davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-19

NUT of every 200 deaths in Birning-
 ham last year more than 2s were O due to tuberculosis. Another way to put the fact is that if you, my friend, die in Birmingham this year. there is a mighty good chance for tuberculosis to get you, the chance being practically r 10 3 against T. B. getting you, supposing you die in 1911. No other single disease is fin the running with T. B. He takes the hurdles at great clip; but you and |, my friend. are the hurdles. Consider I pray you, that out of 1207 deaths of white persons in Birmingham last year 119 are reported as hurdles, so to speak. of that pale race horse. T. B. That is nearly one death in ten. It means that while, in the whole population, about to 20 of all deaths are tuberculosis cases; among white folks about to 20 are due to that cause. But deaths of negro persons in the same period were 1890. Of those deaths no less than 26o we're due to tuberculosis. That is nearly 19 per cent which is to say getting one for four persons dead from tuberculosis out of every 20 negro deaths.
 I regret that there is no exact means of comparing these figures with the actual population of Birmingham, sure that the basis on which the health office works is identical with the government census. When we come to compare the negro population with negro deaths from "the great white plague"; then to compare the white population with the number of white deaths from the same cause, we shall have, 1t is said, not so much com parison as a contrast. It is safe, under the circumstances to guess that at least twice as many per thousand negroes die as white folks, and that, as compared with the numbers in city population. i've
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-19

@HEERFULNEss is one of the
 most attractive features of O home, and if the homemaker be wise he will make every effort to fill the chalice of domestic life with cheer fitness. Montaigne long ago said, The most manifest sign of wisdom is con tinued cheerfulness" Massinger, one of the most distinguished of the Eliza bethan dramatists, said.
 Cheerful looks maks every dish a
 feast
 And 'tis that crowns welcome
 Nowhere should this gracious senti- ment be of more spontaneous expres. sion than at ones home There are times when anxiety, cares and sorrows obtrude, resist them as we might Thers is affliction that comes all unbidden and casts its shadow over all. Or a fever has befallen some little one whom God has lent to the home for little while. Then follow the weary days of anxiety, and the long nights of loving, eeaseless attention, often with the heart hoping against hope. Then the long period of nursing back to life;- or broken hearted ones looking through their thinning tears at a little one cold and still, among masses of snow white flowers. God pity us; in how many homes have such sorrows been ex- perienced. f ss-
 Barring such events. griefs and heart aches, which we cannot control. home should be full of good cheer and wholesome merriment. The cares of business should be left in the office when the safe is locked, and the desk
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-19
A BIG TIGHTLY George Ec

nificance, but you who take him thers have become a foreign devi'' or a hairy devil"
 | Now it is written in the corpuscles of
 our blood that human is a human, as a
 dog Is dog. If devils are germ to themselves, with some sort of spiritual blood corpuscle that cell Is surely their | own, distinct from those of dogs or of men. But science has not caught the germs yet. Your misroscopfst can tell dogs blood from mans. Devils blood has
 not been submitted yet In the meantime
 we are driven back into natural and phy- sical distinctions and on scientific grounds
 must recognize that man is man, goat goat, dog dog, and lion lion down to the last imperceptible f1laments of his several bioplastic cells It may be that the thrifty Scottish housewife, for instance has less than no patience with the slack and thriftless ways of the Irish woman who stuffs her broken windows with old rags; but the same blood is in both There the same corpuscle in the Stewart as is in the ORourke. One may be a rigid Presbyterian and the other most gen erous Catholic; but not even can their theologies undo their bonds of sisterhood. Let who will challenge the logic that be- gins in the human blood and declares the law that we rise or fall together By some sane, strong, patient Hercules in the world of mankind the old foolish obsta- cles are being steadily cleared away, in- visibly passing into limbo, and leaving us with the sense of common problSaa. of mutual responsibilities, mutual de-. pendence. because of that same corpusclc in the blood of both.
 A good friend has just reminded me of certain passage in Carlyle that Will bear quoting in this connection. Referring to a book on the Scottish poor law, by pr.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-19

Do you not know that the command ment is in the Bible because the observ- ance of it is best for you?
 You need Sunday.
 Other things being equal the person who works six days in the week and rests on the seventh will do more work with greater ease and live longer than the person who works seven days in seven.
 That is scientifically proved.
 The commandment Is laid in the deep need of man physically. mentally and spiritually. And the regularity of it's re- currence is its greatest boon.
 Besides
 The man who works without Sunday rest and recuperation Is often driven to stimulants to brace up his impaired vi- tafity.
 Weston's mother was wise
 She knew the dangers from overstrdir1, the temptations to which her son would Be exposed and the tendency toward the letting down of morals once the barrier of Sunday observance was thrown down.
 Old fashioned?
 Yes: the observance of one day in seven is old fashioned--as old as the experience of the race. And the fashion of 1t cannot be changed by individuals or nations without great harm. History proves that. Therefore
 Sacredly observe the day.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-19

and you see Carlyle's chalk line very clearly, and us white geese sauattine idiotically in the charmed circle. For the sake of the white man the as- sociation must fight negro tuberculosis or
 hand that fight over to some other asso-
 citation. To begin with definite educa-
 tive work needs to be done; then an
 alignment with the most capable leaders
 among the negro population will emerge.
 and then it will appear whether the two
 races can work together. as leader and
 led, as elder and younger as stronger and
 weaker. as richer and more dependent, or whether both must go on rotting with tubercle because surrounded with a chalk line of traditional contempt. If as Is probable, there are 1000 white persons in Birmingham today more or less sick with tuberculosis, there are over 200 neRro persons so afflicted. We are in at least two and a half times more danger, there fore, from the negro variety than from the white variety of that plague. More over, as things now are, the negro in the city will soon be decimated by tubercu- lcsis And finally. if he dies, or If we die, or If our children die of the subtle tu- bercle, we shall be social suicides. or so- cial murderers because, like Cain of old, we defend our self-will with the plea Am I my brothers keeper?' we arc shining the sin of neglect Our weaker brother stumbles and dies because. so far. great Birmingham, intelligent Bir- wealthy Birmingham, makes no provision to teach him how to live.
 What to do? That question Is precisely what the Anti-tuberculosis association is up against. But not they alone. we are all up against 1t, in modern slang, good and hard"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-19

W. P. Alison, published In 1S40, Carlyle
 says: "One of pr. Alison's Scotch facts
 struck us much. A poor Irish widow. her
 husband having died in the lanes of
 Edinburgh. went forth with her three
 children, bare of all resource to solicit
 help from the charitable establishments
 of that city. At this charitable establish ment and then at that she was refused |; referred from one to the other, helped by none, till she had exhausted them all; till her strength and heart failed her; she sank down in typhus fever, died, and in- fected her lane with fever, so that IT ether persons died of fever there in con sequnce. The humane physician asks thereupon, as with a heart too full for speaking, Would it not have been econo- my to help this poor widow? She took typhus fever and killed r of you. Very curious. The forlorn Irish widow applies to her fellow creatures, as if saying, Be hold I am sinking, bare of your help; ye must help me! I am bone of your bone; one God made us; ye must help me- They answer, No. impossible; thou art no~sister of ours But she proves her her typfus-fever kills them; they actually were her brothers, though denying it. Had human creature ever to 50 lower for a proof?'
 Now as this dispassionate observer sees 1t. this is precisely the situation here and now. We are exposed not to one Irish widow and typhus fever, but sur rounded with thousands of sick black then and women, already infected with a disease far more communicable far less easy to check. They are proving against all denials that their differences from us are accidental. their brotherhood fun damental. We eaten their diseases, be- cause they are of our kind. Had hu- man creature ever to po Iower for q nroof
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-19

must cease, music must hush and light and brightness must give place to som- berness. Their will is law. No one dare have thought of his own If it be not an echo of the tyrant's thought. o, it is pitiful! Is 1t any wonder that the grow ing boy or girl seeks pleasure away from home? Is it remarkable that children say, "I'm going out-out into the night, and I don't care whither; for the blAckest spot of night is brighter than my home.'' And later. is it astonishing that the boy is brought home and laid at the door in an insensible state of intoxication? Is it not what may be expected if he goes to the dogs and to the devil?
 An, home, I repeat, should be the sum- piest spot on Gods green earth, and the most magnetic; but the home tyrant has 1t in his power to make it sunless, song less and despised,
 What can memories be of such a home in the years to come? Only abhorrent adding to the moral recklessness of a young man. While on the other hand memories of a sweet, happy home bring an inspiration to heroic fidelity in the bdttie pr HIe Ine DuKe Of wellington said; The battle of Waterloo was won many years before 1t was fought, at Rugby" It may be said of many man who succeeds in life that he won the fight many years ago in his home. in the days when a fathers hand in benediction rest ed upon his head. and the music of a mothers loving words appealed to his soul, while he breathed the atmosphere of tenderness and love that filled the homo with fragrance as sweet as that of the garden of Eden. mans first home.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-19

negroes die of tuberculosis for every white l person.
 Now am very we'll aware that there
 and high minded" who combine a large
 degree of pride with a still larger mass Of carelessness concerning facts. To such
 people there is no appeal. but the harsh , appeal of personal suffering. Readers of this page, on the contrary, so far as am aware, are open-minded, generous, thoughtful, patriotic, earnest people, who know that facts are not soluble by wishes
 Facts are conquerable only by attention. intelligence, sacrifice; heroic resolve and devotion.
 To the fool it matters not at all that k.pigger" should die. But in the long ruin 1t matters to the whole economic life of Birmingham that even a "nigger' should die. Only what does fool care about the economic life of Birmingham? If by any odd chance fool should stum- ble acress this little homily, I desire at least that he shall be permitted to see how much 1t matters to him and to me what even a 'nigger" dies of. And, by tfe way, it does not aid us in our career of dispassionate inquiry to call the 1tal- ian "dago,' the Hebrew a ''sheeriy." the Mexican a ''greaser,' the Chinese "chink," or the African "nigger." An cient usages aresnot all adorably adapted 10 intellectual sanity. We will. therefore, iri the interest of unbiased vision, call the white man white and the black man black. recognizing the dependence of the one on the other, apart from every wish that can be wished, fact of unspeakable pathos and of equally unspeakable terror These little racial pleasantries of ours show how the kid survives in the par ent goat Take the "cfiink" to Canton, and behold he is a person of some sig
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-19

And will that daughter in California enjoy the flowers when she remembers | that she sent her father prematurely to his grave?
 An, child of some one, can you not accompany the rest of the way those who have come so far with you? Wait.
 You need not wait long. Wait, pray you. This is the suggestive picture of a modern painting:
 Some savages stand with upturned faces gazing at an eclipse of the sun. The sun Is partly in shadow. The weird light reveals the terror written upon every face.
 The picture Is named Superstition. ''
 The savages are frightened at the shadow of shadow passing over the know not what, makes life fearful thing.
 But, come to think of it--
 Civilized man is little better in some respects He, too, is frightened at shadows. His fear is as foolish as tha t of the savage. He works himself into a mental state where he loses his head lHe IedT DeCOiHeS
 The panic" is born.
 The panic is mostly aggregated pes simfsm. A group of men get the idea that money is going to be tight and interest rates high. They confide their fear. By and by men agree that the outlook is gloomy. It becomes gloomy. Credit disappears. In abject fear the panic spreads.
 Men say, Money is scarce"
 It is not true. There is as much money in existence as usual. None has been destroyed Nevertheless. under the monstrous fear of what may be, hard times" appear.
 Fear is an evil thing. It makes the civilized man a victim almost as help less as the superstitious savage. It de- strOys confidence. It sows distrust. It paints a shadow on the face of the sun.
 Gould we banish fear we could put civilization ahead a thousand years. Could we cut out pessfnlism there peves would be another panic.
 1hdreforo; tho duty of ell who love
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-19

Another instance: A Chicago business man of very large affairs lunches alone not because he is stingy, but because he finds strength in quiet moment by himself. His asso- cates understand and do not disturb him.
 And another: A DesMoines lawyer in active practice at 80 years says the secret of his vitality is in five minutes nap he has taken in years.
 Practice being alone.
 Under the strain and tax of household duties the delicate, nervous system of women especially becomes overwrousht. Rest and relaxation come as a benedic- tion to the tired spirit.
 Alone you can think your best thoughts and work out your special problems.
 All great men and women have culti- vated solitude.
 Alone they have gained victories over self and have then been able to face | frowning world with cheerful effort
 Weston, the grand old man. who at the age of n walked twice across the conti- nent, says in an address to young men:
 T never in my life walked for money on Sunday"
 Why?
 Other professionals made money by Sunday exhibitions or in contests running over Sunday.
 But Weston says he promised his old mother years ago he would never walk for pay on the blessed Sabbath"
 Once, he says, he was in Paris and need cd money badly. but refused an offer of $5000 which would require Sunday walk ing.
 In the long run. however, he says he has profited by his vow.
 His mother was afraid he might be- come drunkard or a gambler. as so many professional pedestrians have be- come. He says he has enjoyed health and long life largely because of his promise.
 Surely. Hsis s
 Did you fancy. young man. that Sum day Is observed simply btcsuse It is com handed In the Bible? ass 7t "
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-19

I always inspired by q dauntless courage Like Mir Roosevelt. Mr. McGrath never pulled leather" No panic fear has olutched him, but he has gone on to es-
 tablish visible battlefield, where the bacilli of tuberculosis can be, and have been, slain by the thousands of millions.
 The story of that battlefield will be told In the report of the association, a splen- did record for less than years work. But this present paper is to prove that,
 big as this beginning has been it is only a beginning. Its value, as compared with
 what must be done may be expressed by
 the relation of 119 to 379. which is to say
 by the number of white deaths by tu- berculosis as compared with the whole number of such deaths in Birmingham. We have begun to compass an attack on one-third of our problem therefore.
 Here is a survey of the self-evident sit uation:
 The negro is worse-housed, worse-fed, worse -cared-for than the white man. So long as he lived in the open he knew nothing of consumption. Yet even on the plantations today his cabin has been inn proved CD so far that he can shut out fresh air and sleep in crowds in a stuffy room all winter, developing consumption despite the freedom of the sunshine and the oxygen and the health of the piney woods. In this city. with great areas never sprinkled, with dust-clouds con- stantly churned skyward, and with the negro sections less cared for in this re- spect than any other, the physical condl- tions of the negro's life make for com parative ill-health. Add to this, the lack of wisdom for the proper insulation of their victims of consumption among the negroes, the lack of any educative move ment for their deliverance from It's perils.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-19
WONDER goes an old woman with
 monstrous heavy load on her A head.

WONDER goes an old woman witi
 monstrous heavy load on her x head.
 It is easy to fill out the picture Her home is some two room tenement where she has piled needle all day long and far into the night working on the gar ments she Is carrying. Perhaps little child who should be in school has drawn basting threads and helped.
 Possibly the woman has made $3 in a weeks work.
 In another place hundreds of girls issue from a garment factory. For ten hours they have speeded machines un- They have worked in an insanitary shop. subject to fines for trivial faults, |. and suffered indfgntties at the hands of a conscienceless foreman.
 Note the pallor of the faces.
 Some of them. young in years, are old in appearance and broken in health.
 You have read the newspaper stories about the white slave traffic and the startling bulletins of the city board of health concerning tuberculosis.
 Do you wonder? f
 As . companion picture to these go to the "barsain sale'e in the basement of some department store and watch wom-
  the counter where the garments of tho sweatshops are being sold.
 You cannot blame the women? No. Many of them are themselves poor and under the compulsion. But the rity of 1t! 1t!
 Another picture:
 Conditions are so intolerable tho gar mont workers strike. For months they live on the verge of starvation. And the manufacturers refuse to "sign any contract that recognizes the principle of collective bargaining"
 What does that moan?
 That 1t is easy enough to break down one girl whom you bargain" with her alone. ItNis different when you bargain with her union, a
 The remedy7
 z It is in the hands of American women. Let thsm refuse to buy the svun of those who xltIt not .ye6o&ntses inc right 4 tns ". wo5x9<s z !, e15n.!a ' 2 soslsetivsly
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-19

defer the hour when the visitors should come into the kingdom the people had granted them. How prone is fallible man to look on personal inconvenience as a public calamity!
 And why should Congress regardless of poiticis and almost with absolute un animity, look on a session of Congress as national afflctionl If they are right the one imperative duty of the country Is to proceed to make over the govern ment and abolish Congress. There was a democratic party once that loved re- sponsibility. That was in Major General Andy Jacksons day. The present demo- cratic party is very much in love with peace and power, but it shrinks from ac- tion. Its motto seems to be:
 well hang our clothes on a hickory
 limb,
 But we won't go near the water"
 There is nothing Napoleonic about 1t. It would eat omlet but it dreads to break an egg. Unless. the democratic party mehds it's manners-that Is ex- cept it call courage in council-fortune will be in quandary, for the G. O. P. being dead beyond resurrection, fortune, not having a lion to herd with must take up with the sheep. What the dem- ocratic party needs is authority. If 1t shall have the courage to throw the traitor overheard and send the towards below the country will applaud and prosper. And there are towards and traitors, too, more than you would sus- pect.
 inn fife laJ I,n,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-19

than those 260 negro people went who died of white mans tuberculosis in Birming-
 ham last year? Hear Carlyle again: Nay, what wouldst thau myself have
 us do? cry indignant readers Nothing, my friends-till you have got soul for yourselves again. Till then all things are impossible. Till then I cannot even bid you buy as the old Spartans would have done. two-pence worth of powder and lead and compendiousy shoot to death this poor Irish widow; even that Is impossible for you. Nothing is left but that she prove her sisterhood by dying and injecting you with typhus. Seven teen of you lying dead will not deny such proof that she was flesh of your flesh, and perhaps some of the living may lay it to heart.
 Impossibe,' of a certain two-legged animal with feathers, it is said if you draw a distinct chalk circle round him, he sits imprisoned, as if girt with the iron ring of fate, and will die there, though within sight of victuals. or sit in sick misery there and be fatted to death. The name of this poor two-legged animal IS Goose. and they make of him. when well fattened, pate de foie gras, much prized by some.''-
 Not to indorse all Carlyle's natural his tory all his grammar. we may yet gather that if we sit still enclosed by the chalk ring of custom or prejudice or what not, while our black neighbors prove brotherhood and sisterhood by killing us with white plague, we are surely geese" indeed.
 
 The Anti-tuberculosis association has not yet existed one full year. The mem hers have been especially fortunate in linking the work with the tireless energy ,f Secretary McGrafH a tireleSs energy