davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-05

have put righteous citizen, into a posi- tion of public trust, therefore he will do righteously? It depends on the whole someness of the moral support you give him, no less than upon the intensity of his righteousness, an unbroken thread from youth to manhood. For the thing you call public office or public trust, lies close to the labyrinth of temptation. AL ways the sirens sing in the argonauts' ears, always the song of selfish interest whose refrain, Is: 'Take care of yourself, dear boy.'' What sailors ears are proof against that alluring song?
 Carlyle was neerv happier in anything than in that story of 'The Ancient Monk which is set like a precious gem in the ring of brief essays called "Pas. and Present. Is there any person Of brains who reads these lines but has not read Past and Present.? Let him hie him to the booksellers and get ac- acquainted with "Jocelin the ancient monk,'' himself; let him peep with Car lyle into 20th century England so near and yet So foreign; let him, if bits of Latin are a plague to him, get them ex- plained until each phrase is Unanimously clear In days like these, when interests and greed, like Pharaoh's lean kline, eat up the public welfare and still browse, with threatening horns, where meadows are soaked in rotten slush, where spirit ual miasma breeds and the grass grows rank and sour, where flies, far deadlier than the bearers of malaria and yellow fever, hatch by the thousand million-ln days like these the Hebraic Carlyle guid-
 ing us through the ancient monastery. helping us see. for instance, the election of an abbott. is as heath from his own wholesome braes and rugged hills It Is worth while to read, to read slowly, re- memberingly. Here is paraphrase of eternal Law.
 Carlyles text was then recently issued edition of an ancient manuscript, the Chronicles of Jocelin," monk of the abbey of Bury St. Edmunds. He pur- poses to set the story down as a light on the social upheavals and political desti- nies of 18th century England. Taking the year 1920 as the beginning of Carlyles literary activities, he being then 25 years of age. and the death of Mrs. Carlyle in
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-05

All good mothers feel much the same desire to shield their boys from the rough blasts of the world. And they trernbe when the innocent one must be exposed to evil surroundings. But
 The boy must not be kept. He must know good and evil. The bloom of nnocency must be brushed off by rude contact with the world, the flesh and the devil
 How shall he be prepared?
 Not by ignorance. To be ignorant of temptation is to be helpless. Knowledge is power. To be foreksrned is to be fore- armed, The boy must know Somebody somebody must tell him.
 It is cruel to send your tender flesh ana blood ignorant against the wiles Of that world where the wages of sin is death. An, the poor mothers-all! Listen ant you shall hear their heart cry:
 My boy, thus far have you come tho primrose way-under Juno skies anJ knowing not the chilly winds of dreair December. Madrigals of laughter have been your heritage since you cooed a(nd laughed up to me in your cradle. Yoiirs is the glorious morning face of innocenty.
 Say. my hoy. in the world where tiley hurt the tender hearted and murder intAs cency will they spoil you also?"
 Yes. they may. if you let him. go naked to temptation and not knowing how he may resist.
 The body must know 77
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-05

paper is to be brought back unopened and publicly burned. Thus Carlyle:
 'This then is the ballot box and cleo
 toral winnowng machine they have made at St Edmundsburg-a mind fixed on the Thrice Holy, an appeal to God on high to witness their meditation-by far the
 best, and indeed the only good electoral winnowing machine-if men have souls !l, them. Totally worthless, 1t is true, and even hideous and poisonous. if men have nc souls. But without souls alas, what winnowing machine in human elections can be of avail? We cannot get along
 without soul; we stick fast, the mourn fullest spectacle, and salt itself will not save us."s7 zur, 'fae
 Arrived at the kings presence the 13 electors then withdraw, the sealed paper is opened, the three names, hitherto
 known only to the committee on nomi- nations, are duly read, solemn inter change of boostings goes on between cer- tain nominees: .',rckle me, Toby. and I'll tickle ,thee!'''. and other possibilities,
 by the kings order, get added to the list. Presently three more are added from other convents, a t the same royal com mand the selection being, however, in each case byathe monks. Then begins elimnationae Three names are ordered to
 be struck off. Promptly the 13 remove the three strangers names. One nomi- nee. being present, retires from the race. Two others are removed by elimination, and then another. Now there are two, and of these the better man presently gets named, the bishop of Winchester shrewdly unearthing the will of the 13. I take leave to quote again from Car yle's comment:
 Thus, then, the St. Edmundsbury Monks, without express ballot box or other good winnowing machine, contrived to accomplish the most important feat @ body of men can do, to winnow out the man that is to govern them, and truly, enc sees not that by any winnowing ma chine solver they could have done it bet ter. ye kind Heavens, there is every Nation and Community a fittest, a wisest
 bravest, best, whom could we find and make king over us, all were in very truth well, the best that God and Nature had permitted us to make it. By what are discover him? Will the heavens in their
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-05

growth of free libraries, art galleries,
 public parks. clean. markets and thou sand other reforms; beyond all others the general sense of the dignity of honest work It is but a step from these things to public ownership of utilities and the triumph of municipal gas in Birmingham,
 municipal street cars in Glasgow, and the
 pride of every city in it's public veal. It is only the other day that English city
 streets were slush wet days and dust when the weather was dry Now these
 conditions obtain only in backward and corrupt and unintelligent communities. But there is the haunting suspicion here in America that such progress, now ire
 sistible is taxed for private graft. Streets
 are paved, schools conducted, business
 done but does someone collect a com
 mission? Does San Francisco, Philadel-
 phia, Denver, get what it pays for? Does
 Birmingham-not Carlyle's but our own get what it pays for? Why this super
 zeal for paving. against the protest of certain majorties of property owners? Alas, suspicion is in the air the taint of
 rankest poison in the body polite.
 | We decide not to have hydra headed king, but king with five heads at most, or three. We are forbidden to see what the plans of our electoral committee may | Dt. we wait III Fe,ichNc, oOiiic ci u' going placidly to sleep. till suddenly aroused by much cursing and battling of tongues. The declaration is out! The plan l is public, and now rushed to a decision by complaisant legislature. Behold, there are our Three Kings There is much applause. Presently there is hissing and roproach Then Accusation raises a ma lignant head, crownng her serpent coils.
 Are the three, are any of them, Quacks, or genuinely noble kings?
 Let me but say. my brethren. to dis
 tantly initiate Carlyle. that I have seen
 this thing done wisely and work well. Here it is done unwsely and is working i'll. The first principle of municipal re-
 form is that the people must be consulted, that the people may be trusted. The sec
 ond principle, of equal authority is that there are men to be found who, untempt-
 ed by the proffer of a large salary, will
 give capable and honest service in the
 business of city administration. But here there has been the show of distrust
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-05
CHUMSHIPS OF STATESMEN-By Savoyard

ter and pupil, though the pupil the tu- ture President, was the abler and the more accomplished man. Blaine had rendered Gar-eld great service As speaker he had made Garfield leader of the house. He had served him in the affair of the Credit Moblier" He had nominated him for President and had done yeomar service to secure his election Never theless, when Blaine was not present to exercise auth ority Garfield felt the gall of the yoke, and some weeks before the inauguration he exclaimed in a passion: "A President-elec ought to make a progress through a proceeding of per sonal and political bankruptcy before
 he takes on himself the magistracy." But Blaine was resolved to remain the
 master, and he did.
 Randolph Tucker was a F. r. ", ed ucated at the University of Verginia, and a Jeffersonian of Jeffersonians; Gar
 field was born of the humblest parents, in the western reserve. and every drop of his blood was new England Puritan. Later he was educated in Massachusetts and was a Hamiltonian of the namll- tonians, eXcept that he was a heretic as to the dogma of protection. Both Tucker and Garfield were highly edu-
 oated men, and when in Congress to- gether they were fond of spending g hours in each others society discussins 3 the ancient and modern classics. There was always a heap of the grown-up boy about Garfield. He loved to gush though one of the most formidable de- baters Congress ever knew. and per haps his acquired knowledge, gained
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-05

yer who ever spoke the English tongue"
 Conkling's seat in the .-enate was on
 the main aisle, second row from the
 front, subsequently, the seat of Allison
 and now occupied by Beveridge. Next
 him was Hannibal Hamln, who was
 besides Ingalls,, who was besides Blaine.
 Never once did Conl1ling appear to real
 ize that "the man from Maine" was a
 member of the Senate, though more than once Blaine came to the rescue when Thurman or Ben Hill bore down
 on Conkling in debate of the southern question.
 Across the aisle from Conkling was William W. Eaton, democratic senator from Connecticut, a Calhoun man, who was powerful in debate, and who went further. much further, than Ben Hill, who has been a Webster Whig in oppo- sition to the consolidation tendencies of the republican party. It was gossip, no doubt exaggerated somewhat, that Eaton and Ransom, of North Carolina. were the only democratic senators with whom Conlsling would exchange civili- ties in social way, and that Hamlin
 was the one senator on the republican side with whom he held any social com
 munion. though later he found that Dan Voorh ees had rendered him a great service, and thenceforth he was the best friend the tall sycamore of the Wa
 bash" had in Washington.
 delightful chumship was that be- | tween John Randolph Tucker and James A. Garfield. The relationship between Garfield and Blaine was much like mas
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-05

without at least d little money. I am glad to know that the custom is growing among husbands to deposit in bank monthly an amount to the credit of the wife, be the sum small or large; it should be, however, as large as man can make it.
 But one says. A woman has no right to be sensitive on this subject and with cut hesitancy should ask for what she wants, knowing that she will get it. Nh matter whether or not women have tine right to be sensitive on this subject, many of them are. and why require that they ask for what they want?' Why not anticipate them? It will add to their hap plness, and to their sense of dignity. X pay his bills with checks, nor is a woman.
 Is this an insignificant matter, nn- worthy of being mentioned in this paper? Little circumstances, little lapses, little inattentions, often destroy homes. and kill the love that once was warm and overhowing; while little courtesies, ten- der compliments, and spontaneous ex- pressons of love keep the home atmos- phere sweetly pulsating with happiness and contentment.
 'It is the little rift within the lute That by and by will make the music
 mute,
 And ever widening slowly silence all."
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-05

Stories of dauntless doing never grow old.
 They cannot be told too often. In the waste of ruin wrought by the tidal waves-on the night of September 8. 1900, when the city of Galveston was overwhelmed as if it were thing of sand built by childrens play, in all that wreck of life and property one
 man stood alone
 Richard Spillane, operator Six thousand dead and dying lay in the streets. Frantic. the mayor said to Spillane. the telegraph operator
 My God. what shall we do?'
 "Do?" said Spillane. We must get in touch with the world. I'll go.'' Clothed only in a nigh tshirt, linen trousers, carpet slippers, ahd a cap there was a man inside-Spillane start ed in a launch. Struggling with the current for two hours before he got to land, he started on his, long tramp to Houston, forty miles away. The water was over the tracks in many places. The air was stifling hot. The. dye in the slippers poisoned his feet. His tongue thickened with thirst. His legs swelled to twice their size, His eyes started from his mead. His brain reeled. But on and one went Spillane.
 At nightfall he staggered into tele- graph office in Houston muttering Give me a key. Galveston is gone.
 Heroic Spillane? Aye, gallant, splen- did. manful. heroic. but The half has not been told. His first message was to the presi- dent. Then the editor of New York newspaper wired, Five thousand dol lars for an exclusive story"
 ''Inipossible," replied Spillane.
 Name you own price. them.
 ''I am not selling the lives of 30,000 people at any price,"
 Temptation? The man was penniless, homeless. wife and children naked and hungry. Put yourself in his place.
 Pushing aside the offer of fortune. Spillane sat down and through one of the press associations told the whole world the details of the disaster and urged the need of instant help.
 Can you match the story?
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-05
H HE following paragraph that is
 making the rounds of the news A naparS racallS many friandehinc

'" HE following paragraph that is
 making the rounds of the news A papers recalls many friendships, some of them rather curious, formed between public men at the capital.
 Senators Bourne and Chamberlain represent Oregon In the Senate. They are of opposite political beliefs. yet they are inseparable as companions. Though they differ on some matters of party policy, they are one and the same on Senator's Bourne's plan of popular government, and their conviction of the ultimate success of the policy unites the two senators in a close bond of friend- ship. The close friendship between Senator Bacon and the late Senator Clay was the cause of much favorable comment. but those senatdTs, besides representing the same state, were of the same party, and party politics was alike to them."
 The affectionate companionship that existed between Allen G. Thurman and George F. Edmunds is readily recalled Thurman, Virginian to the marrow th tough senator from Ohio, was the elder by IS years. and Edmunds was a Vermont yankee from the skin to core They were agreed on no political sub ject, especially if matter of constitu- tional construction was involved. Thur man, the very head of the bar in the Senate, of whom Roscoe Conkling said MT. President, when I speak of the law I turn to the senator from Ohio as | Mussulman turns to Mecca. I beg the honorable senator to understand that l look to him as I would look to the com moa law of England, the worlds most
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-05

pity teach us no art? For our need or him is great.
 Ballot boxes, reform bills, winnowing machines, all these are good, or not so good; alas, brethren, how can these. I say, be other than inadequate, be other than failures, melancholy to behold? Dim all souls of men to the divine, the high and awful meaning of Human Worth and Truth, we shall never, by all the machin- cry in Birmingham discover the True and Worthy. It is written, If we are our selves valets. there shall exist no hero for us; we shall not know the hero when we see him; we shall take the quack for a hero, and cry. audibly through all ballot boxes and machinery whatsoever, Thou art he; be thou King over us.'
 What boots it? Seek only Speciosity, money with gilt carriage, fame with newspaper paragraphs. whatever name it bear, you will find only decetful Specios- ity; God-lilSe Reality will be forever far from you. The Quack shall be legitimate, inevitable King of you no earthly ma chinery able to exclude the Quack. Ye shall be born thralls of the Quack, and suffer under him. till your hearts are near broken. How long, o prophet? Till deep misery, If nothing softer will, have driven you out of your Speciosities into your olHCelltltSy anu you that tHOi ' either is a God-like in the world, or else ye are an unintelligible madness; that there is a God, as well as Mammon and a Devil and a Genius of Luxuries and canting Dilletantisms and Vain Shows. How long that will be, compute for your selves, my unhappy brothers!'
 have recovered my conviction that the revival of municipal purity and the con- version of business-like administration of our American cities is distinctly traceable to the influence of Carlyle. No crop is much slower to mature than the intelec- tual movement which results in social change. Naturally the first crop of Car lylean fruits was gathered i England and Scotland. Ancient and hoary abuses were laughed. or hammered, out of exist cnce. and presently the municipality as a business concern became manifest. The old idiocy of party politics in civic bus mess was supplanted by the science of municipal well being Ruskins influence must also be recognized in all this: The
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-05

your poor body of variance, discord, strife. In the warning of the members vital force is lost. Your body is rem dered liable to weakness and disease.
 What is true of the digestive system is also true of the nervous system.
 Discord of mind or body will jangle bells out of time" tangled nerves will nag and add to the friction. By and by they win become weak from the effect of the high tension. The end is nervous prostration.
 It is so of the circulation of the blood and other physical functions.
 Harmony is the great restorer.
 Harmonize your life and you promote digestion, thrill the blood with vital en- ergy, steady the nerves. satisfy the mind, calm the spirit. make yourself n mar alive.
 Let us put out of our lives unneces- sary discords. Least of all should we permit the trivial things to move us from our boise.
 Science tells us that anger and discord and hatred and envyings and fear are real poisons The laboratory tests have shown that these discords distil dead ly toxin in the blood On the other hand. it is shown that emo- tions such as joy, peace, courage. lope and love are real eixirs of the blood. Harmonize your life
 The other day in New York city it was reported at the police station thar a child was being held as a prisoner in a certain house. Investigation showed that white faded boy Il. years of age had been confined in a room for more than two years. The jailer was his mother. When brought into court she wrung her hands and said: "Oh, the world is so wicked, and I did not want my little boy to be like the other boys in the neighborhood I wanted to keep him clean in mind and body. He is my boy, and thought 1 had right to protect him. Poor fanatical motheri Her motive was mothery, though her judgment was bad. And the story is full or suggestion.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-05

"HE bane of all long journeys is the
 extra baggage one must needs T carry along.
 Condense 1t as you may into the small est possible compass. there is left lot of stun to be looked after
 Now and then some one excites our spe- cial wonder and incredulity by telling how he travelled through Europe with only a nightgown and a toothbrush or some meager equipment.
 We'll
 How about the long journey of life? Do we not spoil the trip by excess bag gage?
 One must pay extra charges for his excess on this journey as on railroad And the more one carries the more one must pay.
 How cam you enjoy the scenery by the way or visit with your fellow passengers when you must always keep an eye on a Saratoga trunk filled with extra cares. a telescope stuffed with needless anxieties, a grip full of worries? K I know a man who belongs to six diff ferent lodges and who is going through the chairs" in all of them. What with the rituals he must carry in his head and the time he must spend, he is carrying a lot of excess baggage.
 I know a woman who spells her enjoy ment of life by her constant devotion to dress. She is made miserable by reason of her incessant shopping and fittings at tile dressmaker's.
 Excess baggage.
 know merchant who takes his busi- ness home with him, walks the floor with 1t, eats and sleeps with it and by his worry because of it makes himself unfit. Excess baggage. Do the best we can, there is some lading that must be carried. Why i'll one's valises with that which is not worth while?
 The wise merchantmen uses his cargo as ballas whenever possible. Why fill up with thrash and then complain of the excess.
 That which man hath does not al ways. consist in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
 Tighten your baggage.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-05

ing him from custody? Does the end ever justify the means? If man commits a crime should he not be pnished?
 In Victor Hugo's great book the police inspector, Javert, commits suicide because he cannot answer such questions as these concerning Jean Valiean. f You know the answer.
 The generous act of Frank Wentz shines like "a good deed in a naughty world' because his heart was pure. It is the motive that counts, even though the act itself may contravene the letter of the law.
 Is the adage which makes the theme of Ingalls, poem. that Opportunity knocks but once at every mans. door" true saying?
 Or
 Is 1t true. as some one has said, that Opportunity knocks at our doors every day. but that few of us take the trouble to get up and open the door?
 There is the old illustration about New ton and the falling apple. Opportunity came in the euise of an idea. Newton got up and opened the door of his mind. He never was too busy to greet Oppor-
 
 en him so often.
 Some of us muffle our ears when Oppor- tunity knocks.
 Napoleon never did that He met Op- Iortunity on the threshold. His think ing was always ahead of the enemy S thinking. He got up in the morning be- fore his foe arose, even if he had to stay up all night. If the other general had a larger army Napoleon cut 1t up into sec
 and whipped the sections one at a time. .sgoitunity is an early riser.
 Col. Ethan Allen took Ticonderoga while the garrison was asleep and did it fin the name and by the authority of Jehovah and the.. Continental Congress- As. a matter of fact, he had no authority from either source. But he had his oppor- tunity.
 He must be quick to mount who rides with Opportunity.
 The saddle skirts of Phil Sheridan touch the crupper. Of Opportunity as he gallops the road 10 Winchester and changes defeat into victory.