davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-12

THE REV. MIR. CECIL, a very
 thoughtful man, used to say that
 4 the last and most terrible device of the devil would be the man who, with out malice, prejudice or partiality, should set forth the real objections which lie against Christianity. When that man ap- ipears-if he ever shall appear-he will probably have too much sense, and too much knowledge to waste his time upon what are called contradictions" in the Bible, for 1t can easily be shown that many of these contradictions are noth- ing put contrasts, deliberately chosen and used, for the purpose of awakening and fixing the attention of hearers and read e-s
 I've too often forget that the Bible is an Oriental book. or, co speak more accurately. a series of Oriental books. YThe speakers and writers, whose dis courses and writings compose our Bible were to very remarkable extent, men of genius; and every thoughtful critic knows that these are precisely the men whose style Is to the greatest degree colored by their environment. Nobody but B herdsman could have written the book of Amos. The twenty-third Psalm must have been composed by a shepherd The laws Of Moses bristle with the environ ment of the desert.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-12

even illiterate public speakers talk about subjects of which they are profoundly ig- norant is one of the distressing signs of our time. Some time ago, I was positive ly shocked to hear a peripatetic evan gelist of no small notoriety mention by name one of the most famous political writers of the eighteenth century, and say: He is now In he'll" and this was said in a sermon The preacher knew, and could know, absolutely nothing about it.
 During my pastorate in New Bedford, a travelling lecturer came to me, recom- mended by the most famous Baptist preacher in Boston. He was employed to travel about the state and lecture public ly against the Roman Catholics. l had no faith in his mission; for it has never been made clear to me that wholesale public denunciation of the Roman Cath olics, coming from a lecturer who is paid to denounce those whom he calls "Ro- manists' is wise proceeding, and es- pecially do I doubt it's wisdom, when the lecturer is an ignorant man, utterly incompetent to discuss what is called ''the Catholic question" Still, I heard the lectures. In one of them he said with great emphasis: "The constitution of the United States says that all men are born free and equal" After the lec- ture, I advised him not to repeat that statement, as the constitution said noth-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-12

ing of the kind. Well" said the brother, maybe I should have said the Deelara- tion of Independence" Not at all," was my reply flor that document does not contain the statement. The man who wrote that paper owned more than sixty negro slaves; he made them hoe corn; he knew perfectly well that they were not born free, and he never believed that they were the equals of Anglo-Saxon men," might have added that MT. Jeffer- son believed that there was not a negro in America who could be made to under stand the propositions of Euclid. This is not my own opinion, but 1t was his.
 About the year 1858, MT. Jefferson Davis spoke at a great democratic meeting in Faneil hall, Boston. Caleb Cushing in- trodueed him. The two statesmen had served together in the Mexican war and had afterwards served together in Plerce's cabinet in which MT Davis was secre- tary of war; and MT. Cushing, attorney general. Since the death of Jefferson, in 1S2o; of Madison, in 1886, and of J. Q. Adams, in 1S4S, Caleb Cushing was per haps the most learned of our American statesmen. In the course of his intro- ductory speech he had occasion to refer to MT. Webster who had been dead about six years; and he. drew a striking pie ture of the famous statesman looking down from his shining seat in glory upon the transactions of this time and place. How did MT. Cushing ascertain that
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-12
7GS SECRET AND THINGS REVEALED

Daniel Webster was in heaven? With all his learning, he was as ignorant on that question as was the illiterate peddler of peanuts around the corner. l am not expressing any opinion upon the final destiny of MT. Webster; I am endeavor- ing to emphasize the statement that no human being knows, or can know any thing about it.
 During my early ministry in Charlottes- vile, Va, I knew a Scotch Baptist preacher of the name of James Fife. He was power among the Virginia Bap- lists of his day, and was one of the founders of the General Association of Virginia-one of the most vigorous and enterprising Baptist organizations in the world. Most Scotchmen are Presbyterians. but I have noticed that, when a Scotch- man does become a Baptist, he Is usual ly a good one This may be because he has a good. solid Presbyterian founda- tion to build upon. But to our tale: Mr. Fife was preaching in a country prot tracted meeting, when one day at 'in- remission" a man approached him and said: MT. Fife, l want you to walk out into the woods with me; I want to talk with you" Certainly" said the preacher, who. of course. thought he had "an in- quirer" to deal with. They reached Q lonely spot in the forest, and the '1n- quirer" asked, with no small interest, MT. Fife, I want to know who was Melchizedec's father?"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-12

ing book. His was a healthy body, and cornbread strengthened his bones and toughened his muscles as the blue grass does those things for the thoroughbred. He was left motherless at the age of three years, and was reared by an elder sister now the wife of a beloved clergyman of Richmond, Va. She helped to form the boys character and make useful man of him. How well she succeeded is shown in the fact that he taught school, to which went boys older and larger than himself, when he was barely fifteen, and that was community where no moral or intel lectual weakling could teach school at all.
 He was taught the virtues of frugalty from his childhood and from his savings he managed to sustain himself at the Kentucky university for three years, and until he was expelled for shooting q man from Ohio. He was quick to learn and hls memory is like tar bucket that re- tains whatever touches 1t. Especially was he swift to learn facts, and they serve him well in the American congress and on the lecture platform to this day
 Later we find him student at Bethany college. Alexander campbells school. do not state 1t as fact, but I am of the impression that 1t was the intention to make a preacher of the Hon. Champ. Be that as 1t may, thew made an intense Campbellite of him. and the man who as- sails that church in his presence can get all the argument, of whatever sort, he can well manage. When I use the term "Campbellite" I mean no offense. Alex ander Campbell was ono of the greatest men of his time, our greatest divine of whatever sect, and I see no reason why his name should not be perpetuated as Martin Luther's was. Clark remained at Bethany until he graduated, the head of his class in 1873 and with the highest grade any student ever attained in that institution. He did not become a minister of the gospel; but he was chosen presi- dent of Marshall college at Huntington, W. Va, where he remained @ year and Cincinnati and George Hoadley was one of his masters in the study of that great profession.
 Kentucky is the child of Virginia, and Missouri is the child of Kentucky. Before this century shall have completed It's fifty decade Missouri will be the empire state of the Mississippi valley. Not so prolifical- ly endowed by nature in the variety of products as Kentucky, her area is greater and the gross products of her soil larger. Farmer Hatch. tine grand old man who so long represented in congress the Han- nibal district, always grew eloquent on the agricultural products of his state corn, wheat, oats, rye. cattle. swine and mules To those are added the products of the barnya-d and the orchard-poultry, eggs and fruit Missouri will pass Ohio in the race the next census. and collar Illinois by 1920, when she celebrates her centennial as state in the American sisterhood. Champ Clark too, loves Mis- souri as dcvotedly as did Father Hatch. and he Is eloquent when sounding her
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-12

insuperable barrier does not exist here: the daily papers published in a city thousand miles away discuss the selfsame questions one hears in his own city. friends and acquaintances are to be found in those distant places. and it is known that conditions are very much alike in all parts of the country Hence
 1t Is that the American thinks very little of pulling Up his stakes in Maine and going to California or changing from the fresh water of the Great Lakes to the salt water of the Gulf of Mexico.
 This characteristic trait in the American nature Is one the foreigner cannot un- derstand. Whether it will prove a source of strength or weakness to the Amer ican nation in the years to come is one that is open to much debate How often Is the question asked. Is the Amer ican truly patriotic? and the answer has never been given. A few months ago it seemed as if this country and Japan would have had trouble over the school question in San Francisco The people of California were excited to an intense
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-12
BY SAVOYARD.

1 praises. No plebian little adjectives fer 1 him. It is always Imperial Missouri" when Champ talks of his and Father Hatchs adopted state. And Pike county One must hear Champ on Pike before he makes up his mind about the hub of this union of ours
 In 1875 Clark, now a lawyer went to Pike county and pitched his tent. He taught school edited q newspaper, and practced in the courts He was young, healthy, vigorous. gifted, determined. popular, and, if sometimes perverse. he was never goddess. He succeeded, was chosen to office and in 1880 was elector on the democratic ticket of Hancock and English. Later he was in the state leg islature, and in 1881 he married the excel- lent woman who is now his wife and the mother of his children. She too, was born in Kentucky. Miss Genevieve Ben nett, closely related to the famous Mo Afer family that contributed so much to the character and civilization of the state. Her father was a cousin of Senator Me- Creary, of Kentucky. Both husband and wife were students, with congenial tastes. and their reading Is both extensive and varied. Few women have such profound knowledge of American history as Mrs. Clark, and she has been of invaluable as- sistance in this respect to her distinguish ed husband.
 Champ Clark is an orator, but he is not rhetorician; he is a debater, but he is not declaimer. He believes in facts, but he Is not a Gradgrind. It Is pity that he had not taken Shakespeare twenty years ago and studied him line by line, for imagination Is Champ Clark's weak suit He shines best in debate in the house. a partisan debate; and wary and fortunate is the adversary that evades his club.
 It was a calamity to history. misfor- tune to letters, and must ever be regret to the children of tho old commonwealth. that the late W. c. P. Breckinridge did not devote tho last ten years of his life to writing history of Kentucky. He was the one of her sons fully equipped for the task He was familiar with her story as none other was. as none other will ever be-the story of her first cen tury. As writer he was greater than he was as an oator, and had he done what he was SO often urged to do, he would have produced a narrative that would have remained classic as long a Amer ican history exists.
 Champ Clark ought to tell the story of Missouri. He knows 1t as no other man knows it. With a less captivating style than Brecklnridge. he is even fonder of the curious in fact and circumstance Di- rect and simple in narrative, history of Missouri by Champ Clark would be as entertaining as a novel.
 In 1893 Clark took his seat In congress. came to the front immediately. and sinee( the day he first secured the floor in tn national concils he has been a mark and conspicuous man; but his congre siops1 career shall reserve for e futi paJ
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-12

in congress to James G. Blaine but Hale
 was statesman of high order the first
 day he took his seat in the body presided
 over by MT. Blaine. Not even the speak CT, powerful as he is can make a real parliamentary leader to order. Grosvenor, Dalzell, Hepburn, Burton, John ----arp Williams, Champ Clark, Rourko Cochran, and men of that calibre carved out the places they attained by their own eff forts. Congressional life is a melee where
 hard knocks and nothing else avail. Every head that stands fair gets a lick; and hard licks endured by a congressman
 work wonders to his advantage. The scars they bore were testimony that Caesar s Tenth Legion was not made up of carpet knights When Conklng and Blaine so cruelty punished each other, that bright May day 1S65 they were training for the splendid conflicts of the future< when one was to be the idol of his party and the other the acknowledged leader of the United States senate.
 Champ Clark is a conspicuous figure in the national house of representatives and the club he yields Is an effective and powerful support to the rapier of John Sharp Williams It was his knowledge Of the history of American statesnanship that so formdabIy and serviceably armed John Quincy Adams for the forensic con tests he so frequently engaged In. It was his familiarity with the history of Amer ican politics that made stephen A. Doug las the first man of the United States senate for the decade 1S50-60. Champ Clark has paid more attention to American his- tory and American biography than any other man in congress. He has made 1t a speciality as Bailey made study Of constitutional philosophy and constitu- tional construction. Clark is not the ac- complshed man Williams is, not the bril- liant man Carmack is, not the orator Cochran is, not the lawyer Foraker is
 not the scholar Lodge is but Clark can tell Williams things about Mississippi and Mississipplans Williams never heard of he can tell Carmack things about Ten nessee and Tennesseans Carmack never heard of; hc can tell Cochran things about New York and New Workers that Cochran never heard of; he can tell For aker things about Ohio and Ohio public men that Foraker never heard of Anc one can see aniel Webster, the man
 more clearly by listening to Champ
 Clark's lecture on him than he can ge. out of Cabot Lodges life of him.
 Clark could not have made that speech on the powers and duties of the house Of representatives delivered by Bourke Cock
 ran in the fifty-eighth congress. Neither could Williams, neither could Carmack, neither could Foraker, neither could Bai- ley, neither could Lodge. neither could any other man in either house of the American congress. As an exposition of the philosophy of parliamentary govern ment as it should exist. and was designed to exist. In this country 1t is the greatest speech the American congress ever heard.
 While Cochran delighted and enthused
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-12
BY Fl. MONKS.

have neither a boy nor a girl, but you have a effeminate man and a masculine woman, and this is what co-education does and what It's advocates aim at.
 It Is said that girls are taking the place of men in many walks in life; no wonder they are, since men have taken the place of girls in many walks in life. No person in his senses ever doubted woman's abil ity to do mans work if she were educated for that purpose, but as long as it takes two people to carry on domestic affairs, one to earn and one to housekeep, it was deemed advisable to educate each per son along the lines of their duty, and by common consent, dating from the Gar den of Eden, the sphere of action of men and women was clearly defined; but
 Education form the common mind
 Just as the twlg is bent the trees inclined.
 The future of the American nation and the American people presents many prob lems but not the least Is the social dues- ton which is generally lost sight of In the political Issues which are continually being exploited.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-12

that some morning the coffee was cold and the biscuits were soggy, would you get mad with me?" Not at all" said George. "I would go down town and get breakfast" It may be that there are more Georges than one would guess in the dining room of hotels.
 This Is matter that might deserve a little attention from the advocates of CO., education. If girls are to be taught what 1t was formerly supposed only boys were required to know, equally so should boys be taught what 1t was supposed only girls should know. But these were the ideas of men who existed centuries ago and are not in accord with the trend of modern thought. What Is the trend of modern thought? To make all people equal by teaching them the same lessons. giving them the same games to play, the same class of work to perform. If you take two colors, say black and white, or any other two opposite, and take part of each and mix with the other you have a color which Is neither black nor white; if you take boys and girls and teach them the same subjects the result Is you
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-12

WINERY other day the question Is asked, Is the United States drifting
 - away from the moorings of repub- licanism towards imperialism? and the answer is given. yes or no; but there Is a graver question than that and one which more deeply affects society and that is the question, Are the people of the United States drifting away from the moorings of domestic life toward Bohemianism?
 When Joseph Chamberlain was making his campaign through England a few years ago In favor of protection of Eng fish manufacturers and mechanics from foreign competition he spoke of the United States as being nation made up of forty-flve nations. and such 1t is. The boundary lines which mark Euro pean nations are unknown In the United States; the difference in language of European nations which makes removal from one country to another an almost
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-12

and with most people those limitations are narrow man may love his native country so long as 1t is possible to com prehend his country. When a person returns to his native country after years of absence he generally returns to the scenes with which he is familiar and which are associated in his mind with in- cidents of his youth or his home. That is the focal point in his affection, and as distance therefrom increases, so his affection 1essens until it disappears alto gether. Of this we have proof every day in the interest we feel in all events that occur locally, and how little we con- eern ourselves about matters that happen in places beyond our acquaintance. The old man who asked the woodman to spare the tree because it had sheltered him in his youth would not have given a thought to the felling of one of Yosemites giants.
 One of the most pathetic passages in
 "The Deserted Village" Is that in which Goldsmith expresses his hopes of return ing to the home of his childhood. After picturing the pleasures he anticipated
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-12
BY WILL w. NELSON.

Alabama and Cahaba rivers for the seat of state government From the sale of lots from this land grant Sl29,O00 was obtained by the state. One-fourth of this money was used in the erection of the state house at Cahaba and the remainder as d part of the capital of the State bank. The state house at Cahaba was com pleted during the year of 1920, and the seat of state government was moved there that year, and the second session of the state legislature convened in the new state house in Cahaba in October of that year
 The first governor of the state of Ala bama, William Wyatt Bibb. died at his home in Autauga county in July 1S20 prior to the converting of the legislature at Cahaba, and his brother. Thomas Bibb, who was at that time president of the state senate succeeded to the gov ernorship and held the office until Israel Pickens was elected and inaugurated in 1921 at Cahaba. Mir Pickens was re- elected governor in 1923 The only other governor of the state inaugurated at Ca haba was John Murphy, who was elected and inaugurated in 1925 succeeding Gov ernor Plckens
 When Cahaba became Alabamas capi- tai Thomas A. Rodgers was secretary of state, Samuel Pickens comptroller of ac counts and Jack Ross state treasurer.
 In those days the judges of various cir cults, sitting together, composed the su- preme court. There were but five circuits in the state In 1920 and the judges were: Clement c. Clay, Richard Ellis, Reuben Saffold, Henry Y. Webb and A. s. Lips comb The first session of the supreme court was held in Cahaba in 1920 and this session elected Clement c. Clay as chief justice. Judge Clay left behind him a record as one of the most eminent jur- ists of thls country. His Alabama digest, printed ih 1s43, Is a most able work on Alabama laws.
 During the month of June, 1924 the State Bank of Alabama, with a capital of $l00,-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-12
ROBLE11S DESER WING 4 INTENTION

from meeting his old friends and telling them of all he fell and all he saw he concluded with that beautifully simple simile:
 And as hare that hounds and horns
 pursue
 Pants to the place from whence at first
 she flew;
 still had hopes. my long vexations
 passd.
 Here to return and die at home at last
 Another noticeable feature in America today is the departure from tho family life which shows itself in a variety of ways, but in none more than in the public dinner at hotel or restaurant instead of in the home. Whether that departure be due to the servant problem or is to be considered another step in the direction of progress is best understood by those who patronize the club or cafe but that it is departure and one well calculated to lessen home ties Is self-evident. When the sweet young thing laid her hand on Georges shoulder and looking in his eyes, said; Suppose, when we are married,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-12

degree over the matter. but the excite ment did not extend to the bordering states much less to the state 2OOO miles away from the scene of action. Had such a question arisen in London or Paris or Berlin. the people of the whole coun- try of which these cities are the capital would have felt the thrill and prepared for the outcome.
 If the population of the United States continues to increase as it has been in creasing during the last decade there is every reason to believe that fifty vars hence it will be close on 200, 1000, and even at that figure the limit Is far dis tant. If a nations strength lay in the number of it's population. the United States might fairly hope to become the most powerful nation the earth has ever known; but numbers do not mean strength; if they did, the Chinese and the Asiaties would far surpass us; 1t is CO., hesiveness that makes strength, and in that respect the American people fall far short of other nations
 The human heart has its limitations,