davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1913-07-16

If you seek happiness it will prob
ably elude YOU Better to let it seek
you.
Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1913-07-16

Subscribers will confer favor upon
as by notifying us at once Of fail
ure to receive the paper regular
ly.
Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1913-07-16

This paper presented free of charge
for one year to Winneshiek county
brides who remain in the county
Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1913-07-16

The soul awakens at the caress Of
beautiful music.
Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1913-07-16

The yellow address tag on the front
page each week shows the month
and year to which your paper is
paid for.
Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1913-07-16

Entered at the Post Office in DEBORAH, Iowa
as Second Glass Mail Matter.
Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1913-07-16

Official Paper of Winneshiek County
and the City of DEBORAH
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-19
HEART TO HEART TALKS-By James A. Edgerton

| necessity still others are filled with
hatred for society. And who can blame
| them?
| Is It not time to conserve the children
This wonderful progress has conserved
the physlcal world. Can it not do some
thing for the human world?
| Here is another case in point:
J Recently the factory commission of the
! state of New York examined child labor
conditions. 1t found tots of 10 years
working from Y to 16 hours a day in
cannery sheds and others even younger
wearing out their baby lives in tenement
work.
From the mere cold economic stand
point can we not eliminate this waste
Of our future men and women?
Fathers and mothers, these little ones
are like our own, with the same tender
bodies the same baby faces, the same
innocent ways.
How dare we look our own children in
the eyes SO long as we participate in
the sins OF society against these other
children?
How dare we call ourselves civilized
in the midst of such conditions?
How dare we?
Mrs. George w. Wickersham. wife Of
rule for conversation.
IT was TO avoid the four DIS:
Diseases.
DESCENDANTS
Dcmestics,
Dress.
1t is a good rule for people elsewhere
than in Washington.
Talk of our ailments does not interest
other people.
They have ills of their own.
Tell it to the doctor.
Prattle about our children or our an
cestors Is usually bore.
Tell 1t to the school teacher or the men
VINO make ancestral trees
Gossip about servants is a weariness
Tell it to the employment bureau
Patterlng about clothes is inane and
has other faults.
Tell ii to the dressmaker.
The weather as conversational topic
is slightly frayed, although the sunshine
is more exhilaratng theme than the
condition of our livers.
Don't be a bore.
There are many good people IN the
world whom their friends avoid because
their talk is so deadly dull.
Don't be a bromide. DO you know what
bromide is? Well. he Is the chap who
drives the commonplace into a corner and
makes II squeal for freedom.
Everything he says has been said mil
lion times before.
He Is trite and banal and his long con-
vel sational suit is to say obvious things
in an uninteresting way.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-19

7 T Is sometimes given the student of
religion to nhale that atmosphere of
science which hovers over the heads of
religion to inhale that atmosphere of
science which hovers over the heads of
modern medicine when when they are
at play. n sort of Bohemian restraint
prevails as though the white light of
truth were jocularly winking its eye,
while soberly shining, winking to its
esoteric group while preserving its
most solemn steadfastness of cold gilt
ter toward the uninitiated multitude.
All, could but the uninitiated be all
squelched and Vanished what shouts
of Brobdingnag gian mirth, irrational and
irrepressible, might rend these proper
white vests and formal collars, What
yellings, as If emancipated Prometheus
of Comanche or Mohawk braves, what
Bacchic orgies, as of the Eleusinian or
Orphic mysteries, what recoil from
Airim professional proprieties, might
shake the august assembly, might even
plunge it into primeval chaos!
Thoughts like these suggest that as Ad-
elaide Proctor says, within the soul of ev-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-19

in deposits He was cashier three or
four years and then was made vice pres
ident and, little later president Then
began the marvellous growth of the Con-
tinental in a business way. II absorbed
other banks until today it is practically
three institutions in one-the Contlnen-
tai and Commercial National bank. Trust
and Savings bank and the Hibernla Saw
ings bank. In 16 years the deposits have
grown from s11 600. .ooolto nearly s25o.oo0 Ooo.
The bank has broadened and developed
as Reynolds broadened and developed.
Bankers hours are supposed TO be from
10 to 3. Mr.. Reynolds arrives at his
bank at 7:S0 a. m. and remains there un-
til $50 or o'clock. In Panora he knew
everybody in the Guthrie country terri
tory In Des Moines he seemed To know
everybody in that section of Iowa. In
Chicago his wide acquaintance Is one of
the wonders of the town. Most OF his
time between a. m. and p m. is taken
up in receiving visitors. Every minute
of his time is occupied. yet he Is one
Of the most approachable of men. Among
his callers are manufa cturers, jobbers re-
tailers farmers, bankers, miners. brok-
ers, lumbermen. Apparently he knows
every one who comes in. He never for
gets a name or a face and he surprises
and fatters men every day by showing
he has not forgotten them.
His knowledge OF farming and his
knowledge of the common people un-
doubtedly have been great assets, to him,
Tor they have won the confidence and
respect of the country bankers to an eN-
tent enjoyed by no other bankers In
America. He never has departed from the
strict lines of commercial banking. He
has been a banker pure and simple from
first to last. That is why his bank has
the phenomenal record of carrying the
accounts OF 5000 country banks The pow
er. prestige and knowledge that have
come through this connection with Sc
many small banks have made him A
great figure not only in the grain belt
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-19

ever did before, for they have been OF
great aid to him in his business. 1t
amazes a merchant or a banker from
some small town in Iowa, South Dakota,
Minnesota, Indiana or Ohio to find that
the big Chicago banker knows all the
details about the proposed county bridge
CT the building of new elevator, or the
death of Judge Jones or the marriage OF
Martha jenkins.
The small town and the farm never
have lost their interest to George Rey-
nods He has a wonderful memory. not
only for facts, but for faces. Chicago
has not robbed him of his country view
point. or his country philosophy. 1t may
seem strange, but it is true, that when
the monetary commissions of congress
looked the nation over for the best in
formed financier in America to act as its
adviser in devising new monetary ays-
tenn for the United States, it selected this
graduate of an Iowa country bank.
Mr. Reynolds was born in Fanora, 40
miles west of Des Moines. He is only 4S.
His father was one of the pioneers of
Iowa The family knew hardship. for
Wnen the elder ReNnOlus went 10 Iowa
he was without a dollar. The land he
took up had never been titled. He lived
in a log house. which he built He made
the rude furniture, which served for the
little family. The nearest neighbors were
ten or fifteen miles away.
They did not have, improved farming
machines in those days. The elder Rey-
nolds used an OK to draw his plow. He
used a sickle, too, to cut his grain and
he harvested by hand. He had to be
frugal and be taught frugality to his
boys There was plenty of work around
the farm for a boy, and George Rey-
nolds had TO work long before sunup to
we'll after sundown. What education he
got in those days came in the winter
time. He had to travel a long distance
to get to school. He went through the
common grades in that country school
house and had a short term In a high
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-19
LANGUAGE OF MONKEYS
Traveller Believes Natives of Africa
Can Almost Speak 1t

From the London Standard.
1t Is the firm belief Of James Stewart
the Scottish surveyor who has returned
to England after spending over three
years in darkest Africa, that many of the
naticves can almost speak the monkey
language.
Mr.. Stewart Travelled through Liberia
and parts of the Upper Congo with a
party of surveyors and during the whole
of their arduous march they killed their
dinner every day. Sometimes they trav-
o1ed AT the rate Of twenty miles day,
sometimes the forests were dense and
the obstacles so numerous that they
made no more than a few miles.
During one Of our marches. he salda
in relating further experiences to a
we had to plow our way through a marsh
that rose up above our knees. The boggy
nature OF some of the country was such
that we were splashed from head to foot
ard II was the most tresome walk we
had in the whole of our journeys. For
miles the marsh stretched on all sides:
the carriers told us that 1t never had
been fully explored and the only way
to get to our destination was to go
through 1t as quickly we could. We
went through it-but not quickly.
added to the Inconvenience and sod
dca condition Of the land was the ter
r.blc smell OF rotten and rotting vege-
tation. We lost one or two of our pack
ages at this stage. for they fell off the
heads of our carriers, who stumbled
against submerged trees.
zone of the men disappeared. too. lie
was In the rear and had only a light
load, but suddenly he was missed from
the caravan and we had to search for
him. The natives spread out in a SEMI
circle, and did complete tour round
us. sweeping the march for radius of
about 800 yards. They never found him.
1T was when we We're going down the
rivers that we made the acquaintance
OF the monkey. We could hear them
In the forests, chatterng to each other
and calling to each other almost like hu-
man beings. At first | could hardly be-
lieve they were monkeys: L thought they
were tribes of natives. and some of their
cries were like those Of children who
had been frightened 1t was the weird
est thing to see them swinging along one
of the boughs of the trees, hand In hand
or grasping each others tails.
They would swing together In this
fashion. forming a bridge right across
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-19

cry doctor lie thoughts deeper than
any artist or poet can express. He is
the priest of the Problematical, stand
ing between the Known and the IN
known. in true priestly wise, and find
ing the strain somewhat severe on his
native humorousness. Just as the man
of the pulpit and OF the infinite Holiness
gets necessary relief by cultivating
those degenerate elements OF his soul
that lead to Anecdotage, so must sur
geon and bacteriologist, diagnostician
and accoucheur occasionally unwrinkle
their severe foreheads and let loose the
loud guffaw.
| find in this simply "a reconfession of
the religious origin of medical work. I'm
til the great Hippocrates, more than four
centuries before our Christian era, placed
sickness among the things due to natu-
raj causes, in every land the sick were
reckoned as those in whom God was
pleased to punish sin. or in whom demons
We're permitted to work their cruel Will
To exercise these demons, to placate this
angry God, reckoned the work of an
expert, verify medicine man, father at
once of the theologian and of the physi-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-19

When the gospel laid hold of the
hearts of men and the vision of BROTH
erhood dawned on slave and peasant,
on court and camp, a vast impulse OF
kindliness brought scattered rays of
Intelligence together and created in
Greek and Persian and Jew a spirit of
healing to act upon available hints
and traditional lore. Because. in the
opinion of the time, the causes of sick
ness were still considered chiefly as splr-
itual or mental, or supernatural. the
method of healing still continued as
chiefly suggestive or esoteric. But be-
cause the spirit of the Christian thera-
peutae, or healer, was supremely a
spirit charged with brotherly love. its
actual success was immeasurably en-
larged. And when. from Essene and
Hindu and Greek and Persian, they
learned the value of simple herbs,
which they macerated with the holy
juices of prayer and faith, they were
changing the face of humanity with
their astounding discoveries and skin.
Though they might yet believe in the
singular value of dra CONS blood or of
| midnight dew or of many eerie con-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-19

things under few main heads). Now add
one other-an athletic organization
and there are tools enough.
We would fairly view our resources
social and material
Ladies' Aid soeicty-The story of its
achievement is known to you all One
thing. follow the law; keep large. Then
dare more. Church, school. amusements,
roads, forestry. moral standards, pol
itics-these and more are clearly in
your field
Grange-The same laws of organiza-
tion will advance or punish you. Size
alone gives power and stability; work
for larger membership and the uniting
OF. the small. Then attempt more. For
example, suppose the chestnut blight
necessitates wholesale cutting. Appoint
a committee to ger, with government
assistance, markets, specifications,
prices, contracts, etc, for the duly es-
timated large cut make money and
time for each of you and save money
and time of the buyers.
Sehool-Better education in this sec
tlon you must have. The solution is
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-19

but in all the financial circles in the
country No one gets better Or more
accurate information as to exact condi-
tions in every department Of life of the
middle west. He knows earlier than al
most any other man the development
of any strength or any weakness.
He is great student of agriculture
almost as great a student In that line as
he is in finance. He keeps track of the
farm industry with as much care as the
statisticans in Washington whose sole
duty it Is to watch agricultural matters.
In addition to the thousands of reports
he gets from his visitors he puts in an
hour or two each night, reading the
country papers. He finds more to amuse
him and more to enlghten him and more
to entertain him in the columns of the
rural weekly or the daily of the small
town than any ordinary man can dis
cover. But then he was brought up on
the country newspaper, and never has
been weaned.
MANY opportunities came to the aver
age banker to make money for himself.
Clever men come to him with all sorts
of products for financing. Some of the
projects promise rich profits banker
IL he wishes, get in on the ground
floor and come pretty near to safeguard
ing himself against loss if anything
goes wrong. Seven times out of 10 the
who does participate gets a. handsome
profit. 1t is only when he over-extends
himself, gets too eager for money and
is overtaken by a financial stringeney
that he suffers loss or gets hurt. There
Is not so much profit individually or 70
the bank in conservative, Legitimate
banking, but it is safer and surer. A
bank conducted on strict commercial
lines is as sound and solid as anything
can be in the business fabric.
Mr.. Reynolds has stuck to commercial
banking The tremendous growth of the
Continental commercial IS not so much
due perhaps. to the following of the
strict commercial banking lines to the
magnetism and peculiar talents of its
present Most great bankers are so inn
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-19

the central graded school. I know tho
unusual obstacles here no logical cen
ter. isolated valleys and poor roads,
but you cannot retreat in the edues-
ton of your children.
Church-The church will go on here,
doing its denefcent work. but whether
in its present places and ways. or
drawn TO centrallze by the same quiet
forces. will be determined later
Play-More play is needed The great
est peoples have been the greatest play
ers. No surer PROOF of degeneration in
a community than lack of sports. Our
community should not again go with
out baseball team. The interim of the
past 10 years has been unfortunate.
We have been canyassing the mat
ter and find that by next year there
will be enough small boys for junior
team and arrangements have besn made
Support II as you do your grange or
church; IL is not trivial.
More play for all then. | know You
Will think on this and will say: Bat
there's too much to do" etc. Play has
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-19

school, That was all the tuition he ever
got within the walls of a house OF
education
At Is he was sent from the farm into
the town TO work. His father was am
their offspring, and had managed to
get him a fine job in the Guthrie Coun-
try bank, of Panora. The young man
did not start as do most young bank
clerks. His business was to build the
fires, bring in the coal or wood. carry
out ashes, sweep out the bank and gen
orally keep the establishment neat and
orderly This was no sinecure, for the
patrons of the bank wore cowhde boots
and there was more mud than macadan
in the roads of Iowa at that stage oil
its history.
When he was not busy at his janitorial
labors he ran errands or assisted the
clerks, filling their ink wells, sharp
ening their pencils and occasionally add
ing up a column of figures 1t would
be a shame to tell what his salary was
in those days. For weeks service he
did not get as much as the average
banker these days pays for a meal.
The boy was bright. active and will
ling 1t was not long before he sknew
everybody having business with the
bank. His memory was excellent and
he had a decided faculty for making
friends. He was the first one at the
bank in the morning and the last one
to leave in the evening.
Iowa was filling up. Farmers were
pouring into the country about Panora.
Young Reynolds, who seemed to know
everybody and everything that was go
ing on In the neighborhood, made him
self most useful, and LAS the bank 5
business increased promotion came TO
him rapidly. When he was 20 he vas
made assistant cashier The bank never
had a better assistant cashier than this
youth. Farmers liked to drop in to talk
to him about crops He seemed to be
able to keep himself advised regarding
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-19

II is time to enter here upon something
constructive. Most of all, the communal
life, the cooperative life needs upbnild-
ing here The magic success word is now
get together"
Rules of action help
Rule 1-Use existing organizations;
their mere survival proves many fit
nesses.
Rule 2-Have few organizations and
keep them large. Small ones are raeked
and wrecked by passing circumstance.
and by individuals; attaining a certain
size, self repair and renewal take place
almost automatically.
Rule 3-use leaders. When a man can
do something well set him at it, for all
your good. and then give him fair credit
and honor.
Rule 4-Face every proposition with
the question, rs this good for the COM
munity and the long pull: or is ii for
an Individual or a clique. or a day.
Let us inspect our machinery Here
are Grange, School, Church and Ladies'
Aid society with it's library illustrat-
ing the advisability of placing lesser
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-19

Main thing No. I've are alive more
or less in one of the worlds best places,
here in the loop of the beautiful susque-
hanna. The Fixer of Things has given
here air, pure through all winds AMI sea-
sons Water, for drink and power and
pleasure, unexeelled. Land. not the best
but good enough to have attracted here
the best farmers of New England and
Europe. Timber, second only to that Of
the Pacific slope. Markets and accessi-
bility. with three great trunk lines OF
railroad converging through our sap in
the ranges.
Despite these many advantages things
went wrong with our community during
the past three decades. It will be prof
table to know and name the main trou-
BILE has been the deterioration and partial
loss of the communal life-the co-opera.
tive life. Not failure in farming or moneS
making, but degeneration of our society
in its broadest sense.
The past is ever acting part of us: on
II we of necessity rebuild. Come back
with me then little time into the story
of our countryside. Careful investigation
The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-19

1 The average American thinks he is
as good as any other man,and he is.
The very thought has been a pow
| erful stimulus. 1t has changed his
outlook and has put spirit into him.
'As a man thinketh in his heart, so
is he.9
The average American has learned
that he is the master of his fate,
! "the captain of his SOUL"
| If he fails in some particular un-
| dertaking it is but a slip in the path,
He gets up and goes on.
| He is not afraid.
| In the past men have been in ter
ror of what they called fate or destiny,
as though il were something outside
of themselves.
The average American has learned
or is learning, that these big sound
ing words stand for little but the ig-
| norance and fear bred of the past, that
we are the builders of our own desti-
MES
Children are afraid of the dark Ig
norance is darkness and ignorant men
are children in mind.
AS the light of intelligence spreads
fear vanishcs.
The average American believes that
kingship and divinity are not alien but
in himself. He therefore has faith in
these Attributes in him and in all men.
He has the sanity of laughter the
genius of common sense, the tonic of
hope
In every field We are teaching and
praeticing economy except one, and that
is the most important of all.
We eliminate in manufacturing, but we
do not elimbinate waste of human beings.
We teach conservation of everything but
life.
Recently a Chicago park policeman saw
a ragged hstless, coatless and almost
shoeless small boy watching a squirrel
burying peanuts.
What's your name?" queried the po-
liceman.
Bernard Rogers" sobbed the boy
and I'm hungry A squirrel hid a peanut
over by that tree Can | have it il find
it?"
Most policemen have hearts and this
one was no exception He bought the
boy a bag OF peanuts which were eaten
ravenously He then took him home and
afterwards reported that there was not q
bite to eat in the house.
This lad, If he lives. will be a future
citizen. Aside from the brutal inhuman
| ity of allowing him to starve In land OF
abundance. think of the unwisdom of It
from a public standpoint
The pity OF 1t is that his case is only
one case out Of multitude
| OF those who survive many are stunted
tin body and mind Others are criminals,
having learned to steal out Of their dire