davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-26
Eaves, D. D.

tornis of that faith are no longer accept able. The angriest mutterings of men who look modern evil in the face are puerile beside the anger of God against that evil But His anger is not spent in mutterings and threatenings. He Is un- der the wrong itself. shaking 1t Into order. bringing truth and righteousness into play, and even stirring the deep dis satisfaction that the socialists themselves feel in the hearts of the socialists.
 Can anyone read. for example, such discussions as that recently conducted in q popular magazine between an eminent Catholic archbishop and an eminent so- cialist without seeing that the evils that are there pilloried were quite as hateful 10 the priest as to his opponent? What We need to remember is that neither side has a monopoly of vision and that God is not far from either.
 So when outrageous wrongs like that unveiled concerning the New York and New Haven railroad comes to light, and the whole nation is stirred to indignation, it is, as a sacred writer puts it. the shaking ef those things that are made nay remain What could more fitly ex- press the elemental fact of social evou- ton, divinely controlled and conducted?
 The task of the modern Christian thinker is to show that the world as it is,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-26

sources. Self interest compels patriot
 ism
 Birmingham is suffering untold and
 unreliable damage from its reputation
 as garden spot of murder and assas-
 slnation. The loss Is both ethical and
 financial It is useless to point to our
 schools and our churches, our women's
 clubs and our brotherhood classes. our
 homes for the orphan and our institu-
 tions for the afflicted. The coroner's
 books speak more thunderously than
 they all
 Public sentiment Is lazy beast that
 sprawls in the fields Some day 1t may shake off its lethargy and do the work
 which 1t should, 1t Is high time it were
 aroused. It is true that on all sides
 barriers have been erected in the path of jutice. The police department is | inadequate. The coroner Is overworked. The sheriff gets as much for arresting and boarding crap shooter as he does
 for performing like services for mur-
 derer. The solicitor has no funds with
 which he might hire detectives to seek out evidence and assure the presence of l important witnesses. He is sorely at q | disadvantage with his opponents of the
 other side of the table, who have their | spotters and their runners and their | jury seecters. The law has become B
 sort of mysticism wherein the eatchword | is more powerful than right itself Frightful odds confront the city and
 county in a war to bring to Justice
 those who have committed murder and
 to discourage assassination in the fu- ture. But those odds can be overcome if the people will.
 | First, that callousness which has cov- | cred conscience must be pared away | Birmingham must cease to look upon murder and assassination as a matter | of course The good citizen must cast 1 aside his garment of smugness. Hs must ponder the fact that Birmingham | Is being harmed. woetully harmed, by | the reputation given 1t by it's bad men. | He must realize that his own interests are being adversely affected by his tol- | eranoe of a carnival of blood. Birmingham and Jefferson county are being Judged in a great measure by it's laWless minority 1t is high time the honest citizenship should assert itself.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-26

any other city in the nation in propor- | ton to size.
 This was certainly 'damper to the ardor of those patriotic business men.
 But they didn't play the ostrich They looked the situation squarely in the face, and they decided it was not right to invite strangers to come to Jackson vile and let them run the risk of in- lection from typhoid fever.
 The boosters drew up an account of
 JaclSsonville's claims to preferment. All the eitys advantages were describe ed in sentences vigorous and terse But tthe first statement in that screed was tnis
 Jacksonville has more cases of ty- phoid fever to the thousand of popula- ton than any other city in the United States"
 The Jacksonville boosters set on foot campaign to reduce the percentage of typhoid fever, and the campaign was a great success. They acted honestly
 with themselves and with the stranger whom they sought to attract to their city. And they made the town more desirable as a place of residence for themselves and their families
 Isn't it better for Jefferson county to be honest with itself in this crisis? It Is utterly useless to attempt to conceal the facts. Nothing can be gained by swelling with indignation over an out side newspapers crediting us with a few more murders than we really com mitted. No advantage is to be had by trying to play Pecksniff as well as Bin sikes. It's not the proper province of Birmingham or Jefferson county to pre- tend to feel slandered when their habit Of blood-letting is mentioned.
 New Orleans is ready to spend hun- drods of thousands of dollars to rid itself of the bubonic plague Cannot Birmingham do something to rid itself of the plague of murder? For a city to be known as harboring the bubonic plague necessarily Is hurtful. Outsiders Will shun It. Its own citizens exist in an atmosphere of uneasiness and appre- hension. Capital will seek no invest. ment there. Property will depreciate. Every incentive Is held out toward elimination of the infection and its
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-26

she was turning it into the means of spiritual discipline and evolution. She had found the "open door which no man can shut" and because of these assured results of life, because heaven awaited her at the end. and her Savior was with her on the road. this was to her a good beautiful, excellent world, for which she sunnily thanked her God.
 Now the opening of the door is what the new view of the universe affords. It tells as that the world has not arrived but is on it's way to a divinely ordained goal. It is very good" because ad- mirably adapted to reach that goal in the end, and even on the road thither to pro- duee and discipline human souls. But it's most splendid significance and value are discovered only. when men find that it's goal is designed for them to win, that they are. as Paul puts 1t, Gods fellow lahorers' builders together with Him. of mansion and a city and a kingdom infinitely satisfying.
 1 find nothing more pathetic in these days than the blind outcry of anti-Chrs- tian socialists, who are turning away from the cnly faith that can really guide their tolls. Thtusting away the foundation stones of spiritual sanity, they think to aid their fellowmen by teaching them to make war on the truth that was held by their fathers and mothers, because the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-26

a ducuble, fluid world. not only moves towards worthy end, but serves ths highest spiritual purpose for every in- divdual en route This is impossible. however. unless the Christian conscience is aroused to battle with the wrongs un- Ger which men suffer. to alleviate dis tress. to abolish the evils that may in- deed have spiritual value to the suffer- CTS but that are evils nev ertheless.
 Many a soul has found itself and reached the highest peaks of manhood in hopeless struggle. for instance, with consumption. To him the i'll itself was a means of grace. Out of the Hons jaws he piucked honey. But consumption and Hons must alike be hanished, and all men must work together with God for their abolition.
 Fino souls have found their most won. cerful selves amid the horrors of want and poverty. But want and poverty are utterly end radically evil, to be con qrered by men of good will.n working tcgether with God.
 So 1t will be seen that the only hope- less element in the task of the Christian arologist arises frorl the selfish indu.- Gence and indifference of wealthy and in- fluentlal Christian" men who have not Vet discovered the 'end of the Lord. which, according to the late lamented Sylvester Horne, means, the goal of Ge6,"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-26

1 If you think over the matter earnestl,
 and sincerely you will realize that yo,
 do not want to leave the world creditor
 to you The pleasing hope of immor-
 tality' urges us to the belief that we snail know and shall feel in our later
 llves the thoughts and feelings of the
 world. We want it said of us, "The
 world owed him much," not .'IIe got more
 out Of the world than he put into it.
 or course in the case of the man fin the joke he builded his thought and pro- Jected action on the idea that the world was about to come to an end and that everyone would perish with it.
 A better rule of action is the belief that the world will continue to exist for an indefinite time after we have left if m Massachusetts the other day there
 was held sort of election to see who
 should be worthy of the honor of be-
 Ing called the first citizen of Massa- chLsetts. Nine representative men made the choice. It fell on Charles William
 Eliot, president emeritus of Harvard uni versity
 With the other honors that have come " am III HIS iOnS lIt--DT. EllOI re-
 gently rassed his eightieth birthday. and he was president of Harvard for 40 years-the educator, the lecturer, speaker and publicist will bear the title of first citizen" of the commonwealth that has produced so many eminent men. It puts him in a class with Webster. the Ad- amses, the Quincys, the Alcotts, the Elm ersons and the others who have made
 tho name of the Old Bay State stand out tefore men.
 | Note
 | Dr. Eliot is not a millionaire | He is not trust magnate." He does | not manufacture watches or snoes or ma ohinery for his own profit primarily and | incidentally for the good of his fellow ! men.
 l He Is not self-seeker. a holder of
 or candidate for political office. He has | no machine" to push him, no. political
 organization to hail him chief. | Yet he Is the first citizen' of Mas
 sachusetts by vote of nine representa- l tive men. True. some may object to his selec-
 ton. You canpot please every one Tn an afair of this kind. But many men and
 women of Massachusetts and of other | states will agree that the selection has been made with wisdom.
 l All of his life pr. Eliot has been . giver of himself, not taker of the
 goods cf others. He has expended hta
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-26

"HERE used to be a multitude oI
 apologists for the existence of evil
 4 in a world which had been 'cre- ated." made" ah1 "finished'' by a God Almighty and absolutely good. Never were defenders more needed, never more valiant. But each generation of theo- logical students gnawed in vain at that bony contradiction. despite the labored arguments of these learned writers, in- tended to make the bones edible and even digestible.
 Speaking for one student, let it be here confessed that the first real help that came to him was from the essay of Hor- ace Bushnell on Moral Uses of Dark Things" But Bushnelrs noble argu- ment. showing that even such evils as insanity may be supposed to have a cer- tain educative value for the race, by no means cleared up the diff culty. It was not proven that there was any inevitableness in such evils, though nothing less than an organic necessity in evil could satisfy writer or reader. But there was a frank intellectual honesty and virile earnestness about bush nell that charmed, even when his message fell srort of full conviction. Happy the student who, in his youth, comes under the influence of such teachers. who at all
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-26

women, but which covers in abject ter
 TOT before the assassin.
 Simply because the Opelil1a News confounded Birmingham with the whole
 United States and remarked that With only IS killed and 245 wounded in Jefferson county July 4, the Birming- ham papers announce the quietest Fourth of July the county ever knew" much indignation has been expressed by local journals. Personally, I can't see any reason for such hullabaloo, and it seems to me that the wrath aroused by the Opelika newspapers s mistake is rather feigned than right eous. If there is any place on earth where IS dead and couple of hun dred or so wounded might be looked for
 with any reasonable prospect of their being found, it is Jefferson county. sheriff McAdory recently reported to the governor of Alabama that there
 were 620 violent deaths in Jefferson
 county in the past IS months.
 1 Rev. H. M. Edmonds a little while ago published the following:
 "The figures gathered in 1907 show Mexico with 142 homicides per million of inhabitants. Others follow: Italy, S5; Spain, 50; Austria, 24 Belgium, 21 Japan, IA; France, 1855; Canada, IS; England, S.4; Germany. 6.5 United States, 115. Only Mexico led the United States. Within our bounds the sections range as follows: Pacific states, 294 per million; central, 9S middle Atlantic, SC; New England, 46; southern, 222 Ala bama leads in the southern states, with California Nevada, Arizona, Col orado, Louisiana and Texas. Jefferson county, according to the coroner's re- port for 1909, 1910. 1911 and 1912, shows an average ratio of 726 per million" Jefferson county has increased its percentage since 1912; however.
 The newspapers of late have contain ed extended accounts of efforts made to apprehend the murderer of Mrs. Bailey, shot to death in the office of Dr. Carman, a physician of Freeport, N. Y. The case was wrapped in mystery. For a time 1t seemed that no solution would be obtained. The authorities were undaunted, however. Day after day they doggedly pursued their duty.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-26

cans and others. underworld is the rule
 rather than overwork. Slangy boys and men have an expres sion
 Lead me to itl" It is an expression of intense desire It means that the thing under discus. sion is something they want very much
 and are willing to take great pains tc get.
 In the olden days there was a roam
 ing. enterprising hardy people who had the same idea The story of their con- quest of half of Europe, starting out from their small peninsulas in the north
 is one of the most fascinating in his tory.
 If you are not familiar with the story read how the, Norsemen or Mortimer or Normars spread from their rocky habl- tation in the north-whence their name to make themselves masters of some of the fairest countries of the earth, as
 far south even as Sicily. There is good reason for thinking that they got ahead of Columbus and the Cabots in the dis covery of America. When the Norsemen wanted something
 they did not sit down and wait for il to fall into their laps. They went out and got it.
 Their ancient prayer ran: 70 Lord, I do not ask you to favor
 me with good things, but only to tel
 me where they are. so that I may gc and get them myself' There's the spirit that made them mas ters. One of their descendants sits to. day on the throne of England, and they left their mark on many other nations
 In mapy respects they were not ad.
 mirable characters. for they were fierce fighters. cruel, bloodthirsty and revenge ful. and what they wanted they took without regard to the rights of prop erty.
 But in their spirit of self-reliance. a. evidenced in their prayer, they wer, wholly worthy of imitation. They acknowledged no superiors ant
 scorred to admit defeat. Repulsed or enc shore they turned the peaks of thei var galleys to another. To the souti and west they pushed their way. wherev CT lay loot and the possibility of con quest They asked no Iavors and feared no odds in fight
 Not even of the God. in whom they be
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-26

n AILRoADs as they exist today in their perfection of rapid tran 7x A sit are a development from be- ginnings the most crude. The first sug-
 gestion of railway was made by the cclliers of English mines who had to transport coal in baskets borne on their heads and shoulders to points where it was handled by wagons which hauled it to q seaport As a matter of labor saving an ingenious miner conceived the idea of placing a large box on four solid wooden wheels to run on two parallel beams of wood, which box was slowly pushed by the hand. The liability of the wheels to roll off the beams led to wooden flanges being nailed to the edge of the wheels. This rude construction proved so serviceable that the coal company improved it by covering the surface of the wooden beams with
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-26
Churches Weak in Japan

TIOul iile NeW lOfk World.
 "Japan's Message to America" a vol ume of essays from eminent leaders in Japanese thought and action, edited and compiled by Naoichi Massaoka, is the latest contribution to a better knowledge of affairs in Nippon.
 The chapter on "Christianity in Japan.' by the Rev. Tasuku Harada notes that there are now in the Island Empire as1 foreign missionaries and 561 ordained Japanese who minister to some 75oOo church members divided among moro than 30 denominations Tn the four im- perial universities there are 800 instruc- schools the number of pupils exceeds devoted to technical and higher educa- ton there are 2000 instructors and 2s000 students. In the 450 middle government schools the number of pupils evceeds 160.000 The mission schools of the anne class have an enrolment of only S4i6 pupils and the higher grades of only 3s2.
 There exists no Christian school worthy of the name of university. The Christian girls schools have fallen behind those of the government. and even the Buddhist institutions are equal to. if not ahead of. those fcstered by the denominations. The pressure on the governments educational facilities is great there being three times as many applicants for schooling aa can be accommodated.
 Doctor Harada is convinced that un- less there is a marked revival in educa- tional effort among the Christian mis- sions, the next 25 years will see the loso of tho greater part of the progress tho churches have made in Japan.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-26

they know who committed the crime under Investigations yet they fear to effect arrests. Why is thsY
 The answer is ready to hand. Law and precedent so often work in the interest oi the murderer that conviction Is evaded by persons whose hands are steeped in the blood of their fellows. The Artemus Quibbles of the bar have so perverted their profession that no means are too low to bring about the acquittal of their clients
 Is it any wonder that policemen and deputies hesitate under these circum- stances? They are also creatures of 1esh and blood. They shrink from bringing an allegation of a heinous crime against a man or woman, well knowing that in all likelihood the cul- prit, although guilty as Cain, will by perjury or chicanery go scot free.
 All of which is most gratifying to the murderer.
 In explanation of Jefferson eounty's red record it is often set forth that this district Is the dumping place of the criminals of the state. On the other hand should be set forth the fact that Jefferson county has more courts than many foreign kingdoms. Law admin
 stration has become to large degree a matching of wits rather than the sift- Ing out of justice
 Many persons will be highly critical of some of the statements made in this article They are of the kind who would cover cancer and pretend that 1t was being healed just because it wasn't seen. They are of the kind who, figuratively, play the ostrich and think they are invisible if only their heads are hidden in the sand.
 some years ago the business men of Jacksonville, Fla, got together and de- cided to make a concerted effort to boost their town. They looked around to find the things they could brag about, and they found many a one Some one suggested that they next look on the other side of the shield and see what there was in Jacksonville that it's best business men should be ashamed of. One thing that caught their at tentlon was the fact that Jacksonville had more typhoid fever each year than
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-26
HIGH TIME FOR ACTION-By, Harry J. Burney

citizens are greatly disturbed over its showing"
 Anniston Star; "It's dull day in this land of Uncle Sam when there's not a killing in Birmingham'
 Montgomery Advertisers: Governor Hooper was in Birmingham the other day, but refused to talk politics. About all he would consent to say was that he was fond of Alabama That's rather a sensational statement. The Age-Her- ald printed it where it usually prints its second class murder stories."
 Montgomery Journal: "The Birming- ham Age-Herald is thoughtless enough to say Citizens of Montgomery have little to regret that agitators are planning the elimination of Sunday golf. Should the reforners succeed in their scheme, players would simply have another excuse to visit real live town It is barely possible that the citizens of Montgomery would prefer to be alive in a real orderly town than to be dead in a real live town"
 Gadsden Journal: "In case Birming- ham loses its fight for the Methodist university, it might devote that half million dollars to stamping out the pistol toter"
 Montgomery Advertiser: "The Gads- den Journal announces as a mater of news that there was not a murder in Jefferson county last Wednesday, but the Journal publishes no affidavits to prove the statement. It may be a month yet before the officers of Jeffer- son will know of the murders that may have happened in Birmingham last Wednesday. Outside newspaper men are not expected to know more than local officials
 Many columns might be filled with excerpts criticizing Birmingham and Jefferson for their propensities toward crimnality. These stinging taunts come from friends of the city and county, not their enemies. They are the observa- tions of sensible men upon a condition better befitting the dark ages than the twentieth century. They are cotnments upon an anomaly-a city progressive and militant in most things, but slink- ing coward before the red hand of mur- der; city that boasts of schools and churches and brave men and noble
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-26

straps of iron and for the wooden wheels, iron ones were eventually sub stituted. The advantage was so great that it came to be adopted throughout the coal regions of England, and was hailed as the advent of a new era in local transportation of coal. This con dition was prevailing when the power of steam was discovered, yet 1t was still a long time before there came the application of steam to railways. The next stride was that of the use of horse power and the tram car for the local handling of coal. Operated with such a degree of success in the trans portation of coal and goods, the tram way came into use for passenger serv- ice, which was introduced by Benja- min Outram in the suburbs of London
 The successful application of steam to railways was due to the indefatig- able energy of George Stevenson, who sought to use an engine of his own make, as early as 1S14, but failed, his