davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-05-23

and the natives are beginning to see how for hundreds of years they have been ] buncoed by the friars through the padres.
 The cholera epidemic during the time of which I write struck Luzon at the worst possible time. The island was in the most terrible insanitary condition. The cemeteries were nothing more or less than germ incubators, the lagoons, lakes and bayous during this stage of low water were covered with a green fostering scum and full of lermenting and decaying vegetation. This was the Philippines dry season, or summer, and the government thermometers lowered about the 110 degree mark in shaded places.
 The towns and villages not occupied by American soldiers were as filthy as only Philippine towns can be and the insur- agents were very active. Campaign opera tions were nearly, if not quite, suspended. as the soldiers were busy directing the natives in cleaning up the villages The Filipino, for some reason that I cannot fully explain, seems to be very suscepti- ble to the Asiatic cholera, while the American or European is seldom at
 
 tracted by swallowing the germ. During the course of the epidemic in Binyan only five soldiers out of two troops of cavalry and a hospital corpse were at tackled by the plague, and in each of these cases the infection was caused by the disregard of orders concerning diet. During the entire course of the epidemic, which ragged for ten weeks, 1 handled scores of dying natives daily. Every time I touched one of them-I bathed my hands in a. strong formaline solution, boiled all the water I drank and saw to 1t that every particle of food I ate was thor oughly cooked.
 After the plague was well under way the military authorities buried the vic tims in trenches filled with quick lime In some parts of Luzon the natives died so fast that they had to cremate them The following is an extract from letter from a college chum of mine, also @ num- Der of the medical department. He was located in a large town situated in the interior.
 "The Googoos" (natives, so nick-named by the American soldiers), are utterly demoralized. They are dying like sheep in A. shambles. Yesterday we buried eco bodies and are now preparing to cremate 800 more. We put down layer of wood
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-05-23

man and in his pack were Ben Tillman and Joe Bailey, held in leash by Bill Chandler. One day the "Allison amend men" emerged from Morgan's den and Aldrich handed it over to the grand old man of Iowa. Everybody but the two Alabama senators and Foraker voted for the bill Roosevelt sent Chandler, Till man and Bailey to the Ananias club and the octopus chase was over. Statesman ship, thy name is humbug!
 In the Fifty-third Congress Iowa had an exceptionally strong delegation. There was John II. Gear, a man of good com mon sense, who had made big fortune selling goods and been remarkably suc- cessful playing the game of politics.
 David B. Henderson, Scotchman, a federal soldier who had left leg on the battlefield of Shiloh, a fervid orator, col or-bearer of the bloody shirt, a man of as much lung as patriotism. 1 believe will again tell of speech I heard him make in the Forty-ninth Congress. He was a-waVing of the bloody shirt with unusual enthusiasm, even for him, when to the utter astonishment and immense dismay of his own scholarly party asso- cates, such as Willie Waffle Phelps, in an ecstasy of patriotism and a thunder ation of voice, he exclaimed: From Highland Pass to Lowland Moor, treason never found Judgment in Scottish breasti
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-05-23
<<K ZEN have seen it in the tree,
 MI but never in the sapling; they " | have looked on if in the

<<K HEN have seen it in the tree,
 MI but never in the sapling they
 A have looked on it in the stream, but never in the fountain" quote from memory-and such is the proud boast of the illustrious Scottish house of Douglas, and the house of Cum min, if not so renowned, is equally as ancient. Connected with every noble fam fly of Scotland, the Cummin blood was poured out lavishly for the good and the glory of that historic people, who gave to arms Wallace and Bruce, Montrose and Claverhouse, and to letters Burns and Scott, Hume and Robertson.
 When Robert Bruce slew the Red Comyn before the altar in the Church of the Authorities in Dumfries he drove the Cummin family into the arms of Ed ward Longshanks, and thus made his work of redeeming his country from the 1hraldom of England ten times more diff the sin-not of the assassination, but of the scene he chose for it. The lord of Iorne, a near kinsman of the Comyn, hunted Bruce to the morass and forced him to the hills, the caves and the rocks to crouch with the fox, and it was the hardships he thus underwent that Undermined the powerful physical const- nlton of Robert Bruce and sent him to he tomb all too early.
 kAll the Cummins family in America
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-05-23

is difficult to stop It is not impossible to stop, but difficult.
 The way to the modern hades is no toboggan slide on which, once started, it is impossible to reverse motion and slide upward One does not go gliding from the heights of innocence down to the depths of degradation in trce.
 The way goes down slowly, leisurely, by easy stages. It goes down by well defined steps-broad. easy steps. The descent is halting, though sure.
 No man takes the seven steps all at once.
 And no man who goes the downward way expects to go to the bottom.
 But it is so much easier to step down to the level below than to lift ones self gravitation in the moral world as in the physical world.
 And at the bottom is the mouth of he'll
 A train on the Frisco road is rounding a curve near Tulsa. The engineer of the train is Christopher Bentz, whose home is Monett, Mo.
 Another train Is bearing down upon the train pulled by Bentz. His fireman shouts to him to jump. Collision is in- evitabe. Death is almost certain.
 You jump, Jini" exclaimed the en- gineer I'm going te stick to her!"
 Bentz stuck to his post, and his poor mangled body was taken from under the tangled mass of twisted iron into which the engine was smashed.
 The fireman who jumped escaped se- rious injury.
 The heroism of Christopher Bentz saved the train. It was very clear that had he left his engine many passengers would have been killed.
 Bentz knew it when he died for them.
 He saved others; himself he could not save.
 With the rustic of Haunting flags over head and with the echo of the ringing bugle charge in their ears men will die. With the flush of conflict on their cheeks
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-05-23

bones over the entire cemetery. Arm and leg bones, skulls and portions of the yer tebrae are seen scattered everywhere.
 As the Filipinos die as rapidly as they are born. which is of astounding ire quency, it does not take long to fill a cemetery to overflowing.
 Everything in the islands belonging to the animal kingdom is produced rapidly, lives a short life quickly, and, as a rule, die suddenly. Natives at the age of 40 are\ old and gray. For hundreds of years before and for a few years after the American occupation of the archipelago, the islands were frequently plague-swept. Smallpox, typhoid and malarial levers in their most pronounced and violent forms, leprosy bubonic plague and, worst of all the Asiatic cholera, would at short inter- vals almost depopulate the cities, towns and villages This state of affairs was welcomed by the priesthood, as every death, as well as every birth helped to swell their overf1owing coffers.
 During the cholera epidemic of 1901-02 the writer was stationed in Benyan, prov ence of Lagoona, Luzon. When the plague first appeared the town numbered about 10000 inhabitants. Ten weeks later, when the epidemic was at last stamped out the village could barely muster a scant 5000. Being member of the med ical department I was put in charge of a native cholera hospital. The patients were laid upon the bare floors and given all the medical attention possible until death claimed them.
 We were handicapped by our lack of experience in combating this disease. as not one of the army surgeons had ever seen a case of cholera abefore, so we had to rely entirely uporb our text books. However, as hospital corps man aptly remarked after the plague was finally mastered, We had experience to burn. The natives do not seem able to com bat this dsease in fact, they do not try to fight it. but on the contrary give up all hope when attacked and seemingly with little concern surrender themselves to. the grim monster. When a native would show symptoms of the disease he or she would be hurried to the hospital and in from two to 12 hours would be on their way to the graveyard or burial trenches.
 The burial preparations of the poorer classes would be short and simple. The corpse is sewed- up in a piece of rough mating, loaded into a caraboa cart and
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-05-23
" HE elder Disracli distlngmsned him

FHS HE elder Disraeli distlngnsned him
 self by his work on "The Curiosi- 4 ties of Literature:" and if the right authority could be found what aremarkable essay might be written on The Anom- allies of Literat0rer' For instance: One of the most prosaic of all great writers. Aristotle, glorifies poetry and calls it the highest department of human effort; while Plato, one of the most poetical of all prose writers, thought that poetry was a nuisance that ought to be suppressed.
 Again: It was the pronounced infdel, J. J. Rousseau, who held that '1f the life and death of Socrates were those of a philosopher, the life and death of Jesus Christ were those of a God"
 Once again: John Stewart Mills "Three Essays on Religion constitute the ablest attack upon organized Christianity that this scribe has ever read and yet NH held that no man, however skeptical, could well find better scheme for reg ulating his life, than so to live that Christ would approve his life.
 And finally: Carlyle, whom it would be hard to defend against the charge of Pantheism, and who refused to say that he believed in a personal God, yet held
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-05-23
CoIIeoe Men In After Years.

From the New York World
 As against the accounts of sociological investigators of th.ty-nine college men in the Bowery bread line at one time and 400 college graduates found in the Bow cry in a single nights search" it is prof itable to contemplate the more pleasing picture presented by the Harvard class of 1908, every member of which, by the secretary's report either has a lucrative position or Is pursuing advanced study in college"
 The statistics in each case are too mad equate to permit of generalizations. But in the matter of Bowery derelicts 1t is to be borne in mind that the college educated element of the population Is now large, a single university sending out as many as 1000 graduates of all de- partments yearly, and 1t Is only to be expected that some will fail. On the other hand the spectacle of an entire class engaged in serious occupations a year after graduation Is testimony to stu dent character and capacity which should dispel certain prevailing misconceptions.
 One such misapprehension is with re- gard to the supposed frivollty of student life That of the 505 members of thls Harvard class 1S7 took employment dur ing the summer vacation, while 1SS en- gagged in philanthropic and social im- provement work ,during their entire course, hints at more serious student view of college education. The fact that three-1fths of the classs went through college on from $500 to s1.ooo year helps to controvert the popular theory of ex- travagance.
 The severer courses of study at Ameri- can colleges make less and less appeal to the shirlters and the gentleman idlers. A youth who has attended four years classroom instruction. passed the requi- site examinations and conformed to the generally high student standards of per sonal honor has demonstrated the pos session of exceptional mental fitness and of moral responsibility which may at least invite comparison with that of other youth
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-05-23

Years ago famous criminal lawyer, one of the Brecldnridges of Kentucky went to a baekwoods county seat Tn southern Indiana to defend a prisoner charged with murder. L.
 Drawn by the fame of the orator, 4aif the countryside heard the speech of the great pleader, speech that was long remembered in those parts.
 Among those who sought to congratu- late the great lawyer was shy ungain- ly youth to whom the former scarce gave a glance.
 If that Breckinrldge had known the future!
 The awkward youth was Abraham Lin coin.
 Although the orator knew it 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 a long road on which he started
 He lacked almost everythng-even ed- ucation. But he had what was more than all else-a firm fixed, unalterable pur- pose that would not let go He hugged that purpose to his heart and went on by way he knew not, but whose end he knew.
 So should every young man hide great hope in his heart.
 Chershing that hope, its roots will strike deep into the very depths of his being Sometimes, it may be. 1t will be watered by the tears of disappoint- ment, but if the hope is well planted and well nourished 1t surely will blos- som forth into the flowers of faith and hope.
 And if there be a great faith and great hope there will be great effort.
 That Is scientific truth.
 Sometimes this truth is called auto suggestion, suggesting possibilities to yourself. Through such suggestion you affirm to your self over and over again what you purpose to do or be, and, 10. you awaken powers in yourself you never dreamed you possessed. And these pow CTS will work for you day and night.
 Hide great faith in your heart
 It will force you on; it will keep you from temptations that would hinder your purpose. If you fall it will help you to rise.
 The boy Lincoln got on that way
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-05-23

that Congress and he. too, is fine ora tor and if he would acquire that virtue and accomplishment that Sir Walter Scott's Jonathan Oldbuck had in so emil inent a degree a knowledge of and re- spect for accuracy of facts-John Dalzell has it-he would be the first debater on the republican side. have often said that 1t is worth a trip from the Missis- sippi to the Potomac to hear Hepburn say "the United States" On the Sen ate side there Is a fervent republican orator, who believes this Is nation with a big N and he will not use the def mite article before Limited States but says, "United States" in this, that or tother thing, just as he would say Eng land or France Is this or that It reminds me of what the most brilliant Washing ton correspondent this town ever saw said of Charles Summers use of the term he coined. "ridiculosity." Joseph B. Me Cullough in commenting on it character ized it as "one of Summers jackassit- ies."
 Jonathan P Deliver was also in the Iowa delegation. He, too, is an orator and can make as good an epigram as William Jennings Bryan-better when he tries.
 But in my opinion by far the ablest man in the delegation was George $.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-05-23

in his teeth?
 At their worst the correspondents only slightly exaggerated the real Funston. Because
 Down beneath his little swagger the Napoleonic general has sagacity, judg- ment and the grit of a bulldog. He has proved that ever since he went down lone-handed to help the Cuban insur- gents.
 Lucky?
 He has been lucky as Napoleon was lucky and Charles Martel and Phil Sher- idan.
 Let no American boy read the biogra- phy of Frederick Funston to1fortify his theory that men go the upward way by means of luck.
 Exactly the opposite is revealed in the brilliant career of this American general. A once brilliant social favorite of the east-a rich, handsome, popular man has been arrested in Shanghai, China, for obtaining money under false pretenses. Which reminds one
 The ancients who lived near a vol canic lake not far from Naples called the place Avernus, and they believed, or affected to believe that It was the mouth of shades. The descent to this place was an easy one.
 Whatever the steps to the ancient hades may have been, the steps by which the once popular New Yorker has gone down are easily traceable. They are:
 Step one, dissipation.
 Step two, extravaganza.
 Step three, borrowing money.
 Step four, lodging creditors
 Step five swindling.
 Of the steps that remain there are only two and they are easily taken:
 Step six, arrest and conviction.
 Step seven, prison or the pistol.
 The descent of the Avernus of the mod erns is easy because the steps are logi- cal. They follow each other as do the links of a chain. One step leads easily and naturally to the next.
 Once started downward on the steps it
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-05-23

and the fire of fighting in their eyes men will lay down their lives in the mad i'm pulse of the battle shock. But
 When death suddenly appears in the guise of horrd wreck; when it looks you in the face in a flash and dares you to duty, instant, unfinching-
 That's another thing.
 Under such a stress human flesh and blood quails before the horrid ordeal. and only the mighty spirit of a supreme self sacrifice can hold it to such fright full destiny.
 Behind the heroic engineer In the ves- tibule coaches the passengers lolled and chatted and smoked. They were unmind- ful, unsuspecting.
 They loved their lives. But so did he
 They had their homes and loved ones. But so had he, Christopher Bentz, home and wife and babies.
 Would he widow his wife and leave his fatherless children to the cold mercies of uncertain future? Yesl For duty calls.
 In 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 FrlScO track where CnrlsIopner 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 1t strikes five he closes his big ledger with bang and hurries to the car that takes him to his boarding house.
 He eats a 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 carats fine.
 The gangsters smoke cigarettes and
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-05-23

carried as fast as caraboa could travel
 (which Is about three miles an hour), to the burial trenches by the way of the church. Here the local padre is wait ing and if the relatives of the deceased have the necessary price the body is transferred to the cemetery cart and buried in consecrated ground If the cem- etery is beyond the means of the dead ones relatives and they have media peso (about 25 cents k1 our money) to spare, the "denero" (money) is handed to the padre, who proceeds to sprinkle few drops of holy water upon the corpse, whereupon the cart and its gruesome contents proceeds on it's mounful journey.
 If the money is not forthcoming the padre will refuse to conduct this simple and exceedingly brief service, although the ceremony only requires an upward and forward motion of the priests hand and a few mumbled words in Tagalog and Latin.
 The religious ceremonies over the dead may cost anywhere from 25 cents to a large fortune Everything connected with the burial has its special fee. For instance, if masses are said for the re- pose of the soul of some wealthy man, who while in the quick gained his riches by fraudulent and shady practices, like some American millionaires I could men tion, 1t would cost his relatives and heirs a tidy sum to get Ais soul safely landed in heaven. If thVpadre follows the corpse to the grave or tomb, as the case may be, and there conducts ser vice, his fee is about $15 However this seldom happens, as only the very rich, those whose financial condition will en- able them to pay the first five years rent on a vault in advance, can afford it. If the church bell is tolled, every time the clapper strikes the bell metal 1t costs the relatives of the dear departed cer- tain sum.
 The Roman church cannot be held re- sponsible for the condition of affairs as at that time existed in the Philippines, and which I am glad to say exist no longer. The men appointed by the Pope or the College of Cardinals, to serve in the islands took advantage of the sim pie and superstitious natives, and used for their own personal gain the opportu- mites that presented.
 Since the American occupation and the purchase of the lands held by the friars, who owned 86 per cent of all the lands worth owning. all paure graft has ceased
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-05-23

ogle young girls until a drink is suggest ed The stuff braces the crowd and sug- gests further libations.
 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 ones self, 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 3 o'clock in the morning the young man tumbles into bed with his clothes on. The alarm clock fails to awake him at 6:30, and the maid pounds on the Adoor to tell him that breakfast is ready.
 It is the cold gray morning of the day after. His head feels as if 1t were as big as a cart wheel. He drags him. self to faucet and lets the cold water revive him sufficiently to get down to the office at :30
 No breakfast for him.
 There are many errors and ensures in his book. His hands tremble; his stom- ach Is nauseated: there is seal brown" taste in his mouth.
 Will he reform? He will make re- solves, but his will power will fail to grip. Next week he will be out again with the gang. And some day he will go to the hospital-or the morgue.
 Who Is this young man?
 His name is Legion.
 Mrs w A. Stone, who lived in vest ern Pennsylvania mining village. in a fine home with her husband and five children, ran away with a Mir. Martin, her affinity"
 Nothing very strange about that. Such episodes are all too common.
 The strange thing is the conduct of the