davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-31
Dawn on a Hlll.
he Smart Set.

l From the Smart Set In different parts of a great city these two, a man and woman. unl<nowu to each other until now, had died at the same hour of the same day.
 This was Spirit land--a strange, green. fresh place fragrant with summer, the air suggesting sea and forest and moun- tain, all in one. It seemed quite proper that they should speak. Convention surely had no place in this clean new world beyond the stars. 'You must have died this morning." he remarked politely. T passed out at a quarter to six, just as the night nurse woke up and started to give me spoon ful of medicine that she should have ministered regularly during the night"
 'I hadn't a nurse, thank heaven" she replied with fervor. q was killed in a bandxthe man who was in the car with me. I've been dying to get away from him for years, but didn't have the cour- age. I feel like dancing. I so happy to think that Fate stepped in and gave me helping hand" Poor girl!' he sighed. And I thought that beautiful woman never grew tired of life!'
 She frowned at the compliment and shrugged her shoulders. Please don't" she begged, T got enough of that down there. Nine persons out of ten are tired of living. and if they could end it by pressing button-anonymously, you know-the population would decrease sud- denly by a few million. It takes a great love or great interest or great duty to make existence worth while'
 She trembled, faltering, and said softly:
 "Tel me frst-who are you?"
 He laughed happily like a boy. Don't you know? l am the man you should have met, and you are the girl I used to dream about when l was a youngster But we got astray, somehow. We had to go through all that grind on earth-for this"
 But-but-where-are we?"
 we are on the path that leads to the beautiful light on the hill-the dawnl Come!"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-31

of the man ,re't. rag .aess nor less. If the work sros- s.siI tna shall be recogp' q it ae arasesaE poorly and with Eazz4 lear seaat ,raise shall be WI
 susH n our ter moods we may and f dH 4ali to ssconcile elimination of rs esss cad incompetent from the dis .rl.z#dH az awards, the Knowledge is -lrl 5aaz that to this very elimination pav ae primarily accredited the best we ha 6 AI superior works of art, in great
 ,ineering feats and inventions-and bet .er than these, the uplift which hope for excelling engenders. Today in all trades and callings very prompt recognition is given genius and skill. The cry Is for a. man who can do thing best. He who is rewarded posthumously either had cur tained his labors from the eyes of a cuTf- ous world, or his performance was too ele- vated for current appreciation.
 At present the superior tasks-the fln- ishing and moulding of nearly all great productions-are delegated to a compara- lively few men. Not till the thinking world regards the higher fields of achieve
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-31

but the living still cry to us. and it is their cry which has been the most heart breaking that the world has heard for many a hundred year. That was the hor- TOT of Messina, the stifed cries that came from beneath the heaps of ruin. the call for help. so dim. so distant that it could scarcely be heard, and yet 1t fell upon the listening ears of those who were working their life away at the rescue as. exhausted, they toiled unceasingly for II and b hours, often without food.
 The death of Father John of Kron- stadt removes from our midst one of the most picturesque figures of our time. The devotion of the Russian people to this simple priest has for many years been genuine tribute to his goodness. At first unknown, save by the poor, his austere life and his many charities won for him a celebrity which soon reached the ears of the rich. The name of Father John in Russia is as well known as that of the famous Count Leo Tolstoi, and yet never were two men more antagonistic. Some years ago when Father John and Tolstoi were together offered the honorary mem- bership of the Russian university, the priest declined it on the ground that he could not be placed on a level with a Goddess man.
 For years the sick have been brought to his door, and many pilgrmages were paid to Kronstadt, and it has been said on good authority that as he laid hands on the sick they recovered. But this fame brought no happiness to the heart of Father John, for he disliked notoriety, and was undoubtedly a humble and de- voted Christian. Unfortunately toward the latter end of his life. Pobiedonostsef won him as an ally of the reactionary party, but his influence in politics was banefu1 both to himself and to his coun- try. His influence over the peasantry in his simple works of charity and in his devotion to their welfare was beautiful, and 1t Is to be regretted that he ever lent his name to Russian politics.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-31

IT ONDON January 30.-In these days when the rise of socastic feeling - and the claims for wider liberty are shaking to their foundations the thrones of Europe, no King or Queen have endeared themselves, or appealed to the noblest sentiments of their peo- pie, so strongly as the King and Queen of Italy. The description of their re- turn to Rome after their labors at Mes sina reads more like an account of some mediaeval meeting between King and his subjects after some great victory than a modern record of recent events With quick sympathy which character izes the Italian people, they greeted their majesties with tears of gratitude in their eyes, and showered blessings upon them as they moved through the streets.
 The Queens courage and devotion will remain in the minds of many as the one bright gleam amidst the horrors of the earthquake at Messina, her quiet tending of the injured, the courage with which she met sights and sounds which must have sickened stouter hearts. proved the qualities of the hardy mountain race rom which she SpralS, diiu the DenentS of the simple strenuous life in which she was educated.
 A story is told in order to show that her courage and presence of mind are innate. of picnic two years ago, on a shooting trip in which she accompanied the King. The. weather was cold. and the party sat round a great bonfire, when the Marquis of Calabrini, one of the Equerries, for foolish joke, jumped over the fire. His clothes immediately g- nited, and panic set in amongst the guests. but the Queen threw herself upon clothing, covered him with her thick woolen skirt and managed by her pres ence of mind to avert most terrible accident.
 Another charming story Is told of the Queen, which occurred lately, an incl
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-31
V DIRK: THE MORALIZER-By Alfred Battle Beale

of crime is cooled. instead of bounding a man to grosser misdemeanors than that for which a court may arraign him, a sympathetic science shall drive from the blood channels the tang of poison a vicious past bequeathed
 A little more loving pardon among men, a trife more gratitude for the legacy you and I have received from clean-blooded ancestors. and there shall be instituted the noblest crusade earth ever knew, crusade for the thwarting of hereditary destiny.
 To choke Gods good breath out of a man with a skillfully arranged moose, to charge the divine body with 1000 volts of electricity, are judicial punishments meted today for the gravest errors, the justice of which, as we are taught by the statutes, is not to be questioned. But let us suppose that the limp, dangling body, and the distorted occupant of the chair had been initiated Into some purer air where a saner method of winning their bread had seemed lovelier than, let us say, the murder and robbery of their neiglfbor. Surely, surely there would be less need for cunning death machines.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-31

Tn olden days shrines were builded in places where men died for their fellow men-and rightly, for that ground was holy ground. There is no shrine at the side of the Frisco track where Christopher Bentz laid down his life, but 1t Is holy ground just the same. He sits on a high stool and works at the books of his firm for "steen'' dollars per week.
 He is of the kind that keep their eyes on the clock When it strikes he closes his big ledger with a bang and hurries to the car that takes him to his boarding house.
 He eats nasty supper and inquires of his landlady concerning his laundry (the one bill he keeps paid Is his laundry bilD. Putting on his best clothes, he hikes away to the drug store corner to meet the gang. The gang is made up of such as he gilded youth who fancy themselves 24 karats fine.
 The gangsters smoke cigarettes and ogle young girls until a drink is sug-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-31

drew as heavily upon his thinking ca paclty as did his Song of the shirt.' or his exquisite Bridge of Signs"
 But let US glance at some of those speakers and writers, ancient and modern. who, as rhetoricians. stand at the head of the list; and let us see what sort of ground they furnish for the view that mere rhetoric is properly disparaging slur upon a speaker, or a writer Among all the worlds orators, few real critics deny the palm to Demosthenes. He is generally recognized as the greatest rhetorician that ever lived. Has anyone ever imagined that he was lacking in thought? To Cicero is commonly conceded the first place among Roman orators. He was, indeed, a princely rhetorioian; yet so far was he from anything like weak ness in thinking capacity that it may be fairly said that some of his treaties upon highly interesting and deeply important subjects have not since been improved upon.
 Probably the two greatest rhetoricians,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-31

is the heart of the 'Pennyrile" as the Ashland district is of the bluegrass, and there is no fairer cline or more gener- ous soil under the sun.
 Mckenzie came from that part of Christian county south of Hopkinsville the garden of the ''Pennyrile," it's as paragus patch. Born with silver spoon in his mouth, necessity was never his taskmaster Gifted with a glowing mind, he early acquired the reading habit, and like a horse on pasture, he grazed where he list and there was garnered in his marvellous memory a vast store of all sorts of information. Born in 1840 he was graduated from Center college when ap- preaching the threshold of manhood. He studied law and was admitted to the bar; but his was not legal mind, and he not man who could plead the cause of a client in the wrong; so he went back to his farm; to his miscellaneous library; to the rural life of cultivated Kentucky, as 1t then was
 But Jim McKinzie was marked for pub lie life from his boyhood, and when little past the constitutional age limit he was chosen to represent Christian county in the legislature, where he greatly distin- guished himself and where he came to know his elders, Blackburn and Me- l Creary, each of whom became senator in Congress.
 In 1872 the democratic party was de- rided from ocean to ocean for nominating for president a man who had written: "All democrats are not horse thieves; but all horse thieves are democrats" Four years earlier Seymour had received 100000 majority in Kentucky; Greeley got
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-31

but 5000, and to Jim Mckenzie, as sA Hh as to any other single man, was due u fact that he carried the state at all. He was elector for the state at large, and the god of eloquence yet held symposium In old Kentucky, and not a Kentucl1ian of the lot not William c. P. BreclSin- ridge or John Young Brown, surpassed James A. Mckenzie on the stump.
 He had the form, the presence. the voice, the vocabulary of the orator. Above feet tall, graceful, handsome, ready, fluent, nature rarely put such bust on one of her children, and the voice would make the fortune of an &C., for on the histrionic stage. I saw nim first in 1872 and heard him plead for Greeley. Everybody was talking about Striking hands across the bloody chasm," and to those democrats who repudiated Greeley he quoted with magical effect: Iris said the linden tree, when riven,
 Perfumes the axe that laid 1t low;
 Then let man, who hopes to be forgiven,
 Forgive and love his foe.
 I never heard finer stump speech than McKinzie made on that occasion. and I've heard Ingersoll, Breckinridge, Bryan, Cochran and Hurd, also Voorhees.
 Although nature made him for an ora tor and culture had fashioned him for his mission, a cruel trick was played on him-he never rose to address audi ence in his life that a native dlffidence did not assert itself, and for the first few sentences threaten a stage fright almost resistless in it's terros. There was a fla nous orator of Bardstown, Robert M. Hardin, chief justice of Kentucky, who labored under the same disability, but l
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-31
"OUININE JIM' McKEE%IE-By Savoyard

ago the head of the Philadelphia quin- inc beggar firm died and left $60,0O0000 tr.oute he got through the instrumentali- ties of disease and pain. Every purchaser of quinine at the drug store for 30 years owes a debt of gratitude to the memory of "Quinine Jim.
 Tn 1888 t.ey tried to restore quinine@to the tax list. The "commission tariff" Dill was on the hooks. Mckenzie was serving his last term, his last session, and the democrats put him forward to fight 1t. ell literally laughed it out He was all lowed only ten minutes, and those in broken doses. Old Pig Iron and Harry Bingham showed that the country would go to pot unless quinine was again taxed and proved it, too-by the "crowner's quest law of protection.
 He literalyy laughed it out. He was al- gan by dissection of the free list. and made eXcruciatingly sarcastic and invec- tive remarks on these articles, nominated therein--blood bonedust, ipecac, leeches. divi-dvi, and diamonds-and he com- menced after this fashion,
 You have put musk and clvet on the free list. Now when I come to contem- plate this bill, looking at 1t in its alti- tude and it's pulchritude, in it's concavity and it's eonvexity. in its obliquity and its iniauity. I feel like exclaimng with old King Lear when contemplating the ingratitude of his daughters, "Give me an ounce of eivet, good apothecary, to sweet en my imagination"
 You have put joss sticks on the free list. Still mnisterlng to the spiritual wants of the Chinese, you are willing that the heat.en In our borders may burn incense to this unknown god free from taxation,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-31
0 HEART TALKS-By Edwin A. Nye
of a million dollars.

a quarter of a million dollars. Stone will not shoot Martin. He will pay $2500 to find his wife. He will forgive her and take her back.
 More than all that, Mr. Stone says he will give his wife a divorce if she wants 1t and will set up her husband in business if she marries again.
 In order to find his wife stone has published a reward of $2500. If she is found in the company of Martin. that will make no difference.
 Mrs. Stone had no apparent good req son for going away. She was well pro- vided for had her own automobile her books and music, her children and an old mother The poor grandma was so grieved and mortified over her daugh- ter's conduct that she committed sui eide.
 Mrs. Stone's husband was worth 10,- 900 Martins far as manhood goes, but 1t is quite plain the latter took advantage of her romantic disposition. And, like many another woman, she idealized very vulgar man.
 Sitting in his desolated home. MT. Stone said: My wife is not a bad wom- an She was ill and nervous. She was an affectionate wife and an ideal moth . CT to my little ones. 1 do not judge her by a harsh standard. I promised her mother I would not rest until I found her"
 With his home all in ruins about him, Stone offers full forgiveness. Surely such sacrifice will bring back the er- rant wife.
 Doubtless she has already discovered her tremendous mistake. A few weeks of comparison will clearly reveal the infinite worth of the father of her chill dren. And the cry of those children will be in her ears.
 The man who lured her will soon grow tired of Mrs. Stone. That is the usual history of such affairs
 Some day, if she lives, the woman will be glad to grovel at the feet of the hus- band she deserted.
 And the husband?
 Few men are so strong and forgiving. It goes against the human grain to for give so great a wrong.
 It is Christlike-but it is unusual.
 Years ago a famous criminal lawyer, one of the Breckinridges of Kentucky. went to a backwoods county seat in south ern Indiana to defend a prisoner charged with murder
 Drawn by the fame of the orator half the countryside heard the speech of the great pleader, a speech that was long remembered in those parts
 Among those who sought to congra tu- late the great lawyer was shy ungainly youth to whom the former scarce gave a glance.
 If that Breckinridge had known the future!
 That awkward youth was Abraham Lincoln
 Although the orator knew 1t not, his speech had determined the future of the boy It was at that time Lincoln formed his intention to become a lawyer
 It was long road on which he started
 He lacked almost everything-even edu- cation. But he had what. was more than all else-a firm, fixed. unalterable purpose that would not let go. He hugged that purpose to his heart and went on by
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-31

gested. The stuff braces the crowd and suggests further llbations.
 The young man has forgotten a lot of things. He has forgotten his board bill and his frequent promises to pay. He has forgotten that the boss said to him not long since: You are not making good, young man. You better be more careful or I shall have to let you out"
 The motto of the gang is: Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow-who cares for tomorrow"
 The young chaps seemingly go on the theory that the only way to be happy is to make a fool of oneself, and they live up to their beliefs.
 They tip the walters at the midnight cafes. They pose in luxurious admira- ton of themselves. They are not drunk enough to run In; they are just mellowed to asininity.
 Somewhere about o'clock In the morn ing the young man tumbles into bed with his clothes on. The alarm clock fails to wake him at 6:3O and the maid pounds on the door to tell him breakfast is ready.
 It is the cold gray morning of the day after. His head feels as if it were as big
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-31

dent which has probably proved to her the vast difference that there is between the actualities of royal life and the fairy stories in which royal personalities and their deeds are depicted to us in our youth. Once in a suburb of Rome the Queen met very poorly dressed girl knitting stockings. She asked whether she would knit her pair, and questioned the girl as to whether she knew who she was.
 "Oh, yes," replied the girl. "I know you are Queen Elena" The stockings were to be sent to the Palace, and in due time they came. In order to pay for her work the Queen returned pair of silk stockings to the girl, one filled with sweets and/the other with money. A few days later the girl wrote the fol- lowing letter:
 Your Majesty, your gift has caused me many tears. My father has taken the money, my elder brother has eaten the sweets, and as for the stockings, my mother put them on herself"
 But this heroic woman is not only kindly, she is clever. She has published a book of verses entitled, "The Crown of Thorns," which reveals to us some- thing of the sadness and the sorrows which are hidden in the shadow behind the glamor and glitter of court life. The spoem speaks of the women who sit on the steps of a throne, her eyes filled with tears, her lips quivering with grief. None present see her save the King, who sits upon the throne, and her name is Care, and beneath the crown of gold worn by the King himself there is an- other crown, the crown of thorns
 The mighty wall which rose from the earthquake-stricken region was echoed in the heart of London, where the solemn Requiem Mass for the souls of those who perished was celebrated in the great By zantine cathedral at Westminster. It was fitting that they should be thus remem- bered; they are held in the hand of God,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-31

call to activity. Except as regards en- forced likeness, disagreement between em- ployer and employed. wage troubles, etc, society need fear no permanent harm from this source. Fortunately, perhaps, what is lacking within to stimulate men to work is largely eounterbalaneed by the stern voice of need-a voice, let us be glad. which though of finite origin, yet if it's accounts be understood shall in the long run lead to lofty table lands where mans true place is.
 Then, too let us not over hastily con- demn a man who tardily comes to his true working place. It may be we have not examined the mans past, and who can say what thwartngs of truth lie gen. eratlons back of his birth, what crimes against nature? The bitterest of all bur dens, perhaps is his-the blood burden. Very gradually and patiently must be the medication of high resolves. When men truly understand the ineXorableness of blood; when universal awareness comes of it's power to mar or mend, a new era of Christian shall be ushered into the world. Houses of correction, maybe, shall displace all dungeons under the sky. In the glad time when the fever
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-31

rhetoric. and yet both were full of thought.
 Since the death of Richard Fuller I am not sure that P. s. Henson does not de- serve the first rank as a rhetorician among the Baptists of America. From the thoughts he expresses I not unfre- quently find it necessary to dissent with a vim not altogether compatible with comfort; but unauestionably he thinks, even if he does not think unquestionably
 Among pulpit orators of the south know of none whose fame as rhetori- clans deserves to stand above that of Moses D. Hoge and J. B. Hawthorne. It has been my privilege to hear them both when I suppose they were at their best-eertainly I could not see how either could have been much better and I do not hesitate 10 say that neith CT of these famous orators showed any sign of poverty of thought.
 Among the authorities on rhetoric old pr. Blair seems, of late years, to
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-31

have fallen into undeseryed disrepute. do not claim that he was a great thinker upon philosophical subjects nor do I hold that he was a first-elass preacher; but I do say that Blair's rhetoric University editlon) contains deal of excellent thinking upon the subject which it proposes to treat; and that for clear and elegant statement, and sound. practical discussion of the elements of a good style l know not where to find its superior. pr. Blair certainly did think to good purpose when he wrote these admirable lee- lures.
 Among English writers of our times many critics would pronounce Macau- lay to be the first rhetorieian; and I am far from dlsputing this claim. And surely the man who wrote the essay on Lord Bacon. and drew the portraits of the great statesmen of the Revolu- tion of 16SS, who made Halifax and Somers and Whorton stand out so clear ly upon his canvas; who gave us Will
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-31

1 way he knew not, but whose end he knew
 So should every young man hide a great hope in his heart.
 Cherishlng that hope its roots will strike deep into the very depths of his being. Sometimes. 1t may be, 1t will be watered by the tears of disappointment. but if the hope is well planted and well nourished 1t surely will blossom forth into the flow CTS of faith and hope.
 And if there be a great faith and a great hope there will be a great effort.
 That is scientific truth. Sometimes this truth is called auto-sug- gestion, suggesting possibilities to your self Through such suggestion you af- firm to yourself over and over again what you purpose to do or be, and, To, you awaken powers in yourself you never dreamed you possessed! And these pow CTS will work for you day and night
 Hide a great faith in your heart.
 It will force you on; it will keep you from temptations that would hinder your purpose. If you fail it will help you to rise
 The boy Lincoln got on that way.