davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-21

About the time you are reddy to start, four of your trends naybors cum up. Your frend seys Hello, Bill and Tom and Jim and Pete, we air going out to kill few birds, and we mite get ovver on your place, will it be all rite, and won't you cum along with us ?" Sure thing, seys Bill and Tom and Jim and Pete. We ant no bird hunters, but we'll go long and watch you fellers kill'em, and in less time than it takes to tell it, your lit tle party is marching thru the heathur, bareing close resemblance to General Madero's Mexican Insur- rectoes, while young Prinse Whet- stone is running his young life out down a cotton row, and Old Rolley is carefully seeing to it that no cov- vey of birds attacts you rum the reer.
 After tramping four hours, and leaving relicks of your natty hunting suit on nine barb wire lenses, and de- veloping a bunion on each foot that will last longer and add moor to your pleasure than visit frum your muth- er-in-law, Old Rolley disappears, and
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-21

And thus the day passes. When nite cums, you and your companions drift into your frend's home footsore and weary with three birds and rabit, and an appetite that would make John D. coff up million bones for one like it. And that supper your trends wife puts befour you. Back bone and spareribs and country saul sages that needs no certificate frum the pure food experts, and big fat bislSits with sorghum, hot coffee and the genniel glow of country hospitali
 ty, the most genuine in the world. You eat like you weer six munths in arreers, and when 1t is ovver you feel like that aftur all you have had the time of your life. The next day at the club under the mellowing inflew- ance of high ball, you draw site draft on your imaginasion and dis cribe that hunt to your trends, mod destly admitting that you "did not shoot as well as usual, only killing 34 birds" but that altogether 1t was the most successful hunt you had had in
 many a day. Ant it the truth? Yours trooly, BILL VINES.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-21

referendum and recall, the government ownership of common carriers, of tele- phone and telegraph systems, are to him sacrilege beyond words.
 Wlet Dr. Schurman seems to ignore, and what those other ultra-conservatives seem quite to forget, is that the power of Democracy today, and the slow but certain growth of that Arch -Riffel Socialism, are no more than flank move ments. retaliatory gestures of a people whose welfare has been entirely dsre- garded Under a Republican regime the exploitation of the many to advantage the few has been so insistent and so lasting, that seers of much smaller grasp and calibre than the President of Cor nell can even reconcile the appearance of virulent type of Socialism. The writer thinks we have done wonderfully well so far to escape the bloody grip of anarchy.
 Though Socialisms ultimate service to the human race be no more than an active protest against abuse of power against those cankerous growths which overmuch license in the hands of a few, has bred-that protest alone will have q certain structural value in the reforma- ton of society. If Socialism be no more than a sort of moral policeman who,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-21

Survey editors. It is notorious that the one great outstanding failure in American democratic life ia the govern ment of cities. With one voice, from M. Bryce to Charles Edward Russell. ob- servers and publicists and students have declared that European and mon archical lands have procured for them selves sort of municipal whole someness beside which our cities prove showy, but barbarous. With the ma jority of the population streaming into the American city, its administration is rather in the halting and experimental stage, even when honest. Tn most in- stances it has not been honest, but the rich field for the exploitation of pub- lie necessity for private gain.
 But this is new age; and in the new age fig a new spirit. Men have awak- cred by the million in America to the necessity of thorougn reformation. In their eyes 1t is more important to get at the facts that to save our face, more necessary to abolish disease than to add to the population or the industries. The money of the great Sage estate and the money of other vast estates is coming back to the service of the people with no other aim but to make life moro just and more worth living. The Survey staff which was here some months ago are en- thusiasts for common sense. That is the sum total of their crime. And Birming ham has been laid under eternal obliga- tions to them because they had no sm- bition except to see the facts and re- port them accurately.
 There will always be those who care less about doing wrong than about be- ing caught with the goods. In their view 1t Is less shameful to have garbage pile or dark street, or murderous in- tent, or bloody hands. than to let tse Associated Press publish the fact. Ahab, being a good business man, who was in partnership with an excellent real estate agent for a wife. cared less for the wrong to Naboth than for the work and words of Elijah. Elijah was the editor and
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-21

M | yssr just bsfour the bird li,s's see, A sun opens, and just aftur you you have red John Wallace's annuel, butiful and classick little peece of fictsion entitled How the Birds Air Being Protected in Alabama, or Just Look Hear What I Have Dun for Sport" you begin to enquire frum you country trends about the bird crop. Such enquiries cir invariabully met with optomistick replies. Moor birds this seesun than evvr befour. I have newer seen the like, there must be 25 covvies on my place." etc. You clean up your gun and buy enuff shells to start an insurrectsion. and get reddy to go out and make the limmit look feebul.
 Sum frend of yours way back at Podunk on the Southern, assures you that he has two of the Finest Dogs in the world," and that there has been no hunting on his phase for three yeers, and that the birds air actually eating him out of house and home,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-21

up the streets, as well as in parlors and drawing rooms. have on occasion met your old acquaintance Tittlebat Titmouse, whom you first met In Warren's "ren Thousand a Year" When I met him ne was still enjoying his dyed hair" his room scenting perfume. and his infinite esteem of himself. He would pat himself for his cleverness and seemed to fancy that he had conquered worlds when he had excited among a bevy Of girls laughter which, fin rippling peals followed him. '1t was clever" he thought Hes a fool" the girls said But lie didn't hear them and was happy.
 These conceited folk whom Gil Bias would rob of their happiness always show the source Of their delight. It lies within them Not in their intellectual attain ments. not in real gifts. accomplishments or graces but they are ever self conscious, and by some psychological deception they esteem other people of less ability and of fewer attachments than themselves. really enjoy watching these archblshops Malvolios, Sir Jacks. and their ilk. They afford a great deal of enjoyment. Few of them ask me to be as sincere as was my friend Gil Bias. Therefore retain their friendship, and send them along their way with my blessing.
 Why not? Why should I disturb their infinite self satisfaction and composures It would do no good. Said solomon "Seest thou a man wise in his own con
 ceit?
 There's more hope of fool than of him"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-21

tacles, no learned old man, no myste- rious and long draw out process in- volved in your prescription, nothing in- deed but the counting of capsules or the pouring of stuff out of one bottle Into another by youthful and spright- ly gentleman, a "beardless boy" 10 quote the dramatist, all the wonder evaporates, the mortar and pestle in electric boastfulness above the doorway become hypocritical or. at least d purely symbolical pretense. and you feel that you can get your poisons by the pound, your love philters by the quart and that drug clerk is only a sort of glorified mixologist-shal say barkeep?
 Solomon had sign of the mortar and pestle which should finger long after the wholesale drug men have put the prescriptionist on the scrap heap. But Solomon's mortar was really species of mill for the bruising of wheat not to grind it. but apparently to prepare it for cooking. to break the hard shell of the grain, In fact, and so make it shed It's contents. And Solo mon was profoundly convinced that the
 
 folly of a fool was harder to shed than the contents of the hardest grain. He would put the sign of the mortar and the pestle over the doorwas of the fool and with this legend, Though thou shouldest bray the fool in mor- tar, among bruised grain with pestle, yet will not his foohshness depart from him" And being a naturalist, Solo mon llarks back to the natural history of the fool. with sundry incisive com ments, among whick is this notorious one: "Reprove not a scorner lest he hate thee; rebuke a wise man and he will love thee"
 Solomon's fool is always the man who mistakes the immediate pleasure for the real good Truth matters less to him than successful lie. To say to him that there is cod of justice at work in this whirling dust-cloud We call the world, seems to the fool 6 ridiculous. visionary. inconsequential thing. He is
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-21

with eorpses It is the terrible price usually paid for religious liberty for social liherty-the bloodiest travail of a people. l believe the dynamitard in Russia, bood-red though his hand and heart may be, is unwittingly a right valiant servant of truth. It is not a lovely thing to blast a breathing body into a condition of mangled meat; the dynamitard knows this as well as you and l, who live in a land where physi- clans for this sort of cauterizing are not needed. But suppose few ounces of giant powder, kneaded in most delicate fash ion with lyddite, Cby the bye, is that the way they build bombsD will be for ward step to saving hundreds of men and women. not murderers, from the Siberian quicksilver mines? Well?
 Truly a dreadful Riffel this would be-! But no Riffe of this fashioning disturbs the tranquility of Dr. Sehurman What vexes the Doctor is the proposition that 90.0Oo, coo people of these states should own the public utilities, and not 5,O0O. say; that instead of a half-dozen men in Wall street making or marring the destnies of nation, that nation, through legal right of purchase, should conduct those same utilities at cost to the peo-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-21

persuaded that dollar Is dollar any where, and that he can always get 100 cents worth out of 1t. His whole the ory of life is that to make personal success of it you must get the means, and that it matters little how you get them He sometimes sets fire to his premises and collects tho insurance be- cause his stock is slow to sell.
 He does not doubt that the insurance company is better able to bear the loss than he is. Law. truth, justice, right. are words Of only theory to him. The question is. what will pay? He sup poses being a member of the Chamber of Commerce, that yelling "Birming- ham. Great Birmingham" from one end of this land to the other Is very effective and attractive advertisement. When you suggest that the abatement of the smoke nuisance, for instance. would be great advertisement for Birmin gham, he thinks. or even says, that you are an impractcable fool. When you advocate the cleaning or South Twenty third street so that at least once since the pavement was laid nearly a year ago, the cars may cease to bring clouds of disease bearing dust into the mouths and lungs of the pop ulation, he says. But what has that to do with advertising Birmingham"
 And when the best experts this coun- try has yet produced. supported by the wealth of a dead millionaire, gather here to tell us how to create a city on sane and wholesome lines. pointing out fn n. leo <.H 4 If.-& ~.4 the wickedness of dump where pigs and cows graze on rotting melon rind and where the reek reduces the value of adjoining residence districts, the fool turns loose and tears his hair and says the expert is running the reputation of the city.
 Had we eyes to see, we should per- ceive that very fine and gracious and uniquely helpful thing has been done to all the civic life of the land by the selection of this young city with vast destiny as a case in point by the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-21
Good and Bad Citizens

From the New York Press.
 Some urchin had started bonfire of rubbish in the street. law abiding woman looked out the window, noted the night wind blowing blazing frag- ments about, remembering that fire burns holes in asphale pavement--and reached for the telephone. She called up the nearest fire station. reported the matter and got the assurance that a man would be sent over at once to put out the blaze It was rather a. long distance, however, and while she watched from the window for the fire man, she amused herself observing how the passersby regarded the fire Surely, she thought somebody would stamp 1t out before the fireman arrived
 An Italian who had a chestnut brazier on the opposite corner glanced over. lifted something from his stand and crossed the street. The woman was sorry she had called up the depart ment, since there was a near citizen who would quickly put out the blaze. Tony swooped upon it with the lid of his chestnut brazier-and gcooped up a bunch of glowing embers to augment his fuel. A moment later along came q well dressed man carrying an um- brella, large package and an even ing paper. Ls he drew near the nre
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-21

quence he was three times wounded, had 16 horses shot under him during the war, seven of his staff officers were killed, and s2 wounded. This brief and rapid sum mary of his achievements affords but bare idea of the strenuousness of his ca reer during the sormy days of the civii war. Becoming a planter after the war closed in the northern part of this state, he was chosen for many successive years to represent the Eighth district in Con- gress. His activity in congressional life was as distinguished as 1t had been on the field. An indefatigable student of af- fairs, he rested not till he had probed to the bottom of all important questions. His statistical information was wonder ful, and when accuracy on all great issues was needed, 1t became Q, proverbial sug- gestion about the capitol at Washington to task Wheeler" Frequently he could give off hand long series of statistics and was resorted to as an encyclopedia.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-21

When the spanishsAmerican war began President Mckinley made Wheeler major general and sent him to Cuba, where he was placed in command of the cavalry. His fighting qualities had not become diminished, nor was his force abated. Tn the two chief battles, Santiago and Fl Caney he was the most conspicu- ous figure. Smitten by the Cuban fever he quit hIs sick bed and went on horse back to the front of the line all day at San Juan, and though burning with fever, after 12 hours of fierce battle and ex- posture, interposed before discouraged offi- cers who were suggesting retirement from positions already won, and that could be held only by unfiinehing bravery, and In the face of every officer indignantly de- clined to hear of retreating one foot.
 General Shafter was in command, and Wheeler warned him against the pro- posal to retreat, and by his splendid and fearless courage of heart and determina-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-21

often, that the enemy came to regard him as sort of wizard of battle.
 As a West Pointer Wheeler was far more scientific In his methods and move ments. and more cautious. but dashing as any when occasion required His were the tactics of the schools; the tactics of Forrest found apt expression from him on one occasion when he said that his plan was Ito get thar first with the big gest crowd"
 It was Wheeler who captured General Prentiss' division in tho battle of Shiloh, and later with his division of cavalry cov- cred the retreats from Shiloh, Corinth and Perryvile, and accomplishing this with such skill as to win the commendations of the Confederate generals.
 At Murfreesboro he was again conspicu- ous, turning Rosecrans' flank, capturing many prisoners and wagons, and destroy ing gunboats and supplies, He distin- guished himself at Chicamauga, and after
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-21

F ever one honorably won soubri-
 quet it was lighting Joe Wheeler < He was a born fighter, bold and brave commander. and an efficient officer. The beginning of the civil war found him fin the regular army lieutenant of cdy- airy, located in New Mexico having grad uated from West Point just two years before. When he resigned his commits sion in the army of the United States and offered his sword and service to the Confederate States, he was just 25 years old.
 His ascent in promotion in the army of the Confederacy was rapid. First becom- ing a lieutenant of artillery he was pro- noted to a colonelcy of infantry, then he became a brigadier general, later a major general and the close of the war found him a lieutenant general of cav- airy.
 So early as 1862. little more than a year
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-21

lone figure in his party today; and Con- gressman Underwood and Judge Harmon are the only two old-line Democrats that stand for the landmarks of the party, untouched by progressiveness.
 I suspect this gradual obliteration of party lines-this measuring of parties by their works and no more by their faiths" may Vex Dr. Schurman and other extreme conservatives. The low ering of tariffs may to bis mind be destructive of national self-proteetion, (for wherewithal shall we build fighting ships since our eoffers will be leaner than heretofore0 These are questions that the nation will come face to face with in due and ample time.
 As to war, if 1t should find us with empty tils, | submit that the nation will look after that. Under | regime that shall refuse to foster a nationwide meat pool and kindred grim and hurtful Riffels of the Devils breed. there would be produced in due season a loftier and more patriotic citizenship. Such a na- ton would suffer much financially, in the grim hour of war, to right its griey- anees with other nations. "a.
 And let us put away our fears about Socialism. Its appearance and power and
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-21
( J

~ ID ENGLISH inns have & way
 of wit, pretty much of the Old O English numbering sort One I re- member in Derbyshire was decorated with a large sign hung from an upper story showing a man all green in hue, and beside him on the ground a negro's head. The legend was ''The Green Man and the Black Mans Head Another in War wickshire had four respectable but in- distinct figures, with the title "The Four Als," the laborer who works for all, the parson who prays for all, the lawyer who lies for all and a fourth gentleman whose identity I cannot establish at this distance. Who the green man at Ash bourne was. and what he was doing With a black mans head, I haven't the least idea But I know that bucolic Derby shire had there its romance, and that the little children learned fairy tales of a horrible and hair-raising variety when they asked their mothers what those strange figures on the sign signified.
 There was a Red Horse and White Horse, a Red Lion and White Lion, In gtratford. Certain old books tell you that they were ''imprinted'' at such and such sign. So that it is clear that inns and drinking places were by no means the only ones to be decorated and TO- manifested with this species of coats of arms. Indeed, in time of general H. 1iteracy picture title was of greater value for Identification than number on street
 Here. and commonly in this modern age there is a sign that survives, and is put in electric glory over the shops of apothecaries. so villainously called drug stores. GAS though the solemn mysteries of the ancient art of the al chemist could be blown aside with this cheap and commonplace familiartyil That sign and coat of arms Is the nor tar and the pestle-instruments where by the learned old man with horn spec tacles compounded the fatal sleeping potion for Juliet and should have been hanged for helping Romeo to suicide also. But when you find no horn spec
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-21
MADE A4ABAMA-LOSEPH W4EELER-By B. F. Riley

tion turned tho dlsheartened ones the other way about, by infuslng his own tenacity of purpose into them. The vlo- tim of raging fever. he appeared befors his troops at one stage during the hardest fighting at San Juan, and forgetting, for the moment, his whereabouts. he said in a brief address to his men: Now at them, boys. and wipe those Yankees off the face of the earth" This was the oc- casion of much meriment. but indicated the spirit of the little man of no pounds who stood ready to lead the charge. Wheeler was the occasion of the success in tho two great battles.
 At his own request he was sent to the Philippines, but there he was hampered by the authorities in his operations, while opportunities were given to others. He returned to tho United States, was re- tained with his commission in the service and assigned to duty near New York. where after a few years he died.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-21

after the war began. he commanded the cavalry corps of the western army, and was made senior cavalry general of the, Confederate armies on May il, 1884 He had been In the army scarcely year be- fore he received the thanks of the Con- federate Congress for his magnificent service, and of the legislature of South Carolina for his defense of Aiken.
 Always active. his course through tho turbulent years of tho civil war was mark ed by series of splendid achievements, scarcely equalled in number by that Of any other officer in the army. Without the dash and daring of Forrest, Wheeler was just as effective fighter. Forests method was that of Indian warfare, keep ing an eye always on the slightest advan- tage afforded, and at great risk often- times going to reckless extent In order to win. He would often win all by risk Ing all. In his case, this proved effectual. and so signal became his success. and so
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-21

JH R. Schurman is tormented by
 more bangs and fears than wars
 ar women have. Not long while ago this distinguished educator spent an evening with us, guest of the Under wood banquet committee. and during the course of the evening said a graceful and happy thing about Oscar W. Underwood We best remember him for that happy saying of his In that hour of clinking glasses and felicitous speech, no Rffel marred the outlook of Dr. Schurman. But since that wholesome and joyous occasion much has transpired to mar the professorial boise of the Cornell presi- dent.
 If the press accounts report him faith fully, his mind has lately been a re- pository for all the woes of the world In fact, the condition of the chap bounded on one side by the deep sea and on the other by the Devil, is as nothing compared to the predicament Of the American nation today, Dr. Schurman has hinted.
 The source of all his pessimism seems 10 lie in the spread of the Socialist party in the spread of certain dogmas held by the unrestful element of society-and because of this he foresees calamity ahead for the republic. The initiative,