davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-25
Uncle Sam As An Employer

The report of special committee appointed to investigate conditions at Panama brings out the fact that the government is looking after the wei fare, health and comfort of 26,000 men at the isthmus "as no other govern ment has ever done in work of like character" The eight-hour rule is faithfully enforced and adequate com pensation is made to those who are injured while at work on the canal.
 The progress at Panama is after all based on the excellent work of Colonel Gorgas, who drove out yellow fever, reduced the number of cases of ma laria and pneumonia and established a high average of health. The President praises the efficiency of Colonel Goeth- als and his associates, and also the extraordinary hygienic success of Dr. Gorgas. By means of the work of the two the government has been able 10 show itself "a model employer" to use the Presidents own words.
 Colonel Gorgas, Alabama-born, did in very truth render feasible the dig ging of the canal The French failed largely because they could not control disease at the isthmus. Colonel Gorgas proceeded to combat isthmian condi- tions with modern methods, and his success opened the way for the work that is satisfactorily progressing He is maintaining the health of the canal zone. He can be trusted to maintain it under all circumstances. He fights HI mosquitoes and all flies, and all places that breed them. When the canal is completed and its history is written, Colonel Gorgas will surely be given full credit for the work that he ren- dered possible without unnecessary waste of life. The sanitarian will rank fully up to the digger in history.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-25

unwritten law than has heretofore been attempted. Thornton Hains came into the case early, and he came into it to become it's guiding and directing spirit. He steered it from the outset, and yet he had no family to be broken up He was incidentally in it, but as a matter of fact he concocted and car ried through the entire scheme of re- venge. If he be pronounced innocent of the murder committed at Bay Side by reason of emotional insanity then indeed the new plea can be fitted to any crime, always provided public sentiment can be invoked along with the free use of money before a petit jury of the period.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-25
Briqht Outlook.

"I hope the rumors true that the min ers' strike will be soon ended" said a merchant, but whether it is called off in the near future or not, conditions are steadily approaching normal and Sep tember pay days will probably put as much money in circulation as did the pay rolls of June, before the strike be- gan.
 That sentiment materially affects business is now very generally ac- cepted as a truth. Thousands of people whose incomes have remained the same since the panic of last October as they were before, have held tight grip on their purse string. There was no good reason for this, but retrenchment and economy were in the air But when it is known that industrial operations are becoming normal people will spend money as before; and with the calling off of the strike sh oppers will be more in evidence than ever and will be free enough in their purchases to make up for lost time.
 T look for a distinctively brisk trade in the early fall, for aside from the home shoppers we will have as customers hundreds of visitors from different sections of Alabama and Mis- sissippi."
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-25
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
Back Frm Washinoton,

" D. Nesbitt and Judge S. D. Weak ley. representatives of the state of Ala bama, returned to Birmingham after fl- ing their complaint against the railroad rate raises in the southern territory with the interstate commerce commission. Both are in good cheer and feel confident that the state will be protected from such raises as will sap the trade of her cit- izens with the western states.
 While I have not seen the answer which was filed yesterday with the rail- road commission by the railroads, l do not believe it possible to answer the points brought out in our complaint, digest of which has been given in your paper" said MT. Nesbitt.
 While we have made a strong point in the argument that the raises made by the Southeastern association are in restraint of trade and a violation of the Sherman antitrust law, we do not place all our hope along this line, but have proven that the rates are eXorbitant and damaging to the commerce between the states.
 'fhe complaint narrates the history of rates between Birmingham and western points since the road to Memphis was built in 1887 and proves that while rates were reasonable up to 1897, that imme- diately upon the organization of the Southeastern association they began to rise, and the late advance Is out of the question"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-25
SUMMER HOTEL LIFE.

From the Boston Herald.
 When Saratoga and Newport were at the height of their fame as watering places, hotel life was in fashion. The hotels themselves were wonders of the country. The dining rooms the broad verandas, the concerts and the balls ex- cited the admiration of foreigners. Amer jeans were in the habit of looking for ward to a fortnight or month at the hotel they particularly favored. The men met others of their own profession or business and interchanged ideas. The women dressed extravagantly for dinner, for walking on the veranda, for the ball. There were faithful visits to the selected spring. and each spring had it's cham pions Famous men and women were practically on exhibition. They that have not seen this summer life in the old days can form some idea of it by reading papers by George William Curtis, or bet ter yet Charles William Bristeds Upper Ten Thousand,'' from which they will learn that at the American watering place in the early fiftles the swells put for the o'clock dinner.
 When Saratoga and Newport were cele- brated for their hotels and for the dis tingushed men and women that fre- quented them, there were few summer cottages, and there were hardly any out door games in which men and women joined. There was bowling, and women with shapely arms and neat ankles would take part in it. There was no lawn ten- ais, no golf. In spite of the splurge at the hotels, the daily life of those in com fortable circumstances and those who were then counted as rich was simpler than it is today. The restless men and women of 1908 would add: Tt was also duller."
 Today even the family in moderate cir cumstances wishes it's own summer cot tage. It longs for privacy. It is not given to everyone to own a cottage, and there are women who wish to escape for time from housekeeping, therefore ho- tels are well patronized even when in some instances they are not well kept; but the hotel is now obliged to have links, tennis court boats, canoes The old fashion of summer hotel life with it's pomp and ceremony is extinct in this country. It cannot be revived in its bril- liance, for there Is now another genera tion, with far different tastes and views in the matter of recreation and amuse- ment
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-25
Our Fleet in the South Seas

The visits of the battleship fleet in the Australian ports recalls the changes that have taken place in that vast island or continent. Sydney. where the fleet lies, Is the capital of New South Wales, and New South Wales was a penal colony down to 1S40. But 1t has outlived it's early history, and Sydney is today a city of O0,000 people, and it's harbor is confessedly one of the finest in the world On Thursday next the fleet will steam away to Melbourne, which will no doubt try to outdo Syd- ney in a generous welcome.
 The globe-circling voyage will soon be checked by long stay at Manila, where the fleet will be put in fine con- dition for the passage through the In- dian ocean, and the Red sea and the Mediterranean to the broad Atlantic. If the great practice cruise be ended without a mishap no one will here after say that our fighting ships are not seaworthy. It may prove expensive, but it will be worth all the cost in the experience gained by officers and men in trip that will cover nearly all seas and all conditions of service.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-25
Doubling the UnWritten Law

The Hains case is to supply the country with a new form of the elastic "unwritten law" A plea of double emotional insanity" is to be set up, and this will constitute a new record in dementia Americana. In order to se- cure the freedom of Captain Jenkins, who killed an unarmed man, and also of Thornton Hains, who held the crowd back with a revolver while his brother riddled his victim, the plea must be stretched to cover both with equal eff cacy. Each must be held to have gone insane at the same moment, and of course they regained sanity simultane- ously also.
 This plea will really be placed on the belief that anything is possible before an American petit jury. To make, how ever, the new form of insanity fit Thornton Hains, who had no personal grievance against Annis. real or imag- mary. will be a bolder stretch of the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-25
Japan'S Monroe Doctrine

Mr. Shiuiehiro Saito, an intelligent business man in Japan, who was edu- cated in this country, presents in the Pacific Monthly Japan's great absorb ing policy in these words:
 No one shall gainsay that Japan has paramount interest and pre-eminent voice in the destiny of the Chinese empire. While she can safely allow the British supremacy in the Persian gulf, or permit the gradual Russian absorption of the Mongolian steppes, her very national ex- istence itself no less than her commer cial interests, does not permit her to neg lect a most watchful surveillance in re- gard to the Chinese empire proper and Manchuria. The position of Japan, there- fore, briefly stated, is this: Heaven helps those who help themselves"
 This is the great problem that con fronts Japan, and MT. Saito says it is no more a policy of conquest than is Uncle Sams Monroe doctrine in South America. National safety is all that Japan seeks, and as matter of self protection she will endeavor to see that no nation absorbs one of the eighteen provinces in China proper or of the three in Manchuria.
 MT. Saito is inclined to think a Jap anese protectorate over China until she is strong enough to stand alone is the more probable solution of the mighty problem. Japan is preparing, not for war with the United States, or with any other unaggressive power, but she is preparing to meet any phase of the Chinese problem that may pre- sent itself, for she knows that any oc- cupation of Chinese territory would be a foreign menace to her She knows that 1t would be blow directed against her own independence, her own
 
 liberty, her own prestige. She will therefore fight to the death to pre- vent it.
 Once this Is fully understood and es- tablished, all illusions disappear, so far as this country is concerned Ja- pan is anxious to keep robber hands off China. She has no other interna- tional policy, but she is very much in earnest in her desire to give China a chance to become strong enough to de1end herself. This, however, would take generation or two. It must nec- essarily be slow process, the nation being so large and populous. Japan alone renders the task possible.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-25
WILD TURKEY ON THE TRACK

From the Lebanon (Mo) Republican.
 That the wild turkey still haunts the wooded valleys of the Ozarks is proved by the experience of the engine crew of Frisco passenger train No. 15 one day last week. The train. in charge of Engi- neer George billiard, was speeding along, when, a few miles this side of Stoutland, a flock of F wild turkeys was seen on the right of way. As the train approached them. the turkeys, instead of hiking for the woods, sought to outrun the passen- ger train, and struck down the track ahead of the engine. Before the proud gobbler which was leading the flock real ized the danger the train bore down upon them. Two were killed, and the number of feathers that were scattered right and left showed that others had been injured Frisco trainmen frequently kill quail along the road, but 1t is very infrequent that a flock of wild turkeys try to race with them
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-25
MUsIC-LOVING ITALIANS.

Lewis MacBrayne, in Harpers Maga
 zine for September.
 A man who had come down from the second cabin had crossed as an emigrant but a few years before, and was now able to visit his old home during his annual holidays. He was a native of a village just beyond Rome, had risen from a day laborer to mas ter mason, and, like many of his countrymen, was lover of good music During the tour of the Mas cagni Opera company in the United States he had expended SIP in tickets for himself and family, and he related many instances of Italian laborers who patronized grand opera two and three times a week during the season, and who were familiar with all the great compositions. Speaking of his personal experience as an emigrant, he told me that he had learned more concerning Rome from American books than he had ever known while living in the sub urbs of the capital; and upon his first visit to his old parents he had taken them to see the catacombs and oth CT sights about Rome that had quite amazed the venerable couple.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-25
There is no darkness but ignorance.
 Twelfth Night.
Venezuela and Holland

The Hague Is proceeding leisurely in dealing with President Castro of Vene- zuela. The minister of foreign affairs is awaiting the arrival of M de Reus, who was Hollands minister at Caracas until he was expelled as an undesirable representative. Other questions are pending between the two countries, all accentuated by the fact that Holland s colony, Curacoa, lies just off the Vene- zuelan coast, and it has an excellent harbor.
 Doubtless Holland will decide to blockade the Venezuelan coast, keep ing out of range of land batteries. rms would isolate Castro, and no one will object to that. This country will not so long as the Netherlands shows no desire of territorial conquest. Franco will not, although she has troubles with Castro pending. All the rest of the world bids fair to let Holland become the recognized means of bringing Cas- tro to terms.
 To do this she will have a base at Caracoa, and she will not land troops in Venezuela. She will not attempt to collect revenue. She will simply iso- late Castro, and hold him in that posi- ton until he gets tired of it. The Mon roe doctrine will remain intact and all other nations will rest content until the Netherlands government has worked out it's programme of bringing Presl- dent Castro into line with other gov ernments and with reasonable methods of conducting international affairs.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-25

From the Montgomery Advertiser.
 The Montgomery Advertiser has right spicy article on the utter disregard Gov ernor Conner has shown the states at toroey general in matters where the state required legal service, and secured law yers for purposes that the attorney gen. eral and his assistant would have met every requirement.. The unnecessary at torney's fees that the state of Alabama has paid would have erected quite a number of thousand dollar school houses or added snug sum to any state fund Talladega Mountain Home.
 The Advertiser in the article to which The Mountain Home refers should have said what The Home says, that "the at torney general and his assistant would have met every requirement" It is a fact of pregnant mention that Attorney General Garber has been called on for opinions on important matters more often, perhaps, than any man who ever held the position. In addition, he has had to appear in more important litiga- tion. He has ably and satisfactorily met the requirements of his position and they have been exceedingly arduous.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-25
"CRIB' FOR CRIMINALS

this connection that of the 1233 inmates of Lansing prison. January 21, only four were in dark cells. In ordinary circum- stances this sort of restraint serves every purpose. The cells are large and clean and well ventilated. Bread and water form the entire menu for the occupant until he feels that he can obey the rules. There are several large, airy, light cells in a new brick house in which men are put when they refuse to work. Obviously a man will work in time, if he knows he will get nothing to eat until he has completed a task. When man Is put in one of these cells a wheelbarrow load of stone is put in with him-and ham, mer. When he has made little ones out of all the big ones' he gets his din- ner or supper and not sooner. It seldom fails. When a man has been put in the crib a few times he Is fit for nothing else, except in the crankhouse. There are several in that house now who never will be anywhere else-until they die
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-25
A., B. G A. Entrance,

''I received a message from Atlanta to- night informing me that the Atlanta, Bir- mingham and Atlantic expects to inaug urate it's passenger service into Birmi g. ham September G. said railroad man.
 This is a week earlier than had been originally proposed, and l am glad to hear that the road has been put into such shape that the entrance can be made so early in the month. The coming of this road is a great big thing for Bir- mingham, for the A. B. and A. is the only large piece of new railroad building which has been done in the south this year, and it is creditable to Birmingham that this city should be the western term- mus of so important a line.
 .'I hope Birmingham will give sis road such welcome as to make it's owners feel good. They are southern men, and they deserve to have southern people show appreciation for their enterprise and aggresslveness, Birmingham must not let the -spiritedness caused by the strike alter her from showing a proper welcome to her ninth trunk line.'
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-25
CLEVELAND'S MODESTY
From Collier S Weekly.

From Golfers Weekly.
 "N ALLERS who undertook to inform
 S him to his face that he had been O a great President made him ex- ceedingly miserable Qhough he did not mind reading about It when they were not around), but if you told him you saw his boy Richard make good catch play ing ball out on the lawn as you came in, his whole face lighted up with his won derful smile. His attitude toward chill dren was not the smiling condescension which many of the "Olympians' adopt, and which children hate; he treated them with that flattering earnestness which children like. Some of the other gentle men here this afternoon left this bat be- hind them," he would say to his boy. One day these two were seen walking home together in the rain. Richard was holding the umbrella. Rather than fet the boy see that he could not hold it high enough the ex-President walked all the way down Bayard lane with his head and shoulders bent low
 One day on the train from New York he became much concerned over a little girl who seemed to be travelling alone. Finally he had to go and ask her about it. She said 1t was all right, she was to be met by her father at New Bruns- wick. But when that station was finally reached the ex-President, without saying anything to the rest of his party, quietly stole out to the rear door and watched until he saw the child safe in her fathers arms; then he returned to the group he had left and went on with the conversa- ton as if nothing had happened.
 The democratic mode of his private life is sometimes spoken of as if an ideal to which he consciously adhered With him it was a good deal more than we'll followed creed; it was a spontaneous ex- pression of his personality, due to his in herent honesty. He liked simple things
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-25
In Prohibition Georuia,

T had heard something of blnid tigers in Birmingham but this is a good prohi- b1tion town compared with dry Atlanta and dry Savannah" said a man who re- turned yesterday from a two weeks visit to Georgia. q was never much of a sa- loon thinker, but seeing a sign in At lanta, Beer on Draft curiosity led me to see how that could be. 1 walked in and called for glass of beer.
 DO you wish prohibition beer, or the other kind?' asked the bartender I re- piled, the other kind;' and I got good, cool glass of genuine beer
 In Savannah saloons seemed to be quite plentiful and at Tybee there was no sort of attempt at running saloons on prohibition lines. All the bars were rum ming wide open. I was told in Georgia that little effort was made in any of the larger cities to enforce the prohibition law. And yet I read a statement from an Anti-saloon leaguer that prohibition was a decided success"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-25

because he was simple. He was of the soil. He had but few forms, though these he observed strictly and expected others to observe them. The inevitable vanities and artifcialities of highly or ganized stage of society were not wrong, but distasteful to him. He felt their in- congruity with him. In short, he had humor-not the chirping faeetiousness of the generation which prates to an un- humorous extent about it's sense of hum- or, but the real thing. the inner vision of truth which is the beginning of wis., dom and its end.
 He liked and enjoyed all the real things of life and despised the unreal. For instance, he had real friends. Only a few people, even in private life, have real friends In their old age But among the great, history shows a still smaller proportion so blessed.
 That was one keynote of his character, but along with his simple love of truth there existed a cognate quality which, however, does not always accompany it; and that was an active sense of responsi- biity to some power higher than our selves. In one of those rare moments in his usually light conversation when he broke through his habtual reserve and showed what he thought about deeply, he once said to one of his friends: T don't see how a democratic people, struggling and fighting for it's needs and desires, can continue to exist as free people without the idea of something invisible above them to which they believe them- selves accountable"
 Like all great truths, this has been said before. The point here is that he believed it, and that in these two fun- damental qualities, the vision of truth, and the sense of ones unshirkable &C., countability. and in courage, which was their offspring, are to be found the de- termining motives of his life.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-25
HIS IDEA OF LUCK.

From the Columbus Dispatch.
 A man who is called "Englishm man" by acteristic. He will visit the different cafes and take part In all the dice games for drinks, but he will not shake the box himself. His friends have to do the shaking tn emselves. He explains that when he was a young man he lost quite a large sum of money shaking the box and that he then made a VOW that he would never shake the box again-a VOW which he has kept now for over 30 years. His friends doubt his story, They think that he follows that course because he con- siders it lucky.