davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-26

II Susan Danz had been born and raised
in some quiet, secluded spot, her odd ca
reer might be explained. But she was
not Instead of a quiet, secluded birth
place she was born in the center of the
business section of Manhattan, where all
was hustle and turmoil. She works today
within a few blocks of the building where
she first saw the light. Her father had
little shop in HUDSON street, not far from
Chambers, and the floor above was the
famiy's home
When the girl was 10 years old 1t was
necessary for her 10 go to work to help
support her numerous brothers and sis
ters She got a job with lumber firm.
1t was not much of a concern when she
went with il, but It's business increased
rapidly. and as 1t prospered the girl
duties became more and more important.
Her salary kept pace with her work, ana
from few dollars a Week she went up the
scale until she was getting $50 north.
For 1s years she worked for this firm.
When she left 1t she was the office man
ager and bookkeeper
Four or five years ago she resigned to
accept a position with fruit brohefage
house of Saitta & Jones. This concern
is the largest in its line in America III
handles about 25 per cent OF all the tnf-
eign fruit imported into the United
States She is the office manager there
She has the buying of hundreds OF thou-
sands of boxes of lemons that come from
Messina and Palermo, hundreds OF thou-
sands of barrels of grapes from SPAIN
dates from Smyrna and figs from the
Isles of the Aegean sea. She Is IN toueh
with the farthest corners OF the eafth
through the bills of ladins that pass un-
der her eye. Yet she never mas peeh
outside the city of New York. Even coneY
Island is as unknown to her as the Isles
Of Greece where Sappho sang.
Even If she has not Travelled, she PROB
ably knows more through her trade bllis
and her correspondence than does Hetty
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-26

freedom of Individual action. less fears
class resentment. If this is so, 1t means
that the American physician considers
dollar not more. but less, than his Eng
lish brothers. When government insur-
ance becomes an American institution. |
do not doubt that the profession will be
quite willing to be socialized on A fair
average income basis, instead of demand-
ing more.
But apart from theory, the curious so-
cial phenomenon presents itself today
among the doctors of Great Britain, or
at least of England, a great modern group
of scientific gentlemen banding them
selves to resist the law of social evoll-
ton! They would have the sundial of
Ahaz record reactionary shadow till Mr..
Lloyd George can concock a plaster OF
golden figs for the treatment OF their
poverty, so very like Hezeldah's boil.
Have they forgotten the value of inspira
tion in that historic prescription of
Isaiah's? And tiacn s3500 or $4,000 a year is
a considerable plaster for poverty, espe-
cially as ii still leaves room for private
practice on other mems bols and blaius.
Not often in the history OF the solar sys-
tenn has there been a standstil or a re-
versal of motion. Certainly the English
medical men are not Joshua
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-26

spoiled for me, and | have had little re-
spect for that speaker since.
It is important for the public man.
Politicians have been pilloried and driven
out of public life for inaccurate state
ments made in the heat of a campaign,
Accuracy Is important to all kinds and
conditions of men. The man who makes
inaccurate statements soon loses the CON
.fidence and esteem of his neighoors'
II more people were trained 10 accura'e
statements there would be fewer misun-
derstandings and heart burninss IN the
world.
Likewise there would be less gossip.
Christmas is over, but the Christmas
spirit is not. That never dies. lt goes
with us through all the year
/ have run on to three stories OF las,
Christmas that seem so good they are
worth repeating. even at this late dsy.
The best thing about them is that they
actually happened
The first concerns a guard in the New
York subway-about the last place one
would look for the Christmas spirit.
The other guards were tired and snap
nish The people were tired and jostled
and crowded each other almost SPITE
fully.
The refrain Of the other guards was
step lively" Quit pushing, there" o.
Let 'em off. let EN- off.
This guard had a smile and Merry
Christmas for everybody. He called out
cheerily:
GIVE your fellow men a chance. Just
a little peace and good will now Remem-
ber it's merry Christmas"
The crowds responded instantly. The
iostling stopped. People stood aside re-
spectfully and courteously to let others
pass. They went aboard in an orderly
manner. Yet by their very orderiiness
tbev were era bled to make the greater
haste. and this guards platform was
cleared before the others.
Not only so. but all those concerned
had a little better Christmas because Of
the incident.
Another story relates to little girl
strapped to Bedford frame in Brook
lyn hospital. There she had been Tor
three years, suffering from curvature OF
the spine.
She wrote = pathetic letter to santa
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-26

Green with all her wealth The fruit
growers of Spain. of Sicily and of the
far eastern Mediterranean littora come
to the office to see Saitta & Jones.
Miss Danz hears much of travel OF
crops, of hazards by the sea and land
But she never has been off Manhattan
island except to go to one place. And
then, of all places. where do. you sup
pose she goes? To Blackwelis Island
that ribbon of rock in the East river
that is burdened with prisons and aims
houses, hospitals and houses of refuge
filled with offenders against society, with
broken and suffering humanity. She Is
the angel of that Island of sorrows
There never was a more regular clerk
employed by business house IN New
York than Susan Danz. In twenty years
she never has missed an hour from her
duties. In all this time she never has
missed going TO church of a morning be-
fore her days work. Winter or SUM
mer makes no difference to Susan Danz
From her home she goes straight to the
church. From the church she goes
straight to her office. II doesn't matter
whether it is sunshine or snow, rain or
sleet she is at her desk at o'clock. every
working day In the year. And there never
has been Sunday. and never holiday
in twenty years that she has not spent
the day on Backwells Island. She is
known from one end of that forbdding
place to the other But its gray stone
walls have no terror for her Neither
have the gray-faced men and women
within. All are her charges.
One of her missions to the Island is
to play the organ at the Sunday service
in the chapel. Another is to visit pfis-
oners, to call upon the old men and the
old women in the almshouse. and 10
carry messages of sympathy to the suf-
fering in the hospital.
Susan Danz's salary is large Her
personal expenses are small. Every
dollar that she docs not absolutely need
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-26

EvERAL thousand years ago, the
casual relationship existing be-
~ tween rodents an dthe spread of
bubonic plague was noticed. To-
day the reason for this relationship
has been found. and we have learned
anew that useful as the rat once was as
the unpaid village scavenger. the time
has come when the rat must go.
Rats have bubonic plague which trav-
els from them to men through that COM
mon carrier of plague, the flea. Rats
also suffer from leprosy, cancer, and
number of other diseases, but it Is not
proven yet that they transmit these to
men. From the economic STANDPOINT, 1t
is equally important that rats be evicted
from the habitations of man. The board
bill which they levy is in the aggregate
enormous, while the annual losses which
we suffer through their wanton depreda-
tions rounds out their total cost to man
to a figure approximating millions. Hence
deratization.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-26

TIME world knows Hetty Green and
does not Enow Susan Danz; yet
4 Susan Danz, within her limited
field, is as remarkable a business woman
as Hetty Green.
Mrs. Green, the richest woman in the
world, with a fortune estimated at from
$50. co., 900 to s100000,0OO, is one of the
shrewdest financiers that America has
known. She has more ready money than
perhaps any other millionaire in the
country. Great men go to her for loans.
She is clever to degree that amaZes
those who know the handicaps under
which a woman operates in the realm
Of finance. Tho sharpest of men find it
difficult to match her in ability in her
own peculiar limo. Her<aim in life is not
alone to conserve her wealth. but TO add
TO 1t. She has confessed that she is un-
Happy. She has no desire for what most
people think are the good things of life.
She lives simply. Many working girls
spend more FOR their living than does
this richest of women. Most of the time
she carries her luncheon with her to the
great bank in which she has her office
and through which she makes her loans
and her collections The luncheon she
eats would be considered poor by the
average girl who works in the skyscraper
zone. On the rare occasions when she
goes to a restaurant her expenditures arc
small. One dress will last her year or
two. For fashion she has contempt Life
to her means piling dollars upon dollars
She is as precise, as regular, as careful
and as painstaking as any drudge who
tells at the desk The struggle of years
has marked her strong features with hard
lines. She trusts no one. but suspects
everybody She keeps her own accounts
and Is an excellent bookkeeper If all her
wealth should be swept away tomorrow.
she could earn a living as a clerk. old as
she Is.
Susan Danz is as unlike IIetty Green as
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-26

for her own humble wants she employs
to the relief of the unforunates on the
island. In the course of year she buys
hundreds and hundreds of pairs of
glasses. She gives these to the poor,
friendless men and women whose eye
sight is failing. and to whom without
artificial aid the Joy of reading would
be denied. She buys pipes and tobacco
for the wretched old men who haven't
penny in the world and whose earning
days have ended. and TO whom the so
lace Of smoking would be denied but
for her kind heart She buys hun
dreds of little knick knacks-needles
and pins and darning material-that
VIII help the feeble old women In the
almshouses to keep their faltering fin
gers busy and their minds diverted
from their sorry state She takes jel
lies and other delicacies craved by in
valids to the poor IN the hospital, and
many of her dollars go to provide gar
ments for them that they may wear
during their convalescence and when
they are well.
Miss Danz is very careful buyer
She makes every penny count. The de-
partment stores know her and SO do
the and 10-cent stores. If she wasn'l {
so good an office manager, she could
get a big salary as a buyer The null
titude of things that she can get for
$40 would surprise the average house
wife
Maybe she lends a little money 10
prisoners who are about to be dis
charged who are penniless and who
mean TO make brave effort to re-
form Maybe she lends or gives a few
dollars to needy persons who are leav
ing the hospital. WHAT she does In this
way only she anl those who receive
know. She never tells and they are
swallowed up by the great city But
there are no more trustworthy or more
grateful men and women than the poor
and the unfortunate who people the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-26

accounts, taking dictation from Mr..
saitta or Mr.. JONES' looking after the best
interests of the firm.
No one knows of her activities on
the island except the people on the
island, her relatives and the persons
around the office. She doesn't bother
about the news of the day. She never
gossips, and has no interest in the pet
ty discussions and frivolities that take
up so much of the time of the aver
age business girl. She has no desire
for the theatre. She has seen the city
transformed into the skyscraper Won
der that is today, but then IL has come
so gradually that she hasn't noticed II
particularly She hasn't ridden in the
subway because there seems to be
something awful to her in the Idea of
travelling under the earth. She hasn't
ridden in the elevated because she las
a notion that n railroad on stills is not
exactly right Maybe it was a shock TO
her when the horsecars disappeared and
the trolleys came in. She is thorough
ly unsophisticated. only her heart has
grown and her business sense has
broadened Otherwise she sees and
thinks with the eyes and the mind
of a conhding child
Some of her friends have argued
with her that she ought to save some
OF her earnings. When they talk to her
in this way Miss Danz says there is
no need for her to save anything. God
will provide for me-" she says. and
that settles IT far as she is con-
cerned. She goes her way, working
through the week heartening the fall
en- and relieving the stricken on sun
day. happy and content This is her
duty she believes. and so she does it.'t
She is one business woman who Is not
likely to have a monument of granite
or marble to attract the eye when she
is dead. She needs none.
Copyright. 1913 by the Mcclure News
paper Syndicate)
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-26
James A. Edgerton

serted that artists do their best work be
tween the ages Of 10 and 30.
With right thinking and living. sane
and wholesome exercise. elasticity. peren-
nial interest and constant occupation at
woman should be useful, happy and hale
up to go 80, or even the century mark
There is every reason TO believe that the
future man and woman will be so.
Why cannot we as individuals antici-
pate the future man and woman?
There is an adage that man is only as
old as he feels.
Why not stop thinking of old age?
Some trees live for thousands of years.
They are not obsessed by old age
thoughts
Faith, hope and work constitute trim
ity that will keep us young.
Retain the forward outlook.
Avoid excesses.
We can have excesses in physical toll
as well as in eating, drinking or crafty
ing the passions. Seek the golden mean.
The soul and not the body Is the senior
member in the human individuality. and
the soul Is ever young.
George Stephenson was an enginewrigh hit
in an English colliery.
Not very lofty situation. was II, this
engineman In a coal mine?
Yet Stephenson made IL fulcrum from
which to move the world.
This was how he did it: The port was
nine miles distant from the mine. A
tram road ran between, the cars being
hauled by horses or mules.
Stephenson said he could make a
steam engine that would do the work.
Others poopoohed and sneered In the
blind way that ignorance and stupidity
jeer at genius.
In two years Stephenson cou:Sfcted his
engine, and 1t worked.
The result was the locomotive and the
Inauguration of new age in the worlds
transportation.
No one can measure the influence OF
the railroad on human progress, yet it
was started by a humble man in a lowly
station.
This man had an idea and applied It to
the immediate task he had in hand. He
used the materials about him. Despite
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-26
HEART TO HEART TALKS-By ia

There are two kinds of discomfort, ore
helpful and the other hurtful.
Helpful discomfort is the kind that
spurs us on to improve ourselves and our
conditions
Hurtful discomfort is the sort that
makes us try TO run away from both
This is the discomfort of the folks that
resemble breachy stock.
/ wonder If these people ever reflect
that any place they reach Is here, just as
any time they attain is now.
We cannot run away from the now
and here 1t is ever with us.
When we get into the next pasture we
find that the grass Is not greener. 1t was
only the distance made 1t appear so.
True romance true enchantment true
opportunity, are right at home. We have
merely overlooked them, or they have
grown so common that we did not appre-
ciate them at their real worth.
There Is a story of man who searched
all about the earth for a treasure and,
returning home. found it in his own door
yard.
Sometimes a change of environment Is
necessary. but usually the distant alIur-
ing prospect is simply mirage that dis
appears as we approach.
II the time and energy used in making
changes were expended at home they
would achieve success
If we would win we must win here and
now.
Are we to get rid of the obsession OF
old age2
we have been in the habit of thinking
men or women old at so, and perhaps our
thinking and their own has had much to
do with their growing old before their
time.
man at 30 should be at the very prime
Of his powers. He should have rs or 30
years of good work ahead OF him.
Recently q number of eminent German
scientists. artists and others gave their
opinions on this subject.
One said that man at 30 Is not even
beginning to grow old.
Another stated that the man of 80 Is
of highly superior intellectual worth. On
account of his reliability. steadiness. ex-
perience and rational living he possesses
countless physical and moral advantages
over a younger man.
The president OF the Royal academy as
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-26

day is unlike night She is plump, rosy
and dimpled Twenty years of steady
work in the business section of New York
city has not left mark upon her. There
is no gray hair in her curly brown hair
or the suggestion of wrinkle in her
cheeks. She leads a life of devotion and
self-sacrifce and finds JOY in 1t that is
past understanding.
Money to her means nothing except a
incdium by which she may do good, and
she does more good than many of the
professed phianthropists. She has the
heart of a child. the trust of a zealot and
the business ability of an efficiency engi-
neer. There are few better bookkeepers
in New York. and stenographers who are
in her class are rare indeed. Her hand
writing is like copper plate and her type
writing is perfection. Her employers be-
lieve there is not her equal in all the great
city as an office worker and yet she Is
probably the most unsophisticated busi-
ness wcmanin the metropolis and is like
ly to remain So
She never has grown up and she never
will. In all the long years she has worked
in New York she never has been in a
theatre, and she never has been in NOV
ing picture show. She knows nothing of
the subway except what she has read or
heard about it, for she never has ridden
in it. She sees the elevated railroad every
day, but she never has used it to travel
Up or down town. She never has been
within the walls of hotel and never has
eaten in a restaurant. She goes to work
in a surface car and she returns home by
the same means of transportation.
The daily routires of Hetty Green and
Susan Danz run almost in parallel lines,
but the objects for which they labor are
as wide apart as the poles Hetty
Crcen's enal is to add another cipher to
the dollar mark that represents the total
of her fortune. Susan Danz's aim Is to
lift another broken human being out or
desnair or suffer:nr
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-26

Fighting rats is just like fighting any
thing else. Dependence is not TO be
placed on any single measure. puglist
with single punch does not last the
first round. In deratization. the enemy
is to be simultaneously starved, poisoned,
trapped and evicted.
In starving rats, the prime point of
attack is the garbage can, because rats
are natural scavengers. This means the
enactment, by all organized municjpali-
ties, of ordinances requiring house
holders to have water-tight garbage cans
with tight fitting lids Next comes an
efficient garbage collection and disposal
service This accomplished. there is an
immediate decrease inNthe available guam
tity of rat food Then all food supplies
should be removed from rats by being
placed in rat-proof containers.
In order to poison yaur rat, first starve
him. The Upited States Public Health
Service has experimental with large
number of poisons. and 1t is the conSen-
sus of opinion of the officers who have
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-26

untary while vast numbers of men do not
move readily toward ideal protection of
their families against the sickness of the
bread winner. it becomes necessary to
stimulate forethought and induce the
welfare of the family exchequer.
A man must be kept up to the level OF
self support lest he become charge OH
the public purse.
Certain laws recently put into opera
ton in Germany and in England marx
a further step forward. They protect the
community's employees against all forms
of loss by unemployment, sickness ana
death; the instrument of protection being
a fund created by the government, partly
by it's own credit, partly by tax on en-
ployers, partly by assessing the insured,
partly by cooperation between the gov
ernment and the insurance orders, the
fraternal or friendly societies. For, al
ready apart from government aid or M
itiative, there had been established CO.
operative medical protection through such
groups or societies as are represented by
what are known in America as the frater-
nal orders The English government made
brilliant stroke of genius in grating ITS
own insurance scheme on stock already
so we'll rooted among the working people
of the land.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-26

1t is wise thing for individuals to rap
rats. Ii is even better for municipalities
to do so. In such a case all trapped rats
should be slipped into strong paper bags
which are tied tightly with a piece of
string and delivered to the city oacte-
riologist so that he may examine the
dead rats. This should be done so that
if plague happens to be present N the
rodent community II may be eradicated
there before it has had an opportunity to
spread to man.
Evict rats from human habitations.
The best way to do this Is by rat-proof-
ing. Concrete is the best agent for this
purpose and ground areas Easements and
side walls should be protected by this
material This applies particularly 10
stables When San Francisco waged its
world-famous war on the rat. under the
direction of Surgeon (now Surgeon Cen
crab Rupert Blue. of the United States
Public Health Service. its 1900 odd stables
were protected by concrete. The meas
ure not only kept the rats out, but also
resulted in marked improvement in the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-26

doubts and ridcule he remained loyal to
the light given him.
Today he Is among the immortals.
II was exactly 100 years ago that George
Stephenson was building his engine at
Killingworth coliery.
The succeeding century has seen the
most wonderful progress In the worlds
history. and 10 this the poor engine
wrights idea has perhaps been the chief
contributor.
Such has been the history of practically
all the great inventions. They have been
made by poor men who had to combat
the unbelief OF their fellows.
The steamboat. the telegraph, the tele-
phone and the aeroplane are cases IN
point. They were designed by thinkers
who had greater regard for their own
ideas than for the hootlngs OF those who
did not understand.
These inventors followed the inner light
rather than the outer darkness.
They had vision.
They possessed the individual initiative
to start. the energy to continue and the
perseverance to carry through great
undertaking.
They were that rarest and highest hu-
man ombinatou--practical idealists
They were benefaetors, who have made
this new. and better world.