davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-30

mons against the prevailing vices of the great metropolis, it is clear to us that the preacher was taking too much un- necessary pains to hunt the devil. Be- sides, the very people whose lives he was depicting were not there to hear the ser mon; and the people who were there were Introduced altogether too famiiarly to certain forms of vice of which 1t would have been far better to remain ignorant.
 Nor is minute familiarity with all the details of vice a good thing for the preacher himself. When the preacher from his pulpit shows that he is well versed in these details, he runs very serious risk of advertising and apoogiz- ing for the devil. Familiarity with vice Is not necessary to the teacher of virtue; nor is it even a help to him generally. It tends to dull the edge of his con- science and is usually hurtful to preach CT and hearers.
 And here is another from the same source:
 The preacher must remember-and 1T he be a thoughtful student of his Bible he will hardly forget-that the vices of the world are but a small part of the sins of the world: and that it is quite easy for man to go to the devil with out any vices at all. The rich man in the parable may have been a refined cultivated, liberal, well-behaved, honor
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-30

such sermons. So far as have heard of such sermons-for l have never heard one-they have been preached almost ex- clusively by travelling evangelists, and they are not easily defended from the charge that they are tricks to draw a crowd.
 Even when no notice is given of q separation of the sexes, and when, there- fore, the congregation is a mixed one, such evangelist do not always confne themselves to the limits of decent speech. Here is a case in point:
 Rev. Dr. Pritchard of Wilmington, a man of the sweetest and gentlest spirit, published a most able and admirable criticism upon the performance of the most notorious of these sin-chiding evan geists who held forth in Wilmington. According to Dr. Pritchard, this mans preaching was so coarse vulgar, obscene and profane, that the editor of the daily paper could not venture to give a yer batim report of the sermons, and even so mild-mannered, and kindly, and Iowa ble a man as Thomas H. Pritchard pub licly denounced the evangelist as a black guard.
 Now, as a matter of fact, the great body of such preachers as I have been describing make it their speciality to preach against the vices of what they call society," rather than against the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-30

panic of 1893 incubated. The Mckinley tariff was exceedingly unpopular every where In the controversy that arose over the fact that Speaker Reed took from congress the right of deliberation, Mir Crisp of Georgia greatly distin- guished himself and became the actual democratic leade~ the first session.
 Congress adjourned later than ever be- fore, with a single exception, and the democrats made the Mckinley law para mount. Mills was the recognized leader on that issue, and he made a tour of New England, speaking daily and night ly proclaiming free raw materials for the manufacturers and tariff for reve- hue only for their finished products. For the first time since Jackson's day, since the birth of their party-unless 1t was in 1S52-the democrats elected a major ity of congressman from the six New England states. majority of the Mas sachusetts delegation were democrats, Rhode Island and New Hampshire were solidly democratic in congress- There was but one republican member from Con- necticut. In that congress democrat would have been chosen speaker if no member of the solid south had voted. The total republican vote was but beg garly SS, and the democratic plurality was more than twice SS It was the com
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-30
ON THE ART OF CHDING-By J C. Fiden, D. D.

able gentleman; but he died and went straight to hell; and so may thousands of people whom it is slanderous to call vicious. Now. when the preacher finds it easy to draw great crowds of people, and to entertain them, by denouneing the vices of society, the temptation to indulge in such diatribes is strong but the conscientious and intelligent preach CT should carefully guard a point at which he finds himself weak.
 That editor had evidently done some thinking on this line.
 Again People will often applaud what they know ought not to be said. Nor is this confined to the vulgar. Macaulay says that everybody ought to know by heart those polished lines in which Pope libelled Addison; and yet he very decid- edly condemns Pope for saying the things contained in those lines. Addison is accused of "damnng with faint praise;" and Macaulay takes pains to show how generously Addison had praised Pope. Addison is accused of be- ing ESQ obliging that he neer obliged;" and Macaulay shows that the charge Is a ridiculously unjust one to bring against q man who made the fortunes of nearly all his friends. And yet. so live ly and bright and entertaining were Popes smart islanders, that even Ma caulay could half forget their meanness and wickedness.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-30

man, lone of these days he'll tackle me when I'm sober, and then, d-n him, won't I smash himr'
 It was the opinion of Sir Edward Coke that if all the sages ancient and mod ern. had got together and deliberated time out of mind they could not have produced work superior to the common law of England. At the bar Thurman was as complete master of the principles of the common law as our country ever produced, and Roscoe Conkling, himself a great jurist, declared that when the common law was mentioned he turned to the seat of the senator from Ohio as the devout Mussuln1an to Mecca.
 But it was as debater of constitu- tional law in the senate that Thurman stood highest, the equal of any of them He was called "the old Roman" not that he was Cato, or at all like him; but that intellectually, he was 50 able and so honest that none could stand before him. His moral stamina was weak com pared with that of his celebrated uncle, ''old Bill'' Allen, who forced him into the fiat money camp contrary to his better judgment. If Thurman, the hard-money man, had been nominated, for governor of Ohio in 1875. he would have been elected; but Allen was nominated, and
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-30

T is related that on one occasion AL
 len G. Thurman had dined sumptu- ously and came into the senate, not expecting anything unusual to take place in the deliberations of that dig nified body MT. James G. Blaine was then a senator from Maine and always alert for opportunity. There was some question, growing out of southern recon struction, then a dreg in the political caldron, and Blaine, the demagogue and the Bryan of that day, challenged Thur man to dispute upon it.
 They had it hammer and tongs for an hour or two hours, with the result that the plumed knight was a plucked knight when the thing was over.
 Thurman went into the democratic cloakroom, followed by his worshipers, Dan Voorhees, of Indiana and Henry Gassaway Davis of West Virginia He took from his coat pocket that historic bandanna and blew on it a blast that was heard to the innermost recesses of the press gallery, and exclaimed:
 Boys, did that d--d harlequin get away with me?'
 NO, no, senator, you did splendidly and left not a piece of him."
 ''Never mind, never mind" said Thur
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-30

There is danger, too. that declamatory railing against society vices will be enjoyed and even applauded by the very ringleaders in those vices. When Addi- sons play "Cato" was acted in London, the profigate Wharton attended the per- formance and had the incredible effron- tery to applaud the lines about flying from prosperous vice, and from the pow CTS Of impious men to a private station" He could not fail to arouse the sarcasms of those who justly thought that he could fly from nothing more vicious or impious than himself"
 Upon the whole then, l am not in love with the style and tone of the preacher which has here been reviewed. It may be popular, but it seldom makes anybody not even the preacher himself-more spiritual and Christ-lilxe.
 Let me not be misunderstood I am not apologizing for the vices nor the frfvoli- ties of the ''society' people. I have not the least sympathy with "the German,' "progressive euchre' or bridge whist" am not sure I ever saw the German danced, and am sure I never saw pro- gressive euchre nor bridge whist played. Nor do I desire any further acquain- tance with any of these amusements. don't believe it pays to hunt the devil; for l feel the force of Burns lines:
 That eer he nearer comes oursel
 s muckle pity
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-30
TURKISH AFFAIRS-By Lady Henry Somerset

of young Turkish ministers into the cab met"
 What is the alternative" asked a cor respondent, If you do not get your terms?"
 '.The Sultan must be deposed. and the heir, Mahomet Rec-had, will be placed on the throne"
 But this reform will not end with Fur key; it will extend to Persia" So pro- phesies the young patriot. and indeed fact prove that he Is no dreamer of dreams Two hundred and siXty-five newspapers have been established in the last week in Turkey as the result of the suppress sion of the censorship.
 We are going to make a clean sweep of the All Baba, the four hundred thieves is the motto of the young Turk who ad- dressed multitudes in the streets.
 Speaking for myself, I hardly believed that I should have ever lived to see such a change, for in thought I stand on the wharf at Marseilles, and see the brown sails of the orange boats as they glide into the harbor and the pitiful procession of blood stained Armenians who had es- capped with life, having lost all else in the terrible massacres of 1S96 l remember the families crowded in the dusk on the floor of the great hospital at Marseiles. of which Miss Willard and I had charge, and the heart-breaking stories we heard through interpreters of children murder ed, of women outraged of injustice, cruelty, inhumanity. And now all that Is at an end, and liberty. equality and fra ternity reign in Turkey. The bloodless revolution has taken place, and Abdul the Damned" has become Abdul the Liberator.''
 Such are the ways of God. where there is long patience and strenuous work for justice and for riEht.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-30

of more than 100000 men of all races Arabs, Armenians Kurds. Greeks and Turks. He thanks them for their con- fidence in him, reterates that he means to abide by the new constitution and prays God to guide him alright for the best interests of his empire. But be- hind the sultan there is an army of of ficials who are practically doomed and two at least will pay with their lives for an almost lifelong betrayal of trust. Izzet Pasha has already taken refuge in the German embassy on the banks of tine Bosphorus, but I question whether he will escape his fate Nine hundred and fifty common criminals were released from the Turkish prisons This act, which emanat- ed from the palace, has, however, been badly received, and it is thought that 1t is the work of the reactionaries, who propose to form a Black Band with a view of provoking disorders. The free dom of the press now will tolerate no more intrigue, and the things which have been whispered in corners will be pro- claimed from the housetop
 Prominent among the young Turks who have brought about this millennium is MT. Santo Semo. young man who has been brought up in French colleges in Paris under the influence of Prince Sa- baheddine, nephew of the Sultan, and grandson of Abdul Medjid. When this young patriot visited the Hague he gave lecture which produced great sensa- tion among the Turkish delegates, "The Ottoman Empire of Tomorrow He was true prophet, for, although his words seemed wild and reckless, every predc- ton has since been fulfilled. I've have insisted" he says, lon the complete clearing out of the Palace clique, the re- moval of a garrison of 10000 Alhanians from Yildiz Kiosk. and the introduction
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-30
Give me leave

"Jaques: Give me leave To speak my mind, and l will through
 and through Cleanse the foul body of the Infected
 world, If they will patiently receive my medi-
 cine. Duke: Fie on thee! I can tell what thou
 wouldst do. Jaques: What. for a counter would
 do but good? Duke: Most mischievous foul sin, in
 chiding sin: For thou myself hast been libertne, As sensual as the brutish sting itself; And all the embossed sores and headed
 evils, That thou with license of free foot hast
 caught, Wounldst thou disgorge into the general
 world.' As You Like It.-Act ii scene [ An evangelist of the name of Culpeper, who was preaching in Atlanta, was some what keenly criticised by some of the To- cal ministers for a sermon which he preached ito men only" The evangelist said that he was willing to leave the whole matter to a certain prominent minister of the city; and that minister Saw no good in sermons to men only" and advised against them, that is, he
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-30

had a great deal more use for Roscoe Conkling than he did for James G. Blaine and had Ben Buffers force bill become law it is very likely that Conxling would have headed the republican ticket in 1876.
 Be that as it may, the succeeding Con- gress was democratic, the first of that complexion in IS years, and it was then that Mills first began to show the metal of which he was made. He joined the Morrison wing of the party and supported Kerr for speaker, and later he was the natural successor of Morrison as chair man of the committee ways and means and leader Of the House. In 1879 Samuel J. Randall was the democratic caucus nominee for speaker of the Forty-sixth Congress. Mills refused to vote for him. and in that same Congress Pig Iron'' Kelly gave his vote to Hendricks B. Wright, a democratic greenbacker of Pennsylvania, rather than to Garfield, the republican caucus nominee.
 Randall was elected speaker, Garfield led the republicans, and we had the strange spectacle of the democratic lead CT the advocate of prstection and the re- publican leader the advocate of tariff reform. The death of Speaker Kerr, in 1876, followed by the disputed presidential
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-30

ONDON, August 2s.-No more as-
 founding revolution has ever taken - place than that which has just culminated in Turkey, nor has any mon- arch ever escaped a fate which, at any rate, if not well deserved, was certainly imminent, than Abdul the Damned
 No nation probably has been more mis- understood of recent years than the Turks. The hateful outrages which have been perpetrated in Armenia and in Ma cedonia have given the impression that the Turks as a nation are a wild fierce people, governed only by violent passions which manifest themselves in massacre. Nothing is further from the truth. The Turk Is a peace-loving, law-abiding man who has a peculiar passion for patriotism and strong family attachments. That which was brutal and lawless was band ed in the hired assassins who have con stituted the army, and in the wild tribes of Kurds. The racial feeling in the na- ton is strong enough to overcome the differences between Christians and Ma homedans, and nothing is more striking at this moment than the way in which the combatants in Macedonia have thrown aside their arms and the contending par ties have exchanged amicable embraces
 All this and much more gives us some understanding of the amazing scenes which are now taking place at Constanti- nople, where men are dancing in the streets for joy, and, like released cap lives, are singing loudly and waving flags and cheering almost day and night The whole thing reads like an eastern fairy tale. Here is the sultan, who has worn coat of mail, hidden away in his palace at the Yildiz Kiosk, lurking in a protected shelter. unable to face his peo- pie. Now he stands before vast crowd
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-30

sins of individuals; and no small part of their immense popularity is due to this circumstance When the preacher de- nounces the vices of what he is pleased to call society" the great body of his hearers in any promiscuous congregation can say with Hamlet: Let the galled jade vince; our withers are unwrung.' Most of the crowd are not society peo- ple' and hence they can feel perfectly comfortable and even be greatly delight ed, when some Sam Jones, or one of his multitudnous imitators throws hot shot into the German" progressive euchre'' and "bridge whist" To make plain peo ple laugh at the follies, or even at the vices Of the leaders of the ton," is easy and cheap; but it may be seriously doubted whether it will do much good either to the plain people or to the 'so- ciety'' people
 Besides ali the people that l know are N the best society that they can get into; and some of them are tearing their hair trying to get into society for which they are hopelessy unfitted
 Here is a paragraph taken from an ed- itorial in a widely circulated religious paper:
 When MT. Talmage made his tour among the slums and dens and dance houses of New York, in order to get the material for preaching a series of ser-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-30

R. B. Hayes beat him. Thurman would have been elected and the following year he would have been chosen president of the United States.
 It was the domination of Thurman by a morally stronger man (Allen) that makes me conclude that Roger Q. Mills of Texas. was the real "old Roman" of the Amer ican Congress the past 40 years. He was one man who never wavered, never con- promised, never surrendered. Not so able as Thurman, he was yet better and a more capable leader. He was not so low able, nor so popular as Thurman. He was infinitely more like Cleveland, whom he resembled in many ways.
 Mills entered Congress in 1873, simul- taneously with Joseph G. Cannon It was in the days of reconstruction, and Ben Butler sought to make the south choose between negro domination and bayonet domination. The attempt failed, not be- cause Randall, Beck and Lamar conduct ed a filbuster unprecedented against it.. but for the reason that Speaker Blaine was not in favor of it. There are two theories as to Blaine's motive-one that he opposed 1t as politically male in SC. and the other that be saw danger to his own political fortunes in the power the force bill lodged in President Grant, who
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-30

took sides with the critics and against the evangelist.
 Another evangelist, who was familiarity called Jo Mundy, visited Eufaula and there met a Baptist pastor who had known Mundy at the seminary. What are you doing, Mundy?" said the older preacher.
 "I am preaching, doctor I am to preach here Sunday afternoon to men only"
 Don't do it, Mundy. Preaching to men only is evil, top bottom and sides. If you have something you can't say before ladies, don't say it at all."
 It is difficult to see any rational and proper motive that should induce a preacher to advertise a sermon to men only. When such an announcement is made the crowd that attends will go to the meeting expecting to hear-often de- string to hear-something that is not clean enough to be uttered in the pres ence of women, and so the preacher puts himself at the ser ous disadvantage of being under a quasi pledge to talk un- clean1y.
 Does anybody know of a sane, staid. sober-m minded solid and settled pastor of mature age, large experience and estab- lished reputation, who breaches sermons to men only? I can not now recall that I ever heard of any pastor preaching
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-30
THE KISS-BV E. Nesbit

with the disgraceful conduct of that girl in the wood.
 She went away, presently with the fath CT to garner into sh caves those loose leaves of notes. Then Neville heard how she, was the daughter of Grantham, the great Psychologist, dead these three years, how she was very clever at her work, very good com pany, and altogether a dear child. But you mustn't fall in love with her, New ille," the aunt said, "and thank heaven you're not given to that sort of thing.
 Thank heaven I'm notl But why mustn't IF"
 "Because she's got a sweetheart all ready"
 "She would have" he told himself, "a sweetheart-half a dozen most likely
 How I know Is that MT. Maulevere asked her to share his heart and vicar age-yes-before she'd been here d month. I thought it would be a very good thing for her, for he's really not bad, Is he? And she is quite without means. Though she's so well connect ed. But no. Then I got it out of her that there's some one else."
 "I congratulate her." said Neville lazily "The jasmine's late this year isn't 1t
 ihc JdSii1ue lOWefS III Julyt Sdld the aunt severely, and I congratulate him. For if ever there was a dear, good, kind, unselfish girl-"
 ''Then I congratulate you," he said, and no doubt it's lucky for me that I'm not given to that sort of thing"
 It was that sort of thing''-an un- worldly romance-that had in his teens caused Nevilles relations to send him, for change of scene. to southern climes In other words, he had gone with one of Cooks tourist tickets to Egypt and there his fathers hobby, hitherto a sealed and dull-seeming book to him, had suddenly grown to be the most important thing in the world. He had come back to Eng land, cured of his passion for poor, vu1- gar Amabel, with the red hair, f1axen at the roots, and the black eyelashes and brows that were white when the dye was off them He came back cured, despising love and wearing round his neck a charm that gypsy woman from the desert had given him when he had saved her life from the keen blade of one who had been her lover. Wear it always" she had said, '1t will keep you from unworthy loves." And it-or something else-had kept him. Tt has a further power" the woman had added, but that you will learn when the time comes."
 He was not a superstitious man, but he wore the amulet. It did not keep him from the remembrance of an arm round his neck-lips on his-the shameless ef- frontery of a worthless girl.
 'T hope" said the aunt anxiously when the father had gone to his study and Philomela to her bed, q do hope you're not going to dislike that girl. You hardly spoke to her all the evening""
 Didn't IF" he said. "Pll do better to- morrow"
 So next morning when he saw her gown it was mauve today-among the little orange trees in tubs that had just been moved out of the greenhouse on to the