davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-16

ately called by his partisans. What won derful power there Is in a popular slo- ganl The phrases, "Tippecanoe and Ty- Ter, too;" log cabins, hard cider and coon skins," almost certainly elected one president, and the pet name, "Old Rough and Ready" probably elected another Get good slogan" and you need not bother your brains about platform"
 On the court day aforesaid the crowd was too great for any building in the town, and so the speaking was done out of doors. A platform was erected against the courthouse and something like an acre of ground was covered by the crowd. William c. Rives was one of the ablest most scholarly and most polished speakers in Virginia. The whgs were ex- ultant and felt confident that no demo- cratic speaker on the ground could cope with their splendid champion Some lead ing democrats had waited on MT. Rives and requested him to divide time,' but this proposal he declined. He made a very fine speech, which greatly elated his party and somewhat depressed the spirits of the democrats. In the course of his speech he said that he would wait tlll the 7th of November (election day) for reply''
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-16

as became the festal day, Mrs. Ziegler larruped Mr. Ziegler with section of ths garden hose until he, too, joined in the glad acclaim, though discordantly. Then the sisters of the mystic circle helped MT. ziegler to his painful bed.
 Various ethical teachings might be drawn from this veracious story of the fall of MT. Ziegler.
 For instance:
 Every man should learn the lesson that the race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong; also that pride goeth before fall
 Every man must be shaped by unto- ward events into something decent It 10 the misfortune of Ziegler that he did not learn this until he 35. He had bad fall coming to him. It was long overdue.
 It is the law of compensation that every man must somehow pay for his fun.
 Do you remember the very cute fable by Kipling of the puppy and the soap?
 The moral Way that only through ex- perience and much retchJng oculd she puppy learn that as a steady diet soap Is not a good thing.
 So MT. Ziegie- Aad to learn through experience and sound beating thac ed business or as pure recreation, is detrimental to the chaser as well as the chased.
 Mir. ziegler did not learn this lesson in his puppy sSe. Tno proper age for pumping wisdom in and beating fal- lacies out, but 1t may be said
 While 1t is sometimes difficult to teach an old dog tricks, still it may be done.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-16

Illinois sent bronze statue of an Irish man, James Shields, and a marble effigy of a woman, Miss Willard, of the tenn perance union.
 Wisconsin sent the finest work of art in the entire collection, 8 marble image Of the French Catholic priest. Father Marquette. Villas, no doubt descendant of some Hugenot refugee, made the ora tion in the Senate presenting to the na- ton the statue of this Catholic priest, and 1t is a gem unsurpassed in congressional eloQuence. He seemed to do with the language whatever he saw fit.
 A few days afterward accosted in the rotunda a republican member of the House from Wisconsin, an A. P. A. Some times 1t Is good to poster folks and I asked him If he had read Villas speech presenting the nation the statue of Father Marquette. He got surly at once. as I expected, and as I wished, and said he had not, and, what was more he did not intend to read 1t. I then asked him when he intended to present the statue in the House, whereupon he damned him. self If he intended presenting it at all
 I then dropped my disputatious mood and represented to him that a sovereign state spoke through It's legislature, and that as the legislature of Wisconsin had by solemn enactment nullif1ed an act of Congress, approved by a President of the United States from Buffalo, N. Y, it
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-16

the keynote of the campaign, and 1t in- spired all of that vast concourse who heard it. That was a time when the democratic party was democratic-when 1t believed something, when it could ex- pound the faith that was in it.
 Cleveland was elected, and instinctively he chose Villas as one of his cabinet, and he had no wiser counselor, not even Bay ard or Lamar. He was the first demo- cratic Postmaster General since Joseph Holt, and the office never knew an abler chief. There is one quality without which every man, whatever his station, whatever his gifts, Is dross-faithfulness to obligation, express or implied. Villas knew his party was pledged to 'civil ser stood the hazard of the die as cast by the democratic convention of 1884 That made him unpopular.
 Some day, in the not very remote future, history will tell the truth, ex tenuating nothing and setting down naught in malice, about the two ad ministrations of Grover Cleveland. twice President of the United States. Here is what John G. Carlisle, a dem ocrat of the straightest sect, predicted the verdict of history would be;
 "Gentlemen, I shall forbear to say on this occasion concerning the recent democratic administration of national affairs, except to assure its friends and it's enemies alike that from
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-16

where the right shoe hurt him, his forced smile, his awkward stimulation of a gall lant air, all reproduced with startling fidelity. For the first time, a mirror had been held up to him. The corroboration of one of the youngsters calling Mama, come and see Pancha do like MT. John son." was not needed.
 As softly as the caricatured tans would permit, Dry Valley tiptoed back to the gate and home again.
 Twenty minutes after the time appoint ed for the walk Panchita tripped demure- ly out her gate in a thin, trim white lawn and sailor hat She strolled up the sidewalk and slowed her steps at Dry Valleys gate, her manner expressing wonder at his unusual delinquency. Then out of his door and down the walk strode-not the polychromatic victim of a | lost summertime. but the sheepman, re- | habilitated He wore his old gray woolen shirt, open at the throat, his brown duck ing trousers stuffed into his turnover boots, and his white felt sombrero on the back of his head. Twenty years fifty he might look; Dry Valley cared not. His light blue eyes met Panchita's dark ones with @ cold flash in them He came as far as the gate. He pointed with his long arm to her house.
 "Go home," said Dry Valley. "Go home to your mother. I wonder lightnin' don't strike a fool like me- Go home and play in the sand. What business have you got oavoftin' around with grown men? 1 reckon I was locoed to be mal<in' he poll-parrot out of myself for a kid like you. Go home and don't let me see you no more. Why I done it, will somebody tell me? Go home, and let me try and forget it.'
 Panchita obeyed and walked slowly to- ward her home, saying nothing. For some distance she kept her head turned and her large eyes fixed intrepidly upon Dry Valleys. At her gate she stood for moment looking back at him, then ran suddenly and swiftly into the house.
 Old Antonio was building fire in the kitchen stove. Dry Valley stopped at the door and laughed harshly.
 'Im a pretty looking old rhinoceros to be gettin' stuck on kid. ain't l, 'Honia?" said he.
 Not verree good thing" agreed An tonia, sagely, flor too much old man to likee muchacha."
 You bet 1t ain't." said Dry Valley, grimly Its dunn foollshness; and, be- sides 1t hurts''
 He brought at one armful the regalia of
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-16

ficial and the harlequin in what he said, but the way he spoke 1t recalled Saint Simon on the Regent Orleans:
 For I am Philippe le Debonnaire,
 Philippe le Debonnaire.
 And that is what made millions who never saw him throw their caps in the air as they cheered the name of the man from Maine" and he was not half as great as George Evans, before him, or Tom Reed after him, at that.
 As a sample of erudite and ornate Eng fish, few speeches the United States Sem ate ever heard equal that of Villas on Father Marquette. About 40 years ago the spirit of mischief got into Justin s. Morrill,, a senator from Vermont, and he was instrumental in establishing what they call "the national Valhalla." It Is in the old hall of the House of Repre- sentatives, where John Randolph Of Roanoke was the fiereest of debaters and where John Quincy Adams fell in his death swoon. It was provided that each state might send statues of any two of It's, at any time, citizens, who were dead Vermont sent a big chunk of granite that 1t calls Ethan Allen. Ohio sent two chunks of marble, one named James A. Garfield and the other William Allen. All three of these, along with many of the others, ought to be carted to the limekiln, for that Is all they are lit Tor.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-16

date for a seat in that convention, and came in at the head of the poll in his dis sriet Here is a brief sketch of his sub sequent career:
 In that convention he greatly distin- spished himself in debate Henry A. Wise, who was his antagonist on the "basis" question. is quoted as saying: Look at that young man from Cnl- peper-the youngest man on this floor. He is of a family illustrious In this com monwealth for a century. Yet which of this great Barbour family even in his prime could equal their young relative in the speech which he delivered on the wrong side of the basis subjectY'
 For many years MT. Barbour repre- sented Culpeper in the house of delegates, and was regarded as one of the leading men in that body. In 1857 he was mar ried to Miss Fanny Beckham, daughter of MT. Coleman Becl1ham. of Culpeper.
 In the Confederate war he was mem- Der of General Ewells staff, with the rank of major.
 As man, he was singularly popular among those who knew him best. Though Culpeper was "close" county and often went with the whigs, it was useless for them to nominate candidate when James Barbour was a candidate on the other side.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-16

stant, and with one hand she furtively gave the dogs head rough caress
 The station door swung behind them. and they started down the street. The ht- tie dog capered and then trotted proudly along at the womans side. AS he hiteu his brown eyes there was in them won derful, worshipful look of love and devo- tion.
 Because he was only dog.
 He loved this woman, his mistress-a mistress from whom other women drew aside their skirts in disdain.
 He was only dog, and he didn't under stand.
 How should he know the custom Of humans who punish the woman sinner and let the man go free?
 Kathleen Sheehan, aged 23 of New York City, killed herself because her mates mimcked her speech.
 Kathleen was slip of a lass who came from the old sod recently and brought her mellifiuous tongue with her. She broadened meat into mate and rolled her ITS" with a rich bur Only ignor- ance would have failed to catch and ad- mire the delightful accent
 The girl had tender heart, the mobile temperament of her people and was timid and sensitive
 She first found employment at a dress makers. She chanced to say something about "woruck. The girls Uttered. and one of them said, You mean 'woyck, don't you?" When Kathleen understood sne was having fun poked at her she took it much to heart and left the place.
 She engaged herself at a department store Laughter greeted her utterances. The teasing wounded her spirit. She worked hard to learn the correct pro nunciation of English, but her labor was mostly In vain. She could not easily twist her Limerick tongue.
 Kathleen went to another shop only to endure similar torment She brooded Her once smiling face grew sad. One day she told her relatives she had insured her life.
 ''Why?" they asked.
 q might die," she said, with a far away look. "The money would be for you"
 The last Sunday the poor lass dressed herself in her best clothes and wont to park. Here she stayed all day and all that night. She was debating the old, old query. ITO be or not to beT' What
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-16

was now meet that, for that monstrous sin, the Wisconsins delegation in Con- gross should proceed to carry out the di- rection of the legislature of Wisconsin ratjfying an act of Congress, touching which no question of it's constitutionality Or morality could be raised.
 He answered me with a look of ashen rage, and in the language General flaw ley used in reply to kindred interview with Sunset" Cox, "Go to h-l," and so he left me- and to this day the statue of Father Marquette has not been presented to the nation at the south end of he cap itol.
 The last speech Villas made in the Sem ate was worthy of old Ben Hardin. The republican platform of 1896 had a pla;ik 10 catch gudgeons-that is, the republican party would invite Europe to help the United States swiudle the entire debtor world by adopting 16 to l. Wolcott of Colorado brought in 2 bill to carry out this absurdity. and the bill passed but not before Villas picked every feather off 1t and laid naked the pusillanimity, the absurdity. and the hypocrisy of 1t. AS a triumphant argument I never heard it surpassed in either house of Congress. like Jerry Simpson Is thicker in demo- cratic council than the Joins of a giant like William F. Villas.
 And that is what is the matter with the democratic party
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-16

A T this writing William F. Villas is
 "A dead, or dying, at his summer A home in Wisconsin at the age of 6S. There were giants In those days when Villas waa a paladin of the demo- cratic party, the Girondists of big po- litica1 epoch. Who but admires Verg- niaud, and who but hates Marat? Yet in politics a force like Danton will ever defeat and overthrow a sentiment like Fafayette. Like Stephen A. Douglas and Matt Carpenter, Villas was born in Yer mont, and he makes a third, with Car penter and Carl Schurz, as Wisconsin's contribution to the elite of Amerioas po- litical intellectually. As orator lawyer, thinker, statesman, he was of the front rank of his day.
 It was less than 30 years ago, the first time I ever heard of Villas, when I read a speech of some 12,00O words he made on the then political situation. What a master of "the tongue that Shakespeare spake'' was he! How per feet was every sentence! What force of argument it was with which he as sailed the error that all of us democrats then felt as well as knew, to be the fal- lacy of all republican preachments!
 In 1884 Villas was permanent chairman of the democratic national convention that nominated Grover Cleveland for President and in our convention history no abler speech has ever fallen from the lips of a convention chairman 1t was
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-16

At the close of MT. Rives' speech. the
 democrats began vociferously to cry,
 Barbour! Barbourr' and a thin, frail,
 beardless youth stepped upon the plat form. As it was his second attempt at
 stump speech and as the circumstances were unfaVorable, it was not strange that he manifested embarrassment. For a few minutes this was even painful and he loaned at the mouth. But soon he began to warm up to his work and the telling blows fell thick and fast. MT. Rives be- came restless, and presently interrupted the speaker with the worlds q don't know the young man who has come here to teach me lessons in democracy" Bar bour quickly rejoined T teach William
 C.. Rives lessons in democracy! Why, he was the great leader of the democracy of Virginia when l was in my cradle" At this sally the huzzahs of the demo- crats were deafening. Though l was only eleven years old, J can vividly recall the scenes of the evening. Barbour's speech was greeted by bis friends as a trium- phant success. He was escorted to his quarters by enthusiastic admirers, and that night I was present at a serenade which was given him in honor of his tri- uinph. He probably enjoyed the honor, but not the music for, to his liking,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-16

Valley Johnson had weathered too many northers to turn his back on a late sum- mer, spiritual or real Old? He would show them.
 By the next mail went an order to San Antonio for an outfit of the latest clothes, colors and styles and prices no object. The next day went the recipe for the hair restorer clipped from newspaper; for Dry Valleys sunburned auburn hair was beginning to turn silvery above his ears.
 Dry Valley kept indoors closely for a week except for frequent sallies after youthful strawberry snatchers. Then. q few days later, he suddenly emerged bril- liantly radiant in the hectic glow of his belated midsummer madness.
 A y-bird-blue tennis suit covered him outwardly almost as far as his wrists and ankles. His shirt was ox-blood; his col lar winged and tall; his necktie floating orifiamme his shoes yenomous bright tan, pointed, and shaped on penltential lasts. A little fiat straw hat with striped band desecrated his weather-beaten head. Lemon co4ored kid gloves protected his oak tough hands from the benignant May sunshine. This sad and optc-smitinS creature teetered out of it's den, smiling foolishingly and smoothing its gloves for men and angels to see. To such pass had Dry Valley Johnson been brought by Cupid, who always shoots game that is out of season with an arrow from the quiver of Momus. Reconstructing myth ology, he had risen, prismatic macaw, from the ashes of the gray-brown phoenix that had folded it's tired wings to roost under the trees of Santa Rosa.
 Dry Valley paused in the street to al- low Santa Rosans within sight of him to be stunned; and then deliberately and slowly, as his shoes required, entered Mrs. O Bren's gate.
 Not until the 11~months' drought did Santa Rosa cease talking about Dry Val ley Johnson's courtship of Panchita O'Brien. It was an unclassifiable pro cedure something like a combination of cake walking, deaf-and-dumb oratory, postage-stamp irritation and parlor char ades. It lasted two weeks and then came to sudden end
 Of course, Mrs. OBrien favored the match as soon as Dry Valleys intentions were disclosed Being the mother of a woman child, and therefore a cleaner member of the Ancient Order of the Rat trap, she joyfully decked out Panchita for the sacrifice. The girl was temporar- fly dazzled by having her dresses length eued and her hair piled up on her head,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-16

Behind the bush stood Panchita O Brien scorning to fly. She was 19, the oldest of the raiders Her night-black hair was gathered back In wild mass and tied with a scarlet ribbon. She stood, with reluctant feet, yet nearer the brook than to the river; for childhood and environed and detained her.
 She looked at Dry Valley Johnson for moment with magnificent insolence, and before his eyes slowly crunched a luscious berry between her white teeth. Then she turned and walked slowly to the fence with a swaying, conscious motion, such as duchess might make use of in leading promenade. There she turned again and grilled Dry Valley Johnson once more in the dark flames of her matchless eyes, laughed trfie schoolgirlshly and twisted herself with pantherish quckness between the pickets to the OBrien side of the wild gourd vine.
 Dry Valley picked up his whip and went into his house He stumbled as he went up the two wooden steps. The old Mexican woman who cooked his meals and swept his house called him to supper as he went through the rooms. Dry Valley went on, stumbled down the front steps, out the gate and down the road into a mesquite thicket at the edge of town. He sat down in the grass and laboriousy picked the spines from a prickly pear, one by one. This was his attitude of thought, acquired in the days when his problems were only those of wind and wool and water.
 A thing had happened to the mana thing that, if you are eligible, you must pray may pass you by. He had become enveloped in the Indian Summer of the Soul.
 Dry Valley had had no youth. Even his childhood had been one of dignity and seriousness. At six he had viewed the frivolous gambols of the lambs on his fathers ranch with silent disapproval. His life as a young man had been wasted. The divine fires and impulses, the glorious exaltations and despairs, the glow and en- chantment of youth had passed above his head. Never a thrill of Romeo had he known; he was but melancholy Jacques of the forest with ruder philosophy, lacking the bitter-sweet flavor of exper- fence that tempered the veteran years of the rugged ranger of Arden. And now In his sere and yellowing leaf one scornful look from the eyes of Panchita O'Brien had flooded the autumnal landscape ot ms heart with tardy and delusive summer heat
 But a sheepman is hardy animal. Dry
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-16

sat for many hours under the live oak tree plating and weaving in an extension to its lash. When 1t was done he could snip a leaf from a bush 20 feet away with the cracker. For the bright preda tory eyes of Santa Rosa youth were watching the ripening berries, and Dry Valley was arming himself against their expected raids. No greater care had he taken of his tender lambs during his ranching days than he did of his cher ished fruit warding it from the hungry wolves that whistled and howied and shot their marbles and peered through the fence that surrounded his property.
 In the house next to Dry Valleys lived a widow with a pack of children that gave the husbandman frequent anxious misgivings. In the woman. there was a strain of the Spanish. She had welded one of the name of O'Brfen. Dry Valley was a connoisseur in crossed strains; and he foresaw trouble in the offspring of this union.
 Between the two homesteads ran crazy picket fence overgrown with morn- ing glory and wild gourd vines. Often he could see little heads with mops of black hair and flashing dark eyes lodging in and out between the pickets keeping tabs on the reckoning berries.
 Late one afternoon Dry Valley went to the postoffice. When he came back, like Mother Hubbard, he found the deuce to pay. The descendants of Iberian bandits and Himernian cattle-raiders had swooped down upon his strawberry patch. To the outraged vision of Dry Valley there seemed to be a sheep corral full of them; perhaps they numbered five or six. Be- tween the rows of green plants they were stopped, hopping about like toads, gob- bling silently and voraciously his finest fruit.
 Dry Valley slipped into the house, got his whip and charged the marauders. The lash curled about the legs of the near est-a greedy 1O-year-old, before they knew they were discovered. His screech gave warning, and the flock scampered for the fence like a drove of javel's flushed in the chaperral. Dry Valleys whip drew toll of two more elfin shrielss before they dived through the vine-clad fence and disappeared.
 Dry Valley, less fleet. followed them nearly to the pickets. Checking his suse- less pursuit, he rounded a bush. dropped his whip and stood, voiceless motionless, the capacity of his powers consumed by the act of breathing and preserving the perpendicular.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-16

hide of an alligator but still. logically speaking, it did not touch the question at issue, for that questino was: Did the general do the proper thing on particu- lar oeeasion?'
 It is worthy of note that Jesus of Nag areth, one of the keenest of all cut-and- thrust debaters, freely used the ad hominun arguments in defending Him. self from the reckless sanders and captious criticisms of His foes. When He was charged with casting out devils by using the power of Eeelzebub, the prince of the devils, He asked: ''1f l by Beelze- bub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out?''
 On another occasion He completely and slxlfully cornered his adversaries by ask ing the question: "The baptism of John, was 1t from heaven, or of man?" They knew, and said that if they answered from heaven," He would ask: Why, then did ye not believe Johns testi- mony?" And If they should say 'of man. they would be stoned to death by the people, who verify believed that the Bap- tist was a divinely commissioned prophet. They were thus shut up to confessing that they 'could not tell,'' that is to Say, their mouths were stopped.
 The Apostle Paul, one of the finest reas- oners that ever lived, was greatly given