davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10
THISTLES WILL NOT GROW
ON A HEALTHY FIG TREE
Nor viii Bolshevism Flourish on Soil
Suited to the Cultivation OF
Real Democracy

LIVERY farmer knows and every man
- who had a war garden last year has
learned that it is impossible to raise a
crop on ground unsuited to it.
Yet many good people are worrying
over the possible spread of Bolshevism
in America.
If they will take the time to consider
the course of political development in the
world, about which every schoolboy
knows enough to keep his thinking rea
sonably straight, they will discover that
there is little reason for alarm.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10

The first rulers in history were kings,
the strong men who seized power and
used it for their own ends. They made
mobiles of their lieutenants, but they re-
tained the power in their own hands. In
the course of time the mobiles grew dis
satisfied with the role assigned to them,
They wished to do something more than
obey orders, and they demanded share
in government. When the English barons
met King John at Runnymede and forced
the Magma Charta from him the first
step from absoutism to democracy was
taken.
But society is composed of more than
kings and barons. The great middle
class, the commercial class, grew dis
satisfied with conditions and demanded
share in the government. This was the
second step toward democracy.
And finally, the working people, the
men who are hired by others, began to
insist that they had rights which should
be respected and to declare that any
government which ignored them was op-
pressive and should be reformed.
Secretary Wilson, of the Department
of Labor, has reminded us that the
greater part CT Europe before the war
had reached only the second stage in
political development. This was abso-
lutey truS of Russia and Prussia and
Austria Hungary and only partly true of
France and England.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10


DR1NCE and paupcr and lord and lout
i must travel asunder far;
For each must follow his journey out
through the Land of Things That
And one shall follow a beaten track and one
shall follow star,
But each must follow his journey back,
however SO far he roam,
For no road leads to journeys end but
the road that reaches home.
So prince and pauper and lord and lout turn
back at the set of sun;
And the song ! sing, and the songs that ring
in each of their hearts, are one:
go WHETHER the night be bright with
" stars or black with the rack Of cloud
Something there is in my soul that leaps
and quckcns and sings aloud;
For whether l travel a moonlit road or
pavemcnts that CLEAN with rain,
There at the end are the lamps aglow, and
faces against the pane,
And the smell of wood from an open fire,
and the welcoming lips and hand;
The Queen of ultimate hearts desire, the
ones who will understand:
And walls that bar the Things That Are
from the Seek No Further Land
JOHN FRENCH WILSON.
1t seems that we won't have TO finish that
poem on daffodils of which we had written
the first line. Mrs. jackson, of Laurel
Springs, n. j., has kindly and gracefully
finished it for us, thus:
DaffodiIs
If daffodis were merely yellow flowers,
Did they not hold the spirit of the spring.
Could they so cheer a sickroom's dragging
hours
And make world weary hearts once more
to sing?
! Jared me forth; life seemed humdrum
story, ~
But suddenly, while passing down the
street
7 saw basket full of golden glory.
And God seemed near and life once more
was sweet
No word they spake, but oh, my heart was
hearing
A tender song, seeing the daffodils;
Sunshine Of love, and faith instead of fearing
They brought, and raised mine ewes to
Gods high hills
know they are not yellow flowers merely.
These dear heart blooms, so full of
heavens gold;
And while live to look upon them yearly
I'll not despair and never can grow old
MAUD FRAZER JACKSON.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10
What Do You KnotU?


1. What is the meaning OF the military
term point d'appui'? ..,
.. Where is Patagonia?
3. What is amnesia?
4. How many lines of verse COMPOSE
sonnet?
8. How long were the Articles of Con.
federation in force in the United
States?
6. What is an eyas?
Z. Who was the greatest of Spanish
painters?
s. What was the real name Of Bill Nye?
o. Who is the Republican member of the
American peace commission?
10. How many cable lengths make mile
in mariners measure?
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10

tests, and hence, technically speaking,
the vessel carried more men without a
country than Edward Everett Hale ever
imagined
The "boys" are said to have taken
their detention good-naturedly. That
speaks well for their sense of discipline
much better, indeed, than it does for
that of the red tapists who fell down on
their self-imposed job.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10

The Bolshevists here, and there are
few, are the foreign-born who have not
vet realized that they are living in
land of equal opportunity. They are re-
enforced by handful of native Ameri-
cans with initiative minds, who think
that the radical remedies employed for
European evils can be applied to the cure
of evils in this country. Some dissatis-
fed workingmen are influenced by these
propagandists. But the rank and file of
the workers know that the remedy, so
far as there Is any political remedy for
unsa tisfactory conditions, lies in their
own hands. They have the vote. When
{ enough Of them rss on what they
wsps as the fbn sereed il North
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10

The Germans, it is
A Beiated Invitation said, are consider
ing inviting an Al
lied army to police their distracted coun-
try. The pity of It is, they didn't think Of
the ides several years ago. ANY time be-
tween 1914 and 1918 the Entente woula
hsse been delighted 70 obliSE
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10
secretarx Baker has sal

Secretary Baker has sailed for France.
Secretary Lansing and Secretary Daniels
and President Wisoh-n not to include Colo
mel H0nse-sre already there. Can II be
that the scat Of government is 70 be on the
banks Of the Seiuc instead of On o. Potomac
iex <he next few vsc4s|l
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10

Gradually, as the
They Won't Care forces of reaction are
being revealed at
Paris. it must dawn upon the editors and
politicians who have been fighting the
American peace plan that they have
drifted into strange company.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10

That faraway rumble
Or Moscow you just heard and
evil laughter at Amerongen. "''
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10

"In my old age" means ex.King Lud-
wig of Bavaria, ST have no place to lay my
head" Have the fusilladiug Bolshevists put
even the block out of fashion?
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10

In Chicago the stems
For the Dead Past that once held foam
ing beer now are used
as flower pots in the newfsngled coffee
houses And some one has already sug-
pested that only lilies of the valley and
forget me- nots ought to be so cultivated.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10

Even in. the age OF republics Kinx
Momus seems to thrive, as will be exempIi-
fed when the mummcrs pay tribute to him
in the loan csmpatxn % reimburse the goy-
trnment for is 6sht cssinzt autocracy.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10
THE COWNSMAN
What Is an AmerIean7

THERE is man, well known to the
L Gownsman, who was born far enough
within the confines of America to have been
in no danger of falling into Boston harbor
in his boyhood, who was educated in Amer
icau schools, so far as American schools
educate, and in American colleges, so far
as colleges in America are American; man
whose tongue is fluent only in the English
language as currently spoken in America.
This man has always mistrusted the Ger
mans. He has admired much that is French
and more that is English. He has never
hated the Jews he has never comprehendcd
the Irish. He retains enough of the spirit
of what he believes to be American free
dom to be neither an unrcpentant Republi
can nor an unregcnerate Democrat. He
dsagrces with most Of the kinds of socialism
of which he has heard and knows that all
kinds of Bolshcvsm would disagree with
him. Hc has voted consistently oil his life
for what he believes to be the best princ
pies aud tho best men. He believes in war
as means of peace and in n league Of
peace as n preventive of war. And yet
in one of those moments of candid and
heated friendship which come TO us all
this man was tauated the other day with
not being an American.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10

There still seem to be sentimentalists
who. if they saw a baby and dog on the
railroad track in front Of an express train,
would rescue the dog first.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10

It's not so much the key to peace as
the keyholc to it to which the barred out
correspondents crave access.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10

Officials in the police
Not After Midnight department and at
the district attorneys
Office refused to say whether a friendly
poker game is or is not gambling. But is
apy poker game ever friendly?
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10

II the cables would only quit smelling
Saar "Sarre" one could feel easier about
the fourteen points.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10
In a Nutshell

In Nutshell statesmen were as
brave and as square
as the European soldier, the Peace Confer
ence would have been ended happily long
ago.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10

Bolshevism, shorn of its eXcesses, is
an attempt to bring about the third stage
in political development by revolution. 1t
is not unnatural product Of delayed
political emancipation of the workers.
Its excesses are those which always
accompany an uprising of the oppressed.
Its demand that government be con-
trolled by soldiers, sailors and working
mems sovietS is more defensible than the
claim of the aristocrats that government
belongs of right in the hands of the
favored minority. Of course, neither
view is correct. Government should be
participated in by all the governed. re-
gardIess of their social or financial con-
dition.
Bolshevsm fourishes in Russia be-
cause it has been sown on a fertile soil.
The dread of it in Germany and Austria
Hungary arises from the knowledge that
conditions there are favorable to its
growth. Sensationalists are talking of it
in England, but the participation of the
workingmen in government there has in
creased so rapidly within the last twenty
years that the plant of Bolshevism, even
if it springs up, will wither in short
time under the rays of the sun of liberty
which are shining in the windows of
every workshop and factory today.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10

AT any rate. one of the trials of, the
suburban gardener will come to an end after
July I. He won't find shards of broken bot
ties in his modest plot. Bottles will be too
precious.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10
Social Chat

We had the pleasure of introducing Lewis
Bernays, the British vice consul, to a Jack
Rose at a well known cervine hostelry ON
Tenth street yesterday. We have also prom
ised to help this delightful diplomat make
the acquaintance of Messrs. Tom and Jerry
before July !, Mr.. Bernays has been in
this country for some years, and It saddens
US to think that his education has been SO
neglected by his American friends.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10
Desk Notices
Life is mostly froth and bubble,
Two things stand like stone: :.
Kindness in another's trouble,
Courage in our own.
Adam Lindsay Gordon. :

Newton Baker is a nice litre man with a
kind, kind heart; but what is his idea in
taking nine year old Warren Pershing over
to France ''to surprise the general? 1t
seems TO us, though we haven't attempted to
as busy as the, general would rather not be
bothered with "a nine year old urchin just
now.
Or maybe they're sending Warren over so
he can tag around Paris with Rear Admiral
Grayson and give the admiral something
TO do? SOCRATES.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10
GSidney Drew

LIS image moves across the scene,
IL His face perplcXed with gentle whiDl--
Only Il shadow on a screen
Is left of him.
How strange TO see him come and go
With all his winning quaint appeal,
After the Master of the Show
Has changed the reel.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10

The third stage of political develop
ment was theoretically reached in the
United States when the constitution was
adopted, and it has been actually reached
for nearly hundred years. There are
legally no restrictions on the right of
manhood suffrage. This is government
of all the people. The humblest worker
may rise to the highest office. There is
no hereditary and privileged class. Our
political leaders are, nine times out of
ten, men who have made their own way.
Lincoln and Grant and Garfield and
Cleveland and Mckinley and Wilson are
shining proofs of the rule of democracy.
No soldiers. sailors or workingmen's
soviets could devise a system which
would make it easier for a man of the
people to rise to positions of authority
than the present constitution makes it.
There is nothing that the majority
wants which it cannot get. 1t matters
not how radical it may be. The recent
success of the Nonpartisan League in
\ North Dakota is the latest illustration
of the ease with which a large group of
people desiring specific things can take
the government into its own hands and
arrange for what it seeks. Some of US
may not like what the Nonpartisan
League has done, but no thoroughgoing
American will deny the fundamental
right of the people of North Dakota to
build grain elevators in order to deliver
the farmers from the control of the rail
roads if majority of the people of the
state want these things.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10

A n AMERICAN what after all, is an
\ American? Is this being an American
a condition Individual or distributive? Is it
geographical or atmospheric? Is n man. so
to speak, a representative American in him
self, or is that blessed state merely a mat
ter senatorial? There appear to be some
who are of opinion that there is an equal
modicum Of Americunism distributed to
each state like the equitable distribution Of
senators. Now. obviously, if there is just
as much Amcricanism current in one state
as in any other and no more, it must follow
that the bigger the state the less its Ameri
can spirit; the smaller, the more concen
trated that essence of nationalism. New
England-and especially its smaller parts
under these conditions must be concen-
tratedly American, and our prevalent dis
trust of all CdiiiCcs, mansions or shacks
which have been reared in Texas finds q
conclusive explanation. Americanism is
a species Of perfume or aroma, most potent
IN closed places and in quarters carefully
shut in, which will account for the un-
Americanism of the Middle and other
Vests during the war. who, despite the
fact that they gave proportionately more,
responded TO the country's demand earlier
and declared consistent belief in all things
American. were, it appears, after all, only
seemingly such.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10
PRUNES AND PRLSlNIS

street, ask Sidney, the colored bootblack, to
show you the old book he found among the
roots of the fallen elm in Independence
Square. When they were digging out the
roots the other day and the workmcn had
spadcd six feet or so down toward the center
oil gravity, the volume was thrown up with
n shovelful of earth and Sidney grabbed it.
The binding has disappeared. but otherwise
the book is in good condition. 1t is called
'Charlcmagne; or the Church Delivered. an
epic poem in twenty four books. by Lucien
Bonapartc. 1t was published in Philadcl-
phia by John Conrad & Co. in 1915. On the
hyleaf is written, "James Wilmer, r.,.July
2S, $780,
Sidney has dipped into the volume and
finds it pretty poor reading. but he's going
to keep it carefully in drawer of his shoe
shining stand in case any of his customers
get tired of reading the papers while he
Furnishes up their russets. It's only natural
that Sidney should have made this bblio-
graphical find, as his full name is Sidney
Booker.
We were out in Marathon the other eve
ming, and were pleased to see Hank Harris
and Bill Sites in their working clothes,
torturing the innocent soil with some agri-
cultural maneuvcrs. Luckily, Fred Myers
forms buffer state between those two en-
bittered zealots, but even Fred saws he
doesn't intend to have his territory used as
corridor for Bills fowls and Hanks rad
ishes to parade in. We predict some kind
of an ultimatHrn before the first of May.
We have learned what the editors of the
Congressional Record do when Congress is
not in session. The unhappy men toll upon
the compilation of an index of the proceed
ings of Congress during the preceding scs-
sion.
This index consists in great part of a
list of bills authorizing the secretary of war
to satisfy the requests of various towns and
villages for captured German artillery. It
seems as though the communities asking for
these trophies have hardly kept themselves
informed of the details of modern warfare.
as most of them want not only the guns,
but "cannon balls to go with them. Green
wood, Wis, asks for lone medium cannon
or tieldpiece, together with a sufficient num-
ber of cannon balls to form a pyramid
The Greensboro College for Women.
Greensboro, n. G. from which, by the way.
o. Henry's mother graduated in 1S50), is
more business ylke. 1t asks the secretary
of war for two German cannons or field
pieces, with carriages and suitable compile
ment of projectiles.'' ..
TT all the women's colleges are as blood
thirsty as Greensboro, it won't be possible
to withhold national suffrage much longer.
Now we know what the editors of the
Congressional Record do during the vacation,
the question comes, What. do the Congress
men do?
Desk Notices
Life is mostly froth and bubble,
Two things stand like stone:
Kindness i'm anOther's trouble,
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10

The next time you drop IN al Joe n.
Mueei's berbcr shop y 1ie South sizsh
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10

COME Americans" forgetful that they
~ are the sons or daughters or revolu-
tion, rejoice in ancestors of whom nothing
is now remembered except that they came
over in the stupendous cargo Of the May
flower. The ancestors of these were starved
out of Europe, my friend, sooner than yours
or mine, or they would never have come to
rock ribbed New England. And any Sioux
or Patagonian brave can unfold a longer
American" pedigree. To be an American.
is something more than geography. length
of tenure, essence of prejudice or accident of
party or opinion. TIE be an American is TO
be at once an idealist and the most prac-
teal of men; to be liberal and vet 70 hold
fast TO that which the race has approved
to be good; to be an individualist in the
sense that to each man shall be accorded
fair play and an equal opportunity; even to
be a socialist in so far as that terrifying
word may mean that we cannot live in ms
tice or in prosperity unless each of MS sac
ri6ees somewhat to his brother.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10

TNHERE are still extant people to whom
= Christian is man who goes to my
church n heathcn. one who does not to
whom a patriot is one who votes as | do
creature cast out in utter darkness any
one who does not. The Gownsman's
learned and distinguished friend, Professor
Wilmer. of the University, has just been
called p Bolshevst because he does not
agree with educational experts such as
Messrs. Shalcross, Stern and Lane as to
the glaring perfections of our Philadelphia
public schools. And which of us knows not
the little lawyer or petty political light who
secs the world plunging to destruction be-
cause his little finger is not at this present
moment helping and controlling its mad
career?
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10

THO BE an American is to be something
l. big, broad, large, liberal, assertive, but
not inconsderate as well. 1t is American
to take all the room you need to grow in.
1t is also American to give the other fell
low all the room he needs. 1t is American
to see largely and to plan greatly; and it
is American to set those who need it on
their feet and not to boss their steps too
curiously when they begin to walk. Alto
gether American it is to welcome new ideas,
to give to all-not only chosen few--the
right to think, act and speak as each will,
with the one and only proviso that such
liberty shall not impair the similar liberty
of any one else This country is large
enough to entertain many men and many
ideas; it is safely enough under way to be
unlikely to be careened by the momentary
error of any one steersman. The heroism
of our boys, approved on many fields. the
sobriety and good sense of our people at
large, their sane instinct for what is right
and their recognition of demagogy as dem
agogy these things assure us that our
fears should not be as to the many but
as to the few who sneer, who deny. who
carp and continue to grow rich on the yery
conditions which they decry.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10

TNF1E blessed condition of being an Amcr-
L can-and it is the most blessed state in
the world today-is viewed somewhat diff
fcrcntly from the outside. Years ago. in
travel abroad, the Gownsman proudly avow-
ing Il am an American.' was very natu-
rally asked. "a North or. South Ameri-
CAM And an old story tells of London
hotelkeeper who, meeting of Methodist
Church dignitaries being. on, was expostu-
lated with by certain Americans for taking
in couple of colored bishops. His reply,
too. was natural: 81 am sorry, but we
make no difference among Americans
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-10
QUICK! THE AlRPLANES!

Philadelphia, Thur,d,,. April 10. 1919
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-05-17
statesmen WANTED

REAL OPPORTUNITY as salesman
in this territory. Requirements In:
tegrity, Willingness to work and de-
sire to get ahead in life. No previ-
Gus selling experience necessary, as
ali walks of life. some of our most
successful statesmen never sold any
goods until coming with us. To a
man who is now in a rut and who
sincerely wants to get into a line of
work that will enable him to earn
$1,000 per week or more. we have ex-
actly what you have been hoping for.
Todd Protectograph Co., A. S. Stauf-
fer, General Sales Agent, IS Union
Trust Bldg, Harrisburg.
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-05-17

MEN WOMEN Raise Belgian
Hares for us. We pay YOU 81 pair.
end eXprcssagc. Free illustra ted
booklet and contract. United Food &.
Fur Association. 329 West Forty-
eighth street. Dept. C. New York.