davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-22

question by a wager of battle after the order of the Horatii and the Cu- riatii of the then infant Rome-that Is, he was to pick 100 jayhawkers from Kansas and Dave Atchison was to choose 100 border ruffians from Mis- sori, and they were to meet on the prarie and fight 1t out until there was no survivor on one side. It was to be a battle royal, the victor to take Kan sas, that was the stake. The beauty of the proposition was that Lane was in earnest, and would have stood the hazard of the die, or rather the crack of the rifle.
 Jesse D. Bright came next man who was expelled from the Senate for writing letter to Jeff Davis, fragrant and contemptible piece of petty tyranny A certain eminent magistrate declined to hold communication with MT. Jefferson Davis when that illus trious man was yet among the living, even though the objective of the cor respondence was the vindication Of manifest truth; yet that same great parsonage lived to eulogize that same Jeff Davis in public address. Ana thus doth time make all things even, and so forth, and so forth.
 James M. Mason was the next presi- dent pro tempore. He was man out
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-22

of Plutarch. He was of that set whe set on Curule chains when the profane and barbarian Gaul invaded the Roman forum. Of all of the southern senators, he was most the Roman in dignity and that sternness of character that stands for virtue. He gave way to Benjamin Fitz- patrick of Alabama, who was president pro tempore when the southern senators withdrew
 Solomon Foot of Vermont was the first republican to be chosen president pro tempore. He was a very great parlia- mentarian There Is much to distinguish the parliamentarian from the presiding officer In rare cases the two qualities are united in one individual. Blaine was thus doubly gifted. As presiding officers. Aaron Burr, John c. Calhoun, and John c. Breckinridge were the greatest the senate ever knew; but as parliament tartan, Capitol Hill never knew greater than Solomon Foot, with the single exception of John G. Carlisle, the great est parlamentarian who ever presided over a body that conducted debate in the English tongue. Carlisle is also a mag nincent presiding officer. calm, resolute, prompt, commanding. Randall was excel lent in the chair and Reed was tre- mendous. This young man Hinds, who coaches Uncle Joe, knows parliamentary procedure by rote. Carlisle knew it by instinct.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-22

She has a singularly kindly and amiapie manner, and Is tall, dark and distin- guished.
 The Lord Mayors Show is usually one of the quaint survvals at which most people laugh, but which thousands go to see; but this year MT. Louis Parker has scored a signal success, when he selected the Seven Edwards for his central idea Moreover MT Parker marked change when he protested against the stin, wax work look which the figures usually have had AS they passed through the crowd. and he allowed them to behave as their prototypes might have done had they been gazed at by vast multitude. 50 the Kings testers made merry, the Kings themselves were gracious, and all devel- oped a freedom of action hitherto un- known. Amid the ringing of church bells and the blare of trumpets the procession started from the Guildhall. and thousands of people were waiting to see the Seven Edwards of England. Edward the Con- lessor in robes and golden crown was followed by a distinguished person bear ing a model of Westminster Abbey.
 Earl Goodwine, Harold and the proud Duke of Normandy rode with him. Fol- lowing came Edward l, with his crusad- ing knights; Edward II. attended by Piers Galveston and Hugh le Dispenser; Edward III, with Godfrey Chaucer and the Black Prince and following in his train the weavers of Flanders and the merchants of Genoa; Edward "; Ed ward V, small boy. rode with the Duke
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-22
THE MEETING AT WINDSOR-By Lady Henry Somerset

of York on little ponies. and the chill dren captured all hearts; Edward VI. young and fair, finished the procession. Edwardd VII could hardly be represent ed but Gar of the Harvest of the Peacemaker' was substituted-the only wrong note in the procession. On the summit of the car sat a lady with gold en wings. while different races represent ed His Majesty's dominions. The mania which has grown up for historic pageants is, think. much to be commended, al- though possibly not always understand ed of the reople." The costers cheered the Black Prince as "an undertaker's g man." and asked If the model of Vest minister Abbey was Noah's Ark-remarks which show that in the old country we have still much to learn about our own history.
 No stranger news has ever come from any country than that which tells us that 6 new law exists in Spain that all cafes and bars where alcoholic liquors are sold are now to be closed on Sunday. As is the case in other countries, the law has not been satisfactorily enforced and many of these establishments have been opened in defiance of 1t; but Spain Is to have it's own woman's crusade, and striking spectacle was presented by masses of women of the poorer classes. whose husbands were spending their money there, surrounding the doors ana refusing to so till the men had been turned out and the places closed by the police.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-22

young prince of his time, the child, I years old, who said to the baby prince of Spain the other day at Buckingham palace, Come along, the crowds are wait ing to see you!" He had been bred up in the sound of cheers and nourished in the adulation of a people, but such homage appears to have done no harm to his sweet and genial child nature.
 Such is the group which has formed lately the house party at Windsor, and when we think of that great assembly of monarchs we cannot but feel how deep must often be the anxiety, how difi- cult the task, how burdensome the pomp in these days when men are questioning the good of ancient modes and when on the conduct of the government depends so much of the safety of the monarch and of the throne. For these are times when the secrets of the nation are no longer hid, but when the real feeling Of the populace is made known to those who occupy a throne.
 Among the visits which the King and Queen have paid that to the Duke or Portland, at WeIbeck Abbey, must have been among the most interesting. At this moment the history of the Portland family is specially before the public, ow- ing to the fact that young and un- known Australian claims now to be the Duke himself, and that we are asked to believe that the late Duke of Portland, who was among the most eccentric fig ures in English history, lived a dual per- sonality, part of his life beipE spent as
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-22
A CHRISTMAS CANTATA-By Paul McKendrck

a-buzzin' and everybody was waiting. 1 never thought so many faces could get into that church-I thought there must be more than million eyes lookin' at me. There never was Q thermometer long enough to tell just how hot my face was at that time. 1 had forgotten my song and I don't know now what 1 was to say. Tildy had the book back of the sheet and whispered something to me and told me to go on, but wasn't goln'-Pd gone as far as l could, for l was plumb crazy. l tried to hear her say the words, but she seemed miles away. Oh, how l wished was at home and had my lickin' and was in my little bunk. The words had some thing In them like this:
 "Santer's here, who Is 1t humbly begs? and then some more. My recolector had quit his job and gone a-fishin' or some where's, but I pulled my jaws open to say the words as they sounded from behind the sheet. But 1 don't know what l did say, but Pap told me afterward that 1 bawled out like brindle salf:
 Cant I hear who chucked 'em eggs?'"
 No matter! That crowd yelled and then that platform seemed to dance and try to stand on end. and my head went around a-1yn'. Everybody went a-whiz- zin' around me and as soon as the come out hole in the sheet came skootin past me l made a break for 1t, but got off the road. Some Imp had got two bushel packets of popcorn on the tree side 0: the platform. and I tripped on my robe and made a grand dive over the baskets. and went into that gorgeous tree head first. The tree started to fall over and the trimmn's got afre. Everybody jumped into the air and yelled murder, the babies screamed, the dogs under the stove yelped, and old 'Lize Sankey fainted.
 "As soon as I got myself amputated from that tree and got my arms and legs raked together, l went outside, and let the audience put out the fire and divide the candy-I didn't want none. I went around a corner of the church and hilskcd myself out of that pair of whiskers and buffalo robe.
 "Purty soon the people came out. and they were jest a-talkn' and cacklln'. Some one says:
 "It's all right to hev sicf things in
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-22

~ BLOOM, I suppose, have so many
 crowned heads met together as dur o ing this week at Windsor. Indeed
 kings and queens have been at discount
 and emperors and expresses appear to have jostled each other, three sovereigns and five queens, and the interest of this group probably consists in the fact that never have so many young queens met
 women who in their early life have had thrust upon them great and burdensome responsibility The queen of Spain, who has come back to her native land and everywhere been welcomed, but who has no easy task in that ancient monarchy, where past traditions still retain so firm a hold, in spite of the outward appearance of modern manners in motor car and tele- phone. The queen of Portugal, daugh- ter of France, was brought up in adver- sity in this the land of her adoption, and lives in the midst of political turmoil second to none in Europe. The queen Of Portugal Is deeply interested in hospitals and in all that concerns the sick. she her self having passed the medical examina- tions and obtained the degree of medi- cal doctor. She has done much to modern ize and improve hospitals in Lisbon, and is woman who sincerely desires the best for those among whom she lives. The queen of Norway, a daughter Of Eng land, is bright, genial, witty, the proud and happy mother of the most talked or
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-22

rsburg convention by the nomination of old William Henry Harrison as the whig candidate for President.
 William R. King succeeded John Ty- Ter as President pro tempore of the United States Senate and continued in that office five years-1S36-1S41 He was the first man to hold seat in the Senate more than thirty years, tn ough there was a hiatus in his ser vice of two years when he was minis ter to Russia. As I now recall King was anti-Calhoun, and Dixon H. Lewis was his rival for political supremacy in Alabama. William l.. Yancey came on the stage just as these veterans were getting ready to retire, and Yan- cey sided with Lewis, the radical states rights man. King was elected Vice President in 1852, but never pre- sided over the Senate in that capacity. The oath of office was administered to him in Cuba, where he had gone in search of health, and he died at his home in Alabama the following April at the age of CT.
 Samuel L. Southard came next, and was President pro tempore 1S41-1S42, when he was succeeded by Willie P. Mangum of North Carolina, one of the leading Whig statesmen of that epoch, when Harry of the West" was "Captn of every crowd he got into." And what
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-22

for that, and felt that she was jest the same's she used to be-and a leetle bit more so.
 "The next week I chased myself over to see her again, and 1t didn't take q flock of bulldogs to hurry me, either. She had her say about foreigners. and was ready to talk home folks and home things, and got sociable cause 1 could tell more where 1 was at. After we talked about Jim Johnsons children that had the measles she said that the new preacher had been to see her and informed her that the Sunday school was goin down hill fast and needed spraggin'. It needed revivin', and something oughter be did to revive It. So they two decided that for revivin' Sunday school there was nuthin' like cantater and they would have one on Christmas.
 "She said: I told him that jest loved cantaters, for you know the folks in town just go wild over cantaters.'
 That's what she said, and I says to myself, 'Cantaters, cantaters-what's a cantater? l was not quite ripe in the cantater business just then, don't forget Then she says: Don't you think It would be lovely wouldn't 1t be splendifer- ous? Of course.' she says, there never was one here, but you know how they are got up. 1 says Yessum. Then there was something inside of me sayin'. You're a lyin as fast as a horse can trot.' I was powerful chilly for fear shed ask me how l always took my canta- ters-with sugar or thout.
 "She helped me out purity soon-how much she helped me out nobody else knows. She says: We have piles Of folks here that can sing. Annie Cobb and Jessie Black can hey a duet'-which- ever that was--and Name Wiggins can have part, and the Skinner children can hev song. Then if you and some more'll join in and take parts, l can get 1t up and it will be success. If 1t ain't a sue cess l won't have thing to do with it.
 T took another breath and let go of the one I had been squeezin'. l felt like a man that's been pulled out of the water in January and laid up beside the fire. I saw there was singin' in it, and l felt at that moment that I was no slouch at singin'. My opinion was that I hadn't
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-22

and was United States senator from Vir- ginia, 1S29-1S36, and resigned sooner than obey the instructions of the legislature of his state to vote for something or other "Old Hickory insisted on, as I now remember. In those days the state was a sovereignty very generally recognized, insofar as instructing senators was con- cerned. Tyler's case of resigning rather than casting vote his conscience did not approve was not singular, and it was by no means rare.
 But the election was left to the senatoi to obey the legislature of his state, to resign, or to defy the mandate. We have seen that Tyler resigned. Some 12 years later Stephen A. Douglas obeyed and vot- ed for the Wilmot proviso, to which ne was opposed, and was applauded for the act by Jefferson Davis, who abominatcd the proviso, but revernced the principle that states rights extended so far as that the legislature might control the vote of the senator, who was but the ambas- sador of the state as the grand inquest of the republic, viz: the Congress. In 1879, L. Q. c. Lamar in defiance of the instruc- tion of the Mississippi legislature, voted against the celebrated Stanley Matthews resolutions touching the silver question.
 Tyler was nominated for Vice Pfcsi- ment because he was a Clay man, and Clay had Just been humiliated in his liar
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-22

the school house, but that's what comes of circus doin's in the church. We mighter been burned up for examples.
 Then came Tildy a-cryin' and a-sniffin' and a-heayin' out a nice assortment of sobs, and a-sayin' that 1t was total fa,l- ure. 1 saw that she was mighty apt ID evaporate or something unless she was taken in hand, so l stepped out in front of her and says:
 "Tildy, won't you let me see you homo in my sleigh. I'm
 But she trimmed my grape vine up close, and did 1t quick with:
 Don't you tell me what you are! know what you arel You are great. great, big, big nuthin! You've made my friends laugh at me and I've 'peared worse than ridiculous. No, l won't go home with you, and you can't go too quick.
 "I tell you she was bollin. She hal some spunk at all times, but jest then her temper seemed to hev a sort O family re- union. 1 didn't stop to argify-I knew Tildy. I started for home. l put Old Badly In the stable and then went up stairs into the granery and banged the door shut and had 1t out with myself.
 'As l hev said. l can talk to myself confidental-lilSe, and that was one time I did. I called myself every kind of d fool you could meet from Ksmlnetas to Punk
 
 I jest asked myself why 1t was that p.e- faced beauties like me, that hadn't voicc enough to call the cows, could get such fool notions in their heads and try to do cantater business and act like town folk when they oughter hire out to be stuffed in smashed windows to keep out the snow or for hltchn' posts in barnyards.
 About a week after that Jim Wilson came over to borrow q bridle and says that he sposed I knew about Tiidys goin' back to town. and that he saw her dad drive her away with her trunk on the wagon.
 From that day to this 1 hev never gone near a slngin' school, or any kind of doin's at the church. 'cept preachln. And as for cantaters! Well, I have my opinion of them. and I hey my reasons, and don't you think I aint.
 "Oh, yes, about that three thousand dollars I lost Some folks mghn't fig ure as I do: but Tidy married town man that had a shoe store. and had a face full of voice and could sing about flowers and birds and Come Back. Ma riar. My Hearts Growing Bilious for You and sch like. When Tildys dad died she got the farmland three thousand dollars is a mighty low estimate, as farms go. Now. if that ain't as good as drop- pin that much long green, I'd like to know what is.'
 In few minutes we swung into the lane leading up to the house and barn. In silence we unhitched and stabled the horses, but as we walked toward the house Abe began to whistle softly the notes of song l recoSrszed a. One of old-time singing school vintage. and as we mounted the kitchen steps he drawled out: Funny how a fellow uncorks him. self once in while, ain't it?"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-22

a fine old party it was--the silver gray whigs," a little given to aristoc- racy to coaches and fours and foot men and outriders and body servants, gold fob chain, broadcloth fine boots, silk hats, and all that, but 1t was a grand old party in it's day, and never forgot, nor did it allow anybody else to forget, that it was a perfect gentle man. There are very old men now in Kentucky who will tell you something like this: q am an old-line Henry Clay whig, by -, sir"
 David R. Ttchison came next, serving from 1S46 to 1S49, when he was suc- ceeded by William R. King, but when King was elected Vice President, Atchi- son was again chosen President pro tempore, serving from 1852 to 1854. It is the history of the chimney corner that Atchison was the President of a day" March 4, 1S49 falling on a Sun day; but that is story for the marines and other credulous. Atchison was a Missouri democrat, born at Frogtown, Ky. and intensely southern in his views. Kansas gave us three remarka- ble men, all adaptive sons-John Brown, Jim Lane and John J. Ingalls. Lane was very great orator, and had the self-sacrificing audacity of the fanatic He offered to settle the slavery
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-22

Mir. Druce, the owner of the Baker street bazar and part of his life as Duke or Portland in Welbeck Abbey. l we'll re- member the curiosity which was aroused over the underground rooms which the Duke built at Welbeck; the magnificent galleries lined with pictures, the splendid ball room the miles of passages and tun- neled drives which were constructed by this eccentric nobleman. The drive through the park, which Is a mile and half long, Is ghostly tunnel, and the old Duke spent G2,00O,O00 upon these fa- nous works. Now we are told that the reason for all this was that when the Duke left his splendid home he did so in secret, in order to reach the humber house in which he dwelt as Mir. Druce.
 There. we are told, he married and had a family, but as Duke of Portland he was unmarried and so had no heir. In due course the Duke resolved that MT. Druce" should die, and mock funeral was enacted, lead was placed in the cof- fin. and it was buried at Kensal Green. so runs the tale. The trial is now pro- ceeding. and it remains to be proved whether or no any corpse was really in- tered. or whether this strange story has any foundation of truth. In the opinion of most people. the witnesses hitherto produced can scarcely be deemed danger ous to the Duke of Portland's cause. At the magnificent ball given at Welbeck in this underground ballroom built by his strange predecessor. the young daughter of the Duke and Duchess made her debut.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-22

children in it kept busy fixin' their hair and tryln' to keep their little darlings from cryin' or fightin' each other.
 When I squinted out 'twixt the sheets and saw the church damned full of every body from miles around l felt as If the floor of my stomach had dropped out Then I turned around and saw the anX- ious look on Tildys face and l took hitch in the strap around my equator, ana says I to myself, Do 1t or bust! tleu that little paper of mine to string ana threw 1t over the sheet, sos it'd hang out side where l could take birds-eye view of 1t in time of need, then pinned tother end of the string, and felt that there moren one way of killin' pup and that 1 was not quite so green as l was cap- bage lookin'. I had confidence enough to feed to the chickens
 ''Purty soon the organ began to pump up and the people tried to quit talkin - the cantater was stretchin' itself and git tin ready to move.
 First: Susie Spakin's class sapg song of welcome. That was all right, and after the class marched off every body looked at everybody else and said they thought they'd done splendid. After all the audience people got through tellin each other who they thought looked incest, Annie Cobb and Jessie Black had what Tildy called duet. They came out to sing d song about beln happy little children. They showed each other around a bit tryin' to get foothold and forgot their say. Tidy tried to whisper u to them, but I guess they thought sne was scoldin cause two of them began to cry, and she had to go out and lead them or the platform.
 From that time on things was scram- bed worse'n eggs, and l saw that Tiloy was gettin' nervous and shy The organ started too early or too late to lietch tho gait of the singers. You'd a thought Tildy's face was a crazy quilt when SIX little boys stumbled out and began to slns about being good men some day.
 T was next, and had to come out one side as these little heathens went off the other. I was excited terrible. One or these boys must have spied my string, Tor just as I stepped out I saw that precious paper climbin' up and disappearin over the top of the sheet. The organ Kept