davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-06
GENUINE ANTIQUES-By The Req. George Eaves

peonle. he is an assention gift; all those gifts and graees which are necessary to fit and prepare him for this work comes CD from Christ He qualifyes them Both with gifts and graces, therefore Both are necessary: neither grace without gifts, nor gifts without graces. will suit ably qualifye person for the work of the ministry; Both must zoe together Gifts are Like the Gold which Adorns the Temple, But Grace is like the altar whit.. sanctifyes the gold"
 By which it may be seen that capi- tai letter does not mean so much to the Unknown as it does to the editor of The Age-Herald. Punctuation and even gram mar are of less importance than the tidal message of burning truth which sweeps away periods, semi-colons, commas and capitals alike in waves of spiritual fire.
 How did these stray leaves of popular teaching come to me out of the vasty deep? They are not mine l borrowed them that I might examine them. They are the property of the Rev E. w. But Ter. who found them among the papers of his father-in-law, the Rev. H. M. Tup- per. who for 40 years was pastor in Illinois. The Tuppers are a race of preachers, with southern as well as north ern affinities, some members of the south ern branch being, I believe, residents of Birmingham.
 But about the sermons. The Rev. H.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-06

Edwards, flaming, seraphie Eliot, or sturdy apostle of freedom like Roger Williams? Was he devotee of learning, pedant, Yankee Holofernes dressed in Pilgrim habit?
 Alas, none of these. I regret to report that the chief characteristic of these an- cient discourses Is that they are insuffer- ably dull. There is little flash of genius, but much painful precision. Illustration there is none. Wit hpth shrouded his mirthful smile before he even dared to pass the meeting house door. Our spirit ual ancestors, 1 fear reckoned truth val uable in proportion to it's gray monotony
 Was the good brother lazy? Perish the thought And yet what does this mean Sermon ?. January, 172S November, 17S2, New Braintree, 175S, Berkley, 1752'? Dear heart, Is the message so final that in all those years it might not perhaps have been improved upon? Here and there I notice memoranda like this: See the page back" or flor improvement see the loose paper" Evidently the hope of inn mortality did not apply to the improve ment,' which, of course. meant at that time the personal application of the mes sage. A 'loose paper" was all that it deserved
 But we must not blame the unknown prophet too severely. He was child of his time. He lived in an age when the one unchanging thing was theology. Even so brilliant a mind as Macaulay'a, a cen
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-06

of what was faint. Did the old preach CTS son or widow lovingly go over the old sermons. restoring the faded lines with ink that was then black. but now is only less brown than the paper? Or did some successor in the old parsonage discover the hoard and appropriate 1t, touching the worn characters so that he might see them even in the pulpit? In any case 1t is a confession of the High value placed upon these words. One would need to be a very Carlyle to do justice to this high reverence for the word. Is 1t not evident once q River of Life to men and women? Preached in days when the whole com munity attended church. these messages actually conveyed the thrill of the Un- seen, the touch Of God to human souls. Brush them not into dust heap Here is one, dated 1773, that still throbs with it's original intensity. Concerning "Christs amba ssadors'' the old man says: When Peter preached his sermon of Repentance there are three thousand bleeding before him; there spirits sinking within them; lyons turned into lambs; lofty and stought spirits stopping to the terms of Jesus Christi And so also there are flashes of poetic sympathy. From the same sermon I clip the closing words:
 "A faithful minister is qualifyed by Christ for the work of the ministry. He Is gift of our assended Savior to his
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-06

illustrious father and had his phy- eica1 equipment for the part been equal to Bourke Cochrans or William J. Byran's, Dr. Everett might have ranked them both as a platform speak CT. He was a graduate of Harvard. lawyer who never practiced, a clergy man who rarely preached, and teach CT who devoted 50 years of his Il to training the minds of youth for the in tellectual and moral battles of life.
 Edward Everett was a whig and though he supported the administration of President Lincoln he never accept ed the ideas of the republican party. He was the "orator of the academy,' and his speeches well digested essays He was a distinguished member of both houses of Congress, Secretary of State in President Fillmore's cabinet, and minister to England during President Tyler's administration. As late IS 1860 he was whig enough to go on the na- tional ticket, headed by John Bell of Tennessee, which carried Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee.
 During the administration of Presi- dent Taylor the whigs of Massachusetts separated into cotton" whigs and con science" whigs. The cotton whigs were for the union with or without slavery. They were led by Daniel Webster. The conscience whigs were led by Charles Francis Adams. The followers of Web ster were Rufus Choats, Robert C.. Winthrop and Edward Everett and to
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-06
AN OPINION AND A REMINISCENCE-By Savoyard

the Cotton CT regular whigs for sen- ator when the combine elected Summer.
 Edward Everett adhered to the Union cause, and his tongue and pen were pow erful aids to the Lincoln administration. Summer represented what Massachusetts was pleased sp call her conscience. Bout we'll became a republican and one of the managers on the part of the House Of Representatives that prosecuted the i'm peachment proceedings against Andy Johnson. Subsequently, he was Secretary of the Treasury under Grant and sen ator in Congress. But by 1900 he had re- turned to the democratic party and spoke and voted for William J. Bryan. Adams also became a democrat, or as near a democrat as a son of John Quincy Adams could get to be. His boys, however. turned out to be real democrats.
 Caleb Cushing never had any politics except he was for the party in power at Washington. He was man of powerful intellect. the most accomplished scholar of his day, a great lawyer, a successful diplomat and doubtless he would have made an acceptable chief justice of the supreme court had not republican Sen ate rejected his nomination when Presi- dent Grant proposed him for that exalted station. It was said of him that he had advised every federal administration the last 50 years of his life and that his coun- sel was ever sage. He presided over the famous democratic national convention at
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-06

HHE reader will be interested to
 know that Henry, the Eighth has
 X changed but little since the last time he sat for a likeness. His face still has that interesting shape to it like a pineapple cheese with a fringe of mold around tho bulge and his eyes still resemble twin blemishes in the upper end of a Bartlett pear. In this respect he differs very much from Columbus, whose last illness is said to have been brought or by trying to look like all the pie lures of him. But, of course, Colump bus was painted by artists of so many nationalists. When a German painted him he made a German Columbus who appeared as if he might be setting out to discover a good corner for delicates- sen store or a nice. quiet place to com init suicide by gas, but If a French man tackled the job we had French Columbus with Van Dyke whisxers and constant longing to get excited and kiss somebody. And so on. But with Henry, the Eighth, this was not the case. He was mainly painted by British painters, who showed the influence of the national school of art by doing him in under done tints like slice of medium roast beef, with a nose modelled after the na- tional flower which is the brussels sprout, an expression, out of the eyes, like one who has just eaten suet and kidney pudding weighing about four pounds at the start but much more aft erwards.
 I told him I had come to get his views
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-06

issa-no, guess I never had a wife named Catharine. Funny how I come to overlook that bet
 "Well, you didn't miss much, judging by my experience" said the King. 'I had rine, and also my last one, who survived me-she could survive anything, that woman could-and then there was my fifth--Catharine Howard, the one that I lost through a fatal accident that hap pened to her up at the Tower early one morning. She was too long to wear Annie of Cleves' old clothes and shortening her down so they would fit her the head man unfortunately took off little too much and she died from it. And the first one I divorced. She certainly was a fussy creature was that same Catharine of Arragon. Brig. you never divorced any of yours, as recall?
 .'No," said Brigham. "I hated to break the set. I'd had too much trouble get ting a proper assortment together. There was one-Ann Eliza--my nineteenth think she was, who did go through the form of trying to divorce me, but l never counted her in The collection was prac- tically complete without Ann Eliza, any, way.
 But Hank, my dear fellow went on MT. Young, turning to the King. ''our young friend didn't come all the way here from the United States to hear two old married men indulge in domestic ren1in- iscences AS I understand 1t he wants to get our views on this woman's suffrage issue"
 Quite so, quite so," said the King amiably. Then we'll drop the individual
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-06
A NIGHT MARCH.
"ThrOugh the Thirst" Described by
 Colonel Roosevelt.

Theodore Roosevelt in Scribner's Nigga
 zine
 Slowly the shadows lengthened; the light waned, the glare of the white, dusty plain was softened, and the bold outlines of the distant mountains grew dim. Just before nightfall we halted on the fur ther side of a dry water course. The safari came up singing and whistling, and the men put down their loads, lit fires, and with chatter and laughter prepared their food. The crossing was not good, the sides of the water course being steep, and each wagon was brought through by a double span, the whips cracking Justify as an accompaniment to the shouts of the drivers, as the 13 oxen threw their weight into the yokes by which they were at tached to the long trek tow. The horses were fed We had tea. with bread and cold meat-and a most delicious meal it was-and then lay dozing or talking be- side the bush fires. At S30, the moon having risen, we were off again. The safar was still in high spirits, and start ed with the usual chanting and drum ming.
 We pushed steadily onward across the plain, the dust rising in clouds under the spectral moonlight. Sometimes we rode sometimes we walked to ease our horses
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-06

on the question of woman's suffrage, because he was generally regarded as having had as much experience with the various phases of the female temperament as almost anybody in history. It was at his suggestion that we called in Brig ham Young, who also happened to be in the Shady Shades club at the time of my visit there. ~
 wen have Brigham in if you don't mind" said the King. Speaking as one married man of another I would value his views very highly. He mainly punched his wives, while mine were strung along one at a time, so that his opportunities for observation and com Brigham When Washington isn't around we often call him the Father of His Country, in jest. And not so much of a jest either if you could only see Brig hams family tree. It looks like chart of the human circulation. Just press that button behind you and we'll have him paged."
 If King Solomon is around, too,-"' I began.
 "No, I wouldn't ask Solomon to join our little married mems symposium said King Henry. Here in the club we re- gard Solomon as being practically in the professional class. Even Hoch, the late Chicago biganist, who is employed as our janitor, admits that alongside of Solomon he's a mere amateur
 So I rang the bell and when one of the pages answered King Henry sent him to
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-06

formers that I had to plaster all over that double row of choice family resi- dences it makes me sick at heart even after all these years. What one had all of em had to have, and have it simul- taneously, too, or there was trouble cloud ing up around 19 or 20 hearthstones for your Uncle Brigham. And suppose, on top of all that, they'd had the ballot? Where would I be as their lord and mas ter? Where would I come in, out-voted 20 to or whereabouts? Could any man maintain the proper discipline at home if he was a hopeless minority at the polls? !? Think of me trying to keep whole bunch of strong minded ladies in order when the best I could get in the general election results was a brief mention under the head of Scattering I'd a-been beaten before I started
 And yet" went on the king without apparently noticing the interruption. And yet I will not gainsay that in some fields woman shows a degree of discern ment that is actually remarkable, con- sidering her sex. I recall distinctly that any one of my wives could pass any other woman hurriedly in a crowd and only see her for second and yet be able to tell six months afterward exactly how she was dressed and whether her frock was new or an old one done over. and what 1t was trimmed with and whether it buttoned up the back or not, and whether her complexion was real ar tificial and nine thousand other details that I couldn't have noted in week or memorized in year."
 They were that way in my time. back in the early seventies said the prophet T used to marvel at it.'
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-06

M. Tupper was born at Hardwick Mass, where his father the Rev. Martin Tup- per, was d minister, that town being also Martins birthplace in 1901. It must be supposed that the Rev. Martin Tupper received the sermons as a bequest from the descendants of his ancient predeces- sor in the Hardwick pastorate, or possi- bly came upon them piously hidden away
 in the parsonage. Thus they came to be among his sons papers and to be treas ured by the father of Martins great grandchildren. happy natives of the sun ny south couple of leaves, much more modern than the sermons. are apparently sermon notes prepared by Great Grand- father Martin Tupper. Martin Tupperi What visions those two names conjured up. For who that knows the "Proverblal Philosophy" can forget it's Tupperisms, which commended it to great numbers of people 50 years ago? I think that Amer ican readers were never caught by that near-famous English versifier, the 'great' Martin Tupper Perhaps we may be per- mitted some day to gather few glean- ings in his field. In the meanwhile 1t is interesting to find his relatives over here earnestly toiling through the centuries for the same cause that Proverbial Phil- osophy Martin had so enthusiastically at heart. They and we and the Unknown are all of one."
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-06

anyone interested in sermons, writ ten sermons, printed sermons? Many A of my ministerial friends have pub lished their utmost intellectual and spir- ftual brillance at the request of their admiring congregations. Some have even ventured upon a volume of the most noteworthy of their utterances. a whole volume under an alluring title. But suppose no class of literature "ceases to be- quite so fast as a printed sermon. The aforesaid admring congregation treasures such volume and even some- times reopens it. reads paragraph, sighs wistfully for the turing elusiveness of vanished years. and puts the book back in its glass case. As to the other unsold and accumulated volumes, gathering dust and drabbiness in the old book shop-how vainly they appeal for a purchaser at the meanest price. First editions. and yet not "rare," though ever so old, Why not rare? Because nobody wants them; and they drift, slowly, steadily inevitably, to the pulp-yat whence they will emerge by and by washed of their orthodoxies and their heresies. their stupidities, and, alas, their brilliances also, just mere paper, which other preachers may buy to write their own immortality upon in the like predestined lettral ink.
 These pathetic truisms are provoked by little sheaf of genuinely antique ser mons which have come into my hands recently. Not that they are printed.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-06

tury or so later, went on record for the view that theology was the one non progressive science. Why should not this rural Massachusetts parson regard his painful lucubrations as the Ultima Thule of preaching? Having been to the trouble of carefully penning them down, why should he not store the precious docu- ment and repeat 1t every few years? And yet there Is no neatness. no finish to this writing. There is no attempt at finished phraseology, though the old scriptural forms are often used. As to the spelling, one must be grateful for Noah Webster
 When 'their' becomes there" almost uniformly, and ascension is always ascension" orthography has yet it's vic tories to win. Webster was born, 1t will be remembered, in 175s. and began his study of the classics" the year that one of these sermons was produced, 1772.
 But a suspicion crosses my mind that these same sermons were an heirloom and were preached by more than one man. There is the look of copying in one or two of them, the indication of haste and almost careessness, such as repetition of words already written, turn ing the wrong way with the second num- Der of a parenthesis sign, etc. Another curious fact appears when the oldest NJ
 s. Is examined with good reading glass The ink lies upon a prior writing. Yet it is not "pallmpsest' but a retracting
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-06

And are yet" l interjected softly.
 But I never saw the woman who could cross a busy crossing without getting ex- cited in the middle of the street and fiut- tering back and forth like a demented bullet until some man either ran over her with his team or took pity on her and rescued her. went on the king. And since women began to get active in club life I've observed from my reading of the daily papers that they have the same idea of parliamentary procedure that a barn. yard full of hens would have if each hen had just achieved an egg and wished to advertise the fact in the customary way
 Then you agree with me thoroughly that it is undesirable from the standpoint of the stronger sex that women should have the ballot?" said Brigham Young. handicapped, isn't he, if she has just as many votes as he has?"
 "Oh, yes, I agree with you there." said the king. but even with female suf- frage, l believe that I could still have ruled my own household with all the firmness and authority that I showed throughout my reign" said Henry. T believe that I could do so today"
 Hank" said MT. Young, .'have you, with your knowledge of women, the nerve to make such statement and stick to it' q have" was the answer given in firm tone of voice.
 Then" said MT. Young, when your loving subjects called you Bluff King Hal know which word they put the ac- cent on."
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-06

them adhered the great bulk of the party in Massach husetts and New Eng land. Charles Summer, Samuel Hoar, that Concord set, with Ralph Waldo Emerson for chief, which lived in a home made Utopia, with heads in the clouds and feet above the earth, fol- lowed Adams and the other abolition ists. These latter were the gentry who closed Fanueil hall, which was builded of money made in the African slave trade, to Daniel Webster after his mas terly seventh of March" speech in behalf of the union and the constitu- tion
 The whigs were the majority party in Massachusetts as the federalists had been before them. Their regular con vention nominated Robert c. Winthrop, a "cotton" .whig, for governor. and the "conscience" whigs set up a can didate of their own. That was an op- portunity for the democrats and they were swift to avai, themselves of it.
 The democrats were led by Caleb s. Cushing and Ben Butler, precious set that could have taught Dick Croker or Matt Quay trick or two in the corrupt game of practical politics. They nomi- mated George s. Boutwell, for governor and full state ticket. Then they went oyer to that immaculate crowd, that had enough conscience to lead freight train, and made this bargain. If there was no election by the people, and the thing was
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-06

Charleston in 1860, and when the split came he supported John C. Breckinridge, as did Ben Butler, who voted H times for the nomination of Jefferson Davis for President, as a delegate from Massa- chusetts at Charleston.
 William Everett though not party man, supported republican tickets with voice, vote and pen. until he mug wumped The "Mulligan Letters" were too much for him, and with him went a son of Hoar, son of Andrew, a son of Garrison, a son of Quincy, the sons of Adams, and George Fred Williams. In 1890 they carried Massachusetts for the democrats, the first time and only time 1t was ever done in a congressional elec- tion Everett Hoar, Andrew and Wil- Hams were sent to Congress, and there William Everett was an honor to Amer ican statesmanship and an inspiration to American patriotism. I wish I had space to review that brief and brilliant con- gressional career. I may take 1t up again.
 Well, the democratic party played the devil, as usual, and of course. They had the choice between great thinker like William Everett and blatant dema- gogue like Jerry Simpson, They drummed the mugwumps out of the party and mis- cegenated with the Pops. And that is how it came that for Is years the demo- cratic party has not set a formidable squadron in the field of national politics.
 O, the folly of 1t! o. the pity of it!
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-06

to be decided by the legislature, they would make this trade-the democrats were to have the state offices and the United States senator for the short term, Webster having resigned. and the con science" whigs were to have the senator for the long term.
 No ticket got a majority in the election by the people, and the legislature, which was controlled by the coalition, proceeded to elect the democratic state ticket and Robert Rantoul for short term senator.
 The "conscence'' whigs then presented Charles Summer for full term senator and Cushing kicked on the ground that the trade implied a decent man for the suc- cession, and there was a deadlock for months; but finally Cushing and Butler took their medicine and carried out their contract, and Summer got to the Senate to hurry up the war between the north and the south. stephen A. Douglas said in the Senate in 1854 that Summer was ostracised when he first entered that body for the corrupt methods by which he got his seat
 Here is what William Everett said about it, years later. closing a newspaper in- terview: q did not want you to go with out repeating that it was Charles Summer who deliberately cheated my father out of his seat in the United States Sen ate"
 Edward Everett was the candidate of