davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-22

When the chilly blasts of a cold world strike and the winds of adver- sty blew let your spirit give out its sweetest harmonies of good cheer and of Kindness.
 Here Is strange thing:
 When people say How do you do?" or How do you feel?' they do not want to know the truth if the truth requires a recital of woes and a cat alog of private catastrophe.
 It is the way of the world.
 If one is not well in body or spirit it is well enough to say so and let it go at that. Make an ending. Prepare no exhibit of narrowing details. Life is too short to listen to the andante measures of a never ending miserere.
 Remember Smiling Joe?"
 Joe was a poor little consumptive so frail that he had to be strapped to a board day and night for years. But he was always smiling. They took his picture and printed his story. and peo- pie who walled of the trivial ills were ashamed.
 And the face of Smiling Joe and the tale of his patient sufferings brought in thousands of dollars to be used in giving poor consumptive children a chance at the seashore and at the sum shine.
 Put the soft pedal on your personal griefs.
 Smile and the world smiles with you.
 Brown and you frown alone.
 I was looking for the happniest person in town.
 As I walked down to my office a glass cage on wheels, drawn by two fine horses, drove by. The driver on the seat out side looked contented, but the man inside,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-22

ly, at least. by his magnificent oratory, his wonderful sentences and his. personal magentism. Men listened to him with dclirious delight The day he left the House he was more popular there than he had ever been, and men of all shades of political opinion sincerely regretted his departure"
 I have heard many great orators, and in his class Cochran is the frst-above Bry- an, above Fellows, above John Young Brown, above William c. P. Breckinridge even. But in his comments on Cochran and Bryan, does not MT Clark lay too much stress on elocutop? Cochran and Bryan are declaimers to persuade. Your real orator is logician to convince. Who ever heard of Cochran or Bryan convinc- ing anybody? Webster and Pinckney convinced. Stephen A. Douglas and Benjamin H. Hill confounded an adver- sary.
 Nor do I agree with MT. Clark that greatest achievement of an orator is to force applause from a hostile audience That is peculiarly the work of the de- claimer, and Is founded on voice and man ner, more than on mind or matter. The greatest achievement of an orator. Is 10
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-22

of financiers how France was able to pay that staggering war debt imposed by Germany in 1870 in few years.
 And French money-the aggregation of the peoples savings-s today financing great enterprises the world over.
 The saving habit of the French is espe- cially worthy of initiation in this coun- try.
 Why not begin when the little foreign CT comes into the family and deposit reg ularly stated sum for It's future educa- tion?
 The child may develop special talent. And you may not be able to help it un- less you begin saving early.
 1 know a farmer who set aside the pro- ceeds of certain ten-acre field for a series years in order to send his son to college.
 A friend of mine religiously deposits a tenth of his income for the education of his two children.
 Another friend has taken out an endow- ment policy in one of the big life insur- ance companies. At the end of 15 years the lump sum will be available for his girls education
 It is not so much matter of methods as of determination.
 If you are a wage earner. suppose you put into babys bank from the day of its rlrln dil the pennies that pass through your hands. You will be surprised at the showing of a few years.
 Let us learn a lesson of frugality from the French peasant.
 As a people we Americans are spend- thrifts. With income and wages two or three times as large on the average as those of Europe we are almost prodigal in our wastefulness.
 Many of ris need to go part way back to the days of Poor Richards Almanac and thrift.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-22

YS there such thing as telepathy-the
 sending of a mental message from ! one mind to another? Who will say?
 There are more things than are deramed of in our philosophy. But
 There is such a thing as thought trans mission or transference.
 I write down the words you are now reading, which are symbols of my thoughts. I have definite mental pie lure in my mind. How do you get 1t? You look at the symbols and invert my action of putting down my mental pie ture. You take up the picture into your mind from my words.
 And that is as wonderful as a wireless message by the Marconi system.
 The transference may be of all sorts of ughts-good, bad or indifferent, useful, vicious or trivial.
 Now, I have a helpful thought. Per haps I have received that thought from the suggestion of another person or from . book.
 I believe can make that thought plain CT to you or illumne 1t in such way that 1t may inspire you on your rugged road.
 What is my duty?
 My duty is to write down that thought or idea so that you can get hold of it and use it in your life.
 The teacher or preacher or writer who has helpful thoughts and is true to his kingdom must pass on to others the best that Is in him. And thus is the world 'upward drawn to God"
 But suppose there is in me unwhole- someness.- Suppose have vicious thoughts, depraved ideas. I know these impure things will debase and defile you.
 What should I do?
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-22

audience care? If Bacon could labor iously make stupid popular errors, why should not the merry playwright make the same? He puts no dates down. He refuses to be tied too close to the rigid posts whereon chroniclers notch their records. ''The plays the thing!" For the plays sake he will stick pins in the pro- fessors chair. As pr. Herford so wise- ly observes, For such seeming licenses Shakespeare has hinted justification in his title; and three other passages carry
 the hint home. This news, which Is called true, is so like an old tale that the verity of it is in strong suspicion says the Second Gentleman. and as each new marvel is rehearsed the verdict is like an old tale still It is plain that Shake speare did not attempt to efface the marks of the old tale in his materials; at certain points he even heightens them. He repeats with perfect gravity Greene's geographical and historical eccentricities, and caps the oracle of Delphos and the coast of Bohemia with sculptor Giulio Romano'
 captain, my captain Suum cuique, not emitting the muei What a pity he Cor she) should so fugitively die. that sa- cred beast of the Baconian cult! Would that we could keep him-ought I per- haps to say her?-in a proper stall. as at a horse show! But no, I observe that she hath been overloaded and suffereth with what tie pack train expects of the Rock ies call "springhaltn Yet is she worthy of the pen of a Cervantes as she beareth Captain Bobadil to essay still vaster ex- ploits. Feed her, o Bobadil hay-with chestnuts. Both are good for her nerves.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-22

make Moravia or Styria, or the sea-coast, the ancient land of the Boil.
 Hard is the path of the lobbyist! His steed hath stiff joints and its trot is more trying than it's walk. But forward dash eth Bodabil with the proclamation that he knows the period supposed to be ''his- torically represented' in the play, 'sThe Winters Tale" He could, that so re- doubtable captain could-now applied to literary stunts-tell us where is the Is
 land of Atlantis, where is Mores Utopia, after the true Baconian manner. Has he not perhaps explored those fabed
 lands, eaten breakfast with the anthro- pophag, visited Alice and the Queen in Wonderland, and plucked posies in the Garden of Eden, "a few years ago?' Did he not discover the "historicaF' setting of the Kensington Gardens, where Peter Pan played.
 Jogging serenely thus, with vast self commendation and brandishing of the spear (with the tinfoil wrapping) along that road where angels fear to tread" behold the captain comes to "Delphos and the Temple of Apollo, the oracle Of the Pythia. Now was it Del phos or Delos or Delphi? Shakespeare does not care one rap. Delos is an island. Delphi was on the mainland, eight miles or so from the Corinthian gulf, in a northerly direction. But our captain swears 'tis Delphos, not Delos nor Del phi, and that there was the oracle of Apollo He even knows the date at which Bohemian king sent an embas- sage to "Delphos," the place that never was on land or sea!
 For behold his charger beginneth to lope and to rush most disastrously at a date-post! No, not a gate-post, but
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-22

say something that his hearers will re- member and ponder. That was famously Illustrated in the memorable debate be- tween Douglas and Lincoln in 1858.
 According to MT. Clarks definition, these two men were not in the same class. As groundlings viewed them Doug las, physical dwarf, was a giant, and Lincoln, the physical Hercules, was the pigmy; but Lincoln, lame and halting Of delivery, managed to say something that put the entire north to thinking, and thus the great war was preeipitated. That was oratory.
 Again, at Gettysburg. Edward Everett was the "orator of the day. and his ora ton was ornate, splendid even for him. But who reads 1t? On the other hand, the few minutes talk of Abraham Lin coin, that day made, was the greatest oraton ever made in our hemisphere, and it will live as long as the language, as long as letters. But Lincoln was no declaimer. mo orator, as Brutus is." Ungainly of manner, homely of features, harse of voice, hestating of speech, as a declaimer like Cochran and Bryan a hopeless failure, and yet this man, in the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-22

region of courtesy and I am sorry that argument for Baconianism has descended to a level of opprobrium.
 Now, to begin with the evidence, the captain has mnemonically borne from Bo- hemia. He need not have gone so far, but really it is a most illuminating fact that, cap-a-pie. in literary armor, the captain rode through Bohemia several years ago, and did not find the sea! These personal gleams clucidate geography and compel even the Baconian hypothesis to come lumberingly, haltingly, up to date. that Is comparatively speaking. Or, to rocur to our former 'fgure, the tinfoil pike prods the Baconian mule and it is vain for him to kick against that insist cnt goad.
 Thus we do learn that on his hobby mule the valiant captain rode through Bohemia, and found no sea. But when? We'll, some years ago. An, dulcet Mem ory! But neither did the captain need to hunt up Sir Edward Sullivan in order to discover the heroic. period in Bohe- raian history. Any old cyeiopedia would have answered his purpose, and shown that under King Ottecar II, In the 18th century, there was great extension of Bohemian territory. as well as Of Bo- hennian glory. But did that cause the country of Bohemia to reach to the Ad- r,atic from the Eibe, to say nothing of the Baltic? When English kings held leagues of France beneath their sway, did that make French population English or French soil England? While we hold Hawaii and the Philippines, are the .Phil- ippines or the Sandwich Islands names for portions of the geographical term America? Neither did the wars of Ottocar
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-22

words between inverted commas. Had he not done so. the readers attention would never have been called to the sentence.
 I cited some of Lord Bacon's mistakes in my paper of last Sunday. I shall mention one or two more. In the essay on "Frinedship" Bacon says, Tt was we'll said by Themistocles to the king of Persia, That speech was like cloth of Arras opened and put abroad etc. Now, it iss well known that the town of Arras, village in France, did not manufacture tapestry, or "cloth of Ar ras," until about the Middle Ages of the Christian era, centuries after The mistocles.
 In his essay on Beauty, Bacon com mits this error: "A man cannot tell whether Apelles or Albert Durer were the more trifler; the one would make parsonage by geometrical propor- tions; the other by taking the best parts out of divers faces, to make one excellent" As a matter of fact, it was not Apelles, but Zeuxis who took five beau1ifu flaidens f ireet put of Troy. We are not to suppose that Bacon knew not the real facts, but he quoted from memory. and often did make similar mistakes.
 One of the most interesting books written by an American author is Prescotts Conquesct of Mexico The story of the Aztecs and Toltecs reads like a romance. The civilization of these people was much advanced in many clements. Now, Lord Macauley, in his essay on Lord Give, says. "Ev- cry schoolboy knows who imprisoned Montezuma ~. yet the victories of Cortez were gained over sages i. who were ignorant of the use of met als t. who wie!ded no better weap- ons than those that could be made out of sticks, Hints. and fish bones,' etc. I am sure that Macauley read the con quest of the Aztecs but superficially. It Is true that they were superstitious people, but that they were a nation of degraded savages and steeped in ignor- ance Is not ti.a. "The wealthier chiefs sometimes wore a cuirass made of thin plates of gold or silver" The national standard. which has been com pared to the ancient Roman, displayed, in its embroidery of gold and feather work the armorial ensigns of the state. {. In battle they did not seek to kill their enemies so much as "a btake them prisoners the vaIor of a warrior was estimated by the num- Der of his prisoners. Hospitals were established in the principal cities for the cure of the sick and a per- manent refuge for disabled soldiers.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-22

gude will. and gude cause, I should ge some O them days kemping!'
 That is not Reclamation, but it is patrio- tism incarnate, fresh from the heart, and 1t filled the soul of the man. That is oratory.
 Charles James Fox, pronounced by the highest authority, Edmund Burke himself, as the greatest debater the world ever saw, defined oratory to be reason red hot" He was no declaimer as Cochran and Bryan are. His mind was so luminous that 1t teemed with thoughts struggling for utterance and he sputtered the words off hfs tongue so fast that they chased one another in the eagerness for articulation. He was by no means a pleasing speaker. but his reply to Pitt in the debate of the bretch of the treaty of Amiens Is one of the greatest orations in the English language.
 Then there was Edmund Burke, the greatest orator who ever spoke our tongue, whose most masterly orations were delivered to empty benches, not ably that most masterly production,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-22

0APTAIN BoBADIL and our ola friend Falstaff were greater with O the sword than with the pen, but greatest with certain highly polished pike, or spear which proceeded out or their mouths, the curiously pointed weapon which, being delineated on paper, proves to be none other than the. capital letter I. There are other points of simi- larity between Bobadil and the greasy ohum of Prince Hal But refrain from pressing the analogy at that famous scene in which the villainous old swash- buckler bragged of fighting an army of hold-ups, who were in fact only two. Captain Bobadil is more wholesomely egotistic, and more really funny than Falstaff. Only when Captain Bobadil turns literary lecturer and critic-a new and astonishing incarnation, unique of course in literary annals. wherein the braggart has ever been unknown and no heart has ever been stabbed by his crs IS conceit-only then, I say, does captain Robadil become in literature a trife nau- seous.
 Shall the "owls'' or the "Pecksniffs' assume to battle with the Bobadil cap tain. resplendent with his much-used l. pike. wrapt in tin foil? Who the Peck eniffs" are the present deponent wotteth not nor on what lone tree those night birds blink. But if any reference is in tended to our revered friend. Dr. Richard son, I frankly resent it as the worst Of bad form. Other possible implications are of little consequence. Captain Bob adil, even in the vain flourshes of his undinted weapon, should be careful lest its upper point invade some other l. Hitherto we have moved fairly in the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-22

the error is perpetuated. It is in the first verse of the second chapter of the epis- tie of St. James: My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. the Lord of glory, with respect of persons - The reader will observe that this form or expression is that of exhortation, and bids the readers of the epistle NOT to nave the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with respect of persons. My brethren, have not the faith, etc. It is plain that the words My brethren" are not in the Latin vocative, nor in the case independ- ent, as in English grammar. It is sim pie statement of fact, and should read, In my judgment, My brethren have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons, etc." The writer then proceeds to show in what respect his brethren have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. IT l write to my boys at college thus, My boys, have nothing to do with poor stu dents, etc." how would they understand me? The answer is plain. But if should write, My boys have nothing to do with poor students, etc.," they-would look upon tnlS idtleT dS upOii ~ StdtShiOht oA AeSNs while they would regard the first as an injunction. Therefore in the place in question, T affirm that, in my judgment. as the text now stands, it is an injunc- tion nm familiar with the use of the comma in the case absolute, and of nouns in apposition but am at loss to know by what lawNof prosody the comma Is re- tained in the text given.
 MT. Gladstone, in his learned work on "The State in It's Relations to the Church." makes an astonishing mis- take by quoting the Bible from mem ory. as suppose He seems to confuse Malchus with Pontius Pilate. He says, Tt was with regard to chastisement inflicted with the sword for an insult offered to himself that the Redeemer declared his Kingdom not to be of this world" Thah St. Peter resented the insult with sword and cut off the ear of Malchus, Is true; but the reference to his kingdoms not being or this world was made to Pilate, who had asked. Art thou the king of the JewsY'
 This Inaccurate quotation reminds me of what Lord Bacon says in his essay on Revenge" He writes. Tt is a princes part to pardon: and Solomon, l am sure, saith, Tt Is the glory of a man to pass byson offence.'" The great essayist said he was sure that Solo, mon said this. But the reader may be just as sure. and a little surer, that he never did. That this sentiment may be found in what Solomon wrote, is un- doubted; but his lordship placed the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-22

M '.ss.'as 'a@SN and 's sn's''sa,as s'"s'a 's. whether he employ tongue or pen, and his article on orators in the Cen tury has that steady flow that is char acteristic of his style. For example, here is the tribute the democratic leader pays Bourke Cochran and it is well deserved:
 William Bourke Cochran of New York was the last great orator to grace the House of Representatives. Cochran Is the highest type of Irishman, and was edu- cated thoroughly in France. He is pro found student, man of large erudition, with an emotional temperament. with thorough mastery not only of English but of French, Latin and Greek. He has superb voice, vivid imagination and commanding presence. His sentences are polished as thoroughly as those of Ed ward Everett or John James Ingalls,. The greatest achievement of an orator is to force applause from a hostile audience. Time and again have seen men who dis scented total caelo from what he was say ing applaud Cochran until their hands were olistered. He won them temporari-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-22

ed'' in Greene's "Pandosto," or in Shake speare's Winters Tale," becomes man. itest on every page of the drama. All that the poet wanted was some place, some scene. wherein he could play the imaginings to shape, "and give to airy nothing a local habitation and name." Perdta is as timeless as Titania. Bo- hemia is not geography for Shakespeare, but merely symbol If it had no seashore in reality, what does that matter? if it was far from 'Secilia,' where was the critic who should challenge his right to think even the farthest edges of the earth? But Bobadil and Dryasdust go here, arm-in-arm, and as it is written, so may we repeat concerning poet and ped ant, ''suum cuique mos," let each have his own little way.
 None but the wizard of the Avon would have dared to put so English rogue as Autolycus, with a name from Creek myth, and a song about linen sheets and ale, beside Leontes and Polixenes, those monarchs of the isle and the hill, with peudo-Gree names and Eizabethan English hearts and manners. So Nam illius, the prince, chatters of goblins in a churchyard. like an English yokel, two or three hundred Cor thousand0 years be- fore Elizabeth" Boheonia in Shake speare's hands, as in Greene's, is only an- ether name for Wonderland, for Arcadia, for the Forest of Arden, for the Island of Prospero and Ariel Of course he is guilty of anachronisms and laughs at himself ss easily as Ben Jonson ever laughed at him. What does he care? What does his
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-22
ORATORY AND DECLAMATION- Savoyard

"The Nabob of Arcats Debts" Indeed. Burke was called "the dinner bell, for when he rose to speak nearly ev- erybody left the scene to eat. So far from getting applause from an adver- sary he got none-at the zenith of his powers-from his friends even. His was wretched voice and a wretched de- livery, but his was the greatest mind since Bacon and no mortal man eaualed him in acquired Knowledge. But he was more; he hated injustice with all the intensity of a mighty soul and he smote it with all the strength of an Olympian demigod.
 On the other hand, his fellow country man, Sheridan, could
 "Hark a fish out of the water,
 And water out of a stone"
 He could persuade; he extorted ap- plause from the enemy and at the close of his speech in the house of commons on the debate of the charges against Warren Hastings. the effect was so profound that the sitting adjourned