davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-06

day-heigh ho, 1t must be terribly late"
 fes' that's just about what you se.,u 10 DC thinking. You need a drink, old top. Come on. be a good fellow. Let's open bottle of wine and do this thine right Besides, after the cabaret- what? No? We'll I'm sorry, but, be- heve me, you're missing a good time.
 Did you get that. old man? That pink shouldered princess signaled ma that it was all right for the next trot. What? Want to leave me-oh, I say now-well, I suppose you do feel a bit all in-you know how to fix it at the house for me, don't you? Turkish bath-all that sort of thing, see? But you understand-it's me and the little pink shoulders for Healy's, Sixty-sixth street, as soon as the lights get dim here. We'll, goo ni'-see you tmor- row.
 As matter of fact and rrankness. each or us considers the other good riddance at this time. You are a dis cord. while land my drinks-have now become the very theme itself Of this mad, Bacchanalian rhapsody. Ana so, good night indeed, for with you goes as well all thought of my corn panion of the earlier hours. Above pink shoulders gleam two warm brown eyes that have accorded me most cor dial welcome. Dance? Of courre. Smoke? What would life be witho,t the solace of a cigarette? What will she drink? What why, to cement such Friendship as ours has already given promise Of becoming, magnum of
 SContinued on Last Pagey
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-06

deseeved publick that the ant is the most coosal and monumental frawd that basked in the favvorabu smiles of unsuspecting peepul
 For 6000 centuries the ant has gottun by with his bluff. At last he is to be exposed to trusting pub lick and his hitherto brite and shining reputasion shot full of holes. If the ant had enny brains he has degenerated. When it cums to intelligence he is ongur in it. He has failed dismaly to keep abreast with the times, and is reeactionary in the treem He has neglected educason and the develop ment of his intellect and has spent his time to ifs sical developmint. Fssicay the ant is a wunder But when he tries to think he makes worse show than board of aldermen elected on the ctizuns re- form ticket.
 The ant lift grate burdens menny times his own wait and carry them around with ease. He can handle unwealdy chunks of wood and toy with them performing the most amazing fleets with as much freedum and nonshallants the Honarabull Jess Willard does in decorating the lectures of a per sunnel frend He performs the most prodgius stunts and is constantly engaged in such practices-a to absolootly no purpose. He keeps bizzy all the time as a switch engine but amless as a goose in the rain. Each day he wide expanse of territory. Comparing him with man, he gets ovver space equvvilint to the states of Kansas Wyoming,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-06

And that is the difference between our sensations as we take our seats in this second smoke-laden enclosure. However. this smoke is different, or it should be, as at least one third of 1t found exit through feminine lips. But I'm living the life-you're merely look ing at It. So we shall follow my line of least resistance for awhile in or der to get into close touch with the situation.
 To me the atmosphere here seems full of a delightful charm. "Ah this is the life" bromide ecstatically. The lights are mellow, like the wine that is soon ordered, and the feminine faces within my range of vision are pleasing to gaze upon, nor do they, as a rule, seem averse to being the objects of my attention.
 What a nice looking crowd Is pres ent this evening! How numerous are the tasteful evening gowns, and how low they are-or how high. according to the angle of vision. Jove How daint- fly that girl in the pink waist-no, it's her bare neck--smokes her Home Run Old man, I'll swear she gave me the "come hither" when she caught me looking at her just then. I'll signal her for a dance later in the evening-or morning.
 But see-our supper has been served and even as we attack the red shelled luxury which had drawn the breath of life until 1t hit the hot water not many moments agone, the gong sounds, the regular" lights are turned suddenly off and the calciums throw their bright glare upon the center of the dining hall.
 The orchestra crescendoes itself up to the fortissimo of sort of musical bombardment, at the height of which
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-06

We have also an island in the middle of the strait about which some fishing is done.
 As far as it's fisheries are concerned, western Alaska is next in importance to southeastern Alaska. It has something like $14000,000 invested in the industry, and the men employed are more than 700O. The region has 23 canneries for salmon, and the number of fish caught last sea = son was almost 23,000,OOO, or nearly half the total number of salmon caught in Alaska that year. The seal fisheries are in the Pribilof Islands in the heart of this district.
 As to arctic Alaska, it's fish product is so small that it is hardly worth noting The commercial business is devoted mostly to whales, and the whaling is small in comparison with that of south eastern Alaska, from where we get whalebones and the other products of that fish.
 During my travels in southeastern Alaska I have met MT. Peterson, who owns fish cannery on Kotzebue sound north of the Seward peninsula and on the Arctic ocean. He tells me that great many silver salmon run up the Kobuk river every season. They begin running about July 20, and shortly after that you
 
 the drying fish, which the Eskimos are laying up for the winter. This mans cannery has capacity of only 15,OOC cases season, but 1t has been at work canning salmon and salmon trout for sev- eral years. The salmon of that region is light in color, but to offset it they have the Dolly Warden trout, which often reaches a length of three feet and a weight of 10 pounds
 I asked MT. Patterson as to the whales of the Arctic ocean. He replied:
 We have the white whale, and that in great schools. The fish are 15 feet or more long and the largest of them will weigh three or four tons. They are espe- cialy valuable for their skins, which sell for as high as 15 cents pound when green. The whale meat Is eaten by the natives. It is of a grayish color and full of oil.''
 As to the whaling industry of the rest Of the territory, it is carried on in southeastern Alaska and in western Alaska. Some whaling Is done by shore stations, and some by ships that go out from San Francisco and Seattle every season. The steamer Karluk, which went north with the Stefansson arctic expedition. belonged to the San Fran cisco whaling fleet. Another vessel ot that fleet was the Gay Head, which was wrecked in Alaskan waters in the spring of 1914. It had already caught some whales and a great deal of sperm oil was lost. The steamer Herman, an other San Francisco ship, caught six bowhead whales in 1914 and took alto gether about 10000 pounds of whale bone, and the brigantine Jennette which went as far north as Point Bar row, on the Arctic ocean, caught three
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-06

or as much as was formerly done by 50 of the most expert Chinese. Neverthe- less, the whole machine is not much bigger around than a flour barrel and not more than eight feet In height. It consists of a number of knives so ar ranged by machinery that as the fish fly in one knife cuts off the head and at the same time another chops off the tail. As the fish moves third knife rips up the belly and other knives take off the fins.
 At the end the fish has been split and the backbone taken out The blood has been removed and the salmon is ready for the can It is carefully in- spected, however, before being put into the can by men who watch the stream of fish as they make their way on over end less belts to the chopper
 The chopper is second machine that automatically cuts the fish into pieces of the right size for the cap, and this in such a way that each can gets its own share of the several parts of the fish. It must have some from the back and some from the belly in order to supply the streak of lean and the streak of fat, which, like bacon, is necessary to make the can of salmon just right. The ma chine puts in just 16 ounces, which fills the to the top. As the cans move onward they pass through an automatic WeiS uluS IiidCHlHS, dIlu Il any are or light weight the machine drops them out.
 After this the csover of the can Is fitted on by machinery in such way that it will allow the steam to escape, and the cans travel on into a furnace or exhaust box, where the temperature Is PIP de- Grees. After this another machine makes the tops tight, without acid or solder, and the cans are moved on into great re- torts. where they are cooked in a heat of 254 degrees for an hour and half. When they come out they are ready to be labeled and packed in boxes for ship ment to all parts of the world.
 This. in brief, is the way salmon are prepared for the market The business goes on at all of the fishing centers of Alaska during two or three months of the summer, when a continuous stream of fish flows from the waters through the machinery and on into the ships that carry them south to Seattle and San Francisco, from where they go by ships and trains to the great markets at home and abroad
 Catching the salmon and bringing them to the canneries is another gerat indus try There are certain weeks or months of the year during which these fish come from the ocean into the fresh waters of the rivers to spawn They are born in fresh water, and the spawning grounds are often a thousand miles or more in- land from the sea. I have seen them fighting their way up the Yukon 2000 miles from it's mouth at Boring strait, and they may be found In great numbers climbing over the rocks of the streams that flow down the mountains of the coast into the Pacific.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-06

las an average weight of five pounds It is found all over Alaska, and 1t runs chiefly from June until the middle of August The silver or Coho salmon is not so valuable, on account of the pale Foss or light color of it's flesh. It weighs on the average about six pounds, and runs later than the sock-eye. The hump back is the smallest of our salmon. It is caught by the millions in southeast ern Alaska, and many of the canneries depend upon it. It weighs up to Il pounds. In addition to these four species we have also the dog salmon which is good for freezing, salting and smoking, but poor for canning. This salmon is shipped largely to Japan.
 Of the SS7, ,OOOOO0 invested in the fish ing industry of Alaska about $34,00o, GOO is devoted to the catching, canning and ship ping of salmon. The number caught in a single year is so great that if the fish were equally divideod among the families of the United States there would be three for every household and leave some to spare. So many salmon were caught in Alaskan waters last year that if they were loaded on freight cars at 30 tons to the car the train required to carry them would fill three lines of track reaching from New York to San Fran cisco. Such a train would be more than 5000 miles long, or a thousand miles longer than the distance through the earth at the center,
 The value of the salmon taken that year was almost S20O00,O0O It came from 87 canneries, and it included SO per cent of the salmon catch of the Pacific coast. The number of cans put up was close to 20O : cCO,O00 enough to give two cans to every man, woman and child now living under the American flag. In addition to this many thousand barrels of pickled salmon mild-cured salmon and of smoked salmon bellies and backs were shipped from Alaska. Indeed the whole product now forms an important part of our food SUD- ply.
 The business of the Ala skan canneries is enormous. l went through one in Ketchikan that will put up 7,50O 900 cans of salmon this year, and in addition, will, freeze hundreds of thousands of pounds to be sent in frozen state to the east. The buildings of the cannery cover sev- eral acres, and the fish are brought in by the boatloads and dumped out by the thousand. When they reach the wharves they are so fresh that they are still kick ing and they fairly fly through the "iron chlnk, a machine which cleans each fish cutting off its head, tail and fins and t. ing out it's isides within the time of a watch tick. It used to be that all this work was cone by hand and those hands were usually owned by Chinaman When the machine was invented to take the place of the Chinaman it was nick-named the '1ron chinll" and so it is known to this day. The inventor was a cook of Seattle named Smith, who made a for tune out of his invention, His machine will clean 30,000 fish in a run of 10 hours,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-06

both Dakotas and large chunk out of the territory of Alaska evvery day. and gets in home at nite tired and dusty bawling out his wife and the children with choise porfannity, and with nuthng to show for all his exercise
 The ant lacks ballanse He newer gives thought to what he is doing why he is doing it. he simply does it. When it cums to brans you mite take 10 000 O00 ants and take theere combined gray mat tur magnify it 6,00ooO0 times and theere wouldn't be enuff to grease the point of a cambrick needle The average dellgate the Ford peese ship has the most intelligint ant beet to a frazzle On our first nspectsion of this colony took long chunk of hard, dry leathur and soaked it in melted sugar coating the leathur with this sweetened stuff. We layed this morse directly in the path of unusually large and bizness like ant who had left his home and fammily early and as full of pep and hurry be- lated suburbanite trying to catch the 7:1 car Of corse he found it; and his investigation of that old, dry peese of leathur most amusing. He walked round and round it. smelt of it. cooked his he'd on side and muttured all kinds of unintegibu stuff to himself about it. He'd enny thing just like this before, he didn't know what make of it. What d ell is this thing enny way he geys and then he concluded abruptly that whatever was was good thing to carry along. So he grabbed hold
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-06
OUR GREAT ALASKAN FISHERIES

is known as fishing district number one in the water divisions which the United States fish commission has made of the territory. There are altogether four great fishing provinces. Southeastern Alaska begins at the Portland canal on the in- ternatonal boundary, and runs along the coast and in and out through the hun dreds of islands, 300 or 500 miles, to Ya- kutat bay, ending some distance east of Mount St. Elias. This district has great balibut banks off the islands, and it is the seat of the fresh fish industry of Alaska. The fishing investments there amount to something like $16,O0000O of which $13000,000 are in salmon and about SS,000,0O0 in halibut There are more than $SO0,OOO invested in the whale fisheries. Southeastern Alaska is by far the most important of the water regions of our ter ritory, having something like 10000 men engaged in fishing it's waters.
 
 , The second fishing district is known as that of central Alaska. This begins at Yakutat bay and includes the great Gulf of Alaska and all of the waters south of the mainland ana along the Aleutian Islands, which run almost to Asio This district is several thousand miles long and great part of it is paved with fish. The bulk of the catch is salmon, but there is also an annual export of cod, amount ing to millions of pounds, from the ex- tensive cod banks, which lie south of the Alaska peninsula and the Aleutian Isl- ands.
 These banks compare with those Of Newfoundland Some of them are 120 miles long and of great width They are so situated that the arctic and Japanese currents bring them great deal of fish food and the cod come there by the mill lions to eat. They move about over the banks seeking the best feeding grounds for their pasture. Many of the cod fish, ermen are Scandinavians. They receive about cents per fish for all over 26 inches long. Under that size they count two fish as one. The fishing is done in small boats and the fish are brought to the stations on the islands to be dressed and salted. The largest plant is on Unga Island, but the fishing extends as far west as Unimak. There are now between 5000 and 4O00 fishermen at work in the sec ond district.
 The third and fourth fishing districts are on the west and north sides of the territory. The third Is known al western Alaska and the fourth is artic Alaska Western Alaska comprises all of our coast along Boring sea. or the eastern and southern shores of body of water one third as large as the whole United States It has all the waters north of the Aleu- tlan Islands,. including banks swarming with cod. It embraces Bhistol bay, where the salmon run into the streams by the tens of millions a year, the deItas of the Kuskollwim and Yukon rivers as well as the coast of Norton sound and all the waters along Seward peninsula to Cape Prince of Wales at Boring strait
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-06

of it and started directly towards Milwaukee and points west, and absolootly in opposite drectson frum his offisial ressidense For while thought it possbull that this ant led dual life and going to put sumthing Mrs Ant and carry this new-fangled luxury to a lady frend in uther col lony.
 But giving him too much credit; he had such ntensions-not at all. He meerly carry ing this old boot strap around purely for the exer- cise In doing too he refused to follow the lines of leest resistense Nuthing soft and easy for the ant. He'd pull that useless peese of leathur ovver rocks and obstructsions when he could have gone around them with much less trubble. He drug it ovver one very large and rugged stone while the ground all around it perfectly smooth and this performance would have been equaed only by sngul indviduel dragging 10tun truck loaded with scrap run up Pike's well known and esteemed peek.
 My frend and myself recalled the story of Mark Twain's ant who discovered the last yeers grass hoppers leg and the consultation he had with frend that leg and theere attmpts to carry it to plase of them pulling in direction and the uther in the opposite. We both beleeve that this story base slandur of helpless but hard work ing inseck, and that Mark less of nature fakur and was extracting humor for the pub
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-06

(ks2k8&SD the so-called night life of Manhattan-you and |. By
 might life" I mean, the existence be- tween midnight and the dawn, spent in the search for sensations and paid for out of the physical, moral and financial surplus.
 You are wholly abstemious. while I--well, let us say, as many drunk ards have said before us, q take a drink now and then, when I feel like it."
 As preliminary, or for the purpose of properly warming up'' for the events to follow, know of no bet ter (tougher) place to spend the early evening than at Daly's theatre. At Thirticth street and Broadway we be- hold it's aged exterior. Famous old landmark it is, too, on the stage of which Edwin Booth has more than once wondered audibly whether it were bet ter ito be or not to be-" Perhaps he reached conclusion-perhaps he did not At any rate, people generally are still guessing at the answer. But we enter, and behold. How the mighty have fallen. The boxes are no longer graced by handsome women in evening gowns In fact. careful search proves that there are only about five women in the audience. But the house is packed with cigar and cigarette puffng masculipity and through the haze of smoke float the strains of some popular melody of the frothy pursuasion.
 The curtain rises and one can cas- lily imagine the horror upon the ghost
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-06

whales, which yielded something like 200 pounds of bone. The Polar Bear of Seattle caught 10 bowheads last season, and the steamer Belvedere, from the same port, took five.
 The shore whaling stations are operated by two companies. There is one here at Port Armstrong, on Bara- noff Island, in southeastern Alaska owned by the United States Whaling company, and another at Akutan, near Unimak pass in western Alaska, owned by the Pacific Sea Products company. Both of these companies have steam CTS which they send out to shoot whales. Each vessel has a three-inch muzzle loading gun on it's bow. The project1le is attached to a heavy line that is fastened to a steam winch on the deck of the vessel. When the gun is shot, the projectile Is supposed to go into the whale. It explodes and leaves barbed harpoon in its flesh. The barb opens as the whale is struck, and it is thus caught by the wire rope, and can be played by means of a steam engine, the line being loosened and frightened as necessary. Alter the animal is dead it is drawn near to the vessel and then pumped up with air to prevent its sinking, and in this way is floated and lowed to the shore sta tion.
 Upon the arrival at the station the whale is hauled out on platform and the b1ubber is chopped with axes and then stripped off by means of a steam winch The whale is then cut up and cooked to get out the oil, and the resi-? due is used for fertilizer.
 The best oil comes from the sperm whale, which has cavity in it's head full of fat. A single sperm whale is worth as much as $3O0O It will sometimes produce many barrels of valuable oil, the best of which sells for $2O per barrel The cheaper grades sell for much less the poorest bringing only about SIP per barrel. Some of the whale meat is saved for cattle food. It sells for $40 per ton The fertilizers bring from $20 to $27 a ton It has been suggested that the salmon ca nneries might can the whale meat, and make a whale-beef packing industry in this part of the world. They could do this during the parts of the year when the salmon are not running. Whale beef is said to be healthful and palatable; the product would be large, as a single whale pounds.
 The salmon is by far the most impor- tant of the fish of Alaska. There are four kinds, all of which are delicious. The largest and most valuable is the king salmon, which has an average weight of 22 pounds and sometimes weighs as high as 100 pounds. This is found in southeastern Alaska in al! months of the year. and in May and June it runs up many of the rivers to spawn The next in size is the sock-eye or red salmon. which is about a yard long and