davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-01

ed as of little value The common indi- vidua is nothing. Are we approaching that condition? Everything that tends toward the dwarfing of the individual tends to lower the individuals self respect and the es- innate he puts upon his life. | There IS no such isolation as that of the worker in great hive Of human beings, no lonesomeness so acute as the lone someness of one in the midst of a crowd. | Now
 Combine this feeling of isolation. this lonesomeness In a great city by one who | has failed, with the utter lack of religious restraint and you have the clements of 1 tragedy.
 The Chicago man reasoned I "I have failed. Nobody in this great thing as a future life. or if there is it
 cannot be worse than this one. What is the use of my llving?" | Any one who has watched the tenden- | cie5 of our time must sometimes be ap- palled to admit that this is the mental att | titude of all too many. | As consequence of the growing dis
 regard of human life murder and suicide
 are alarmingly on the increase. | What is the remedy? l Modern society is not able even should it so desire, to limit or lessen its num- bers, nor can It usurp the place of the church in the teaching of religion But
 It can foster the growth of practical democracy; it can more equitably dis tribute It's products; it can open wider the door of opportunity; it can limit the voracity of greed; 1t can improve the sur roundings of the worker: it can render to
 all its members social and industrial jus tice.
 bdIt must do this,eal 9df ,gaifa3 N f1r
 Else the fabric of our civilization will break down under the sheer weight of itu units whose lives have been so cheapel<A that they cry out in despair: Whats the uss?v
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-01

use the word please wherever 1t can be employed. Either you cannot see the necessity of the word or you stubbornly refuse to obey my orders. In either event I cannot use you.
 Moreover" continued the manager. you will never succeed anywhere in deal ing with the public if you let please stick have taught you this lesson it may prove of value"
 The manager was right
 Thank you Is important. but please is essential. Number. pease?" says central, and you respond in kind.
 Fares. please" says the conductor, and you go after your coin with alacrity.
 Floor, please" says the elevator man, and you reply urbanely
 What counter. please?" asks the floor walker. and your estimate of the estab- lishment goes up a notch.
 What can l show you, please" says the clerk. with a smile, and you are in humor to buy.
 A mechanical word?
 Nevertheless 1t lubricates the situation It Is oil on the troubled waters of bar ter. stilling the waves for large cir. conference.
 It is good to use the word elsewhere than in business. It helps anywhere anc everywhere, but in business 1t is sine qua non and scarcely may be employed too often.
 If you would get anywhere take tn. open sesame please along with you. What's the useX I never can be any body. So here goes.' The words were written on the back O. an envelope by Chicago man who com mitted suicide. /, Little was known of him except that h. was of a breeding disposition. was Gu of employment and claimed to be al agnostc
 Are we cheapening life? | In the Asiatic countries where popula ton is dense human life has been regard
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-01

He was warned that the result might be fatal.
 Whats the odds" he said, If it will save the girl. The leg is not much good to me. and have no friends to worry If should die" And
 In the hour that Miss Smiths life was declared to be saved the newsboy died.
 The message came to him just before he passed away and his last words were:
 Tell her hope she will get well quick, doc I'm glad I did it."
 He smiled and was dead.
 William Rugh when he made his offer had everything to lose and nothing to gain. He did not know the girl pers6n- ally. And by his death he set the seal of the last full measure of absolute sels sacrifice.
 That's why tbe Gary mills were closed
 What money could not do crippled newsboy did. Because
 Heroism Is not dead.
 Our civilization is not in material things, but in the hearts of our people, and you cannot commercialize a race that so lSeeniy feels and nobly honors q glorious act of self abnegatlon.
 Let's play like keeping house."
 There are four tots together in the back yard. The house" they have built is fearfully and wonderfully made of an old carpet, quilt and. papers. the clothes line and branch of a tree forming the framework
 These precious kids drape their mother s aprons about their little waists and play like they are evening gowns with long trails. Hats are fashioned of big rhu- barb leaves and rooster feathers.
 An old rag doll in a paper box makes up the nursery. A few crackers and some water suffice for the banquet table in the dining room. The r,a rlor ie ma rf Iy in the shade and partly in the sun sf
 And they play lilse.''
 Such formal calls and cordial invita- tions to come again. Such conversations about the baby's teeth: Such gossip Of the neighbors!
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-01
VYHIRLs of fine feathery flakes A/ filled the crisp night which fore W told tho coming of white

AAI Aiico thc cfiep HlSul WHICH IOle-
 W told the coming of a white Christmas on the morrow. The wheels of the delivery wagons crunched along with that ringing sound that tells the tale of the temperature better than the thermometer iself.
 Under the flaming arc lights of the street the snow glistened in the air and on the coats and hats of the gay, pushing throngs, laden with bundles. Everywhere seemed to be joy. prosper ity, good will-on the surface.
 Struggling Into the big store human tide contended with another human tide struggling to escape. Within the store, aisles were crowded, a vista Of faces and furs as far as the eye could reach. The counters overflowed with goods waiting to be bought and sent on their mission of love. And yet there was no peace and good will here. It was struggle and chaos and i'll humor and stifing air, an inferno of exhaus- tion, from which the human tide that surged out of the doors was glad to escape.
 One huge counter was laden with pa- per Christmas bells, garlands and wreaths. There were bells in the bright est of red, in the brightest of green, bells in red and green togther, bells of enormous size that could be folded up and showed into an overcoat pocet, little bells that could be strung along dancing merrily on a cord, bells that betokened the message of peace on earth--and tonight riot at the coun-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-01

shunted during their years of young manhood all manner of athletics as they would the Old Man himself. Who can say indulgence or denial in the matter of open field work would have changed any failure to success2 We must of course take with a pinch of salt any such generalizing insofar as it vitally affects all y O u n g m e n.
 Perhaps the best argument for hard and free play is, not that it will en- courage punch and initiative in after life, so much as that 1t forms certain habit of toughmindedness. and along with it robust tolerance for fresh air and life in the open. Whatever brains your chrysanthemum haired boy may develop or destroy because of the gru- cling he passes through in college days. he will never grow stuffy and ia atminded-not unless something Is radically wrong in his making. He will not ever forget how to play And for those who cannot play we must feel either pity or fear-p y for those who miss the chance in the golden days
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-01

Where the spirit of the home Is, what ever the surroundings. whether that spirit abides by the parlor grate or by the kitchen stove-there is nome.
 The spirit of home,
 How gently 1t touches every homely thing and makes it dear. How 1t soothes the hurt made by the world outside. How il steals away the sting of outrageous fortune. A home is more than hospital.
 Your home.
 In. what other safe asylum do you find your better self? Where else may you he left to dream your sweet dreams ? Sitting by your own hearthstone you know all that is intimate and lear to human living. You are in your true en- vironment.
 Cherish your home, however rich it may be, make and keep it what 1t ought to be. And if so it will make and keep you what you ought to be.
 Gary. Ind, the steel city, for the first time since the fires were started closed down its big mills on Sunuay. october al last to pay tribute to a dead crippled newsboy.
 Greater homage could not have been paid a national hero than was accorded at the bier of William Rugf, who died penniless at the hospital.
 Flags were at half mast. the city coun- cil composed the pallbearers. and the en- tire populace paid homage. More than a thousand dollars worth of flowers were given. And already a large sum of money has been given for monument. Why?
 It is no ordinary thing when whole city Is lifted to such an appreciation O. 'ire that has freely given itself for another
 The world knows the story:
 r.t hei smith. a young girl. was so se- ycrely burned the doctors said she must die unless a large amount of cuticle coulj be grafted in the burned places. William Rugh. a brave youth who cor ducted a news stand. offered his crippIesl leg for the purpose. The skin was to be stripped off and then the leg amputated.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-01

They are happyl
 And I wonder if we may not learn from them,
 During the long afternoon their joy is unalloyed with any touch of envy or re- gret. They know that in the yard of yon big mansion is q real for sure playhouse and dolls that cry when you squeeze them and dainty tea sets. But they are too busy in their enjoyment to envy the girl who has them.
 Play likel
 I wonder if we cannot find the sams pleasures of imagination? l wonder if we cannot make the most of what we have and play like We have the best?
 We should be optinists.
 Optimism sees the best in everything It's philosophy is the philosophy of con tentment.
 But
 We go about the problem more clumsily than the children. We try to rake to- gether material things of supposed great value--fne houses and fttings-whici leaves nothing to the fancy. There is ne play lilse.' We grow sated-and un- happy.
 The children's secret?
 Envy not those who live in big houses or have much money. Enjoy what you have. Hold on to your precious powers of imagery Keep your ldeals-and
 Play like.
 There is one word of the English Ian guage more important than any other if you would succeed in business.
 It is the line of common courtesy and the unsparing use of 1t imposes no hard ship. It should come trippingly from your tongue. The word is please"
 Said a manager of a large retail estab lishment to one of his noorwalkers: After Saturday night I shall not need yolrf- ser vices. Please look for another place. .'Wsly?' Merely becap you will not realize tn, importance rtesy in business life have d again and again t,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-01

of life. and e T for those poor souls who shirked gym" for matters of less importance
 That is important, is it not? To be a shareholder in the fine secret of not taking life too seriously? To know how to go about your work and play with equal zest. The man who can't find spiritual profit in muscle building must be incurably vicious. And the man who plays because it is the fashion in some circles to play. and works with no more spontaneity and joy in his work than does a traffic policeman. you may at once catalog with your dead souls.
 And I suppose to keep men from stumbling on level ground and break ing in two, athletics were invented. You would be a | n d to know how few men in Alabama can leap six feet flat footed without suffering chest pain and that perhaps two per cent of our population would be alive after a cross country run to Gate City. Your enemy of athletics will assure you that such a result could only ensue to people
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-01

6HERE is much more in unwritten
 history that affects the destiny Of
 . the race than there is in that which is recorded. Grays ''gein" in his Elegy. and his ''fiower'' born to blush unseen" illustrates the fundamentals of the his- tory of the race, wherein the bulk of worth is frequently unmentioned. and if so, often scarcely. While Franklin Welsh Bowdon was by no means unknown, and while his worth was not altogether unre- cognized, who that knows him in retro spect today, as one of the most matchless orators of southern history? Who knows of his elearnes of demonstration in presenting the most tangled and abstruse of prob lens? Who today knows not alone of the power already alluded to. but who that knows that his ability before a jury has never been surpassed in the state or that he was peerless as popular speaker be- fore promiscuous audience? Who that
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-01

never known the real joy of scrim- mage-if he had not in the process of stealing home when things looked bad Tor the home team, accomplished his own collapse in the very act. And in eonfab with other gentlemen -cnrysanthemum haired youths and those coaches and doctors of muscle-I was told that all this punch and 'go' involved perhaps as much cunning and ingenuity as would be required to en- gineer wheat corner in the Chicago pit. Surely the brain will not be quite starved, l was told, in play that in- volved the very best that man could muster of instant initiative and sure wit in emergencies. Here if anywhere may be grafted the real punch fibre" that will serve a man best in building, creating - getting things done - than all the last words of the academic pro- fessors.
 In fact. one doctor of muscle left me with an impression that he was some what more than a doctor of muscle indeed that he was a man of mark to be classed with the regenerators of a
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-01

served as a representative in the 1egisla- ture from Talledega county. Ills ability in debate. and his power of oratory brought him promptly to the front. Nor was he ungifted in the manipulation of conditions by skillfu1 management in the execution of his chosen purposes. He was easily the peer of the foremost of 8 legislative body graced by such choice spirits as Thomas II. Watts. John Gill shorter. Thomas A. Walker. James A. Stallworth. W. O. Winston, Joseph w. Taylor Wm. S. Mudd. Thomas ]. Judge. and others. His reigning trait was decis- iveness of conviction which when once possessed did not lack the underprop- ping courage of expression. and Tn -urn this expression was not wanting in the most radiant demonstration and persua- sion. No naughty spirit nor arrogant port entered into his forensies but on the other hand there was refreshing repose that lit up the whole with a confidence that was serene and assuring.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-01

has not learned of his subtle tact If illu- imitation of difficult problems or of knotty questions, in speech that has gilt tered in It's own chaste delicacy and beauty of phraseology after having passed through the crucible of his own fertile brain?
 The history of others is perhaps more iridescent because the drift of the cur rents into which they auspiciously fell bore them into fuller and more applau- sive view before the public eye, in which event it Is the condition, and not the man who happens to be it's representative that deserves consideration. The force inherent in Frank Bowdon, and his su- perior ability to wield the elements al- ready named, really make him a prodigy among the men who have made famous the history of the state. He was not am- bilious to be showy, nor Sought he special occasion to flash his powerful gifts. but when occasion did logically and legiti- mately come, he was prodigious.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-01

"HE fear, freely expressed in some
 circles, that our young high
 4 school and college men are wrecking their lives by overtraining, may have some foundation in fact. It Is contended by those who get about on automobiles and motorcycles and other artificial devices for annihilating time. that overdevelopment of the muscles requires such continuous heart action to feed the hungry body that the brain misses its share and goes to waste
 Confabbing with doctor of divinity last midsummer, I was informed that rather than being an advantage to one in his after life, superiority of a chap on the football eleven or the baseball nine is indeed handicap. That is to say. whether a college man becomes a prince of Big Business or merely clerk In the office. whether he build splendid and moving dramas or merely driyel his life away as a newspaper hack, the several performances would be better and freelier done if he had
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-01

tendency to overwork there. seeing that
 failure will bar him from joys of the field.
 And with whom then should our quar- rel be? With tho academic faculty? Or with that poor lost sheep--the profess
 sor of athletics?
 Perhaps with neither, seeing that the
 freest and fullest preparation for life
 disregards neither the brain or the
 muscle. Tn that Great State, of which | Mir. Wells writes so entertainingiy,
 mankind will perhaps sense the import ance of the body's development The 1 time may even come when all shall be 1 fit and eligible for athletic events; time when for holidays the people of cities may not depend alone on two visiting teams for entertainment. It may even come to pass that athletics teams will be drawn much as juries are drawn, with the difference that all will be ea- ger to be enlisted on the new kind of l juries--all men and women being eli gible save those past TO years. or 90 years, or 100 years. Why limit the vista7
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-01

What caused the wreck? A soft road bed and rotten ties. To go over that section according to orders was to invite disaster. There fore the engineer was guilty There was nobody to stand up for the dead engineer, who did only what he was ordered to do. And there was no one to speak in behalf of the 200 passengers. Moreover The engineer was dead. And the people easily forget. He who is too rich to sit by his kitchen fire and who is too poor to have one, each alike has lost precious strain of life's remedy. Homel In every living, breathing thing that God has made strong in compelling power lis the homing and the nesting instinct. But More than mere instinct of shelter and of rest enters into the making of a human home. A home is a center. It Is the one spot in the whole universe. Draw about it all the .concentric lines you ike. but there it always is at the heart of things--the center of all. Home is more than a place of comfort. It Is the treasure house of lifes dearest
 riches
 Sentiment clings about 1t. Absence from 1t only makes the heart grow fonder. bWander where you may. always do our thoughts turn toward your home. Tn all the desert of life 1t is the one oasis. In
 all the ocean of life it is the one sure anchor
 | Homesickness? | Least of all feelings to be ashamed If, | it betrays no weakness of mind or heart It Is one of the noblest emotions that has ever stirred a human spirit !, What makes a home?
 l Not four walls nor sumptuous appoint
 ments. It is the licsne spirit. Where that abides is home. Because
 l Like heaven. home is not so much place as a state of being.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-01

because of the possession of the vast powers already named.
 Frank ". Bowdon was a native of Ches- ter district, South Carolina. and was brought by his father to Shelby county, Alabama, while his gifted son was still child of only 3 years. On the farm of thrifty planter and in home of piety and of hospitality the youth was reared. It was one of those old-time southern homes where ease and elegance, culture and re- finement were, and where children were reared free from over-exaction and with just sufficient freedom to develop real manliness.
 Mir Bowdon was educationally prepared for entrance in the State University which he In due time entered and from which he was graduated, and entered at once on the profession of the law. He was admitted to practice and settled at Taledega. His ability as n speaker was equally suited to the court room and the forum. During the years of 1S44-5 he
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-01

the greatest of both English and Ameri- can orators.
 Nor was MT. Bowdon's power confined to his oratory. It was abundantly illus trated in his law practice. and in the preparation of his briefs. Here were met as elsewhere the same logical incisiyeness and clearness that distinguished his utter ances while on his feet
 Tn his person he was most commanding. He was fully six feet high, of symmetri- cal build, and his handsome features, es- pecially in the sweep of oratorical pas- sion and ferver, were study for the art ist. Jealous in temperament, and confi- dent of his footing in advance of any deliverance, he shrank not to meet in mental combat any one who might desire to brook his views. He retired from Con gress voluntarily in 1851, and after few years removed to Tyler, Texas, Where he soon after died. Bowdon college in Geor- gia, derived it's name from this distin- gushed Alabamian.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-01
cen your opinion, who was to blame
 for the wreck?"

cen your opinion, who was to blame
 for the wreck?"
 This question was asked the officials of an eastern railroad who were placed on the witness tand at an investigation of terrible wreck.
 Undoubtedly the engineer"
 The answer was made by all of them. The blame was put upon the engineer of the train.
 And the engineer?
 He was dead.
 Being dead. he was incapable of ap- bearing in his own behalf, and, the pre- ponderance of the testimony being against him, he was adjudged guilty which such an acident could be pre- vented?'
 ..The only way is to tighten the dis cipiine upon the employees"
 It was patiently explained that no matter how good your roadbed and equipment. no matter what safety ap- pliances may be employed, you cannot insure the perfect working of the hu- man brain
 And so on.
 Nevertheless
 It was afterward shown that operat- ing officials bad recently issued cir cular letter to the passenger engineers calling atteutloH to the idteHess or the trains in reaching the terminals and urging the necessity of maintaining the schedules
 The engineers easily understood the significance of the warning. Whatever | the condition of the road. they were expected to take the risk and make the time.
 The dead engineer knew the track was bad over certain section. Two vrecks had recently occurred there, but
 He must either lose his job or jam his heavy train through on schedule. He took the risk. held the train to the time tables. put the train into the ditch and died
Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1912-01-18
Won DAMN SAYS
Cannot RUN

Much as ] appreciate the fact that
! have been mentioned as Il possibility
for supervisor" said Bertram Won
Damn this morning, there is no pos
sibility that | could become candi-
date, so far as can see now.
Business affairs. | may say, pre-
vent my thinking of becoming Il super
visor. Besides the private business in
which ! am engaged. already devote
much time to public affairs and enjoy
and take an Interest in public matters.
| am thoroughly interested In the good
government of Honolulu, so much 50
that believe supervisor should be
able to devote at least half OF each day
To city affairs. This could not pos
sibly do.
II feel that even to lie mentioned and
considered as I have in the Il let II
IL something any man may appreciate.
and I regret that this year absolutely
can not think of public Office So |
wish to say finally that am hot and
can not be n candidate for supervisor $