davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26
Charges of Representative King

Representative King says the Greater Birmingham bill passed by the senate and signed by the governor is not the bill that appears on the official jour nal. He does not state how or when or why the discrepancy occurred, leav- ing the reader who accepts his charge free to attribute the appalling fault to mere slovenliness or to gross and bold design. He does, however, say that the senate journal had been tam pered with" MT. King proposes to ask the supreme court to lay down a rule under which the records can be ex- haustively examined.
 The case should in some way be sifted to the bottom. If the charges be true legislation becomes a mass of hodge-podge and guess-work. The sen ate journal, according to MT King, who was on the spot and very alert at that, shows that the yea vote on the four separate amendments has been changed to the nay vote, and the nay vote has been changed to the yea vote The journal makes Senator Miller vote against his own amendment, and makes Senator Spragins and Senator Overton vote in favor of 1t. This change of the vote is made to occur four separate times. The vote in each case is re- versed. Another mistake that arouses suspicion is that the vote showing yeas and nays on the final passage of the bill appears in the printed journal dis tributed in the various offices of the state. The official journal now in the office of the secretary of state appears to show only the yeas voting. How could the printer have the official vote showing yeas and nays without having lu6 OIlBludi IOpy HUH " hlCH JO oCI IL up? That record has disappeared from the official journal, and must have dis appeared since the journal went to the printer, otherwise the printer could not have set out the vote by name.
 MT. King and MT. Babb alike agree that the bill as signed by the governor was regular and correct. Every detail had been closely watched. MT. King does not hesitate to say that the sen ate journal has been tempered with, and this charge should be probed to the bottom. Governor Conner owes it to the state to sift this matter until every fact has been brought out. No investigation of so grave matter can be too searching or too unfiinching.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26
TOOK A MEAN ADVANTAGE.
From Judge.

From Judge
 It was Christmas morn and King Solo, mon had rented the Jerusalem town hall in order that he might speak 10 all his wives at once
 My dears," he said feelingly, 'I desire to remember you all as befits the glad Yuletide and l especially wish that there may be no partiality shown as between you.''
 Ecstatic little murmurs of curiosity and anticipation came from every corner of the great hall.
 T have decided to give pearls" said the great King
 A tumultuous hand clapping came from the delighted assemblage, and then the cunuchs passed through the throng hand ing to each beautiful dame a white slip of paper upon which was written orc Of the proverbs of Solomon.
 Perhaps of wisdom" murmured tho King, on the platform. More precious than gold"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26
MEANEsT HUSBAND.
But Is Equally Punished for Soaring
 His Wife.

From the Chicago Inter Ocean.
 Mrs. Maud Pepoon, wife of Henry Pe- poon, a farmer on Blue Clay creek. Arkansas, got up one morning and at once proceeded to search her husbands pantaloons, as was her usual custom. bus instead of finding the usual collection of small change she grasped a giant bull frog
 Her wild shriek awakened her hus- band, who leaped from his bed, intending to tell her 1t was all a joke. but she already had rushed out of the door and into the adjoining woods, still screaming in her fright.
 Pepoon pursued her and both might have been running yet had not their wild flight been suddenly halted by a big black bear rushing furiously at them from the opposite direction.
 The Pepoons whirled instantly and rushed for their dwelling, the bear still after them and gaining in the run.
 Just as they neared the clearing they noticed that their house was on fire. probably due to overturning a kero- sene lamp in their nasty exit.
 In order to escape the bear both jumped into a we'll, from which they were rescued, more dead than alive, after neighbors shot the bear. The dwelling was burned to ashes.
 Pepoon Is too excited to admit that he put the frog in his pocket to break his wife of a bad habit. He, however, has coined a moral like this:
 Its cheaper to let your wife search your pockets than to scare her with bullfrog"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26
WARMING FOR LIGHT.

From the Philadelphia Public Ledger
 When it comes to consuming gas in large quantities blind people can beat their seeing brethren all hollow" said an inspector of the gas company. q know two families where both husband and wife are blind. every jet Is turned on full tilt in their homes at night and is kept going at that rate clear up to 12 o'clock. Light and darkness are all the same to the afflicted ones, but they insist upon illumination brilliant enough for a reception. And that partiality for light is not whim peculiar to those two couples. Most blind people feel that way. They demand the light in all private homes and institutions where the blind are cared for the gas bills vouch for the strange fancy"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26
DISCONTINUED INDIA

direct causes have been the spread of British education in India and the indif- ference with which the British have hith- erto regarded the license of the free press The one has bred a class of young men for whom there is no place in public i life, and the other has afforded an out let for their misdrected activities. They have utilized it for vituperation and mis- representation. for the spread of false history and false philosophy, and for the spread of discontent.
 To some extent the Englishman in India is responsible for the bitter feeling of the better class of natives by his refusal to regard them as equals; but there are distinguished men who defend this policy as the only safe and prudent one, and as the sole means by which the white Brah- mins'' have been able to hold the coun- try. And the attitude of not a few dissi- dent British has helped to make the slur seem the more intolerable. Nevertheless, there will hardly be serious dissent from the proposition that the realization of the Indian dream of independence would be instant anarchy. Rapine and plunder would be the rule in the land, and the tribes in the north would overrun the south as In the times that preceded the coming of the English. It is this knowl- edge, hidden from the patriots of young India, that affords the most hopeful as- pect of the situation. The native states recognize the advantages of the British rule, and while they now tolerate the agitator, it is reasonably certain that were the issue drawn their influence would be cast on the British side. So also there is chance that the Mohammedan pop ulation, although it, too, has it's griev- ances. would prefer existing evils to the greater ones of Hindu domination.
 These are all problematicsl considera- tions, however, and the immediate solu- tion would seem to lie in the adoption by the Indian government of a stern pol- icy of repression against the agitator, on the one hand, and a serious attempt to remove the causes of those grievances which are still possible of adjustment. Whatever policy may be adopted, the civilized world will recognize the fact that the British cannot leave India to the mercies of the present agitators.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26
SCENES FOR MOVING PICTURES.
From Golfers.

1T IDI4 3OlltI s.
 If you enter a moving picture 'studio' you will probably be surprised by it's like ness to the stage of theater though on smaller scale. There is a loft full of dan gling back drops, there are ropes, pulleys sets of scenery, dressing rooms actors standing about in paint and costume One of the numerous authors" whose inge- nuity devises the episodes depicted has prepared a scenario. The stage manager holds the typewriter copy in his hand Formerly. perhaps, he was stage mana ger for a Broadway star. At his direction the scene is set. It represents the interior Of m English cottage for "Os'ler Joe" is to be photographed today, in pantomime There are a score of actors, some of them players out of work, more of them reg ularly employed to pose for these pic- lures Just as they might be to act in a theatre.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26
THE SEA.

By Lord Byron. There is pleasure in the painless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, There is society where none intrudes By the deep sea, and music in it's roar; I love not man the less, but nature more. From these our interviews, in which I
 steal From all may be. or have been before, To mingle with the universe, and feel What I can ne CT express, yet cannot all
 conceal. Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean,
 roll
 Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in
 vain; Man marks the earth with ruin-his con-
 trol Stops with the shore--upon the watery
 plain The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth re-
 main
 A shadow of mans ravage save his own When, for moment like a drop of rain, He sinks Into thy depths with bubbling
 groan, Without grave, unknelled. uncoffined
 and unknown.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26
Fine Holiday Business,

Sam Blach. member of the firm of J. Blach & Son, in speaking of the holiday business, said yesterday:
 Business was good as a whole, while scme of the days were exceptional.
 Thursday Christmas eve, for instance, our business was enormous. On that day, we sold more goods than during the 24 hours of any other day of the fifty y-odd years in which we have done business.
 This is a broad statement, l know, but it is an absolute fact. When it is considered that 1908 entered with a panic, the fact that our busiest day of a long career occurred in this year, k very sig nitcant.. It would indicate that the panic is indeed a thing of the past, and that an era of great prosperity is staring us in the face'
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26
THE EGG CRISIS.
Country Demands That the Hen Get
 Busy.

From the Commercial Appeal.
 While the calamity howlers are dis covering ruin in cotton, poverty in corn and wheat and storms in the financial skieS, they have entirely overlooked the crisis in eggs.
 The fact that fresh eggs" are sell ing three dozen for a dollar calls atten- tion to the fact that there is something wrong with the entire hen system. During the recent political campaign Bob Taylor declared in burst of justi- fable pride that we laid more eggs than any other nation in the world. That statement was true. As a matter of fact and figures, we lay no less than 16.- 00O,0O0.0 900 eggs annually From Maine to Florida, from the Statue of Liberty to the Golden Gate, the cackle of the hen is never silent.
 It is only fair to say that the hen has done her full duty. We do not mean to cast any reflections whatever upon her. She is Johnny on- -the-spot, and she delivers the goods.
 The trouble is that the goods are often delayed in transmission. The egg that stops to wonder why it has never become a chicken is not welcome guest in the happy home. The egg with a past has no place in the econo-. my of nature. What the country needs is the rapid transit egg, that is no sooner out of the hens system than 1t is on the way to the breakfast table.
 Unfortunately we have a lot of egg collectors in this country, who gather up the hen fruit in the summer time and run it into cold storage plant, to keep 1t for Christmas or the Fourth of July. The result is nearly all the eggs we get these days are more or less stale, "tolerably good eggs" as somebody put it. that are not fit to eat.
 If the experience of other people is like ours, this great and glorious re- public lays 16,000, ,O00, 900 flat, stale and unprofitable eggs annually. Many of these eggs in a perhaps praiseworthy attempt to grow up with the country, become unfit for domestic use but are not barred from the channels of com meree. We go right along paying 30 cents for bad eggs as well as good, and we get no rebate when we have in- vested our 30 cents for the privilege of taking the lid off dozen eggs that would make polecat look like bottle of cologne.
 The eggs are here. The hens are on picket duty; but the canal of cores pondence is clogged. The good egg is so scarce that there is a halo on the price of it. How long, we wonder, will a free people be content to pay for the uneatable eggs? Surely they have some rights that ought to be respected. Pure food laws have been passed to see that the people get what they pay for. We are going to enlist for a new cam paign, having for its aim the passage of fresh egg laws all over the country. The egg whose perfume you can hear across the river has got To go, or there will be revolution.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26
CHRISTMAS EVE IN BERLIN

all engaged in doing the same thing. One can imagine the traveller, looking on the thousands of Mohammedans la- boriusly treading their way across the desert to Mecca to win the title of Hadii regarding the scene with similar emotions. For when I say every Ger man. it Is literally true. The streets of Berlin are deserted, save for the cars and the omnibuses and cabs, and an occasional policeman, and from be- hind the blinds of the windows of the great blocks of flats twinkle the can dies on the Christmas trees, throwing out their little beams into the dark ness of the night, as did the star to the shepherds nearly 2OOO years ago.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26
YOUNG TOPPING CHOOSES TEXAS.

From the Houston Post.
 Deciding to leave his father and start out for himself, H. J. Topping of New York man of the board of directors of the Re- public Iron and Steel company, in which John w. Gates of Port Arthur is a di- rector, has decided to cast his fortune in Texas. Younf Topping, "A years old, and of athletic build, arrived in Houston yes terday, and is guest at the Hotel Brazos.
 Three weeks ago. said Mir. Topping. q told my father that I was going to leave New York and come to Texas to earn my own living. I went by steamer to Savannah and thence to Birmingham. where my brother is in charge of the Bessemer steel plant of the Republic com pany.
 "The steel business doesn't appeal to me at all, and was in the insurance bus mess for a while in New York. But I wanted to get away from Broadway. want to be independent and I believe that there is a good opportunity for young man in Texas. I haven't made any plans as to what I shall do, but I am going to work. I expect later that I shall go to Port Arthur"
 MT. Topping is a Princeton man and a member of Psi Upsilon fraternity and member of the Princeton club of New York. The Republic Iron and Steel com pany is a $55, 600 corporation.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26
The Dance Cure,

Have you ever noticed how dancing works as a sleep producer?" asked a young man last night. The tingling of the blood through ones system caused by the lively two-step, then to drift off into the seventh heaven of bliss while gliding around the ballroom in a dreamy waltz, seems to bid an invitation to sweet sleep. Dance for two or three hours with charming partners, then retire to your couch, breathe a deep sigh. close your eyes, smile and in 10 seconds you will be wandering through Nodland on bed of roses without thorns. If you are a suf- ferer from insomnia go to dance"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26
From the Philadelphia Ledger.


 T HAT the British rulers of India
 ko are facing a serious crisis, and
 that the native discontent which prevails to an alarming extent through out the length and breadth of the land constitutes an imminent danger to the Pax Britannica are facts which are being daily impressed upon the consciousness of watchful Britons. And the multiplicity of opinions as to the best methods of meeting the situation is another evidence of the gravity of the situation. No one has yet seriously questioned the loyalty of the native troops in the Indian army, but their numbers are so small in com parson with the total population of Hin dustan, and their connection with the peo- pie so close and intimate that they would constitute slender reed of defense in the event of an actual uprising to enforce the demand of India for the Indians"
 The conditions in 1908 are so radically different from those in 1857 that the two periods are hardly comparable. AS the popular name of that terrible outbreak of half a century ago indicates, it was actually 8 "mutiny" of the soldiers in the service of the British, and 1t had comparatively little support from the In- dian population as whole. Today, in spite of optimistic observations to the contrary, there is high authority for the belief that the entire country seethes with sedition. Indian agitators, perhaps they should be called patriots, claim for their land not the self-government of the other great British dependencies and col onies, but absolute independence, and they are pushing their propaganda by means of mendacious misrepresentation and abuse in the vernacular press as well as by the bomb and the knife of the as- sassin.
 There is good ground for the theory that attributes these manifestations to the spread throughout India of knowledge of doings in other lands, of Japans defeat of the dreaded Russ, the check of the Russian autocrat in turn by the popular demand for a duma, the grant of self government to the Boers in South Africa. the establishment of a parliament for the despised Persians and the revolution in Turkey. But the more immediate and
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26
Gift-Rearlna Greeks.

When one speaks of the gift bearing Greeks he in no way criticizes the qual- ity of the young foreigners" said A. Latady yesterday, flor have proved them to be free, kind-hearted, generous fellows many a time.
 This year some of their gifts have been large and beautiful. One of them just sent me a whole bunch of bananas, and their feelings are really hurt if you do not do just as they ask. l also find that they never forget the least kind ness, and are not slow in showing their appreciation. I was highly pleased with my change of opinion gained by careful observation of the modern Greeks man. ners"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26

week served to make Birmingham look like it use to a few years ago." said an old resident last night "The crowds on Wednesday and Thursday were ex- tremely large and the afternoon crowds were especially good humored Towards night. however, they grew somewhat boisterous The great mass of men, wo- men and children who were busily walk ing about during the day, though, put live metropolitan touch to things and showed just what Birmingham iss have lived in Birmingham many years and my belief Judging from the past, is that a very few years more will find this constant crush an everyday occurrence so greatly will the town grow"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26
"The Marathon"

'The Marathon, the Athletic clubs new paper" said a member yesterday. Ifs one of the most unique little folders I have ever seen. It serves to keep the club membership closer together, to advertise the interests of the club, to help in the campaigns, and to keep the public in formed as to the standing in the cham pionship series.
 '"The first issue did all that and more. It had a greeting to it's readers calling for the support of the membership to back up the club in it's big efforts. as well as an interesting discussion of the prob lens confronting the club, by J. P. Ross There's nothing too interesting for the Marathon .
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26
WHERE MAMMA LOST.

From Jude
 Aunt Emmy" said the little angel, mamma has thought of the incest kind of a present picked out for you"
 Has she?' asked Aunt Emmy, who was nearly 4O but looked 35 and said she was 28.
 "Yes; she said it would be the best thing in the world if Santa Claus would only bring you a husband"
 It was at that moment that Aunt Emmy concluded to send her sister-in-law d nice, inexpensive Christmas card instead of the silver punch howl sh- had se- leoted.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26

Children saw yesterday with their childlike faith Santa Claus sleigh and reindeer, and that settled it. The prosaic delivery wagon was not in the case.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26

Between the Dutch and President Gomez Cipriano Castro is full-fedged exile.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26

The first aeroplane that flies across the English channel will convince the average Englishman that foreign in- vasion is at last in sight.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26

Carrie Nation was shocked when she ascertained that Scotch whisky is now made in Peoria, H., her own beloved land.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26

Robert Louis Stevenson never wrote any fiction half so thrilling as the stories of the Reelfoot night riders.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26

The globe encircling fleet will be due at Suez January 4, and then it will have but two seas to cross, the Medi- terranean and the broad Atlantic.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26

New Mexico claims to have 450,000 people and many mining industries. It claims to be of state size.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26

Charles William Eliot will now pro- eeed to serve his country as a civil service reformer. He does not have a high opinion of spells politics.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26

As a Scotch comedian Andrew Car negie is surprise, but he will be un- able at present to accept any vaude- vile offers
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26

Orville Wright goes about on crutches, but he will soon go on some- thing better and more mobile than crutches.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26

That $10,000 hen is but keeping step with the egg market
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26

As gifts diamonds had a rival yes terday in baskets of eggs.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26

In these days of Ananias clubs no one likes to be called clubman.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26

Japan is happy. She has big rice crop and she is at peace with all the world, Captain Hobson of course, in- cluded.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26

The Christmas counter rush is now but memory.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26

New York and even Virginia have more of the Beautiful Snow than they have snow shovels or snow shov elers.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26

Some Presidents may be worth $100,. 900 year and some may not.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26

The Kaiser's non-alcoholic cham pagne has the full indorsement of the water wagon.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26

Humorist Carnegie is plainly trying to outdo Johndee in his chosen spe- cialty.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26

Attorney General Bonaparte still hesitates to hale Editor Pulitzer to court for criminal libel. He does not want to turn the wheels of government back to 179S and the federalists.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26

The Maine steamed away to the coast one day too late for the fracas.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-26
Birminuham Crowds.

"The large crowds which have thronged fhe streets of Birmingham for the past