davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-15

teh times no less than the places of mans occupation and habtation.'
 Again: God has made even the conti- nents as if they were intended to help and nos to corrupt each other when the time came for the nations 10 break over the barriers of mountain and sea- Fur ther: "The mountain ranges of the Amer. lean continent run north and south to bar Asiatic nations an entrance on the Pa cifc. but opening 10 the mixed races of Europe the immense plains east of the mountain ranges in both North and South America. The path across the planet seems marked out Of God for the migrating nations." And still again: "rhe skillful spade of man is cutting canals where God made an isthmus against the time when men could be trusted with the explosives of modern chemistry 10 tunnel noun tains, and unite the waters of separated seas" And finally: "fhe great Sierra Ne- vada and Rocky Mountain ranges showed that God did not intend that it Christian ity) should come that way, but that we, with our great power of Initiative, were to bear it to Eastern Asia"
 It is impossible for me to believe that any man, other than an inspired prophet, can really tell us what Gods purpose was in shaping and placing the seas, mountains and continents of
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-15

were crushed by the falling towers were ''Proyidential' retribution for outbreak ing wickedness they would have greatly erred in their interpretation of those events, but they would have had no lack of company in their error.
 This error is very ancient, and yet it is quite modeEp. The book of Job is mostly made up of long series of specu- lation and erroneous interpretations of Providence. The question under dis cussion was. "Why has the Almighty SD so afflicted Job?" And the conclusion reached was. that Job, notwithstanding his high repute for piety and his re- peated professions of loyalty to God must be a hypocrlte. who was suffering righteous retribution for his secret sins.
 This feeling of the righteousness of retributlon is instinctive in man; and it is sometimes so strong as to upset all his theories. When Sherman conducted his pillaging picnic through Georgia and tho Carolinas, the "Bummers" utterly de- serted the plantation of a North Caro- lima planter. who was well known as stout and sturdy UniversaIst in his re- ligious views. After the Runners had
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-15

left, the planter, looking sadly upon the desolation, is said to have spoken thus: T stick to it; I don't believe there is a hell; but I would subscribe half of my plantation to start one"
 But this feeling of the justice of retri- buttons is no safe guide in determining the objects of the divine retribution in particular and individual cases; nor, in deed, have we any such guide in cases of this character. Let us take a histori- cal instance
 During shermans march, the city of Co., lumbia, S. C.. was set on fire. Sherman publicly charged Wade Hampton with the crime. In making this charge he had the misfortune to say what was not true-a misfortune into which he fell with conspicuous frequency. Hampton bitter ly denied the charge, and indignantly pro- nounced it a malicious falsehood; where upon Sherman defended @ himself by saying that he had made the charge in order to break down Hampton's politi- cal influence in South Carolina
 This recalls an anecdote of William L. Marcy: When he was secretary of war under Polk. he had an epistolary con- troversy with Gen. Winfield Scott, who
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-15

people held that Providence had pun ished the city which was a hotbed of seces- sion" These good people seem to have forgotten, or ignored, if they ever knew, the fact that Boston was a hotbed of se- cession some two generations before the question was ever seriously agitated in South Carolina.
 On the other hand, those southern peo' pie were no wiser who, when Chicago was burned, said that Providence was paying back the yankees for burning Columbia" ,"
 But, leaving such loose and ignorant in- terpreters of Providence, let us look high CT. In the Methodist Quarterly Review for July, 1908. is a very powerfully writ ten article on "The Migrating Nations" The author is evidently scholar and a thinker. But even this able writer has somewhat allowed himself to fall into some extraordinary interpretations of Providence" For instance: By the very configuration of the earth. with its sentl- nel mountains and wide-separating seas, God determined the bounds of mans hab- itations until he could be trusted to make of those barriers bonds. The visitations of Providence in fruitful seasons. or the de- nial of ample harvests, has determined
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-15
DISSERTATION ON KNOWING TOO MUCH-By J. C. Hden, D. D.

the earth. as they are shaped and placed. such knolwedge is too won derful for me. it is high, I cannot att tain to it.
 Many years ago. on a wintry night. was sitting at the fireside in a planters home in Old Virginia. when the planter came in. bringing a new axe, which he had just bought for one of his hands. It had no helve; for in those days we made our own -helYes out of our own hickory; and I had never seen an axe-helve on sale in any store" The old fashioned candle. "the light of other days" was burning on the candle-sta The planter brought the axe close to the light, and tried it's edge with his finger. His 4-eyar- old son was looking 'on with great in- terest. when the father said: Phil, I'll give you ence-half-penny (6A cents) if you will spell axe" A x-e, axe" said Phil. (Webster had not yet corrupted the language with his "ax.") The father took out his old buckskin purse, and handed the coin to Phil, who put it into the pocket of his first pair of "breeches," and, swell ing with pride, exclaimed triumphant ly: "Ah; knows too much"
 You can apply this aneedote where it will do the most good"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-15

dren, but when her hymn was put into our hymnals the compilers changed 1t to read q love to steal a while away from every cumbering care,' etc., and the situation in the authors home was eliminated. So with the psalms the situations of the authors have been SO toned down or eliminated that it is impos- sble to discover who and what manner of folk they were who wrote them. And so the reference to Jehovah as host in His home may well have been the touch ing up of an editor and cannot be used with much assurance as marking the data or situation from which the psalm sprang. The truth is that there ar3 not a dozen psalms whose date and auth orship can be discovered from references within the psalms themselves with any degree Of assurance Nor have we lost much on that account, for @ piece of literature in which the authorship is not referred to does not need that the author and date be known to adequate ly appreciate the meaning and pertinenee of the writing. So this psalm would mean the same coming from any author in any situation of life.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-15
THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM-By A. J. Dickinson,

it's way into acceptance and favor before it was selected for service in a psalter
 The several psalms may well, therefore, date from a very early time as Is prob- ably the case with this psalm. We now know that there were Jewish temples outside of Palestine during the Persian period at Leontopolis and at Elephantine in Egypt and probably at other centers of Jewish population, while the rise of the synagogue would call for a num- Der of collections of hymns all over the dispersion. These earlier psalters arose in response to this demand. It is man. fest that slight references to passing situations cannot have the same weight in fixing the date of a psalm which we would give to 1t in an historical narra- tive, since in adapting song to pur- poses of public worship an editor or compiler would alter it and eliminate personal peculiarities which had mean ing only for the experience of the auth
 or. When Phoebe Brown wrote "I love to steal while away from little ones and cares" etc, she was expressing the situation of a mother of many chll-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-15

with which he wards off assault and climbs the steep ravines. The guide in Palestine has always been a familiar fig ure. The psalm may be called The Prophets Creed" and must have served in the worship of the temple and syna- gogue much as the Apostles Creed did in the cathedral and chapel. It is one of the most wholesome, proficient, adequate confessions of faith the world has pro- duced; and life under it's functloning must be healthful in pious and righteous char aeter and conduct.
 Who was the author of the psalm we may not now determine and it is matter of but little moment It has been thought that David could not have been the auth or because the reference to the temple as standing in the last line would not then have been pertinent. Hence most critical scholars date the psalm some- where between the days of Solomon and Hezekiah. The caption, "A Psalm Of David" Is very late and may mean psalm dedicated to David or Q psalm presenting Davids piety, or as is much
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-15

more likely. psalm from some previous psalter known as David's. The captions of psalms are now widely believed to refer to previous psalters from which the psalms were taken by the compiler of our psalter. Our psalter probably took it's present form as late as the second century. B. C., and the psalms com posing it had already served in previous lesser psalters for use in temple and synagogue So we have in these captions references to the psalters of MilStan, the Masl1il, the David Psalter, the Asaph
 psalter, the Korah psalter. the Mizmor psalter, the David director psalter, tho Hallel and Pilgrim psaters from which selections of psalms were made for the psalter as we have 1t. Some of these Biblical psalters were made in Baby lonia, some in Egypt, some in Palestine.
 None of them took form earlier than the second temple and some of them as late as the Maceabean period. But the date of a psalter must be much later than that of the several psalms of which 1t is composed, for the psalm had to work
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-15

1. Jehovah as Shepherds Jehovah is my shepherd, I shall not
 want. He maketh me to lie down in green
 pastures: He leadeth me besides the still waters; He restoreth my soul. 2. Jehovah as Guide: He guided me in paths of righteousness
 for His names sake, Yea though I walk througt the deep dark
 ness, I will fear no evil: for Thou are
 with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me 3. Jehovah as Host: Thou preparest table before me in
 the presence of my enemies Thou hast annointed my head with oil;
 my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and loving kindness shall
 follow me all the days of my life And I shall dwell in the house of Je-
 hovah for the length of days" The "rod and stair is not the shep- herds crook. but the weapons of a guide
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-15

C NICE Bishop Lowth discovered
 the principles of parallelism as Ar a fundamental devise for Hebrew poetry more than 15O years ago. the prog ress of scholarship in Semetic literature has made great advance in the recovery of the poetic art of the Heorews. We now know that they used meter in highly developed way; but it is not tho meter of feet or syllables as in Latin, Greek, or Syriac, but of words or word- accents as in Babylonian, Assyrian and Egyptian. They also used the stanza, the refrain and the caesura, as well as-other devises for ornamentation of the pages such as the beginning of successive lines or stanzas with the succeeding letters of the alphabet. Indeed the devises of Hebrew poesy are coming to be as well under stood as those of Greece and Rome; and 1t is now possible to read the poetry of the Bible with an adequate appreciation of it's literary form. Fortunately the Hebrew poetic devises were such as to
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-15

be easily transferred into our language, and further translations of the Bible will more and more convey them to the English reader. Then the poems of Je- hovahs people will be read again in our churches with the same rhapsodic effect they inspired ia the worshippers in the Temple at Jerusalem.
 The psalm which constitutes the Sunday school lesson today is probably the great est piece of religious literature of the world. It consists of three stanzas of four lines each. treating of Jehovah as Shepherd, Guide and Host respectively The stanzas are written in trimeter, tet- trameter and pentameter respectively. This lengthening of the successive stanzas by an additional beat gives to the poem the effect of approaching eli max in the last stanza where Jehovah is presented as the Host of the worshipper in His house. Possibly the following ar engagement of the American revised yer sion will bring out some of the poetlcal features for the reader
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-15
%<XUYHo is this that darkeneth A/ counsel by words without W knowledge 7''-Job ss:2.

knowledge7 7"-Job SS:2.
 In the 18th chapter of the gospel by Luke, verses 1-5. we have the following narration:
 There were present at that season some that told Him of the Galileans. whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sac riices. And Jesus, answering. said unte them: Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, be- cause they suffered such things? I tell you nay: but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen upon whom the towers in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sin ners above all men that dwelt in Jerusa- lem? I tell you, nay: but, except ye re- pent, ye shall all likewise perish"
 The Master evidently saw that the peo- pie whom He was addressing were in dan ger of knowing too much, i e., of inter preting Providence" If they had con eluded that the terrible calamties that have come upon the people who were slaughtered by Pilot, and upon those who
Los Angeles herald., 1908-10-09
THE SUPERVISORS

~ HARGES of conspiracy and fraud
are made explicitly in the COM
~ plant on which Judge Walter
Bordwell issued temporary restrain
ing order to prevent the board of su-
pervisors and the w. P. Jeffries
company from carrying out the con-
tract for the printing and furnishing
of the good roads bonds. 1t is asked
that all proceedings for accepting the
bid and awarding the contract be de-
clared null and void, that defendants
be enjoined from carrying out the con-
tract, that the county auditor be pre-
vented from issuing warrants for mon
eys due under the contract, and the
county treasurer from paying out
money therefor.
BY most unpleasant practical DEM
onstration the lesson has been i'm
pressed on the public that it is not
safe to have a Solid Three on board
of supervisors, or any other board. In
order to prevent any possibility of con-
ditions like those which have disgraced
the public service offLos Angeles and
lnLerISTeu WIN one Oh Tie IllOSl CA
cellent projects ever devised for the
general good of this community, and
the increased prosperity and welfare
of Los Angeles county, there must be
no possibility of Solid Three. Voters
who do not wish to continue the Ed
ridge Solid Three program in the next
board of supervisors realize the ex-
cellent candidates presented by the
Democrats must be elected. They are
H. ]. Woollacott, Anthony Scnwamm
and Frank ]. Haddock, representative
Los Angeles business men of thorough,
scrupulous, unshakable honesty, and
with that due sense of responsibility
which makes officials dependable as
we'll as efficient.
Los Angeles herald., 1908-10-09
QUOTES ENGLISH CLASSICS
ON VOLUNTARY COOPERATION

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 7.--[Editor Her
adj: AS your correspondent, Mr..
White, seems to be mystihed by Her
bert Spencer, have thought that per
haps q quotation from one OF the
greatest of English writers, Thomas
Carlyle, would help him. have Sc
lected it from a number In my SCRAP
book, It is as follows:
r 1--WE must some day. at last ana 1or-
ever, cross the line between nonsense
and common sense. And on that day
we shall pass from class paternalism,
originally derived from the fetch nc
ton in times of universal ignorance,
to human brotherhood in accordance
with the nature of things ana our
growing knowledge of 1t; from. poiiti-
cal government to Industrial admins
tration; from competition In indivio-
ualism to individuality in cooperation; ;
from war and despotism IN any form
to peace and liberty"
What the school of voluntary Social
ism contends for is individuality in CO.
operation, possible only when despotism
IS abolished, whether 1t be the des-
potism of a car or of government
administered on the majority principie.
Freedom is the first indispensable
step to individuality in cooperation.
AS another great English thinker, Os-
car wilde, remarks in his "Soui OF man
Under Socialism; "It Is only IN
voluntary cooperation that man is
fine" D. n. bOA ID.
Los Angeles herald., 1908-10-09
DECLARES NOTHING IS GAINED
BY ATTACKS ON THE CHURCH

SANTA ANA, Oct. s.--IEditor Her
add: / wish to say word to our
friend Harold, and, IN fact, all the
rest of the writer's to the Public Let
ter Box, In defense, of our friend Ed
win r. Brown. Now to get straight
with you In the start, I am a men,
ber OF no church and do not profess
any religion At all. But it seems to
me that anyone who is broad-minded
enough to be a Socialist could and
must see he is hurting the cause of
Socialism by continually fighting the
church. No doubt our friend Brown,
like myself, has become dHgusted
with the church knockers and has
quietly laid down, and here let me
say. grant for the sake of argument
that you, Harold, and the rest of
those who are knocking the church IN
connection with the Socialist move-
ment. have won III this argument
what have you gained? In my esti-
nation YOU have gained the enmity
of hundreds of Christian voters, whose
support the Socialist party so sorely
needs.
son cannot be a Christian and also
he a Socialist or Republican or Dem
ocrat-why not? Is 1t not all politics,
and why continue this useless, alb
surd ouibbling over church. Why do
YOU try to make trouble between
them?
Now say IL Mr.. Brown and all the
churches of the universe wish to Join
IN this struggle for the workers
rights. for the upbuilding OF a COM
monwealth, let them come-there Is
room for us all. And you will learn
before the crown Of victory rests on
the head of the Socialist party that
there was work for us all to do.
r. ". ALLEN.
Los Angeles herald., 1908-10-09
TAFT'S LATEST

A CCORDING to a report published
n in Republican paper, Mr.. Bryan
AA in his speech at the annual ban
quet of the Chicago chamber of COM
merce, said "I think I can see signs
of progress in politics. When first
began to run for president there were
no occasions of this kind. I think
I note a larger charity and broader
liberality and more kindly feeling than
has sometimes prevailed in the past"
With his usual fatal facility for blum
dering, the unfortunate Mr.. Taft, after
one or two ponderous commonplaces
of courtesy in response to the gracious
compliments of Mr.. Bryan, said:
"ONE NON-PARTISAN SPEECH
is PRETTY MUCH OF A BORE
WHEN YOU ARE IN OTHER KIND
OF PRACTICE"
So it was pretty much OF bore"
for the former governor Of the Phil
ippines to render courtesy for cour-
tesy to his scholarly, refined. gentle
manly, statesmanlike opponent.
Mr.. Taft cannot be elected, because
no Republican could be elected this
year. Circumstances forbid. But his
defeat would be less overwhelming if
he had broken all records by conduct
ing silent campaign, or by allowing
his press agents to do all his talking
for him.
Los Angeles herald., 1908-10-09
STANDS FOR MODERN VALUES IN
TERMS AND INTERPRETATIONS

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 6.-TEditor
Herald: Mr.. Sprading might as rea-
sonably insist that, since Socialism, in
the evolution Of its idea, was at an
earlier stage Utopian, therefore Social
ism today is Utopianism. He might
as we'll insist that transportation" to-
day means conveyance by OK or hand
cart. because 1t once meant that. (And
here Is a chance once more for that
cheap and fiimsy chop-logic pretense
that because I say Socialism" don't
know the difference between the So
cialist movements present fact-and
Socialism-which is not YETI
In q discussion where the present.
day status is the real question, this
lodging back to Proudhon and even to
Marx. as II he were the all-in-all In
stead Of only part, albeit an import
ant part, is puerile, or casuistic. For
my part I deny that the Socialist party
rests on" Marx or any other one or
score of ones (even as / deny that
free speech in this city was won by
any "three" persons).
Proudhon was a great soul, but We
view him today rather as a landmark
in the evolution OF an idea, and the
reason the name 'anarchism" has
"stuck to his system" as Mr.. Sprading
says, is simply because the sitting
process of times analysis has shown
that to be its filter deignation: his
own use of voluntary Socialism" not
withstanding. The latter term To-
DAY, in any but its restricted relation
to the writings Of those who used 1t,
is misleading to a degree bordering
on subterfuge.
Let us not be fossils or Rip Van
Wrinkles, let US use up-to-date terms,
interpreting same by common horse
sense, and strictly aboveboard honesty
of purpose-calling spade a spade.
AS to Socialist suspensions and ex-
pulsions. there Is where they prove
themselves no dreamers. but busi-
nesslike party which allows no "mon-
keying' with party pledges and party
credit, even by it's brightest members.
True democracy knows no favoritism.
WAT. GmnNm
Los Angeles herald., 1908-10-09
Many Keen and Witty Sages
Try to Explain DOOdIe-Dee

hole, and can only be drawn out BY
SOFT voice or a good bait"
a oooufe dee Is cross between a
Wnanguoodie and q mugwump"
1T Is species of boophalus annu-
iatus' OF doodle bug, that bores into
COWS ah1 causes immediate death. The
doodle dee species infests the body
polite, causing slow death"
i suppose The term comes from the
boring proclivities of the doodle bug.
The doodle dee Is not visible to the
naked eye. Under powerful micro
scope u looms up as a pale pink in
scot, nine-uenths mouth and the other
tenth a curiously shaped political ma
chine, which, upon closer observation.
turns out 10 be an apparatus for the
manufacture of heated atmospheric
"The doodle dee is a mammoth bird.
ten acres long and six acres broad, It's
main characteristic Is inability to light
on the ground. In other words. II Is
always up In the air"
''When the Ananias club was organ
ICED 1t became necessary to adont snn,s
official emblem, and have heard that
the doodle dee was chosen for this pur5
pose. You can understand the annroS
priateness OF the selection when vou
recall that the doodle dee is a worm.
famed In mythology, with two heads.
one turned In one direction and the
other directly opposite. It was the
original Facing Both Ways OF Aesop's
fable"
y"The doodle dee Is the bowling der
wish of the insect world. 1t Is always
dancing furiously In circles, emitting
loud cries and tearing out its hair by
the handouts. 1t never, however, oc-
cupies one position longer than twenty
minutes"
"The chameleon used to be called the
doodle dee. II am not mistaken. 1t
possesses the property of changing its
color to suit it's environments"
"The doodle dee is not bug at all,
but a state of mind. When a man be-
lieves everything that is told him, he
becomes a doodle dee. Or he may
dream he has been elected to some high
office and wake up to the cold reality"
The Herald will not keep the public
in suspense, but viii here and now dis
close the origin Of the fateful word un-
der national discussion. Friends and
fellow citizens. the word Doodle-Dee
means just nothing at all 1t has no
meaning, and that is why It is aptly
applicable to the Independence party.
yellow Journalism and William Also
randolph Hearst.