davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-12-26

, throughout England there came the festivities of the Yule log in palace, castle and home of peasant; holly pine and cedar decorated every home. It was day of cheer and of good will; but under all the lighter emotions of the people there lay the deep determine ton to wrest from the reigning mon- arch a charter of the nations liberties.
 It had been the custom of the barons for many years to make their acknowl- edgments to their sovereign on Christ mas day, but on this particular day nos a baron crossed the threshold of the royal palace nor was any word of greet ing extended to the unworthy King. John knew that he stood upon the brink of an abyss, and being too ob- durate to make concessions to his peo- pie and too weak to maintain his ground by the force of sound res ssoning, there was left to him only one course-flight. So, when night came and his subjects were making merry with ancient games, with wassail. with dancing and with car ols, John, who was at Worcester, stealth fly fled a guilty culprit to London. His flight being reported to the barons, they were soon on the track Of the coward fugitive. At London the demand for a charter was pressed but the King asked for time. This was done more than once. Finally the barons them selves determined the time and place June 10th the day and the field of Run nymede the place. There and then Eng land receir~& its Magma Charter
 Another Christmas day in the same century that gave the charter of Eng land is also historic and of great in- portance. I refer to the Christmas of 1264. A fortnight before Christmas day, simon de Montfort. in the name of King Henry, sent out notices to the nobies that on the Feast of the Nativity they should assemble and formulate laws for the guidance of the kingdom. Therefore, on that Christmas day there met the first English parliament
 A Stolen Pope.
 In the city of Rome, on the Esquiline hill. stands the stately and magnificent old church of Santa Maria Maggiore. It was built in the year 40, and while 1t
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-12-26

Tor, afterwards pastor in Lexington, Va. Tiberius Jones preached the ordina- ton sermon in the Baptist church. Char lottesville. Va, and wonderful sermon 1t was redolent of genius from begin ming to end.
 The church was under the caves of the university The great preacher writer and scholar. John A. Broadus was pas- tor, and so the people were used to preaching of high order. The large audi ence room was densely crowded with one of the most intellectual and highly cul- tivated audiences that I have ever seen gathered anywhere on this continent. The great preacher, in the prime of his splendid manhood, was at his best, and without a scrap of paper before him he held that audience spellbound for moro than an hour.
 His text was Second Timothy, fourth chapter. second verse-hPreaoh tho word"-and the SCI mon elahorately dis eussed the questions, What Is preach ing?" and How should 1t be done?' So accurately and admirably did he fol- low his own instructions that he remind ed me of Pope on Longinus:
 'Whose own example strengthened all
 his laws,
 And is himself the great sublime he
 draws"
 In that ordination sermon, the great preacher said that "the preachers are the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-12-26

linois democrat monkey with the tariff. and it is not at all likely that 90 years later Speaker Cannon will aok H. linois republican to tinker with the thing; but if the democrats will only stand solid and the insurgents insurge, Mr Mann will get his bills through the House, and that would be The most nau- seating dish of crow ever set up for MT. Aldrich in, the Senate.
 It would mean a revision of Schedule K also-the infamous ta.iff on wool and woolens-the discussion of which last summer stamped Jonathan P. Dol liver of Iowa as one of the ablest and most eloquent debaters of the tariff now in public life.
 It all depends on the country weekhes, If they want cheaper print paper they can force it through the House before the roses come again, and if all of them join in, they can jam it through the Senate also.
 tax raised from wood pulp and print paper is promotive oI ignorance, just as q tariff duty on woolen blankets Is an encouragement of disease One of them makes the book, the magazine, the news paper dearer in price, and the other makes scantier the alreacy scant cloth ing of the poor mans bed. Here Is the tariff on blankets: Valued at not more than 40 cents per pound the tariff duty is 22 cents per pound and 20 per cent sd
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-12-26

ism in our sermonizing than in our style of delivery We have got set forms into which every sermon is to be molded. We must have our Introduction as If the subject of religion was a stranger, and needed to be introduced to the people of a Christian congregation. Then We can hardly get along without our firstly (by the way, is this an English wordD and our secondly etc., sometimes run ming up to 'hfthly'; and not unfrequently each one of these divisions rejoices in quite an array of subdivisions. so that sometimes the sermon Is cut up into as many pieces as a pound-cake. Now-un- less the sermon is meant to be a demon strative argument (which it hardly ever ought to be) we see no good end to be obtained by the public announcement of these muititudinous divisions. If the preacher needs them, in order to assist his memory, there may be no special oojec- ton to his putting them down in his notes, though, even for this purpose 1t might be well to use them sparingly, and trust more to the memory itself
 Then, how many sermons have all the life squeezed out of them by piling heavy weights of ''proprety'' upon them! Now. propriety Is a good enough thing in It's place; but we are sadly impressed with the belief that many breaches con- tinually sacrifice interest and effect Go a false notion of proprlety. We wish very much that we could see a more di- rect, homely, familiar, conversational style cultivated by our preachers. If
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-12-26

THE Hon. James R. Mann is cap
 able and vigilant member of Con-
 \ gress from Illinois, and successor of Elihu B. Washburn of that great state as a watchdog of the treasury MT. Mann announces that it is his purpose to attempt a re-revision of the tariff during the session of Congress that begun Mon day, December 6. He would advance the date when the maximum and mini mum feature of the Payne-Aldrich bill shall become operative one year, and re- wise the wood pulp and print paper sehed- ule down. Mir Mann is republican.
 This proposal suggests some ancient his tory made by another Illinois soon, Dick Townsend He was from Egypt per haps. In the Forty-sixth Congress he was chairman of the unimportant and ob- scure committee on revision of the laws
 Samuel J. Randall was speaker and had fixed up a ways and means committee that was perfectly satisfied with the tar If as Robert c. Schenck, Henry L. Dawes, John Sherman and Justin s. Morrill, had trimmed the thing, and the speaker was resolved that there should be no t!nkering with the tariff during the life of that Congress. His proposition was to
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-12-26

they will insist upon prepriety. then ws should like to see them impressed with the idea that 1t Is very serious viola ton of propriety to put the people to sleep. If your hearers are not awake. 1t matters not how much rropriety you may have in your sermon, it will do no good. A preacher had better violate even the proprieties of ordinary gram mar and keep the audience awake and listening to important truth, than to speak with all the propriety of Burke. and put his hearers to slep. By the way, 1t Is a notorious fact that Burke, him self, with all his propriety, used to speak In parliament to empty benches. His speeches, which, in their printed form. we all admire as such models Of duee the effect of sending his auditors out of the house before he had been speaking half an hour. They lacked in- csion. The sentences were rounded, not pointed. We honestly believe that if sensible, tolerably educated man would take an important passage of Scripture, study it carefully in it's connection. skher with the aid of the best exegetical works, or without any reference to any thing that has ever been said or written about 1t before, and then come before the people and tell them honestly and naturally what the passage means, il- frustrating and enforcing it's meaning by real and familiar incidents, the result would be refreshingly interesting, and. in most churches, entirely novel.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-12-26

NNE of the finest pulpit orators 1 E ever heard was the late Tiberius
 Gracchus Jones of Virginia For many years he was pastor of the Free mason Street Baptist church, Norfolk For another series of years he served as pastor in Nashville, Tenn, and still later as pastor of the Cumberland Street church, Norfolk. At one time he was president of Richmond college. He was an intimate friend of mine. and I preached his funeral in Richmond, where he died during my pastorate in that city. l have head him from pulpit and from platform; and, as an orator. he was as nearly faultless as any man I've ever heard. In presence he was magnificent; in manner refined and elegant, and his voice left nothing to be desired. His style was superb, and I cannot recall that I ever heard him utter an improper word, or ever saw him Use an inappro- priate gesture.
 During my student days at the Uni friends-all University of Virginia men were ordained to the ministry on the same day. They were c. II. Toy, now of Harvard; John L. Johnson, his broth er-in-law. late professor in the Univer- sity of Mississippi. and James B. Tay-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-12-26

against the new King. William led his army in person and was successful in many engagements. Christmas day of that year the king spent in the city or York, and there and then contrived d diabolical plan that would, as he hoped, exterminate the northmen.
 When the Christmas festivities were over William proceeded to carry out his plans. All the counties on the western side of England, between York and Durham, were to be visited with destruction by the Kings army. Not a man, woman nor child was to be spared nor a beast of any kind that might be killed and eaten all farming implements were to be destroyed and not a house was to remain standing. Desolation was to be as thorough as It was to be vast.
 The plans formulated by the King on Chrastmas day, tn day on which angels sang of peace on earth and good will to men, were executed with out mercy. A hundred thousand men, women and children died of the sworu, hy the bitter cold of the winter. By famine or by disease. It required ! hundred years for the country be- tween Ouse and the Scattish border to recover from the effects of the cogita- tions of William the Conqueror as lney ran riot in his brain on Christmas day, 106S
 The Great Charter.
 The year 1214 was one of unusual ex- citement even among the many excit- ing years of the reign of King John of England and during the Christmastide of that year there was one subject whose importance engaged the m,nd and heart of every loyal English,nan. That sub ject was the limitations of the liberty of Englishmen as imposed by the weak, treacherous and despicaole John. His encroachments upon the freedom of his subjects were proudly resented and the barons and the people swore. with their hands on the altar, that. if John would not grant charter cf liberty. they would rise up against him and drive him from the soil of England.
 Christmas day came and with IL
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-12-26

city and spoke to a splendid audience on a memorable occasion; and down into his pockets went This excellency's" hands, as soon as he took the platform. I will not call the name of that city. You may turn Yankee and, guess.
 For ministerial mannerisms" there are, of course, varying reasons-al1 more or less connected with the innate wicked ness of humanity, even in it's best es- tate
 We sometimes wonder why some preach CTS now seem to think of asking them selves the question, "Why don't folks go to sleep when I talk to them as they all ways do when I preach to them?" The careful study of this question ought to awaken a preacher to some things that 1t would be well for him to get rid of. Think of 1t: Brother Drawler. who always puts Brother Drowsy to sleep during the first five minutes of the sermon. can meet him at his home, or on the street. and talk to him for an hour on "the amendment" pig iron. railroad rebates. ship stuff, assafoetida or coon skins, and Brother Drowsy will not once nod. Why is 1t, then. that, when the most import ant of all subjects Is occupying the preacher, Brother Drowsy Is sure to sleep? The probable reason is that Broth CT Drawler has contrived by his unnatural mannerisms in the management of his subject, or in his style of delivery to kill off all the interest which the subject naturally possesses.
 There Is probably even more manner
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-12-26

ravages of that most fatal of all diseases, pneumonia, and save many child from the deadly grip of croup. So if I had my way I would rather retain the tax on the Bible-and that is one of the in- farnies the tax on wood pulp and print paper isl would retain the duty on the paper that is employed to print the Bi- ble, and abolish. or reduce to a strictly revenue basis, the duty on blankets and clothing. Joe Bailey says that 1t is in- famous to make laws requiring a man to wear clothing and then tax him for con-, forming to that law. So say I, and so this country will say If we can keep the tariff paramount.
 The first victory attained by the dem ocratic party after 1856 was in 1874, when the issue was administrative reform. The decent people of the north had become disgusted with the unspeakable infamy of carpetbag and negro rule at the south and elected a democratic congress, and even old Ben Butler was beaten for re- election. Two years later the issue was the same with tariff for revenue only" written into the platform by that greatest of all democratic doctrinaires since Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Jones Tflden. We trlumphed at the ballot box, but the republicans stole the usufruct.
 In 1878, 1882, 1884 1888, 1880 and in 1892 the democratic party triumphed on that grandest of all ideas, that taxation shall
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-12-26

be for public purposes and for nothing else. Besides that, we came mighty near licking em in 1880 and in 1888. In 1892 we put the world in a basket the idea Of tariff for revenue only. Randall was dead and we all thought that Randallism was buried in his coffin. Not so. The Will son bill was Randallized in a Senate nom inally democratic, but actually republican. Mir. Cleveland refused to sign 1t. It was one of his two mistakes; he ought to have vetoed 1t.
 But by this time the question of cur rency integrity got to be paramount and the democratic party took the impossible end of 1t. What was the result? An in- famous tariff that taxes labor to the quick to swell the millions of capital, already plethoric with ill-got wealth. The unnecessary causeless and inglorious Spanish war was brought on, and the re- public of Washington that Lincoln made a nation, was now turned into an em- pre by Mark Hanna: but over the protest of Thomas B. Reed and George F. Hoar, I am glad to recollect.
 And now the democratic party has the issue. if 1t will only utilize it-that tar If taxation shall be for public purposes only, and for the protection of nobody That is the only trump 1t has got, and doubt very much If it will be wise enough to play 1t.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-12-26

has been added to, enlarged and fin various ways beautfied, much of it's ancient character is retained. The nave is nearly 300 feet long, and is defined by long lines of marble columns that rise out of a vio- let and crimson pavement. The walls are white and gold, and the panels of the ceiling are glided with the first gold brought from Peru in the time of F'erdi- nand and Isabella. I have gazed with wonder at the magnificence of this fa- nous old Basiica. When l was there only peace pervaded the sacred atmos- phere, but with little effort of memory one could recall a story of the distant past when this building rang with the clang of arms and with the shouts of desperadoes.
 It was the year 1075. The midnight of December 24th has just given place to the first hour Of December % The Pope, Hidebrand Gregory VII, was at the high altar of Santa Maria Maggiore with a few priests, celebrating the midnight mass The body of the great church was in darkness, the tapers of the altar Hum mating only their immediate surround ings. The doors of the building were fast bolted. Outside of the church there was raging a terrific storm. The heaven were hung with black, the winds were roaring and the rain was falling in torrents. Louder than the shriel. of the winds around the sacred fane, there suddenly rose the wild howl of human voices, fol- lowed by tremendous crash and the falling of the main door of the church to the stone pavement. Into the church swept a body of soldiers led by Cencius. master of St. Angelo. who, with drawn swords, rushed onward to the sacred al- tar where stood the pope and his assist ants in the mass, clothed in their Euchar- istic vestments, saying the sacred office. Cencus laid hands upon Gregoroy, and the brigands surrounding the holy father forced him from the building, out into the darkness of the night; then, placing him upon horse before one of the desperate men armed to the teeth, the whole body of horsemen dashed off in the darkness and were gone.
 Very soon the dissertation and lddnap- ing were made known. From street to
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-12-26

Why not at least qualify for the high school over there?
 My dear girl
 standpoint the present style of using "rats'' or rolls, to puff out your hair is not a pretty one7 I dare not say it is hideous. That would be personal.
 One scarcely wonders. therefore, that many of the department stores and other places where girls or women arc em- ployed absolutely prohibit the use of "rats'
 One naturally asks:
 Why should a girl try to disguise the shape of her head?
 Of course if the head is i'll shaped there might be some excuse, but really there is nothing more exquisite than the usual well shaped head of girl poised on handsome neck.
 And why cover the forehead?
 Along with the fashion of enormously puffing out the hair is the further suc- cessful attempt at hiding the forehead by a mass of hair
 The forehead of a human being Is the leading indicative feature of intelligence It is the result of the slow evolution, by thousands of years and upward tend ency, of the low brow of the primitive man.
 Why try to hide this noble feature as if the face were that of a poodle dog?
 The rat is made of false hair, and whatever is false and artificial cannot be beautiful as nature is beautiful.
 Besides
 The ''rat' is dangerous A young girl of North Bergen, N. J., actually con- tracted leprosy from her "new transfor- nation" The hair of the roll had been taken from the head of deceased Chin aman.
 Fact
 Ought not the horrible incident be a warning?
 It is impossible to trace the history of false hair. And you do not know what germs of disease you are binding up in the midst of your hair.
 Do you not think nature Is the better judge of what Is most attractive in you?
 Art may sometimes help some in beau tifying your face and figure. but 1t should always be remembered that art is imita- ton, and an imitation is hard to conceal. The made up" woman runs the risk of discovery.
 Am I an old fogy?
 Well. so rapidly does fashion change that when you read this article rats" already may be largely relegated to the limbo where they belong.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-12-26

One of the most successful men in Cnl- easo sat at a small table in the big dim ing room of downtown hotel.
 Pointing to this solitary eater, a man said
 ..He always lunches alone-says he's got to have A chance to do some thinking on the inside and that he has put over lot of things just by taking a noontime lunch con by himself"
 Suggestive, is it not?
 The most of us do our thinking from the outside in rather than from the inside out.
 That is to say. we are so much In human contact that our thinking Is sug- sested by others rather than auto-sug- gested-from inside ourselves
 Most of us are too busy to get acqaint- ed with ourselves.
 And this is especially true of young per- sons.
 They live externaly--in contact with others. They live in perpetual round or 9'something doing" and five minutes or real solitude is a torture.
 And this is true especially of city people. In the country there is plenty Of soil tude. A man grows up with himself. and perhaps that is why, other things be- ing equal, the country boy succeeds in the city. He has had chance to know him self.
 His thinking has been from the inside out. The city boys thinking has been from the outside in.
 =
 One of the best possible things that can happen to any human being is the regular onportunity of confronting himself.
 Self communion makes for individuality, personal force.
 The old Greek was right when he said the first thing in importance is, Know myself" A man should live by himself part or his time, talk to himself, advise himself argue with himself. entertain himself
 So this successful Chicago man has dis covered that depending upon outside forces rather than upon inside forces does not make a man strong.
 Young man or young woman, you should cultivate yourself.
 If you are to get on in the world 1t must be because of the forces and the graces inside yourself.
 Yeu can learn much from, the world.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-12-26

| pouch that is necessary to know, but If every day you will do some honest. in dividual thinking by yourself and Of yourself and for yourself you will learn a great deal more. If you are bored when you are by your self you are in a bad way. |, The other day the newspapers were tell ing of a man in Nevada Ia., who began the study of law at the age of 4S. Having been sent to the state legisla- ture as a farmer, he rapidly forged to the front and discovered great gifts as speaker. He decided to be a lawyer When he comes out of law school he will be 50 years of age, and his friends are predicting success for him. But that sS only the comparative de- gree of a high undertaking. Here Is the superlative:
 Mrs A. D. Winship of Racine, Wis. aged 7S years, is studying in the regular course at Ohio State university and says she will remain until she is 80. Listen to her:
 q feel. as young as girl. and why should I not complete my education? In my airlhood we did not have the advan- tages that girls have now, though l was fairly educated for those days
 "When I am called hence and go to the next world I do not want to be placed in the A B c class
 She is specializing is psychology and lit- erature.
 Law at 30. literature at 30.
 Why not?
 What is human life but a learning to know and to do? He who quits learning and applying knowledge Is ready to die. And what can give a greater pleasure than study of the world and the people and things of the world?
 Besides
 The best way to keep oneself young is to keep a young and active mind and heart. When one no longer takes pleas ure in the people and things about him he is, in fact. dead already and walks about merely to save funeral expenses.
 Men, like trees, begin to die at the top.
 We are learning more and more that the mind has tremendous influence over the body If the mind is kept young it will help to keep the body young, And We go into the next world just as we leave this one. "As the tree falls, so it lieth.' Do you want to enter the A B class in heaven?