davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-18

They generally give a greater or less
 amount of information concerning the
 character of the deceased while he or
 are often lamentably lacking in the very important element of truth. And in pro- portion as 1t is important to the world to know how man died, in that pro- portion is the whole subject of his death
 made a perfect mist of confusion.
 Who knows how Tom Paine died?
 One set of men, the theologians, say
 he died miserable death, that he suf-
 fered the tortures of the damned on
 his death bed; that his old nurse said
 she would not be present at the dying
 bed of another skeptic for all the
 treasures of the world, and a great deal
 more to the same effect. And yet, there
 are great many persons who contend that Tom Paine died a calm and peace ful death, and how are we to judge be- tween these two totally opposite and
 discordant versions Of the facts of the case? When one party tells me that Tom Paine died renouncing the Age of Reason," and grievously lamenting
 the heinous sin of its publications; and the other party as stoutly maintains
 that he lived and died by the principles announced In that unfortunte work,
 what am I to do in order to get at the truth of the matter? That the truth is very important to be known in such a case as this few will be found bold enough to question. And yet we are left in outer darkness. or at least in a very hopeless confusion.
 With view to correct any such con fusion in her own case at least, and partly from a decided distaste for leav- ing her death In the hands of a preacher or an obituary writer, a de- parted friend of mine has undertaken to give me an account of her own last
 moments.
 I enaShatically dfsclaim any ten dency toward spiritualism, and simply
 for the entertainment of the reader, will give my friends experience of facts immediately proceeding her pas
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-18

Another strange thing was that though my pastor was present at my death, and remained in the neighborhood for several preach my funeral sermon at all He was not requested to do so by my father, or my mother, or any of my friends; and to tell the truth not one of them thought of 1t. This might excite some wonder among those who know, as did, that my pastor was fond of preaching funerals, and that no thought of funeral in my case ever entered his head
 "I had been engaged to be married to MT Trueheart for some time. The day of our nuptials had been fixed for Friday the 14th of -, 1902. MT Trueheart had, a short time before this date, been appraised of my malady Gan affection of the heart) and was aware that 1t was likely to terminate fatally in very short time. But though he loved me very much he did not grieve about this at all
 He had stated his conviction that ] would die on the very day set for our marriage; and though he lived some dis tance off, and was greatly pressed witt his official duties, he had determined tc leave all and come to see his betrothed in her last moments His conviction that I would die on the 14th of -, was based on the fact that this day came or (Friday) hangman's day, and that he actuated partly by desire to show that somebody had courage enough to get married on Friday had. settled that as oui marriage day. And yet this man was not at all superstitious about Friday. al the result will show"
 There Is no fancy about this at all My caption promises a Narrative O Facts; and I am very strictly confinins myself to the promise there made.
 My disease, which had been running for some months, was fast approaching crisis. It had been predicted, without any good ground that I could see, and when I was perfectly free from any symptoms of 1t, that would die of this malady.
 True my elder sister, my grandmother and several others of the family had
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-18

died of it; and 1t was generally supposed that it would take possession of me. But as I had lived for 20 years without ever having the least trace of it, l felt sat isfled that I should never. suffer from it., and indeed used to ridicule the idea of it's seizing on me. But in the midst of my Fist year, when I was in as good apparent condition as ever, 1 was sud- denly and unaccountably taken with this serious, and, as 1t turned out, fatal dis ease. I thought of my former foolish manner of ridiculing the malady, and felt ashamed of it; but I could not regret that 1t had come upon me, and felt rather pleased than otherwise at the idea of dying with it. Indeed, if I could have felt certain that I should recover from the attack, it would have made me feel very sad, and on one occasion I actually shed tears when I thought on the prob ability of recovery.
 q had made no preparations for death, nor did I at all regret it. The disease at times produced paroxisms of throbbing and palpitations of the heart was yet so absorbing in it's nature, and HlleQ ne at OIneT IlfneS with Sucn won derful delight, that I would not have been relieved of 1t for the world. But il was evidently deeply rooted in my con- stitution, and hurying on to final ter imitation. No medical aid was called in, though an excellent physician. connec- ton of mine, lived only a mile off Dur ing the progress of the disease I was also taken with diphtheria. The doctor was then sent for, and succeeded in curing that disease. But no mention was made to him of the other malady, which was fast removing me from parents, brothers and sisters.
 My parents loved me devotedly; and yet, when I told them that I was thus diseased, 1t did not seem to distress them in the least. And even when I informed them that my death was fast approach ing, they simply said that they were willing to give me up; for that He who should take me to Himself would do right. The final struggle was fast ap- preaching. My lover, satisfied that I
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-18

I traditional, and without authority. 1 This he thought and this he wrote. One of his admiring members, with un- shaken faith in his wisdom, read his book, believed it to be the truth, and surrendered her old faith, the faith of her fathers, and the faith of Christi anity. She was seized with an illness, | of which she soon died. The minister for whom she had given up her faith, was summoned to trial for heresy. At the trial he retraoted the things he had written and acknowledged that he had written without due investigation, apologized for wounding the church. l and was finally restored to the min istry But the poor. deluded woman, whose faith he had destroyed. what of her? She had died without hope. Could this weak, untrustworthy man, whose wicked book had gone into her heart and robbed her of her faith in the divinity of her Savior, apologize to her? Could he weepingly tell her that he had made but partial investi- cations, and that he was sorry that he had wounded her soul? No. She was gone God pity the man whose in fluence for wrong has passed beyond his recall.
 No book that scouts. scorns or flouts religion is wholesome book, and when I use the word religion here, I mean religion in general I mean not simply Christianity, but the sense of religion that Is universal. Those stupendous mysteries embodied in religion, life, duty, death, time, eternity, soul, spirit, | immortality, angels. God-are all to be found among whatsoever people, to be regarded with solemn awe.
 | I have had in mind thus far, although the reader may think that I have wan dered so far away as to have forgotten it, the problem mentioned at the begin ming of this paper. have meant to say, that no such books as those which I have mentioned should be thought of, to say nothing of permitting a child to read them.
 May I try to assist in solving the prob lem propounded by recounting a little personal history? I hope that shall not appear personally obtrusive, for have 10 desire so to be. Two things I clearly recollect of my earliest childhood. l was but mere tot. The first is that some one lifted me up to the side of coffin in which I looked upon the calm, sweet face of my beautiful mother. The second is a distinct remembrance of a book from which my mother read to me have a copy of that. book now. It was not very long after my mothers death before my father followed her out into the great mystery of eternity.
 I became the child of my grandmother and grandfather, as did my brother and sister Here there was a large family; in the old home when we were all present there were about 10 or 12. There was 8 library here, and many masterly books on most all subjects. A literary tone was given to the household, first of all, by my grandnather whom I have already described in these columns ih my East wood papers. She was the most widely
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-18

sszgotected people, when 1t would be kinder s7ar to reform them? Kinder and cheaperi For the elimination of the tramp the railroads alone could afford to pay s20,- o0o,OO0 a year, and would save money. And if one state should begin to do 1t, every other state in self-defense would follow suit. Men who now are sent to prison would be put to work on the soil, without stigma of shame, but also with cut the slip-shod mawkishness of senti- mentality. until the drink, which is us- ually their bane, has lost it's grip upon them
 For the pathos of the peripatetic Is that is he is down, his soul is broken winged, his habits are a clog upon his will, he is the still-hoating derelict, in which once sailed a man. The hope of that drifting hulk is that it may be lowed into some quiet harbor, put in the slips, on the docks, or in dry dock, and sent forth again, renamed, brave for the inevitable battle with the waves. Such harbor. such a dry dock, Is the labor colony. Is it less Christian to save a man by intelligence and legisla- tive authority and long-continued per sistence in the effort than to give him casual shake-down and coffee, and to turn him adrift once more? Or Is 1t not clear that the cratic impulse of private and untrained philanthropy is just as cer- tain to perpetuate the evil 1t commis- crates as the old way of pagan and selfish neglect? Here too, is peripatetic pathos. l Cretainly we shall not imits<e the hard military system of the Germa labor colony We may be expected indefinite l ly to improve upon the methods of Swits- erland and Holland, but I think it is be- coming clear that the Anglo-Saxon every
 where must in some effective way save innocence from becoming a bum, and get Weary Willie to work.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-18
PERIPATETIC PATHOS-By George Eaves. D. D.

indicated by the acknowledged share Of the railroads. But I am aware that to many men such discussion is distasteful. The Anglo Saxon has an instinct for the woods and for the tramp life. Every summer, respectable and reverend tho he may be, he goes gunning and fishing. He hates to restrict the liberties of his fellowmen and hates to call him a problem because he won't be A. gos1 boy and stay at home. Our funny artists discover heaps of humor on the ragged shoulders of Weary Willie, though Will lie has nothing else there except an in describable species of vitality.
 Hence we are touched with sympathy, not for the man before he fell so low, not intelligent sympathy, understanding the cause that broke his manhood, but pathetic figure, whose philosophy is the nadlr of the doctrine abhorred of Car lyle, laissez-faire.
 The tramp generally Is of three species the won't work, the can't work, and the out-of-work Of these many are victims of the tramp habit by no fault of their own. Many are victims through defec- tive home influence. Many have simply cultivated the desire to see the world and to run away from the bond of duty. Many others have broken down in health and have drifted to beggary and so to wandering. Others are criminals of a mean sort trying to indulge their un- schooled passions as freely as possible But of one and all of these 1t must be said that they are menace to them selves and to the community. As they are they are a dead loss to all, save and except the appeal they make to our sympathy and the exercise they afford the police. Every confirmed tramp in the whole mass ia a recr1Iiffno officer h., l.,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-18

her. as if some of the love which he had bestowed on Anna Temple during her lifetime was now transferred to Aline.
 ''The passage from one world into am other caused me no pain at all: and I soon became very much interested in viewing from my new existence. the vs- rious manners of behavior of the persons who were present at my death No prep aratlon was made to bury me, nor does anyone seem to think that there is any necessity for a burial, though 1t has been six months and more since my death. This may seem very strange to you, reader, but you have not my light. know why 1t Is.
 My lover on the morning after my death insisted on being allowed to take entire charge of my body, and to carry it away to his own home; and strange to say, this plan was not objected to. My mother wept then, gave me a last fond kiss. My body was placed in a carriage and my lover carried it off without a cof- fin to the railroad station to take the cars and go to his home
 "As you way well imagine, the people on the cars and at the station stared a good deal, but he was a man of resolu- ton, and not to be deterred from his purpose, and after a while he managed to take my body safely to his destna- ton. But he still persists in keeping 1t, and stays in the room with it, and will not permit my body to be buried, nor will he admit that I am dead
 '"The reader will naturally desire an ex- planation of these facts, and first let me prove the fact of my death.
 My name was Anna Temple in the first world in which I lived. And if you will consult the Richmond newspapers of the right date, you will find among the mar riage notices the following obituary (names and dates changed):
 q Married on the 14th of -, 1902, by Rev. Dr. B. D. Hope, Albert M. True heart, attorney at law, of -- county, Virginia, to Miss Anna Temple. daughter of Robert Temple, Esq., of - county, Virginia
 Anna Temple was no more; and Mrs. A. M. Trueheart Is now living in the other world-wedlock. Unmarried female reader, do you wish to die. too?"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-18

| read woman that I ever saw re- member going home after an absence o1 | some years and asking her what she was | reading. She was reading the life oi
 Cicero, and was then nearly 90 years old | She inspired a love of reading in all
 around her The older members of the | family had their book friends; as we | children learned to read. we, too, turned l to books, but it was long before I | could find one so fascinating as the book my mother had read to me.
 l At very early period I began to read | and memorize Shakespeare, although l | understood but little of it; but from about this time I date the rise of my love of
 reading, which has been my passion In life.
 l then made the acquaintance of Oliver Optic, and T. s. Arthur. O, how I de-
 voured their books. Then as older people in the family would read and discuss
 books they had read, would read them. Then l would forage for myself and read, and read. There was not book in my
 read, though many that a child could
 not comprehend. I continued to devour
 books through my school daysj and at college the ample library opened up be- fore me a new. world of undreamed treas
 ures. Entering upon my life-work, my
 first care was to build up library. I used to keep a record of the pages read every week. the book read and the names of the authors. found this helpful in ,,d aaI ft,o s,,Io +o all young readers.
 For the boy who has not acquired a love of reading I know nothing better than Oliver Optics stories and Abbot 8 short histories. I know what they were
 to me. If the boy doesn't want to read
 them, start one for him, get to an inter- esting point and turn the book over to
 him. Now, the world is rich in stories
 for boys. I mention just a few that any
 boy might safely read: Anything from
 Cyrus Townsend Brady is good; Bob,
 Son of Battle" ''Black Beauty" "Rab
 and His Friends 'The Call of the Wild" "Only Horse," by Charlotte
 McCord; Uncle Remus,' John Hali-
 fax" "The Little Lame. Prince" some of the Henty stories, any of Oliver Op-
 ties, "Hawthorne's Wonder Book"
 "Tales From Shakespeare, Plain Tales
 From the Hills" If of suitable age, hand the boy Great Expectations, the Christi mas stories of Dickens, dear old Trol- lope's Three Clerks 'The Last of the
 Mohicans,' and 'The Book of Golden Deeds" I was expected to confine my suggestions to works of fiction, but I cannot close this paragraph without com mending two books of different sort for boys. I refer to the Life of General Lee," by John Esten Cook. If he reads this, he will want the larger book, Rec ollections and Letters of General Lee.' Then, too, every boy should read ''The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin"
 What about the girls and their reading? There were three of them in our home. two of them are gone; they were my aunts, my sister remains. She is an
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-18

not read salacious stories and books on the "rear' worst things in the world to learn morals or to ascertain how longest one can beep innocence of heart, clean ness of mind, and the bloom of purity on the cheek. God pity us, we learn, all toe soon, much of life that were best never known, without our going to books for the information.
 There is another class of books in which one may find coiled and concealed loathsome snakes of venomous sting. l now refer to the propagandist story. The book of a cult, whose aim is the weak ening of the readers faith In old systems of truth. and the setting forth in at tractive form the belief and the achieve ments of some new system or cult or re- ligion. Often books of this nature pre- sent only the negative side. They will attempt to weaken the readers faith in his old religious belief and give him noth- ing else. They will sheer at his former trust, laugh at the sacredness of the hope in which his mother calmly died These books unsettle faith, and are ihCdht So to dO ILcy dTt IDIOT lH1lLd- tions, many of them, of the utterances of the French encyclopedias of century or so ago, the majority of whom were ma licious and pernicious disturbers of the moral quiet of Christendom. They were the might riders of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and among them were CrebiIlion, Diderot, Condillac, Helvi- tius and voltaire.
 One of the most ludicrous of these de- structive books was written about 20 years ago by Mrs. Humphrey Ward, Robert Elsmere.' The weak hero lost his faith in miracles and. other things, and instead of going to the strongest men of his church to learn what the giant minds of the ages said on the subjects involved, he sat at the feet of an old in- fidel squire, an agnostic or an atheist, or something of that sort, to learn the evidences of Christianity. Now this is too utterably absurd to believe. and yet, intent, as she was, upon giving Chris tianity ''black eye.'
 The same absurd process is pursued by the young priest who is made the hero of the sensational novel, The Soul of a Priest" of recent publica- tion. Mrs. Deland's novel. John Ward Preacher" strikes a blow at an arti- cle of faith held by many millions of people. So they go, or rather so they come. They come with their teachings of materialism, of Theosophy, and every "osophy" under heaven many of them assailing faiths that exist and to which the world is indebted for all that 1t holds of a worthy civilization. The world is not as good as 1t ought to be. It walks on crutches yet. But heartless, cruelty heartless, is the man who would strike the crutch from be- meath the arm of a lame man and give him nothing better
 minister lost his faith in his old doctrinal beliefs, and wrote book set ting forth his new convictions. Every thing essential to Christian faith was
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-18

" ONE two or three years ago there
 was published in this country by A< a sociological expert, MT. Ed mond Kelly little book entitled ''The Elimination of the Tramp" In the in- terval since that publication considera- ble progress has been made In various lands towards the ideal set forth by MT Kelly But thorough-going study of the whole problem of the tramp fraternity Is not so easy as rough-and-ready ways of showing the individual tramp deadly kindness or just as deadly justice. The kindness is seldom healing or really help full; the justice seldom just.
 But the tramp keeps coming-nobody can be expected to believe that there are as many of him as there are. When I read that a conservative estimate, based on the number killed by the rail- roads, places the census of tramps at not less than 5O,0O0 gasp, but I do not, and no man can, understand. What makes the tramp? He is one of the prod tets of what I have called ''the incom- pleteness of civilization" But by what process? Consider that very large per centage of the half million are boys be- tween nthe years of 16 and 2. Admit that of these boys one half eventually escape the tolls of wanderlust and be- come decent and productive citizens; on the other hand it must be remembered that every day the army wins new re- cruits, at least making up the number of the deserters. Making up the num- ber? Yes, and bringing perhaps as many more with them into the host.
 Subtract three dozen from 240o0 and you have the number of 'trespassers' killed by the railroads of this country between the years 1901-1905. Add to these 25 o36 "trespassers'' injured In the same
The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-18
BURGLAR WAS WELCOME
Insomniac Is Hoping for the Return of
 His Night Visitor
From the Chicago News.

From the Chicago News.
 Nathaniel Mountjoy of Germantown was patron at a Michigan avenue hotel the other day, MT. Mountjoy was return ing from a 5O-day visit to the Pacific coast. and foll to discussing the pros and cons of the position taken by a Chicago man in opening his house to any thief who might care to enter in the dead of night.
 T have business associate in San Francisco who is almost a convert to that view said MT. Mountjoy ''Follow- ing the earthquake on the coast he was stricken with insomnia, from which he has never fully recovered. One night when he was fretting about in vain ef- fort to get to sleep he made out the outline of a man in his room. He knew, 1t was a burglar. but he was so weary 1 with the struggle to rope and tie Nor pheus that he felt no resentment or fear. Even such suspicious company he thought better than none at all and he shouted:
 " How are you, my friend? Make yourself right at home.
 However, his caller was not so cor dial Dry up. or it will be a lead pill for you muttered the intruder in a threa tening voice.
 My friend sighed. I'm glad to give you anything you want here he said. and as for stocking me up with lead pills, why go ahead. don't know that that would be any worse than not being able to sleep
 This touched chord in the visitors heart. Say pal he replied, is that your trouble, too? I'm a victim of the same complaint. Now, I've got some dope right here in my kick that may fix you out all right
 For heavens sake, give it to mot There isn't a thing in the house as val- uable as little sleep. Let's taste youV dope and then you go ahead and help yourself to anything you want
 The housebreaker brought out a pow der and placed it on his hosts tongue. Thanks, murmured the latter. and he was sound asleep five minutes later.
 "The burglar helped himself to lot of jewelry and all the money he could find laying around, but he was thoughtful enough to leave anotl CT of the powders for my friend. For several weeks he was ble to sleep as soundly as child. and his friends complimented him on his re- turning health. He refused to admit that he had any grievance against the man who had robbed him. saying that if any thing the balance on the sheet was to the intruder's credit.
 When l left the coast a few days ago my friend was beginning to suffer from the disease again, and was hoping that the midnight caller would drop in on him the first dark night that happened along"