davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-07
Presidential Elections.

''I think 1t safe to say that at least one of the smaller political parties will make a decided gain in the total number of votes cast at the November election,' said an old democrat. "I refer to the prohibi- tion party. As a matter of course only the democratic and the republican tickets will draw large votes as large votes go; but the prohibition candidate for Presi- dent is almost sure to receive bigger vote than any of his predecessors.
 Tn 1904 the popular vote for the presi dential candidate on the prohibition ticket was only 25s536. And that was the largest vote prohibition ticket ever received. In view of the spread of the prohibition movement, I predict the candidate for President will receive at least 350,0O0. This would be small, indeed, compared with the millions cast for the two strong parties; but then it must be remembered that thousands of prohibitionists, like myself, never throw away our vote on the prohibition ticket. This party will always be classed with the eccentric po- litical organizations, just as are many more at this time.
 Speaking of eccentric parties, the anti Masonic was one that stirred up the country in 1927, to the time of Its ex- tinction about 10 years later. It was the first party by the way, to hold-a na- tional convention of the modern sort. It put out presidential ticket in 1882, Wil- liam West of Virginia being the stand ard-bearer. This party, small as it was, carried Vermont. In 1885 1t elected the governor of Pennsylvania, and it had sev- eral representatives in Congress.
 This country must have two fairly well balanced parties, one to be check on the other If the democrats will only get together they will be almost sure to win in November I am one of those ar dent democrats who think it would do the whole country good if Mir. Bryan were elected He Is good enough prohibition ist for me"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-07
PRESIDENTIAL OCCUPATIONS

From Lippincotts Magazine
 The question of what to do with our great men after they have ceased to hold high office is effectively answered In the New York city directory. According to that unmpeachable authority, George Washington, is pursuing the humble but very useful occupation of barber in Harlem-and, according to his customers, he is a good one. Andrew Jackson, whose name has heretofore been associated with notable military achievements, fol- lows the peaceful calling of nurse Ab- raham Lincoln is put down as secre- tary, William Mckinley as a publisher, and James Madison as the secretary Of an important corporation. James Monroe IS a machnist; Benjamin Harrison print CT; William Henry Harrison fireman, and Andrew Johnson a sailmaker. Thomas Jefferson is appropriately in charge of Tammany clubhouse; John Adams Is a policeman, and John Tyler proudly fig ures as a gentleman
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-07
ACTORS WHILE ON TOUR.

fresh from home, are continually joining them to have their ideals damaged, if not shattered, to learn, by bitter experi-i ence, the hardships and small rewards, of one of the most thankless of call-. ings.
 The touring actor the transformer, ex- ists in the popular imagination as a. comic parsonage wearing long hair and a linen duster trimmed with fur, who talks much and sonorously of when he acted with Booth. His feminine asso- ciate is the short-skirted soubrette withl huge eyes. But these antique caricatures, are sadly unjust to a host of high-minded young men and women who are labor- iously seeking a way to fame. For this reason we have regarded the veracious and intimate studies of the English tour- ing actors life in some of Leonard Mer- rick's novels, a series of human docu- ments of genuine importance. The dis tances are greater in this country, and the comfortable inns and lodgings of English towns generally lacking. The wages are larger here, but so are the expenses, and the life has few allure- ments for one who has once known 1t.
 All the more attractive is our corre- spondents testimony to the physical com- fort and intellectual refreshment she can obtain, while lon the road" in Car- negie library town.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-07
A HUSBANDS DEVOTION.
,m the Philadelphia Inouirer.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer
 |, Probably the most pathetic incident of modern tiDfes Is related in the California newspapers. General Wardell Getired, U. S. A.) has abandoned life with whatever and has gone to the wilds of Mexico to live in perpetual imprisonment with his wife, who is cursed with leprosy. It has been found that the particular form of the disease which she has is utterly in- curable, that in the coming years she will become more and more debilitated, and will finally die in the last stages of the most loathsome conditions which the human race knows.
 The husband is still a man of vigor. He might easily separate from his wife and betake himself to pastures new, while his wife dies slowly in a hospital. Lep- rosy is an insidious disease and has the further quality that it must be isolated. There are few hospitals in the world where case of leprosy would be admit ted And so this woman goes to the desert of Mexico, where she is to be sus- tained by the unfaltering aid of her hus- band. who is certain to contract the dis ease.
 This case Is brought before the public by reason of the social prominence of the parties concerned. It simply means that the love of a man for a woman in it's highest sense is better and higher and dearer than life itself. What is mere physical comfort apart from the one VITO is heart of your own heart and soul of your own soul? What boots it that a man may live in comfort if his beloved wife is in torment? These are problems which have existed since the world be- gan and have reached their highest con- dition now. The man who loves woman who Is diseased for life does not desert her or divorce her or forget her-except in a few instances which make the rule so much more important
 The love and the devotion of man and wife are the dearest and most sacred or earthly institutions and have produced all the good In the world There have been some unpleasant things connected with marriage, but in the last analysis It is martial love which holds the world to- gether, which produces the men ana women of another generation to upiirt the world. The man who goes to Mexico to live in death with his beloved wire ought to have a monument more lasting than brass
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-07
Judee SDeer'S Order Dissolved

United States Circuit Judge Pardee, sitting for the summer at Asheville' has dissolved the order of District Judge Emory Speer, who is summering at Mt. Airy among the peach orchards of Georgia This restores the status quo. at least to the extent of enabling the railroads to put their increase in freight rates in operation in the ter ritory covered by the Southeastern Tariff association. The Georgia mer- chants will at once begin to pay the rates that became effective elsewhere in the southeast on August 1 on hay, grain meat and other foodstuffs. The new tax is pretty comprehensive so far as articles of food for man or beast are concerned.
 The reasonableness of the increase in rates in the southeast is now to be determined in a hearing before the interstate commerce commission, and Commissioner Clements seems to be alert for the coming hearing. Some Georgia merchants have already con- plained to the interstate commerce commission against an increase in rates, and the railroads have 20 uays in which to file an answer. The calen dar of the commission is loaded with cases, but the presumption is that a case affecting five broad states will be speedily heard and determined.
 In the meanwhile the five states will pay increased rates with some chance Of recovering the excess if it should be declared unreasonable, for Judge Pardee has required the railroads ap- bearing before him to file sufficient bonds to protect shippers from any loss they may sustain in the event the increased rates are declared unreason- able. The increase is from to cents per 100 pounds
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-07
From the New York Times.


 3 HE communication we print this \0 morning from a young woman
 who has lately joined travel ing dramatic company, relative to the benefit touring actors may receive from the Carnegie libraries all over the coun- try, is the first testimony of that sort we remember to have seen. On that ac- count it is a document of some import ance, and it is also interesting for its suggestion of the lonesomeness and te- diousness of the ordinary actors life on tour That the Carnegie libraries help to relieve the monotony and toll of the actor is not the least of the merits of those institutions. To be sure, good town libraries, not presented or endowed by MT. Carnegie, but built up by the towns people themselves, would answer the purpose just as well, but the libraries in the towns in which this young actress has waited for her cue are Carnegie H. braries, and there you are.
 New testimony to the solace of good books is not needed. but that the strug- gling actors life on the road has been made less dismal through the uplift to mind and soul offered by town libraries is worth knowing and thinking about We do not often stop to think how the numbers of these touring actors increase yearly, and how many ambitious girls,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-07
WHEN A srATEsMAN's GREEN.
New congressman's First Realization
 of lnsignlflcance Shocks Him.

Victor Murdock, representative from Kan
 sas, in the American Magazine
 It is fortunate when a new congress- man can find his humorous instincts for his first speech. Very few do, in fact. Normally the new congressman is seri- ous. He has left a constituency at home which believes in him, his talents. his efficiency and his certain future. In Washington he meets a discipline which for caneelling individuality is not equaled in any organization in the world pos sbly outside the German army. I know had no heart for humor in my first speech.
 My constituency believed in me and believed in my constituency. I had been sensationally triumphant in a convention and at the election. Many of the towns in the district had a weakness for meeting me with brass brands at the railway sta tions and erowding about me in the hotels, and applauding all through my speeches without better excuse than an occasional pause for breath on my part And yet be- fore I came to Washington I knew that would be immeasurably cheapened when l was herded with more than 300 of my kind. 1 knew congressman amounted to nothing in Washington In comparison with the figure given him at home by admiring partsans. All con- gressmen know that But no congress- man knows, I did not know, I could not know that I was to become speedily less than the humbest of my constituents. For there was no man in my district whom I did not wish to know and to win to my following. The third day I spent in the House, MT. Cannon, the speaker, did not return my morning salutation. I argued that he was in brown study over some thing and did not see me. But men are not blind in brown studies, except to those who are negligible. And the realization that l was negligible was a terrorizng thing whcih awoke me in the dead of night and would not let me sleep.
 There was no balm for the wound for each day tore open the sore anew. It is common to all members of Congress, though few confess it. to identify certain galling customs in the House by instinct long before actual experience has revealed them. Possibly the instinct is first quick ened through realization of the mean ing of fragmentary opinions heard in the cloakrooms
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-07
State Treasury Full of MAnaY

The fiscal year of the state will be ended on the 30th day of next month, and that fact has perhaps given rise tc a runlor that treasury deficit will then be disclosed. There is little or no basis for the rumor. The receipts from October 1, 1907, to August 1, 1908, were $4,339,220; the disbursements in that period were s4,647,213, thus showing apparently deficit in ten months of s309,9 ,993. But the balance in the treas ury at the beginning of the present month was $1.511,744. The balance in the treasury one year before was $2, 14o.24s.
 These figures are sufficient to dispel all rumors about an alarming treasury deficit The amount of taxable prop erty is annually increasing. and the s'ate's revenues will no doubt keep pace with expenditures voted by the last legislature. The balance al the end of the fiscal year will certainly be upwards of $1,0o0, 900, and that sum is enough to dispel all rumors of a dis tressful nature. The appropriations of the Last legislature to the educational institutions of the state and to the old soldiers of the Confederacy were hb- eral, but increased taxable values and the taxes based on them will make gCod all drains on the treasury, and the balance at the end of the fiscal year may be larger than 1t Is today.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-07
Admiral Spery ApprOaching Auckland

After crossing the equator three times the battleship fleet is now steam ing from Honolulu to Auckland in the south seas. The distance is about 5000 miles, and the steaming over such a distance without stop and without coal ing Is test in itself of the seaman ship of our sailors, officers and men. Auckland is abreast of Melbourne and the voyage to Australia will be con- paratiyely short. The longest trip of the famous voyage round the world is the one now nearing completion. The arrival at Auckland will doubtless be cabled to us early next week. An en- thusiastic welcome of the British peo- pie awaits the fleet at the chief city of New Zealand. Wellington. another port, is capital of the islands. The harbor of Auckland is especially com modious, and the fleet will in it take
 
 on coal and other supplies and rally from long passage in the vast Ia cific ocean.
 New Zealand consists of three islands holding just about 1000, 900 of people, including about 10000 Maoiis, who belong to the native Polynesian race. In the islands are towering snow-capped mountains, and glaciers and geysers and other wonderful scenery are found at every hand.
 It is, too, land of compulsory edu- cation and of many governmental and socialistic reforms. It is the home of some of the most advanced policies that the world has ever tried. There amid wonderful scenery and still more wonderful reform movements our sail ors will soon wander up and down, seeing much and enjoying no ioubt to the fullest possible extent a vacation on shore.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-07
WOMAN TOUGHER THAN MAN.

From the New York Globe.
 Although men as they run are perhaps muscularly stronger than women their inability to withstand the elements and their reliance upon clothes places them considerably below the so-calied weaker sex in the matter of unclothed toughness. Women wear clothes for ornament; men use them as a protective covering. A group of men marooned clothesless on an island in the temperate zone might be eX- pected to die off in month from draughts and colds and rheumatism The death of women similarly placed would suffer little from the enforced exposure. The fact appears to be, therefore, that in everything but muscle-in vitality, rugged ness, character, disposition, brain power etc-women Is the tougher, not the weak CT, sex.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-07
Business Improvement.

"The active condition of the pig iron market is a very good indication that business in general is improving" said a member of the Commercial club Two facts should be borne in mind by those who are disposed to be faint-hearted First, the week closes with two more furnaces in Alabama In blast than were in operation just before the miners strike. The second fact of great im- portance is the large distribution of pay roll money this week. The payrolls of the Tennessee company haven't been as large for a long time as they are now.
 "On the whole the Birmingham district is more than holding it's own through the summer period of alleged dull trade"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-07

at Echterdingen on Wednesday. While there, surrounded by a vast crowd of the curious a storm sprang up, an ex- plosion in the airship followed, and the entire costly device was wrecked beyond repair The accident occurred near Stuttgart, which is about 75 miles from Lake Constance.
 It will be observed that the wreck ing of the airship occurred on the sur face while Count Zeppelin was at lunch. It was wrecked by a sudden ana violent summer storm when not sufficiently anchored
 The German government does not consider the disaster at all conclusive against the use of balloons in the army, for she has already forwarded to Count Zeppelin s125,OOO as a reward for his aeronautic experiments to the present time. The German people are also providing a fund for the construc- tion by Count Zeppelin of another bal loon The wrecking of the airship will not therefore seriously check the ef- fc1ts that Germany is making to solve the problem of fights in the air. It ia a check but not blight, and balloon ing will hereafter be prosecuted vigor- ously, but with perhaps more caution, with more means of wirls.lnding yio- lent windstorms When 1t is remenl- oered fiat the Zeppelin balloon was over 400 feet long it is seen at once how hard it was to contr.i 1t in sum- mer gust If wind.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-07
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
A State University.

We are having 2 successful summer school at the univ essiEy,' said President John w. Abercrombie. "The attendance is not quite up to last year, but the earnest work of teachers and students and the good results obtained are highly gratifying.
 "The university opens for the fall term September 3. The prospects are most promising. The abundant crops will an- able greater number of boys to attend than usual, for large crops mean pros perity in the agricultural sections, md prosperity means a liberal education for a larger number of young men. The uni versity is growing stronger year by year. It is better equipped now than ever and is attracting more than ever the afsen- ton of young men of college age"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-07
HOW THEY FACE DEATH.

From the London Womans Life.
 How do men and women face death when the sentence Is pronounced by the doctor? A medical man tells us his ex- perience. Tell the man of higher type and greater intelligence, he says, that he is facing death, and he begins to fight demands a consultation, talks about go- ing to specialists, and fights grimly to the finish. Tell a woman the same facts, and she lies back to await her fate. All women are fatalists. On the other hand, tell a man that he has one chance in a thousand to recover if he will undergo an operation, and he will trust to his own strength and endurance rather than undergo the knife The woman will choose the thousandth chance, and sub init to the operation with astounding calmness.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-07
THE MARRIED MAN.
Very Dangerous Unless His Wife Is
 With Him.

From the Atchison Globe.
 Before a man is married he is con- sidered a fit companion for any woman but as soon as he is married he is thought to be dangerous, except when his wife Is along with him. A man may travel the world over, and come back all right, but at home he is con sidered a savage, unless his wife is along to control him.
 Young women are allowed to spend a great deal of their time with unmarried men, but if a married man walks along the sidewalk the older members of the family rush out and bring the girls in.
 The married men must have been guilty of some great wick kedness in tn 0 past, otherwise they would not be looked upon with so much suspicion Innocent amusements are planned for all sorts of people except married men; 1t is generally believed that married men are so wicked that they only en- joy swearing, drinking whiskey, and chewing plug tobacco.
 great deal is done by young wo- men to entertain unmarried men, but a married man, particularly if he has children, is a wretch if he wants to be entertained beyond allowing the chill dren to climb over him.
 Married women have their afternoon parties and enjoy themselves, but a married man is not trusted in the sa- cred precincts of his own home when there is company; it is feared that even his wife may fail to keep him from acting up, and possibly shooting some of the guests.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-07
THE NIcoTIAN AGE.
Smokers Burned Over Eight Billion
 Cigars in 1907.

From the New York Sun.
 A new question Is presented for the con- sideration of sociologists. A large part of the country has been swept by a wave of prohibition of traffic in intoxi- eating liquors. It Is alleged, though not nroved. that there is some occult connec- tion between the liquor habit and the use of tobacco. Will prohibition affect the tobacco trade?
 Recent years have seen an astonishing increase In the consumption of cigars. In round figures the smoker of the United state burned COCO 100000 cigars in 1900 and s5Oo. 900, 900 in 1907, 40 per cent increase in seven years. During the same term the consumption of cigarettes has oou- bled. Taking a longer period, 1t appears that about 1,OOO, ,000,0O0 cigars supplied the reourements of the country in 1870. Ihere- fore in A single generation, during Whlch tho nonulation of the country has httie ,,ore than doubled, the consumption or a,,,,rs has increased more than eight fold In 1870 the consumption of cigar cites was comparatively small About |. ROO GOO .OO0 coffin nails" were burned III this country last year.
 If the present pace continues the twen- tieth century will go down in history as the nicotian age. The domestic topacco cron of 1896 was valued at s24.2os,Ooo The crop of 1900 was valued at $5S66l,ooo, ana inc output of 1907 at $76,23400o. These are va,ues of the leaf as farm product only In 1896 the total product was aoo'- ooo 600 pounds. From 1900 to 1903, inclusive tba average output exceeded Soo,ooo'Wo no,nds. The next four years show de- crease of a little more than 10 per cent Ill oiantity. but a material advance Tn totai value. The import figures are even more striking. In 1898 our bill for imported tobacco, including leaf and cigars, was less than s1O,OOO O00 In 1907 it was not far from ss5. GOO, 900. In 1898 we imported 1O,- oaD. 600 pounds of leaf tobacco, and in 1907 40 4oooo,OO0 pounds.
 The problem Is this: Will thirsty hu- manitv. deprived of its wonted moisture. t,,n for solace to the weed and so still further increase it's production and con sunntion. or will those who are deprived of their tipple by legal barriers lose that craving for tobacco which many good people regard as an ever attendant hand- maiden of the Demon Rum? About l0o cigars and 60 cigarettes, besides pug, mixture. fine cut and snun, IS now the yearly portion for every man, woman ana child in this country