davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-19

' HAVE left the rocky desert of Anapia
 and am now on the Island of Mom- 4 basa, half way down the coast of East Africa, and just below the equator, where old Mother Earth Is widest and thiekest. If I should stick a pin in the old lady's waist and go westward in a straight line would soon reach the upper end of Lake Tanganyika, and a little later would come out on the Atlantic just above the mouth of the Congo. Crossing that great ocean, my next landing place would be South America, at the mouth of the Amazon, and going up the Amazon val ley, I should pass Quito, in Ecuador, on my way to the Pacific. From there oil the trip to the pin stuck in at Mombasa would comprise 16 or more thousand miles of water travel, I should cross the Pa cifc and Indian oceans, and the only solid ground on the way would be the islands of New Guinea, Borneo and Sumatra.
 This place is far below the latitude of the Philippines, and is just about a day by ship north of Zanzibar. It is thirty days from New York, and yet 1t may be reached easily and cheaply. The through fare from the United States on the best steamers would not be over $3Oe and there are boats from London that make the trip in 21 days, at a cost of $250. The German East African line, which has ves- sells going round the whole continent of Africa, has a rate of $200 from Ham burg to Mombasa, and the Austrian Lloyd has a service from Trieste which cost just $25 less. In addition there are French boats that call here on their way from Marseilles to Madagascar, and there are occasional steamers from Alden and the Suez canal which are still cheaper.
 My trip here was made on the German East African line, and the accommoda- tions were fairly good. Our decks were covered with canvas; we had electrical fans in the cabins and other arrange ments for modifying the heat of tropical travel. 1 bought my ticket to Mombasa, but afterward arranged with the captain, by the payment of a few dollars more to make it read to Beira, in Portuguese East Africa, which is about two weeks south of here. This allows me to stop off at the ports and saves more than $50 in the passage money. The buying of through tickets with stop-overs is the best way to travel along this coast. The Ger
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-19

from 2 until the tracks are filled with these little cars, each having one or more officials riding in state to the government buildings.
 I wish I could show you this old town of Mombasa. It began before Columbus discovered America, and the citizens can show you the very spot where Vasco da Gama landed when he came here from India shortly after he discovered the new route to Asia by the Cape of Good Hope He landed here in 149S, at just about the time that Columbus was making his third voyage to America. Even then Mombasa was a city and da Cana describes it. A little later it became the property of the Portuguese and about 100 years after that time they built a fort here, a part of which still stands. It has been rebuilt and is now used by the British as a pris- on. After the Portuguese were driven out the Arabs held the island for many years. and it was an Arab ruler, the Sultan of Zanzibar who owned it when the British came in. It still belongs to him in nonl- inal way. He has leased 1t to the British for so much a year. and his flag floats above the British flag everywhere on the island.
 Notwithstanding this lease Mombasa really belongs to the British, and the British can force the sultan at any time to give them a clear title to it. This is what the Germans have done as to Ger man East Africa and what the British will probably do at some time in the fu- ture.
 As it is now the place is the capital of British East Africa. It has the chief gov ernment buildings including the treasury and law courts and the states prison as well. The town has now about 10000 peo- pie, and of these less than 200, perhaps, are Europeans. There are altogether about a half dozen different settlements, each inhabited by a different class of Asiatics or Africans. There is an Asiatic mercantile quarter, a residence quarter, large Swahili village and a business street, which is also European in char acter. There are two hotels which claim to be frst-class, English club the Bank of British India and quite a number of respectable stores. The native people of the city are of all shades of yellow, black and brown, and they come from every part of the African coast.
 But first let me give you some idea of the Asiatics who have come here from Arabia and East India. The Arabs wear
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-19

a serious risk of being misunderstood if he uses it in the sense in which it is uniformly used in the Bible In the End chapter and 4th verse of the Epis- ties to the Romans. Paul says: "Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and suffering 20 Now, the word "despise", as used here, does not mean to hate. Indeed, where intelligently and properly used, it nev- CT has the same sense as hate" What a man despises he does not take the trouble to hate. Most people hate snakes; and most people despise toads. Probably not single reader of these lines can recall the last time he saw toad. It made no impression upon his mind-fayorable or unfavorable. It was a matter of no consequence. He cared no more for 1t than for the idle wind which he regarded not. This is despising.
 If man writes five columns of per- sonal abuse of an antagonist and winds
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-19

At present with the exception of Abys- sinia, the whole of East Africa belongs to the great powers of Europe. Egypt and the Sudan, which are ten times as big as the s.ate of Colorado, are practically controlled by the British, and the same is true of this great protectorate where I now am, which is more than ten times as big as the state of Ohio. A few miles below here, on the other side of the Rovuma river, German East Africa be- gins. That territory is ten times as big as Indiana. It runs several hundred miles along the coast, and below it is Portu- guese East Africa. which is ten times the size of South Carolina. South Africa, an Empire of Itself, is a British possession, and John Bull has also great territories in the central part of the continent With the exception of Italy and Portugal the powers are doing all they can to improve their, territories, and many i'm portant development projects are under way which 1 shall describe during my travels.
 I find Mombasa refreshing after my long stay in the desert. So far the most of my way through this continent has been in the sands, with only a patch of green now and then. 1 was close to the Sahara in Morocco, and I travelled many hun dreds of miles over 1t while in Algeria and Tunsia. In Trpoli my eyes were made sore by the glare of the Libyan wastes, and their dust blew across the Nile valley during my stay in Egypt and the British Sudan. The Arbian desert was on both sides of us as we came down the Red sea, and it's sands several times sprnkled the ship. We had the rockiest of all deserts in southern Arabia and that of Italian Somaliland was not any better
 The surroundings here remind me of Sol. omon's some. All nature seems joyful The rain has conquered the sun and there are moss, vines and trees everywhere. The shore of the mainland are bordered with cocoanuts, we have on Mombasa mighty baobaba loaded with green, and even its cliffs are moss grown.
 This island is, in fact, jungle Of green on foundation of coral. It is only a mile or so wide and four miles in length, but 1t rises well up out of the sea and is so close to the continent that one can almost hear the wind blow through the cocoanut groves over the way. On the island itself the jungle has been cut up into wide roads. There Is a lively town with polyglot population at one end of it, and the hills are spotted with the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-19
IS OF WORDS (By J. C. Hiden, D. D.

then he had been caught up to the third heavens and had had revelations of the divine glory too grand for hu- man utterance. And thus he was pre- pared to reckon" He had the facts before his minds eye. Suppositions were not indulged. Improved hypo- theses had no place. speeulations were nowhere. He did not pass beyond the boundary of the experimental evl- dence" in order to discern any thing. He simply footed up the col umn; worked the sum- and calmly stated the answer" It is as solid as arithmetic; as certain as the multipli- cation table, as safe as the rule Of three"
 To a skeptic. like John Stuart Mill. the glorious future of the Christian was of the nature of an unverified hy- pothesis-a "baseless fancy" To a Christian, like Paul, that future was a solid answer to a arithmetical prob lem-a sure and safe reckoning"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-19

and to a large extent bare-legged, and some of the men are clad in little more than breech cloths. Now and then one sees a girl bare to the waist, and the lit- tie ones wear only jewery. On the main- land all go more or less naked.
 The most numerous of the natives here are the Swahilis. There are of a mixed breed which is found along the central coast of East Africa. It Is said to have some Arab blood in it. and for this reason perhaps its people are brighter and more businesslike than the ordinary native The Swihilis are found everywhere. They have little settlements in the interior in the midst of other tribes and the Swahilis language will carry one through the greater part of Central and East Africa. The British officials are required to learn it; and one can buy Swahili dictionaries and phrase books. I shall take a Swahili guide with me during most of my jour- ney, or rather a black Swahil boy, who will act as servant and also as guide
 l wish I could show you a picture of the Swahili women as l see them here. Their skins are of rich chocolate brown and they shine as though oiled. They have woolly hair, but they comb it in a most extraordinary way using a razor to shave out partings between the rows of plaitad locks, so that when the hair is properly dressed the woman seems to have on a hood of black wool. l took d snapshot of two girls who were undergoing the pro cess of hair dressing yesterday, trembling the while for fear that their calico gowns which were fastened by a single twist under the arm pits, might slip.
 A little further on Jack made a pho tograph of another giddy maiden clad in two strips of bright colored calico and numerous earrings while I gave her d few coppers to pose for the picture.
 At the same time the opposite side of the street stood q black girl gorgeous with jewelry She had brass ring as big around as the bottom of a dinrer bucket in her nose; and her ears had holes in their lobes so big that hens egg could be put through them without trouble Not only the lobes, but the rims also were punctdred, each ear having five little holes around the edges of about the size of my little finger. These holes were filled with rolls of bright colored paper cut off so smoothly that they seemed almost a part of the ear. The paper was of red, green and blue and it looked very quaint. As l started on the girl looked at me out of the tail of her eye and smiled.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-19

present time are not worthy to be com pared with the glory that shall be re- vealed in us' he Is not guessing nor supposing. nor imagining. nor even believing. The word reckon" is a mathematical term. It means to count. It Is properly aplied to the act of footing up a column of fig ures. and setting down the answer" as the schoolboys call 1t. The English inn-keeper. when you are about to leave his house hands you your "reck
 oning." It Is a piece of paper contain
 ing an account of all the items with which you have been supplied during your stay; and the price of each item is set down and the total footed up.
 There was nothing indefinite about Paul's reckoning. It was a case of straigh forward counting. The items were in his own personal experience. He had experienced the sufferings of this present time as few human beings have ever done. He knew what they were. They were no guess-work. And
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-19

man East African line has boats every two or three weeks and I shall not be de- layed by the transaction.
 Have you ever heard of the great Horn of Africa? It IS. the easternmost point of the continent and it ends in Cape Guardaful. It begins at the Strait of ab-el-Mandeb and runs for 700 or 500 miles out into the Indian ocean. It was along the Horn that I travelled in com ing here. Leaving Alden we first skirted British Somaliland, a thnly populated desert country as big as Georgia, and then sailed for hundreds of miles along other deserts belonging to Italy. The Italian possessions begin some distance be- fore one reaches Cape Guardaful. We went quite close to the cape and rounded it, starting south. It is mighty bluff rising almost straight up from the blue waters of the Indian ocean. It sides are of black rock, ragged and rugged, and it's top is covered with sand There Is sand at it's foot and the sand has lodged in it's crevices, making yellow streaks against the black background. Beyond the cape extend sandy hills, which roll over one another until they are lost in the distance. The country all about Is desert, and neither trees, bushes, habi- tations nor animals are to be seen. The clouds hang low over the cape, and out at sea the air Is as moist as that of Vir- ginia in April. Going a little further on we rounded the horn, and looked back. The great bluff had now assumed the outlines of a sleeping lion, with its tail in the sand Later still the lions head was lost and there was only great rock rising like a fertilization straight up from the sea.
 Sailing southward we steamed about a thousand miles along dry and desert coast before we reached the Juba river, where the British possessions begin. Ital- ian Somaliland Is about as big as Mon tana. It consists of a strip of desert as wide as from New York to Boston and as long as from Philadelphia to Chicago. It's population is made of nomadic Som alis and Gallas, tall, straight, black peo- pie, who live largely in tents and drive their fiocks about from place to place to find pasture. AS far as l can learn the country is practically worthless, and this is also true of Eritrea, on the Red sea, Italy's only other possession on the con tinent She tried to get Abyssinia, but her soldiers were defeated by Menelik, and 1 am told she has now her eyes on Tripo- Ii, which lies just over the way from Sicily.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-19
S. B. BATES By Caroline LockharD

B. Bates, making a visible effort at small talk
 Sure are," replied Stout, his eyes fol lowing the movements of the girl from the Half Way House.
 She's Timber on her feet" observed IS. B." noting his intent gaze.
 Sure is," replied Stout heartily, and IS. B. lapsed into silence
 When the quadrille ended Uncle Sam Boucher came out with an ax and ham, mered in a few rails which had ripped the soless from several of the guests shoes.
 briefly.
 "Pardners for a sch ottischei" called the master of ceremonies.
 "Schottisches is my long suit" said $. B. Bates wistfully, but Stout did not hear for he was making a bee line for the girl from the Half Way House.
 A flood of red turned S. B. Bates cheeks still deeper hue, but she sat proudly upright, fixed smile on her lipe. The set was made up and no one had asked IS. B." to "assit" him. It was the same with the next waltz and the next polka; then Hank Stevens ceased to sing, and, wiping his streaming eyes, claimed her for the next two o-step, the pleasure of which was spoiled for her by the glimpses she had of Stout and the girl from the Half Way House sit ting side by side on the barrel Hank Stevens had vacated.
 Between dances the men gathered about IS. B." and discussed the outlook for the coming season. They asked her nj n Q fa ni,no of the Hereford breed and the advisa bility of feeding horses first crop alfalfa. They praised her thrift and energy, her blooded stock; but they continued to dance with the girl from the Half Way House and the brunette from over the range. As the night wore on s. B.. Bates answers on the subject of crops grew noticeably curt. and finally, when Bill Barnes asked her if she had bull calf for sale, she told him in a voice which made Bill stare that she talked business at her ranch" Just before coffee was served at 12 s. B. Bates an nounced that she was going. Stout, his mouth open in ecstasy, was whirling with the girl from the Half Way House and did not see his neighbor walk past him with blazing eyes, accompanied by Uncle Sam Boucher with the lantern.
 Stout, jaded and yawning, drove home at daylight. He was half asleep wh en he came to the pole-bridge, but he awakened to state of alertness which was like the wakefulness of insomnia when he saw a sign fastened to several poles which blocked the entrance of tn e bridge. The sign read:
 THIS BRIDGE IS CLOSED.
 S. B. BATES.
 As Stout with numb fingers laborious-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-19

It is bad enough to hear that inn pressive word awful" thus abused and belittled by fashionable young la dies who can hardly be suspected of knowing better; but the miserable per- version is finding It's way into places more serious than the mouths of silly girls. A preacher of my acquaintance was bargaining with one of his dea- cons for pair of pantaloons. The deacon was a sensible, cultivated man, and one of the preach CTS most appre- ciative hearers. He took up a pair of pantaloons from the shelf and said: Now, doctor. if these will fit. you will get an awful good pair of pants in them" The preacher could hardly be- lieve his ears but the deacon repeated his remarks. and again used the adject- i've awful" to qualify the adjective good" There could be no mistake the robbery was palpable
 That excellent Biblical word "de- spise" has been so long and so gener- ally perverted. that a preacher runs
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-19

| porting the other end of the cross poles. l She sawed with ferocity which was for
 midable even al distance. Could it be that she was so intent upon revenge that the thought of disaster to herself did
 not occur fp her?
 There was nothing of the cool, level- headed S. B. Bates in the panting, excited
 woman who sawed so savagely upon the
 hardwood beam. In her jealousy she was
 truly feminine. Infuriated by the sight of
 the girl from the Half Way House f1lrt-
 ing with Stout as she supposed, perhaps ridiculing herself she had only one
 thought and that was to prevent the girl from crossing the bridge, and at the same she was done with him forever Blinded with rage as she was, her ordinarily good judgment forsook her. She meant to re- treat in good time, but she intended also to thoroughly destroy the bridge as she could before she went. While Stout
 strained his eyes in the intensity of his interest the log suddenly parted and even from his doorstep, he could see the splash which followed the disappearance of S. B. Bates into the river.
 Stout's long legs stood him in good stead; he as he never had run be- fore, the shrill, despairing cries from the river acting upon him like spurs. He D.. E. Bates head bobbing around the bend.
 She was clinging to two of the bridge poles and shriel1ing she went. Stout ran along the river bank calling to her to keep up that he Was coming, That he would save her. As he turned the bend an ifarticulate cry of relief broke from him-S. B. Bates had washed into the wire fence! Her ruddy face was white and she looked at him piteously, all the anger gone from her black eyes Hang on" Stout begged. Don't come in!' cried s. B. Bates.
 Get pole. l can hold on a little long, er."
 Panic-stricken, the girl from the Half Way House left her horse and ran in or der to get to the river quicker. Hyster- icaI and exhausted she dropped to the ground before she reached the wire fence
 Don't go in You'll drown'd, Please, please don't go in!' she screamed But Stout did not even hear her. He rushed to and fro until he found a tall sapling and this he literally pulled up by the roots. He waded into the water as long as he could keep his feet and then be cautiously pushed out the end of the pole. Trusting to him, she let go her hold on the fence, and Stout. wading slowly ashore, deposited s. B. Bates upon the bank.
 If you had drowned, $. B.'r' he ex- claimed. and with the reaction from his fright came fit of trembling.
 Would you have cared?' asked IS. B. wistfully, looking at him with softened eyes.
 "Cared?" Stout's voice choked.
 "As much as if it had been herr" de- manded IS. B." with more energy, jerk ing her head toward the still hysterical
 girl from. the Half Way House. "'S. B.'!" exclaimed Stout. "'S. BIT
 You were jealousl'' The sudden under standing which flashed upon him illumned his face and-in a courage born of a new and delicious sense of importance-he took her unresisting hand.
 "We'H build up the bridge as soon as the crick goes down-Walter," answered S. B. Bates coyly.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-19

, from the corner of the set where he was hoeing it down until the stout plank floor shook.
 "Proud to see you, Miss Bates,' and Uncle Sam Boucher hobbled up to extend a cordial hand.
 Dad" Schwenk, saving furiously on his violin from his seat on chair on the kitchen table, bowed low and all but up- set himself without losing note.
 Divested of her Si Prime cap and bear skin overcoat, s. B. Bates looked almost feminine She was buttoned into blue plush basque which fitted somewhat tight CT than her skin, and a blue ribbon adorned her hair.s And she had ex- changed her boots for congress gaiters With her rosy cheeks and flashing black eyes. S. B. Bates was not bad to look upon She came out with a look of antici- patton upon her face and sat down upon the plank placed on two nail kegs which served as a kind of anxious seat for the ladies who thereby announced them selves as candidates for the next dance. Snow, who rustled horses over the Mon 1 tana line when circumstances were pro- pitious, was calling off the figures of the square dance then in progress. His red and persprng face rested on high and lustrous collar which had been laundered in Billings and freighted in with the ranch supplies
 Swing your pardners don't be slack balance all and take back track! First four forward and back! Pass right through balance to- and swing the girl behind you! Birdie hop out and crow hop in, take hold of paddles and run around again! Allemande Joe! Away you go! Swing when you meet and promen- ade seatn'
 s. B. Bates kept time to the music with her foot and head, waiting impatiently for her turn to pass right through and balance to-" Uncle Sam stirred the coffee boiling in the wash boiler with the clothes stick, and Dad" Schwenk, still saving furiously on his violin, kept time to the rhythm of his music by the waving to and fro of his lank body. Hank Stevens made numerous trips to his cache under a sage brush, returning each time wis., ibly refreshed. He took his seat on a barrel of ''sourcrout" in the pantry and sang Bury me not on the lone prairee." !" in a minor key, until he finally fell a-weeping at the pathos of his own song Ben Richter. who had ridden over from the Gypsum Rim a little scamper of to miles, disappeared at frequent intervals with the remark that he was going out to run a rabbit" After several of these disappearances he could find relief for his exuberant spirits only in the Conan che squaw yell, a sound which made the horses in the corral fall back on their te-ropes in fright.
 "Rippings up the sod tonight said 5.