davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-12

cial organizations and individuals along it's lines a total of 9.451. being more than the amount expended by any enc of the principal railway companies of the United Staes for this purpose, with single exception.
 "Since the end of the last fiscal year, the period covered by the above statis- tics, the Southern Railway company has considerably enlarged the work of it's land and industrial department and mas supplemented 1t by the organization of a cotton culture department, devoted eX- clusvely to cooperating with the United States agricultural department and Inc agricultural commissioners of tn~ states in efforts to bring about larger average yield of cotton per acre and to advise the farmers as to the best meth ods of growing cotton in spite of the Mexican cotton boil weevil in localities where that insect is present.
 ''In addition to this, steps are now be- ing taken still further to enlarge the cooperative development work of the company and increase it's efficiency.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-12

The government mine rescue service be- ing still in an experimental stage, the disaster which befell the crew of the Wilkesbarre car in a burning mine near Scranton should afford valuable pointers toward bringing the mechanism of the safety devices to a higher state of perfec- ton. That the oxygen helmet, for which so much has been claimed did not prove equal to the severe test to which it was put seems undeniable. Poisonous gases in d state of intense heat were present ill quantities sufficient to deal instant death to the fleeing miners, and upon approach ing the fiery source of the vapors the res cue crew, too, was overcome. pr. Holmes of the bureau of mines attributes the fail ure of the helmet to a chemical combina- tion of oxygen and mine gases, producing | conditions no less fatal to wearers of the helmet than to those not so protected The explanation probably is correct. but | it is in the nature of a revelation to be told that the helmet has it's limitations and may itself virtually become an in strument of death. Feeling himself strangling, Richard Evans, the rescue man who lost his life, wrenched the hel-
 
 met from his head in an effort to escape its tolls.
 | Every cause has it's martyrs" ob- served Dr. Holmes, "and Evans is our first" It is to be added that the mine rescue service was put to it's first crucial test at Scranton. It has figured in the work of lfe-saving at other points of dis aster, but owing to lack of opportunity | to demonstrate it's usefulness when taxed | to the utmost, no data on which to base | conclusions had been made available The | oxygen helmet is of foreign origin and has been employed in mine accidents In Europe with good results. There is no apparent reason why native ingenuity and riper experience should not evolve sys- tenn that would reduce the risks of the mining industry to the minimum.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-12
PAVLOWA'S PET

From the New York Telegraph
 Ffdo whimpered a dismal farewell to his mistress, Anna Pavlowa, the danseuse who left on the Mauretania for London after concluding a successful season in America. He was forsaken thrown in the discard, replaced in the affection of his mistress by Goosh Who is Goosh Goosh is the young alligator which was presented to the dancer by the mayor of New Orleans and has been adopted as a mascot by Pavlowa, who cast aside the dog which she brought over here to act in that capacity.
 Mime. Pavlowa is enthusiastic over her new pet and has delegated two maids to care for the reptile, which is by no means gentle and shows great antipathy to any one who approaches within striking dis tance. The creature is as gentle as a lamb, however when Pavlowa is near. 1t is 30 inches long and has body so slen Ger that it resembels a snake
 Before sailing Pavlowa made special ar engagements for the comfort of Goosh on the boat. She procured a colapsible rub Der tub, such as is used for a babyls bath and this will be used as a swimming pool by the alligator. The reptile will be looked after as carefully as a child and the dan- seuse will see to it that it wants for noth- ing on the voyage.
 The dancer believes that the alligator brings her good luck and the last thing she does before leaving the theatre is to stroke it. At home the reptile acts as bodyguard, and will not let anyone get near Pavlowa. It snaps and misses at the | approach of a stranger and only cools 1 down when the danseuse passes her | fingers quickly time after time over it's forehead between the eyes in a hypnotic l caress.
 Pavlowa has great faith in mascots. l When she agreed to come to this country last year she had nineteen dogs Her manager had a hard time persuading her to leave the animals at home, as she
 wanted to bring them all over with her. She was finally prevailed upon to bring only one, and Fido acted as mascot until supplanted by the alligator
 l The danseuse will go direct to London on her arrival on the other side to lil engagements, and will soon start makn z | arrangements for the new dances which she hopes to have ready when she comes | back to this country in October
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-12

induce the children to study the new Bird Book until they become ashamed to cast even a rock at one of the states song birds. These birds are of great economic value. They are also beautiful, and the hope is. that every child will become a friend and defender of the states splendid birds.
 Commissioner Wallace has certain ly done his part well in preparing the 1911 Bird Day Book. He presents to the people a book that is work of art as well as a work in defense of mans feathered allies. It should be placed in every library and, if the edition will permit, on every table. It is as neat and almost as tuneful as the mocking bird itself.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-12
Local Taxation for Schools

The senate has refused to grant the necessary three-fifths vote in order to submit to the people a constitu- tional amendment authorizing local taxation for school purposes. After the bill had been amended so as to make the county instead of the school district the unit Senators Espy, Mill Ter, Moody, Norman, Plowman, Rem fro, Spragins, Sprott, Stokes and Tunstall would not let the people say what they prefer in this matter. They stepped in between the schools that 100000 children attend and the peo- pie.
 The resolution as it stands in the senate was emasculated at the in stance of Senator Tunstall, and it is perhaps best that it was defeated, for when the subject comes up again the people who send their children to the public schools will demand the right of local taxation on a district basis. Some districts want better schools than other districts do, and those dis tricts that are willing to pay for bet ter schools should be permitted to have them. The black belt policy of increasing the state school fund to a maximum should not be permitted to interfere with local taxation.
 The battle for district taxation to supplement all state and county funds in many localities is but begun. The example of a few localities in each county would be felt throughout the state, and friends of progressive pub lie education for the 100000 children in the state that attend public schools will line up for local taxation on dis trict lines.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-12
Non-Political City Government

Senator Lafayette Young of Iowa is a standpatter who is filling a gap temporarily in the Senate. He is not a reformer or insurgent; nevertheless he upholds the commission plan of government as it has existed for three years in his home city, Des Moines. And yet the Des Moines law includes the initiative and referendum and the recall. Senator Young, standpatter though he be, indorses them all for use in municipal governments.
 MT. Young says the commission form of government is the application of business common sense to munich pal affairs. Governing municipah" ties," he says, lis a business propo sition and is in no sense political. Gut out the city hall; cut out the city council"
 When Commissioner Lane declared in connection with an application for sanitary inspector that the applica- tion twill be given careful and ac- curate consideration. I will have talk with Dr. Nelson, health officer, and if we make any decision I will notify you. But, gentlemen, there will be no need of any political in- fluence in this regard. This commits sion will not be swayed by anything savoring of the political" If the com mission will work up to these declar- ations of Commissioner Lane it will give this city ideal government. The Lane policy seems almost too good for this part of the world at any rate. An American city governed on a strictly business basis regardless of politicians has heretofore existed in the brains of dreams only, but Com missioner Lane, speaking evidently for his colleagues, practically says it is to crystalize into fact even here. We'll, let us live and hope. Des Moines may be outdone down here in Dixieland.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-12
THE WINE OF CAMPAGNE

From the Washington Post.
 The French government has decreed
 that in future the name of champagne" title that falls but little short of royal, shall be legtimately applied only to wines produced from the grapes actually grown in the enchanted territory thus renomi- nated As this comprises not more than 45 GOO acres in the neighhorhood of RheIms, some 75 miles northeast of Paris, there may naturally be anticipated a mighty falling off in the output of the real arti- cle, and corresponding enhancement in
 it's price.
 But this is not all. If reports be true, there has been practically no genuine champagne vintage for four years past. None was produced in 19l0 and the three years preceding gave very poor returns. Whence came, then. the purling, heady beverage that has delighted the rolliclSing roysterer at so much per delight? No an- swer. That, evidently, is one of the se-
 crets of the trade at which the French law is about to strike it's deadly blow.
 There are wines and wines. Some are
 like the glorious draught which Dona-
 tello gave his friend. of such evanescent
 bouquet that it cannot be transported,
 but must be drunk as the joyous bubbles rise fresh from the depths of the glass and under the purple shadows of It's na-
 tive hills. The kingly champagne, how ever carries it's sparkle and its vigor with it wherever. it may travel. The genii are in the bottle, and when the cork is drawn it serves the wooer as did the genii of old the Arabian fisherman-first a pleas
 ant and misty vapor. then a tangible shape, and at the end an overpowering monster, too great for any mortal man to cope with. This is usually realized on
 the following morning, together with the headache.
 But so long as the consumer, especially the indulgent American consumer, is will ing to pay the price, why should he not have at least a choice of labels? It does not matter so much about the milk with in the cocoanut if the hair outside be agreeable to the optic nerve. If we are still willing to come across with the need-
 ful. why should a peevish French gov ernment withhold cherished privilege on the insufficient grounds that the beverage is not the blood of grape grown from a Chalky SOIL! IT HOt cfidih' iHSH ioFos and if not lava, then any old earth; but let us have the cherished title. rose by another name may smell as sweet, out rose" is a most attractive name,
 and so is "champagne,' pregnant with promise, a very mouthful of anticIpatory relish.
 An Easter hat at $50 is a darling; the same confection at $7 would be fright. So with champagne. Inhuman laws have taken away from us our pure Vermont maple sugar and our apple-jack and sub- stituted therefor glucose and fusel OH;
 and the great question, What Is
 whisky?'' is still unsettled. But that is no reason why France should become Wiley
 izerl and the noble army of American in-
 dulgers perish in desert of unquench-
 able thirst for want of name and label.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-12
Birmingham's Prosperity

Since the first of November l have visited 15 states of the union. Since the first of January I have been in all of the states south of the Potomac, said Harvey Wilson of Washington D. c.
 Florida seems to be the most bouy- ant of the southern states. and next to that Alabama. Those men who see Florida for the first time wonder how it is that prosperity is so much in evidence In that state, but old stagers like myself attribute this thrift to the fact that the majority of the peo- pie of Florida opposed the constitu- tional prohibition amendment, and helped defeat the amendment.
 Birmingham is a much finer look ing city today than it was 10 years ago. The legislature has provided a way to get out of the blind tiger bus mess. Birmingham will act in due time and l am certain that when I visit this city 12 years hence the legalized liquor traffic will have been thorough 1y esta blished."
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-12
Demonstration Farms in the South

The death of Dr. s. A. Knapp, who had charge of all demonstration work, will not interfere with the efficiency of farm reform. The well-trained son of Dr. Knapp has been appointed suc- cessor to his father. He was his fathers assistant, and Secretary Will son is confident he will fill the re- sponsible post without loss of energy or loss of practical skill.
 When we consider that the head of the demonstration work has more than 800 agents to supervise-that he has to hold them up to a system of practical farming in accordance with science, we see at once that he has no light task. The new head of the ser vice is said to be in touch with all the agents in the field to an extent that will enable him to win them over to his own sense of better farming.
 The south has much at stake in the cooperative demonstration work that is being conducted jointly by Uncle Sam and John D. Rockefeller. The two constitute strong team and they may after a while be able to induce the farmers of the south to blow deeply and to cultivate a crop thor oughly afterward. A demonstration farm properly conducted speaks for itself, and when a farmer sees re- suits, knowing how it was obtained, he is very apt to do good deal of thinking and to apply as occasion serves his conclusions to his own farm. Bradford Knapp, the head of the work, will emulate his fathers labors, and Secretary Wilson is con- fident the service will be carried on hereafter efficiently.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-12
Robbing the Cotton Farmer

To please the western farmer and to win his vote the framers of the Aldrich tariff placed binder twine on the free list. This twine continues to be made in this country, but it is made and sold at reasonable prices. No tariff rate is added to its price, and the price of binder twine must be reasonable, else foreign-made twine would be brought in. No trust can we'll be formed, and if one were formed it could not put up the price of twine beyond reasonable profit
 Not so with the ties and bagging used by southern farmers. These bear heavy duties and prices are showed by home manufacturers right up to the tariff point. The cotton farmers are, in this way, taxed about one million dollars a year, and the money goes into the pockets of trusts and not into the treasury.
 The tariff is about to be revised in the interest of consumers rather than of the trusts and monopolies, and every southern congressman should stand like stone wall against a con- tinuance of the unjust discriminating tax against southern farmers. Either the duties should be taken off ties and bagging or else a duty should be inn posed on binder twine. The southern farmer should be treated as well as the western farmer.
 The bagging trust has brought a suit which, if won, will give it an ab- solute monopoly of all bagging. The trust would then impose tax of 21 cents on every bale. The tie manu- facturers now get 27 cents bale. A tax of AS cents would be exorbitant, especially when it would go to swell the profits of the bagging and tie trusts.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-12
ALABAMA,S VARIATIONS

From the.I Philadelphia Public Ledger
 The action of the Alabama legislature in eracting county-option law to regulate the liquor traffic is the most serious blow received by the prohibitionists since the wave of prohibition swept the south ten years ago. Alabama had the most dras- tic statewide prohibition law in the coun- try. The agitation since this. enactment has been extremely acute, dividing the democrats into bitter irreconcilable fac tions. The antis finally succeeded in elect ing a governor, and the legislature has now passed a bill which provides that i5 per cent of the voters of any county may whether liquor shall be sold in that coun- ty by saloons. dispensary or otherwise.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-12
GAY LIFE IN ST. PETERSBURG
Princess Non Racowitza.

fflHcesS NOn RacOWltZa.
 l loved the nightly troika drives, with their mad speed through the snow, eleaming brightly in the darkness; the fabulous luxury at the end of them, when, in some splendid restaurant far away from the capital, a magnificent repast with costly wines would be served to en- trancing Gypsy music, which made every one, especially non-Russians, forget all the fatigue of the drive. The wonderful attraction of all these things seemed drawn from some fairy kingdom.
 Then came the long white nights so loved by the people of the north-but which told terribly on my nerves-when Russians expect that they and their friends are to regard sleep and fatigue as nonexistent;' when activity is trans ferred from the troikas to the Neva, which is covered with small steamers and when there is a life and brightness on the river which only St. Petersburg knows.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-12
Bird Day Book

Commissioner Wallace's new Bird Day Book is credit to the state and an inducement to the study of the birds of the state. Superintendent of Education Willingham is placing the beautiful and carefully edited pamphlet in the hands of the school children as preparation for Bird Day, which occurs this year on May 4, the birthday anniversary of John James Audubon, the greatest bird lover and naturalist the country has ever known.
 May is to be observed as holi- day in the public schools of the state, and the hope is that the teachers will
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-12
THE YOUNG MAY MOON

By Thomas Moore. The young May moon is beaming love- The glow-wolms lamp is gleaming, love,
 How sweetsto rove
 Through Mornas grove, ~ When the drowsy world Is dreaming, love! Then awalSe.--th heavens look bright.
 my dear, ss .f.4
 And the best of all ways
 To lengthen our days Is to steal a few hours from the night.
 my dear.
 Now all the world is sleeping, love, But the Sage, his star-watch keeping, love. t'sts And l whose star, More glorious far. &s4 Is the eye from that easement peeplng. love. sl. Then awake!-till rise of sun, my dear. The Sage's glass we'll shun, my dear, Or in watching the flight sf7 Of bodies of light, He might happen to take thee for one. my dear.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-12
Corey as an Advertisement

Every visitor to Birmingham exclaims regarding the beauty of our landscape eff fleets and of the arrangements of our model city of Corey" said Robert Jemi- son, Jr.
 When the Corey company started to build Corey the idea was to have a model city there, but we became interested as the work went on and today everybody IS thoroughly imbued with the idea that a model city must have as it's basis beauty as well as utility. Corey will advertise Birmingham as it has never been adver- tised before.'
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-12
ADRIFT WITH THE TIMES
THE GOAL OF HAPPINESS.

THE GOAL OF HAPPINESS. He slipped away from Trouble Across lifes stormy plain. But Trouble followed on his trail And dragged him back again. Then all his days were gloomy And all his nights were drear; No kindly ray illumed his path, No gladness did appear. Until he swore, By heaven!
 I'll slip away again And seek the land of promise, through The sunshine and the rain" He journeyed on, still hoping
 For fame and wealth's increase, And after weary, weary years.
 He found the realm of Peace, Where fame is just a bubble And wealth sign of thrall; And sweet content rules every heart And love is all in all.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-12

rear platform of an observation car, to native son seated on the station platform at Jiggersville. "Y-a-a-as,' drawled the native son, "Jiggersville don't show up much. it's true, but whole lot of people have heard aoout this town an sometimes tourists stop off here to spend the day. | You surprise me. What on earth could ever induce tourists to visit this placer See that little cottage over there where the road turns?'' Yes" 5te
 Well, that's the place where Fly Bung, the famous baseball pitcher, was born.'
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-12
HARDEST JOB IN WASHINGTON

| Sydney Brooks in Harper's Weekly. The Dutch propose to strengthen their already adequate maritime de- fences by spending upon them and upon the navy some s20.o0o000: to leave their land defences in their present weak, neglected, and unsatisfactory condition: and to convert Flushing into formidable naval base and arsenal, thus dominating the mouth of the Schedt and blocking access to the port of Antwerp. Their scheme, in short, is precisely what 1t would be if they were expecting naval attack from Great Britain, if they had abandoned any fear that their neutrality might be violated by Germany. and If they were determined to exercise decisive con trol over the destinies of Belgium. Moreover the note accompanying the introductio1f9 of the bill appeared to indicate naval cooperation with some other power as one of the contingencies which its framers had in view, and the power in question, 1t was at once inferred, could only be Germany.
 The conclusion which Europe all but unanimously drew from this startling development of Dutch policy was that the statesmen of the Netherlands had somehow or other been enticed by the Wilhelmstrasse within the orbit of German influence. The government of the Netherlands have emph atically de- nied that their scheme owed anything whatever to foreign pressure or inspir- ( carried a more than limited confidence. It is clear, In the first place, that Ger many and Germany alone benefits by the proposals put forward in the Dutch defence bill. Among the English, the French, and the Belgians. they have aroused considerable and legitimate dis quietude. so much so that the French minister of foreign affairs declared, Q few weeks ago, that the projected for tification of Flushing entails conver- sations between the various powers which are called upon to guarantee the neutrality of Belgium" Among those powers is Germany herself. and it was to Germany that M. Pichon's remarks were mainly addressed The conver- sations he proposed would, he added be quite amicable and could nowhere be misinterpreted. Germany, however, frigidly refused to discuss the matter in any way, and even affected to regard M. Pichon's proposal as a curtailment of the sovereign rights of the Nether- lands. The present position, therefore is that, while there is no proof, there is strong suspicion that Germany is the true author of the Dutch defence bill.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-12
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
Democratic Nomination For pre.iden.

Democratic Nomination For Presidency
 It is safe to say that s5 per cent of those men who vote regularly in pres idential elections are predicting that Governor Harmon will be the demo- cratic standard bearer in 1912" said J. IL southran of Providence. R. l.
 But I have an idea that a dark horse will be nominated. According to my idea Woodrow Wilson would make the greatest President since Tn homas Jefferson. But I would not bet much that Wilson would be the nominee Politics have always been uncertain, and are more uncertain today than ever before. Yet I would think 1t safe prediction that Woodrow Wilson's progressive ideas would come nearer winning than the views of any other man."