davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-22
POINTED PARAGRAPHS

From the Chicago News.
 A mans temper may improve with dis use.
 Pursuit of wealth Is the great human hurdle race.
 A Gta' irritation is one that ends at the marriage altar.
 It's sometimes easier to settle down than it is to settle up.
 man who invests his coin in oil stocks is a well wisher.
 Borrowed money soon begins to look like borrowed trouble.
 As matter of fact the chorus girl is merely matter of form.
 After woman becomes the wife of a great man she wonders what causes his greatness to evaporate.
 In looking backward woman sees only she bright places in her past, and a man sees only the high spots in his.
 When a man has to invent an excuse for going downtown every night it ia doughnuts to fudge that he is welded to the wrong women.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-22
OLIVER AND THE BREAKS

From the Macon Telegraph.
 ~OME poet-Robert Service, per
 haps-once sang a song about 0 "The Men Who Don't Fit In" They were the product of more or less atavistic reversion which sent them securing the earth. forsaking the quie t warmth of the hearthflre, to roam the giant valleys and scale the god-1ike peaks" to muck and moider for gold' raw. red adventure They were the very antithesis of the conventional; they loathed the queit ways. the regular walks.
 Not alone in the gold camps are they found, however,. The stateliest piles of brick, mortar, steel and marble house many an one with the same sort of ruthless, roaming soul, who for lack of physical courage, perhaps, stayed under the roof tree but turned pirate mor- ally. These stay at-home Kidds and Morgans garner so many pieces of eight, they make so many walk the plank into the sea Of financial ruin that they be- come eminently respectable because of the magnitude of their achievements. And they stay. always within the law
 In mortuary chapel at Leesburg lies such an one, potentially-assassin ed. Oliver was product of a time just beginning to die out. but a victim of circumstances of a rougher, ruder age. He had the soul of Drake, of a Lewis or Clark, of a Marquette, a J. P Nor gan and John w. Gates, with a mixture of Don Juan and a Boccaccian friend. And he tried to be all of them.
 Success in life is such an uncertain, elusive thing. Always it is just within the reach of the finger ends of the men who never quite grasp it; again it rolls into the laps of others who merely smile on the serene-browed goddess
 The baseball players have a wonder fully Illuminating phrase to express this
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-22

From the Wall Street Journal
 A reader who takes an avowedly un- moral view of the war and its causes suggests that the German policy of ruth lessness amounts, scientifically, to the doctrine of the survival of the Attest It all depends upon what you choose to call the Attest. It cannot be in the Ger man interpretation of Haeckels views, where the formula propounded by Her. bert Spencer is carried to absurdity.
 Huxley correctly pointed out that the survival of the fittest did not mean the survival of the best. If society were made up of number of individuals mere- ly struggling for existence, John l.. Sul- livan would survive; while Isaac Newton and Beethoven would perish. In fact, if the theories of some so-called "eugen- ists' were carried out, Alexander Pope would have been smothered as a baby
 It is not difficult to see here the basic and irremediable defect of German "lxul- the efficiency of the highest kind of in- telligence. It is not culture, which is a thing of the spirit, and not of the body or even of the body polite. Culture is something which refines and idealizes, which assumes that duties are more im- portant than rights, and that place in the hearts of the people is better than "a place in the sum-
 The Haeckel doctrine, in fact, Is the survival of the unfit. Like most German scientists in the past 40 years, he was a laborious imitator, carrying the discov- cries and theories of other men few obvious steps further The people he would postulate as survivors would not, in point of usefulness to the world, be the fittest. They might be the strongest, or the most brutal, or the most successful in the crudest meaning of the term.
 But in all that makes man higher than the brute, and lifts him nearer to his God, the doctrine of the survival of the fittest. thus stated, represents the suicide of the human race. through a gradual relapse into barbarian.
 For four centuries the doctrine was carried to its logical limit in Sparta. It created a race which left nothing that survived or deserved to survive.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-22
In the Financial World

Henry Clews in his Saturday review, says in part:
 War influences continue to dominate the stock market. This week sterling exchange broke to 4.79, the lowest fig ure recorded. A sharp recovery fol- lowed upon rumors that large foreign government credits were to be estab- lished on this side; but the crisis in exchange necessitated fresh adjust Gent to war conditions, which are now be- ing more keenly felt than at any time since the struggle began. Our foreign trade Is being Conducted under very December the loss of imports was about $70, 100000, chiefly in raw silk, wool, coffee, copper and textiles. Exports dur ing the same month increased about 12,0O0,000 over last year. Considering the heavy shrinkage in outward bound cotton, copper and oil, this increase was remarkable; being entirely due to extraordinary shipments of foodstuffs and war materials. The net result of
 December's foreign trade was an excess of $130,O0O,000 in exports. The balance has been steadily growing during Janu-
 ary and February; so that it is now estimated that the excess of exports
 has arisen considerably above s200,OO0,- 900 since the beginning of the war. Of course the exchange market Is de-
 moralized by such unusual conditions, and emergency measures were neces- sary. The great banks of Europe are unwilling to part with their gold hold ings for obvious reasons. and 1t Is not to our interest to embarrass them by drawing gold, especially as our own stock is more than ample for require- ments.
 London displays phenomenal fnan- cial strength, not only in it's ability to finance Britians war. but also by its capacity to render financial assistance to
 the allies. Under the circumstances the
 most rational relief to the exchange crisis suggested is the establishment of big credits in this market for Great Britain, France, or any of the allies
 whose credit may be satisfactory. The belligerents will continue to want food
 stuffs and war materials. and we are fortunately in strong enough posi-
 tion to easily give the credit necessary on such purchases until more normal lconditions are once again in sight For us at least it would be far better financ- ing to grant the needed credit. than to force gold or security imports in pay
 ment at this time"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-22
A TRUE WOMAN

By William Wordsworth.
 She was phantom of delight When first she gleamed upon my sight; A lovely apparition, sent To De a moments ornament; ' Her eyes as stars of twilight fair, Like tWlights, too, her dusky hair: But all things else about her drawn From May-time and the cheerful dawn; A dancing shape an image gay To haunt, to startle and waylay. I saw her upon nearer view A spirit. yet woman, too! Her household motions light and free, And steps of virgin liberty; A ccunten&nce in which did meet Sweet records, promises az sweet A creature not too bright. or good For human natures daily food, For transient sorfows, simple wiles, Praise, blame, love, kisses tears and
 smiles.
 And now I see with eyes serene The very pulse of the machine; A being breathing thoughtful breath, A traveller betwtxt life and death; The reason frmj the temperate will; Endurance, foresight, strength and skill; A perfect woman. nobly planned. To warn, to comfort and command; And yet spirit still and bright With something of an angel light
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-22

very thing. They call it getting the breaks" Their theory is that all other things being equal, the man who gets the breaks in the luck" to coming his way wins.
 The trouble with Oliver was, he didn't get the breaks" He played the game according to the rules and formulae of so many other men who have played and won, to become in later and silver haired days classed among "our capi- talists and business men" Just at the time when little luck would have made him big winner with wonderful future ahead of him, it always went the other way. Along came deputy sheriff once and they sent him to the chaingang for four years for bigamy
 A glimpse of the marvellous assur- ance, the infinite resource the cold. chilled-steel nerve of the man was given in this trial Facing his first wife. he forced her to admit that she could not swear that he was her husband Under his adroit, aggressive questioning she says it was possible "L. c. Harding might be his twin brother
 From the chaingang he Immediately went back into the banking business. He opened up two banks, no man ~knows how He got money and he got deposits. Again 1t began to look possible that Oliver would at last make it over" Then came the assassination by three men who hurried up in a mystery car. blew his brains out as he stood in his bank, and hurried away again
 That Oliver had no scruples, morals. inherent honest to any appreciable ex- tent is not pertinent to the question right now. These have not always been necessary to what in time have de- veloped into respectable successes And ne mad every other quality going to raise men above their fellows.
 lie was as remarkable a character as Georgia has known in a decade. But he didn't make 1t over" He didn't "get the breaks"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-22
Coast Defense

Lieut.. M. H. Thompson, writing in the North American Review on the problem of coast defense, makes a very sensible suggestion and one that should meet with the approval in re- placing all our coast defense guns now in use with guns of longer range. He advises that instead of a complete re- armament of all our defenses, it would be better to provide each fort with one battery of modern high-power guns, preferably of the 16-inch type, and as improvements are made from time to time in artillery, adopt the new and discard the old. He points out that if the government should equip all it's forts with guns of the most modern type and discard all others, it would be only a short while before these would be out of date and another huge expenditure of money would have to be made. By going slowly it would be possible to keep reasonably we'll prepared against possible naval at tack and at the same time make the best use of the equipment already on hand.
 Lieutenant Thompson says: Ut is very probable, in the opinion of the best authority, that one two-gun bat tery of 16-inch guns on land, as- sisted by the smaller guns emplaced, could at any range hold its own against very strong attack by the latest modern dreadnaughts." He calls attention to the fact, apt to be over looked by person unfamiliar with the subject, that range-finging on land is extremely accurate and level gun platforms permit of much better craftsmanship on land than on sea. Because of it's greater stability land gun should be equal in destructive power to a number of guns of the same size at sea under normal condi- tions.
 According to this authority the question at present before the Ameri- can people is not how much money would be needed to reconstruct all Qualifications and replace all our ar mament, but how much would be need- ed "in each period in which an ad- vancement is shown, to keep portion of the armament on an up-to-date, conservative basis?
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-22
ExTRAvAGANg UNCLE SAM , cnar in T.Q01iaG

Jasper III hosllo D.
 The cost to the federal government of maintaining It's printing establishment at Washington approximates $6,000,000 year. An experienced, capable printer, 1t has been estimated could pay the gov renment a rental of half a million dol lars. do all the work now being done at a cost of another half million less than the government is paying and still clear for himself between a quarter and half million dollars.
 An example of the high cost of gov ernment printing was the printing of the information required for the in troduction of the parcel post. The post office department at first advertised for bids on the work, but this was re- called on discovering that the law made 1t necessary for the work to be done by the government printing office. One commercial printing establishment had already prepared its bid, and later this was found to be less by $10.00O on a $36,000 job than the bill actually rem dered by the government printing office
 Sometime ago two battleships were built under identical specifications, one at d government navy ydTos the Otner by a private company. The hull and machinery of the government con- structed vessel cost Uncle Sam $329, 900 more than the hull and machinery of the one built in the private yard Of course Uncle Sam is rich and can stand this sort of waste. Apropos the railroad situation and the insufficient advance in rates granted to the railroads by the interstate commerce commission, cou- pied with the advice to the railroads to save their heads by more economical management, 1t should be said that the federal government operates the Pan- anna railroad, and the rates are the highest railroad rates in the world.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-22
Public Buildings OutgroNn

Although Richmond's growth has not been quite so rapid as that of some of the younger cities, it has almost dou- bled in population since 1S90," said a member of Birmingham's Virginia colony
 ''It has now about 16O,o00 inha bitants Its business has increased enormously since l lived there, and all the improve- ments both in the business aAd resi- dential districts have been very hand some. The federal building, of solid granite. erected before the war at a cost of several hundred thousand dol lars, was recently extended at a cost of something like s1000,00O. It is one of the most imposing federal buildings in the country and yet notwithstanding it's large ment on foot to induce the government to spend another large sum in extending the building. In other words, it is not large enough for present needs
 Tn the sos Richmond built new city hall at cost of $1,75O.OOO. It was thought at the time that it would be ample for 60 or 70 years to come, but already a design has been drawn for d new mu- nicipal building to cost $S5O,00O The pres- ent city hall will still be used, the new building being required merely to take care of the overflow.
 "These facts go to show how important it is for rapidly growing cities like Bir- mingham to build on very large scale By the way, it is about time we were hearing something about the new post office building.''
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-22

hearts of his countrymen," he was the victim of mendacious attacks from scheming politicians. Many chief executives have been calumniated, but no one had more to bear in this respect than Washington and yet all the while he was resolute and nobly poised.
 In spirit Washington was the father of the so-called Monroe doctrine. It was developed gradually in succeed ing administrations, especially in the administrations of Madison and Mon- roe
 His warning against 'the insidious wiles of foreign influence" was timely when Washington wrote his address, and it has been timely ever since; but despite his prophetic vision he did not foresee the Spanish American war with the consequent changes of the Woilo tldb WOulu lIldhc Ol JIllo republic a world power; nor could he foresee in any detail the present situ- ation with the possibility of this coun- try being drawn into European war. But his advice was oracular nevertheless, for he had in mind what troubles there might be in store.
 Washington's birthday will be ob- served in Birmingham and generally throughout the state by appropriate exercises in the public schools. Super intendent J. H. Phillips has arranged that half hour be set apart in all the schools for review of Washing tons life and ideals. This custom of the schools should never be allowed to die out.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-22
St. PauI's Old Sexton Dead

Meinpers of St. Paufs congregation will miss a familiar face in the death of Thomas Murray, for many years the sex- ton of the church." said prominent layman
 MT. Murray was venerable in years and venerable in appearance. With his bent form and gray beard he was not unlike some of the pictures of the early saints of the church. He was naturally iNseryed in manner, but being well read and widely travelled he was a most agree able talker when he felt in the humor for 1t. His piety was unfeigned, and he al- ways seemed to be a saint on earth His memory will live in the hearts of those who knew him.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-22

The census of 1910 shows that negroes are making gains in the trades In 1900 there were s6,534 negroes thus employed, while the report recently issued shows an increase to 2Ss. Al, a very substantial advance in 10 years. There are fewer negro carpenters than formerly. Ten years ago there were estimated to be 22,- BIS in the United States, while the 1910 census puts the number at 2l ,114, a de- crease of 12o0. These figures apply only to negro carpenters working in building trades and do not include those doing carpentry work about factories railroads mines and in other industries. Negroes have also been very successful in busi- ness undertakings during the past 10 years, particularly in the south. Bir- mingham has one of the strongest negro banks in the country A negro bank re- gently failed in Mississippi. The officers had other valuable property that was not liable for the banks indebtedness, but it Is said that they even mortgaged their homes to raise money to pay back every cent the bank owed.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-22
SUMMER
V7ASHINGToN, February. N5 cial. )-For the first time

N " ~~'~''N%'ef o4>, T tDi uti
 M cial.)-For the first time in many years the country is going to struggle along all summer without the aid an1 advice of Congress. It has now been a long time since the country has gone through long season without Con gress ct the helm. and there is absolute ly no telling what will happen. Still, the people seem willing to take a chance.
 If is Tow conceded that uness some un- toward incident connected with the war in the east occurs, Congress will adjourn
 on the 4th of March not to reconvene till December. The shipping bill, which tied the esteemed United States Senate into a double bowknot, only remains to be called up the 27th instant. or later. in that body, for the purpose of firing H guns over it in due and ancient form. The Senate has refused to accept the relief measure offered by the administra- tion or to substitute anything for it. so the country still remains in it's former position as to everybody in fa- vor of it-therefore we won't have it.
 Washington without Congress is go- ing to be a dull and uninteresting place; a general exodus of 435 perfectly great statesmen at one fell swoop is a serious blow. The Congressional Record-a pub lication devoted entirely to more or less pure family reading matter-will sus- pend publication, and there is to be a decided slump in baseball attendance this summer. However, there should be no cause for alarm. If there is the slightest evidence or indication at any time that the country is going to wobble like a tottering dynasty-the new Congress is ready to rush back to the national cap- ital and save it. The new Congress has
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-22


 few new and untried country .-s
 are anxious to get on the job oele- - it is too late. Uncle Joe Cannon is back into the country saving business and he reluctantly-if not modestly-admits that since he quit the job-by request-thinss have not gone along near so well as when he was giving them his personal attention.
 There seems to be a wide divergence of opinion regarding what will happen to the country with Congress off the job. Congress views the prospect with gloomy foreboding and many misgivings. The country on the contrary rather cheerfully resigns itself to the stua- ton. and seems willing to go the limit But this only illustrates the reckless and care-free disposition of the people they never know what is best for them they are a little queer that way
 While the rest of the country may burst into applause when Congress adiourns the District of Columbia may be ex- cused if it refrains from feeling gay over the fact. It makes the district ex- ceedingly sad when Congress is away. Congress is the districts rich papa, and while it occasionally takes said district across its knee and applies the slipper, as a whole the district gets about all that is coming to it and then some. Moreover, when 435 prominent citizens, with their families, leave town-take it from me quite a good deal of the coin of the realm goes out of circulation in these parts in consequence. A sudden. stringency in the money market always is a thing to be regretted.
 Any way the long hoped for rest from Congress that business men have been asking for in the most earnest tones seems at hand-let's make the most of it.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-22
ALABAMA PRESS

Talladega Home: Senator Lusk may feel proud of his performance in the Sem ate Thursday in blocking legislation, but the great majority of the people of Ala bama do not, who see in his filibuster only display of obstinacy and bigotry.
 Falkville News: Birmingham is having her troubles just now over the difference of views as to just how many commis- sioners the city should have. This em- phaszes the fact that politics will have it's place in any form of city government.
 Montgomery Advertiser: Owing to the foreign complications and troubles of the season which fall upon and harass the chief executive of this peaceable nation, We are authorized to announce that no member of the majority of the present Alabama legislature will contest with MT. Wilson for the presidential nomination next year.
 Anniston Star: The Cologne Gazette continues to perfume the war atmos- phere.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-22
KING OF GERMAN SPIES

comes behind you. Now, my army is al- ready in occupation of positions which It reached in silence many months ago. And well might Bismarck indorse the retort by silently clasping the hand of the master spy.
 when the Prussians got to Versailles sooo or Sueber's men were on duty in the streets; and it was to their official |headquarters,- where Stieber was then Tn residence, that the unsuspecting Jules raVfe was driven when negotiating the surrender of Paris. Stieber himself waited on the French minister in the gulse of valet, brought him his cup or coffee every morning. and systemati- caliy went through his pockets, trunks and papers.