davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21
PRAYER OF THE COLLEGE GRAD

From Life.
 Show me this day how to increase my vast store of polite impertinence.
 Help me to acquire clever manner Of sneech and style of dress that will make me ostentatiously unlike all others of my kind.
 Increase my superiority over my elders, esnecially those who have not risen above doing the commonplace and necessary things of life.
 Lead me to the celebrities. that may know them and speak of them casually by their first names and thus increase my prestige among the younger set. who look to me for standards.
 Give me personality. which will enable me to assert myself in all matters-to
 put it over my friends and enemies upon all occasions, especially those who know not the limitations of my college wisdom, but remain dumb before my cleverness.
 And. finally, help me to a big job in- volving work and great responsibility, which I can delegate to underlings and still draw for myself the large salary at tached thereto.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21

After being associated with the old printing center around Franklin square, New York, for nearly a century. the fam ous publishing house of Harper & Bros. is planning to move uptown to lighter and more convenient quarters The prop
 erty at present occupied by the firm will be sold before the removal. which may be delayed for a year, according to Thomas B. Wells, secretary of the liar per corporation. The firm is located in an old-fashioned iron front building on
 Pearl street, and if it remains there until
 March, 1917, will have rounded out cen tury in it's present neighborhood, James and John Harper having started business as Harper & Harper in Dover street, nearby. In 1883 the other two Harper brothers, Joseph Wesley and Fletcher, were taken into the firm, which then be- came known as Harper & Bros. For more than 75 years the Harper family retained control of the business, but in 1899 sensation was caused in the publishing world by the announcement that 1t had failed. It was reorganized and continued
 under the same name. Frederick A. Duneka is at present the head of the firm. The Harpers moved to Cliff street. now a part of the Franklin square plant, in 1928. The Pearl street frontage was acquired because of the growth of their business when they were publishing the novels of Dickens, Thackery and Scott
 These buildings were destroyed by fire in 1855. causing a loss of about $1, 900 GOO. The structures now occupied by the corpora ton were built on the same site.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21
Birmingham, April 20, 1915.
LETTER WRITER'S SELDOM BORN

From the Spokane Spokesman-Review
 The sort of letter a person writes de- bends largely on the seriousness with which he regards himself. To some per- sons correspondence means merely slap ping off many sentences without regard to the receiver or the result. To others the letter signifies packing the maximum of meaning into an irreducible minimum of words. Still others exhaust enormous quantities of ink, paper and a readers time in verbiage which justifies the de- scription of language as created to con ceal thought These sinners occasionally are pricked by conscience to append a postscript which tersely states the thought. The recipient of the first kind of letter often misunderstands It and not seldom ignores it. The victim of the verbose scribbler curses empty loquaciousness.
 The perfect letter is that in which the writer is himself, and talks engag ingly or entertainingly about his personal interests or his correspondents or about other affairs really worth while. The letter, though a monolog should not become bore to the silent listener. It should be neither disquistion, essay nor lecture, as Wordsworth's letters too often became but conversation in writing. Lit erary ambitiousness and niceties of style are out of place in the true letters. What one is indeed when with friend he should also be in writing when absent.
 The letter implies another in return, but most of the replies remain unwrit- ten. Hence pangs of conscience to the normal man. The Napoleons, being con scienceless, resolve from the first to trampling upon courtesy. But most of us intend to answer our letters, even if the subconscious self-sneakingly knows that no reply will ever be made. At this point some good genius mislays the let ter for us, and we never find it again until the writer has died Business, how ever makes an exception to this rule It is the business of business to answer letters Otherwise there would be no business.
 Paradoxically enough, authors, that is, professional writers, are bad at answer ing letters and good at not replying. One reason is that writing is their busl- ness and they don't like to waste their leisure on shop" Another reason is their literary fastidiousness. They have no use for the suited and formal phrases of business. They want even their cor
 respondence to possess originality and freshness.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21
From the Kansas City Star.

From the Kansas City Star.
 A COMMITTEE of good women is go-
 "A ing to delete the moving pictures 4 of all red -blooded stuff so they will be fit for boys to see. There are to be no more fights, nor pirates, nor bandits; all the thrills must go
 In the old days, back home" an ef- fort of this kind was made, not with moving pictures, for they were undream- ed of then, but with the books that boys read. It was found that boys would read just as boys nowadays will go to pie ture shows, and it was found too that they were reading yellow covered dime novels of the Beadle & Adams brand, with rifle crack and bad Injun bit ing the dust in every chapter.
 Old Deacon Husted started the move ment He found his boy, Dan, in the haymow one Sunday afternoon reading Jack Harkaway Among the Brigands, and he called the church elders together and proposed as a remedy Sunday school library that would give the boys suitable intellectual fodder. Now, there were good books plenty that might have been had for that library, and the boys would have read them. But the books in the library that was purchased were published by religious tract soci- ety in Philadelphia especially for Sun day schools, and they were filled with platitudes and piffle, empty apothegems and mush.
 Every boy was required to read one of those books each week and exchange it next Sunday for another one, but no boy ever read more than one or them, even when he was forced to stay in the house Sunday afternoon to read it. Even then he Judged and looked over the top and counted the patterns in the wall paper or gazed out the window.
 It was while doing this one Sunday afternoon that Tom Black, staring out the window over the top of Memoirs of Sergeant Dale, His Daughter and the Orphan Mary" saw one of the unregen- crate Hamm boys, whose father was a drunkard and lived in hovei down by the sawmill, passing by with his skates over his shoulder
 Gee whitaker! I wish was Dave
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21
PIRATE BOOKS AND OTHERS

Hamm," he exclaimed. 'Why, Thomas, aren't you ashamed? Why do you wish to be that Hamm boy?" asked his mother. Cause then I could go skating Sunday and swear, and not have to read this book" and, his soul bursting with in. dignation, he flung it with all his might across the room.
 That library, with it's artificial heroes and unnatural good boys, had the oppo- site effect to that hoped for by the good church elders. It made hypocrites of the boys in that village, because they had to pretend to read and like thenl and they had to resort to deceit and sub. terfuge to get the chance to read the books as '"The Headless Horseman, or Murder Will Out "Snarleyow the Dog Fiend,' the Kit Carson and Buffalo Bill and Jesse James and Frank Read books. Each boy had Q secret hiding place for the forbidden books and they passed from hand to hand until they were worn to rags.
 Best of all was the Pirate Book that told of Captain Kidd, Blackboard, Teach Captain Rackham and the two women pirates, Ann Bonney and Mary Read. Ialk aDOuL ''DlOOQ- -anQ-tnunQer. The pirate book reeked with it. and smelled of sulphur and birthstone. There were pictures of men walking the plank, of pirates hanging in chains, of the head of Blackboard dangling from the bow. spirit of ship, of Ann Bonney cleaving 8 mans skull with her trusty cutlass Every boy in the village read and reread it because it was real adventure; and favorite game was "pirate," when Johnny Robinson, with his wooden sword aloft over the head of Bill Akerly, would shout: Dead men tell no tales.'
 No boy of that village became a pirate, or had any longing to, after he reached the age of discretion. Those boys read all the trash they could get their hands on, and they were good boys, and turned out to be good men,
 A boy gets his working code of morals, not by specific instruction, but largely by association and imitation, by observing what people whom he admires do and do not do and by an almost unconscious observation of what they take for granted.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21
 HER KISS HIS ANESTHETIC

Herbert Ward in the Outlook.
 Especially in nursing the wounded have women displayed an immense devotion. l recall an incident. It was urgent that a serious operation should be performed on a wounded soldier. The surgeon was in great distress, for he had no anes- thetic and the operation was grave one. With quick intelligence the nurse a French lady, leaned forward, kissed the wounded man. and placed her cheek ca ressingly next to him. A gratified smile came over his poor face and he submit ted to the operation without murmur.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21
HOW IT HAPPENED.


 Do you mean to tell r1e that you found Dubson an entertaining talker?" "Yes."
 why, he's the most tiresome ass I ever met''
 "I agree with ycu."
 But, you just said
 That found him an entertaining talker I was unlSind enough to let him take her in to dinner last night, and fear she will never forgive me-"
 UNWELCOME VISITORS. Professor Diggs has lately received m. other batch of ancient manuscripts which he will decipher," remarked neighbor. T dare say we won't see much of him for while"
 Probably not, but if he insists on peace and quiet at home. we'll see great deal of Mrs. Diggs and the chil. dren."
 THANKS TO THE DIPLOMATS. "The war has created great many new words
 .I've noticed that
 "It has also given us an entirely new interpretation of ultimatum.'
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21
MORE CAREFUL NOW
Chattanooga Times.

From the Chattanooga Times.
 It makes all the difference in the world whether man is an officeholder or an officeseeker. A year ago MT. Roosevelt did not hesitate to use 'the short and ugly word" whenever he felt like it. which was often. Now, he mildly re- marks that one of his critics has made gratuitous statement"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21
Jefferson to Vote Out Ticks

Jefferson county is preparing to join the other progressive counties of the state and the south by voting in favor of the eradication of the cattle tick next month," said Sam H. Fowlkes secretary of the Business Mems league. yesterday.
 The petitions for the election have been very freely signed in the city and over the county and there seems no doubt that the vote for the measure will be overwhelming. However, it is important that this election be not lost sight of in the general interest in the various contests which come up next month.
 Tt would never do for the imperial county of the state to vote against such progressive move as tick eradi- cation. and it would be a fine ex- ample for the other counties if Jef- ferson should poll an almost unani- nous vote for eradication. The only tn'hg necessary to win by a tre- mendous majority is to keep the issue before the voters of the county"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21
No Vote on Light Bonds

lhe impression has gone abroad" said President Gus A. Pope of the Real Estate exchange, that the exchange mad formally indorsed the proposed pond issue for municipal light plant.
 T should like to have this impress sion corrected The subject was brought up at the meeting, but a formal vote was not taken. It came up along with several other resolutions about which there was more or less discussion. but no formal votes were taken'H
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21
THE USEFUL TOAD

From the Kansas City Star
 Some thousands of families in this city will have backyard gardens this season; and in many of them toad or two will make their homes and come out in the twilight to sit and blink in the path. You may think he IS idling there, but if you watch him you will see him give a quick jump every little while. Whenever he does that he snaps down mosquito or beetle that is aiming to deposit few hundred eggs on the under side of a vegetable leaf that will later hatch out into grubs enough to devour whole gar den if unmolested.
 A toad is a valuable fellow in garden: and the man is lucky who has one. He will devour more plant pests in one night than an average man could find and destroy in a day. So, if you have toad, keep him.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21
FoRBEAR.

Don't make a jest of fashions follies, Don't mock the freakish styles one
 sees, Fen though the Megs and Pegs and
 Dollies
 Wear skirts almost up to their knees. In other days admission prices Were charged-to burlesque shows we
 went For what upon the street suffices And does not cost a chap a cent
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21

Red Cross nurses will look after the Confederate Veterans who need their at- tention during the reunion, and some of them will be pretty enough to make slight illness worth while.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21
Travellers at Gadsden

'The coming convention of the Travel CTS Protective association at Gadsden, May and 6, promises to be one of the livest meetings this organization has had for sometime said J. E. Robinson, presi- dent of Post E, T. F. A.
 'The Gadsden post has promised a royal entertainment for the T. F. As of the state, and Birmingham will send nearly 100 over to the convention"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21
Training for Hotel Men

"The convention of the hardware men, the meeting of the state educational as- sociation, and the other gatherings which Birmingham has entertained during the past few weeks, are giving the hotel men some training for the really strenuous time to come during the reunion.'' said w. H. Grisham, night clerk of the Mor- ris hotel
 Every hotel and boarding house in the city will be packed to overflowing and the life of the hotel men during the re- union will be far from easy. However, we are making all preparations in ad- vance, and everything will be ready for the visitors when they come
 "The hotels of the city are entering into the spirit of the civic organizations and they are going to try to make the visitors feel that Birmingham is the best city in the world to visit on any occasion
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21

The author of "Peck's Bad Boy" owed his success as a politician and business man to the fact that he knew when to be funny and when to be serious.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21

Whether Villa is dead or not, General Carranza is doubtless glad that the American government now has more im- portant matters to consider.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21

It might be trifle awkward if Uncle warfare some day, but there is no use to cross bridge of that sort until we come to it.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21

It is predicted that the salaries of nov ing picture actors will be lowered. How ever, most of them will have enough to retire on when the cut is made.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21

Marse Henry Watterson will attempt to show that Christopher Marlowe wrote Shakespeare's plays. Fortunately for the peace and welfare of the country, the authorship of MT. Cohan's plays is not in dOlIht
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21
Furniture Safes Excellent

I do not know whether or not the number of people who changed their place of residence the first of April is greater this year than it has been in previous years, said Louie Reese of the Searignr- Reese Furniture company, ''but I know that we sold more suits, and more odd pieces of furniture to go into new homes this year than ever before
 Tt strikes me as a good indication of the better conditions when people are moving into new homes. and I believe that business will go forward steadily"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21

It is just as well that most people in the United States don't have to stand the Binet test
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21

Billy Sunday is said to be disappointed by Baltimores lack of emotionalism. That will be lesson to him. He'll never tackle Boston.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21

The Fatherland asks why the Turks are always charged with committing Armen- ian atrocities? Probably because they are guilty.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21

If Milwaukee declines to uphold the hands of the President, the rest of the country will have to worry along with out her aid.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21
.APPRECIATIVE.

APPRECIATIVE Now, this poet has the right idea about doing business said the editor. You surprise me-
 Before submitting a sonnet he pre- sented me with a first-class cigar" Suppose the poem is not worth pub lishng?"
 "Oh, I'm not without sense of grati- tude. I'll contribute 2-cent stamp and see that he gets his verses back again.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21

Political observers say Wilson will have no trouble in beating T. R. However, it never pays to be too optimistic where T. R. is concerned
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21

Ambassador Gerard might as well pack his trunks and start for home, unless the Kaiser makes an unexpected conces- sion.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21

This is no time for congressman to be mending political fences. They should stay on the job in Washington.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21

Henry Ford is not running for the pres idency. He is merely making noise like pacifst.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21
LOOKING AHEAD.

LOOKING AHEAD. but abnormal
 Just what do they mean by that?" T don't know, but I suspect they are an hypothesis to fall back on, in case he turns out to be really crazy.''
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21

The safety first" slogan has not ap- preciably reduced the number of mar riage licenses issued.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21

Now that President Wilson has said his last word to the Kaiser, 1t IS to De hopeu that Holland feels better
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21

REGINNING THE DAY My E.ther God, | would keep my eyes ou Thee, | would think Thy fnousn.S after Thee, I would live in Thy hie' Lift me with the thought oi M heavenly parentage. May my con duet comport with my sohshp God. When earth wouiu us Tather lives. In Christ's name Amen-H. NJ. E.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21
RARE COMBINATION

"Is Mrs. Dubwaite an expert bridge player?"
 "Yes. A remarka ble woman"
 Because she plays bridge so well?' NO. Because she's such a good house. keeper you'd never suspect it.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21
SAFE, ANYHOW

It's dull day when a bomb plot isn't matched at Hoboken, N. J.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21
ADRIF'T WITH THE TIMES
THE GossAMER GIRL.

Light and airy was her manner,
 Light, and airy was her walk, And wheneer she started speaking
 Light and airy, too her talk. Light and airy garments wore she
 In a light and airy way, And her choice of entertainment
 Was a light and airy play.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21

From the Knickerbocker Press.
 Many a bashful man gets the reputa- tion of being a woman hater
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21

signs of nobleness like stars' shaii
 shine On all observers. ae"e
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-21

TELEPHONE Bell (priynte exchange conneetihs "" Main 49OO.
The Wheeling intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1903-1961, 1916-01-01

found dead in bed at home in Market
street
26-Ncw scottish Rite cathedral cor
n.rstone laid. Joe Rodish residence n
Glcnwood destroyed by nre.
21-NoVcmber grand jury list Is nlcd
Martins Ferry Halloween celebration
opens la Belle stockholders ratifN
bond issue OF $500. 600.
2N-Mrs. Christtana Msurcr dies on
seventy ghth birthday. Elm Grove
postofnce becomes branch Of Wheeling
office. Scottish Rite reunion Is sd-
Journed Mrs. Wilbur Mcdonnell killed
10y street car az Marwood
29-BoN factory and lumber yard or
the Dubois a Mccoy Lumber Com
pany. at Bellsirc. destroyed by fire.
Linsly Institute defeats Fairmont Nor
NAL football squad. 1f-12. Leonard
jacquard drops dead. Imperial Poten-
tate stevens and other prominent Shrin-
crs visit Wheeling. Ohio Valley Round
Table opens semi-annual meeting.
S0-Mesleyan College football team
defeats Carlisle Indians. II TO o. Charles
Willis of Moundsville. killed when
thrown from automobile. George Hook.
prominent banker and business man.
dies
3i-Local Lutheran churches hol.
union service at Court Theater. Rev.
.. W. Chritchlow installed pastor o.
Mozart church.
The Wheeling intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1903-1961, 1916-01-01

The year 1915. just closed. Witnessed
many important events Of local
nature. While the year did no differ
materially from. former years. gener-
ally speaking. yet IL was marked by
the large number OF deaths OF promi-
nent people both in business aud pro
fessional life. Many OF these occur.
red near the close OF the year and in
such close proximity 10 each other "a
TO make this fact all the more re
markable
Tragic deaths dotted the various
months throughout the year. many OF
these invading homes OF prominence.
Passing from the seamy To the
brighter side. the year witnessed many
incidents that were subjects for con
graduation. Probably the greatest OF
these was the settlement Of the Ohio
mine strike after a deplorable idleness
extending over a period OF thirteen
months. Disastrous fires were few.
and the total fire loss for the year
Is suikngly small and far below the
total of several years preceding
Numerous other events. both OF a
social nature and otherwise. but none
the less important and interesting. oc.
CURED throughout the year. mention
OF which will be found in the rather
interesting list here appended.