davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-01-11
Remarked Fourth Time

Cincinnati, December 20.-(Special.) }
Divorced from each other three times,
only to drift back again into each 9TH
er's company. finally remarrying for
the fourth time, is the story of the
Indiana man and woman who obtained
Il license to rewed. The man Is Robert
Slate. 80 years old OF Vevay, Ind, and
the woman is Mrs. Madge Slate, %
Years DID, at present of this city.
Have you been married before %
was the question put to them by the
license clerk this afternoon Both ad
mitted that they had been married to
each other three times before. Slate
also admitted that he had been mar.
ried to two other women and divorced
They said they had signed an agree
.nent never to seek another divorce"
Il guess there was a little too much
taste on both sides. but this time We
expect the wedding knot to stick" said
Slate.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-01-11

As the ships cross the lake travellers
will have a good sight of the dam and
the locks. The dam is already becoming
grass grown and It viii be little mora
than a great mound or wiudrow of earth
holding back the water. At the left hand
is the spilway, consisting of 10 great
black steel gates which move up and
down between structures of concrete.
This spillway is In the shape of the seq
ment of circle. 1t has an iron walk or
the top. One does not realize its inn
mensity until he comes close to 1t, but
then 1t is very impressive.
There is good sized island right in
front of the dam, and in going from the
spillway to the locks on the opposite side
sail between the island. and the dam
The dam has a wide approach or channel
between concrete walls and the ships gr
from this right into the locks.
During my stay at Gatun some of the
locks were empty and some were filed.
so that I had an excellent opportunity
to see how they looked. They are enor-
nous vats which rise in three great steps,
from the level of the Atlantic to above
the s5-foot level of Lake Gatun.
Everything connected with the locks is
of the most massive description and still
the machinery is so delicate that child
could operate them. The great gates.
which are in fact, mighty double doors
of iron, swing like the folding doors OF
an old fashioned country barn. They
move as smoothly as though they were
as light as feathers or so many sheets OF
newspaper. Nevertheless one of the doors
or leaves of the larger gates is seven feet
thick and so heavy that it would take
1900 horses to haul 1t If it were broken
up and put on two-horse wagons
When these gates are shut they do not
require to be locked or fastened In any
way to keep out the water. They just
come together and that so tightly that
piece of metal thinner than the silky ha'r
of your baby girl or one less than one
four-thousandths of a foot thick could
not be wedged in between them. There is
not drop of water that oozes through.
There are 90 doors or leaves of this kind,
in the locks, and they weigh altogether
about $1,000 tons, which would be a good
size load for 10000 horses. or enough to
load a two-horse wagon train IS miles in
length
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-01-11
HARDsHIPs OF YOUNG MEDICOs
Considerable Percentage of Students
Forced to Relinquish Career

Interviewed quite recently by a repre-
sentative of the Daily Citizen, the res
dent medical officer of one of our lead
Ing hospitals said that every yea1 a con-
siderable percentage of the most brilliant
students were forced to relinquish the
profession merely owing to lack of cap
ital, says Tit-Bits. Sometimes" he con-
tinued, "the renunciation of their lifes
ideal occurs in their student days-some-
times after the final examinations have
been passed with splendid honors. Never
theless they have no choice. 1t is cruel
fact that no surgeon or physician, no
matter how clever he may be- can hope
TO acquire decently remunerative prac-
tice unless he has at least respecta BILE
bank balance behind him at the outset
of his career
"One of the most brilliant young SUI
geons turned out by any of the great
London hospitals during the last decade
has spent the last two or three years
haunting battlefields Wherever war is
there he is; no matter what part of the
globe it may be. His pay--when in active
service-amounts to some 30s week. Had
he been possessed of $1,000 when he left
noSpltai tilS yOuHBster WOulu De making
today E2Oo0 year and saving thou
sands of English lives a year
Our contemporaries informant has
only discussed one half of this subject.
The position of the young practitioner
who has little capital and who Is able
to start for himself is only one degree
better than that of the man who has
none.
As everybody knows the young
practitioner, If he means to make any
thing of show, must start with fair
amount of ostentation, keeping for
instance. brougham or motor, and
capital is being drained to pay for
them.
But this is the opportunity of the
income tax servers who promptly serve
him with notice of an Assessment of
his income at 1900 year, when he
probably is not making ESQ. If he ap-
reals he must of necessity reveal tl.e''
fact that his practice is very small and
yer unremunerative. and the news
that he Is appealing instantly gees
round the town. The result is that
In the majority of cases he pays on his
assessment of $1,000 year rather than
show his hand by appealing, although
the payment of the demand may carry
away another huge slice of his exiguous
capital
We shall probably never know until
the. last great tribunal how many
strugg Cling men have gone down under
the pressure of this iniquitous trickery
nor how many of the oppressors have
gained rapid promotion by a display
of zeal of this kind.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-01-11

pic and the Mauretania and vessels %
that class: but they draw that much only
when heavily loaded, and they are seldom
so loaded.
Turning our launch toward the Atlantic,
we steam back through the cut and out
into the Lake uI Gatun. This sheet of
water is an artificial one. 1t has been
made altogether by the Gatun dam.
which runs across the outlet and between
two great hills about "a miles away. The
lake is supplied by numerous little rivers.
of which the greatest Is the Chagres. 1t
has been steadily rising for more than
year. and its surface Is now over so feet
above the level of the ocean. The water
has spread out over the valleys, and the
lake now covers an area as large as 1000
SO-acre farms all patched together.
Coming from Gamboa, we first enter
the valley of the Chagres. This is mar
row near the end of Culebra cut, but 1t
soon widens out to half a mile or more.
winding in and about among hills that are
beautifully green, There are palm trees
growing on the side of the water, and we
see them standing out against the sky.
on the tops of the hills.
Farther out on the lake we sail about
the shores of beautiful islands, and We
now and then pass floating islands, con-
sisting of tropical swamps which have
been lifted from their foundations by the
water and are carried by the winds here
and there over the lake. Some of these
islands are of several acres in area, and
they rise and fall with the waves made
by our launch as we steam by.
On some of the floating islands are
birds, and on one I saw an iguana, the
giant lizard OF this part of the world
which is as big as cat and whose meat
tastes like young chicken. Some of the
islands have bamboos upon them, and
upon some are beds of papyrus, similar
to the famous bullrushes of Egypt, In
which the cradle of the baby Moses was
laid.
During our journey attempted to go
down to Bohjo to the spot where the
French built their locks, but floating
island had closed up the entrance and
we had to turn back.
Among the queer features OF Lake Ga
tun are the dead forests that are to be
covered the land Many varieties of trop-
ical trees will not stand firm embedded
in water and such have died as the lake
has risen. There are some valleys COW
cred with dead thlckets, and in some
places there are so many dead trees that
1t makes one think of the Dismal swamp.
Some of these trees are as white AS the
bones of a skeleton, and are naked OF
bark. Others are already loaded with
orchids of many varieties. Some have
only their tops out of the water, and we
now and then see a green palm, the
trunk of which is in the bed of the lake
and only the leaves showing out. The
palms seem to last the longest and there
are many buried to the roots of their
branches. the latter looking like punches
of gigantic ferns on the bed of the lake.
We often bump against logs as we move
through the canal channel. The trees
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-01-11
Steannng Through the Panama Canal

rot quickly. and a great part of the lake
is now covered with floating timber. This
will be gathered together and RATED to
the spillway. before the canal is in ac-
tive operation. It will there be rolled
over the dam and go down to the ocean
Another striking feature of Gatun lake
is the floating plants which cover Its
waters. There are great beds of water
lettuce and masses of water hyacinths
floating about, as well as spots where IL
green plant like scum covers the sur
face. The water lettuce has very short
roots, and 1t will not impede navigation.
The hyacinths are different. Some OF
their roots are 10 and IL feet in length,
and they will have to be destroyed before
the canal is in use.
There are many alligators in part Of
Lake Gatun, although most of them are
small. Still they are so dangerous that
the ratives will not go swimming in the
lake, and they are very careful to keep
out of their way while fishing along the
shores There are some tapirs on the
banks of the lake and it may be that n
few may be found upon the islands. We
See many wild birds and among others
the white heron, from which the aigrettes
for our ladies' hats come. There are also
wild ducks and several pelicans fly up as
we ride about among the floating islands.
At the rising of one of these huge. heavy
throated fowl, one of our party quotes
the slangy and rather coarse limerick
concerning it:
A wise old bird is the pelican.
His pouch holds as much his bell J
can.
He can store in his beak enough food for
week.
I don't see how in the h-ll he can.
Just now. however the pelicans which
have been getting their food from Gatun
lake are in bad way. The decaying veg
citation is creating gases in the wate'
which are destroying the fish, and this.
added to the paint which is washing off
of the lock gates, has sent hundreds OF
dead fish and reptiles over the spillway
OF late the fish mortality has been de.
creasing, and when the water is cleared
of dead trees. as it will be within short
time after the lake assumes its normal
level, the number of fish will rapidly in
crease.
The big steamers will be several houi s
in crossing Lake Gatun. and l predict
that the beauties of the voyage will be
such that it will make this place one of
the scenic marvels of the world. The
tropical islands with their palms and
bamboos their great fern trees and their
magnificent forest giants bound together
with the lianas. will be in plain view.
The lake, which is now slightly muddy
from the vegetation and the floods. will
then be as clear as crystal. and the tour
ist will look over mirror of silver at
the emerald wonders of the tropics. Oft
to the south as he nears the Gatun dam
he will see a range of mountains which
some claim to be a part of South Amer
lea. 1t is, in fact the beginning of the
Andes, which are here like ant-hills in
comparison with the giant volcanoes
which wall the western side of that con-
tinent.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-01-11

We leave Gamboa and ride over the
spot where the dam was thrown down
when Lake Gatun was let into the cut.
We soon come to the slides and see the
dredges at work. In some parts of Guile
bra there has been considerable motion
during the past few weeks, and we see
fresh masses of clay and rock which
have rolled down. hiding the green.
Most of these slides do but small DAM
age. They enter only the sides of the
4 channel, and the dredges have no trouble
in cleaning them out.
little farther down we come to EN-
pire, where some of the greatest slides
begin, and farther still to Cucuracha, the
slide of the cockroach, where the earth
has been moving for the past so years.
That slide covers AZ acres and at one time
It was moving down the mountain at the
rate of IA feet a day. There is another
slide which covers 70 acres, from which
enough earth and rock have been taken
70 equal a great column 800 feet square
and higher than the Washington monu-
ment.
The slides altogether have now covered
an area of 251 acres. They have ranged
in area from one acre to 10 acres and
their mass is inconceivable. Two hun
dred and fifty acres would make a good
sized farm, and the volume of earth is
estimated by the tens of millions of cubic
yards. Already enough slide material
has been taken out of the canal to make
4 wall as high as a two-story house and
more than three feet in thickness reach
ing from Boston almost to Chicago, and
by the time the canal is completed we
shall have dug out from the slides alone
. mass equal to half dozen pyramids
rs big as the biggest in Egypt, with still
some earth to spare.
Admiral Rousseau tells me that there
IL no doubt that the time of dangerous
slides is rapidly coming to an end Thei',
has been diminution of them since the
water came in, and the breaks or the
humping up of the bottom of the canal
has altogether disappeared. We have now
20 feet of water In Culebra cut, and We
shall have As shortly after January l. II
lt were not for the cucuracha slide ves-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-01-11
In the Upper Story

From the London Telegraph.
Jennie-He must have soft spot in his
heart for me.
Wennie-Why so?
Jennie-He says he IL always thinking
of me.
Wennie-But you know. a man doesn't
think with his heart. The soft place must
be in his head.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-01-11

These experiments We're carried out at
time when the use of tuberculin as a
means of curing really consumptiye pa
tients had caused numerous deaths
The director of the Royal Womens nos
pital admits having inoculated 40 new
ly-born children with tuberculosis in
doses fiftyfold stronger than Koch
prescribed for five-year-old children.
This experimenter admits that his con-
science was afflicted by the vision of
"the hectic cheeks. tremendous rise in
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-01-11

The most characteristic features of the
canal locks TO be seen as one looks ut
them over the water are the many ccl-
umns of concrete ending in gigantic arms
which hold the electric lights. making the
workings as bright by night as by day.
These pillars of light run along on both.
sides of the locks. and in the center they
form an avenue that would be an orna-
ment to any park or to any city up ii
earth. There is some talk of planting
palms between the lights but this is
doubtful as their shade might obscu,e
the lights.
The electricity which supplies these
lights, and also those for the whole canal,
comes from the hydro-electric plant nov
building. This will be operated il
connection with the fall of the water
from the level of Gatun lake to the spill
way floor a height about that of a seven
story house. The generation is by great
turbines. and enough of current will be
produced to not only light the canal and
work the locks at both ends, but to fur
nish force and power for the mighty ma
chine shops, docks and other equipment
at the terminals. The transmission line
which will cary this current from one
side of the canal to the other is now in
the course of erection. The wires will bc
hung to posts of structural steel resting
on concrete bases and running across the
railroad track. high above the cars.
There will be enough electricity gener-
ated to move the trains of the Panama
railroad, and If necessary this line can
be used for that purpose with but slight
additional expense.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-01-11

sells drawing SS feet could now go through
the canal. This is the draft of the Olym-
pic and the Mauretania and vessels %
that class: but they draw that much only
when heavily loaded, and they are seldom
so loaded
The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1914-01-15
GOOD GAMES FOR WINTER
EVENINGS.
Prize.
Prize.
Doris Ames. Age Is.

DOIlS AAcO. IASO Lc'
I live in the country and there is a
large crowd of young people there.
About every two weeks they meet at
some house for a good time. We
never play kissing games for there
are so many other games to play. We
never get tired of playing "Ruth and
Jacob" Gossip" nor "Going to
Jerusalem. - That is so much fun.
You put the chairs in two rows back
to back and have one chair less than
the number of persons playing. We
march about the chairs while some
one plays. All at once the music stops
and we all scramble for chair Some
one is left. Then that one plays and
one chair is taken out, and SO on till
there is only one chair left and two
people. Then the one who gets the
last chair has gone to Jerusalem.
Then we did play "Menagerie"
when you told us about it in the
Children's Page. That was lots Of
fun but of course after every one in
the crowd knew the joke we couldn't
play it. Now we play it whenever
there is lot of young people there
that never have been before. The
"Fruit Basket is lots of fun too.
Sometimes we tell riddles, we try to
get all the new ones we can. Then
again we write "Traveling Story
Each one has a pencil and paper.
You write four or six lines of what
you think is a good story, either
something you make up or something
you have read, then pass your paper
on to the next after you turn down
what you wrote. The next writes a
certain number of lines. turns 1t
down and passes it on. When at last
il comes to the one who started it,
that one reads the whole page and
each one reads all written on his
page. 1t is often a very amusing
story.
The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1914-01-15
CbiIdren'$ Page
Address all communications for this
page to MARGARET WYE, care
of The Ranch, Kent, Wash.
A VISIT WITH THE CHILDREN

You know l told you that those
who sent in compositions on each of
the two December subjects would be
sent New Years post card. | re-
ceived many compositions on "Win-
ter Outdoor Sports and as many
more on "Good Games for Winter
Evenings" but only five won the
post cards. Who we're they? Well,
they we're Olga Olden, Thomas Mer
rich. Jean Holland, Myrtle Treadwell
and Erma Fink. They have received
their post cards long before you read
this.
The prizes there were two-were
"blue bird'' pin for girl winners and
a combination whistle and compass
for boy winners. However the girls
carried off both prizes. Jean Hol-
land, age, Ia of Butte, Mont, gets
the prize for her compositions on
winter outdoor Sports" and Doris
Ames, age 10, receives the prize for
NTOOu Ndm0S lOT w lhOCl I1NOhlhSos
She lives near Bellingham, Wash.
Their compositions are on this page.
There are two weeks yet this month
for you to get your name on the
"January Roll which will be printed
next issue. This roll will contain the
names OF all boys and girls who write
something for our children's page in
January. IT your name is on the
"Roll' each month for six months
you will be sent prize, and you have
chance to win one of the monthly
contest prizes besides.
Our January contest work is "Once
Upon a Time.
WHO will win the "long story con-
test prize. The story must contain
from 1900 to 1000 words. Contest
closes March 1st.
The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1914-01-15
Che bof11e.

proper condition. Do both knees,
then turn garment right side out.
Sponge upper part on the wrong side.
Iron carefully, also on the wrong
side, as far down as can be done con-
veniently. Now lay the left leg on
the ironing board, taking care to
have the seams match so the crease
will be in the right place. Fold the
other leg back out of the way. Now
wet the big cloth thoroughly, squeeze
water out and lay over the leg. Iron
with very hot iron until dry, but
do not remove cloth. The inside
should be done first. Do the same
with the outside part Now lay the
right leg on, folding the finished leg
back out the way. When finished,
hang up by the bottoms until there
is no danger Of their being damp.
The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1914-01-15
WINTER OUTDOOR SPORTS.
Prize.
Jean Holland. Age IA.

Jean HOLLAND. age If.
In winter l find no better sport
than the use of the skis. Skis are
used instead of snow shoes but l
think are more fun. They are made
of narrow boards and real long. 1
guess six feet long and turn up at the
front end. | walk along on top of
the snow or slide along is better and
when l come to slope 1 just keep
my feet even and slide. l have a
pole with me and it helps me so l
don't fall backward or go too fast.
Men can go pretty fast and often take
great jumps on skis but can't do
that. My skis are homemade.
think the next best sport is snow
fort. We choose sides at school.
There are only 16 large boys and girls
in our district. The little ones dom
play as they might get hurt. After
we choose sides the boys make a fort
up four feet high l think. While the
boys do this the girls make snow balls
rather soft balls so If they hit us
they will not hurt very much. Then
we begin. Each thrower has the
same number of balls to throw and we
try to hit those on the opposite side
if we can and try to knock down
their fort. The side whose fort is in
the worst shape when the fight is over
is the beaten side. If both forts look
pretty good, the beaten side is the
one whose snow balls are used up
first.
The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1914-01-15
OUR LETTER BOX.

Duvall, WASH, Dec. 16, 1913.
Margaret Wye:
Dear Miss Wye. am a reader of
The Ranch and enjoy reading the
letters and stories by the boys and
girls and so thought l would write
a story and see if it would be in
print next month. / am eleven years
old and am in the Sixth grade. L
hope this letter and story will miss
the waste basket.
Yours truly,
RENA WALTERS.
Your story will be printed later,
my dear.
The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1914-01-15
Puyallup, Wn., Dec. 20, 1913.

Puyallup, Wn., Dec. 70, 1913.
Dear Children of The Ranch:
Will you allow an outsider to come
in? I mean / do not live out here,
l am visiting my aunt and uncle. l
came from Wisconsin. The winter
here does not seem like winter at alb,
it seems more like spring. The win
tiers are usually pretty cold back
there. 1t is pretty level there too
where came from and even it We do
have lots OF snow we cannot slide
down hill. Here there are plenty OF
hills but no snow. Aunt and uncle
say that it SHOWS here some winters.
l hope we may remain out here, then
1 will write to your page quite often,
if this letter gets into the paper in
stead of the waste paper.
Your friend,
MARY JEW EFT.