the anti Masons. curious thing ahout 1t was that William Wirt, himself a Mason of the fellowcraft degree, was the anti-Masonic candidate for President in 1892. and got the seven votes of Yer mont in the college of that year.
 Given a popular panic, few deluded ,oen of character and capacity; a few sl-iIlful. cunning, and knavish dema- poeues, and an ignorant and supersti- tious following. and up springs politi- cal party This anti-Masonic layout was as absurd as Lord George Gordon's riot nus following, but 1t kept the public
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-22
DzSOBEDZENCE THE CAUsE OF NATIONAL WEAKNESS

more nor less than cases of neglected parental control; of children being allow ed to grow up without being taught self restraint and the duty of obeying the commands of their teachers or elders.
 In a country like the United States, where almost every citizen has a voice In the selection of the lawmakers, it would be expected that the laws should receive the very highest degree of re- spect and a willing obedience would be paid to them But the continual vio- lation of these laws is a direct contradic- ton to such expectations If the viola tons come from those who are generally known as the criminal classes there would be no reason for comment, but the very contrary Is the condition. As an illustra- ton of thls assertion, 1t is worth noticing that one of the most denounced practices Is that of carrying concealed weapons and yet 1t is safe to say that 1t is one of the most generally observed
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-22
BY P. MONKS

The reformation which laws are vainly trying to effect must commence In tho home. The foundation upon which the reformation must be based Is obedience. without that as foundation the pa rental authority will last only so long as physical force will exist. No rule can last very long that depends upon force and it won't last an hour beyond the time when 1t can be thrown off Disobed- fence causes the disintegration Of the domestic temple and will cause the down fall of a nation. It breaks the ties of unity and leaves the home desolate. The scattered sons and daughters who should have heen the pride of aged parents have gone forth from tho homes of their youth rebels to parental authority and foes of self-restraint. It Is to control these and to reduce them to subiection that the iron rod of the law Is called into ex- istence.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-22

proud of when these youngsters claim the attention of their elders by their pert ness, but if these parents knew the real cause of the attention which these chill dren receive, it would not be something to boast about. Very often it is a matter rather of astonishment than admiration that fixes the gaze of the observer upon these infantile prodgies while they ex- ploit their genius for monopolizing public attention.
 The natural tendency of youth is to grasp at everything within reach, and pleasure is the most attractive object to youth. Pleasure Is the rock" says Chesterfield, that most young people split upon" How many victims of ship wreck upon that rock may be found In our cities today? If my children don't have pleasure while they are young" says the fond mother, "when will they have it?'' This is a very plausible ques- ton, but the answer to 1t would be an- other question: What do you call pleas
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-22

and had no legitimate place in politics
 and it would never have got into politics but for the fetish of legal tender that will be abolished IS soon as man De comes reasonably civilized. There is no legal tender in international trade that gets on admirably. wherever the tariff fakers will allow it enough room. But, though 1t was q mere business proposl- ton. the campaign of 1896 was the most turbulent and the most virulent In our history. 1t was sought to teach the people that every banker was male factor, whose sole purpose in life was to bankrupt every man who owed his bank a dollar Millions of men believed it. just as thousands of men forty years earlier believed that Plus TX sought to set up the Spanish inquisition, and exult In the Auto-da-fe in Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky. It is properly call the hattie of the standards" for a double standard in currency Is no more allowed than a double standard fin morals. The