davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-28
I Conditions Here and Elsewhere

The strike in England has cost that country untold millions and caused more suffering than has been known in Great Britain for many years. In the United States a strike seems im- minent in the northern coal fields. Public sentiment in the large business centers is strongly opposed to a strike, because labor troubles cause quick paralysis of business, to say nothing of lawlessness. and murder that al- ways attend strikes in the coal re- gions. But the most hopeful view of the situation is that in the event operators and miners in the anthracite and northern bituminous fields fail to come to an agreement by the first of April the strike that will ensue will be of short duration.
 Since the panic of the fall of 1907 few manufacturers or merchants have conducted business at a profit. But within the past few weeks prosperity has been returning and in spite of the fact that this is a presidential cam paign year the country is on the verge of a boom. One of the best business barometers in New York is the real estate market, and real estate in the great metropolis is extremely active now for the first time since 1907.i
 The Birmingham district has fared better recently than almost any other manufacturing center in the country. The industrial situation here has been improving steadily since the first of the year and it begins now to look like old times. The fact is that conditions hereabouts are exceptionally favor able to new high record in growth and thrift this spring. New capital is coming in freely and homeseekers are finding their way here in larger numbers than in any former period of prosperity. The coal mining in dustry is flourishing. Miners are well paid and are well circumstanced. If labor conditions continue as they are this is going to be great year for everybody.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-28
President Taft Plays Politics

President Taft has at last become a tariff reformer. He wants the duties on cotton goods reduced, and surely the country that grows the raw ma terial should produce the finished produce on reasonable basis. The cost of distribution is blamed, and the cost of production will be closely looked into
 q rejoice said Democratic Leader Underwood when the Presidents cot ton message was read, that at last we may enjoy the spectacle of our republican friends applauding a re- publican Presidents message advocat- ing a reduction in the duties they themselves increased" This probably means that Chairman Underwood will bring in a revision of the cotton sched- ulc on revenue lines only, and it will take all the~fire out of the Presi- dents attempt to play politics.
 Consumers are no doubt paying too high prices alike for woolen and cot ten goods, and MT. Underwood's work will not stand complete until he brings in A revision of the cotton schedule. He will almost certainly do this. The President invites it, and no doubt the invitation will be accepted frankly and fully, and a revised cotton schedule will be sent to the Senate. It will be one that will deprive the President of all opportunity to play politics.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-28
UNDERWOOD'S STRENGTH

From the Columbus (Ga.) Ledger
 One reason why MT. Underwoods pop ularity is increasing is that his whole public career and the things for which he stands are of character to invite con- fidence, truly says the Savannah News.
 Congressman Underwood is coming to the front at a rapid pace. Politically clean, able, conscientious and broad enough in his views to deal fairly with the interests of all sections, he is the sort of a states man the people are looking for to bring the nation back to safe constitutional moorings, to safeguard it against the dangers of the new doctrines which am- bilious men are proposing as a means Of gaining place and power.
 It cannot be repeated too often that the south is the most American and most conservative part of the union, and think inS men in all parts of the country are looking to the south to lead in resisting tho attacks on the fundamental principle on which the government is founded. What Is more natural then than that, in the stress and storm of the existing polit- ical unrest, they should regard with spe- cial favor a southern leader.
 The sectional differences of the past are forgotten and there is a general feeling of gladness that they are There hash t come from any part of the country a single note of disapproval of the candi- dacy of MT. Underwood, and it Is cer- tain there will be none. Indeed, if he should be the nominee of the democratic party. the very fact that he is a south- ern man would be one of the sources of his strength.
 There is feeling of satisfaction all over the south that there have been no attacks upon his record. While other can didates are explaining the speeches they have made or things they have written he l is serene and smiling, unafraid and un- attacked, because. although the leader of the House and for r years participant in the discussion of Congress, he has an ! unassailable record.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-28
ChicagO's Meat Packers

What an American petit jury will do has long been considered an un- solvable enigma. Almost anything else can be analysed and sifted, but the action of jury is beyond guess or reason.
 The Chicago jury that said the 1O meat packers of Chicago who consti- ute the National Packing company are innocent, is a case in point. To say that these men do not manipu- late the meat industry of the country putting prices up or down to suit their own plans, is simply to state an untruth. Every intelligent person knows that the industry is in their hands. Several of the jurors," says the Associated Press dispatches, ad- mitted that "they did not review the exhibits in the case. The mass of figures and reports mystified them. To have at tempted to untangle them would have been useless" To cut the matter short they seem to have voted re- Qardless of evidence according to their own prejudices.s The first ballot was eight to four for acquittal; the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-28
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
sheIhx,s ImpressIons

J. E. Shelby, formerly manager oi
 the Cable Piano company in Birming'
 ham and now similarly employed 1T
 Denver, spent several days here this week. ,F
 T left Birmingham a little more than two years ago. and the growth of this city within those two years has been marvellous" said MT. Shelby last night I Of course, I always knew that Blr- mingham had a great future, but il I is going ahead at a greater rate than I had even imagined 1t would. Why this l town is on a genuine boom right now and it is a healthy boom, too.
 Denver Is an attractive city and in the last census 1t had a population of about 75,000 more than Birmingham. But from a business point of view Bir- mingham is considerably ahead of the Colorado city Business here seems so much more substantial than 1t does in any city of approximately its size that have visited. There is a buoyant feel ing here that is particularly attractive and Birmingham's grow-n will be very rapid from now on.
 "I am naturally interested in Un- derwoods presidential candidacy. There ar many Underwood men in Denver, but the Colorado delegation to the na- Itional democratic convention will prob- ably be uninstructed. Colorado senti- ment now seems to be divided between Harmon and Underwood Everybody out west who has kept up with Underwood thinks he Is one of the greatest men that ever lived"
 Mr. Shelby, when asked how he liked woman suffrage in Colorado said: T don't like 1t. If I were back in Ala bama and the question of equal suffrage came up I would vote against it. And believe if Colorado had 1t to do over again the people of that state would vote against it."
 MT. Shelby was noted in Birming- ham as a great hustler and he is ev!- dently a great hustler in Denver. His public spirit soon made an impression there, and although a new resident he was elected last fall president of the Apple Exhibition company. Denver 8 apple show is equal almost to a worlds fair.
 MT. Shelby has a host of friends in Birmingham and he has been kept busy on this visit shaking hands.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-28
THE BETTER COUNTRY

From Goldsmith's 'rhe TraveIer.' But where to find that happiest spot be-
 low, Who can direct. when all pretend to
 know? The shuddering tenant of the frigid zone. Boldly proclaims that happiest spot his
 own; Extols the treasures of his stormy seas And his long nights of revelry and ease The naked negro. panting at the line. Beasts of his golden sands and palmv
 wine, Basks in the glare. or stems the tepld
 wave, And thanks his eods for alIs the good
 they gave. Such is the patriots boast, where,er W, His first, best country ever is at home Thus every good his native wilds impart Imprints the patriot passion on his heart. And cen those ills that round his man. sions rise 4 @ Enhance the bliss his s ,ty fund sup
 plies, M Dear is. that shed to VI ssul con-
 forms, And dear that hill whit liits hsn so fha
 storms: And as child. when ns zounse ,-
 lest. So the Ss'ss loud ,; torrent ns sl nd. But bind ,him to seslSe asontains
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-28
Candidates Need Fair Weather

q certainly am glad that the weath- CT is fair" said one of the many can didates for the board of revenue, flor we need 1t. The people. though, have not thought that we are as glad as the ball players and the farmers. expect that the ball men command more attention than we do.
 T am busy every day now, for there are many candidates In the field ant few are to be elected. We must ge to see as many voters as possible anC my car fare alone reaches into dollars per day. I think that there will be several close races and feel that there will be many surprises"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-28
Colonel RoOsevelt's Disastrous Race


 Manager Medill Mccormick of the Roosevelt bureau in Washington says the Taft managers in Indiana were guilty of political grand larceny, and Colonel Roosevelt himself says the way the county machine in New York city behaved was "scandalous." "
 These casual remarks simply mean that the Roosevelt boom was defeated alike in Indiana and in his own state of New York. The colonel did not contest the up state and Long Island districts of New York, and he will not secure more than one-tenth of the 90 delegates that the big state is entitled to-his own state, by the way.
 The primary was not one of the fair est and best ever held, but it was fair enough to show that Colonel Roosevelt : lacked the backing in his party which he had expected.
 The candidacy of Theodore Roose- welt is practically at an end. No third termer can carry the country To claim that a crisis exists which calls aloud for him is simply flap doodle.
 He stands defeated almost at the outset, and his case will go on from bad to worse. The steam roller in the hands of experts has destroyed his chances. To tell the entire truth he never had a chance to win. Nc z third termer has. The unwritten law simply scores an additional yindica- tion.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-28
THE GAMIN oF PARIS

From Hugo Les MlserableS.
 Paris has a child, and the forest has
 bird; the bird is called the sparrow the child is called the gamin. Couple
 these ideas, the one containing all the heat of the furnace, the other all the light of the dawn; strike together these two sparks, Paris and infancy, and there leaps forth from them a little creature, Homuncio, Plautus would say.
 This little creature is full of joy. He has not food to eat every day, yet he goes to the show every eevning, if he sees fit. He has no shirt to his back, no shoes to his feet, no roof over his head. he is like the flies in the air, who have none of these things He is from to 13 years old, lives in troops, ranges the streets, sleeps in the open air, wears an old pair of hiss fathers pantaloons down about his heel an old hat of some other father, which covers his ears, and a single sus- bender of yellow listing; runs about, is always on the watch and on the search
 kills time, colors pipes, swears like an imp, hangs about the wine shop, knows thieves and robbers, is hand in glove with the street girls, rattles off slang, sings
 smutty songs; and, withal. has nothing
 bad in his heart This is because he
 has pearl in his sodl-innocence; and pearls do not dissolve in mire. So long
 as man is a child God wills that he be
 innocent.
 If one could ask of this vast city,
 What is that creature?" she would answer,
 Tt is my bantling." The gamin of Paris is the dwarf of the giantess.
 We will not exaggerate. This cherub of the gutter sometimes has a shirt, but
 then he has only one; sometimes he has
 shoes, but then they have no soles; some times he has a shelter, and he loves it, for there he finds his mother but he pre- | fers the street, for there he finds his lib-
 erty. He has sports of his own, of which
 a hearty hate of the bourgeois is tho
 basis. He has his own metaphors; to be
 dead he calls "eating dandellons by the 1 root" He has his own occupations, such
 as running for hacks. letting down car riage steps, sweeping the crossings fin rainy weather, which he styles making
 'pons des arts" crying the speeches often
 made by the authorities on behalf of the
 French people, and digging out the streaks between the flags of the pave-
 ment. He has his own kind of money, consisting of all the little bits of wrought copper that can be found in the public thoroughfares This curious coin, which
 takes the names of scraps" has an un- varying and well regulated circulat tion throughout that little gypsy land of chil- dren.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-28
Cost of Stopping Trains

According to a report issued by Signal Engineer Peabody of the Chicago and Northwestern, who made investigations on his own line, the cost of stopping a train of 530 tons and returning to a speed of 50 miles an hour Is 42 cents,' says the Railway World "The cost of stopping a 20Oo-ton train from B miles an hour is $1. Other reports on the same subject estimate each stop of a six-car passenger train from 45 miles an hour at 35 cents and for a 15O0-ton train from 15 miles an hour at 56 cents. The time lost for making a stop on a straight, level track is estimated at 145 seconds
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-28

When the time comes 1t will not sur prise me if Underwood gets the vote or the delegation Senator Martin controls the party organization and I understand he is very friendly to Underwood. MT Underwood's first wife was Virginia lady and his sons went to school in Richmond. He is almost as well known personally to the people of Richmond as he is to the people of his home town He Is highly thought of wherever he is known. No statesman in the United States is better equipped. perhaps. for the presidential office than Oscar Un- derwood."
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-28
WHAT IS A HOME ]?

and that magnificent house has darkened their young lives. Theyggo round it on tiptoe and the word don't rings in their ears forever. Don't sit on that costly lounge, whatever you dor Don't keep looking at that expensive Flemish clock or you'll wear out the dial!' That's the way it goes in the Dickery mansion. When escaped from it's portals heaved sigh of relief that knocked the icicIes' from the caves.
 ''The ideal home isn't palace crowded with expensive furniture, my friends. The ideal home Is an transformations joint where a man may sit around in his shirt sleeves and smoke an old briar pipe with out being rebuked."
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-28

second, Il to l, and the verdict came with the third
 A jury that refused to consider the evidence presented is jury that is past accounting for. The 10 packers stand acquitted, and the people are at their mercy. The criminal section of the Sherman law has thus far proved valueless, and the government is for that reason confined to civil proceed ings.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-28
REFLECTIONS OF \ BACHELOR

From the New York Press.
 Nothing hurts a girls feelings so much
 as for her hair to look carroty red when it is. Next to investing in gold mines start
 ing an amateur garden loses the most
 money. Diplomacy is where man starts to take a morning bath by putting on his evening clothes. When you think how men will work to
 break out of jail it is past understanding how others will work to stay in politics. A man is so generous to his wife that | if she inherited fortune he would be wiling to let her have . new hat out
 of It. , ~ xsss
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-28
The Radiator Company

"The American Radiator company, which has been operating here tenta- lively for some time, on leased prop erty, will before great while build its own plant and it will be a big one" said a member of the Chamber of Commerce. The coming of this company was an important event in the industrial life of Birmingham. It is safe to say that In less than two years from now its Birmingham pay roll will be many times larger than 1t Is now. Every new industry, no mat ter how small, helps, but 1t Is not often that as large concern as the Ameri- can Radiator company will be added to the long list of local industries"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-28

proud of Tommy. ne Is getting along splendidy in school
 When I asked him if you were at home he said he would find out, but before he started upstairs he asked me how the orphans were getting along"
 That was just like him. The dear lit- tie fellow is always thinking of others"
 And when I told him that the orphans were doing as well as could be expected. he wished to know what we were doing for the heathen'' *zfg
 Isn't it remarkable that children should think of such things? 1 often think that we dos not give them credit for the in- telligence they possess
 ''I was compelled to tell him that we were doing little or nothing for the heather. I sometimes fear we shirk our duty in this respect; but there are so many people right here among us who need our guidance that we may, hope, be forgiven if we sometimes leave the heathen to shift for himself"
 ''Yes we may console ourselves with the thought that the heather lives where 1t is warm, and even if he is benighted, it is quite certain that he. is much happier than many of the people with whom we must come in contact day after day" After he had asked me about the heathen, he wanted to know if we were buying a new organ for the church or thinking of having the edifce repaired" Did he really say edifice?"
 "Wen, perhapss she did not call it that. No, I think he merely referred to It as the church. But he seemed to be anxious to know whether we were going to have anything done to it."
 Just think of 1t, And he won't be years old until June G" ytf
 "When I had informed him that we were not buying an organ or having the church rebuilt he said: a Then daddy must be liar, because he told mother last night that you never came here unless you wanted to work holdup game of some d"-Chicago Rec ord- Herald.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-28
Short-arm'd ignorance.
 -TrOIIus and Cressida.
After States Are Admitted

Arizona is taking steps towards the restoration to place in her constitu- tion of the provision concerning the recall of judges. Congress compelled it to strike out that provision, and it will soon be restored to it's former place.
 The right of a sovereign state to regulate it's own affairs is the point at issue. Utah was admitted on the condition that polygamy should be prohibited in the state, and the pro- vision is in the Utah constitution to- day. How well or poorly it has been observed few outside of the Mormon church know.
 The people of Oklahoma agreed to keep their capital at Guthrie until 1913 and to keep the grandfather clause out of their constitution. They paid no attention to either stipulation, and the supreme court of Oklahoma upheld the action of the state legisla- lure. Arizona is but another case in point. A state must under our plan of government be left free to regu- late it's own affairs, and there is no half way house, no compromise, pos sible in such matters. If states can be bound in one thing they can 1T many, and the best rule seems to be to trust to the several states to dc what is decent and fair.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-28
HOW "LIFEo BEGAN

From the Metropolitan.
 In a personal sketch of John Aries Mitchell, editor of Life" affectionately known as 'the General'' James S. Met calfe says:
 Tn starting Life the general had in his favor one advantage enjoyed by none of his predecessors The process of re- producing black and white drawings by the zinc-etching process had just been made commercially possible. Up to that time hand engraving and lithography. both tremendously expensive. had been the only means by which the artists work could be transferred to print. On that account there were comparatively few artists who did anything but paint pie lures. The new medium made Life pos sible and Life-plus the general-made possible the careers of not only enough black and white artists to supply its needs, but also those of mang other pub lications. The fact that the general had been both draftsman and painter was supplemented by his having also had con- siderable experience as an etcher. This experience was valuable in enabling him to secure for Life the best results from the new process which was a combination of photography and etching. It was also of value that about the same time the half tone process became available for H. lustrated periodicals.
 ITO this educational equipment the gen. eral brought many other qualifications which suited him for the unique task he had undertaken. To artistic understand ing he added an artistic sympathy much needed in a time when it was necessary almost to create a school for draughts- l think the guild today will, upon reflection. credit him with be- ing the strongest single influence of his time to bring the art of the American it.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-28
All Optimists Now

Birmingham never had many croak- CTS, and 1t has not one today" said a successful business man.
 q have lived here for many years; have seen periods of depression as well as periods of great prosperity, but l have never known the time when the business situation was so bright as now. There Is more building going on today than usual and the contracts that will be let for large buildings within the next three or four days will cer- tainly make new high record
 "The real estate market, which was sluggish for two or three years, Is now active and there is not a foot of real estate in this city that will not have a higher market value year hence than its selling price today. Birmingham is the most prosperous city in the south and it's prosperity will continue"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-28

AN EXCHANGE OF COURTESIEs.
 When J. W. Mitchell was the Russian correspondent of the Associated Press .the head of the German branch of the house of Rothschild visited St. Petersburg, and it became Mitchell's business to find out what had brought the great financier to that city. Mitchell. who is famous for his brilliant brain and his dull looking clothes, found and interviewed Roths- child.
 At the close of the talk, the money king, thinking that Mitchell was a poor fellow on the verge of starvation, fished out of his vest pocket a sovereign, and, with a patronizing air. handed 1t to him.
 Whereupon, the newspaper writer, pro- ducing a s5 gold piece, extended 1t to Rothschild, and said, in a bored manner:
 Have one of mine. "-The Popular Mag aZine.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-28

What constitutes an affluent man in New York? In recent divorce suit il was held that man was not in affluent circumstances who had an income ol Sl60 OOo a year.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-28

Blizzards cost the city of Chicago about S25,Ooo apiece and the Chicago newspa- pers hope the series will be ended by June.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-28
SEVERE REFLECTION

From the Houston Post. The Atlanta Journal is raising the
 bloody shirt issue in favor of Wilson as against Underwood. This is the severest
 reflection upon the intelligence of the
 people of Georgia that we have beheld ir many day.