davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-02-24
FAT MAN UNPOPUL AR NOW

The slim figure is in the ascend
ant Even the great of the earth
cannot afford altogether to disregard
the dictates of the fashion which de-
crees that all men and all women
shall present to the world the out
lines of spare severity. says the Lon
don Saturday Review. The kaiser
and Mr.. Taft have both found it nee
essary to go in for process of
weight reduction. It would be in
teresting if some student of manners
would trace with precision the
process whereby what Thinking people
call "embonpoint" came into gen
eral discredit Fat is now regarded
as an indiscretion, and almost as
crime. Only the very strong-minded
dare to be fat at all, and there are
few indeed who glory in corpulence.
There were some ages, indeed, when
few were in position to cast stone
at the plump man. The eighteenth
century. especially seemed to run to
over-nourishment. Ruminative re-
pletion is the prevailing expression
in the portraits of the period; and
the majestic swagger of corpulence
is visible in the rolling periods of
Gibbon, Burke, Johnson and the rest
Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-02-24
Noted Women Whose Birthday Is Yours
FEBRUARY %
Ernestine Becker
Copyrgn
BY MARY MARSHALL.
=rnestine Becke
Copyrighted, 1913.

February "a should be an suspicious
day for suffragists, for it is the birth
day of Lydia Ernestine Becker, one of
the most energetic of "woman's
rights advocates of the nineteenth
century.
Miss Becker was born in Lancashire,
England in 1927 Her father was a
printer of calico and she was the eld-
est of fifteen children, so her early
days were somewhat taken up with
the cares and responsibilities of her
family. When a young woman, she
went to live with her father in Man
chester and here she started a society
for ladies, in connection with which
she gave free parlor talks and did
what she could TO promote intellectual
activity among the women of Man
chester. But her efforts were not then
of much account.
1t was in 1870, when she was forty
seven, that she heard for the first
time a speech on the subject of
woman's rights. and from that time
the die was cast. The question of
woman's political and economic posi-
ton in England became thenceforth
the consuming interest of her life.
She began to give speeches herself
Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-02-24
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND CANAL TOLLS.

BEFORE CONGRESS the question OF com
pying with the British government for the repea
If m Panama canal exemption of American coaswise ships
~ canal tolls and also the against the of the canal
by rairoadowned the country will be heard from All
the pressure brought Congress IS from foreign
interests York and the transontinenta railroads
The nation calmly relied the distinct and emphac
dge in the Democratic platform that the Panama canal
shall be free coaswse ships and has held TO be
unbelievable that Democratic Congress- elected that pledge
repudae it at the demand OF foreign government
and under the whip spur of the great corporate interests Inc
American people paid the cost of the canal primarily
FOR the benefit and for naval proeco
and the canal American property on American SOIL our
government equal privileges TO all other nations Inc
Panama canal law represents this attitude of the nation which
ateabe time enough for IT to be SO clearly dehned
that it will recognized the murky atmosphere of Washington
Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-02-24
Back Yard Onion Crops.

sack iHTu Ohtoh C'"PT'
From Farm and Fireside.
Charles G. DuMond gives the fol-
lowing account of some quite re-
markable accomplishments in inten-
sive gardening carried on in New
York State:
"The spring of 1918 had 277 square
feet planted to onions in my back
ward. After two families using all
they wanted l sold exactly 1000
punches of onions for $45.34.
after the crop was harvested |
raised several hundred punches OF
radishes. AS | did not keep them
separate from other radishes | sold,
it would be impossible for me to give
YOU the exact number of radishes
grown.
"The onions and radishes were
grown in beds. not rows. The beds
were about two and one-half feet
wide with a path about one foot wide
between beds. AS onion sets and rad
ishes grow very rapidly it is not
necessary to leave space for cultiVa-
ton.
81 raised fully $40 worth on the $50
square feet. After harvesting the
two crops-onions and radishes-I set
this plot to asters and had very
nice flower garden.
From my back yard, which is very
small. | sold SIS worth of vegetables,
besides having all the onions, rad
ishes, asparagus. lettuce. Swiss chard
pieplant and many other vegetables
we could use"
Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-02-24

Smile once In while,
II will make your heart seem ngnter'
Life's Al mirror-if we smile,
Smiles come back to greet us;
If we're frowning all the while,
FrOwns forever meet us.
M. Paul Poiret, the well-known
Frenchman who visited our shores
last fall, carried away some not very
flattering Impressions of our people
and country-says we do not know
how to laugh, or at least must be
made" to laugh. With the French
laughter is the expression of a gay
heart, while with the American
humor is appealed to through the in
telligence.
Even in our sports we are serious,
says M. Poiret. "Those who take
part in them do it as soberly and as
intensely as if it were an act of bust
ness. And the spectators! They
might be watching a man being
tried for his life. They could hardly
look more concerned if they were"
Many people give us the impression
that the famed Damocletian sword
of pain, suspended by thread, hangs
over them constantly ready to fall
and pierce them at any moment, even
in their joys and pleasures. They
never seem to enjoy anything with
out alloy. They give you the i'm
preston that they are conscious of
the skeletons presence at every feast.
The American people as rule
take life much too seriously. They
do not have half enough fun. Eu-
ropeans look on our care-worn, sol
emn-faced people as on pieces of
machinery run at forced speed and
which squeak for lack of oil.
81 question if care and doubt ever
wrote their names so legibly on the
faces of any other population" says
Emerson. ''Old age begins in the
nursery"
Why take life so seriously, any
way? a lot of play will not only
improve your health. but increase
your efficiency wonderfully.
If man is living in a perfectly
normal way he ought not to have,
as SO many have, g haunted, hounds
cd look, as though he suspected
either a policeman or a detective
were on his track. He ought not to
Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-02-24
Fashions and Health.

From the Chicago Tribune.
Five out of every six women stu
dents at the University of California,
il is announced by the women's de-
partment of physical education at
that institution, were upon eXamina-
ton found to be afflicted with fiat
feet or broken arches. High heels are
assigned as the cause. Last year. it
is stated, there was IAN epidemic of
deranged internal organs caused by
tight laCing.
Curvature of the spine is common
among the girl students of the insti-
tuition. Crooked necks, crooked spines,
round shoulders and fiat chests show
a decided increase. The blame for
this ruin of women's figures is thrown
upon Dame Fashion, which, it is al
legged, encourages the 'slouchy pose"
as the acme of attraction in carriage.
When q certain class of reformers
decry the fashions of the day as detri-
mental to good morals they are not
always able to prove their case. The
charge, however, that extremes in
fashion are undermining the health
Of women is in this instance based not
upon sentiment, but upon scientific
measurements taken by a specialist
in physical training. 1t would seem
as if this ought to encourage at least
modicum of common sense in
fashion.
Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-02-24
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
Why Commodore Vanderbilt Went Into Rairoadng

The late Charles A. Clark was as
ISOLATED with Commodore Vanderbilt
from the day when the commodore
abandoned his vocation as a steam
boat and steamship owner and man
ager so that he might take up rail-
road construction, ownership and
management Mr.. Clark served with
three generations of Vanderbilts, the
commodore, his son, William II. Van
derbilt, and the grandsons, the late
Cornelius and William X. Vanderbilt.
For many years ne was vice presi-
dent of the New York Central and
Hudson River Railroad Company,
having authority over the financial
department.
Probably no man. excepting
Chauncey NJ. Depew, knew more OF
the inner history of the Vanderbilt
railroad properties or had more init
mate knowledge Of the personal char
acteristics of the three generations
of Vanderbilts who were in authority
than Mr. Clark After he retired
from active service, when past eighty
years of age, he was fond of telling
his friends what some of the personal
characteristics of the commodore and
his son, William H. Vanderbilt, were
once asked Mr. Clark if he ever
knew what it was that induced Com
modore Vanderbilt to abandon his
vocation as a steamboat and steam
ship owner and manager and take up
railroading.
"The commodore" Mr. Clark re-
piled, was sixty-two years of age
when he began his career as rail-
road man. He had at that time,
presume, about fifteen millions, and
that was esteemed in the early sixties
very great fortune. Daniel Drew
at that time had probably just about
as much, and these two men, wheI
acting together. could make or break
| the money market,
with such wealth and power as
the commodore had most men of that
| day would have been content to ease
up a little. They would have thought
of retirement from active business
But Commodore Vanderbilt was not
that kind of a man. Had he moi
changed his vocation he would have
| remained an active and aggressive
steamboat and steamship owner until
he died.
! Now ! never knew exactly what
| led the commodore to think of the
railroad as his future vocation. But
have always had the suspicion that
il was a remark made to him by Johr
M. Forbes, of Boston. Forbes, you
remember, had the courage to take
up the Michigan Central Railroad
and complete it just about the tims
of the Mexican war. He was also
the originator Of what became this
Burlington system, which for man,
Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-02-24
FACE SHAPED BY SPEECH

That English deforms the mouth
was the excessively odd accusation
made by Lord Ashbourne in speech
to the Gaelic League at Fermoy, and
he described Englishmen as having
thin, prominent lips. long front teeth
and the loola of measly rabbit, says
the Boston Transcript. German, he
said, is strong and vigorous, English
in state of decay. What makes his
diatribe specially amusing is the fact
that one of the German students who
some years ago made q walking tour
through England and competed for a
prize in describing what they saw.
advanced easily the opposite theory.
Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-02-24

Papermakers pay the prreesaidennto o OF
the International union $4,000 year
Hungary has six trade unlonists 10
every thousand inhabitants
Derbyshire, Eng. has had three
ooi1iery disasters since 1857, with
loss Of seventy eight lives.
Iananese maid servants in barren,
Manchuria, are paid $3.50 a month
One male of every four ~ !, ! in and Se sS
is employed in factory.
c,love workers international issued
over 100000 labels last year.
Factories in New Jersey employeaa
s.sss children under sixteen years old,
last year
Tennessee has, new law oreaf fnn
a department OF workshop anu lay
tory inspection.
Canada had $50 trade disputes last asst
year, involving a loss Oh l'oS9'1oo
working days
A recent census of England and
Wales shows total OF 23l women
blacksmiths and helpers.
sixty-one per cent, of strikes ad IN IN
Massachusetts IN lSlS reSuiteo III
better working conditions.
one-eighth of the spinners in the
silk industry in this country are
children.
Wages in the building trades in
k3apan has increased so per cent.
Since 1900.
sixty different occupations are rep
resented in the membership OF the
brotherhood of Railway Carmen of
America.
The American Federation of Labor
advocates suitable and plentiful play
grounds for children in all cities.
The new law in South Carolina
makes county school superintendents
the factory inspectors Tor that ols-
trict.
For each 1000 men engaged in min
ing in this county, 2S.l5 were killed
Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-02-24

years was owned by Boston capital.
Along about 1862 the commodore
met John NJ. Forbes and had a long
conversation with him. Forbes at
that time told the commodore that
with the construction of adequate
railroad facilities the great West
would be opened to agriculture and
there would be enormous supplies of
grain to be moved from the prairies
to the manufacturing towns and to
the seaports. It~was this, Mr.. Forbes
said, which led him to take up the
Burlington railroad plan.
Il know that the commodore had
great admiration for John NJ. Forbes
and / always suspected that what
Mr.. Forbes told him made a profound
impression on him. He was already
the owner of the Harlem railroad. He
bought that originally as a sort of
speculation. He realized that the
neglected and despised Hudson river
railroad, whose terminal was oppo-
site Albany, would be naturally a
line over which agricultural products
of the West would be moved from the
lakes to the seaports
Understanding this clearly, it sud-
denly occurred to the commodore that
If he could control the half dozen
railway lines which connected AL
bany with Buffalo and then could
get control of the bridge over the
| Hudson at Albany, he would secure
a railroad property which would fine
ample business offered at Buffalo by
the steamers that brought grain from
the West. He was a little ahead OF
his time when he began, but his fore.
cast was correct, and it was inevi.
table that he should afterward plar
the extension of his system from Buff
! falo to Chicago by the railroad thai
| skirted the south shores of Lake
| Erie and afterward secure the con
| troll of the Michigan Central. Cur
| iously enough, the Michigan Central
| which passed into the ownership o.
| the commodore, and the Lake Shore
which he secured, were at first strong
competitors, and the Lake Shore was
built with the Idea of competing will
| the Michigan Central.
| Nov, ! do not know positivel!
! that it was John NJ. Forbes who in
spired the commodore with the idet
of taking up the railroad business
but little things which the commo
dore said and little incidents tina
came under my observation con
WINGED me that it was that gentleman
| who opened the eyes of the comma
dore to the opportunities which tn
building up of the West were to offe
to railroads that had terminals OF
the Atlantic seaboard"
| (C,onxrsiohf fQ14 Ia, n 1 Edwards
Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-02-24

Now and then some badly Informed
advocate of the civil service REFORM
In this country points to England as
an example to be commended and i'm
itated. Sir George w. Kekewich, in
London Everyman, shows us that the
civil service system in that land is
not at all a democratic institution, but
was created and is still maintained
as a. refuge for so-called gentlemen
with proper family credentials. So
a dividing line is drawn and higher
and lower divisions are formed
While providing that no man who en-
tered above the line should ever be
sent below it, no matter how inca
nable he might be. it was so arranged
that men once below the line should
tbey might be, and never invade the
Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-02-24
UPLIFT TALKS
BY oRTsoN SWEET MARDEN:
author OF Pushing to the Front" Etc
Copyright. 1918.
WHY so SERIOUS =?

be worried and anxious every min.
ute. He ought not to take his voca-
ton so very seriously, and should
not give the impression that the
whole universe is hanging upon tbs
result of his task.
A great many men fail because
they are too serious because they
develop unsocial, morose. cold quail
ties. which repel and which make
them poor mixers. 1t is the sunshiny
happy nature which attracts friends
and trade The too serious peopls
seem to say, Keep away from me
life is too serious matter to be
spent on trivial things" They are
dry and rutty because there is not
enough play in their lives to furnish4
the necessary fabrication variety, or
change.
Not long ago l heord young
clergyman preach a sermon which
was so very serious, and SO very
gloomy, that it made everybody in
the congregation feel melancholy ana
depressed. There was no uplift, no
encouragement, nothing to stimulate
one to greatest endeavor People did
not go out of the church, as they
should have gone, resolved to try
little harder than ever before. to do
something worth while: but the whole
DO0GfeRdl1Oil Ntnl away Win a
gloomy look on their faces. There
had been nothing inspiring in the
clergyman's appearance, His face
was so serious and his whole man
ner so depressing that it was really
painful to listen to him.
People have burdens enough Of
their own to bear, and do not want
anybody to inject dark, doleful pic
lures in their minds. They go to
church for uplift, encouragement
They want to rid themselves of the
enemies of their happiness and PROS
perity. Thousands of people who
now remain away from church would
gladly go if they could come away
feeling uplifted encouraged, and with
increased hopefulness. He that can
not laugh and be gay should look to
himself" wrote Henry Ward Beecher.
HE should fast and pray until his
face breaks forth into light"
DIR. Marden's Uulift Talks will ap-
pear in the magazine pages of this
paper every Tuesday, Thursday and
Saturday.
Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-02-24

not excluding the theologianS. Their
eloquence seems early dinners; their
satire suggests the twinges of govt.
The tradition lasted we'll into the
nineteenth century. Dickens nearly
always treated the fat man-at least
the benevolent fat man-with affec-
Tomato respect. His Pickwicks and
Cheerybles seem to reflect the con-
viction that stoutness is not only a
natural but a rather laudable condi-
ton for the elderly. And when Tony
Weller declared that width and Wis
dom go together" he was merely con-
densing into an epigram the very
common English idea that native sa-
gacity was to be found in its per-
feet ion in alliance with a profile of
pronounced conveXity. But now the
fat man has no defenders. The med
ical man denounces him. The tailor
only makes him a suit under protest.
The novelist gives him no quarter
The dramatist will allow him no
nice benevolent parts; he is only
introduced to look foolish. The labor
cartoonist adopts him as type of
the capitalist Even the omnibus
conductor makes him the subject of
crude jests.
Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-02-24
Bis StenoSrapber

Does she love you? Well, wonder
Married twenty years, they say
You, so bald and fat and funny,
Grubbing like mole for money
Guess she. likes to spend the plumber
Gee-she knows the way
She's grand one-Lord what dresses
Handsome, too, proud as a queen
With her doings in the papers,
Dinners, dances, all the capers,
Likes to lead the show, my guess is!
You're the gold machine!
If she knew you as know you,
Would she spend it-say?
If she knew each trick and bubble,
Little fishes hooked that nibbe,
Business murders-would she show you
Such grand-stand play?
You're savage money-maker-
Good to her, though, sure-and me.
Kind old pirate! What in thunder
Does she think of you, wonder?
Whatneat stories do you take her
So she will not see?
HARRIET MONROE, in Smart Sc
Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-02-24

and became the editor and chief con-
tributor of the Woman's Suffrage
Journal One of her most celebrated
works was a speech called Political
Disabilities of Women" and this at
tracted wide attention and first
brought her name before the general
public Her labors for the cause were
incessant. and for many years there
was never a suffrage meeting of inn
portance in England at which -she
was not present, usually as one of
the speakers. She did not confine her
labors to suffrage meetings, but used
her influence and her sound common
sense with the makers and admins
traitors of the law as well. Her figure
got to be familiar in political Hobbies,
where she was, however, always
treated with the greatest respect by
her male opponents. She died in 1890
in Geneva at the age of siXty-three.
Among other women of note born
on February "a is Mary Currie, better
known as violet Fame" or Mrs.
Singleton. the English writer. and
Julia de Wolf Addison, an American
writer of prose and poetry. Among
her songs the most famous is 1.-THE
Night Hath Thousand Eyes"
Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-02-24

He found that the trick of speaking
English like an Englishman is to adj
vance the lower jaw a trifie, and he
ascribed to the German language the
fact, or what he took for the fact,
that more Germans than English have
a retreating chin. Apparently great
field is open for science in investigat-
ing the relation between speed and
physiogonomy, with due regard to
the post hoe and the propter hoe.
Nor should the effects Tor the causes)
of taciturnity and loquacity be fg-
nored. If some languages exercise
mainly the tongue and others mainly
the jaws, the results may not be
negligible.
Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-02-24
coLLEGE HEADs PRAISE STUDENT CAMPS.

PRESIDENTS OF nine universities and colleges, including
Harvard Yale Princeton Michigan and Lehgh unite in praising
The army camps held last Gettysburg and
Monterey They the military instruction thorough
the discipline the work enjoyable and the lessons in diet
sanitation and scarcely less valuable the
men than the sodiery training point the
student camps only afford heathfu and useful to
moderate expense but form
rortan adjunct to system of the country 1t
would not be surprising college boys these
carnns next
Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-02-24
F,NCI ,AND'S CIVIL SERVICE

sacred class circle above, not being
eligible by birth and education.
Nomination" says the writer,
'lends itself freely to jobbery, and
there are plenty of cases where
friends and relations of ministers, ex-
ministers and permanent officials
have profited by it. There should be
established system of free promo
ton throughout each office, breaking
down the barrier between the higher
and second divisions, and there
should be a rule that no man should
be imported from outside into the
higher ranks of the staff except for
special reasons, which should be Civ
en- in a report presented to Parlia-
ment.." There may be some food for
thought in this worthy the attention
of the American market.
Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-02-24
IMPERILING THE NATIONAL DEFENSE.

THE NAVAL appropriations sashed remorseessy
those for the army The had pared down by the
secretary possible figures The committee deeply
into these figures dydock Norfolk declared
Blythe department of the first necessity The hope that Con-
from and the world outlook
and batesps abandoned after
the session begun The expected recommend
hatesps will be doubtful of the attitude
porkbae brigade the House and the country district
idea that this battleshps soldiers whip
al create