davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-18
Evans

king and queen on their clothes. There
is the amount paid to the royal rat killer
every year, and there are the kings pay
ments to players, inventors and discov-
erers-by means of the two last items the
exact dates of many discoveries have been
fixed.
''It would interest Shakespearean stu
dents TO know that there was a William
Shakespeare who lived in Warwickshire
at the same time as the poet and had the
same number of brothers and sisters. In
fact, William Shakespeare seems to have
been quite a common name there at that
time, for we have discovered that there
wre is of them contemporary with him.
"Of course, the Domesday book, which
so many Americans come to see every
year, is here among the records, and an
other extremely interesting document is
the muster roll of the army at the battle
of Agincourt. Coming down to later
times, there Is Mary Queen of Scots
diet account a quaint way of designat-
ing her housekeeping accounts and also
her funeral expenses
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-18

y the domain of letters one finds
references to mysterious persons
who appear and disappear for CEN
turtles, and of whom there is no rational
history; but whose names and deeds and
astounding longevity are so surrounded
with recondite legends and traditions
that one wonders If there was originally
any person or persons that gave rise to
the simple hints which expanded into
the weird stories that have come down
the ages to the twentieth century
Among the Greeks there was a story
to the effect, that Aristeas travelled over
the earth for 400 years that he would
appear in the most unheard of places
among the nations in all parts of the
earth. Among all peoples there is told
the story of the Wandering Jew, who
has appeared for nearly 1000 years in
unexpected places. and among startled
assemblies. An opera has been written
ON this subject, as we'll as a number of
exciting novels. The best known of the
latter is Eugene Sues long drawn out
story, which might have been called by
any title, and have been true to it's
name. For the Wandering jew has but
little to do with the unfolding of the
contents of the book. Dore gave series
of paintings on this subject.
Among the mysterious personages
whose lives are associated with the
weirdly abstruse may be classed one
who, perhaps. is better known than any
other character In the realm of tragic
poetry. | refer to DIR. Faustus. or, as
we have learned to call him. Faust.
Not that he possessed the gift of long
evity of some others. for he did not
But his. life was as mysterious as theirs
and quite baffled the spiritual insight
of the religious, as we'll as the philo-
sophical penetration of the learned Tn
like the other persons that l mentioned
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-18

ly replied and among the casualties was
that of killing one of the negroes
while another was wounded, whereupon
every black man who was supporting
the mantelets threw them down and
fled the field. Without a waver in their
llne. the French pressed on in the at
tack
The grenadiers led the advance and
moved on into the outside village. The
battle was now on in earnest and one
of the ablest of the French command
ers, Chevalier de Contre Occur, was
killed together with a number of gren-
adlers, but the fortified cabins were
taken without, as we'll as some smaller
ones, to the latter of which fire was
applied. This quick advantage gained
led to an enthusiastic determination to
carry the fort by assault. Noyan, at
the head of his troops. saw the advan-
taEe and was ready to lead the charge.
With sword upraised. he commanded
the advance, but on looking back he
found that all the troops, save a mere
handful, had fled back to the fortified
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-18

in the tower. The majority of them
those stored in the Rolls chapel-only just
escaped destruction at the time of the
great fire of London, which stopped at
the very edge of the chapel
In pastimes, too, no very great check
was kept on these papers, and the under
secretaries of the lord treasurers. who
We're the bosses of this department fire.
quently stuck to some of them. This ac-
counts for the presence of a great many
or them In the Marquis of Salisbury's Ii
barry at Hatfield, and the Lansdowne col
lection of MSS. in the British museum.
known as the Burghley papers. Similar
iy they are to be found In the libraries
or the Oxford and Cambridge universi-
les, the Lambeth library and almost
every private library of note Some most
valuable documents came to the igno-
mlnious end of being used as fish wrap-
pers In 1S40 fishmonger named Jay
bought a large quantity of paper from
somerset house at the rate of $35 a ton
When the paper was sorted, some official
documents containing the signature of
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-18
ROMANCES OF A NATIONS RECORDS-By Maynard Evans

into four kinds. showing: How the King
got his money; how he spent 1t; disputes
between his subjects, l. e., lawsuits, and
state papers.
1t is wonderful that they should be as
complete as they are, for their present
home was only begun In 1851, and before
that they were scattered all over London
in various places. In their infancy they
used to travel about in wagons with the
King, and, buffeted by civil wars and dis
sensions, have experienced more adven-
lures than any man possibly could crowd
into his life. Sir Thomas Wilson, who
lived in the reign of James l, was the
first to begin to tidy them up, and, ac-
cording to all accounts, it was tough
job. He found them slowed away in
chests in the greatest confusion. many of
them irreparably damaged by having been
the food and refuge for rats and mice.
Some others had been stuffed under seats
in the pews In Rolls chapel, the site of
the present record office. and yet others.
for greater safety. had been stored In a
room just above a gunpowder magazine
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-18

of bringing on the fight? While the
French were exposed to a raking fire
these 500 painted warriors remained
at a safe distance on the plain. giving
frequent vent to shouting and Shrek
ing and yelling, interspersed now and
then with dancing and shooting into
the air. This was the utmost of the
service rendered by the Choctaw al
lies.
Though with a courageous few Noyan n
had come under the shadow of the
y alls of the fort, he could do no more
unsupported and so proceeded to re-
turn in order to the fortified cabins.
whore he found his men crouching IN
lear and notified Bienville of the peril
OF the situation. He asked for a de-
taehment To hear off the dead ard
wounded and notified the governor that
Without troops to support him, nothing
more could he done to capture the fort.
AT this Juncture Bienville saw a
demonstration made on the part of the
sagaves in the fort from an uncon-
| Jeetured quarter to CAPTURE the cabins
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-18

soberer moments of life, when sorrows
come and when deaths muffled tread is
heard in their homes, they realize the
great loss of the heart-the magic ring of
faith in God is gone. and life has become
''stale, fiat and Improbable" With all
their financial successes, they have not
been able to buy the crown of content anu
life is "wrinked DER with a network Of
deep lines of decay. l fancy there are
many who ponder seriously Hoods little
poem with personal application
IT remember, I remember,
The fir trees dark and high:
| used to think their slender tops
Were close against the sky;
1t was a childs sh ignorance,
But now It's little joy
To know I'm farther off from heaven,
Than when I was a boy.
OF all life's Noses the sorest and most
lanentable Is the loss of faith in God,
faith in the fundamental principles of re-
ligion, faith in the power OF goodness and
in the beauty of purity. There is no hap
piness in knowing that one in his man.
hood Is farther off from heaven than
when he was a boy.
There is sometimes a f1ipOant jauntiness
in the utterances of superficial unbeliev-
ers but among those who were brought
up in religious faith and have since lost
the magic ring that made all beautiful,
there Is only soberness, somberness and
a ptiful pathos.
Professor Clifford, writing on the In
fluence Upon Morality of a Decline in
Religious Belief" conscious that he had
lost his old faith in God, says. 1T can
not be doubted that faith in God is a
comfort to those who hold it. and that
its loss Is painful. 1t cannot be doubted,
at least by manv of us of this generation
who either nrofesS il now or receiVed IL in
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-18

"The records that would interest Amer
leans most PROBABLY are those relating to
the grants of land In Carolina and Geor-
gia in the seventeenth and eighteenth GEN.
turtles. and to the discoverers of America
by Henry VII.
For many centuries there was an Of
hclal kings cat at the Rolls chapel. ard
it was transferred to the record office.
Its duties were to keep down the rats
and MICE and oring up its children. A
fine of sufficient wheat to cover its body
was imposed upon any one who killed 1t.
Tho last official cat has just died"
Mrs Slopes, who has been delving in
these historical treasures in search of
knowledge of the ShaSespearean period,
on which she is a recognized authority.
i5 little white haired, old woman with
strong Scotch accent, her bonnet and
mantle hardly suggesting the student. Yet
she has many books to her credit, and
has taken up the cudgels on the great
poets part against those who are fond
of asserting that Bacon is Shakespeare.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-18

Henry Y, an autograph letter of Cardinal
Wolsey and a MS. of Edward l., were
found ahmong them.
The record office was finished in 1860
and now these papers are all kept there
in calendar order Some are in huge
sheets and have to be spread out by more
than one attendant; some are in rolls and
kept in small pipes; others are quite small
documents. They are housed in chambers
fitted with steel shelves. Great care IS
taken of them and only pencils are al
lowed to be used by those who study
them.
1T have been studying these records
now for % years." said Mrs. Slopes, but
1t would take much longer than that to
exhaust the interesting facts that are
stored up in this record of a nations life.
There are. for instance, the records of
abolished jurisdiction as they are called,
ancient courts which no longer exist
Among these are the court of chivalry,
the Marshalsea court. which recalls
Dickens Little Dorrit, and the infamous
court of the star chamber, made the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-18
Europe T'iniest State

From London Answers.
When the ambassadors of Europe
recently met, and agreed that, the Pc
ninsula Of Athos, in Macedonia. should
be regarded as an Independent state.
many people thought that they had at
last discovered the smallest state In this
whole world.
Athos, however, has an area of $50
square miles. roughly. 1t is a huge
country compared with Moresnet,
tiny neutral state on the borders OF
Belgium and Prussia. It's area is recl<-
oned in acres, not square miles. Its
size. in fact. is 400 acres. Just good
size farm.
Moresnet was made a separate stata
in 1915, after Napoleon had been finally
crushed at Waterloo. The reason that
the little country has remained inde-
pendent is rather curious.
As has been said the tiny state Is on
the borders of Germany and Belgium.
1t possesses what was once the most
important and valuable zinc mine In the
whole world. Belgium wanted that
zinc, and SO did Germany. As they
couldn't agree on the amount OF COM
pensation to the other. Moresust ~.
meined Independent.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-18

they have not they disappear and cease
to be anything at all
For centuries a lot of good people
have said that man never could fly
but man is flying. Now a number Of
| other good people are disturbed be-
cause so many aviators are killed
Well, that is sad and deplorable, but
through this tragic experience we are
learning how to improve the aeroplane
so that danger is decreased. In time
it may become as safe to ride in the
air as on the earth or the sea.
Others are troubled because of food
cults, healing cults, suffra gist cults, the
labor movement, the new woman move
ment, shifting standards as to matri-
mony, socialism and what not. There
is nothing to be afraid of in all these
things. Most of them profess to seek
better ways and better days They
provoke discussion. Eventually we
will sift out the chaff from the wheat t
and whatever contribution of good any
of these cults has to offer will be ac-
cepted.
TRY all things; hold fast that which
is good"
There Is no more reason to be afraid
of a new cult than of new baby
For the times change and men and
ideas change with them, but the car
dinal virtues and the verities live on
forever.
The best governed school / ever saw
wos one that had few rules, but where
every pupil was thrown on his or hei
own personal responsibility.
The best results l ever had in con-
trolling my own boys came through
appealing to their better natures and
putting 1t up to them to do right or
their own initiyatiye
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-18

cannon so far into the interior he
would have demolished the fort IN
short order, but as it was everything
was against him. Instead of his plans
being executed as originally formed
they fell to pieces step by step and his
defeat was the most signal Thus end
ed the campaign against the Chicka-
saws, the ftercest and most warlike of
all the tribes. After all the imposing
grandeur at the outset of the canl-
puign ii ended in a fiasco. The situa-
tion was much graver than Bienville
seemed to apprehend. He was in tho
heart of the enemy's country without
substantial support. His Choctaw allies
had failed him and in a grave crisis his
own men had forsaken him Nothing
would have been easier than for the
Chiokasaws to cut him off from his
boats and extingush the entire COM
mand. but themselves unapprised of the
conditions, they kept we'll within the
enclosure of the fort. Other difficulties
we're in store for the unfortunate Bien-
Vile.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-18

oNDoN, May 17.-(Special. Most
curious and vastly more interesting
- than many novel are some of the
bare facts that have been turned up in the
record office here by Mrs. c. C. Slopes,
who has been delvlng among its treasures
Tor 20 years. These papers form an al
most unbroken chain of evidence of the
political, constitutional, financial and So
cal history of England for a period of
500 years, comprising written records of
the superior courts of law, the entire
contents of the state paper office at West
Minister, and books, papers and documents s
Oh the various government departments
to comparatively recent date records
OF courts now abolished, records of the
Duchy of Lancaster, the Palatinates of
Durham and Lancaster. and the prnci-
pality of Wales, and all state papers re-
'lating to the admiralty and the audit Of
nee, the latter including all the royal ac-
counts-in fact. every transaction con-
eerning the king and his people for that
time. Roughly, the latter may be divided
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-18

vehicle of such tremendous power in the
reign of Charles l.
From them we learn, too, that the
chancellor was formerly the kings prin-
clpal secretary and had charge of the dl-
reetion of foreign affairs. Sometimes he
was also the kings confessor, hence the
term, keeper of the kings conscience.
Two other officials of ancient days. now
NJ longer in existence were called clerk
OF the hanaper.' and clerk of the petty
bag. The duty of the former was to
collect several ancient revenues of tile
crown and was so called because he kept
all his papers in hanaperio' a Latin term
indicating a large hamper The clerk of
the petty bag got his name from the little
sack or bag in which he kept his papers,
which were the writs of summons to
parliament and the appointments of bish-
ops and archbishops.
"A most interesting series of papers is
that showing how the king spent his
money All the expense accounts of the
treasurers of the royal household are
there, even to the amounts spent by the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-18

troops. Hoping to elicit those from the
cabins he ordered an aide to request
the secreted troops to come to his res
cue. as he was wounded. As the officer
turned to obey he was shot dead.
The assault had been carried to with
in a short distance of the main walls
where the officers lay bleeding from
their wounds, the foremost of whom
was the gallant Grondel. A number
OF Indian warriors issued from the fort
to scalp him, on observing which u
sergeant with four men rushed to his
rescue, drove the Indians back into the
fort and raised his body to bear it off
the field. Just as they started every
rescuer was killed. A stalwart French
man named Regnisse. seeing what had
happened, dashed toward the body
alone, under a CALLING fire. lifted the
wounded man to his back and bore him
off though not without the receipt of
another wound by Grondel
Meanwhile where We're the coura-
eecus Choctaws. who were so eager for
the fray. and who were the chief cause
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-18

1 told them my view of the case. then
informed them they had their own
lives to live and l was going to put the
responsibility on them-that I would
not force them to do right, but leave
them to do right of their own motion.
1t never failed to work, Treir response
was immediate and gratifying.
We all know what Is right and In
our hearts we all want what is right
But SO long as we think someb ody
else Will compel us to do right we
leave the responsibility to them. What
we need Is to stand on our own feet
and choose right for ourselves.
iii other words we need more of q
sense of personal responsibility. We
need it because 1t Is best for us and
best for The nation.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-18
HEART TO HEART TALKS-By James A. Edgerton

good thing as summer.
These little winter absences heighten
our enjoyment of it, just as we appre-
oiate home the more when we have been
away.
Winter is good thing because it whets
the appetite for summer.
The sun is a magician who by merely
looking upon the fields and trees covers
them with verdure and blossoms.
He is an artist who uses the earth as
canvas and places thereon colors com-
pared to which mans best creations are
but weak limitations and daubs.
He marches northward, and a belt OF
green advances before him announcing
his coming.
When he has reached his farthest north
our bleak climate has the miracle of June.
No wonder the ancients fell on their
faces before the rising sun.
When summer comes man would cease
work, so enraptured is he with the mere
luxury of living.
The sun looks upon the wheat fields and
they grow golden into harvest, upon the
flowers and they turn their faces toward
him with pleasure. upon tho fruits and
they blush red in ripening
The sun is king and summer is his
queen. To this royal pair man ever is a
loyal subject.
1t is a magic name. that of the nations
founder, who is becoming, in turn the
father of the republican era in other
lands.
1t is befitting that this spotless name
should grace the capital city of the
greatest of republics, for it Is a con-
tiEual suggestion of the character that
republic should take.
1t is said by competent authorities that
when present plans have been carried out
Washington will be the most beautiful
city in the world.
Even now it is beautiful, a city of
parks and broad streets, of pleasant
homes and public buildings worthy of a
great nation.
The phoenix may have risen from its
ashes, but Washington literally arose from
swamp.
Yet its growth in a century to an ideal
capital is no more of a. miracle than that
of the nation about it, which has sprung
up in the same time from out of a wilder
ness.
Some people call Washington a southern
city, but this is misnomer. 1t is both
southern and northern with some of the
best features of each section.
One to appreciate Washington must ride
around it and look down on it from the
heights along the Tenallytown road He
must behold it from many angles, both
from near and far, must approach it from
the river and see it from the Virginia
hills. 1t is well worth study even in it's
present uncompleted state. What, then,
will it be when the plans of its builders
have been translated into parks and malls,
memorials, statues and classic buildings? /?
The parking Is being continued along
the banks Of the Potomac. There the
Lincoln memorial will stand. The capitol
will be, in part. surrounded by parks. one
extending to the new Union station and
postoffice and another down past the ag-
ricultural buildings to the Washington
monument.
In vision one can see the heights about
the city crowned with beautiful homes
Already these are beginning to appear
As the republic advances in wealth.
culture and art it Is not difficult to Inn
agips Washington becoming . second
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-18
o far as my observation goes, few
/ men work themselves to death.

no far as my observation goes, few
men work themselves to death
~ They may worry themselves to
death or dlssipate while working and so
burn the candle at both ends. but good,
hard, honest work is tonic rather than
health destroyer.
Don't be afraid of doing too much.
II you get the work habit the extertion
will not exhaust you. 1t Is the men who
work by fits and starts that are worn
out by the unaccustomed effort rather
than those who keep plugging at it all
the time.
The only thing is to keep up your in
terest, buoyancy and spirit. II your work
ever becomes drudgery, then it will wear
you out, but not otherwise.
Moreover, we become capable to do
by doing. Man has an almost limitless
capacity to adjust himseuf to whatever
task is before him.
we must economize in work as In all
other things, make no false motions and
conserve our nerve force There is a
secret about efficiency, and happy is
he who finds it.
WAYS
OF doing things, just as he can invent
q niachine. Ihere are more labor saving
devices than are made out of wood and
steel "A"
IL Is all right TO talk about short cuts
to success. Even short cuts reouire In :
bor-labor of the brain.
| have heard of a few indolent great
men. but never of one who was great
because of his Incidence. Moreover.
nave suspected that even those men
who are seemingly averse to o,,tva rd
effort keep up a prodigious thinking
DID 1t ever occur to you that work
Will and win begin with the same LET
ter? The same is true of laziness. loaf
ing and loser.
The highway of achievement is paved
with labor 1t is the only way to keep
out of the mud.
When the green gifts back on the trees
an bees
Is hummin' aroun' ag'in
III that sort of an easy, go as you please,
or way they bum roun' in,
When you ort to work an you want to
not
AN you an your wife agrees
It's time to spade up the garden lot,
An the green gifts back on the trees,
Why, 1 like, as l say, sich times as
When the green. you know. gifts back
on the trees.
james Whitcomb Riley.
I quote from memory. not having seen
the poem sin is years, SO do not mind II
there should happen to be a comma mis-
placed. But, at any rate, the sentiment
II there.
Well. 1t is coming again, the "good old
summer time" You can feel it in the air
right now.
And I like it-don't you? Every season
10 good but summer-well. summer is the
wine of the year.
The bees like summer, and the bees
have more sense than some people
The birds like summer. So do the
flowers. So does the small boy.
Some people pictufe heaven as a place
where summer never ends
Well, they do not have to go to heaven
TO find that condition. They can get 1t in.
southern California or down. around the
equator.
But there can b too much Of even a.
L. -