davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-23

T, HE First was the Gibraltar" dis
 trict of Kentucky in the '40s of
 4 the last century, so named for its immense democratic majorities, even when Clay and Crittenden, Dixon and Under wood were leaders of the whigs. It em- braces "Jackson's Purchase" that part of the state west of the Tennessee river, where there have been nothing but dem- ocrats for three-score years and ten. It is a magnificent country, as prodi- gally endowed by nature as any other in the union. The farm products are corn. wheat, oats, rye, cotton, tobacco, and whisky. The forests yield immense quan- titles of lumber and the orchards are prolific of fruits. Vast stores of coal, iron, and stone are in her mines. Pa ducah is a growing and thriving city located where the Cumberland and the Tennessee find the Ohio and near the confluence of the Ohio and the Mississip- pi. Some day it will be a great com mercial center.
 The Gibraltar district was never repre- sented in the American Congress by a whig or a know-nothing, or a republi- can, though the bayonets sent one or two "union men" to Congress during the war, when some thousands of the cleo torate were marching and fighting with Breckenridge and riding and fighting with Forrest in the big war. In 1867
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-23

but he could not.
 Mama, please. dwink!
 He could not forget that it was only baby. Only ? years old, and yet, he, 30. also wept inwardly for something he did not need
 -please-dwinl<i'
 Wilkins sat up. He reached out his hand and felt, on his little iron stand. the cup with the spout, that the nurse had carelessly left there He bent down and felt of the rope that bound his en- cased leg to the foot of the bed. It was not, in reality, tied to the bed. but sus- pended bucket of sand. and was to keep his leg from shrinking as it healed.
 Wilkins edged himself quietly and care- fully over in his cot. pulling up the buck ct as he did so. By putting his body across the iron table at the bedside he was able to reach the next cot.
 Mama, dwink, pease!
 Wilkins leg pained frightfully. but he pulled it once more
 Here, old man. he said. you drink"
 He lifted the cup and held 1t to the childs lips But when he raised the cup to pour the water the little hand pushed it aside. impatiently. and the voice called:
 Mama, dwink. please"
 Wilkins looked in the cup and groaned.
 My Godr' he cried.
 The cup was dry.
 How he got back into his cot he never knew nor did he ever pass night so long, so cruel. His leg throbbed with pain: his head seemed bursting; and all ways that plea from the next cot. He hoped the little chap would sleep soon. and about two in the morning the voice became weaker and presently stopped al- together.
 Wilkins did not sleep, and when day light came he had the easiest running lan- dau in New York carry him home. It was weeks before he could hobble out on crutches, but his first visit was to the Stony Lady. Willy was there.
 Glad to see you out again. old man." he said cheerfully "rake this chair; I'm going Just proposed for the fiftieth and last time and-I'm going"
 Wilkins took a chair very near the Stony LAdy.
 Kate" he said, q want you to marry me-"
 You have told me that before.'' she said: willy has just completed his half century. thought you had got over that
 Wilkins did not heed her.
 q want you to marry me-" he insisted. q want you. You know I love you.'
 The Stony Lady smoothed the pattern of her dress across her knee and ignor' his last words. They called for no de- nial She did know he loved her.
 Have you forgotten already" she said  Have you forgotten about the baby that cries for drink that it does not need?"
 "No," Wilkins exclaimed. .'In forty thousand years I could not forget! I'll admit that I may not need you. or de- serve you If I were a man like the men who do fight would not come to you until my deed was done. and my fight was fought. but I am baby, and I must have what l want, and must have it now" "You have changed your ideas since I saw you last" she said gently. Then you agreed with me- Kate" he said. with earnestness, you were wrong, You should give baby whatever 1t cries for If you were baby I would give you the whole earth if you wanted it-and all I want is heaven. I insistn "It is Impossible" she murmured. and his mouth shut and formed a stubborn line, and she looked up quickly and smiled, and added, 'to refuse you"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-23

tion that ever fell from the lips of mortal man. and he it was who grabbed tho banner of the Kentucky delegation and made a progress raund the hall that did much to keep alive the enthusiasm un- til the nomination was made He is now a stronger advocate of Bryans nomina- tion than ever before, and when. Bryan shall have been defeated next November. as he is certain to be. he will not be half as miserable as Ollie will be.
 MT. Bryan has a wonderful hold on his party, and if he was gifted with the wis dom of Jefferson or a Tilden he would be a great man indeed; but he Is bril- liant without sagacty. eloquent without logic. On the stump he would dwarf Ollie James; in the trial of a cause at common law before learned and inn partial judge, and an intelligent and un- biased jury, Ollie would make d monkey of him. There is nothing solid in Bryan's utterances. He allures, but never con vinces.
 Ollie James is, perhaps, the most pop ular man personally in Congress His associates of both parties know that all the money in the treasury could not buy him to cast a corrupt vote, and that sort of character gives a man place of immense vantage in that council. He is good-natured and kind-hearted, a great big boy at heart. heterogeneous and con- fiding, and yet with big brain that can think
 His place is the House of Representa- tives. He ought to remain in that body the rest of his natural life. He will some day be speaker and the Congress of which he shall be speaker, if ever, will have true man for its head.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-23
THE GOSPEL PROGRESSIVELY J. C. Hden D. D.

Macaulay observed that the "Faerie Queene." the work of an accomplished courier, was well nigh dead: and that the Pilgrims Progress" the dream of an illiterate tinker. was immortal. And the reason assigned by the great critic is wise one The "Faerie Queene" lacks human interest. The characters are not alive. We are not concerned as to what becomes of them. But Bunyan' s characters are living men and women and children. Most readers see some of them every day, in the market or on the street. Nay, we not only see these people, but we are these people. The dream is a solid reality; the characters are ourselves.
 Now, see how much of this human interest" the gospel commission possesses. We have no lay figures here. Everything is life and action. Men are told by a man to go and preach to men. The preacher, the message, the audience, all have an intense and vital human in- terest; and this interest is not fictitious nor dramatic, but real and essential.
 Skeptical critics sometimes complain that Christianity Is dogmatic, that 1t is not philosophical in it's form. The com
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-23

the system went The question of Paul. How shall they hear without a preacher?" was especially expressive before printing was invented-nay, be- fore there was any New Testament to print. We of this day too often forget that there were large and fourishing churches established in various parts Of the world, long before a line of the New Testament was written. This rA- suit was accomplished by the living ministry. The work was done by going and preaching. Are our preachers sit- ting in their studies, writing elab- crate essays. when they ought to be going out and helping the Macedon- ians? Some of the infidel Reviews" are, in point of literary finish, not inferior, perhaps. to any periodical in the world, and they are using their influence to propagate the bald infidelity of Baur, and the goddess utilitarianism of Mil. Widely circulated and ably edited American magazines seem willing to ventilate the crotchets of the widest vagarists, and to become media for the propagation of every ism under the sun. One of the ablest of these mag
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-23

Nowhere in particular" said the Stony Lady
 "I shall take you there," Wilkins de- clared positively. I'm always just there when I break something. You don't mind walking back?"
 We would rather walk than ride back with you, Wilkins said Willy spitefully Tt may not be so exciting, but it is safer.'
 Must you two children always quarrel when I am with your? asked the Stony Lady. Have you no common ground on which you can meet in peace?'
 Have we a common ground, Willy?" asked Wilkins innocently Do you know anything that both of us like?"
 Do you mean something that we-ad- mire, so to speak? Something that we both feel an interest in?"
 The Stony Lady shut her lips firmly and opened them just enough to say:
 Now you are going to be silly
 That is what she means, Willy" Will kins said. "Try to think of something we both adore"
 Willy thought deeply.
 From where I am sitting" he said at length, my eyes are looking straight at the back of one thing that Wilkins and desire. I can't see it's face. because it is looking angrly at the back of the cab
 
 ment or two. But can see its hair. one golden lock of which. like a sunbeam es- capped from prison"
 The Stony Lady's hand quickly touched the hair at the back of her head.
 Its not true,' she said, "and you two are ungallant to attack me when you know I can't jump out of this car. It is taking mean advantage. You never get me alone but you poster me with"
 IT1JI -,t1 a1,A -fxtl1x ''why don't you marry one or the other of us and get rid of us? We have asked you often enough. At least I have"
 Me, too." said Wilkins. How does the account stand now? Is Willy ahead or are we even?'
 "The reason. or one reason, that I don't put you out of your misery said the Stony Lady with a seriousness that meant either that she was deeply in earnest or not at all in earnest, lis that you don't either of you really know what you want or why you want it. You are two chil- dren, and you will never be anything else When I marry I shall choose a strong forceful man, who has some reason for living, who will want me because l am needed to fill out his life. hate to be wooed as if I were toy you would rather like to- have, but that you could joke about if you did not secure.'
 Wilkins glanced at her face and jerlSed his lever quickly, causing the car to swing recklessly around a slow going wagon into the park entrance. The Stony Lady swayed against him. Pardon he said, but the fun had left his eyes and he drove his car ahead at greater speed
 You two remind me of children, noth- ing more,' said the Stony Lady. Did you ever hear baby awaken in the night and cry and cry and cry for drink, after 1t had been given drinks and drinks and drinks? All babies are that way. They all want things they don't need and oughtn't to have. You two are the same. You cry for me as if I were drink. You simply haven't anything else to cry for, so you cry for me" Willy was leaning forward to catch her words.
 "If you got me-" she continued, you wouldn't be pleased. You wouldn't care for me. wouldn't satisfy you, because there is nothing in you to satisfy. You
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-23

plaint is based upon a partial truth; but it is really a superficial criticism. Chris tianity is. to a large extent. dogmatie, Its teachings do not always square with what men have chosen to call "philos- ophy." But this is only saying that Gods thoughts are not our thoughts; and that His ways are not our ways. If Christian ity did not transcend human philosophy. it would not be a revelation; for. as Les sing has put the matter, What sort Of a revelation would it be that re- vealed nothlng?s No Christianity is not a system of philosophy. It distinctly dis claims any such character. ''The wise, ''the scribe" "the disputer of this world' are plainly told that God has made fool ishness the wisdom of this world. Our religion is not a plausible theory of human duty. based upon ingenious guesses at human destiny. The world had had enough of this before Christ came. Chris tianity gives us something to believe not to theorize about. Its dogmatism is it's life; it consists in the personal infu- ence of Christ upon a believing, loving heart. Without this 1t would be dead theory-not moving, breathing life.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-23

keeping themselves too closely at home2 It will commonly be the case that the best preachers will have settled pas torates and that such pastorates will be in important fields. requiring the very best labor of a very able man. Still, eah 1t be the duty of such man totally to sever himself from the great body of his brethren, and absolutely tie himself down to one particular spot? May he not be hiding his talents in the earth, If he be so completely absorbed in his own immediate field? Let us not forget the truly Chris tian maxim, "As ye go, preach.
 The personal influence of the preacher with the people to whom he breaches is powerful aid to the cause; and 1t is an influence which can usually be but faintly exercised in any way other than that or personal contact. The pen and the print ing press have never yet superseded the voice of the living preacher; and there is no good reason to believe that they ever will The truth is that Christianity is, In it's very essence, a personal influence, and its progress in the world has been largely due to this characteristic of the system It involves personal love to ''the man, Christ Jesus"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-23

the most thick1y foreign populated states of Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota with the statistics of the states of Ala bama, Mississippi and Georgia, leaving out all those crimes committed by ne- groes.
 I am sure, however, that the southern farmers have not hitherto considered the right phase of real immigration. They have been in the habit, in common with most people of the south. of basing their opinion of immigration upon the troubles and dlsappointments caused by a lot of laborers of the lowest type of foreigners. being brought down here from time to time. They have not had the opportuni- ties to observe the great benefits derived from an influx of settlers of a highly de- sirable class, as witnessed, for instance, in Cullman county and near Florence. Ala Whenever they realize that the right kind of immigration means the increase of value of their own lands, the increase of products ard better and cheaper trans portation; the increase in wealth, the supplying of plenty of labor even from the families of new settlers. they will be eager for that upon which now they look with dlsfayor.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-23

of a real immigration movement will be accomplished-namely by the coming of large number of homeseekers settling on the many thousands of acres of lands in the south, now lying idle and produc- ing nothing.
 Let us first look at the manner by which these laborers were induced to come south. Generally some one desiring number of men gave an order to a New York labor agent to secure them; that is, tc hire them, pay their transportation and ship them down here The labor-agent in New York having only the two dollars in view, which he receives for each man shipped, naturally was not very careful as to selection. Professional vag- abonds having been in this country for 2J years served his purpose as well as the newly arrived immigrants, and the lowest type of the European laborer brought him the two dollars just as well as the most honest and thrifty German or Austrian looking for permanent work. To all, however he pictured their place of des- tination as a veritable Eldorado-wagcs at least s per day-with the finest kind of board and lodging for only $15 per month to pay out
 Transportation, of course had to be re-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-23

azines published. I am sorry to say, by a prominent Baptist could print wholesale islanders of the ministers of the gospel, extravagant eulogies of the stage as a school of morals. and elaborate essays to prove that goddess men have no reason to fear death.
 But in this matter of the public oral proclamation of our doctrines we have vastly the advantage of the infidel. We can go and preach, the intidel commonly won't. It Is comparatively easy to print a disrespectabe thing, especially if 1t be done anonymously; but 1t is very great deal harder thing to go before the pub lie and say it. And hence infidel writ CTS are numerous; and inhdel preachers are scarce.
 l am not here arguing for a corps of professional "evangelists' to travel from city to city. among strong, well-establish- ed. wealthy churches. l confess to some doubts as to the value of periodical Ire vivals' got up to order: nor have I yet been convinced of the wisdom, nor of the efficacy of putting worshipping eongre- gation through a course of singing on their knees.
 But still. are not our best preachers
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-23

come bringing fruit, of course, wmch had to be left with the page at the door, but her radiant presence was enough Tor Wilkins.
 "so good of you" he said. Have you seen Willy?'
 "Willy?' she asked. "Oh, yes. the man with the pretty eyes Yes, he called this morning. Lovely of him wasn't it?'
 Wilkins ground his teeth
 "It was like him." he said, viciously. Mice chap he is to take advantage of my fix"
 The Stony Lady stood looking at the other patients, with that loss of words and perfunctory interest that all visitors experience after the first greetings in a hospital-ready to go, but not wishing to seem too eager to leave.
 I've been thinking about what you said in the car,' Wilkins began. About the baby crying for drink. and all that. We have lots of time to think here, and I've tried to think it out I guess you're right. In one sense I have acted like 8 baby. It was babyish to make sport of such a serious thing as" he hesitated with the universal reluctance, of a full blooded man to say the word .1ove," and said, getting married"
 You know how I feel about 1t then," said the Stony Lady.
 Yes" he said, 'I think I do. I can see that you must think me baby in many ways. I have never tried to do anything or be anything because I never had to. I can see that I am not good enough to deserve you. Oh, I've thought it all out"
 He lay looking at the cracks in the ceil- ing a while.
 "The worst of it, he said presently, with a laugh. lis that never will deserve you haven't got it in me to do big things We fellows who are born to all this easy life are all babies. We have our toys and we cry for our drink, and that Is the whole of our lives.'
 The Stony Lady looked around uncom- fortably.
 Well" she said q think I'll run along now"
 ..So you see' continued Wilkins, dog gedly. you are quite right to refuse me my drink Some fellow who needs it ought to have it. I suppose I'll cry for whle-that is natural-but I'll get over 1t before long and play with my other toys like a good child'
 DO you know said the Stony Lady. that you can get a private room here II you want it?
 Wilkins shook his head.
 '.I don't want it. I could go home. too. But Pm learning things I didn't know here. It Is good for me to see how the real sufferers stand it. See that chap In the third cot from the end? They've got him listed to die next week, and there hasn't been a visitor in to see him Tor a month, they say. Looks plucky, too, doesn't he?''
 She glanced at the man and looNed back at Wilkins serious face, and said a hurried "goodby." Soon after she left the nurse took Wilkins temperature and the lines on the chart that pictures 1t formed a peak as high and sharp as t'uJl-yama-
 When the barber came the next morning Wilkins had shave. and he bought a paper from boy who sold papers, and sent some oranges across to the lung man. as he called his vis-a-vis.
 He found the day unutterably long, ana he was glad when. in the afternoon, the nurses and an attendant began arranging the white screens around the next cot pre- naratory to its reception of new inmate. Wilkins hoped the newcomer would be interesting
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-23

victions deep seated. his enthusiasm over flowing, and his good fellowship delight full There has not been a day of his life that the people of the Gibraltar dis trict would not have chosen him to any office to which he was eligible under the constitution, and the only fault they ever found with him was that he refused to stand for Congress as soon as he at- tained to the constitutional age of 25 years.
 It was in 1895, at the age of "A, that Ollie James first asserted himself as a state leader, and on that occasion he was desperately and defiantly wrong A convention was held in the western dis trict, embracing one-third the state and the buttcut of the democratic party, to nominate a candidate for railroad com missioner. James was 0 delegate and made a speech in favor of 16 to l that simply stampeded the convention, which gave him the platform and the candidate he favored
 At that time the state was for sound money, and at the state convention in- dorsed the Cleveland administration and made a sound money platform, but Wat Harden, silver man, was nominated for governor. He was a brilliant orator, a popular favorite and one of the best loved public men of his day; but he was defeated at the polls and the democratic party of the state was so hopelessly de- moralized that Mckinley carried Ken lucky in 1896.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-23

THE Old Testament was stationary.
 The imperfect manifestation of the Deity-such manifestation as was incident to the condition of the race-necessarily and powerfully af- fected the form and the contents of such a revelation as the race could utilize. God with us" had not yet been manifested; and God for usp was the comfort of the saint, and God against us" the terror of the sinner.
 These conditions seem to have de- termined the revelation to a legal form; for the God-Man had not yet been revealed to draw men out of themselves, and expand their lives by a personal. sympathizing, self-annihi- lating love.
 The legal form necessitated fixedness. 4 law which changes in it's essence. or which is seriously modified in it's form. is not adapted to the infancy of society. Its effectiveness is based upon its fxedness. In such a state of so- ciety men must know just what they are to do. They are not prepared to
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-23

have overlooked the fact that the wage scale throughout the south is based upon negro labor, which means cheap labor. The farm laborer in the north and west is paid from s15 to s40 month and board, while in the south he only receives from $10 to $20.
 As to social conditions. the farm laborer in the north and west is considered as a. member of his employers family. He eats at his table, and if he is single or has only d wife and needs no house for himself to live in, sleeps in his employ CTS house; whereas, In the south he is given an outhouse or shanty to sleep in, similar to that occupied by the negroes, and is not allowed to eat with the fam fly or to associate with them on equal terms. In other words, a social line is sharply drawn, which does not exist in the north and west. Again the immi- grant laborer going north and west finds friends and relatives speaking his own tongue and living under conditions with which he is familiar. When he comes south he finds himself absolutely alone, left to himself to get along as best he can. With all these conditions, how could the efforts to bring laborers to the south have