davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-01

Copyright, 1soS by Edward A. Nye) HNHE poet calls life crystal chalice.'
 Which is a fine figure.
 \ You can fill chalice or cup to the brim, and then if you want an over flow you must thrust or drop something into it..
 The amount of the overflow will be de- termined by the size of that which you put into the cup What you get out Is of the same quantity as that which you put in
 So is human life. He who made our earthly vessels of mortal life filled them even to the brim. Your earthly chalice holds within it life. Whether you shall have that life more abundantly'' depends upon what you put into the vessel. What you get in overflow is measured by what you put in.
 For instance
 If you put love into the chalice of your life, your life will overflow in loveliness. If you put hatred into 1t. it will overflow in hatred. If you put sin into your cup of life sinfulness will overflow.
 LII OlleT WOIuS. 1ou SSl ally more out of your life than you put into it. You may get less; you cannot get more.
 Do you say it is harsh law?
 On the contrary, it is a most gracious provision. It puts the powers of the uni- verse into your humble hands. It com missions you as captain of your destiny You make your life according to your ideal. You measure out your own hap piness or unhappiness.
 You get what you give.
 More than that
 The more you put into the cup the more is left to put in.
 That is to say. the more love you put ! in tlfe more love you have left, to say nothing of the overflow of loveliness. The more hate you put in the more hatred you have left to say nothing of the hid eous overflow of hate.
 But you ask Why call life crystal chalice?
 Because it's operations are transparent to all. You can see the process every day in others-and ia yourself. You can see men and women putting love and
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-01

come right to the city itself.
 Both cities were founded by miners. Denver was started in 1858, just half century ago. Johannesburg dates back only to 1sS6 The land about both cities was considered almost worthless until the mines were discovered. The ground upon which New York stands was once sold for half peck of glass beads and brass buttons. the site of Melbourne was bought for pair of old blankets and the foundation of old Chicago was offered for ! a pair of cowhide boots. In early days there was a 2,0O0-acre farm on the site of Johannesburg, and it was sold for a team of brollen-down oxen. Today the land and buildings which stand on that farm are assessed at about quarter of a million dollars, and from it goes out more than one hundred million dollars worth of gold every year. In January, 1905, two business lots, not far from where that farmers hut stood, brought $11O,0O0. and it is only four years since the Standard Bank of South Africa pur= chased the stand upon which it has erect ed building worth three-quarters of a million. A lot on Pritchard street sold for $2OO, GOO about nine years ago, and there are business locations here so valuable that one would have to cover them with bank notes to buy them. This is so now. notwithstanding that times are hard and business is decidedly dull.
 And still Johannesburg is only about 21 years old. When our boys who are to cast .their first votes at the coming presidential election were raw, red babies the country about here was a wilderness and waste covered with grass during a few months of the year and bleak and burned desert for the remainder It was then in it's beginning as a mining camp, and it's most striking features were canvas tents, mud huts and OK wag- ons. The first lots were then selling for a few shilings apiece, and it was not until some time that buildings of tin and gal vanized iron began to rise.
 The Johannesburg of today is made of steel, stone and wood. It has many five and six story structures, although the skyscrapers of Denver are absent. It is not as well built as Denver, but it Is magnificent city considering it's source of supplies and that it Is away off here in the wilds. The town has just about the same population as Denver. It numbers about 100000 souls, but 60000 of these are blocks made up of Kaffirs from all parts of South Africa.
 Johannesburg is laid out somewhat like,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-01

imported by the shipload, and wages rose. Carpenters got $5 per day and other me- chanics proportionately high wages. Then the bottom fell out. It was found that the country was overpeopled. and that the towns were overbuilt The new busi- ness blocks could not be rented, and the values of property fer. Houses which were worth s75.Ooo four years ago can be bought for from $25,OOo to s50O0o today, and rents have proportionately fallen.
 When the boom burst thousands of men were thrown out of work, and there are thousands of mechanics in South Af- rica who are now burden on the com munity.
 It must be remembered that there is 9 prejudice here against the white man doing what is considered the black mans work. There are many whites who would be glad to go into the mines at about dollar day, which is the I<afir's wages, but the trades unions and the people are against it. There are about six times as many blacks as whites in South Africa, and the whites feel that they must keep up their standing as the superior race in  men act largely as overseers. They do but little hard work, and, after they have been in the country but a short time they get the idea that hard work is degrading and turn all jobs of coarse manual .labor over to the Kafirs. Some of the whites have said l understand, that they will not labor for less than living wage, and that amount is considered to be at least ten shillings or $2.50 per day. So you have a lot of reduced gentlemen mechanics down on their uppers and half starving out here in this land, which is producing more gold and diamonds than any other part of the world.
 I do not think this is good place for Americans without capital There are large number of our skilled specialists, such as mining and mechanical engineers, who do well, but even such men should have a job contracted for before they start. This Is no place to wait for job. Indeed, I doubt if there is anywhere in the world where the bare necessities of existence cost so much. Houses which would rent for sl5 a month in any city of this size in the United States cost here from $25 to $50 a month: and bachelor livings-that is, board and lodging-run from $S5 to $50 per month per head Clothing is dearer than in our country and as to such ltixuries as drinks and cigars, the charges are enormous. Any kind of a bottle of ginger ale costs %
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-01

eyer to be less tedious process of mul- tiplying copies of itself than that of writ ing out copies by hand.
 The writers and thinkers who have imagined that they have found in the Bible suggestive hints of the scientific discoveries of our own time have surely been laboring under a delusion Such is not the spirit of revelation.
 But when we come to matters moral and spiritual the case is altogether diff ferent. Abraham did not know that it was wrong for him to marry his half sister; nor that he ought not to take a second wife during the lifetime of his first. Apart from revelation, and from the ideas of common decency which are the result of Biblical teaching, it is not easy to see how Abraham, who did not have even the book of Genesis to guide him, is to be blamed for his conduct in these matters.
 When Christ laid down the law as to divorce his disciples were shocked at it's strictness. The ideas now prevalent among decent people, as to the sacredness of the marriage bond, are the results of revelation.
 The following anecdote and comment are in point here:
 Some time ago two men were walking along the street on Sunday, in one of our southern cities, when they came to the church where one of them held his mem- bership. Turning to his companion, who was also a church member, he said, Now come in here with me, and hear a sermon that will teach you something" Well" said the other, If I went to church to be taught, I have no doubt I should learn more here from one sermon that I could learn in a month where am going. But then we feel so good at our church, and l want to be made to feel good when l go to meeting" Now, preacher who does not instruct his people, but contents
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-01
HEART TO HEART TALKS-By Edwin A. Nye

prison discipline; it outrages every sense of justice.
 It widens the breach between the rich and the poor.
 When you show the poor man that equi- ty is denied him in the courts because the rich man can hire able lawyers, when you show him that money will buy special privileges and immunities from prison off, ficials, privileges denied the poor pris- oner, you foster class consciousness and strike a body blow at Washingtons re- public.
 The nauseous details of the Thaw trial carried contamination and moral danger. The story of the special favors granted this weak minded murderer is even more dangerous socially.
 close relative of the writer of this article in a moment of intimacy confided the fact that he was more or less dis appointed in his wife.
 This recently married husband said:
 "She is Yivacous and good tempered and all that, but she is, I think, little frivolous for married woman. She is also somewhat extravagant and imprac- tical in her housekeeping.
 Well, I said, Did you marry her be- cause you thought her practical and eco nomical, good housekeeper and a finan- cial manager?"
 After a pause he replied:
 "No, not exactly. I was fascinated with her ways and good looks. did not think much about the practical qualities. Real ly liked her because she was illogical and impulsive."
 And there you are.
 The boy had married the girl because she was pretty and whimsical and girlish- ly irresponsible, and now he was finding fault with her because she was not prac- tcal a good cook and housekeeper.
 He seemed to think-it is not so uncom- mon in bridegrooms-that a few words uttered by a minister would miraculous ly change her entire nature.
 Nobody made him marry her.
 Indeed, there was opposition by her family.
 The girl did not pretend to be com- petent cook or an able f1nancer.
 In short, the boy got just what he ad-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-01

crate guessing. The very ablest writers, who have attempted to ascertain and 10 treat human duty from a scientific point of view. have failed to settle on any one principle as A basis of right and wrong.
 Without a personal God who has re- vealed Himself to man. and has told IS whence we came and wljther we go, no satisfactory basis of ethics is possible But when God reveals Himself to man He also reveals man to himself-that is, He shows us who and what we are.
 Blessed Bible, book divine,
 Precious treasure, thou art mine:
 Mine to teach me whence I came,
 Mine to show me whose 1 am.
 I will close this discussion with some observations upon the practical results of the doctrine of the resurrection:
 In all the worlds literature, the only authoritative presentation and discussion of the doctrine of mans immortality is found in the Bible. and the fullest discus sion is given by the Apostle Paul, in the fifteenth chapter of his First Epistle to the Corinthians. In this discussion, which was evidently oecasioned by the Greek skepticism then prevailing in the church at Corinth, the apostle makes, repeats and reiterates the statement that. if there be no resurrection, the gospel, as scheme of salvation, is worthless.
 The burden of the apostolic preaching was Jesus and the Resurrection In the Epistle to the Romans, which may be read through in 9 minutes, though there is no extended discussion of the resur- rection, the apostle refers to it F times It is perfectly clear that he regarded the doctrine as fundamental
 The doctrine antedates Christianity. Be- fore Christ began His public ministry the Pharisees, who were the most numerous and powerful sect among the Jews. had
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-01
CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM

T1E gospel is essentially instructive.
 GO. teach" said the Master. And A the name by which our Lord was commonly addressed by his disciples is a recognition of Christ as an instructor. Master meant teacher The word Revelation, as applied to the teachings of the New Testament, is also a recogni- ton of the same fact in the gospel econ ony The New Testament is essentially the teaching of Christ. Even so skeptical a writer as Leasing gives a most effective reply to those who complain that the New Testament contains much that does not square with human reason "What sort of a revelation would it be that revealed >nothing?"
 A revelation, if properly named. must reveal, that is to say it must give real information about things that we are con- cerned to know, and that we cannot as- certain by any exercise of our natural faculties. And when we consider the es- sential contents of the revelation which the New Testament supplies, We must be struck with the conspicuous absence of
 
 portant for us to know, but which man was competent to discover for himself Here are two instances:
 l. Navigation was in a very primitive state in the apostolic age. Paurs voyage, cn his way from Cesarea to Rome, is enough to prove this. And yet the New Testament gives no hint or help to the study of astronomy, the scientific basis of the art of navigatin. It is silent about the compass, and has no hint of a wind and current chart.
 ?. Printing, which has done So much in the enlightening of the world, was utterly unknown to Paul. who begged Timothy to bring his his manuscript books and parch- ments from Troas to Rome. But the New Testament never intimates that there was
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-01

can speak calmly you may not want to strike.
 Keep still.
 When wrong is done you be slow to give back evil for evil, because he who wrongs you wrongs himself the more. He puts the warp of evil in the fabric of bis soul, which is the same as if he should put poison in his blood. He will harm himself more than you.
 Keep still.
 When a mean correspondent stings you to the quick, you want to 'give him as good as he sends'-and more. Wait. Write the letter if you must Say the mean things. But do not send the let ter. Put 1t away and wait a few days. When you are no longer agitated, read it again You may not care to send it.
 Keep still.
 Silence is a mighty force. When right ly used it is one of the great powers. Si- lence distinguishes the forceful man. Speech is silvern; silence is golden. He who under pressure holds his tongue in submission has mastered himself. He has learned a subtle secret of life-that time and silence will work wonders
 Keep still.
 Silence weighs tons.
 The strength of it, the weight of it, has been known only to the few. The great men have been the silent men. Out of their silences they have grown their greatness. The strength of these men is as the silent towering of the mountain peaks-the strength of solitary grandeur.
 Keep still
 When one essays to tell the story of Mrs. Rooke, the heroine of the New Mex ico flood, one feels much as the old school poets must have felt when in their open ing stanzas they prayed the muse to help them.
 But the story deserves a wider tell ing than has been given it.
 It is a thoroughly modern happening a telephone tale-and has no parallel in literature or real life
 Mrs. Salie Rooke was the toll operator at the long distance exchange at Folsom, N. M, the valley town that recently was swept away by the flood.
 As operator she got the first tidings
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-01

the boom extended 10 Cape Town, Dur- ban and all the towns of South Africa. Durban put up buildings to accommodate 100000 people and it has now less than 10000, while this town could take care of 5o,O00 more without overfilling it's houses.
 Indeed South Africa is much bigger in the eyes of the world than it is in reality. The whole country has not as many white people as Philadelphia, and in this might include all the whites who livs south of the equator. Nevertheless, there are banks here with capitals of millions. There are several thousand miles of rail- road and there are half dozen cities with great ports and costly improve ments. The wonder is not that South Africa is hard up. It is really a wonder that it is at all.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-01

1 of the approaching waters, Mrs. Rooke had time to escape after warning the people of Folsom, all of | whom escaped up the hillsides Her frail wooden station stood directly in the path of the flood. But
 In the valley below were scores of fam iles-subscribers of her company. It was night, and men, women and children there in the lowlands were asleep.
 Alone the brave woman sat by her wire, calling up the hamlets and farm houses. Scores of families fled to the shilltops, warned by the telephone.
 Mrs Rooke had called nearly all the members on the switchboard when the menacing roar of the flood was heard above. There was yet time to get away. But the operator would not leave her post of duty and danger until the last subscriber was warned.
 And then
 The wall of angry waters twisted the little telephone station into kindling wood. The next day down in the canyon many miles away the body of the little woman was found wedged between the rocks. Somehow the waters had been kind. and the body was not mutilated or the face marred.
 And
 Here, too, was her operators head piece with a twisted strand of wire press ing into her wet hair, mute witness of her last occupation,
 And these things should be told of her for a memorial. Because
 She died for strangers doing what she did without applause and as though 1t were her daily task to choose between death and duty. Because
 The story of her quiet heroism renews ones faith in the high calling of the race. It justiies the creation of men and wom- en. It reveals the nearness of that spirit place-from which the veil thinly sepa- rates-where there is no more struggle between love and duty. "Uncleanl Uncleann
 How that age-long cry of the leper has vexed the heavens and assailed the ear in the far east!
 There the ancient law of Moses holds.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-01

hatred or envy or revenge into their cups of life. You. can see the overflow in kind, and you can see how they have more left than they put in.
 And in the end-when the frail glass of the crystal chalice is shattered by the stroke of Death?
 Why, "all you can hold in your dead, cold hand, is what you have given away" what you have steadily put into the chalice.
 Here's the cup.
 What will you put into it?
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-01
In the Good Old Summer Time.

From Life.
 Papa. haven't you any more fairy stories to read to me?"
 Nothing. my boy, but the republican and democratic platforms, and they are too sad for one 80 young
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-01

'UncleanI Unclean,'
 How that age-long cry of the leper has vexed the heavens and assailed the ear in the far east.
 There the ancient law of Moses holds.
Valdez weekly prospector., 1908-12-31
VALDEZ ID NOME
 ROAD |S PLANNED Alaskans And SeattIeites Join Interests In Behalf Of
 Gigantic Scheme CONGRESS- TO FEEL PRESSURE Committee Is Appointed To Im- mediately Carry Out Prelimin-
 ary Arrangements
CONGRESS TO FEEL PRESSURE

Seattle, Dec. 29-Concerted action to the purpose that congress may be induced to appropriate $1,OOO, ,OOO for trunk road system from Valdez to Nome by the way of Fairbanks was arranged for last night at a meeing of the Alaska Club in this city. May or Millersof Seattle, himself an old time Alaskan, addressed the meeting and urged action boosting the road scheme and also the Alaska Day scheme launched by Dan s. Kain of Valdez.
 The committee named to arrange plans and to take entire charge of all preliminaries consists of the follow ing: Dan s. Kain, Mayor Fred M. Brown, Col. B. F. Willard, George Baldwin, all of Valdez, and Tom Larsen, Tom Dunn, Charles Heron, William Leake, Sam Silverman, Milo Kelly and J. F. Cryder, representing other towns in Alaska.
 In addition to the trunk road, the plan is to work for aids to navigation along the coast of Alaska, and a part of the scheme is to at once begin a campaign whereby every Alaskan and every Seattleite shall use his in- fluence in whateverpart of the United States that influence may carry, urg- ing upon friends the necessity of bringing pressure to bear on congrcs that the rights of Alaska may be giv- on attention.
Valdez weekly prospector., 1908-12-31
JEFF REFUSES ID
 FIGHT JOHNSON

Los Angeles, Dec. 20-All hope of fight followers that they might see Jim Jeffries and Jack Johnson meet in the ring has been set at naught by the declaration of Jeffries that he will not meet the black man, no mat ter what the sum offered. Jeff's dec laration comes as the result of the offer made by Hugh Mcintosh, the Sydney fight promoter, who guaran- teed the former heavyweight cham pion $50, 1000 to meet Johnson.
 Jeff has always refused to fight a negro, and he says that this is the only reason that he will not sign to fight Johnson.
Valdez weekly prospector., 1908-12-31
POSSE |S AFTER
 TRIPLE MURDERER

Seattle, Dec. 31-Jose Santos, his boy 4 years old, and his baby year old are dead, George Brown is badly wounded, and Jose Nicolas, Fiji. pino is q fugitive pursued by q posse that threatens lynching, all as the re- suit of quarrel between Nicolas and Brown. The shooting took place this morning in Port Blakeley, and it is in the woods near that town that Nicolas is believed to be in hiding.
 Santos, yesterday afternoon, ord cred Nicolas from the Santos home, and the man departed vowing vengeance. This morning Nicolas TO. turned to the Santos home and after few words began to shoot. Brown was injured in trying to capture Nicolas.
Valdez weekly prospector., 1908-12-31
MeSSina Is Burning And Soldiers Shoot Those Pin ned Under Ruins That They May Be Saved Slow Torture, StenCh Of Burning Bodies
 Makes Futile Attempts At Rescue,
 And Refugees Face Starvation

Messina, Italy, Dec. 31--It is be- lieved now that the death roll of the earthquake of southern Italy will reach tine stupendous total of 25O,OO persons. Some of those included in this estimate are as yet alive but are without the slightest hope of escaping death.
 Hundreds of persons are pinned un- der the ruins of what were their homes, and soldiers are shooting them so that they may be spared the slow torture of death by the flames which are sweeping across the des- olate waste that was recently beau tifnl, populous city. Supporting the fire as hindrance to rescue is the overpowering stench arising from de- caying and burning flesh.
 So far the death roll, indifferently compiled, is as follows:
Valdez weekly prospector., 1908-12-31
ABE RUFF GIVEN
 FOURTEEN YEARS

San Francisco, Dec. 3O-Abe Ruef was this morning sentenced to four teen years in the penitentiary, the time imposed being the maximum punishment for the crime of which he was convicted. Ruef was brought to the courtroom under a heavy guard and it was necessary to use force in order to make headway through the crowd surrounding the building. The court room was jammed, the majority of those present being lawyers.
 Ruef shows the ordeal under which he has labored since being found gull ty, and his lawyers also seemed wor- ried. The sentence was pronounced immediately after the court had de- nied the motion for new trial. {. Ruef's attorneys immediately gave notice of appeal, and stay of exe- cution of sentence was granted upon Ruef furnishing bond.