davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-19

He was convicted and sent to prison for miscellaneous marrying and afterward went to pieces morally and degenerated into a common tramp
 Is genius alteration?
 Or is it true, as Stevenson hints in his "Dr. Jekyll and Mir Hyde" that each of US is double; that all of us, genius or otherwise, have within us two distinct natures?
 Is man both brute and angel?
 And is it only the angel within us that sees the light In the window?
 Why is man born with the closed fists? Because he wants to grasp ev- erything. And why does he die with ralms outstretched? To show that he takes nothing along with him.-Tal- mud
 The quaint, suggestive saying of the Talmud is a good one for our day-the day of grasplng commereialism
 This is the day of money madness.
 There is method in this madness, too ryote the cunning of the trust magnate who gathers to himself See how, like a great spider, the railway king weaves his converging threads of transportation. Watch the grabbers of special privilege. The closed fist.
 Who is it-Ruskin, tllink-pictures the mcrey-mad lunatics as graspins at the straws of their cell mating and at the notes in the air of their dusty prisons, trying to change these into gold?
 Some steal from men.
 Some steal from earth and water and air.
 Some sell their souls to the devil.
 How the marching chorus of the mon- ey pirates, the grunting, sweaty chorus, must vex the ear of Omnipotence. Lis ten to It.
 Grab. grab, grab.
 Poor fools, Yet little while and the closed fists shall be opened by the strong hand of Death. Whose then shall thess things be?
 The lawyers will reyel in the loot of it. The heirs will quarrel over it and hate one another.
 Hsrpies wil fatten on the heaped ur funds, and prodigal hands will SOW the si uff broadcast.
 Even now lustful hands and watchful eyes watch for the first symptoms when
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-19
The Butterflies of Burma

From Harpers Magazine.
 Never anywhere in all our wanderings had we seen so many butterflies at one time They swarmed in the sunshine like clouds of gnats Butterflies of every con- ceivable hue-like the throngs of gay. silk-clad Burmese maids who gather about the railroad stations of lower Burma. Tley carpeted the trail. futterng up be- fore our horses hoofs. perhaps to light upon the horses themselves, or to drift eff down the valleys, or to settle on the trail ahead only to be started up again.
 The Burman believes the spirits of hu- man beings to be butterflies. which. when the bodies to whom they belong are at rest, may go fluttering about the world at will. Thus only for the gravest reasons will one Burman waken another: for that butterfly spirit may be wandering. who knows where, and illness or death may come to him who Is walked before his spirit has returned gently to arouse tho sleeping body.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-19

all likelihood the owners attention has been called to the needs, and he has re- piled that more economies must be used | in operation of the plant" Or, again: Here are hundereds of children under legal age working in big cotton factory. There is a law on the statute books against child labor but 1t Is not enforced.
 Who is guilty?
 Somebody miles away who is sending his family to Newport or Europe for the summer. Criminals?
 Think you they are only. the thieves and murderers who slouch in the back alleys or who fill the benches of the police court or who scowl through latticed win dows?
 term trihes. Crises seldom confront us.
 When a critical turning does come to us We bring to bear upon 1t all the force that we can summon We rise to the challenge. We put the best foot forward Win or lose, We do our best. But
 The little things are different They wear us out. We call them trifes, but are they?
 You know, for instance. that a slight dip in the axis of the earth would wipe out every vestlge of man and his works off the globe. Or
 A nail near the compass box may de- | fleet the needle and run the ship on the shoals Trifes? little too much or too little vibra- tion of the violin string in the tuner s | hand mars the tone. IL is the little rif. in the lute that makes the music mute.
 It is so in our lives. l Nerves are rasped and put on edge, tenn pers are ruffled. patience Is exhausted by | 'trifes light as air." Because | These small things come upon us fre- 1 quently and unawares. We have no time | to gather together our forces to meet the
 trifies.' We do not put them down and in consequence they put us down.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-19

famus. Hoke has occupied moor or less of the limelite evver cents Grover Cleveland concluded that he would make him Secretery of the Interior. Hoke maid fine Secretery of the h. terior, and claims he would have dun equally well on the exterior job if he had only had the chanse. Gents that time Hoke has been Governor of the state twice, and is now United States Senator, and is having the time of his life. Hoke, however, does not own Georgia, he thought that he did, but when he went to deed it ovver to our Hybrowed frend Woodrow Leavethe- tarriftome Wilsun he could not fur nish an abstract, and Hoke and Wood row both famed out Oscar, there fore, landed the Bacur. and when he got the Bacun, he got Georgia, and thereby hangs a tail. Whats in a name? Sum people will tell you that
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-19
BAKER-y F.. Riley,

was captured at Island Number Ten. He remained in prison for period of five months, when, on being exchanged. he was made the colonel of the F'ifty-fourt regiment of Alabama volunteers, and shared in a number of battles among which was that at Fort Pemberton and Bakers Creek, in which last named con nict Colonel Baker received severe wound. In March, 1864, he was made a brigadier general, and participated in the series of battles extending from the north ern part of Georgia to Atlanta. His bri- gade rendered splendid service in the carolinas during the declining days of the war. The war being over, General Baker returned to EufauIa, where he re- sided till his death.
 He was a man of rare parts. Joyial in disposition, he was a universal social fa- vorite. A scholar, he found congenial
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-19

of a namesake king. not as the givers of law to men. Israel stands quite alone and unchallenged in the ancient world as the people of God righteous in all his ways, holy in all his works"
 And here comes the interesting thing Only Israel had any adequate, or nearly adequate, idea of what justice, righteous ness, holiness. really is. Granted that the other nations were reaching after a better idea, they had not yet reached it., and they never did reach it. Had they reached it they would be alive today. They are dead, but Israel is still alive. Granted again that Israels conception of justice was lamentably incomplete and helting at least 1t was real and for the time 1t was an ideal naccessible; for 1t was not merely the attribute of God, but the duty of man. Therefore Israel never reached its own conception of practical holiness, and the story of Israel is stained with black and lurid records. Yet Israel did voice the call to repentance and again ane again obeyed it. By her own chil- dren the prophets, her sins are con demned, not condoned; reproved, not pa
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-19

eums to being sum hefty, mite out heft Hoke.
 When Augustus Octavius went into the war, besides taking his name, he wore the degrees of A. B., B. L., A. M. and l.. L. D., also pair of wool socks and a choke bore muskit, and he waded rite on thru sed war and was newer shot in a single degree, and only once in the leg. Augustus Octavius was sum punkins in sed un- pleasintness, he still remains that way. The enterprising minnions of the north maid menny raids on the commissaries of the Army of Virginia, but they newer succeeded in getting our Bacun; he was as elusive and as hard to negosiate in those days as the commodity frum which he takes his name is today. Ginril Sherman maid his famus march thru Georgia, but he took an unfair advantage,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-19

Little things become big.
 Take 1t in married life. Irritated at some trifie, the husband loses his patience. He voices the complaint The wife loses her grip on discretion and retorts in kind. The thing develops into dispute. quar- rel-sometimes worse.
 Or
 The husband comes home to find the nerves of his wife are tangled by some extra household cares. She forgets that he may be worn by the worries of his day. She complains of some tri1e of omission or commission. The husband flames up. There is a dispute, misunderstanding, dis cord. wretchedness.
 Trifes make tragedies.
 Had the wife been seriously i'll the hus- band would bear the little compainings without thought of resentment. Had some misfortune befallen the husband the wife would stand by him to the end.
 Ware the trhes They cause us to lose our proper sense of proportion Looming large in fancy they create havoc. In the lexicon of hu- man living there is no such word as trivial.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-19

the vulgarian is no particular type on which you may lay your finger and say. From such and such moulding and making sprang this man" In the mould ing of neither the President nor the ex- President is there evidence of crude be- ginnings-and later in public life no rec ords do find of time serving and cooped- up badness to justify their later undoing. Roosevelt is a journalist of some vigor, a forceful writer, and Is first class nat uralist. He knows the habits of thrushes and ground sparrows perhaps as well as John Burrows
 Taft has been a man of mark since his Yale days. From bench to bench. he has spent most of his life settling disputes.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-19

fours" or writhing, serpent-wise on its belly. It would contain somewhat of the muck of Caliban without the phil- osophy of Caliban. The vulgarian must necessarily have some one jungle ten dency else he would be no vulgarian.
 And in this regard we are reminded of that clear illustration given by the mystic. Swedenborg, who likened mans progress to a right-angled triangle, the perpendicular line of which represented man erect and the horizontal line the serpent of the jungle. Somewhere be- tween the lines of this life-angle man finds himself. Somewhere in those countless gradations between the beast and man, rarely stationary, shift ing, winning, losing in the scale, the man
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-19

caring for orphan children. They are not only saved themselves to lives Of use fitness and sobriety, but they are saved with the possibilities of a life time before them. and it is impossible to estimate the good they may accomplish in that life time. These children are frequently taken from places such as make it we'll nigh impossible for them to escape q life of ignorance and crime. Without a helping hand is extended to them they have scarcely one chance out of a thous- and to come to life of responsibility.
 And there are among these orphan chill dren as noble. manly little fellows as can be found anywhere until neglect and
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-19
THE CARE OF ORPHANS-By The Rev. Sam F. West

act of disinterested kindness is unknown in heather lands.
 Every institution that has for its object the relief of human suffering-to make less rugged the pathway of life for peo- pie of any age should be encouraged. l am glad Alabama has home for her old soldiers. Every time I think of this institution I think of Colonel Jefferson M. Falkner and honor his memory for the part he took in this worthy enter prise. Let every class of dependents be cared for
 But, there is no direction in which hu- man effort can be put forth that promises as large a yield to the investment as
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-19

hood Is never reached till Jesus appears. And the ethics of Jesus are not dared ye. by his disciples and the nations called in his honor Christian. Even in the dark and savage days when Roman civilization went crashing before the impact of Europe, insurgent and barbarous, chiv- airy arose, and there were more than one Saint Francis For the reproductive power of the spirit of Jesus Is incalcu- lable. So that l am more than willing: am glad that the names of those fierce old Hebrew war-lords and passionate stumblers along the road to the ideal, should get inscribed on the gates of the eternal city of Peace and Love For if I am thought worthy of entry there. by the merit of infinite mercy, I am sure even Benjamin, brave and cruel, Judah, foul and royal. Issacher, the ass. and Dan the judge, have an equal right. But won- derful to relate. Dan, the judge, the critic, the superior person. Is the only one of the twelve left out, And that, too Illustrates the gracious ethics of the Bible.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-19

part of the quota of volunteers called for to resist the encroachments of the enemy oil Pensacola.
 Baker was chosen the captain of this company and resigning his seat in the convention he proceeded with his com mend to Pensacola, which at that time promised to be the opening scene of the war. The dashing young officer had as privates in the ranks of his company, such men as James L. Pugh, b. c. Bullock, $. H. Dent, Sr., Thomas J. Judge, Prof. William Parker of the University of Ala bsma. and Professor Thornton of Howard college, at Marion.
 In the following fall of 1861 Captain Baker became the colonel of a regiment composed of Alabamians, Mssissippians and Tennesseans. and was ordered to Fort Pillow. which was destined later to be- come a scene of one of the tragedies of the civil war. Early in 1862 the regiment
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-19

is large and butiful City almost ex- clusively occupied by the Coca-Cola Building and Clark Howell. Clark runs the Constitusion and evvery body in Georgia swears by the Constitu- sion-that don't swear by Hoke Smith, and that makes a pretty nifty divide. But the Constitusion was for us and Hoke wasn't and 1t follows that we are for the Constitusion, and we here by again congratulate Georgia on hav- ing in it's proud domains such dis tinguished citizens as thomas Wat sun, Clark Howell and Augustus Octavius, aforesaid and long may they waive, and long may the Consti- fusion Constitoot, and if we can help it the next time it trys to hand Uncle Hoke enny thing, we air reddy to make the try. Yours trooly,
 BILL VINES.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-19

gar man-but why go mucking when flowers are blowing in summer gar dens? And after we have measured all
 the vices and virtues of the world--aft-
 CT we have duly labelled them and fixed their value-if we peek close enough at fitting itself almost to any society-any tolerant society-that we alas! are all
 too liable to confuse it with respecta- bility.
 O, but there are gradations and gra- dations, my child.
 Clearly word -daub of the vulgarian
 would contain much of the beast and
 the serpent, trailing either on all
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-19

companionship among the learned. A painter and musician, he was at home with the lovers of art. But he Is chiefly remembered as an orator. On the stump before popular audience, in the court room, and on commencement occasions, General Baker was perfectly at home. Diversified as we have seen in his gifts. he was equally diversified in his oratory. By the witchery of his oratory he could entertain, amuse, arouse and charm an assemblage. His gift of elocution was superb, and the play of his imagination in speaking, rhapsodical. He was the master of assemblies. He would sway the multitude as does the wind a field of grain
 The flash of wit. the power of captivai- ing imagery, the rouse Of passion-alI these were his to a preemnent degree. Back of these lay a pleasing presence and charming manner. The people heard him gladly.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-19

streets of that city became the mother of a progeny, among which were scores of criminals and paupers and that cost the state many thousands of dollars. A few dollars spent in time on that girl might have saved her. and her descend ants might have been producers and tax payers, contributing their part to the up building of society rather than a burden to it. This same state of affairs has been repeated on a smaller scale many time since in other places.
 Another thing to the credit of the present day movement is that help is being extended in an organized way. Indiscriminate charity Is often worse than wasted. It is better to give sup
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-19

turned at one time of the circuit court as many as 105 cases
 In the year 1856 when the question of slavery had become fierce one, and when Kansas, struggling to statehood, became a battle ground between the prcslavery and the anti-slavery forces of the country, Major Buford of Eufaula in- sisted that by swelling the forces In favor or slavery in the territory now aspiring to statehood, thus making Kansas a slave state. would avert bloodshed Acting on this suggestion, Major Buford removed to Kansas, and MT. Baker accompanied him. As is well known, the effort failed, and the Eufaulians returned to await the con- summation of ''the irrepressible conflict" In 1861 MT. Baker was chosen one of the Barbour county delegates to the state constitutional convention, in which ca- paoity he was serving when Governor Moore accepted the Eufaula rifles as a
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-19

ace to the righteous. But if your stone were cast toward the state of Ohio and were to fall in the path of those mock scientists. of government. the two re- publican candidates for president, could find no word of reproach for you. For I see in our very act of taking the quarrel of Messrs. Taft and Roosevelt se- riously, in itself national vulgarism. A snarlng, meowing set-to at dead O night between your neighbors' cats is not more unrefned than this hairy tourney in the Buckeye state. God save the nation if we cannot produce better political vaude- ville than this.
 If you have lived openheartedly, seeing ly, you have not missed this truth: that
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-19

teaching served to make more com pact his education, for after all. with the real teacher, the question is which learns the more the teacher or pupil ?
 While still a young man Alpheus Ba- lxer had won distinction as an in structor in the cultured circles of Ab-
 beville Court House. then one of the
 most elegant little centers in the south.
 He enjoyed a similar distinction at Lumpkin, Ga, whence he came as a
 teacher across the Chattahoochee river to Eufaula in 1S4s. He was connected with the military school at Glennville, in Barbour county. then one of the most noted military schools of that grade in the entire south. Meanwhile he was engaged in the private study of the law for the practice of which he applied for license at Eufaula in 1S49, when he had just attained his majority. He brought to his profession a fund of ripened wisdom supported
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-19

by thorough education and, for one so young, a seasoned experience in the ways of the world. Young in years, he was in experience old. Bright. viva cious and exceedingly genial in dis position and bearing, he was not lack ing in a sense of self-assertion and manliness, an indispensable adjunct to success. His manner was popular and he soon became favorite in the cul- tured circles of the little city of his adoption.
 Long given to close and exacting study ano the mastery of principles, MT. Baker made rapid strides in the profession of his choice' His habits of promptness diligence of application. and painstaking care in the management of cases entrust- ed to him, won him much general and favorable comment not only, but pro- cured for him multitudes of clients and a lucrative practice. In the sixth year of his professional life at the bar, he re-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-19

URELY as literature, the Bible
 needs no apologist. Who can fail
 to obtain it's touch of artless sim Ey, unstudied directness, terseness, |rial vividness that is so natural as D the very highest art? In some hurried reply to an unnamed corre- bent, printed a week ago, this out hing characteristic of the Bible re- Ia none of the attention it requires. liar more serious defect could be |l in what I wrote, if that were re- ed as intended for a complete state |. in the fact that I took merely a hsive attitude, for considering my difficulty. The truth is
 there is. no word in the language radically unjust to the Bible than oft used word, apologetics. It im-
 that the Book and it's Gospel need hse. We near about attacks on the el of the faith.'' and we know of E endless books published for the hse of these things.
 ily this is sort of reverend imper- lee. however common, however nat
 I might say that Christianity has
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-19

of a director that as a director, he may have helped to push a fellow mortal over the verge?
 What are you worth?
 If you should die how much in cash would the world lose by your death?
 Experts have figured it all out. Accord ing to the figures, the life of a laborer who earns on the average si.5o per day at the age of thirty, the period when his ls hor is most valuable. is worth to the world the sum of s3,217.09.
 When this man dies society loses s3,- 217.03 of it's economic capital.
 But the professional man. the special ist, is most valuable at the age of forty, When he dies. according to these statis- tics. society sustains a loss of sls.2074s.
 Moreover
 The laborer grows less valuable in dol lars and cents after thirty. while the economic worth of the professional man remains at about the same figure up to grows slightly less.
 To illustrate:
 Take the laboring man at sixty-fivc. His value to society is small. He cannot render much service. From being worth s3,@l1.03 at thirty his value has decreased until he is worth only s594.67. But
 The specialist is still quite valuable to the world at sixty-five. He is worth al- most as much as he was at forty or fifty. There is no sharp decline in value as in the case of the laborer.
 Mind you
 Vixen the specialist is here spoken of the term does not necessarily include men of college education. The speciality may be that of an inventor and breeder as well as that of doctor or lawyer or preacher.
 Nor do l undertake to say that mor- alls considered the work of the specialist sf ould receive larger pay than that of the laborer. All honest service should be well paid for. I am only saying that as society is now constituted the specialist draws more pay and is rated at a higher figure.
 Plainly then the way to make yourself more valuable to the world. to your fam fly and yourself is to educate yourself to