davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-01
Progress of Aerial Flight

B1eriot's flight across the straits of Dover and Orville Wright's straight away flight in Virginia have fully de- termined the possibilities of heavier fhan-air machines--have cut aviators loose even from dirigible gasbags of the Zeppelin sort. The conquest of the air is now but matter of the con- stant Improvements of time When the Wrights made their first flight in an aeroplane they, like Columbus on the sea, led the way and made flights in the air possible. The first rude, i'm perfect machine of the Wrights was the historic one, and 1t is a pity it has not been preserved intact.
 No doubt many mishaps will here after occur in the development of air travel to the point of commercial and military efficiency, but there Is no room left for doubts as to the final success of seronautical principles. The glory of the hour consists not 50
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-01

much in what has been done as It does in showing what may be done what will certainly be done. The Wright brothers are not enthusiasts. They are cautious and no amount of popular applause changes their course, and this is. perhaps, why they are succeeding beyond even their daring French rivals.
 The season has already brought us remarkable developments and it is still young There will be additional tests and flights this year by both bi- planes and monoplanes. Thus far no monoplane has been able to carry a passenger and an aviator, and In this respect the biplane of the Wrights stands today without a rival. The flights will, however. go on, and in that way the machine best adapted to commercial and military uses will be developed.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-01
The Rirmlnaham Spirit.

Do you know" remarked a prominent business man, that the Birmingham spirit is growing at a good pace? Even the small boy. the proverbial baseball fan, has been inoculated. As they are to make the future business men of the city this means much. few days ago I stopped a moment to enjoy the juvenile enthusiasm that surrounded a baseball game in side lot. One slight youth was vociferously contesting the ump's' de- cision. When another one yelled, Don't be knocker, the retort came quick and snappy, I'm no knocker, I'm a booster everybody in Birmingham is a booster. now, gwan play ball
 srhe Birmingham spirit, if exploited till 1t becomes general among our entire citizenship will prove to be one of the most beneficial, though intangible, assets we can have The Business Mems league is doing a most commendable work in this direction. Every one in the Magic City should think Birmingham and talk Birmingham on every and all occasions, particularly when among strangers. It will not appear the least bon1bastic or egotistical to do this Every one respects and admires the man or woman who shows such patriotic, love for their home city Then, again, there Is an exhilarat- ing satisfaction in doing 1t. Be booster. Talk Birmingham"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-01

Tt starts on its mission with its
 face to the sunrise, with hope in its
 heart and with the determination to
 make itself a potential factor in
 everything that concerns the welfare
 of It's people,"
 It is not well nor proper to blow ones own horn. But Birmingham has grown wonderfully; and The Age-Herald has en- deavored to grow with 1t. It has been the province of the young people who make The Age-Herald to endeavor to make 1t the best newspaper in the south. These young people may not have sue ceeded, because there are some mighty clever fellows on a lot of other news papers in the south; but they have done their best, and there is not man in the state of Alabama who can say that The Age-Herald, in its news columns, has not been fair, just and generous to every man, to every industry. to every business and to every aggregation of people in the state.
 It is an open newspaper; it is the newspaper of the state. It is the medium through which the people can express
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-01
Law and Public Sentiment

Laws for the observance of the Christian Sabbath, or more properly Sunday or the Lords Day, have varied with the centuries, and in modern years Sunday regulations have been different in different countries. Until the Emperor Constantine issued a de- cree forbidding the inhabitants of towns to engage in manual labor on the first day of the week the observ- ance was confined to the church.
 From Charlemagne's time the sane tity of Sunday seems to have been more deeply felt and during the Mid dle Ages there developed an increas- ing strictness against all traffic on the Lords Day.
 Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and even Knox are said to have favored a more liberal observance; but toward the end of the sixteenth century the Puritan idea took strong hold in Great Britain, and this Puritan view was brought from England to America. Along with these rigid notions about the Sabbath came, as might have been expected, the intolerable "blue laws" of New England, which sought to regu- | lata all human copduot
 Nearly every state In the Union has on It's statute books Sunday laws more or less explicit. And at the time such enactments were made they met, no doubt, with general approval. But grad ually public sentiment with regard to strict enforcement of these laws re- faxed and notwithstanding the system atic movement organized about 20 years ago for a better observance of Sunday, led by the Rev. Dr. Wilbur F. Crafts, an able, high-minded and indefatigable divine great change has taken place in this country both in opinion and practice. This reaction is evidenced by the increased num- Der of Sunday trains, pleasure out. ings, band concerts secular lectures the opening of art galleries and tee enormous business carried on at soft drink stands, ice cream parlors and tobacco stores.
 In the criminal code of Alabama some of the Sunday laws that seemed not unreasonable years ago are evi.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-01
Great Crops and Great Prices

The crops of the country other than cotton will, 1t is estimated, cross for the first time the eight-billion-dollar line this year. This estimate is based on the latest reports gathered from the corn and other fields, and 1t is already known that all food products will command high prices. President Brown, of the New York Central rail- road, recently visited his boyhood home in Iowa and he found the farm CTS were receiving unprecedented prices-s1.20 for a bushel of wheat at the railroad station, 65 cents bushel for corn, and ' cents a pound for gether with the present outlook for crops, will fill the pockets of the farmers in the granary sections of the country, and the expectation now is that the pockets of southern farmers will be filled with money brought in by twelve-cent cotton.
 Aside from the wealth that the miners and drillers find below the sur face everything else comes from the soil-comes from the crops of year Great crops, therefore, point to pros- perity among the farmers and proA- perity among the farmers extends to all in touch with them. When the farmers have well-filled pockets the railroads are kept busy and so are the mills and factories, and in short the country becomes prosperous and gen. eral business active.
 That seems to be what is in store for us as people. The wage earner will rejoice with the business man, and all will be happy long before the Christmas season comes again.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-01
Music In Chicago.

Glen O. Friermood, the esteemed musi- clan and vocal teacher, has returned from a northern trip. He left here in June and spent tho greater part of his vacation In Chicago. but stopped several days In Cincinnati. his old homo.
 T heard good music in Chicago. The Thomas orchestra. with Frederick Stock conducting, was playing every evening at Ravena park. The orchestra was fine under the late Theodore Thomas. its founder, and it seems to be equally fine under Mr. Stock Ravena park is about 30 minutes on the train from Chicago, and the orchestral concerts were largely attended. On August Walter Damrosch, with his New York Symphony orchestra. succeeds the Thomas orchestra at Ra- vena. He has i've weeks engagement there. At the White City heard Crea- tore's excellent band, which is playing there all summer. Chicago has great deal of good music all the year round.
 "The taste for artistic music in the large cities of this country Is evidently growing. Until recent years high-class orchestras usually broke up for the sum mer, or with diminished numbers, played in beer gardens under subdirectors. But now the demand for the well known symphony bands is 50 great that these or ganizations are kept intact during the heated term and the conductor, who used
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-01
Cotton Conditions.

John A. Caldwell, in discussing the cot ton situation yesterday, said: "The sensa- tion Of the week in cotton circles has been the National Ginners' conditional report of TIT, and the report of the lady sta- tisticians, Miss Giles and Mrs. Burch. the latter making conditions T and the former 75. These ladies are proteges of the government and Miss Giles has some what of a reputation as a crop prognos- ticator. Mir. Price also made public his report early in the week, showing a con- dition of less than 69. The average of all these private reports points to the low est condition on record, indicating a crop for this year of about Il, 900 bales.
 '"The winter positions crossed the F 50 mark in New York, and there was a wholesale slaughter of the shorts; the market having advanced $4 a bale from the low level. The literature turned out by the New York market writers Is so extremely bullish that 1t looks as If it's all over except cashing the tickets. Liv- erpool was closed today, and will be on Monday, therefore New York and New OilcdnS VIII lt1Nc u AiSc5l tHo Sd u on Monday. We believe the market has already discounted figure of "A, and If the bureau should come point or two above this. prices would not improve much. Should 1t rain in Texas over Sunday with a report disappointing to the bulls, a decline would be inevitable. Late Friday, and during all of today 8 session. the market sagged under liqui- dation. It looked as If some of the big people were evening up for the bureau.
 Conditions in the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama have improved greatly within the past week or 10 days. The chief complaint comes from Texas, Mis- sissippi and Louisiana There appears to be a better demand for paper cotton than the real staple. With futures sell ing at 1250 in New York, about the best bid for october-November delivery Is 11% cents. This reflects artificial quota tions"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-01
FOLLY IN THE PULPIT.
pm the St. Louis Times.

From the St. Louis Times.
 That Minneapolis clerical leader of flock who yesterday denounced as '1ewd and nude" the women whose immodest exposures he pictured upon a screen H. lustratins his Sunday morning discourse seems to be an ardent seeker of noto riety not less than any he described.
 When an ordained and reverend teach CT becomes so nsanely aspirant for news paper attention as to proceed to such un- doubtful measures to obtain it. both laity and pulpit can but view him with con- temptuous pity.
 He steals the livery of satan to serve his vanity in.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-01
VISIT TO TrTIArs BIRTHPLACE.
Village of Pieve Did Not Give the Mas
 ter Inspiration.

From "In the Dolomites." by Madame
 Washington, in Scribner's.
 We interviewed the padrone about going to Pieve di Cadore-a quaint little vil- 1age, on the top of a hill, famous as Titians birthplace, about two miles from Tai. by a very steep road If 1t had been fine we should have walked there, but the road was transformed into running stream, and it seemed wiser to take a carriage. A drive of 15 minutes brought us to Pievs. The carriage stopped in the middle of the Piazza Tiziano," un- der Titian's statute, and the driver asked what we wanted to do. It had begun to rain again hard, but we scram- bled out from under the dirty, smelly hood, and armed with umbrellas started for Titian's house, telling the driver to wait for us at the Hotel al Progresso
 The village is small. Some rather large stone houses, which are dignified with the name of "palazzi." Titians house didn't say much to us. Two small, low, dark rooms. One can't imagine how the boy could have had any inspiration or visions of his splendid coloring in such surround ings--but one of the rooms, they told us
 was his studio. However, he was taken to Venice, to study, when he was only 10 years old so 1t was only his first child ish years that were spent in Pisvs. Some people live in the house-a barber, l think. They showed us all over the rooms and said great many people came to see them-principally English
 We went on to the church-the oldest in Cadore. There were several interest ing paintings-two by Titian--a Madonna and saints-fhe others by members of his family, the vecellios. There are still vecellios in the villags-one sees the name quite often. The butcher, cobbler and grocer are all vecellios. There is, of course, too, an Albergo and a Cafe Tizi- ano. All the pictures had the gorgeous colorinx of Titan and the Venetian school of that time The museum is next to the church, with various interesting relics of Titan. Some sketches and some letters written to him by great personases-also many of his own. He always remained in touch with his native place. and came back to it very often-wanted to come home to die when he was 99 years old and the plague was raging in Venice. He tried to get away. but no one was allowed
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-01
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
Municipal Government.

All this talk of theorists and would be reformers about having high-gr business men in charge of municipal ar fairs Is an irldescent dream" said an ex-office holder. "There will be politics in city affairs whether commission gov ernment be adopted or not. Where is 1 the 'high-grade business man who Will abandon his business to make canvass for commissioner? The dreamers possi- bly will say no canvassing is necessary that the immaculate voters will rush 10 the standard of some frst-class business man and place him In office without so- l!citation on his part. Years ago It may have been, occasionally, that the office sought the man. but take my word Tor it, in the present time 1t is the fellow who goes out after votes the most stren- uously who lands the office.
 Tt requires votes to win elections. and 'high-grade business men,, so-called, are not equipped by training and experience for the art of obtaining votes to cope with men who have played the game. This is a reason against commission gov ernment which appeals strongly to me.
 We are sure to continue to have poll ticians i'll political offices. So-called re- formers may get in from time to time, as they have done heretofore, but in tho twinkling of an eye they become poll ticians. The game is fascinating and se- ductive and seems irresistible. Recall some of our reform administrations where offices have been won on the cry of ring rule, graft or any old thing to catch the festive voter. Then remem- Der how the reformer became part and parcel of the so-called ring
 For my part prefer the present plan. We can keep an eye on an immediate ward alderman, and as a rule he feels responsible to his neighbors. There is also more safety in numbers, because If anything seriously wrong be contemplated or done the liability of exposure by some other member is always a restraint. In a close corporation of three or five poli- ticians-and we are always going to have politicians filling offices-we haven't the same chance at scrutiny and pub licity of their acts. Some may believe they have, but I seriously doubt it'
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-01
TIE ROAD TO YESTERDAY,

M. B. Buhler in the New York Sun. Close to the path of every day The winding roadway lies; We breathe the incense of the dawn Beneath the solemn skies, And 10, cloud curtains lift and bring Old scenes before our eyesi A sound of bell on summer eve,
 A breath of violet's bloom, When touch of little clinging hand Comes with the faint perfume And then the Road to Yesterday
 Breaks shining through the gloom! We catch a. glimpse of snowy peaks Above shadowed vale; Or down some mountains sloping side There bloom the wild flowers pale; Or on the far horizon falls
 A light on sinking sail. Along the Road to Yesterday
 Lies palaces of light And windy caves in barren lands
 Whereof no man has sight, And strange Noons round a stranger
 earth
 Draw wild tides in the nightl The road leads over sunken seas And stretch of desert sands; The stars of long past ages shine
 Ger wondrous twilight lands; And there are long-forgotten friends Who once have clasped our handsl
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-01
NED BRACE TALKS ABOUT THE
 TWELFTH YEAR OF THIS .AGF=HERALD

themselves. When there be wrong 1t expresses itself edltorially and endeav- OTIS to right such a wrong. At the same time every man of character and standing has the right, in parliamentary language, to express himself. over his own sigma ture. in it's columns.
 At the present time when the state and It's people are within the throes and the turmoil of politics 1t is we'll that the peo- pie express themselves, and the columns of The Age-Herald are open to manly and fair expressions, provided they do not exceed a half column of type
 And in it's twelfth year of existence under It's present management, and on this Sunday morning, it congratulates the neople of Alabama, of the Birmingham district and of the city of Birmingham upon the splendid progress which all have made.
 We have really had good times; we are going ahead and no one rejoices more in what has been done than does
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-01

l day, for they are ignored by church men and women as well as by the irreligious populace. In the Birming- ham code, section 1094 based on the state laws, is this: "It shall be un- lawful for any newsdealer, or any con fectioner, baker or dealer in soda wa ter, lemonade, or other beverages, or drug store (except for sale of medi- cines), or any barber to sell or serve customers or keep open doors on Sun day; provided that newsdealers may sell until 12 noon, and newsboys may sell on the streets all day" Then the penalties for violation are stated.
 Among the thousands of orderly peo- pie who patronize soda water stands on Sunday are many of genuine piety; and yet they are parties to the vio- lation of law, but law that has be- come of no effect all because it is not supported by public sentiment.
 In Eufaula and in Tuscaloosa the city fathers have recently repealed the Sunday ordinances. God-fearing cit izens were continually violating the ordinances in question and 1t was thought better to annul them Similar action will some day be taken in Bir- mingham and other cities where little or no attention Is paid to certain of the Sunday regulations, good people evidently thinking our present observ- ance quite decorous enough.
 Those well-meaning but ardent and uncompromising prohibitionists who take offense and flare up when they are told that prohibition will not pro- hibit unless public sentiment is large ly on the prohibition side, dodge the question and accuse the opponents of anti-saloon legislation of shameful dis regard for law. The fact is that no law is operative in any wholesome de- gree unless 1t is backed by an eager and alert public sentiment. The liquor trade has been usually repressed in dry counties under local option law, because the majority has represented public sentiment. But on the other hand where statewide prohibition has been forced on communities which would not be without saloons other wise, then the law has become a farce or a dead letter.
 But should rot all citizens be re- minded of their duty to obey the pro- hibition laws so long as they remain on the books? Yes. But when public sentiment in any given city had ceased to uphold certain Sunday laws then such laws were as if they did not exist. And so with prohibition laws and all other laws seeking to regulate people by wholesale and put society back on puritanical basis. The public senti- ment in this age can usually be count ed on as sane and well poised. Hence no fanatical prohibition legislation will hold very long any more than did the all too rigid Puritan laws retain their force.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-01
Virginia Politics.

Virginia Politics.
 "I spent last week in Virginia" said Frank M. Thurber of Washington, D. C., "and found the gubernatorial campaign at fever heat. Most of my friends were partisans of Judge Mann, the prohibi- ton candidate, and they were hopeful of victory; but as we'll as I could judge Tucker, who is running on a local option platform, has the best chance of win ming. Mann Is a Confederate veteran and also an office.seeking veteran. He has been standing candidate for governor ever since 1 can remember, and while he Is a gentleman of excellent moral standing he has been regarded for these many years as a political joke. Should he beat Tucker 1t would be signal triumph for state wide prohibition. By the way Mann was a total abstainer and prohibitionist away back in the sos, before the world had heard much of prohibition politics.
 Tucker is personally popular. is like Mann, a gentleman of high morals and is a staunch Presbyterian. He represented his district in Congress for six or eight years. He Is a son of the late Ran. Tucker who was one of the greatest law years in the United States, and for sev- eral years chairman of the ways and means committee of the House of Rep resentatives. The elder Tucker was rec ognized as the ablest leader of the tariff for-revenue-only democracy in Congress Mann and Tucker will abide by the de- cision of the democratic party, which will be rendered at the primary next Thurs day.
 The Virginia republicans have already nominated their candidate. W. P. Kent, a clean, able politician. He is running on local option platform and if Judge Mann should be nominated uy the democrats Kent would give him very close race.
 Virginia has been thoroughly can vassed by the Anti-Saloon league, but tate-wide prohibition is strongly op- posed not only in the large cities but in many of the small towns that used to be dry but are now wet As far as can understand the situation many Vir- ginians are hotly resenting what they call too much preacher in party politics. It has been an unwritten law in Vir- , ginia for many years that the minister of the gospel must confine his work to teaching and preaching religion and leave political leadership to laymen."
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-01
FOR SUMMER BoARDERs.

V TUIH 6ucctBS MdBHzIII5.
 Scott spent a part of one summer in the country, and hence was an authority on agricultural matters.
 'Tn milking cow he wrote his friends, 'always sit on the side furthest from the critter, and nearest the soft spot in the pasture"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-01

(0 Sunday morning, and of the first
 day of August, the first issue of The Age-Herald under It's present editor, who happens to be the writer over the nom de plume which appears below, made it's first appearance in Birmingham.
 It happened to be of Sunday morning and of the first of August. It was a strenuous time that Saturday afternoon and night to produce a newspaper with the mechanical equipment which was then possessed by The Age-Herald Pub fishing company. The paper however, consisted of only sixteen pages.
 Tn the original announcement in that issue one statement was made. It was in these wordsi
 "Primarily 1t will be a newspaper" Another sentence in this original an- nouncement of what this newspaper should be was this statement:
 "The mission of The Age Herald is to build up-never to pull down. It will strive with its might to develop
 Birmingham and Alabama indus trially; 1t will protect the industries we have and endeavor to extend them
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-01

to leave the doomed city. He was seized with the dreadful malady aud died prac- tically alone. his servants having already succumbed to the plague