davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-04

The power to interest me deeply in the sayings and dongs of very ordinary and commonplace people l take to be the mark of genius of a high order; and this power George Eliot possesses in d very extraordinary degree, Tom Tulliver was stupid at his books; and yet his career at the school of MT. Stelngs is depicted with such sympathy that 1t deeply in- terests the profoundest scholar.
 Maggie TulliVer was bright; and Aunt Glegg had some stray gleams of intellect; but with these exceptions, the whole Dod- son crew were rather phenomenal in their stupidity, and the Tullivers were cen crows of the same nest. And yet they are all made interesting to almost every type of reader The individuality with which the author manages to stamp each one of these dull, commonplace people is abso- lutely marvellous. Uncle Pullet is phe- nomenally stupid and ignorant, and yet he Is made amusing.
 TO portray fools wisely is one of the fine arts. Shakespeare possessed 1t In an eminent degree. Polonius was fool; but the term fool in the sense of great mans merry-Andrew was certainly not applicable to Polonius, for he had no pre- tensions to wit. Indeed he is almost as tedious as Mrs. Nckleby herself. Nor
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-04
POEMS YOU OUGHT 70 READ

Much is to learn and much to forget Ere the time be come for taking you. But the tune will come-at last it will. When, Evelyn Hope, what meant, l shall
 say,
 That body and soul so pure and gay? Why your hair was amber, l shall di-
 vine,
 And your mouth of your own geranium's s
 red And what you would do with me. in fine. In the new life come in the old ones
 stead l have lived, l shall say. so much since
 then
 Given up myself so many times. Gained me the gains of various men, Ransacked the ages, spoiled the climes: Yet one thing, one, in my souls full scope, Either 1 missed or itself missed me And I want and find you Evelyn Hopel What is the issue? let us seei I loved you. Evelyn, all the while: My heart seemed full as it could hold There was place and to spare for the
 frank young smile And red young mouth and the hair's s
 young gold. So, hush-I will give you this leaf to
 keep
 See. l shut 1t inside the sweet, cold
 hand. There. that is our secret go to sleep; You will wake, and remember, and un
 derstand
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-04
BY J. C. HIDEN, D. D.

he well knew how to take care of his money. and make it go as far
 Sam Johnson made a good dea.
 by his pen; and he was one ot men who lavshed his bounty upo. and was strilNngly economical in personal expenses. He was long never rich. but left some thousands savings when he died.
 Glbbon was extremely careful of his money, and was more anxious about the rise of his own fortune than about the fall of the Roman empire.
 Dickens loved his money almost as much as he loved his dinner and his wine, and this Is saying a great deal He made large sums, and took uncommon care of the sinews of war. Thackeray did not like to waste his money of which he made and kept no small amount. Thomas Car lyle's household expenses were managed with rare skill and economy, though his admirable wife deserves much of the praise. George Eliot, with all her genius and learning. and literary skill, was ono of the best nnanciers. as well as one of the best housekeepers in all England She was extremely careful to follow the greatest of all financial maxims: Pay as you go; and when you can't pay, don't go
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-04
BY ROBERT T. MAJORS.

be part of their duty to lend what service they may, in suggestions and en- couragement. toward the success of thls initiative enterprise in this direction. The sniltary system which prevailed for so long a time at tho University had the ef- feet to alienate, in measure. the stu dents from the faculty and the good Of It's influence. in that the rigid regulations of this kind of discipline eliminated the most of the freedom of the students. and made the commandant the sole dictator of their style of life. Under such sys- tenn there was very little opportunity for either beneficial outside influence or in side development, since everything was subservent to the military rules and regu- lations. This naturally had the tendency to reduce to a minimum both the desire and possibility on the part of the stu
 dent body to assume any responsibility for
 or to make any effort in the shaping
 of the college life, and, consequently, to leave undeveloped some of the most practically and important sides of it's ma ture.
 II is not presumed here to suggest . those who make such matters their life study any particular plans or system from which the best results may be ob- tained in the matter of the college social life. The matter, however, Is worthy the consideration of those so engaged. The associations during a college career are distinctly productive of some kind of of- feet on all students; many of them good and of much worth. Yet there Is enough human proneness to vain glory, to glitter ing unreallties. to false ambitions in the best of us, to well provoke a care on the part of our college presidents and
 faculties as to how our boys are assimilat-
 ing the fine doctrines they are being taught, in what measure they are apply ing them to the lives they lead and to what name rof men they are growing into while drinking at our founts of knowledge
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-04

the devil. A story is told of a sailor who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for all the rum he could drink and to- bacco he could smoke in twenty years. In all such contracts there was a clause providing for it's cancellation if the ven dor would give the vendee a task which he could not perform. Jack never ex- pected to survive the twenty years in- dulgence in the free and unlimited use of rum and tobacco. but fate ordained 1t otherwise, and the time arrived and, with it Nick. The sailor remembered the saV- ing clause in the contract and asked few minutes to think. during which time he went down into the hold of the ship and connected the pump with the ocean. Now" said he, pump this ship out and I'll go." but after a few hours furious work the eOd Boy decided that ship which leaked like that one was too much for him.
 The "Kenilworth'' was an old wooden vessel, belonging to sydney, New South Wales. It was generally believed that she was insured for all, or probably more than she was worth that her loss would be clear gain to the owners; and that she and her crew would some day find
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-04

ditional augmentation of federal power. North Carolina has vindicated them and set the example to all the other states. Whatever the supreme bench may adJu- dicate, the fact remains that the power to regulate abldes in the states, and the states are only restrained as they should be, by constitutional guarantee of the rights of property.
 Some years ago l attempted to de- scribe a scene in a Senate gallery of which Senator Pettus was the central figure. It clings to my memory for 1t recalled that ante-bellum period when the patriarchal system of our slave states was the best government that had been established among men, and here was Thackeray's Colonel New come in the flesh. Father Pettus had been q senator but a sh ort while, prob ably only a few weeks. He took the elevator on the Senate floor and escort ed a party to the gallery floor. It was a gentleman, his wife and his daughter the old statesman had under convoy. When they came to the door the ven- erable senator took by the hand the young lady. little past her third lus- trum. and, followed by her parents, he escorted her down the steps. Flunkies hurried and scurried getting seats for the party, and the senator took his
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-04
IN A ROSE GARDEN.

By John Bennett. A hundred years from now. dear heart, We will rot care at all. It will not matter then whit
 The honey or the gall. The Summer days that we have known Will all forgotten be and flown; The garden will be overgrown
 Where now the roses fall. A hundred years from now. dear heart. We will not mind the pain. The throbbing, crimson tide of life
 Will not have left a stain. The song we sing together, dear, The dream we dream together here, Will mean no mroe than means tear Amid a Summer rain. hundred years from now. dear heart. The grief will all be o'er; The sea of care will surge in vain
 Upon I careless shore These glasses we turn down today, Here at the parting of the way. We snail be wineless then as they,
 And will not mind 1t more. hundred years from now. dear heart,
 We'll neither know nor care What came of all life's bitterness,
 Or followed loves despair Then fill ihe glasses up again And kiss me through the rose-leaf rain We'll build one castle more in Spain, And dream one more dream there
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-04

H HE origin, the development and
 the character of the English
 novel constitute one of the most interesting and instructive chapters in the history of our literature. Just when the English novel le san to be. is ques- ton not easily answ 2. ed. Mdca ulay. one of the atlest and aeutpst of our critics, thinks that he aiscerns m sIIne of Addi- sons Spectators" the germ VI ch after wards grew into the novels Of Richard son and of Fielding. HeLTy rieldng is often spoken of as the father Of the Eng fish novel; but this statement is certainly erron-ous, for Richardson was q highly popular novelist before Fielding was known as a writer of fiction Indeed, Fieldings Joseph Andrews was writ ten to caricature one of Richardson's nov els which had reached a very high degree of popular appreciation. If pressed to call the name of the father Of the Eng fish novel l should write the name of Richardson.
 When George Eliot began her literary career. she found the novel in the hey day of it's glory. Scott. Bulwer. Dickens and Thackeray had filled the English reading world with their fame. To rise above them. or even to find a place among them, seemed no light task; and
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-04

had turned grey. some of them pure white
 It soon became a battle between the sailors and the rats. The vermin were everywhere. When a man threw back his bed clothes or turned up his pillow out jumped rats. When he lay in bel rats ran over him. When he went to the lockers at night for bread or meat he reached in his hand and caught rat. They became SD daring that they would ma Ike q dash. ten or twelve at time, and snatch the food off d mans plate as he was eating. Rat hunts were organized, in which every one armed himself with d broom and the rats were beaten into nets and thrown overheard. All the time the battle with the rats was being fought the old ship was leaking almost like a basket Several of the sailors were in favor of taking to the boats and landing at some of the islands among which we were sailing every few days.
 One day the captain was cleaning his revolver and called the chief officer to show 1t to him. By some means or other the captain overlooked the fact that there was a shell In the cylinder which, as al ways happens when a person points an
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-04
BY F. I. MONKS.

coil of rope. How these animals live without water has never been learned. 1t Is well known that in the holds of all ships there are rats that never come on deck and the only water to be had. if any at all. is salt water, which does not allay thirst. One of the sailors on the Wentworth bought two white mice in Shanghai which he fed on dry rice for fully three months without even giving them a drop of water, and they did not seem to suffer, but it was noticed that they had licked the iron wires of the cage perfectly bright. Ii may be that rats in a ships hold produce moisture in their mouth by similar means.
 At one time it was the usual thing to attribute fires to rats eating matches, but an experiment was made by putting a rat under a tub and keeping him there for two weeks without anything to eat or drink except matches, and at the end of that time it was found that the rat had eaten every bit of the wood of the match. but the heads were untouched. The rat Is a wonderfully cunning animal, naturally timd, but what he will do when brought to bay has become prov erbial
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-04

's% 1ssp 'as,, 'sss Pi''@a Sspam 's' lent H's X enrich the national galaxy of the post-bellum time. Morgan was a sen- ator thirty years; Pugh, eighteen; Pettus, ten. They were southerners of the old south, of the cotton south-the south where there was the best understanding between te mansion and the cabin this world has ever revealed. It was the south that esteemed character more than intel feet and put honor above wealth. They were the last of it. Money and Daniel are of later generation, and soon they, too will be gathered to the Valhalla God had somewhere prepared for men who were honest here. True greatness is all ways unaffected. In that sense, where is the trio of present-day statesmen to match these three senators from Ala hama? And where the trio to match them In profundty of thought and rectitude of Judgment? Look at North Carolina. that has yindicated the votes of Morgan and Pettus on the rate bill. and that. in the fullness of Gods blessing possibly has restored to the American people the re- served sovereignty of the states.
 We have fallen on times when there is but one test of the democrat-is he for diminishing the power of the federal es- tablishment? If he is opposed to that he Is no democrac and if he wears the dem ocratic badge he is a fraud and sham. For twoscore years and seven the federal establishment has been grasping power not only never delegated to it, but abso- lutelv prohibited it in the tenth amend- ment 1t has gone on and on and on until, by executive orders in council, by Judicial process in chambers, by dissolute and improvident enactment in congress 1t Is become a big consolidated nation above the constitution and above the peo- pie, usurping the power to do whatever its whim or its roguery may suggest. And now we are told that if we do not favor further theft of power, further outrage on the constitution, further humiliation of the states, further expressions of the people. are no democrats. He that would further augment federal power is one of .hree things-a republican. or populist, or a socialist-and 1t makes no now occupies in the democratic party leader or follower.
 Edmund Winston Pettus was born in Alabama July 6 1891. He came of a sol dier race on both paternal and maternal lines and was to approve himself as brave a man as ever faced de<tn on bloody field. His love for the noble wom- an who for more than sixty years was his wife filled hin ---'th a healthy emula- ton and determineS him to be worthy of her. to which enF ie studied at school with all the energ'es of a superior mind He came to the bar the year he attained bis majority, and tive years later he mar ried the girl he had loved in boyhood Then he was volunteer and a commits stoned officer in the Mexican war, and upon the discovery of gold in California he crossed the plains in search of fortune.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-04

great fame in these lines. Success in satire does not require and Goes not usually deserve, the praise which we usu- ally accord to genius of a high grade. The cartoonsts of the newspapers often make happy hits in this line.
 But the artist who creates men and women and children and makes them live and move and have their being who causes them to speak and act and look like real people, whom We have known all our lives-this is the artist who de- serves the first rank. What we call cul- ture seems to have little or nothing to do with the development of this power. Ben Johnson was a great scholar, who loved Shakespeare personally, and admired him as a genius. He has left on record his testimony that Shakespeare had little Latin and less Creek" but Shakespeare's s Hamlet" is immortal, while Ben John sons Every Man in His Humor' Is known only to the curious
 George Eliot, when she wrote Adam Bide, was an Agnostic of the most de- cided type; but so thoroughly could she throw herself into the feelings, the thoughts and the very words of her sev- eral characters, that we should take Dinah Morris's sermon on Hayslope green as the composition of an evangelical Christian of the most earnest of sects.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-04

then the means of acquiring it must sure ly be worth something and worth culti- vating for other good results.
 Now, on the other hand there prevails to considerable extent among the mass of men and women that are encountered afterwards the idea that the lately grad uated colleglan, while possessed of some knowledge and training denied them, is wholly inexperienced and immature as respects life generally, and the lessons which contact with the world, so-called
 teaches And, in most instances, this is not an incorrect idea. And it is this very fact. possibly, that is suggesting to those interested in educational mat ters the need for further directing and supervising the mode of life and kind of ideals that the student body, as q whole is falling into and developing at the same time that it Is acquiring the knowledge and training which the pur- suance of the given curriculum affords.
 There are. of course, certain sounds ideas and policies of conduct that a student picks up from college asso- citations in any institution. As a rule, fl boy goes to college at a time when his soul is most impressionable, and what he sees and hears and what ideas are then formed on his plastic brain make a la sting impression and one that is influential in the future growth of his character. The very first condition which presents itself to him, perhaps, is that of being associated in com mon work with number Of other boys of his age, who are to be his class fellows for the next several years. and toward whom he is to stand in a certain relation which he himself and his conduct must determine. The complete change of environment and mode of life tends, naturally to make him diffdent at first, but at the same time, observant and student Of the ways of others. He meets boys from other sections and other states, and finds. however, that he and they are
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-04

was Polonius fool in the same sense in which Dogberry was; for Dogberry amuses us, while Polonius bores Us. Shakespeares fools, then, were not all alike. The art of the great interpreter of human nature is never more fully nor more truly exhibited, than when he em- ploys it in depicting the various phases presented by different characters of the same general type.
 An ordinary observer would naturally suppose that there would hardly be any marked difference of moral character be- tween two men who were both ready to be hired as assassins but Shakespeare knew better; and hence we find the two murderers in Macbeth exhibiting two widely distinct phases of reckless de- pravity. One of them says that he is
 80 weary with disasters, tugg'd with
 fortune
 That he would set his life on any chance To mend it or be rid ont" The other says that he is one
 "Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world
 Have so incensed that he is reckless what He does to spite the world Now there can be no doubt that the last named was a much worse and more l dangerous man than the first. Such
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-04

kin in nature and that the brightest and most popular among them Is as human as he and that the attainment of such distinction is within the range of his own possibilities. And so new life and new ambition come to him he drops naturally into the college life, and his first trinity and loneliness give way to happy years of youthful so- cial intercourse and deligh tful frined
 ships. He learns in the meantime, that his rights and the exercise of his pleasure have a limit, and that Is re- spect for the rights of others-and with his own feelings and impressions as interpreter he begins to understand the advisability and necessity of ac- cordingly regulating what he sha all say and do. So that we see the college boy begins at once and continues through out his course, to solve some big sociological problems in his way, unwittingly doubtless, but neverthe- less beneficial for himself and in so doing gets himself into harmony with his fellows. so that what purpose he may have to accomplish may be rem dered tn 0 easier for his understand ing of and cooperation with them.
 In other words, whether considered or regula ted to any extent or not by the powers that be, the college boy IS going ahead, ulaided, with his studies Tn life, and he himself attaches a great impor- tance to the measure of success to which he attains as a good fellow; as promi- nent mau more or less, among his assoc ciates; in short. to his citizenship in tho college commonwealth. It can not bs expected that a boy immature both in years and experience will not make mis- takes in the policies and practices which he falls into; may not have any false and erroneous ideals in his conception of what constitutes the best citizen with reference to life. It remains, however this may be. that he must live and have his being when he Is not present at lec- lures and when he Is not preparing for
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-04

a place on the shelf in "Davy Jones' locker She carried ballast from Shang- hai to Takow and from there she was to take cargo of unrefned sugar to Syd- ney. In due time and after severe strug- gle with adverse winds and rough seas she arrived in Takow harbor. As there is neither wharf nor pier in this harbor. the vessel was ''moored," that is. she was held off a certain distance from the land by anchors on one side and on the other she had hawsers extending to the shore. The distance between the ship and the shore was about 80 feet. The ballast was discharged into lighters that came alongside and the cargo was hoisted aboard from these same lighters after wards.
 While the sailors were contemplating assertion in body from tho rotten old hulk it was observed that d regular pro- cession of rats was coming aboard using the hawsers as gangway. They came in dozens, scores, hundreds; day and night the procession was kept up Men were placed at the points where the in- vasion could be best resisted. Belaying pins were used to kill the rats; the haw- sers were jerked and the rats thrown in
The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-04

' T is at once interesting and gratifying
 to note that the conception of a col X lege course is coming to include some th,ng more than the pursuance of d curriculum; that the social life of the student is beginning to be accorded the consideration it deserves, a [ least in some of the best regulated educational in stituticns of the country. It has been the case for long number of years, and is still so to some extent, that the prevailing idea of a college education was fulfilled in students accomplishing a carefully mapped out course in certain text books, with the belief that the men tai training and Knowledge so acquired prepared him wholly Tor his later con tact and mixing with the world. And it was and is often true that by virtue of the very requirements of this curricu- lum. and it's incidental rules and regula- tions, certain phases of his college life which might have meant great deal to him under other conditions, were totally neglected so far as the framers Of the course were concerned.
 However, it does not require an very thoughtful review of college life by those familiar with 1t. to make apparent the many advantages that accrue by virtue of e associations there enjoyed. and to impress them with the large lessons learned from these associations and the larger ones that may be learned under the proper kind of supervision. We often hear the expression that such and such a young man seems to be college bred; that his address and manner suggest it. And if analysed, it will be found that this pleasing address and manner are not due to the influence which his text book culture has had upon him nearly so much as the influence which his student life associations have had. And, since without doubt this college bred air is distinctly q valuable asset to the young man nossessins it in any sort of a career,