davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-25
Sewing Machines in Court

The states revenue bill has been held up in Barbour county, so far as sewing machines are concerned, by an injunction issued by Judge Thomas C.. Jones. The tax involved is one of $10 on each wagon used to haul sewing machines. It is claimed that this is an interference with interstate com merce. If a tax imposed on sewing machine wagons that never go out of the state is an interference with interstate commerce, it is plain there is little in trade that cannot be brought under that head, and the states revenue bill would come out greatly crippled.
 The state is summoned to show cause why permanent injunction should not be granted. The case in wolves a good deal of taxation within n states bounds, by and for a state and it will no doubt be given due at. tention. The state needs all the rev. enue that the new revenue bill car bring in, and the injunction issued against Barbour county is really ar injunction issued against the state of Alabama.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-25

cratic party. The democrats cannot elect a President without presenting state campaigns that will result in senatorial gains In New Jersey, Nebraska, Montana, Colorado and Wyoming, to say nothing of Illinois, Montana and independent Kansas. A democratic president should be sup ported by Congress in both branches, and that will assuredly be the result. The reelection of Mr. Taft would as plainly point to a con- tinuation of republican power in the Senate and the election for a repub- lican House. No one, however, an- ticipates such a result next year.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-25
MT. Underwood's Jackscrew Method

Mir. Underwood was never happier in expression than he was at the an- nual dinner of the National Italian Democratic league in New York. Let us remember" he said, that there are two ways to lower house. You can cut the underpinning out from underneath or you can lower the house with a jackscrew.
 The House of Unjust Taxation is to be lowered to the level of live and let live, and it is to be done by the jackscrew method to the end that general business shall not be disturbed and the federal treasury kept full. This is why the schedule y-schedule plan has been adopted. This is why MT. Underwood draws the line of re- vision sternly at the limit of ade- quate revenue. A revenue tariff pre- pared schedule by schedule is the i jackscrew plan and to it the country may rest assured MT. Underwood will adhere with fidelity, courage and discretion.
 On the other side stands the states man of Winona with his three highly paid tariff board clerks close at hand. The Winona scheme stands pretty clearly disclosed, and Mr. Under woods work of next winter will com plete the task. In all fairness, Mr. Underwood said in New York, "If the President is willing to give honest, fair and just relief to the American
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-25


 From the Boston Daily Advertiser
 If you were seining for mackerel and luck was with you, and just as you were about to draw in your nets with a fine ] catch, half dozen of Uncle Sam's bat tleships came along and frightened all the mackerel away, wouldn't it give you a headache?
 That's just what it did to Capt Sol Jacobs of the prime little auxiliary schooner Quartette, which reached T wharf Sol had a grievance against the United States navy which it will take many days for him to live down.
 Friday afternon when the sun was just was as smooth as glass, Sol sped school of mackerel It was the largest school he had seen for weeks.
 Orders were given to lower the seining boats and throw out the nets.
 The rest was easy, for the nets sank down on the fish. and Sol stood on the deck wearing a smile and thinking of the dollars realized by that catch
 But behold just before the men in the seining dories had pulled in the nets al the bottom, imprsoning the toothsome catch, along came half dozen of the battleships that were in the maneuvers ! a Provincetown and kicked up the ocean so that the mackerel were frightened away.
 T was angry enough" said Sol, 'to l fight the whole blamed squadron.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-25
Regarding Circu mstnntinI Evidence

"The trial of young Beattie in Chester field county, Virginia, charged with mur- dering his wife, seems to be attracting more attention than any criminal cas in the United States in the past year or two,'' said a member of Birmingham S Virginia colony.
 "rhe defendant has able counsel the ablest, l believe, that Richmond affords, but he is almost sure to be convicted, and conviction will mean electrocution Beat lie Is being tried on circumstantial evil dence, which, as Mir B. NJ Allen once remarked, often comes nearer being true than direct evidence. MT. Allen has had larger experience in murder cases than any lawyer I know, and, as he says witnesses often perjure themselves while circumstances never do.
 Many murderer has escaped hang 1 ing in the Birmingham district when dl- rect evidence was clearly against him. Tn | Virginia they have 8 way of hanging murderers whether the evidence be d. rect or eircunstantial. McCue of Char lottesville, who was put to death about two years ago for killing his wife, was convicted on circumstantial evidence. and among other capital cases that I recall arc Peter Phillips and Cluverius, both hanged on crcumstantial evidence"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-25
4 GIRL WHO COUNTED

From the St. Louis Times.
 Who are the people who really exert the strongest influence in the world? Not in the special functions. when the individual of social rank or of great wealth or of other accidental advantages is praised and posed falsely by general agreement-and then sneered at secretly by the envious or pitied by the clear minded.
 But in the everyday affairs of life. where people have only their own characters and equipment to help them and give them standing.
 Are not the people who win simply the people who know how to be pleasant and unsel1sh, even in the trying moments when hard work has to be done?
 In St. Louis the other day a girl who worked in big shoe factory had to give up her work on account of sickness, and within short time she died.
 We hear good deal about the tread mill, and about listless burden bearers who have lost their interest in life. But over in the Peters Shoe factory such conditions do not prevail-that is evident. For when this working girl died a whole army of employees knew that the girl whom they had regarded as the sun shine of the factory had left them for ever. The foreman knew that the girl who had exerted the greatest influence in times of dscontentment, and who had strengthened out many a little tangle by laughing or by pointing to brighter as- poets of the work, had left her place for the last time.
 And when the time came to bury this working girl. every wheel in the big fac tory was silenced, the doors were closed, while the dust was returned to the dust.
 A faithful performance of the little duties does count after all-when the faithful performance is accompanied by that spirit of faith and laughter which should be the normal frame of mind of all people. after all, and which is general ly obscured by nothing more considerable than selfish repining and narrow fears
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-25
QUEER WAGER IN OLD ENGLAND

From the Christian Science Monitor
 The betting book of Whites club in London contains the record of some extra ordinary wagers. The idle gentlemen of 1p0 years ago could give their successors of today sundry hints on eccentric bet tine. Here are facsinliles of some of the records. One reads:
 Mir. Methuen bets Colonel Stanhope 10 suineas to 1 that a worthy baronet-un- aarstood between them-does not from ne- cessity part with his gold ice pails be- fore this day twelvemonth. The ice pails being found at a pawn brokers will not cntitle Colonel stanhope to receive his lU guineas.
 This peculiar wager was made in 1915, end another one, recorded the same year same hard-up parsonage. It reads: Lord Alvanley bets Sir Joseph Copley ] guineas that certain baronet derstood between them-is very much em- bal rassed in circumstances. In three ears from the date hereof, if one of his Ills is dishonored or he is observed to | borrow small change of the chairmen ol walters, Sir Joseph is to be reckoned to lcse."
 | Here is an odd one: MT. Butler bets | Sir George Talbot 20 Euineas to that | he is not in the room at Whites witt l Napoleon in the course of the next two lytars-April 2l. 1s15." History shows thai MT. Butler won that guinea
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-25

That night they comes to my palace, where
 I'm sittin' in lonely state, An that square-rigged dame with the
 bossy air Says: King. you kin now va-cate! For I've ben choosed fer to run this
 place I'm fitted. as you'll admit So take off your crown, an wash your
 face,
 An, slippin' your cabe-giti q never see sech a woman-positiyely
 brutal she wash Then I looks at my wives, but they turns
 away,
 That foolish and fckle crew; So leaves the palace at break O day With never one fond adieui I piles my duds in that females boat. And into that boat gifts l; A pull at the oars an I'm off, afoat In the blaze O the mornins sky. f1s4 (Without even so much as a sea-biscut
 flor food) That night I'm hailed by a. passin ship An they takes me aboard. all right, An in sixty days of a smashin' trip My old port heaves in sight. An that was the end of 8 scene serene, An dream that I much regrets, or me an my wives an that square
 rgged queen @ On the Isle O the Sunragettes, tThankee, no, mates, I must be goin'. 1 God nightD
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-25
Mir. Taft's Nostrums of Reform

The President spoke on Wednes- day to the veterans who wore the blue assembled at Rochester, N. Y, and in the course of his speech he entrusted the struggle of fifty years ago with the struggle of today against concentrated wealth. He went on to claim for himself the concentrated wisdom of the country, and to de- ,nounce the "nostrums" that arise from "half- baked theories of prog ress."
 Epithets and even epigrams are not fin themselves very convincing, and when the President denounces "nostrums" without naming them, he but beats the air with his massive Iwings. It is impossible to say where he is at, or who he is attempting to hit.
 As a candidate for reelection he is ostensibly striking at the demo- crates in Congress, with perhaps a blow or two aimed at the insurgent republicans. Neither had any "nostrums" up their sleeves, it is to be presumed, and if they acquired any it must have been in the course of MT. Underwood's efforts to revise the tariff downward. Any revision of the tariff downward strikes at innumer- able grasping trusts and monopolies, and if the democratic leader indulged in any "nostrums" the people do not know it.
 The truth is, the President should not apply strong language to op ponents unless he is specific enough to enable one to locate the guilty in dividual and his crime. As he has stated the situation, no one knows who has been nostruming or what the nostrumers singly or collectively ad- vocate. The President should be asked to bring in a list of specified tions, so that the alleged demagogues can be located. They must be identi- fled before they can be hamstrung Some of them may live at Winona.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-25
Church Music Committees

"The annual meeting of the National Association of Organsts, held at Ocean Grove, N. J., last week placed itself on record in opposition to the present sys- tenn of church music committees as detrimental to the best interests of the church as well as harassing and hamper ing to the musical profession, said a prominent Birmingham musician who Is neither an organist nor a singer but who takes lively interest in choir music. ''The organsts association was unani- nous Tn passing the resolution from which I have just quoted. One hundred and twenty-two organists attended the convention at Ocean Grove, and among those present were a number of musi- clans of distinction
 Here in Birmingham there has been less friction between oreanists and music committees than in some other cities. perhaps, yet 1 am beginning to hear of just such troubles as the organlsts al
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-25
Little Betting

"There was very little betting in the campaign just closed" said a saloon ad- vocate who keeps in touch with the sporting element. "Of course, there were hat bets, and there may have been some money bets between friends, but I had never known an election on any issue where there was not considerable bet ting among gamblers.
 My first election bet was on Tilden in 1876, and I do not recall many campaigns in which I have not put up bet money. In this local option campaign I did not bet as much as a dollar. I felt sure that the saloon would win. but no one offered to bet me and did not go around looking for bets.
 The more prosperous class of gamblers were forecasting a saloon victory and stood ready to bet on big majority for the saloon. Why their offers were not accepted l do not know. unless it was the prohibitionists had cold feet right up to Wednesday night
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-25
TOTAL LOSS

From the Burlington d<an.) Independsn.l
 We are getting little tired of this life insurance business. When a man dies nowadays the nrst thing that is asked is was he insured and for how much?' The papers also generally wind up the obitu- ary notice with the amount of the insur- ance. Soon an obituary notice will read something like this; Peter Jones died and leaves wife and two children. The loss fully covered by insuance." pr, if the dead man is not insured, it will read about as follows: John Smith is dead. He leaves wife, total loss, no insur- ance."
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-25
THE AGE OF PAPER

From the New York World.
 A report from Lynn, Mass, announces that the police of that city are to be pro- vided with clubs made of paper instead of hickory. The new clubs will be hard er tougher and more durable than the old In a new direction, then. paper is to take the place of wood.
 Some 20 years ago James G. Blaine struck the fancy of the country by say ing in an address at a college commence ment that the nature of our civilization is fairly illustrated by the fact that the wheels of the car that brought him from Washington and the napkin given him at the commencement luncheon were made of the same maerial as that upon which he had written his speech. The wheels, the napkin and the stationery were all of paper
 But since the time of Blaine the use of paper has been carried far beyond the limits that excited his admiration. Who could then have foreseen that the police mans club would be made of 1t?
 It is as hard to set limits to the possi- bilities of paper as to those of rubber. We have paper wheels and rubber tired. Already there is talk of paving streets with rubber surfaces, and perhaps the foundation may be papier-mache. We are soon to be required to carry paper drink ing cups along with handkerchiefs as a part of the necessary equipment of dress. By and by the whole dress may be paper. Fortunately, we can pay for all these things with paper money.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-25
IN HOTEL HOBBIES
Democratic Outlook

"A few years ago the national demo- cratic party was rldiculed and referred to as a defunet party" said & M Bonner of Buffalo, N. Y, but the democracy Is very much alive today and has a good chance of winning In 1912 New York. with a democratic governor. democratic legislature and a democratic United States senator, was never more democratic than 1t IS today. I do not think there Is any reasonable grounds for doubt as to the way my state will go next year, provided the democrats nominate a fairly good ticket
 T am only a democrat in the ranks, but like all who take much interest In politics I have picked my fayorite- Woodrow Wilson. But in travelling, find that Governor Harmon is much stronger among business men than Wilson is, and it would not surprise me to see Harmon nominated. under stand that Wall street will not oppose hls nomination and Wall streets at titude will always. be reckoned with. What we call Wall street is really the large banking interest. It has been sometimes neutral. but 1t Is usually on the republican side. Whenever 1t has actively opposed a certain candidate for the presidency. that candidate has been defeated Wall street was not against Grover Cleveland, and MT. Cleveland was the only democrat to occupy the White House since the war While my preference is for Wilson, l will gladly vote for Harmon, Under wood or any other good democrat. oh- derwood, by the way, seems to be grow ing stronger and stronger as presi- dential possibility"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-25
Too Much Mud SIinging

"The Jefferson county campaign which CT ded Wednesday night, was entirely too wrathful during the last 10 days" said an old democrat
 'I took part in many campaigns in the 7o's and sos, but do pot recall any where so much bitterness was aroused as in our prohibition contests. I voted for the saloon this time, and I am sat isfied that I acted right. I hope it will be a long time before we have another election on the liquor question, but if We should have one. I hope and pray that every man will resolve to keep cool and indulge in no incorporate speech"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-25
THE MODEL HUSBAND

From the Washington Herald
 One short year ago James Sydney Me- Cullough was known all oyer the land as the model husband. In competition he submitted list of answers tha. showed him so tender and solicitous of his wife's welfare and happiness that he was proclaimed the man among men who should be held up as an ideal for tho brides of the nation. He was the cynos- ure Of all eyes and scarcely a newspaper in the land but gave space to MT. McCul- logh and his excellent traits
 Yesterday the press dispatches from Chicago carried the pathetic news that Mrs. Mccullough had ended her life, ow- ing to the neglect of her husband He had been away for some time and she felt too lonely to live in her apartment. Paradise Flat"
 Before taking an overdose of sleeping powders, she wrote note to her maid, in which she amented that her husbands treatment was such as to make her life burden. Her tragic ending was at tributed to his lack of consideration.
 Here is the irony of fate. What q travesty on human emotions. Think of the innumerable wives who have stoic. indifferent husbands, of whom nothing is expected and from whom nothing in tha form of love or sympathy is ever re- ceived Yet they live out their allotted years, and are content with their lot.
 Mrs. Mccullough was a gifted writer. Her pen name was Myrtle Reed But her literary pursuits were not sufficient to make her content with life when she longed for husbands affection, which was not hers. Her life and its sad ending should point moral to others. Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown" applies in the case of wife who has a model husband'
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-25
REFLECTIONS OF A BACHELOR

From the New York Press.
 The longest way home is the shortest cut through the push door.
 A woman Is nearly as proud of a family crest as of having had an operation for appendicitis.
 The only reason man needs for mak- ing loud howl against cranks is for him to be one himself
 A man can get into heap of trouble thinking he's so good he doesn't need to he on his guard against the devil.
 woman has so much cha arty for her own children there is none left over to go around among others.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-25
IN DARKEST PARIS

From the Boston Post.
 The thing about Paris that seems to
 have most impressed our great fellow American, Edison, is that the Champs
 Elysees is a twilight lane in the country
 compared with the great white way in little old New York.
 It is to be presumed that this is the fault of Paris age. Being some thousand years the senior of Manhattan, she Is rather averse to casting too much Hum nation on her features-the same feeling has been known by a part of humanity, it is said It takes irrepressible youth to stand the dazzle of Broadway. But if Paris doesn't burn so many elec- trIc lights, fl has charms that Gotham
 cannot match Perhaps MT. Edison may
 succeed in appreciating some of them
 before he leaves the marvellous city.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-25

people the democratic Congress is willing to uphold his hands, as we did in the instance of the reciprocity pet, but if we are told to pass restrictive, prohibitive tariff bills that are only a makeshift, and not a revision down. ward, we carry this great question to the American people and confidently await their verdict at the next gen. eral election"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-25
COMING TRANs-ATLANTIC AIRLINE

From the New York World.
 When Grahame- White, the English avi- ator, was interviewed here yesterday he certainly rose to the occasion. There have been timid predictions about dir1gf- bles crossing the Atlantic and one ac- tualiy attempted 1t; but MT. Grahame-
 White asserts not only that aeroplanes
 will cross but that they will have a length of 1000 feet and a carrying capacity of
 4000, with comforts of travel equal to a transatlantic liners. The time will come,
 he thinks, when one may dine in New
 York and breakfast in London the next
 morning possibly a late breakfast. It is significant of the general expecta- ton of greater events to come in aerial transportation that there may be few who will scoff at this. Yet even the scoffers would do well to read the con- | temptuous remarks which greeted predic tions less than century ago of what would be accomplished by railway trains and steamships. There Is even less reason for incredulity now when only the other day in the around England race persons took the express train from London to
 Edinburgh, 200 miles distant, to be there
 when the aviators should arrive, but in
 stead the aviators arrived several hours
 before them. Atwood on his flight from l St. Louis to New York has several times
 distanced the express, and he would have made a still better record were it not that his engagements en route compelled him
 to make hopping flights" from one city | to another
 
 1 in because he had to sneeze, and ascribes | the probable cause of many accidents to | loss of balance and control of the aero plane due to a sneeze. Wherefore it
 would seem that the 15-hour transatlantic l aeroplane is some distance off. Yet it is | not altogether to be sneezed at.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-25

their meeting had in mind when they took action. It has often happened that music committees have been made up of persons who not only had no professional experience, but who really knew next to nothing about music. In such cases it would be well for the committee to em- ploy good musician, not connected with the church. as an adYiser.n
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-25
A HAPPY THOUGHT.

Somehow, the neighbors don't seem to take any interest in us,s' sighed the new arrival in Dinglehurst HH
 "Ahem" observed his friend from the city "I'll tell you how you can soon rem edy that"
 "Wen?"
 All that is necessary is for you and your wife to engage in sham battle on the front veranda"