davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-20
A true knight, Not yet mature. but matchIess.
 --Troilus and Cressida.
After Ten Years

Direct primaries are ten years old inmany of the one-party states of the south, and in no one of them is there any desire among plain. everyday citi- zens to return to the convention sys- tenn. The primary plan is not ideal simply because the people are not in Fthat condition themselves, and it is idle to expect the primaries to be bet ter than the people. But still it will be a cold day for any set of politi- clans that undertakes to deprive the people of the right of direct action in 8 one-party state.
 The real campaigns in such state lead up to a primary, and after the primary the election follows as a mere mechanical device. To great extent the elections are abolished simply because the choice of the peo- -ple had been made known in the pre- ceeding primary.
 To attempt after ten years use of the direct primary system to return to the convention system would lead to a popular revolution, and it is wholly safe to say it will not be att tempted.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-20
The Cotton Situation

Henry Clews in his review of the cot ton situation says in part:
 Reports from Alabama indicate a condition in practically every county In the state of about per cent better than normal, and from to 100 per cent bet ter than at this time a year ago. In Arkansas the crop is cleaner and better worked than ever before at this time of year. while from Oklahoma come reports of good stands and cultivation and that the recent showers have help- ed to emphasize a very promising out look. Texas advices are to the effect that picking in the southern portion will become general in 10 days time Fields are clear of grass and weeds
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-20
Chicago's Summer Music

Chicago is becoming more and more a summer resort and one thing that adds especially to it's attractiveness is music,' said a man who is in the habit of spending two weeks there during the heated term.
 Those who enjoy band concerts can take their choice and hear any one of three or four good brass and reed or ganizations; while those who prefer a higher class of music have the oppor- tunity of attending a symphony con- cert. The symphony orchestras play at Ravinia park. Up to week or two ago it seemed as if the Ravinia concerts would be discontinued, but financial packers have come forward and de- lightful entertainments for this summer are assured. The Chicago Music News says: The necessary investment in stock at Ravinia has been made and to all intents and purposes the place is now saved" to Chicago as a first class amusement venture, catering es- pecial1y to high-grade music lovers'
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-20
THE DEATH OF JACKSON

From Mary Johnstons The Long Roll"
 General Jackson, having, gone some dis tance in front of the line of skirmshers on Saturday evening, was returning about o'clock, attended by his staff and part of his couriers. The cavalcade was in the darkness of the night mistaken for a body of the enemy's cavalry, and fired upon by a regiment of his own corps. He was struck by three balls, one through the left arm, two inches below the shoul- der joint, shattering the bone and sever ing the chief artery; another ball passed through the same arm between the elbow and wrist, making its exit through the palm Of the hand a third ball entered the palm of the right hand about it's mid dle, passing through, and broke two bones. He fell from his horse and was caught by Captain Wormley, to whom he remarked, "All my wounds are by my own men" He had given orders to fire at anything coming up the road before he left the lines. The enemys skir- mishers appeared ahead of him, and he tuned to ride back. Just then someone cried cut, Cavalry, charger" and i'm mediately the regiment fired. The whole party broke forward to ride through ou, line to escape the fire.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-20

From the July Strand.
 Fourteen years ago two Scotch coal miners named Hugh Ferris and William Hastings set on foot scheme which has resulted fin one of the most wonderful ere etions ever seen in the British Isles. They did not spend weeks and months boring over books and dietionaries, or even experimenting in a chemical labora- tery with test-tubes and thermometers but-they bought two white mice. As they trudged home in the evenings from the mine. they used to look forward to feeding the animals and watching their ways and habits. They kept them purely as hobby, and gave up a lot of spare time studying the animals closely. They bred from these two until quite colony of the little rodents had sprung up: and it is an interesting fact that almost every mouse in their collection today is a de- scendant from the first pair.
 Spending, as he did, part of his day at home with the pet mice and part at work in the colliery, it is not surprising that the two phases of life gradually became inte-mingled in MT. Ferris mind. At home he must have often heard, in a igulative sense, the rattle and din of the colliery,- and at work the thoughts of his mice could hardly have been very far from his mind at any time. It is little wonder, then, that very soon he came to associate mice with colliery and coliery with mice.
 After many years of trouble, expense nd af with their own hands a miniature col. fiery, the workers being the mice. This 1 first construction did not please them-or
 at any rate. did not satisfy them-so they set to work to build what has now come to be known as the Jungle Mouse Col l fiery Company, Ltd" this name being ex. plained by the fact that their exhibition had been secured by the Bostoel1 Jungle
 The handspring" of the whole struc. ture is two large wheels. That on the left has control of the works at the pit head, while all the mechanism of the coal cutting machine and the rest of the underground workings are set in motion by the wheel on the right. The whole colliery is worked by 300 mice. The mice can either sleep or work as they please and if watched closely can be seen to dc fair share of each. They work from ? to and from to 10. At o'clock and 10 o'clock a curious spectacle can be wit messed, when the miners go home from work. The two lots of mice troop down into separate departments, until it is time to go to work again, when they re- turn to the colliery, the section that man. aged the shaft during the previous shift taking over the other department, and vice versa.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-20
Tick Eradication in This State

The report of Secretary of Agricul. ture Wilson showing what has been done and is being done in this state by the federal government toward tick eradication is comprehensive and Interesting. Work has been done in Butler, Dallas, Fillmore, Jackson, T.au- derdale, Limestone, Lowndes, Madi- son, Marengo, Monroe, Montgomery, Perry, Pickens, Sumter and Wilcox counties. Opposition has been en- countered in these counties, and in no one of them are the cattle free from ticks.
 If the active cooperation of the farmers could be secured the tick could be driven out of the state and cattle raising would then become a profitable and valuable industry. This can be brought about if the newspa- pers and leading men in every com munity will take up the campaign of education that must precede success ful work against the pest.
 The opposition in Sumter county has been strong and influential, but pr. Nixon says the people of his
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-20
DUST THE WORKMAN,S FOE

From The Kingdom of Dust" by J.
 Gordon ogden, in the July Popular Me
 charles Magazine.
 Science with her wizard appliances has done marvellous things for mankind in the matter of protection against disease. She has searched out the causes of the scourges that formerly played havoc with the human race. Smallpox, diphtheria, cholera and typhoid fever have been hunted down and made to reveal their death dealing secrets. We have learned to be cautious as regards the character of our drinking water. We know the danger of the malarla-carrying mosquito. We appreciate the insidious menace of the common house-fy. We understand the importance of enforcing pure-food laws. Nevertheless, there is one broad avenue along which disease and death march arm in arm, right into the very heart of the citadel of life: It Is the highway that leads from the Kingdom of Dust. The myriads of dust notes are the real executioners of mankind, espe- cially in those occupations where the formation of dust is a necessary concomi- tant.
 An average man breathes about 21 cubic feet of air per hour Under the very best conditions possible the air he breathes Is never entirely free from dust. Under or dinary conditions, the average business man in his comparatively sanitary office breathes in thousands of dust particles every hour The workman. who earns his livelihood In shop, factory, or mine, has his proportion of'motes enormously increased owing to the nature of his work; unfortunately, also, the character of these particles is too often changed from the innocuous kind to the death dealing splinters due to certain occupa. tions.
 An artisan working with keen-edge tools must exercise extreme care in or der to pi event harm to himself. If he is surrounded by circular saws revolving a. lightning speed, or with vats of cor rosive acids, or furnaces of molten steel, these perils are at least in open view and may be guarded against. It is different howe yer, with the dangers lurking in dust. They are invisible, but none the less deadly. In a steel-grinding factory, the air is charged with flying, jagged splinters of steel, infinitely sharper and more dangerous than the -razor-edged tools to which he is accustomed. Every breath sends bit of metal. keener than the far-famed Damascene blades. right into the midst of his delicate lung tissue.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-20
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
A Great Crop Year


 J. o. Thompsoe collector of the Unit ed States internal revenue for Alabama, has returned from recent trip through the black belt. He owns large farm lands in Barbour county, which he Is having worked on shares this year A year ago he did his own farming and raised more cotton than most farmers in this state, but as he could not well get over his broad acres and give per senaI attention to details he decided that 1t was best to have his tenants work the crops on the share system
 T have never seen such crops in Ala bama as are being produced this year. said MT. Thompson. Cotton Is looking splendid and corn Is in fine condition. The rains came just at the right time.
 "One thing the cotton farmer should not do-he should not sell his crop be- fore 1t Is ginned. Cotton is worth now about 15 cents, but some farmers who are without much working capital are tempted to sell at about something like 12 # cents. While cotton is in prime condition today. many things may hap pen tc injure it. and. after all, instead of having a new high record crop the crop may turn out to be only normal l would advise everybody to hold on and get all his cotton is worth later in the year."
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-20
Cotton on June 9

Cotton went down from one dollar to one dollar and half a bale last week, largely because showers had fallen in the two Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama. Thus far no informa- tion has come to hand that the drouth has been broken in Missis- sippi, Tennessee, Arkansas and north ern and western Texas. The Missis- sippi valley and the country west of it still remain dry, and the condition of this broad section on June 25 will be embraced in the government re- port to be given out July 8. Unless conditions are changed in this district by June 25 the government report will foreshadow great crop.
 The crop is well cultivated. The acreage is large. The only thing lack ing is moisture in the vast district lying west of Alabama. Moisture laden clouds can make a great crop, and the reader who studies the daily weather map and table has all the in- formation that can be applied to the situation.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-20

F. S. Tisdale in the New York Tribune. T AMMERSTEINS stunt this
 summer is to be the suIragette | farm. It Is all to be there, in- cluding the real live amid living suf- fragette tillers of the fragrant soil. A farm, including a horse, COW, sundry chickens, divers ducks, bleating sheep and a genuine truck garden, all on roof at Broadway and Forty-second street.
 They have absolutely pledged them selves to carry out the full programme too. Last Tuesday MT. Pollock put an lad" in the paper, in the help wanted female column. The sort of female help wanted was the supposedly rare brand called suffragette farmers. The farm was there and all the live stock had been engaged, but there wasn't any one to take charge hence the lad. There was plenty of answers-you know how 1t is when you advertise in the papers. Indeed, there were so many ambitious '1ady rubes" that there was some difficulty in thrashing out-I use the metaphor advisedly-the real from the imitation. N At the end of two hours II had been chosen out of the 100 that had called. That 100 had included militant votes-for- women devotees who were willing to do the roof farm work free if they were allowed to speak to the audience every night Others really were from the coun- try, and could tell the difference be- tween a rake and a hoe with their hands | tied behind them.
 | Pollock had obtained beforehand the services of Miss Catherine sherman. an expert in farming. claiming to be a graduate of Mrs. o. H. P. Belmont's | farm for girls. By the way, isn't it re- markable how many hundreds of grad uates that farm has ground out, even though it has been In existence only a | few short weeks? There were five other | applicants who knew how to pick up a scythe without scratching their patent leather slippers. All the rest are chorus girl ringers"
 The costume they will wear while en- gagged in metropolitan farm work will consist of an untrimmed creation of straw millinery which costs about two bits a head and is called a straw cady'' out in the rural districts, where they are exceedingly popular. Then there is the white waist with the sleeves rolled up to give the round arms chance to be seen. Over all a pair of overalls will
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-20
A Serious View

"The coronation ceremony at West minister Abbey this week will be. from all accounts. the most impressive re- ligious event in the history of Eng time abroad.
 "A great many persons seem to think that the coronation Is merely show, but the English people take themselves seriously and there is a psychological side to these ceremonial rites which must never be lost sight of. Of course King George Is as much king today as lie will be at the close of the cere- monies in the abbey, but as long as England maintains monarchy. no mat ter how democratic the government may be, coronations will always be in order"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-20
Condition of State Treasury

It matters little now what the Conner administration did or did not do. The condition of the treasury at present is much more to the point. At Governor O'Neal's request State Ex- aminer Gormon has examined the treasury, with this result:
 Jan. 1s, 1911. cash balance.....s 4SO,966 63 Receipts from June IS, 1911, to
 June A. 1911. n..................... 2,116, ,7S7 50 Total 597, ,754 13 l Disbursements ................... 2,550, ,69S 1T June 14, 1911, cash balance.....s R0eO.s SC
 The states money was spent rapid ly, but still there is some hope left. Examiner Gormon says about one million more dollars should be paid into the treasury between the present time and the end of the fiscal year, September 30. He bases his predic- ton on the fact that the annual in- crease in the states revenue calls for total in the fiscal year of about $5,5O0,0O0, and only s4,574,00O has been paid in. If MT. Gormon had submitted statement of the sources of the additional million he expects to be paid in the public would have a better idea of his estimate. As things stand the public will simply have to wait to see what the outcome is to be.
 The disbursements to the end of the fiscal year are put by MT. Gormon at S850, 1000, and yet he says the deficit on September 30 will be Every small" Again, a detailed estimate is lacking, and each citizen is left free to com pile his own figures.
 The real hope at Montgomery is that the new revenue bill when it is in full operation will furnish $5,280,- 900 year, and the convicts and mis- cellaneous sources will do the rest. In the meanwhile the increased appro- priations for the schools and the old soldiers will be held up until Janu- ary l.
 MT. Gormon winds up his report with a second declaration that the de- ficit on September 20 will be "small," and as he is an expert accountant the people will be expected to accept his view of the treasury situation while they go along attending to their own affairs. Governor O'Neal, too, is op- timistic. He says there will be no extra session this year, and he as- sures the people that the state of the treasury is mot so bad as they thought"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-20
MINARETs YOU CAN SHAKE

From the July Wide World Magazine.
 The famous Shaking Minaret was next inspected, and two men shook it, with the result that brick set on edge fell down. It Is about 40 feet high, composed of patchwork and is decorated with geometrical patterns and two belts oi Kufic inscription. I have often been aked whether this minaret actually shakes. ant have replied that, to the best of my be- lief, it does. Near Ispahan. too, there is similar building. It is difficult to ac count for this curious fact unless it b' accepted that the pillar has been bull of bricks which are somewhat elastic.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-20
WATER AT MEALS

pr. c. M. Niles in the Journal Of me
 American Medical Association.
 There Is a widespread idea that the habit of imbibing water or any other fluid as food is harmful. l believe It 'o be based on erroneous physiologic con clusions and promulgated more by tra- dition than by painstaking observation' although copious draughts of ice water gulped down during fatigue or profuse precipitation are both unhygienic and dan gerous I enlisted the aid of 16 young men of good physique and good dises- ton, each one accustomed to drin~lng one or two glasses of water with ms meals. Eight of these young men were instructed to drink no water with meais and only what was demanded to satlsly thirst between meals for week. Ihe other eight were instructed to drink TOUT
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-20
REFLECTIONS OF BACHELOR

From the New Ork Press.
 Excuses may butter no parsnips, but they hold down the divorce record.
 The way for woman not to be an old cat is to notice how anothers figure has improved.
 The reason the average man isn't a. big ger fool than he is is he hasn't learned how to be yet, but he will.
 Man at times works eight hours day at business under protest; woman at home without complaint about every hour she is out of bed.
 The only good husband is the one whc can lose $10 out of his pocket in his own bedroom and not say a word because 1t wasn't $20.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-20

and in northern and central sections the early planting Is putting on squares. There is little or no sign of boil weevil, and the early indications of labor short age have entirely disappeared From all appearances the general crop pros- poets continue bright. and there is no question that the advance which was scored on the drought reports carried the market to a higher level than was justified by any damage which has as yet occurred.
 "The trade situation at home shows no particular change although manu- lecturers are asking shade higher prices than those quoted last week. The disparity, however, which exists be- tween the price of raw material and that for goods, Is still so large, that no sustained improvement In the milling situation can be looked for until this is materially lessened.'
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-20
DEFORE THE RAIN

By Thomas Bailey AJdrich. We knew 1t would rain, for all the morn, A spirit on slender ropes of mist Was lowering its golden buckets down Into the vapory amethyst Of marshes and swanps and dismal
 fenS-
 CTS. Dipping the Jewels out of the sea- To sprinkle them over the land in show
 CTS.
 We knew 1t would rain, for the poplars
 showed The white of their leaves, the amber
 grain Shrunk in the wind-and the lightninS 2
 now
 Is tangled in tremulous skeins of rain.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-20
Local Option Sound in Principle

"The few southern states that are stitl in the prohibition column would not be there if the legislatures had the question to decide over again" said Frank U. Dilworth of Washington, D. C..
 T spent two weeks in Virginia In May and found that the statewide pro hibition sentiment there instead of growing, had practically petered out. Virginia has always retained its local option laws. About two years ago the anti-saloon league made a mighty ef- fort to force tie Virginia legislature to submit the state wide proposition to the people, but the legislature was immune from bluff and hysterical influences.
 North Carolina still have statewide prohibition but many of the leading cit izens there predict that in the course of 6 few years they will get back to local option. I do not see how any dem ocrat could ever commit himself to a drastic measure of a statewide char acter. Local option is absolutely fair and is simon pure democratic doctrines. Prohibition has not diminished crime. On the other hand 1t has made for hy- pocrisy. The professional prohibition ists have been, as rule, only sham reformers. I am not directly interested in the liquor question. but I ina agine there Is great deal of interest felt throughout the country in Alabama's return to the local option ranks. It seems to be quite certain that Mobile, Montgomery and Birmingham will vote wet when the approaching elections are held. l learn that In this county of Jeff ferson when the people voted in 1907 under the old local option laws to abolish saloons and all manner of liquor traffic the dry majority was large nearly 2000. But several thousand who called themselves prohibitionists then have seen what a farce prohibition is and are now prepared to vote the other way. It always seemed strange to me to find many men who profited not at all by the experience of others. One had but to get fairly good idea of conditions in Maine to turn against statutory prohibition. But the next best thing to acting saneIy in the first in stance is for men to be frank enough and manly enough to admit their error in judgment"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-20
BAA-BAA SHOP.

Get it? See-Baa-baa shop! Whatj does that remind you of? Don't you see? Baa-baa shop. How would al southern woman pronounce the word "barber?" Why something like this! "Ba ba." There you have it-baa-baa shop. Barber shop-where the sheep gets his hair cut It's mighty good after you have tumbled to 1t. An explana- tion of the joke in parenthesses Is now being executed In red, white and blue stripes of paint and will be dry by to- morrow night.
 There are other little things, like the duck pond with fish in it. Maybe there will be fishing lines that the members of the audience can use during the in termission. Of course, all these glories of rural America are to be surrounded by and interspersed with little one-legged tables where it won't be hard to buy drink.
 So have your white trousers pressed and polish up your blond cane. The time has come when she will expect you to take her to the roof instead of stay ing on the street level.