davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-09

give assurance to France that the can didature of the Prince of Hohenzolern should not be renewed. M. Benedetti, the French ambassador, came on the 18th to Ems, where the King was staying. and mand. King William not only refused to grant 1t, but declined to listen further to M. Benedetti on the subject"
 Then, acting about like Emperor Will liam is doing now, Emperor Napoleon drew the sword. It was a fatal mistake In little space of time his country was crushed and humiliated.
 Won Bismarck. Von Moltke and Von Roon were the mighty Teutonic trium- virate which so swiftly humbled the Gauls. Napoleon. misnformed as to the true state of affairs in Germany and futilely hoping that the South Germans if they did not actually join France, would at least remain neutral rushed headlong to his doom. He was soon a prisoner and his capital of Paris was compelled to yield to the conqueror. Emperor Will liam may dream that he can repeat the triumph of his grandfather, but with millions of Slavs in arms upon his east ern boundaries such a dream seems an idle one.
 There is another party to the Triple Alliance-Ttaly. What of 1t in this orld-shaking convnlsion? Has it at tempted the role of dictator of the af- fairs of all other countries of Europe, the floor manager of continental con duct? Emperor Williams grandfather united Germany. Victor Emmanuels grandfather united Italy. Those for mer timers welded together inchoate fragments of empire They strengthened vastly the thrones they inherited Each Vas warrior and statesman.
 It was grandfather Victor Emmanuel who put Italy on it's feet and it was grandfather William who made Ger many the leading state of Europe. But grendson Victor Emmanuel and grand son William are men who differ widely m their chief characteristics The King of Italy has tried to keep out of the rresent troubles. Although allied close ly with Germany and Austria Hungary, ae announced that he intended to pre- serve a strict neutrality. There may be several reasons for this attitude.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-09

It is to be supposed that among the greatest forces leading in this direc- ton is the quite incalculable influence of Tolstoy He showed us Christian priests in league with an alleged Christian gov- ernment to perpetuate the sufferings of men. to postpone their deliverance from bondage and false beliefs to bind them in new bonds and to threaten them with new cruelties if they showed hunger for real purity and welfare.
 These things moved all on a common plane. Tolstoy helped the Plymouth Brethren to open the Bible again to the unprejudced eyes of those most familiar wits it's text And though Tolstoy was anathema to pious orthodoxy. these alike aided the common movement toward a humane rather than theological, re- lgion. Heaven began to recede into a vague background, andithe present world Ice med larger and larger as the field of the final triumph of good over evil. And among the forces impelling that movement forward must be reckoned every attempt at betterment. every cry of the outraged conscience of mankind. every reform pro- gramme, every vision of a new heaven and new earth, not excluding the blaz- ing insanities of the French Revolution, the dry mathematics of cooperative so- cieties. the journeys of Howard among the prisons, the compassion of Robert Raikes for the gutter snipes of Gloucester. the stormy inspiration of Shelley or the agonies of civil war in America.
 2. But because men were bidden attend to immediate and pressing ideals it was inevitable that they should lose interest in the more remote. Preachers began to quote the modern poets and seers. Carlyle
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-09

Hs HEsE papers make no claim to be
 more than fugitive glances at cer-
 4 tain features of modern unbeiief and the new statement of Christianity in reference thereto. They make no original contributions to the science of theology, except as every honest mind is necessarily original when dealing with it's own think 4jng on these infinite concerns. But they are attempts to so restase the truth that other honest minds. perplexed amid the break-up of childish conceptions, may take courage to lay hold of the essential reality without confusion. and find ground for mans faith, a mans convictions. mans tenacity. a mans humble obedi- ence and humble hope.
 It has been the writer's hope in recent months to hear more sermons than he has himself preached, and to discover that the new emphasis on the social Cos tpel is everywhere dulling the ,.ld em- phasis on heaven But Is 1t true that the new theology has banished the thought of heaven from mems minds? What does the modern mind think about the world to come? What does Christianity teach? Can that teaching be sustained by mod ern intelligence? Apologetics is a very inclusive term for any defensive state- ment of the faith Does heaven require to be included in the new apologetic?
 l. The revolt from what must be called the individualism of the old popular preaching was very natural and very wholesome. It started by a newly awak- ened interest in the study of the Bible. The student found that there is much more in the Gospel about a Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven to be achieved
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-09

more in the nature of explanation of causes of current unbelief But the two lines are not so far apart as they might seem. It must be sufficient now to barely indicate those august realities which forever justify the Christian faith concerning heavena
 d). The reality of the souls immortal instinct. This is assumed by the Bible rather than expressly taught. It be- gins in the sense now personel immor- tality through the immortality of the tribe or nation. With that the Israelite was at first content. But the post-exil- ian Jew demanded personal immortal ity. though the tribe and nation died. Perhaps some English. German, Japanese or American poole might be contented even now with immortality of the na- tion. If for ones own nation one could read the Kingdom of God on earth, I suppose uncounted thousands would be willing to be plotted out of existence and find their immortality only In that superb triumph. To merge ones own personality in the complex person. ality of Gods universal nation would indeed be rapture for the moment when eonseiousness should end But the deep instinct of life is inseparahle from consciousness as we know it. And heaven Is the counterpart of this.
 CD. There is the reality of pardon When a soul has learned of the for giveness of its sin there is no end to its vista short of the Celestial City. Clothe the idea how we will, there dawns necessity for closest fellow ship with the eternal Father which is
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-09

ly pietehded that England and her pos sessions were their gift from God. They left the rest of Europe, Asia. Africa and America to toddle along as best they could
 Emperor William plans, the news dis patches intimate to drag his war machine across the French border, kill all the Frenchmen, and then set it up again on the eastern frontier by the time the Slavs come to realization that a war is going on. Indeed, a Berlin dispatch declares that the quick capture of St. Petersburg by sea and land attack is part and parcel of the war lords scheme. The re- treat of the Romanoffs to Moscow, their ancient capital is forecasted. and all is to go as merry as marriage bell. Yet it has before been said and verified that mice and men alike lay plans that never reach fruition.
 Prussias victory over France in 1S70-1 was swift and complete. That war was precipitated by Louis Napoleon as ar rogantly and as insolently as Emperor William has now brought all Europe to arms. The last reigning Napoleon needed a foreign war to cement the factions ex- isting among the French. The causes of the conflict are given briefly by a hls- torian as follows:
 Early in July, 1S70 Leopold, the heredi- tary prince of Hohenzollern, at the re- quest of the Spanish government and with the permission of King William Grandfather of the present Emperor of Germany of Prussia as head of the Hohenzollern family, became candidate for the Spanish throne. The Emperor Napoleon who had never heartily ac- cepted the reconstruction of Germany, and who was anxious for an opportunity to establish his waning popularity in France, resolved to make Leopold's candidature a pretext for war with Germany. A cry was raised in the French legislative as- sembly that a foreign power was about to place one of it's princes on the throne of Charles V. A section of the French people took up the cry. and called loudly for the submission of Germany to the will of France. To take away all cause of dispute, the Prince of ,aohenzollern formally resigned his candidacy July F. Not content with this triumph, Napoleon
 insisted that the King of Prussia should
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-09
WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT-By Harry J. Burney

murdered heir apparent. was the prime mover in the affair. He had dreams of
 coming one day to rule over a mighty empire. Francis Joseph is tottering on the brink of the grave. Francis Fer djnand believed himself within a few
 months, a few years at most, on the
 throne of the Hapsburgs. He would re-
 vive it's glories, he would extend it's rowers, he would bring again that prestige which once enshrined and hal lowed it. Gone are those dreams. gone the dreamer. Ferdinand the Firebrand is no more, but his quenchng has be- gun a conflagration that threatens to consume thrones and peoples. empires
 and palaces.
 Francis Ferdinand was inferred with more or less decorum and then the head of the Hapsburgs set about to in- sure the punishment of those respon- sible for the death of the scion of his house. The actual murderers were in the hands of the Austrian authorities, but ample evidence Was not lacking to show the existence of plot which had some of it's roots within the imperial ralace at Belgrade. The reigning house of Servia, unfortunately. is not above suspicion. It owes its present rank to assassination and it is the general be- lief that it would not hesitate to re- sort to the bomb or the bullet to steady a shaking throne. Austria Hungarys demands were couched in terms con- sicered unprecedented in diplomacy.
 Abject and unequiyocal compliance with
 each and every one of them within
 brief space of time was necessitated.
 Servia answered, and in the view of
 the world it's answer was debased and
 groveling to a degree completely aston
 ishing when considered as coming from
 a sovereign nation.r But Austria -Hun-
 gary was not satisfied Seemingly she
 would have been satisfied with nothing
 short of Servia's annihilation. No doubt
 her utimatum was worded with the view
 that the ''yea-nay" it purported to re-
 quire could not possibly be returned. The
 war trumpets were blown, and the earn
 age was on. But that war immediately
 was lost sight of in the bigger and blacker
 events that at once transpired.
 Austria's ally is Germany, the nation
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-09

1 William Bartlett. 80 years old. was a 1 patient at the county hospital at Santa
 Barabara, Cal. Life had been hard for
 Bartlett. and he could see nothing bright | in the few years that were all that would i of time So he tried to shoot himself.
 But the revolver he used was not load
 ed, and the attempt failed.
 l Instead of being aroused to further desire to live by the shock, as some- times happens in such cases, Bartlett
 grieved over his failure to leave the
 world voluntarily. An hour later he
 died The physicians said it was his in- tense wish not to live any more that killed him.
 | It is not for others to commend or
 blame Bartlett since lie has passed be- yond the power of human criticism. But | 1t is curious to note what it was that killed him--the sheer exercise of mental power on himself.
 Among savage peoples it is not un- common to find a man killed by thought. He commits an offensc, perhaps un-
 knowingly, against fellow tribesman. 1 The aggrieved person takes his case to | the medicine man" of the tribe, and the latter. in consideration of q fee, of course. pronounces d curse against the 1 offender. The medicine mans" patron
 takes care to let it be known that the lmalediction has been promulgated of i! ficially, and the person who has be en
 juoged thereupon proceeds to plnc away
 and die of sheer fright
 f Among civilized psrsons such cases
 are rare, of course, although there have been ln recent years severu reports Of
 deaths caused by black ma gtc." etc. I, What was needed in the case of Bartlett and is indicated" as the doc
 tois say in the case of the others is 1.-the will to live" To live well md properly and to exercise to the full the powers, mental ard physical with
 which you are endowed you must be posse ssed by an intense. eager. ardent desire to live and put them to uses. | There must be no faltering in the desire It must pervade your being. Nothing is ever done without the push l of personality
 l The twill to live'' ~a1one is not suf- | fcient TO 1t must be adied the defire
 to accomplish something for the ad-
 vancement of mankind.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-09

Honorable work of any kind Is a fulhllment of that desire. It need not lead necessarily to honors or fame or wealth.
 "The only thing to do at 90 or before | 1t is to keep on fighting for what one
 believes ought to be right. That Is the main thing. And remember that
 the world is ever in it's infancy Of discovery and invention Ilbegan life with tallow dips and am ending it with
 electric light"
 So spoke not long ago one of Eng lands grand old men, who died the other day at the age of 93. Throughout his long and useful life--for ne served his country we'll although he was a
 member of the severely criticised aris- tocracy--he kept in touch withlthe stir ring movements of his time.
 And the keynote of his life was: "The world is ever in its infancy of discovery and invention" That there are greater marvels to come than any we see. now is the unanimous testimony of the scientists Today we send wireless messages
 across the Atlantic: tomorrow We shall
 ''call up" Europe and speak to foreign lands
 Perhaps we shall see the person to whom we talk and gather his mean Ing not alone from his words, but from the expression of his face. The in vention has been foreshadowed already. Cur aeroplanes mount tens of thousands of feet, and one aviator re- gently maintained q flight for an en- tire day. This year or the year after, the man made birds shall wing their
 way across the great waters All this yet to come.
 Today man strives for wealth He must have 1t to live and to win Tor himself the luxurles which his sorl craves. Tomorrow higner ideal will pos sess his soul. and it will be his ann to see how much he can give. not how much he can get
 From the tallow dip to the electric light! The light of brotherhood Is spreading Its rays. Things that were common places of life century ago--slavery land Imprisonment for debt and inhu- man treatment of the insane and the
 infliction of the death penalty for trival
 offenses-have already gone. Greed and
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-09

and George Eliot took the place of the
 Apocalypse, and you might hear with ap-
 preciation:
 'Oh. may join the choir invisible Of those immortal dead who live again In lives made better by their presence r etc.
 What far cry from aspirations like this. for "scorn of miserable aims that
 cnd in self to the snug Pharisaism of an orthodox heaven Generous emo tions were stirred and young church. men bidden go to the distant tribes of
 heathendom not only to save the souls
 of the heathen but to save them from present darkness, physical and social suffering
 This probably was not all a change
 for the better. Something was lost as well as something gained. But the traeeable to that change. coupled with
 the closer study of the Bible already
 mentioned For example, who that reads
 the Apocalypse today can feel justified
 in transferring it's vivid imagery from
 earth to heaven? A fair Exegesis re-
 quires us to recognize the authors pur-
 pose to set forth ideal conditions on
 the earth, resulting from the triumph
 of the will of God among men. only thus can the unity and coherence of the Book be preserved. Streets of gold
 and thrones of jasper and chrysolite
 were formerly identified with the world beyond the skies. They are identified
 now with an age to come among men
 on earth, and the change is largely due
 to more exact study of the scriptures. Thus the imagery of heaven is robbed of all that splendid storehouse pre-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-09

with ruler with a war machine that has been. a quarter century in the build ing. With such a machine and belief that he is ordained by God to be mod ern Alexander, Emperor William frowned upon talk of peace He made no effort, so far as the world knows, to restrain his ally, Francis Joseph. Servia had humbled itself completely. It had offered to accept Austria terms, galling as they were, almost in toto, and further declared that if this was unsatisfactory, it would gladly leave the whole controversy to The Hague tribunal Within few min utes after the receipt of the reply the Austrian troops were over the border. Russia felt it could not sit supinely by and see Servia destroyed. 1t beseeched Emperor Francis Joseph to reconsider. Even at the moment when Francis Joseph had agreed to discuss the matter, Ger many declared war on Russia Emperor William evidently was not going to let slip a chance to try out his war ma chine.
 History does not afford spectacle equal to that made by William of Ger many since the latest Balkan war cloud blew into view. It looks like he has vertically run amuck Hurling ultima
 
 another, lie has endeavored to act as the sole supervisor of civilization's affairs So far the United States has not come under his displeasure, and this nation has not been compelled to draw the sword but this may be for the lone reason that President Wilson has kept so quiet dur ing the rumpus that the Kaiser has for gotten that we are on earth
 Admiral Joe Coghlan got himself into disgrace for warbling a little ditty en- titled Hoch der Kaiser" Bluff old Ad- miral Joe-he was then a captain, though believe. was not the first man com pelled to suffer for the utterance of satiric truth. Me und 1ott'' wasn't merely figure of speech. 1t represents, as is now clear, Herr Hohenzollern's pri- vate opinion as to who are ordering things upon this terrestial sphere Eng land, few centuries ago, had quite an enlivening experience with set of divine lighters. But even the most foolish of the Stuarts didn't profess to rule all the world. James I and his successors mere-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-09

injustice will follow them into the mu- scum of historical curios.
 We need must not despair because al is not well yet The purpose of the infinite works slowly. "Through the ages one increasing purpose runs and the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns"
 England has been agitated recently by the question::
 Can a man earn s1o.oOo. os s5o,OOo. a year?'
 A member of Parliament advanced the view that nobody deserves to receive as much as $5O,000 year in salary. The $50- o00-a-year man, he said is only the man who gets $2o,o00 a year too much. He cannot possibly earn so much money.
 And many of us to whom the earning of $25.0O0, or even a considerable fraction of that sum, Is as far away as the ascent of Mt. Everest. win agree with him.
 But of course there are others who com bat that view.
 For instance there's the business man. who says:
 'It IS preposterous 10 say that a man is not worth a salary of S550C0 under the pfetext that it is others who do the work while he only supervises. The S50,0O0 man su2ervises the whole business and keeps his staff in a state of efficiency. He foresees opportunities for pushing goods and thinks of new markets and fresh lines. All this is worth untold gold to a business. In fact, a business whicn can support a $5O,0o0 salary IS q healthy progressive business and is bound to be so man who can make a business ad- vance Is worthy of any sum"
 From the shoulders down" said the late Philip D. Armour. mo man is worth more than $l.25 day" With sl.25 a day body, figure out how much the mind Of the SoO,VVV-a-year man is worth.
 And more than that
 He will continue being worth his hire more years than the man who tolls with his muscular strength alone, for mental labor may be maintained many years. while physical exertion wears out the mind as well as the body.
 The man who can direct, who is paid more for what he knows than for what he does. is the man who commands now ard has always commanded the highest salary.
 Tns.t is what controyerts so many Of tho reformers who would make all men
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-09

A IL students of English literature LA knows of the perplexity with & A which John Milton was ceset in Eseeking to settle on some subject for a great poem which was struggling for expression in his being. after the tu- mults of war were over with the great poet, and after he had been ostrauised, and now not only very. poor man. out was totally blind
 He sought retreat on one of the ob- scure streets of London, where he re- sided in an humble cottage, and where he wrote his immortal poems Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained That which most disturbed Milton was an ap- propriate subject on which to expand his imperial imagination. He thought once of adopting for the subject of an epic the story of the Knights of tie Rionnd Table" but the, traeitions which fnung about this subject were too misty. and the scope was too narrow for the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-09

pared by St. John on PatInos. The It, erature of heaven has been cut down by two-thirds
 S Moreover a new uncertainty as to the real meaning of scriptural refer ences to heaven and the future has de- vcloped. The old evangelicals were quite sure that souls passed straight out of their death bangs into the joys of eternal bliss. Perhaps such dogma tism was a form of their repudiation of the doctrine of purgatory. But on the other hand a respectable and grow ing body of evangelicals discover now that heaven is not the immediate but the ultimate destination of the faith full. and old discussions are reopened, willie the larger multitudes pass the question by as of no practical moment. Certainly the net result Is to make positive statements concerning heaven more and more difficult.
 1. It will probably be found that periods of ease and growing wealth and material comfort are not con . ducive to keen interest in heaven and eternity. Hence the past half cen tury has witnessed a steady decline in that interest, for the past half cen tury has certainly been such a period of widely spreading welfare. Because inen have seen great wealth they have desired If for themselves. Because they have reached high levels of com fort they have longed for higher levels, but their affections have been set therefore lon the earth,' and not In heaven, which, by contrast, has seemed far away and unreal
 5. All this is far from being defen- sive of Christian faith It has been