davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-18

From the Providence Journal.
 Potato cards will be issued in Berlin, beginning next Monday.
 That means that the consumption of po- tatoes is to be regulated and restricted, as bread, butter and meat have been.
 Intelligent observers of food conditions in Germany have said that the population was abundantly supplied with potatoes. There has been a scarcity in other di- rections but potatoes are holding out we'll
 Perhaps this condition still prevails in the empire as whole, but Berlin is ap- prehensive of the future Consumers in the capital must submit, for at least 60 days after March 25. to a limitation on their purchases of Il pounds of potatoes every F days, probably at the uniform price of 65 pfennigs-about 16 cents The general potato situation during the 60 days" we are informed, will determine whether the plan must be continued It is further announced that the produc- tion of all cakes of white rye potato l llOuI IldS OScIl piOlllultcd llOHu diSii lo to 19, and their sale on the last five days of this period Unequal distribution of flour Is given as the reason for the pro- hibition, but it is evident that the situa- ton is serious enough to worry the au- thorities-and probably it worries the pub lie also.
 That Germany can be starved out" is open to question, but her food problems are naturally more pressing than those of the entente belligerents, which have unmpeded access to the granaries and ca tile ranges of the world
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-18
UNIoNIziNG ACTORS
the New York World

From the New York World
 The proposed unionizing of dramatic art is logical sequence of commercializing the theatre
 Centralized mana cement has placed the actors profession at it's mercy. Many of the evils suffered by performers are be- yond the reach of the law. The actor must sign a sided contract if he wants to work at all. He must rehearse in new play for six weeks or two months without pay assuming the risk of the company disbanding in two weeks after the first public performance Is held. If the company collapses at distance from his home he must get back as best he can.
 These are some of the evils which the actors think they can overcome by union- izing their profession. Acting is spe- cial ability growing largely out of per- sonal attributes of which each player holds monopoly. so the question of a wage scale does not enter to an impor- tant extent
 The argument against an actors union
 is that it affiliates art with trade But the managers long ago established the precedent. On the other hand, the musi- clans are organized under the American Federation of Labor without damage to the prestige of the great artists all of whom are compelled to become members. The just demands of musicians are everywhere recognized by the men who control the theatres. The actors, whose interests are as consistently ignored, have needed the example and with the aid of a union card they are preparing to follow it.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-18
ExPURGATED WAR NEWS

From LlIe.
 If the war lasts another year we may expect to find some of the war corre- spondents so impressed by their impor- tance that their daily dispatches will read somewhat as follows:
 Somewhere in France, March IT caught a bad cold last night. Rednose of the Chicago Misrepresenter and Legpull me- The former borrowed a gallon of whisky from General Noncomprogon for me, while the latter kept going out to the firing line and bringing in pieces of hot shrapnel to keep my feet warm. Dear chaps! We are a great help to one an- other!
 Hast week we were taken on a tour of the first line of trenches by Bajor Erie and Lieutenant Bar-le-Duc. At lunch time we enjoyed game of auction in a comfortably furnished, bombproof shel- ter. The cretonne on the windows of
 bomb proof was rather garish, from my point of view, and I should have chosen a thicker rug for the floor if the matter had been left in my hands. But the tout ensemble was quite je ne sais quoi. Indirect lighting was used, and the grass cloth on the walls was elsiedewol- fish in it's subjugated simplicity.
 ''The French still use the extra spade bid in playing auction. This proved very annoying to me, as well as to Elmer B. Skipjack of the Washington Torchlight, who had accompanied me. We lost 80 cents in less than an hour. We had no sooner paid our losses than a shell ex- ploded just outside the bomb proof, cracked my diamond stichpin and splin- tered the face of Skipjacks watch. It was a day of disasters.
 Through the influence of Skipjack and myself the. use of the extra spade bid in the French army may soon. be discon- tinued.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-18
Tomorrow's Age-Herald

To the men and women who love dogs the series of articles now appear ing in The Sunday Age-Herald is highly Illuminating But fine pictures always add to the interest in any sub ject and in the Rotogravure Section tomorrow there will be full page de- voted to the dogs which are doing duty on Europe's battlefields.
 Other fine war pictures will be shown in this Rotogravure issue to- gether with some interesting fashion reproductions for women readers.
 Readers of Sunday newspapers have recently had abundant opportunity to observe the reliability of the Asso- ciated Press reports on the Mexican situation. The Age-Herald is the only Sunday newspaper in this section permitted to use Associated Press dis patches. Readers have learned to rely on what they see in The Age Herald.
 Some exceptionally fine features will appear in tomorrow's Age Herald, among which is an illustrated article by Dolly Dalrymple to prove that Ala bama suffragists do not believe in race suicide.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-18
No Movie Censorship Needed

The proposed censorship for moving picture theatres in Birmingham IS ill advised and unnecessary. Experience has taught that "readymade" cen sor seldom, if ever, fits his job, no matter what he is called upon to crltl- cize. The office would be an added ex- pense to the city, which is already m the worst kind of financial straits, and would be an imposition on theatre managers who are carrying on legiti- mate business.
 All forms of art censorship when tried in the past have proved abortive and often ridiculous, and since the mo- ton picture has become an artistic creation none but person of excep- tional qualifications could pass on its merits or demerits. No one supposes that a municipal censor would have any particular qualifications for such work. However conscientious he might be, it would be absurd to let his judg- ment decide what pictures theatre pat rons may see, when they are just as well fitted to make that decision for themselves.
 The national board of censorship attends to its duties with reasonable regard for the prudes and persons whose sensibilities are easily shocked. Some pictures are doubtless shown that ought to be kept off the screen, but they are few in number and it is AUuprful if the worst of them have as bad an effect on public morals as some people seem to think. A theatre man. ager who wishes to retain his patrons, large numbers of whom are women and children, isn't going to run the risk of hurting his business by driving away the better class of people from his house.
 The public is the final and only ar bitter in the matter of moving pictures. It has been proved time and again that bad pictures don't pay. There is no reason to fear that the motion pie ture managers of Birmingham are go- ing to debauch the young and inno- cent. They are men who know which side their bread is buttered on. A ccn- sor is not needed to keep them within proper bounds.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-18
RUssIA's FINANCES

From the Richmond Times Dispatch.
 Russia has played her part in the war with gal.antry and efficiency; the allies owe her much. At the same time, the great empire had not recoverd financially from the drain of the Japanese war and the troubles that followed. Her finances are beginning to show the strain of the present struggle most enthusiastically. though she will be likely to weather the storm, because the finances of Germany are likewise bending under the greater strain she bears.
 The war costs Russia S1000,0O0 rubles daily. She spent S,CO0, ,0O0. 900 rubles in 1915, and her expenses will probably reach Il ,0OO, 100000 rubles in 1916. There was a decrease last year of 100000 acres planted in wheat, and expenditures have run far ahead of receipts. At the same time. savings deposits continue large. and the spirit of the people was never better: the government can subsist comfortably on paper for sometime. Germany had counted on Russia financial collapse as factor in her favor, but it appears now that Russia, though in great need of further resources, will see the war through.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-18
AFTER THEATRES CLOSE W York correspondence Pittsburg Dis-

New York correspondence Pittsburg Dis-
 patch.
 The most congested time in New York is when the theatres dismiss their audi ences. For 15 minutes each night. from Il to 11:15, the great white way. in the neghborhood of Times Square, is a seeth- ing, pushing, swirl of people. Added to the crowds is the jam of honking, snort ing automobiles. Thousands of theatre goers pass along these few blocks, either on their way to restaurants or subway stations, and thousand or more auto mobiles are also trying to get through the cross streets. At each crossing pedes- trians are held up by chauffeurs or chauf- feurs are held up by passers-by It is horrible enough to have to work out of this jam, but when the impatient chauf- feurs let go their horns it is a foretaste of hades. Near all the prominent restau- rants and theatres, where the traffic seems to increase nightly, ear muffs would be sensible wearing apparel. On all the streets where there are three or more theatres the din after theatre is as great as it is is unnecessary.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-18
Attracting Tourist Travel

We are beginning to get some of the tourist travel homeward bound from Flor ida and New Orleans and we will get a large share of it little later on, said Fred E. Shireman, manager of the Tut wiler
 The winter resort business has been unusually large this season. As every one knows, the hotels in Florida have been full to overflowing. When was in Flor ida recently I met hundreds of people who wanted to know about Birmingham. Many of them said they had heard of this citys attractions and intended to stop over here. Birminghams reputation as winter resort city once established, we will see crowds of rich pleasure seek CTS here every year"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-18
School Buildings Badly Needed


 Birmingham's public school sys- tenn, long noted for it's high efficiency, is being seriously impaired for lack of adequate buildings. The city com- missioners, by their recent inspection of school conditions, have brought them to a startling realization of this great community's needs in the mat ter of school housing.
 Commissioner Hornady, whose prov ince it is to look especially after the public school properties, has expressed the opinion that present necessities require an expenditure of not less than $1,5OO,OOO for new buildings.
 President Commissioner Ward names $2, 100000 as the sum that should be expended for new construction. The board of education has given this question very earnest consideration and $2,O00,OOO is it's lowest estimate for providing adequate school facili- ties.
 AS all classes and conditions of the population are vitally interested in the public schools, a proposition for the issuance of $2,OO0,O00 of bonds would be ratified at the polls by decisive majority.
 Some bond propositions can be car ried only after well organized cam paign of education; but so obvious and so pressing is the demand for more and better school accommoda- tions that the people will be ready to vote a $2,0OO,OOO bond issue without any campaigning.
 The Central High school, with ca pacity for accommodating 800 pupils, is now housing 1900, and an additional 400 high school pupils are housed in outside buildings.
 Of $2,O0O,OOo fully $4OO,00O should be expended on the erection of two high school edifices-one to be situ- ated on the Southside and the other between Woodlawn and East Lake. Two hundred thousand dollars would pay for the first unit of great high school plan for the Southside to cost when developed and completed $1 1,000,- 900 or more. Nashville is. at work on high school plan that calls for an ultimate expenditure of $3,000,000.
 The eastern part of the city will need some day high school building costing perhaps $600,000, but $200,000 would supply the first unit which probably would be sufficient for the needs of that section for many years.
 Ensley has an excellent high school building, but in that section, as in many others, additional buildings are needed for the elementary schools.
 Let the commission submit $2,000,000 school bond proposition and the people will eagerly vote for it. Something must be done and done without delay to save Rirminpham's & reputation as a city of educational opportunities for the masses.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-18
Average Attendance

Around at the Manufacturers exhibit building, the question is asked What is the average attendance of visitors here per day?' said Manager J. H. Edmond son. ''I have replied: Around 50O.'
 Some appearing skeptical. I added. You see, this is quite large place, and it takes a large crowd, indeed, to make it seem crowded but by actual count on several ordinary days, and by consult ing the visitors register, we have placed the daily average at about 350 and as we have weekly engagements for use of our auditorium, all the visitors to which must pass through the exhibit floors, we are able to place the average still higher.
 Tt is a peculiar phase of human na- ture which causes many people to hesi- tate to register their names and address
 in public place. Though every visitor is asked to register, a great many shy at the big book and prefer not to leave their name and address on record.
 'The auditorium in the Manufacturers' building has been frequently used by the ladies of the various churches for serv- ing dinners and holding bazars. One night week is given over to band prac- tice by local organization, another for drill purposes by Zamoras patrol, and twice month a local fraternal organza- ton several hundred strong uses the big hall.
 An opera club has been rehearsing weekly for sometime and the hall is in constant demand for club and society dances. The Young Mems Hebrew asso- citation has the auditorium engaged for . three days bazar in April. So altogether the Manufacturers exhibit building con tinues to be an attractive show place and entertains many visitors during 2 month";.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-18
THE MISSOURI cLoDHopPER

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
 By way of remedy for the ailment commonly diagnosed as What's the mat ter with Missouri" Professor Gromer of the State university prescribes:
 "The nomination and election of eff ficient and well trained men for state offices, instead of 'clodhoppers and pro- fessional politicians"
 There's some sense in that. The clod- hopper is the boil weevil and the hook worm of Missouri politics and Missouri administration. He is not confined to one party, but rayages both. He loves sloth and hates progress. Backwoodsism is his religion and his battle cry. To him all Missouri is fork of the creek. Its peo- pie are yaps. He pats Juba, dances to Turkey in the Straw dl esses like a dirty edition of the Mysterious Stranger, disdains polish on his boots, whoops, ana "chaws" rolled leaf "terbacker," In of- fee he wears his hat cocks his feet on the desk and spits at random. He feeds on the patent insides of country papers, cusses "extravagance,'' puts his folks on the payroll, and pares his nails with a barlow knife. He 'golderns" everybody and everything that has the appearance of civilization, travels on a pass when he can get 1t, winks, conspres, grafts in per- uuisites, peanuts and everything free, flapdoodles on the stump in campaign time, plugs for the machine, perspires, plays poker drinks bad whisky from a bottle, quotes Jefferson and Jackson, harks back to Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett, knows every ''feller'' by name. "sets around and gasses,'' and lets the state go to--worse from bad.
 : The little old red schoolhouse is good enough for him. He cares nothing about a great school system.
 Old-fashioned roads are good enough for him; old-fashioned taxation and old fashioned constitutions are good enough for him. Anything that was good enough for Paul and Silas is good enough for him. Everything suits him to a T just as it is, SO long as he can keep in the trough Modern farm methods are fool- ishness Economies are his favorite joke. Intellectually he has fetlocks and he re- fuses to be curried.
 The clodhopper is a pretty serious joke in Missouri. Missouri has the soil, cli- mate and natural resources to make the greatest agricultural. apple, dairy farming and poultry raising state in the union, but, in the language of the professor of rural economics at Columbia, the political clodhopper is doing his worst to make Missouri the greatest sucker state In the uniOn."
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-18

RS. THOMAS SINCLAIR went
 MI down from the big city to the
 A old home town last week and visited between trains with her old father She didn't stay in the town long. Since she moved to the big city Mrs. Thomas Sinclair has lost interest in the old home town. She goes down ance a year to see how her father is getting along and it Is even intimated in the old home town. She goes down once a not visit him quite so freduently if it ] were not for the fact that she is afraid her father might go to the city to see her
 When Mrs. Thomas Sinclair lived In the old home town everybody knew her as "the youngest Woodson girl,' or Min" Woodson. Her father was a blacksmith and had big family. Some times it was hard sledding for him to
 supply the family groceries, but he suc-
 ceeded. He sent the children to school, and they all grew up and moved away
 casionally, too, and everybody calls
 them by their first name and everybody
 likes to see them. But not Mrs. Thomas
 Sinclair. When she visits the old home
 town she goes to the hotel and locks
 the door to her room. She calls a taxi
 cab, which really is second hand Ford
 in the old home town, you know, and
 drives down to where her father lives
 alone in the old house. She remains
 there 20 minutes or so and goes back
 to the hotel and waits until train time
 at the hotel.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-18

A Birmingham motion picture manager was arrested for showing film based on the experiences of the Castles. Over in Macon seductive Theda Bara is no longer are being closely watched these days.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-18
REMEMBRANCE

By Arthur Symons. It seems to me that very long ago. Across shining and dividing sea. dreamed of love, and the eternal woo. And that desire which is eternity. did not dream that I have made you
 weep;
 never loved, and you have never wepts The shining and dividing sea is deep, And am very tired of having slept. Yet, in some hours of these oblivious days- Suddenly. like heart throb, recal The passionate enigma of your face. take your hand. and l remember all.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-18
A WORD TO -.srRArEc1srsv
From the New York World.

From the New York World.
 The amateur strategists can safely leave the Villa expedition to Gen. Hugh Scott, the chief of staff; General Funston. who is in command of the troops along the border. and General Pershing. who will lead the pursuit. They are in charge, and if they cannot capture Villa it is cer- tain that civilian critics will not succeed in doing it.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-18
WHAT'S THIS,

From the Kansas City Star
 Two feature columns in the Houston Post are again headed with the pictures of their respective authors, Col. George M. Bailey and Judd Mortimer Lewis. Which, all will agree, detracts nothing from the humor of the columns.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-18
WASHINGTON SCOT MAD"

WASHINGTON "GOT MAD"
 From the Kansas City Times.
 Professor Charming of Harvard comes along now and says that George Wash ngton had an unsurpassed temper. Shouldn't wonder. Guess if Professor Charming had to make an army out of the material that was handed to Washing ton at Cambridge and was told to lick the worlds leading military with 1t he would have a temper, too.
 Add to that 13 colonies all pulling in opposite directions, a lot of pacif1sts nag ging around, Congress with no powey except to debate, rag money that the printer who made it wouldn't take, population a good part of which went around telling how the war was hurting business and a school of statesmen, jeal- ous of any federal authority, fearful of his success and hysterically opposed to regular army.
 Certainly Washington had a temper and frequently let it out Likewise he had line of vigorous language healtily p1ofane, and 8 masterful sense of the oc- casions when to use it and upon whom. If he were present today and could hear statesmen in Congress say that the United States was fully prepared for de- fense with the present army and navy he would direct his remarks with the same vigor and facility and they would be aimed at exactly the right persons.
 Look at the real pictures of Washing ton-the ones made before the loss of his teeth gave him that grandmothery ex- pression about the mouth-and you will see he had temper. Lucky he did, too. or somebody might have got to him with the theory that the way to lick Eng land was to disarm and ask her if she wasn't ashamed of herself.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-18

BEGINNING THE DAY-My Fath- CT, | look along through the hours of this new day. What will they bring to me. Loss of propertys ac- cident. disappOintment: sfcknesss decision by friends, deprivation or those whom lOves Death may come to me this day-sudden death' or the beginning of long, lingering denth. Int 1t matters not, if Thou art mine. | am content. Amen.-H. M. E.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-18

The Euphrates is perhaps the most his
 torio river on earth. For coco years at least empires have risen and fallen in the region through which it flows. At present the Euphrates and the Tigris are again in the midst of war. The Euphrates is the largest river of western Asia. It rises in two arms which flow parallel on the north side of the Tarus mountain. water courses. The northermost branch
 is the shorter of the two. but is regarded as the rivers real source It flows north of Erzerum. The longer arm passes to the south of the city recently captured from the Turks by the Russians. The Euphrates proper, formed by the union or the two branches after passing the moun- tainous district of Dersim is extremely ir- regular running in first one direction and then another in most cratic fashion
 From the remotest spring of the Eu- pirates to the sea is only about SVo niles in a straight line, but the river trav- els 1S0O miles before it reaches the sea. For the last 12o0 miles of it's course the Euphrates is sluggish, it's fall being only 10 inches to the mile. It flows over the land and at times spreads out to such an extent that in places it is too shallow for a man to swim in. The annual rise of the river begins in March and reaches the maximum in May. At the flood stage the Euphrates is navigable for ves- sels of considerable draft.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-18

A British soldier who died recently, presumably as a hero, marred a splendid ending to some extent by leaving $l5.OOO in his will to a chorus girl.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-18

There will be little glamor about the punitive expedition into Mexico. Hunting for a greaser bandit in a barren waste may be exciting, but it isn't picturesque.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-18

Only a short while ago Villa was chum- my with Americans, but now he's just about as friendly as a rattlesnake.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-18

newspaper writer says William Lori mer hasn't changed much since the time he was elected to the United States Sen- ate. The same old Bill, evidently.