davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-10-31

following statements as to the genius of the Hebrew laguage: It is incapable of giving an address in it's substance except in the form of an apparent repro duotion of the ipsissima verba d e., the very words). Hence in the Old Testa- ment historical books, whenever a writer wishes to report that one person made verbal communication to another he al- ways says: 'So -an-so spoke to So-an-so, saying The direct form is always used. These statements are too sweeping. The Hebrew does usually avoid indirect cita- tion, but in I Chronicles 1516, we read that David spake to the chief of the Le- Vites to appoint their brethren to be singers etc. In I Chronicles 17:25: Thou, O my God. hast told thy servant that thou wilt build him house." In Deu- teronomy 9:25: Because the Lord had said he would destroy you" In Daniels 9:2: 'The word of the Lord came to Jer- emiah, the prophet. that he would ac- compllsh seventy years in the desola- tions of Jerusalem" In II Samuels I'll: "rhe Lord telleth thee that he will make thee a house." In quite a number of these passages the Hebrew verb "amar," as ually rendered say, is used It has also the sense resolve" or announce" or declare" or demand" or whisper, ]" or "confed to-" In II Samuels 7;l1, "hig- gid'' is used in the sense of "announee.' '
 We are not here trusting to our own slender knowledge, but have consulted the most eminent American Hebrewist known to use, and have condensed his instructions. Our authority is Prof. c. H. Toy of Harvard.
 Again. Here is a nice, though not over fresh bit of logic
 The Book of Deuteronomy could not have been written by Moses, and could not have been known to the Hebrews in the days of Samuel. Elijah, even David, 1 because all these men violated Its pro-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-10-31

I continued to read the "Biblical World" which steadily become more and yet more pronounced in It's radi- were little better than Wellhausen done into English.
 I shall not complain that Kuenew Wellhausen, Driver and the rest of the wild tribe of critics are continually quoted as authorities, while Samuel Colcord Bartlett Hommen and William Henry Green are seldom or never men toned; but such "stories show which way the wind blows" and it does blow furiously.
 Many of the contributions to the "Biblical World" are more or less dis tinguished." Professors in important institutions of learning, theological and otherwise; and some of them are distin guished for their plentiful lack" of acquaintance with the Bible. For in stance:
 When a distinguished professor writes of the social life of the ancient Hebrews, the reader naturally expects to get some valuable and trustworthy information up- on this surprisingly interesting theme. But when he is told that these ancient Hebrews thought more of their children than of their wives, and when this Is proved CD by the fact that when Job was
 stripped of property and children his wife was still Left to him, what Is he to think of such reasoning? This reader thinks that he never saw more absurdly irrelevant statements in any composition that was meant to be serious. Was Job a Hebrew? All the facts known to us point to negative answer. And, supposing Job to have been He- brew who can tell us at what period he lived, If, indeed. the radical critics will
 agree that he lived at all?
 Again, supposing that the 'learned''
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-10-31
FAUST-By pr. w. E. Evans

some other men of genius, to instance Browning's "Paracelsus," and "The Ring and the Book"
 This criticism applies most certainly
 to the second part of Faust" In his
 elaborate paper on the subject of Faust
 Professor Browning says "The second part of Faust has been a battlefield of controversy since its publication. For a long time it was regarded as impossible to understand it and not worth under standing It was thought to be the pro- duction of a great artist whose faculties had become impaired by age" Rather polite way of saying that when 1t was written Goethe was in his dotage
 The second part of Faust" Is vastly inferior to the first part and evidently had little connection with the first part In the mind of the great poet. If it were not for the names of Faust, Mephisto- pheles and Wagner the second part would disclose little kinship with the forepart of the great tragedy. The style is dif- ferent, the spirit of the author has changed and the complexities are multi- piled. On the stage they do well to drop the curtain at the wall of Margarets s anguish. Interest at that point dies.
 Who cares to know what became of Faust? Who wants to make the &C., quaintance of Helena? This is the mighty climax. where our tears fall and the emotional nature trembles as in some
 unspeakable moral cataclysm. Here the intellect stands in awe at the posslbili-
 ties of the great inventive genius of
 Goethe. I say the climax Is here. It is
 not in the ultimate end of Faust" The termination of his career is tame in com parison with the close of the first part. Faust's death Is described with hand that has almost lost it's cunning The star of Goethe's genius was at it's set ting. The second part was an after thought Goethe originally intended that of Mephistopheles, 'Hier gu mir" fol- lowed by the cry of Margaret dying ! away in the distance-"Heinrich-H ein- rich.'' The second part has added noth- ing of interest Everybody reads Milton Paradise Lost but nobody reads Paradise Regained." Everybody reads the first part of Faust" but nobody reads the second part through. Who cares for the Walpurgusnacht traum? or the wedding of classical lore with mod ern romantic literature? or the flgura- tive hint of Byron or of Faust's wealth and the splendor of his life? The few lines that tell the story of the defeat of Mephistopheles and the salvation of Faust could have been added to the first part with artistic unity, as coulS his higher quests, and in . few paragraphs, for everybody knows that only a little attention is accorded Faust. after strip ping away the mass of classical acces- sories and unrelated fanciful oonceits, to- wards the close of the tragedy.
 Goethe undoubtedly took the story of Job as the underlying suggestion of Faust" but the difference Is here: Job maintained his integrity when turned over to the evil one, while Faust plunges into sin and crime He becomes a man of treachery and a murderer, and though finally saved by the angels these facts cannot be forgotten. At the outset, though woudrously sndoNed ants1leetuA1r
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-10-31

intellect of the whole lot, and the first orator of the whole lot
 Ingalls,, the brilliant bully from Kan sas, and Hoar, the scholarly thinker from Massachusetts, were there, and little did they dream what a master they would find in partisan debate in the new sena- tor from North Carolina. Thurman the Great was there, the noblest Roman of them all, and the first democrat then In public life, superior even to Conkling himself in political debate. There was William A. Wallace, a democratic sena- tor from Pennsylvania, a rival of Sam Randall and as skillful a politician as Matt Quay himself. He was a red-head- ed man with classic face, nt to cut in cameo. Edmunds and Morrill, were from Vermont, the last named formerly col league of Vance in the Thirty-sixth Con- gress. Matt Carpenter was from Wis consin, the first lawyer in the Senate, perhaps first in the republic.
 And such were the men and their suc- cessors with whom Zebuon B. Vance had to contend in rivalry on an intellectual theatre where quarter is neither asked nor given. and soon he approved himself worthy the steel of the greatest of them. Not so great lawyer as Carpenter or Hill, or Garland or Thurman, or Me Donald, he was endowed with what no
  imagination and sense of human na- ture possessed by no other senator ex- cept Vest.
 Personally Vance was the most popular man in either house of Congress, and this despite the fact that he could deal as hard blow as any of them, and never hesitated to exert all his strength when the occasion arose. One phase of him may be expressed by the term "rollick- ing" something we cannot say of Proc tor Knott; but both Knott and Vance could invent on the spur of the moment an apt anecdote to fit any theory they ad- vanced. Vance was a greater orator than Knott, but the latter's speech was the more ornate. Both had riotous imagi- nations.
 Zebulon B. Vance was born in Bun combe county, North Carolina, May 13 1880. He was of excellent lineage. and his mother a woman of extraordinary force of character, from whom he in- herited that marked individuality that distinguished him as boy and man, cit izen, soldier and civic leader. She had entertained at her home John c. Cal
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-10-31

Gensis, of course; for no accredited scholar pretends that there Is any other original record Of the transaction. But, if the writer of the account in Genesis Is to be trusted as to the facts, upon what logical grounds can we reject his straightforward and perfectly ineligible account of Abraham's motive, especially when we find this account confirmed by that of the author of the Epistle of the Hebrews7
 With the exception of Jesus Christ, and perhaps that of Moses, Abraham is the most conspicuous figure in the religious history of the world. He is the Hero of the Faith" in the three great historic eligions-Judaisn, Christianity and Mo hammedanism Ii is said that Macaulay had "by heart' the list of all the Rom- an emperors and that of all the popes. Both lists shrink into insignihcance, and pale their intellectual fires beside that glorious roll call of heroes of the faith in the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews.
 So far as is known, Abraham is the only man who ever obtained the splendid title, "the friend of God" Jehovah himself calls him "a prophet" and even reDroved kings for his sake. saying: Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm" Jesus Christ speaks of Abraham in terms of the profoundest respect. The author of 'Hebrews'' tells us that Abra- hams faith was so strong and so clear that he actually reasoned out by 1t the then unheard of doctrine of the resur- rection. (See Hebrews Il d7-19.)
 My space fails, or would gladly quote the whole of this authors splendid tribute to Abraham's faith; but I must content myself with begging my Christian readers to refresh their courage by reading from the eighth to the nineteenth verse of this nohe che1ter ghe0 pc-iza ean-e If them will mutter: Harper vs. Hebrews"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-10-31

K 0 other poet of modern times has M been so much in the public eye l and so much under the scrutiny of literary critics as Goethe; and no other poem of the last century has re- ceived so much attention from the world literary masters. No other poem or great genius has received severer criti- cism, nor has any other poem been more highly exalted than Faust" by those who have been led captive by It's mystic, harmonious measures it's subtle philoso- phy, It's transcendent imagery, its path os, it's classic alustions and its terrible tragedies. No other poet was ever so much censured as Goethe, nor has there ever been another so truly idolized by iis nation. No other poet of Germany, not even Heine, is so well known to the peo- pie of the Fatherland as is Goethe. The highest classes quote his lines. and the lowliest are familiar with his sayings.
 What Shakespeare Is to England, Goethe is to Germany, and more. But what Shakespeare Is to the world Goethe can never become. Shakespeare Is the poet of the race; Goethe is the poet of a nation. Of Shakespeare we know too little; of Goethe we know too much. We are familiar with his youth, his mature years and his old age. We know his in most character, the incidents and accl- dents of his career, his relations with others, his modes of thought and his philosophy of existence. When reading Faust one cannot dismiss Goethe from the mind, but rather does the conviction grow that the poet here and there is copying from the book of his own life, 6 life so unlovely as never to excite the moral sympathy of the reader. We see Goethe all too much in Faust and, truth to tell, he follows us often as the 'black dog in the great drama fol- lowed Faust. In the great productions of the immortal genius who gave the world its peerless English dramas we see the author not at all. Nor do we think of the man Shakespeare as we tread the paths to which his wizard pen points the way He conducts us to lofty heights of far away Helicons, and then to depths profound where furies rage and never rest; into the profundities of philosophy, as well as along the primrose path of sweetest fancy where thought is light as a summer idyl; he descends into the glory of ''king's houses" to behold its pomp and circumstances, its men and women of royal lines, as well as the ''court fool' with his "cap and bells" The reader follows him, but never once does he think of the personality of his guide He never obtrudes himself. As one who throws a panoramic view upon a canvas, himself remaining In the dark ness unseen and unthought of, so does this master genius conceal himself Not so with Goethe
 When you read "Werther'' you cannot dismiss the thought that the capricious and dissatisfied hero is Goethe. So with the "Meister'' and with Faust" for the same threadH of thought, philosophy. pas- sion and unrest run through them all. Tn every one of them you recognize the same immortal genius, 1t is true; but at the same time you feel that you are confronting the same changSabte and
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-10-31

cence, she listens to his words as if she were old in sin. This is an inartistc touch. as well as moral inconsistency upon the part of the poet; there is no shock nor remonstrance in Margaret when he proposes to administer the opiate to the child's mother; since he assures her that 1t will not kill. there is no hesitancy.
 It reminds one that in 17s2 Goethe was walking in the public park in Weimer A girl came to him; she was in distress about her brother. She held out a peti- ton in her brothers behalf for Goethe to sign. She had soft blue eyes, golden hair and an attractive form. Goethe took her to his home, and not until years after she had become the mother of his children did he marry her. and then only through constraining interest for one of the chil- dren.
 Faust finds Margaret pure, but brings her to moan as she places her simple flowers in the niche before the Mother of Sorrows,
 "Ah, who can know the torturing woe,
 The bangs that rack me to the bone? How my poor heart without relief, Trembles and throbs it's yearning grief, Thou knowest, and thou alone. An, wheresoe'e CT I go
 With woe, with woe, with woe, My anguished breast Is aching; When all alone I creep,
 weep, weep. I weep, Alas my heart is breakingi The fiower-pots at my window
 Were wet with tears of mine, The while I pluoked these blossoms
 At dawn, to deck thy shrine"
 The agony of Margaret Is drawn with 6 master hand. One sorrows with Ophelia In Hamlet; but for Margaret the heart is oppressed as with a personal grief. A torrent of emotion overwhelms the soul The artists power is shown here. Every line is full of meaning and of potent sug- gestion. No praise of Goethe's genius as disclosed here, can be too laudatory. The story inspired him with the fitness of its pathos, and the fires of his genius burned at white heat Recall the scene in the cathedral, the service, the organ, the an- them, and Margaret's moan
 Woe. woe.
 O, could free me from the thoughts
 That hither, thither crowd upon my brain
 Against my will.' Then the solemn tones of the organ and the mournful chorus
  Solvet saecum In favilia, Toste David cum Sibylla." On and on. burdened with her weight of sorrow, Margaret staggers; with the curse of Valentine upon her head, with madness burning up her brain. through the gloom of the dungeon. and with mur- der charged to her account: on and on, until we hear her last wild shriek, 'Iein- rieh-Heinrich."
 What does 1t mean? This: That Inno- cence was a victim to the purpose of Faust. and that it must be sacrificed to emphasize the depths to which he could descend, when once he had linked him. self with base associate. Mephistopheles who feeds on mischief and revels in de- struction." Here the tragedy ends, 50 far as the book carries us but 1t may be going on in some lives and histories that are not written in books, and the pathos of the thought in this direction is all the greater.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-10-31

XXTTHEN the Forty-sixth Congress NA/ was convened in extraordinary
 w session. March IS, 1879, because of the failure of the army appropriation bill of the last session of the Forty-fifth Congress, there were three V's on the democratic side-Vance, Vest and Voor- hees-and it was a democratic Senate, with Allen G. Thurman president pro tempore, the first senator of that per- suasion to hold that position since Ben jamin Fitzpatrick left it IS years earlier. The army bill failed because of the veto of R. B. Hayes, and his objection to 1t was that 1t forbade the army to hold the elections in some Of tho southern states.
 Voorhees, had been a senator since 1877, when he succeeded Oliver P. Morton. It was the first session of Vance and Vest. It was also the beginning of the first term of that grand old lawyer from Alabama, James L. Pugh. Perhaps no abler Congress ever convened at this cap ital than the Forty sixth which was re- markable for the great number of very intellectual men in both houses. In the Senate were Morgan of Alabama and Garland of Arkansas. That remarkable man, William w. Eaton, was senator from Connecticut, straight out JoiiH V. Calhoun states rights man, who had made a tour of a dozen states in 1860, ad- vocating on the stump the election to the presidency of John c. Breckinridge. He was a masterly debater, and one Of the two men the Senate with whom Ros- COG Conkling was on terms of intimate friendship; Hannibal Hamlin was the other.
 Thomas Francis Bayard was from Dela- ware, and he would have been President had he hailed from larger state Ben IIill was from Georgia. and L. o. c. La mar was from Mississippi. Wade Hamp- ton was from South Carolina, Beck from Kentucky and Mcdonald from Indiana Harris of Tennessee was another south ern senator. Allison of Iowa was there, and destined to serve in that body longer than any other man, the first i've score years of our national existence Blaine was there, and his air a mingle of the debonair and the insolent. Two seats nearer the aisle in the same row sat Conkling, doubtless the most gigantic
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-10-31
-Sbe?''

 She from confession cometh here, From every sin absolved and free: crept near the confessor's chair, All innocence her virgin soul For next to nothing went she there' The professions of sentiment from so lofty person as Faust naturally excited the pride of this smple-hearted girl of fourteen, and she felt herself compliments ed, for she says:
 Good heavens: how all things far and
 near
 Must fill his mind, a man like thisi Abashed before him appear, And say to all things only-'yes.' Poor. simple child, cannot see What 'tis that he can find in me-" Faust leads her on, she being blinded by the blandishments of his words and caresses; he professes love for her--he a philosopher and she but child of four teenl When he would destroy her inno-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-10-31

represent the reproaches of conscience to
 him who has been party to so gross a
 wrong as has been recited. The meaning is that sin has It's sequel of horror. But is not Faust a symbol of human nature?
 No; a thousand times no. Faust, un- doubtedly, represents some human beings,
 those of baser sort, but human nature is far superior to the class of men like Faust.
 Mephistopheles is marvellous creation;
 as a work of art, he Is far advanced above
 Faust. Goethe's genius needs no greater
 monument than Mephistopheles. He is not
 conventional devil. He is not like Mill
 tons Luclfer, majestic in his fall, and
 really the hero of Paradise Lost" as Burns said. He Is not partly an angel and | partly a devil. He is all devil perfect | devil. He Is a thing of art, and always consistent with himself. He Is incarnate impurturbabilty absolutely unimpas- | stoned never disturbed; calm, cool, cum I ming, heartless, and infinitely cruel. Dante needs eleven devils in the Divine comedy; but all that the eleven can accomplish for Dante. one can bring about In Faust, that
 one being Mephistopheles. Shakespeare could not have drawn such a character. The office of Mephisto Is to seduce all that Is good and to awaken passions which else would slumber or lie dead.
 A young woman about to act character
 in one of voltaires tradgedies could not satisfy the author Voltaire recited the troublesome passage himself, then said.
 "Recite 1t that way" To which the young actress said, Monsieur. I should have to have the devil In me to reach the tone you wish" Exactly, mademoiselle; 1t Is the devil that you must have in you to excel in any of the arts.' I wonder if one must have the devil in him before he can put him in a poem? Be that as 1t may, one can but wonder at the astound- ing genius that has given to the world in Mephistopheles what has been called "the most wonderful creation in the fiction of the world"
 have left myself but little time to write of Margaret. One comes to her as calm retreat after the ,umultuous night
 mare in the preceding pages of the poem; a nightmare, have called 1t, but it is nightmare described by one whose star of genius shall always shine in the con- stellation where glow the worlds that men call Homer, Dante and Shakespeare. Margaret Is child-"past fourteen" as Faust says. She is of spotless inno- cence and virtue. till Faust comes into her life; for, as Mephistopheles says,
The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1909-02-13

the American has concealed in the
handle of his travelling bag He Sc
cures the stone and arrives at his
native land just at the opportune
moment, the guards already in the
act of beheading his beloved, He
gives up the precious jewel. they are
both released and everything ends
happily. The film is an exceedingly
lengthy one and is without doubt
one OF the most strangely fascinating
ever exhibited in this city. The
balance Of the program is up to the
standard, and a visit TO the Jewel
theatre this afternoon or evening
viii delight the most critical OF in
dividuals.
A special attraction at this theatre
is announced for tomorrow matinee
and evening by Manager Newman,
he having secured the services OF the
Columbia orchestra and they will rem
der choice program at both the
afternoon and evening performance