davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-11-08
COLD PROBsv

From the Providence Journal.
 At one time known, the country over, as "Old Probs," Prof. Cleveland Abbe who died in Washington Saturday, in his
 seventy eight year. has justly been called the Father of the Weather Bureau.
 The governments weather forecasts,
 nowadays, are officially indications"
 but originally they were probabilities, and Professor Abbe was the originator of
 them. How the designation came to pc changed might be interesting to inquire into--it created a good deal of public comment at the time, for the most part in good humored irony, after the popular fashion of treating the weather bureau
 The bureau officials apparently concluded that it would be safer to give out the prognostications as weather indicated by the sources of information, rather than probable weather.
 The institution of the system was an example of force of public opinion on
 Congress. AS director of the Cincinnati observatory, Professor Abbe, in 1869, of fered to furnish weather predictions for the Chamber of Commerce of that city These being sent to many parts of the country, made tremendous popular iIn- pression, and in 1871 Congress author ized the war department to take up the same work, Professor Abbe being invited to Washington. Down to 1891, when the weather bureau was transferred to the
 new department of agriculture, "Old
 Probs'-otherwise anonymous-made his forecasts through the chief signal off, cer of the army. For many years prior to the Cincinnati Experiment., the war department, the Smithsonian institution and other public or private agencies in this country and
 abroad had been making weather maps, and studying them with the idea of find ing a way to base predictions on them scientifically. It was the genius of Pro- lessor Abbe that found the way.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-11-08
FOOTING YOUR OWN HORN

Moving in constricted circle of adula-
 him the recognition" he believes to be
 his due. He would defect, by some in-
 fluence or other, the award of the prize
 that belongs only to the fittest who sur
 vived the ordeal of competition.
 It may be a grievous sight to behold
 merit patiently waiting in line through
 all weathers for the chance that is
 usurped by some blatantly aggressive, shouldering interloper. who manages to
 crowd in ahead. But time and fate will surely determine the place of man in
 his era. If he was good for anything the
 written record in the long run will show it. His deserving will emerge from the place where it is hidden as full-orbed planet comes out from behind a cloud and delights the sky.
 There are so many kinds of music in the world, there are so many competent performers, that no satisfactory pro-
 gramme can consist wholly of the horn sonatas by the virtuosi who are enchanted with their own lingering and blowing and entirely forgetful of the vast number of pupils nature turned out from the same studio to take their places on the stage of the world To some persons the first taste of publicity, deserved or not, is what it is to young leopard or tiger to draw blood. He would have more, insatiably more of it. That appetite ill itself provides the, student of mankind with curious-sometimes a truly pa thetic-spectacle to observe. He beholds inordinate vanity overreaching itself. He beholds the tyrannous egoist defeated in his deep-laid schening toward power and glory. He beholds those who exalt them selves humbled to the dust, and those who are sincere and true in their desire to serve rewarded in consonance with
 their deserving.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-11-08
HE GAVE MUCH

r IOlil the EillSuuIS 0iSPotSh'
 To speak of a man as prizefighter, sol dier, preacher and humanitarian, has strange sound, but the career of Ben" Hogan, who died in Chicago a couple of days ago, justifies it. Hogan was all of them and them some." as the slangy man would put 1t.
 He was a man surcharged with fellow ship for his fellows. He talked it and he lived 1t to back up what he preached. Not every preacher does that so consist ently, and so successfully as Hogan did.
 Measured as preacher, Ben" Hogan would not rank higher than a minor leaguer'' but as an exemplification of some doctrines that society adopts in theory and shies at in the concrete of daily life. he stood close to the top, bat ting close to 1000.
 The day the conviction claimed the ex- prizefighter that the soul of man is not saved or elevated in tone by words alone, however good, he found his life work spread before him, ready made. He had only to meet what was all about him In the need of the men with whom he was most famitiar-the lower stratas.
 From that day forward Hogan didn't talk less to the men who needed good, strong words. but he helped them more, materially. He founded mission" where the homeless could sleep for cents, and supplied soup at his own cost. He was repaid for the money he lost by the men he won. He considered the ex- change a good one for himself and the derelicts.
 There are far better preachers than Ben" Hogan was, but there are few who had the same human impulses that did not lose courage when confronted by conditions that would have discouraged one of less conviction. At the age of S7 he was living proof that fit is more blessed to give than to receive" He gave all No man can do more. Few do.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-11-08
ALABAMA PRESS

Greenville Advocate: The high cost of paper has forced The Age-Herald to ad- vance it's subscription price from $6 to s per annum, and requires every subscriber to pay in advance.
 This is bound to come with most of the newspapers. They cannot afford to print their papers at the old prices and allow the subscriber to take as long about pay ing the subscription as they desire. Many fail to pay even after waiting year or more for it. Some few that have a charge liberal rates for their space can afford to give their papers away, but they are few and the papers are of but little benefit to the readers who receive them.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-11-08

From the Philadelphia Public Ledger. 6N MERE is such a thing as a req
 sonable self-confidence, a dignified S pride in ones place and ones work, and there is such thing as a tiresome self-assertion which is forever putting itself forward and is most odious when it makes a pretense of humility and modesty An artist Is not called upon to apologize to the earth for his existence. neither will he be suffered to march up to it with a mailed fist demanding ad- mission to it's halls of fame or it's acad- emies of immortals.
 "Tell them dear. that if eyes were made
 for seeing,
 Then beauty is it's own excuse for being, observes the Sage of Concord in his lines on the Rhodora. Transcendent merit usually has difficulty in keeping itself a explain his grandeur. He appears and his force Is felt. He does not have to lug a lustrous name into his talk every little while that he may shine by the re- flected glory.
 The sincerely modest are likely to find that others are far more ready to ad- vance their cause than would be the case if they cried their own intellectual wares from the housetops. If a man is very sure that he Is a remarkable success 1t seems hardly necessary for the rest of us to verify his own good opinion, ot himself. It is waste of time that might be spent in seeking out the merit that languishes neglected and assisting it to a hearing and a just appraisal.
 It is tiresome to hear painter or mu- sician tell of his own abilities, his own tri,nnnhs and nraiSes and say little else,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-11-08
THE TOBACCO KING

omy, efficiency and success. As long ago what became, in 1S90 the American To- bacco company, which succeeded so we'll that it supplied 80 per cent of Amer ica's cigarette, pipe and chewing tobacco and snuff before the government dis solved" the so-called tobacco trust, in 1911.
 James B,7chanan Duke was a 4-year-old motherless toddler on farm three miles from Durham, N. C., when the war broke out. in 1861. After the struggle had been in progress year or more his father joined the Confederate army, selling out everything he had for Confederate money with the exception of a number of things which were to be paid for in tobacco. set clement to be made at the end of the war. The children were sent to their grand fathers, 30 miles from Durham. When the elder Duke returned in the spring of 1865. the purchaser of the farm was un- able to make payment, but he was in
 possession, running the farm and occupy ing the dwelling house. There was noth- ing for Duke to do but to become a farm laborer for the other man, getting, in return, a portion of the crop.
 ] Little James B.. with his father and two brothers-his mother was dead-lived 1 throughout the winter in a log cabin on 1 the farm. All four slept on straw tick | in corner of the cabin. Their sister
 was given a bed at the farm house. 1 The 'hardships suffered by the Duke
 family were almost heartbreaking. First Wheeer's cavalry, of the Confederate
 army. and, later part of the northern
 army. had been stationed in that neigh borhood--the surrender of Johnston to 1 sherman took place near Durham. The
 soldiers had cleaned up everything eat
 able for miles around. Parched corn was
 the staple food of the people in those
 days. Washington Duke, the father, re- gained his farm in the spring and eked
 out livelihood for the family by buying small quantities of tobacco and other l goods in one district and bartering it in
 the eastern part of the state for meat
 and flour which he brought back and ped
 dled.
 Farmers had begun to grow tobacco.
 and those who owed Duke money before
 the war paid him in that commodity. He began to peddle it along with what he
 was able to grow himself As the sons became old enough they helped both on | the farm and at peddling. Having made
 a little headway, the Dukes bought the
 tobacco crops of other farmers and made
 arrangements to ship it to South Caro- lima, Alabama and other points. By 1871 the business had grown to about 4o,0oo to 50,0O0 pounds a year.
 With Duke, dreams never long re-
 mained dreams; they were made to take visible, concrete form. One of these was SO revolutionary that he spent nearly two Il years in bringing it to fruition. At last, in 1S90 he formed the American Tobac- co company, which included four of the
 principal tobacco concerns in the country
 in addition tosthe Duke businessr
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-11-08
THE SWAN
By William Wordsworth.

By William Wordsworth. Fair is the Swan, whose majesty prevail
 ing
 Der breezeless water. on Locarn =
 lake,
 Bears him on while proudly sailing
 He leaves behind a moon-illumined
 wake
 Behold! the mantling spirit of reserve Fashions his neck into a goodly curve; An arch thrown back between luxuriant wings Of whitest garniture. -Behold!-as with gushing impulse heaves That downy prov, and softly cleaves The mirror of the crystal flood Vanish inverted hill, and shadowy wood And pendent rocks. where'er in gliding state, Winds the mute Creature without visible Mate Or rival, save the Queen of night Showering down silver light, From heaven, u1en i--- chosen Favorite
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-11-08

B. c. Forbes, in Lesies
 N MERICA has many merchant A\ princes and captains of industry q = but only three industrial kings:
 John D. Rockefeller, the oil king; An drew Carnegie, the steel king. ana James B. Duke, the tobacco king. The history of the first two is well known
 The career of the third. with the why's and wherefores of it, is here printed for the first time.
 Each of the three had the same rough road to travel, the same obstacles to cleave and clear. Each used the same methods and the same tools-intense ap- plication, ceaseless watchfulness for op- portunity, unwavering courage and seir confidence readiness to assume responsi-
 biity, rigid frugality during early years, with, above all, infinite love of worK and achievement.
 At 14 James E. Duke, after having ex- perienced life in a log cabin and almost inhuman poverty, won the position or manager of small tobacco factory-the factory which formed the nucleus or the greatest tobacco enterprise the world has ever known, an enterprise dominant not only in America but in virtually every country under the sun.
 So frugal was MT. Duke and so deter mined to conserve capital for the develop ment of the business that, after he was earning $5OO0O year he lived in hall bedroom in Harlem, New York, and ate
 his three meals daily in the cheapest ix, ,n | as in most others, great final success en- |'tailed great early sacrifices. ., I Young Duke set out to do in tobacco what John D. Rockefeller did Ill oil I And he succeeded in becoming he most
 powerful tobacco figure in history. He I won for himself as dominant place abroad as at home.
 The reason? Here it is, in Mir. Dukes own modest words: "I have succeeded in business, not because I have more nat
 ural ability than many people who have 1 not succeeded, but because l have ap- piled myself harder and stuck to il ! longer. I know plenty of people wht have failed to succeed in anything whe have more brains than l, had. but they lacked application and determination.
 II had confidence in myself. I said te myself: If John D.. Rockefeller can dc what he is doing in oil why should not do it in tobacco? l resolved from tht time I was a mere lad to do a big busi ness I loved business better than any thing else. I worked from early morning to late at night was sorry to have to leave off at night and glad wher morning came so that could get at i again. Any young man with common in telligence can succeed If he is willing t apply himself. Superior brains are no
 necessary
 Long before Schwab or Morgan hat dreamed of huge steel trust. James B Duke conceived the idea of gigantic
 tobacco organization having such a vol
 tune of business as to be able to sell su
 perior goods at lowered prices. Volume
 he saw. was the key to industrial econ
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-11-08
LIKE M,LUKE SAYS

We do most of our favors in the hope of receiving something just as good or a little better in return.
 The fool killer should let the other varieties alone for awhile and devote his entire attention to the lad who slams you on the back with his fist every time he meets you.
 Shower blessings on some people and they'll yelp because it isn't clOudburst
 Why does it give us so much pleasure to advertise another mans faults and so much pain to advertise his virtues?
 When a man asks you to tell him your candid opinion of him. he will want to fight if you do not tell him what a fine fellow he is.
 When we see a woman in an ultra decollete evening gown we get the idea that she isn't afraid of the backbiters.
 What has become of the old-fashioned man who brought home his groceries in demiiohn every Saturday night?
 Some people imagine that the women haters are all bachelors. Far from it, Ignatz, far from it.
 It is hard to believe it. But you can get pretty good idea of what a girl will look like when she is 40 by getting a look at her mother.
 Many woman uses paint because she hasn't the cheek to do without it.
 We are very fond of dear old Joe Mile, and we hate to see his repose disturbed So. when a man asks us if we have heard the one about the two Irishmen who had just landed in New York we remem- Der that We have an important business engagement and we hasten away. It Is none of our business. But wher speaking of a lantern-j jawed female il isn't safe to refer to the light of hel countenance.
 Any elderly woman can tell you that { lack of wrinkles on a face shows weak ness of character
 We know a man who doesn't think tha his wife talks too much. But he has only been married four days.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-11-08
THE SWAMP WOLF

From the Baltimore American. Some of the romance and spectacle of war, the mystery and the secrecy of as- sault upon a foe, are to be seen in the war in Europe, despite the fact that for the most part it is one horrible massa- ere of men by machine methods and ruth less slaughter by hand-to-h hand work in the trenches. Russia provides the varia- ton in methods In the district of Po- lesia, in the triangle north and east of Brestlitovsk, has arisen guerilla fighter who compares with some of the guerilla chieftaips of the American civil war. This Russian unknown Is traversing the
 sparsely populated country and the havoc isthat he is creating among forces of the Austro-Hungarians Is one of the most re-
 markable features of the war in the in- vaded countries
 The swamp wolf Is wrapped in mystery, although he is believed to be rich land owner. His orders with the peasants are as those of one endowed with supernat- ural powers, and in consequence the swamp regions are teening with snipers. This individual appears to be of the type of Hereward, the Saxon opponent of
 William of Normandy. making the
 swamps of Ely his almost invulnerabie
 stronghold.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-11-08
TIP AND DOWN THE PIKE

Signal Mountain correspondence in the Sequachee (Tenn.) Valley News.
 Harvey Mcintyre and Miss Viola King went down the pike Saturday.
 Miss Lillie Hudson went down the pike Saturday.
 Johnnie and Mike Miller went down the pike Saturday morning.
 Miss Edith Kell and Mollie Hudson went up the pike in Roy Hoodenpyle s buggy Saturday afternoon.
 Art Grayson went up the pike Saturday afternoon. selling milk.
 Rev. w. r. Norris went down the pike Saturday afternoon chewing his Red Tag"
 Art Grayson and son went down the pike Saturday afternoon.
 Bess Allen went down the pike Satur- day afternoon.
 Bob Miller and family went up the pike Sunday.
 Johnnie Miller went up, the pike Sun day.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-11-08

writer in Life says the army experts are going to take another look at the Lewis machine gun, which is doing such deadly work for the allies. They should have looked longer when the inventor l first submitted it to the American gov. ernment.
 Five hundred German soldiers and their officers are said to have raced into the French lines and sprinted for two miles l and a half to the rear during recent battle on the Somme front. They needn't expect crosses from the Kaiser. ' Although the crew of the Deutschland are all seasoned sailors. they suffer from . seasickness in stormy weather, and that's nearly as bad as being sent to the bot tom by shell.
 Now that the election is over a large number of Alabama negroes who went north to work" may be exepcted to | return home, where the 'possum and the i yam flourish.
 Maybe the Russians are beginning to ! think they never will reach Constantino- pie. It isn't the length of the hike so much as the obstacles met * * $. Shapely young women dancing over the meadows recall the days of ancient Greece. but nine times out of 10 they are dancing for the movies.
 The Chicago insanity expert who went crazy on his honeymoon may recover ditch the honeymoon is over. Nearly everybody does From the Bulgarian point of view, Ru- mani ahas made great mistake in cast ing her lot with the allies. Still, the war is not over yet.
 It is estimated that between s5, 00O, GOO and sl0,000,oo0 was wagered on the elec- ton, but nobody knows how many hats Were bet.
  Some of Europes statesmen look for peace in 19l7 Here's hoping they won't be disappointed as Henry Ford was.
 F
 Regardless of what the rest of the country thinks of him, Colonel Roosevelt Is still biz man at Oyster Bay.
 *
 The first chauffeurs were bandits and some of the chauffeurs of today are of the same kidney. The proposed army of Poland will prob- ably have more than one German officer in command. | If Pancho Villa holds all of Chihuahua except the capital. he can take that at his leisure.
 $: # ;: It is hard to convince a movie fan that Billie Burke's baby is an ordinary infant * People who own steel stock are singu- larly optimistic. There's a reason.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-11-08
HOTEL LOBBlES.
A Vital Test

"The Alabama supreme court con- venes on November 27,' said City At torney Ullman. '"The city has four cases to be decided.
 There will probably be as many as 200 Jefferson county cases for con sideration. Few people realize what a great amount of work and study is necessary for the seven supreme court judges to pass on the hundreds of cases that await final judgment.
 "One of the most vital cases, in so far as the health of the city is con cerned, is scheduled to come before the court this term. It is In regard to enforcing sanitary connections. It is test suit and if the supreme court holds that Birmingham has a right to force sanitary connections, pay for them and allow the property owner 10 years to meet payment, it will solve vexatious problem"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-11-08
CARE FREE

The sentimental poets sing
 Of love and loves delight; The wondrous beauty of the spring, The stars that shine at night; The mystery on land and sea,
 When summer reigns supreme. The droning of honey bee.
 The woodlands gloom and gleam. happy lot is theirs, methinks- While other mortals fret About the price of food and drinks, They trill without regret.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-11-08

l only cents. Irish potatoes this year 1 cost 90 cents more than last. So>let us eat sweet potatoes. Let us encourage the farmer to diversity
 his production. And let us be pre- pared to meet the situation when flour, continually increasing in price,
 reaches a really prohibitive figure. By concerted movement the peo- | pie of Alabama may become self-sup-
 porting, may live on what they grow.
 The scope of possibility is infinite. Should Have More
 Highway lis b ssssy signbsaa as TT HE Alabama Good Roads associa-
 S tion, which holds it's annual
 meeting in Birmingham November 15-16, will bring together hundreds of
 well known enthusiasts in the high
 way improvement cause. When the
 association was first organized the question was often asked: Can it ac-
 complish anything worth while? The annual meetings have been dis tinctly worth while. It was the Ala bama Good Roads association that aroused interest throughout the state l in highway improvement. It has worked year in and year out for road improvement and it now has the sat lisfaction of seeing large achievements. And the road building will go on until such a thing as a bad road will be virtually unknown.
 A few years ago Judge B. M. Allen in an interview in The Age-Herald urged the importance of every county erecting signboards at all forks of the roads. This has been done in some counties, but as the cost would be comparatively small there should not be a single exception.
 Let the association take this matter up and push it. It is very important subject, especially in these days when pleasure tourists from all parts of the union are automobiling through Ala bama.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-11-08
THE RULING PASSION

to his chambers by a group of sympa- thetic friends?''
 Merely a political prophet who guessed wrong.'
 ''Do you think he is cured of the f1abit?' NO, indeed. He'll be guessing again in a week or two'
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-11-08
THE AUTO TRAMP

Would you give gallon of gasoline to a poor chap wot's tryin' to cross de con tinent in a 1912 flivver, sir?"
 Indeed I will" answered the kind hearted citizen. Such optimism as yours should be encouraged. I'll give you two gallons"