davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-09

fine bridges prove that Lynchburg, though old, is not anticipated. I understand that the road has begun a new depot which will enable suffering humanity to elude the aforementioned trail. The college is connected with the series of schools called of Randolph Macon, and in more or less definite way, with the Methodist Eplsco- pal church, south.
 By the simple device of arranging the facade of his buildings continuously and avoiding dead or unbroken surfaces. pr. Smith has secured impressiveness, unity, variety and has thus provided a picture worthy of Its lifelong place in the minds of his alumnae. Is 1t an equally simple thing that he has been able to secure the means of building so expensive to add a fine modern gymnasium and to head a faculty really distinguished by its original and thorough specialists2 What is that power that can compel the wealthy to see an ideal vision and then give to achieve it, so making it their own? Have we evolved not only the supreme acquisitor, but also the supreme dispenser in this America of ours? Does the modern com munity automatically adjust itself to it's ideal7
 But all this flinders me from hitting the present nail on the head. Yet 1t would be intolerable to tell of Randolph-Macon Woman's college and not render homage to Dr. Smith.
 Examinations were over. The Annual Debate was just closing. and all routine was abandoned while the college well comed It's arriving guests the other night. The debate itself deserves mention in re- lation to what Is to be presently observed. The question was the superiority of com mission government as compared with that of aldermen for the American city Perhaps an alderman among the judges
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-09

derful spectacle. winding through the lower slopes of the campus and back to the East Hall where behind each senior stands her sophomore, and each one in turn. freed from the chain of flowers, performs her part in planting the class Ivy At last having reassumed the classic chain before the center of the main building, around an oval grass plot, they gather in like order, sing their last song, in which the new dignity of those left behind is suitably recognized, and then the rope Of flowers is flung down to wther through the day, symbol of a van ished class. So they file away, sadly sing ing of their being now out in the wide, wide world"
 Solemn fooling." did you say. MT Gradgrind? But did not surprise q tear in your eye, my dear sir? Certainly you did not lose one atom of my respect by that laboratory experiment of yours in which you so skilfully compounded water and lime and perhaps a little sul- phur Thanks for that glistening eye of yoursl For all that you seem 80 bromide. I doubt not the girls will save you from being too painfully commonplace And I go on my own way grateful that they let me see how, along with Catulus and McWililam James. they cultivate the heart of the race, the social unities. the inexpugnable barriers. the hospitable doors, the pure unvltated air. which only the worthy can breathe.
 I am grateful for hours of frank con verse in sorority cottages for the tremen- dous baccalaureate sermon of Bishop Me- Coy, for the hospitable kindness of men high in Iatinity and the Romance lan- guages, for the sweeping hills of fair Vir- ginia, and all the tender charm of her woodlands. But most of all I am grate- ful for the vision of cultivated American
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-09

pudiate the central dogma of the church that had bestowed its benediction in her childhood?
 At the age of IA Catherine was a well educated young woman, as education then wont. She had a fondness for letters and a taste for the advanced subjects that en- gagged the minds of scholars, This dispo- siiion she cherished all through life. Art ists and men of learning always found her an attentive and interested listener Had a second Columbus appealed to her for aid he would have found her purse and her mind ready to aid in discovering some hypothetical world whose existence was yet only in his mind and on paper.
 Yet, with all her attainments, Gather inc was singularly superstitioUs. She had an absolute belief in necromancy and magic. She wore a charm of parchment. witl certain words written upon 1t, to protect her against assassination and other evils. and she would often visit astrolosers who would play upon her credulity. An astrologer once told her that all her sons would be kings. She conceived that they were to die young, succeeding one another as kings of France This fear cl@ided her life and made her the unhappiest of women. She
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-09

tleness? Having given the postulate of her many-slded soul, what are we to think of those who talk of her sphere as though 1t had only one side2
 And yet she is WOMAN. not man. And her college life is already peculiarly @ feminine fact. This came viwdly to mind as watched the proceedings of the daisy chain, the procession to plant the ivy, the dramatic abdication of the seniors to the juniors. and the marching of those black robed ones out to the drge-music of their own funereal farewell
 "Ah!" gays the ancient soul of the cynic, speaking gruffly from the seat of the scorner, woman loves to weep. She nourishes her emotions and gratihes her self with the emotional disturbance in her own larynx" And there Is much to be said for the cynic's jibe But perhaps this also is the fringe of wrought gold" stitched by the creator on her coat of skins" what time Eve left her first Ar cadia. Did she not look through her tears at that wheeling lre-blade and those gigantic cherubim, and down at her quiv- ering souls equivocal regret, saying. It is not all loss I have learned to suffer. Also my son and I shall come back this way, hand in hand T'
 Even the most prosaic becomes mystical in scenes like these college commence ments, where woman lifts the veil of her soul, and poses for a sort of spiritual photography. Certainly the time can hardly come when boys will quite so frankly reveal their emotions or stage their farewells in such wise as to make much of the luxury of teas. Mans sobs do not lie deeper. but they are fewer, rarer, only because he needs their gusty forces for his slower fires. Moreover his personal regrets do not so readily mingle themselves in a community lament For
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-09

~ TEVENSONfS useful title is the best
 I can hit upon, as the head of the o nail I wish to drive; a discourse ,.pon the girl at college as distinguished from her brother For I have been per nitted to see from the inside the life of q very typical American school for the ln- troduction of women to the higher learn ing Graceful forms, garbed in summer rasment, have filled my vision, sweet and pure voices, in song, laughter and generous welcome have possessed my ears On a beautiful campus. fronting s noble facade of chaste architecture, has been enacted once again the ritual Of woman's farewell to her girlhood, ac- cording to those instnctive originahties which make American womanhood so perfectly normal And I. o. Fortune! have been there to see and to consider.
 It is up wonder in Virginia, where the James river cuts chasms around quaint Iynchburg that a former Confederate soldier. who saw the meaning of the new age. has succeeded in metamorphosing his vision into brick and mortar. into fac ulty of genius, into an army or 5oo acolytes to tend the sacred flame of learn ing These latter come from all states, but, of course, chiefly from those contig- uous to Virginia. These they live life of self-restrained freedom, forming true commonwealth Learning from the limitations of older colleges Dr. Smith has secured a generous acreage. magnifi- cently' overlooking the rich and grabbed little city, so that the college confronts the domes of Blue Ridge mountains, with it's own bewitching and most womanly smile A street car brings you from the top of trail. at whose base the Southern railway is operating depot which would disgrace a Mississippi village, and across the gorge of the James river where two
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-09

there was damlittle to drink, and I'm certainly on the Street Sprinkler when it cums to Drinking in liar merny" at Grand Operer. And that two bones would have brought 40 beers. When it cums rite down to it, I don't beleeve that the Republican conversion in Chicago will have a thing on that Grand Operer for dis turbance, eyven when Teddy bolts, after they run the Steem Roller ovver him.
 l kinder got the idear that we would hear sum pretty fare Rag timeo and see a few Broilers do the Turket Trot. and disburse g few of the latest jokes by the low comme- diens along thro' the performince, but there was nuthing doing. After the Orchestra had played sumthing that sounded almost like a tune, the cur tain went up, and out stalks a big heavy set man followed by a bunch
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-09

times remained and was regnant ct the time that Catherine began her gloomy life. She was born, as I have said, at Florence, and was reared amid surround ings where rivals fin love and politics mysteriously died of poison, where the sharp blade of the stillctto held by delft hand found like a flash the fountain of ife where men were suddenly seized by strong hands in the darkness of the night and hurled over the embankments of the Arno; where men practised magic with superstitious devotion; where intrigue was an overwhelming passion and nimble treachery wrought its silent tragedies. The world of society held It's perfumed handkerchief to its face while it trod the paths of the Florentne "Vanity Fair, hearing nothing, knowing nothing. No body seemed shocked; nobody seemed to expect anything else. Amid these condi- tions Catherine was reared. Nor did she escape them when later she went to France. She found there the same uni- versal deceit, double dealing. rivalries and treaehery. lacking, perhaps, the Ital- ian cunning
 I do not believe in ap irresistible fate, but it does seem that some people must
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-09
BILL VINES ON GRAND OPERA

nounsed protest against existing con- disions as they put up. Cash sed it was fine. 1 guess it was. But if they had been out of doors the hole Bunch would have been pinched. Ravenswood discovered that Lusia had signed the paper, and he set up a howl. He acted reel ugly about it.
 thought evvery minnit sum one would interfeer, but they didn't, and I couldn't see my way cleer, as was a strainger in the City. This seen was oncored several times by the enthu- siastick audience, which shows that enny where you go the American Peepul air bludthirsty.
 The next seen, Cash sed was the Mad seen. It was. Lusia came to bat by herself She was dressed in a cheese cloth gown and had wild and unsettled look in her lamps like she had had sumthing for lunch that did not agree with her digestion. She
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-09

of the philanthropist in giving every bit of it away He was twice successful.
 He lived completed life.
 Which is a rare accomplishment. Death when 1t comes to most men finds them with unfinished plans, or, if their plans are successfully worked out. there yet remains the problem of the successful administration of their affairs when they shal lbe dead They heap up riches Knowing not who will gather it." They know the lawyers will gather some. And they fear lest the heirs will dissipate the remainder.
 Dr Pearsons was his own executor.
 He successfully administered his estate while living. And he had the pleasure in tho disbursement of his wealth of seeing the good it would do. His money went where he wanted 1t to go and for the good of mankind.
 s4tcceesfnl old man.
 He went to the limit of benevolence Other millionaires give away money. but mot all of it. Some of them cannot keep up with the natural Increase and arc in grave danger of "the disgrace of dying rich" Giving all. Dr. Pearsons. of all tho rich men of his day, was the one sue cessful giver.
 Success is like a pyramid Broad at tho base. broad as the thronglng millions who live their little day and win or fall. Towering upward it's form narrows and scattered along it's sides are the few who have been fairly successful. At it's top their bright figures 1t up with the pure sunshine of merited fame-are the very few who have lived completed and successful life
 of these the gentle hearted nouayena- rian who died in Chicago was one.
 Said a woman of my acquaintance:
 Last year my husband was i'll. and now my daughter is threatened with tuberculosis. Living expenses are high and my husbands salary is only sl00 q year. Why should we be put Into the world to suffer 90? Life is really not worth the living sometimes"
 This woman lived fin her own house and had never lacked for the necessaries of life.
 Now
 The problem of suffering. Ike that of sin. Is en old one. huv to think one Is luckiess heyond others Is wrong. One has only to look about him to find many of his fellows worse or. ] Privntion9 Suffering?
 Why. tAis woman had never lived in q
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-09
, MEDICI-First Paper-By Dr. w. E. Evans

tried to thwart the prophecy by epdeav- bring to marry her sons to princesses of other realms. She succeeded In the case of the Princess of Poland. but failed in the instance of Elizabeth of England. A soothsayer told her that she should dle at place named St. Germains. She. therefore. would never approach a place so named. Indeed. she vacated the palace of the Tuleries, which she had built for her own residence, when she learned that it was located in the parish of St. Ger mains.
 Catherine, if not pretty, was handsome young woman. She had lived much out doors She was fond of horseback rid ing, and invented the side-sadde Women before her time rode on pads. She had handsome hands and ankles, and, resent ing the conventlonality that required that the latter be concealed, she invented the close fitting stockings, and was the first woman that ever wore this article of ap- parel She gave much time to her toilet. and was vain of her appearance. She lived among tho vices at court. but was as ehaste as a flower. This latter has been questioned by some writers, by oth- CTS II is denied with emphasis. Her am bition was a consuming passion. She
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-09

womanhood fearlessy clGsplng to It's bosom the ministry of suffering and mak- ing that it's Joy and crown "Moritnrao salutamus' was not the burden of their chants Not, 'sWe who are about to die. salute you," but this rather: "Amaturae l servalmus-we who will love you wifi l save you." If Is the culture of woman hood that diverts her from her besetting and traditional indiyldualism. May the gift of her vision never be clouded and discounted by the greed of gold or tho blatant boast of self-exploitatlon By that the men have fallen
 I cannot close this more 1ttingly than with few lines from T wonderful story inst published hy David Lyall Tibble Fleming is woman of nearly middle life, well Into the thirties. She has won distinction as an author, but now tho light of T good mans love has fallen on her Her sister, Nile. who has mothered her for many years, hears the story and cries;
 Well, and what do you say to that7'
 "Oh, l want to go. Allie. I want to go very much l want it moro than any thing in the worid!"
 "But your careerl The thing you have been so proud of, and in which you want cd to succeed. !"
 "Oh, that--that fig what woman fills up with when there's nothing else she made answer in tones of profound and unutterable content. Its only one of tha malte-belleves. Tho other is the real thing. want 10 be necessary to some man. Allie and. Pm not ashamed to con fess L. I want to bear his children and mako him a home, and if-and if" Here her vibrant voice broke-'h you'll let me. I'll go away to Archie MacKerrow to- morrow and account myself blessed woman"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-09
MEN WHO HAVE MADE AL

and in the second race he was defeated by 14
 MT. Langdon's early life was charac- terized by a series of misfortunes, but the grit with which he would each time face afresh the future indicated the text ure of his character. By means of rigid economy he succeeded In the accumula- ton of some capital, with which he en- tered into the cotton commission business in Mobile, in connection with the Hon. Martin A. Lee of Perry county. but hts business was engulfed in tho financial disaster of 1S36-7.
 In the first whig convention ever held in Alabama he became the nominee of that party for the legislature. and while again sustaining defeat he had conducted the campaign with ability so signal that his party purchased The Mobile Advertiser as it's organ, and placed in control of 1t MT. -I.ansdon. His facile pen won him
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-09

THE history of the origin of the
 Medici family is lost in the mists
 and obscurity of far off times. That they rose to eminence from out of the common people is generally believed; yet their coat of arms. six red balls on field of blue. is still without generally accepted Interpretation. Whatever may have been the origin of the Medcis, certain it Is that the family has won renown as giv- ing to the world famous popes, statesmen, kings and queens, patrons of learning and innumerable courtiers.
 In the f2th century the name was asso- ciated with certain offices of the Floren- tino republic In 1878 Sylvestro de Medici is named with other revolutionists in the republic, and thereafter we find others of tho family, from time to time, taking advantage of the political unrest of Flor ence and vaulting into eminence- Some Of them became interested In commerce.. and amassed great fortunes; others, going into the profession of statecraft, found fortunes as easily won here. Everywhere they found fame.
 The wealth and position of this great family led to an imperiousness. domi-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-09

of Prunes dressed up "a la Andy Car neegee,a and they set up a terribul howl about sumthing, newer did know what, but the way I got it was that Champ Clark was trying to put sumthing ovver them in the District of Columbier, and they wouldn't stand for it. After while the feemail con tingint arrived. As soon as they landed, I was reddy to leave, but Cash
 wouldn't stand for it. newer saw such bunch of reel Onions in all my life, and they couldn't carry tune in a hamber basket. It is verry hard to catch the drift of Grand Operer. especially as the hole show is parked at you in unspeekabul discord but gathered frum the performinee, and the promptings of Cassius, that Sir Henery Ashton had fixed things so that his frend Sir Arthur Bucklaw would have solid delegasion for the hand of Lusia. Lusia was about the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-09

could have given Napoleon odds and heat him, had he lived In her times. Like Ma poleon. her ambitious ends were always selfish She loved power with a deathless passion, and would sacrifice truth and duty 10 attain II. In this analysis of her character l have gone in to the years that followed her maidenhood Indeed. have thought of her in this characters ization as no longer attractive physicallv. btu as I have seen her portrait in Paris. al the Louvre a hard-faced woman with lines of undonbted cruelty and devilish ingenuity that distinguished her.
 At IA Catherine was sought in marriage by numerous princes Her family was q powerful one In European affairs. and her name was one to coniure with at the eoo- tinertal courts Turning from her other suitors, while vet only IA, she gave her hand to Henri, the second son of Francis I, King of France. The marriage ceremo- nies were celebrated by the pope amid tho most splendid surroundings The French King loved tho spectacular and on this occasion he indnlged his taste n a limit less degree in order that the marriage of his son with the daughter of Lorenzo. the Duke of tlrbino might ever be remem- bered for It's splendor.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-09

only Pippin on the beech too beleeve me. Lucia didn't seem to fall for the program. She bolted the conversion
 and held a trumpped up affair with a
 Dago looking chap named Lord Edger Ravenswood. This shows that Lusia
 must have had sum strong American
 bud in her for she was sum stout for a title. She and Ravenswood got to- gether and it looked to me like a
 fammerly row, but Cassius sed they weer .pliting there Troth. They weer sertainly sum Filters. Evvery thing rocked along favorabul until about the fourth inning, when Lusia,s
 bruther put one ovver on her by get ting her signature to sum kind of a I"Quit Claim or a bond for title or sumthing, and about this time in
 stalks Ravenswood, and they pull off the big event of the show, or the
 Bride Seen, as Cassius called it, and I newer herd longer or moor pro
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-09

N apartments; first-ciass cuisine;
 1 for young men. or couple with out children. Call Bell phone," etc. etc. 'sWANTED-Rooms and board by young married couple in refined family; quiet preferred where there are no children. Phone Main Bell" and so forth.
 would like to believe that such "wants'' emanate from the brains of students of serious lore to whom noise of any sort, whether issuing from the threats of dogs, guinea hens and peacocks, whether from syren whistles, pianofortes or from the mouths of children, were objectionable things I have wished to believe that rooms and board offered persons on such terms were but gracious condescensions to culture on the part of persons who per haps would not be taking boarders unless 1t were 10 secure for the geniuscs of Bir- mingham vast silences in which to work out theorems of light
 Not in the homes of the chiIdless. thought, but in houses where children are disallowed, something might come of such peace and stiffness
 Surely, one might suppose. these instl- tutions are for men of Galsworthy's type. men of the calibre of Ram Kennedy and stephen Phillips-for here might be found large and equal leisure and calm for the propagation of winged fancies These who accept boarders on such terms are but offering themselves as living sacri- fIces to the wfims of genius, one might suppose But only some earth-fool or some man from Mars unfamiliar with the ways of earth. would fall into the error of supposing any such thing
 For my dear. those items reprinted above were not carefully sought out and saved for text for a scoldlng Any live daily want page is full of them. If "ba- hies disallowed within these sacred prem ises"is not printed in black and white.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-09

the row was about. About this time Ravenswood stabbed himself, before I got the chance, and fell across the grave of his enamnerratter.
 l shall not again attend Grand Operer. It does not appeel to my sensitive taste..
 The merchints in Washington air not neer so enterprising as they seem to be in Birmingham. They air not up to date No where on. the curtain did I see enny thing about "Go to Smiths for Dill-piekles' or ..For Goldfish Balls after the Show go to Doolittles Cafay" as we see in on all our curtains in Birmingham. The Birmingham spirit mite well be emmulated by our slow and sluggish Yankee trends here. It not only lends an artistic effect, but shows an enter prising publick spirit, and an eye for bizness. Yours trooly,
 BILL VINES.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-09

came out and looked the crowd ovver and then grabbed a high note in c minor and held on to it like bull pup. thought she had cramps or sum- thing and suggested to Cash that tnefs inlte be Doctor in the audi ence. He didn't seem to pay enny attension to me, and altho' Lusia did sum very Plain and Fansy screeching, that would have maid the efforts of a pair of lilkinney cats on the back fence seem the swing of a summers breeze, Cash set there as tho enrapt, and newer whimpered.
 The next Seen was in a graveyard and Ravenswood was the answer. Cash sed it was Lusia's grave and that Ravenswood had a broken Hart. He looked that way. He paved the ground and roared till be loosened the shingles on the Operer House. Finally several of the Naybors came in be- cause they couldn't sleep to see what