davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-17
wtCKEDEsT OF CITIES

Irkutsk (Siberia) Correspondence New York World.
 There is no doubt about it-this is the wiekedest city in the world! One would hardly come to Irkutsl1 for rest cure. With a population of 120,Wo persons crammed into a couple of square miles on bend in the Angara river 1t pro- duces 5oO murders a year, with an aver age of one arrest for each 30 killings. And for each 10 arrests there are but five convictions This is not buncombe; it is a transcription from the city's crim- nal records. In one day this month there were 9 murders and attempted murders within the city limtsl
 1rkutsk is pretty gay at nights now, but the citizens look back enviously 10 the zenith of it's career to the days of the recent Japanese war. Then champagne and wines were often cautiously trans- ported free of freight charges from St. Petersburg and Moscow in steel cars lab eled "Powder"-cars militant with painted imperial eagles and Cossack guards. A colonel of one regiment openly boasted in the Metropole restaurant the other night that more champagne was drunk in Irkutsk in one month during the Jap- anese war than is sold on Broadway, New York in half a year.
 The fun at Irkutsk starts at mdnight the city is as dead as a Sunday an hour before. Then the moving picture shows, of which there are three to a block on the Bolshoskaia, spin off their last films and the officers and mining engineers for all the world goes to moving picture shows in the towns of Siberia-crowd into the restaurants.
 You enter pair of swinging doors, kick off your felt snow boots hand your furs to an attendant, and pass into long room thronged with diners, gay with the uniform of the garrison, and women in smart Parisian costumes. At the far end is small stage on which a score of girls in a minimum of skirt and maximum of smile go through fatuous double snuff | 1es and dances executed with a degree of ncompetency that would bring a blush to the damask cheek of a Bowery sou brette. A turn finished, the performers | or singers skip down to mingle with | the audience, scattering around the tables | and ordering the costliest fruits and rarest wines that the management sur passes itself in providing.
 Here, too, the sons of Uncle Sam keep the old flag flying. Last year there were, | for instance, the young Harvard grad uate of a burg in the north of Pennsyl- vania and his friend the clergyman s son. They sojourned here for three hectic weeks, spending s25,000 in our hotel dur ing that time. The Harvard man dis bursed 5000 in one day, and another day had $2500 stolen from his person. The parsons son always kept, and showed good sense in the keeping, a loaded Browning in one hip pocket, but he spoiled this display of prudence by keeping a wad of 10000 rubles (sl0,000 in the other. | to clinch by the ready-money lure any rich bargain In mines that he might chance to hun across.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-17
Baltimore and the Convention

Only one democratic convention has been held in Baltimore since that of 1860, when Stephen A. Douglas was nominated. In 1872 the convention that met in Baltimore made no nomi- nation but indorsed Horace Greedy. The democratic party was split in 1860 into two factions and defeat was inevitable. Defeat will not stare the democrats in the face in 1912 as it did in 1860, and they propose to go back to Baltimore as a national meeting place.
 There are other aspirants for the honor, including both Chicago and St. Louis, but the indications are very good that the convention will be held in Baltimore. No democratic conven- ton has been held in the east in forty years, and that section is demanding an inning The south will naturally favor Baltimore as against the claims of Chicago or even of St. Louis, and when the south and east favor 8 city that city is pretty sure to capture the prize.
 The people of Baltimore have raised . handsome fund that would cover all expenses of the democratic national convention next year, and beyond this they extend to the party flushed with victory a warm invitation to come to a democratic city in a democratic state.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-17
The Almanac weather Prophet

Tt is interesting tos compare notes on the weather predictions of the almanac prognostieators, with the actual results, said an observant man. "As l have been interested in crop matters in another state, when I was mapping out the year s work in January last I consulted the all manac and I found it very useful. For instance, there is a piece of Tow grounds subject to overflow from creek and quite often the entire corn crop has been lost. This year I learned that there would he heavy floods in the early fall, so instructed the tenants to cut the corn early as 1t showed hard enough and then to move to high ground.
 '"rhe almanac predicted shese off-oe- curing thunder storms and they will continue throughout August and early fall months Also there are to be floods By the way, a very remarkable thing is that although the creeks in many places have been out of the banks, there is a drouth in the Attalla section. Engi- neer tyoxe, who runs an engine on the Alabama Great Southern road, tells me that for four or five miles on each side of Attalla, or for about 10 miles, there has been no rain for 40 days and engineers have instructions to touch the water light at that tank Now what do you think of that. with the daily and nightly down. pours in this section?'
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-17
Resurrection of Dead Towns

In the July number of Worlds Work Eldie Troxell tells how a "dead town" in Iowa was restored to life by the return to it of a former citizen who had been for twenty years an ad- vertising man in large city. He succeeded in building up a real town spirit to the great benefit of the town itself and of the surrounding farmers who had many times pro- nounced it's funeral services.
 The back-to-the-farm movement will never be widely needed until the village is awakened and enlivened. The possibilities of village are a measure of the possibilities of the surrounding farms, and every village and small city in the state should be- come the center of civic movement. Just as surely as this is done just so surely will land values begin to go up and the entire countryside will take on new life. It is easier to be. gin with the village than it is to be. gin an upward movement among the farms all about it.
 To begin with, however, the sur. rounding farmers should stop talking
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-17
Alabama in the National Convention

|
 The rise of Oscar Underwood to the floor leadership of the House of Rep
 resentatives which the democrats con- trol and his unmeasured success Tn
 that position make him logical can dfdate for the presidency. Alabama is greatly honored by Mr. Under woods progress as political leader, and she should show her appreciation of her great representative by pre- senting his name for President in the next democratic national convention. He stands for the whole country in an essentially economic period, and Ala bama should make known to the en- tire country the confidence she re- poses in him. This would strengthen his hands in the battle he will be called upon to fight next winter against all the grasping interests that tariffs have fostered since the war. The Morrill, tariff of the war period was the beginning of the vicious work and that work has been persistently maintained down to and including the Payne tariff of today; and the only relief from taxation for private purposes was during the Cleveland administration.
 The slogan of the Underwood cam paign should be revision downward to a revenue basis until the cost of liv- ing is reduced to normal. The next presidential campaign should be made to turn on this issue, and Oscar Un- derwood will best of all represent that issue. It is he who has carried and who will carry that issue to a practi- cal conclusion. He is the incarnation of the issue that touches the pocket of every voter.
 He can nominated, and once the party standard bearer he would stand a good chance of election Alabama has an opportunity that has never in the course of nearly a century been within her grasp, and she should not fail to avail herself of it. She should seize that opportunity with both hands by dropping all other aspirants and by centering all her strength on her most distinguished citizen.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-17
Foreign Investors in the South

An English syndicate has purchased 32,000 acres of cotton in the delta country of Mississippi, and Dutch cap italists have purchased 5000 acres in Bolivar county in that state. The Japanese are preparing to buy and ship cotton from Houston direct to their mills as soon as the canal is opened.
 This movement may assume great proportions in the next five years. It is an admission that cotton cannot be advantageously grown in India or Af- rica, and that it is better to take a hand in the production of cotton in America.
 Foreign millowners hope in this way to lessen the cost of production and to get the staple out of the hands of bulls and bears altogether. lm- proyement in cultivation would fol- low. The invasion of foreign capital and foreign enterprise has no harmful features. The more it comes the ouicker will cotton lands in the south attain to their real value. They are selling now below value.
 The foreign investor should be wei comed wherever he appears because he will make the cotton industry more steadily profitable by improving the cultivation. He will come loaded with money, and money, when applied to cotton lands in America, can work wonders. The governments demon stration agents have demonstrated
 this much.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-17
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
nicNcIes on Sidewalks

There Is great complaint In the out lying residence sections of Birmingham about boys riding their wheels on the sidewalks" said business man.
 In Woodlawn, where live, pedestrians are in constant danger of being run into by a bicycle. If the matter complained of is not stopped it is only question of time when a serious accident Will result. The police keep bicycle riders off the sidewalks in the business dis tricts, but 1 understand that in North Birmingham and some other populous parts of the city where policemen are seldom seen the nuisance referred 10 grows worse and worse. We have Tn MT. Exum. Judge Lane and MT. Weath- erly an excellent board of commissioners and l am certain they will prohibit boys riding bicycles on the sidewalks.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-17

By WilliannCullen Bryant. To him wh0in the love of Nature holds Communion with her visible forms, she
 speaks
 various language; for his gayer hours She has a voice of gladness and smile And eloquence of beauty. and she glloes Into his darker musings with mild And healing sympathy, that steals away Their sharpness ere ne IS a"are' "ne'
 thoughts
 Of inc last bitter hour come like blight Over thy spirit. and sad images Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pail, And breathless darkness, and the narrow
 house,
 Make thee to shudder and grow sick at
 heart
 Go forth Under the open sky and list To Natures teachings, while from all
 around Earth and her waters, and the depths of
 air
 Comes a still voice:
 Yet a few days, and thee The all-beholding sun shall see no more In all his course; nor yet Tn the coiu
 ground,
 Where thy pale form was laid with many
 tears, Nor in the embrace of ocean shall exist Inv image. EaTtH, lidt Ao"iif
 shall claim
 Thy growth, to be resolved to earth again. And lost each human trace, surrender
 ing up
 rb,ne individual being, shalt thou go TO mix forever with the clements To he A brother to the insensible rock And to the sluggish clod. which the rude swain
 Turns with his share and treads upon The oak Shall send his roots abroad and pierce thy mold. Vet not to thine eternal resting place Shalt thou retire. alone, nor couiost 'hoo wish ,. ,,r Couch more magnificent. Thou shalt He down x.,,+& With patriarches of the infant world-witr The powerful of the earth-the wise' the good. Fair forms, and hoary seers or ages past | All in one mighty .sepulchre. The hiiis Rock-ribbed and ancient as the shn-'h' wales Stretching in pensive auietness between The venerable woods-Sivers that move Tn majesty. and the complaining brooks That make the meadows green; ana poured round all, tas.,. aOld Oceans gray and melancholy waste
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-17
FIRST BALLOON FLIGHT

Carlyle The French Revolution.
 What will not mortals attempt? From remote Annonay in the Wizards, the brothers Montgolfier send up their paper dome, filled with the smoke of burnt wool. The Wizards provincial assembly is to be prorogued this same day. Viva rais assembly members applaud. and the shouts of congregated men. Will vic- torious analysis scale the very heavens then?
 Paris hears with eager wonder; Paris shall ere long see. From Reveillon's paper warehouse there, in the Rue St. Antoine Ca noted warehouse) the new Montgolfier airship launches itself. Ducks and poul- try have been borne skyward, but now shall men be borne. Nay. Chemist Charles thinks of hydrogen and glazed silk ehem- ist Charles will himself ascend, from the Tuileries garden, Montgolfier solemniy cutting the cord. By heaven, this Charles does also mount, he and another! Ten times ten thousand hearts go pal pitating; all tongues are mute with won- l der and fear-till shout, like the voice Of seas, rolls after him, on his wild way
 He scars, he dwindles upward; has be- come mere gleaming circlet-like some Turgotine snuff box, what we call "Tur- gotine- -platitude;" like some new daylight
 moon!
 Finally he descends, welcomed by the
 universe. Duchess Polignac, with party,
 is in the Bois de Poulgne. waiting, though ! it is drizzly winter, the first of December !, 17s3 The whole chivalry of France, Luke de Chartres foremost. gallops to receive | him.
 Beautiful invention, mounting heaven ward, so beautiful-so unguidaby! Em- blem of much, and of our age of hope
 itself; which shall mount, specifically light, majestically in this same manner and hover-tumblng whither fate will l Well if it do not, Pilatre-like, explode and demount all the more tragically! So
 riding on wing-bags. will men scale thu empyrean.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-17
HOW JOHN D. DOES IT
m the Cleveland Leader

From the Cleveland Leader.
 John D. Rockefeller, an incurable op- tmist, will take in good part the su- preme courts decision against Standard Oil," said a Cleveland neighbor of the great millionaire.
 MT. Rockefeller" he resumed, Ifs very proud of his optimism. l have often heard him. indeed liken himself in optim- ism to the man who fell from the tower of a skyscraper.
 This man was an optimist whom nothing could dishearten. He worked in skyscraper's twenty-eighth story, and one afternoon while admring the glorious view he lost his balance and fell from the window.
 Loud cries of horror from the street below at once filled the windows of every floor of the skyscraper with agonized spectators. To these horror-struck peo- pie the optmist as he dropped swiftly past store after story, shouted in cheery tones.
 All right so far!'
 And. by jove, his optimism was jus tifed," concluded the Cleveland man; for he alighted, quite uninjured, on a moun- tain of excelsior piled in the court
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-17
wt,IL-KEPT TRADE SECRETS

From the Baltimore Sun.
 Of all the trade secrets that are jeal- ously guarded there are two that bid fair ever to remain mysterious, except 10 those immediately concerned. One IS the Chinese method of turning out the bright and beautiful color known as vermiilion or Chinese red and the other is the Turk ish process of inlaying the hardest steel with gold and silver.
 The famous Chartreuse liquors have been manufactured for very long time by the Chartreuse monks, and the secret formula whereby these liquors are made is known it is said, to them alone. It has been estimated that in the preparation of these liquors some 30 varieties Of seeds and flowers are employed, but. aside from the monks, no one knows just how. An nually, 1t is said, there accrues to this religious order, as it's profit from the manufacture and sale of chartreuse, some- thing over s75o,Ooo. which. it is understood is distributed among the various religious and charitable institutions.
 Another order of monks, the Benedic- tines, possess an equally valuable trade secret in the manufacture of liquer scarcely less profitable than chartreuse. Tradition has 1t that this recipe was lost during the French revolution, during which time manufacture of the liqueur was suspended. The priceless formula turned up again, however, and the monks resumed their lucrative industry.
 The Bank of England has a trade secret in the form of the paper whereon it prints it's bank notes. Almost all that the rest of the world knows about the composi- ton of this paper is that charred husks and Rhenish vines are among the ingred- ients going to make up it's manufacture. Another trade secret in the paper in- dustry is the manufacture of the ex- tremely thin paper whereon the Oxford Bibles are printed.
 Uncle Sam, too, has his trade secret the ink employed in printing his bank notes This ink is so valuable that the government would find 1t difficult to do any money making without it. It is the only known variety that will take" on the peculiar surface of the paper used in our currency-a paper, too, which is to a great extent trade secret. When the counterfeiter undertakes to initiate Uncle Sam's s money he is confront
 ed with the task of not only initiating the paper itself-a difficult enough propo- sition-but also of counterfeiting this unique ink as we'll
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-17
THANATOPSIS

Are but the solemn decorations all Of the great tomb of man. The golden
 sun, The planets. all the infinite host of
 heaven, Are shining on the sad abodes of death Through the still lapse of ages. All that
 tread The globe are but handful to the tribes That slunber in its bosom. Take the
 wings Of morning, pierce the Barcan wilder Or lose thyself in the continuous woods Where rolls the Oregon, ard hears no
 sound, Save his own dashings-yet the dead ara
 there: s And millions in those solitudes. since first The flight of years began, have laid them Tn their last sleep-the dead reign there
 alone. So shalt thou rest. and what,if thou with
 draw. In silence from the living. and no friend Take note of thy departure? All that will share thy destiny. The gay will When thou art gone. the solemn brood of
 care PIod on, and each one as before will chase His favorite phantom; yet all these shall
 leave Their mirth and their employments and
 shall come And make their bed with thee. As the
 long train Of ages glides away, the sons of men The youth in life's fresh spring, and he Tn the fuli Strength of years. matron and
 maid, The speeches. babe. and the gray headed Shall one by one be gathered to thy side By those, who in their turn shall fol-
 follow them.
 So live. that when thy summons comes
 to join The innumerable caravan, which moves To that mysterious realm. where each
 shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death, Thou go not, like the quarry slave at
 night, Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained
 and soothed tt ts 7e9T By an unfaltering trust, approach they grave Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him and lies down to pleasant dreams.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-17
SEEMINGLY BEAUTIFUL CUSTOM

From the New York Herald.
 We are told that the ancient Jewish nation had, among other wise customs, jubilee that took place once in 50 years, when all debts were cancelled and all scores wiped out. According to the com mand of Moses the beginning of this jubilee was announced by the sound of loud trumpet and then, so runs the chron- icle, there was rejoicing throughout all the land.''
 To many of us this would seem a beau- tiful custom, beautiful enough, in fact, to occur annually instead of twice in the century, and in all respects a fit oc- casion for widespread rejoicing. But would the entire community take part in that rejoicing? Would not the heart of the money lender sink within him at the first notes of the trumpet blast? Would the boarding house landladys spirits brighten at the spectacle of her delinquent boarders' happiness? Would the saloon-keeper make merry over his broken slate and the dry goods merchant consider with new pride and delight the number of his "charge customers and the amount of their bills?
 The jubilee idea, no matter how agree able it may sound in the ears of the impecunious, would not suit modern con- ditions. It would mean the complete withdrawal of all credit for at least 49 years previous to the blowing of the warning trumpet.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-17
The Crowd At Corey

"One of the largest Sunday afternoon crowds on innocent pleasure bent that have seen here was that which assem- bIed in the civic center at Corey to near Nappi's band in a fine concert programme
 "I was one of the many who went to Corey to enjoy the open-air music. and was sorry when the rain came and put an end to the concert" said promi- rent citizen. Corey Is a most attractive place for an afternoon outing The peo- rle of Ensley and Corey will always ap- nreciste inc music. and I understand it is the purpose of the Music Study club, under whose auspices the open-air en- tertainment is given, to have several or the concerts at Corey during the sum- mer"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-17

thrilled tonnage during June of 247,s1 tons. while the monthly figures of the Copper Producers. association reflected a reduction of s,5Oi.72 pounds in the stocks of that metal in this country. An i'm provement of 16 per cent is shown in building activity in New York during June as represented by the permits is- sued officially for new construction and repairs. The declaration of the usual semi-annual dividend by the Baltimore and Ohio, after some delay, removes source of some recent uncertainty.
 While the immediate outlook, there fore. suggests caution in the selection or securities the long-range view is not dis courag ging for investors"