davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-09

Il spose not,' said the Hotel Clerk,
that's why I'm telling you. Here we've
been going along for century or SO
talking about the supremacy of the pure
Anglo-Saxon in this country. and we are
the purest Anglo-SaXOn in the whole world,
IL you'll excuse a little Irish blood and a
touch of Swede and some French and I
feck Of Italian. here and there. and quite
little sprinkling Of the kind of Anglo
Saxons that came originally from Jcrusa-
lem, but are now mostly In the cloak and
suit trade. We used to think that these
smoked people didn't belong. IF parry
had complexion that shaded Oft any
where from golden oak to black walnut
We gave him the boots and let it go at
that. We had an idea that brown hide
went with liver that was the color Of
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-09

Every year 10000 tourists visit the
Observation-Disclosures island
livery year 10000 tourists shudder at
the tragedies of its quicksands tides and
floods. The sands swallow men. horses
and wagons, sheep and cattle. The Sep
teInber tides come faster than a horse
can gallon. At Chorbourg they are seven
yards high. at Granville fifteen yards.
BY the difference You can judge the mass
of water precipitated into this bay.
Yet not one of the 100000 tourists favorS
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-09

The water has already risen in that
creek-and that-between us. They are
cut off,.
Then the American saw a. terrible sight.
The four gypsies had perceived the great
tide. rolling up like a wall, now that the
lower levels We're filled. Frantically they
ran for the mount. One tried to jump a
tiny stream. He splashed-and disap
peared. The three others ran along it for
a crossing. One was seen struggling
knee-deep A third ran to his rescue.
The fourth was seen gesticulating as the
fog concealed him. Now, that fog is only
five feet high: but it hides everything on
the surface. Screams for help were heard
for ten minutes. Then all was silence
Of the valuable sheep of the farming
"Poiders SO many are lost yearly that
there Is no counting them. Cows and
steers are often saved; they hold still
and let planks and bundles Of fagots be
put under them; but there is no helping
a sheep who goes crazy Last year
flock of 800 was sucked down in a quar-
ter of an hour.
Even ships have been swallowed by
these quicksands. In 1870 the owner of
a seventy-ton sloop would hardly believe
the story of his captain that the whole
business had gone down, SHE'LL masts and
sails. He caused a great stone, weighing
1000 pounds to be chiseled cone-form;
attached eighty feet of rope to it fixed
a plank to the other end of the rope, to
prevent it from entirely disappearing.
This was in the evening. The next morn
ing everything had gone down-inciuding
the plank No one knows the depths of
these quicksands. Their general cause is
the water of vagrant creeks and conflict
ing currents from the sea.
Now, the dyke uniting the mount with
the mainland has so turned certain cur
rents that the sands on either side of it
are no longer dangerous. The 100000
tourists who annually pass over it to
the marvel of the ocean go dry-shod and
safe-even when they play at danger on
the nearby sands.
Yet there is not a tourist Of the annual
10000 who does not lament this safety
bought too dearly.
In a word. thanks to Misunderstanding
improvements, Mont ST. Michel is being
surely lifted out of the ocean.
i
Every day the waters of the bay re-
coded a little: and the land encroaches on
the marvel of the sea. In a few years
Mont st. Michel will be high and dry.
Then. in the course Of coming centuries.
another oak forest may grow UP around
it-and Mount Gargan may again rise
from a sea of leaves and branches.
Back. in 1874 when Victor Hugo cried
the first alarm. a government decree had
authorized the building Of a connecting
dyke ostensibly ito give safe access to
Mont ST Michel, to suppress the diagonal
currents in the maritime bed OF Couesnon,
to protect the shore between Selune and
Couesnon, and to progressively give back
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-09

The public saw only the visible effects
Of the unsubmerged dyke connecting the
mount with the mainland-dry sands ris-
ing and solidifying on either side Of that
dyke. The picturesqueness suffered from
a single point Of view. but the sea rose
round three-quarters of the marvel mir
rored in its surface.
1t rose, but less each year.
Submerged dykes. afar off, were COM
bining with the visible dyke. Science was
secretly. intricately, leading the tides
where 1t would. Some of the submerged
dykes are four yards high and fifteen
yards wide at the bottom and three yards
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-09

pushed-up sand stick only on a solid and
rising surface. Yet there are ''lizes'' that
cannot be seen. particularly those hidden
under numerous very shallow creeks
whose course over the sands are cOnt1n-
ually changing.
Certain ''lizes' have the fiuidity of wa
ter; any solid object is swallowed up the
moment it touches the surface. Others
show certain cOnsistence; but If you
push on you are lost. Before you realize
it the Shiny sands are halfway to your
knees. Struggling, you sink deeper. You
tire yourself in frantic movements; your
eyesight becomes troubled; there Is d
ringing in your ears! Are you descend
ing? Is the whole world rising round
you? Now you are waist deep! Slowly
the ''lize' sucks in it's victim. Now you
are in to the arm-pits!
They say that. even up to the armpits.
you can save yourself. Spread your arms
wide in the form of a cross, and you Will
cease sinking and have time to cry for
help. Few, however, have the GOODNESS to
make this maneuver. In the end. they go
wild, struggling to the last moment
when the watery sands are sucked into
the lungs! Indeed. there is but one sure
way. The instant you begin to sink
throw yourself on the. fiat of the stom-
ach spread wide arms and legS-and
wriggle back to solid sand like snake.
!: !;
In old times, when a sentry on tower
of Mont ST. Michel perceived such
tragedy beginning in the distance. he
sounded the alarm. Rescue parties armed
with blanks and ropes fastened to save
the unhappy fisher, peasant or pilgrim
But when the tide had cut him off, or
when he was too distant, the great bell
doomed and the soldier-monks heard a
voice calling them to the high platform
ito pray for one who is dying.
From thirty to forty victims used to be
sucked in yearly; but in recent times,
thanks to the dyke uniting the mount
with the mainland, the number has re-
markably decreased
The last catastrophe dates three years
back A farmer with his wife and child
had come to the mount in one-horse
carryalI. They were returning towards
Avranches by route well marked by
vehicles that market day. when, sud
denly they were observed to turn SHght-
~ out of that we'll marked track. AT
once, the sands seemed to open under
them Horse and wagon were sucked in
with incredible swiftness. The woman
and Child next disappeared. The man had
thrown out his arms: but as his beloved
ones disappeared. he was seen to throw
them up in despair. The next moment
it was all smooth sand again. :.
Three months previously a band of
wandering gypsies having camped under
the walls Of the mount, four of their
number wandered out toward the sea-
seeking clans. They seemed not to know
the hour of the incoming tide. Ignorant
". they paid no attention to the frantic
signals of inspectors. the grumbling roar
OF the tide was growing louder. They evil
IDENTIFY understood nothing.
Let us run out ard bring them back, ;
said an American tourist.
ut cannot be DONE the native an
swered. We could not get to them now
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-09

farm hands who deserted their focks and
utensils, families who shut up their
houses. little children who quit their
parents without a word. All had heard OF
a glorious mountain rising from the ocean
crowned by fairy palaces. And they must
see. The pilgrims were the first tourists.
Tie sight grew more wonderful. A hun
dred years before the conquest of Eng
land the then Duke Of Normandy had
established Benedictine soldier-monks on
the mount, beginning Notifications. Louis
TX in 1854 built the north tower (exact
center Of large photography and the
works on either side OF It, After the de-
feat Of Agincourt Charles VI built the
lower or marine fortifications. which he
joined to those of Louis TX by the dag
onally rising wall you see. From the
epoch 1415-142O most of such new" forti-
fications date. 1t is all a sample of the
middle ages preserved perfect without
later alterations.
During 500 years the English tried vain
Iy to- take the mount. Between 141S and
1444 they besieged it in a continual man
ner. Five hundred Norman and Breton
gentlemen. fishers. monks and farmers
held it against 10000 English-provisioned
from st. MalO by d EstOuteville. famous
captain, and won Prious, a fisher whose
blockade running is sung to this day on
the coast.
Tourists marvel at the enormous mass
of buildings accumulated on the rock, but
their quality is as wonderful. No spot
could be more difficult for building-f1fty
yards sheer up a precipitous granite rock
as hard as flint! Into it they cemented
their cyclopian constructions. posing side
by side two immense blocks of building
of four and five phenomenally high stories.
each containing vast and 10y halls
whose enormous arches are sustained by
titanic pillars and walls of prodigious
thickness. No wonder then that the
miraculously high. narrow. light and
graceful yet massive section that shoots
up-like three Gothic churches super
posed-in the front plan of the large pho
tograph herewith is called 1.-The MARVEL"
No spot on earth unites greater building
difficulties. Here was an island without
a port. separated from the quarries Of the
mainland by an intermittent sea. scarcely
navigable. and by dangerous quicksands
almost impossible for heavy vehicles. How
did they get the building stone across?
Even today it is suicidal to wa : the
Avranches. Genest and PontaubauIt with
out professional guide. To be swallowed
alive by ''lize' is an awful death.
The ''lizes'' are banks of moving sand
in subterranean currents. In dry. clear
weather they can frequently be distin-
guished, because then the solid sands are
marked by long. regular, parallel lines of
wrinkles left by the outgoing tide
The "lizes.' on the contrary, present a
smooth. unwrinkled surface. They are
too liquid for the descending tide to throw
up and leave behind it those long lines Of
sand in its last kick-such little lines OF
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-09
FISHERMEN,

Bill Taft grabbing off the top of the
column. OF course, if his son Charley
ever makes the varsity team he'll have
a chance. He'll be mentioned occasionally
I'm the New Haven dispatches as ". II.
Taft, the father of hero; but that's
quite some time off yet. Only today l was
reading an interview on the sporting page
with Bull Slaughter, the famous coach
From his pictures I would say he was
more a moving van than a coach, but
that's what they called him. Maybe they
meant funeral coach. Well, anyway,
Mr.. Slaughter, the human tallyho, says
Chi Ii is making good in the track squad
at Cambridge and may 60 in for foot
ball"
At the mention Of this candidate for
foot ball honors the House Detective gave
perceptible start.
"Wots his last name?" he asked.
That's all the name there is to him."
said the Hotel Clerk. Young Mr.. Chi
Harvard
He'd rise faster in the washin' bust
ness, I'm thinkin',' said the House De-
tective. "Wot would Chink do with a
foot ball if somebody so fur forgot himself
as to hand 1t to him-take it back to the
laundry and make chow main out Of j.
for dinner?'
He would not said the Hotel Clerk.
mot this lad. He'd tuck said ball under
his arm and go down the field uttering his
class yell or a few choice words in his
native tongue, 1t makes no difference
which, because they both sound alike any
how. And if a young Anglo Saxon giant
named Lars Larsen or Francis Xavier
Horrigan got in his way he'd brush him
aside with a quick, petulant gesture and
touch goal. In his own country, Larry,
he's the hero Of many hard-fought field,
that's blame sight harder to pronounce
He has SO many medals and athletic honors
and decorations and things that when he
pins them all on his manly Chinese chest
he looks like the cane rack at a country
fair. He's related to kuen Chi kia, that's
either Greek letter society or a Chi
nese governor. l forget which, and when
he was a student at Pei Yang University
at Tiensing and took part in the native
sport known as a cane rush they used
TO follow him through the campus and
take UP the opposing young Tiensinser5
with a vacuum cleaner
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-09

NpAN u Ah - - -
is To France what
the Great Pyramid
is TO Egypt" wrote
Victor Hugo in 1874,
when lie realized
that the pictur-
esquenesS of the
marvel of geology
a nd architecture
might be in dan
ger-f o m land
making Folders
companies.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-09


that In the ear of a man with a weak
heart and then you'll have his death on
your soul.
But I'll forgive you this time, because
IL happens that your news is not exclusive.
I've been suspectins myself for several
days now that fall might be coming along
before Il great while. / always know fall
is at hand when the sons of the rich be-
gin TO bloom out I'm new automobile ui-
sters and / begin TO dig down into the bot
tom tray of my trunk to see If my last
years heavy underwear is going to stand
the strain of another hard winter. i was
trying on one of my collection of souvenir
u.dershirts yesterday. 1T had shrunk
some. After 1 got into it ] looked like
| was wearing string tie. The little
fellow that we used TO see in the street
car ads, whose mother didn't use Woolly
Soap, wouldve looked positively over
dressed alongside of me. Yes, sir, it s
about time, as the poet says. for the short
and simple fannels of the poor But
what directed your massive intellect to
the fact that falls coming, if 1 may
ask"
= x
Well, it's sure sign of fall when base
ball ends and foot ball starts in said
the House Detective.
Quite so, II is said the Hotel Clerk.
81 YOU mention il, / have been motto
Ing a few errant lines here and there on
the subject of foot ball. Nothing TO
sneak of, of course merely few columns
10 the page and Il few full-length pictures
showing promising young fulbacks that
measure forty-eight inches across the
chest aud nearly an inch and three-auar-
tcrs across the brow. But naturally that ;
not a circumstance t. what they'll be
printing Il few weeks from now when the
knights OF the piESkin and the cridron, or
tho pig iron aud the GridSkin. as some
would say. arc really beginning TO shine
From Halloween to Thanksgiving daN
s.sysu be mighty little chance OF Friend
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-09
By Irwin S. Cobb.

ELL said the
House Detective of
the st. Reckless,
falls came"
There you go.
said the Hotel
Clerk, always
springing those Sc
cret surprises OF
V o urS on people
when they're not
prepared. Some OF
these days you'll
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-09

1t is a strange story from the start.
Back in the mists Of time in the thick of
q vast oak forest rose n gigantic rock
above the highest trees, piercing the
greenery up into the sky. 1t was the
sanctuary Of the Druid world. Celtic
tribes emigrating to Applicability in 1851
A. D. named the similar rock near ST.
ponte in memory of it-Mont Gargan.
1T likewise became Christian. There is
not an Italian who does not know all
about st. Michael Of Monte Gargano)
There are Mont Gargans at Nantes. Cue
rande, st. Seine-e1l-Montagne, Burgundy
and at Carnac.
Suddenly, in March, Cos by cataclysm
extending from Cane Frehal to Cotentln,
and changing the whole contour of the
coast, Mont Gargan in the forest Of Koke-
lunde became a. high rock island in
bay of the English channel.
On top of the rock two great Druid dol
men alone remained as late as the mid
die of the eighth century. The Christian
bishop Of the locality saw an evident
miracle against lingering heather prac-
tees. He was St. ALBERT, and when IN
a vision St. Michael the Archangal told
him to build an oratory on the summit he
got busy at once.
Mout Gargan became Mont st. Michel.
The archangel fought powerfully against
the Druid demons Of sands and tides IN
defense of throngs Of visitors-the nrst
pilgrims. The traditional pilgrims staff
was historically the pole by which guides
sounded the sands and the sea shell of
Mont st. Michel became the general token
of all Christian pilgrims.
The place saw strange pilgrimageS-
workingInen who dropped their tools,
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-09

Harry Carey was preferable 10 coming
back to Madison, Wis, and facing the
folks Twas almost enough to start an
other race war in California.
And to come nearer home, take our
own Indians. Forty years ago the noble
red man was chiefly used by us to furnish
our young West Point graduates with
suitable target practice. The only time
he ever got as good as an even break was
when some inspired artist painted a pic
ture of Clusters last rally for harvester
company But I'd just like to call your
attention to the present state OF base bali
in this country In it's intimate relation to
Mister Injun.
lat this very moment, Larry, the sacred
shoes of the sainted Buck Ewing are be-
ing competently filled by a light. roam
colored refugee from California reserva-
ton who has a higher average at batting
than his grandfather ever had at scalp
ing. Out in Cleveland there's another
catcher who's doing the stunts that King
Mike Kelly once performed, the main diff
ference being that he's red all the time,
while Kelly had comparatively arid in
tervals when he was faded out to a nice
bright magenta. A big chief named
Bender pitches curves for Philadelphia
that cause many a hated paleface to turn
still paler, and here only the other day
the Giants gobbed up spry fielder who's
playing hockey from the Oneida tribe and
belongs to the we'll known Bull family.
'of which other noted members have been
Ole, Durham. John and the late Sitting.
When a young buck out in the Rosebud
agency begins to feel an inherited long
ing for the white mans blood these times.
he doesn't put on a feather bristle and
a coat Of hearth paint and take the wa
path. No, sir; he comes to Carlisle and
joins the foot ball team and gets enough
white blood to satisfy all the cravings of
his savage nature in the very first game
with Princeton. He gets a bucket of it,
fresh and warm, and Ii he has any kind
of luck, a few teeth and ears and one
thing and another to go along with IT.
You can go out any fall almost and SEQ
a bright bay youth, sixteen hands high,
with black name and white stockings. and
a brisk high school gait. snatching up n
brawny scion of a first family of Virginia
and slamming him down so hard on what
would be his crupper il he was horse
that it bounces his hair out by the roots
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-09
"A SURE SIGN OF FALL"

the driven snow. We're being cured.
Now there was that base ball team
from the University of Wisconsin that
started on a triumphant tour around the
world to eXpound the national game. A
fine lot of outstanding young timber
growers they were, too. with lichens on
their chests and sunny, red necks And
almost the first stop they made was Toxic.
where there's a college with the barba-
rous name Of keio. the e being silent as
in Moe Levy.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-09

And the Indian is breaking into Con-
ress, too. and demanding his little per-
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-09

the improvements that are making the
quicksands dry land, stemnling the tides
and sweeping away the fogs. All France
is alarmed at last at the picture Of Mont
st. Michel being stranded high and dry
in the midst OF sheep pastures and truck
farms.
Danger to human life is nothing, so
that the island rock fortress that defed
the English 800 years may continue to be
nlrrored In the waters
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-09

II never heard of nothin like il in my
llte." said the House. Detective.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-09

TT Is Threatened by Folders
/ Companies - Wonder of
Geology and Architecture
Unique in the World-May
be Lifted From the Ocean,
Strange Tale of the Sea-
How the Sanctuary of the
Druid World in an Oak For
est Became an Island and
Christian Pilgrimage-Trage-
dies of Demon Quicksands.
special Correspondence of Tho Star
MONT ST. MICHEL,
Norman Coast of the English
Channel, October =, 1909.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-09

SO they took on the keioters for =
match. This is going to be just like GET
ting soft pine lumber from home said
the Wisconsin hoys. Why, these heathens
don't e, en- know the right name to call IN
Yellowstone monitor. [volume] (Glendive, Mont.) 1905-1928, 1909-02-18
$40 REWARD

Lost. One white face sorrel geld
ing, branded &c on left thigh, and
one chestnut gelding. branded -
on left shoulder and on Bss sz
left jaw, $40 reward will -
os pald Tor lnelfzaa return.
They are probably in the vicinity Of
Red Water. Both had white stripes
on their faces.
THOMSON & FINLAYsON.
A56f Terry. Mont.