davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-26

I "Oh, very we'll" said she in cool tones, but for all that, secretly proud of his masterful manner. They never spoke so little on trip up town as they did that evening. Prescott drew out the Wash | ington letter with the pale blue ink half a dozen times and studied it until it was mirrored on his brain He did not pay any attention to Miss Maggie Ka- vanagh, not even when various gentle men in the car looked upon her with
 more open admiration than politeness warrants When they parted Prescott was no more warm in his manner than an ordinary acquaintance would have been.
 If Miss Kavanagh had been able to follow MT. Prescott in his strenous jumps that evening, she would have been more surprised than ever. First the young man got into a taxicab and speeded to the residence of his employer. He sent in his card with a message that his business was of great importance. Evi- dently the boss thought so, too, for in a
 few minutes they were bowling down town to the office. They did a good deal of cabling to London that night, using the firms private code. They got in communication, too, with the firms board member, and he was called to meet lHeIu dl the WdluOTI- -AStOf1d.
 It was nearly midnight when Prescott left this conference and went home He had not eaten bite of dinner, and never realized that fact until he got into bed He had been so engrossed in the matter before him that he had forgotten there was such a thing as dining. He was down town ahead of time next morning and was bit nervous.
 It was noticed that the boss came out several times and held whispered conversations with him. Usually the boss was the quietest and most self contained of men. The market was dull and rather commonplace that day. But a little time after the stock exchange closed there was a lot of excitement News came from Trenton, N. J., that the United States government had filed q suit for the dissolution of the United States Steel corporation.
 Bankers, brokers, traders, piliers even messenger boys, gathered on the corners In Wall street, In Broadway, in New street and discussed the news. How would the market take 1t? That was the one great question. It would rip things wide open. was the consensus of opinion.
 Maggie Kavanagh was at the Bowl ing Green station at the appointed hour that evening. She waited half an hour for MT. Prescott, but he did not ap- pear. Miss Kavanagh was angry and almost fearful. She never had been
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-26

treated so shamefully before in her life, and she did not know whether to
 send back the presents MT Prescott
 had given her or not. At any rate, she
 determined she would not speak to him
 again until he apologized. If he was a
 gentleman, he certainly would call her ap the first thing in the morning and
 explain his absence But he did not. And somehow, bruised though hcr heart was, Maggie Kavanagh did not
 have much opportunity to nurse her grief. MT. CapplebacS was almost
 crazy. Ninety-five per cent of the per.
 sons In lower Broadway, 9S per cent of
 the persons in upper Broad street and
 every person in New street went up in the air all at once. Coincident with their going up, United States Steel went
 down. The higher up they went, the
 lower went Steel. It was slaughter,
 @ tragedy, almost a cateclysm. From the
 neighborhood of 60h Steel common
 went crashing down eighths, quarters,
 even points at time, down to 50. For while there was danger of panic. There was woe and wailing In
 many an office Hundreds of custom
 CTS were wiped out. Hundreds of others
 were sad at the knowledge that they could have made fortune if they only had anticipated what was coming. It all was as plain as day to them now That
 the government was going to file suit
 for the dismemberment of the Steel
 trust had been forecast in the inter-
 view with MT. Wickersham the inter-
 view that was confirmed in part and
 denied in part. How had Wall street
 been so blind as not to see what was
 coming.
 But all other woe, all other wailing. was mild and insignificant compared with the woe and the wailing in the offices of Cappleback & Cruger. Maggie Kavanaugh. kindhearted and sympa- 1 thetic as she was, wept when she saw how great was the distress of MT Cap pleback. She wept, too, as she saw
 MT. Cruger wringing his hands in
 agony. As she witnessed their sorrow
 she forgot the harshness of MT. Cap pleback to her and the brutishness and l insolence of MT. Cruger. For the first l time since she had been in the office | she witnessed a quarrel between the 1 partners. MT Cruger forgot to be def erential to the senior of the house. for l got his pose of subserving and bit | terly assailed the older man as a fool. | There was not much done in the office of Cappleback and Cruger that day. The partners were too much absorbed, even if customers were there for business, which they were not to attend to them. Miss | Kanavagh had little to do but wait for | the hour for meeting MT. Prescott. Again ] he failed. Miss Kavanagh went home
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-26

have had large falling off in the farm | population.
 | As to the increase in the value per acre | of land the United States over, that has more than doubled within the past ten | years. It has been over 10S per cent, meaning a jump from $15 to $32 per acre. The values in many parts of the country have been much in excess of the present l income producing power, which looks as though the farmers were capitalzing their possibilities of the future. Farming is also more popular now than ever be- fore. and many men are going into it with the idea of making it a profitable busi- ness.
 Farm Mortgages
 Only few years ago it was said that the United States was blanketed with farm mortgages. I talked with the direc- tor of the census as to this matter. He says that many of the farms are still mortgaged, but that the present mort gages to large extent represent i'm provements or the purchase of more land, whereas in the past they represented the debts incurred In going into farming and to some extent in carrying on the busi- ness, which was then not so profitable The mortgages as now recorded by the census deal only with farms operated by the owners. In 1910 there were the neigh
 
 more than two-thirds of them were free from debt. I doubt whether any other bus ness in the United States will show a better condition.
 Moreover the prosperity of the farmer is evidenced by the increased use of ma- chinery. and by the rise in the value of the buildings and other improvements Within the past ten years more than $2, 700, ,000,000 worth of new buildings have been erected. Tn other words. the farm buildings are, 7 per cent better than they were ten years ago, and that notwitn- standing 6S per cent more machinery Is being employed. These increases may ac. count for some of the mortgages.
 About Our Live Stock
 The figures of the census as to the stock upon the farms give some reasons for the high prices of meats. Our farm animals which go to the packing house are not increasing In the same ratio as our population. Tn other words, there are more mouths to feed and less meat to feed them.
 Take the item of cattle outside the daries. There has been falling off of more than two million in the number of them within the past ten years, and this means almost per cent of the whole There has been decrease in our sheep, and although have not the figures, the same is probably true of the hogs The cattle have increased in value less than ten million dollars. or less than per cent in decade. an increase which by no means corresponds with the increase in the prices. There has been also an increase in the value of the sheep, and that of our swine has risen sl66 ,ooO, 900 during the last ten years.
 The census has not yet completed its tabulation of poultry figures, but I am told that those of the egg crop will run high into the millions and that in value they may almost equal the wheat crop. April 15,1910. the enumerators found that there were in round numbers on the farms of the United States 2S0000 900 chickens, 3.Ooo.00O turkeys, 100000 ducks and about 100000 geese. and that the fowls were
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-26

material-the cut, the color and the de-
 sign of the garment she desired Pale l blue seemed to strike her as being the
 most beautiful and best suited to her l type. Besides, did ever a man live who,
 when asked his favorite color, failed to
 say pale bue?" Thinking, then, of pale blue, she recalled that the shield of gov- ernment regulation on that letter head | used by the man in the department of jus | tice was the precise shade she most CO., voted. Straightway she fished the crum- | pied page from the waste basket smooth | ed it out and put It In her handbag for l future reference.
 l Puts, calls, Wall street and all other | minor matters were forgotten by Miss l Kavanagh for the rest of the afternoon. | The one thing that interested her wss the pale blue evening wrap.
 | MT. Prescott, manlike, had not a keen interest in feminine garnishments, but he had to listen to some talk about the pale blue wrap when he and Maggie
 were standing in the Bowling Station waiting for g. Bronx train that even ing. She was quite animated. She drew out the letter the better to in
 dicate the exact shade of blue the garment was to be. Prescott, being polite and in love, took the letter and
 gazed upon the pale blue ink, but not for long. He got those three words at the top and those five words in
 Latin below. Then in a nasty read
 ing he got the substance of the letter.
 Next he. asked Maggie half d dozen
 questions in half minute. None of
 them had reference to the pale blue of
 the prospective evening wrap. Miss
 Kavanagh was piqued, but answered as best she could. She told how Capple-
 back had instructed her to answer Nothing doing" and then bade her not
 even to reply to the letter at all but to throw it away and save the price | of stamp.
 MT. Prescott seemed incredulous for
 a moment. Then he laughed-laughed ed
 so loudly that various persons on the platform turned and looked at him in
 astonishment. He did not mind. He was
 thinking of other things He asked Miss
 Kavanagh if she would let him have | the letter. She was recuctant to do so, 1 for she would need 1t on Saturday, when she hoped to buy the wrap and
 match the exact shade of that lovely pale blue ink.
 l "Oh, don't bother about the blamed wrap" said Prescott somewhat irrita- l bly, it seemed to Miss Kavanagh. I'm 1 going to keep this letter now. I'll give | it back to you when I'm through with it. You aon't understand. and there's I no use my explaining"
 l Miss Kavanah was rather disdainful.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-26

ment of justice, he sniffed. Then he called to Cruger. Cruger read the com munication and looked inquiringly at MT. Cappleback. MT. Cruger didn't know what to think about 1t until MT. Capp1eback spoke. Then he would think exactly as MT. Cappleback thought.
 "A stall" said Cappleback.
 "Sure," said Cruger.
 Having settled this matter definitely for himself and MT. Cruger, Capple- bcak summoned Miss Kavanagh, hand ed the letter over and said: Write to this guy nothing doing.'"
 Miss Kavanagh took the letter and was pounding out the reply upon her typewriter when MT. Cappleback called out not to give any more time to the thing-that it was not worth wasting a stamp upon. It was not until Maggie had torn up the sheet she was working on that she took the trouble to read the letter from Washington. It was simply this:
 Washington, D. C., october "A, 1911.
 "Messrs. Cappleback & Cruger, New Street, New York.
 Dear Sirs: Can you tell me if I can buy a put on Steel common at about 5S, and how much it will cost?"
 Now, anybody who knows anything about puts and calls knows that you should specify how many shares you want in your put or In your call, for what length of time the put or the call is to be issued, etc. Even Miss Maggie Kavanagh knew this, so she could ap- preciate her employers contempt for the writer. But if the letter did not interest her. the heading of the sheet did. It was the first time she had ever seen one like it. The stationery was chaste and simple, but nevertbe- less, striking. There was an eagle bearing the shield of government reg ulation done in pale blue ink in a cir curlar field. Above the device were the words "Department of Justice' and un- der 1t Latin phrase, Que pro dominl justia sequitur'-and nothing more Maggie Kavanagh studied several min
 utes over that. She wondered what kind of French that was. She was sure it was not Yiddish, because she had seen Yid- dish signs in the B. R. T. terminal al Coney. It was beyond her, so she crum- pied up the sheet and cast it into the waste basket. It was frightfully dull in
 Wall street those days. There was notll- ing particularly startling in the put and call line, so Miss Kavanagh had little to worry her brain about except the eternal subject of clothes. She began thinking of the sort of evening wrap it would be nice to have if MT Prescotts promising con versations on the theatre subject banned out well. She went owe rthe kind of
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-26
EVERYBODY knows Broadway.
 has class, dignity, importance.

INVERYBODY knows Broadway. It
 has class, dignity, importance. A
 A fair number of persons know Broad street. It is big and wide, in accordance with it's name. One end of 1t is given over to great structures in which men of mighty undertakings in the world of money have their offices. Between these two highways is an obscure alley called New street. It's name is a misnomer. It is not new; it is disgracefully old. It has neither dignity, distinction nor beau ty. Even the rubberneck wagons pass it by without word. They would not dare go into it for fear of never getting out again. It is the haunt of the has-been and the hope of the never-was. It has more pirates and pseudoplutes than any other downtown thoroughfare. Some good men have gone into it, but few good ones have come out. It has more bucket shops, put and call dealers, back stairs gossips and human remnants than any other portion of the financial dis trict. A Wall street man who has an office in Broadway, and wants to get out of his building without being seen util- 1zes the New street door,
 MT. Lloyd Prescott, being connected with Broadway firm. of course, looked down on New street and all it's works There was one small part of it's mechan- ism, however, that he favored-and that was Maggie Kavanaugh. She was em- ployed by the house of Capplebeck and Cruger, who did sort of Captain Kidd business in the put and call line. Any body who got money away from Capple- back and Cruger was fortunate if he had to use nothing less forceful than a jimmy and nitroglycerine.
 Miss Kavanaugh was private secretary for MT. Cappleback, also for MT. Cruger, also for any or every customer who came in and looked promising to Messrs. c. Ss c. Unwise and unwary persons some times strayed into the put-and-call house, and Capplebaclx & Cruger were rather in- sistent upon such customers using the facilities of the office for their private correspondence. It aided c. & c. in get ting a good line on them.
 Maggie got SIP per- She earned it, even though she had neevr won any medals In stenography and typewriting contests and never would. She was bright and clever enough in many ways and unus- ually pretty but MT. Cappleback almost had a fit now and then over her infirmi- ties of spelling and her grammatical crimes. If she was not so pretty she would have been discharged the first week. Business bored her, but persons interested her nightly. She was like the majority of girls in office work down town. She had good deal more heart than head.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-26
The Turkish Army

From the Frankfurter Zeitung
 Every Mohammedan subject in Turkey is liable to service and remains liable for 25 years. At 21 the young Turk enters the active army the Nizam, and remains In it for three years. He must then serve six years in the reserve. called the Tch- trad, and after this he remains, mine wears in the army reserves, called the Redif, which resembles the German Landwehr This reserve has a second line called tho Mustafs. in which the citizen liable to service is finally enrolled.
 Every year produces about 1oo.o0o men liable to service and of this number 10000 are enrolled as recruits. The remainder, that is to say the least effective, are given drill. and they may perhaps be compared with the extra reservists of the first class in Germany. They finally find their way into the Redif. Altogether Turkey can place a million men in the field and as far as material Is concerned. German of- ficers who have instructed Turkish troops declare that there is not an army in the world that would not rsjoice to get such men.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-26

alone, sad of heart and very bitter. She was sure she never would speak to MT. Prescott again. But the next morning she forgot her indignity and her determi- nation so far as to call him up on the telephone.
 She tried to speak In a naughty tone, but had not said five words before MT. Prescott broke inland then Maggie Kavanagh got the surprise of her life. This Is not exactly what came over the wire, but it Is about the substance of the conversation:
 "Maggie-I want you to quit that job of yours-quit it this afternoon-qult 1t right now. What? Oh. I've been too busy to call you up. I'll explain all about 1t when I see you. I don't want you to work any more-understand? You haven't anything to say about 1t, but you and I are going to be married. Whats that? I can't af- ford it? What do you know about what can afford? Go up town and buy flat full of furniture. Go and get that fool opera cloak or whatever 1t was. made out of pale blue herringbone--what7 Well, don't know the names of opera cloak stuff. It is satin or velvet-anytning you like. Maggie
 When at last Miss Kavanaugh was able to break in she asked him how he had got hold of so much money.
 
 the one that brought it to mel"
 Maggie gave up trying to understand what 1t all meant, but she remembered there was an apology coming to her.
 "Why didn't you keep your appoint ment with me?" she persisted
 "Sayl Don't you know what's been going on in Wall street, my dear?"
 Maggie allowed she knew something. was going on, but didn't comprehend just what
 Now. look here. Stupid Little Girl. that letter I got from you was writ ten by some clerk In the department of justice at Washington. It was leak Leak Get that? It gave away informa- tion that was of immense value to us. Our firm here has made a killing in the market through the Knowledge got out of that letter. Do you begin to see now? Is the light breaking? I'm in for my share of the spells. You and I don't have to worry about the price of beef and beans. What I can't understand is how Cappleback & Cru ger were such dubs as ever to let this thing slip through their hands,"
 Maggie hesitated a fraction of a sec ond.
 Why" said she. glimmering of an idea of what had happened coming into her pretty head, maybe that's what they have been quarreling so about
 Copyright, 1911, by Richard spillane,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-26

worth, all told, something like $50. .000. 900. These figures might be compared with | those of 1900, but the day of that census was June 1, when nearly all the hens had
 their broods of little ones running about
 them, and when there were far moro approximately than there were in April of that year, the time at which this last census was taken.
 MT. Durand says that the same consid- eration has to be served as to the figures of the two censuses relating to hogs. The 1910 census in June, which considering
 that nearly all of tho sows of the coun- try have their filters in the spring, would give far different result as to the hog crop had the 1910 census enumeration oc- cured two months later.
 The Big Crops of the Nation The products of our farms are best got ten from the agricultural department. It takes census every year, and its aver ages, therefore, represents both the fat and the lean years. Secretary Wilson. has made a speciality of farm values, and. according to him, the money that comes
 out of our soil Is so great that if 1t could be saved and piled up 1t would in few years suffice to buy the whole world. He figures that we have raised farm products
 worth s7s,OOo,o0o,oOO in the past P years. and that we are now getting in the neigh borhood of 5000, ,000, ,000,00O a year out of
 the soil. We got just under that figure in 1910, when the amount was $3oo,000,0o0
 larger than for the year just past. At
 that time the corn crop amounted to
 5, 600 bushels, and was worth s1,5oo-
 0O0000. The cotton crop was worth $S0o,-
 100000, and the hay over ,0o0,oo0. What
 hay will be worth this year the Lord only
 knows. It is selling here at Washington
 for s30 a ton.
 The wheat of 1910 was worth over $600.- o00,0co. the oats sssO.00O,oOo, and the value Of
 the potatoes ran into the hundreds of mil
 Hons. As to live stock, that also brings
 in its hundreds of millions per annum.
 and there are a number of other things
 that the farmers sell, each of which nets
 vast amounts. Indeed. there seems to be
 no end to the farmers receipts, and the
 city dwellers are beginning to wonder as
 to whether the prices of his products can-
 not be cut
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-26

MT. Cruger could not understand why the young woman never seemed interest ed in that most absorbing of all things on earth-the market. He sometimes doubted whether she knew the difference between a put and a call She was hope less. But the customers of the house seemed to like her. She was so sympa- thetic, so good natured, so willing to oblige and so wholesome to look upon that some men traded with c. Ss c. just on her account.
 Miss Kavanagh lived in the Bronx, and the nearest subway station for her each evening in going home was Wall street. It was her habit however, to go to Bowling Green. This afforded a little walk which was pleasant. She got breath of fresh air from the Battery, too, which was good for her health and her complexion. She was sure to get a seat in the train, which was consideration not to be over locked. But, most important of all, she was certain to meet MT. Lloyd Pres colt.
 Where they had met or how they had become acquainted does not matter They had been riding up town each evening together for six months and Mr. Prescott was as bossy as If he had Known her for six years. He even had that vague sort of resentment over the fact that Maggie worked in an office, which Maggie translated in her own fashion to mean he had 'fnten- tions." MT. Prescott did not like the idea of women in business anyhow, and especially did he not like Maggie Kavanagh's being with Cappleback & Cruger.
 Now, if Maggie Kavanagh was not good stenographer she was an excellent student of human nature and an ex- ceptional1y good story teller The hu- nor or pathos of any particular hap pening appealed to her strongly and Prescott delighted in the quaint stories she told about the customers of Cap- pleback & Cruger and their doings MT. Cappleback was fat, fussy and fear fully vain. He knew, or, what was just as important. thought he knew, more about the market and about men than any other human creature. Mr. Cruger was thin, suave and a good deal of a savage. MT. Cappleback worked on a customers imagination. Mr. Cruger did the rest Having been in Wall stret practically all their lives neither man had faith in the average human be- ing.
 Maybe that explains why, on Wednes- day, October 25. 1911, when MT. Cap pleback. in looking over the mail, came upon letter from Washington written on the official letter head of the depart