davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24
The Difference in Court Costs

T was greatly impressed with lhe striking contrast between the costs in the criminal court and those of the court of common pleas in cases of sun day gaming as published the other day in The Age-Herald, said a business man. q have always thought the practice of rounding up negroes on Saturday nights and throwing them into jail one of the worst features of the fee system From the published figures the accrued costs in the criminal court were s37.55, and in the court of common pleas, $375 While l am aware that all this cost does not go directly to the fee officials, yet a large portion of it does.
 "If the court of common pleas can operate on salaries and keep the coses down to $3.75 in contrast to the court where the fee system prevails and the costs are $37.55, I would say let us have more courts of common pleas There is hardly a man in the county, unless direct or indirect beneficiary. but that condemns the rounding up of negroes guilty of petty offences and cause them to be placed on the county roads for months sometimes because of the ac . crument of costs. I think the court of situation and I hope that it's jurisdic- ton will be extended to take up all mis- demeanors.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24
DIRTIEST TOWN IN PERSIA

fTOln tue Wlue WOtiu AsAdo"
 Dizful is said to be the dirtiest town Tn Persia, and certainly it would be nara to imagine a dirtier, though Persian friends there told us we were lucky Tn coming just after rain. Dizful was nice and clean now. they said. blandiy, put week ago-well: you couldn't help notic- ing it. How people can live in such con ditions passes belief, and probably the many cases of sore eyes we saw, even emong children, are due to it, for the flies were a perfect pest. This nuisance, however. was not confined to Dizful, shustar being just as bad, and through o,,t the Journey our poor horses went nearly mad.
 As the consul for Arabistan has pcriodi- cally to visit Dizful, the British govern ment. or more correctly speaking the government of India, has provided him with A house there. We arrived at our quarters in a somewhat depressed frame of mind. A dark and cavernous gate way. crowded with shadowy figures, among them the usual importunate seyyid beggar, led into a tiny and squalid courtyard. With murmured "Bismilah, the caretaker, an old mullah, signalled us to doorway, whence we emerged on to a terrace, and before our astonshed eyes was unfolded a panorama as wonderful as it was unexpected.
 We were perched on the top of a high
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24
THE END OF THE QUEST

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
 Diogenes was sitting on a fire hydrant when a kindly-faced man stopped and ad- dressed him.
 Whats wrong with you, old friend?' he asked.
 ..Pve been sorely misused,'' replied the cynic.
 ''In what way?
 "As I turned wonder corner carrying my lantern a youth approached me. Where fore the glim? he asked. I replied thai I was Diogenes looking for an honest man. The youth laughed. You're vast ing time in this town, uncle he said Your glim is no use here. And what dc you think? He took my lantern away from me, and my hat and my street car pennies, and ran around the corner. The only thing he left of any value was my collar button. Do you wonder that I ap- pear morose?"
 Not at all,' replied the kindly faced citizen You are quite excusable. am a little sorry, however, that in your search for an honest man you couldn't have waitde until you met me. But, perhaps it's just as well.''
 So saying, he stopped down suddenly and, snatching away the philosopher collar button, ran up the nearby alley and disappeared.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
Prosperity Sure to Spread


 If anyone doubts that there is large measure of prosperity in the west he has only to take a trip through the grain growing region,'' said Oliver l.. Larl1in of Chicago.
 Business conditions in my home city have been 'spotty' this winter. In some branches there has been much activity in others extreme dullness. But all through the northwest and as far out as the Pacific business has been booming for some months.
 T spent several days in Seattle in De- cember, and that city was more prosper ous than I had ever seen it. I was in Des Moines early in January, and that old town has walked up completely. It is now the center of immense traffic and wealth. l have not been east for some time, but I am told that New York looks like it's old-time self.
 Prosperity is sure to spread, and if there has been any complaint of dull times in the south-and of course there has been-it will not be heard much longer"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24
No Increase in Army This Year

Notwithstanding Secretary of War Garrison's urgent recommendation for an increase of few thousand men in the coast artillery and a comparatively small increase in the mobile army the House of Representatives, after long debate, failed to provide for any ad- dition to the present strength of the regular establishment.
 The army appropriation bill carry ing $101, 100000 looked large to the democrats-so large that it was deemed advisable to leave to the next Congress the question of strengthens ing the national defense. The bill, however, provides for an increased appropriation for field artillery ma terial, the item being $170,000 instead of $25 1000, which was the sum appro. priated by the last Congress for that purpose.
 r Secretary Garrison has made close study of the national defense and oi the needs of his department. He hal a definite military policy. It does moi mean militarism. The Secretary simply wishes to make the army more efficient and move forward towards
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24

The Golden Jubilee and Exposition" edition of the San Francisco Chronicle is one of the largest and handsomest special editions of a newspaper ever received in this office. Exceptional color work is responsible for much of its beauty and "tiveness The Chroni- ele is one of the Pacific coasts greatest newspapers and gives striking proof of the prosperity now being enjoyed by the far western part of the United States. It is singulariy fortunate in be- ing able to celebrate it's golden jubilee and the approaching opening of the Panama-Pacific exposition at the same time
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24
Types of Atavism

Mrs. Clara Holland Griffin, grand daughter of Dr Josiah Gilbert Hol- land, who achieved fame as poet and novelist, has just been sentenced to serve seven years in the peniten- tiary for having carried on for seven years, with the aid of her husband, Francis H Griffin, very successful swindle. The husband has been sen- tenced to six years in the federal pen itentiary at Atlanta.
 The careers of these two people af- ford an interesting study The as sistant district attorney who prose- cuted them described Mrs. Griffin as a woman who was predatory by na- ture and had done nothing honest in all her life" Of the husband he said: Griffin is type of parasite too lazy to work, too cowardly to take the front, and lets woman work out his schemes"
 After their marriage in 1906, this couple, the woman descended from distinguished people and her hus- band a lawyer, clubman and social worker, the son of clergyman, started fraudulent scheme, based on fictitious contrast for stenographic work for the government. They per suaded their friends and any other dupes they could "work" to finance the proposed undertaking, with the re- suit that they are believed to have obtained between $294,0 and $300,- 900. The exact number of their vic tins will never be known, but enough cases were unearthed to show that they spared neither the rich nor the poor. During their double career of crime they spent $40,0OO a year of their friends money. One woman was defrauded of $50,000. An old family servant who had saved $40O was per suaded to entrust $35O of it to the Griffins, who went to the woman's house in an automobile and left a bouquet in return for the money!
 In the trial few, if any, "extenua- ting circumstance" could be adduced by the defense. According to the newspaper reports, neither Griffin nor his wife has shown any redeem ing traits save that of her loyalty to him. These two criminals, whose en- vlronment and family connections seem to have been eminently respect able, show a curious and almost in- applicable moral perversion.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24
rHr IRON RAIN AT SCARBOROUGH

Reginald wright haulIlnan III lesile <.
 You know by this time the tragedies of
 that iron rain from the sea. You know
 how one man was dressing in his bedroom
 when a shell burst there and killed him;
 how two servants were blown to pieces in
 a kitchen, how a wife, having rushed to
 her husbands side, was struck and slaughtered, while her husband remained unharmed; now, as postman was hand ing letters to a housemaid, both were crushed in the ruins of one house; how another woman ran to close the windows of her shop and met a shell that crashed through them; and how still others were picked up dead in the streets. The sa- gacious censor, so tender of our emo- tions, has permitted the publication of the usual stories of miraculous escapes such as that of the man who ran cclarward without stopping for his coat, and re- turned after the bombardment 10 find his coat torn to shreds-a narrative presum- ably based on the assumption that. had
 he worn the coat, he would have died. I saw something of the exodus of the
 more timid. The packed trains. roads
 crowded with motors and luggage laden carriages, byways full of folk afoot. But even that flight was orderly, and surely it was of little duration. Nearly every body accepted the situation with calm that was amazing to my American con- sciousness. It was a hysterical woman of uncertain age that, talking to herself with an eye to possible listeners, looked ] at one scene of ruins and remarked: 1T don't like this war; it's detestable war; l I don't like it at all.' And it was one l little better, though he wore male gar ments, that saw turn away from a pass l ing stretcher to a mashed chemists shop and groan: 'Do you know, believe those Germans were deliberately trying to de- stroy property-deliberately trying to de- stroy property, by Jove!"
 l These were sightseers from otherwhere. l Scarborough received its blow like a good l fighter. It made a mere American re-
 member the Scarborough warning "A word and a blow, but the blow first" The
 town that can have made such a phrase
 current knows how to accept that phrase
 when it is made a reality and used against tt-and I think you will find an increase in the next enlistment returns from Scarborough
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24
POINTED pARAGRApIIs
From the Chicago News.

TOil tiit SlllCdSO 1NtWS
 A real heroine is a woman who can suffer in silence.
 Some men have brains but never know when to use them.
 Anyone could write poetry were it not necessary to make it rhyme
 Success often comes to a man because he has forgotten that he might fail A man seldom measures up to your ex- pectations unless measured by the golden rule.
 A wise woman refuses to ask her hus- band to accompany her to church if he talks in his sleep. Doubtless it Is the unexpected that hap. pens because one can never tell what a woman will do. | It Coesn't take woman very long tS discover that she drew a blank in tn, matrimonial lottery, but to her dying day she believes her husband drew prize.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24

Business Barometers Cause Optimism
 If the barometers of the business world such as an easy money market healthy stock market, an enormous export business, the advancing price of cotton and increased activities in the industrial field caused optimism a month ago they should cause all the more buoyancy now.
 There has been a very marked inn provement in many branches of busi- ness since the early part of the new year. Cotton is bringing $S.50 per bale more than it sold for at the low level in December Southern railroad lines still report light traffic, but in the east there has been a decided in- crease in the movement of freight within the past ten days. The rail roads have been buying track material and rolling stock, but their purchases have been conservative as compared with what they will be before the end of the first half of the year. They have placed enough orders, however, with the iron and steel industries to featuring centers like Pittsburg and Birmingham where light operation was the rule in the last quarter of 1914.
 The Iron Age, which is as moderate in tone and expectancy as it is pains- taking in collecting industrial news, is now optimistic in a high degree. It's last issue was full of cheering facts about orders placed for supplies of various sorts. A few weeks ago the large industries of Pittsburg were be- ing operated at no more than 40 per cent of capacity-some of them as low as 35. Now it is stated on high statistical authority that Pittsburg as a whole is operating at 90 per cent of capacity; and the indications are that early in February the average will be fully 60 per cent of capacity.
 In the Birmingham district some of the plants have been operating at 60 per cent of capacity all this month. If men engaged in various mercantile pursuits complain of dullness the large factors making for business better ment will have their effect shortly upon every branch of trade. Febru- ary promises to be busy month with everybody.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24

formed of the company's business-like policies and the improvements being made. Hardly week passes that the Southern does not make an announce ment of more than ordinary interest. It is building a good many miles of double track and is doing many things to put it's line in high class condition so as to handle with dispatch and economy the vast volume of traffic that will come to it later And the fact that this betterment work is be- ing done now, instead of being delayed until the rush of roaperity was in evidence shows that the executive head of the company has breadth of view and confidence in an early re- covery of business in the cotton belt.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24

[ for the rifleman whose duty it is to bring down hostile craft of this kind. Even with it's enormous speed the bullet dis charged by a modern rifle is not fast enough for the aeroplane, as has been discovered in the European war, but the expert riflemen who are constantly on the watch for hostile air craft are fast learning the requirements for hitting these swiftly moving targets. He no longer aims at an aeroplane when trying to bring it down, but at point about six lengths ahead of the machine. The air man running the hostile craft also knows this and, when under fire, seldom flies far in straight line if he can help 1t, but follows a zigzag course. The Zeppe- lin is a much slower moving craft and can be plugged about the center of the envelope if the rifieman aims at it's nose
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24
NED BRACE TALKS ABOUT PROHIBITION
 LAWS AND ABOUT GOVERNOR HENDERSON

poisonous} stuff sold by what was known as bootleggers.
 On the First of July it will become the duty of every citizen of Alabama. however he might feel on the aues- tion of prohibition. to do his part to- wards enforcing the law.
 x # j:
 1 met Governor Henderson for the first time in Montgomery Thursday.
 I was impressed with his personality his quiet, dignifled bearing and his prac- tical knowledge of the affairs of the state. He has shown in the past week that he has the courage of his convictions and that he is neither rabid, irritable nor domineering. He has nothing of the stage about him. He attempts no flights of oratory Neither does he assume rhetoric nor eloquence. He talks and NTlleS 10 the point m Sifnpie, lofcelul language. He is not a profound nor scintillating scholar, but he thinks straight and is full of practical ideas. He has planned out programme for his administration. He proposes to relieve the state of it's financial difficulties and to operate it's affairs as a business in- stitution should be conducted.
 venture, now that the political legis- lation is largely adopted, that it will not be a week longer before the leaders of both houses of the assembly and the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24
Railroads Make Solid Improveme,,

INalirOadS Make Solid Improvements
 The great eastern carriers and some of the western lines made important betterments last year despite business depression and heavy falling off in traffic, and now that conditions are improving and the interstate com merce commission has shown friend Her attitude toward the roads, the betterments will be on a still larger scale. And the southern lines, al- though feeling the depression even more acutely than the roads in other sections, have made creditable records in completing certain of their ex- tensive undertakings in construction and in installing costly devices mak- ing for public safety.
 The Louisville and Nashville, the Southern and other roads entering the Birmingham district have made some very substantial improvements at various points on their lines, and it Is understood that the Louisville and Nashville is planning to erect big cor plant at Boyles sometime during the present year. The Southern's Fin. ley yards at North Birmingham, con- structed at a cost of $1,000,000 oi more, and recently opened, is a very notable example of progressive man agement.
 The Southern issues frequent bull. letins in which the public is kept in
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24
THE SONG OF A BIRD
By Julia Nicely Finch.
 Hollow and spent,

By Julia Nicely Finch. Hollow and spent, Broken and bent,
 On the verge of wood The old tree stood: And it's boughs so bare were as hands, once fair, Now withered and worn uplifted in prayer. There came a bright bird To those branches forlorn. Cts song must have stirred Your heart, had you heardD Did the tree dream
 of long vanished youthf Or, was it in truth
 A soft, sunlit gleam That made 1t seem young? Blossoming? Fair?
 As the bird swayed and swuul On the branches and sung3
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24

a state of preparedness in view of the possibility some day of foreign war.
 The army is too small, and the Sixty-fourth Congress will doubtless see it's way clear to act favorably upon Secretary Garrison's recom- mendations.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24

BEGINNING THE DAY-Start me out afresh today, Lord. May life have the old time thrill! Make inc world young ngntn to me! Restore my fond hopes. May victory he as dazzling and virtue as splendid as they were. Give me new heaven and n new earth! For Christ's sake. Amen.-H. M. E.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24

 cliff of rock. Down, down we looked at the rushing Dig river, with the mills struggling across it, while on each side of use rose the town, tumble of brown buildings, house upon house, climbing the great wall of rock. From our point of vantage we looked into courtyards, where people sat in the deepest shade cast by the setting sun, on to roofs where washing and bedding were spread out to air. and here and there we caught glimpses of the tiled archway of mosque. It was all alive with moving figures in dull reds and bright greens, the prevailing colors, and wherever we looked we were sure to see a couple of solemn storks standing on their nest The Persians call them "IIajji Lug-lug,' for here. as every- where, the stork is a favored bird, almost sacred.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24
Rose by Merit Alone

I'll. K. Brooks, formerly manager of the western financial department of the Amer ican Express company, who has been ad- vanced to the position of vice president and manager of the financial business, fur that 1t is not always influence that counts,' said a club man.
 MT. Brooks started his career as a rewsboy on the New York and Oswego Midland railroad. He entered the employ of the American Express company in 1882 as clerk in the money department in Mill waukee. For several years MT. Brooks occupied various positions in the finan- cial department of the company, until 1904 when his training and ability won for him the position at Chicago. A num- Der of years ago the company originated it's travellers cheques and engaged in foreign remittances. MT. Brooks made a study of foreign exchange He is the author of several books on that sub ject which are extensively used by col leges, banks and business houses MT. Brooks is a director of the Chicago Say ings Bank and Trust company, member of the South Side Country club. Traffic club and Credit Mems association in Chi cago.
 From newsboy to vice president is a record of which anyone might well be proud MT. Brooks has moved to New York, making his office at 65 Broad way"
 The Merchants' Protective Association "The steady growth in membership and of course in influence, of the Mer. chants Protective association has cer-
 tainly been gratifying to its charter
 members who organized the body thrct years ago. said John W. O'Neill, whk
 has been elected president of the I'M. P
 A." as it is familiarity known to it. members.
 This association works 'hand-in
 hand with the Business Mems league
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24
CareIessness Causes Fire Loss

Birmingham's fire department is kept unusually busy during the win ter months. Chief Middleton's last monthly report shows that there were 221 alarms in December and that the total loss was $400,000 Most of the losses were small, but the aggregate made the figures large.
 The chief makes full detailed re- port, and several practical lessons may be drawn from the facts that he presents. In December three fires were caused by defective chimneys, five by defective flues, three by de- fective wiring, two originated from overloaded furnaces, fourteen from soot in chimneys and sixteen from carelessness.
 Householders should be more care ful in avoiding everything that might result in damage to themselves and property. It costs little or nothing to have chimneys kept clean, and as for defective wiring and defective flues, the small expense of keeping them in condition is practically negligible.
 This city maintains a high class fire department, and if all occupants of buildings would take more pains in safeguarding the property Birming- hams fire loss would be considerably reduced.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24

mostly aroused when one woman sees an other woman well dressed and this feeling is apt to blind her to some of the fine points of the others attire"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24

The crew of a submarine would doubt less be reconciled to the fact that it is too small for dances if there were room enough on board tc prepare decent meal
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24

and other civic bodies, yet occupies a field all it's own in that it affords pro- lection to it's membership from al losses by deadbeats and crooks, han
 dles delinquent coll ections, has rating
 bureau of peculiar efficiency, and is at the same time ever vigilant and en- ergetic in protecting the retailers gen eral interests.
 "All legislation affecting the retail merchants in the whole state, whether of a pro or con nature,' is carefully studied and analysed and constant cor respondence is exchanged with affiii- ated associations in other cities of Ala : bama on all live mercantile subjects. "Since the appointment of Henry Y. Beaumont, a well known publicity and
 system expert, to the permanent secre-
 taryship of the M. P. A. the body has
 undergone thorough reorganization
 and it is now vital, vigorous band
 which will rank well in efficiency and
 actual results with any other similar
 organization in the south"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24
NO TROUBLE AT ALL.

You can't have your cake and eat it. -
 'sTrue enough, but you can take in the sights of a city and be taken in at the same time
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24
2,e)rt3oaeQ
ADRgFT WITH THE TIr1ES
AN OLD CONTENTION.

AN OLD CONTENTION. How did she happen to decide that he was her soul mater"
 "He was demonstrating a new dance at her house and broke costly vase" q don't see how she figured that out" in the philosophy of women that can't be figured out"