davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-13

women shave their foreheads, with the timber line almost at the top of their heads, so that the little patch of face below looks as if it were trembling under threat of an impending snow slide. Their hair is pulled and keyed back as though for musical purposes. At the back of the head Chinese woman wears a cushion of false hair, so dressed as to show her rank, so that a person skilled in the language of the hair can read her history, can tell her present plans and her future amb1- tions person up on hair can tell at a glace whether or not she Is married, if so how many children she has, and if a widow, if she Is willing to open cor respondence with a desirable party of about 45, object matrimony.
 Tn this cushion a Chinese woman carries her head scratcher. Her hair dressing is a preparation made of slip pery elm The person needing it can run out to the corner and wait until the carpenter takes plane and slaves off a few curIs. This the Chinese lady steeps into a thick, gummy smear, pours 1t on her head and uses it to stiffen her hair. This layer makes the top of her head hot, so that every odd moment when she hasn't anything else to do she gets down under the mess and lets in some air with darning needle! Her favorite time for doing this is at the theatre: when the per formance begins to drag, she gets out her darning needle and improves the shining hour by making a rift in the roof as she looks around over the audi ence, lightly gossiping about who are there what they are wearing and how awful they look.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-13
Trouble With Our Art

From the New Republic.
 An education in art appreciation will be valueless if it does not devote itself to clarifying and integrating natural taste The emphasis must be always on what you do like, not on what you ought to like. We have never had a real test of whether bad taste is posi- tive or merely a lack of consciousness. We have never tried to discover strong spontaneous lines of diversified taste.
 To the tyranny of the best" which Arnold's persuasive power imposed up- on this most inquisitive, eager and rich American generation, can be laid think, our failure to develop the dis tinctive styles and indigenous art spirit which the soil should have brought forth abundantly. For as long as you humb1y follow the best, you have no eyes for the vital. If you are using your energy to cajole your apprecia- tions, you have none left for unforced esthetic emotion. If your training has been to learn and appreciate the best that has been thought and done in the world, it has not been to discriminate between the significant and the irrel- evant that the experience of every day Is flinging up in your face.
 Civilized life is really one esthetic challenge after another, and no train ing in appreciation of art is worth any thing unless one has become able to react to forms and settings The mere ca1fousness with which we confrAnt our ragbag city streets is evidence enough of the futility of the Arnold ideal. To have learned to appreciate a Montegna and Japanese print, and Dante and Debussy and not to have learned nausea at Main street. means an art education which is not merely worthless, but destructive.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-13
LIVING IN VIENNA
 NOT MUCH HIGHER
Average Family Can Get Meal for 15 Per Cent More
 Than Before War

Vienna, January 29.-(Correspondence of the Associated Press )-Vienna's high cost of living problem is not as formidable as it appears, if the consumer is willing to buy at any one of the many markets maintained by the municipality. For the purpose of obtaining information first hand on this subject, the Associated Press correspondent went shopping in one of the larger city markets, but did not buy, much to the disappointment of many stall keepers of whom the price of their wares was asked. Sales people and buyers alike said that the price of food had gone up since the war, but that on the whole the average family was able to procure the same meal at a cost not more than Is per cent higher than before the war.
 The following, in American weight and money equivalents, shows what food prod ucts sold for in the city markets on De- cember fl:
 Austrian beef, shoulder. per pound, B to S5 cents
 Austrian beef, rump per pound. 8 to 4a cents.
 Imported beef. shoulder, per pound. g to 37 cents.
 Imported beef trump, per pound. s6 to 4 cents.
 Imported pork, outlets. per pound s4 to 36 cents.
 Imported pork, fresh ham, per pound, 40 to 45 cents.
 Imported pork, fresh bacon, per pound 4 to 52 cents.
 Imported pork, smoked bacon, per pound, 4S to 52 cents.
 fod Jnw tn 5S cents.
 Imported beef suet, per pound, 27 to 82 cents
 Imported veal outlets, per pound s7 to 42 cents.
 Imported veal steaks, per pound, 10 to 43 cents.
 Imported mutton outlets, per pound, 2S to 32 cents.
 Imported leg of mutton per pound, 26 to 37 cents.
 Poultry was very cheap on Saturday Chickens were: Boasts, per pound, 25 to '32 cents; broilers, g to 45 cents; boilers Is to 25 cents. Austrian bullets sold for $1. 43 to $2.2Ss apiece; Hungarian bullets. S1. 30 to $2; fat geese, "A to 7S cents; lean geese, 54 to 50 cents; ducks, 6S to 79 cents; pig cons, 19 to 2 cents; turkeys sold at the low figure of from 20 to s cents a pound Eggs were not quite 3 cents apiece, and stored eggs sold for about half that First-class table butter was 5S cents a pound, three other grades sold at 5, 46 and ii cents pound.
 Cabbages were from 1 to 3lz cents a pound. Other vegetables were in propor- tion to these.
 It is of interest to note that December Il there were offered on the Vienna meat cattle market 4657 beeves. Of these 400 were bought by army conserves factories, and for 6O4 there was no demand Off, fered were 1896 meat and 6S3O fat porkers; unsold remained 45 of the former and 1150 of the latter During the week prices de- clined as follows: Reeves, per 100 pounds average, SIP; cows, $2.17; calves, $1.72; pigs and sheep also showed slight declines
 These data and the fact that the Aus trian government is considering the ad- visibility of again permitting the baking of wheat bread, indicate that the food supply of Austria is far from exhausted.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-13

The Black Minorca is credited with having originated in Spain; or, as some claim, in the Island of Minorca, off the east coast of Spain. It has been brought to its highest state of perfecton, how ever, in England, and was imported into America from that country Rec ords show that Minorcas have been know in England for over 100 years, and have been popular because of their great number of large white eggs. They lay the largest and whitest eggs of all breeds of poultry. The males weigh from 71s to pounds. These are the weights required by the American Standard of Perfection, but many fan ciers try to exceed these weights.
 Black Minorcas were first imported into this country about 1878, and be- came especially popular with the smaller backyard fancier. Their glossy, green back plumage is very attractive, because dirt and grime do not show. The hens are good foragers and give exceptionally good results when kept on free range.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-13
nrRuE GHOST sroRIEs.9 '


 By Hereward Darlington. The J. S.
 Rose Publishing company, publish
 CTS, 57 Rose street, New York.
 The author of this book is well known in both America and Europe as promi- nent scientific writer on psychical and oc- cult subjects. He has been a member ot both the English and American Societies for Physical Research for more than 15 years has written over dozen books on the subject a number of which have been translated into foreign languages, includ- ing the Japanese and Arabic, and he has lectured in London Paris, Rome, Venice, Milan, Geneva, Turin etc, before scien- tific organizations. His writings are well known and have earned him high place in psychical circles.
 In this book he presents a number or startling cases which he has discovered Tn his unrivalled investigations of psychical mysteries. They are not the ordinary ghost stories" based on pure fiction and having no foundation in reality but are a collection of incidents all thoroughly ln- vestigated and vouched for, the testimony being obtained first hand and corroborated by others.
 The first chapter deals with the inter esting question, What is a ghost?" and attempts to answer this question in the light of the latest scientific theories which have been advanced to explain these su- pernatural happenings and visitants.
 Other chapters are: "Phantasms of the Dead More Phantasms," Haunted Houses" Ghost Stories ..f More Ora matic Order" Historical Ghosts The Phantom Armies Seen :n France, BID | Biography"
 True Ghost Stories" Is a book of ab- sorbing interest and cannot fail to grlp and hold the attention of every reader whether he be a student of these quesT tions, or merely in search of hair-raisins anecdotes and stores he will find them | here a-plenty
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-13
JUAN: A DOG AND A ROMANCE.

JAN: A DOG AND A ROMANCE
 By A. J. Dawson. Harper Brothers,
 publishers, New York.
 Nobody who really loves and under stands dogs will be disappointed in read ing that remarkable story about @ dog, 'Jan: A Dog and a Romance" by A. J. Dawson, and that is saying much, for there is no connoisseur like your true dog lover Every one who cares about ami nals at all will enjoy the story thor oughIy, for it is as full of the right kind of feeling as it is free from sentimentality and from the inconscionable fooishness to which sentimentality in this connection sometimes leads. 1 the first place, the authors dog lore is genuine; no more knowledgeable story about a dog has been written than this of MT. Dawson's. In the second place, Jan's adventures are of an altogether unusual and intensely in teresting kind. If you have ever been friends with a large, serious-minded self respecting St. Bernard. or Great Dane, or wolf hound, you are already in the way of appreciating Jan. If you understand high-breeding and character in a dog, if you feel that it is almost as great a shame that a good dog should go uned- ucated (becoming mollycoddle of a house dog or 8 mere trickster) as that he should be abused, you will readily become enthusiastic about Jan.
 Jan was perhaps the only dog of his kind in the world. His father was the mighty Finn, choicest of pure Irish wolf hounds; his mother was the Lady Desde- mona, incomparable among bloodhounds. Jan was therefore a dog of parts, but, just like any young fellow, he needed re- sponsibility and a bit of roughing it to develop his character. This formative experience he got in full measure when hts great friend, Dick Vaughn. a rather shiftless young man who was the devoted lover of Japs mistress, took him with him from his English home to the wilds
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-13
LITTLE MISS CROUCH

By Samuel Hopkins Adams. Illustrated
 by R. M Crosby. Houghton- Mifflin company, publishers, Boston
 Little Miss Crouch" is one of those deliciously amusing love stories which leave the reader smiling a long time after he has finished them. To escape an unwelcome suitof the heroine dresses herself in her maids clothing and runs away to Europe. The first day out her frumpish appearance and nerv- ous ill-temper lead the hero to dub her Little Miss Crouch but the next morning, when he sees her charmingly gowned and bewilderingly radiant, he changes his opinion. Thereafter the trip is made merry by the hero's pursuit of Little Miss Crouch and the efforts of her father, by means of the wireless, and of self-constituted chaperon, to keep them apart.
 Samuel Hopkins Adams is the man who has recently started revolution in advertising methods by means of his remarkable series of articles published in the New York Tribune. He has been an advertising manager himself and for 10 years was reporter and special writer for a leading New York news paper During the last few years he has varied his more serious work by writing novels and short stories. In Little Miss Crouch MT. Adams has written in his best vein of mingled fun and sentiment, for which, up to the time of 1.-The Clarion" he was best known to thousands of magazine read CTS
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-13
A Notre Dame Lady's Appeal

To all moving sufferers of rheumatism whether mus cuar of the joints. sciatica. lumbssos backache pains the kidneys neuralgia pains. to write to her fU a home treatment which has repeatedly cured sl of these torres She feels it her duty to send it to all tsufferers FREE You yourself at home as fholneands will testify-no change of climate being necessary. This simple discovery banishss uric acid from the blood. loosens the stfened joints purifes the bocd and brightens the eyes, giving elasticity and tone to Vhe whole system If the above interests you for proof address
 Mrs N. Summers. BOXER Notre Dame Ind
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-13
Curious Things About Chinese Women


 Even though I came to China know ing that they did things backward. there are some customs here that l just can't get used to. One is seeing women wearing trousers. There arc more women wearing trousers in China than there are people in the Unitel Statesmen, women and children. suppose that there is no reason why things shouldn't be thus, but 1t will always seem to me that the pants are On the wrong side of the house.
 The women look like clothes-pins
 heir bodies are the same size all the ray down and their feet are so tiny hat they go bobbing along for all the world like jointed clothes-pins The
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-13

he had grown to young manhood and manly beauty and marvellous strength. He worked al his smithy and made songs of the spring and the wood, and neither saw nor thought of woman un- til Helen the beautiful rode past the smithy, and while she leased love awake in his heart set it fluttering in her own But she was duchess and he was only Beltane the Smith, and so he set forth into the world to for get her and to fulfill whatever mis- sion he found was his. But first he went to Ambrose the hermit, and from him learned that the holy man was his father and the rightful Duke Of Pentavalon So then Beltane, with sword and armor, fared forth to oust the wicked usurper and to right the shameful wrongs of Duke Two. The TO- nance tells of the adventures into which Beltanes journeys carried him. the scenes of injustice upon which he came, and of how he visited his wrath upon evildoers; the dangers that oade fair to end his life, how Helen the beautiful and proud proved her love, and how finally he cleared all the land of the doers of wrong, won back his rightful domain, and was joined in happy wedlock with his love.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-13

can marines are now very popular with the "artesanos" and many other Nicara- guans who once looked askance.
 Baseball has done it. It would be a crime to withdraw the marines and stop the baseball craze in Nicaragua. It is the best step towards order, peace, and stability that has ever been taken. It beats the work of politicians and states men, People who will play baseball and turn out by the thousands every week to see the match games, are too busy to participate in revolutions Three cheers fer the American marine who is teach ing baseball and real sportsmanship! In- cidentally, it should be said that tho members of this legation guard of ma rines are a fine set of representative Americans. They have behaved splen- didly.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-13

Der of that wonderful organization, the Royal Northwest Mounted Police, and Jan made good, too. through trials even harder than those of his master. He be- came a sled-dog, he had many narrowing experiences, and he became in time the best leader and master of sled dogs of any of his kind in the north. After all this, he unexpectedly found his master and both returned to England, persons of character and consequence, and with per feet adaptability resumed the ways of civilized life. "Jan'' is a thrilling and charming story, full of fight and affection and intelligence-a tale of self-mastery and growth in both dog and man.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-13
A Ministers Success With Chickens When Illness Took Him From His Work
Importance of Selected Stock, Business Methods, Good Values to Ones Gus toners
By E. K. TEMPLER Practical POultryman.

It is a tough proposition for an old man to be forced out of the ministry on account of sickness and approach ing old age. with but little in reserve, and it is equally hard when a young man must give up his work, especially when he has wife and youngsters to look after. This is what happened to the writer after number of years service in the ministry. Sickness, death in the family, hard work and the burning of the midnight oil finally brought about a collapse Providen- tially he had a home and a good sized lot in small village which suggested the keeping of poultry.
 Having decided to go into this work from fancy utility standpoint, made selection of what l thought to be popular variety. the White Wyan- dottes secured some of the very best stock, and paid more for them than my purse seemed to warrant, but the wisdom of this was seen later on. I placed these birds in a makeshift coop and bred them one season, retaining the bullets for my next years work. This gave me enough birds the second year so that l could advertise the sale of matching eggs in the spring. It was my hope to be able to sell eggs and stock to people who wanted to make start with poultry. The first ad was placed in the classified department of a local poultry journal, and the re- suits were awaited with high expec- tations. As I recall 1t now, from a more experienced standpoint it is a wonder that I heard anything from the small ad which was packed in with many other like advertisements, but I did I sold a few settings of eggs, enough to encourage me going into business on a larger scale; but it was with some hesitation that I started in on the building of better house for rrau hirds
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-13
"BIJND SIGHT"

BLIND SIGHT"
 By B. Y Benediall. Dodd Mead x Co., publishers New York.
 A young clerk goes to the country house of a wealthy and aristocratic family to act as a sort of gentleman detective, to mingle with the other guests and keep a quiet lookout for someone who has stolen some family jewels. He is a success, and detects the culprit under strange and dramatic circumstances. But this IS not a detective story. The elder daughter, of the aristocratic and wealthy family IS beautiful--and blind And the young clerk, who lives in shabby little house in a shabby neighborhood. and supports his mother and sister falls in love with her-falls in love with all the depth and strength of his whole being. Thereafter, love story of an unusual kind-very moving very genuine, rather wonderful | There are people in Blind Sight that are
 not easily forgotten; Blind Sight is
 story that people will not soon forget
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-13
News
From Life.

First War Correspondent-Di your dispatch get past the censor?
 Second War Correspondent the part that wasn't true.
 Well, isn't that all your paper wants?''
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-13
sINGLE-CoMB BLACK MINORCAs

The hens are virtually egg machines. They devote almost all their efforts to smelling out eggs and do not become broody, hence other hens or artificial means must be used to hatch and rear their chicks. The youngsters make rapid, rugged growth, and if supplied with plenty of range and foraging ground, their development will please the most exacting.
 The male, when full grown, should have a large, heavy, evenly serrated comb. full, round, smooth wattles and a large white almond-shaped ear lobe. The pIumage should be deep black, illuminated with a gettle green sheen. Their legs are dark in color and heavy of bone. The body is long and carried at an angle only slightly higher than the horizontal.
 The description of the female agrees generally with that of the male ex- cepting the comb. This should be thin and smooth, evenly serrated, with five or six points. It folds both ways on the head and hangs down on one side of the face.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-13
A Cnaxar

From the London Christian World
 The latest American church device for raising the wind'' Is what a religious paper describes as some collection box The inventor halls from Oklahoma. If member of the congregation drops in a 25-cent piece or a coin of large value, there is silence. If it is a 10-cent piece a bell rings, 5-cent piece sounds like a whistle, and a cent fires a blank car fridge If anyone pretends to be asleer when the box passes, it awakens him with watchman's rattle, and kodak takes his portrait.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-13
eBELTANE THE SMITH"

By Jeoffrey Farnol. With Illustrations
 by Arthur E. Becher Little, Brown Ss
 Co.,, publishers. Boston.
 Like all of Jeffrey FarnoPs charming books '.Beltane the Smith" makes an in- stant and insistent appeal.
 Colorful and full of human interest, the author tells us of how Beltane and Smith had lived all his boyhood and youth in a greenwood, far from the haunts of men, where Ambrose the her init had cared for and taught him, and
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-13
BUILDING POULTRY HOUSES

There are so many different theories relative to the proper construction of a poultry house that I was somewhat puzzled when I really got to the point where I was to build one. I decided to have a semi-open front coop, with shed roof and an enclosed roasting place. I built for the accommodation of 100 birds, making the coop 12x30 feet. Each pen was 1Ox12 feet. The whole top front of the house was left open to the width of two feet, this space being later covered with muslin frames. These frames were each 2x10 feet and were swung on hinges to the outside, so that in the winter they could be opened for ventilation and in the summer to keep the hot sun from the house. I found this arrangement very satisfactory.
 The roasting quarters were at the rear of the house. taking up the en- tire length. Muslin drop curtains made it possible to protect the birds from the excessive cold of winter, for 1 found that if hen had her comb frozen it was "good-by eggs" as far as she was concerned for the remain der of the winter I give a great deal of credit for heavy egg yield to the warm roasting closet and the well ya ad
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-13
INCREASING THE FLOCK

After my second year I found White Orpingtons were also becoming very popular, and as I was associated with a poultry firm that had excellent stock in this variety, I secured my first birds from these. yards. The poultry busi- ness was booming and everybody wanted thoroughbred stock. My adver-. Using was beginning to bring better returns and the demand for matching eggs became greater than my supply. I received s3 per setting of Is eggs. and managed to dispose of my entire out put. The 80 hens would give me an average of 20 eggs for matching pur- poses each day, and the balance were sold as market eggs. Of course large number of eggs were sold in quantities. thus cutting down the actual returns somewhat. The sale of hatching eggs helped largely to make success of the venture and each succeeding season meant return orders and new busi-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-13
THE ISSUES OF LIFE"

By Elwood Worcester, D.D., Moffat Yard
 and Company. Publishers, New York.
 'The Issues of Life" is full of vigor- ous and virile philosophy, of practical religion It is a manual of practical spirituality, book that will appeal to the progressive as well as to the con servative churchman, book that will of fend no one-neither Protestant nor Cath olic-a book that will be loved by men of all faiths, of all creeds, of all shades of belief.
 In his introduction, Dr. Worcester says, "I have tried once more to apply the principles of the Christian religion tc the physical, moral and spiritual needs of men"