davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-07-27

There questions Of difference are
threshed out. The operators explain the
difficulties that they have encountered,
many of which have not been understood
or appreciated by the miners heretofore.
The miners likewise make clear their
difficulties and necessities. The air is
clarified by discussion and mutual under
standing.
scale. conditions of labor and the like,
with provisions in the agreements to per-
init them to be changed to conform to
purely local conditions. Contracts are
entered into for year or a term of
years. Both sides profit by the resulting
stability to the industry"
But" it was suggested, lin these con-
ferences are you not apt to lose sight of
the interests of the consuming public?'
No" said the Secretary emphatically.
I'm the first place. the interest of the con-
sumner, in the larger sense, is always the
interest of the producing forces, for the
producing forces, taken broadly, are the
consuming public.
This form of arbitration that I have
described" he went on. lis the fair way
and the just way Of settling disputes. I
am not an advocate of compulsory arbi-
tration. No provision was made in the
law creating this department for COM
pulsory arbitration. If you compel CAPT
tai to accept the result of an arbitration,
capital might be required to operate at a
loss until 1t was entirely exhausted, and
if you compel labor to accept it there
would be created condition of slavery.
Voluntary arbitration contains no such
objections"
You spoke, it was suggested. "of the
interests of both capital and labor lying
along identical lines SO far as concerns
securing the maximum production with
minimum of effort. You then, appa-
rently, have no sympathy with the old
theory advanced in Europe by a school
of trades unionists that labor was to
achieve some advance by curtailing pro-
duction: in other words, by setting low
maximum of production for each worker.
and not permitting one to go beyond
that"
Certainly am not in sympathy whit
any such notion, said the Secretary.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-07-27

the great wilderness Numerous ghost
stories have originated this way. and /,
common tradition of the inhabitants CEN
tiers about a certain spot where a lum Der
gang once built it's camp
IL was here that local history tells of
now TWO men Were murdered in a fight in
the camp ana OF how the murderer es-
capped into the wilderness and later died
from starvation or snake bite The site
or the old lumber camp is avoided even
in broad daylight, for at night. the ne
groes say. the ghosts Of the murdered
lumbermen re-enact with the shade Of tn
murderer the deadly struggle that cost
three lives.
!; !:
The very nature of the swamp lends
itself easily to the preservation of such
stories. Always darkened by the thick
growth OF overhanging jungle. with the
low-hanging limbs OF trees clustered with
moccasins and black snakes summing
themselves the swamp. even in its more
open reaches, is awe-inspiring. but at
night. when the blackness of the swamp
water mingles with the bIackness of the
night, the minds Of the simple folk who
dwell there are easily impressed and the
maZes of the jungle are peopled with a
thousand phantom forms.
During ante-bellum days. the swamp
was hiding place for runaway slaves.
VINO were rarely pursued Tar. but the
need of escape was desperate indeed
that forced fugitive into the forbiddinS
gloom of this wilderness. Only the mas
terful courage of the chief. Osman, per-
mitted residence there. and the negroes
have been known to submit to capture
rather than brave the unknown terrors
of the swamp
A ghost story of the swamp very popu-
lar before the war was the tale of how
an army of ghostly workmen might be
seen at night along the site of the old
canal These are supposed to have been
the ghosts OF the men employed to dig
drainage canal by a land company
which once undertook to drain the area
and in which George Washington is said
to have been financially interested. This
story, however. had its vogue and IS
practically dead by now, although a few
of the very old and very superstitious
jewellers yet believe il.
The vastness. the mystery and the dam
ger of the dismal swamp breed a host OF
terrors which live through generation
after generation of the settlers, and will
continue to live while the great
swamp remains a swamp and its in
habitants are the same simple minded
awe-filled people of the type that lives
there today.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-07-27

10 say, they have no fire in them. The
Old Hawaiians believed that the souls OF
the departed descended into an under
W World presided over by two potentates,
Wakea's rule was comfortable and re-
served for those who had led good lives.
Here they spent careless eternity, feast
ing on butterflies and poi" an equivalent
OF our buckwheat cake. The wicked went
70 the domain OF Milu, where their only
food was lizards, and where they were
ever prevented from sleeping by the wild
ana iawIess games of Milu's subjects, the
nevns: 10 one who knows the Kanaka S
loVe TOT eating and sleeping the torture
VI Milu realm is apparent
). 4
In most of the islands of the Pacific,
however. hell is not reserved for the
wicked, in our sense of the word-that
is, the thief. the murderer, the SLAM
derer and the selfish man. All these
finally reach a state of happiness But
a most Enthusiastically eternal hell is
provided for those guilty of the only
sin known to them-timidity and cow
ardice
According to the best authorities the
aboriginal Indian Of America is gen.
orally without any belief in any form
OF future punishment for sin. The
happy hunting grounds are reserved
for the brave. AS to where the wicked
go, they are silent. The Ojibways,
however: believe that the souls Of the
wicked follow wide path to the west
and enter long lodge after crossing a
deep and narrow river on a huge snake
Here they are forever haunted by the
ghosts or those things, animate and in
animate, which they wronged in life.
Yet, early In the seventeenth century
capt. Jonn smith wrote from the in
rant Jamestown colony: There is no
place In virginia where the natives
have have not bows. arrows and religion.
They hold that as soon as the soul of
an evil man has departed from his
body it is carried to hole or pit,
which IS IN the farthest part of their
world toward the west, and there it
burns continually. This Dit is called
Popogus:so. The chief god OF the Vir-
glnians Is the devil. Him they worship
ana seek TO propitiate by fashioning
themselves as nearly like him as pos
sible''-doubtless seeking to fiatter the
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-07-27
Weird Legends of the Dismal Swamp

They made her a grave too cold and damp
For one so brave and true;
She has gone to the lake OF the Dismal swamp,
Where all night long BY her freely lamp
She paddles her white canoe.
THAT was the way an early poet de-
scribed the Ghost OF the White
Canoe. whica is commonly credited
with haunting the unknown. impossible,
moccasin-infested reaches Of the Dismal
Swamp, that land Of mystery that
stretches for thousands Of acres across the
southeastern part Of Virginia near the
North Carolina line.
There is possibly no other section of
the country credited with more mystery
and awe than the dank reaches OF this
strange marsh. and its mystery stretches
back to the first pages Of American his
tory.
The Ghost Of the White Canoe is prob
ably the oldest legend of that legend-rid-
den vastness. which has never been thor
oughlt explored by white man. The
story is an Indian tale, and was handed
down generation to generation by the
savages, and preserved without loss in
the minds Of the superstitious negroes and
whites Of the section
4 x
According to the tale, an Indian maiden
was in love with warrior Of q hostile
tribe. She was forbidden to see him
through the hostility Of her tribe, and
the story runs that one night she slipped
away in a canoe to search out her lover.
The paths OF the great swamp were I'M
known to the girl. but her love drove her
into the awesome shades Of the night,
and she had penetrated far when she
found that her path was lost
For days and days she padded and
called to her sweetheart, but the great
black forest gave back no answer and
the end soon came. The story runs
that the warriors of her lovers tribe
found her dead body in the bottom of
the canoe, and because Of the hostility
they bore her people, she was thrown
into the deep. black mud of the swamp
against the frenzied pleadings of her
warrior sweetheart
The story runs prettily to it's close
how the bereaved savage repudiated
his tribe and sought the mysterious.
uncharted paths of the wilderness. One
night as he fell fainting on the shores
Of the marsh. deep in the inner heart
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-07-27

Here. what are all these papers
about said the Secretary. Il haven't
got the time now 10 20 through all this
stuff
1T dom make no difference, sub. what
they is all about" said the messenger
gently. "All you got to do. sub. is to
sign here" and he indicated the place
where the secretarial signature was to
90.
Time was, before the machinery of fed
eral government had more nearly adjust
Ell itself TO the increasing demands of
business, that this might have been true.
To an extent it is true to this day, for
no Secretary can possibly know all about
everything that he has to sign; he must
depend on subordinates. but in these lat
ter days certain safeguards are erected
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-07-27

of the great region, the ghost of the
Indian girl came padding to him
through the darkness, guided by the
firefiies. In an agony of devotion and
joy of the reunion, the brave Is said
to have plunged into the black waters
of the marsh and was drowned Here
the legend tells how the phantom girl
paused her canoe over the spot for a
moment and was Joined by the ghostly
spirit of her mate, and that for gen
erations they have padded through the
blackness of the great swamp, guided
by the light of the firefies, but united
forever in spirit.
Another of the weird stories OF the
Dismal Swamp wilderness is the one
concerning Osman, a Famous AIncan
chief, who was sold into slavery, put
who sought refuge from bloodhounds
and pursuers in the inner and unex-
plored reaches of the swamp.
Osman led reign OF terror in the
wilderness during the early fifties. He
obtained firearms. and clung to the most
wild and impossible sections of the
brake, where no man had ever reached
before, and where only the wild beasts
kept him company. AS the years rolled
by, the Chief Osman became half wild.
and was credited with the power of
the forest and cypress swamps.
Urged OH by the offers OF reward,
numerous white men, armed to the teeth.
penetrated into the swamp In search OF
back but one hunter, who had followed
the negro's trail with companion,
feebly padded back to camp weeks
later fever-stricken and delirious.
Shouting in his madness a tale of a
wild man who had killed his companion
with naked hands and who had nearly
killed the survivor. who fed. The man
who came back lived but few days
and died in the delirium OF FEVER
*
But the story ends not there. for the
tradition is fast fixed in the minds Of
the negroes and swamp settlers that
Osman accidentally stepped upon the
coiled body of a cotton-mouth moccasin
and died a few minutes later in dread
full agony.
1t is but natural that from this tragic
superstition a more weird legend should
later grow and the negroes tell that late
in the night from the far reaches OF the
swamp comes a demoniac scramble
scream of Osman's ghost re-enacting the
death struggle of the negro CHIEF who
died from the bite of moccasin over
whom he was believed to exercise domin-
ion.
The swamp is rich in cypress. and the
OF commerce have driven gangs
of lumbermen far into the recesses OF
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-07-27
4EHNR


taFy instantly.
He ought to know. lie was chairman
of the committee on labor of the Sixty
second Congress. which. in its closing
days, passed the bin creating the de-
rartment-and then forgot to make any
appropriation for it,
Establishing industrial peace has been
the life work of the Secretary. Labor
lsaders-and he has been labor leader
all his adult life-in many quarters are
presumed 10 thrive on turmoil and
Strikes But this big, ruddy, earnest
miner ever has been an advocate OF
arbitration, adjustment, peace
The act creating the new department
If which he is the head describes It's
purposes as being ito foster, promote
and develop the welfare of the wage
earners of the United States. to i'm
,roye their working conditions. and TO
advance their opportunities for profit
able employment"
In it's establishment there were re-
moved to it from the old Department
sc Commerce and Labor-now simply
the Department of Commerce-three
great bureaus. These We're the bureau
of labor the bureau of immigration and
naturalization and the childrenS bureau.
The Old bureau of immigration and
naturalization is now divided into the
bureau of immigrat ton and the bureau
of naturalization, each with commits
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-07-27

ones to and fro. like the pitcher and
catcher in a base ball game. Fortunately
the general punishment of gehenna was
not eternal. but merely a temporary pur-
gatorial process.
AS the hell of the torrid countries is
hot, so that of the northern ATTITUDES Is
cold and damp. The hell Of the old
Scandinavians was q place Of ice and
and wild beasts, especially ravenous
wolves.
Our Anglo-Saxon forebears, compro-
missing between the two. had a "helle-
wife" (whence our English .'helr). which
consisted of a pit wherein the unfortu-
nate sinner suffered alternately a roast
ing heat and a killing frost-a hard lot.
combining all the terrors Of both the
others. Also, besides the fire and ice,
there were furnished, to convince the
sinner of his evil ways, frigid serpents
with fiery tusks, which gnawed the flesh
from the bones Of the wicked, while pale
ladders. bloody eagles and foul beasts
with goring horns of iron lent variety to
the tormentS.
x
The descriptions Of hell in the Koran of
the Mohammedan do not leave much
of consolation for the wicked Mussulman.
"Flameless smoke shall envelop them.
and smokeless fame says one chapter.
AnOlHcT DOtHieS TIE eV1l-OOer tnat -tney
shall be dragged into hell by their fore
locks and their feet. and there shall be
cut out for them garments Of fire.
Among barbarians and savages. the
devil is generally the chief deity. AS was
aptly put to missionary by a Maori
chief of New Zealand. why should we
strive by prayers and sacrifices to please
your God. who. you say, is all good? II
he is really all good he will do us no
harm. 1t is the evil one who Is ever
seeking to do us hurt, and him we must
endeavor to appease. Therefore, we offer
sacrifices to him.
The negroes of Guinea have little be-
lief In a state OF future punishment Some
of them who live on the seacoast, how
ever, believe that the unconsciously wick
ed suffer hereafter a continual state of
drowning. II they are still more and con-
sciously wicked they are turned into
white men and go beyond the sea-
The Formosans believe that the wicked
are cast into pits of mire. bottomless and
with devils all the way down. Strange
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-07-27

HAT is the chief
purpose of the de-
partment of labor
as you see it?
That question was
put the other day
TO William B. Will
son. Secretary of
Labor in President
Wilson's cabinet,
and first to occupy
that position.
Establishing in
Suared the Secre-
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-07-27

Secretary's Office is enormous. The di-
vision of mails and files is charged with
the duty Of properly opening and re-
ferring this mail. Rules vary in the
different departments, but in general
the plan is for mails and files to open
everything that is addressed officially
that appears to be official. but to send
unopened to the private secretary any
thing addressed personally to the Secre-
tary or that appears on the envelope to
be of a personal nature.
This will aggregate on an average
about 6 per cent Of the whole The re-
mainder of the mail is carefully read
by Northumberland men in mails
and files, and referred to the proper
bureau. For example, il John Smith
writes to the Secretary of War asking
if Smiths missing son by chance has
enlisted in the army, the letter is re-
ferred by mails and files to the adjutant
general. who makes proper inquiry and
without bothering the Secretary.
X
But many of the letters, it can be seen
on reading. while bearing ON the work
OF some bureau, should be answered nv
the Secretary personally. Suppose that
a senator should write to the Secre-
tary of the Interior asking when a
certain area in his state was to he
dea!t with by the geological survey.
Mails and files in the Department Of
the Interior would make 1t P. r. s.
and send it to the G. S. to use de-
partmental language
That is, the letter would be sent to
the geological survey to prepare a re-
ply for the Secretary's siRnature
Up. r. s. letters are ALWAYS num-
bered and note made on a follow
up card index of the number, the sub
Ject and the name and the date Of
reference. If the bureau to which the
letter has been sent does not send in
the original letter with the prepared
reply within certain number of days,
mails and files asks why
For convenience in referring, each
mails and files division has a number
OF rubber stamps. Thus the stamp to
be placed on such a letter as referred
to above is as shown below:
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-07-27

Ia SSIC a m o n Z
Washington stories
is that of the new
{ a binet minister.
His colored mes
sengcr brought to
him n great stack
Of letters and pa
pers on the first
day and stood by,
with blotter poised.
ready to blot sig
natures as I n e Y
were appended.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-07-27

the jungles Of the earth, knocking their
heads against trees and cliffs, founder
ing through swirling rivers and dank,
dark swamps and suffering such other
casualties and hardships as would nat
urally beset sightless flying creature
The hell of the New Guinea native is
a womanless region wherein the soul of
the unfortunate wicked man wanders
forever in vain search Of mate.
A unique idea Of the future state was
disembodied soul winged its way to eter-
nifty. 1t encountered two rocks, upon one
of which 1t must needs rest The choice
was determined by the morality of the
life in the flesh. If it rested upon the
left-hand rock it was instantly translated
to "Po.' or oblivion. a state analogous to
the Nfrvana of the oriental belief. II.
however, through earthly misdeeds, the
unhappy spirit was guided to the right
hand rock. 1t entered into a purgatorial
hell. where fends grated away the flesh
from all the bones in succession, after
which the skeleton was reclo.-.eu and sent
back to earth to have another try There
was no haste about this grating cere-
mony; it took something over ten thou
sand years!
early and medieval Christianity, each
according to the character and supersti-
tons of the various peoples of Europe.
But. while varying in detail. the essential
form was the same throughout. 1t was
nethermost pit, filled with fire Of in
conceivable heat, wherein subordinate
devils. under supervision of the arch fiend
himself, roasted and turned upon white
hot griddles the souls OF the damned. in
cidentally torturing them in any other
minor ways that ingenuity suggested. 1t
is in these latter details that the author
tiles Of the middle ages chiefly differ.
Graphic descriptions of hell abound in
the oratory Of the time. and accounts Of
personal visits by men to the regions
Of sulphur and birthstone were very com
mon.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-07-27

IRON earliest ages the question of
future punishment for the
wicked has absorbed mankind.
Darwin found many races with
out any conception Of a good
God. but none without an idea of a pun
fishing devil.
II is to be especially noted. as an in
teresting fact. that all races in the same
parallels of latitude. no matter how far
they may be separated, have similar ideas
of hell and the punishment inflicted
there. This is no doubt due to the fact
that. as extreme heat and cold are the
most elemental forms OF physical suffer
ing inflicted by nature each race invests
its particular place of punishment with
the form OF temperature most painful TO
il: thus, in all torrid ATTITUDES, where the
blazing sun makes life well nigh unbear-
able. the people invariably have hell of
tire: while in the frigid chimes OF the
north all forms of hell embrace. as a
fundamental torture an excessive degree
of cold
The earliest authentic conception of a
place of future punishment is found in the
ancient Egyptian Per-m-hru. Book of
the Dead. doubtless the oldest book in
the world Herein is described the jour
ncy of the doomed man 10 perdition
Shakes. nufrlu anu ter
rors beset his path-and he found CON
siderably more of them when he got
there TO these discomforts were added
blazing suns of fire and sandy deserts
buSbears of the Egyptian.
In the old Assyrian hell the spirits of
the wicked dead fitted about in the dim
Gess of the underworld and ate dust;
those who broke through the ranks of
the guarding dragons came back to earth
a. blood-sucking. death-dealing vampires.
The penal he'll OF the Hindoos is one of
the oldest known. Over IL presided Yama.
the subdUer. monster with huge teeth
and hideous. writhing body. the very sight
Of whom. 10 judge from the ancient draw
ings, were torture enough This hell is
filled with snakes. monsters. insects and
other Internal machinery. Red-hot char
coal figures largely. with boiling oil as
ID Incidental torture.
Early Buddhism, with It's $4,000, 900
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-07-27
Safeguards That Oc-

Safeguards That Oc-
casionally Go Wrong
The Red Tag Used in
Most Departments
Cumbersome Systems
Used in Old Days
Mechanical Copying
Processes and Filing
Systems Used Today
What Is Done With
the Daily Mails =
Visiting the Cabinet
Members for Personal
Interviews.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-07-27

Back comes the report, affixed by clip
to the original inquiry, and mails ana
files sends 1t on it's rounds until all the
information has been gathered. Then
some one assigned by the chief clerk very
probably writes the right sort of letter
and submits the whole pile of papers to
the Secretary to sign the response or send
back for more information as may be
necessary. Or else the accumulated pile
goes at once to the Secretary to see what
sort Of letter he wants written.
x X
In practically all the departments the
so-called personal mail that is sent un-
opened by mails and files to the Secre-
tary's office is opened by the private sec
rotary. He finds much Of 1t requires bu-
reau action. or report. and he makes ref
erence in the same manner that mails
and files does. Some OF the letters he can
answer without consultation and without
having to ask the Secretary to sign
them, writing that II am directed by the
Secretary to acknowledge receipt of your
letter of -, asking" so and so. land
to inform you that" etc, signing Private
Secretary"
He dictates letters for the Secretary to
sign in response to more important mis-
rotary the matters about which he Is In
doubt and receives direction from the Sec
rotary as to what action to take
Reference has been made to the red
tag of danger that sometimes is affixed
to important papers. There is also a
special tag to indicate that the subject
is of large Importance. This is bit of
white paper bearing the word in red let
tiers. Such a tag is as follows.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-07-27

you will find very few intelligent la
Dor men who are. The theory of which
you speak has no general following in
this country. Employer and employe. in
the very nature of things, should be mu-
tually interested in getting out the great
est measure of product with the least
effort. That is simple common sense.
All trade unionists object to men being