davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-12-05
MORoPUs IN QUARRY
om the New York Times.

FTOln the NeW IOrk lllneS.
 Four specimens of the great clawed un- gulate, known to scientists as the mo- ropus, an animal resembling the horse and the rhinoceros, which roamed the western country some 100000 years ago, were found in a fossil quarry at Agate, Neb., by Albert Thompson, who has re- gently returned from an expedition in of Natural History. The moropus Is said to be related to the odd-toed upgulates, of which the horse. the rhinooeros and the tapir are living representatives, and dates back to the Miocene period.
 The quarry where MT. Thompson un- earthed his find was first opened up by the members of an expedition sent out by the Carnegie Museum of PittsburE, and it Is the only place known in the world where specimens of this strange animal have been found in abundance. Examples have been found in Europe of the creature, but only in fragmentary pieces, and the mammal is therefore rep resented only in a limited way in the big museums abroad. The moropus Is long legged beast with a rather small head, large feet, and an enormous slaw on each toe. Even the scientists are puzzled as to what use he made of his claws. The specimens found by MT. Thompson will be mounted in group and eventully will be placed
 on exhibition in the Tertiary Mammal hall of the museum. The quarry at Agate
 where these examples of the moropui l were found is said to be filled with thou
 sands of skeletons of the early rhfnos eros.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-12-05
THE WAR CRITICS
From the Cleveland Plain Dealer

From the Cleveland Fla1n Oeaiei-
 The war critics were sitting around the blr drum stove in the crossroads store on Saturday night. Peleg Barnum be- gan it:
 ssEf old Sherman wux over thsre ne q soon show 'em . thing or two. remem- Der jest. as well as yesterday at At lanta-"
 ..What gifts me Is why they don't double up thet left wing an force it back on tn center, tn way Grant done at -"
 "Ef they had Little Phil to handle their cavalry fer 'em, they'd soon cut off in other fellers' wagon trains an stampede tn food cattle. I wux at Winchester when he came peltin' down tn pike -
 There's no use talkin', there ain't any battles nowadays like Gettysburg. When the Johnny Rebs of ol' Pickett's division come up tn hill an - "Ef they had Dave Farragut to run ,n' forts like he did at New Orleans. they could split tn fightin' territory right in two. Dave would hev showed 'em. You don't see nothin' nowadays that equ&as what he done. I see them trying him to tn mast when he - Tt seems dunn funny to me thet in all ! these years they ain't' improved none i'll tn art of fightin'. Why. in 'SS - Say. boys, I got to shut up now. It's gettin' late. Most 3 o'clock. Fine an clear outside Yes. 1t looks a little like snow. Good night. good night.'
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-12-05

grateful to him, no doubt, than would be his advancement to the rank of lieutenant general.
 It is a noteworthy fact that Funs- ton, who used to be considered alto gether spectacular and man itching for notoriety, has turned out to be one of the best poised men in the army. At Vera Cruz his mission was delicate and at the same time he had to be a strict disciplinarian. He more than fulfilled expectations. A former news paper reporter, famed in early days mostly for his intrepidity and his "fussiness," rose to the occasion in Mexico and distinguishes himself as few officers have done since the Span ish- American war
 It is another proof of the sobering effect of grave responsibility. The public will heartily second the Presi- dents earnest and eloquent tribute.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-12-05
Good Work for Tax League

The movement seeking legislation for a reconstruction of Alabama's tax system is being actively supported by leading citizens of the state, but Tn order that the needed reform may inn press itself quickly and with prac- tical effect upon the incoming law makers a tax league must be organ ized in every county.
 The county organizations already formed have done valuable prelim- mary work in the matter of arousing public interest in the movement. But
 every taxpayer should be enrolled as
 league member, and not only en-
 rolled, but he should become at once
 an active factor in the cause. Thursdays meeting in Montgomery
 of representatives of county leagues for the purpose of forming a central state organization was full of the true civic spirit and the resolutions adopted will be read with statewide interest.
 Many measures of deep concern will
 be introduced in the new legislature, but none of more far-reaching i'm 
 portance than that providing for an equitable tax system. Indeed it is not too much to say that this tax question will come first in importance.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-12-05
LUKE M'LUKE SAYS


 Loveless marriages are quite common. But a girl simply couldn't think of 8 ringless engagement.
 bad man will tell you to so to the devil, but a bad woman will lead you there.
 With some girls clear conscience runs second to a clear complexion.
 A Pittsburg woman holds that four years is long enough for any woman to live with any man. Well, if we could get a certificate entitling us to cop out a new wife every time we voted for a President, there wouldn't be any trouble getting the men out to the polls on election day.
 The old-fashioned man who used to be a champeen checker player now has 8 son who comes home every night with a pocket full of pool checks.
 It is hard for a man to mend his ways so the patches won't show After sizing up some of the weird look. ing couples riding around in hacks with old shoes and white ribbons tied to tho rear of the vehicles. a man gets the idea that we do not need a eugenic commission as much as we need a fool killer. Education may be good stun. But any girl would rather have naturally curl, | hair than a degree from vassar. When duty calls most of us roll ovs
 in the hay and pound the other ear Some men pray on Sunday and prey thu l rest of the week.
 l man will do a whole lot of things fo l his wife. But he seldom gets the idc' | into his head that he should teach he how to shoot . revolver
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-12-05
Modern Warfare

"No one save those who have ac- tually lived in the trenches will ever know what life there is really like," writes the correspondent of the Lon don Chronicle. My impression is that nearly all heroic stories falsify the facts. Why could we not see the in- fantry pushing forward their lines just outside of Ypres yesterday? Be- cause they were underground and their progress probably consisted of the capture of score of yards by mining.
 Almost the whole line from the North Sea into Alsace, is stationary and is underground, and battles in the olden sense are rare and will become rarer That sort of thing is disappear ing, and with it the fierce pride of the old warriors, their professional habits and their superstition of glory"
 A sad commentary on these degen- crate times when infantry troops bur TOW in the earth and artillery batter ies miles away from the enemy "do days shelling" much in the matter of fact way that any other work is car ried on! Some recent moving pictures taken with the consent of the Belgian government in and about Antwerp, Malines, Termonde and other cities in the war zone, indicate that the Chron- icle's correspondent does not exagger- ate. Modern war has become strictly a long distance affair. The trenches might as we'll be equipped with those impossible comforts depicted by some of our humorous cartoonists, for they are evidently more or less permanent quarters.
 Battles are carried on by telephone by general who sits far away in some quiet spot, assisted by a num- Der of other "war scientists" and the old fashioned charges, such as Meis- sonier painted, are rapidly becoming a
 back number. There have been many clashes, it is true, that were "elemen- tai" enough to suit the shades of
 Hannibal, Caesar and Alexander the
 Great, but for the most part the fight ing seems to be monotonous and dis piriting test of artillery.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-12-05
GIRL WHO WANTED A MAN


 From the New Orleans States.
 A group of girls were recently shocked when one of their number, a recruit from the country, said, quite candidly:
 i've come to town to get a man."
 There wasn't a bit of reason why she shouldn't get one-and a good one for she was a fine looking. healthy, whole souled miss. fit to be a mother of fair women and brave men and to be an in- spring partner in a successful home.
 The other girls. no doubt, had often looked forward to love, marriage, mother hood and home management, including the inevitable man. But when she spoke her thought frankly they recoiled.
 Tt was so indelicate," one afterward said Even If girl thinks that way, 1t isn't nice for her to say it."
 Yet none of them thought there was anything indelicate about learning to teach, to keep books, to typewrite or otherwise to equip for the pursuit of a career in business. That had become quite conventional.
 It was only the supreme interest in q woman's life. the thing for which nature through all the ages has been fashionins her, the function without which there would come swift end to the race, that could not be spoken of directly. How about it? Was the girl from the country at fault? Or Is coyness really preferable to candor?
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-12-05
Presidents Appreciation of Funston

Presidents Appreciation of Funston
 President Wilson has not only statesmanlike way of viewing national and international problems, but he is ready of appreciation of the good, work of the men in government ser vice; and whenever some one in army or navy acquits himself with signal ability the President in felicitous sentences comments him publicly.
 President Wilson's commendation of General Funston and the officers and men who were under him at Vera Cruz was in the best of taste and had the ring of sincerity which characterizes ell his utterances. Major General Funston is now as high in rank as he can rise under the present law pro- viding for grades in.the army, bat the Presidents appreciation is more
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-12-05
MOTOR BIKES DISTURB LION lendale 1Calo Dispatch fin the Los An

MOTOR BIKES DISTURB LION Glendale tCal) Dispatch in the Los An
 geles Times
 The sleep of lion was disturbed, street was converted into a milky way, three motorcyclists were injured and four vehicles damaged as the result of two accidents here last night.
 Irwin van Osdoll and Mason Morris, both of this city. were riding on motor cycle, tandem fashion, last night, when they crashed into an unlighted wagon of the Barnes circus just leaving town. on Central avenue.
 So vociferous were the protests of the lion in the cage of the wagon on being disturbed in its slumber that its roars attracted several score of persons from the neighborhood. They found the young motorcyclists stretched out, and to secure an ambulance John Gait, janitor at the Glendale Union High school, leaped into the saddle of his motorbike and speeded to the police station. At Central avenue and Seventh street he crashed into . dairy wagon.
 The motorcycle was wrecked and the wagon overturned, spilling milk in all directions. MT. Gait suffered decorations of the hands and face.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-12-05
WHEN GAS LIGHT WAS NEW

W. c. Jenkins in the National Magazine
 Probably the first exhibition of ini'am mable gas ever given in this country was the display made by fireworks in 'Phiia- delphia in 179S The exhibition was merely for entertainment purposes. The gas was released through holes in iron tubes Tor the burner, as we know 1t today, had not been invented. No one. however, thought the illuminant would ever be generally utilized, and 1t never dawned upon those who saw the exhibition that the ta'iow candl ewould in the course of time. be driven from the field by this peculiar com modity. It was half a century after this Philadelphia exhibition before gas had taken the place of candles and oil lamps Tin the homes of the best people of our American cities.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-12-05

100 per cent. After the Spanish-Amer can war iron went from S7.50 per ton f. O. b. Birmingham to s26 ton-an advance exceeding 300 per cent. Wheth- CT this present war will produce the same results remains to be seen. or course the damage of war must be re- paired and this war has been and will be more destructive than any conflict which the world has ever known. Pes simists point out that the world will be so exhausted financially by the war that there will be no credit left for the purposes of restoration. But the facts of history are against them, as all re- cent wars have been followed by periods of great industrial activity
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-12-05
THE BATTLEFIELD

John Reed in the December Metropoli-
 tan.
 Two weeks after the terrible battle of
 the Marne we went to Esternay to see
 the battlefield Between Esternay and Se-
 game, you will remember, the fercest
 fighting took place. There the entire
 front of Von Bulow's army smashed into
 the French right wing and fought cease-
 lessy for three days; continuing a rear guard battle as it retreated northward again.
 In the cafe at Esternay where we had lunch there were several French officers, and the French commandant of the place looked over our passports and courteous ly directed us to the battlefield. In Es- ternay itself there was a hole in wall where a shell had struck. It had been plastered up again and two weeks more of sun and rain would so obliterate the newness that one would never know that there had been any shell. The chief in- dicatlon of war was that eggs and milk were still hard to get. And then there were fiies--thousands and thousands of fiies-which had come to light upon the dead and would be gone with the cold weather.
 But already along the length of the bat tlefield a man driving a blow shouted to his oxen; already many scars of the | shells lay under the brown furrow, nor could one tell where they had been. Even I in the valley where the French infantry | had reformed again and again under the awful fire, and where wisps of straw and | a few tin cans were all that remained to show where an army had camped, new pale violet crocuses stood up from the ex- | uberant earth like lamps in the shade. For the blowing and sowing of the harvests, the swinging seasons-cold win ter and the stirring of the blood of the l world in March-love and death, and the need of food and clothing, will be the only reality of their life. As it has been | from time immemorial. in spite of wave | after wave of Hun and Visigoth and the devastation of forgotten wars. The fields | shall heal themselves of their scars; but more patient than they. the people oi
 this little village will do their will with
 the life impulse. And yet they jabbel to us of the enormous destructiveness ol | modern war
 Here in the fields were long. fiat mounds of yellow earth-traces of quicklime abou l their edges-where the dead had beer
 dragged by the leg and buried: Germani
 and French together One long mount
 bore a wooden cross hung with flowers. oi
 which was inscribed: Here lie 43 Eng lishmen of the 7Sd Regiment of the Line
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-12-05

Champagne, France is an ancient prov ince which formed one of the 12 military governments of the kingdom It's name, formerly Champaigne, is derived from the great plains which are it's chief character istic. It is bordered on the north by Hainaut and the bishopric of Liege: on the east by the duchy of Luxembourg and Lorraine; on the south. by Franche- Comte and Burgundy and on the west by LOT leanais, L1sle de France and Picardie
 Its fertile fields produce the famous wine to which its name has been given. This wine Is now made chiefly in the depart ment of the Marne and is divided into river and mountain wine The former is white for the most part and the latter red. Not all the wines produced here are sparkling and frothy. The name cham pagne is usually applied to the latter sort. The bubbles" in champagne are due to imperfect fermentation, a certain amount of carbonic acid gas having i'iihe" III ihe potte uurihs the process which is released when the cork is pulled. The briskest wines are most lacking in stimulating effect, and the small quantity of alcohol they contain escapes readily from the froth as it rises to the surface. Connosseurs value the still" or slight ly creaming' wine most highly. By icing champagne before serving and also by keeping the bottles cool while stored the tendency to effervesce is lessened.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-12-05
BELGIUM OF YESTERDAY

From the Kansas City Star. <<6NHE Belgium of today has an area
 less than one-fourth as great as
 . Mississippi, writes William Joseph Showalter, yet at the outbreak of the present war its population was four times as large as that of Mississippi. Twenty-two and a half countries like Bel gium could be tucked away in state like Texas and their aggregate popula- ton would sbe more than that of the United States and Germany together"
 According to this writer Julius Caesar himself bears early witness, who, he says, were braver than the Aquitani or the Celts due to the fact that they were near CT the Germans, with whom they were constantly at war.
 Within Belgium's Ii ,S73 square miles of territory, smaller than Massachusetts and Connecticut, with a population of 7,57s,ooO, there lived at the outbreak of the war nearly 100000 French speaking Walloons who cannot talk with a like number of their compatriot Flemish speaking Flem- ings In their habits of mind and meth ods of gaining a livelihood they differ as widely as the EnBuSn ana the rTencns but the bond of religion has bound them together for generations with never & fra tricidal war in their modern history.
 The Belgian constitution, framed in 1s3O by a convention of Belgians, guarantees freedom of conscience, of education and of press, and the right of peaceful as- semblage. The kingship is filled by suc- cession. There is a cabinet, a Senate and a House of Representatives. A senator s pay, remarkable as it may seem, is a free pass on the railroads without a dol lar of actual salary. representative gets a free pass and $500 a year.
 The suffrage laws are interesting A Belgian gets one vote when he reaches the age of 25. If, at the age of S5, he pays $1 in taxes, and is married or a widower with legitimate children, he gets second vote. If he pays cer- tain amount of taxes or holds a university diplomacy he is entitled to two additional votes-except that in no case may a man cast more than three votes. In se-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-12-05
Pigs and Other Crops

Within the past few years the United States department of agricul- ture and the agricultural branches of polytechnic schools or colleges have co-operated earnestly in disseminat- ing information of practical value to the farmer, and excellent results are now seen.
 No better educational work has been done by the government than in the constructive ideas expressed in plain and convincing language set forth in the agricultural department bulletins. These bulletins are supplemented from time to time by demonstration work and the progressive spirit of agricul- ture in the south, traceable to the efficiency of the agricultural depart ment, is adding vast wealth to this section One of the latest bulletins was summarized by The Age-Herald's Washington correspondent in yester- days issue. It urged the raising of pigs, horses and mules as remunera- tive products of the south.
 Every farmer appreciates, of course, in a general way the value of pork as farm asset He knows how to fatten pigs. He knows when hog killing time comes and how to make sausage, trim spareribs and cure bacon. The old time husbandman not only knew all of these things, but he knew as well how to make hogs "money crop.' But the animal industry, like everything else connected with husbandry, has been advanced scientifically, and now in or der to get the best results the farmer must pay attention to the breed of his swine and know how to select the best. It was never considered good farming from a commercial point of view to fatten a "poor folksy" pig, albeit razor back bacon in former days "eat" well. It is just as impor- tant to have only blooded stock in the pig field as in the COW barn or the horse barn. And after starting to raise pigs of high grade it is of the utmost importance that they be well treated.
 At the present time there are many farmers in Alabama who have pig barns of modern sanitary appoint ments. It should not be long before every farmer is up-to-date in his hog crop. As Uncle Sam says, expensive houses are not necessary. The farmer who failed to read the article in Fri days Age Herald on the cost and profit of pigs should procure a CODY of the paper and get the benefit of the agricultural departments valuable suggestion and discussion. And in this connection attention is being fixed more and more on crop diversification
 Cotton is great crop-the greatest of farm products when there is moi too much of it. But it will certainl, pay the Alabama farmer in the long run to plant less cotton and more ot everything else. M
 --.A.a-i i..sst I-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-12-05
WHEN THE FROST IS ON THE PUN-

By James Whitcomb Riley. When the frost Is on the punkin and the
 folders in the shock, And you hear the kyoucS and gobble of
 the struttin' turkey cock. And the clackin' of the guineys, and the
 clucl<in' of the hens, And the rooster's hallylooyer as he tip-
 toes on the fence; Oh, it's then the times feller Is a-feelin'
 at his best, With the risin' sun to greet him from
 night of peaceful rest, As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and
 goes out to feed the stock. When the frost is on the punkin and the
 fodder's in the shock. There's somethin' kindo' harty-like about
 the atmosphere, When the heat of summers over and the
 coolin' fall is here Of course we miss the flowers. and the
 blossoms on the trees, And the humble of the hummin birds
 and buzxin' of the bees; But the airs 50 appetizin'. and the land
 scape through the haze Of a crisp and sunny morning or the
 airly summer days Is a pictur' that no painter has the col
 orin' to mock When the frost Is on the punkin and
 the fodder's in the shock. The husky, rusty rustic of the tossels of
 the corn, And the raspin' of the tangled leaves. as golden aS the morn; Tue stuhbie in the ffrries-kindo' lone
 some-like, but still A-preachin' sermons to us of the barno
 they growed to i'll; The strawstack in the medder, and tho
 reaper in the shed; The hosses. in their stalls below-tha f clover overhead! O.. it sets my heart a-clickin' like the
 'ticlxin' of clock, When the frost Is on the punkin and the
 folders in the shock!