davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-02

fleet, all, as King Henry V observes with poetic passion. made in Eng land" Beyond was the Bay of Alex andria where, a little while before. fatuous bombardment had taken place with the fatuous aim "to smash the the desert to hypnotise the tribesmen. land" and not with much approval eHher. But at any rate l could wave my right hand to the west and say, "England," and, emerging from the Canal, could wave my left hand toward Alden and say, England" So IL went on. The Empire Is a tremendous. om- nipresent Fact, and it makes for racial smugness, pharisaism, superiority. and I fear also. hateful priggshness.
 What is hopeful Is the saturatlon of the Empire. with Democracy. How make democracy and imperial author ity lie down together. that lamb with that wolf, Is particularly the problem of this age. How are we to induct the Filipino people into self government? :? How can India be led along that path? To answer that question rightly Is to justify the Empire. the Coronation Festival, the sword of state, the Beau champs. the Robertses, and the Iiitch- eners.
 It may be that all this somewhat popinjay performance. the Coronation. can be made sympathetic with the broadest. most modern. most scientific service of the weak and the degraded and the forgotten. If so. I suppose it
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-02

, justifying the stupidities of our ances- tors, the follies and superstitions that
 are really outgrown. its revival would be a curse. But pageantry that is hon. estly employed as a function of race
 memory has much in it's favor. Just
 now 1t tends to partake of the half matched democracy of our time, when
 man Is being taught by Duke Have meyer and Duke Balfour that the people" are a vague inferior mass
 whose chief right it Is to be a back = ground of the aeonial stage on which
 ducal, royal, hereditarily majestic and monetarily replete Halls and Falsraffs
 may cut appropriate capers
 Few men outside of England have yet realized how strenuous is the en- deavor of the English conservatives to re-establish the supreme rights of the aristocracy. Few who do not catch the accents of the rich American, whose family seeks alliance with Euro pean nobles, can conceive their bearin 2 on the doctrines of our Declaration of Independence. Justin Mccarthy long ago said that references to "the peo- pie" were already meaningless bun combe. But Duke Havemeyer has re- vived the usage. The real peril of th e | newbirth of pageantry therefore is lest it should blind the people to the tyrannies, social, political, and spirit
 ual, out of which, with much bloodshed | and suffering, we have fought our way. As an undeniable Englishman, it may be permitted to me to feel a thrill as
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-02

| lingbroke and Atterbury were engaged in all manner of plans that might give thes crown to the Pretender; and when
 the foreigner was proclaimed, all their
 plans fell into pie. There was not a voice raised in protest against the Ger
 man. The friends of the Stuart melted away. Peers and commons sent their | congratulations, and begged the new King to appear in England as soon as possible.
 Envoys were sent from England to Herrenhausen to notify the elector of the high honor done him. George re- ceived the news with phlegmatic in difference. He seemed, from his man
 ner, just as well satisfied in Hanover as he thought he could be in England should he go thither. At one time it appeared that he would not accept the | throne so freely proffered him. The
 dean of Peterborough, who knew Prince
 George well, said: Had there been
 strong opposition to him in England
 he would not Lave stirred foot. For the family did not expect the crVwn;
 at least nobody, except the old Electress Sophia" He vas content with his Elec- torate. But finally yielded to persua-
 sion, and consented somewhat under protest to wear the crown of England. It took him more than a month to prepare for the journey of only a. few hours. The people of Hanover, who were used to his manner of life, were un-
 willing to give him up and pleaded with him not to leave them. But finally, having decided to go his friends could not prevail upon hirh to stay.
 The new King was met at Green wich; and what a difference of appear ance there was between him and the Stuarts. The latter dashing and pie
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-02

sword" with all my reverence for that sublime figure l cannot forget that he got his earldom for killing Dutch farmers who imperilled the imperial designs of MT. Chamberlain, the ex- manufacturer of screws and the pro- tagonist of trusts in Great Britain Certainly it was a stupendous task to ships, to victual 1t and give it mobility mules and to pound poor Cronje for days in a ditch with long range guns such as the farmers had none of. And certainly the outcome of all this, the exposure and discrediting of Krugerism, the union of South Africa the frank and statesmanlike reconciliation of the defeated Dutchmen. all speak well for modern England and fan my brow with grateful scented breezes nevertheless I am wondering whether Lord Roberts the hero of Paardeberg, Is sample of many other belted ears whose hero isms are less susceptible of historical analysis. Alas, what divine material to use on such an exploit
 Again, the symbolic third sword" borne by Lord Kitchener, stern disci- plinarian, fine organizer. good linguist, and useful arm of Empire-is 1t not at least a little sad that twenty thousand children of the desert, whom MT. Kip ling calls Fuzzy wuzzies, mark ed Om- durman in the Soudan with great red splash of blood, under similar long range guns, as an incidental justifica- tion of the presence of Kitchener, now
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-02

will be due to the presence in the Em- pire of patriot citizens who are Chris- tians first and Englishmen afterwards. Then. in those days. 1t may be possible to read in all the blazoned shields. the heraldic devices. the quaint old usages of the coronation scene, a sort of di- vine chronicle of the evolution of man T we shall read the Morte DArthur and see that Excalibur was not sword at all but merely a symbol. the fight at Lyonesse a symbol. and all the events of the red, proud, swagsering past were outreachings toward thei Golden Age
 But all this is only one kind of sym- bolism, Homeric rather than let us say, Mosaic, smacking more of Kipling than of Wordsworth, more of Alfred Austin4 or the later and more militant Tenny- son than of the earlier Tennyson. or off the prose poet of Tarsus, or of the Poet Creator Himself. In their eyes all nature Is an inevitable symbol. the sure counterpart of the soul and it's unseen universe. But to write of that is the task of an age untainted by blood lust and free of the arrogance o6 Empire, task that I dare to prophesy can. only be accomplished by a Jew D suppose indeed that all nature. all hiss tory. all battling, inventing, tradings fashions of dress. opinions, creedsr churches. and the phantasmagoria oA cities all things visible indeed. cons prise the pageantry of the eternal Godx SYMBOLIC FACTS
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-02

The Princess is innocent" exclaimed her lover; for howsoever guilty she was, 1t was his place to declare her in nocent, he thought. But the Elector believed her guilty. She Was snatched from the embraces of her children, and was sent to lonely castle for the rest of her life. She spent 32 weary years in this banishment. She was 2S years old when her Imprisonment began. She and her husband were legally separ ated, and she was known as the Princess of Ahlden."
 The reader will find interesting sketches of the dark tragedy that I have related in Carlyle's Frederick the Great, Thackeray's lectures on The Four Georges and in Trowbridge's paper on The Duchess of Kendall. There is lit tie variation in the story as told by Carlyle from that given. l have told it as most men hear it.
 But now. to go back to King George, the Elephant" and the "Maypole.' They were, as I have said, given titles by his stuffy majesty The whole sci of Hanoverians were no sooner es- oonced in their English palaces than they at once began to plunder right and left. A German cook, who was overwhelmed with the extravaganza In the royal kitchen. complained to the King. Ills majesty replied, England will bear the expense, so steal like the rest, and be sure you take enough. The women that the King brought with him were notorious for their robberies, as they were for their other vices. and sold; and 1t has been said, that even the Kings honor they would sell for shilling If need were. One was made a countess and the other a
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-02

Sophia Dorothea was the wife of Prince George the Elector of Hanover, who aft erwards became King George the First of England. She was a high spirited, beautiful woman; but by her husband she was humiliated, and all her dreams ot marital happiness were dsllusioned. He neglected her and lived a icentious life She then looked out for her own happiness. She kept not to the narrow way. That is enough to say. Her fatal love for the romantic Count Konigsmarcl1 is full of sorrow. A countess with no more character for chastity than Elector George, set trap to catch the hand some young Knogismarck, because he had spurned her advances. Her name was the Countess von Platen. One night, about the midnight hour, Knogismarck was leaving the apartment of the prin- cess to make arrangement for their elope- ment for the princess had decided to leave her husbaLd), when hs was sud- denly attacked and cut to pieces by as- sassns employed by the precious Won Platen. When Konigsmarck fell to the ground he exclaimed, "The Princess is innocent" like the gallant rascal that he was.
 As he declares the innocence of the Princess, von Platen, now the mistress of the elder Elector, comes from her hiding place and stands over Konigs- marck. She taunts him as he gasps for breath. He in turn curses her. Whereupon, stung to the quick, the wretched woman stamps upon his mouth, his lips and teeth, to silence him.
 The body of Konigsmarck was walled up in fire place and no one but those taking active part in his mysterious burial, knew the place of his sepulture.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-02

turesque, romantic and daring; while George was short, fat and we'll ad- vanced in years, being 54. He could not speak the language of the people he came to rule. Many who saw him and snickeder forth their disappoint- ment and disgust The new king brought a body of Germans with him; his secretaries were Germans; his cham bermaids were also Germans He had with him two negroes, taken in an old Turkish war. Besides all these, he brought with him. his two favorite concubines. One of these was Madame de ktelmansegge. and the notorious Madame Schulenberg. sThese infamous women were afterward created, the first the Countess of Darlington, and the second the Duchess of Kendall. Kielman- segge was woman of immense pro- portions and was called "the Elephant" :" while the Schulenborg woman was called the "May-pole," because she was tall and scant of flesh. They are both represented as sinfully ugly. They in- spfred disgust and hatred among the English people. The sure signs of dis sipation were dug deep into the fat of one. and into the scant skin of the other. The English marveled at the genius of the King for selecting such hideous mistresses; and as they look ed upon the ponderosity of the one, and upon the skinny length of the other, I think they must have thought.
 Now. isn't that pretty dish
 To set before the King"
 Horace Wa1pole saw Kielmansegge when he was child, and her appearance ter rfed him. He says she had two fierce
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-02

black eyes, large and rolling. beneath lofty arched eyebrows two acres of cheeks spread with crimson; and an ocean of neck that overfowed, and was not distinguished from the lower part of her body, and no part of 1t restrained by stays. No wonder that child dreaded such an ogress." This creature, over- taking the departing King on his journey to England, was given a seat by his side in the coach of state.
 The English people was justly indig- nant. and took no measures to hide it. When this vile creature, Kielmansegge. saw the signs of anger, she summoned her best English and said, "Goot pee pes, w you abuse us; We only gom for all you goots." And for our chattels. too, damn you," shouted fellow from the crowd.
 Talk about the court in the time of the Stuarts; why, 1t was like a Sunday school compared with the life of the peo- pie around George First the worst of which cannot be written. It was a nasty set Yet. dignitaries of the crown, of the state, of the church, and of the mu- nicipaity, bowed themselves low to the earth when King George and the "Ele- phant," and the "May-pole" appeared at Greenwich, to say nothing of the two negroes.
 But what about King Georges wifei That is another story, whose barest out lines I have but the space to give. volume has been published whose effort Is to show that the Kings wife was not a bad woman. But she was bad woman with a bad husband. How much the eector was responsible for her badness one cannot say. The story Is familiar one, but I venture to give 1t here.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-02

duchess. These patents of nobility de- manded money. and plenty of it. 10 was always forthcoming.
 Did England know of this rapacious greed. and the personal and public thievery? Yes, but there was an unwil-t lngness to do or to say anything, be- cause the Jacobites were still in the land.i \ To notice these things officially would bei to give the Stuart encouragement to l fling his flag to the breeze. The nation was between the Devil and the deepf sea-" and King George was not the deepi sea.
 After his disgraceful reign he died at1 Osnaburg, in his brothers arms. Sir i Robert Walpole was dispatched to notify 1 the Kings son. The noblemap said. 1T have the honor to announce to your Mc-S- esty that your royal father Is dead. King George died at Osnaburg on Satur- day, the 10th instant" And he who be-
 came King George II, the son of the im- prisoned lady who spent g years in in-
 carceration, simply blurted out, Dat iss
 von pig lie"
 l To the credit of the new King, let 1t be
 said that he believed in the innocence ot
 his mother. There are those who hold.
 it should be said, that the Elector, who
 became George the First, was not re-
 sponsibe for the imprisonment of the
 Princess Sophia Her heartless jalor being her father. the Duke of Zell. Furthermore, 1t is held by one writer at least, that King George did not regard the Countess of Darlington as a mistress, | inasmuch as he knew that she was tho | ilegitmate daughter of his own father. | But when all the evidence is weighed. | the conclusions above given find the | greatest backing.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-02

ana dogma, that began when Cain be- came murderer. If tax on wool is sound economic doctrine, then the repub- llcan party Is right. Convince me of that and In a twinkling I will join Dalzell, but won't shake hands with old Payne. That is flat. won't march through Coventry with him.
 And the first thing you know they got us. Our majority dwindled to a minor ity An "expert'' made the bill-and who the devil ever heard of an "expert" that was in the pay of the people? The 'in- terests' have the experts" It was a sham on It's face that the tax was re- quired for revenue. It was purely for protection and only for protection. It's sole tendency is "the preservation of the protection principle as they call it. Os- car Underwood is the grandson of Joseph R. Underwood. who was one of the in- Ventors of the "home market measure that was brought forth when infant in dustries" got old enough to be breeched. Champ Clark. who only yesterday want ed to wreck every custom house, from
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-02

NOETRY Is the mystical conception N of life, expressing itself in words. A Pageantry, heraldry, are the poetry of the clan, Of the nation, as we'll as of the ancestral hero, express ing itself in associated symbols. Music finds the link between these race memo ries and the sounds of harmonic series; painting and sculpture perpetuate the mystical grip of the heroic, through similar associations, upon the instruc- tive race-pride of the generations, the deeply laid psychological sense of what Is At.
 am not pretending to give an order ly account of the evolution of aesthet- ics or of symbolism. But the latter may be described perhaps as a natural form or a mechanical device adapted to the perpetuation of race memories, and the conservation of race unity through the ages.
 And so medieval pageantry comes down to us of these modern days, touches our hearts, stiffens our mus cles sets our nerves in resonant re- sponse, not because it is mediaevalism but because 1t quickens our race-mem- ory, calls up by its quaint devices the victories of faith and courage won by ancestors in the dim past. and thus ap- peals to the personal sense of identity with those heroic figures whose faith and courage won those notable victo- ries. If the medieval pageant should ever be used as a delusive means of
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-02
TT OF THE VILLAIN-Bv Savoyard

turret to foundation stone" stood with Underwood for this very cornerstone of protection. They picked off a weak kneed fellow here and another there. and so it went till Randallism got the ways and means committee on the wool sched- ule on the hip.
 Let us be frank. Let us speak out. You can't fool all the people all the time. Harkee, ours is the only govern ment in the North Temperate Zone where dwell nearly all the enlightened civilization. nearly all the intellect. most of the money. most of the literature most of the history. of the entire human race In all It's career-in the North Tenn perate Zone we are the only people who tolerate tax on wool. It Is a tax to protect, to foster to create disease, want, despair. It makes more ravenous the surly winds of winter that are laden with death and are wanton with cruelty It guides the fell destroyer of us all and makes 1t easier for the angel of dark ness and the mlnion of penury to clutch the throat of the child of poverty dying in it's scantiest bed in the house of the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-02

must contint ourselves with the false fantom of consolasion, that we wouldn't make such asses of ourselves if the op- portunity should cum to us-when we know reely down In our hearts that we'd | be Jonny on the spot, and scrapping for frunt sect moor samer than a husky Jane at bargain rush-if we had the dough There is no use in talking-ralsed as we have been, taught frum our earliest infantsy, as we have been that all men air born equal befour the law and with the same hereditary rites and with the same free bud, blue or red it don't mat tur: taught rum craddle to manhood that an American citizen is the peer of enny uropean nobeman; set fourth in blazing letters in the verry constutusion of our country, for which our forefatner fit and died' made the subject of ey- very orrasion by 4th of July orrertors, and cannnidates. for office, re-itterated in countless books, and boastingly ref ,furred to by maggazeens and papers, and ng-donged into us for twenty or moor gennerasions, and yet we don't beleeve it-half of us. Give enny American fa- ther or muther chanse to marry their daughtur to an english nobleman, and they'll consent to 1t g times out of hun dred without the slightest regard to the Qualifycasions of the man as husband or evven his reputasion as a gentleman. When we quit breaking our necks and spending our mummy for the pleasure of letting lot of cheep snobs insult us; when we quit offering the best we have, our Wimmin. to Urope in exchange for titles, without regard to the thing the title Is attached to. When we show sum resentmint for the treetmnt accorded to our priseless gifts in the way of wives and millions annually and finally when we as Nasion turn our backs upon the meer emptiness of titles. and give our approval to them that merit it only; then we will take sum stock in the Ma sional Sentimint so often boasted of that we care nuthinE for the glitter and glammor of titles. Enny how John Hayes did us credit. Let us forget 1t.
 Yours trooly,
 Bill Vines.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-02

his clemency sometimes he may be over credulous.
 But
 He is blessed. And when he in his turn
 needs mercy the world will be very tender | and solicitous. On the other hand, the merciless is sure l to be punished for his lack of mercy. And
 when he is lashed for his sin the world
 will look on and laugh at his discontinue
 and feel that retribution has found its certain victim. i! Take the business world. The business man who Is hard and un- relenting, who demands his pound of | flesh, who kicks his rival when he Is down, some day-so changeable are l in need of the mercy he has refused an- other
 And then
 Revenge steps in-the revenge of the | refused. Men are quick to pay in resentment but, you say, are they always grateful for mercy shown them? Nearly always.
 About the last thing real man forgets is the hour of his need and mercy But grateful or no
 The quality of mercy Is not trained" It blesses him who gives at 1t curses him who withholds. The quality of mercy ennobles man. It makes him big in
 soul, strong in honesty and tall enough to steop in service. It is only the chivalric in spirit who are merciful. Therefore be merciful. It pays, and 1t is the sign of greatness-the greatness of goodness. When you are tempted to strike, stay your hand. And scorn not your rival when he is in the dust Be merciful. Else some evil day you shall be deliv- cred over to the retribution that awaits it's chance Be merciful and obtain mercy.
 Helene Renouard a French actress, has been infectng all Paris with her remedy for the ills of life Her medicine is laughter The actress tells how she was i'll and in debt One morning she awoke in de-
 spair. Why get up? Would it not be better to get up no more in this world :?
 I shed tears. All at once I began to laugh. It was laugh of despair, but l felt much better That was the be-
 ginning
 The vivacious Helene goes on: "There is my bad, bitter medicine. Why drink medicine for my stomach when I
 have no food to put into that so troubled
 stomach? Then I laugh. What a laugh? drink my medicine and laugh" And so she discovered 'The great secret-to laugh" And now: "If my shoe comes unfas- tened laugh. If l tear my dress laugh. If do any provoking thing whatever lauet. When feel blue laugh. When
 my creditors came I told them I could
 not pay and laughed. They looked at me
 and laughed with me.'
 The result?
 f,rut 1nt,e at trnyYhlao
 and-pouf-they left me. I am no longer
 that poor, dyspeptc. pale checked. sor-
 rowful Helene"
 Having formulated her new-old philoso-
 phy theatre managers took her up, and
 she began illustrating her cure. punctuat-