davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-14
Giving Her A Trial

From the New York Morning Telegraph.
 In the Scot town of Aberdeen an old woman lay on her sickbed dying and her husband, Sandy Mcpherson, was trying to comfort her. There had been silence for some time and presently the old Scots- man bent over his wife and whispered:
 'Is there naething I can do for thee. lass?" and the dying light in the old lady $ eyes frightened as in weak voice she said:
 .'Yes. Sandy. hae me buried in tn Cray burn Kirk Yard"
 Crayburn, being a little town about 100 miles from Aberdeen. Sandy began to fig ure what a terrible cost of a funeral at that distance. and he presently murmured that he thought she would rest comforta- ble in the Aberdeen Kirk Yard. but the old lady persisted that if she was not buried where she wished her spirit would haunt him for the rest of his years.
 Sandy was deep in thought Presently a brilliant idea occurred to him and he once more bent over his dying wife and whispered in her ear:
 Say, lass, I'll gie thee a three months trial in the Aberdeen Kirk Yard. an r. your spirit haunts mae I'll talk ye ro Clayburn."
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-14

basis of religious living, though the Bible and the church are not infallible.
 I am afraid we must admit that both modern Jewish rabbi and modern Protest ant preacher have escaped from the old traditional conception of the Word of God Where is the Word? To the old orthodox Jew it was in the Law and the Prophets, with the commentaries of the scribes. To the old orthodox Protestant authority was in the Word of the Old and New Testa- ment Scriptures. To the Roman Catholic the only sufficient authority and shrine of the Word is the living Church. And when
 it was found that the Scriptures are not what the older Protestanism thought them to be, not a final reservoir of doc Urine and elaborated truth, but rather the record of progressive stages in approach ing truth and forming doctrine, it looked as though Professionalism had quite come to the natural end of all it's conceited in dividualism. It's authority was the Book? And the Book was not free from changes, contradictions, inconsistencies, or even errors of fact? How then could there be any authority left for Protestantlsm?
 But there was a serious illusion al work in this logic. It proceeded upon the error that authority consists in dogmatic creed and unchanging utterance and definition. The lad comes to his father and com plains that he doesn't know what to think of it. If Jonah, for instance, was never swallowed by a whale. in sheer literal happening. then the Bible. he says, is a very perplexing book. But the father, if he is wise, answers: T did not tell you that the prophet was not swallowed liter ally by a literal whale. I said to you that the book contains a great reproof to Israel because it had not been mission ary people"
 But says the boy. If it's an allegory then it never truly happened"
 Do you think so?" asks the father. And by and by the boy concludes that he doesn't think so; that Jonah" may be literal or 1t may be ffgurative or imagl- native: but that in either case the im- portant thing was that 1t reproved Israel for failing in their duty to spread the word of God.
 That is to say. the authority that is in that Book of Jonah consists in-an appeal to certain spiritual perceptions, and in the sure answer of the human spirit to that appeal. Authority is not a one-sided af- fair. Even the authority of truth, or the authority of justice, or the authority of
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-14

God. Is not a one-sided absolutism. All forms of authority consist in part at least in the normal acquiescence of those whose function it is to admit that authority. The very word authority is much more sug- gestive Of influence than of arbitrary au- tocratic dogmatism. There are no reser- voir of truth, but only God for every soul. Yet further, it is part of the exper- fence of the race that some men have keener perceptions than their fellows. Alike among huntsmen andthinkers this is true. And mankind has always been willing to appreciate at a high value this power to see. Carlyle found in it the very essence of leadership, and though his etymology was faulty his philosophy was sound. It is the glory of the writers in the Bible that they had vision. spiritual perception, the sense of the reality and glory of God and of duty. They knew that this old earth is more than dust, and that the heavens are more than primordial accident. Within the mantle of nature they saw hands like the hands of man, and they gave Him a name. Those who catch the same vision make the same ap- peal and win souls to the same faith. They who seek the ultimate source of au- thority are not so much as looking to the church. or even to the Bible, using those words in their conventional sense. Rather they are discovering that the more human nature there is in the Bible and in the church and in the universe. so much the more divine is the Bible and the church and the universe. And 1t is this attitude of mind that the sons of traditional dog ma utterly fail to understand. To them all authority is external. To the modern mind all real authority is in part. at least. an act of spiritual apprehension. When q man can dare to see God in common things and particularly in the movements of his own soul, the love that makes it's love- the energy that makes it's energy, the justice that makes it's sanity, then he will not need theological definition of the Trinity or a browbeating by the master of the art of apologetics.
 Now, therefore, l venture to claim for the normal preacher in Protestant churches of today that he is seer in the true. unconventional sense. The same must be sdid of the true preacher in the Roman coIhmunion. It is q supreme task in every church to put in It's pulpit the seer, not the retailer of secondhand opin- ions or ddclarations. Tn the long run It will be fo4nd that those who see and who
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-14

Y TALKED with my neighbours child
 about Happy Land. The Princess \ was pursued by the Prince, l told him, through the Country of the Hundred Colors. After a thousand years they were still young and strong. And be- cause they were young and strong, they were Good Runners. Finally, the Prince "caught up with" the Princess, and sec ing there was no way to elude him, she "wheeled around' and faced the, pur- euer. At once she recognized him as the Prince of the Gold and Purple Country and rather good sort of chap, whom she loved straight away
 And do you really love me that way?' sobbed the Princess.
 "What way, my child?"
 'The way you say you do,p quoth the lady.
 More than all my Gold and Purple Country said the Prince, "and I want you to como back to the palace with me.
 I submit that the child with whom talked should be content that they mar ried. But the inqustive infant said, "And what did they do after that? An't there any more to the story?'' How could I answer the child? To find this sort Of
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-14

think, and seeing that with our suffrage the arriving was made possible, we find ourselves peering into the future. crossing a bridge of years, if you will forgive an awkward simile.
 We know what the political seesaw has meant in past years of our country. We have seen how two great parties have been essential each to keep the other in check. And now the Republican regime, too long continued. has grown graftful, trust-fostering. Nor has democracy's past been of the whitest, most blameless sort, save for that ideal faith she has held in tariff for revenue only
 Now that protection of American man ufacturers at the expense of the consul mer has meant no more than the higher encroachment of the wolf-a little fiercer now, a little longer fanged, a little hun grier-John Doc is coming to sec that he has been juggled with. Almost unaware. the years of the full dinner pail' have drfted into the years of the ''newspaper- wrapped sandwich I do not think the existence of any trust in these states, any exposure by the muck-rakers- from Tom Lawson to the versatile and relentless Charles F. Russell, has so eloquently justified a political revolution,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-14

hacked his fathers cherry
 he did. want him 10 hce It would be so much lil
 should like him the better for aaa the story of William Tell and aHat on the head of his son which
 asunder, they now tell us Is
 end without the underlying a4 this in tho very presence of
 helm Tell monument at Altorf In Swit- zerland. Many other stories that we have loved always, Bancroft, Greene and others, rob us by the point Of peh-s "Hinc lilac lachrymae.'
 Yet, I suppose that the unreal must give place to the real; legend to fae', and fancies to history. But I am glad that my childhood enjoyed much Of the fanciful. Jack the Giant killer was as real to me as Jacques the king killer Othello as certainly lived at Cyprus, as. he ever lived Moor in Spain; while I was just as sure that "Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard 10 get her poor dog q bone" as l was that Mrs Hubbard, a neighbor, went to the pantry for scraps to give Rover. our great grandchildren arc going to be prosy set of folk. They will not read Grlmm's Fairy Tales, nor the Arabian Nights nor the Little Lame Prince, nor Alice in Wonderland, nor anything of that sort. They will be like the Meag- Ieas family in little Dorrit. "One can but be practical" said MT Meagles, "and Mrs. Meagles and myself are noth- ing else"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-14
BILL VINES ON RUNNING FOR OFFICE

in which he was born, and of his wife and children and his mother-in- law, and publishing four page articles of how he licked the big school bully for imposing on the little orphan kid with a stone bruise, and of how he used to read Cicero sideways when he was 6 years old, and of how he supported widowed mother and 13 brothers and sisters by extracting the Ham out of Hamlet when he was only 10 years old, is, to promptly make his will, and telephone the un- dertaker that he is dead and to bury him quick, before some sucker digs up the fact that he used to steal
 candy from the baby and was sus- pected of robbing a train in his youth, and whipping his wife after marriage, and taking widow wom- ans false teeth for debt. A man can never be a real lasting 14 karat
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-14

"Kearsarge,' which rudderpost was un- armored. and the shell failed to explode It was well directed, and it is believed that had it exploded the "kearsarge' would have been sunk. Unharmed by the guns of Semmes, the new vessel did speedy and effective work, and the Ala bama" began to sink. Together with Semmes stood 1<ell, his second in com mand, on the deck of the ill-fated vessel till it was ready to sink, when they cast their swords into the sea and leaped over board. They together with the rest of the crew were taken from the water by the "Deerhound, an English vessel, and taken to England.
 Returning to the south, where he was made rear admiral. Semmes was placed in command of the James river fleet which suffered destruction on the fall of Richmond. Escaping with his command to North Carolina, Semmes joined the army of General Johnston and his men were formed into a brigade of artillery. The war was now practically over and
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-14

It is true. in looking back he can re- member few transactions, perhaps, that we're all right, and fully legal, but might have to be explained" if anybody knew anything about them but himself, but no one does, and everything is as cheerful as 20 per cent dividend. But, Oh me, Oh my, his head is in the sand, and the rest of him looms up as conspieuously as a boil on your Adams apple.
 Just as soon as he gets to be a regular cut up and gets to putting in to some other fellows personal in terests good and hard, he will sud- denly learn that there are hundreds of people who firmly believe that he would look well in the penitentiary, and if he had what was coming to him, he would be working overtime making little rocks out of big ones. He is pained to learn that fine
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-14

had named in honor of the first victory of the war, Semmes began his services afloat." The Sumter" was a slender vessel and one of small capacity, but it was all that could be practically called the Confederate navy. But with this light cruiser Semmes secured the seas, and within a few months captured IT merchants vessels, after which the small vessel was disposed of, and Semmes having the Alabama" real gunboat for that time. built in England, and secretly sent to the Azores islands, he assumed command of it and began in real earnest an offensive warfare on the high seas. He wrought rapid havoc with his little gunboat, burning 57 of the enemy's ships and releasing many others on ransom bond. There being no ports open for condemning, Semmes burned his captures as per mitted by international law.
 Dashing here and there overs the deep, the operations of the Alabama" were series of brilliant exploits which
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-14

their fathers did, for proof texts concern ing the doctrines they proclaim. One has rejected the faith concerning the miracles of the Old Testament another has given up the notion of the Virgin Birth of Jesus, another doubts the physical Resurrection, so that your preachers do not really be- lieve or know any more than their hearers, perhaps not as much. If they go to visit their parishioners they have no certain word of authority to console the sorrow ing or guide the erring or rebuke the sim ners. And as to the preaching, why if want a sermon I want it with certainty, with divine authority behind it. But if want lecture on ethics or literature or criticism, may I not go and get one with out being at the enormous cost of keeping up church and pastor?'
 This was interesting. It is exactly like what I read in deploring columns of cer- tain hyper-orthodox Protestant papers, and even in a good many that are keenly alive to the problems of the time, though they are not themselves any longer quite free from the taint of the higher criticism and the rationalistic interpretation. More over, intelligent boys and girls who have grown up in Protestant homes and schools, reading the Bible and then get ting whiff of sceptical grapeshot on their flank, to dissipate the teachings of childhood. feel precisely the same acute disappointment in the present situation. They want the final word of knowledge and authority. But behold. instead of it they get warning against being too dog matc about the Bible or the miracles or the claims of the church. I am stating a fact, not apologizing for 1t.
 Moreover not even there Is the worst of the pain. For it has come to pass that where that final word of authority and knowledge is spoken the modern student in his academic pride often valves it all aside as incredible because he has learned how love to one another all religions are. from the simplest and crudest to the most elaborate and modern. So many of these children of our college classroorns fail to escape the infection of doubt* Confront ing them are those on the one hand who answer their doubts with sort of indig- nant compassion, pointing them to the sure tradition of the church as the only source of religious certainty. On the other hand are the modern Protestant clergy who take them by the hand and patiently walk wit a a othery sympathy while the. l grine solid
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-14

tiful and touching little ballad of Back to the Mines," or we could have done that and made better job of it." Or let a perfect gentleman come forward with the bland state ment that he has discovered the North Pole, and the Show Me club goes into executive session, and digs up more blue prints and maps of the North Pole, made by perfectly relia- ble people who have never been there, and makes him out IA different kinds of Ananiases in as many different languages.
 The only way for real hero to do, when he pulls off his big hit, and the regimental bands are playing Hail to the Chief, and the enthusiastic popu- lace are giving him the Glad Hand, and all over the country they are naming babies for him, and the magazines are exhibiting the pictures of the house
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-14

for the pennant down without a hit, only to be handed the Ice pitcher a little later on when some inquisitive cuss bobs up with cloud on their title to hero worship, and puts a crimp in their popular wave.
 If a man wants to know what a real criminal he is, let him run for office, or, having run for office and attained it, do some big stunt that brings him into the limelight. He may be under the impression that he is far above the average citizen in doing his duty to his fellow man, and faith. fully discharging his obligations of citizenship. He swells up as he con- templates his past record, ah ana Gan.ao iayora Washington, or Uncle Joe Cannon. He gets very chesty and begins to figure on on what cinch it would be to get
 elected to the job little higher up
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-14

eomplished results that were wonderful. The story of a phantom ship ploughine the seas and accomplishing amazing feats could scarcely be more romantic than was that which was actually done by Semmes and his little gunboat.
 The enemy discovering what havoc the gunboat under Semmes might eventually work. had built a better and stronger yes sel of more improved pattern to pit against her The "Kearsarge' was ready for action early in 1864, and sought the Alabama" in French waters Semmes was blockaded at Cherbours, where he re- maincd as long as he could In neutral port, and on June t9, 1861, he steamed out of that port. aware of the fact that he was going against. a vessel every way hIs superior It was known that an encounter would take place. and the people of Cher bourg sought every elevated place In wit ness the naval duel. After some slight manouvering the battle began. A hundred pound shell was fired from the Alabama and was buried in tho rudderpost Of the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-14

deal that he succeeded in pulling off ten years ago, whereby he accumu- lated several thousand plunks, was, in fact, a plain case of robbery, and his criminal and grating intentions in that transaction are promptly pub
 lished in some undertaking paper and they stand out as promptly and are as eagerly taken in by the public as a Salome dance in a country town after it has been prohibited by the Mayor. Any explanation that he at tempts has about the same effect on the public mind as prohibition tracts on the Whisky Trust. It is just the dis position of some folks to knock. As soon as fellow wins unperishing fame by some sudden and unexpected act, like sinking boat in times of war in the entrance to a harbor in order to bottle up the enemy, the anvil chorus opens up with that beau
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-14

hero or statesman until after he is dead, and even then he is not abso- lutely safe from the ghouls, if they can make him fit into a historical novel.
 It is true that the knockers are in the minority, but it is also true that they make the most fuss, therefore while you are hero "Go to it8 and get the grapes while it lasts Let us nominate Oscar this time, while he is nthe very first blush of being a hero and a popular favorite. Ne know his lasting qualities all right, but just as soon as the Busy boys with the hammers get at him they might cause us to lose our chance. Now is the time to put him across, believe meA and he will make good. Good enough for another term.
 Yours truly,
 BILL VINES.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-14

soon promoted to a lieutenancy in the na- tional navy. For several years he eruised the seas of the globe, and in 1s42 removed to home on the Perdido river, and seven years later took up his residence in the city of Mobile.
 When the Mexican war began Semmes served under Commodore Conner at Vera Cruz. where he was in command of q battery of preaching guns. Throughout the war with Mexico he served in the American fleet After the declaration Of peace he was made inspector of light houses on the Gulf of Mexico, and in 1858 he rose to the position of q commander in the fleet, and was made secretary of the light house board, with headquarters at Washington,
 Resigning his position when Alabama seeded from the Union, he repaired to Montgomery, the first capital of the Confederacy, where he was made com mander of the Confederate navy With the Sumter" which Secretary Mallory
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-14

semmes was paroled at the exploitation along with all others. but was afterward imprisoned fer several months and final ly nardoned.
 After serving as a professor in the Louisiana Military institute Admiral Semmes returned 10 Mobile and began the practice of law, giving his attention, for the most part. to constitutional and international law. He died in Mobile. which city honors his memory as is at tested by monument which adorns tho most conspicuous spot in the city.
 The deeds and valor of Semmes have not yet been recognized. Had tho in- dependence of the south been achieved, he would have been one of her most hon- ored heroes but he belonged to q lost cause, and that fact will serve to dim for d period of years his history. but one day it will be known in its fullness, and then will it shine among the most resplendent of the daring heroes of the deep. His career was as brilliant as fl was daring.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-14

questioning or avoid constant readjust- ments of belief. Why then has not the man of the spirit as real an authority ana as sure a hearing as the man of tradition. echo of the somber. but shadowy majorl- ties?
 Yet are there still two types of human intelligence, that devoted to freedom and tho spiritual instincts. and that unhappy and afraid without visible authority and formal guarantee. There should be room and comfort for both
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-14

attracted the attention of the world. Now at the Azores, again within 200 miles of New York, then appearing un- heralded in the regions of the West In dies, he suddenly appears in the waters of the gulf, off Galveston, Texas sinks the federal steamer "Hatteras,' cap turing and paroling the crew. then dashing away to the coast of South America. he crosses the Cape of Good Hope, sweeps over the Indian ocean. and in his work goes half way round the globe. That which was being done by the most daring and flashing com manders on land was being done by Semmes on tho high seas. Swift and tactical he would appear at the most unsuspected time and in the most un- conjectured quarter, and spread terror and destruction.
 For three years Semmes roamed the seas of the world uninspired by the press and people of the south. for his deeds of dar- ing were unknown, by reason of the bloekaded ports of the Confederacy, and vet single-handed the little gunboat ac-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-14
Height of Humanity

From the Daily News.
 Senator La Toilette, at a dinner in Mad ison, said of & certain notorious trust:
 That trusts Thanksgiving won't be. this year. so boisterous and blatant as 1t used to be. That trust has certainly be- come subdued." He smiled.
 Its spirit Is as humble now as tha spirit of very ugly man who visited a matrimonial agency and said he'd like to find wife. But the agent, looking tho man over, returned sternly:
 I'm agraid it won't he, easy to find a wife for you. my friend.
 T thought said the applicant, you might have something short sighted on your books,'"