davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-04

Every man was free to criticse or sus-
 gest The idea of the cub reporter was
 given as much attention as that of the
 telegraph editor or city editor. | The editor utilized the brain throbs Of | the man on the Job. | Said a great Chicago merchant: 'I can learn more from my clerks than from my department heads. The clerks come in contact with the public. They know It is so in politics
 The shrewd political manager who wants to know the drift of public opin- ions pays scant attention 10 the editorial utterances of the big city newspapers. He wants to know what the country editor" the editor of the newspaper in the small city or town or village. is saying.
 The country editor knows. The rule holds good in every depart ment of life. The shop foreman who 10 too proud to court the advice of the worker. the farmer who scorns the sug- gestions of the hired hand" the house. wife who thinks she can learn nothing from her domestc-these people make mistake
 One may always learn something valu- able from the man or woman on the job.
 Besides
 The nearest approach that capital and labor may make to each other is that condition where the employer trusts and freely consults his employee and the em- ployee freely consults and trusts his em- ployer
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-04

Charles Edward Russell? He who has shaken wealth and fashion by the scruff till its gold-filled teeth chattered, has touched not at all on the onion theory of society. There are possibili- ties. Why will not MT. Penrhyn Charles Northcote strike hands with Jim Smith
 Why is Sally Smith not included at functions given by Olivia Gladys North cote?
 M says we don't need to rack our brains for caste reasons, no" matters educational. It is not because verbs used by the Smiths fail to agree with their substantives' these petty differ ences might be reconciled at the gram mar schools. The real reason will be found in the fact that the Smiths eat large quantities of raw onions. Cogni- zant of this, the patrictan and parvenu keep the Smiths at arms length. Raw onions as a daily diet. Fancy that!
 There is a reason, perhaps. onions are called wholesome by the pure food men, and can be had on Morris avenue at 2hc per pound. Steaks are BOG and upward per pound. Breakfast ba- con is monoplaning around 35c per pound and the aviators who drive ba- con prices seem to have no mishaps- the machines never fail nor even glide to speaking distances. mores the pity.
 You remember last summer how the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-04

For instance: how about the shutting of the door? What shall we say as to the duty that once was easy and that was almost inevitable. yet we did not do it? The days came and went. Love inn pelled us to do that little necessary duty, but pride held us back, sloth held us back, the habit of procrastination gat hold upon us and-the duty went
 mdone. Nothing happened, The days came and went. The undone duty threw a ghostly shadow now and then OFT hearts caught the tang of contrition now and then, but the postponed duty had grown sharowy. Soon the shame spread like a pail around us-not heavy but yet constant persistent, and be- meath it our hearts grew hard, wilful. In different. Still the days passed. We were angry with ourselves. Not much was at stake; only someone's rights on ly someone's feelings, and yet we were dissatisfied. We were dissatisfied, but nevertheless the undone duty had grown intractable, unapproachab ble. We could not go back. could not retrace our steps, acknowledge our fault. and un- do the hurt of the long neglect The door was shut.
 So with the habit of reading, the habit of enquiry, and indeed the whole
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-04
ONIONS AND THE SOCIAL UNREST-By A B. Beane
Bea11e

Pendexter. even if Aiys pepper Is pres. ident of the Amalgamated Bacon, Ltd, and Rates pepper wears red flannel shirts and does drive spikes on rail- road and live in camp cars.
 After a wee bit of schooling in the sin of bringing raw onion sandwiches to school. just because they are cheap, may we not hope for return of the anicient democracy of childhood7 When the mes- ger lunches of tho poor are replenished: and when those other lunches of kiddies who are pent In shops and factories. barred from the open sky and the green earth, are replenished with tempting goodies.
 No, I don't mean to begin my preach- ment: only, I dare say the junior was right in part. At any rate. it's to get filled that families wolf onions and rye bread for days without change, and not because they particularly care for 'en, and not because there's any partic- ular virtue in 'em Back of the onions. back of what we familiarly call the 5o- cial Unrest Gas if we, decently fed and clothed, knew vast deals of the condi- ton of the under dogD, looms the tariff that expresses.
 Stop with mo for thirty minutes on any of Birmingham's crowded thorough fares, and watch the wolves of hunger stalk.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-04

IA AlSTER 1EDDITUR--Do you know MI what Reserprosity Is? Neether 4 do l. l have tryed to find out, and have taken the pains to examine several orthorities, and have asked several peepul--no one aggression in- stints, Lalor's lncyclopedier of Polytical Syence, seys "Reserprosity is rela- sion--between indipendint powers such that the Citizens of each air gar anteed sertain cummersial privileges at the hands of the uther," but the trouble is, that it does not say what kind of a Relasion, it may be a pore Relasion, and doutless is. Chambers seys-''A teerln for an arrangemint between ? coun- tries" etc. Harpers'-"1n cummersial Relasions--a mutual agreemnt." etc That's rong for you newer say Rela- sions agree commercially or otherwise so nun of them agree, and aftur you have red all these deffnisions, and lis- tened to a few neer statesmens views upon the subject, you know all about it. that Is all that enny body else knows, which summed up meens about nuthing at all.
 Enny how, as l understand 1t, Reser- prosity is about as follers: Hans Gug- gemnein tIrish). meets Patrick OGradx fFrinch). in Q saloon. supposing there Is a saloon, and Hans gives Pat glass of beer. and Pat gives Hans cigar that would be Reserprosty, An eN- change of Commodities between Ma sions without charge'-but, if Hans
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-04

F<HyHE prudence of the pismire Is
 lesson to Afiatoon. "-Hajji
 4 Baba.
 But when it comes to the very genius of thrift, Horatio, commend me to an American interest that holds out its hat to a committee of the American Congress begging tariff graft. MT. Boise Penrose, a senator in Congress from the plum orchard, which is the state of Pennsyl- vania, and the successor of Nelson w. Aldrich as chairman of the finance com mittee of the United States Senate, is con ducting the greatest show on earth with the more of less valuable help of his fel- low members at that council board. Daily witnesses appear before the committee to relate the doleful story of the utter help lessness and hopeless importance of the American people, as they establish by sta- tistics and demonstrate by absurdity that a little mite of reciprocity with Canada will reduce our republic to industrial pros tration and throw the American union into a proceeding in insolvency.
 The paper trust says reciprocity will ruin it. which many of our solons of both houses of Congress hold with as they pre- tend to run with the hounds in a big oo- iopus chase. The lumber trust, that is a
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-04

"the wind that blows between the worlds" You hear their moan through the generations. 70 let us inp' and the shrewd answer of the wind, '"roo late, too late, ye cannot enter now" They knew not the covenant of the threshold.
 But there Is an answer of the Spirit, more valuable far than this cry of the homeless wind In deep sense the door cannot be shut No man can shut it." not even our silly selves. I am very sure that to every intelligent and honest American heart the voice of the Spirit is, Behold l have set before thee a door opened" We did not open it. The sacrifices and tolls of past gen. erat1ons have opened it, have made vital these impinging possibilities that are ours. And I suppose that what the preachers call faith is grateful ac- Acknowledgement of the open door
 Unfortunately, however, lifes great moments do not come where and when they are scheduled. This trim and proper procedure of oration,, prophe- cies, ribbons, parchment and alpha betical adornment. does not fit in with the real crices Students who pass are "plucked" in the real exam, and they who are plucl1ed have been known to pass. For life's finals" always swing
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-04

two inches broad, II Is adorned with en- amel. embossed with exquisite flowers, and set with sapphires. rubies and em- eralds It is not the eostliest crown in the world. by long odds I have seen d number of crowns that would bring much more money al a sale than tfils crown. I have seen crowns that were richer in crystalline splendor I have seen the crown of the late Queen Victo- ria. It was marvel of splendor and surrounded by constant waves of light radiatlng from the thousands of precious stones that adorn it. l have also seen the splendid coronet presented by Isa- abeila of Spain to the Pope. Commercially the iron crown could not compare with either of those mentioned. But 1t pos sesses something that places it far above all commercial consideration, and that something makes the real value of the strip of gold
 Within the gold band is a strip of thin iron. 1t Is this circlet that makes the Iron Crown, the most honored of all symbols Of royalty In the world. This thin strip of iron rivetted to the gold band Is said to be one of the spikes that
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-04

10 my way Of thinking God had not given the Iron Crown 10 Napoleon, and thereafter someone did not dare to touch it.; while he wore it for a brief while. by the fortunes of war, was obliged to wear not a crown, but wool hat, on the island of St Helena
 Again the years sweep over the Iron Crown. It is restored to Monza away from the crash of war and rattle of arms. But again, as of old, the tides of battle were to sweep around it.
 Another army invades fair Lombardy. Upon its plains, and in It's cities a strange people i'll uniform may be seen. A harsh language of gutteral sounds take the place of the low, musical, romance tongue of the Italian. The Austrians are in Italy. In the course of time they depart. Upon their leaving, the Iron Crown IS looked for in vain. The re- tirlng enemy. have carried it off as A trophy of war. From 1859 to 1866. the Crown was lost But It was finally brought to light. and subsequently, 1t was restored to Lombardy. It was then sacredly placed in the cathedral of Monza, where. in the shadowy old crypt 1t may be seen today.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-04

If I refused. And later it occurred to me that I had committed a great sin; for with that money I gave him Cod only
 knew how many trunks he would get on how much deeper in the abyss of the damned my money would drag him.
 But no under-dog snarled at me this morning or asked to be fed or liquor ed; Cthere will be some talk of under dogs in future issue of this paper). h. stead, my young friend, M, a Cornell junior and fair type of the average col lege man. breezy talker and all that, stormed me in my poppy garden. l call It poppy garden during May because it Is mostly a of flame during the fifth month. It is my own particular place for world forgetting, and gives me comfort Along with the peoples are sweet peas and English peas, potatoes and pansies, jessamlnes and onions in this garden plot of mine. My visitor admired the panses, the poppies with the usual boyish felicities he had seen some that weren't half so large or colorful," and so forth. 'But it's dangerous ex- ample you're setting with these onions, old man." he said. That's the limit for a self-respecting chap to reach. Why, though you were ScotchI Irish, and yet you plant quantities of onions and expect
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-04

nation en masse seemed fully bent on forswearing meat? Pigs were scarce. It looked as if God had forgotten his car niverous children. This menace to the larder came years after an oniQn-pro- nouncement from the gardeners of the Pasadena country to this effect:
 It was stated that onions, as a food stuff, had not been valued highly enouGn. No longer were they to be eaten as condiment, or as a relish, for heavier diet. An onion diet was the cheapest and most desirable that could be selected, stated the California bulletin. and forth with the bourgeoisie reelxed and reveled in onions prepared In forty-seven different fashions-but mostly raw. From the time of the issuance of the Pasadena bulle- tin to this good year of our Lord. rela- tions have grown more strained between the rich and the poor. Two reasons may be suggested here completing this es- arrangement: the fact of their cheapness
 Being cheap and common, the ultra-mon- daine will have none of them; being cheap and common the bourgeois clamor for them. So there you are. The dilemma seems to present two horns. Those of the higher circles must learn to eat onions, or those fin the poorer circles must unlearn the habit. How else shall we forward the golden year? If the bourgeoisie will
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-04

sociation. This gentleman appeared to be
 personally conducted by the Hon. Joseph
 w. Bailey, a member of the committee from Texas At least Lawyer Cowan was
 under convoy of Statesman Bailey MT. Cowan has been 8 regular attendant on
 the proceedings of Congress for many years. Impolite folk might be rude enough
 to call him lobbyist
 Well, Cowan reeled off his harangue like shoeing horses, pleading the inferiority of the United States as cattle-rasing coun- try. I did not follow his argument as sat lisfactorily as I had hoped, possibly be- cause of the violent hands he laid on com
 mon sense. As I gathered his story he
 sought to make the committee believe that Canada is a better cattle country than ours because it is warmer. This tremendous way of putting the thing
 seemed to have startled my friend Bill
 Stone a member of the committee from Missouri, who interjected the remark
 from what the cow-lawyer from Texas
 said, and other things told the committee
 the United States must be a very inferior
 country.
 The Honorable Shoot, member of the
 committee from Utah, assured the Mis- sori statesman to this effect: Senator
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-04

me to believe your forbears were any thing but garlicky hucksters.-Dagoesa at thatu'
 onstrated--onions were nutriti- ous, wholesome, I held, and considered so by the best medical authorities.
 He evaded me. Why, damn it, Bealle, that's what's the matter with the slaves of society today. It's onions, onions and nothing but onions that prevent the upper and lower classes from mixin g and living together in brotherly love. Take away onions from the rabble, and you would see the nations embracin g each other-falHng on each other z necks, In the name of all that is un- gracious and smelly, how shall I em- brace my neighbor if he-or she-has lunched on raw onions? l ask you fairly, man to man."
 I think it is miserable form to hurl questions like this at one. Questions of great moment sE ould be carefully considered. The problem was too big for me. I plucked a poppy, and was silent. I knew that he was a junior knew also that more humor than social economy had entered into his making but how shall I tolerate garrulity like tfis? For I had not considered the onion theory factor In class segrega- ton. Is there some copy here for a chap with the all-embracing reach of
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-04

tragic business of habit building. Most of all, so with the habit of believing or rather, not believeing, and so drifting drifting along the paths of the vagrant wind and where the wrecks go down, or where the derelicts float and crash In the fog upon innocent and unwary voyagers. Is 1t not plain fact, un- challengeable and dreadful. that the door does get itself shut and there ia none to open it? The mind itself loses it's elasticity by dlsuse. The stolid muscles grow inflexible; interest and curiosity fall like untimely blossoms
 from the tree, and life grows only wood Wood. woodener and most
 woodenl Doctors and preachers, con
 sciences and memories, promptitude and courage, men, faculties and graces, get lost. go wandering homeless by the l closed doors, where once they passed as | welcome home-comers.
 But there is larger truth too easily l ignored, the truth of the key of saeri- 1 flee, what Ruskin, by another figure, 1 calls the lamp of sacrifice. If we are | on the right road we shall find the | door open in spite of all the laws of | habit and the prophecies of the Jere-
 miah-psychologists If we are on; the | right road, or if we have the secret of the magic key, there is. no duty left
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-04
was on the street car.

TT was on the street car.
 All in one seat, a bunch of three X joyous girls giggled and gggled. Self conscious. merry eyed, shy. but irrepressible. they gurgled and giggled. Giggling things are gregarious. Two or more must be gathered to make a good giggle, and there must be occa- sion for sitting on the gisgle lest it escape noisily
 Giggles must be gagged.
 On the seat in front of me a strait laced woman watched the girls with evident dsapproval. l could distinct ly see how she elevated her nose pres entity to say to the woman next to her, q think girls who giggle on slight provocation are silly and shallow.
 As if a giggle required great provo cation.
 Those girls were bubblng over, and every time they caught one another's eyes-at times they dared not look they could do no other than let OFT steam or burst the boiler
 The gay gigglers.
 They were under pressure both from inside and out---risibles inside and stern glances outside. They Just had to lift something, even as the teaket- tie lid is lifted
 Silly? Shallow?
 
 they were at the frivolous age. but as for being shallow or feeble minded
 Why. they were merely healthy A boy gives vent to his vitality by a whoop or a somersault. but girl must sit on the safety value and let off just a little giggle.
 Let her giggle.
 It is the nature of her When she le older she will have learned to put governor on her risibles.
 Did you ever know a gifted giggler who was a grouch?
 Her effervescent sense of humor is the girls salvation Have care how you try to make a staid lady out of a rhild. She sees humor that you are too old to see or enjoy. She has noth- ing to do hut see things as they are. and things as they are to a healthy minded miss are funny.
 Quench not the spirit.
 Let her giggle. Let her giggle and grew She needs the giggle, and the world needs her.
 Besides
 All too soon will the hlithsome, hub bling soul of hsr be quenched in the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-04

1 consent to leave raw onions religiously
 alone" thinks my Junior friend, then and not till then, may we look for com munal living"
 dare say there are still some altrurians alive who will prosecute this onion-eating habit In this time of class-Warring some solemn pronouncement from Wash lngton might have weight. l note that the Emperor of China has felt 1t his duty to aid in the destruction of the opium habit May we Of the vest not pray fervently that some high edict may issue from the White House to the effect that
 onions shall be prescribed inall the fam flies of the poor? That In all the prov
 inces of the land and i'll all the kitchen gardens of the toilers. every visible onion spear shall be uprootedH
 Cannot some cheaper diet be discovered which will sustain together the souls and bodies of Jim Smith, Tony Spaghetti, Mike Kelly, Olaf Jonson, and all their teemne progeny? (And seriously. who knows but class distinction is fixed by
 just some such weighty CD evil as this?)
 In the good time when onions may
 not any more be trafficked in, perhaps little Hida Yonson and Kate Riley and
 Nazimova Balovsky won't get sniffed at
 during recess by Master Arthur James Montmorency and little Alys Mareare
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-04

be hermit nation and what foreign trade we have Is because we must and not be- cause we would. The cotton crop is our salvation and human ingenuity cannot construct, human ina gination cannot con- ceive, tariff that will protect the cotton planter On the contrary your cotton planter is a hand-and-a-half when 1t comes to paying the protection. Now reciprocity with Canada, or with Mexico nay, absolute free trade with both Of them-would vastly promote the material interests of the cotton planter and the corn planter as well, and he that tells him else insults his intelligence. Even this little dab of free trade with Canada will vastly benefit every farming community of every state Of the union. How any man can oppose it and claim to be a dem ocrat staggers effrontery itself
 But to get back to Herdsman Cowan. He went on to predict In delorous phrase how free trade in cattle would stop the breeding of cattle in the United States and transfer to foreign countries the pro duction of our meats. John Sharp Will Hams was sitting there, deep down in his big arm chair as the late Senator Yes l was fond of reclining, but now he reused
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-04

ish king. That Is one reason. But there Is another and a stronger reason. We have erected a great tariff wall against England, and Canadas tariff against her is insignificant. Then what Is more pat ural than that England should not buy a single steer from us if she can get an adequate supply from Canada or else- where? England will not buy from us and pay cash for cattle as long as she can get them from Canada in exchange for goods. Would farmwife buy a broom from a crossroads merchant who refuses to take eggs in exchange, If another merchant across the street would sell her the broom and take the eggs in payment7 Certainly not. It were better if Lawyer Cowan would assail the tariff, or get his friend Bailey to fight it, a real, not a sham fight.
 And let me tell you another thing. There is not nation on the globe, not a people between earth and sky, who will buy one thing from us that can be had at the same price and under as favorable conditions from anybody else. Economically we are a pariah. a leper. We wage commercial and industrial war against all tongues and all peoples. As to trade we seek to
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-04

make application to the saeristan. who will conduct you to the cathedral crypt Here you will find a chapel. just under the high altar of the church above you. A highly ornamented reredose stands back of the altar. The exterior Of the leredos Is marble. but the interior is wrought of iron. It is not only reredos It Is vault or safe, as well, with three doors. As these doors are successively opened, you see satin lined cave, in the centre of which, upon costly cush- ion, lies the object that has led you to Monza.
 Before the priest removes it so that you may get better look at it. he enters the safe with his surplice and stole upon him, and with vessel of fragrant. smok- ing incense. After censing the object of your interest, he brings it toward the rail where you may examine 1t most closely and with profoundest emotion.
 But what is this object upon which you gaze? It is a crown, the iron crown of Lombardy. the most revered crown in all the world. What is it like? and what makes 1t so sacred? As to the first question: It Is a band of gold about