davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-15

Sr@ HE latest addition to the mysteries of Darkest Africa which has been solved
 by modern scientists and explorers Is the great snow range of mysterious noun tains in the heart of the Dark Continent called the Ruwenzori. This name was given to this vast stretch of snow-clad mountains by the first man of the modern world whose eyes rested on them. This was Sir Henry M. Stanley. The history of the Duke of Abruzzi's famous trip to the heart of Africa and up the snow-clad sides of Ruwenzori has been given to the world by the cavalier, Filippo de Filippi. a name that sounds like concoction of fairy tale, yet the brave cavalier is q scientist of considerable European fame.
 Stanley, in 1901. before.the Royal Geo graphical Society of London, explained the great inteyest attached to the Ruwen- sori Mountains and uttered wish that some future daring explorer should ven ture to climb these lofty African noun tains and make their mysteries known to the modern world. Stanley's own descrip- tion of how they appeared to the first white man that history records having seen Ruwenzori makes interesting read ing Said Stanley: "When I was about Ave miles from Nsabe camp, while looking off to the southeast, my attention was called by a native boy to wonderful mountain which the natives said was covered with salt. for they knew nothing of snow nor had one of my hearers ever
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-15

manufacture thousands of toy sheep each year. These are covered with fleece. and are made to bleat when their little sides are pressed. Every part of the work is done at home The fleece is bleached and carded at home and then glued to the It. tie wooden frames. that also are turned out in the tenements. The same applies to the Teddy Bears, although the latter became such craze that factories de- voted exclusively to their manufacture sprung up all over the country. One wom- an who had been left with several chill dren to support following her husbands 3 death found that all she had left from the wreck was $1,000 In the form of life insurance. This she used in start ing a Teddy Bear factory, and in three years she cleared close to $100000 on her investment of S1,000.
 The mechanical toy, industry Is a tre- mendous one and one in which many millions of dollars are invested. Of course, each of these little devices has some real mechanical or inventive merit, and they are to be had at prices ranging all the way from a penny to S1,OOO. Fortunes are spent each year in the purchase or these toys. Railroads, equipped with trackage, switches, block systems, myri- ads of electric signal lights and rolling stock. operated by storage batteries, are popular, and these are so complete Tn every detail that they are sold at prices all the way from $25 to $500. Then, too, the automobile Is another popular toy for the little sons of the rich, and these are being shown this year at nrices ranging
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-15

Eskimos in the use and care of the rein deer. This was slow work. for the Es- kimo had become welded to the use of the dog as a beast of burden and they were suspicious of the horned monstrosi- ties that had been thus thrust upon them. In the first place, they were afraid of the stags, and then, again, in finding TOT them a place of shelter 1t entailed extra labor, for snow huts, apart from those in which the Eskimo dwelt. had to be built. Every Eskimo abhors labor in any form, and even to this day they resent Uncle Sam's interference in seeking to wean them from their beloved dogs. with whom they eat, live and sleep.
 Everyone in the Northland derives more benefit today from Santa Claus stock farm than the Esklmos, for whose benefit Congress established them in 1892. The efforts to instruct the Eskimo boy in herding reindeer has been fraught with many difficulties. The most important reindeer stations are at Teller, Cape Prince of Wales, Golfvoin Bay and Una lalek All are closely adjacent to mis- sions to which the government lends reindeer and employs Lapland herders to instruct the mission boys. To become herder the Eskimo must desert the fam fly igloo. isolate himself from his play mates and practically live in the open six long, weary years without any recom- pense but his keep If all goes well, how ever, at the end of the sixth year Uncle Sam presents him with 50 reindeer.
 To separate an Eskimo from his family Is little short of capital punishment In his eyes, for he is a thoroughly domestic creature and communlstic in every in stinct, sharing all their possessions in common. No spirited boy will endure
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-15

Y F the millions of English speaking
 children few, if any, will fail to rec 4 ognize the foregoing verse. and in doing so their thoughts will naturally wander to the great Frozen North. where the reindeer browses for 364 days and nights In each year, husbanding their strength for the grueling drive on Christ mas Eve with merry Old Kris Kringe as their pilot.
 Not so many years ago Old Kris paid a visit to Uncle Sam and laid before him the dilemma in which he found himself. So frequent has been the visits of the stork to American homes In the past cen tury that Santa Claus task in making his yearly rounds to the freplaces in this country alone, where dlminutive stock ings are hung each Christmas Eve, had become so hercuean that unless he could double and treble and quadruple his stock of reindeer he would be unable to visit all the homes wherein he was expected. Uncle Sam saw the justice of his argn- ment, and rather than disappoint any one Of his million or more little nieces and nephews he promised Old Kris that hereafter reindeer would be supplied him from Uncle Sam's own stock farm, which was to be established within his own do- main.
 Accordingly, Alaska, or that portion of 1t belonging to the United States, was se- lected as the spot where reindeer would be established and propagated. Emis- saries were sent to Lapland, and there purchased a number of stags and hind and exported them to Alaska. Several Laplanders were induced to accompany the herd to Alaska, and arriving there they have spent years in instructing the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-15
Duke gf Abruzzi and Ruwenzori.

seen snow, and they could not compre- hend its nature. So they thought the snow covered mountain was made out of salt. I saw a peculiar shaped cloud of a most beautiful silver color which assumed the proportions of vast mountain GOV cred with snow.
 Fiippo de Filippi the chronicler of Abruzzfs daring climb of this equatorial African snow range, states that many ex- plorers had passed through this region. including Sir Samuel Baker, as far back as 1884, but none of them dreamed of land of eternal snow and ice lying within eyeshot of the widest of African tropical jungles.
 The terrible obstacles to be encountered spurred on rather than deterred the Duke of the Abruzzi. In his party were several experienced Alpine guides and noted noun. tain climbers. The start was made from Naples, and it was six weeks before the great range was seen by the anxious ex ploring party. Between Lake Albert Ed ward and Lake Albert, and 45 miles off II the clear atmosphere of Central Africa, the Duke saw the great snow range liter. ally standing out in the air, for it looked like vast snow clouds suspended over an African desert Terrible hardships were endured by the Dukes party which was compelled to sleep in sleeping bags, as when in the Arctic regions. It Is undorbt- edly the least known and remarkable mountain range on the surface of the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-15

and these they sell to the toy makers, that they might complete them. Then, too, these wood turner's supply the noun taineers with little rings of wood so fashioned that 1t is possible to turn out wide variety of animals from them. The ring maker cuts from the end of a stick of round timber a disk of wood the thickness equal to the desired height of the animal later to be made, and then, mounting the disk in a turning lathe, he begins work on the body of the wood at the disks outer rim, turning away the material in such shapes that when the rim is finally finished and cut apart it will show, and, of course, wherever it is cut, the outline of the animal thus fashioned in It.
 The turning of these rings is the work Of expert mechanics, who become so proficient at their task that the amount of waste Is inhnitesmally small. They must be expert workmen for the reason that the main portion of the result of this work can only be seen when 1t hears completion. It is not until the block is cut apart that the turner can discover an error. if one has been, made. If such is the case, he must throw away the entire block, and this would entail a waste, which, to the stolid Teuton, mind, would be little short of sinful. They must turn away the wood not only from the outer side of the various anil mals they are fashioning, but from the inner sides as well, and they must do this in such a manner as not only to produce a ifeike shape when the ring is cut but so as to avoid leaving some parts of the body too thick and others too thin.
 All mechanics engaged in turning out the toy animals make speciality of some particular animal. and for years he works only on that especial pattern. Men who have been turning out horses for. per haps, 25 years could not pattern a COW if their lives were at stake. One man spends bis life in turning out horse rings, another COW rings and so on through the entire menagerIe. no one man devoting his time to more than one pattern. Seeming ly. they never tire of their work. have no
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-15

from $1o0 to s1,0O0.
 Walking and talking dolls are ever popu- lar and very expensive. A visit to the principal toy shops will prove that doll of this description finds ready sale, and these bring anywhere from S25 to $1,000. Each year the toys are becoming more elaborate, more complicated and more ex- pensive. The man who, when a child, would have thought his cup of happiness full to overfowing had Santa Claus dropped jackknife into his woolen, home-knitted sock, and who has since made his pile thinks nothing of spending thousands of dollars for toys for his off- spring at Christmas.
 Proprietors of the more pretentious toy emporiums nowadays assert that 1t does not pay them to handle any toy that re- tails for less than $5. They claim that the cheaper grade of toys are sold exclu- sively by the little dealers and the street fakers, and for this reason they clea ned out their stock and cater to only those who can afford to purchase toys of merit. This may be true, for the street faker reaps his harvest every Xmas, and many of the little toys they sell are quite as in- teresting and afford even more genuine amusement to the children of the poorer
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-15

classes than do the exorbitantly expensive devices that find their way into the homes of their more fortunate little cousins.
 Dolls, and not mechanical dolls at that. are sold as fast as they can be manu- factured, at prices ranging from 10 cents for those of the china and rag varieties, to hundreds of dollars, where faces are of the finest grade of French china. hand painted and supplied with wardrobes that would dazzle child of the tenement dis tricts One well-known firm in New York employs 50 or 60 seamstresses all the year round, who do nothing else but make dolls clothes. All the little frills and furbelows, exquisite lingerie and gowns that bear the marks of the latest Parisian modes are turned out from this work room each day, and aside from this they constantly receive orders for a complete change of costumes from their little GUS toners, who watch the schange in styles and desire to have their dolls always ar rayed In the very latest styles.
 Santa Claus is compelled to invest bii- lions each year now for his stock of toys, and the end Is not in sight, for Young America is annually becoming more cap tious and more exacting in the selection of his playthings.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-15
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all devote their entire time to toy mak- ing, working far into the night at the hreside of their little huts.
 Year after year these mountaineers work at the same task, making the same style of toys, making the same number each year, and all is done in such a monotonously systematic manner as would drive the average American to the verge of despair. They never tire of their task seemingly, and always work long and hard in the summer months to provide food and clothing to carry them through the winter, so that their toy making can go on uninterruptedly.
 Thus they work the winter through, by their combined efforts turning out lit tie arks and their inmates to a great number It might seem, however, that even with their combined efforts, every member of the family faithfully doing bis or her part, that their output would be limited, since there is so much cutting carving and coloring to be done upon even the toughest and crudest of the little toys, yet they manage to accom- plish a surprising amount of work and reap a rich reward, according to the wage standard of their respective coun- tries.
 It might be interesting to follow the efforts of one of these families in the manufacture of animals from the tree to the ark The head of the family, and skilled in that sort of work, takes a small block of wood cut out, not length wise, but across the grain, and upon one end of this block he draws the profile outline of, say, horse. Then with a scroll saw he saws away from the block down through its entire length, all the wood outside the lines as drawn on the end of it for guide. Now he has the block of wood in the rough outlines of a horse. but very thick and able bodied
 Then from this block he splits off. down through it and with the grain. as many sections as the block will permit. three or four and maybe half a dozen. each one of these being a complete horse In outline, a little horse In blank. These crude little horses are then turned oyer to other members of the family and each is fashioned Into its finished form. In this way it can be seen that much labor is sayed at the start, but there Is another way of preparing the material. and this is n more advanced method
 In this part. of Saxony there are many wood turner's who make fl business to saw out these>toy animals into blocks,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-15

K TOW that the date for Santa Claus
 M annual descent down the family ~ chimney approaches, interest natur- ally centers in the myriads of toys he sleds around with him as well as in those who make them. For a year past an army of men, women and children have been at work making Christmas toys while the wheels of many of the biggest factories of the world have been whirl- Ing around, each revolution resulting in one or more of the finished product
 The greater percentage of the toys Santa Claus tucks into the little stock ings that are carefully hung at the hreside each Xmas Eve are made in Ger many. For several generations past Ger many has led the world in toy manufac- ture, although the tremendous influx of Teutons to this country has resulted in a big impetus to the enterprise in all of the big American cities. Here whole families can be found all steadily em- ployed at toy making. Children play quite as important a part in the work as their parents and evince quite as much pride and even a livelier interest In the task than their elders.
 In Germany toy making is regarded as one of the country's chief Industries, and there are many factories in which toys of one sort and another are turned out in their entirety; and then, too, there are others where only portions of the work are completed and the remainder Is done by piece work by workmen in their homes. Here Is where the entire family IS assigned some portion of the work. This applies more generally to the mak- Ing of dolls. The heads are made In the factories, as are their sawdust bodies. Then these parts are assembled and turned over to piece workers, who take hem home, put them together and pre- pare the clothes for dolly dress her and send her back to the factory. where the finishing touches are put on her before exporting her to the furthermost corners of the globe.
 Among the toys thus home made are, Tor instance, the animals so often found n the Noah's Arks that grace the play loom of nearly every child in the uni- verse. Dwellers in the mountains of saxony lead in this industry. In many 'espects this section of Saxony closely resembles the Catskill Mountains of the United States, where little isolated vii- ages dot the hills and valleys, with heir few dwellings scattered about at 'are intervalS. In summer these noun ain dwellersl cultivate their little farms and garden petches. but In winter they
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-15

An alloy that sends out showers of sparks when struck with another metal consists of iron. cerium and lanthanium and one other very rare metal. The dis covery was made by the noted German chemist, Herr Auer yon Welsbach, who invented the Welsbach gas mantels. He hopes to use the discovery in connec- tion with igniting blasting charges of powder. dynamite, nitro glycerin, etc.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-15
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More rapid than eagles his coursers they came, And he whistled and shouted and called them by name: Now, Dasherl now, Dancerl now, Prancerl now Vixeni On, Comet! on, Cupidl on, Dunder and Blitzenl To the top of the porch. to the top of the walll Now, dash awayl dash away dash away aIlr'
The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-01-16
l." replied the witness


promptly.
District Attorney Jerome then began
his cross examination.
He had the witness repeat several
of the incidents he related yesterday
afternoon and was asked if he con-
sidered SIS tip from Thaw an ira
tional act.
ut seemed queer. for what I did,
said the witness.
The witness declared that Thaw
was not dissipating and seemed
healthy, when he knew him, but al
ways was nervous and excitable.
Christopher Baggan, steward of the
New York Whist club. was recalled to
give the dates of Thaw's visits to the
club in 19045 and 1906. Mr.. Jerome
brought out from the witness the fact
that he was able on each of these oc-
casions to play bridge whist with the
best players in the club. Raymond
A. Brown, a music publisher and eye
witness of the killing of Stanford
White, here was called and testified to
Thaw's irrational appearance on the
roof garden.
Brown said he knew Thaw person
ally and spoke to him during an inter-
mission in the performance, but could
not get a coherent reply.
Did you ever try to get a coherent
reply from any other man 20 minutes
before he took the life of a fellow
ney Jerome.
mo" replied the witness.
That's ALL
Abraham r. Beck of Lancaster
county. Pa. father of former Assistant
Attorney General James M. Beck, was
called as the next witness. He said
that Harry Thaw was one of 8 boys
in his school in 1881 and 1882. The
memory of the boys habits had always
lived with him, the witness said.
1.-The boy was excessively nervous"
said Mr.. Beck, land was very unsocial
and sullen and distracted. His eyes
were most striking. One of the prin-
ctpal things I remember about young
Thaw was the spasmodic and startling
outburst of animal-like howls. These
howls would stop as suddenly as the
turning off of a fountain.
The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-01-16

CONTINUED from rage One-)
don't look like it was exactly right to
enact such measure. Our banks
now to let a new bank open up across
the street and divide the business
hardly looks fair. Still, there may
be a real demand in some sections,
especially in the southern part of the
state, on the Oklahoma border, for
such a law. and if the rate of inter-
est is put down to reasonable figures
and other safeguards adopted, bill
may be fixed up that will do. 1 look
for a short session in any event"
Senator Stillings Of Leavenworth
wants short session as possible.
He would like to go right home, where
will aid in the passage of the direct
primary and bank deposit bills.
Senator Blaker of Linn favors the
direct primary plan.
Senator Haskell of Smith was free
to say that he was not anxious for any
bank deposit bill, but conceded that
he might vote for one if it was so
ton with regard to direct primary
bill was the same. He hadn't lost any,
but he might vote for one If it suited
him.
1t may be said in general that the
senator's, with very few exceptions,
are apparently of one mind on all
points in the work of the special ses-
sion. They were to be found in small
groups this morning, but instead of
frank and outspoken statement of
opinions with which it was tacitly un-
derstood those of their colleagues
would agree, as they unfailingiy did.
The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-01-16
BESIECED BY MOB
Carriage Containing Gladys
Vanderbilt and Fiance
Has Difficulty in Getting Away
From the House.
CURIOSITY SEEKERS.
Are Constantly Congregated
About Young WOman's Home.
Many Women Stroll Back and
Forth in Front.
CURIOSITY SEEKERS

New York, Jan. 16.-The approaching
marriage of Miss Gladys Vanderbilt
and Count Szechenyi is attracting so
much attention that scores of women
are constantly congregated about the
vanderbilt home, corner Fifth avenue
and West Fffty-seventh street, hoping
Tor a chance to get a look at the bride
and her titled fiance. The women
stroll back and forth in front of the
house and eye the occupants of the
scores of carriages which are constant
ly stopping at the door while footmen
carry packages and cards to the house.
When Miss Vanderbilt and the count.
accompanied by his brother and a sis
ter-in-law emerged from the house for
the purpose of taking a drive the crowd
became so large that it was with diff
Guilty that the carriage could make its
way through.
The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-01-16
IN MEMORY OF PAUL JONES
Congressional Publication Is Ready for
Distribution.

Washington, Jan. 16.-"John Paul
Jones Commemoration" is the title of
a congressional publication now ready
for distribution commemorative of our
first great sea fighter. The volume is
superbly illustrated.
An introduction describes the con-
tents of the book and the ceremonies
of the commemoration at Annapolis,
April "a, 1906. The addresses of Presi-
dent Roosevelt, Ambassador Jusser-
and, General Porter and Governor
Warfeld are given. A foot note ap-
pended to the presidents address is a
touching tribute to Admiral Dewey. All
the mention of Dewey's name the
president paused until the applause
subsidized and looking directly at the
admiral, said:
Presidents are all we'll enough in
their way, but it's worth while in life
to have first of May
The full reports of General Porter
and the scientists who identified Jones'
body and a chronology setting forth
the most interesting events Connected
with his life are among the contents
Being congressional publication the
book will be distributed by the sena-
tors and representatives. The edition
numbers 10000.
The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-01-16
TODAY'S MARKET REPORTS

Chicago Jan. 16-WHEAT-There was a
fairly active trade in wheat today. The
market was weak, influenced by a decline
of one pence at Liverpool and continued
liberal receipts IN the northwest. There
was some profit taking and much selling
lower, at slo22 .os. and sold at s1os1z@
1O21s.
The wheat became strong later on ac-
tive demand from shorts. May advanced
to 81 .03M The close was strong at about
the highest point. with May up A@ssc, at
81 03s4 G1.C27s.
CORN-Corn was fairly active and the
market Was weak. Lower cables and cold
weather throughout the corn belt were the
bearish factors. May opened a shade to