davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-07-06
ODD WEDDING CUSTOMS.

From the Philadelphia Bulletin.
In Anglo-Saxon marriages. the father
gave a shoe of the bride to the BRIDE
groom, who touched her on the head with
1t to remind her who was now master.
The wedding ring was used among the
ancient Hebrews. principally. with the
idea that the delivery of a ring conferred
power On the recipient, and thus the wife
wearing her husbands ring shared his
authority. The ring in the Roman es-
pousals was pledge of loyalty, and the
idea that it should be worn on the third
finger of the left hand because "a nerve
connected this finger with the heart
originated with the Romans. Orange
Saracens, because they were held. to SYM
bolizc fruitfulness the very general use
OF these flowers in Europe and America
for bridal adjournment is comparatively a
modern custom. The use of bridal veil
Is a relic CT the far-off time when the
husband was not allowed to- see his brides
face till after marriage.
1t is said to be curious fact that the
wedding cake, that elaborate, indigestible
compound so indispensable at the modern
mar:is ge ceremony, is the direct descend
ant of a cake made of water, flour and
salt of which, at the Roman high-class
weddings. The married couple and the wit
nesses partook at the time of the sign
ing of the contract.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-07-06
Growing Crops Are Full Of Interest

On Thursday afternoon next this
months government crop report Will
be issued, and it is looked forward to
enthusiastically, because the weather
has of late been ideal in the west. 1t
is expected to show improved condi-
tions in the winter wheat crop, which
is all made and about one-half cut. II
a condition OF 3d. is reported the crop
will slightly exceed 100000 bushels.
A report of 96.9 is anticipated as to
the condition of spring wheat, thus
pointing to a yield slightly in excess
of 100000 bushels. A total wheat
crop Of 7oO,0OO,Ooo bushels is antici-
pated. as against 664,000,oO0 bushels
last year.
But the brightest dreams are in
dulged in concerning the corn crop. A
condition of S6.S is anticipated and an
increase of 10 per cent in acreage. If
these dreams should crystalline into
government figures a crop that will
cross the three-billion line will be ex-
pected The largest corn crop ever
grown was that of 1906, which was
2,927,O00, 900 bushels. The three-billion
line has never been crossed in this or
any other country.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-07-06
John R. Early In New York

At length the alleged leper, John K
Early, has been landed in the Skin and
Cancer hospital in New York, where
he will be treated by DIR. Buikley, who
does not think Early is afflicted with
leprosy, although it is admitted he has
some form of skin disease.
Early Is a conscientious man, and he
has been subjected to many barbara
ties because Of the unreasoning dread
of leprosy. 1t is, in fact, the least in
fictitious of all diseases. No one can
headily take it, and yet many fear to
come within four blocks Of person
thus afflicted.
The state Of New Jersey, which has
covered the country with corporations,
fears leprosy, and Early had to be car
ried secretly in baggage car in the
night time across that state. The en-
tire affair was ridiculous, but so long
as the state of New Jersey was caught
mapping. no harm was done. No one
travelled with him Except a Salvation
Army worker who was deputized as a
guard.
Early is now receiving pension OF
S72 a month. His faithful wife accom-
panied by his two children are In New
York. where they are living on the pen
sion granted by the government. Early
was a soldier and he caught whatever
afflicts him while he was serving In
the Philippines. One can catch a great
many troubles in the archipelago that
Dewey captured one morning In May.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-07-06
LAND OF GOOD CLOTHES.

From the Baltimore American.
There is one class of American bust
ness men who may well pray that the
Japanese may never be allowed in the
United States in any numbers, and that
is the tailors," said Mr.. Horace w.
Chapman of Los Angeles at the Hotel
Kernon. II believe anyone who is
Judge of clothes would pronounce the
garments l am wearing a cookbook
ing, good fitting. well-made suit. 1t
was made for me in Nagasaki by a
little Jap tailor out of cloth imported
from London, and l am positive such
a suit made by any reputable tailor
in this country would cost not less
than $40. Ny little Oriental was tickled
Immensely when 1 handed him over $16
for it, and 1 suspect he thought he
was CHI eating me. l wouldn't want to
stay over there permanently If they
would give me my apparel for nothing,
but 1 will say that a man can have
made up fine wardrobe in Japan for
less money than anywhere else on the
globe"
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-07-06
| CHEWING GUM IN GUATEMALA.
From Nature.

After completing his investiga lions
at Tikal in November, 1904. Mr.. fMalec
returned to the east end of Lake Peten
and struck through the forest to the
east for distance of about IA leagues.
following, when possible, the paths of
the "chicie" gatherers until he reached
the shores of the Lake of Yaxha.
Chicle Is the gum which exudes when
an ineision is made in bark of the
Chico sapote tree and Is used as the
basis of American chewing gum 1t is
curious to note the complete demoral-
ization That chicle hunting has entailed
on the very scanty population of
Peten. mo one will plant a milpa
"a maize feld), and even the poorest
regamuffin proudly refuses to do any
work, saying I am Chiclero and have
no need to- work for any one.' The
result is that a general famine occurs
nearly every year In Peten, which
would otherwise yield an overlavish
abundance. Hence all tho Chicleros
are poverty-stricken, and being heavily
in debt, from which they never free
themselves, they no longer have, huts
or milpas and no regular wife or child
rem for this unsettled life in the for
ests, interrupted occasionally by de-
bauches in this or that village, puts
even the most unpretentious form of
family life out of the question:
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-07-06
WHEN ROYAL MAIDS PROPOSE.

II
When reigning queen is to be mar
ried she must be the one to breach the
subject first to her future consort, The
same rule holds good with regard to all
royal ladies who marry commoners !
The late Queen Victoria has told how
she managed to put the question" to
Prince Albert-how she first showed him
Windsor and Its beauties. and the distant
landscape, and then said: "All this may
be yours" The Queen of Holland, on a
like occasion, simply sent sprig OF
white heather. begging Prince Henry to
look out Its meaning In book of flow
ers and their meanings The Duchess
of Argyll took the following means of
proposing to the Marquis of Lorne. She
was about to attend state ball. and
gave 1t out that she would choose as
her partner for the first dance the man
she intended to honor. She selected the
marquis, who subsequently became her
husband.
But perhaps the most interesting of all
ways chosen was that of the Duchess of
Fife. She took the earl, as he then was,
to a drawer, and showed him Its con-
tents. There he saw number of trifies
he had given her at different times, in
Guiding sprigs Of several kinds Of flow
ers. now dead, he had picked for her
at various times. He was much i'm
pressed at the sight, nor did 1t require
words on her part to make her meaning
plain.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-07-06
GERMANS IN STEEL MERGER.
Banking interests Behind Project to
Weld American Industries.

From the Wall Street Summary.
The same German banking interests
which for several years have owned a
number of the larger iron. steel and
copper working plants of the eastern
and western states are concerned in the
plans for bringing into a community
of interest certain domestic iron ore
mine, lake shipping and iron and steel
producing interests, which the Ger
mans believe can be welded to form an
effective organization that will possess
within three or four years 20 per cent
of the present capacity of the properties
of the United States Steel corporation
The principal reason for the plans that
are being matured by these powerful
German financial interests is not In any
way based upon antagonism to the
United States Steel corporation, but Is
predicated upon the certainty that the
German banking interests, through
their affiliations with the greater COM
mercial houses of the German empire
and their intimate relations with the
powers that control the shipping of
Germany, can find many openings In
Europe, Asia, Africa and South Ameri-
ca for American made iron and steel
goods which are not accessible to the
United States Steel corporation.
The American machinery manufactur-
ing corporations which in the past
five years have made the greatest sales
abroad are controlled by German capt.
tai, and have had the advanta Bes of all
the powerful sources for promoting
German empire. Already these Ger
man interests have acquired large hold
ings of iron ores and fuel and cooking
coal in the west and south. The largest
types of blast furnaces can now os
built in 80 days. sUnder normal con-
dtions as large a steel plant as the
United States Steel corporation has Ut
Gary, Ind can be built in a year. There
are now no patents of any value in the
making of iron and steel. Nor on the
machinery for making iron and steel
products.
In the parts of the United Slater
wherein German interests are planning
BlCal nun anu ShVSi iNfAah6 WIN
bination, the average haul for assem-
bling fuels, f1uxes and ores Is much
shorter than in any part of Europe that
depends upon rich iron ores. Mining
costs in Europe are increasing faster
than in the United States, and to Ger
man traders there is the ever present
fear of war which will interrupt COM
munications between her sources of
supplies of raw products for manufac-
lures.
For nine months the exports of iron
and steel goods from this country have
been very much larger than the ex-
ports in like lines by Great Britain,
which until lately had been for CEN
fury the largest producer and exporter
of iron and steel products per unit of
population. Next in rank of exporting
nations In iron and steel wares to the
United States is Germany, and much of
her trade is in goods made from Span
ish and Swedish ores which are de-
creasing in iron content and rising in
t1a on y1oQ q
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-07-06
Fees Scored Auain,

1.-The adage, Where justice ends ty-
ranny begins applies to the fee system
as aptly as anything L know Of" said
w. d. Conville, a well-known citizen,
yesterday. THAT the fee system should
be abolished is matter to which I
believe a great majority of the voters of
Jefferson county and Alabama will agree.
But applying the adage. the fees ex-
torted under the present system from
those who are so unfortunate as to be-
come mixed up in the courts are unjust
and absolutely outrageous I do not be-
leve can be doubted by any one except
perhaps the fee grabber, who is the only
one who benefits by the system.
THE very fact that such fat fees are
allowed ofdceholders under the law leads
them on and on until they know hardly
where to stop. Consequently the admin
istrations of certain county officers have
in the past and do now prove little less
than tyrannical.
II have always been unalterably OPP
posed to the system, and believe Gov
ernor Conner should include the matter
in his call This would insure the matter
coming up before the legislators for ac-
ton one way or the other. On the other
hand, If It is not included in the gov
ernor's call for an extra session, no one
knows what amount of effective lobbying
the organized forces opposing the abol-
ton of the system will get in. and the
matter might amount to but little If 1t
ever came up in the legislature"
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-07-06

the year round on barges from the
heart of this district via the Warrior
river, Mississippi sound and the Lake
Borgne canal to the Crescent City it.
self.
These products will be fioated to
tidewater by the time the Panama ca
nal is opened, and cheaper steam coal
will be. laid down at Mobile, Pensacola
and even Galveston than Pittsburg or
Illinois can furnish. Alabama coal will
be stored at Colon. Can New Orleans
afford to ignore geographical advan-
tages in order to placate Pittsburg or
Illinois?
What New Orleans needs is cheap
bunker coal. That coal must come
from this district when the Warrior is
opened to the heart of our coal meas
ures as it soon will be by the gov
eminent. If New Orleans builds on
Pittsburg or Illinois coal and iron it
viii find itself undersold by men and
cities that handle the products of this
district.
Let the Picayune study distances
and rivers that neither ice nor drouths
affect. This would, or should, deter
mine the problem.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-07-06
New YOrk'S Coming Election

The mayor system of city govern
ment In New York has resulted in the
summary dismissal of Police Commits
sioner Bingham, and people are begin
ming to wonder if arbitrary power of
removal in a mayor is an excellent fea-
ture of city administration after all.
Formerly no mayor held such power,
but Of late the power of arbitrary re-
moval and appointment has been wide
ly extended. 1t has no doubt accom-
plished deal of good, but amid the
good has come some evil, and the
Bingham removal may prove boone
rang to Mayor Mcclellan and the DEM
ocratic party.
Indications are not wanting that
General Bingham may become the fu-
sion candidate for mayor this fall.
when a mayor of New York is to be
elected for four years. 1t would be
difficult to make Roadway against such
movement If led by General Bing-
ham, who was an upright and fearless
head of the police force of the big
city.
Tammany is not, however, dismayed.
and its candidate will be, 1t Is said,
Theodore W. Myers, who holds the
confidence Of bankers. The finances
of the city sneed reorganization, and it
will be claimed that Mr.. Myers is the
best man for the big task. He is GER
tainly a more experienced financier
than General Bingham.
The latter was autocratic in the DO
lice office, and Mayor Mcclellan has
proven to be equally autocratic in the
mayors office, and the people in the
big city begin to ask themselves con.
corning the manner in which their
municipal government has been or
ganized.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-07-06
NATIONS, FAIRGROUNDS

unique In preserving the widest of noun
tain scenery almost at the gates Of the
sound cities, Seattle and Tacoma. Mount
Rainier is the noblest of the peaks that
overlook our Pacific Coast. Like Full
yama In Japan and Shishaldin in Alaska,
1t rises majestically with graceful lines
that proclaim its volcanic origin. With
its base set in the green of the wonderful
Puget Sound forest, Fainier's snow and
ice covered cone merges with the clouds
until the white summit appears to belong
to heaven rather than TO earth. From
this snowy cone radiates a score of
glaciers, the largest In the United States,
which extend down the gashed slopes UNI
til they are lost In the forest below where
they give rise to rushing, noisy rivers of
milk white water.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-07-06
PIONEER AT PANAMA.
Man Who Bazed Way for Canal Dies
Practically Unknown.

From the New York Tribune.
1t is a bit of the proverbial irony of
fate that a man whose activities once and
for some years commanded the keenest
interest of the diplomatic and technical
worlds should go to his grave with only
few lines of perfunctory notice in the
news of the day. Yet that has recently
been the lot of the man who in a sense
above all others blazed the way for the
Panama canal, who provoked the contro-
versy between America and France over
that undertaking, who brought Des Les
seps to the sthmus and opened the way
for the colossal debacle of "Panamaism,"
and who thus unintentionally. but not al
together indirectly, foreshadowed the
American assumption of the enterprise
which had been pending since the days of
fernando Cortez. If Saavedra Ceron was
the first promoter of the Panama canal
In earliest times, 1t would not be easy
to name any one better entitled to that
distinction In our own day than Lucien
Napoleon Bonaparte Wyse.
AS a lieutenant in the French navy
Lucien distinguished himself early In life
Dy HIS tAploTdllOHS III the WRITINGS con-
corning Chile, Argentina, Patagonia and
the Strait of Magellan. Then, in 1876, he
became interested In Panama.
Wyse's plans were found to be faulty
he had made them without ever visiting
the scene of operations-and De Lesseps
company met with the most disastrous
failure in history. Yet 1t was because of
Wyse's enterprise and enthusiasm that
the French began work at Panama and
1t was because of what they did there that
the United States went to Panama in
stead of to Nicaragua-because 1t was be-
lieved that there alone it was possible
to fulfill Wyse's grandiose scheme of a
sea-level canal. Wyses book on THE
Panama Canal was crowned by the
French academy at about the same time
that De Lesseps was elected to that body
and was hailed by Leon Gambetta as
lie Grand Francois and, despite the
cloud which fell upon him only a few
years later, when the Panama failure
convulsed France, he will be remembered
as one of the most energetic, resourceful
and efficient of all the long line of pro-
moters who during four centuries sought
to connect the two seas with an isthmian
canal
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-07-06
A Curious Slip.

1t is strange what curious lapses are
made by persons who are supposed to be
painstaking," said a professionally man.
Il read in The Age-Herald of Sunday a
very interesting interview with the An
glican bishop of London in favor of the
stage. 1t was evidently an Associated
Press story, under a London date line,
and as the Associated Press is proverh-
tally accurate In its facts. the slip re-
ferred to was all the more remarked.
The London correspondent started off by
saying: DIR. Temple, bishop of London,
has declared himself to be a playgoer.
DIR. Temple is not bishop of London.
He was the incumbent of that see many
years ago, but at the time of his death
in 1902 he was archbishop of Canterbury
and primate of all England, having been
translated to that exalted position in 1885,
''Dr. ingram is the present bishop of
London. He visited the Protestant Epis-
copal general convention at Richmond In
1907 and made number of addresses
while he was in this country. The Lon
don correspondent surely could not have
been ignorant of the name of the bishop
of London, for DR.. Ingram is, as all
bishops of London are sure to be, very
in the pictorial London papers recently in
connection with the church pageant that
attracted worldwide attention. The cor
respondent was, 1 suppose, simply wool
gathering"
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-07-06
GETTING Ready To Resume,

The Southern Iron and Steel company
is getting ready for operations in the
near future. The following statement
was issued yesterday from President w.
H. Hassinger's office in the Brown-Marx
building:
mr.. Brooks, superintendent of the wire
mill at Ensley, has been instructed to
put on a force of men preparatory to
making the repairs and improvements
necessary to place the plant in first-class
condition. He has been quietly at work
for the past 60 days getting up plans
and estimates of such changes as are
necessary"
The plants of the company at Alabama
City, adjoining Gadsden. include steel
mill and a blast furnace, and 1t Is under
stood that they will be in operation before
the summer is ended.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-07-06
CIRCUS OR SIDESF0W

they exempt from rua#Hza to ut
the secondary 40 he
sdeshow above the Ell
The church also faces the lis
turbing and disintegrating force in mod
ern life. So far have many churches and
clergymen gone, in their reaction from
excessive emphasis as In former days, on
the dogmatic. mystical and spirituallstic
aspects of religion. that hey have become
competitors with the state in political
reform, with newspapers and schools In
education, with theaters and concert halls
In amusement of the people Religion has
been COMPOUNDED with ethics Other
worldliness has been suppianted with
worldli1ess. Ministers have become
servers of tables and dispensers of relief
to bodily wants and Ills; and the world
sees not a few proprietors of ecclesias-
teal sldeshows doing a good business,
while Interpreters of the mysteries of
human existence and preachers of gos-
pei of glad tidlngs and surcease from the
real evils of life too often labor on, mad
equately recompensed and lacking in pop
ular regard.
Nor is the state without Its peril from
the same misleading of the relative val
ues of life. The state was made for man,
not man for the state. Collective man
can be as tyrannical over individual man
as ever individual men were over society.
History Is writ large with the demoral-
izing effect upon past demoeracies of the
habit of expecting the state to be an
unfaiing source of pecuniary aid, of legal
support, of moral counsel at times when
individual resource seems at all difficult.
A state, like man, can fail to draw the
line between needs and wants; and in
trying to satisfy the latter 1t may end Its
power to satisfy the former. In its effort
to improve the material well-being of its
citizens the stae can undermine their
mental and moral good. In its desire to
win markets at the ends of the earth 1t
can do injustice to producers and con-
sumers at home. In an aggressive for
eign policy, with its accompanying burden
for militarism, 1t may retard domestic
industry, weaken It's wealth of virile man.
hood, and invite ultimate ruin.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-07-06
Instructive Reading.

"One of the most interesting and in
structive articles on prohibition and on
temperance movements that l have read
in many a day appeared in The Age
Herald of this morning Monday In the
form of New York correspondence" said
man last night who has long been a
member of total abstinence society
1T tells all about the Anti-saloon league
and its general director-who has head
quarters at Columbus, -O.-and about re-
form waves of the past. There is not only
no sign of bitterness In the review of
prohibition, but both prohibitionists and
local optionists are treated with absolute
fairness II any one who wishes to keep
informed failed to read the article, he or
she should by all means secure a copy
of the paper"