davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22
Direct Election of Senators

'The right to select their senators" says the Memphis Commercial-Appeal should be left to the people to be set tied at the polls. Then we may expect that the Senate will cease to be the nil- lionaires' club and will be more directly in touch with the voters themselves.
 In January the question of submitting constitutional amendment will come m la the Senate, and when the certain dis credited senators have offered their amendments designed to throttle it. it is thought a direct vote will be had on the proposition and that few senators indeed will then be found ready to go on record against the plan of permitting the people to choose their own representatives in the Senate.
 The process of changing the constitution Is long and tiresome, but in this matter 'I must Dc lesorleu tO. A cndnge in the nature and character of the Senate is de- manded. As some one has said, there must first be revision of the Senate be- fore there can be revision of the tariff But when Hale and Lodge and Aldrich and Depew and Kean and Dick and Bur rows leave the Senate, each and all rep hope that something can be accomplished for the rank and file. England found an obstructive special-class house of lords intolerable, and America has reached a like resolution as to the Senate.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22
THE FAUN THAT LOVED A GIRL

"A startling with the blowers flew Sing hey, sing ho with plovers few He thought he was blower, too,
 plump and pleasing blower. But when young Spring leapt OCT the 2
 hill--
 Sing hey, sing ho, leapt Der the hill He found he was staring still
 And could not get a loveri "Oh, poor, immortal. goat-foot fool-- Sing hey, sing ho. poor, goat-foot fool Come learn Demeter's golden rule
 That kind with kind shall blend Ca join the nymphs; they1l heed yorr
 sigh
 Sing hey, sing ho, they'll heed your sigh; But men and women all must die;
 Their bodies make an end.
 Though mortal girls more precious are-- Sing hey, sing ho, more precious are Than faun, or nymph, or evening star,
 Or sunshine on the sea-, They pass away to dustman Death Sing hey, sing ho. old dustman Death He takes their bodies. bones and breath.
 Earth mates with earth, not thee" The maiden won shepherd lad- Sing hey, sing ho, a shepherd lad Sorrow and joy the couple had
 And children round about; While still there peeped the puzzled
 faunl- e0h #ssW f9ss Sing hey, sing ho, the puzzled faunA To watch the wornans body worn,
 Her lamp of beauty out. Then goat-foot marked the flying years Sing hey. sing ho. the flying years Beheld the withered mothers tears, Bent back and wrinkled brow; But sure he felt no pangs of srief--s . Sing hey, sing ho, no pang of grief To see Time play the cruel thief, He loved her daughter now
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22


 In the easy chair of Harper's for Jar uary. William Dean Howells enters into an imaginary discussion with a friend concerning the comparative advantages of ocean travel today and in the days of Fielding
 "The Easy Chair attempted to change the conversation, or at least. if it must still be of seafaring, to give it a little different term. Have you ever read the novelist Fielding's Voyage to Lisbon?"
 ''The ex-consul grudged the admission: Not yet. It's a book that I've always almost read though don't care much for his novels. Do you mean that you're fa- miliar with it?'
 No; we've been waiting a century and more for 1t to get into those pretty seven- penny editions which now offer so much good literature to the stingy traveller in England. We found it in that form just after engaging our passage home and read 1t or the steamer
 And I suppose you bring it up now to prove that your ship was an immeas- urahle improvement upon his Well, what does he say of his accommodations Did he have a single cabin?'
 He didn't want one; Mrs. Fielding was with sim. But he says little or noth- ing about his accommodations. He speaks casually of their cabin, by which he seems to have meant the ships cabin, or lounge, music-room, library, and smok- ing-room rolled very tightly into one; for when he once referred to it as his cabin before the captain Your cabin" re- peated the latter, many times, mo, d--n me, tis my cabin. I suppose you think it your cabin. and your ship. by your com nsnding in it; but I will show the world that I am the commander and nobody but T. Did you think I sold you the command of my ship for that pitiful thirty pounds?" It seems that this was the price of Fielding's passage
 Not much more than they would pay now on a steamer from London to Lis bon,' the ex-consul interrupted.
 Yes, but the Fieldings provisioned themselves. To be sure, they were much longer going than they would be now; 1t was about six weeks before they got out of English waters, though they made the rest of the run in seven days. All that time they had been waiting upon English winds. including the bad breath of their captain. You are given to understand that the captain was rather favorable specimen of his sort, though Fielding qualities his scanty praise with the con olrsion that all human flesh Is not one flesh, but that there is one kind of flesh of landmen and another of seamen.'"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22
STUPID BEGINNING oF GENIUsEs

Edgar James Swift, in Harper's Magazine
 for January.
 The finer individual qualities are often late in revealing themselves. It IS lhe older racial tendencies that rule in chiiu- hood. Irritation at restraint, irfespon- sibility and primitive incidence, are 'o be expected. Some mature slowly anu ai ie called stupid. George Eliot learned lo read with difficulty. Thorwaldsen' the sculptor. spent three years in one class in the village school; Burger, the poet of German ballads, required several years to learn the Latin forms, and Aiherl' 'ne Italian poet, was dismissed py HIS leao"- ersA so backward was he. Were l. heo essary, the list might be indennlteiy eA tended by adding Newton, Byron, losen' Walter Pater. Pierre Curie and others. Sometimes seeming stupidity is due to interest in subjects outside the little cir- cle round which the tethered ehloren are allowed to graze. Fulton, Watt ana Sir Humphrey Davy, in early chiiohooo' were already busy with the experlfheh'e which were to be told to children arter the teacher who called them stupid were
 
 forgotten.
 Tolstoy. Goethe and Dean Swift were refused their degrees because they faiied in their university examinations, and' for the same reason, Ferdinand brune- tiere was denied admission to the Ecole Normale Superieure. At Cambridge, aiso' Sir William Thomson was not senior wrangler. though one of the examiners admitted that ''the successful competitor was not fit to cut pencils for Thomson. When asked why he had delayed so long on one of the problems which he himseh had discovered, Thomson replied that, having forgotten that it was one of his own inventions. he had worked 1t as wholly new problem. Later it was learned that the winner of the prize wrote the solution from memory.
 Thomson's failure to win the Cambridge honor because of the unusual memory of one of his competitors illustrates an important class of cases in which the examination system completely collapses Justus von Liebig. whose father was compelled to remove him from the gym nasium because of his wretched work, at tributed his failure in the school to his utter lack of auditory memory. He could little that he heard. Yet his teachers never discovered this.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22
ADRIFT WITH THE TIMES

you betcher life-and then go home an1 cuss his wife, He'll sneak down to the burlesque show, where all the other loaf- CTS go, and spend ten dollars for a box, to watch the maids with curly locks. He sits up there so proud and haughty-oh, gee! but don't he think .hes naughty! Hell smile at them-you betcher life and then go home and cuss his wife. He goes out to a swell soiree with his open face clothes and manner gay; he prances round society buds and feasts his eyes on their low-cut duds; the mangy brute Is full of guile and, as he watches all the while, he smiles at them-you betcher life-and then goes home to cuss his wife."-Roy Morris in the Houstonia Houstonian, X
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22
SMITHS POLITENEss
From Lippincott's.

From 1lpplucott 5.
 A well-known New Yorker, now dead, who during his lifetime bore the ap- pellation silent was accustomed to employ various means to deliver him- self from bores and time wasters.
 On one occasion, when the New Yorker was putting in his vacation in New Eng land, there was one native so bold as to visit the taciturn man at his bungalow.
 How did you get along with him?" asked some one, when the bold one re- turned.
 "Fine!' said the visitor. Fellows, I've often heard that that man was a sullen cuss; but want to tell you that he is one of the politest fellows I ever saw! | | hadn't been settin' chattin' with him more'n ten minutes before he'd asked me five or six times to come an see him again!''
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22
A PRIZE THAT WAS LOST.

Charley Ginger, well known East End chicken fancier. spent several days of last week grooming one of his big roosters for the annual exhibit of the Youngstown Fancers' club.
 After he had carefully washed it's feath- CTS, one evening, he placed the prospec- tive prize winner in box back of the stove to dry.
 When he returned to the kitchen some time later he was mortified to see his small son industriously plucking the tall feathers out of the struggling chantecler.
 Thinking that he was greatly assisting his father the boy proudly exclaimed:
 You came little too soon, father. If you had stayed away ten minutes longer I'd have had him ready for the pot Youngstown Telegram.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22

ALMOST A TRAGEDY. A tomcat from an alley rushed,& A bulldog on his trail Twas midnight, all the streets were
 hushed
 When, hark! uprose vail That reached the very stars on high And tore the night in twain. A COD who heard that dreadful cry With sudden fear was ta'en. And many a dreamer in his bed, Aroused from sleep profound, A-trembling fell and mutter-ed, !" 'Tis murder I'll be bound" But such was not the case. nor yet, Was such the case to be. The bulldog failed his prey to get, The tomcat climbed tree.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22
REFLECTIONS OF A BACHELOR

From the New York Press.
 The dignity of labor is overseeing an- other fellow do 1t.
 Many girls can get much more excited over Irritation than the real thing.
 It's always expensive to have a wife, hut sometimes it's bankruptcy not to.
 You climb up long, steep, slow hill to gain happiness; you can come down from it in one swift slide.
 Some men are such deceivers they can make love in snowstorm when they are in despair because they haven't rub bers on.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22
accept it. It is in their case Hobsons

accept it. It is in their case Hobson's choice.
 Then will follow three bills accord ing to the first years programme of t'.e new parliament-one abolishing the plural vote, one Tor the payment Of members, and one for holding a gen. eral election on one day. Plural vot. ing in Great Britain means a right to vote wherever a man has landed prop erty and it was adopted at the dicta- tion of the Iandholding class. It will be voted out and the one-man- one-vote plan adopted instead. Members who are poor must be paid by a union or some other organization and 1t is altogether better that a fair salary should be paid by the government for public ser vices. And all are tired of elections that are spread over a period of three weeks.
 Other great questions will follow, but none of them will be taken up next year. Home rule. public education and insurance against illness and disabil- tiy will be taken up in due time and pressed to passage. There will be no haste and no obstruction by the house of lords except possibly for a period of two years. A long term of liberal rule seems assured.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22
Large Retail Trade

From all accounts the retail mer- chants of Birmingham are having an ex- ceptionally fine Christmas trade" said Leo K. Steiner. Wholesale business and all other lines of commerce except the holiday shopping trade are as a matter of course very quiet, and will be until after the New Year. But Birmingham has had good year, and the outlook for 1911 is bright.
 'The very fact that the retail mer- chants are busy is always sign of pros perity, for it shows that the masses have money to spend."
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22
LARGE MAN AFLOAT

From the Popular Magazine.
 One morning last summer President Taft. wearing the largest bathing suit known to modern times, threw his sub stantial and ponderous form into the cooling waves Of Beverly Bay.
 That afternoon newspaper corre- spondent sent the following to his paper:
 ''There was mighty little swimming along the north shore today. The Presi- dent was using the ocean,"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22
THE NEW FAMILY IN TOWN

A. J. R. in the Minneapolis Journal.
 The Isinours, Minn., Tightwad, accord ing to the Wykoff Enterprise, tells the subject for discussion at the Sewing Cir cle, which met last week with Mrs. Pop over Billings. Tt was the new family that moved to town recently. It was decided that the old man drank, that the two sons were pool sharks and the oldest daughter wore false teeth and laced so tight that 1t made her pop-eyed. Refresh ments were served.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22
SIGNIFICANT MOVE
q Chattanooga Times.

From the CI1dttd1lOU5d IIIIts. =
 The Hon. John w. Tomlinson of Ala bama has parted company with MT. Bryan by favoring Governor Harmon for the next presidential nomination. The fac. is significant and indicates that MT. Bry- ans strange spell over so many strong men has been broken; which being true, there would seem to be mo reason for further alarm over the prospects of dem ocratic success.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22
TALKED LIKE A FISH

From the New York Morning Teie-
 graph.
 A young fellow, evidently from the rural districts, stopped a policeman at Forty-sixth and Broadway yesterday afternoon and said:
 "I want to take a swim. Is there public aquarium in New Yorkr'
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22

A
 .D'ye see him stalking down the street. that self-important looking skeet? To watch him as he strolls along, face wreathed in smiles. his plug hat on- you'd think his wife must happy be-that life with him S melody. Just watch him as he meets Mrs. Blank, his neighbours wife. so tall and lank; he'll smile at her
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22

''T've just been to hear lecture on The Social Cosmos,' " said Mrs. F'libb.
 And did you learn anything new, my dear?' asked MT. Flibb.
 'Yes, indeed. Mrs. Wapple told me that Mrs. Widgeham is carrying on scandal ously with her chauffeur"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22
AbOuf PeraOna

Joe Willett, the well-known attorney of Anniston was in Birmingham yester- day
 J. de B. Hooper, former chief mine in spector of the state. and now disposing Of Dixie water at Oakman. was regis tered at the Morris yesterday.
 V. Hugo Friedman and Ellison Bingham of Tuscaloosa were guests of the city yes- terday.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22
A PROGRESSIVE SPIRIT.

Birmingham thieves are nothing if not enterprising. Members of the clan re- gently stole wagon-load of whisky. a steam shovel dipper weighing 1000 pounds and six steel rails 8 feet long.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22

The mutinous Brazilian warships are being put out of commission. This IS the only way the men higher up can get even with the men lower down.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22

Uncle Joe Cannon very naturally favors the election to the Senate of a demo- cratic reactionary in New Jersey.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22

The hula bird has gone to join the dodo and other extinct birds.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22

A pork tenderloin would make an excel lent Christmas present of the expensive and belated sort.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22
nIIITE CYNICAL.

"Old Groucher is very much opposed to matrimony, I hear"
 "Yes, indeed He believes that every fellow who takes miss makes a mis- take
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22

MT. Holt of the London Daily Mail is certainly better equipped for discussing this country than are those critics that have never seen it.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22

Christmas gifts like New Years reso- lutions are very apt to conform simply to custom.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22

All the liners are racing home with Christmas passengers and Christmas packages.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22

America in s4 hours, and he will no doubt write book
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22

This is the safe and sane week before Christmas.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22
REASONABLY SO.

.Is he what you would. call a steady man?' e5s.7 "Tolerably steady, for person in his line of work" What does he do?" ''Ie walks a wire in vaudeville"
 PAUL COOK.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22

Last years large benefactions totalled s175,0 900, and all are awaiting with in- terest this years sum total.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22

The foolkiIler would get any ruler who would land all army among 1oo,0OO0OO fighting Americans.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22

Secretary Dickinson has confidence that Andrew Carnegie can bring about universal peace in a jiffy.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22
IT WOULDN'T DO.

"A man named Skidd wants his name changed"
 ''Why so?"
 He's going to manufacture automobile tires.''
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22

Secretary Dickinson should not try to cause the people of Boston to crawl un- der their beds so soon again.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22

The chief dealer in spots and rots'- in New York has been rounded up and punished.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22
IDLE CURIOSITY.

''There is a man at one of the local hotels from Oshkosh.''
 Lets go down and take look at him." "What for?"
 "I merely want to see if he looks any, thing like his prototype in musical com edy."
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22

Santa Claus has an army of agents and he must exist after all.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22

up pair of suspenders as a Christmas gift.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22

New Orleans and San Francisco would not speak if they should pass each other by.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22

Panama needs an economizer and MT. Tawney will do as well as any standpat- ter.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22
RARE FoRREARANCE.

Well have to give Jack Johnson credit for one thing, anyhow" And what is that?"
 e hasn't indorsed any brand of com plexion cream"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22
GROWING DESPERATE.

"Doesn't want to be high-browed, you say?"
 .'No. He's buying every hair tonic there is on the market"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22

At the end of this week almost any purse can be fitted to hobble skirt.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22

The Christmas shopper has nearly run lis or her course for the year.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22

A deep snow would help the aviators that have acquired sSe falling habit.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22
ALMOST A TRAGEDY.

''Do they get along well together?" "Oh, pretty well for married people"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22
iREAT WEAKNESS.
confidence.

"Does he like to see his name in print?" 'I'll tell you something in the strictest confidence
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22
A VERY MEAN PERSON.

''He sent a marked copy of the city di- ectory to a friend of his in the country
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22
Complains of Vaudeville Speciality

It Is remarkable how little prudence is shown by some theatre managers in their efforts to cater to the taste of people who patronize their houses. said a theatre-goer.
 At a local vaudeville house, which is considered among the best of its kind in the city, there Is offered this week a speciality which cannot but be disgusting to the most seasoned. The people who give this house their patronage are certainly of the best class of the playgoing public, but the act to which refer is one of the very worst I have yet seen at any sort of public performance. It is a song and monologue act put on by male com odian who seems to have little regard fd' decency. He sings the stalest and most suggestive songs and is guilty of the broadest and most nauseating jests that it has ever been my mis- fortune to hear.
 Ladies who are so unlucky as to be present on such occasions must either sit through 1t or make them selves and their escorts conspicuous by leaving the theatre. I am not prudlsh and neither do I expect anything very esthetic of a vaudeville show, but the utter needlessness of such vulgarity is enough to arouse anyone. The remaind- CT of the bill at this theatre is ex- cellent, but the act refer to mars 1t all.
 Tt is most unaccountable to me how manager can afford to allow such things"
 St. Johns Withdrawal From Contest
 The announcement that St. John, the democratic candidate for the state sem ate for the district composed of the coun- ties of Blount, Cullman and Winston, had withdrawn his contest filed against James Sloan of Winston, the republican candidate, was received in Birmingham with much interest," said a prominent democrat. MT St. John had been a pro- hibitionist and MT. Sloan is a well-known anti-prohibitionist, but I believe if MT. St. John had been seated he, like other thoughtful and patriotic democrats, would have voted on liquor legislation in accordance with the local option declara- tions in the last democratic platform. But that Is neither here nor there, since MT. St. John has given up the contest.
 Senator Sloan was represented by At torneys Sterling A. Wood, Peyton G. Bowman, Amos E. Goodhue and Ed C. Burke. It was expected that consider able testimony would be taken and our entire election system put to the test However, it seems that even in the re- publican county of Winston the demo- crats had the majority of election officers in each precinct, so there was little to complain of unless the alleged habits of the democrats of stealing votes was so strong that they just naturally could not overcome the tendency and stole from each other.
 "But, seriously, this withdrawal Is a happy solution of the controversy, and does credit to St. John, who will come again
 Senator Sloan, although republican, is well worthy of the office. He has re- peatedly held office and proved faithful to every trust confided to him. The fact is, in a senate composed of 34 democrats and one republican, he would be always treated as a near democrat, which he verify is in many of his views"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22
OCEAN TRAVEL IN FIELDING,s DAY

Don't overdress even Christmas tree.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22
SUGGESTING A LONG WATT.
<<K NR. TOKENS has insulted mer'
 MI What did he do, Clara Bell?"
PART OF THE COSMOS.

under the mlstletoe he brought me a I ehair''
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-22

JUST so.