davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-04

pie from his father, the king, as he hypo- critically Kisses every man" who came to the king for judgment.
 But there were Jonathan and David who kissed each other and Jonathan loved David as he loved his own soul. :"
 There was the awful kiss of betrayal, and with our hearts bowed in sorrow we hear the voice of the Lord saying Judas betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?"
 But we look up and our hearts are made glad as we see Jesus as He sits at meat in the Pharisee's house, look ing tenderly on the weeping woman kissing and washing his feet with her tears, and wiping them with her hair; and amounting them with ointment. And when the Pharisee Is saying within himself: This man, if He were a proph- ct, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that touchetn him; for she Is sinner" Hear the blessed Master saying: simon 1 have somewhat to say unto thee: There was a certain creditor which had two debt ors; the one owed five hundred pence and the other fifty, and when they had nothing to pay he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most?" simon
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-04

result was that the boy confounded the old man. Progress was reported to the mother, who scornfully said to her lord .
 "rhee's a nice one! I sent thee out to convert the heathen, and thee returns a heathen theeselfH -
 Butler went out to convert the pops and came back a pop himself.
 And so he got to the Senate of the United States, where he did more to abuse Gods patience and confound the kings English than any other man of my time. It was simply impossible to tell what the man was driving at when on his legs and ''a-malSing of speech" and that was his normal state Nobody understood him, not even himself. There was an ocean of what Tom Reed called 'lanwige," and not an atom of inteli- gent thought. I know young man of Kentucky, blue-blooded fellow, a blue grass chap. who is thoroughly convinced that he is made of better clay than anyone of the "Pennyrle' set. He is of the very aristocracy of the land, the cream de la cream of that citizenship. We'll I won $25 from him and he "welshed'' it. He is not made of clay but of soap stone. and very rotten soap stone, at that.
 And the Hon. Butler, now boss of the republican party of North Varolina, as long as he was in the Senate, asseverated that his politics was just a little better than any other politics; but could never understand him, though frequently I got amusement from listening to the clapo- drida he daily dshed up
 Josephus will extract deal of fun out of Buffers boss-ship of scalawags and niggers this year and 1912.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-04

he was the minister of finance during the reign of the unhappy King Louis XVI; I heard the name of Bezar, I knew him as a theologian Saussure, natural ist of worldwide fame; Gibbon, d'Au- bigne; Rousseau, and many other names were mentioned. I seemed to be in a crowd of celebrities, and, being bewil- dered at this unusual gathering, I rose to ask its meaning, and awoke. I saw its significance in my waking moments. In this region had these mighty spirits once lived, labored and written; here they sang their songs to the heart of the world. or conceived the things that made their names immortal.
 We leave the little steamer at the wharf of Lausanne in order to take the train for the Interlachen country Here again had occasion to offer my services as Interpreter for a group of tourists from the United States. This was the begin ning of an acquaintanceship that con tinued quite a time in Switzerland and that was renewed months afterwards in our homeland.
 At Lausanne there Is nothing to see except the little garden in which Gbbon worked on his literary monument The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, work that required 20 years of toll.
 Of the journey through Switzerland to Interlachen, the snowy heights of the Jungfrau, the many lakes hidden in the shadows of the mountains over which you pass. the marvellous water falls, the quaint villages, of these I cannot stop to write, or these "short journeys shall become long ones.
 broke my journey having plenty of time on hands the cnrinng little town of Thur, pronounced Toon. The weather was chilly and a drizzle of rain was falling for days. Oh, 1t was the "wretch- edest weather" as Carlyle would have
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-04

We can't help believing that Adam kissed Eve, his beautiful wife, in the Garden of Eden; though the first authentic ac- count we have of the kiss in the Bible we find in Genesis 27: 26. It is kiss of infamous deception, given by Jacob to his old blind father, Isaac, who being 1S years of age, and believing that death was near, called for Esau, his eldest son. to come to him and receive his will, which conveyed through prophetic spirit the patriarchal blessing. Isaac's natural af- lection prompted him to entail the honor and power of the birthright on Esau, and he said unto him: Come near now, and kiss me, my son. and Jacob, who had with his mother, Rebekslh, planned to deceive his father as to receive the blessing himself which was intended for his brother, came near and kissed Isaac and in that kiss stole his brother Esau's blessing and brthright. The deceitful kiss is like giving poisoned candy or like "the pretty worm of Nilus," nest ling in "basket of figs
 In Hosea we read of the idolatrous kiss, Israel lowing down and worshipping mol ten images; and they said: Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves" And the Lord became angry at their ingratitude and sin, and said: Therefore they shal.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-04

ed me how to thread our prey on will low twig or string, how to hold him without being pierced by his sharp back fin, how to prevent him from becomin.y dry and shrivelled in the growing heat of the sun. That was a school master, in- deed.
 So the scene comes back again the lush green meadows the ancient will low trees along their edge, and the all most clear water of the Avon, lying so still and mirror-like between us and the churchyard, where the tall elms sustained in their tops a colony of rocks, in whose perennial neets gen erations of tn cir young had kept the apostolic cnarge for six or seven cen turies.
 There were other reaches of the river, too, especially below the mill where the Weir Brake puts a band of dark green along the northern bank and where Warwick shire merges into Gloucestershire; where also a breed of fish could be found of more interest to the sportsman than the deep-water perch and roach. These were called chub, were capable of considerable growth and sailed majestically in squadrons near the surface and be- heath the overhanging trees, nabbing now a gnat and now a grasshopper, but oftener lazily waving their mighty tails and drifting like great ships of war swinging at anchor In the tide.
 These he taught us how to tempt with blue-bottle flies. cunningly cast so as to float within their sphere of vision. But the angler must beware He must be hidden. No motion of his hand must warn the shy things of pos sible snares. If we were wary, screened by bushes. or a friendly tree-trunk, or best of all, stationed on some convent
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-04

A FTER the Sea of Ice, Mont Blanc
 A is the great attraction at Cha 4 \ mouni. This mighty mountain is the monarch of the Alps, seated upon his throne of ice and wearing upon his brow a crown of perpetual snow. The summit is 16,0OO feet above the sea- What storms have thundered about its lofty head! What lightning bolts have crashed against its enormous sidesl What ele- mental battles have ragged around it since the centuries began! How far 1t seems and is. Long after twilight has fallen upon Chamouni in the deep valley, and the simple peasant folk have lighted their candles for the night, you may see the golden rays of the sunset still lingering upon the topmost snows of Mont Blanc, and through the deepening dusk, the dis tant peak looks like the open portals of paradise.
 I had no ambition to ascend Mont Blanc, though many persons are inclined 10 do so. Many a sad tragedy Is re- corded in the chronicles of Chamouni in this connection. A ghastly horror oc- cured in September of 1870. On the 9th of the month Il persons began the ascent of the mountain. They spent the nrSL nlSnt III llttie nut on tHe way upt and on the following morning continued their ascent and finally reached the sum- init in fine weather. But when they be- gan the descent heavy cloud enveloped them. Eight hours passed, and instead of the cloud lifting it thickened. The villagers saw the cloud, and, anticipat- ing trouble, they made up relief party, which began to climb the mountain. By the time the hut was reached a storm was raging fiercely, and for seven days the deadly tempest roared and ragged in al Tits tempestuous fury. It was abso- lutely impossible for the reseuers to scale the mountain. They were imprisoned for
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-04

in that drama? From dear old memories passed into the poetic mood. and the journey became responsible for these lines:
 o. lovely vale, with dim. deep dells,
 And sylvan haunts, mid scenes divine, stranger views thy beauty fair,
 And quaffs thy cup of magic wine. Thy gentle air of peace and rest,
 Thy tuneful birds and murmuring
 streams,
 Thy trailing vines, and vistas deep,
 My spirit fill with tender dreams. Could I within thy beauty dwell
 'Twould pleasure every lofty sense: Nor fame, nor wealth. nor aught beside,
 From charms so dear could lure me
 hence;
 But here, mid tinkling rills that roll
 Ger pebbles white as alpine snow Where earth and heaven in kisses meet
 And roses ever round thee blow, I'd live and dream. and sing my song, And let the world pursue its way, Content, content. o, flowery vale,
 Beneath thy sweet romantic sway.
 If the reader finds that the meter limps, in the above poem, or that the thought is disjunctive, let him simply say, Here the diligence must have jolted the Muse;" for, by the beard of Hercules, if he had one, the lines were not writtetn to appear In print.
 Fifty miles of pleasure and even of de- light brought us to the beautiful city of Geneva, feeling as fresh as when we started in the morning from the village of Chamouni.
 Geneva Is a modern city, and. while 1t has much to interest one, yet the sources of interest are Dot like those of such cities as Rome. Florence Cologne and others. Here well-nigh everything is new-that is. only a few hundred years old. The bridges spanning the river that divides the city are numerous and ar
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-04

ent tree above the water and among the branches, we might see some huge fellow approach our fly, push 1t IS 1t buzzed, testing its reality, suspicious of his apparent fortune. and then whisll downwards and away with tremen- dous splash, sending the fishermans heart into his mouth. But again he would return and perhaps a third time, with wide open mouth and rush the situation, [ pounder or even a two- pounder, battling against the little linn erick hook and the silk line and quly- ering rod. No wonder that ones youth ful attempts at 'etymology connected Nimrod with fishing. No wonder either that amid the woodlands and hills and beside the streams of Alabama the memory of Uncle Fred comes back, his tall. gaunt figure moving along the edges of the horizon, and associated forever with the longing to feel the rod quivering in sympathetic fingers, the taunt whirr of the straining line as 1t cuts the placid water, and to hear perhaps out of the dim distance the old insistent tones:
 Strike, you silly You've got biter'
 But we shall not hear those tones again, only the memory of them, only the haunting, vibrant memory, nov Ing one to say; Blessed be uncles Blessed be the Uncle Freds and Uncle Wills and every other unclei Their tribe increases, but their hearts can never be larger than the uncles of oth- CT days. The name they bear has a sort of homely familiarity, stolid and sober Saxon adequacy that defies the makers of dictionaries and proves that there are no uncles but our ownl
 Avunculus," you say? Avaunt Latin ity! The only uncle ever known was or pure Anglo-Saxon blood. How could he be an Avuncutus?
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-04

Paul says to the Thessalonians: Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss, and so all along the ages of the Bible we find kisses indulged in with va riety of feeling and motive.
 It is said that the Japanese knew noth- ing of the kiss, that not even a Japanese mother ever kissed her own babe. and they were surprised when they first saw the foreigners kiss. Are they a more healthy nation than are those who give the osculatory greeting?
 l learned through a friend who was for some years United States ambassa- dor to the court of Spain that the roy alty of that country kiss only the cheek, first one and then the other, in saluting.
 l would suggest to the ''Woman's Health Organzaton'' to endeayor to get the reigning emperors, kings and queens, to become members of their society if they really desire to kill the kiss, for the record shows that fashion Is strong factor in the worlds progress. As 1t is, I read every noN' and then of royalty ex- changing the kiss as of old. But em- perors', kings and queens osculatory performances may not come under the head of miscellaneous kissing
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-04

tistic. Many of the residences and pub lie buildings are fine expressions of the art of architecture. The streets are broad and maintained in perfect order.
 Among other places of interest there Is one that will immediately command the attention of tourists of this state who may be in Geneva. It Is the old Sale de Festines; it's modern name Is the Cham Der of Alabama. It was thus named, not to do honor to this great state, but as a memorial of the arbitration of the Alabama Claim,' in 1872 Geneva was selected, because it was neutral ground.
 The river dividing the city Is the Rhone. Its waters are as blue as indigo, and sweep on their westeward way with the swiftest motion, being fed by the beautiful lake of Geneva, placid Le- man." as Byron called it.
 I had dream: I was in small white steamer sailing over the most beautiful of lakes. The heavens were blue and the lake was blue. Around the lake, as far as the eye could see, there were groves of fruit trees fringing the water edge. To the northwest 1 could see the lofty heights of the Jura mountains. while to the south there rose the hoary head of Mont Blanc far away. The lake was encompassed by hills and mountains. Peeping out of the distant foliage there were white cottages and picturesque chateaux looking like toy houses and will dernesses of Towering vines; here and there were old castles, white palaces and stately mansions. I glded over the lake as hoiselessy as a bird flies through the yielding air. Scenes of beauty multiplied. Villages came into view. Here and there a little church spire could be seen, it's topmost cross sparkling like a golden star In the dark vault of night. Then it seemed that I was. in my dream, among people whose names and histories l had known from my childhood. I heard the name of Neckar and I remembered that
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-04

said. However, one afternoon I strolled out Into the village. I was affected a1- most to melancholy by the weather. h. deed' l have always been a shuttlecocl, for the weather. Certain days fill ma With exhuberant joy, other days depress me until I feel that in all the world I nave not one friend On this particular day l was in drahry mood and home- sick to the last degree. I strolled over the wet roads, everything around me was Wet the trees were dripping. the roofs of the Swiss cottages were dripoing the fields were soaked the walkways were sloppy, the sky was a dark gray, not a ray or sunshine had fallen upon Thun for ever so long. I began to wonder if the sun would ever shine again On and on l walked driven by the demon or depression, with no definite point in view Presently l came abreast of q cot tage almost hidden behind dripping trees and soaked vines. I suddenly stopped. stood and listened. I hear music: music, that love so deeply, music that has enchanted me many a time, that has thrilled me as warriors heart is stirred by the bugle blast, and that has choked my throat times without num- Der and brought tears to my eyes. I stood in a sense, like Tom Moore's Peri at the gate of Paradise, looking towards the cottage and listening Presently there came the soft, dear rotes of Home. Sweet Home,' and then my vision be- came indistlnct. I stood in the same place, looked in the same direction, but I seemed to be looking through a bit of blurred glass over which the rain seemed to roll downh
 Silly. do you exclaim? Perhaps so. Yet, strong men have wept. Marcellus wept, at Syracuse; Scipio wept at Car thage; Titus wept at Jerusalem, and this fills my space
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-04
HEART TO HEART TALKS-By Ed

Therefore this story.
 G. F. Utterback of Sigourney, Ia., committed suicide after leaving this warning:
 My advice to the young men of the west is to avoid the board of trade and the cereal speculation market as you would the black plague. Once the fever hits you there is no escape. It will get into the very marrow of your bones"
 Utterback knew.
 He was the cashier of his fathers bank and was doing the very thing he ought not to have edone-speculating. Several times he was ahead of the game; but, like the others, he kept on. They all do that. One day a crash came in the market. and young Utter back was $47,000 short.
 We'll
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-04

be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the eham that is driven with the whirlwind out of the feor, and as the smoke out of the chim- ney. Yet I am the Lore thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know nc God but me- for there Is no Saviour besides me-"
 There is much said about the kiss. both in the Old and in the New Testament We hear the Psamist singing of God'.' goodness: Surely His salvation is nigh them that fear Him: that glory may dwell in our land. Mercy and truth are met together righteousness and peace have kissed each other" And again. Serve the Lord with fear. and rejoice with trembling kiss the Son, lest he be angry and ye perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but q little Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him." God sends Aaron into the wilderness to meet Moses, And he went, and met him in the mount of God and kissed him." Laban complains of Jacob for stealing away from him, And hast not suffered me to kiss my sons and my daughters.
 While the kiss in the Bible was a sym bol of goodwill and love, we find 1t often perverted. We read of the treachery of Absalom turning the hearts of the peo-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-04

industrial plant could be run without ex- pense, so far as the power is concerned, by the wild mountain streams. The only business of the place, apart from the hostelries, consists of selling Alpine stocks, oilcloth suits, and souvenirs.
 Our route out of Chamoun led through one of the most romantic. and most beau tiful thoroughfares in the world, the Vale of Savoy. For mingling sun light and shadow-casting leafage; for sub dued picturesqueness and poetice beauty; for murmuring brooks (half concealed by overhanging ferns and luxuriant fo- liage); for surrounding mountain slopes of graceful outline adorned with varie- gated wild flowers; for fower-mantled cottages; and for an ensemble of mystic charm and dreamy suggestion, I must think that Tom Moore's Vale of Cash mere finds here it's equal. For miles there are blossoming hedgerows and banks of flowers. On either side of the road there are haunts that were once the meeting places of the fairies. you think, and here dwelt Oberon and Titania in the long ago, when men dwelt nearer natures heart. For fifty miles there is an unbroken Lovers Bower" and what an ideal method of travel is this through this vale of nameless charm? We are not in a Pullman, nor on train of any sort. We are in our double-decker dili- gence. Now and then we stop to change horses, or to lunch at al quaint little inn, where the perfection apf cleanliness is everywhere conspicuous. Leisure befits the occasion, we would resent 4apid transit through this bewildering beauty. Fifty miles in the diligence through these dreamy scenes is fifty miles of per feet pleasure We talk, we sing, we quote the poets, and finally fall into 6raamU raVpriQS of recalled the days when Maggie Mitchell charmed thousands by playing "Fanchon, the Pearl of Savoy" and who that ever saw her can forget her and the shadow dance
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-04

TNROM the Congregationalist we note F the following: Kissing is insani- 4 tary-miscelaneous kissing, espe- cially. ''If you see a woman wearing white button with the words, Kiss Not in red letters on her bosom, do not imagine that she is misanthrope-a man hater. It is only that she is an enthusiastic mem- Der of the 'Woman's Health organiza- tion,' which Is devoted to ridding the world of the malaria conveying habit of osculatory greeting.
 What would Coleridge have said on reading this paragraph? He must have believed in the kiss when he wrote his exquisite little poem, '"rhe Composition of a Kiss" Let us have 1t:
 1 Cupid. if storying legends tell alright, Once framed a rich elixir of delight. chaice OCT love-kindled flames he
 fx'd, And in 1t nectar and ambrosia mix'd: With these the magic dews. which even-
 ing brings,
 Brushd from tn Italian Star by faery
 wings,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-04

a week In the hut. When the storm subsided, at the end of the week, the relief party began to climb through the snow, they found a number of dead bodies, and in the pocket of one of them there was a note book containing these entries:
 "Tuesday, September CT have ascend ed Mont Blanc with 10 persons. We reached the summit at 2:3O. Immediately after quitting it we were enveloped in cloud of snow. We passed the night in a grotto of snow, which gave us only poor shelter. was Ill all night.
 September [, Morning.-The cold is ex- cessive. Snow falls heavily and without interruption. The guides work inces- sanity.
 Evening: My Dear Hessie-We have been two days on Mont Blanc in the midst of a terrible hurricane of snow. We have lost our way and are in hol- low place scooped In the snow at an alti- tude of 15.0OO feet. I have no longer any hope of descending
 Perhaps this note book will be found and sent to you. We have nothing to eat, and my feet are frozen. I am ex- hausted and have strength to write only a few words more I die with faith in God and with loving thoughts of you. Farewell to all, we shall meet again in heaven. think of you always
 The grave of the writer of these notes and that of one of his unfortunate com panions may be seen just outside of the little stone church in Chamouni. This tragedy is only one of the many asso- ciated with the cold heights of the mon arch of the Alps.
 Chamouni is a quiet little village, whose chief revenue is derived from the great army of tourists who visit the place every year. There is no special in- dustry in the village, though an immense
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-04

Mrs OConnor could not swim, and she almost drowned But when she went down she held the baby up above her head and out of the water. Then some men came and pulled out mother and babe.
 We'll
 There was nothing especially strange about mother jumping into the water to save her baby.
 It would have been strange and un- natural had Mrs. O'Connor refused to jump.
 So the newspaper that told about the happening put the news item under a small heading and into @ corner. There was no big news in the fact that a mother followed her babe into the ocean in order to save it. It was the natural thing for a mother to do. r Mothers risk their lives when their