davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-04-17
THE PERSISTENCE OF

the modern world, calls Germany 1.-The
strongest nation that the world has yet
seem" and in the event of war between
the two powers prophesies that "the prob
ability for defeat for Great Britain is
exceedingly great Just as advocates of
tariff reform in England have pointed
to German commerce as threa tening En-
glish existence, as 1t has destroyed En-
glish supremacy in many manufactures,
so do naval and military men get up fire.
quent scares over German airships,
Dreadnoughts and armies.
Is Britain, thus imperiled from without,
destined to persist? Is the cohesive force
at work in the organization of the en-
pire and in the racial consciousness of
the Anglo Saxo-Celt sufficient to laugh
defiance at the superior Capitalization
machine which is modern Germany? Is
Germany itself a huge financial bubble, a
| gigantic confidence man? Or, again, Will
| the conflict of popular liberties with gov
eminent officialism in Germany avail to
cripple the Kaiser's unguessable designs
and more truly guard the North sea coast
OF Britain than all the guns of the great
fleet? Or yet once more, will the growing
imperial unity which makes Australia
and Canada and South Africa the possess
sors of armies of defense and Dread
noughts of their own, suffice to overawe
German aggressiveness?
John Bull has usually been rather
fortunate gambler. He trusts greatly to
his luck and cannot imagine world in
which he is not at the top of his class.
He has his spasms of nervousness, but
they pass away and he spends his recov-
cred nerves in contemplating his vast
rotundity. My question is whether this
is not in part his best defence. To
change the figures, the wide-spreading
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-04-17

balance of power. What then? Merely
one more proof of the unifying, integ-
rating forces of Imperial Britain. new
confession that the people of 1.-The United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
must make progress hand in hand, a new
illustration of the social equivalents of
those physical laws called cohesion and
gravitation. Varied and even antagon-
stic as are the atoms which first made
the United Kingdom, and still more va
ried and antagonistic as are the units
which make the empire, it appears that
attraction does overcome repulsion. and
Britain, or as Sir Charles Dixie called it,
Greater Britain, is destined to persist
One of the lessons learned in the long
debate over Ireland has been that the
price of cohesion is liberality and the
absence of coercive bonds. The genius
of the empire would have amazed the
Caesars who strove to weld the Roman
world into a compact organism. If those
masters of men could but have leaped
forward and caught the philosophic prin-
ciple represented by a certain decapi-
tated Jew named Paul, or Saul of Tar
sus in Cilicia, and could but have dared
to trust men with liberty, what could
have prevailed to push the Roman world
back into the weller of ignorance and
hate from which she had so proudly led
so large a portion of mankind? England
in Egypt today astonshes by her quiet
patience so passionate a lover of politi-
cal liberty as our own Roosevelt, who
forthwith and with the best intentions,
pitches into the Egyptian nationalists be-
cause they are not loyal to their con-
querors.
There is a strange combination of mill
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-04-17

troll what we call property is the
foundation of the science. Worcester de-
fines property thus: "A peculiar quail
ity; an estate; goods. Etymologically.
the word means what is ones own" Be
fore eommunistic socialism is permanent
ly established we must reform the die
tionary; abolish many of the best estab-
lished words of our language and eradl-
cate from our nature some of the most
persistent forces that have produced what
we call our civilization
The famous, or rather the infamous,
French diplomatist Talleyrand. defined
business as, "other peoples money"
Do you know of any business that does
not aim at just this? And what is
money but measure of value? You
can't cat, drink nor wear your money.
1t will not shelter you from the weather.
In its own form and in itself it is one
of the most useless of all known COM
modities Only in exchange is it of any
manner of account.
To many people, socialism is a new
thing; but these people have not atten-
lively read their Bibles. THE Acts of the
Apostles" distinctly describes 1t as es-
tablsheG and praeticed in the Apostolic
church at Jerusalem. Let us note some
passages: "And all that believed were
together and had all things common, and
sold their possessions and goods. and
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-04-17

moter degree he was kin to the grand old
hero of Glen Lilly, Simon Bolivar Buck
ner. the greatest KentuclSan who now
remains between earth and sky.
.Stant" Buckner was a most enthusiasts
tic Methodist. They "churched" him a
dozen times for cussng, but he would
instantaneously demand to be taken back
ION six months probation damning him
self the while If he would not live and
die a Methodist.
In that neighborhood about everybody
belonged to the church, either Methodist
or Baptist with a little sprinkle of Pres
hyterians and now and then a Campbell
ite There was intense rivalry between
the Methodists and the Baptists, and the
latter sect had a preacher of the name
of Keen, who was both an able man and a
brilliant orator He was very tall and
very slender, and they called him "Shoe
String Bill" Keen. Though too young
to know much about 1t, I frequently sat
spelbound in the church when that man
preached, and promised myself that [
would try to do better and escape the
hell and damnation he painted.
Well, the Baptists had a big meet
ing at the Union church at Beech
Grove" and Keen was the center of at
traction. assisted by some lesser men of
the cloth. There were some 100 CONVEX
sons, of whom S0-odd Joined the church,
and of the so some 6O-odd joined the Bap-
fist church.
That was a mortal affront to Slant
Buekner. He shook his head and in
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-04-17

abolishing church rates. All the high
churchmen were bitterly opposed to it,
and the Duke of Cumberland was APP
pointed to wait on Hooley, archbishop of
Canterbury primate of all England, to re-
quest him to move the rejection OF the
bill at the next sitting of the peers.
The prince and the prelate met and were
in hearty accord over the matter, and the
archbishop agreed to move the rejection.
He was the gentlest, the mildest, the
most pious, the serenest man of his cloth,
as refined as the best of women and his
converse as chaste as the language would
allow But when Cumberland made re-
port 1t was like this: II have seen his
grace and 1t is all right. He says this is
the Cd Oldest meanest bill he ever
ne don't come in person and move its re-
lection. "
The tory lords were astounded at the
report, and when they reflected that the
duke was the most expert and inveterate
cusser in England, they burst into a roar
of laughter, much to the surprise of the
duke, who was.utterly unconscious of the
profanity with which he had larded his
report.
When I was boy down in Barren coun-
ty, Kentucky, there lived just over tho
line in Green county Stanton Buckner, a
prosperous country gentleman, with broad
acres and many slaves. He was a kns-
man of the great Dick Buckner, one of
the profoundest jurists our Anglo-Saxon
race ever produced, and in somewhat re-
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-04-17

name here Fancy that proposition put
to President of the United States. When
parliament was discussing the regency
BILL Thurlow was on both sides of it.
If the old King was permanently insane,
he was for the bill and the wings; but IL
his poor intellectuals were to return to
old George, Thurlow was agin the regency
and for the tories. One day the news was
favorable to a recovery, and Thurlow
made a speech against the regency, clos
ing with fervid, when | forget my
King, may my God forget me-" Will<s
who was present, and who hated Thurlow,
muttered, Forget youi Forget you! He'll
see you damned first And that is a
rather artistic sample of cussing.
There is something fascinating about
the cussing of one who knows how to
do it, In 1.-The School for Scandal"
where Sir Peter Teaze says to his friends.
This is a damned wicked world I'VE live
In, Sir Oliver the pit always rises to
the actor who has that part. | recall my
first advent here. 1t was the Forty-sixth
Congress- 1880. There was member from
Brooklyn, N. Y. He was an irreconcilable
goldbug a republican of the name of
Chittenden. In a speech against 16 to
l he exclaimed. MIR. Speaker. this is all
damned nonsense" Congress roared, and
every newspaper in America immortal
lied the old fellow next day.
The title of Duke of Cumberland is
worn by a prince OF the House of Bruins
wick. Some years ago there was bill up
to the lords from the house of commons
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-04-17
POLITICAL ECONOMY-By J. G.. Hiden,

elety by diseouraging and wedding ouf
the idlers, the scamps and the incompe'
tents. The spectators themselves often
unconsciously benefit society because they
ara oDnged to work Under this law:
they buy up quantities of certain commo'
HRS, when these commodities are cheap.
and thus create Il demand for them and
then they put them into the market when
they become scarce and dear, and furnish
a supply. which tends to reduce the price:
so that society IS helped at both ends OF
the process-the buying and the selling
am not discussing futures, which
Rufus Hatch denied as Buying what
you don't want from a man that hasn
got it," nor a corner" which the same
high authority defined as Buying more
of a commodity than there is in exist
ence." ! am referring to transactions in
whieh the commodities are in the Bos-
session of the seller. who actually fur
nishes them to the buyer. who has some
real use for them, and who pays for them
on delivery
of course, corners and "futures'
row and then make fiurries in the mar
ket. and seem, for while, TO obstruct
the operation of the general law of sup
rly and demand; but let no man imagine
that any of his manipulations will make
such oostructions permanent. For, the
law will at last assert itself, and the OBJ
structionist will go under
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-04-17

speakable gratitude meeting a young
mining engineer educated in Colorado,
who had just returned froat a sojourn
displayed for the order and beauty and
dignity he had discovered in that old
world. He was the first such westerner
had then met. His kind are numerous
now. But behold the last time | was in
Colorado, at a certain mountain resort
there came to the hotel a military officer
known to many of the guests. He was
cordially greeted. One piece of his bag
gage was especially provocative of en-
conium. 1t was ''carry-all" and it was
praised by the ladies because 1t was 80
English y know" A little later l over
heard him reciting the doings of our
fellows" in a scrap with Russian sailors
in Shanghai and discovered that 'our
fellows" were sailors from one of his
Britannia majesty's cruisers Later still
scraped acquaintance with the officer
and found that blood is very evidently
thicker than water ever since the affair
of Cavite, and that "our fellows are
much the same whether the Cross of st.
George or the Stars and Stripes wave at
the masthead or at the regimenta1 head
quarters. And this not in New York, but
in the heart of the Rockies, within a few
miles of where | was once insulted for no
conceivable reason but that l was not
born on American soil. though | bore
naturalization papers.
Twenty-Five years ago there wasn't
such thing as a "top-coat' in all the
west That garment was too English
and must be rechristened as an "over-
coat" Denver never wears anything else
now, unless it be "great-coat." A
biscuit was always a cracker in
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-04-17

the ham the little niger servant girl
poked a plate of smoking bread at him
WITH Have a hot biscuit. Mars Stant?'
Hot hell and damnation!' roared the
lord of the manor mol Bring me an
iceberg, damn you
And speaking OF preachers, perhaps
Tom Fisher of the Baptist church was
even a more eloquent platform speaker
than even Father Taylor. Fisher went
to Burksville, Cumberland county, KY,
that same year of 1855 to hold pro-
tracted meetin" The Crmean war was
not yet concluded and the minister took
L for text in several of his sermons. He
preached for a couple weeks without
single "mourner." It was his first and
only failure.
The last day he did not preach at all.
Fisher came into town on horseback
and hitched the animal to the fence. He
stalked into the courtroom. mounted the
judges stand and said something like
this:
Il have wasted two weeks here doing
my best to serve my Master and set on
foot a revival of religion, and all without
avail | shall shake the dirt of Budks-
vile off my shoes and shall testify in
the day of judgment against this town.
for | might as well try to pillow up hell
with a flimsy pine single as to seek to
revive a reverence for God here. Burks-
vile is the Gibraltar of hell and the Sc
vastopol of damnationi'
And then out he walked, mounted his
horse and rode away
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-04-17

TVHE story is told of an Irishman,
most perhorid nationalist, who
- was waxing Indignantly eloquent
against English rule some years ago, and
exclaimed:
''Bedad an it'll be foine thing now
whin the Rooshins or the Frinch II come
an wope her off the mapi' Then he
drew a long breath of reflective states
manship. astonished perhaps at his inn
perial disloyalty, and added, soto voee,
But thin they could niver do it, be jab-
srs, fer it's the grr' ate fleet we have in
torelyi"
| am aware that no Irishman ever laid
his tongue to that particular brogue, but
we will let that pass. The point is that
the forces that tend to unifcation in i'm
perial Britain are well nigh miracu-
Ious, forever reasserting themselves, and
Ringing their influences deep. like the
roots of an English oak, to where the
heart of the very earth nourishes them
in her mysterious dark places. Here for
Instance, is Mr.. William O'Brlen, an UNI
auestionably great Irish national leader,
pushing the cause of a united Ireland, in
a spirit of frankest sympathy with the
English people, and eager to prove~that
Protestant Ulster and Catholic Con-
haueht must more and more closely
mite in service of the common good.
into the terrible rent within the national
forces I do not enter. nor do I inquire
About the practical outcome of that con-
hict But it certainly is instructive to
note how Mr.. Asquith, the English
prime minister. has been able to secure
the adhesion of the main Irish party, led
by Mr. Redmond, though it holds the
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-04-17
BRITAIN-By Rev. George Eaves

those days, but the National Biscuit COM
pany vies with Huntly and Palmer to-
day in popularizing among the most dis
tant gulches the utmost variety OF bis
cults" salt and sweet No railroad man
then ever thought of "shunting' his train.
He switched ii or ''sde-tra cxed. it.
Now he stunts it even on the Dem
yer & Rio Grande, and I have actually
heard that all the way from Boston to
San Francisco freight" is now borne by
goods trains just as it is over the Lon
don and Northwestern.
Hence I do not need to turn to the
court gossip of New York papers to dis
cover how a long list of American girls
and matrons have managed to get pre-
sented' or how fond the king is of the
brilliant conversation of Mr.. Shocks
Brown of Chicago. The shuttle is flying
also in other and less notorious ways,
bearing less startling colors a common
political heritage. common language,
mutual respect in spite of much mutual
criticism, often eaustic enough. a COM
mon fund of commercial necessity, a
growing likeness in ideals of culture, all
are working their inevitab BILE results To
me it is inconceivable that America would
ever stand silent and see England really
crushed. And Professor Wilkinson and
Field Marshal Lord Roberts and Mr.. A.
j. Balfour will perhaps learn that proph-
ecy is not their long suit" The years
that weave the inhabitants of one land
into national fabric also weave the In
habitants of all lands into a common
brotherhood, but the first to exhibit 1t
and profit by it will surely be those peo-
pies whose bounds of habitation' are
being daily obliterated by unseen, spir-
itual filaments of life.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-04-17

A JERSEY justice has held that the
- word damn is not profanity
4 \ as denounced in the statute made
and provided in that commonwealth in
behalf of sound morals. It may be a
breach of good manners to say to a lady,
you talk like damn fool" but that is
matter for Turveydrop to adjust and
not for Caesar to punish.
The speech we call "cussng" is vast
and expensive, and reaches all the way
from disgusting blasphemy to the exalta-
tior of inspiration. Nobody but an idiot
is blasphemous He employs cussing to
supply a vacancy of mind. But your
downright, blunt candid man cusses for
emphasis only and he is an artist If he
ribly in Flanders says My Uncle To-
by; but what must have been the pro-
family and the blasphemy of the English
forces in France during the Hundred
Years War" when even Joan of Arc
knew the enemy only as "These God
dams" Ours is the best language in the
world for cussing. If you would court
your sweetheart, speak the italian: If
you would converse with friends. speak
French If you would pray to God, speak
Spanish, IL you would be teamster,
speak German, If you would make a trade
or cuss your enemy, there is nothing
like the English.
In that delightful narrative, Campbell's
Life of Thurlow, is related this episode;
A body of Presbyterians made applica-
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-04-17

5 lilo, and thus learn, If you did not
know before, what is meant by the
current phrase, the Ananias club
But let us look at some of the re-
suits of this christian socialism" and
see how 1t worked. In the sixth chap
ter of the Acts we find the Greek
speaking Christians complaining
against the Hebrews because their
Cthe Creek widows were neglect ed
in the daily ministration," i. e., did not
get their sh are of the common fund.
See verse 1. And then we learn that
in order to rectify this abuse seven
officers were appointed, and it is a
remarkable circumstance that they All
have Greek names-Stephen, Philip,
Prochorus, Nicanor, Tlmon, Parmenas
and Nicolas.
Now. it is a striking, and [ believe
a highly significant circumstance, that
from this time on l find IN the New
Testament not the slightest reference
to the Socialism" which had been in
tt oduced by the early Christians ut
Jerusalem. On the contrary, l find
the Apostle Paul using all the mighty
eloquence of his tongue and his pen.
pleading with Gentle Christians TO
give literally of their substance to aid
the poor saints at Jerusalem. The
socialistic experiment had utterly failed
and the Christians at Jerusalem were
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-04-17

on the verge of starvation
Even If there had been millionairas
o.. multimillionaires among them the
result would ultimately have been The
same. An Irishman, touched with copl-
munistic socialism, insisted that there
ought TO be an equal division and
distribution of property. Some one
asked him: And what would you do
with your share of the money!" r'at
promptly and eandidly replied: Faith
Id spind it." And what then?" Call
FOR. another division, to be sure" was
the intensely Irish reioinder. 1t did
not occur to Pat to ask thu question:
AT this rate how long would there
be anything to divide?"
From the facts related above some peo-
pie have imagined the New Testament
teaches socialism; but such people have
read their Bible earelessly. We are not
told that the early Christians were COM
manded TO act thus, but simply that they
did act thus. And besides, the record it.
self shows that the whole thing was per-
fectly voluntary. In the fourth verse of
the fifth chapter of Acts, Peter says to
Ananias: while it (the land remained,
was it not thine own? And after it was
sold. was 1t not in thine own power?"
That is, could you not do as you pleased
with it?
Some years ago certain pastor of "a
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-04-17

downtown" church in one of our south
ern cities, finding 1t no easy task to
draw" large congregation to the
Sunday night service, advertised series
of sermons on christian Socialism" The
sermons were reported in the daily paper,
and | read the. reports The preacher
severely handled the laws of political
economy Competition" 1.-The laws of de-
mand and supply were ''unchristian "
He might as well have attacked the
multiplication table and the rule of
three"
If people should become so perverse
as to be willing to pay a larger price
for poorer article-to pay as much for
scamped or for unskilful work as they
would for good work, what would be the
effect upon the general moral condition
of society? Why manifestly it would put
premium upon laziness and incompe-
tency Who would take the time, palms,
labor, to make himself a skilled work
man, If scamped work would bring as
large a price as the best work would
oring? The law of supply and demand Is
a great protector of society. 1t means
that commodities will go where they are
most needed, and where the people are
most able to pay for them. II means
encouragement to honesty and skill on
the part of the producer, or of the
workman. 1t does great things for So
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-04-17

parted them to all, as every man had
need'-chapter .. verses 44-45. Now. note
that. in the very next chapter, verse G.,
we find the Apostle Peter eonfessing that
he had not a dime to give to a lame
beggar, though he evidently had compass
sion on that beggar
Again, in chapter 4. verses S237:
Neither said any that aught of the
things which he possessed was his OWL,
but they had all things coInmon.
Neither was there any among til en-
that lacked; for as many as were pos
SCISSORS of lands or houses sold them
and brought ethe prices of the things
that were Sold and laid them down
at the apostles feet; and distribution
was made unto every man according
as he had need And Barnabas
having land, sold it, and brought the
money and laid 1t at the apostles feet"
The thing become so fash ionable that
Ananias and Sapphire, his wife, were
swept off their feet by 1t. They could
not resist the temptation to follow
the fashion, and they were not liberal
enough to give to the common fund
the full price of a piece of land which
they had sold; and SO they handed
down their names to posterity as the
champion liars of all the ages by lying
to the Holy Spirit. You may read tn q
whole highly instructive story in Acts