davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-11

LONDON, April 1.-(Special Corre-
 spondence.) For the first time
 in nearly 60 years, or since the war of the Crimea, prize court
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-11

namely a marshal, whose origin, it seems. Is wrapt in mystery, but who wears a distinctive uniform-consisting of cooked hat and sort of glorified dress suit-and who has a really novel symbol of office. This is an oar, made of solid silver, about two feet long and weighing IA pounds, and covered with beautiful raised" work It dates back. so they say, to the time of Edward III, who was known, of course, as the law giver, and,N among many other effigies, it shows the arms of England upheld, not by the lion and unicorn, but by what looks like dragon and A dog. Origin ally 1t bore, too, beautifully "raised' crown, but when the oar fell, as it did, into the hands of Oliver Cromwell, he promptly ordered the crown erased, and so it was. and. after the restoration, when they wanted to put the crown on again. it was necessary to engrave 1t on the space left blank and this was done rather crudely, as I noted yesterday, when I was permitted to examine the oar and to '.heft' it.
 When all is ready for sitting of the prize court. that Is, when the court of- f1cials fin their gowns and wigs, and the opposing counsels in their gowns mad wigs. are in their places, and the learned president has arrayed himself in his gown and wig, and emerges from his tlTlHs TOoIIlt lHt4 qudiiit iiidiSHdi' Nbcso name is Lowell. clad in his uniform and bearing his silver oar, solemnly places himself in front of the president and slowly and reverently precedes him into the courtroom. The walls of this room are oak pancled and it is lighted by two old-fashioned chandeliers; there are portly law books galore, whole row of them at the presidents right hand, and the learned judge. the learned counsels and the learned clerks all keep up the illusion of antiquity by writing with quill pens. So the president takes his seat under the gilt anchor and high above everybody else in the court, the silver oar is laid in front of him, and so we are all ready for business, if you please, and an oddly impressive sight 1t all is to be sure. tit
 They are frequently eccentric, are his majesty's judges sometimes ponderous, and occasionally, to all appearance, downright stupid. but they are all hon est, or intend tp be. The owners of car goes seized in American ships will get
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-11

their leaves and eat off the bark to the wood. I have passed through orchards where the oranges were still hanging on the branches although not a leaf was to be seen. The locusts will go into a cornfield and strip tge seaves from the stalks, and if the corn is small they may eat it down to the ground l have travelled through miles of such fields, and through orchards where the loeusts have hung to the branches like bees when swarnling, the branches often breaking with the weight of the loeusts."
 During a tour up the Rio de la Plata river I saw fields devastated by locusts, and traveled with Dr. labenicht. who is connected with colony of Seventh Day Adventists from the United States. That colony is located in the province of Entre Rios. in a region that has ire quent invasions of locusts Said Dr. Habenicht:
 .The hoppers frequently strip large trees of their bark, leaving nothing but the white skeletons standing. Where they attack the ripe fruit you may see the peach stones still hanging and the bark of the tree completely taken away. They clean the grass from the ground, and cut the wheat in the fields so that the earth looks as though it were burnt. At times they cover the ground to a depth of two or three inches hopping one over the other in their return to the north. There will be millions and millions of these hopping locusts, and when they fly they darlzen the sun.
 
 "fhe size of the locust swarms va ries," said Dr, Smith. Sometimes they may cover but few acres, and a others they may shade the land for many square miles. I recently passed through a To- cGst swarm on a railroad train. For more than an hour we rode through a cloud of loeusts which extended far out both sides of the car. It was almost 20O feet high The locusrs were not in one solid mass and as they flew they looked like a snowstornl, their transpar- ent wings catching the sun, and having the appearance of snowflakes After a time we passed out of that swarm and into another. The latter was thick, for the locusts were about to settle down for This last swarm was about so99 feet wide, 5o feet high and one mile. long. When l saw it in the distance it was so black that l thought a storm was coming, and l asked the porter about the cloud. He replied that the cloud was the "langosto," |" or locust. A little later our cars dashed
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-11
By HAYDEN CHURCH

a square deal from Sir Samuel Evans. who. by the way, has no jury nor any other .1earned brethren" to assist him in his decisions. and the only appeal from whose ruling is to the privy council. When I visited the prize court on Mon- day, last, for example, he ruled, in di- rect opposition to the interests of Great Britain, and in opposition to the pleading of the Attorney General, who appeared for the crown, that the British govern ment had no right to take possession, as it had done with the intention of turn ing them into munitions of war, of five shipments of copper. consigned from the United States to Norway and Sweden. The plaintiff was the Swedish owner of one of the cargoes, who had, of course, been offered compensation by the British government. and he was represented by a well known K. c. The Attorney Gen. eral pleaded that if the copper went to Sweden even for the making of domestic utensils. there was nothing to prevent that copper finding it's way to the Ger man enemy in the form of pots and pans, but the president decided that it was im- possible for the crown to requisition a cargo which was neutral property, and so the case ended.
 So far as American interests are con- cerned, Sir Samuel Evans presumably will be inclined to favor them, if any thing, for he has. among other enviable possessions, an American wife to make him think kindly of the great republic. She Is his second spouse and was for- merly Miss Blanche Rule of Cincinnati. U. S. A. Incidentally she is. 50 one who knows her well tells me. absolutely be- loved" in the district of Wales-Glamor- ganshire-which is her distinguished hus- bands home, and which he represented in Parliament for 10 years.
 AS for Sir Samuel himself. at only 56, which Is young for statesman in this country, he is undoubtedly the most fam ous Welshman in the country--after Lloyd-George, of course. Honors sit thickly upon him, for, previous to being made president of the probate, divorce and admiralty courts. he had been solic- itor general, and thus automatically, a knight, whilst prior to that he had been Queens councillor-they are King s councillors now, of course-the last one, fin fact, to be appointed by Queen Vic toria, and he is also a J. F. of Glamor- ganshire. and L.L. D. of the University of
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-11

saurians in Irons. This affair, by tho way, followed close upon another live ly time with the trick ponies, which were landed at the port of London docks, stamDeded, one man being kicked so hard, in the mix-up that fol- lowed. that he had to be taken to hos pital and is not out yet,
 Naturally enough, the admiralty folk were eager to be quit, not only of the fractious ponies, but of the frogs and alligators. too. The bacstrians were put up at auction and sold to dealer in frogs for $250, while the gators were knocked down. at a bargain rate, to a well known English snowman who is now exhibiting them In a tent througout the country. "Great exhibi- ton Prisoners of War" the show is called l understand, and the rustics are not allowed to become aware until having paid their six pences to get in, they discover it for themselves, that the "prisoners of war are only a lot of intensely peeved al1igators.
 To the man in the street here it has been somewhat of a surprise that Sir Samuel Evans, who has been president of the divorce court since 1910, and who is associated in the public mind almost exclusively with the dispensing of di- vorces and separations, the granting of alimony, and awards of damages against
 
 not escaped the attention of the joke smiths, should be head of the prize court, but this is merely ignorance, for the right honorable gent1eman's full title is president of the probate, divorce and admiralty courts which were joined in what an eminent legal writer has called ia most Ill assorted union," as far back as in 1873. Quaintly enough, too, the room on the second floor of the royal courts of justice, in which on Mondays the prize court sits, is the identical one in which, on other days, the learned president sits to hear the plaints of de- ceived and deceivers in the great con- flict of matrimony. On the wall over the judges head, however. there is a large golden anchor on a black ground to show you that this indeed is an ad- miralty court, and the fact is impressed upon one, too, by the quaint and essen italy old world ceremony by which the sitting Of the court is preceded.
 ! This high court of admiralty, to give the department of his majesty's law courts of which we are speaking its proper title. possesses one official which ne other British tribunal can boast
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-11

Wales, a Freeman of the County Borough of Swansea and Meath, a barrister of the middle temple and goodness knows what besides.
 Unlike certain famous British Judges, he is not the type of Judicial humorist'' that the late Sir William Gilbert himself a justice, declared never, would be missed" and yet he loves joke or a good story and tells the latter so we'll that he was known to his fellow mem- bers of the House of Commons as Good Evans But on the bench he is all business" He is clean shaven, un- wrinkled. with a searching eye and the typical legal mouth, and much wearing of wigs has had anything but a beneficial effect on his hair.
 In Great Britain, of course, a lawyer Is either barrister or solicitor (solic- itors do not appear in the courts), but Sir Samuel Evans is one of the rare ex- captions who have been both. Another of those little Welsh attorneys" he started as solicitor in Meath. matter of 3t years ago, but afterward became a mem Der of the bar, created a record by ''tak- ing silk i. e., becoming councillor the highest legal rank short of a judge ship, after having been only nine years a junior. Even that brilliant forensic genius, the former Sir Rufus Isaacs, now Icrd Reading and lord chief Justice of Englend. wore stuff for Il years before he was singled out for silk
 In Parliament Sir Samuel Evans was a great favorite and proved himself tc be gifted with an impregnable vitality being always even-tempered and never weary. case-hardened attendant at all. night sittings, he grew positively jubi. lant as daylight approached. It is re. lated, by the way. that on one occasion entering the House somewhat noisily dur. ing an all-night sitting. he woke uy the home secretary, but that may be g fable. Once he left the House. after ont of these nocturnal sessions. in order tt watch the 6:S0 a. m. train to Swansea where he had big case coming on. II spite of the exhausting work of the nigh he was obliged to "get up'' his case or the jurney down. At one of the in termediate stations, where a long wal was promised. he got out to have [ snack of food. but before he had fin ished was obliged to make frantic rusf for his carriage as the train was on thu move.
 He succeeded in entering the open dool
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-11

of the guards van and reached Swansea in safety. Naturally, his first thought was for his briefs. Running along the platform to his former carriage, he learn ed to his horror that passenger, imagining that he had missed the train, had thrown the bag through the window on to the platform of the station where he had breakfasted. But in spite of this obstacle, the tenacious Welsh barrister won his case. He became solicitor-gen- eral in 1908, when it was confidently pre- dicted that he would lose a lot of money by exchanging his legal practice for sl salary amounting. with fees, to about $50,000 a year. i.stse
 As president of the high court of ad- miralty, by the way Sir Samuel is tn custodian of what is undoubtedly one of the quaintest and most interesting old books in existence. Dating back. like the silver oar to the reign of Edward III, 1t Is known as ''The Black Book of the Admiralty" and is the oldest compilation of maritime law in existence. Among other things, it contains list of penal ties for wrong-doing at sea, and, re- membering the spirit of those times, you will not be surprised to hear that most of these are what one might term some what drastic "Nose-slitting was fav- orite punishment while a captain who Intentionally ran his ship aground should, 1t was written have his throat slit and his tongue pulled down through the open. ing thus provided-by no means pleasant experienced
 The last case reported in the prize court arising out of the Crimean war was heard on February 6, 1856. After lapse of over half a century, the court resumed it's sittings under the presidency of Sig Samuel Evans on September 4, 1914.
 That word resumed is 1ustified,'' remarked the Admiralty Registrar E. s. Roscoe, flor, in spite of the lapse of years in which 1t was in state of suspended animation. the prize court, now sitting. is historically the same as that over which the famous Lord Stowell presided during the Napoleonic wars and the almost as renowned Dr. Lushington during the Crimea It is guided by the decisions of those judges at the end of whose tenure of office Great Britain possessed a series of Judicial decisions which covered in clear form and in admirable language all the questions that could ordinarily arise in prize court, and 1t enunci- ates the same principles of law. This is well exemplified by a recent judge ment of Sir Samuel Evans In the cssa
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-11

They are then of the same gray color as the bushes and punches of scrub all around them and it takes a good eye to distinguish the birds from the bush. The ostrich has always been laughed at for this silly custom, but indeed. there is nothing more cunning and 1t forms a means of coneealment that the bird could have in no other way. When the rhea stands up you can easily distinguish him, but when he sauats down, with his head out of sight. he Is merely bush to the hunter.
 In walking the ostrich keeps its wings and forward In running it raises It's wings and shows it's bare thighs as it speeds along over the ground. skimming the air. When it charges, it's wings are outspread, and the head and neck are held down. It can frighten a horse and when angry will attack a man upon horseback. The American ostrich has three toes, while the African has two. Its foot is large and powerful
 The American ostrich is smaller than the African and it's feathers do not com pare with the latter. although they are gathered and sold. I have seen some made into rugs. They are also used for fly brushes and feather dustefs. The plumes of the male birds are sometimes combined with the African feathers for hats and bonnets. The feathers are of a different color according to the parts of the body. Some are of rich brown and some black, but most are gray or a dirty white.
 The ostriches of Patagonia and the pampas move about in flocks each con-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-11
Frogs and Agators Become Prisoners of War in England

of the Marie Glaeser,' upon c1aipa of mortgages against a captured ves- sell In this decision Judgments not only of the former judges of the ad- miralty court were examined, but those also of the supreme court of the Uni- ted States, and a clear enunciation of an important head of prize law wa8 given and some obscurities were swept away It was made plainer than ever that, apart from questions of conven- fence, and technical procedure, the right of a captor to have the full value of enemy property without regard to their rights of third parties is a gov- erning principle of prize law It is right which springs from the elemen- tary fact that. in war. law has to give way to force.
 During the long period of the great struggle which is generally called the Napoleonio war; continued the speaker, Tor at the end of the eight eenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries, the prize court became almost a permanent legal in stitution. Sometimes the drama was little sordid, as when a gallant ad- miral, In suit for joint capture, con- tested the claim of another admiral to share In the proceeds of a. prize which had been taken after long chase. The court had then to come to decision of much pecuniary import ance to the litigants--a singular end to naval action. This personal as- pect of the prize court has now, since the abolition of prize money, dlsap- peared. Young officers can no longer look forward to marriage portions from the prize court, and their seniors to money with which to buy pleasant properties to which to retire after their days of active service were fin ished. The end which was put to privateering in 1856 by the declaration of Paris was the real conclusion of the system, which, in later times. when officers and crews of the royal navy were adequately paid. had become en- tirely indefensible"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-11

G LONDON, April 1.-(Special Corre-
 spondence.) For the first time k,s:1s.. in nearly 60 years, or since the t4el844es war of the Crimea, prize court
 Is sitting in London. You are aware of this, of course, as American Interests are largely involved and at some of the coming ngs-notably when the case of the "Wilhelmina" is Ihrashed out--the American ambassa- dor will, it is said, be present, ana hold a watching brief' in the inter- ests of the United States.
 This prize court, which sits in the admiralty division of the royal courts of justice, in the Strand, and of which the Right Honorable Sir Samuel Evans Is president, has been holding sessions ever since September, or since shortly after the beginning of the war, and in this time it has had to deal with over 500 cargoes, Including, so one of the admiralty officials told the writer yes- terday, practically every known va riety carried in ships. These are, Of course, the cargoes of prizes taken by British men-of- war, and they have in- cluded such odd shipments as buffalo horns, human hair. tthis from China) German toys-among them a lot Of Jack in the- -boxes-jewelry cinemato- graph films, musse1 shells from Malay, tthese latter. it seems, are ground up to make food for fowls) and there are also one cargo of trick ponies and one composed of frogs and alligators.
 These reptiles. captured in the re- zion of the River Platte, in South America, were on their way to Hagen beclx's zoo in Hamburg, and when they came into the custody of the ad- miralty officials were in 'lamentab-e state from hunger and thirst. The frogs, which numbered some hundreds. were so the official who went on board to welcome them to England reported '>gasping." being, apparently precious near to their last gap. The alligators, which totalled 15. were. on the other hand, simply boiling with rage at be- ing obliged to undergo an involuntary hunger and thirst strike. Some of them managed to get loose and went for the admiralty men. and there was no end of shindy. with several men streed" up the nearest mast, until, in the end. an animal dealer learned in the ways of gators responded to an IS. O. S." message. and, aided by sew era1 staIwart and perspiring assistants xucccedcd in putting the recalcitrant
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-11
convright. 1915. by Frank G. carpenter.l


 "1 Buenos Aires.
 tMl HAVE spent this week with some tA--4 of our scientists who have come IGsDSsi 10 Argentina to aid in improving
 the farming conditions. There are a dezen or more or these men, con necsed with the department of agri- culture. and they represent every branch or farm efficiency work. Last year we had Dr. Willett NJ. Hays formerly as- sistant secretary or agrieulturture of the United States He came here at a salary here at a salary of slooo month as consulting adviser to the agricultural de- partment of Argentina. During his stay he introduced many new methods for in1- proving the organization and efficiency of the department. MT Walter c. Davis the head of the national weather bureau, has organized a service which Is superior to any other on the South American con tinent He has been in Argentina for more than 40 years, and was brought down to be one of the officials at the UnIver- sity of Cordova. MT. H. M. Curran, who for several years was connected with our forestry bureau in the Philippines, is studying the timber resources of the Pan anna basin and giving suggestions as to the organization of a lumber industry. Laurel Duyal of Ohio has charge of the standardization of grain, and Walter Fisher of the same state is at the head of the experimental stations engaged in fruit culture in Patagonia. His work is chiefly along the Rio Negro. We have also experts who are organizing 8 soil survey and some who are investigating the insect pests. One Iof the latter is MT. George R. Smith of Colorado, who Eas just returned from an extensive tour through the wilds of the north, where ne has been studying the locust MT Smith is at the head of the entomological bureau of the department, and he knows much about this pestiferous grasshopper that eats up the crops.
 The locust may raise the price of wheat to the armies in Europe and it may bring starvation to thousands. It IS the terror of the Argentina farmer It affiicts him, even as 1t afflicted Pha- raoh at the command of Moses when he hardened his heart and would not let the 1sraelites go. The chief diff ference is that Pharaoh had the locust for only season, while the Argentines often have it year after year in sue eession. The loeusts that spread over Egypt sailed in on an east wlnd Those that cover Argentina fly down from the north, and, like their sisters of Egypt they come in such swarms that they cover the face of the sli1. and darkness falls on the land They eat every herb and when they depart there remains not any green thing in the trees or in the herbs of the field" throughout all the land that they cover Said the entomo;o-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-11
A POwflerless Gun

From the Louisville Courier-Journal.
 An electric gun. recently invented In England, aims to put the powder mills out of business. This weapon reverses the usual procedure by pulling the pro- 5ectile instead of propelling it. This purpose is accomplished by an ingenious arrangement of magnets on the outside of the tuba.