davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-04
Pistol TOtinu and Craps

Two very bad practices met in North Birmingham on Sunday, and a young man was shot dead by a companion. A trivial disagreement over a crap game did not justify resort to arms; nothing for that matter could justify murder, and the pulling of weapon and the quick killing of a young man seems to have been due to desire to exercise a gun. At any rate the mur- der was wholly due to the pistol-toting habit, and to nothing else.
 Commissioner Bingham has caused New York to disarm. It Is conceded that pistol toting is no longer a men, ace and a danger in that big city. Why then cannot the police compel disarm- ament in this city?
 The death of young Davis plainly shows the peril all are exposed to in a community that goes armed. The walking arsenals should be halted ana compelled to lay down their arms. Dis armament can be accomplished, but it cannot be accomplished if no serious and general effort is made by the police in that direction.
 t. The affair of Sunday did not occur in this city, but 1t occurred within the police jurisdiction, and the young man who pulled his pistol with deadly eff feet is employed in this city. The en- tire affair is chargeable to the armed condition of this city-to pistol toting in short, and it cannot be pushed aside as a North Birmingham affair. It was Birmingham homicide, and the en- tire responsibility rests on the pistol toting habit that prevails throughout Jones valley.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-04
Abnormal Weather

The weather sharps in Washington do not see much prospect of warm settled weather. They decline to pre- dict more cold weather, for then all of us would have some assurance that the sun would shine warmly and stead fly again. They suggest but do not pre- dict
 One of them says the winds are not what they should be because the earth is not rotating on its axis at normal angle. This causes the cold winds from Medicine Hat to sweep south ward towards the equator. But who really knows that the position of the earth on its esteemed axis is not nor nal?
 Another lot of wisacres say the high pressures of Medicine Hat seek the low pressures of the south just as air everywhere seeks vacuum partial or total. This school of theorists do not attempt to explain the excessive out put of high pressures, being content
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-04

to name them and to leave first causes to others.
 Both sets of theorists agree in say ing that the general trend in weather conditions may last all summer-in fact, they seem to think that nature Is in a rut, and that her weather will con- tinue to be dealt out consistently, and summer-a straw hat summer-will forget to occur.
 The reader pays his money and takes his choice, knowing full well that inside of forty-eight hours he may be smelting in midsummer heats, or that he may on the other hand need an overcoat. There is nothing more un- certain in this world than the weather, not even a petit jury or politics.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-04
TAX EQUALIZATION.

From the Montgomery Advertiser.
 The Birmingham Age-Herald seems to be exercised over a report that the Board of Revenue of Montgomery will not raise assessments for this county. The board ha5 not yet taken up that matter. and therefore criticisms by our Birmingham contemporary or anybody else are pre- mature.
 It Is a fact that assessments here are higher than in most of the counties and based upon values October of last year very nearly, if not quite up to the de- mand made by the state tax commission of 50 per cent of salable value. If the Board of Revenue should decline to make radical increases in this county, it will ne because of the careful way in which assessments have been made, and from the knowledge the members of the board wealthy New Orleans ship handler, bank themselves possess of values and prop erty in this county.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-04
Control of Railroads

The only new thing In the Presi- dents Indianapolis doctrine was the suggestion as a legal probability of the Farrar doctrine. Lawyer Farrar, it will be remembered, said that clause I of section 8, article 1, of the federal constitution gives Congress power to establish postroads, and that therefore it gives Congress the right to control intrastate railroads.
 The trouble with this doctrine is it goes too far If under the postroads clause Congress can control an intra- state railroad because mails are car ried on it, it could control street car lines that handle mailbags, and city streets traversed by letter carriers, and country roads over which rural free delivery wagons pass. What Is good law in the one cast must be good law in any of the others.
 The newspapers of the land are bus ily engaged in discussing the Farrar doctrine, but the newspapers are not authorized opponents of the federal constitution. The railroad situation of today was no more foreseen by the men who framed the postroads clause than was the telephone or the cell theory. Until the supreme court has nassed on the clause In question no one can say what 1t means, but If the Presidents leaning towards the Far Tar doctrine means that it Is to be in eorporated in the republican platform 1t may be that the doctrine will be- come a great political issue.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-04
BOOKER ITS SUMMER HOME.

From the Washington Herald.
 Booker T. Washington, the great negro educator, has engaged a summer home at West Neck, Long Island, and will spend about three months there every year. The place is less than three miles from Saga more Hill, President Roosevelt's summer home It consists of about 100 acres of fine land, with an old-fashioned mansion, which was built by the Van Wyck fam fly many years ago. The Van Wycks were North Carolnians. and slave owners. Booker Washington was once slave him. self He and the president still are great friends, and it is presumed that they will see much of each other during the vacation season. It is noteworthy, how ever. that Prof. Washington has not been conspicuously in evidence in this city since the famous private luncheon or dinner at the White House. at which he was
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-04
Ihe Rusinesa Situation.

"The iron. market Is stlll firm but not es- pecially active,' said a prominent broker. There les a good deal of inquiry for fall delivery and sales covering the first half of 1908 are being made. The price is SIS 50 on a No. basis for next years delivery. For summex and fall iron of the current year the quotations are much higher.
 While general trade will hardly be as brisk during the next twelve months as it was in 1906, I look for good business for the remainder of the year. We have had unprecedented prosperity for several years past and it will continue by it's own momentum for at least few months longer. After that business will be fairly good, but as everything is relative it will probably be dull for while compared with what we have been used to. As for hard times, I look for nothing of that sort. It will take a succession of three or four bad crop years to bring rock bot tom conditions in this country. Humanly speaking. long periods of depression can hardly come as they did In the past.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-04
Clay County Pyrites.

The Standard Copper Pyrites company, operating at zell, in Clay county, on the Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic rail- road, is said to have one of the most modern plants for mining and shipping Pyritets ores in the United States.
 We have a close corporation. no stock being for sale' said President Robert R. Zell. "Our plant consists of a 125 horse- power boiler. Norwalk compressor of 500 cubic feet air capacity. a hoisting engine of sufficient power to raise five tons of ore and an improved skip car to hoist four tons at one time. The tipple has capacity of 300 tons in twelve hours and is equipped with a McCully crusher of fifty tons capacity per hour Elevators and screens are driven by an independent engine.
 "We have sunk slope of ten by twelve feet to the 200 foot level and are now mining to that depth. The company owns sixty acres of ore lands"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-04
SOME QUEER BETS.
Hundred to One Shots on Some Odd
 Agreements.

From the New York Telegraph.
 Patsey Sheppard of the South End of Boston, ruler of a palace of sporting pie lures and arbitrator" of betting affairs, declares that betting is dying out. In the Metropole the other night he was telling why.
 "Only curious bet I've known of lately was made on the third base bleachers during a series between the Americans and Nationals. The Collins men had Ten neys by two runs, and I heard a man bet another s1O to s1O0O that the Nationals would win It was kind of foolish bet a 1-to-100 shot-still, all kinds of queer things happen In baseball, even when one team is better than another. In this case the short-end man lost his money. He would have been pretty lucky to get away with that thousand, wouldn't he?
 eThen Harry Schaffer tells me that he once heard man bet another s1 to s1OO that a team would win the game This man also lost his dollar. Better he than the other fellow, though. People don't make many foolish bets. People are get ting sensible, I guess. Mike Dwyer made some heavy bets in time past. He bet sSo, ,OOO once to make 5000 That was going some. But there aint many Mike Dwyers. They don't grow many of them. There ain't been many big bets since the days of the old fights. You cant take a chance these days. And it's all small betting."
 Patsy Sheppard seems to be accurate in his observations The days of big bet ting are ancient history And the days of queer betting are somewhat passe also. Years ago the papers used to he full of odd wagers. Men trundled their victorious opponents about the streets in wheebarrows brass bands accompanied the parties and everybody stopped on the sidewalk and watched the spectacle with great amusement. Nowadays peo- pie give the betters only glance, mur- mur what fools there are In the world ana continue serenely on their way
 Betting no longer prevails largely at the horse races, and at the fights the spectators are so interested in the sport that they forget to bet, and even at the baseball games there Is only sporadic indulgence in the gambling instinct.
 But in other days there were many curious bets.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-04
ABOUT BIRMINGHAM


 Cullman Tribune: Next year we shall all be raving with "dementa politicana. It's an election year, remember.
 Montgomery Times It has showed in Texas this week. In one respect at least Texas has ceased to resemble hell.
 Montgomery State: With Uncle Re- nus Hoke Smith, John Temple Graves and Bruffey, why should any one call for a greater Atlanta?
 Columbus Ledger: Montgomery is anx- ious that Birmingham should get the next Confederate Veterans reunion, and if proper efforts are put forth by Alabamians at Richmond there is no good reason why Birmingham and Alabama can't have the veterans next year-Montgomery Journal. Birmingham could take care of the re- union about as well as any city of the size in the world.
 Nashville Tennessean: Birmingham is experiencing labor troubles now" said R. F. Anthony of that-city at the Utopia, 'and unless conditions change within short time the strike will assume a most serious aspect.
 My city is made up of people from all parts of the country. While it is a south ern town it has eastern ways and folk from the north abound there The float ing population of Birmingham Is very preat i'
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-04
In Old Viruinla.

'The liquor traffic in Virginia has been greatly curtailed in recent years," said a commercial traveller. When I first started on the road I visited nearly every town in the Old Dominion, and in every one of them l found saloons. I was look ing over a recent report of the Anti-Sa- loon league and was surprised to find that a large majority of the counties were dry. Of the nearly HOO saloons in Virginia something like half of the number are To- cated in Richmond, Norfolk and Newport News.
 "The number of saloons in Richmond has decreased, butain Norfolk there is gain of 20 per cent over last year, due, perhaps, to the exposition. Virginia will never become a prohibition state, but it has developed more anti-saloon sentiment than I ever dreamed 1t would"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-04
The Saennerfest.

"The southern saengerfest that will be held in Birmingham in September next will be a large affair, unsteady and so- cially," said a member of the Turn-Xerein. "A dozen or more cities will send bands of trained singers and the mass chorus heard here on that occasion will number fully 200 voices. The visitors will prob ably swell the crowd of German Amer jeans in attendance to 1000 or 1900.
 "The local committee of arrangements has not yet perfected it's plans. but it is understood that there will be at least one grand concert and two or three open air fetesn
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-04
Boxing Carnival.

London June 3.--In a boxing car nival at the National Sporting club to- night Sam Langford and Sam McVey, Americans, easily got the best of their British opponents. Langford knocked out Jeff Thorn in the first round and McVey put away Ben Maylor in the third round. Jim. Driscoll defeated Joe Bowker, the bantam fighter in the seventeenth round.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-04
Train Wrecked in Tennessee.

Nashville, June 3.-Early tonight near Gravotte, Tenn, station on the Illinois Central railway, 20 miles northwest of here. the tender of the Chicago limited passenger train No. 26, climbed the rails, wrecked the train. Engineer Bent was slightly in jured about the shoulders and breast. and the mail car completely wrecked. The baggage car was ditched. The pri- vate car of Judge Dickinson, general counsel for the Illinois Central rail- road, on which he was passenger which was part of the train, held to the rails.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-04
Taxable Values in This State

The Montgomery Journal and the Montgomery Advertiser agree in one respect. The former says the Mont gomery board of revenue has decided to make no material increase in tax able values, and the latter says tax able values in its county are nearly, if not quite up to the 60 per cent level. The two papers agree as to the action of their county board, but the Journal does not see fit to assert that taxable values and market values in it's coun- ty are running a neck-and-neck race.
 This is a question that Judge Nit chell and the two associates will have to decide. They will sit as judge and jury and they will say what relation taxable values in Montgomery county bear to market values. It is a ques- ton of fact with no law technicalities in it. It is question that the trans fers of real estate will determine easily. readily and beyond controversy.
 The state tax commission is morally bound to do its full duty without fear, prejudice or favor. If 1t compels one county to come up to the 60 per cent level it should compel all to do like wise, and this task is not one that ,an be easily accomplished, for every county will be apt to say that it's tax able values are "very nearly if not quite" up to the 60 per cent line.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-04
PRESS POINTS

Atlanta Constitution; Let's leave it to the animals as to who is the nature fakir.
 New York Mail: Tillman may be right when he says. Hartman should be n hell" They do need water there.
 Washington Post: Burglars who are caught with the goods are overlooking a bet if they do not plead that they were merely collecting souvenirs.
 Richmond Times-D Dispatch: King Peter of servia now denies that he is going to marry a Chicago heiress. Even Peter sets a limit on what he will do for money.
 Austin Statesman Taft's method in going down into that canal pit was evil dently to decoy Foraker into that Ohio hole they had prepared for him. But did it work?
 Florida Times-Union The school which accepted Dr. Longs volumes as text books will now understand that patriot ism requires a change, and John Bur roughs would be only a halfway house.
 New Orleans Times-Democrat: A Kan sas food inspector declares that the pure food law is being obeyed. If he is cor rect, the pure food law is the first en- actment since the dawn of history" to enjoy that distinction.
 Louisville Courier-Journal: A govern ment statistician has figures that rats eat $1O0,0oO,o GOO worth of food in the Uni ted States every year. The constant boarder who believes in reincarnation will now pray for rathood in the next life.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-04
From the Chicago Record Herald.

From the Chicago Record Herald. E(T HE weather has come to be HCD much more than casual
 topic of conversation this spring; it is almost continuous per formance tragedy. Everybody seems to have lost all confidence in the official 'forecaster," and has gone to guessing, each one on his own account, feeling that he cannot possibly do worse than those whose business it is to know what the weather is going to do.
 lot of people are pinning their faith in weather predictions on Hicks. the St. Louis astronomer, whose almanac for this year, made up last fall, has been hitting the nail on the head in most remarkable manner recently. Last month Hicks seemed to be making the weather, so closely did his predictions materialize, notwithstanding the fact that it was one of the most freakish months ever ex- perienced. Hence Hicks predictions for June are worthy of some respect.
 Hicks says that June Is to be one of the stormiest months of recent years, and even more freakish than May or April phenomenal perturbations will reach some sort of crisis in earth and sky is the way he puts 1t.
 The first storm period will extend from the 2d to the 7th, beginning with marked rise of temperature and falling barometer and eliminating in severe thunderstorms, cloudbursts, hail and pos sible tornadoes.
 There is another storm period on the 9th, 10th and 11th; excessive warmth, ex- treme humidity and violent thunder and wind storms will characterize this period, according to Hicks.
 From the 18th to the 18th will be one
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-04
Francis Goes to PenItentiary.

Philadelphia, June 3,-Stanley Francis, promoter of the Story Cotton company of this city, which was closed by the postal authorities and which had creditors in all sections of the country, began sentence of five years in the peniten- tiary today. He was convicted of using the mails to defraud.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-04
Significant and Encouraging.

AS the Wall Street Journal remarks, when the advance orders for steel rails for delivery in 1908 amount to s2S,oOo,OoO, it is hard to accommodate ones mind to the idea of great trade recession said banker The Journal goes on to say: The fact is, that this Is the first time in American records that slump in Wall street has not influenced the sales and prices of steel.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-04

Holly Chieftain: Dogs are usually wiser than men, and one that called at the Chieftain office last week is wiser now than when he called. We always have a jar of extra strong lye (not for use in edl- torial work), and, of course, the afore- said dog thought 1t looked good, so he took drink of it. As he made his hasty departure from our sanctum he showed the indelicacy of his manners by wiping his mouth on the floor and shedding CO., pious tears. He also made many other movements that only a thorough student of the dog language could understand. We had better stuff to drink, had he given us the distress signal.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-04
REFLECTIONS OF A BACHELOR.

From the New York Press.
 The way to make admirers is to make fortune.
 A family is very useful to teach a man not to throw away any money on himself.
 Some women can fool you about whether their complexion Is made up even when you taste it.
 It's bad luck for woman to fall of the steps of a street car unless she has on open-work silk stockings.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-04
JUNE MONTH OF STORMS

of the most decisive turmoil' seasons of the whole month; low barometer, humid ity and excessive heat will be followed by violent and dangerous lightning storms In which the destructive winds will re- verse all their usual directions and blow from anywhere to everywhere.
 The next storms will occur about the 22d and resemble those just mentioned ex- cepting that there will be local rain de- luges in widely separated sections and wind vortices of great destructiveness.
 The last of the June storms will occur about the 27th, during which there will be heavy rains, wind and thunder daily for three or four days. Taking June right through, Hicks says there are to be un- usual volcanic disturbances, earthquakes, sun spots, auroral magnetic earth cur rents that sailors especially had better pay attention to.
 Trouble seems really to portend, for Hicks is not the only weather sharp who in slandering June. Andrew Jackson De- voc, the weather prophet of Hackensack, N. J., has spread weather menu for the Atlantic seaboard, especially for New York City. that will bring cold comfort to the populace of the east This Is his bill of fare for the month;
 June to 7--Moderately warm.
 June S--Very heavy thunderstorms, fol- lowed by falling temperature
 June to 13-Coldest summer weather for many years in June, but too cloudy for frost, though almost cold enough for snow.
 June 13 to 15-Pleasant
 June 16-Warm, showery.
 June IS to 22-Pleasant.
 June 2S-Warm and showery.
 June 24-Heavy thunderstorns.
 June 25 to 27-Very cold for summer.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-04
On the Links,

From the Reader for June.
 Bunker-NIiss Woodby is so eccentric in her golf playing since her return from Paris.
 Miss Niblock-ls she, really?
 Bunker-Yes, indeed. When she foozles now, she invariably exclaims: ''Hoot mon piAu."
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-04
Linemen Strike.

San Francisco, Cal, June 9.-All the linemen in the employ of the Pacific States Telephone and Telegraph company quit work today in sympathy with the striking girl operators who have been out on strike for over three weeks to force recognition of their union.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-04
WASTE OF TIME.

WASTE OF TIME. We talk of reform and reformers get up And tell us what's proper and right, But the man who is wise will continue to And do all his sleeping at night. There's no use to worry OCT this and OCT
 that.
 We're doing quite well as we are. So just be contented and keep on your
 hat
 The old world is way above par! "of course Chauncey M. Depew is a crook" says a magazine writer. Sure! And yet, 1t is safe to assume that the o-As-You-Please club of Mobile is a slave to convention.
 Oh. what is so rare as day in June? (Sarcasm.)
 Mflwaukee's Mayor thinks of going on the stage Milwaukee may yet be un- done.
 CONJECTURING. When King Alfonso starts to walk the
 floor, As other fathers have so often done be-
 fore, His offspring bowling and the time. we'll
 say, About two hours ere the dawn of day, We wonder if he'll ever chance, alacl, To put his royal foot upon a tack? If Richard croker goes to the English parliament that will be good joke on parliament.
 A magazine writer discusses "The se- crets of the Mosquito" He never kept any from us.
 "'Bout time to thump the early crop of June brides," remarks the Dothan Eagle. That metaphor must be mixed.
 BREAKFAST TIME. scent of ham is on the morning air, While many little birds sing in the
 trees. Black coffee In the pot is boiling there We'll have our eggs turned over, if you
 pleasel
 The Saturday Evening Post tells what to do with thousand dollars. Lend us a thousand to practice onl A list of what to invent reminds us that most people are kept busy inventing excuses.
 There is a MT. Bloom in Kansas who can no doubt remember the time when he was full Bloom. PAUL COOK.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-04
NOT THE REAL ARTICLE.

From the Washington Herald.
 Senator Pettus does his cussing in Latin" says the Birmingham Age-Herald. But that Is only when he is near-oussing.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-04
AN OVERSIGHT.

From the Boston Globe
 There ought to have been a band to play Dixie when the Birmingham, "chrlstened" by that pretty Alabama girl, slid down the ways.