davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-30
Birminuham Real Estate.

Real estate values in and around Bir- mingham were never so strong as now" said Maj. E. T. Taliaferro. q have watched the trend of prices for many years, and it is safe to say that there is no property in the city that is not worth more today than it was a year ago.
 The resources of the district are so much more appreciated now than former ly and the future of the city is so much better assured that realty values will all the while reach higher and higher levels
 "I was talking with a gentleman who had recently visited Memphis, and in quired there into the real estate market; and he told me that values were far stronger in Birmingham than in the for mer city; and yet the range of prices here is far from excessive All things considered, realty prices here are mod crate Prosperity is returning and when it is in full swing again, as it will prob ably. be next spring, building sites here will be in greater demand than at any time in the history of Birmingham"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-30
IN HOTEL LOBBlES
Library Work Amono Children.

"fhe civic value of library work with children Is strllklngly illustrated by the library system of Chicago,a said a man who Is intensely interested in having free public library in Birmingham.
 T have just been reading an interest ing article from Libraries a publication issued in Chicago. Describing this library work among children the writer says; Chicago has made the discovery of the civic value of recreation centers for the play of the people. Not since old Rome's circus maxlmus and the Olympic games of Greece, has any city made such provision for the recreation of its people as is to be found in these great play fields, sur rounding the beautifully designed and well equipped field houses, which, at cost of Sl2, ,0000 GOO of the taxpayers money, have been built in the most crowded dis tricts of Chicago The recreation centers illustrate the civic opportunity and value of library work with children. For the Chicago public library was quick to see and seize the advantage thus offered to serve the city. The delivery stations and reading rooms established in these field houses are already recognized to be the most useful of it's centers to the child life of the city. The organized volunteer cooperation of several groups of women has added the story hour as a regular feature of the library work at these play grounds The quick and large response given by the people to these civic exten- sions of library service in every city and town where they have been offered dem onstrates what large field of usefulness awaits public library enterprise and oc- cupancy.
 Equally with the schools and play grounds our library centers are essential to American democracy. Nowhere are we on more common footing of an equality of opportunity than in the pub lie playground and the public library. The public school stands upon that bit of mother earth which belongs equally to all The playground is open alike to all corners. And the public library is not only as free and open to all as to any of our people, but also confers citizenship in that time-long, worldwide democracy of the republic of letters. The civic ser vice thus democfatically to be rendered by library work with children is indis- pensably valuable. i"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-30

dustrial center could well be. was in Birmingham soon afterwards and while this district had been hit by the panic it was active compared with PittsbuFg.
 Business everywhere is improving now and Plttsburg will soon be as busy as ever But for the miners strike in the Birmingham district conditions here would be almost normal. But even with the strike, which I understand will not cause a single furnace to go out of blast, Birmingham Is today the best city from a commercial point of view in the en- tire south"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-30
End of the British 0lymDlad

The contests of the international athletic meeting in London's stadium were ended last Saturday, and the gen eral results are known to all the world. The American contestants won many honors, and they will come home firmly thinking that fair play and good sports manship would have awarded them still more.
 The recent series of Olympic games establishes the fact that Englishmen are not the good sports they have en- joyed the reputation of being. AS losers they have not been equal to the demands of the occasion This has resulted in considerable friction and in feeling that renders a repetition of the London programme well-nigh i'm possible. However, as Baron Pierre de Courbertier says in a letter addressed to the chairman of the British asso- ciation, it is not easy to assemble 2000 young people from 22 countries, and please all. Some friction was inevit. able. But the constant enmity of the audiences to American victories can not be explained away, and American contestants will prefer meet in some other city in some other country. The loudest cheers invariably went to con. testants from European countries. Any winner other than American was warmly received. The unfriendline $ of the British people was more gallI g than the acts of the association itself.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-30
ELEVATORS AND VANITY.

From the New York Mail.
 The building inspector of the city of Milwaukee Ca careful and searching per son of German extraction named Koch) has made interesting discovery. He has found out that mirrors in elevators are a source of danger to the public. Not moral danger, one might suppose at first blush. but physical danger; though the physical danger to be sure, has it's source in moral infirmity.
 To put an end to mystery, MT. Koch's discovery is this: Women-and men, too, sometimes, yet chiefly women-stop to set their hats on straight and adjust their hair and complexions, or fix their neck ties, when they see a looking glass in an elevator. This makes them forget that they want to get off, and they are likely to make sudden rush for the door, causing accidents to happen. Some times they step off after the elevator has started; or 1t may be that they crowd someone else into the doorjamb, and legs are broken, or worse
 So the Milwaukee inspector has ordered all mirrors removed from the elevators subject to his orders, which include those in public buildings Hereafter, In those buildings the women of Milwaukee will have to adjust their hats and hair in the dark, as it were. This will detract from the agreeableness of their life, but it will be safer.
 The psychology of vanity in elevators has long been a subject deeply worthy of study Of course such elementary feminine vanity as an intelligent inter- est in the angle of ones hat, or the mat ter of the specks of dust or soot on ones face is scarcely worthy of attention But there are higher forms of elevator van ity. It has long been observed, for in- stance. that the advent of a pretty wom- an in an elevator chiefly occupied by men has an instantaneous effect on the ap- parent height of all these males. Every one of them straightens up to his full stature, and a little beyond it, if pos sible Stopping shoulders are thrown back. Slouching poses are squared up. And very much of this is done uncon- sciously There may not be any ele- ment of masculine coquetry in it. It Is simply the instinctive tribute of the whole world to beauty
 This phenomenon will be in no wise affected by the abolition of the apparent ly harmless but possibly deadly elevator mirror. That noblest work of nature. the pretty woman, will continue to exer- else her reforming effect upon the mas culine pose, just as the universally close observation of the elevator car will go on making all the people who use it the more keenly conscious of their personal appearance.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-30
BIGGEST FARM IN WORLD

prairie fire from the front, for it's pro- gress is too rapid and too annihilating. Heavy chains are dragged along the ground. which help to weaken and dis sipate the fire. Across the prairie long furrows 50 feet apart are quickly made. and these also help to stem the progress of the fire. All night the fight is kent up, and not until the last spark is quenched are the men able to take food and rest
 In these efforts to subdue the flames Don Luis and his sons are usually to be seen working like demons and urging their men to greater efforts Fighting a prairie fire has all the elements of dan- ger, and for excitement it has few equals. For this reason Don Luis takes flerce delight in combating the flames. and declares that it is one of the fascin- atlons of prairie life.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-30
THE CHEWING SQUAD.
Special Dispatch to the Cincinnati E

Special Dispatch to the Cincinnati En-
 quirer.
 New York.-Conjure up in your mind, 1T you please, the spectacle of a dozen blueJackets lined up in the Brooklyn navy yard gravely mangling between their jaws hunks of fine cut, plug or scrap, as the case may be-
 Today 12 sea fighters began a test on the result of which will depend the awarding of contract for 100000 pounds Of chewing tobacco. The solemn con- clave will last week.
 That no chicanery may creep in the samples are freed from Identification marks, save numbers, before being sub mitted to maceration by the testers AL though the rules governing the competi- ton do not require segregation of the several judges, it Is prescribed that the chewing judges shall proceed with their work in silence. The paymaster will also take a hand in the chewing in addi- ton to supervising, but the greatest work will rest with the patriotic judgment of the jack tars.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-30

offset the independence league, and the five-odd tickets will probably take voters from the two leading parties in just about equal numbers.
 A multiplication of parties always fol- lows a loosening of party ties. If this country keeps up the pace of division it will soon have as many parties as France or Germany has. We now have seven full-hedged presidential candi- dates. and the books are closed. We have Bryan, democrat: Taft, repub- lican; Debs, socialist; Preston, social ist-labor; Chain, prohibitionist Wat son, populist, and Hisgen, independ- ence league. The five small or eccen- tric candidates promise to poll all told about ,OO0 900 votes as against sos. .251 votes polled by the lesser parties in 1904.
 It is idle to say that the Georgia democrats will waver. They under stand the southern situation, and they know the south cannot be served by casting votes for either Tom Watson or John Temple Graves. Each will re- ceive a small personal vote in Geor- gia, but the electoral vote of that state will be cast for William Jennings Bryan. All contrary talk pertains strictly to the silly season of the year.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-30
A 15osToRY BUILDING.

From the New York Times.
 The Scientific American of July p de- clares that the limit upon the height Of buildings in New York city does not de- nend upon any structural weakness that can develop, or upon the oVerturning or racking effects of the wind. Because the building code specifics, however, that the maximum pressure beneath the footings ou A rock bottom, if caisson foundations pc used, shall not exceed 15 tons to the square foot and because the code re- ouires, further that the steel skeietoh shall be 12 inches thick for the last 70 feet of altitude, increasing four inches for each 60 feet below, it would be prac- ticallv impossible to build higher than 2oO0 feet. The figures of weights and other calculations for such tremendous tower, constructed on the general prin- ciples of the Singer building, have been supplied by MT. O. F. Semsch, chief en- gineer for MT. Ernest Flagg, its de- signer. The building would rise to height of 15o stories, and its cost would be s60,oO000O. Its walls would be F inches thick at the top, at the bottom 12 feet, and they would withstand a wind pres sure of 30 pounds per square foot all the way up
 The Metropolitan Life tower rises eo9 feet above the street level. Though a building of more than twice its height would stand firm beneath the accumulated
 weight, other considerations than the in direct limits enjoined by the building code such as the inevitable blockading of traffic in front, and the reluctance of tenants and their clients to ascend the equivalent of 10 15-story building placed atop each other, would have to be con sidered by man with s60, 0O0, 900 for building purpOSes to spare.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-30
Cost of Primaries

Maj. T. A. Hamilton was right when he said in Tuesdays Age-Herald that publicity of campaign expenses is as needful at home as it Is in New York or Chicago. He goes on to show that although three months have elapsed the democratic county executive com mittee has published no list of it's re- eeipts and expenditures in the recent county primary.
 This is not just to about 70 candi- dates for membership in the board of revenue to say the least The commit tee collected, it appears, s2570, and the disbursement of that sum should be publicly accounted for. It is public business, and no business of the public another name for the party in this one-party state-should be done and kept close secret. Major Hamilton is wholly right when he demands pub ncity.
 If publicity is not feasible at home it is not in national committees, anc we should begin by demanding public ity at home. The county committee can make an excellent beginning in home publicity by publishing list of its receipts and expenditures in the re. cent county primary.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-30
SUNDAY IN HOUSTON.
, Houston Post

From the Houston Post.
 On this beautiful, sunkissed, dew sprayed, zephyr-swept Sabbath morning when the good Lord and all His radiant angles are with us in Heavenly Houston the City of Anthems-it is sweetly solemn thought that we have escaped that visitation of wrath predicted by Sister Armour of Jawjaw; that our pants patchers and hash constructors are yet throbbing with life and beauty; that our bouncing and ringleted babies are happy in the sandpile; that our red-headed and dimpled widows are comforted and en- raptured by numerous proposals; that the mayor of Timpson still looks forward to an annual salary of one plunk; that the 65-pound watermelons are rolling, roll ing in; and that there is yet time to screen the cisterns and oil the ditches in order to put an everlasting and eternal quietus upon the most beautiful and at- tentive mosquitoes the world ever saw. s'
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-30
Speaks German Also.

Birmingham has had a number of ex cellent Mayors" said August schillinger. but Capt. Frank P. O'Brien will be the first who could speak German.
 Our Mayor-to- be is a native of Ireland. but he speaks good German. Such an accomplishment will be quite useful, al- though most of the men who come from the fatherland now speak several lan- guages besides their own, notably Eng lsh Captain o'Brien is admirably equip ped for the office for which he has been chosen, and will make us a model execu- tiyeu
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-30
WOMAN'S DOVER.

By Thomas Moore "Odes of Anacreon." To all that breathe the air of heaven, Some boon of strength has Nature given. In forming the majestic bull,
 She fenced with wreathed horns his skull A hoof of strength she lent the steed, And winged the timorous hare with speed. She gave the lion fangs of terror, And OCT the oceans crystal mirror, Taught the unnumbered scaly throng To trace their liquid path along;
 While for the umbrage of the grove, She pucked the warbling world of love. To man she gave, in that proud hour, The boon of intellectual power.
 Then, what. oh woman, what for thee, Was left in Natures treasury?
 She gave thee beauty-mightier far Than all the pomp and power of war Nor steel, nor fire Itself hath power
 Like woman in her conquering hour Be thou but fair, mankind adore thee, Smile. and world is weak before theal
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-30
DOWN AND OUT.
Plight of the Man Who Wrote "Ain't
 Dat a Shame?" and Other Songs.

Detroit.-Attracted by the strains of an old familiar coon song floating out from a Farrar street saloon, a passerby entered and heard the chorus
 ''Ain't dat a shame
 A measly shame,
 To keep me standin'
 Out in the rain?
 Oordy, hab little pity)-
 Won't you open dat do
 An let me in?
 I'm standin' here freezin',
 Wet to de slsin.'
 The singing was by comparatively young man. somewhat below medium stature, attired in worn blue suit and a soiled blue shirt, without a collar. His hands were large and puffy, but they caressed the piano keys famiiarly as they wandered through a cleverly im- provised accompaniment to the song that came from the mans lips.
 The man was Hugh Cannon, author of "Ain't Dat Shame" and many other coon songs that had a tremendous run a few years back-"Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home" Just Because
  eral more In like vein. Others have made fortunes out of them, but the author is eking out an existence by playing and singing in saloons.
 Not for him the royalties which have put many man on easy street His songs have paid royalties. to he sure but they have gone into the pockets of others. He sold "Goo-Goo Eyes, for a paltry s25, and woman in the south is still drawing comfortable income from its sale Bill Bailey brought him $35O and the money was squandered years ago. He never received cent for .'Ain't Dat Shame.' He simply gave it away. He is not regularly employed in the Farrar street saloon. He dropped in just to see what the prospects were for a job and found that the place had a play CT. But he ground out" a few songs by request and received his pay in drinks at the bar. He admitted without hesi- tation that he puts away upward of 20 or 30 'whiskys' per day, as a rule.
 What brought you to your present condition?' was the frank question put to him.
 Well, l don't blame the booze" he replied. T always drank to a certain extent. but used to take a brace and get into form again I haven't writ ten anything in over year now, and there aint no use, for l can't get my stuff accepted around this town. The publishers are sore on me because I sold one song to three different firms. Since then they have no use for me
 ''It was all right as long as Paul Dres- ser was alive. He was my pal, and al- ways stood by me. When he cashed in that was the last straw I haven't done tap since, except play in saloons. Does 1t pay? Well, l get $2O week-some- times"
 cannon has been living in Jackson, Mich, where his wife is now staying, un- til recently, when he came to Detroit, his old home. to look around.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-30
SoNNETS IN SLANG,
Wallace Irwin Called the Smoothest
 Sonneteer Since Shakespeare.

From the New York Globe
 If sometimes car conductor refuses to let you on. when you are off, or off when you are on, 1t may be because he is busy writing sonnets on the backs of transfers. Wallace Irwin, who makes a speciality of sonnets and slang, has re- gently come into the possession of 20 or more of these transfer slips containing "The Love Sonnets of a Car Conductor" which have been published in attractive red transfer boards by Paul Elder & Co. The girl to whom the car conductor renned his passion is a peacherette called Pansy, and those are cheerless days for the conductor when Pansy doesn't flag his Pullman:
 Three days with sad skiddoo have come
 and went,
 Yet Pansy cometh nix to ride with me. I rubber vainly at the throng to see Her golden locks-geei Such a discontentl Perhaps she's beat 1t with some soapy
 gent
 Perhans she's promised Gill the Grip to His No. till death yells "2Sl'' While 1 am Outsky in the supplement. Now and anon some Lizzie flags the train And I, poor dots, cry, Rapture, it Is
 her!''
 Yet guess again-my hope is all In vain And Pansy girl refuses to occur. If this keeps up I think I'll finish swell Among the jabbers in the padded cell One day Pansy's mother boards the ear, and the conductor says: I'd wrastle death for her, I'd fight her
 pa
 But stab me if I'll syrup to her mai Rattle my baggage if I ever saw A cracker box to equal mothers jaw, A hardwood fnish-face all nailed and
 squared
 She ossifed the gripman when she
 stared And me? Well, was overcame with
 awe. ,ai4 6 But, being Pansy's ma, twas up to me To hand her something pit-a-pat and
 swell, f q And so I says, Hello, Queen Cherokee What ho for Pansy? Hope she's feeling
 we'll" And ma responds, a trifie tart, but game, ''she minds her bizness-hope you feel the
 same" A Sunday at Coney fixes the car con- ductor solid with Pansy, for she agrees that "at a spenderfest he wasn't shy" and they shoot the bill of fare from soup to pie. Before long the car conductor is trying to do a sum that would puzzle g. babe in toyland.
 s~al Love in a cottage run on union pay Can Teddy Roosevelt do a sum like
 that?
 Two can eat cheap as one. perhaps, but,
 say,
 You've got to beat quarter pretty flat To cork three squares, make Little Two
 Shoes snug,
 And keep the wolf from chewing up the
 rug. But when your arms are full of girl and
 fluff
 You hide your nerve behind yard of
 grin,
 You'd spit into a wildcats face or bluff A flock of dragons with a safety pin. Life's a slow skate, but loves the dopey
 glim
 That puts a brewery horse in racing trim. The next time the car flies past you a-waitin on the corner, smile and look pleasant The conductor may be writing sonnets. Anyway, isn't MT. Irwin the smoothest sonneteer since Shakespeare?
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-30
Julian Hendricks ReSienatIOn

This city is about to lose it's chief engineer, to whom its system of streets and sewers is as familiar as A B C's. In the course of long years of service as city engineer Julian Kendrick prac. tically planned the public portion of the present municipality, and his res ignation deprives the city of broad, progressive and highly efficient en- gineering officer. He goes where larger salaries are paid He goes where rec ognition of his capacity will bring larger rewards No one can blame him for accepting more lucrative position. The city of Birmingham simply loses a valuable official.
 The choice of successor lies with the board of aldermen, and that body will have no more important business to transact this year. Mr. Kendrick will leave behind an assistant in M. A. Nicholson, to whom the ways and by ways and underways of the city are also familiar. Possibly MT. Kendick' s recommendations in regard to a sue cessor will be helpful to the council. He certainly understands the situation, and any recommendation he may make should have great weight in the board that will elect his successor.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-30
REFLECTIONS OF A BACHELOR
From the New York Press.

From the New York Press.
 When a girl can love an old man it's a sign she can fool him into thinking it's real.
 Everybody is intoerant of other peo- ple's bad habits when he has different ones of his own.
 A pleasant thing about expecting money is all you can plan to do with 1t until 1t comes and your family gets 1t.
 It's the easiest thing in the world for a woman to make man think he Is In love with her unless they are married.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-30

Turkey and Oklahoma have new constitution, and the former will be lucky indeed if she gets as good one as the Oklahomans are enjoying with no expectation of change.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-30

The New York republicans who op. pose Governor Hughes renomination are straightout reactionaries of the Joe Cannon sort.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-30
HE TRIED IT.

From the Chicago Record-Herald.
 Have you ever tried soft answer for the purpose of turning away wrath?"
 Yes, and I find that in about 99 cases out of a 100 it only makes the other fel- low think you're afraid of him.