davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-06
THE DEATH OF SANTA CLAUS

E 1 When the horrible truth broke upon you, you just thought that you had been fooled all along and that there never had been a Santa Claus. | It comes back to you now. William Henry and John Randolph were | in the conspiracy too. i Push back the veil of time. | Can't you see William in his canton flannel night suit, lying belly-whopper. whatchng father through the banister railing chain Rover and put the cat out? Then father came back again and put another log on the fire and latched the blind and lit his candle and came up- stairs.
 Just at that moment John lost his bal l ance and stubbed his toe so hard against 1 the banister post that you could hear l the join crack-it sounded awfully loud | in the stiffness. It was a miracle that he didn't catch you before you got back | in your beds
 l What wonderful actors you were! Father couldn't tell you were awake He held the candle over your face for all most a minute and never knew to this day that you were watching him through your lashes.
 1 And then he bent over and kissed you | on the eyes and before you knew 1t you were actually asleep and William had to pinch you and tell you to listen. And then | you sat up and you heard the sleigh bells 1 just as plain" and after that you could hear him moving around in the par lor | John wanted to climb up to the attic, sneak through the trap door and catch | the reindeer, but when he got there it was so dark that he was afraid and came running back.
 l Oh! If you had never done it! If you | had only stayed away.
 You killed him-you whom he loved.
 There wasn't any Santa Claus in the room at all, but just father and mother, l who were, undoing brown paper parcels and bought-things from stores and filling stockings with ordinary everyday apples and nuts from Wilson's grocery and French mixtures that came from town. There was no real Christmas after that. He was dead. And all these years you have gone on believing that he was just a myth-a legend-a story. M But now that you are old and wise, you know that you were wrong.
 You realize at last the greatness of your punishment
 He just made a magic spell and before you could look at him he had changed everything and turned himself into father and mother.
 That was the penalty you paid for doubting and he never again came back. You had lost your faith and that ended everything.
 Some folks think that the fairy people
 and the dream people and the gods are
 immortal, but it isn't so.s> They don't die
 as we do from whooping cough and scar I let fever, nor by being Init by stones. Such things don't affect them bit. But if you doubt them one time-if you stop
 believing in them, "honest Injun, cross
 my heart'-if you listen to those who saS
 that they don't exist, why they vanish
 like bubbles and never do come back to
 you.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-06
Politics Next Year

If the republicans adopt platform free from demagogy or claptrap-a plat form satisfactory to the business interests and nominate President Taft or some other gentleman who is not overstrenuous I think the party will stand good chance of winning; but on the other hand, unless the republican party acts with unusual wisdom I believe it is going to be showed under, " said E. F. Haral- son of Buffalo, N. Y.
 T usually vote the republican ticket. but strictly speaking 1 am an independ- ent in politics. I have been voter since 1880, and in that time 1 have voted once the democratic presidential ticket-in 1892. If Congressman Underwood or Governor Harmon happened to be nominated in 1912, and if the republicans have anything like a wishywashy platform, I will be very apt to vote with the democrats MT Underwood is growing steadily in favor, and l am inclined to think he will head the democratic ticket. It seems to me the democrats would do good thing for themselves and the country if they nom mate him.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-06
TRUE DEMOCRATIC DOCTRINE

Frcm the New York World.
 In the interview elsewhere printed in this issue Representative Oscar w. Un- derwood, chairman of the ways and means committee, says thar the American people decide but one political question at a time, and that the issue they will pass upon in 1912 will be the issue Of the protective tariff.
 No one has given more effective aid in briL ging this democratic issue to the front than President Taft. By calling for honest revision downward;' by signing tariff bill that was neither honest nor revision downward;' by praising it in his Wnona speech; by vetoing the wool tariff reduction bill and the farm- CTS free list bill, and by announcing that he will veto any other tariff re- duction bill that does not come to him by way of tariff board that is said to be divided in it's conclusions and that was never constituted to advise upon legislation, MT. Taft has himself made the protective tariff the fighting issue unless Congress abdictates.
 Speaking for the majority 6l the House, Mr Underwood assures us that Congress will not abdicate. We welcome the as- surance.
 For the rest, MT. Underwood supports the sherman act as a<criminal statute and staunchly opposes the initiative, ref erndum and recall as opposed to the prin- ciples of representative government. This is sound democratic doctrine ably stated by a courageous and useful democrat
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-06
SOUL FOOD

London Correspondent New York Ameri-
 can.
 The latest feminine craze Is to sit cross legged on the floor and eat dinner with the fingers. An Indian philosopher has in- troduced the idea, explaining that the tips of the fingers contain the soul forces and convey these directly into the food and thence into the systems of the diners The women are loosely clothed in white Kashmir garments, and they wear sandals on bare feet. Their hair hangs loose down their backs.
 | Tie chief meal is taken at midday. and | is supposed to consist of vegetables only | vegetables which grow above the ground, such as rice and lettuce, being preferred.
 l The difficulty of scraping up a sufficient
 meal of rice or peas with the finger tips
 does nor appear to deter the enthusiastic
 spirits, though the fainter hearted can
 always fall back upon Indian corn, which
 may be comfortably grabbed in the hand. 1 More than one duchess has been seen
 eating corn in this primitive fashion late- ly, and even impassive family servants | are showing surprise at these newest developments of aristocratc unconven- | tionalities.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-06
MT. Taft,s In.Considered Speech

In the days of his political decline MT. Taft comes forward with an apology for his Winona speech. He says he dictated 1t to a stenographer on tke cars "between two stations" " He admits that if he had prepared it two or three weeks before and re- vised it deliberately, as he should have done," he would have clarified" several passages. And particularly, Y" he says, T should have changed the sentence where 1 proclaimed the Payne tariff act the best ever passed. The comparative would have been better than the superlative."
 This explanation of speech that has more than anything else led to a loss of popularity that at the outset was very great, should be a warning to future Presidents who are tempted to dictate speeches ''between stations. ;" Speeches on great subjects cannot be dictated in that way without endang- ering the popularity and influence of the man who does it. Mr. Taft, at Winona, with a speech in hand die tated "between two stations" is terrible example to all future states men
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-06
Many Viaducts Needed

The city's commissioners are said to be planning to make the year 1912 an active and promising one in city affairs. Many public improvements are said to be under consideration.
 Any plans that do not include via ducts or subways for overcoming the city's dangerous grade crossings will certainly prove unsatisfactory The city submitted to the dismissal of the First avenue viaduct with reluctance, knowing that the citys expenditures must first be brought within receipts As soon as that problem is solved, or put in the way of solution, viaducts or subways will be demanded The heart of the city is at present sliced up by the railroads, and every grade crossing is source of danger. Unti viaducts or subways are built at these crossings this is not a safe or homo geneous city. It is a city of slices separated from each other by the monsters of the steel tracks.
 The sooner the commission can set its way to biuld viaduct in Firs avenue the sooner will 10000 people in the, easterly end of the city bt content and secure, and there are al least dozen other dangerous grade crossings in the city.
 Commissioner Lane attempted tc
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-06
--ses------------------- ANDY'S EARLY LIFE

From the New York Tribune.
 Andrew Carnegie went to the RoclSe feller Bible class, and with John D.. Rockefeller. Jr, on the platform with him, smiling at his quips and urging him on, told a string of incidents of his early career, which he termed 'tri- fles that enabled me to rise" Finally he told the class that he was happier now than he had ever been in his life.
 q don't regret leaving business" said Mr. Carnegie. My old age shall not be spent in accumulaing but in distributing surplus wealth. I'm so happy-this life has become so dear to newell, heaven our home'-he paused, and more by expression and gesture than anything else conveyed the impression that he was not look ing forward with any marked joy to his transition--"think of this, gentle men, home our heaven"
 MT. Carnegie beamed throughout the entire period of his address, but he gave himself up to enjoyment, particu larly after the above sentiment, and closed his eyes to smile the better.
 He was a gerat reader of Shakes peare as a young man. he said, and he had often found it Of great value to be able to quote easily from the poet and playwright; in fact often he had found that people set down his quota tations as orignial, and he didn't feel it his duty to set them right. When the laugh that this admission brought forth had died down, MT. Carnegie said:
 "Oh, l played the game"
 He touched on a few points in his career that he liked to think of most when he got his first job as messenger boysat s2.50 a week. when he became a telegraph operator at s25 a month, and later, when he filled in for the train dispatcher. Then he jumped to his first big financial transaction, when he negotiated the sale of s4,000,000 St. Louis bridge bonds to Junius Morgan, the father of J. Pierpont, he explained in an aside.
 'I made very handsome profit out of that" he said, and got the con tracts for the bridge building ais well, but it came near to diverting me from steel maker to banker. But there was the point where I really got out of the woods-thlngs did themselves after that"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-06

Philadelphia Correspondent New York
 Herald.
 Princess seta, ruler of the Ensize 1n- dians, tribe of| warriors making their homes in the remote fastnesses of the Peruvian Andes, is a guest in Philadel- phia. With her is the prince consort, formerly Texas cowpuncher, whom sine rescued from her man eating tribe when he was a prisoner, married him and made him a sharer of her rule. Tine tribe has 17o0 members, 900 of whom are war riors.
 The prince and princess are on their last lap of a two years tour of the world. They will go to Washington l thence to San Francisco, where they will l take ship for South America, reaching home after a 200 mile horseback ride 1 The princess is 90 years old. She has an olive complexion, dark hair and dark eyes. She was educated in England and speaks English fluently. She is writing history of her people. While intensely interested in Americans, she is anxious to get back home to see her 9-year-old son, who is being held hostage by the tribe to insure the return of the prince and princess. |. According to the princess, the tribe over I which she rules dwells 200 miles from l cislIzation in country of cannibals and head hunters. The tribe still is in a semi savage condition, but owing to the teach ings of the prince and princess there is much less cannibalism. The princess hopes it will entirely disappear with the coming generation.
 I The princess told how sine met her American husband. Jack Chism, the prince, is the son of the late H. Chism formerly ranch owner in the Texas Pan handle Jack" sought his fortune in Peru and was captured by tine tribe now ruled by him. He was captured while the princess was being educated in Eng land and was a prisoner upon her re- turn. One day she noticed him and spoke to him in English. He responded and the romance started. She demanded 1 that his life be spared and she married him.
 To account for her English education the princess says:
 My fathers name was Prince Merhyr l When 1 was years old an Engllshman an attache of the British legation al
 Lima Peru, wandered into our tribe
 wounded and nearly dying from starva- ton. He had penetrated into the interior in search of orchids. He took liking tc
 me and persuaded my father to send mt | to England to be educated. My mother and members of the tribe objected but I was finally permintted 10 go.r
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-06
Vast Sections in South Untitled

Vast Sections in South Untitled
 Senator Fletcher of Florida says that out of the 621 100000 acres in the south only 155, ,250, 1000 acres are under cultivation. Three-quarters of the south are untitled.
 As this country becomes more and more populous this will not be the case. All of these acres will be taken up. The country is fast becoming land hungry, and large numbers in the northwest are going into Canada. The time will come when a vast tide of population will be turned south ward.
 The south can hasten this day by improving it's roads. Road improve ment should become a feature of every southern state, for when men come this way to find or found new homes good roads will be more att tractive than anything else.
 It is estimated that we will have in this country by 1850 fully 150,OOo,- 900 of people. Many states and very many cities will become overcrowded, and it is inevitable that the men who want land to till will turn toward the south, where a vast domain of excel lent land in an admirable climate re- mains untitled. This movement will not be long delayed, and every state should begin to improve it's roads.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-06
PISGAH-SIGHTS

By Robert Browning. over. the ball of it,
 Peering and prying, How l see all of 1t, Life there, outlying! Roughness and smoothness, Shine and defilement, Grace and uncouthness; One reconcilement. Orbed as appointed,
 Sister with brother Joins, ne'er disjointed One from the other. ATS lend and borrow; Good, see, wants evil, Joy demands sorrow, Angel weds devil! (Which things must-why be?' Vain our endeavor' So shall things aye be As they were ever. such things should be!' Sage our desistence. Rough-smooth let globe be, Mixed--man's existence. Man-wise and foolish, Lover and scorner. Docile and mulish-
 Keep each his corner! Honey yet gall of itl There's the life lying, And l see all of 1t,
 only. I'm dying.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-06
\ FIourishing Local Union

"The local organization of the Mu- scans' union is in a most prosperous con- diton,' said President NJ. D. Friedman. Numerically and financially we are stronger than ever We have over 100 members, including those of the trans fer class. We have 90 local members.
 "The union admits no one to mensber- ship who has not passed an examina- tion as to his musical qualifications; and the rules touching morals are very strict'
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-06
SHE CINCHED TT

From Tit-Bits.
 George" she said, as she nestled down close to him, "the last time you called you proposed.
 "I did, sweet one.''
 And I accepted you
 You did, love"
 "I presume, George she went on, that you looked upon me as merely a foolish girl, but-but---'.' sstf
 How can you think SO, pet?'
 ''I have some of the business instinct Of the new woman in me, and-and--I sfall have to ask you 10 repeat the pro, rosal tonight. The last time youu callei, 1t was Sunday. and contracts made o,f that day, I learn, are not legally bind- inR.'' .. -s..is,-. -s .,,..sss.a, ~
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-06
Regarding Organized Labor

"The press and prominent men in business and in wage working circles are having good deal to say about organized labor. and labor leaders, D said man who has long been a friend of union labor. Never having been eligible for membership in a labor union I have always been an interested locker on, but as friend of wage work CTS in general 1 have deplored the law lessness that has sometimes been crec-
 ted to them.
 Here in the Birmingham district a miners strike has always meant as and homicides. As a matter of course all law abiding citizens abhor the tur- bulent spirit that has characterized some local unions. l am glad to say there has been much less of this spirit in the Birmin gham district in the past three years than in other years. An archism must be allowed no quarter in this country. I hope members of all labor unions will exert themselves more than ever to keep down the bomb thrower and the bloody agitator. Of eill lilt SUI OiiS tdllol nave SSG1i this from the New York Sun covers more in a few words than others of some length:
 An abhorent crime which sent many helpless workmen to their deaths was done at Los Angeles for the sake of organized labor. The multitude of the humane and intelligent men in the ranks must stand aghast at the con- fessions of the McNamara brothers.
 "The injury to cause worthy ir it's original aims and strong in its legl- innate course may be irreparable unless the unions condemn the methods that have brought organized labor to such a pass and repudiate the purblnd ant reckless agitators whom they have per mitted to lead them."'
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-06
The Altar Choir

Tn every Catholic and Episcopal church with a large congregation q boys choir should be organized and maintained for such choirs add greatly 10 the beauty and religious tone of lit urgical services" said a music lover.
 'I heard a boys choir of about 300 voices in the great cathedral at Co., logne sing mass, but notwithstand- ing the fact that the choristers were perfectly trained the music became monotonous before the Agnus Dei was reached. My idea of a perfect song service, speaking from a Catholic point of view, is an altar choir to sing the propers and the responses, and a choir of men, tenors and basses, to sing the music of the mass in Grego- rian chant.
 The boys altar choir at St. Paul s church in Birmingham, has become quite efficient. 1t is small, as choirs go-only about IS yoices-but the into- nation is excellent and the effect is such as to excite religious feeling When yespers are resumed at St. Paul 5 the boys will sing the entire service 1T. Gregorian.
 The choristers at St. Pauls have daily rehearsals, l am told, under the Frequent rehearsals should enable any chorus to attain something like per lection"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-06
Message of the President


 The President and our only ex- President both talk to postpone and, if possible, to avoid any discussion of the tariff issue. Mr. Taft has all ready modified his Winona speech, and as for Colonel Roosevelt no one has yet been able to get from him a frank and explicit presentation of his tariff views. He avoided the subject so far as he could in office, and out of office he has not a word to say on that subject MT. Taft's annual mes sage very naturally relates to the Sherman law without one word on the Payne -Aldrich. Shoot tariff.
 But these past masters of the trust building art do not altogether agree when they descend to particulars. Colonel Roosevelt wants a new anti trust act that will be "clear, unam- biguous, certain, so that honest men may not find that unwittingly they have violated it." He furnishes no summary of the law he desires. He advocates a national bureau of cor porations, but he is largely academic and scarcely at all definite or practi- cal
 President Taft, too, desires supple mental legislation. He defends the rule of reason" He discusses the Standard Oil and tobacco cases, with out, however, adding anything new to the subject. He does ask for SUD- plemental legislation, but he wants no repeal or amendment of the stat ute passed 21 years ago. No honest man, he practically says, can go astray if he reads the supreme court decisions in the oil and tobacco cases. Men know, he says, when they are stifling competition, enhancing prices and establishing a monopoly. These results are not accomplished unwit- tingly, to use Colonel Roosevelt s 1 favorite word
 But the President leaves his pre- decessor in the Iurch when he advo- cates in conclusion a federal incor- poration law. He wants all com panies securing federal charters to be closely supervised, especially in the issuance of stocks and bonds, by an executive bureau of the department of commerce and labor. Incorpora- tion should not, says the President, free the incorporators or managers from prosecution under the act of 1890. The President wants bureau of the dignity and power of the in- terstate commerce commission.
 This brings the President and the ex-President pretty near togther The President, however, has more respect for the supreme courts con- struction of the Sherman law thar the ex-President has. He shows that the Northern Securities decision un- der that law stopped for all time the movement to place all the railroads in a single hand. He stands by tht law of 1890, which is rather more than the sage of Oyster Bay does.
 The remarkable annual message i! wound up with an appendix of suit' brought by the United States under the Sherman law. In Colonel Roose velts term IA suits were begun il seven and half years, while 37 suit have been brought by the present ad ministration in about two years an, half.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-06

snuff out the First avenue viaduct project, but 10000 people who come and go daily are still compelled to face the dangers of a half dozen crossings gathered in a bunch. This danger surely should be eliminated. The railroads are ready and willing, and the city should do it's part. The First avenue grade crossings must go.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-06
REFLECTIONS OF A BACuEIoR

From the New York Press
 It keeps everybody poor buying good Christmas presents for the people who give poor ones,
 The reason girl loves to 80 to a dance is so she can sit on the stairs vita a man and not do 1t.
 A girl learns more just pretending she can't understand it than d man does pretending he knows 1t ali A man has to be destitute of a single srear of hair to think he's the bald- headed one they make tho jokes at.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-06
THAT'S GRATITUDE

Brother James was the most reli- gious man in his community. He went to church twice every Sunday, taught a class, and took up the collection in the Sunday school, and was the first man through the door every Wednes- day night for the prayer meeting. As a devout man and good example of what 1t means to be upright and good, he was a proverb and star per former All the mothers used to tell their children that if they would grow up to be like Brother Jones they would go to heaven sure as fate.
 In the month of December Brother Jones fell i'll, being sorely stricken
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-06

Messrs. Taft and Roosevelt should hit the Chautauaua circn1t together. there to discuss the antitrust issue as a team of experts.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-06

The ex-Shah of Persia is marching with the Russian troops on Teheran. He is one of those implaeables who always come back.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-06

A society young man in an Indiana city Mabel thinks the Indiana laws are awful.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-06

The victim of the Shady Bend tar party has been offered a theatrical engage ment. She couldn't escape it.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-06

The Maine was blown up from the out side, and the Spanish navy was later served in a like manner.