davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-14
UNDERWOOD AS A CANDIDATE

From the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
 The Washington Post says that "in MT. Underwood's candidacy the south for the first time in 50 years comes for ward with a man with e reason-a man with a valid claim on democracy for signal recognition." The nomination of the Alabama congressman would be tribute fitly bestowed, says our con- temporary, if "unselfish devotion, high performance, nation wide breadth of view and rare qualities for leadership warrant candidate to sympathy and support in his aspirations,
 While the south is not lacking in men who are honorably mentioned when the presidential years come around, there is added in MT. Underwood's case, says the Post a genius for organization and command mot often observable" in party leaders from the south. Candor compels the Post to say good word by way of acknowledgement of what Mr. Underwood achieved in harmonic ing and knitting together the conflict ing elements among House democrats Not in 20 years,' says the Post, mas there been in democratic councils a leader who proved successful in uniting all shades of opinion and presenting solid front on practically every issue that came to a vote" That makes MT Underwood a most available man for theN democrats, concludes our contem- porary.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-14
FREAKS IN HOBOIsM

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
 Trundling wheelbarrow somewhere along Missouri roads is Albert Ed monds who says he will visit all the state capitals within three years, and that Elwood, Ind, will give him slo,0OO for it. What advantage will it be to Elwoodans if he does 1t in three years, or in three weeks? Why should they give him $1o0O0 when to give him s2 would be waste of money?
 curious variation in hoboism is found in those persons who pretend to be en- gagged in frealsish missions They are hoboes who still feel that they must offer an excuse for hoboism Those who proclaim wagers of incredible amount never explain exactly how they would pay, if they lost. They get publicity but what is this kind of publicity worth to anybody? The stunts are self appoint ed andethe rewards almost invariably de- pendent on the generosity of the credu- lous encountered en route. To visit state- house towns afoot may seem laborious way of making living, but, then, what form of hoboism is not laborous?
 If Edmonds were Locke or a Steven- son, to trade his barrow for donkey or for fiddle and dog might duplicate vagabondages whose Vaccinations have been catalogued for us. But a vaga- bond who has to have an excuse for his vagabondage is only a spurious Amita- ton. It Is a pity this wasted energy is not directed to more promising pur- poses Piles of coal. of paving. blocks and building material are everywhere crying out for man with a wheelbar' row.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-14
MUSHROOM ROAD TO WEALTH
New York Correspondence Cincinnati
 Times Star

New York Correspondence Cincinnati
 Times-Star.
 The few who know about the place
 and are lucky to own a car, or own
 friend who owns a car, go often to the
 mushroom farm, away up on top of a
 Jersey mountain. That is, they go as
 often as they can. The owner of the
 farm is probably the only free minded
 stiff backed. absolutely independent
 eating house proprietor in the world
 That hint of fawning one is apt to find
 in the average restauranteur is absent
 from his manner. His little dining room will only accomm odate 30 people, his wife will not cook for more than 30 on a single day, and he objects to waiting on table for more than that number Therefore, those who have not made a
 table reservation by telephone are very apt to go mushroomless back to New
 York. I'm an expert on mushrooms"
 he will tell you, but I'm no dod dinged
 wop waiter. Get that, Steve? You try to hand me little hurry with that
 order And I'll spoil the party
 Partly in consideration of these things, but more because his wife is the
 best cook in creation, his mushrooms
 are desired but unpurchasable by every
 hotelkeeper in town, and his own hand
 at mixing delectable drinks is delft
 one, he is making a fortune annually. His prices soar heavenward, he serves wonderful meals on translucent china
 and dainty linen, and he will not open
 his doors on Monday because he insists on resting one day each week. As a special favor he will sometimes take a party through the mushroom caverns, but never if the request Is made to him. That favor must be volunteered | by him. Three years ago. said he, T | was worrying my head off as a book maker. stayed up all night to dope out prices on next days nags, had to | take a chance on the value of a finger when it was held up to me, and now and then I'd lose the price of a farm because some drunken stew forgot what he'd been told over night and bet | on the horse that would win the race. They put an end to racing, and I was so
 sore that every time anyone looked my way I screamed. And to spite myself ] came over here and bought the farm Any how you'll never get me back. l
 don't care if they race 'em down Broad | yyayr
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-14
Sugar and the Income Tax

The interview with John Arbuckle, the sugar refiner, published yester- day, should be carefully studied. It is full of interesting facts. He shows that every person needs about an equal quantity of sugar, whether he works for dollar day or works the country through monopoly for mill lions. The sugar duty is over cent and half pound, and the aggre- gate sum collected is about 50,000,- 900 year. The money that now buys three and half pounds of sugar would, if the duty were removed, buy five and quarter pounds. Sugar is taxed higher than champagne, auto mobiles, furs, diamonds or pearls, The duty falls heavily on the poor.
 MT. Arbuckle proposes to remove it. He says it is imposed to please
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-14
California's Constitutional Changes

Reform with big R has the whip hand in California. Not only has San Francisco's adverse vote on woman suffrage been overcome, but a good round majority, probably approaching 5000, has been rolled up in favor of this momentous extension of the suf- frage. Woman suffrage is now es- tablished in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho and California. The ex- tension of the woman's political rights in California is big step that will be felt throughout the entire country. In Wyoming women have voted since the admission of the state.
 The initiative, referendum and the recall, including the application of the last named to judges, were each and all carried in California by over whelming majorities. The state has about 400, ,O00 electors, and pretty 1 full vote was polled"when the fact is considered that the election related solely to constitutional changes. Un- der these changes per cent of the voters can initiate legislation which must be accepted or rejected by the legislature without change, and per cent can cause any proposed law or amendment to be submitted to the voters.
 Twenty three other amendments were submitted to the people, a good share of which are of local interest only. Returns have not been received concerning these amendments, but the chances are very good that all have been carried in the wave of reform which has swept over the chief Pacific state
 This election simply shows that the voters of California want maximum of direct action by the people and 2 minimum of representative govern ment. The entire convention system is breaking down. The politician. have done it.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-14

From the London Telegraph.
 When the iceman came out of No. g he found a small boy sitting on one of his blocks of ice. C 'Ere!' he roared, "wot are ger a-sitting on that for? Git off of it''
 The small boy raised a tear-stained face. was you ever a boy?p he aueried faintly k
 "Of course I. was!' fumed the iceman. "Rut''---- Is lA
 And did you never play the truant?" cut in the youngster. ~
 "Of course did.' snarled the ice-man. "Now, then, you take stick an''-- a
 A lump rose in the iceman's throat. "Sit where you are, my little man, he gulped; q understand" t
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-14
Incandescent Lamp Monopoly

The decision in the United States circuit court for the Northern dis trict of Ohio against the General Electric company not only dissolves that combine into its componant parts, but it puts an end to the vicious practice that various trusts had fos tered of regulating prices to con- sumers after goods had passed into the hands of retailers. This practice did more to abolish competition than perhaps any other. Controlling, as it did, 97 per cent of the electric lamp business the General Electric company dictated to retailers the prices at which all electric articles, patented or unpatented, could be sold. In this way a monopoly was main tainsd upon articles no longer covered by patents. The fact is the monopoly could and did dictate it's own terms to a retail dealer. .r
 The decision in Ohio declares all such combinations in restraint of trade and absolutely illegal. Com petition is the underlying principle of of the Sherman antitrust law, and real competition in electric goods is ordered to be restored in this coun- try. The independent manufacturers of electric lamps will now proceed to test the strength of the Ohio decision and of the government in this matter. The decision is far reaching, and as it is accepted by the Genreal Electric company, it is more than probable that the dictation of prices at which retailers can sell goods will cease. Ii 90, an important gain will be estab lished, and competition will again be
 gin to hold up its head in this trus ridden country.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-14

From the Cincinnati Times-Star.
 Chicago has celebrated the 10th anni- versary of it's great fire by placing Mrs- OLearys COW on a pedestal No pacans of praise were raised to her memory Chicago has not gone so far as that but she came in handy as an object lesson.
 The saving of bovine replica of the famous Chicago cow from burning building and the prompt extinguishing of the flames formed an interesting feature of the anniversary celebration. This spectacle was intended to prove that no modern COW, with or without evil intent, could ever hope to become the responsible cause of a confagration paralleling that of October, 1871.
 Chicago, with its more effective build- ing laws and it's more efficient fire de- partment need no longer seriously fear that the collision of a cows hoof with an oil lamp will produce loss of $780, 900, 900. But neither Chicago nor any other city has advanced so far in assur- ing fire protection that. 1t can afford to ignore causes of fire that in them- selves may seem trival. but which may easily have serious consequences.
 It is the little causes that produce the biggest fires. It is the carelessness in apparently small ways that yields the results that are most regrettable The neglected electric wire or chimney flue, the match or cigar carelessly tossed aside, or any one of large va riety of acts of commission or omission, seemingly quite as trivial, may at any time prove disastrous, if not as appall- ingly momentous was the sturdy Kick launched out by the OI.eary COW At the convenient lamp.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-14
THE KITTEN AND THE FALbING
 LEAVES
William Wordsworth.

By William wordsworth. & See the kitten on the wall, SE Sporting with the leaves that fall, s$ Withered leayes-one-two-and tliree- From the lofty elder tree! Through the calm and frosty air fS Of the morning bright and fair, N Eddying round and round they sink Softly, slowly. one might think
 From the motions that are made, Every little leaf conveyed & Sylpn or Fairy hither tending,
 To this lower world descending, $+ Each invisible and mute, sl Tn his wavering parachute. rt But the kitten, how she starts.
 Crouches, stretches, paws and darts! First at one and then its fellow, Just as light and just as yellow; . There are many now-now one
 Now they stop and there are none; What intenseness of desire M In her upward eye of fire!
 With tiger leap half way
 Now she meets the coming prey,
 Let's 1t go as fast, and then Has it in her power again; E1 Now she works with three or four. Like an Indian conjuror: Quick as he in feats of art, Tar beyond in joy of hearr. as Were her antics played in the eye Of thousand islanders by,
 Clipping hands with shouts and stare. What would little Tabby care
 For the plaudits of the crowd?
 Over happy to be proud, Over wealthy in tine treasure
 or her own exceeding picaslre. ,+fa j
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-14
THE FAME OF FRED HARVEY

From the Saturday Evening Post.
 Certain railroads in the far west still cling to the rather gentle and graceful old fashioned custom of maintaining eat ing houses along their lines. One past master of railroad eating in this country Fred Harvey of the Santa Fe--came to his glory in the development of railroad eating houses and railroad hotels in the southwest. Harvey has been given glory because of the fact that he revised the old railroad rule of cutting pie into six rections and merely divided the dainty by four But it was more than pie that made Fred Harvey. It was infinite at tention to the vast details of feeding a travelling army so that each wanderer in that army might think that the meal had been cooked for his own single de- light--the sort of thing that is sometimes
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-14

now as being as orderly as any city of
 it's size in the country, and I am fla
 miliar with all the larger class of
 towns" said a business man.
 Birmingham has population of fully
 16O.OCo. The census gave us 132,6So, but the school census taken about the same time indicated population of between 14O.0cO and 15o,oo0. Birmingham has cen- tainly increased 15.o00 since the census enumerators tabulated their returns, and all cities as large as this and as metro- politan will witness some rowdyism now and then All large, growing cities have their lights and shadows.
 Q But. taken altogether, Birmingham is model city as far as appearances Go 1t is what I would call q religious city, too. The church census recently taken shows that there are thousands of ehil- drcn outside of Sunday, schools and thousands of adults who are with put church connection, but in spite of all this know of no city where church work, Protestant and catholic. is carried on SO energetically as it is in Birmingham. The Rev. Bob Jones, an impressive, but not sensational, preacher, was heard by thou- sands and thousands during his series of services at the First Methodist church. The International Bible Training school and the Excel chorus aroused genuine enthusiasm: and while l am not much of q church man myself, it seems to me that there Is hardly a week that there is not something big doing in re- ligious circles. This speaks well for Bir- and if this city ever deserved the soubriquet Bad Birmingham it should be known now as orderly Birmingham
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-14
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
An Authority's Observations

While inspecting the magnificent az
 ricultural display at the Alabama State
 fair this week. I heartily wished that a
 thousand farmers from the north and
 west had come down to view it, and I
 made up my mind right then and there, If able to secure the necessary cooperation, to devise some plan next year by which 1 a large excursion of homeseekers can be | brought here about the time the gates open,'i said S. Heehinger, secretary of the farm movement department of the Cham Der of Commerce.
 Seeing is believing, and the exhibits gathered by Commissioner of Agriculture Reuben F. Kolb by the Southern Rail way company, and the various counties of the state, furnish most convincing proof of the fertility of Alabama soils. Much is said about the lessons such oX- hibits teach to- the farmers of the state, but l think the greater lesson should come home to the people of the state at large, the consumers of foodstuffs, who are sending $25Ooo,000 annually away 10 other states for products of the soil which could be raised in abundance at home.
 This condition has it's inception not so much from the fact that our native farmers do not put enough effort forward in raising these things, but in the fact that we have not enough farmers and gardeners. The lesson drawn by the peo- ple of Alabama from such eloquent proof Of the unlimited agricultural resources of their state, as shown by the splendid display at this years state fair. should spur them on to unite and enthusiastically support by all the means at their com mand every movement undertaken by the state or county having for it's aim an in crease of the agricultural population ey an influx of practical and experienced farmers and gardeners.
 About two out of every three of our correspondents from northern and west ern states ask about corn. As the south buys a large amount of corn annually from the north. these people naturally believe that corn does not do so well in the south. How quickly would they change their mind if they could take a look at the corn exhibit gathered for the state by Captain Kolb; and what shame it is that we spend s5,o0o,O00 annually or mere for corn alone to enrich the pockets of the farmers in Illinois Kansas and ether northern states, while our beauti- ful and productive lands go a begging for cultivation l am so much impressed with this years agricultural exhibits that l shall have photographs made of them and shall distribute them in printed form. to- gether with our other literature, to all ihauiries in our department
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-14
Beer . Popular Beverage

"I have never know anything like the beer drinking l have seen in Birmingham this week-I mean in proportion to popu- lation," said Edward T. Arsell of Chicago.
 T have had several glasses of beer since coming to this city two days ago. and I did not see one man calling for whisky in 20 who drank beer The brew cry business has been increasing steadily in the past 20 years, and native Ameri- cans as well as foreigners have cultivated tho taste for malt drink. It looks to me that if the legislature, in putting the state back into the local option column, had provided only for beer saloons and re- stricted whisky to dispensaries that the drinking public would have been satis- fed. I know scores of men who used to drink whisky every day who have cut 1t out entirely. substituting beer for the stronger beverage
 Many prohibitionists-I mean the sin cere ones, and not those who voted for prohibition and patronized blind tigers felt no doubt that with the return of sa- looms in Birmingham there would be some disorder, but I have never seen a more orderly town anywhere than Birmingham is today. l was here several times prior to 1907 and most of the bar rooms in those days were scenes of rowdyism from time to time. I was in one of the prom inent saloons here about six years ago taking a quiet drink with friend, when a rough house was raised by two or three drunken fellows. Pistols were drawn, but nobody happened to be shot. Now every saloon here seems to be a place of absolute decorum. This is as it excuse for city allowing liquor dealers to hold on to their license unless the best of order was maintained" '"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-14
COaI and Iron

The coal trade in the Birmingham dis trict has been quite brisk during the past six months. While all operators have not been as busy as they had hoped to be, some of the companies mining superior quality of coal have been working almost up to capacity.
 The pig iron trade is still dull, but the outlook is brightening. Stocks are being eppreciably reduced. Matthew Addy x Co.'S Cincinnati report just issued says, among other things:
 AS one of our valued friends in New York says, the trouble with the iron ma.- let and all large industrial operations is that politics have got on the nerves of the manufacturers of this country. Tie New York stock market is merely a reflex oe national mental condition. For four solid years we have lad political agita- tion of the kind that unsettles business and apparently we are no nearer a solu- tion of the trouble than when the thing was started. The air is still full of the threat of impending danger. The result
 is sickening. Here are great industries particularly in the iron trade-with mil lions of money invested and employing armies of workmen, running on part time and most of them eating up their re- serves.
 Apart from the fact that pig iron is moving out rapidly on old orders, there is not much doing. New business is of small volume Prices are firm at $10 for No. ?, f. o. b. Birmingham, and SIS f. o. b. southern Ohio furnaces. These prices are ruinous. They mean that there is no margin at all for profit and IA many cases they indicate a positive loss. Consump- ton of iron is down to a wear and tear basis. Practically all the iron that is now being melted is simply to keep up the existing order of things"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-14
WHAT THE MUMMIES TEACH US
From the Atlanta Journal.

From the Atlanta Journal.
 R. MARC ARMAND BUFFER, | the Egyptian representative of - the International Bureau of Fly giene, Paris, and president of the sani- tary council of Egypt, has been hold ing autopsies on very ancient mummies, dissecting the well preserved remains of Egyptian rulers, princes and day laborers who lived, toiled and died thousands of years ago, and examining their arteries to see if he could find any traces of the wasting diseases and bodily decay which other scientists have always supposed were of quite modern origin due to the wear and tear of the strenuous condi- tions under which we of today live.
 Dr. Ruffer declares that he found suf- ficient evidence to satisfy him that the theory that the wear and tear of human life has increased is a myth the fact being, he says, that our life is easier and that we work less than our ancestors did.
 More interesting still, especially to those who believe in the use of tobacco and wines in moderation, pr. Ruffer has found that the nerves and general physi- cal condition of modern man living under modern conditions are not a bit worse than were those of the ancient Egyptian, who didn't know anything about tobacco and consequently didn't indulge. Accord ing to the report of Dr. Ruffer, prepared for the Journal of Pathology and Bac- teriology, he has learned enough from his examination of Egyptian mummies to dispose of many conflicting theories re- garding arteriosclerosis and allied ar terial degenerations. These wasting dis cases. which have been regarded as of modern origin, have been held up as pathological horrible examples" by an- ti- -tobacconists, total abstainers, diet fad dists of various kinds, contemners of ath- letics and of the wear and tear of mod ern life.
 After describing the procedure of dis section and the preparation of the num-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-14
The Marine Band

"A great deal of interest Is manifested in the United States Marine band, which viii be heard at the Jefferson theatre Friday of next week-matinee and night, ' said Oliver Chalifoux. This interest is not confined to those known especially as rluscians and music lovers, but the pup lie in general will be largely represented at the concerts.
 "rhe Marine band as it is constituted today is said to be unequalled by any concert band in Europe. Both of the programmes to be rendered here are choice There is every promise of a crowded house al both performances.'