davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-24

| the people have bed and cried. When through the primary and yet not to be Jack and Joe were neighbors in the woods and would spend half day whiting and swapping jokes bucolic, they could take turn in office. and when Jacks turn came fl was not immodest for him to step up and demand his own. It was only square Tor Joe to give place to Jack and recog- nize his right.
 But government is no longer a family affair. no longer simple. Modern goveren- ment is complex because the compleXi1v of the modern city grows and challenges the genius of the ablest men in all the world We must brush aside the fatuous distinction between county and city, and recognize that the aspirants who se-K nomination are claiming to be experts in the management of that complex, difficult, profound fact. a growing metropolis. When the really able men in other ages and lands have faced lesser problems than this they have cried. Alas, am a chil1! Who am to lead this thy so great peo- pe?@ They had to be thrust boldly into the work. to be made famous as Isaiah or Moses. But then, of course, the reward of one of these was a nameless grave, and of the other a long box in which he was first fastened and then sawn In pieces. We should all of us feel dreadfully cut 1p to be treated as Moses or Isaiah w90 On the other hand they were not Int, even though in high and diviheSssose they were politicians-men who sought the city that hath foundations" the true metropolis. Once more I confess that there are others. This Is no more than 8. plea that we nominate only the most ca- pablo, and that whomsoever we nominate, only the At should be allowed to survive the election. To find the really ft-sureiy there is no more vital, no more solemn, no more profoundly religious duty.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-24

was derived from numerous sources. and omitted from the furnace of his heart, it was ever in transformed shape The rattle and chatter of the rushing world fell on the ear of his soul with the element of melody. His emotions were pent up, and when they leaped their bar riers they gave to a responsive soul world that which we call Father Ryans poem. His own soul subdued to softness and gentleness by his inner reflection sang itself in musical cadence.
 His verse, always graceful, and often brilliant, flowing melodious and lmpid with the lilt of landscape Till borrowing delicate tints of beauty from the green sward and varied bloom which fringe it's banks, and flashing back the light de- rived from heaven, makes an instinctive appeal to the soul of the reader and has a sobering effect on his thought. From the source to the sea there is the same gentle flow with it's occasional pudl, and
 it's subdued sound of ripple.
 That which our poet does is more in- dicative of possibility than of final ac- tuality. His strains are merely solf touch- es of the fingers of the musician the keys of the soul and yet they evoke
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-24

Issue orretory in this country would steadily decline, and our peepul would suffer frum Onwee, and Hook Worms. For breef period in American poly ticks we forgot it, and blinded by the blilliontsy of the Boy Orreter of the Platt, who cum out of the west, and the Populite Party and Howled 16 to 1 or Bust, we for the momint turned our backs upon the grate and living Issue of the day, and yesterday and all time to cum, and went trailing off after Faults Gods, but it was a passing fansy, and we have drifted back into the path of our fathers, and will proseed to Go to It on the old and reliabul Tariff.
 The Tariff question while simple, is mportent-verry importent; there is much at stake. If the most of us be- lieve in high tariff, or Protectsion the Republicans will get all the post offises, and tend to the Rivvers and Harbors and uther such immolumints On the uther hand if the most of us beleeve in low tariff, or Tariff for Revenue Only to us, then the Demmer- crats will chew the Grapes, and in
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-24

ed Sun of Toil, who is the Bull wark of our Free Institutions, for which our fathers bled and died, and for which the Republican Party has so long labored (applaws). They would pass measures that would put our laborring classes on levvel with Pauper labor of Urope (Cheers) and bring Ruin to our Infant Industries (Immense hired applaws). If the Demmercratic Party is biased in pow CT in munths time Blackberries will be growing on broadway, and the Farms of this country cannot be plowed for the mortgages. Turn back into our keeping the Rains of Guv- vernmint, and we will creeate sum moor millyunaires to give you libra ries," and so on.
 Oscar Underwood knows moor about the Tariff than I do, or you do, or the man at the corner Grosery, and l intend to vote for him for President, and I hope he gets it, and we will try his brand of Tariff for four yeers, and see if it helps enny. It can't make matters worse, beleeve me.
 Yours trooly,
 BILL VINES.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-24

August presense, but once there, he will immediately shed ovver you a plum hallow of illumination on enny old polytical subject extant, and espe- cially the Issue of the Campain. He will be bizzy, but not too bizzy to suspend opperasions and carefully go into details of the Tariff question for your benefit, and he will present the matter to you so lusidly and cleerly that you will understand it instintly and know all about it. This Crate Problem that has furnished the ground floor for Hot Air for a hundred yeers, and ovver which the intellectual Giants of our country have fussed and eussed evvery four years, only to be carefully laid aside until anuther cleo tision cums round, which to you has appeered as complicated as the works of an adding machine, is in reeality as simple and easily understood as the opperasion of motor boat.
 The Tariff Issue is time honored, and is the only perfectly safe and sane issue-warranted to ware and has been fully tested and guaranteed by both parties. Without the Tariff
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-24

Tariff question; it may be that you have been too bizzy shouting round after Pork and Beans, and pursuing the wayward and elusive Coin of the Relm to have posted yourself fully on this verry ordinery and simple prob lem-if so, and you desire to put your self in line to Vote Intelligently, and cast ballott that will be your protest against the country going to the Boil Weavils, and Johnson Grass, and IA different varieties of Panicks walking rite up and pumping into your nose, no matter who's elected, why we re- spectfully suggest that you take sum Is or 20 minutes off and go down to the corner grosery, and get posted rite up to now, on this Crate Issue.
 At the corner grosery you will find a gentleman, who reely ought to be in the Unitde States Senate, but sum- how or uther he has been overlooked by Boneheded Vox Populy, and he will be awful bizzy playing checkers with fellow patryot ,and chewing Brown Mule, and splitting all ovver the sidewalk, and you may have to wade or swim in order to get into his
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-24

Much of his poetry savors of his the ologic thought and environment, and naturally enough the object frequently pertain to that dear to the devout Cath ollie, but 1t is not about the substance of his thought that we here speak, but of his undoubted genius as a poet. Equal objection might prevail against much that is written by other poets, as, for instance, the substance of some of Poe's productions, whose 'Annabel Lee" is heather throughout, but it Is poetry in it's every syllable.
 The symbols and paraphernalia of his church. its worship and all that pertains to 1t, may be encountered in one way or another in the poetry of Ryan, but the undoubted genius with which 1t is wrought and nodded into verse is that which fascinates the lover of poetry
 That Father Ryan would have been e-emnent in poetry had he exercised his powers. seems clear The vividness of expression the subtle beauty inherent in his strains, the delft touch given his thought are those of the genuine poet. He dwells apart from the ordinary drift l of thought. The coloring of his thought
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-24

"HE phrase Is a good one. It was
 coined, believe by Carlyle, but l
 ! came upon 1t the other day in a most recent discussion of the English coal famine.
 It applies admirably to our Alabama situation in this year of grace 1912. We have vast numbers of the tribe to illus trate the meaning of the phrase, "Esu- rient politicians Happily also there are others, not merely esurient.
 Fsurient is a word transferred from tie dulcet tongue of Cicero and Virgil, domes- ticated with us by classic genius. be- cause without it our English speech lacked adequacy. Back of the word is .edere," to eat from which we get our useful adjectives, edible, meaning good to eat and edacious. little used, but very much the same in meaning as esW1ent There is a capacity in Latin to turn a word on it's side, as it were, and make 1t what the grammarans call desideratiVe. Esurient is a desiderative, implying the notion of wanting, desiring, longing to eat B
 From all this if would seem that the mighty Scot with lambert sarcasm. wished to show how some politicians are obsessed with a desire to reach the pub lie dinner table and to fill their emptiness with the public pie.
 Truly had Thomas lived in Alabama in this day he would have found much room for meditation on the desiderative form of "edere," to eat. Many man goes armed with bits of cardboard, watches on street cars and even street corners for fkely citizens. and insists on leaving his likeness a mute witness of his ambitions, with those innocent folk whom he way lays in elevators, catches up with in cor
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-24

political crises can be larger than party lines or afiliations-who can even see the color gradations in politics-who can readily understand that what was just now a political pronouncement white and
 clean as a chids mind, may tomorrow
 be wholly vicious. hurtful thing gnawing at the republics heart. Let us be glad that some men there are in this world who still can see two sides to a
 question; let us thank whatever gods may be that all men are not dyed-in-t wool.
 It was eminently fair, think, that protection was rendered the American manufacturer at the beginning of our industrial era. Guarding him were cer- tain protective laws. not then hurtful- not at all contrived to enrich him at the expense of the many; but protective still in the largest and most beneficent sense: such protection as a child de- serves and Is entitled to until it stands erect and walks alone, sef-contained, supporting Later we saw Illustrated In the Payne Aldrich tariff concept the un- wisdom of supplying that strong healthy
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-24

the hot tears trickling from the weak and paining organ to blister upon the page. was my reading done. Nevertheless, as I have striven to study my native tongue In Shakespeare and eloquence in the well nigh inspired page of Milton. or endeavored to look through the sightless sockets. yet life giving mind of Homer, upon the plain of Troy. or have sat at the waysde with solitary Bartmeus to hear, if we could not see, the Son of Man, I have found that knowledge is its own ex- eeeding great reward"
 At the age of 14 years we find Milblfn in Illinoie earning a living as clerk in a store, and by the aid of friends reading to him, occupying his leisure time in prep aration for college, which he entered and made great proficiency. His health failed in consequence of close application and he was forced to enter upon an active life. Having determined to be useful he began life as q Methodist preacher and for TWO years suffered great hardships among the cabin homes of the west. In the fall of ls&5 he made his appearance in the north ern and eastern states as an advocate for the cause of education and he was every
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-24

a land of mounded graves within which slept a generation of young heroes, while backened chimnes stood sentinel over them. and while the monuments of the south were only heaps of charred ruins. and her once fair fields were filtered with wreck and disaster, these appealed to our wrist with unwonted force. The spirit of his Hiberian blood was nvin- cibe and when embodied in a stream of poetic fire it Illuminated scenes which else were dreary and desolate. From out the environment of darnkess and ruin, his spirit sought the solace which the future must bring in recog- milton of principle, and thus be sang. Thousands who differed with Father Ryan religiously honored him as a gifted sing CT. He has but scant recognition In the
 literary history of the country, but. this
 Is to be expected. He was largely a poet of locality, both geographically and religiously, and wrote not so much for others as for own pastime, but Alabama owes him much as her greatest poet. Because of the genuine merit inhering in his verse. and because of the unquestion- ed worth attaching to his productions. he | Is easily the file leader of the literary spirits of Alabama.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-24

ic delegation from that state: continues a general house. and senate-cleaning till what was just now Veritable mon archy of protection under Car Reed. is changed into a body that is really giving some thought to the peoples welfare.
 So long as the work of our majority at Washington is beneficial and not hurtful, no riffel need vex our fancy; but just as certainly as our majority there should fall into dishonor and polit- ieal corruption, just as certainly that army of bystanders. or undogmatc po- ltical physicians that made that majority possible would vote with our enemies, being the nations friend.
 By no means would 1 shake any polit- ical loyalty you may possess;-we should be free agents in the last sense, heaven knows, with our politics and religion, as with our eating and drinking and loving but let us have no crippled and foolish royalties. Let us rather as nearly as we can, form our own concepts of whites and blacks and blues and browns. And the while let us not forget to value at their saving worth those men who in
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-24

where received with great enthusiasm. It was on one of these journeys that the in- cident occurred that resulted in his first being elected chaplain to Congress.
 He was on board steamer going up the Ohio river. in company with about 300 pas sengers, most prominent among whom
 were number of members of Congress on their way to Washington. The habits of these gentlemen had attracted the at tention of Mir Milburn and on Sunday morning he vas invited to preach. His sermon was full of eloquence and pathos and was listened to with most intense in terest. The members of Congress, by common consent occupied chairs nearest the speaker. At the conclusion. his face beaming with fervent zeal. he turned to the honorable gentlemen and said Among the passengers on this steamer are a number of members of Congress. From their position they should be o'l- emplars of good morals and dignifed con- duct, but from what have heard of them they are not so. This union of states, if dependent on such guardians, would be unsafe, and all the high hopes I have for the future of my country would be dashed
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-24

eether case, and it don't make enny difference which way it goes it is con- clusively proven by both sides during the campain that the peepul air bound to get it in the Neck and the Country will be devasted by Panicks, focuses, and Eppidemicks. It is also conclusive ly proven that if we trust eether of them with the Rains of Guvvermint, that they will dye for us, and that the Country will blossem like a Ger raneum, and we will be as Prosperus as a Plumber after a hard freeze.
 In off yeers the members of the two grate parties air as friendly and con- geniel as brothers in the Ansient Or der of Hyberniens; it is verry ordi- nery site in Washington to see our grate Republican and Demmercratic statesmen, dropping there Garden seed in the same male box at the same time ,and exchanging winks, and frequently they will be seen cum ming out of the same Saloon arm and arm, singing Comrads, or won't go Home till Morning, or sum such tuch- ing little ballerd like that. But wait till electsion time cums round, and
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-24
BILL VINES ON THE ISSUE OF THE DAY

they go down and unlock the vault and take out and greeze up that old Tariff Issue, and then start a riot, and all bets air off. Damun and Pithias take to the woods, and it's liar, robber, grafter and such mise parlimentery remarks as that, until the peepul almost beleeve they meen it. Crate Bizness.
 When the Campagn has opened in ernest you will see a long haired or rerter, who looks like he newer had shave or a bath, but who bares a faint resemblance to a dudley congress- man you have seen on Pennsylvania ave. rise up in the Rural Districts, and Burst Fourth: "My Countrymen (Cheers) I want to talk to you in a perfectly calm and dispassionate man. ner upon the Issue of the day, the Tar riff (applause). It is not my pur- pose to reflect upon the honor of enny one, if they have enny, but the iniqui- tus Demmercratic Party filled with greed and an unholley desire to Rob the peepul air trying to Foster upon us a tariff bill that if maid law, blasts evvery hope of the Hard hand
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-24

There are some starry-eyed folk today who believe that heaven Is nothing if unreaehable-that even a reversal of Browning's lines more nearly states the worlds hunger
 Wherefore the splendid reach of souls
 that soar.
 If there be neer arriving-ne'er coming
 true
 Of the utmost bounds that beckon us?
 And it is not enough that political par ties hold half-hearted faith In the com mon run of men-it is not enough to hold In a sort of creedy fashion and reoite glibly our political lessons of the rights of free speech. the democratic glory of manhood, the limitless possibilities of the nation when it's swaddles shall have been removed.
 It Is we'll to see this republic in the minds eye as a splendid entity, healed of It's hurts-a newborn servant fully appeared, manly, righteous, serving. Well 1t is to forecast the day when a. human brotherhood shall wipe all the tears from the eyes" of those who suffer
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-24

\ JESTER EDDITUR: They tell M us that after Teddy Roose- 'A felt, and Billy Taft aided and abstted by there menny admiring friends, who want to hold there jobs. or want jobs to hold, as the case may be, settle there trubles, or have them settled by the G. O. P. conven- sion, which will put crimp in one of them and put the uther one up for us to put crimp in, and after Mr. Champ Clark, Unkle Jud Harmun. Woodrow Hybrow Color Blind Wilsun. and Oscar Underwood have all passed Tn review befour William Jay Bryan. and the Demmercratic Conversion, and one of these interesting Bunch is pro- claimed the Mustard in no unsertain terms-they tell us, that after these few and insignificant details air gone thro' with, that the Issue that will be befour the American Peepul will be the Tariff question.
 Sum how we have faint Hunch that we have herd of this matter be- four. It is just possibul, gentle reed CT, that you do not understand the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-24

made up among themselves and also
 their best wishes for success and happi-
 ness through life. Before they separated
 from him they offered their services .n
 making him chaplain to Congress a prom
 ise they fulfilled. He remained in that
 position two years. his health still being
 delicate and feeling the need of milder
 climate he came to Alabama in lS47 and
 spent six years in the ministry in Mobile
 and Montgomery. It is said that during
 four years of that time he travelled over 5000 miles and preached 15G0 times.
 His blindness was such an impediment to his pastoral work that he gave it up,
 and In 1853 took up his residence in New York city and devoted his time to travel ing. featuring. preaching and writing books. until he was again chosen as chap
 lain to Congress in 1885. He ranked with the foremost in whatever work he en- gagged. Certainly he was endowed with | pre-eminent powers. but this would have | been of little worth without the arduous | labor he performed What he accom- | plished under the misfortunes he endured challenges our highest admiration and Is worthy of all praise.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-24
THE NEW POLITICS-By A. B. Bealle

child with hundred attendants to carry him through life on their shoulders.
 From these costly experiments that we have tampered with at such dear expense to the republication what may be lik ened to a political laboratory strewn with wreckage of disused and broken blow pipes and retorts--there is emerg- Ing a new sort of politics which promises to be essentially pragmatic. It is a politics that bids fair to be essentially practical, serving. It will have no tra- dtions to swaddle or hamper its free gesture or growing, and each reform that 1t aims at will have no less object than q betterng of the material lives of the people, and a concomitant raising of the social and spiritual scales of living.
 This will be no new theory for the republic, for it has been the credo Of all democracies. The trouble with the democraces of the past has been the ancient handicap of the high dream and the low gesture, or rather. the creed apart from the deed Browning sang,
 "A mans reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-24

peeping through, to the struggle discern ed in the features of one. is a picture that would occur to none other than a poet
 Equally striking is the beauty of the figure contained in his "A Land Without Ruins,' where he says
 "Yes give me the land where the battles
 red blast
 Has flashed to the future the fame of
 the past"
 Numerous are the striking pictures which he brings before the eye by one single stroke of the pen. Nor does Father Ryan conjure with the emotions merely to quicken and to stir for the moment. Indeed, he does not seem con- scous of that which he had done and so greatly done; he merely sings out his soul in low refrain, and leaves his melody lingering in the air. Ryan was patriotic to the core. In the thunderous years of the great Civil War his pen was busy with the ink of patriotic fire, but the aftermath of the war more aptly suited to his nature l Whe in her night of sorrow the South was
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-24

The poor thing painfully removes her hat and veil. covers her dress with a scrubbing skirt, hunts up her pail and water and soap and brushes She gets on her knees and stays there from o'clock to half past 6. And her pay?
 Sixty-fve centsl | Out of that sum she must pay her car fare or get up at 3 o'clock in the morning. Always she walks home to save cents. Follow her.
 | She is bent and wrinkled, worn. ex-
 hausted. She stops at a cheap stall and buys cents worth of boiling meat and loaf of bread. | She cannot afford more than two
 meals a day and pay the rent for her
 two rooms. or, rather. one room and a
 closet. And while she cooks her poor
 meal, she works on coarse overalls at }
 cents per garment. l Straining her eyes-she Is nearly 70 years of aRe-she sews until 1t is dark, and then to save the gas she sets the
 alarm clock for o'clock and goes to
 her bed.
 You would not call this woman with
 gnarled hands a heroine. But Honor to the brave old soul, that is
 what she is,
 1 Since she was girl she has worked
 with her hands. She has followed an invalid husband to the grave. she has
 borne and buried children, suffered un-
 told privations. toilfully labored and never ask ed for charity. Is there not something wrong with civilization that will prrmit a worthy old woman who has done more than
 her share of the worlds work to labor on her knees in order to keep roof over head and earn two meals day? | In England she would have been op the pension roll several years ago. | But our government Is too busy curb ing trusts and changing tariffs to care | for old women who are wearing our their bodies and souls in the service of society long after they have earned re-
 peso and rest.