davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-21

This was wheere Wilyum fell down-if he had ritten stuff that could get away frum the post on the spot insteed of making good few hundred yeers aftur reel mummy had lost its charm for him, his estate mite have loomed up like assessment on fake mining stock nsteed of resembling munsipa defiste aftur reform administration
 When persun starts out to rite lot of dope that is to into gennerel use about two or three hun dred yeers, hense it would be wise for him to make sum permnint arrangements with the grosery man and the coal deeler, who, as rule air cold and un- sentimental mummy grabing persuns and who enter tain prejudise about accepting drafts on poster rity in exchange for theere This is tendensy in moddern trade that is to be deplorred but seems beyond remmedy. have myself rtten lot of stuff which l am satisfied is verry good indeed and if softened by the hand of time, and aftur of the grouches who, by sum accident uther, have becum eddturs of periodicals in this fair country have been handed ticket to the unknown whense, am sure will make lasting impression upon the clammering pubck but far have been unabull to use stuff as security for loan in standing off the Ise man. Most peepul air mersenery and would pre-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-21

course. he hasn't the satisfaction () of feeling that he is known by all be- holders when he walks down Broad : way, but he has a feeling of interest in all that is going on about him, a realization that he is part-a neces- sary part-of the great life plan, and he finds genuine pleasure in just liv- color, variety, contrast, height depth, bredth, interest and activity than any where else on earth.
 New York is a permanent depreSsant only to him who admits his inability and unwillingness to cope with the big ger things of life. To the vast majority who stick around long enough, how stimulants. It concerns itself with life more than with death, realizing the last to be necessity, but also realiz- ing life to be a present actuality, a boon and a pleasure
 The New Yorker grows old slowly in spite of the nerve raeking excite . ment' of the life here, and often when he is old in years he is still young in spirit and often in physical activity. And as for getting nice long obitu- ary notice in the newspapers upon his passing out of this plane of existence, all be has to do, if he really cares for such a notice-and most of them worry very little about the subsequent pro ceedings"-is to think up some original method of shuffling off. and he is al : most certain to get some space on the front page even though the German drive has just that day been checked by the allies.
 And this is said to have happened, really: Up in Harlem company of negroes has been giving "Othello" re- gently. One night Desdemona, who had been stimulating herself for her try ing role, came on bit too inclined to see something of comedy in the ter
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-21

never become big fish in so big pond as New York? Are they less happy than if they were elsewhere? I believe not, and with emphasis. Here, just as in the villages, one foMns his circle of friends and acquaintances, if he wishes to do so. Within this circle he is known. and, if he is worth it, he is appreciated, though there is never such a tendency to give him false idea of the fnagni- tude of his importance as there is in the village
 There are sights to be seen here every day which are known to all the world; there are people to be met on Broadway whom the whole world takes off it's hat to, and many of whom would 'be worth a column" in any other town they might visit; there are hap penings here daily which the whole world reads about. The man you sit next to on the Broadway surface car may be the prince of foreign coun- try. q multi-millionaire of this or some other city, or laborer in the local subway trenches. and there comes sible identities.
 If you are of the masses here. you are yet able to obtain your rights more easily than elsewhere in the majority of matters. The public is better looked after in New York than in any other city, l believe, and more attention is paid, not only to it's actual needs, but to it's comforts and its pleasures Here, where so many splendid brains are at work always more has been thought out for us--the way is really made easier in many respects. Why, a per feet stranger in this city could find his way all over town if he only used his eyes and his common sense-he would not even have to ask questions
 The average unknown New Yorker by no means considers himself d worm of the dust. He realizes his rights, as serts himself and gets results. Of
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-21

fer the vuger practise of doing sumthing that will bring in the while they air sloshing round this hemisfeer battling with the high gassoeen rathur than perform prodigius stunts de- noting genius that will rap theere names in gilt edge fame for posterrity to gloat But me and Will yum Shakespear air different frum the herd, and we must not blamed for tive weer born that way.
 Wilyum rote menny plays that air celebrated, amung which "Omneletts Sooquy" and Lay McDuff and Dam the Consequinses,' which caused quite stur in the orran missionary Sosiety at the time Such is fame; three hundred yeers aftur Wilyum gave up in disgust and cashed in theese plays air presented by actur with forran and Congressional Record voise at three bones throw, while during the lifetime of the orthur they failed to make half the impression the public that is maid by the Mystery of the Gaekeepurs Doughtur the Lost Hose Supportur,' by the who hit Billy Pattursun, which be sceen enny day at our local "Nickeodium" for jit.
 That Wilyum Shakespear distinctly human, al tho genius is evvidensed by the fact t<>. aftur yeer of married life and his wife had presented
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-21

Conclusion: She decides that it would be preferable always to live among the green hills of old Alabama and the pur- pie peaks of Jones valley and to have ''the assurance that when you die you will receive nice, long obituary
 And there you areas perfect a picture of the average visitors impressions as you could get if you stood in the Penn sylvania station and interviewed depart ing guests for an entire day. They all get it the same way though few could write their impressions half so interest ingly.
 In the last analysis, it seems that love of the home town is very often just love of those things which enable us to as- sume the grea test importance in our own eyes and in tho eyes of others. NO doubt we all have the quality of conceit in greater or lesser degree. And l have often thought that the man who has it in colossal magnitude is happiest, after all. What if he is more or less objec- tionable to other people-he doesn't know it. does he? And wouldn't you be happier if you could really believe yourself to De all that you admire in man?
 And this is no dart sent at ony one particular human being, nor set of beings, city of them The small town IS ufquesuonaply conuuclVe to tne sehaa- tioi, referred to. And that doesn't mean Birmingham, nor Nashville, nor Atlanta. The party from SqueeduniS. going to anyone of the cities named, has a feel ing akin to that experienced by the party from one of those towns who is in the biggest town of all.
 Once preacher from village in Ala bama, who was attending Methodist conference at Birmingham, told me that he was tired out The rush of city life" was too much for him, he said. and while he enjoyed seeing the sights. he would be glad to get back to his little
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-21

all my own. Since then my departure has assumed, in my eyes, the semblance of an act of cowardice. I finally had to s'come back for more.'' Had I not done so would always have dsliked and misunderstood New York, but now, in my third year of residence here, l find it the most ambition-inspiring, energy creating, interesting and wonderful Of cities; the magnet which attracts the best in all lines of endeavor, in all arts the largest of all stages whereon the drama of life is daily being enacted
 And here is the idea-New York is he- roic treatment for the small town na- tive, but if his courage and stamina are sufficient to sustain him during the most painful stages of the operation the re- suit is sure to be materially beneficial
 New York may crush conceit, but cour- age should not permit itself to be crushed at the same time-nor at any time The idea of letting the mere magnitude of a city make us look upon ourselves as mere worms in the dust is all wrong Real courage will go much deeper than that. It will see in the greater obstacles New York presents to the climber, greater reason for greater effort, and it will also see a greater victory beyond. Therefore, granting that we have cour- age-and the majority of people who are normal have-New York is an inspiration to great accomplishments, vista of wonderful possibilities, and offering suf- ficient competition in all lines of en- desvor to bring forth the best that is in each one of us
 It is no place for the laggard, the idler, but as for the dreamer--ah there is no other place where his opportuni- ties are greater, provided he is one of those dreamers whose courage and ability later make most of their dreams into realities
 And what if those who may never rise to prominence here--who will
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-21

country church, where his little flock knew and loved him.
 There was R. M. Heriges of Nashville. When he was in New York city last-and he has visited here many times--he said that he liked to visit Manhattan, but indicated very clearly that, as plac. Of regular residence he couldn't see the metropolis at all-he wanted Nashville In Nashville he is known, admired and respected.
 Then, there was Tom Heflin of Bir- miIgham, who talked to me in the lobby of Broadway hotel sometime ago.
 New York is not for me-" said Tom
 Asked why, he replied: ITO be frank with you-back in Birmingham I have standing, but here in New York where do I stand?
 One could easily go on multiplying in- stances to show that we all like the ''big fish in the little pond idea (compara- lively speaking), and that we find New York hurting us in place where we are very tender. However, by hanging on up here. one learns that these pains are but the birth bangs of a new vision We have to undergo mental metamor- phosis. The result is nearly always highly satisfactory, for we learn to love this life. this city with a love that is genuine l know of no more loyal peo- pie than the New Workers. The trou- ble is, they go elsewhere and talk about this city's assets, and it has so many that the people of the smaller cities to whom they talk are affected unpleas- anty. Whereas, the stranger comes here from the smaller town, boosts his town more or less, and the New Yorker smiles ipdulgently and feels no hurt.
 Egotism dies hard in most of us, nor would l spare myself here. My first New York venture occurred more than eight or 10 years ago. came to live here then-l lasted less than six weeks thought it was New York's fault--it was
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-21
VAST BEDS OF COPPER IN ALASKA

to divide share and share alike in what they found. The men went in pairs, and drew lots to see which section of the country they should take The district of the upper Chitina river was drawn by Clarence Warner and Jack Smith. It was they who discovered the mines.
 Both Warner and Smith were old pros pectors, and Jack Smith for years had tramped over the mountains of Arizona. He was commonly known as the 'Ari- zona Centipede,' suppose the name came from the miles he had travelled. Warner and Smith had been working throughout the summer of 1900. They had gone care fully over the country, but had found spair. They had only few days of grub left, but when they came to the Kenne cott river on their way out they decided to go up that stream and prospect the land between Kennecott Glacier and Nil1o- las creek, named after Chief Nikolai They had gone only three miles when Warner sprained his ankle on one of the rocks. He sat down to rest and he and Smith there ate their lunch. As they did so, Smith observed large green patch in the rocks on the side of the mountain and called Warmers attention to it. He said it looked strange and that they ought to go up and see just what it was. Warner replied that Smith might go if he would, he did not intend to climb up there to look at blanked sheep pasture. He thought the green patch was grass and that it was one of the feeding grounds of the mountain sheep that are often found on the hills of this part of Alaska"
 'This objection of Warner discour- aged Smith, and he was about to give up. He then went down to the creek to get some water for himself and War ner, and saw in the bed of the stream a piece of float or chip of mineral-bear- ing rock He picked it out and took 1t back to Warner. They studied it to- gether and then broke it in two. The first fracture had silvery look, and they thought it was silver. They then went down to the creek to find more of the float It ased as they walked up the stream, and gradually led them to the spot which they had thought was the sheep pasture. It proved to be the outcroppings of an enormous deposit of copper ore, and of the richest copper mine ever discovered.
 '.Now the first thing prospector does after making strike is to select name for his find" MT. Birch is still speakinig 'The question was what they should call the new mine. Old Jack Smith, who was ahead of Warner and first saw the possibilities, turned to his partner and said: By Cd Warner, she's a bonanza" To which Warner replied: Well Jack, that's a good name for her. We'll call her "The Bonanza Mine" The find proved
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-21

vIded his or her visit is of less than six
 months duration.
 Secondly: Ninety-nine out of every hun
 dred persons who spend from a half to a whole year in Manhattan will there after never consent to live anywhere else.
 Finally: Why?
 This little metropolitan problem has had an intense interest for me ever since I first felt the fascination of Goth- am infusing itself into my southern sys- tenn, and I freely confess that the pro- cess did not get under way in my case until after I had spent more than six months upon the island (Manhattan, of course-not what we call ''the island" up here, in our select criminal circles), feel ing like an alien who had somehow made terrible mistake. Although for some time l have been virtually certain that I had found the answer to the little problem outlined, now discover that l needed yet another outsiders viewpoint and impressions. found them recently in an article writ ten by a staff member of The Birming- ham Age-Herald, whose pen name is Dolly Dalrymple
 \ It seems that Dolly did New York k not long ago. She had intended spending Y whole month here, But her visit was cut short for business req sons However, she carried back with her whole pa ge of impressions which may be condensed es follows:
 \ Premise: New York is all right if you n can stand the shock to your ego. It makes you feel that you are worm in | the dust
 Body of article; Dance. drama, and
 dazzle of the white lights.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-21

to be a bonanza and up to 1915, after only four and one-half years operation, she had already yielded over $S,000, 900 in dividends, and she is now earning at the rate of more than sG,000,O0O per annum. No one knows the actual ex- tent of the deposit and it is safe to say that she will be paying dividends for generations to come"
 Tell me something of how the mine was developed?" said T.
 After Warner and Smith had locat- ed the claim they came out to Valdez, where they met the rest of their party. They discussed the situation and de- cided that they had not enough money to develop the mine themselves, and that it would be best to sell it. I was at Valdez at the time looking for such properties on behalf of myself and certain capitalists of New York city They told me about their discovery, and showed me the specimens of ore. It was then too late to go to the in terior. but I agreed to make an ex- animation of the property the follow ing spring if they would give me an option upon it. To this they agreed.
 'I then went to New York and inter- ested Messrs. H. O. Havemeyer, James H. Ralph and Norman Schultz to the extent that they agreed to put up enough money for preliminary exam nations and work sufficient to show what the property was. That was in 1901. I then came to Alaska and did the work. I found the deposit all that had been claimed and far more than I had hoped. I secured new option. agreeing to pay $100,060 to each of the ii members of the prospecting party, or S1,100,0 900 in all. To make this op- tion perfectly valid I had to secure the signatures of the II prospectors and all who were interested With them. Some of the men had been grub stalk ed by others, so that the money had to be divided among 32 claimants, each of whom had to agree to the deal. These men were scattered over the United States, even to the Philippine Islands Most of them I had to inter view personally before securing their signatures.
 "In the meantime a lawsuit was be- gun by parties who claimed they had grub staked Jack Smith and Clarence Warner and that half of the mine be- longed to them. That suit was tried at Valdez, Alaska, before Judge Wick ersham, who is now the territorial delegate to Congress. He is also the righteous judge described in Rex the lawyers for the plaintiff were D United States senator and member of our House of Representatives at Wash ington. The suit was decided in our favor. It was then appealed to the court of appeals at San Francisco and again we won. It was then appealed to the United States supreme court at
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-21

Washington and we were once more victorious.
 "The final decision was not rendered until five years after the discovery and it was only then that we could proceed to develop the property. At that time the options were taken up and the property came into the possession of Messrs. Ralph. Schultz, Havemeyer and myself. We in turn interested J. P Morgan & Co. and the Messrs. Gug- genheim. who formed the Alaska sym dicate. This syndicate purchased a 40 per cent interest in the mine and agreed to build the railroad to open it. The same syndicate afterward pur- chased the remaining 60 per cent of the stock"
 What did they have to pay for the property?' I asked.
 The Bonanza mine, including the rail way, cost the Alaskan syndicate approx imately s25,00o000 replied MT. Birch.
 Did they get the worth of their money?" .-s,ls.--
 T should say so. They have already received more than $15,O0O,OO0 in divi- dends. Up to 1915 they had been paid over $s0eo,OOo, and their receipts last year were more than $7,0OO,O0O.'
 What is the market value of the prop erty?''
 "It is more than s5O,OOOOOo"
 Were you able to do anything with the mine MT. Birch before the railroad was buit?"
 Not as to the exportation of the ore, but we were able to take in men and machinery and so develop the mine that we could deliver ore as soon as the rail- road was done. Our mining machinery had to be hauled a distance of 200 miles over the mountains, and that at a cost cents pound. We carried some of it in sledges over the snow from Valdez. We had also to open up the property, sink shafts and drive tunnels, as well as to make other arrangements for raising the ore. All this was accomplished by the time the railroad was completed, in 1911. The result was that we had a good traffic from the start. Our first train load contained more than $500 GOO worth of ore that was 70 per cent copper, and from that time on the traffic of the road has increased"
 Are there other valuable deposits of copper in the vicinity of the Bonanza ?'' A''Yes we have opened up the Jumbo mine nearby, which is a large producer and there are many other copper pros poets in-the same region not belonging to us which will be producers in the near future. The Chitina copper belt is ap- proximately 70 miles long and 20 miles wide and more than 400 locations have al- ready been made. Many of these are in process of development, and some of them will soon be producing. If the region could have cheap transportation and coal were available for the reduc-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-21

tion of the ores at Cordova there would be a largely increased output in the near future"
 From what you say, MT. Birch, it would seem that the Morgan-Guggen- . copper in Alaskan"
 Tt certainly does not" replied MT. Birch. Its Alaska holdings are prac- tically confined to those at Kennecott and on the Island of Latouche As have told you, it has cost in the neigh borhood of s25,eOO.O0O to buy and develop the Kennecott property. The Latouche properties are being handled in the most modern way. The policy which the gov ernment has pursued has retarded the de- velopment of the copper in this section of the coal fields and the failure to fur nish the transportation so much needed ''
 What is the future of Alaska as re- gards copper?''
 It bids fair to be one of the largest copper producing countries of the world. The product is now close to 100 : 000000 pounds per annum, and this is almost one-twelfth of the total produc- tion of the United States. Nevertheless. it is only five years since copper has been turned out here in any appre- ciable quantity
 Further on in our conversation I asked MT. Birch to tell me about the copper deposits on the Island of La touche, in Prince William sound. This island is not far from Seward. It has rich copper lodes, but the ore is of an entirely different character from that of the Bonanza and Jumbo. The latter mines have a chalcocite ore which car ries from F to 70 per cent of pure cop per. The ore is so rich in comparison with that of ordinary mines that $50 tons of it will yield more of the pure metal than 5000 tons of copper ore mined on our western highlands.
 The Latouche mines are low grade producers. Their ore is chalcopyrite, which averages about 3 per cent cop per It is quarried from the hillsides overlooking the water, and is treated by the Notation process. The Beatson mine on Latouche Island, MT. Birch tells me, is now producing from 10000,- coo to 100000 pounds of copper per an mum, and it's output will be increased within the near future.
 The story of the discovery of the La touche copper mine is quite as interest ing as that of the Bonanza. The tale was told me by an old prospector at Seward. Said he:
 The Latouche mine was the result of a mess of bad clans. A number of miners were sailing along the shores of Latouche Island when they found a clam bed and stopped and dug them up enough for a meal. They cooked the clans, but before eating them found that they were deadly poisonous on account of the copperas in them. One of the men suggested that the