davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-04

1 bullets and Mexican profanity af .hem from the hills round the harbor They also recited the fact that war with Nex- leo was unpopular in the United statas They printed stories of the opposition in the United States Senate. And they told in lurid language of the uprising of the negroes in the south
 The point is, how much have we got on Mexico? We find that now that reason no longer totters upon it's throne. that the state department has no confirmation or single American who has lost his iire Tn Mexico-except those at Vera Cruz Since the landing of the fleet. There was some rioting in Mexico City. but after We get little cooler, perhaps even this may turn out to be nothing more belliger- ant or dangerous than a suffragette parade down Pennsylvania avenue.
 And now comes the crowning and crushing blow to all the Mexican done, that we have had. Up to few days ago there was no conflict whatever. that Huerta was the champion long-distanced drunkard in the universe. Everyone agreed that he was the grand high past master or cheerful drinkers. He was the pride of the Ancient and Independent Order of Booze Fighters and the most illustrious example of intemperance at large He oc- cupied-and held the undisputed honor of being at one and the same time-a per- fecly good horrible example for the Anti Saloon league-and an exemplar of the crowning attainments of the Demon Rum
 But here comes a perfectly reliable American who knows Huerta personally and testifies that the Mexican dictator does not drink. With one fell swoop he knocks gally-west all previous reports of the debauches of the grim old Mexican trouble maker. He hints that Huerta won his race for president through the strong support of the prohibitionists They all supported Huerta, he insisted, and those that didn't are not out of jail yet.
 So this puts us all back right where we started. We know nothing about Mexico. except that when it comes to exaggeration Mexico has very little on us Perhaps some day John Lind, who has been in Mexico, will tell us all about it-in a book. Lind may know a great deal about Mexico, but if he has carefully con- cealed it. He may be figuring on going back down there, and therefore doesn't want to commit himself.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-04
FEARS OF FAMOUS MEN n london Tit Rits

fTOIn LOHuOn Ilt-BllS.
 A peculiar sense of fear is associated
 with many different creatures and things. Lord Roberts, for instance, is afraid of cats. He will not have a cat in the room where he Is sitting. On one oc- casion, when asked out to dinner, his host rather doubted the existence of this fear, and concealed cat in the ottoman in the dining room. Dinner was an-
 nounced and served, but the chief guest
 seemed ill at ease, and at last declared
 his inability to go on eating. as he was | sure there was a cat in the room. A pretended search was made, but disclosed
 no trace of the animal. The famous sol dier persisted in his declaration. Finally l the host, realizing that he was causing 'Bobs' great discomfort, let the cat "out of thet bag and the ottoman at the
 same time, and apologized for the an- noyance caused.
 Another famous man who was super | sensitive to the presence of cats was
 Henry III of France. This monarch dis hhcu thch So iiech'Sis 'hoe hc ""S
 known to faint at the sight of one Two other great generals, Marshal Saxe the French soldier, and the Duke of Schom- berg, also held them in horror. Peter the Great loathed the sight of water. He could scarcely be persuaded to cross a bridge, and if compelled to do | so~ would sit in his carriage, with closed windows. bathed in precipitation. Fear
 of the River Mosera, which flowed
 through his palace garden, prevented him
 ever seeing it's beauty.
 1 Julius Caesar, to whom the shouts of
 thousands of the enemy were but sweet
 music, was mortally afraid of the sound
 of thunder, and always wanted to hide
 underground whenever thunder storm lowered over his army
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-04

The Planter Not to Blame

\ At recent dinner of the American Cotton Manufacturers association held in New York city President Frank A. Vanderlip of the National City bank stated in an address that the farmers of the United States are responsible for the high cost of living from the fact that they utilize but 50 per cent of the possible efficiency of the land and referred to shame fully small average yield' of Amer ican cotton in comparison with the yields of other countries.
 Such an averment is decidedly un- fair to the southern farmer and MT. Vanderlip made quite perfunctory examination of certain economic facts in building foundation for his con- clusions. The yield produced under the European system of agriculture, known as intensive farming, is not the result of policy adopted to obtain remunerative profits upon a large scale, but of a practice followed solely on account of the scarcity of land.
 Unquestionably there is room for improvement in the methods of many of our southern farmers, but with the aid of national department, the as- sistance of federal advice and the knowledge imparted by the numerous agricultural colleges throughout the land, the number of farmers who by laziness or incompetency fail to till the soil to it's fullest capacity is re- latively small
 The problem which now confronts the farmer is not always one of pro- ducing larger crops, but how to ob- tain fair market price for the crop that he does produce. In many locali- ties the "35-cent dollar" is more than a myth and the law of diminishing re- turns keeps the American farmer within rigid limits. The consumer yearly finds himself called upon to advance'his payments for commodities but there is a comparatively small part of the consumers dollar that finds it's way to the pocket of the farmer. MT. Vanderlip will have to search further before he can convince the public that he has discovered in the cotton planter the cause for the high cost of living.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-04
Enjoyed the Opera

Madam Butterfly seemed to have been the favorite opera presented by the Metropolitan company in Atlanta said President George B. Ward of the Bir- mingham city commission, who spent two or three days in the Georgia capital last week.
 ''As l had business matters to look after in Atlanta, l was able to hear but one opera, and l chose Butterfly Every seat was sold and the audience would have been much larger than it was ha ] the capacity of the auditorium been great er It was a beautiful performance.
 Atlanta has added greatly to it's repu- tation for doing things by the success it makes of its grand opera season. Bir- mingham will do something like Atlanta in the grand opera line when it has an auditorium. which will be in the near fu- ture I hope Atlantas s big hall has a seating capacity of about 1000. The Bir- mingham auditorium will be considerably larger"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-04
GROWING NEW YORK

From the New York Sun.
 The Hon. Patrick Henry displayed a poetical exuberance in counting "3,000, ,000' of people in the colonies before the revo- lutionary war. There were some OO0 in ITO and in 17S0 there were only 2,7S1,- GOO. But the virginian's rhetoric may be judged by it's prophetic if not it's mathe- matical side. What would an end of the eighteenth century sage think of a New York city now bigger to be so officially on July 1, 1914, If the calculators of the United States bureau of labor know their business, than the population of the United States in 1900, the year after Pat rick's death? What would Tom Benton think of a New York state that In 1914 held 9,s99,76l, whereas the whole country had 9,63s,4 ,453 inha bitants in 1920, the year of the Missouri compromise?
 In 100 years the population of the state of New York has practically decupled. IE 1s1O, 959,049; in 1910, 91l3,279; in 1914 (esti- mated), 9,S99,761. The Empire state con- tains more folks than Scotland and Ire land together; will soon have more than Ireland Scotland and Wales; has con siderably more than a quarter as many as England.
 This matter of size Is inserted for pur- poses of comparison, not of boast Not vainglory but a certain regret, if not uneasiness, is caused by the ever eager huddling into cities Thus of the esti- mated state growth since 1910 that is 7S6, 4s2, it seems 566,6 is in this city, which Is now going on 6,000000 0, 537 on July D. This without counting it's neighboring and tributary realms of Westchester and the Jerseys. A near S,0O00O0 New York by this time
 Eight million urban and more on this little strip and selvage of nation, now reckoned at somewhat more than 1O9, 100000 souls How long with all their growth can Texas and Oklahoma and the rest of the more and more urban farmers vie with these marvellous Aladdin accre- tions of cities? And Galveston, Houston and the rest will wax faster than ever the rural parts of their state of miracles.
 But how much of conventional senti- mental political economy and Arcadian lament is there in all this grief about
 'congestion and supercitihcation? Civil ization, comfort. social pleasure, the de- light in spectaces are in cities. If life there is harder for the deprived, its op- portunities and its triumphs, its distrac- tions and it's consultations are greater The multitudes come and will keep com ing to the towns What shall be done! Blow them up, as Mir. Wells would The more philosphic or more cynical gen. jus of Anatole France sees them rising again to 40 stories after their destruc. tiOn.. |.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-04

Frances Bowes Sayre, son-in-law of President Wilson, will make an exten- sive tour of the United States in the in- terest of Williams college, of which he is an alumnus. MT. Sayre will begin his tour this month, and will make addresses before the alumni of Williams in a num- Der of American cities, going as far west as the coast He will visit Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle on the Pacific coast. It is hoped to raise a s2,oOo,ooo endowment fund for Will Hams.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-04
WAR NEWS FROM CAPITAL,
By BILL VINES

NV AsaINeToN. May s.-Cspeeial9 W After all Is said and done, how far are we removed from sav-
 agery? How civil is civilization? The in-
 stincts of the wild man. the savage, the aborigine rises up in us ever and anon
 with wild whoop and we thirst for blood
 and the scalps of our fellowmen. These
 wild outbursts. however are but the faint murmurings of our inherited dis positions to get what we want, and if there is no other way to get it--fight for it.
 The narrowness of the margin between
 this advanced age of civilization, when actual money is paid In the form of prizes for the best work done in the promotion of peace. and few centuries ago when
 kingdoms and empires were the reward for prowess in war. is best illustrated in the popular clamor and the strenuous eff forts on the part of many of us to bring about war upon the slightest provocation. When the recent outburst-not yet solved-between the United States and Mexico was in its highest stages of wild excitement, after our fleet had taken Vera VI uz dnu <AmeTlcanS anu MeAlcdHS nau fallen in battle, there took place in this country and in Mexico a furious contest | between the Jingoes as to which could
 out-jingo the other. and which could turn
 out the biggest, heftiest and most aban-
 doned fabrications that would arouse the
 public to a point where 1t would be im-
 possible to avoid war. Stories came from
 Mexico that American refugees were
 being slaughtered like watermelons at the
 annual picnic of the Grand Lodge of
 Colored Knights of Pythias in Mississippi O O'Shaughenessy was assassinated on 10 or
 To different occa asions illustrating that this
 genial Irishman has got the proyerbial
 Thomas cat with his nine lives skinned
 seven ways from the ace. We were told
 that Huerta keeps a distilery working
 over time to supply him with certain
 brand of intemperance, and that there
 was not a minute in the day that he was
 not Tit up' like a cathedral and biting
 off the legs of American citizens, accom- panied with the cheers of the populace In the meantime the Mexican papers were telling of the bravery of their troops at Vera Cruz-how the noble and patriotic General Maas was sinking the battleships with great regularity, firing soft-nosed
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-04
The Jefferson County Schools

The importance of the one mil school tax in Jefferson county can not be too strongly impressed upon the voters who will have an oppor- tunity of casting their ballots week from today for or against the propo- sition to continue this tax, which has been in effect ten years.
 According to a provision in the con- stitution a special tax of one mill could be levied for a definite period, such period to be determined by the qualified voters. That period was fixed at ten years, and as the ten year limit is about to expire the vote on May II will be simply on a con tinuance of the tax for another ten years.
 The money raised from the one mill tax all goes to school maintenance. Most of it is applied to teachers sal aries; none of it to buildings. As stated in yesterdays Herald, the revenue obtained from this small tax amounts annually to nearly $150,000. Should the county be deprived of this revenue the schools would be seriously crippled.
 Every voter should have this matter in mind and go to the polls and cast an affirmative ballot.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-04

Mrs. Charlotte Smith of Boston has sent an appeal to President Wilson asking him to spare Massachusetts bachelors if he issues a call for volunteers to serve in Mexico. Mrs. smith does not like bache- lors and has tried to have a special tax
 imposed on them, but they are so far outnumbered by women in the Bay state that she proposes to recruit regiment of 800 women, ranging from 25 to 45 years old. to serve as sharpshooters. She says they would make good soldiers. because they are accustomed to Hong hours of toll, light rations and small remunera- tions. They would never be missed from this state should they fall in the service of the country says Mrs. Smith, be cause there are 100000 surplus women ir Massachusetts
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-04
GREAT TRIALS OF HISTORY
TRIAL OF SANGUILLY

the committee who was conducting the war against Cuba from New York city. Sanguilly had not been in New York since 1S7S There was others little less serious if they had been true. One un- fortunate element in the case was the inability to prove some of the charges
 brought against the prisoner on account
 of the death penalty that had been ad- ministered to some of his friends who would have been able to assist him in proving his innocence.
 , This was the second trial of Sanguilly the first having occurred the previous year and resulted, on December 5. 1895, in his being condemned to life impris- onment in chains. The second trial ended ! on December 26, 1896. repeating the sen tence of life imprisonment and ordering the prisoner to pay half the expenses. Counsel for the prisoner announced that | they would appeal from the judgment of the tribunal to the supreme court at Madrid on the ground that the indict- ment was defective in form and that the court proceedings were irregular and
 therefore an infringement of the law.
 Sanguilly, after the verdict was rem
 
 began serving his sentence From this
 on the United States government was l active in their efforts to have him re- | leased. This they were not able to &C.,
 complish until February 25, 1896. upon
 which day the Queen of Spain signed | formal decree of pardon.
 l Sanguilly was released the following l day and upon the condition that he
 would leave the country and abandon any claim for damages. He arrived at | Tampa, Fla, on March 1, and felt quite | relief to be in the land of the free after the years spent in the Cuban fort ress However, he did not find it so free
 after all, for on April ', 1897, he was
 again arrested by a United States mar | shal on a warrant sworn out by Juan Poteous, the Spanish vice consul. The
 charge was attempting to fit out mili-
 tary expedition against the people and property of the King of Spain This ar | rest was made with the knowledge of 1 the government at Washington. He was
 tried the following day, but no evidence
 could be found of his having been en- gagged in any way in filibustering. and
 he was eventually submerged in the more important events that followed.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-04
Beautiful Music

q had the privilege of attending the full rehearsal of the festival chorus at the Biiou this afternoon" said music lover last night and I was more than pleased with the work of the singers and delighted with the composition be- ing rehearsed-'Paradise Lost by Du- bois. This oratorio, when heard with the great solo quartet and the St. Louis Symphony orchestra next Thursday night will thrill the audience.
 "I have never heard such beautiful oratorio music and certain it is that Birmingham has never heard vast chorus well trained Rienzi Thomas is the director and he will win new laurels when Paradise Lost has it's public performance"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-04

Last week an American at Vera Cruz named Mulcahy volunteered to assist United States troops in searching for arms. because of his knowledge of Span ish and his acquaintance with the town. He was given a squad of soldiers and did some effective work, but it was learned that he had gone to a gambling house and appropriated s5ooo in gold in the name of the United States Mulcahy was tried before military court, found guilty and sentenced to five years im- prisonment
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-04

diation between Mexico and the United States Is of priceless value. It gives opp portunity for overheated feelings to sub side as well as for sober second thought to assert itself among all concerned. Huerta no doubt realizes that the United States is in earnest. So. too, must Car ranza and Villa. War would mean an end to the political ambitions of all three The way is apparently now opening for Huerta the chief cause of difficulty, vo withdraw if a fair opportunity Is of fered His political elimination in case of war Is inevitable. His personal lib- erty would be in peril; also his life and property. which he can best assure by withdrawing. He now has the choice of either surrendering his political ann bitions and preserving his liberty and property, or going to war and possibly losing all three. It would seem as If he would certainly choose the former. especially If his exit is permitted with out humiliation. It would be premature to assume that the Mexican difficulty is ended. One dangerous crisis has been passed, but other hitches must be ex- pected in the long negotiations which are still in prospect; Mexican evils being altogether too deep to permit an i'm mediate solution. Out of the muddle of the past few weeks a few controlling facts are gradually becoming more clear. The first is the United States is over whelmingly opposed to war. The sec ond is the administration at Washing ton has opened the door to mediation. l; +to% d rectly interested are at one with the United States The fourth is in the entry of the A. B. c. powers in South Amer ica Argentina, Brazil and Chile) as factor in the international policy of the Pan-American republics. Their inclu- sion in the negotiations will in all prob ability be helpful. It will help soften the suspicious of the South American repub- lies toward the United States, and it will gratify South American ambitions to be considered as of importance in the family of nations. 1t will certainly be good policy for the United States to consider any friendly suggestions com ing from that quarter; while Mexico will have the advantage of securing sympa- thetic advisers
 There are two really encouraging fac tors in the situation which have tempo rarily been lost to view. Our crop outlook is generally hopeful. This is particu- larly true in regard to the wheat crop the prospect for which from present ap- pearances is a magnificent yield of fully 5000 100000 bushels, which far exceeds any other crop in our history. There is also an abundance of loanable funds at low rates. Bank reserves are rising, and the outlook is for prolonged ease. This fact
 is not only favorable to the better class of investments, but cheap money will be a powerful aid to business recovery once confidence is restored. Lack of con- fidence today Is the main cause of busi- ness depression"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-04

sEAsICK MENAGERIE

sEAsICK MENAGERIE
 From the Philadelphia Record.
 A camel can go eight days without water and feel no i'll effects; but whom a camel is eight days on the water then 1t is something different. There were 1s camels aboard the Bamburg-Amerioaa liner Bohemia when she arrived here yes- terday from Hamburg. after a stormy voyage. and they were a pretty sick lot. None of them was able 10 stand after the vessel left the North Sea.
 The camels were shipped from Russia and with them were 24 antelopes from East Africa, six llamas from Siberia, and six bison from Nlgritia. All were affected by the terrific battering of the waves, and the means of the seasick an- imals had such a depressing effect on the crew that several hardened old salts succumbed to seasickness, much to the amusement of the younger sailors.
 Because there is no Federal animal quarantine near Philadelphia the anil mals will be taken to Baltimore for in- spection. If the inspectors permit them to be landed they will DC sent to various geological gardens throughout the coun- try All are said to be fine specimens.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-04

lNNE of the direct influences that iV brought on the war between the United States and Spain in 1898, | aside from the blowing up the Maine,
 was the arrest of American citizens by the Spanish government of the island in opposition to a treaty that existed between the two countries which had
 stood since 1921. One of the men upon whom the Spanish government was spe- cially severe was General Julio Sanguilly who had been imprisoned, contrary to this treaty, for several years.
 On February "A. 1897, the question was taken up by the Senate demanding re- lease of the prisoner. The resolution that was adopted was as follows: .Ihat the government of the United States demands the immediate and uncondi- tional release of Julio Sanguilly, a citi-
 zen of the United States, from impris- onpent and arrest under the charges that are pending and are being prosecuted against him in the military and civil courts of Cuba upon alleged grounds of
 rebellion and Kidnapping The resolu- tion also stipulated that the Spanish gov ernment should compensate Sanguilly for
 his Imprisonment and sufferings.
 | Sanguilly had taken out his naturaliza- ton papers as citizen of this country in 17S7. He had been native of Cuba. | On the day before the rebellion broke out 300 miles from Havana he was ar rested in the bathroom of his house. He was immediately taken to jail and on
 the same night was put through vigor-
 ous examination by military officers
 without the presence of counsel or wit nesses.
 l It is obvious that the charges were false from the fact that Sanguilly's 8 wound would have kept him out of &C., ] tive service of Cuba. But he was kept in 1 prison, under one pretext and another,
 for a long period. Finally, after many
 delays and many protestations on the part of the government of the United
 States, in November, 1896, he was placed on trial The American government, up to that time, was in total ignor- ance of what the charges were. The prisoner and his counsel demanded the
 charges but were refused. The trial was
 continued to December 23, 1896, and no 1 evidence was given which in the
 slightest degree would convict Sanguilly. ] He was accused of being a member of