davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-18
First Visit to Birmingh ham

This is my first visit to Birmingham, and I am agreeably surprised in what I find here in the way of a progressive city, said William Fell Kirk, manager of the McLanahan- Stone Machine com pany, Hollidaysburg. Pa. Everybody hears a great deal about Birmingham, and while I had known that it had made wonderful strides, it is far better built city than had imagined, and the wonder ful part of it is that Birmingham is a very young place-young as cities go. am told it is not quite 40 years old. l haven't had time to go sightseeing through the residence sections, but I can readily believe when I look at the noun tain that the landscape effects must be very beautiful Birmingham has great future. Nothing can keep it back.
 My little town of Hollidaysburg is about 90 miles from Altoona. It is quite thrifty place, but its chief interest lies in its historic character. Some of our early landmarks are preserved, and one of the things we point out to visitors is an old burying ground where rest the bones of many men massacred by the Indians
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-18
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
As an Industrial Center

An official of the census bureau
 writes me that the manufacturing sta tistics collected in the Birmingham dis
 trict will be compiled and issued in bulletin form within the next few weeks said a member of the Cham Der Of Commerce. This statistical re- port is being awaited with deep inter- est, for it is to be much more com prehensive than that of the 1900 cen sus. In 1910 for the first time the census bureau had the immediate Bir- mingham district taken as man ufacturing unit instead of taking merely the industrial statistics inside of the city limits as in previous cen suses. Notwithstanding that Birming- ham Is an industrial center the largest in the south. it made a poor exhibit in the manufacturing tables of the 1910 census because our largest industries were outside of the city boundary lines.
 This time. I understand that Bir- mingham will be credited with prac- tically all the industrial activity of Jefferson county. This district has made wonderful gain in the matter of small industries. The census report will be an agreeable Surprise to many; but there is room for improvement. The movement to locate additional small industries Is one of the most import ant ever undertaken by our business men,"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-18
Healthy Business Conditions

While general trade is compara- lively quiet, business conditions are sound, and much solid prosperity is promised between now and summer. There has been decided improvement in the steel business recently; and the iron market, always a good com mercial barometer, is becoming brisk CT every day.
 A month ago there was consid- erable tonnage of Birmingham iron contracted for at $lo.50 on No. 2 basis; still later, notwithstanding a firmer tone, $11 was shaded. Today no iron can be bought in this district for less than $11. There has been a marked gain for furnace interests in the statistical situation. One of the iron market reports just issued stresses this point and says: There is great joy among the iron masters because the statistics of one of the large sectional furnace associations show that stocks on the yard have decreased while orders have ma terially increased" The report goes on to say that it has been admitted for some time that "the only thing which now could really hold back the market was the accumulation of iron in furnace yards" Throughout 1910 furnace stocks increased, but now the tide begins to turn, and iron masters hail this change in the sta tistical showing as the beginning of the end of the low prices"
 There was a relatively large fur mace stock reduction in the Birning- ham district in February, and the more active demand for iron will cause a still further reduction in March. While the price of iron is not likely to jump up, as would have been the case had the interstate com merce commission allowed an ad vance in freight rates, thereby put ting the railroad companies in position to become he ny buyers of equipment at once, $11.50 or SIP will be the quotation nevertheless in the near future. There is certainly every reason to expect a normal iron business with fair profits the second half of the year. Many furnaces now idle will be in blast, and high tide of prosperity will be in evidence here abouts.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-18
A ROMANTIC ACTOR

James Douglas, Adventures in London"
 MT. Forbes-Robertson is the most TO- mantle actor of our time. By romance do not mean wig and patch, sword and cape. velvet and bright iron. I mean the spirit of beauty, the soul of loveliness, the ghost of grace. There are many pseudo-romantic actors who can interpret the tawdry banalities of pseudo-romance. But Forbes-Robertson alona can interpret the deeper mysteries of the higher TO- nance, the romance of the poets, the TO- nance of the mystics, the romance of the dreamers. His voice vibrates with the mysteries of spiritual knowledge and the secrets of imaginative experience His eyes are filled with the light that never was on sea or land. His lonely nobility makes you think of mighty poets in their misery dead, of Shelley and Keats and Rossetti and Francis Thompson, for he is the incarnation of romantic poetry, the embodiment of gentle fantasy, the im- age of visionary mystery.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-18
Large and Important Convention

I am delighted that we are to be hon. ored by having the fourth National Good Roads Congress meet in Birmingham" said Job Going, president of the Board of Revenue and an active member of the Alabama Good Roads association. q un- derstand that delegates from every state, county and city in the United States, and every automobile, agricultural, con- mercial, education, good roads, industrial, labor transportation and women's organ ization has been invited to attend this congress.
 ''If only 10 delegates come from each of these organizations and the same num- Der from each state, county and city, we will certainly have a great attendance. I am looking forward with a great deal of interest to the gathering of the good roads experts who will be in attendance and give us practical thoughts and sugges- tions about building roads. To hear these men who have built and know how to build good roads will be trip worth the time and the money spent in bringing delegates to Birmingham and by the dele gates themselves. feel certain that tho business people of Birmingham will give much attention in this convention and entertain in a manner that is becoming city of our national reputation
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-18
Alabama's Superior Coal

The recent trip of torpedo boats to Mobile during the Mardi Gras festivi- ties led to contest between West Virginia and Alabama coal as they steamed away. The Mobile Item procured in detail the results of the contest, as follows:
 On the first day out, weather fair, from Key West to Norfolk, the Smith used 93 tons of Pocahontas coal, mak- ing 49S miles in "A hours, with an average speed of 1872 miles per hour, or 5.0S miles per ton of coal used.
 On the first day out, weather fair, weather cloudy and rough, the Smith used 50 tons of Pratt, Alabama, coal, making 451 miles in "A hours, at an average speed of 1872 miles, or 7.52 miles per ton of coal used.
 On the first day out the Preston, with Pocahontas coal as fuel, used TO tons, making 49S miles at the same speed average as the Smith, or a total mileage per ton of I'll. On the second day the vessel, using Pratt, Alabama, coal, used 60 tons, making 451 miles at an average of 1872 miles, or 7.52 miles per ton used.
 All this has become matter of record in the navy, and it should be held up and repeated until the fabri- cations concerning the alleged super iority of West Virginia are dissi- pated. No coal in this country out ranks coal from the Pratt seam in steam-making qualities. Alabama coal has been slandered, but the day of unjust aspersions in this matter i5 nearly ended, and Alabama coal is steadily going into its own proper field.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-18

From the Philadelphia Inquirer.
 Great Britain contains the bones of the oldest man in the world. His years are fixed at 10000 by 'an eminent scientist, although he admits that he may be 10000 or so years out of the way. A little error of 10000 years may not seem much to scientist but as a fact it covers all and more of recorded history. There isn't a scrap of writing, or anything of the sort, which is 1O.0O0 years old, so far as we are aware.
 Hence, it is very interesting to learn that a man lived in England so long ago and that his bones have managed to survive One wonders why others of the race haven't been so fortunate. The ear Hest Briton of whom we have any knowl- edge whatever lived only G00 years ago, and even if we take myth and fable into consideration these would add but com paratively few centuries. A few such re- mains have been found in various parts
 of Europe, but up to the present they nave been given the comparatively youth
 ful age of 6O.0OO years. so that the Briton wins by large margin.
 | OA about the ordinary type of today, and l the skull is good enough and with brain capacity enough for some living scholars. Now the point is that if a man of much
 the modern type lived 10000 years ago,
 how far back must we go to find the time wher our ancestors lived in trees and
 were either monkeys or cousins of those
 who developed into monkeys while we as- cended the ladder. Millions of years are asked for by the scientific sharps and
 we give them cheerfuly. Far be it from
 Us to deny any of the discoveries of science, but We must say that it took the human race an awful long time to do any | thing worth mentioning. For a few mil | lions of years life must have been par | ticuularly dull from the intellectual stand | point. It makes us a little ashamed that
 we haven't done more.
 l However, the point is of less importance than the future problem of the race. How are we going to see that our de- scendants improve in knowledge, in wis., | ldom, in culture and morals? We can't
 do much for those who are to live 17O0W years hence, but we may do a whole lot for such as are on earth today and to
 whom we are bound by many obligations | and responsibilities. And there is work
 enough involved in those to keep us so 1 busy that we need not worry over our an- cestors of 100000 years ago. And just suppose that we didn't have any such ancestors at all!
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-18
Prizes for Corn Growers

In addition to the prizes offered by the state department of agriculture to corn growers, the Central railroad of Georgia comes forward with 21 county prizes and one state prize. To the boy who secures the best results in his county from the cultivation of an acre of corn the railroad will pay $25. As the Central railroad of Georgia passes through 21 Alabama counties, that many prizes are of fered to our boy corn growers. To the boy who secures the best result in the 21 counties will also be award Cd the best mule that can be pur- chased for $250.
 The best corn grower in the 2l counties may secure therefore about $500 in prizes offered by the state end by the Central railroad of Geor- H1a. The other railroads have not been heard from.
 In offering the railroad prizes Vice President Winburn saysy While every boy winning cash county
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-18
The German Singers

'In reading an account of the big Saengerfest to be held in Milwaukee next June I recalled some of the earlier Of these great musical events" said an old music lover.
 'In my youth lived in small town, and the first large orchestra ever heard was at the Saengerfest held in St. Louis in 1870. There were by actual count 163 musicians in the orchestra, and besides the classic overtures which were played on that occasion I heard a great deal of Wagners music, which was not as la miliar then, of course, as it is now. could not enjoy Wagner on a first hear ing. But this was not true in my case. listened to The Ride of the Valkyries,' selections from Tannhauser, Lohen- grim The Flying Dutchman,' 'Meister; singer 'Das Rheingold,' and Tristan and Isolde, with as much rapture as when I heard the same music in New York and Europe years later At that St. Louis Saengerfest the mass chorus, as I remember it, had not less than 1000 voices. The fest lasted an entire week and wound up at night with brilliant social gath ering in large wooded park.
 ~The Saengerfests held from time to time have done & great deal to promote the cause of good music in this country, and music lovers will not fail to acknowl- edge debt of gratitude to the German Americans who started these events at time when the standard of musical art in this country was quite low"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-18
 AGE-HERALD IN LINE

From the Mobile Item.
 The Birmingham Age-Herald has fallen into line with the ideas advanced by the Item as to the worth of Alabama coal in comparison with that product from the mines of Virginia. The recent editorial in the Item on this subject has met the ap- proval of the organ of the mining dis trict, and 1t favors the sentiments ex- pressed by this paper as to the superior ity of the Alabama black diamond for fuel purposes.
 With the government approval given for the product; with the assurahce in the near future of Mobile being made the first coallng port in the United States; with all other Inducements for advance ment, it is for those most interested to take the initiative and hold out the en- couraging hand to the Hoadley interests and all other interests seeking to enter here and invest their capital.
 There is much to be gained by concert ed action on the part of the people in the matter of bringing capital into this city and section. The commercial interests can bring about good results. It's up to you, gentlemen.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-18
It is not enough to speak, but to speaii true.
 -Mid-summed Nights Dream.
First Avenue yiaduct in Doubt


 The railroads will not build the First avenue viaduct unless the legls- lature authorizes the City Council to close certain streets in the neighbor- hood. The city authorities desire the passage of the pending bill. So do the railroads. So do all concerned except a handful of interests who are determinedly opposing plan devised for the good of very many in this city.
 The entire eastern end of this city is daily interested in the crossings in First avenue. So long as the Sloss furnaces remain where they are at present so long will the streets in- volved in this controversy be of little use. No one proposes to change the location of the Sloss furnaces, and no one should therefore object to the closing of some streets in that quar- ter of the city.
 This is an important matter. To aggregate the easterly end of the city is serious proposition. It surely will not be permitted, for this end of the city is a great residence district, a district full of people who come to the city every morning and go back every evening. The safety and even the convenience of these people should be considered.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-18
LIST A FEW NAMES

From the New York Press
 Manning the baby is in most families, quiet properly, serious affair, in which every member is interested. No name can be too beautiful, too poetic, too melodious, for that small, pink-faced person to bear through life; no name can be associated with too illustrious a parsonage Of his tory, too fascinating character in TO- nance From the great G. w. and King Arthur downward, baby is good enough to be anybody's namesake.
 Such is the usual attiture of parents, with which the world sympathizes while it smiles. Nevertheless, it is surprising to what names and conjunctions of names, reckless or cruelty jocular parents will condemn their children. English records of recent years reveal that Robert New named his two sons Nothing and Some thing. Mr. Mixer, MT. Peel and MT. Codd named their respective babies Pepper, Lemon and Salt; while MT. Wares little girl became China and MT. Gentle's Al ways.
 An appeal for legal change of name al- lowed the general public to learn that the brothers Pigg bore the Christian names Black, Brown, Gay and Chimney! Their request, 1t is needless to say, was prompt ly granted. The unfortunate twins Sud- den Death and Jolly Death showed a yet further abuse of parental privilege in their cognomens; but they did not change them.
 Practical joking at the expense of help less infants is certainly unpardonble. It is said to be less rare in this country than across the water, although James S.. Hogg, governor of Texas, named his daughter Ina. Every one in society in Texas knows Ima Hogg.
 An extraordinary instance of the be- stowal of striking names upon a whole family of 10 children was reported re- gently. MT. and Mrs. Million of Oregon could never, it seems, quite agree upon names entirely satisfactory to both, so as a matter of convenience they had re- sorted to numbers.
 The official of a financial concern says that when the names of subscribers to the bond issue proposed by that concern were sent In one was that of Ten Million. It was naturally supposed to be an as- sumed name, and a letter was sent to the address given, rather sharply stating that bonds could be registered in real names only, and that no further attention would be paid to his subscription unless he gave his real name.
 An explanatory note was soon received from MT. Million, written upon paper bearing the printed letterhead of firm of Million & Million, reiterating his own name, and adding those of his brother and sisters, One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven (his partner), and the rest. As the Million chidren-that is, as the 10 Mill Ion-at least, as the 10 children by the name of Million grew up-most of them, he admitted, had modified their numeral prefixes; the Misses One and Three Mill lion, for example, becoming Nina and Trio, while Ten himself was commonly known as Tenis.4 Legally, however his name still remained unchanged, and in the eyes of the law he was Ten Million.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-18
FANCY PRICE FOR A SONG

rToIH tHe LonuOn Oaiiy Mdll.
 Since we published an interesting ar ticle about song writing wes have been inundated with letters from people anx- ious to win fame and fortune with their lyrics. There is no doubt that a popular comic song is money making affair. Her Golden Hair Was Hanging Down Her Back earned e0.000 for the author and publisher; The Bogey Manv cleared about half that sum. and the pathetic ballad. Break the News to Mother. T brought in R4000,
 Forty thousand pounds was the sur.l yielded in one year from Queen of My Heart" and the royalties from such songs as 'The Man That Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo" "The Rowdy Dowdy Boys." and ''Ta~ra-ra-boom-de-ay!' which took the world by storm. ran into tens of thousands. Sir Arthur Sullivan received fi0.00o in royalties from "The Lost Chord" and My Pretty Jane fetched e20oO line. while the copyright of For All Eternity" was sold fol R22lo.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-18
Reciprocity Without Amendment


 Congress is to meet two weeks from next Tuesday. The session was called to ratify the reciprocity agree ment, and there is no reason why ratification should not be speedily accomplished. In a weeks time the agreement should go through.
 Not only should the agreement be ratified without delay but it should be ratified without amendment. Any amendment calls for new action in Canada-for a new agreement-and every friend of reciprocity should urge representatives and senators to accept the agreement as it stands.
 The reciprocity agreement is a measure that will prove a great boon to consumers, and it's acceptance may lead to similar agreements with other American countries. It looks toward a freer trade and lower prices-to- ward a modification of the tariff wall and the holding up of home prices to a high tariff limit. It sub stitutes low rates for high rates of duty and in the cases of articles of everyday necessary use it offers free trade. It is a measure that is excel lent so far as it goes. It modifies Aldrichism and the people, desire an early ratification of the agreement without any amendment whatever.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-18
RUSSIAN CHARACTER

From Princess Von Racowitza's Autobi-
 ography.
 One sees in this remarkable people more contradictory traits of character than in any other. To stranger each person Is as much of an enigma as the whole peo- pie; good natured even to sacrifice, yet withal cruel and without compassion; clever and with brilliant mind. and at the same time capable of doing the maddest and n1ost stupid things: cour- ageous and ready to do heroic deeds. yet capable of cowardly lying in order to evade some trining unpleasantness; true and false. active and energetic. yet in- describably lazy; at once capable of the highest and lowest qualities. mixture of the best and the worst-such is the Rus sian!
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-18

government. Now Woodrow Wilson is making model governor, and he would make an ideal president. But Governor Harmon is | more conservative statesman than Wilson, and is exceptionally strong in the financial world. If the democrats in Congress make a good record between now and next summer 1t will be safe bet that the next President will be dannoerafb
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-18
REFLECTIONS OF A BACHELOR

From the New York Press.
 There's lot of gasoline wasted In fam fly arguments.
 It seems as If women would rather be married than happy.
 The more people can talk about the weather the less they can think about use- ful things.
 A man who will describe others az not knowing enough to come in out of the rain will himself not have sense enough to quit speculating.
 What you like about q woman Is you never know what sine is going to do; and what you don't like about man is some. times you do know.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-18
The Iron Market

.There is very decided improvement in the local iron market. Inquiries are more numerous, and they are brisker and brisker every day. Matthew Addy & Co.'S Cincinnati report says in part:
 ''There is growing disposition on the part of the furnaces to demand prices that have some little margin in them. In fact, one of the real developments of the week has been the 'firming up of prices and the refusal of the furnaces to listen to offers which a month ago would have been gladly accepted
 Business has not been of phenomenal volume so far this month, but 1t has been of good character. and prices have been far more satisfactory than in January Things have stopped going down and have started up, and the situation prom ises to improve. No one is expecting a great, immediate splurge. but that thingI will go slowly but surely forward Is the confident expectation of those who should know"