davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-11-21

he folks?" "Yes, Bill, sho be folks" "Ol go long. Sam. Elf be folks, how come he don't talk none?' "Ah, Bill dat ar thing got too much sense to talk. cause eff he talk. he know white folks pull dat red jacket off him, cut he tail off, give him hoe, an put him in de corn fieId.'
 The story is certainly sharp pointed. It ought to be. for it Is one of the best that the veteran whig campaigner. Will liam c. Goggin, ever .-gUr off, in his memorable congressional contest with Paulus Powell, the democratic candidate The latter statesman was no speaker. but was distinguished for his skill as can vasser and a master of ''button-holing'' and the ''bushwhacking' methods of cleo tioneering. The whigs generally thought and said that Powell had not sense enough to speak," but Goggin said it was exactly the other way, for if Powell want ed to keep his seat in Congress his silence was golden.
 And this recalls Cockey Dye, noted Virginia statesman, who was distln- guished as a man of very moderate ability and he was known to be extremely ig- norant; and yet, though the ablest men in his county were pitted against him. he was never defeated; but held his seat in the legislature as long as he pleased.
 When asked the secret of his phenomen- al success, he replied: Well. I never makes no speeches; and so they cant bring up agin me nothin' that I said. never writes no letters; so they can't
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-11-21

from the abstract into the concrete, than to endeavor so to live that Christ would approve our life"
 That sounds very much like what the lawyers call "a confession of judgment in open court
 Writing letters of introduction Is an art. Many good, sensible, honest and reasonably intelligent people never wrote one; but in these days. when "a pull'' means so much, almost anybody who has or is supposed to have the least influencs is liable to be called upon by some good fellow for a letter of introduction. We may therefore, do our readers a seryica by telling them '.how not to don't" and this lesson comes out in the following story, for whose truth we can vouch:
 An awk ward, stupid, illiterate and vulgar fellow, who had made up his mind to seek his fortune by emigrating to a new county. applied to not over brilliant acquaintance for a letter of introduction. His friend did not like to refuse, so he went to a highly cul- tured gentleman in the neighborhood and said: w. c. wants me to give him a letter of introduction. don't know how to write one. VIII you give me some instruction?" The gen tleman thus applied to was great admirer of MT. Calhoun. He had re- gently travelled through various south ern states was highly promising son of one of our most brilliant orators
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-11-21
NOTES AND CONMENTS-By J. C. Hiden, D. D.

and statesmen of Virginia; and MT. Calhoun, who was in Congress with the father, had given the son a splendid letter of introduction. Our friend. who was seeking instructions on the art of recommendation" was furnish ed with a copy of this fine composition, of which he made 8 verbatim duplicate, and handed 1t over to the ignorant, stupid, vulgar fellow who was bent on emigrating. The letter said that the bearer was highly intelligent, very promising, and well educated" The ''bearer" aforesaid was highly pleased, of course. and the friend who furnished the letter was glad to get the trouble some business off his hands on these easy terms.
 It is said that Home Tooke, the au- thor of that epoch making pathological book "The Diversions of Purley," was once asked how much treason an Eng lishman might write with out being hanged for it?" and that he naively replied that he did not know as yet. but was experimenting in order to find out Similarly. some noted preachers of our day-with Lyman Abbott in the lead-seem to be experimenting with the problem" How much of Christian to be Christians? Some of these preachers call tn emselves Free Relig- ionists," and this means, as far as we
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-11-21

directions, if he were a candidate for pre- siding officer of democratic House"
 It is quite true that Mills was the log ical candidate for speaker in 1891 and 't is quite true that he was defeated for that dignity through the confluence Of not very clean practical politics and some altogether unfortuitous circumstances But Samuel J. Randall was not the largest" not the greatest, certainly not the ablest. democrat in his chamber"
 Sam Randall lived and died a Henry Clay whig. He was no more democrat that Abraham Lincoln was, or Theodore Roosevelt is, though there are certain thoughtless democrats who fancy they draw inspiration from Lincoln, who found this country a republic and turned it into a nation, and who throw their caps high in the air in applause of Theodore Roosevelt, who granted indulgence to the Steel Trust to violate the law and ab- sorb the Tennessee Coal and Iron com- pany, and did the thing at midnight seance with certain of the money pow er.' As for Randall, he did noble ser vice in the days of southern reconstruc- tion; so did that other whig, Lewis D. Campbell of Ohio; but on economic sub jects Randall was not even near" democrat, but as much of a republican as Pig Iron Kelly, and more of a republi- can than Simon Cameron.
 And that is what kept Sam Randall in Congress for more than a quarter of a century. Pennsylvania has been fed and fatted on tariff graft for more than 100 years. Sam Randall, a Henry Clay whig, was a high tariff man, as much so as Thad Stevens was, or Joe Cannon is. and democrat" as he was labeled, every
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-11-21
Not Supposable, But Recalls a Good
 Story About Theodore Hook.
From the Indianapolis News.

From the Indianapolis News
 Suppose within a few days a gentle man should arrive at London or Berlin from the far north claiming to be one or the other of two discoverers of the long sought pole. Suppose he is received with high acclaim, is the subject of unlimited oratory. Is the guest of honor at many banquets. the whole land rings with his praise. Suppose that few days later another gentleman arrives from the far north with the claim that he, alone, has discovered the coveted pole, and the man who has received the honors and the banquets has left nothing for him, al- though the first conner may prove to be faker and fraud
 Something very like this did once hap pen. The Spanish ambassador was ex- pected to arrive at Southampton, Eng land. A mischievous idea came into the head of Theodore Hook (born 17Ss, died 1s4D, novelist and journalist, and above all contriver of that diversion known as the hoax. The English fleet was lying off Southampton. Hook, then a young man, knew many of the younger officers. He formed his scheme and one morning a launch set out from the fleet and drew up at the quay.
 In this launch was he who purported to be the Spanish ambassador, in almost royal robes, arrived two days before the expected time. The mayor of Southamp- ton. who was to receive the Spanish en- .voy, was greatly frustrated It was all so sudden. He did the best he could Several companies of soldiers, some on foot. some mounted, were called out. The bells were rung. The ambassador, ac- companied by a number of young offi- cers of the feet was escorted with much pomp to the mayors palace. There was a banquet and speech making one of the young officers acting as interpreter for the ambassador.
 After 1t was over and the Spanish en- voy was supposed to be on his way to London the true ambassador arrived There was but a sorry reception for him. The other ambassador, who was Theodore Hook, having perpetrated the greatest hoax even known on a mayor and a city, had exhausted the hospitality of the town. The scandal was so great, the mayor and the people of Southampton had been so outrageously sold, that to make any stir about the affair would only cause them to be laughed at all the more. With the exception of the dismiss sal of some of the naval officers who had taken part In it. little was done, and the affair was allowed to blow over.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-11-21

can make 1t out, that they are ready to fellowship everybody but the devil, and don't believe that there Is any devil. And yet to people of plain com mon sense it seems pretty clear that of a man calls himself Christian he ought to believe something definite.
 Apropos to the last paragraph. we re- call Leigh Hunts ideal saint who seemed to know little and to care less about God, but used loftily to say, Write me as one who loves his fellow men" With this statement before us, we can hardly wonder that Leigh Hunt uncon- sciously sat as the model for Harold Skimpole, in Dickens famous novel of Bleak House;' nor is it surprising that he edited and highly praised that conti- nent of obscurity, '"The Comic Drama lists of the Restoration" The infamous plays composing that foul book were acted by female artists" into whose mouths were put the filthiest language that ever oozed from human lips. That Hazlitt, and even Charles Lamb-'the Gentle Elia"-should have written highly complimentary ''introductions" to such abominable nastiness, is one of the most mysterious phenomena in ths history of English literature We caE heartily say, Thank God, we live in A cleaner age"
 If you profess to be a Christian and have a family of children growing up around you and if those children never hear you pray, why should you suppose that God hears you?
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-11-21

it's lately deceased great editor, it would give first place among democrats of the Forty-fourth Congress to William H. Morrison not to Sampel J. Randall. Nor rison made Kerr speaker because Kerr was a democrat without blemish and a far abler man than Sam Randall. In the first place, he was a frst-class lawyer. In the second place he had judicial mind and a deliberate temper. In the third place he had made a study of the tar1n and delivered the first speech in Congress for tariff reform after the passage of the Morrill, protective tariff of 1862, that they had to say was war measure, and promise to repeal as soon as peace came, to get, passed at all. by Congress re- publican in both Houses. That IS why Morrison was for Kerr, and that is how it came that William R. Morrison, J. Proctor Knott and John Randolph Tuck CT made Michael C. Kerr speaker of the Forty-fourth Congress.
 Randall was speaker three years the successor of Kerr, but the theft of the presidency had supplanted the tariff us political paramount. and Randall was an Ajax in a quarrel like that Not law yer not an orator, not statesman. an ignorant man, indeed, he had will Of iron and the bravery of a Caisar. l, one day. saw him adjourn the House over the protest of a big majority of the mem bers. What Czar he would have been under the Reed rulesl
 The Globe Democrat gives us this piece of absurd chimney-corner political his- tory: Most persons supposed that Ran dall would be chosen by the democratic House which was elected in the middle of Arthur's term, but John G. Carlisle was
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-11-21

A LOUISVILLE paper tells us of a A memorable ecclesiastical meeting 4 held in an important southern city at which meeting a certain church offical. who perhaps felt his keeping" as recently appointed official of the Unisd States government, introduced a resolution which seriously reflected upon of te body.
 On of the brainiest men in the house, a nted master of satire, was at onoe on Is feet and handled the resolution withut gloves, eulogized the accused in the ighest terms and expressed his pity for he officer who had offered the reso- lutio He was followed by a bank of f1cer a man of high character, who ex- presed his approval of every word that had been uttered by the first speaker. TheI came a lawyer. who spoke earnest ly o the same side.
 Th debate was all on one side. Even the hover of the resolution sat dumb as an yster. A preacher. whose name is a husehold word in various parts of the puntry, north and south, was unex- pectd1y present at the meeting and at the lose told the following anecdote:
 Tp negroes. Bill and Sam, went to a shoy Sam had seen the monkeys be- fore but Bill was fresh. When the chipanzee was shown. Bill threw up his ands, opened his eyes and mouth very wide, and exclaimed: Name O sense Sam. what is dat are thing? Is
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-11-21
ELECTING SPEAKERS-No. By Savoyard

very strong on parliamentary law, deliv- cred Blaine's message. Beck shrieked with delight, and with more emphasis than blasphemy. exclaimed, By God. we can filibuster till the crack of doom on that!' And so they could. and when the House again convened, Randall demand ed, as the privilege of any member, that the journal of yesterday which had not been read nor approved, should be read. Old Ben threw his hands up. He knew his bill was gone to pot, and that ended it, and then he sent his Parthian shot from his culver. aimed at the man who he know had defeated him: MT Speaker, make the parliamentary in- quiry if it would be In order for mem Der to move the raising of a committee of this House to make scrutiny and re- port as to the means by which the legis- iation was secured making land grant to the Fort Smith and Little Rock rail- road?''
 newspaper man who witnessed the scene and who related to me the cir cumstances of the defeat of the force bill that I am trying to tell, said that when old Ben sat down, Blaine was winter than he will be when he goes to his cof- fin" Old Ben knew all the crookedness afioat, including the contents of the ''Muliigen letters." that lost Blaine the presidency.
 Blaine did not kill the force bill for the south's sake. He was a candidate for president and he knew the bill would give the administration power enough to rem der his race for the nomination hopeless. Had Grant been his friend the bill would have passed.
 John G. Carlisle was elected speaker of
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-11-21

TFND the following in the columns of
 lat most hopeless of the Bourbons ! mong the great political daiies of the .merican press, the St. Louis Globe Democrat. Not long ago 1t was the first newspaper in America; now it has sur rendred that place to the Kansas City Star as St. Louis must soon give place to ansas City as the metropolis of Tras- Mississippi America.
 Hse are the mingled truth, fable and prejdice of which the Globe-Democrat delisrs itself about Champ Clark and the ,peakership of the American Con gres:
 Representative Clark of Missouri is merioned for speaker of the House whid is to be elected in 1910, if that body shold be carried by the democrats. CIar,'s nomination for speaker would be far rom certain. Roger Q. Mills was the pgical candidate for speaker when the emocrats carried the House 19 years ago, but Charles F. Crisp carried off the prize Samuel J. Randall was the largest demcrat In his chamber when his party won he House in 1874, yet the democrat ic cactus chose Michael c. Kerr for the speaRrship. Most persons supposed that Randll would be chosen by the demo- cratic House which was elected in the middi of Arthur's term, but John G. Carlise was named.
 'sThre is far less cohesiveness among the dmocrats now than there was on the ocasions just mentioned. On the choiceof speaker and on the tariff many democats broke away from Clark in the recent session. The drift away from him wuld probably be larger and in more
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-11-21

Pennsylvania republican legislature ger- rymandered him into Congress as regu- larly as the time came for it. He de- feated two Morrison bills, after the death of Kerr and the disputed presidential sue cession had put the 'horizontal' bill out of business.
 Randall was not a corrupt man. He could have died worth millions, but elect ed to be poor; yet for all practical pur- poses in connection with the tariff he H. lustrated the text, 'The OK knoweth his owner, and the ass his masters crib. ' He was sent to Congress and kept in Congress to continue the privilege, en- joyed by Pennsylvania to levy tribute on the south and west, and right well did he do it
 In this connection, that grandest of democrats, "Old BilF' Morrison, once moralized like this: Randall was an honest man, but just before he died he allowed them to raise big fund which he accepted. l am not that sort of an honest man, but when he met with fnan- cial disaster he allowed Mark Hanna to raise Dig 1unu to pay OH HIS inuepteu- ness. l am not that sort of an honest man."
 Nor was he When the service pension bill passed for the benefit of volunteers for the Mexican war, he returned the cer- tifcate sent him, and when he died, the other day, the noblest Roman of them all" that certificate carried more than s3000 to his credit in the pension office that will be covered into the treasury ere the roses bloom again. That was the sort of honest man old Bill Morrison was.
 And If the Globe-Democrat knew a tithe of the political history possessed by
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-11-21
Brooklyn MiIkman's Feat.

From Lire.
 It seems that Dr. Cook was by original profession a milkman. It Is a calling well suited to harden man for a spec tacular destiny. and especially to train him for exploration. It involves very early rising, disregard of weather, and much solitary travel In the night watches.
 Besides his early training as millSman, he endured for many years the severe ex- ercise incident to residence in Brooklyn. Life in that great suburb is one long struggle to get to New York and back again alive. Besides the bridge crush, as 1t was when Dr. Cook started north. the embraces of the Arctic ice pack must have seemed like caresses. Peary was Brooklyn man, too. Ii is no trouble for Brooklyn men to get to places difficult to reach. Their whole life is spent in an effort of that nature, and it would he surprising if they did not get to be good at k
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-11-21

named" The Globe-Democrat would be precisely right if 1t would strike out the first three words of the sentence and in their stead insert. "All republicans hoped" Indeed Mir. Carlisle was chosen speaker, and by & majority in the demo- cratic caucus decision, but it surprised mo- body who had the slightest political dis cernment.
 What the Randallites banked on was the defeat of the Ben Butler force bill of 1873. That time John Young Brown poured forth this cauterizing invective: 'If I were to characterize everything that is pusillanimous in war, inhuman in peace, forbidden in morals and corrupt in politics, I would call 1t Butlerism." The bill provided that it should be illegal for any cotton state to vote the democrat ic ticket-at least that was what it meant and in effect it conferred on the attorney general of the United States the power to appoint every representative in Congress from those States.
 There is no doubt whatever that Sam Randall fought that bill like very Hec- tor of Troy. His lieutenants were Beck of Kentucky and Lamar of Mississippi. It was under the old rules, and the par liamentary struggle was the longest and the fiercest in the history of the Ameri- can Congress. When every expedient had been exhausted and the House was in brief recess, when Speaker Blaine said to Lamar, Ask Beck or Randall If either knows that the journal of the last legis- lative day has neither been read nor app proved
 They had given up. They were at the end of their rope, even under the old rules, but when Lamar, who was not
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-11-21

ons: First, he was democrat, and Ram dall was a whig; second, he was the best fitted for the station of all men then liv- ing. in Congress or out of Congress. He had profound knowledge of the philos- ophy of parliamentary law, and knew not only the rule, but the origin of 1t and the reason for 1t. These he learned when heutenant-governor of Kentucky. He had the judicial mind and the judicial temper. He was the fairest man who ever sat in that chair. most respected and best loved by the minority. That Is what made Carlisle speaker.
 On the other hand, Randall knew little of parliamentary law, and that little by rote, just as a parrot knows how to cuss. and while a commanding presiding off cer, Carlisle was as far ahead of him in that particular as he was in his knowl- edge of the history and reason of the rule.
 There is difference in the speaker and the mere presiding officer. Uncle Cannon Is powerful speaker and the poorest presiding officer ever ordered. Our great presiding officers were Aaron Burr. Hen " Stay' John V. bfecknIluSe, AnureW Stevenson. John C. Calhoun, James G. Blaine, John c. Carlisle, Thomas B. Reed. and perhaps others but the men of all our history who was completest master of parliamentary law was John G. Carlisle.
 The Globe-Democrat has something to say about 'cohesiveness." Next week [ shall have word to say about that when applied to the election of speaker on the republican side of the hedge We shall then see how many of the logical candidates got there.
 As for Champ Clark, he's all right
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-11-21
<er HE human mind has summit the ideal; to this summit God
 descends, man ascends. In each

HE human mind has a summit,
 the ideal; to this summit God
 descends, man ascends. In each age tree or four men of genius under take he ascent. Every storm Is ragig. Nevertheless these madmen make thei way."-victor Hugo.
 re word genius was originally ap- Did to the spirit of demon supposed to bepresent at the birth of a child. Hence Hface said. "scit genius. natale comes qd temperet astrum."
 n the course of time the word was ued to designate the spirit or demon within the child; and later on was em- pbyed to describe such things as only a sirit or demon could do, by and through te child now grown up. Therefore, if ote accomplished some extraordinary ting, 1t was said. he had a genius, an dwelling demon, that made possible the ahievement.
 While the science of psychology has dis crded the ancient opinion just stated, it hs not been as positive in declaring the what and the why of the phenomenon of g,nius. Such uncertain language as this il used: Ut Is thought or Ut is pos sble" or 'Some have said, etc.
 For the most part, however, psycholo- ests have thought. for they do not know, tiat genius is an excess of psychical en- eRy operating in a special direction" The -l hoe haap ad Int situation. Many of these learned gentle nen have said that genius is due to an secidental condition of the brain, wherein etists unusual fneness of tissue. which, bling easily excited into rapid mechanical sction and thus creating extraordinary H marvellous scenes and mental combin- Aions. It is thought to be pathological condition. resembling one in fever whose frilliant phantasmagoria he never tfeamed of in a normal state. Others lave suggested that genius may arise rom Some abnormal cellular juxtaposi- ton. And so thay differ. But in this tley are about all agreed. that in geniuses tiere are cerebral excitations that are tanporary and intermittent Byron said ttat poetical productions came from an efcitement which from it's intensity could oily be temporary
 Hence the genius Is most irregular in hiN intellectual work. He acts and writes unoer tho influence of moods. Sir Walter scotl said, although he had known many men of ordinary abilities who were cap able of regularity in their habits. he had never known . man of genius who was 10. The seeming reason Is that genius dominates the will.
 Strictly speaking. no man possesses genius: genius is the possesor. Owen Meridtth aid:
 s.Genius Is master of the man;
 For genius does what 1t must.
 And talent what 1t can"
 James Russell Lowell. in his Rousseau and the sentimentalists." says: Talent is that which Is within mans power; wenius is that in whose power man is. |" Hence the genius h a creaturs of spells. and waits for the power to como upon him. which. having come, hs cannot re- .ist Mozart declared: My music comes to me unsought;" and the spells or moods of Goethe. their going and coming, and the inspiration which they brought him. he could not understand, as he himself paid
 n thsse moods of cerebral excitement
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-11-21
SUPPOSING A CASE.

from his heart the life of the painting was the death of the painter.