davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-23

ization of that as fast or faster than any other.
 Yea, we will soon be saying. Pity the poor, rich man of Manhattan" for the higher purpose of life is surely beginning to be recognized here in this money grabbing center. It is evident, at this time, only from straws, tendencies, gleams, here and there, but straws show, at least that the wind of truth is surely blowing. .
 And now, we shall leave the avenue and go over on old Broadway. Here we gaze into the faces of those who constitute the masses-people of moderate means in many cases. of wealth in other instances, and of poverty in still others. And what is New York doing for it's masses, it's people of the happy medium" class of moderate means, hearts and human pas sions.
 Tho answer, plainly enough, to a dwell CT here, is that the city is doing it's all fer them. Thousands of amusements are to be seen by them, for. req sonable prices, to which wealth hardly condescends to go. As MT. Brady said, life can be lived cheaper here, and this is made possible in yiewcf the fact that it is necessary for the masses. And. though their pleas ures come cheaper than those of wealth they bring more real enjoyment in a ma Jority of instances.
 These Broadwayites, as I shall refer to them in the aggregate, are able to draw 8 contrast that wealth cannot know. They contrast their hours of enforced labor to those of pleasure, and they get result that Is highly pleasing. Many have even learned to know that work itself is pleas ure and growth.
 On the faces of most of them are ex- pressions which do not indicate woe and worry and they are in many cases look iIs out upon the world instead of in upon themselves. one of the surest ways to avoid unnecessary trouble and worry.
 In the selection of their friends and acquaintances they are privileged to
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-23
Tricks of the Pitchers

In the Womans Home Companion is an article on pitching baseball curves, by C. Fl. Claudy. In 1t he says.
 few big league pitchers depend on many varieties of curve to 'foor the batter No matter what the effect of a wide ana sweeping curve may be upon one of your team mates. curve ball in the big league is as easy to hit as a straight one, provided the batter knows it is coming. But when a good pitcher gets to work on batter. he doesn't let him know what is coming With three balls and two strikes almost any major league batter is entitled to be- lieve that the next pitch will be fast one splitting the plate But if the pitcher has his nerve with him, it may be sudden inshoot. Expecting the natural straight ball, and finding, about a tenth of second before the ball gets to the plate, that it is jumping in toward him, the batter has no time to changs his set, and strikes out
 The essence of any fooling delivery, then, is it's unexpectedness. To make use of this feature, control of the fool ing delivery is necessary.
 And the easiest curve to control is the curve which is pitched most natu- rally.
 That is why the big league pitcher doesn't try to master the curves of every otiaer pitcher but sticks to those he can do best. The greatest pitcher of the game is famous for his fade-away,' the ball that withers and dies at the plate after starting like cannon ball. But for every 'fade-away' Matty ever threw. he pitched dozen straight fast or slow balls.
 And they all come from the same motion. No batter can tell by looking at Matty getting ready. winding up, and pitching, what Is going to come up to him. It is not knowing until the last fraction of a second whether the ball will go waist high plump into the catcher's init, or weakly drop off to one side, which makes the fade-away' a terror"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-23

demmycratic party didn't heed my clarion demands to sed plank would creeate constinasion in It's ranks by boting. informed her that that the grate feer the steering committee had-that mite bolt. If bolted the goats out and that's all theere to it. She told too long had the deemun rum stalked abroad in the land devourring the yuth of the nason and sending them down to drunkered's grave told her that had notised it- and that while doubt she had the statistics and was better posted such matturs than myself, that l thought the yuth of the land and the deemun rum weer running neck and neck rase in the devourring bizness and it ought to be stopped We arranged series of conferences to devise ways and means for insurting plank in the platform of which is to be matinee performance this afternoon.
 Shortly aftur that a gentulman took me by the buttunho1e and sed: T am chairman of dellega- sion'-but uttered wild shreek and fled. If the demmycratc party puts all the blanks in it's platform that spesial dellegasions air seeking, they'll have enuff blanks to build a bungalo big enuff to hold all the nuts at large and thatll be bungalo, take it frum
 Yours trooly
 BILL VINES
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-23

is but poor seeming, struggling selfishly to overcome the reality.
 have no hatred for great wealth, no soreness against it; it has robbed me of nothing, nor does it seem likely that it ever will; even in this advanced age. the feat of extracting blood from the proverbial turnip remains unaccomplish- ed. But to the student of human na- ture, of life itself. few years of living in this greatest of all cities, teaches many things which are absolutely ines capable. And, sooner or later, we are coming to know that real enjoyment of real life in this very real city. is not to be found solely in the acquisition of enormous wealth.
 What does New York do for the pos sessor of great wealth? Not a great deal, come to think of it. It. raises prices on ! him, forcing him, when it can, to pay more for services and articles than others pay it gives him obssquious service, but denies him the satisfaction of knowing whether his friends and acquaintances like him or his money. and makes it difficult, indeed. for him to get line on the true estimate in which he is held by his fellow beings. It soon comes to pass that he stiffens, grows suspicious. hard, grasping and gets almost com pletely out of touch with his fellow men. Fear of loss of wealth haunts him; his associates are limited in number-coA- fined, in fact, to the exclusive few and even his home on the avenue is re- ferred to by the masses as a ''morgue."
 About his ''morgue' he builds an iron fence. with gates that are always kept locked. nor does he realize the truth of the statement that much more is always locked out than is ever locked in. In addition to all this, the P. of G. W is cordially hated by a large class of en- vious and mentally twisted people, some of whom occasionally become extremely dangerous to hm.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-23
OUR ALASKAN FRONTIER

up the Matnauska valley to the coal fields. The distance from Seward to An chorage is less than 100 miles. and the tracks of the Alaska Northern railroad already reach more than three-fourths of the way. They go almost directly north- ward from Seward on Resurrection bay, crossing many beautiful valleys to Turn again Arm The distance is Fl miles and the 20-odd miles from there to Knik Arm or Anchorage can easily be con structed. So far the government has done practically nothing to repair the tracks of the Alaska Northern and to put it into condition. But there is a gasoline car which runs northward from Seward daily for a distance of 45 miles, and this is being operated for the gov ernment. The rates of passage are about z cents nile and freights are cores pondingly high.
 A large number of homesteads have already been taken up along the line of the railroad, although no cultivation or clearing of tfny great extent has been done. Northward from Anchorage in the Matanuska and Susitna valleys, home steads are now being taken up and about 200 farms have already been registered along Knik Arm. There are several thousand people living at Anchorages. several hundred at Knik, and others are preparing to cut farms out of the woods of the Matanuska valley and along the Susitna. Many are planning to get farms near the coal lands.
 On the Kenai peninsula the only large center of population is Seward. The other settlements are mining camps or little collections of log cabins occupied by prospectors who are travelling over the peninsula, looking for gold. There are two such camps on Turnagain Arm. ing, and another is at Hope, few miles to the westward. Both camps have alto gether not over 200 inhabitants.
 Sunrise has perhaps 20 log cabins. Tn one is general store, kept by an old German, and another is Arno Liebischer's road house, where I am living. Adjoining the roadhouse is shack about as big as a hall bedroom, with the words 'U. $. Postoffice'' over the door. Many of the other cabins are empty. They were built when Sunrise was the center of mining excitement and one thousand-odd pros- pectors were washing the sands of Six Mile river and the other creeks about here for gold. Today dredge made in Seattle is turning up the bed of the river, but the profits are little, because the dredge buckets, which hold only two cubic feet. are too small. Farther up the river is Duncan Stewards mining camp, where they are dredging at profit and where are quartz mines said to be good.
 Other towns are Kenai, Kasilof, Sel- dovia and Port Graham, on Cook inlet. Kenai has population of 250, and Sell dovia, at the southwestern end of th3 peninsula, has less than 200. Both have
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-23

use their judgment of human nature instead of being. bound by the rules that govern the exclusive in such matters Therefore. their acquaintances and friends may be unlimited in num- = of having discovered many diamond in the rough.
 They are in closer touch with real life and real people, and when free from envy and selfishness, know a hap piness that is hardly possible to great wealth which so often stiffens where this freer< comraderie unbends. They are in a position to judge of the genu- ineness of those with whom they come in contact, for the reason that they are not sought because of possible favors, and are not fawned upon or given ob- sequious treatment and service because of their possessions.
 They remain in town all the year round. and are New YoplS's best boost CTS" They are of the sort which is content to live in and be ever so small an integral part of this greatest of municipalities. While the extremely wealthy are seeking an elusive happi- ness at Palm Beach, Atlantic City and elsewhere. they are in possession of real joy at Coney Island or one of the nearby beaches-fare cents.
 It may be possible to be possessed of great wealth and to live something of the same kind of life as the masses live--it is also said to be possible for camel to go through the eye of a needle-and in both cases, the tempta- tion to go around some other way, or live some other life. must be almost overwhelming. I firmly believe, how ever, that the real life of this great city is not that ordinarily paid for out of the predatory pouch. but is that lived by the person who may have known either or both extremes but now hits the happy medium-the me- dium represented by Broadway between the extremes represented by upper
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-23

And what can he do with his wealth? He generally does do this-so place it. that others may know that he is very wealthy, presumably for the peculiar pur- pose of creating envy in their minds He can say of his "morgue" or of any other possession, Look, this is mine,'' but he or she who is thus invited, can possess it with the eyes, enjoy it's beau ties, if it has any, and get as much pleasure out of it. in that sense, as can the owner, missing little save the selfish pleasure of boasting that it is his or hers
 Look into the lighted interiors of the limousines of wealth; are the majority of the faces within smiling? They are not-at least they are not in New York city. They feel that they are out of touch with the rest of humanity to a certain extent, therefore they hide their feelings with crust--making them nat urally crusty.
 Iii New York they are the most restless of all. They spend comparatively little time at home. and when there are forced to struggle hard for amusement. They seek other cities and places from time to time in their search for happiness, pleasure, thinking thus to find it. but forgetting that one cannot travel away from one's self and failing to realize that their greatest need is change of heart rather than change of climate or en- Nironn;ent.
 Great wealth brings with it also the possibility of idleness. which has still a lure for many. In idleness they become restless and unhappy but many never break away from 1t before actual decap sets in.
 All the foregoing applies to a sort of unhappy average, and does not include those somewhat rare people of great wealth who have realized that it's pos session brings happiness only as they use it for the happiness of others. To the many, however, wealth Is but a vast structure of selfishness, and I believe that New York city is coming to q real
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-23

rising to r above in December and Feb ruary and falling to as low as nine in January The average spring tempera- ture is about B degrees and in the sum mer the thermometer has an average of 51 although it goes up to 7S and 79 at sometimes
 The peninsula is about as far north as Stockholm or Petrograd. This gives it long days during the summer, and in parts of June and July there is prac- tically no night at all. The growth of crops is produced by the amount of sun light they get, and for this reason the people claim that they have a growing season quite as long as that in the northern parts of the states This be- gins sometime in May and continues until along in September. The people add to the growing season by starting their vegetables in hotbeds and hothouses and many sprout their potatoes indoors, put ting down a layer of potatoes, then a layer of earth then layer of potatoes and so on When the weather warns Ep they set out the sprouts. and thus gain several weeks on Jack Frost The sum- mer season at Seward is about 146 days, and there is period of 135 days in the summer during which no frost has been recorded. The average growing season over the whole region is perhaps 110 days, or as long as that of much of the north ern parts of the United States proper.
 The most of this country'is well wood- ed. The best trees are in the lowlands and on the lower slopes of the noun tains, the timber stopping at about 2oo0 feet. The woods are in groves of spruce, hemlock and poplar, with patches of bushes and open meadows between. The open places have been largely caused by forest fires. and you frequently find con siderable areas of dead and down timber. The trees are usually small A few of the spruces are more than two feet in diameter, but many are no bigger around than telegraph poles. The poplars grow in dense forests. They are tall, straight and beautiful. There are cottonwoods in the lowlands that reach thickness of two or three feet The best trees are on the best lands and nearly everywhere trees large enough for log cabins are to be had So far much of the timber is protected by the government reserva- tions. and in Seward they pay high for lumber, which has been brought from Puget sound distance IS great as that between Cape Cod and the Missouri river. This is so notwithstanding there is fairl ygood timber 10 or 12 miles away. Indeed most people in Alaska think the country is over-conserved. Uncle Sam S fears for posterity hanging, like Sind bad's "Old Man of the Sea- around their necks.
 I have made some inquiries as to the cost of clearing the land. It ranges from s100 to several hundred dollars per acre. Even the first figure seems high
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-23

hsh canneries and so have KaSilof and Port Graham. It is not far from Kenai, where the first gold in Alaska was found It was discovered by the Russians, be- ing washed out of the Kenai river in 1850, seventeen years before the territory came into our hands. Since then small quan- titles have been found here and there in many parts of the peninsula, and the prospects for quartz mining and placer mining are comparatively good. This is the story I get from the miners.
 Coal is known to exist in the western part of the peninsula, and it was mined there by the Russians, who brought in laborers from Siberia and miners from Germany with a view to developing the territory. Later one of the American steamship companies took some of the coal to San Francisco, but it was found of too low grade to be valuable. It is Ignite, varying in color from black to brown, and it cracks upon drying. There are great quantities of it north of Kachefnak hay and the entire Keaa' lowiand may be coal bearing. This coal will furnish fuel for the farmers, and run through gas producers it might be used for manufacturing purposes.
 The great future of the Kenai penin- sula lies in it's farms The agricultural department experts who went over the country a year or so ago have esti- mated that there are on the peninsula and in the Matanuska and Susitna val leys, where the railroad is now building, something like four million acres of fairly good land This part of the country is low and it has equable climate. Some of the region is covered with swamp and muskeg which will need draining, but at least one-third of it will require clear ing only to be made ready for crops The land of the latter character is enough to make more than eight thousand farms of quarter of section each, or four thousand farms of 320 acres each, which is the amount of land now allowed for a homestead in Alaska.
 The total area of the lowlands which are suitable for farming is about three forths the size of the state of Massa- chusetts. and the best of the lands, those which do not have to be drained, are about twice as large as Rhode Island. Of the latter, one-haif lies in the Susitna and Matanuska valleys. and the other half is on the western side of the Kenal peninsula.
 If weeds, grass and bushes are any sign of fertility, much of this country will produce excellent crops Here at Sunrise, outside the roads and trails, the land is a jungle of dense vegetation and one wades through weeds as high as his head. have found high grass in every open place in the forests and some of it Is so thick that a man a short dis tance away is hidden from view. There is grass on the stream bottoms. on the benches and up the slopes of the hills,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-23
Good Salesmanshin


 In the American Magazine Merle Crowell says that in the largest tobacco corporation in the world careful tabs are kept on the clerks by service inspectors. who enter the stores just like any other customers and report on the following selling points of the men
 Prompt approach.
 Greeting.
 Courtesy.
 Tact
 Patience.
 Neatness in dress.
 Ability intelligence, Knowledge of goods.
 Salesmanship.
 Does he say Thank your"
 "A clerk who renders especially com mendabe service receives a red letter oi appreciation signed by the president or vice president of the company. The tabulated reports of the inspectors are used when it comes to a question of pros notion
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-23

snipe, and grouse and ptarmigan are to be had almost everywhere.
 The peninsula has numerous streams and lakes which are nlled with fish and in the summer the salmon run up the rivers that flow into Cook inlet and Res urrection bay. During my stay here l have had all the fish and game I could eat. The trout and salmon are especially fine. Fresh moose meat is for sale in all the towns during the open season. It brings from F to 15 cents pound and a single animal dressed will often weigh half ton. At one village 70 carcasses were sold last year
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-23

until one considers that s100 in labor would not begin to clear and prepare for cultivation any of the wooded farm lands or the states Every acre of Ohio, Vir- ginia, Tennessee and Kentucky has cost more than that to cut down the trees and get out the roots. Such clearing will be much cheaper here. The reason is that the roots are close to the sur face. They spread out like a net under q thin coating of moss and soil. and as soon as the tree dies the stumps can be torn out by a good team of horses It is only in a few places that dynamite will be needed. and if the ground is burned over most of the sturnps can be jerked out with a log chain and team The trees are soft and easy to cut and the roots can be torn out by the blow.
 The greater part of the land is cov- cred with moss, which, in places, Is a foot Or so deep. The soil is wet and so sour, it needs lime. It seldom produces good crops at the start and needs 10 be broken up and exposed to the air to sweet en it. There is great difference in the soils of the peninsula, quite as much as in the United States, and the would-be settler should consider such things in selecting his land. There are vast quanti- ties of muskeg, sort of marsh, consist ing of peat so saturated with water that it is boggy during the summer. It is of good whatever except when well drained.
 There are other lands which are under laid with a stratum of ice and some where there is ice and frozen earth for no one knows how deep. This land is usually covered with moss, which is q nonconductor of heat, and the frozen condition beneath is supposed to have existed for thousands of years. It is only by burning off the moss that the take a long time to get all of the frost out.
 The settlers of the Kenai peninsula will have game country that compares favorably with the eastern United States in colonial times. This is one of the best big game regions in Alaska. It is al- ready attracting the attention of sports men and the number of city men who come here to hunt moose and mountain sheep is yearly increasing. The game should be protected and if so the noun tainCus regions will be a sportsman n s paradise for generations to come.
 The country is noted for it's moose pastures and it has the finest moose Of the territory. They are plentiful in the central and western parts of the pen insula There are now also many black and brown bear, but as the farms are cut out these will be crowded back to the mountains There are many fur an- inials such as the lynx land otter, mar ten, ermine and mink and there is no doubt that fur farming could be suc- cessfully carried on. There are flocks of wild birds. such as ducks geese and
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-23

Fifth avenue and the lowert Eastside of Manhattan.
 And so. looked at from this point, as well as from that taken by 'Dia = mond Jim Brady in his address to the restaruteurs, it seems true beyond question that Broadway is New York. and New York is Broadway
 The local press announces this morn ing that Howard Chandler Christy, the artist, is to wed a former model, and cigar stripper. In the meantime, Mr$ Christy is still married to his first wife you see, that is explained by the fact that-well, if the war in Europe hadn't started-that is to say. if Mexico sunk the Sussex. making it impossible for George Washington to tell a lie about anything-oh. this is New York. what's the use trying to explain anything?