davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-25
Mr. Underwood for Vice President

When a republican referee comes home
 praising a democratic congressman, we
 high in Washington. That congressman n is Oscar w. Underwood, and Referee
 Thompson predicts his nomination as vice president next year. ''He is" says Mir. Thompson. lone of the biggest men In Washington. He is a credit to Bir- mingham and to his party. I heard fre- Quent mention of his name as candidate for vice president on the democratic tick ct and would be little surprised if he were selected. He is respected by all off cial Washington and is really one of the biggest men in the country. He will have more power as chairman of the ways and means committee than Speaker Champ Clark, because the ways and means committee make the other com n,ittees before they get to the speaker
 He also has the tariff and financial ques- tions referred to him. The conservative ns. llks Underwood and think he is as
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-25
From Key West to Havana

Today, wind and weather permitting, Aviator McCurdy will attempt longer flight over the sea than has thus far been made in an aeroplane Wellman flew far ther, but he flew to disaster in a dirigible balloon. McCurdy will fly in a modern airship.
 The distance to be covered Is 115 miles, and torpedo boat destroyers of the gov ernment will patrol the line of his flight aiding him as far as they can to keep on his course. The wireless today will keep the public informed of the features of the flight.
 It Is, after all, but another step in the progress of aviation, and if the telegraph ic reports from Spokane be confirmed a powerful airship is in course of construc- tion there that will astonish the world Ali aviators seem to agree that progress in flight lies in the use of more power. ful motors in larger airships. The devel epment of aviation will not lag until al know that the difficulties of flight have been fully overcome and that it has beer utilities of mankind.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-25

"If Birmingham needed a skyscraper hotel of the milIion-dollar class a year ago. the need is still more pressing to- day." said a prominent citizen. This city Is growing very fast and scores of visitors of large means who are used to paying high prices for high-class service now make business trips to Birmingham where one came three or four years ago. That is no exageration. While Birming- ham has long had among its visitors capitalists and the representatives of cap ital who come prospecting, now scarcely a day passes that does not bring par ties and individuals of decided conse- ollence in the financial or industrial world. The chances are that by the early spring Birmingham will be overcrowded. A million-dollar hotel will be built, but it seems a pity that we haven't such an institution now.
 "But for prohibition Birmingham would have been adorned with a magnificent hostelry at the southeast corner of Fifth and Twentieth two years ago. The plans were ripe, but when it was seen there could be no income from a bar privilege the project was abandoned.
 .I think it safe to say that just as soon as the legislature restores saloons to hotels in the large cities then we will see ground broken for the modern, high priced hotel that is needed.
 Costly hotels do not always pay the owners, but conditions in Birmingham are peculiar and I am sure million in vestment in a freproof structure of the class referred to would be decidedly prof itable."
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-25
STOLID PEOPLE

From Scraps.
 Aviator Sopwith describes in the London Times how he landed in Belgium after fly ing across the English channel In P min utes: Making an aerial detour to avoid some hills, I endeavored to steer toward Chalons by the aid of a compass l car ried with me, but I soon lost my way. Just as I was flying over a village about 800 feet high a very ugly gust caught my machine on one side and tilted 1t part ly over. To my corsternation the aero- plane refused to regain its normal posi- ton, even when I exerted the full pres- sure of the small balancing planes fixed to the rear ends of the main planes. Just when I thought I should slide helplessy down through the air field near vil- lage presented itself. I planed down and sat still quite exhausted. A Belgian peas ant was working on the road near by. His nonchalance was amazing. He mere ly stopped his work in leisurely way and gazed at me stolidy for several minutes. The apathy of the villagers, although they had never seen an aeroplane be- fore, was indeed remarkable. Two old women to whose cottage I went did not appear at al lastonished that I should have descended out of the air. All they wanted to know was what the weather was like in England.'
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-25
Rusinexs Improvement

''There is now note of optimism in business circles in my part of the coun- try that was missing at the first of the year." said Joel R. Pendergrast of Chi cago. "In a recent visit to Cleveland I found business men much better satis- fled over the outlook than they had been in December, and advices from the middle west all have the prosperity ring. l stopped a day in Cincinnati on my way south, and that city has an exceptionally prosperous air And I found the same thing in Louisville It is needless to say that Birmingham appears prosperous. It did year ago, and 1t has grown since then, and is more prosperous looking now than ever"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-25
PEN PICTURE OF LoRIMER

E. G. Lowry, in Harper's Weekly.
 The central and chief figure in what has come to be known as ''the Lorimer scan dar' lives, when in washington, in rooms at the Young Mems Christian association. So far al is known to his associates. he has no vices or even bad habits. None of his friends has ever heard him swear or seen him take a drink of any sort of liouor. He does not use tobacco. He feels at home in the environment of the Y. MIG A. He is like a cupid in com plexion and of cherubic countenance.
 He has big, sleepy face, great shock of copper-gold hair, and fair white skin unwrinkled and unlined. His hands are soft and white and apparently fat and soft like his body. In manner he Is quiet, unassuming, and suave. He speaks little, but in soft, kindly, gentle tone.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-25
Birmipsbam and Pittsburg

"No city in the United States has watched the growth of Birmingham with
 greater interest than has Pittsburg," said
 F. w. Oerly of that place, "and the ex-
 planation may readily be found in the constant comparison that is everywhere being made between the two cities. Men ton of the name of one at once suggests that of the other until they have become vertically like Juno's swans inseparable.
 Prior to the census report the people of Pittsburg had not been fully aware of the rapid gains Birmingham was mak- ing on our mineral industries, and we had always assumed an air of indifference to- ward the much-talked-of development of the Magic City. But we have at last
 been brought to feel how close is the race of progress between the Birmingham of the North and the 'Pittsburg /of the South and we are, beginning to have a fear that the acceleration with which the southern city has closed up the differ- ence in the past will also put distance between us in the future. Birmingham is magnificent city, and at present seems to be the most popular in the country"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-25
NAMES OF ACTORS

Beau Broadway, in the New York Tele-
 graph.
 Why do actor folk change their names? Is it lucky? Are they ashamed of their original names? It always has been a mystery to me. Actors are the only pro- fessional people who make these changes. Some are due to chance.
 For instance, there is Sam Bernard; he was born Barnett When he and his brother Dick went on the stage more than 20 years ago property man at Stapleton misread the name on their baggage and billed them in front of the theatre as the Bernard Brothers, and they always have kept the name Distant relatives also have taken it.
 Edwin Foy Was born Fitzgerald. and I like that good old three-sylabled name better than Foy. Maxine Elliott Is not a member of the Elliot family at all. She was born Cormack, married a man named Mccormick, and afterward married MT. Goodwin.
 Some of the best-known players in the city and out of 1t are using names that are not their own. Miss Fannie Brice was Miss Borach, and I do~not know what her married name is-Finkelstein, l think. Rosie Green is Ruth Eichengruen. Elsie Janis is Miss Bierbower. The ac- complished Miss Irene Franklin is Mrs. Green. Gertrude Hoffman is the wife or Max Hoffman. and she was born Hay
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-25
Senatorial DsadlockS

The election of Luke Lea in Tennessee removes all danger of the sending or d republican from that state to Washing . . ,,an had been formed to make the sovernor-elect senator, thus putting d
 + ,n the executive office. It IS better that democrat was made sen ator.
 The troubles In West Virginia are to be .rb,trated and settled. This will leao to the choice of two democratic senators from that state.
 The remaining democratic deadlocks are in Montana, New York and New Jersey. These will become strengthened out in short time, and three more democratic senators will be sent to the Senate.
 The republican majority, all told, will ,. hut eight in the Senate of the Sixty second Congress, and as this includes eight out-and-out insurgents, not includ- ing another insurgent to be elected by the deadlocked Iowa legislature. There .re at least six other senators with pro- ~ressive tendencies-men who like Borah or Bourne-may become insurgents at any time
 It is plain that the remnant Of the repudiated standpat wing of the repub- lican party are not assured of a major ity in even the Senate. If the demo- crats and insurgents in the Senate pull together for reforms held in common the tariff, for example-the old guard would control neither house of the next Congress. The revolution has been one of the most sweeping that our political his- tory furnishes, and its course Is not yet completed. It will certainly go on until both the rules of the House and the tariff are satisfactorily revised.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-25
Would come up with a rush.
AGAINST THE WHIsKER,

Not very long ago there was published in this department an editorial by Kan sas editor who deprecated the violent crusade being waged against what has been euphoniously called the "vine-clad" face. While not taking up the cudgels, as it were, for whislxers, this editor was of the opinion that the whisker peril was somewhat exaggerated and he for one refused to view 1t with alarm. Homer Hoch, of the Marion Record, puts him. self squarely on record in The Record, as being against the whisker, first, last and all the time. Down with the whslxer!' voices his sentiments exactly. Editor Hoch writes:
 Editor Payton takes up the typewriter in defense of whislSers. Such talent might well be employed in a more righteous cause This anti-whisker crusade Is sweeping the chins of the country, and is not to be stopped by any ridicule or jest The vine-clad countenance must go- must go to the barber and be shorn. The man who drapes his physiognomy with alfalfa is no longer to be tolerated by polite and antiseptic society. The time is fast approaching when the man who in ssts upon the bearded outrage will be compelled to file an affidavit with the proper official that his whiskers are boiled in lye daily, and when the lace work that disf1gures his appearance will carry label, with serial number, guaran-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-25
A DISPLAY OF LEARNING

From Answers.
 He was a British working man, and he had so many children that he used to call the roll before the Sunday dinner to make sure that they were all there. His wife was bringing in the steaming joint; 1t was time to begin.
 "'Erbert!' he cried. V "'Ere, pa!''
 "'Orace"
 "'Ere. par'
 "'EzelSiah!"
 "'Ere, pa!'
 Enery.''
 "Enery,' who had just reached the sew enth grade. decided to show off his Latin. "Adsum!" he bawled.
 For a few moments his father regard ed him with baleful eyes. ffr = "Oh, you've lad some, ave yer?" he growled at last. 'Well, you jist git away, then, an make room for them as ain't!'
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-25
Headed This Way

"Up to the time the government cen sus for 1910 was announced few citizens of Atlanta were ready to admit that Bir- mingham would ever overtake and sur pass the Georgia metropolis In the mat ter of population" said Frank Nelson, Jr, "but everyone sees now that 1t Is only a question of few years when this city will outstrip our large and prosperous neighbor The public at large has been thoroughly impressed by Birmingham s phenomenal growth as shown by the cen sus bureau. Young men in large num- bers are coming here to grow up with the city.
 .The very fact that belief is prevalent that Birmingham will lead all southern cities, with the possible exception of New Orleans, in the census of 1920, is big as- set in itself. Population and capital are now headed this way as never before, and comparatively few of our own people realize how rapidly this city is growing right now"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-25
Postoffice Congestion

swhen city grows as Birmingham has grown it's public institutions should keep pace with the growth" said city business man. ''I am led into making this remark by something I saw in the postoffice few days ago.
 About twenty people were kept wait ing at the stamp window while the clerk was weighing packages and boxes to as- certain the necessary amount of post age. Now, there should either be an- other clerk employed who would attend to that part Of the business or else there should be a couple of weighing machines conveniently placed for the public to use. I would suggest also that the postal rates be printed in large type and set up in such a place as people may read them for themselves.
 Anyone who sees the litt1e~bit of an opening through which stamps are sold cannot fail to recognize in it the day of the little one-horse town. We have out grown the one-horse stage in size and population; let our institutions keep pace with the times"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-25
sterile if not we'll nigh worthless, are when intelligently and industriously

sterile if not well nigh worthless. are when intelligently and industrously tiled
 The Alabama Horticulture association has done much to awaken a wider inter- est in peach growing and grape grow ing, and within the next year or two the number of peach trees planted will have increased probably 100 per cent. Among grown on a large commercial basis are Morgan, Etowah, Winston, St. Clair and Blount. Hill country is especially well can be raised on almost any kind Of land, except rich bottom soil. Fifteen or 20 years ago the rugged county of Wins ton was thinly populated and proverbial- ly poor, but it is now highly prosperous. Morgan is another county that has come forward rapidly in recent years. Up near Haleyville, in Winston, pr. R. ". Wood we'll known practicing physician, has 3c, c,o00 peach trees under cultivation, and is making a fortune from his orchard business. At Reeds Station, on the Louis vile and Nashville road, between War rior and Blount Springs, ,E. J. Bryan has 5000 peach trees, and is, it is under stood, making good profits In Etowah county the Elliotts are successful peach growers, and a dozen or more other prom inent names might be mentioned in con nection with Alabama's rising peach or chard business.
 It is too early to forecast the peach crop for this year. but if weather condi- tions turn out to be favorable Alabama will produce more peaches than 1t did last, and the state will be classified as belonging in a particular sense to the peach belt.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-25
SHE COT THE NOTE

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer. s
 A young man whose gallantry is in ex- cess of his means sought to remedy this defect and to save the expense of the money required for the purchase of flow CTS for his lady loves by arranging with a gardener to let him have bouquet from time to time, in return for his cast off clothes. So 1t happened that one day he received bunch of beautiful roses, which he at once dispatched to her house. In sure anticipation of a friendly well come, he called on the young woman that evening. He got a frosty reception.
 "Did-er-did you get my flowers to- day?' he was finally forced to ask.
 "Yes; and the note, that went with them"
 Mote? Why, did send note?"
 You did. A disgraceful note, scrawled with blue pencil on dirty paper. Here 1t is. don't understand 1t, and don't think you are very humorous"
 The note read as follows: M
 Here's your flowers, but you owe me a pair of pants for 'em."
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-25
BUYING TICKETS FOR CHANrECLEH

From the New YOrk Herald.
 About 1 o'clock in the morning a large limousine automobile, driven by a chauf- feur in livery, stopped in front of the theatre and young woman and young man alighted. There was a stir among the 50 telegraph messenger boys shivering through the cold on the sidewalk in front of the Knickerbocker theatre holding places in line before the ticket office, where seats for Mons. Edmond Rostand's 8 "Chantecler'' were to be on sale, as the woman wearing a sealskin opera coat, ap- preached the band inquired for one Jim mic Lee"
 It developed that the young woman had brought bottle of hot coffee, all for her 'commissioner," but when the young woman viewed the long line of half frozen boys she sent the chauffeur to an all- night restaurant nearby and ordered sew eral gallons of coffee. For this act she was lustily cheered. Both the young woman and young man left in their auto mobile. They refused to tell their names.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-25
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
Business shouId Re Business

T wish the business colleges would teach their lady students that business is business.' and that idle and silly cossip has no place over the telephone or over the counter during business hours" said one of the city's busy merchants.
 To begin with, I am utterly opposed to women in business life. except it be In such lines as are peculiarly related to themselves, but if they will invade the ranks of commercial life they should be taught to observe the rules that govern there. l have seen very loquacious young lady hold the attention of a pay ing or receiving teller in bank while line of fifteen or twenty men were kept waiting. I have waited patiently in store to buy dollars worth of goods or more While a young lady was just teasing the clerk by asking him to show her this and that, and eventually leaving without spending the dime which consti- tuted the extent of her contemplated expenditure. could mention a score or more of such experiences, all of them exceedingly exasperating to the man who is in a hurry.
 "I would respectfully ask my fellow citizens to send men clerks to banks. railroad and express offices and places where busy men attend to transact bus1- ness. I yield to no man in my courtesy toward women, but when have to eaten train or cash check in hurry l am sofely tempted to forget my Sunday school lesson and use very unparlia- mentary language if l am delayed by having to wait while the social features of the previous evening are being dis cussed. I would advise those in charge Of public offices to hang up the sign, Business is business
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-25

safe as any man in the democratic party. The officials now in Washington have a high and permanent regard for the Ala bama congressman. and he oYershadows any other democratic leader from the en- tire south.
 This is not mere enthusiasm, for these words come from veteran politician and q renublican referee. If MT. Underwood s work of next December be satisfactorily received by the country he will indeed become a logical candidate for a place on the national ticket of 1912.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-25

In all the superficial aspects. he conforms to the models of department and conduct set for young men to emulate and copy. But in politics his ways have been devious and his methods cloaked in darkness. As friend, as the head of family, as dweller in the tents of the righteous, he has always been all that man should be. As a politician and as a manipulator of political affirs and other politicians his name has become synonymous with all that is unlovely in present day politics.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-25

From the Philadelphia North American. T ICTIoN has become reality. A myth has developed into the true l accounting of a wonderful romance and the French historian, De Jaurgain' after Investigations into the memoirs or Alexandre Dumas, has come forth with the assertion that the story of 'The Three Musleteers' was true one. Not only that. but he has supplied the histories of the characters with their biographies.
 Remember the introduction of the DAT tagnan, the lean, hungry stripling from Gascony, mounted on his famous yellow crowbait of a Rosinante, faring on toward Paris? Remember that battle of the youth and his adversaries, Athos, Porthos and Aramis with the cardinals guards? Remember the crimson accolade of death that came to DArtagnan on the battle field at the instant when he was award ed the baton of field marshal of France?
 They all happened, and to a. D'Artagnan of reality, who may have been relative by marriage of Dumas himself. The coin cidence of names which these researches of M. De Jaurgain disclose bring the fam fly into which D'Artagnan married very close to the Dumas pedigree.
 The real name of D'Artagnan was Charles de z-Castelmore, and he de- rived his assumed name from his mother who was Montesquieu-D' Artagnan. His descent was from the Basque nobility, and he was born at Lupiao. in 1923.
 His family became poor, and when he was F years old he started for Paris He possessed only the nag he rode on and 10 ducats which his father could spare from the slender Batz-Castelmore hoard And that priceless letter of introduction of M. de Troisvilles, commandant of
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-25
Commend. the Bremen

q have been to many fires" said Louis Gholstn, prominent capitalist of At lanta, who is here on business, but I have never seen fire as well handled as that at the Bynum store in Birmingham this morning.
 ''I was at the Hillman and got up espe- cially to go see 1t and I have never seen firemen display such skill judgment and sense as were shown by your Birming- ham department early today. Tt was admirable. have seen flremen do splen-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-25
MANS DAYS

By Eden Phillpotts. A sudden wakin', sudden weepin'; A li'l suckin', li'l sleepin': 'r A cheels full of joys an a cheel's short
 sorrows, .stass A-I+e WI power O faith in gert tomorrows. Young blood red hot an the love of .
 maid; tfff Was glorious hour asll never fade; Some shadows, some sunshine, some tri-
 umphs, some tears;
 An a gatherin' weight O the dyin' years. Then auld mans talk O the days be-
 hind e; 44ks.l @s-A Your darter's youngest dartey to mind e; A TIT dreamin', III dyin', A, Ill lew corner O affth to lie In.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-25
ADRIFT WITH THE TIMES.

ITS HARD. Iris hard for any Wight to sing A song in praise Of darling Spring, And tell her charms Tn dulcet tones, When frosty fingers Grip his bones And Winters stormy , Voice is heard, In wrathful mood, By anger stirred; And all the world, Around, about, Is fit to drive
 All gladness out, And make a bard Say to his muse, "Go chase yourself I have the blues.''
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-25
REFLECTIONS OF A BACHELOR

From the New York Press.
 Vanity will dress up for blind people if there are no others.
 Self-interest will keep man loyal where only duty will a woman.
 woman wants to say her prayers when everything is all right; a mar when 1t is all wrong.
 A girl likes to have proposals, so she won't have to ib so much about having them anyhow.
 If man knew as much about his busi- ness as his wife does about their refrig- orator, he'd be a big success.