davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-08-29

In the September American Magazine there is an article containing a great deal of inside" information about the Chi- cago and Baltimore conventions. One of the interesting points brought out Is the relation that existed between Bryan and the rich and.powerful New York delegates. To his face they were friendly, but behind his back they reviled him. Especial att tention was paid to the alleged great for tune that Bryan has made. The article goes op:
 Tt was a scandal and must be de- nounced. Ideas of the extent of the sean dal varied with the various notions of what constitutes a fortune Southern bankers and lawyers put it at about a nillion.s Their more prosperous brethren from the north could not call q million scandalous and they estimated the Bryan pile at five millions.
 And every cent of it made out of the democratic party. He has capitalized the notoriety we have given him If rumors of these conferences reached Mir Bryan they must have made him pensive, for he is said to entertain a respect for the dignity of dollar that would meet the approval of AIr. Rockefeller. It never oc- cured to these conspirators that to save even a miserable million dollars from the proceeds of featuring and writing would be impossible. We know little about Mir. Bryan's stock lecture except that 1t is said to appeal to the kind of intelligence that adored the late Ian MacLaren. No doubt he is well paid for his platform appearances No doubt he is overpaid for his writings We admire MT. Bryan as a public character and as a first class fighting man, but we feel bound to say that if we were advising any young man who wished to cultivate an English style, we should most certainly advise him to give no part of his days or his nights to the volumes of Bryan. The truth Is that MT. Bryan by very hard work with pen and open face, by saving and luckily in- vesting has gathered together about $200 coo. The writer personally regards this as a scandalous fortune, but he cannot understand why it should be so regarded by T, F. Ryan,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-08-29
Electors in K ansas

The eight anti-democratic district electors in Kansas were duly nomi- mated by large majorities in the re- publican primary, and now they in- sist that their names shall appear in the republican column of the official ballot to be used in the November election. The republican party coun- ella highbrow title for a conven- tion-decided on Tuesday that the names of the duly nominated electors should appear on the official ballot in the republican column. The vote in the party council was 30 nays and 62 yeas, the motion being to force the eight electors, duly nominated by re- publicans, into an independent column This is certainly a novel situation and climax, wholly due to the absurd electoral system of the federal con stitution, which broke down almost as soon as it had been started. It is now a dangerous farce-in Kansas at any rate.
 The eight district electors in ques- tion declare that they will, if elected, vote for the bull moose candidate. Pos sibly the supreme court of the United
  States will interfere in October, but it can do little more than to muddle the muddle little more. Possibly the Acknowledgement of the supporters of Taft in Kansas can be avoided by plac ing in nomination an independent ticket
 In any event the time has come to repeal the outgrown and outworn electoral system which is as dangerous as it is undemocratic
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-08-29
Birmingham an Educa ational Center

The Chamber of Commerce move ment looking to the establishing in this city of a woman's' college on a large scale, should meet with many supporters. Birmingham is growing stronger every year as an educational center. Outside of this city's excellent public school system we have many institutions of learning which rank high. Howard, at one end of the city, is one of the best and most popular colleges in Alabama; and Birmingham college at the other end of the city is another popular institution. It had a large student body last year and will have larger this year-1912-13.
 Birmingham has several high-class private schools for girls and young ladies. The Catholics, in addition to many parochial schools, are about ready to break ground on S75,000 school building at Tate station, West End. The school will be conducted by nuns, and will be of college rank.
 The school or college for young women proposed by friends of educa- tion in the Chamber of Commerce would add greatly to Birmingham s reputation as a center of culture. A very large and handsome building would be needed for woman's col lege, and such building would cost a good deal of money, but other southern cities of approximately Bir- mingham's size have women's colleges, and it should not be very difficult for Birmingham to raise the money for the enterprise in question.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-08-29
THE PICTURESQUE BEGGAR

From the Louisville Courier Journal
 Amid the surging masses that con- gest the streets of Chinese cities the professional mendicant is always in evidence He is a privileged character has selected begging as a vocation and is possessed of certain rights that all respect He belongs to an ancient and powerful guild,i like the Gaberlunzies of Scotland in old times, and for it's protection he pays an initiation fee Of thirty Mexican dollars.
 His face Is besmeared with grime; his gray blouse extending to the knees and frayed at the edges, Is stiff as tin because bedaubed with filth. His aim is to render his presence uncomfortable to the eyesight, and his person insult ferable to the olfactories. In both purposes he succeeds No one can en- dure being near him. Sores are apt to be numerous and scattered over the body, but care is taken to have them seen. They are perambulating hos pitals
 The tactics of the professional beggar are as effective as they are simple. He promenades the street, stopping before the door of each step. There he goes through various contortions of his lep- rous body, arresting attention mean while by saluting. His lugubrio.us grunts and groans are meant to be songs, depicting his state of woe. His object is to make himself so disag- greeable- the three senses of sight. smell and hearing-that no customer will enter the shop while he lays siege to the door. At length the shopkeeper reluctantly capitulates by handing the wretched object ''cadi,' who forthwith raises the siege and moves on to the next shop
 This coin, the cash" is small win dow through which one may see a great matter. The monetary standard in China is silver coin, the taol, worth about SO cents in American money. The cash is a copper coin, current in China, and is the one -thousandth part of a tael. What must be the economy of people whose most popular coin is the one-tenth of an American cent
 over some shop doors in China a piece of paper is pasted with an in scription to the effect that fee has been paid and the shop granted inn munity from beggars for 12 months
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-08-29
Hotels and Restaurant.

Birmingham has more good restau- rants than any other city in the south, unless it be New Orleans which has long been famed for its fine catering" said a man who travels extensively.
 "In the matter of hotels. Richmond easily leads all southern cities. Atlanta comes next to Richmond perhaps, but when Birmingham's two hotel palaces are completed it will be ahead of Atlanta and nearly up to the Richmond hotel standard.
 Atlanta is not well-off in restaurants. It cannot be compared at all to Birming- ham in this respect. The fact that it is the capital city club is about the only place where one finds swell service. Bir- mingham has at least three or four cafes that are up to the one high-class cafe in the Georgia metropolis, and it has, am told, a large number of restau- rants of the moderate price class. As a lunch counter city it reminds me of Chicago. Of course Chicago has more Inexpensive eating places where good food is served, than Birmingham. but in proportion to it's population. I think this city would head the list
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-08-29
The Coming Musical Season

"It used to be that one or two symphony orchestras made tours through the south and west in the winter. but all first class orchestras are kept so busy now in the large northern and eastern cities that they are only Available for the provinces during the spring festival season." said an old music lover
 "If it had not been for the Sunday musicales last winter, Birmingham would have suffered from dearth of high class music. I hope we will have the matinee musicales again this sea- son. Such entertainments are delightful and educative.
 MT Holcombe. treasurer of the Sun day musicale series. tells me that checks are coming in every day in pay ment for the season tickets sent out. It is hoped that the fund will soon be large enough to insure number of high class attractions"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-08-29
Wood Instead of Belgian Blocks

Three blocks in First avenue are to be relaid with wooden blocks, dis placing the Belgian blocks which have become as antiquated as the old cobble stone pavements laid before the war. The Belgian article is noisy, rough and altogether undesirable. The new wooden blocks will be speedily placed, and no doubt their appearance in First avenue will be heartily welcomed
 Should the three blocks prove who'll ly satisfactory, as they doubtless will, then all Belgian blocks will speedily disappear from this modern city. Bir- mingham clings to nothing because it is old. It is city without paralyzing traditions. It wants nothing that IS not useful or ornamental. It lives ln
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-08-29
Good Hotel Business

We have done remarkably good business since we opened the second week in July" said Frank A. Robertson, one of the proprietors of the Empire the new hotel at the corner of Fourth avenue and Twenty-second street.
 Notwithstanding the fact that we be- gan business during the summer-usually a very dull season with hotefs-our house has been three-fourths full all the time. There is every indication of hav- irg all of our rooms filled throughout the fall and winter. We are, indeed, greatly pleased with our business thus far
 We will soon open our cafe. We ex- pect to have 1t ready early in septem- her"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-08-29
Congress and Dr. Eliot

Congress sat 265 days and in that time 25,O00,000 words were spoken and were duly printed in the Congress sional Record. Millions of copies of various speeches were reprinted and scattered over the country.
 The five-foot library of President Emeritus Eliot contained possibly 5,000,000 words, and Congress has eclipsed him with 25 feet of books. And it by no means should be assumed that all the merit is in Dr. Eliot's list of books, for there is whole lot of wisdom and sound sense in the books that Congress produced in the course of a long session. It is safe at any rates to stake sum on Majority Leader Underwood's speeches on tax ation and the cost of living against all the political economy in Dr. Eliots bookshelf. Some of the work of Con- gress needs a good deal of elimination and wedding out, and when the work is completed it is by no means cer- tain that Dr. Eliot's books would have much on the productions of Congress.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-08-29
The postofrice and sunday Hours

That clause regarding the handling of mail on Sunday in the first and second class offices as interpreted by Posttnas' ter General Hitclfcock, will not mconveni- ence the public to any great extent" said a business man. But the government should increase the force of the post office so that every employe could have one day of rest in seven and the business of the postoffice go on just the same.
 "The handling of great deal of mail on Sunday has come to be a public neces- sity, just as much so as the operation of blast furnaces and the running of passenger trains on Sunday.
 "The New York Sun thinks that the new legislation on the eve of national election was intended chiefly to catch votes, That paper says amons other things:
 Yet they will have difficulty in con- vincing an inconvenienced pubic. mer- chants subjected to delay in the trans action of their business and professional men annoyed by the non-receipt Of important letters that the new law is the child of wisdom or piety. The enlightened regard for the Lords day does not op- crate to inhibit necessary labor, and if any labor is necessary it is the mainte- nance of quick communication between the inhabitants of the country"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-08-29
ROCKEFELLER ON ROUTINE

Have rules and routine disappeared from business life? There was period when the time schedule ruled both young and old in shop and office; when the successful man of affairs rose at '. breakfasted at eight, was at his office at 9, dictated let ters until 1O' and so on, until or 6 o'clock daily throughout the year. Now the rules and routine have apparently gone.
 It is true there are still some who hold fact to the gospel of details-and of these is John D. Rockefeller, who, writing in the September Strand, says:
 q confess that I attach great import ance to routine. l believe that every young man who intends to succeed in bus mess should do as I did-tal1e a course at a commercial college. do not believe in what is called the rule of thumb the rudments of business should be properly taught, and the ground prepared to build upon. If a youth has had no thorough grounding, time may come when his weakness for detail will show itself
 When people write to me asking for the secret of my success, l always tell them that owe everything to love for.
 
 chess or billiards or golf must attend to details if he wants to win-why must he not do so in business? Everyone ought to be able to kepe his own books and know exactly to penny how the money comes in and how it goes out. l have known many bright. intelligent men who never really knew all the facts about their own affairs. They did not actually know when they were making money on cer- tain operation and when they were los- ing. Such business men like in a fools paradise; they hate to study their books and face the truth. They are often bril- liant at single great stroke, but they cannot keep up the game simply because they are weak in detail, and they are weak in detail because they have never studied it's principles.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-08-29
BIGGEST sFAMLy-BArHy

From "A Day at the 'Srtand-bad' " in
 ,he september Wide World Magazine.
 The yiennese. although living almost in the center of Europe, hundreds Of miles away from any seaside bathing re- sort are yet owing to the enterprise of the municipality of Vienna, able to in dulge in bathing on much more exten- side scale than the people of any Euro pean seaside resort with the possible ex- ception of Ostend in the height of the summer season.
 Some four or five years ago the authori- ties of Vienna realized the great benefit that bathing on wholesale lines, so to speak, would be to the inhabitants of the city during the summer months. With this end in view they acquired pie turesaue tree-clad island bordered with fine stretches of sand, in what is known as the ''Old Danube" Here, in the course of a few months, arrangements were made for providing not only splendid bathing place for hosts of Viennese of all classes who were unable, through lack of time or means. to take the long jour ney necessary to reach the nearest Conti- mental plage, but also . very interesting experiment in municipal trading, which up to the present has more than satisfied it's originators.
 Year by year. since it's first institution some four years ago. the "Strand-bad,' to give thisl unique institution its proper name, has Increased in popularity, and now, on every reasonably fine afternoon throughout the summer months rom June until late in September. one sees crowds of people vending their way. to the floating bridge ferry by which 'ne long. sandy island on which the strand bad is situation is reached.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-08-29
THE COpRA INDUSTRY

From the Springfield hepuplcah.
 No one can read much about the
 islands of the Pacific without coming upon "copra,n but 1t is likely that many know little about this product except that 1t has something to do with coca nuts and that schooners go round from island to island picking up cargo. As a matter of fact it is simply dried cocoanut, and is one of the oldest prod ucts of the islands, yet is only now coming under modern scientific meth ods-thanks, of course, to the Germans
 The natives long ago discovered that by smashing a cocoanut and leaving the meat in the sun for a day or two one could carry the partly dried pieces as a reserve ration when travelling. Every fresh cocoanut is a meal-food and drink-for one person, and the .possi- billty of preserving it by drying added much to the value of the product.
 But when copra began to be an ar tcle of world commerce 1t was found that the loss from deterioration was serious. Every kilo of oil from which may be derived half kilo of food DtoidtS h 1oiSiQcl dbic QNaAbi- ty of oil stuff The loss in storage comes from the generation of acids and the formation or rancid substances which reduces the quantity and injures the quantity of the oil. In a recent number of the Philippine Agricultural Review O. w Barrett, chief of the division of experiment stations of the ct loss to the Philippines from this cause at millions of dollars annually, and tells what the German government has done in its insular possessions to check this loss. The standardization of the copra product began in Samoa, and within 10 years substantial progress has been made throughout much of the Pacific. The first discovery made was that the dead-ripe nuts which have fallen from tree keep best and the picking of nuts was forthwith prohib- ited In the Philippines the practice still prevails and is the cause of much loss The next step was to find an i'm provement on the time honored method of drying in the sun, and after many experiments a rotary drying was evolved which gave excellent results.
 The Philippines are still backward in this respect also. MT. Barrett finds, that about third of the eopra is sun dried while all the rest is prepared on the tapahan or direct fire kiln in which the product Is seriously injured by the smoke. The processs is so far from thorough that ordinary Philippine copra when shipped contains from 10 to b per cent of water; if this were reduced to per cent there would be practically no loss. The buream of agriculture strongly recommends steam drying ap- paratus; and reports that several mod ern dryers are being introduced into the principal cocoanut district of the It is reform or large industrial importance to the Philippines.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-08-29
MORAL STATUS OF WOMAN

From the Louisville Courier-Journal.
 "HE librarian in a public library at
 Luton, a minor English town, re-
 X ports that separate reading rooms for women are undesirable because wom- en steal books when left to themselves. Inquiry at other English libraries, and es- pecially in those in London, brought forth similar expressions. In the absence of explanation it is not plain why the pres ence of men would exercise a deterrent effect upon feminine book thieves, but the London press comments upon the reports as if they should be taken without grain of salt
 If Englishwomen are less honest than men-this does not seem to be true of American women, to judge from reports from American libraries occasioned by the discussion in the English papers perhaps giving them the vote might pull them up to the moral level of men.
 It is observable that as witnesses in civil cases or criminal actions women are not more serupulously honest than men. There are some courtroom cynics who maintain that they are a good deal less so. If it is true that they are morally inferior as witnesses it is doubtless be- cause they lead more retired lives and are less accustomed to being held to the accountability which to a certain extent keeps men from violating the principles of honesty, in action and in speech,
 It is noticeabR that while men are often quite as vulturesque in their love of scandal as "their sisters, their cousins and their aunts,'' they are much less given to reckless scandalous assertion. That is to say, ungrounded allegation af- fecting character. That is perhaps be- cause of the habit of avoiding libelous statements, which are recognized in mans world as being extremely danger ous The habit of avoiding such state ments, which are recognized in mans world as being extremely dangerous. The habit of avoiding such statements for purely practical reasons breeds the habit of considering the gravity of malicious,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-08-29

And Caesars spirit, raging for revenge, With Ate by his side, come hot from hell, Shall in these confines, with mon- Hrch's voice Cry Havoc, and let slip the dogs of war.
 Julius Caesar.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-08-29

Wilson has chance of carrying that state.
 If the republicans had been wise they would have nominated strong man like Hughes. President Taft's defeat was a foregone conclusion from the start If Hughes had been placed at the head Of the republican ticket the bull moose par ty would never have nsaterialized and the E. o. D. might have continued in power four years longer.
 aOne notable thing about this cam paign is that the democrats all through the east are enthusiastic. The democrats of Pennsylvania are taking as much in- terest in tffe campaign as if the state helonged to the democratic or the doubt full column"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-08-29

rama of the worlds future, the name must not be sought in the history of the worlds past. No such name or place Is known to history, the word, in fact, be- ing coined by the prophet and appearing in this place for the first time Armaged- don means ''the Mountain of Megiddo." thus marking back to the Old Testament and making the significatiton plain. For Megiddo was a military post, commanding mountain pass into the plain of Jezreel This plain was the great battlefield of the Old Testament and invading armies usually entered it by the pass at Megid- do. Prophecy is apt, in this manner, to take up some well known historical fact and found its predictions upon it.
 The connection in which this newly coined and suggestive word occurs is most interesting The prophet is telling of coming time when three great forces are to combine their strength in battle against the Almighty. The three forces are de- scribed in symbolic terms as being false commerce, false government and a false faith. The precise form in which these false forces are to appear is not indi- cated, but statesmen have not been slow to suggest and identify the unrevealed forms Some have seen the false com- merce in the liquor trade or opium traf- fic, the false faith in Mohammedanisnl or Buddhism, and the false government in the Rule of Bosses. anarchy and the like.
 The prophet clearly commits himself to the doctrine that there are evils for which battle and bloodshed are the only cure. when all the righteous and patriotic of earth are to gather at Armageddon ana battle for the Lord