davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-14

- PEAKER Cannon of the House of
Representatives., in his recent adj
dress on Abraham Lincoln before
the United States Historical Society,
gave evidence in some of his axioms and
utterances of his love and reverence for
the American soldiers and sailors who
have ever respond to the call ito the
colors" when this republic has needed
fighting men. He spoke of the success of
the American arms in all wars because
of 1.-The patriotic public sentiment"
When the Almighty threw from His
hand matter" said the Speaker. I'VE
evoluted. He taught us correct doctrines.
He gave us the Bible, and because of His
teachings Christ died on the cross. In
one thousand years from now, when the
student reads American history. he will
conclude that there were three great
characters in this country-Benjamin
Franklin. George Washington and Abra-
ham Lincoln. In one thousand years the
people can no more name the Presi-
dents of the United States than you can
now off-hand name the emperors and
other rulers of ancient times. No man
can tell with certainty which emperor
ruled Rome when the Master was cruel
fled.
1T is a great thing under the need of
necessity" Mr.. Cannon added, Ito be a
man or woman who, living in the sweat
of the face. maintains good manhood and
good womanhood upon hog and homny.
Or to put it in another way-when all is
done and you have not done something to
better the brother and the neigbborhood
all the changing bells, the songs of praise,
the headlines of newspapers or the stand
ing in the limelight will be as the tinklng
cymbal and the sounding brass. Do
something to advance the race and to
uplift humanity. Lincoln was doing
man. But had he issued the emancipa-
tion proclamation the day he took the
GA h of office as President we would have
two countries here now. The preachers
urged him to do so, but he had good fore
sight. The emancipation proclamation
at that time would have been like the
popes bull against the comet"
In conclusion Speaker Cannon said
never in the world has there been such
armies as the volunteer American armies.
He urged all Americans do perform their
duty in the army of peace, even though
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-14

NEW YORK. March 13, 1905.
wv HEN is kiss' Oh. about min
The New York stage kiss of to-
day, that it. A minute is its average
duration. At one playhouse there is a
prolonged. perfervid pertingence of the
lips that laps over the minute mark This
furnaceous OSCILLATION lasts for one min
ute and seventeen seconds. The average,
however, is a minute. This statement is
made with assurance, for stop-watches
can't lie And it is now a sort of game
to hold the stop-watch on the stage kisses
on view in this town. You'll see them In
the audience yanking out their watches
the instant the kisses begin. Thus they
time these stage muzzlings down to sec
oYds. or fractions thereof. In the foyer.
after the act, they compare notes. I
made 1t fifty-nine seconds" declares one.
You're wrong" says the other. II made
II a minute and two-ffths Of second"
Thus they argue.
At five Broadway theaters this curious
conterminousness of pl' yers mouths Is
Featured" The press agents of the re-
spective attractions industriously work
M these kisses The press agents should
snare themselves this needless exertion.
These new stage kisses require no BOOM
ing Folks over here like them. New
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-14
ention Of the officer Of the

attract the attention Of the officer Of the
deck
LAS they're bare knucEle AFFAIRS, both
men generally get pretty thoroughly
mauled up In these bunker scraps, and
when the. fights over they hop into their
uni forms and skate to the sick bay to get
themselves patched up with arnica and
court plaster and SO on.
THE ships surgeon knows at one peek
what ails them, all right. but just for
the sake Of form he asks them what's
the matter with their mugs. They've both
fallen down an engine room or a fire
room ladder-that's the usual answer.
Both fell down the ladder at the same
time? No, sir. they fell down different
ladders.
'H'nl-curious.' mutters the surgeon,
with twinkle in his eye, and then he
scribbles an account OF their injuries In
his sick bay log and orders the sick bay
hands to dress the scrappers' wounds.
And that's the end OF the bunker fight.
Fifteen minutes after the men leave the
sick bay with bandages around their
heads and a strong scent Of liniment
hanging around them they're liable to
be seen with their banged-up heads to-
gether over a ditty box, comparing SOU
venir junk that they've picked up on their
crossings"
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-14

then she'd get up and light one Of my
dads pipes and blow the smoke into my
ear. and get sick herself from the nfco-
tine. 1t never stopped the earache for an
eighth of a second, and was one Of the
foolishest of all the fool household RENE
dies of the time: but the power Of sug-
gestion works nightly upon children. and
I used to fall OF to sleep after that treat
ment. although my mother would be sick
for about week from the effects Of
smoking the rank pipe.
Member that saSsafras tea of your
boyhood? Wasn't it rotten? I was COM
PEELED to swallow whole watts of that no.
good slush. too. because some freak had
given it out, early In the nineteenth CEN
fury, I believe. that it cooled the blood.
or something like that.
''They had all sorts Of notions about the
treatment of the sick. anyhow, when l
was kid. For one thing, they wouldn't
give folks suffering from fever more
than a mere sip Of water. when the suf-
ferers were yearning throughout every
nerve-cell of their burning beings for
something to Stake their horrible thirst.
When I was a boy 1 had malaria for
long time and the fever wore me down
to the bone. but they would no more
think Of giving me drink of water than
they would Of giving me roast pork or
mince pie. Nope. they'd stake me to
little silver Of cracked ice about once
every week or so-or 80 it seemed to me.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-14

made q leisurely meal. unmoved by the
glances Of admiration which his feat won
from astonished bystanders, then the but
Ter wheeled away the table and the .'sec-
ond man" opened a tin pail to get his own
lunch. The mule, serenely full, resumed
his dreams Of the land where work Is I'M
known, humming THE Merry Widow
waltz with an imitation of a steam shovel
and beating time with his ears.
~ *
The Postmaster Generals name is
George Won Lengerke Meyer. 1t would be
supposed that most Americans, especially
those having business with this par
ticular cabinet officer. would be able to
get the name right. But tleysaren't. Any
number Of Americans can't pronounce the
Presidents name, but it is not a matter
OF precision Of pronunciation in connec-
ton with that of Mr.. Meyer. Inc "voi.
fascinates the throng. They can't get
away from it. They know that Ger
man with a won" before his4ast name is
noble, and this proposition looms large in
their conceptions of the Postmaster Cen
eral. George v. L. Meyer" &c. v. L.
Meyer" and George Won L. Meyer are
the various ways the .officials Lame APP
pears on departmental papers. and that
SHOulO De SuLuCleut 10 ScCukC ACCui oCy Ill
address and speech. But 1t isn't. The
e." or 'Iengerke" are half the time
ignored, and the magic proposition won"
prefixed directly to the family name. so
that the Postmaster General often re-
ceives letters addressed to George Won
Meyer" POSTMASTER General Won Meyer"
ora particular detestation-"Gen. Won
Meyer" which has a field-marshally
sound, suggesting clanking sabers and a
charge to the death. Letters so addressed
come from persons who should know bet
ter-officials and others close to the pub
lie affairs of the nation. 1t is by no
means infrequent for callers at the Post
Office Department to ask with flourish
"Is Mr.. Won Meyer in?" A magazine
which pretends to national Importance
and is always filled with accounts of
Washington affairs recently printed a
full-page picture of the Postmaster Cen
eral. and labeled it in large type. Post
master General Won Meyer And the
magazine is published In Boston, whence
Mr.. Meyer halls. A card in one of the
elevators of the Post Office Department
was brought up to date by one Of the en-
ployes, who. when the cabinet change
came. crossed out the name of Mr.. Cor
telyou and substituted won Meyer" The
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-14

off between two biuejackets down below
all hands for'ard know all about it In ad-
vance, but very few of them, unless
they're intimateS of the fellows scheduled
to fight. expect Invitations to the rnix-up.
There isn't room in a bunker for more
than two or three friends Of each man.
With one second each and a referee
agreed upon, the enemies, naked to the
waist, go at it. They're not allowed to
fight rough and tumble. They've got to
observe the rules Of the game, and their
shipmates are present to see that they do
observe the rules. saw one of these fights
between enemies that went thirty-seven
rounds. and they sure were bunged-up-
looking pair of sailorInen when they con-
scented to quit and patch up their quarrel.
AS a general thing. though. one Of the
men in these bunker fights is licked before
the tenth round.
eff the men are unequally matched, and
one Of them Is getting ahe worst of it in
the early stages, all hands in the bunker
take a hand in pulling the scrappers
apart. If the two men are about of
sort as to ability they're allowed to go
on until one Of them Is well thrashed.
At the windup of one Of these bunker
battles all hands quietly quit the bunker
and climb to the deck bysdinerent engine
room or fireroom matches, so as not to
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-14

both being wise to it that the Jimmy Legs
is liable to be lowering around some
where. and neither of them caring for
trick In the brig.
Such little thing as that will start a
crouch between a couple of men grown
peevish and snappy after long cruising,
and. after they've growled and glared at
each other for a certain length Of time.
they're looked tos by all hands forard to
bring the thing to finish and then dry
up.
1.-THE man Of the two who's got what
he thinks Is the bigger grievance is care
fully watched by the men for'ard to see
If he makes any preliminary moves toward
arranging fight with the other fellow.
He almost always does. The fights thus
fixed up are not. of course. the regular
wide-open fights such as they're having
for amusement on the ships Of the bat
tleship fleet now. They're just bile-evapo-
rating battles between fellows who. for
the time. hate each other. and they're
pulled of on the quiet Nearly all such
scraps are pulled of down below In one
of the fire rooms or in an empty coal
bunker. for. or course. the officers are
not supposed to know anything about
them. The empty bunker is preferred on
account of its isolation.
when one Of these fights is to come
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-14

went over to this Patrick Sullivan's
place on Ohio street on the north side.
Patrick Sullivan kept prosperous sa-
loon there. patronized equally by the
Scandinavians and the Irish, who about
divided the neighborhood among them
selves. Patrick Sullivan treated me very
civilly, and in his quaint Morse dialect he
told me the curious story.
Away back in the eighteenth century a
young Irish fisherman named Patrick Sui
Ivan, living at an Irish fishing village.
had got into some sort of a tangle in
which a colleen was more or less in
volved. and he had jumped the scrape by
the simple method of tucking himself on
board Norwegian ship that happened to
drop into the harbor for water. The Nor
wegian ship in due time pulled up at a
little fishing port in Norway, and there
the Patrick Sullivan of the remote time
went ashore and mingled and foregathered
with the Norway folks. He had native
wit, talent, the desire to study and i'm
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-14

card hung undisturbed for months and
may be there yet. 1t is interesting to
wonder how this error arose and why II
persists There Is apparently no good
reason for 1t except carelessness in OBJ
servation or a habit Of grandiloauence.
But the Postmaster General is evidently
doomed to remain won Meyer" to a large
number OF Americans, since q remedy
seems to be lacking.
X x X X *
Among the many expenditures Of the
United States government each year there
is one that is far more peculiar than that
of any other country in the world, said
an employe Of the Post Office Department
yesterday. But few people are aware Of
the fact that Uncle Sam annually appro-
PIRATES. through the Post Office Depart
ment. small sum of money for the sup
port Of an army OF cats in a number OF
his post offices throughout the country.
The money is used to buy food for the
felines. though this seems somewhat Of a
reflection upon their ability to catch rats
and mice. for which purpose they are
kept in the post offices. At times much
trouble Is caused by the rodents gnawing
the mail pouches and opening mail ad-
dressed to another person. regardless of
the penitentiary penalty usually imposed
upon human beings for such an act. 1t
has been found that the cats cannot live
entirely on rat dainties. and milk and
meat must be supplied them at inter-
walls. The average cost Of the cat food
at a post Office where they are kept is
about sls per year. Uncle Sam has de-
tachments Of his cat army stationed at
the post Offices at Little Rock. Ark: Los
Angeles. CAL: New Haven. Conn.,: Min
neapolis.. Mimi: Binghamton. N. Y: New
York. N. Y: Portland. Ore, and Nor
folk. Va.
x * k-.s X.
Secretary Root was on his way to his
Office in the south wing of the big granite
building at Pennsylvania avenue and 18th
street one day last week. when one Of the
messengers Of Secretary Taft saw him as
he was passing his old Office in the War
Department.
A large oil portrait of Secretary Root
had just been added to the complete COL
lection of Secretaries Of War and given
a prominent place on the wall in the big
reception room. At the suggestion Of the
messenger, Secretary Root went into the
room to look at his own portrait. How
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-14

can do for you
He didn't quite grasp that sarcasm,
but just went right ahead telling me what
he wanted in his Scandinavian patois. He
was secretary of some north side Scan
dinavian society. and they were going to
have picnic. and he wanted little no.
tice about it in the paper.
well. I could see then, by his serious
ness and his air of dignity, that this dia-
lect of his was on the level. But that
didn't let me out. l was so mystified that
1 began to wonder If 1 was awake. So.
after I'd made note of what the man
wanted, and he was ready to go, picked
up his card. and said l.:
Haven't you inadvertently given me
the wrong card? This isn't your name.
is it?'
"He replied that it was the right card
all right-hiS name was 'Padhrek Sooli-
van,' as he pronounced it. 1 didn't have
time to interrogate him then about it. but
a few evenings later, filled with curiosity.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-14

the good guessers!
Motives for Crimes.
The dividing line between sentiment and
maudlinness. which is taller and thicker
than the Chinese wall, Is something which
New York seems never to perceive at all,
or even divine.
You read. last week. Of the woman here.
the guest Of another woman. who stole
$4,000 worth of her hostess jewels at
various times. The thief was arrested. and
Is nov out on bail. Well. a considerable
section of New York Is codd'ing the thief.
sympathizing over her, gushing over her,
saying that It's too bad and a shame.
so it is, that she was arrested; that her
circumstances were unfortunate; that the
temptation, in view Of her circumstances,
was very great; and much more soggy
bathos Of the same general character,
Why is this? Well. the thief. 1t seems,
has a boy at school. She stole to keep
the boy at sohool-a very fashionable
school-you see.' This Is supposed to be
her conformation. Still, there are other
women with boys at school. and these
women are not thieves. Far rom that,
they work: they scrape; they scrimp;
they starve; but they do not permit them
selves to'become thieves.
OnA Of the pnAat fascinating women I
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-14

prove himself. In the course of time he
became a lawyer. and then was made a
judge or recorder of the place which he
had thus chosen for his home. He died
full of honors. leaving a considerable
family. He named his eldest son after
himself
Right along then for generation after
generation there was a. Patrick Sullivan
in that Norway fishing town who could
speak nothing but the Morse language
All Of the Patrick Sullfvans were sturdy,
rugged chaps. and they never lost the
outward manifestation of their original
Irish strain. -
1.-THE Patrick Sullivan who told me this
had run away from home at the age of
fourteen years. and had eventually pulled
up at Castle Garden in New York.
"At Castle Garden he had his troubles
before they would let him through. The
Castle Garden officials figured this Pat
rick Sullivan to be a juvenile josher, or
doped 1t out that he was trying to squeeze
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-14

pursuing ii, however. all our plans should
be devised with that purpose constantly
in view. Our military peace establishment
is comparatively SO small that in serious
wars we must always suddenly expand
our small army to many times its
strength. ~
ITO meet the requirements of such sud-
den expansions many extra trained ohi-
mastering and instructing volunteers and
in performing very great variety OF
staff work connected with the admins
tration of large and hastily organized
military forces. Because We have never
had extra officers in time of peace we
have heretofore been compelled to appoint
as staff officers many persons from civil
life who were without military training or
experience whatever. Our history is not
without well-known illustrations that this
necessity has resulted in very inefficient
service. 1t has always been necessary to
detach, for volunteer staff service. many
regular officers from duty with their prop
err corps or arm of the service, just at q
| time when their services Herewith were
most essential. in order that they might
be detailed to more important duties in
connection with expansion necessitated by
war;"
The season for corn on the cob has ar
rived. but not so that you can notice 1t In
tue restaurants. 1t will probably be some
weeks before the disappointed epicure
pays 40 cents for the privilege of gazing
at two slender, half-covered ears Of i'm
mature maize upon a silver platter, but
mule who spends some of his ample leisure
on L street has pushed himself ahead Of
the regular season. The other day when
this mule was resting in front of a partly.
erected house and tanning himself with
his ears, he emitted sounds which told
his driver that feed time was approaching.
The driver fastened to bring the desired
repast, and as a mule butler his butling
was admirable. For table he trundled
up under the mules long visage sheet
iron w,heelbarrow: the food was brought
in bag. 1t consisted Of nice. large ears
as long as the mule's-of reddish-yellow
corn, hard and dry. The driver-butler
held out one ear to the mule. who DAM
tily opened his cavernous mouth and took
an extensive bite which stripped a third
of the cob of it's kernels. Some of the
grains of corn dropped into the wheelbar-
row, but these were gathered up by an
accomplished second man'-out Of liv-
ery-who held them in the palm of his
hand for the mule to eat. The animal
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-14

'Ay want he replied, to see you about
aytem vich Scandinavian Society,"
Well won't go on with tim poor at
dialect work. anyhow. But you catch the
idea. His Scandihoolihan dialect was as
thick as any I'd ever heard among the
lumberjacks of Wisconsin.
Now, I never cared to be Strung, so to
speak. while on duty. and 1 of course felt
perfectly positive that this man whose
card read Patrick Sullivan and who ad-
dressed me in that extraordinary Scandi-
navian dialect was joshing me.
You can delete the humor, if you
please. Mr.. Sullivan, for I'm pretty busy
this morning. l said to my visitor. Just
tell me what you want in your own Ian
guage without trying to pull that Yon
Yonson rave on me, and I'll see what 1
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-14
they be but privates. corporals or SER
X X X X *

X
"They may put a tax on cats in the Dis
trict of Columbia" says woman reader,
land they may not, but there are half
dozen women in Washington who, judg-
ing from their Dan O'Leary-like ability to
cover ground, might offer an amendment
to the effect that as long as cat catches
one rat week the feline be immune from
taxation. If a tax could be placed upon
rats there is no doubt that women
would be second Carrie Nations in the
warmth and vigor with which they would
work for the success of the measure For
that was the cause of it all-rats!"
Late one afternoon last week the en-
ployes of the dairy lunch on 18th street
were emptying barrels of refuse into an
ashcart backed up to the curb. The bar
rels were brought up from the cellar and
had evidently been there for some time.
1t was just when the Corcoran Art Gal.
lery closes for the day and three women,
who must have come from there, were
walking northward along 18th street con-
versing earnestly.
Now, my dear" said one. just as they
came within a few feet of the ashcart,
Il insist that If that picture were hung
effect would be entirefy-whow! Oh. oh!
Help! Look out, he's coming this way!
Rum
Art, light effects and higher criticisms
took wings.
A large. well-fed, fear-crazed rat had
been shaken out of one of the barrels
and was running wildly about on the
pavement
With one accord the three art critics
gave three feminine shrieks of despair,
stood wildly aghast for a moment and
then, picking up their skirts a little over
two feet (take 1t as you wild, fled pre-
cipitately.
But the rat was still to be reckoned
with. He didn't know where he was go
ing, but he was surely on his way. The
direction of his flight was also decided
materially by the foot of one of the dairy
lunch employees. who gave immediate
chase with a fearlessness that won the
audible applause and laughter of several
other women, who, safely but somewhat
apprehensively, viewed the slaughter and
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-14

<(THE correspondents with the bat
tleship fleet report, 1 notice,
that there have been some bully
boxing bouts on the ships" said man
who used to be in the navy. II can we'll
imagine that. Our bluejackets have been
more or less boxing crazy for long time,
and there are some crack mittmen with
the battleship fleet.
'The Pacific station has always been
the great station for the boxing man-o-
wars men. The reason for this is that
San Francisco always has been a great
prizefghting town, and a lot of the San
Francisco scrappers who are not quite
good enough to get the money in the
fighting game out there ship for cruise
or so in the navy, when they find them
selves up against it ashore. San Francis
co is handy, you see, to Mare lslard,
where the old guardo Independence is.
and they don't have to go to any bother
to ship.
That's the way 1t was with Tom Shar-
key, by the way. Sharkey was clumsy
fellow. with nothing but great strength