davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-27
Able Bodied Veterans.

"As the years roll by the ranks of The veterans become thinner and thinner and many of those wh remain with us are feeble" said Capt. J. L. Darby, adjutant of Camp Hardee, but of the able-boded there are enough left, l am glad to say to make a fine showing at the reunion in June. l am expecting to see between 5000 and 10000 in Birmingham.
 Some one has expressed tine fear that many old soldiers would come who would not be able to take care of themselves This does not happen in other places and it is safe to say that those who are really decrepit will stay at home. The great body of the veterans who will take part in the reunion will be in good phy- sical condition. While it is true many who wore the gray are living at an dd- vanced age, the majority of those who attend the reunions are still under 70 Thousands who served four years in tine war are as active apparently as men of 45 or 50.''
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-27
Charmed With Tuscaloosa.

S. M Williams, staff representative of the New York World, who accompanied Governor Johnson of Minnesota on his southern trip returned to New York last night by way of Cincinnati.
 'Thls was my first trip to Birming- ham," said MT. Williams last night, and the city is a marvel to me. One of my pleasantest recollections of this visit will be the day in Tuscaloosa and at the Uni Yersity of Alabama. In Tuscaloosa one almost feels that he is living in another tune. The sentimental side of Tuscaloosa appeals to me wonderfully. All of those old homes, the broad expansive streets and the very atmosphere seem to carry Che back into the days of the old south. The people we met were charming and in every way our visit to Alabama has been a delight. We are naturally very tired after the strenuous week."
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-27
New Sewer Bonds UnS0ld

No bids were sent in on an offer by the city of $1OO,OOO of new per cent sewer bonds. What effect the offers of suburban towns which are soon to become parts of Greater Birmingham had we need not stop to inquire. The fact that our sewer bonds remain un- sold is all that concerns us.
 But they will be sold in due time. All agree that money is again seeking investment, and that bonds are being marketed which were unsaleable three months ago. When North Birming ham and it's justly famous water sup ply lapses into inaction, and the other suburbs cease to sell bonds at heavy discounts, and the future city stands in it's true position, the sewer bonds will be sold and the sewers construct ed. At present we must be patient. Circumstances are formative and cap- ital is proverbially timid. Even North Birmingham water scheme will frighten away capital which keeps many lines of retreat open. Investors are at present accepting bonds that have no suburban bonds remaining undetermined, but after while they will see things in the right light and the new sewer bonds will go off like hot cakes.
 The sewers planned by City Engi- neer Kendrick are to be built If need be. the loan can be placed at home, and it will be so placed if distant in vestors do not step up pretty soon and take the proposed issue. The sewers will be built-make no mistake about that-and Mayor Ward can be trusted to find way to finance them.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-27
Mr. Bryan s Challenge

The probable nominee of the demo cratic party. MT. Bryan, has wired the probable nominee of the republican party. MT. Taft, as follows:
 ''I beg to suggest that as leading can didates in our respective parties, we join in asking Congress to pass bill requir- ing publication of campaign contributions prior to election. If you think best we can ask other candidates to unite with us in the request
 MT. Taft says he is willing, but no lnatter what he says, the republican leaders in Congress will pass no pub licity bill The passage by the House of a bill in which the negro question IS hitcbed LID with the publicity question will serve simply to anger those who desire to see one election that is not tainted with slush money-one electlon that is free and unbought. Few can recall a national election of that sort, The open purchase of voters on large scale was inaugurated In lS9o' and national elections have been con- ducted by the republicans on that basis ever since. The election Of Theodore Roosevelt in 1904 was no ex- ooDtior, tO tho rIlp
 Congressman Champ Clark sums up the situation in a few words when he says: There is absolutely no chance for any publicity as to election con tributions, either at this session or Congress or at any other sesson of Congress controlled by the repupil- cans. Absolutely the only hope we have for such legislation is in the elec- tion of democratic Congress"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-27
THE MYSTERIOUS CORSET

From the New York World
 TO the mere man there is no greater mystery than the corset. Why it should stare him in the face from every hoar l. Ing, why half the space in his favorite journal should be devoted to unblushinr and lovely damsels wearing apparently nothing else, are things no man can un derstand. But when fashionable corset- leres fall out, as Mime. Lofty" and Mime. Haywood have done, man gains a little Knowledge. The ladies are at the head of two well-known London firms. and their quarrel, having reached the courts has been deemed worthy of detailed men tion in the cables.
 In such cases the mere man learns tha. a corset which will fulfill all the re- quirements of perfect fit, ease. comfort shape and good wear is not an easy mat ter chough attempted by many) and re- quires a master hand" And so if is tna master hand that makes the female form divine; and if a sylph-like divinity changes her corsetiere she may become even as a sack that has been filled in haste! It is a dreadful thought. one not to be pursued
 In a case which occupied a judge and special jury for an entire day in Ton. oon poth sides won, so that the noble ri- valry of those master hands which by stays make half humanity bewitching need rot be stayed.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-27
FLOURISH ANYWHERE.

From the Philadelphia Ledger.
 With a firm tread and a masterful air a lady strode into the shop of a London florist Her choice fell on a remarkably green palm in an ornamental pot
 will it flourish in the sunshlne?" she inquired of the shop assistant, with sharp glance from her eagle eye.
 'Yes, madam" was the courteous re- sponse
 Don't say it will if it won't snapped she amiably. "If it does well in the sun, will the shade hurt it?''
 'Oh, no, madam!''
 What" she exclaimed with a trium- phant. now-Pve-causht-you air. You tell me it will thrive equally well in sun or shade? Young man, you don't know your businessl Fetch your masterl Fetch your master!''
 The owner of the establishment was in- stantlv summoned. Even he quailed be- fore her. but for all that he backed up his employees statement.
 ''Then it's a really remarkable and ac- commodating plant! she commented. waxing sarcastic My good man, it's both ridiculous and unnatural!'
 That's just it." interrupted the floral expert. 'Its an artificial plant"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-27
BRANDY $2 A GLASS.

New York Cor. Baltimore Sun.
 Having obtained possession of all the Coronation brandy for sale in the mar kets of the world, John w. Gates has given so literally of this liquor. which retailed at $2 drink, that there is now no more of 1t left
 The brandy, bottled In June. 1898. the time of the coronation of Queen Victoria had increased in value from year to year until, when MT. Gates discovered it, more than a year ago, it cost s1.75 a glass. Since then it has risen to $2 a portion
 Only small quantity was on the mar ket, and MT. Gates got possession of that. To a few of his friends who he thought would appreciate the mellow ness of the fine old drink he gave lib- erally. Some, when the size of the drink was left to their own discretion, COIL tinued pouring from the cobweb-incrusted bottle until the glass was full. Now MT. Gates has found that all the brandy is gone and he can buy no more.
 A few clubs in London have some of the brandy and some owners of private wine cellars may have little left
 None of MT. Gates friends who poured out their own drinks with a hand as gen. erous as that which would have guided them had the brandy been worth 20 cents a drink, instead of $2, has been able to suggest to MT. Gates any substitute for the liquor which has vanished.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-27
Signs of Improvement.

While the shutting down of furnaces last fall threw many men out of employ ment the effect of such enforced idlencss has been in measure offset by the repair work in progress at furnace plants, said an engineer. Nearly all the furnaces that were blown out have been put in prime condition and many me- chanics have been employed in making needed Improvements.
 Just now the plants of the Southern Steel company are being repaired in an- ticipation of the reorganization and re- sumption of that company. Several idle furnaces will resume operations betwe sn now and the middle of July The signs of returning prosperity are plainly in sight
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-27

convention is wise it will put stop to this sort of thing in future by apportion- ing delegates to coming conventions upon the basis of republican votes cast The republican states would, by this change, increase their influence in conventions and the southern democratic common wealths would find their influence cut down to minimum.
 The Denver convention will have few or no contested seats to handle In it will be seated 1O0S delegates, as against 992 delegates in the Chicago convention. Both conventions seat two delegates for each electoral vote, but the democratic convention will have 16 more delegates, because SIX delegates each will be allowed to the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Porto Rico and the Philippines, while the re- publican convention will seat but two delegates from each of these provinces and dependencies.
 The two-thirds rule in democratic conventions is almost as old as the convention system itself. The con gressional caucus named presidents down to 1924, and the democrats or 1882 adopted the two-thirds rule. It la,,aod fo,. o ,,,,ila hut in 1244 it was re-established, and it has held good ever since. But it by no means se- cures the acceptance by the conven- ton of the fayorite popular candidate, because the unit rule cones in when the democrats of a state in a conven- tion have instructed their delegates. Under the unit rule it is possible for less than two-thirds to control the con vention.
 The republicans do not employ the two-thirds rule or the unit rule. majority nominates in their conven- tions. At Chicago the man who can command 497 votes will win, and every delegate at Chicago will act in his in- dividual capacity and in accordance, perhaps, with district instructions. No republican state convention attempts to instruct district delegates.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-27
STRANGE DEATHBED DIVORCE.
Jewess Thereby Avoids "Chetze," .
 Greatly Deraded Ceremony.

From the New York American
 To save herself from participation in what orthodox Jews regard as the most solemn and distressing ceremony, known as "chelitze," Mrs. Mary Chart man, a pretty 19-year-old woman of Williamsburg, was divorced from her husband, Noah Chairman, while he was lying on his deathbed in Bellevue hos pital. The decree of divorce was grant ed to her by rabbi and gives her the right to marry any man that she chooses.
 According to the Mosaic law, the widow of an orthodox Hebrew must marry her dead husbands brother in the event that she is left childless. But the brother of the deceased must be unmarried, and unless she marries she must undergo the "Chelitze" cere- mony.
 There were two reasons why Mrs. Chairman sought a divorce from her husband, to whom she was married only few days ago. The first was that she didn't want to become the wife of her husbands brother. and. then, she didn't care to go through the strange ceremonies known as the "ChelitZe." Had her husband died, she could have married some one else in- stead of her husbands brother if he had granted her "Chelitze."
 Now it won't be necessary for her to go through "Chelitze" in the event that her husband dies, because she has been divorced from him.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-27
LABOR IN POLITICS.
Threat of Opposition Is Regarded As
 Merely a Bugaboo.

Washington Dispatch to the Chicago Post.
 Experience has shown that the Amer ican laboring man votes for work. The republican party at the national con- vention will pledge itself to revise the tariff. The record of the party goes to show that in the work of revision it certainly will not commit the sin of excess.
 If revision is carried through prop erly the prices of certain necessities of of life will go down, but they will not be accompanied in their downward course by the wages of labor It is hardly to be supposed, so the argument of the republican leaders runs, that be- cause labor did not get all it demanded from the present Congress it will vote itself out of hundreds of thousands of jobs.
 It has been the dream of MT. Com pers life to organize the unions into political phalanx. Voting solidly, labor, of course, could get many of the things it demands, provided that either of the great parties was willing to promise in advance that it would trade favor for favor.
 It is hardly to be considered that labor, even when organized as a politi- cal entity, could gain through an agree ment with either party as the price of support certain privileges denied to other citizens not laborers.
 Both of the great political parties have shown a disposition in recent years to do for the workingman what they could within reason. More, prob ably, will be done in the future, for such is the trend of things; but it can not all be done at once, or at any rate it will not all be done at once, even though the chiefs threaten a third party or a coalition with a second party against the first. The leaders of the parties seem to be of the belief that most of labor's opposition ends at the threat stage.
 It is, of course, within the possibili- ties that labor will make itself felt to the disadvantage of the republican nominee, but if the unexpected hap pens, there will be scores upon scores of experienced politicians who will pass into the class of the discredited prophets.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-27
UNoFFIcERLIkE CONDUCT.

From the Philadelphia Ledger.
 An excited citizen rushed into police headquarters.
 Say, he said to the sergeant in charge, 'the man on the beat past my store needs looking after. He's little queer''
 What's the matter with him?" growled the sergeant.
 rWhy, last night" continued the cit izen. 'I was kept late at the store, and going away in a hurry forgot to lock the door and-''
 And the officer went in and swiped A codfsh and some dried apples. It's the regular thing now. We're trying to stop 1t. Where's your store?'
 "But hold" rejoined the visitor s'you'ra off wrong. This is no ordinary police stunt I'm telling you about. He didn't go in, but he telephoned to me to come down and bring the key, and he stayed on guard until I'd arrived. There wasn't thing missing"
 "G'wan out with your fairy tales." said the sergeant.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-27
COST OF LIVING IN NEW YORK.

From I1arper'S Weekly.
 Economy is nothing but poverty in New York, by contract with the abnor- nal demands that living involves. Spend ing 50 cents for breakfast, going without lunchean and paying $1 for dinner is economy for a single man. A breakfast that costs 30 cents and a dinner 60 cents is poverty. The boarding house life is poverty; the lodging house life is some thing worse; and the ordinary life in a flat is voluntary servtude.
 Sociologists claim that the lowest pos sble yearly expense for a workingman with wife and three children, embody- ing normal standard of living, is s950. The statement was made recen<ey by the New York department of charities that the average laborer's family in New York is existing on about $70O year. The minimum rate of rent on the East Side for the barest decencies is $4 a month. Coal costs from 10 to 15 cents a pail, d fabulous price when estimated by the ton.
 Yet between this poverty and the economy" of the small-salaried employe who is compelled to adjust his earnings to the demands of hls occupation there is small difference. We live in New York by the cost rather than value of things. An apple purchased on Fifth avenue costs twice as much as the same apple bought On Fourteenth street. The dollar BoWery shirt costs twice much on Broadway. This is the city where they pay the price"
 The self-indulgent man who spends of his wages. The woman who could not manage her household for a season on less than $5,000 not the daughter CT the wife of a wage-earner. Econom- lcal beginners really have no actual rela- ton to the existing problem of living in New York.
 What does it cost to live in New York? More than you can ever hope to earn ia wages; and, so far as the chances of speculation are concerned, that infers the necessity of a pull" If you haven't a pull" social or political or \ financial your speculative chances are slight Ob- viously this state of restless enduran -e | Is demoralizing. It undermines charac- ter. Presently you find yourself follow ing the procession of people who are liv- ing beyond their means because they seem to be enjoying themselves at it.
 The only way to live within your iu- come Tn New York is to become blind to the very extrava gances and allure nents that make this the metropolis, and tc sacrifice the pleasures of temptation fct the comforts of an honorable old age.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-27
Prohibits at Gadsden.

C. D. Glover, a well known citizen of Gadsden, was in Birmingham yesterday. When asked about prohibition in Etowah county he declared with a will, Tt pro hibts!"
 We have prohibition in Gadsden as it was legally intended. 1 do not believe that liquor in any form can be bought there anywhere, and very few people are ordering it for their private use.
 Prohibition has resulted in parting some of the most debauehed drinkers from their booze, and numbers of these are becoming friends of the cause. never saw such a change. It has not hurt but helped business, and 1 believe that the people as well as the former antis in Gadsden will all agree that it is a good thing"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-27
ROMANCE OF A KING.
Washington Post.

From the WaSnlnStOn HOSl
 The young King of Portugal has reached his first tragedy, not his second. He has fallen deeply In love with a woman he cannot marry. Of course, the deaths of his father and his brother are tragedies in his life, but they are incl dental rather than epochal Tn his career as man. Love and it's disappont- mcnts are the first of the great emo tions to break tine thread of illusions with which the Three Sisters have fur rshed man at his birth, and they are the pivotal point on winch the whole Of hls after career turns. This is not senti- ment; it Is a fact foreordained in the laws of existence at the creation of flesh.
 The young King loves woman be- heath him. She is not unworthy nor or ignoble birth. But she is merely tue daughter of a noble family, whereas royal blood must be mated with that or royalty. His ministers and his wise mother insist that love must yield it's claims to state. It is necessary LOT Portugal that her sovereign should nave the protection of some greater nat1on' ana this is a thing not to be easily accom- pllshed, except by the ties Of marriase' The wisdom of the Queen mother IS ap- parent The ardent young King must yield his will and his boyhood's sweetheart because he has a greater place In the world to fill than that of the lover aliu the husband. Fate has called nm to serve the state, and the needs or tue state demand that he shall marry not the woman he loves, but the woman who will bring to the state the greatest ally. If is no wonder the Queen mother is d. recting his thoughts toward the towers of London town. What a boom for Portu- gal 1t would be if Manuel could fare as well as Alfonso and win daughter or British royalty to his throne. Amelie is ambitious, indeed, but she realizes better than the beardless monarch what such d powerful alliance means.
 But one must sympathize with the poor child of a King and with the little Por tuguese girl of merely noble birth, whom he has loved since babyhod and pledged himself to with lspng words of affection. If Is hard for the first and sweetest fruits of youth to be turned acid by such an unhappy fate Two hearts must be wounded and scars left that may never heal because the safety of a throne de- | mands it.
 Neither will she who is called from
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-27
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
Elaborate Service.

T am glad to see that Cyrene com mandery of Knights Templar is to at- tend service in a body at the Church of the Advent on the night of the Feast of the Ascension; that is to say, Thursday night. remarked q student of Templar Masonry. 'The modern knights like their predecessors, the crusaders. are Trlm- tarian Christians, and their ritual, both esoterie and exoteric. is decidedly church ly. An elaborate service. musical and otherwise, has been announced for Thurs day night and l hope to see a large turnout of Templars.
 ''The rector of the Advent, pr. Evans, himself a Knight Templar, has invited Masons in general, and the public as well, to attend, and the church will doubtless be filed"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-27
Now for the Conventions

Tn less than three weeks the dele gates selected by the republican party will be assembling at Chicago. About 400 of them will go there in less than two weeks for the filling of 200 con tested seats is to be determined by the national republican committee before the convention meets. It is the chief duty of the committee to make up a temporary roll of delegates, and the manner in which it does it's work will perhaps determine the course of the conventions action. It may indeed block out a new programme. There is really no other deeply interesting question connected with the assembling of the Chicago question. The Phila- delphia Inquirer, straight-out repub- lican newspaper, says in relation to the contested seats:
 It is. of course, unfortunate that the democratic states of the south should bring their dirty political linen to Chi oago to te washed and aired, If the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-27
BRIGHT STAR.
By Keats.

by Keats. (Keats last poem, written in volume of Shakespeares Poems during his last journey from England to Italy) Bright star! would I were steadfast as
 thou art
 Not in lone splendor hung aloft the
 night, And watching, with eternal lids apart, Like natures patient, sleepess Eremite, The moving waters at their priest-like
 task
 Of pure ablution round earths human
 shores, Or gazing on the new soft fallen mask Of snow upon the mountains and the
 moors- No-yet still steadfast, still unchange-
 able,
 Pillowed upon my fair loves ripening breast To feel forever it's soft fall and swell, Awake forever in sweet unrest Still to hear her tender-taken breath, -passionless, and so swoon on to
 death. r-s a
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-27
HORIZON.
From Life.

From I1fe.
 man calls it the horizon where the earth and the sky seem to meet but woman's notion of the horizon Is the families she can see moving in from be- hind her front window-curtains. If, fur ther, they hang out their washing in a spirit of candor they are, of course, all the more so.
 The horizon is caused by a number of things. chief among them the gregarious instinct. Only for this, next door would mean as little tariff revision, or pure food or international arbitration.
 It takes star, or something of that sort, to rise above the horizon, but Q very ordinary woman may feel above 1t.