davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-12

and YOU make the church itself a Dead
Sea, bearing on it's bosom masses of spirit
ual corruption which refuse to reflect the
glory of the Sun; Dead Sea surrounded
with bleak areas of cliff and desert
5. In the land from which Gipsy Smith
comes there is unwritten law that
every citizen is a servant of the COM
mon good without fee or reward This
has had great effect for good upon the
life of the English churches, for it has
compelled the early convert, however
young, to regard himself as a servant
of Jesus Christ in the community. If ali
so lived that country would be socially
more keenly progressive than it actually
is. But England is doing some things
for Christ's sake
/ do not mean to boast in the name of
the English churches. They have their
faults and the churches in this land have
their magnificent advantages, but the
impression I desire to create will be true
If we see that the normal activity of
the Christian is a great deal broader than
simply fulhlling some function for the
church. We shall minister to the strengt h
and permanence of this present evangel-
istic campaign, to the health of the con-
Verts, and to the enormous blessing of
Birmingham and our churches, il we
teach the converts not to await an ecsta-
sy, but to make sacrifice for the con-
quest of social wrong, of social diseases
and to do earnest work in the bearing
OF the burdens of others. We need godly
men and women who shall intelligently
study the causes and the cure of social
evils We need volunteer toilers in the
cause of community health We need
Christian enthusiasts who shall e,,roa \
the passion that will make child labor
impossible, and that shelters womanhood
and especially motherhood, from the mem
aces that come of commercial greed We
need those who shall not merely cry out
against the liquor traffic, but shall stand
as rock against all forms of predatory
and degrading trade. To do these things
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-12

| With sweet musk-roses, and with eglan-
tine
The wild violets along the roadside.
as | have noticed. are OF two varieties.
viola pedata and viola palmata. They
are usually purple, but l have found
them sometimes as blue as the sky In
June, with a bright orange center
formed by the large anthers. While
the beautiful little flowers are so
pleasing to the eye they have but scant
fragrance But even a violet, how
ever beautiful. cannot be expected to
have everything. A dahlia can hardly
be excelled for dignity of carriage, yet
II know a. little rosebush whose tiniest
blossom has more fragrance n q mo-
ment that the dahlia has in a whole
season.
We have not gone very far into the
Mill road before we find that, 1t is
leading us downward. All mill roads
lead down hill. tand this one is no
exception, for the mill is ever so far
down, down by the river. In this de-
scent we pass through a scene of ex-
quisite beauty and of romantic sugges-
ton. The blight of autumn has not
found this scene yet. and except for
the absence of fragrant blossoms,
which are all gone, the surroundings
are just about as they appear in the
warm days.of summer
On each side of the road there are
young pop1ars and white bark birches,
with here and there a slender birch
Just over the middle of the road the
multitudinous branches meet and in
terlace. Around their trunks honey
suclSles have grown into a dense and
impenetrable mass. They have COW
cred the trees, trunks. branches and all
And, like the tree boughs. the vines
from each side of the road have met
and formed an emerald canopy of ex-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-12

is not the business of the church. but of
those whom the church turns to God
In brief the function of the evangelistic
campaign is the function of the church
and may be described as training citi-
zens in the Kingdom of God. Here is
an opportunity for the newborn spiritual
passion. Here is discipline for the train
ing of human souls in a service that
shall be eternal 1t ought to be taken
as principle of evangelistic effort that
each convert should be made worker
in the Kingdom of God, not merely in
the church but in the world. They are
to shine as lights in the world, holding
forth the word of life" not by preaching
but by living. They have been inducted
INTO the Army of the Unselhsh, the Sery-
ants of the Common Good They are
enlisted for the supreme feat of spiritual
engineering. to turn the world upside
down, to reconstruct our social order ac-
cordins to the will of Christ.
But this will never be done b,. nro-
grammes and party platforms. IL win
pc dohe by the volume of Christian
love let loose upon the world ihroroh
the churches, through evangelists and
teachers and converting agencies Of
every sort. 1t is the church tina, pro-
duces your livingstones to abolish Af-
rican wrongs, your Grenfells to heal
the heart of Labrador, and indeed all
the forces of social redemption. There
is passage which may be fairly rem
uered He that hath no sword, let him
sell his coat and buy one" That is the
universal law of discipleship. which IL
commonly ignored. Some of The war
with wrong Is for every man to wage
Ihere is call to the ranks for every
one TO be soldier of the common
good. And man had better go ragged
or coatiess than without something to
uo IN the light But 1t is the church
that sends him out inspired.
Yet let anyone say what are the
alfficuities of doing the work OF the
hlngdom outside certain narrow lines
OF church activity. or even within those
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-12

there in the church for the convert? What t
possibility is there to keep people in
healthy relationship to their own en-
ployment? Another question: What hope
is there that the church alone will ever
satisfy the necessities of the case, or
has any right to expect that she is the
field for the activities of her children? +?
Here I put my finger upon the greatest
single heresy of American evangelical
Christianity. The field is the world"
that is to say, the community; and it is
the functionN of the church to rear her
children and turn them loose as servants
of the community. know no greater
heresy, whether in past times or the
present. than the cruel attempt OF many
church editors, pastors and teachers. to
corral the activities of church members
within the church itself. 1t tends alike
to hypocrisy, to sectarian jealousy, to
spiritual despair to dreadful unproduct-
iveness, to the defeat, and dwarfing of
gracious young lives, and to the raising
of generations of men who turn away
from the church to become selfish poll
ticians and money worshippers. their
early idealism chilled, as hothouse flow
ers in black frost.
4. MOSt ue1erentally and yet most earn
estly, therefore, do L venture to ask the
attention of all pastors in this city and
all lovers of the churches, for the sake
of the converts who have been stream
ing into the inquiry room, under the gra-
cious ministry of Gypsy Smith, and who
will continue to do SO, to ask themselves
what is to be done with these dear. earn
est souls. They are not merely as sheep
finding their shepherd, they are also to
I, r.l s.rl1
army whose Commander has for them
and for the world definite aim and
purpose. According to His view these
men and boys. these women and girls,
need the discipline that comes from self
sacrificing service of the world, just as
the world needs them. Defect this stream
by turning it back again into the church
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-12
THE OUTCOME OF EvANGELSM-By George Eaves D. D.

Sellsts profoundly reverence the human
soul and refuse to invade its sanctity by
any sort of burlesque, any vulgar thrust
ing of the soul into faxed confessional,
any application of cast iron regulations
or tests. The true Christian knows that
wherever there is soul there is the burn
ing bush and the holy ground.
Most gratefully I bear testimony to the
sort of thing that is done in many
churches by those who are sometimes
called 'missioners," more commonly by
inter-church evangelists, such men as DR..
Chapman, the late d. l.. Moody, Bieder-
wolf, Len Broughton, or the great Bible
teacher. Campbell Morgan. The supreme
test is intense reverence for the human
soul, and sense of awe that belongs
to the relating of each soul with Cod
the dreadful mystery of that relationship,
awe in the presence of the individual
problem of the individuals sin and moral
tragedy and spiritual woe
1t is immensely to the advantage of the
churches and people of Birmingham that
a man of the highest order, spiritual
democrat who profoundly believes in the
supreme sovereignty of Jesus Christ,
should be leading our evangelistic cam
paign. 1t is certainly with no desire to
raise questions. but only with an earnest
hope of furthering what is now moving
splendidly and beautifully that l venture
here to add a word. 1t may be put
thus: What is the thing sought? To put
the question in another form: When the
evangelist leaves what solid results will
remain? 1t is serious problem for every
lover of the Kingdom of God and the
Church of Jesus Christ. 1t is a question
that enters deeply into the whole life Of
our community, and therefore it belongs
in the pages of this paper. In answering
1t may perhaps leave series of other
questions, instead of satisfactory,
clean-cut reply. Let us see:
l. Who has not felt, when an evangelist
has got through with his work, on a
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-12

| quisite loveliness through which the
sun cannot shoot his finest shaft OF
golden light. The trees supporting the
canopy of leaves and honeysuckle vines
in this shadowy dell, appear to be aqua
marine pillars only the dense shade
preventing their translucense.
Coming from the cover of the shade of
Titania' $ Bower as | have named the
place just described, we come to a stretch
of pines and oaks, over whose buried roots
are growing the genuine fall flowers.
There are few primroses left, but they
will be gone soon. The little plant popu-
larly called "F'arewel-summer' is abun-
dant. But more numerous is the purple
heart-leaved aster, and the wild yellow
aster, whose genus is characterized by
an almost infinite variety of species. More
abundant than all others is the golden
rod of almost every variety. | frequently
pass along the roadside such golden rods
as the white, the blue stemmed. the
lanced-shaped. the rough stemmed, and
as the advertisements in our newspapers
say, .'many others too numerous to mem
ton There are at least 80 varieties of
the golden rod, and all of them are
beautiful.
yellow is a favorite color with autumn
Nearly all wild flowers in this section of
Virginia, are either yellow or purple. You
will find few varieties of the gentiana
cririta. with bronze-green calyX. and.
perhaps, few varieties of the Solanum
Dulcamara on the edges of ponds, the
dying magenta shrubs attracting your at
tention: but l fail to find really autumn
nal wild flower. in wood or field, of red
or pink. | have been looking for such
a phenomenon for weeks. Yellow and
purple you will find in abundance, and
they are beautiful; but the red or pink
seem to be like the Latin ablative case in
the Greek grammar-it is not therei )
Not many feet away, on the left hand
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-12

experience of age and its wisdom All
OF these qualities have their places and
their values. Each Ia its own way is,
best. Each has its own time for use
Age is opportunity no less than youth
itself, though in another dress
There are those who regret the COM
ing OF the years and its sign the whit
enine of the hair. Ii is a vain regret
1t is pleasant TO note that white hair
among women is no longer considered
dsfigurement Indeed, the pendulum
has swung TO the other extreme. and
fashionable women are wing with one
another In assuming the virtue of white
hair II they have IT not naturally
Even young women with crowns sor
glory radiant in the colors of youth.
blond brunette and auburn. are initiating.
the whiteness of the hair of their grand
mothers They powder the hair to make
1t white.
A passing fancy. of course. but II
teaches in some degree the lesson that
there are honor and glory in the whit
ening of the hair
More-in some feminine eyes-there is
fashion In IL nowadays
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-12

to the silent mill every day for a week,
with the same result. One morning he
came TO Eastwood and reported that the
that the house was locked up. 1T GER
tainly am spicious, marster, an eff some
O you-all will go wild me. III bust de
doc open an see wot's de matter, for
dis am mos onsearehable."
Accompanied by the master of East
wood. the negro went back to the miller 5
house. The doors and windows were
tightly. fastened. A small log was
brought, and stoutly applied to the door
which finally yielded and opened on its
rusty hinges. Hooze Thayer was not in
the house, but on the floor there was a
drying pool of blood.
The sheriff was notified, and in a few
hours a crowd of people had gathered at
the former millers home. Evidence
showed that the man had been murdered
in the house, from which place the body
had been dragged. 1t was supposed that
the dead man had been thrown into the
river. The neighborhood verdict was that
Hooze frhayer had been killed by "some
person unknown"
In the yard of the house where the
murder was committed there was. and is
now. an old well that has not been used
for many years. The top has been cov-
cred with plank as far back as | can
remember. About 10 feet below the sur
face of the ground there is a cavern
caused by the falling in of the earth and
enlarged by the flowing of subterranean
streams. If one let's stone fall into the
old We'll the reverberation winds through
the cavern and multiplies the sound a
thousand-fold, seemingly
In my childhood, hearing some one say.
ne believed the murderer of the miller
mad cast the body into the well. | de-
terlnined to investigate So. one night
persuaded black Jerry's two grandsons to
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-12

mass of blooms surmounting one stalk
will measure eight inches in diameter.
But here we are at the old min. Here
logs are sawed and grist is ground. The
mill race makes in from the river, and
falls upon an @overshot wheel. and sets
the creaking old machinery into motion.
Everything is quite primitive-the mill
house, the wheel, and the dusty miller
himself
Yet this is a beautiful spot. The stream
tumbles over the dam into a long billow
of snowy foam that extends from one
side of the river TO the other. now and
then one may see a flash as of silver in
the roaring fall of the water. a fish has
been swept over the dam; the .lnoss-cov-
cred wheel revolves slowly and creaks
at every revolution, as if it were saying
L am not as young as I once was but
7 can turn very well for 50-year-old
wheel, ! think" Tall sycamores and
white oaks overhang the river and cast
their long, dark shadows to the opposite
shore while just beyond the mill stands
the ruin of an old house in which a form
Ell miller lived many years ago, but it is
now ghost-haunted and uninhabitable.
The last person who lived in the de-
cayed old house was a miller by the
name of Hooze Thayer. He was from
Indiana, and was originally called Hoosier
Thayer, but in time Hoosier became COR
rupted into Hooze. Hooze was a very
unpopular man; nobody liked him, and
some few people hated him. A negro
was heard to say, I'D like to kill dat
miller" Whether or not the negro put
him out of the way. nobody ever knew
except the negro himself, and he never
told but certain it is Hooze Thayer mys-
teriously disappeared
A colored man took corn to the mill
one day. and Hooze was not there nor
could he be found The same man went
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-12

slnia resented his bigoted narrow mind
ed views and had the king recall him
Even in that day. when the light Of
learning had not shed its rays verv far
he was too far out in the darkness for his
fellow Virginians
1t is encouraging to observe that his
latter day follower, the southern man.
who burned the school house. Is one OF
very small minority In his own COM
munity, and prompt failing followed
his deed.
The opponents of '.book learning" once
common are now scarce. Even those who
themselves have derived little or no bene-
fit from the teachings of the ages, cry
stallized in books, admit that for others
the written word has merits.
But there are other directions in which
the mind of the nonprogressive man
moves. lie will not see or admit the
merit of new trends of thought, he will
not move his numbering mental wagon
from the ruts in the road
And the automobile of progress passes
him and leaves him hopelessly in the rear.
As the whiteness of the snow covers the
decaying brown of the year. so does the
whiteness of the hair tighten and glorify
the closing years of human life.
Under the benign covering of the snow
lies the promise of the spring. Under
the whitening thatch of the human habita-
tion inheres, perhaps, the certainty of a
spring in another existence
The earth is /resurrected The spirit
shall live.
AS you count the whitening hairs, con-
slider each one as a snowflake, sent to
cover with the beauty of the snow the
decaying remains of the years that have
passed. Wear them not with regret, but
with the calm acceptance of the years
that have passed and promise OF the ages
to come
To all who live comes in time the
whitening of the hair. If you would live
long you must face the fact that with
the additions of years you enter old age.
Regard 1t not as a burden or a source
of regret.
Be not as those of whom the German
proverb says:
"Atl would live long. but no one wishes
| to be old"
| The infirmities of age are many 1t is
true. but are they not compensated by
the gift of the added years In which
| to live, to think to feel? The ardor OF
youth and Its vigor are replaced by the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-12

M oTHING could be finer than the
IN spirit of Gypsy Smith. 1t has been
1 truly said that there is no taint
of commercialism in him. no greed, no
desire to get more for himself than he
fairly earns. on this side of things the
only persons at all likely to crticise him
are those dear people who think ministers
should work without pay
But evangelism in these days has been
sorely misrepresented by men who not
only have sought great pecuniary gain,
but have invaded the self-respect alike of
pastors, church workers and the average
sinner. They have undertaken to
.straighten out the pastors theology, to
reprove him for his carefully reached
views on difficult matters of Biblical
study, to hector him because his prayer
meetings were not up to a high level of
attendance. and generally to roast him
from the superior altitude of the expert
In the same way they have attacked ex-
cellent men because they do not go, or
do, or think, as the evangelist has, by a
snapshot Judgment, concluded that they
should go. and do, and think In dealing
with an inquirer these same men have
laid hard and fast lines which they have
sought to compel every individual to touch
with his moral and spiritual toes. If
he could not line up to please the visiting
evangelist, If he could not profess himself
as an enthusiastic disciple of the said
evangelist. truly converted according to
his canon. the name of such sinner was
promptly marked "Anathema."
Gypsy Smith is not of that order With
him also stands a great number of evan
gelists, Christians to the backbone simple
hearted and Sincere men. who yearn to
do the work of God in their day and
generation, men who respect the minister's
who recognize that the success of an
evangelistc movement depends upon years
of toll by local pastors, done in quiet and
persistent faithfulness. These great evan
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-12

so with me 20 the weird and desoIate
spot. We pulled a plank away the fas-
cination of fear making us bold, and
called down into the darkness: who's
there?" Then there followed a multitude
of sepulchral. muffled voices answering
''H-o-o-z-e T-h-a-y-e-r, H-o-o-z-e T-h-a-
yer, H-o-o-z-e T-li-a-y-e-r." I spranE
to my feet and fled home, but the little
dariies had beat me to it. That was
| years ago, but IL you should ask the
question this very night that | asked
| then, you will receive the same answer
in the same ghostly tones.
| O, how it made me shiver In those tar
off days to hear the awful name conaise
from the depths of the forsaken well. so
near the old house with its blood stained
| floor. 1t makes me nervous now to think
of 1t. For, as | write, the hands on the
clock are nearing u: the night is black
the wind means through the trees
wretched sereech-owl is making the mid
night hour most uncanny: l am alone in
| this big house, for the servants are far
| away in the north wing of the building
and Just then the wind outside my WIN
| dow passed with most unearthly wall
on its way towards the mill, and as 1t
swept into the distant darkness / heard
1t distinctly moan, ''H-o-o-o-o-z-e T-h-a-
| y-e-e-e-r.' SO far as | am concerned
| Hooze Thayer will not be disturbed to-
night
We have made the journey from ths
beginning of the old mill road to its end
If. you should ever travel over 1t again.
my dear sir, or. my dear madam, l pray
you to turn i'm at the first road that leads
to the left. 1t will bring you to a house
in grove of oaks where this scribe has
"a local habitation" In all probability
you will find him on the front gallery
quietly smoking his pipe aud looking to-
wards the sunny south. under whose blue
skies lies Alabama.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-12
Money in Foxes

The raising of foxes for their furs J.,
becoming an industry of considerable.
Importance. shipment of 1875 cub
foxes estimated to be worth 800. 900.
or nearly $seS apiece. recently arrived
at Vancouver on a Canadian Pac-fio
railway steamer from Skagway. Alas
ka They Were purchased from white
and Indian trappers in ALASKA and
the Yukon-Canadian territory. and con-
sist of red. black and silver grey foxes.
one pair OF black foxes in the lot was
estimated to be worth $4,000 when
fully grown. says the Providence Jour
nal. The foxes are being shipped east
TO the fox farms in New Brunswick,
| Prince Edward Island and the eastern
states. Since the opening of the season
II Is reported that 219 live foxes rang
| Ing from silver grey to cross and val
ued to s320.0o0. have been shipped from
Edmonton, Alberta. to points in east
ern Canada and the United States In
cluded in this lot were ten young black
| foxes, which were sold to Anew York
| hrm at $1,000 apiece. Several black
pups died after being sold for $2.50e
each. Owing to the increased supply
of the rare breeds from the northern
latitudes of the northwest in the last
two or three years the price OF these
animals has decreased from 20 to 50
per cent.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-12

INHlS famous old road begins at the
historic Ridge-road. and describes
a fairly straight line in a notherly
direction. Its terminus is the river on
whose southern bank stands an old mill,
whose great wheel is now we'll covered
with an ancient coat of green moss. The
entrance to the road lies between two
llelds, one of which l am now having
proved preparatory to clover and oats,
while the opposite field Is bearing its sec
ond growth of milet. The road runs the
entire length of the Eastwood farm, the
11Ver being the northern boundary of the
estate.
In the early spring and summer, the
land on each side of the road was beau
titully ornamented with vines supported
by cedars, poplars and young oaks, while
beneath them grew in luxuriant prodigal-
lty, the wild violet, and wild pink roses.
The latter is known as the rosa humilis,
IN books on botany, because it is an un-
assuming beauty, seemingly contented
with its obscure habitat, and appears to
grow with no higher purpose than to
beautify the worlds humble places.
Along with this wild beauty. one may
often find the eglantine also, wild
pink rose, but it differs from the rosa
humilis in that its blossoms are more
abundant and are given to growing in
groups. The leaves of this exquisite flow
er are packed with a sweet-scented.
aromatic fragrance, and as have passed
this rose on the roadside. | have often
thought of the beautiful lines in the Mid
summer Nights Dream:
81 know a bank where the wild thyme
blows,
Where ox-lips and the nodding violet
grows;
Quite over-canopied with luscious wood
bine,