davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-07

wandered forth to find her brothers. After various adventures she discovered them at the seaside. She saw them ap- preaching the land as swans. but at sum- down to her amazement she saw the swans transformed into her il brothers; for they were never swans at night. They spent the night in weaving 8 net in which when completed. Eliza slept, and next morning they upheld the net and the sleeping sister by their peaks, for they became swans by daylight, and car- ried her far away to the utmost happiness after she had gone through all sorts of sorrow.
 You may remember that the same au- thor has another story, in which he tells us of the benevolence of the swan. It is pretty story. but not so interesting as the fairy tale whose outlines I have given. This second enc you will find under the tile, "The Ugly Duckling." The ugly ducklng was transformed into a beautiful swan by one of their number. as they were sailing upon their outspread wings. and met the poor ugly duckling trying to swim.
 In Wagner's Lohengrin the most wonderful spectacular parts are asso- cfated with a swan. At the time of Elsa's great test, while she is on her knees praying. there comes a boat drawn by a swan with a gold chain about his neck. and in the boat there stands Elsa's knight in an armour of sparkling silver, leaning on his sword, with horn at his belt. The swan Is Elsa's enchanted brother Godfrey. Then asain in the third act. after Elsa's error. the swan appears. This time his identity is disclosed. He is Godfrey, Eby transformation, and Elsa falls into his arms and dies. Godfrey Is declared Protector of Brabant. and this time
 T k rvlt f tt- Q " Int I.. silence that lies beyond the dark wa fers of the Scheldt. Few scenes ex- hibited on the stage have been as beautiful and impressive as the knight s
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-07

recorded We have had more schools and more murders: more dollars given to all sorts of philanthropy and more mur- ders Whether trade has been bad or good the murder industry has mounted to the most splendid achievements. Talk ing the figures off the paper and imagin- ing the very forms of those poor men and women, poisoned, drowned, stabbed, brained, shot, butchered in a hundred ghastly ways, multiplied .eleven-fold un- der the hand of this generation. lying there in city houses, in country farms, row upon row, 900o victims in a single year, mass of rotting human bodies which we have done to death, we may begin to receive the true impression.
 But isn't this morbid? Certainly. But the universal fact is where the morbid ness comes in, not in our attempt to realize the fact. For the fact is ours. By gently protesting, with closed eyes, that we have seen no killings, and that anyhow these things are too shocking. we may play ostrich to the devil: but we shall find that in some way the eter- nal justice will require of this generation all this ghastly accounting. Not in im- aeina tion but in fact So that no man who believes in a living God of truth and justice can view otherwise than with alarm this dread array of corpses, murdered men unayenged, families be- reft. hearts appealing through indiffer- ent years for justice My God+ Why is there law, anyway? There is no use of expecting anything from the law. The guilty ones are allowed to escape" That was the anguished cry of the girl wife in Chicago, widowed of him whom the thugs had tortured to death. when she heard that execution was stayed by request of the phianthropists.
 Perhaps her uninstructing heart was ly thirsting for vengeance, the lex tal-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-07

ionis of blood for blood, or then perhaps her unnstructed heart was making in- telliglble the expanding cry of outraged humanity, of all American widowhood and orphandom, whose natural protectors have been slaughtered and are unaveng- ed. "Vengeances" someone says with horror. Does the gospel ministry talk of vengeance?'
 In reply to this there Is nothing to be said beyond the old, old yerity, He that shall break one of these least command ments and shall teach men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. No jot or little shall pass from the law till all be fulfilled Gospel which repudiates the moral authority of the Law is not the Gospel of the New Testament, but a something else, quite lacking in moral backbone. could have some respect for all this disregard of life and defeat of law by sentimental- ists if 1t frankly set aside all law and consistently experimented with the ni- hilistic or anarchistie theorem Tolstoy was logical to some degree. What we are naturally accomplishing, however, Is the rejection of law where we feel if as an irritant and the enforcement of law where we prefer to irrtate the helpless. Conceivably some kind of gra- cious humanity might be evolved where no courts of law but only grace and courtesy existed. But to make grace and courtesy minstrants at the door of H. centionsness and villainy is to invite the wrath of the furles.
 Either make the tree good and its fruit good or make the tree corrupt and it's fruit corrupt" The Chicago phiidn- thropic anarchists who united to deliver from their doom the murderers of that young countryman count the tree of human law good bnt it's fruit an out rage, and so have contributed to the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-07

pelled at some time to quit and begin over When that time comes with you let go as you would drop a hot potato,
 Edison will follow line of light wherever it leads, but when 1t takes him into a blind alley he quits in- stanter He did that over and over again in trying to find the right wire for the incandescent bulb.
 Lincoln let go the prospect of the United States Senate in order to win the presidency.
 Washington won his battles by his masterly retreats.
 Napoleon showed as much general ship in getting his broken army from Moscow to the Nieman as he did at Marengo or Lodi or Austerlitz.
 General '. s. Grant was slow to let go when he had q grip, but he had to give up his canal scheme at Vicks- burg.
 He is wise who knows when he Is whipped-and begins again.
 The veteran shipmaster knows there are times when it is foolish to fight the storm and so lets his ship ride with the storm. When the tempest Is spent he takes his bearings and starts aagin for his port.
 When the time comes let gol Ii
 You are captain on the deck of your own vessel Do not let if drift on the rocks or take the heart out of yourself by trying 10 sail in the teeth of the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-07

1 the guilt proven by the confession of | some, and they are sentenced to hang on | December 22nd. Now comes petition begging the reprieve of the condemned thugs. On the list occur these famous | names, among others: Jane Addams.
 Rabbi Hirsch. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, and Professor Charles R. Henderson The petition was influential and successful.
 The thugs are safe from the Cook coun- ty sheriff and the moose waiteth for them in vain
 This invasion of the condemned cell by sentimentalists is of rather recent
 development, but it has become fixed habit. American men and women loathe the operation of that divine law which lies at the root of moral life. the "lex talionis." the law which says so crudely, ''eye for eye, tooth for tooth. burning for burning. life for life Back in 1887, according to figures quoted by the Advance, there were 1,266 homicides in America.
 They have increased to some point variable between 5000 and 10000 The population in 1887 was approximately 60,- OOO0O0. It is now approximately 95,O0O 900, an increase of 5S per cent. Homicides have increased. as indicated, from 1266 to about 9000 in the same period, an in- crease. or more lhhh oio Pei NoiAe. ii'"e is to say, for every man whom our peo- pie murdered "A years ago we murder nearly eleven 'Tis record to amaze the stoutest heart.
 Now there can hardly be question but that sentimentalism has flourished in this land more during the past quar- ter of a century than at any earlier time. There is the closest agreement between the two sets of facts. Proportionately to the shrinking from enforcement or law has been the increase of the murders
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-07

of our spiritual politics, creating loyal ty, devotion, sacrifice, desire to excel, and every beautiful spirit-form which we know. Yes, and the others, tool For there be false Ariels, goblin sen timents, creators of false ideas and ignorant prejudices, begotten by greed and vanity.
 But sentimentalism belongs to re- zion of sham, where there is. a posturing and a pretending and a provoking of the heart to deceive itself with these pretenses. Sentimentalism is & kind of psychic emotion, quite indifferent to re- ality. It bears the same relation to healthy souls that hysteria bears to healthy nerves. Gilberts lines will al- ways stick to this kind of pretender:--
 "A greenery yallery. Grosvenor Gallery
 F'oot-in-the-grave young man.
 There is your professional sentimentalist. done by snapshot photography, outlining the aesthetics. And the other name. admitted, l understand, by bachelor maids and other sane young folks who talk Saxon is slush Between sentiment tality and slush there is no distinction, but the short word is sufficient.
 Now who is in the slush industry? Let us tread softly and speak Tn low, sad tones; for honored names are here, gib- beted in the pages of the Advance. Let me tell the story and do no wrong. A young countryman Is driving into Chi caeo early one morning. He is set upon by gang of youths who brutally mur- der him and take away his property. though he pleads with them to spare his life for the sake of his girl wife and her baby. Beaten and fouly tortured, he dies: but the police actually identify and arrest the bloody crew. they are tried,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-07

"HE murder industry, of which so much has been written and II spoken, deserves relentless study |ntil something is done about it |,ore effective than MT. Tafts toasted triumph over the trust |adustry And since there happens hong rather virile utterance by the |ditor of the Chicago Advance, present. Ing useful illustrations from recent Findy happenings in the breeze-smitten ty by the lake. start study With the |bove hissing caption. For there IS a Iery close relation between murdered en and sentiment. sentimentatism, ana ush. America is short on law but long \, slush Hence she is branded with le brand of Cain-the most singular Ind heart wringing fact about this Snazing land. For she Is at once the host progressive, the most tender earted, the most humane nation oil ,rth today or in the history of great ations. At the same time she Is the ast enlightened, the most backward, le most brutal in this first essential of vilized existence, the safety of the per pn.
 Is it possible that the very progress hd tenderness of America makes for er backwardness and her brutaliay?' 7
 lave we come once again upon the fun
 mental paradox? Does 1t indeed be-
 me a compliment that truthful witt
 ssses unexpectedly pay to these United
 ates, when they testify that here life
 less sacred and less safe ethan any
 here else? Does 1t prove the delicacy
 our national conscience, shrinking
 om hurting even the guilty?
 Sentiment is the refined gold of the
 man mind. Without it there would
 no humane existence. It is the Ariel
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-07

instance, in order to rescue 30 cents worth of junk from it's watery grave at the trifling cost of five or six mil- lion copecs, it must have experts
 experts on coffer dams and experts on don't give a damns, and so on, and then after it is raised they must have experts on whether it was an inside explosion of an outside explosion that wrecked the ship and one expert sub- mits report that proves beyond a shadow of doubt that it was an in- side explosion, and another equally expert an expert submits report that proves conclusiyely that it was an out side explosion, and Uncle Sam smiles and pays the bill. a
 And MT. Taft, the biggest practical joke ever played upon us by the re- publican party-a party of jokes follows suit, and appoints a commis- sion of experts to draft a tariff bill, or give its expert opinion to Congress as to the kind of tariff bill to pass. In other words the wise and learned statesmen we have been so indus triously and regularly voting for to
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-07

The order to the motorman is for the purpose of saving power. At certain points the grade is such that when the train is started it easily goes sev- eral blocks under its own momentum. So the motorman shuts off the power and coasts.
 Experts say that by coasting down the inclined planes as much as 90 per cent of the power may be saved. The same is true of life. Too many persons get the habit of running down the easier grades when they might shut off the power, coast down and save energy.
 We waste power. Many of us find ourselves worn. out in the middle of life because we have unnecessarily wasted energy. And so when we strike the up grades we find we haven't sufficient power. "The power is down. before we get to the end of the trip.
 Why not coast part way?
 Americans are fast goers. They run themselves not merely on schedule time, but ahead. And they are sur prised when they turn the lever on sig nal and the power Is missing. Coast some
 | Relax yourself at times. Let go. Coast. | Take a nap, or at least lie do&n for 1 five minutes, preferably in the middle
 of the day. Conserve your energy. Like electricity, your power must be man.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-07

thought of germs or tuberculosis, but
 if you were to negotiate lamb chop now that had not received the micro scopic look over from a high brow or two, you might contract violent case of hookworms or hydrophobia. Years ago, when you felt indisposed you sought out the family doctor, and he would invite you to protrude yard or two of your system out into cold and unfeeling world and let him view it, after which he would probably shake his head and tell you to cut out so much smoking and slow down
 on the booze, and give you about IA grains of calomel, and charge you two bones, and in a day or two you were all to the good. But now it is diff ferent. Now when you get pain in your diaphram your family physician thumps you in the slats and gets out a moving picture machine and photo graphs your works, making you re- move the last vestige of civilization, which is discouraging to a naturally shrinking nature. He will then inform
 you that you have carbuncle on your
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-07

represent us, laboring, as we have been, under the impression that they were some pumpkins, and that what they didn't know about the tariff and the money question or any other old question had been rubbed out of the book, are in fact a bunch of onions. At least, so says Taft in his action of appointing these experts, and such experts, too. They will submit bill, or recommendation, to Congress at expert prices that will stand about as much show of being approved by that body as Booker Washington would of getting the job of private secretary to Senator Vardaman. But it will put MT. Taft in the position of being able to go about the country and bark at the American people that the "demo- crats are playing politics" Taft would deserve no sympathy if Jeff Davis of Arkansas was to wander over to the White House and bite him.
 A real expert is a joy forever, but the rhinestone ones are worse than case of smallpox. Don't let lem fool you. Yours truly, BILL VINES.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-07

Pines was the first in which the command was actually engaged. Here the estima- tion of the troops of their brilliant young commander was greatly heightened. as they were led by him in this series of bloody contests. In this battle Rodes re- ceived a wound in his arm, but was able to lead his troops into tho battles of Boonsboro hnd Sharpsburg. At Chan cellorsvile. one of the bloodlest of the war. Rodes was entrusted for the first time with the command of a division, one of the three of Jacksons corps.
 The division of which he had command led the army in the assault on the enemy, and thrilling his troops with the cry, 'Forward men, over friend and foen' they fought with unwonted Valor. With an impetuosity rarely witnessed the di- vision commanded by Rodes swept like wave on a stormy sea to the utter dis may of the enemy.
 As is well known. both Generals Jack son and A. P. Hill were wounded dur ing the night. and on the young com mander was imposed the movement so auspiciously begun, which movement was checked only by the darkness of the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-07
Evans

that sung their tunefu songs, and sang
 their last and died" Tennyson wrote an
 carly poem on "The Dying swan in
 which he perpetuates the old poetic con- ceit. owen Meredith tells us "Of some wild swan singing himself to death Popes line, in the Rape of the LOCK, IS quite familiar, he speaks or "Th' expiring swan as he sings he dies Pliny and Sir Thomas Brown refer to the poetic conception, but they register their sceptism of the notion which seems to be as old as the Phaedon of Plato
 Erman, in his Travels in Siberia, says when the swan is wounded 1t pours forth it's last breath in notes most beautifully
 clear and loud" But did he hear the
 notes of a dying swan? I take if. that he accepted the common notion. It Is also
 said that in Iceland thaw Is presaged
 by the singing of the musical swan"
 This may be something similar to the
 note of the wild geese; for they make
 their peculiar music on their homeward
 trip, and presage the speedy departure of winter This music is referred to in
 the saying, "Everything is lovely and the goose honks high" Some people have it.
 'the goose hangs high which is non sense "The goose honks high" means that out of the far away crystal air the journeying wild geese sing, as best they may, of the approaching spring, the break ing up of frozen streams. the disappear ance of snow and ice and the coming of the months of grass and grain. Every thing Is lovely. The leaden skies make place for an infinite expanse of tender blue, and SO. high up above the earth the wild bird honks forth his joy. And what music 1t is! have heard them when twilight shut them from view, and their voices were full, rich, triumphant. It was music, but not a melody. It was the music of wild bird. once driven from home, but now happily homeward bound with every prospect of reaching its own land. On one occasion ! heard q great flock of them that must have num-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-07

doomed to an existence of eternal wear
 mess Fionnuala was doomed to live
 hundreds of years, not In the air, but
 in the water.
 In reading the old English novelsts one now and then finds mention made
 of certain inns or tayerns called "The
 White Swan" or ''The Sign of the White
 Swan.'' This fact has an interesting his- tory behind It. which, l am disposed to think, the innlSeepers could not always give. It will be remembered that Henry VIII had numerous wives, some he be- headed and some he divorced. As a lit tie schoolboy said, in opening his essay on Henry VIII, Henry VIII was the greatest widower in the world So I be- lieTe. One of his wives, who hated him as earnestly as he hated her, was Anne of Cieves. Tn the town where she had lived as a girl, there stood the massive old fortress of her ancestors, called The Schwannen Tower. or the Swan Tower. In this famous old castle there was formed the Order of the Knights of the White Swan. It was famous for it's wealth, chivalry ana aristocratic blood. It was in high feather when Anne left Gloves to become the bride of Henry VIII. She was a. descendant of a Knight of the White Swan, and her exalted birth and station pleased the English people. There fore, inn signs were changed from such titles as "The Blue Boar" "The Sign of the Bear and such like, to The White Swan," in compliment to the right royal lady, Anne of Gloves. Doesn't Dickens refer to the Inn of the White swan?
 In the skies above us we have the constellation of the Swan and in Mytho- osy on our bookshelves we have the story of Jupiter transforming himself into a
 swan>in order that he might win the fla vor of Leda, who became the mother of Castor and Pollux. Jupiter being their father. To this mythological story Shake spear makes Sir John Falstaff allude, in The Merry Wives of Windsor when he
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-07

left cylinder, and he invites pr. J. X. Pert Carvem in for consultation. Dr.
 Carvem immediately develops an ir- repressible curiosity about the bival- vular tubes of your right fin, and in- sists upon immediately cutting you open to see what makes you tick. After holding a conference with your wife and mother-in-law and life insurance agent, they put your classic frame upon the operating table and slip the chloroform to you and you drift out into new and wonderful world. In the meantime they are hanging your organic machinery on the gas jet and engaging in learned discussion over the exact location of your carbureter, and whether or not your liver would do better for watch charm or pin cushion. Finally they put you back together and maybe you'll run and maybe you won't, but science has been vindicated, and you or your estate cough up enough coin to make vis- ible impression on the national debt, and if you get well, when you look over your remaining assets you feel
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-07

idol of his troops, and his skill and fighting qualities were subjects of gen. eral comment throughout the army. So impressed was General Lee by his splendid charge at Gettysburg that he sent an officer to General Rodes to thank him and his gallant command for their conduct in that bloodiest bat tie of the Civil war.
 On the retirement of Early's corps from Maryland, Rodes was in position to infiict severe blows on the enemy at Castlemans Ferry and kernstown. At Winchester he fought. his last bat tie. His death was calamity 10 the army. As General Early testifies in his history, "1n the very moment of triumph and while conducting the attack with great gallantry and skill" General Rodes was killed by the fragment of a shell striking near his ear. He sur vived the wound but few hours.
 On the night following the .day in which he fell many of the wounded of his command were lruddled in a large warehouse near the scene of conflict The, groans of the suffering men filled the air, none of whom had heard Of
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-07

ufactured and the supply is limited. Coast. Do not attempt to run down grada full speed. It isn't necessary You waste power. And, besides, you risk derailment and wreck. Slide down.
 Do not run down hill. Shut off and slide down. It is cheaper, easier on the system, safer.
 It would be a fine charity if some one would put up at stated intervals on the highway of life signboards that should bear the timely warning
 Coast"
 Many a fine oration has been spoiled because the orator did not know when to sit down.
 Many a salesman has failed to book his order because he did not know when to quit talking to his customer.
 Many a life has been spoiled by hanging on to something impossible of accomplishment and lacking the courage to let go and begin over again.
 If your work is worth while and possible hang on like grim deatK Never let go save to spit on your hands. But
 If you are merely marking time and getting nowhere, if your effort is vast | ed and hopeless, why l Let go with both hands, 1 Almost every man has been com