davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-02-27

day to show a scandinavian headsman
topping not the head of Uncle Joe, but the
head of the elephant itself?
Vain hopei Shall. not the hosts of tri-
umphant democracy sweep in. anon and
postpone all tragedies. of that sort2
But meantime 1t appears to be de-
scided that like Tennysons Virtue, the
magazines are still to go on and not TO
die" Judge Lindsey will still be Interest,"
ing. Ray Stannard Baker will still be
astonishing, the civic corruption story
will still be exploited. Mr. Debs will still
be interviewed, and the witches cauldron
will still simmer and pour forth curious
fumes But 'ffsf were a betting man [
would risk my money on the combination
of magazine writer and a democracy that
after all prefers life to the means of liv-
ing, and death to slavery. In that pas
sionate reconstruction of American IDEAL
ism | look for the south to take a COM
mandng place. MY Christian friends
says Carlyle, "and indeed. my Sham
Christian and Anti-Christian, and all
manner of men, are invited to reflect on
this. They will find it to be the truth
of the case The Noble in the high place,
the Ignoble in the low; that is, in all
times and in all countries, the Almighty
Makers Law
Whatever our achievement, that is not
a quite unworthy statement of the SOUTH
ern ideal.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-02-27

wrong. she set out armed with a
poker and a shotgun.
The voice of prayer had ceased. The
woman rushed into the icehouse push
ing aside the men. With knife she
cut the rope. Turning toward the
crowd with the shotgun, she declared
she would shoot the first man who
dared to touch the foreman.
The mob growled in it's throat; but,
looking into the flashing eyes of the
determined woman, no man dared ap-
proach.
Meantime the friends of the fore
man had rallied. They arrived on the
scene, dispersed the mob and rescued
the man.
And thus did one lone, fearless wom-
an save the life of a man.
Which leads us to say
If some sheriffs, sworn to uphold the
law and supposedly brave. were as
prompt and courageous as Mrs. John
Ardell of Twin Lakes, many a prisoner
placed in their custody might be saved
for fair trial.
A mob Is cowardly.
1t is not an aggregation of intellis
genoe. 1t is coalition of brutality.
And it is cowed by display of cour-
age.
The mob knows 1t is arraigning it,
self against the law, and it is afraid of
the law
are a majority" In the same sense
the law and one officer of the law are
a majority.
The trouble with the average sheriff
or deputy Is lack of courage. Either
on account of personal cowardice or
because of political fears he is tempted
to become a willing accessory to mob
murder
Mrs John Ardell should be elected
high sheriff OF her county.
She is highly qualified for the office.
"Do not be plodder,' say the writer's
who tell us how to succeed in life.
/ object!
1t is the plodder who wins.
The power of the slow. sure, patient,
persistent plodder is the force that does
things.
Most young men need to learn the secret
of that power. They are inclined by tenn
permanent and teaching to grow tired of
patient progress and to try the short cut
to success.
Flooding is habit of mind that needs
to be learned
Watch the construction of great dam
or big stone building. A stone goes up
at time and slowly. One may scarcely
nOte Tie clldHScS lTolH udy W udy. Ct
constantly the work approaches to COM
pletion.
Remember how the constant dripping
of the water wears away the stone.
Or how the little SNOWFALL grows.
Let such ideas sink deeply into your
mind. They will finally become a part of
the machinery of your thinking. Then
put them into pra-A>s. Faithfully fol-
lowed such an exp ace will be worth
1000 fleeing impulses or 10000 resolutions.
Genius itself Is only a genius for work.
TO learn how to plod one must learn to
leyve his work-the joy of doing. The
pleasure is not in the completion, but In
the planning and working-the planning
to plod and the plodding.
And AFf ~
DO not forget the power of pIodding Il
icumulative-that IL to say the more you
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-02-27

I PROMISED to tell a tale of Roscoe
Conkling and James G.. Blaine that
= has never been printed. so far as I
Know and I shall try to relate 1t before
complete this letter. 1t happened the
pregnant year 1880, before the nominat-
ing conventions of the two parties as
scmbled and put forth their tickets. and
the story was told by one of the actors
In the affair to retired politician of
very high character, formerly a member
of Congress from the Ohio valley, and
now 8 resident of this city.
The LEADERS, of both parties were busy
making presidents. The republicans were
divided between Grant. Blaine and Sher-
man, with minor followings for Edmunds
in the east and Window in the west.
There was also talk of Allison.
On the democratic side of the hedge the
roao was plain. All that they had to do
20 make president was to nominate the
old ticket of Tilden and Hendricks who
had been robbed of a well-earned victory
in 1861 by as precious bunch of po-
litical scoundrels as the devil ever
chuckled over or hell ever registered
But the democrats would not They
believed they could elect yaller dog
after the rape of the presidency, and so
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-02-27

not. Precisely what will happen when
once more the people of this country
awake to find that they have been the
victim of rapacity and political cunning,
once more .crucified on a cross of gold,
is hard to imagine. Wonder of wonders,
they are not quite awake even yet.
My object in writing is to point the
moral that comes from across the water.
For 50 years the growing friction between
House of Lords and liberal majority in
the Commons has been prophetic of a
coming day of judgment. 1t seems but
yesterday that Lord Randolph Churchill
used to goad the grand old man, Mr..
Gladstone, and stand as the champion
of class against the commoner. But the
hour has struck and Lord Randolphs
more famous son is made standard bearer
in the besieging host of liberals bent on
forever defining the privileges of caste,
leaving their colors flying from captured
battlements. Shades of Queen Anne,
A Churchill fitting at all the peeragei
Now is the counterpart of all this to be
in America that the republican party
will give birth to socialism and surren-
der to that astonishing product of wrong
and corruption in high places? Consid-
ering what the magazines are doing and
what the new western republican think
ers are saying, and how cloHely the one
agrees with the other, is the judgment
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-02-27

Miserable millions in our cities are
barely able to keep body and soul to-
gether. They could be prosperous and
happy in the country, where nobody ever
need miss meal.
Some of these are in the city by choice.
They are attracted by the glamour and
their vices. They would not go to the
country if they could and would not
stay IL they should go.
Some, however, and that is the pathos
of it all, yearn forever for the fields.
But we shall be able to get these peo-
pie back to the land, where they belong
and long to be. The big opportunities
of the farming life should be pointed out
to our young men.
No other calling holds out such induce
ments in the way of thrift and satisfac-
ton and independence.
Intelligence and industry applied to
agriculture will make the farmers life
even more prosperous and attractive than
it has been during the past decade.
Young man. if you are on the farm stay
there and study scientific farming
And, young man, if you are not on the
farm and looking for something worth
while, educate yourself in modern farm
ing.
The landlord of the soil is the only
real lord of the manor and the manse.
Harvard college has three child won
ders of the age of H. one of whom has
graduated. Now comes prodigy of
eleven.
This precocious child we are told. lee
tured to the faculty for three hours on
the fourth dimension
What IS the fourth dimensions
1t IS like the sixth sense" As the boy
would say, There amt any,
That is TO say, you and | know three
dimensions. We know a thing has length,
breadth and height But very few. IN
GLIDING this Harvard boy, pretend they
know a fourth dimension. They don [
know, but they fancy they do and try 10
prove it by talking about it.
Which Is about as practical as the dis
cussions of the school men of the middle
ages who debated as to how many dis
embodied spirits could dance on the point
of needle.
This infant terrible is just about the
right age for convenient spanking.
And they have stolen his childhood.
And these abnormal kids with anaemic
blood have their brain pans stuffed full OF
knowledge" at time when they ought
to be out playing tag or 1eapfrog
Was it Josh Billings who deplofed Che
fact that so many people knew so many
things that are not so?
When Ulysses came back from his long
tramp the folks refused to recognize him.
Then, reaching up, Ulysses took down his
great bow, which the suitors of Penelope
had essayed in vain to bend. and, draw
ing the string back to his ear, sent the
arrow hurtling straight to its mark
.'Ah, this is Ulyssesr everybody cried.
No other could bend the bow.
So the world today is not asking the
young man out of college, What do you
know"
1t is asking him, what can you do?"
Can you bend the bow?'
And the ability to do. to bend the bow,
is the ability to use a healthy mind in a
healthy BODY.
Poor kidyeens
What they need to be doing these days.
instead OF porting over books in a library
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-02-27

they separated into numerous camps,
that is, the democrats in Congress. The
great body of the party. the rank and
file, were for the old ticket. Here in this
town were handful of Tilden men, led
by Sam Randall of Pennsylvania and
John W. Caldwell of Kentucky. Proctor
Knott was for Justice Stephen ]. Field
of the supreme bench and behind him
was a considerable following. "Old
Roman" Thurman had a yet stronger
support, and General Hancock was for
midable. The Indiana delegation, the
ablest that state ever had, We're for Hen
bricks for President unmindfu of what
should have been manifest to everybody,
that the one way for Thomas A. Hem
bricks to reach the White House was
through the vice presidency, for it is
scarce believable that Tilden had suff-
cient animal vitality to survive four years
of an office that imposed upon the in
cumbent the hercuean labors of Pres
ident of the United States. Yet T1den
survived Hendricks, but in private sta
ton. Then there was a small. but able
and respectable contingent that favored
William r. Morrison.
Conkling was managing Grants cam
paien. and Blaine was his own manager,
and the latter would have been trium-
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-02-27

All We're ardent republicans and they
agreed that the prospect was not at all
roseate. because of the theft of the
presidency. They argued the question
from every standpoint and concluded
that nobody could be elected unless he
could carry New York, and that the
nomination of Conkling would make New
York certain for the ticket.
committee of his friends waited on
Blaine and laid. the scheme before him.
Apparently he cordially embraced it, for
well he knew Conkling would reject it
with scorn and indignation, or silent con-
tempt
There was man here then known
as Bill King the king of the lobby.
He was a wonderful manager of men
and gifted with an intuitive and infalli-
BILE insight into human nature. He was
called king william" and exerted a
tremendous influence on the republican
party and on congressional legislation.
He was the warm personal friend 9th
Conking and Blaine, but hes lovsS the
party more than he did either or both
of them.
Bill King was selected to approach
Conking and lay the proposition before
him Conklng was fond of good
horse as Grant, and might have made
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-02-27

the Joe Gotch twist--one of my own
little bits of stage business that al
ways made hit as far back as the
spring of 1876, when l adopted it from
the Greek. Making an exit, villainess
pauses ut the door and looks back
meaningly, whether she means any
thing or not, which was a favorite by
play with all the Weaknesses that ever
worked for me-
Then you do not think our school
of native drama is advancing along the
line of development and originality"
l asked.
"Oh yes, but it is" he said. De
velopment and progress everywhere.
Consider your musical comedy, as es-
peeially designed for the Tired Busi-
ness Man. Is it not a success in it's
chosen field? VIII it not make any
business man twicenas tired as the i'm
ported English variety in half the
time? What is the 'Elektra' of Strauss
but a Germans attempt to express a
George Cohan motif in grand opera.
And as for the 'Chanticleer' of this
Frenehman, Rostand, l confess That l
see nothing in it but a Gallo imitation
of the idea used by that same great
American manager who first saw the
dramatic possibilities of dressed poul-
try on the stage-notably squads and
broilers. ] refer to your Mr. Zeigfield."
Must we not. said l. admire the
genius of the playwright who can de-
pict the emotions and the souls of the
barn yard?"
Yes, we must" said the late Bard
The best ! could do was TO depict the
souls and the emotions of more men
and women My ship sails Wednesday,"
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-02-27

TN his very able and scholarly book,
Text and Canon of the New Tesla
L ment," published by the Scribners,
Charles Rene Gregory, professor Of Tex
egesis" in the University of Leipsic, holds
that the second Epistle of Peter is spur
ious Professor Gregory is, SO far as L
know, the only American who has ever
been appointed to professorship in
German university, and as a New Tesla
ment scholar he holds the first rank He
pronounces dogmatically on the question
to support his opinion. My respect for his
authority is high; but on this point I am
constrained to differ from him. do not
believe that so impudent a forgery could
ever have been perpetrated upon the
Christians of the apostolic age; nor that 1t
could have obtained currency among the
"apostolic and post-apostolic fathers of
the church., and thus have found place
in our canon of the New Testament.
biblical Criticism is not purely mod
ern science 1t stood out strongly and
conspicuously in the second and third CEN
turtles. Origin was scholarly and acute
biblical critic The truth is that but for
the biblical criticism of the second CEN
fury we should have no authoritative
canon of the New Testament now.
Besides, in studying this epistle, find
upon it's face the personal stamp of the
apostle whose name 1t bears. Scarcely any
forger would have been SO reclSlessly i'm
pudent as to write words like these:
KNOWING that shortly | must put off my
tabernacle q. e.. die). even as our Lord
Jesus Christ hath showed me. We
have not followed cunningly devised
fables, when we made known unto you the
power and coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ, but were eye witnesses of His
majesty. For he received from God the
Father honor and glory when there came
such voice to him from the excellent
glory, This is my beloved Son, in Whom
am we'll pleased. And this voice, which
came from heaven, we heard when we
were with Him in the holy mount" See
Second Peter, LIST chapter, verses 14-1S
Now, the three "synoptical' evangelists,
Matthew Mark and Luke, all tell US that
Peter was with our Lord on the Mount
of TRANSPORTATION. See Matthew 17:1-8;
Mark 1928. and Luke 9:8-36.
/ And again: In John II: 1878, we have
our Lords prophecy as to the manner
OF Peters death, and this prophecy. ac-
cording to John, was made to Peter him
self, as Peter says 1t was. 1t would
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-02-27

have been an incredibly skillful forger
who could have made so many circum-
stances fit so accurately.
Now the famous Professor Baur, of
the University OF Tubingin. the founder
of which is called 1.-THE Tubingen school
of criticism, tells us that the Acts OF
the Apostles was ',tendential," /. e., it
was written to settle or to compromise
certain conflicting tendencies" which ex-
listed in the early church. / do not accept
his theory but he did have some facts
to go upon.
There was Pauline and a Petrino
party, even during the lives of Paul and
Peter. Pauls party associated and ate
with the Gentle converts, and treated
them as full fiedEsd Christians; but the
"Judaizers' of Peters party regarded
Christianity as only an offshoot. or
branch of judaism; and they insisted
that, in order to be real Christian a
Gentle must accept and practice the Mo-
sale ritual. 1t was to settle serious dis
pute between these two parties that the
so-caled apostolic council convened at
Jerusalem. See Acts, 18th chapter In
Galatians second chapter, verses 11-14.
VIC have an account of a contention of
Paul with Peter on this same question
and it is clear from the record that Paul
publicly rebuked Peter for his 'dissimula-
ton" 1t is difficult not to believe that
Peter felt the rebuke keenly; in neither
of his epistes, however, does he men,
ton it; but, when he wrote his second
epistle he seems to have got bravely
over 1t; and we find him writing; Even
as our beloved Brother Paul also ac-
cording to the wisdom given unto him
hath written unto you, as also in all his
epistles in which are some
things hard to be understood, which they
that are unlearned and unstable wrest,
as they do also the other scriptures,
unto their own destruction. See Second
Peter, Sd chapter, verses 15-16.
This brief passage contains three things
which are perfectly unique in New
Testament.
l. 1t is the only case in which one New
Testament writer refers to another by
name and as a writer. You may read
Matthews Gospel through. and never
learn that Mark, Luke or John ever wrote
a word. Not one of the four evangelists
ever mentioned one of the others as n
writer. More strangely still. Luke trav-
eled with Paul on his missionary jour-
news; stood by the great apostle to the
Gentiles and ministered to him in his
Imprisonment. when all others bad de-
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-02-27

TT Is remarkable bit of unattended
satire that President Taft fell foul of
u the great magazine industry. Among
al the industries fostered by the tariff
there is none to compare for popular
effectiveness and display with the great
American magazine business. And it
has so clearly developed itself as voice
of the people, contrasted with the voice
of the wire-pullers, that the idea of
checking 1t through new postal regua-
tions is perhaps the one really supreme
joke of the present administration The
magazine purveys political opinion and
spreads abroad popular science, smat-
tering of psychology most of the short
stories nearly all the history the people
learn, and a very large proportion of
their religious opinions. Yellow journals
still persist. But the chosen field of the
muck raker is the magazine, sold at 10
or Is cents.
Now IL is a notable fact that so large
a proportion of the favorite writer's of
magazine articles are tremendously
American. They ants to all that is
established and customary. Evidently
the editors believe that the popular de-
mand can only be met by an Americana
ism which waves the flag of popular rev.
olution. Lincoln's Gettysburg address
is the Magma Charta of these men. They
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-02-27

way in which he was so triumphantly
chosen by the legislature of that free
and Independent state. Whether these
informants were greved and therefore
biased ] dare not say, but that they all
agreed that the senatorshp had been
bought and sold was everywhere evil
dent.
Now comes Lindsey, fresh from new
battles with corruption, and shows MS
lists of names with brides and corrup-
ton prices affixed in the photographed
handwriting of the treasurer of Denver
public service corporation. lie tells us
how votes were manufactured in spite of
new and rigid election law, and how a
great public corporation officer deied
the county court, was imprisoned by
Lindseys decree as county court judge
and was Illegally released by a single
judge of the supreme court. He goes on
to aver that the people of Colorado can
not govern themselves, because it has>
come to be the settled policy of the pub
lie service corruptionists to scheme the
whole business of government to suit
themselves. Last month he told how the
monstrous labor war which brought the
federation of miners into such disrepute
through the notorious Harry Orchard.
was the inevitable result of the law
defying activity of the rich oigarchy
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-02-27
CONKLING AND BLAINE-No. by Savoyard

face on the floor of Congress IN open de-
bate as corrupt.
Indeed Conkling was offered the pres
ideney, or the nomination for it, that
very year. On the night before Garfield
was nominated state delegations repre-
senting an immense majority of the con-
vention waited on him and rendered him
the nomination. TO them he replied:
gentlemen. l appreciate your kind prop
osition. could not be nominated in any
event, for If l were to receive every other
vote in the convention, my own would
still be lacking and that l could not give.
I am here as the agent of the state of
New York to support General Grant to
the end. Any man who would forsake
him under such conditions does not de-
serve to be elected and could not be
elected
Garfield had no such scruples. He was
there as the agent of the state of Ohio to
bring about the nomination of John Sher-
man and got the nomination for him
self. Sherman, clear-headed man that he
was, could never quite understand it.
neither could his friend Tom Young of
Ohio. They called him "Icicle john
but when his resentments were aroused
his heart was a fiery furnace. How he
did hate Alger for reducing his southern
delegates in 1888. Read his book.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-02-27
<TNHEN I take it, he said finally,
that I am what is technically

that / am what is technically
L known as back number. Well,
what do you know about that?'
The speaker was William Shakespeare,
the well-known bard. / had come to in
terview him on how it feels to be a dead
one after havirs been live one so long.
] deemed myself very lucky to catch
Mr.. Shakespeare before he went back to
Stratfcrd~ You may remember
that he came over by request last fall
to be installed at the New Theatre; but
after the first performance of ANTHONY
and Cleopatra, afterwards succeeded by
"The Nigger'D he felt it was no place
for him and he decided that on the whole
he'd feel better dividing his time be-
tween the Stratford cottage and the
Stratford churchyard as formerly. AS
he himself put it, practically all the
Americans who ever came to the New
one place or other, or indeed both of
them, If they had as much as three weeks
in which to historic Europe thor
oughly; and would do their best to pry
something valuable loose and carry it
away secretly to be subsequently labeled
"Ornicl< from birthplace of w. Shakes
peare" or "Chunk from burial ditto of
same" and exhibited in cabinet or
whatnot along with other souvenirs of
the trip. So it would really amount to
the same thing in the long run, the way
he figured it, and he might just as well
be back in his comfortable berth in the
churchyard as jammed into property
room behind stage loft on Central Park
West
Managing Director Lee Shubert kindly