davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-26
The air of paradise did fan the house And angels officed all.
 -AI's We'll That Ends Well.
Ships Too Big for the HaTborS

The White Star line has just launched at Belfast the Olympic, a steamship of 45,O00 tons displacement. She is SS5 feet long and measures 105 feet in height from the keel This vessel is, however, to be exceeded in size by Cunard ship for which plans have been made. The new Cunarder Is to be 1000 feet long and to have 90,000 horse power. Her displacement will be sc, 900 gross tons.
 Such ships call for channels 40 feet deep at low water and the docks that accommodate them must have a like depth of water. New York's new Am prose channel has not an inch to spare when such vessels go in or out.
 The Great Eastern of 1852 was the monster of her day, but in draft and power she was a baby alongside the liners of the present day She drew but 25' feet of water, although she was 6SO feet long with an S3-foot beam. She was too big to be profitable in her day, but the commercial ma rine of these times has already out grown her. If channels can be deep ened and docks improved even the proposed Cunarder will soon be out ranked in speed draft and length.
 The size of the new ships may outrun the capacity of the Panama canal, which is to be 40 feet deep. The looks are to be 1000 feet long by no in breadth. Ships larger than the pro- posed Cunarder would not be able to pass through the canal.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-26
GIRLS EXPERT SWIMMERS

From the Cincinnati Commercial-Tribune.
 Annette Kellerman, beware! Divine Myrma, learn a song and dance turn! Gertie Hoffman and your diving. beau ties, change your act. Cincinnati is now going to show what it's athletic young mermaids can do in high diving. float ing, swimming and all the fancy tricks of modern aquatic sports.
 The young ladies are all society girls who have never appeared in public be- fore save at Chester park, where they perfected themselves in the aquatic art as members of a swimming club. They can dive singly, in pairs or triplets from any angle or elevation. They can do such wonderful things as the 'somer- sault'' dive, the dolphin" wherein a mighty uproar is made when they hit the water, the "corkscrew," that only expert men swimmers attempt, the jack bnife' and the soldier dives which last two need a diagram to describe.
 The performance is somewhat a mat ter of pride with the young ladies, as they desire to demonstrate that none of the muchly heralded professionals have it on the amateurs of this city when it comes to swimming.
 Kathryn Brown. for instance, stands upright in a graceful pose, balances a couple of times and then makes a cou- pie of somersaults in which her head comes so close to the diving board that even professionals watching her per formance shudder. There is a tiny splash and then Miss Brown comes to the sur face laughing as if it were no trick at all.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-26
SNAKES THAT DIED TWICE ro,,, Iorparc Mapazine

From f1dTper s MdS SdZlHe.
 A naturalist once told how, in thicket on a mountain side, he saw a man kill a rattlesnake. He beat the life out of 1t with club, and continued the pounding till it was manged beyond recognition. When the naturalist remonstrated the man said Boss, you can't kill rattle snake too dead"
 On one occasion a boat bound for the United States from Rio de Janeiro touched at Pernambuco, where the mate drove a bargain with a snake dealer for a half dozen reptiles of various sizes.
 The mate had them in a cage on deck, and charged a sailor with the duty of washing it out with sea water every evening. All went well as long as the weather was mild, but on the night be- fore the gulf stream was crossed the sailor left quantity of water in the cage and, about thirty hours from port, biting gale struck the ship.
 All hands were busy with the storm and the snakes were forgotten. When the mate thought of them and went to look after their condition he found them frozen stiff and apparently as dead as the proverbial door nail.
 The dealer for whom the mate had brought them came on board the follow ing day. He professed great disappolnt- ment over the loss of his intended pur- chase, but offered to take the snakes away as a kindness to the mate. He gathered them in his arms like so much firewood and carried them home. But a rival dealer afterward told the officer that plenty of warm water had resusci- tated the snakes, and that they had been sold to various museums not bit the worse for their "death" by freezing.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-26
Abuses of tbe Franking Privilege

It is right to carry free in the mails the correspondence of the different de- partments of the government. It is also right to give members of Con- gress the right to correspond on public matters with their constituents, but the abuse of the franking privilege is far greater than people imagine it is, even well-informed people.
 Postmaster General Hitchcock is de- vising a plan that will measure the abuse of the franking privilege. At present no one knows how much the franking privilege costs the govern ment The railroads and the politicians pull together in this matter to fleece the government. Whenever the time comes to weigh the mails as a basis for paying the railroads for carrying them the politicians, at the instigation of railroad lobbyists, end out tons of government reports and pamphlets. Some congressman are necessarily parties to these frauds.
 MT. Hitchcock proposes to substi- ute special stamps and stamped en- yelopes for the present penalty en- velopes. Each department would have it's sneeial stamp, to be obtained on reauisition from the regular agencies of the postal service. In this way it would be possible to secure an exact record of the cost of carrying the free mails. and each department and each congressman would be charged in pub lished lists with the stamps drawn on acquisitions
 Under the Hitchcock proposition every package must carry stamps enough to cover it. Private mail and free matter are, in respect to weight,
 
 to be put on common basis. This is necessary in order to stop the trans portation in the mails of roll-top desks and weekly laundry, and all free stamps are to be made matter of pub lie record.
 |
 It must be conceded that MT. Hitch cock is giving the postoff1ce depart ment the benefits of a business ad- ministration. He may between times pick up the national delegates of the one-party states in the south, but when he is not doing the boss" act he is kept busy introducing business methods in department that sorely needs them.
 MT. Hitchcock must first, however, push his reform through Congress. and it is not entirely certain that Congress is ready to have its franking privilege measured and made public. The next Congress may be different
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-26
THEIR SUNDAY STANCE
the Atchison Globe.

From the Atchison Globe.
 An Atchison man was sitting In his own home last evening. quietly reading, as a nice man should do Sunday evening, when one of his wife's women friends dropped in. The man kept on reading Gas men do on such occasions), and the women paid no attention to him. (Women never do pay any attention to the man of the house). The man could not help but hear what his wife and her friend talked about; at first they talked about what a long day Sunday was, what disgrace it was they never went to church. how they had given up trying to make the children go to Sunday school. etc. And the man kept on reading his paper. Fin ally his wife and her friend drifted into a real talk" and the man thought to himself, This is no place for gentle man. and went to his room.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-26
A Visitors Impressions

What impresses a visitor especially about Birmingham Is that the city grows on one," said Charles F. Howe of Chi cago, a well-known representative of the Cable company.
 "When I was here during the summer on my first visit was well pleased with the looks of the city. It had all the ap- pearance of rapidly growing place and one could see that it was destined to be- come a city of vast population. And now on my second visit, l am even better pleased than before. I have taken time to look over the beautiful residence sec tions and in doing so I have found that Birmingham is being made doubly at tractive by its charming landscape ef- fleets.
 "When I read the census bulletin an- nouncing Birmingham's population at something like 133,000 I was quite pre- pared for it, for on my first visit I would have guessed that it had fully that many people,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-26
REMINGTON's BEGINNING

From Golfers Weekly.
 Along about 1884 Frederic Remington landed in Kansas City. after spending the summer on ranch at Dodge City, Kas. It was his first visit to the west, and his mind was full of Indians, COW punchers and soldiers. He did not. tell the men whom he met that he was an artist. At least he did not mention t in the shop where he bought his art materials, as we are informed by Guy Short of Yonkers, who was a youngster working in the shop at that time. Rem- ington was around the place good while before he ventured to bring out any pictures. Two of the three that he submitted first were about 12 by fl inches and the third about 15 by 30 inches, the largest one showing an attack on wagon train, one of the smaller ones pie turing three Indians peeping over hill at a wagon in the valley, and the third presenting three trappers standing in front of their horses, looking at skele- ton in the grass, which was pinned to the ground by an Indian arrow.
 A few moments after these three pie lures were put in the window there were about 100 persons trying to get look at them. Some came in to make inquiries, others thought they were joke The men in the shop told inquirers that Romeo" as he then signed him. self, was really an Eastern artist, whose business it was to paint gondoliers and Spanish gentlemen, but that he had just been spending his summer on Kansas ranch with this result The first pur- chaser was finally found, and he took all three pictures at a total price of $15o.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-26
WAS WELL PAID

Norman E. Macks National Monthly.
 Once upon a time there was an Indian named Big Smoke. employed as mis- sionary to his fellow Smokes.
 A white man, encountering Big Smoke, asked him what he did for a living.
 "Umphr said Big Smoke, me preach.'' That so? What do you get for preach ing?"
 Me git ten dollars a year"
 Well" said the white man, that S damn poor pay"
 "Umphl" said Big Smoke, ''me damn poor preacher"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-26

approximately. The United States su- preme court would no doubt tear this California @ecision into tatters. There is no common sense behind 1t.
 Here in the east the courts have held in the matter of "cut rate" drugs and proprietary articles that control of the price ceases when once title to the goods has passed; manufacturers may, of course, refuse to sell to dealers who 'cut rates" or to anybody aiding or abetting them in the practice-but they have no claim for damages or redress of any sort through the courts.
 That this movement In the grocery trade to stop "cut rating is to. meet with spirited opposition there are signs in plenty. Down in Memphis, Tenn, for instance. a retailer of the name of Bow CTS has picked up the cudgel for fight Ing it. 1T have always held," he says in a circular on the subject, that when I buy an article of merchandise, have a right to sell 1t at whatever price suits me, regardless of what my competitor or the man of whom I buy 1t has to say about 1t. I have sent a pamphlet to every senator and representative In Congress urging him to have enacted some sort of a law penalizing attempts to control prices; bill has in conse- quence been introduced which means, if passed, freedom for the retailer and protection for the consumer. If you be- lieve in free competition. I hope your influence will be used in its behalf"
 Congress could take action in this matter only where interstate commerce is concerned. Endorsement of the bill in question cannot be expected from sources where its exact provisions are not known. But the trade principle be- hind 1t Is above criticism. .e4s
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-26
A MATTER OF OPINION

From Harpers BaZar.
 "'Maryi'
 Fathers voice rolled down the stairs and into the dim and silent parlor.
 ''Yes, pap dear?''
 Ask that young man if he has the time"
 A moment of silence.
 'Yes, George has his watch with him. He says it is 11:4s, papa
 "Then ask him if he doesn't think it about bedtime
 Another moment of silence.
 He says, papa" the silvery voice an nounced, impersonally-''h says that he rarely goes to bed before 1, but. 1t seems to him that it is matter of personal preference merely, and that If he were in your place he would go now if he felt sleepy!''
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-26
HOW TT HAPPENED

From Harper's Weekly.
 They were sitting on the hotel piazza comparing notes.
 Well, my son-in-law hasn't spoken an unkind word to me for 10 years" said one old lady.
 How perfectly lovely!" said the other. ''Is he dumb?"
 No" replied the first, smiling at her friends pleasantry-"no we haven't been on speaking terms since 1S99''
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-26
A DIREFUL THREAT.

A DIREFUL THREAT.
 "A gentleman who Is rather stoop- shouldered and who has the reputation of squeezing the eagle on a quarter till that bird screams got angered last week and had his paper stopped be- cause we copied a short article from another paper in regard to some mis- conduct of his boy. He ought to feel very charitable toward us as we could easily have made the matter much worse. We venture some day this old gentleman will rue his action. There will be time when the black hearse will be driven to his door. The dread ed monster Death will invade his home and a loved one will be laid to rest. The Sylvan warbler may sing his low refrain and, anon, the southern zephyrs rustic their requiem in mem ory of them, but if the Times Is not silent then memory has lost her place."
 -Leeton Times.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-26
From the Bookman.

From the Bookman.
 N ICKENS, after a life in which
 he certainly did not stint him. 0 self, was able to leave ato his heirs an estate of an ap- proximate value of half million of dol lars, and his immediate family was by no means a large one, as large fam files go. The fact that some of his grandchildren today are engaged in earning their own livelihood. and that others are receiving small pensions from the English government does not abso- lutely shock us. Nor can we confess to any strong sense of national shame that the estate of Dickens was not larger. Let us not be misunderstood on this point. That his stories were printed in this country and that he did not receive his share of the profits accruing from their sale was monstrously wrong. But 1t was only in proportion to his popularity that the wrong was any greater to Dickens than to his contemporaries. And if to any English writer the American people tried to make reparation for an injustice that writer was Charles Dickens. Turn to page ASA of the second volume of the standard edition of Forster's Life and
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-26
SONNET

By William Wordsworth. "There!' said Stripling, pointing
 with meet pride FU Towards a. low roof with green trees
 half concealed, ..sf "Is Mossgiel Farm; and that's the very
 field Where Burns plowed up the Daisy"
 Far and wide A plain below stretched seaward, while,
 !, deserted s Above sea clouds, the Peaks of Arran And, by that simple notice. the re- Of earth, sky sea and air, was vivi- Beneath "tha random bield of clod or
 stone" Myriads of daisies have shown forth
 in flower Near the larks nest. and in their nat
 ural hour Have passed away less happy than
 the One That, by the unwilling ploughshare.
 died to prove The tender charm of poetry /and love.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-26
"CUT RATES" IN GROCERY TRADE CnynrnarCfal


 From the New York Commercial.
 Following is the decision by the su- preme court of California-to the ef- feet that where a manufacturer. places a label on his products naming the minimum price at which they are to be sold to the consumer, such manu- facturer has valid and legal claim for damages against any retailer who sells them at lower price-a quite gen. eral movement has been set afoot in the grocery trade throughout the coun- try for preventing "cut rates on man. ufactured food products. Certain trade journals both in the west and in the east are supporting the movement, many manufacturers are pushing 1t along. and grocery trade organizations here and there are giving 1t all the backing and influence that they can command. A San Francisco publica- ton only recently printed two-page list of goods, such as breakfast foods, soaps, soda. olive oil, evaporated milk tea. coffee, flour, canned vegetables and fruits. and so forth. on which 1t was annbunced the retail prices had been fixed by the manufacturers. Any cut ting of these prices" the publication added, "should be reported to the man ufacturer, and he will gladly stop 1t. Almost immediately New York trade journal published list of Pacific coast manufacturers and packers who were maintaining the plan, and stated In tn cir behalf that they would try the stl...o scheme in operation in other sec lions of the United States, "as soon as conditions made 1t worth while These incidents are here cited to indicate somewhat the character and the ex- tent of this movement against the free disposition of property as its owners may see fit.
 It is not easy to understand now manufacturer can be damaged ei'her in purse or reputation, or in any other way. through sale of his product py a retailer at less than the label price so just where his legal claim Tor da mares would lie as proclaimed by the California supreme court IS not clear; without the text or the oecisioi' at hand for reference. the suggestion arises that possibly the court may nave held that the purchase of price labeled poods constitutes contract between the seller and buyer-just as the printed stinulations on the back of railroad | ticket constitute contract between common carrier and passenger that can he enforced at law; but where the title to the property has passed from man.
 rra cturer to retailer and from retailer Ito customer, it does not seem reason
 able that the former has any just claim
 for damages against the retailer; the
 customer might resell the article to
 his neighbor and the latter in turn to
 somebody else. the price being cut at each transaction--and, if the manufac-
 turer is damaged" at all, he Is surely
 damaged" by each sale-and each sell CT ought to be held responsible to him
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-26
OH, WISE JUDGEi


 The following story illustrates in an admirable way why 1t is that horse sense" Is almost as necessary to the making of a good judge as a know ledge of law. The story:
 "A fussy Brooklyn woman asked Magistrate Nash the other day for a summons for a man she had employed. He had been profane In her presence, she said. Magistrate Nash expressed his sorrow at this fact. I will gladly is- sue the summons if he has been pro- fane,' said he. Perhaps you had best relate the circumstances?' He said, damn it,"' said the woman, blushing Some authorities hold that damn it. Is profanity said MT. Nash, gravely What was he doing at the time he said damn it?"' He was laying carpet for me- said the woman. And prompt ed the magistrate. He hit his thumb Under these conditions said Magis- trate Nash, and having laid carpet my self, and having inadvertently hit my own thumb with the hammer while laying said carpet I shall have to rule that your employe was not profane He was only vulgar. Summons refused.'"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-26
BRITISH LADY TRAVELER

Wallace Irwin in Metropolitan Magazine.
 To interview the British lady traveller Is recreation suitable to nervous people. ed. You can always tell two years in ad- vance what she Is going to say. She is apt to be a successful novelist or prison reformer, her purpose in coming to Amer lea being to get impressions" of our criminal life. It Is all in the days work of performing more or less disagreeable duties Her infections, never openly acrid, vary between calmly pained re- proach and mildly amused patronage. Unless she Is an English woman of all most uncanny originalty-and there are some such, even outside the suffragette prisons-her interview will be something like this
 America? Fawncy! Your cookings is such an amusing mess-and your bath tubs So like great burial caskets done
 in porcelain. One never sees that sort of thing in England, you know. Have you not stairways in America-always those hideous towers-skyscrapers I think they call them-and when one wishes to go up, one must take the lift-'elevators, I believe you call them, though I cawnt see why.
 "I went down to Wall street and saw some of your American men. Fascnat- ing. They seemed so wild, so free. Their rough, hearty manners are due no doubt to the stirring ranch-life they lead when not engaged in business. I was disap- poointed to see no shooting affairs on the floor of the stock exchange-but I was there on dull day.
 Those are about all my observations of America so far-oh, yes! I want to speak about your beastly heat. The bar barous way you overheat your houses and tram cars Is etc. etc.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-26

stacles. They should get down to brass tacks" at once, for the meeting of the legislature is only about two months hence Much will be expected from this important committee, and a better one, 1t is evident. could not have been se- lpctqd
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-26
REVISED VERSION.

MI IoED NEfoIUN. There was an old man up in Worcester, Tried to wiring off the neck of a rooster, But the bird kept his head And the man quit and said, 'I can't do 1t as well as I useter."
 Exchange. A bard with the Republic Iron and Steel company says the above lines should read thusly: as4 There was an old man up in Wor-
 ceSter, Tried to wiring off the neck of a ror-
 cester; 4EHH But the bird kept his head And the man quit and said, can't do it as well as l orcester.'
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-26
HOSPITALS OF FORTY YEARS AGO R " RrtIera in Harner's MaRaZine for

R. w. Bruere, in Harper's Magazine Tor
 November.
 Even among professional philanthropy ists it is not generally realized how lit- eraly the phrase scrap them has ap- piled to our traditional methods of dis posing of the industrially maimed and unfit For many generations our prac- tice has been not unlike that of the Romans, who exposed their aged and in firm slaves to death by the elements upon an island in the Tiber. Take, for example, the early history of New York's greatest public charity, Bellevue hospital, which during considerable part of last century was the general city poorhouse. There" the records of the institution tell us, fin buildings intend- ed for general almshouse administration, were congregated in one sickening mass the destitute, the prisoners, the victims of all forms of infectious and contagious disease, the insane, and the sick de- pendent children of the city" And how truly that .slckening mass" was regard ed as merely a scrap-heap the care of the inmates bears witness. In the midst of the glorious sixties, when the nation was afiame for the abolition of African slavery, an epidemic, due to the complete lack of all sanitary arrangements, ragged
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-26
A PRoDIGIOUs VAIL.

Those towns that didn't show up well. Oh hear them as they loudly yell. We would not now be sorely vexed, Had we all our suburbs annexedr'
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-26

A hall of fame that contains no panels to the memory of Sidney Lanier and Walt Whitman is not much more than burlesque, for Americas two great poets would not be honored in it.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-26
sURFE1TED

From the Jackson News.
 The Birmingham Age-Herald says that if the millionaires keep on marrying chorus girls the musical comedies will soon be knocked out. And we are not prepared to say that the knockout is not a consummation devoutly to be wished.