davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09
TRAIN SHORTAGE

A MAN who lacks hat cannot essen
TALLY better his lot by remaining
indoors. Problems in production are not
actually settled by regulation of con-
sumption. If any gain is achieved it
must be merely temporary and illusory.
That is precisely the sort Of benefit
accruing from shrinkage of train serv-
ice in season of coal shortage. The
cancellation of twenty-five suburban
trains on the Reading and seventeen
through expresses on the Pennsylvania
will mot bring fuel out of the mines
The cuts in the railway schedules may
momentarily ease an abnormal situation.
and in view of possible early settle
ment of the bituminous strike it is ad-
visable to accept the inconvenience phil
osoph.cally.
But the public has a right to expect
that the regular services will be re-
stored soon after the miners return to
work. Popular opinion is naturally
averse to theoretical "remedies" which
amount to practical burdens. What the
country really needs is more coal not
less trains and fewer Pullmans.
There has been more than a sufliciency
OF the federal method of aiding" the
public by means of deprivations. More
over, the Christmas season is not exactly
suited to the cultivation of precedents of
that character.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09
THE SETTLEMENT

TNHE coal strike has already cost
4 fabulous sum, more than either of
the contending parties can ever recover
by any sort of victory. That is the fact
that stands out grimly even above the
news of an approaching peaceful settle
ment.
According to estimates made weeks
ago the miners and the operators be-
tween them had lost $l00,0OO,O00. What
the losses will be to communities most
directly affected by the coal shortage
it is hard to say. They will be meal
culable. And all this is but small part
of the price that we are paying in the
United States for the lack of an en-
lightened policy of industrial relation
ships.
What the President has proposed is an
immediate resumption of work with
nominal increase of pay, which is to con-
tinue while a commission with govern
mental authority directs a thorough sur
vey of the entire coal industry and
Cormulates scales Of wages on just and
rational basis.
The necessity for just such course
as this was foreseen when the strike
was first talked of. 1t was explicitly
stated in these columns in the first days
of the tieup and reiterated at frequent
intervals afterward. Great losses and
almost unbearable hardship We're neces-
sary to make such a program acceptable
to both sides in the controversy.
This may be a reasoning age. Some
times one is moved to doubt it.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09
Member of the Associated Press
DIR. THoMpsoNs RETIREMENT

DR. ROBERT ELLIS THOMPSON'S
- coming retirement from the prnci-
palship Of the Central High School be-
cause of the operation Of the age limit
act has inspired numerous regrets The
sentiment is natural since Doctor Thomp-
son is admirably competent to perform
his duties.
There is, however, another legitimate
aspect to the situation. The school pen
sion law was designed to provide an
honorable ease for teachers who have
served the public long and well. No
shadow of stigma should attach to the
enforced removal of school teachers at
seventy. 1t is safe to say that the
majority of them would welcome the
change of condition.
A well-planned law aims to promote
the greatest good among the greatest
number The pension system promises
deserved leisure after years Of work in
valuable to the public and necessarily
arduous to a conscientious performer
Retired instructors ought to be re-
garded as rewarded, not rebuked.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09

question should be either abandoned or
adjudicated.
There is no such division Of sentiment
to favor Senator Ware. He is the old
regime trying to come back. The peo-
pie are not in a mood to welcome old
regimes; not now, anyway.
Mr. Ware and his friends should not
be misled by reading of the news from
Paris and Berlin. If what we hear is
true, they are forming plans to disrupt
the Republican party and to wreck the
party, if need be, in their own interest.
The purpose Of their campaign against
Mr.. Moore is obvious at a glance. They
are only working themselves little
deeper in the qnicksand.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09
Answers to Yesterdays Quiz

l. As a result of Maeterlinck's play the
blue bird has lately become conven-
tional symbol of happiness.
.. Arkansas should be pronounced as
though it were spelled Arkansaw, with
the accent on the first syllable.
3. A cheetah is kind of leopard, tanned
in India and trained to hunt deer.
4. In England railway switchman is
known as a pointsman.
3. Briareus in Greek mythology was sup
posed to have hundred arms and fifty
heads.
6. The Battle of the Thames in American
history was the engagement fought
near the banks of the river Thames in
Ontario, Canada, on October 8, 1913.
The Americans under William Henry
Harrison defeated the British and In
dans under Proctor and Tecumseh
T. The Black Forest is mountainous and
wooded region partly in Baden and
partly in Wurtemberg, Germany.
8. William Jennings Bryan resigned as
secretary of state in 1915.
o. The picture of Mona Lisa, also called
La Gioconda, was painted by Leonardo
da Vinci.
10. Emma Goldman was born in the prov
ince Of Kovno, Russia, in 1859.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09
WARE AND THE PROTOCOL

CENATOR WARE and Gustav NQske.
~ minister of defense in Germany.
raised their voices in complaints that
were identical in every detail.
-Herr Noske cried out against peace
terms which, he said, were crushing and
more terrible than death itself. SO did
Mr.. Ware.
Herr Noske stamped and threatened
MIR. Ware stamps and threatens to re-
yolt against his conqueror.
Forbearance on the part of the Allies
IN the matter of the Scapa Flow claim
doesn't represent victory for the Ger
man point of view. Many in ths allied
council, including members of the Amer
scan delegation, felt that the claim in
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09
What Do You Kno,U?
QUIZ

/. From what place do Alderney cows take
their name?
.. Between whom was the battle OF Su
lamis fought?
3. When did it occur?
4. What is an ethnographer?
5. Can the Supreme Court annul an act
after it has gone into operation?
G. When did the Germans scuttle the feet
in Scapa Flow?
Z. From what languages are the words
mamma and mother respectively de
rived?
8. What is meant by "Cinque Cento"?
8. What is the correct pronunciation of the
word cicerone and what does it mean
10. According to the Mohammedans, what
was the forbidden fruit of the Garden
OF Eden?
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09
JERSEYS NEW BEGINNING

r IFE begins anew in Camden with the
- return to the old scale of trolley
fares which was abandoned for the zone
fare experiment. The world owes every
contrite. prodigal a chance, even if the
prodigal happens to be corporation.
It will not profit New Jersey folk to
harass the public service organization
unnecessarily, to harbor grudges or to
let the anger generated in the day of
zone fares find new expression in cam
paigns directed against gas and street
car rates that now are on what appears
to be a fair basis
Any effort to strike at the states
public utilities commission by trampling
over the dead body of gas or street
car company would be a costly mistake.
The victory won by the Camden boy
colt against unreasonable trolley fares
was complete and final. 1t was we'll
merited and it appears to have taught
the street railway administration a
needed lesson. Costs of street car oper-
alton have increased and the cost of gas
manufacture and distribution have in
creased Starved street car companies
and impoverished utilities are things that
no community can tolerate if it wishes
to prosper. Inefficiency and decay fol-
low as matters of course.
Jersey will help itself by helping the
Public Service Corporation to make a de-
cent return on its investments, even
though. in the meantime, it continues the
admirable effort to get more of public
-s..,I Il I.4
utilities commission.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09
THE PESSIMIST

NOTHING to do but work,
~ Nothing to eat but food,
Nothing to wear but clothes
To keep one from going nude.
Nothing to breathe but air,
Quick as a flash tits gone;
Nowhere to fall but off,
Nowhere to stand but on
Nothing to comb but hair
Nowhere TO sleep but in bed
Nothing to weep but tears,
Nothing to bury but dead.
Nothing to sing but songs,
All, we'll, alas alack
Nowhere to go but out,
Nowhere to come but back.
Nothing to see but sights.
Nothing to quench but thirst,
Nothing to have but what we've got
Thus through life we are cursed,
Nothing to strike but a gait
Everything moves that goes.
Nothing at all but common SENSE
Can ever withstand these woes.
Ben King.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09

Harper and Brothers. the famous old pub
fishing house, are said to have decided to
leave New York on account of labor troubles
in that turbulent island. We shall be sorry
to see them leave the historic old building
on Franklin Square, where they have been
so long. But if they insist on moving, and
want to feel at home, why not try Franklin
Square, Philadelphia?
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09

proper direction under the proper mo-
tive. The instrument is only as efficient
as the man who uses it, and it will do
only what he wishes done. And an eff
cient man with poor tool can accom-
plish much Old man Diaz proved
this in Mexico when he transformed the
bandits into rural police and put an end
to banditry and restored order in a
troubled country,
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09

Pan German newspapers are appealing
for aid for the Baltic troops "who sacrificed
everything for the high ideals OF the father
land" What makes the case of the German
people well nigh hopeless is the apparent
sincerity of the plea.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09
To Louise at Twenty-Five

TF YOU can dance and smile when flesh is
weary
And converse brightly when your brain
feels dull,
II YOU can hold your head up high, my deary,
When cattS tongues have termed it just
skull,
n you can change each mood to ft YOUR
HUSBANDS,
And fix the dinner when the cook has fed,
If you can keep your babies clean and merry
Until their tiny forms are safe in bed,
And gayly welcome Iom' or DICK or Jerry
Whom Husband brings on Wash Day to
the home
Then YOU will be your Mothers pride and
pleasure,
And to her arms you'll often have to come
HER MOTHER.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09
Love Among the Moth Balls

Dear SocrGteS-Shelley, wasn't it, who
wrote of "the desire of the moth for the
starr" But after visiting the storeroom to
get out my extra-rugged Christmas lannels,
/ conclude that this desire was nothing to
the passion Of the moth for my old winter
overcoat e. PDURIBUS CAMPHOR.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09

The Union Of South
Call EN- Optimists western Germa n
Chambers of Commerce
is seeking the elimination of the "nter-
crptiun belt" along the western boundary of
Germany. How shall we characterize these
would be suspenders so checHfuly willing to
20 MithOnt q heltY
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09
GestIcuIatlng Fish

Some Jersey fishermen must have been
kidding the New York Times. We notice
that the Times says that New Jersey anglers
get large catches 'by running over the wet
sand after each shattered and retreating
breaker and gathering up the fish left
stranded and Topping with their bare
hands
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09

1t seems too much to expect that any
thing will be done by the present police
management between now and the first
Monday in January, though something
might be done. We shall have to run
the risk Of having more women held UP
on the streets while their earrings are
torn from their ears or their rings are
cut from their fingers, and wait with
the new regime, from which better things
nrr hnnnd.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09

There is still abiding confidence that
Cabnetmaker Moore. busy with seasoned
timber, is ready to hit the nail on the head,
cut with wise saws and smooth with plain
common sense.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09

TWO grave brown eyes, severely bent
l. Upon a memorandum book
A sparkling face, on which are blent
A hopeful and a pensive look;
A pencil purse and book of checks
With stubs for varying amounts
Elaine, the shrewdest of her sex,
Is busy balancing accounts
CEDATELY, in the big armchair,
- She all engrossed, the audit scans
Her pencil hoyers here, and there
The while she calculates and plans
What's this? A family pensive frown
Upon her forehead gathers now
All does the butcher-heartless clown
Beget that shadow on her brow
A MI'RRAIN Oh the tradesman churl
"A Who caused this fair accountants
gloom
Just thcn-a baby's cry-my girl
Arose and swiftly left the room.
Then in her purse by stratagem,
thrust some bills of small amounts
She'll think she had forgotten them
And smile again at her accounts!
kpropos of Cardinal Mercicr's story of
the German invasion, we remembered that
we had been in Malnes in 1872, and looked
up our entry in Il vagabond Journal we kept.
1t runs thus:
The guide-bools mentions some very
fine examples of medieval coarseness
among the carvings at the town hall l
looked for them without success-but it is
a very fine building nevertheless!
CARLYLE said--Of the French Government
before the great revolution-that it was
despotism tempered by epigrams The Hob
enzollern despotsm didn't even have puns to
it's credit.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09

Berlin is said to be shocked by the
stories of the killing of twenty nine marines
as developed in court proceedings; but that
same Berlin had nothing but pleasurabIe
thrill when the Lusitania was sunk
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09

1t may be said that the police force
is not large enough, that the city has
grown much since any additions were
made to the force, and that we must
be patient until way is found to get
four or five hundred more men.
There might be something in this plea
if the existing force succeeded in round
ing up few of the burglars; but so far
as is known those guilty of the most
fragrant offenses are still at liberty.
The men wearing the uniform of the
city are, as a rule, honest and anxious
to be efficient. They feel humiliated by
what is happening They know that
under competent direction they could
clean the city of the pest Of thieves,
but they have lost their, morale under
the kind of direction they have been
getting for the last four years.
The significance of the protection ex-
tended to the men implicated in the
Fifth ward case was not lost on them.
They know that commanding officer was
taken from his stationhouse to the West
Chester Jail and that, during all the
period of his trial and conviction and
while he was awaiting the outcome of
appeals, he was allowed to perform his
police duties.
Of course, a man is innocent until he
is proved guilty, but the honest members
of the police force would be in a better
mood to do their full duty if the men at
the head Of the department insisted that
every officer should, like Caesars wife,
! be above suspicion, and should suspend
| every man against whom serious charges
were made until he had cleared himself.
/ But the head of the department is not
doing this even now, for within week
/ two detectives have been charged with
! shaking down a business man for $500
| on the promise of protection from pun
/ ishment for an offense of which the man
insists he did not know hevwas guilty,
| and they are still on duty.
The most pressing task that confronts
the new Mayor is the cleaning out of the
Police Department. 1t is expected that
he will appoint a director Of public
safety whose sole concern will be to pro-
tect the city and to free the efficient
men on the force from their present feel
ing of uncertainty about what is wanted
of them. If these men can only be as
sured that the director will stand by
them in the performance Of their full
duty, we shall see different spirit in
the force, and the thieves who are reaping
a rich harvest here will leave for other
fields.
There is nothing the matter with the
force as a whole. The whole trouble lies
in the City Hall. What Roosevelt die
with the force in New York when he was
made police commissioner can be done
with the force here. All it needs is
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09

The ex kaiser may or may not be TAX
ing hand in Germany's foreign policy, but
unquestionably he had a finger in the humble
pie Germany now is eating.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09

Senator Ware has doubtless heard the
assertion. though, perhaps, without giving
it due cognzance, that the guy who goes
out looking for trouble usually finds it.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09
Brief Essay on Theology

We once met an English missionary who
told us good tales about the wild natives of
central Africa He told us that these saw
ages are great believers in the Immortality
of the soul. When one of their friends dies
thew do not say HE has departed" but
'IIe has arrived" "
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09

\ West Virginia visitor among us
opines that the high boted coat is designed
to prove to all and sundry that the wearer
has a shirt to his back as well as a swell
frnpt
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09

II is IA strikingly unusual circumstance
but it really seems that the coal strike has
been won by the public,
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09

Dilatoriness has been somewhat reduced
on the railroads of the country as a result
Of a recent order Fewer trains are now
running behind time.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09

Some people will feel inclined to add
grain of salt to Sir Ernest Rutherford's s
formula for the transmutation of metals
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09

Germany not only objects t paying the
piper. but actually seems surprised that
ANYBODY should suggest such a thing.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09

"When is a farce not farce?" inquired
the newcomer on Broadway.
'When there's no bedroom in it," said the
theatrical manager.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09

If statesmen were as busy as rumor
mongers, the future would be lllumlned with
tbe roseate hue of hope.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09

This monkey gland business for cente-
nariaps is tough on prospective legatees.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09

Operators and miners may yet be sorry
they didn't settle their differences.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09
But Real Gentleman Would Save the
LADY,

At the foot of this shaded vista, the
way turning down the stream passes up
Into and down through crevlces where
the oYerhanging rocks, being of the Metho-
dist persuasion, sprinkle the heads of the
passers-by with, clean water. And, in
deed, 1t seems quite thoughtful in these
stones to prepare the traveller at this
point for DEATH because the next fifty
yards of his path are the most dangerous
that the writer has Witnessed In all North
Carolina. If ever a lady tumbles
over this precipice she will most probably
be lost, and a gentleman could save him
self only by good swimming The rocks
blend into scene as wild and varied as
can be woven of the warp and woof of
mystery and repose-The Balsam Groves
of Grandfather Mountain.
We envy the ROosevelts the felicity ~
having started a coffee house in New York
1t has always been one of our secret ambi-
tons to be n landlord, and we can imagine
nothing more agreeable than presiding over n
coffee tavern of the old fashioned sort We
are a little worried, however lest the Roose-
velt cafeteria be bit too solemnly political
in flavor. Mr.. Salazar the Brazilian coffee
expert who acts as host, says he is going
to put on the tables many copies of the
constitution of the United States in an
abridged edition. When a man drinks a cup,
able to read such thing as the constitution
of the United States, which regard as the
most wonderful document in the world"
We are curious about the abridgment of
the wonderful document Our own idea of
abridging it would be to leave out the eight
eenth amendment.
In the Chatting Dish Coffee House, if we
ever establish it, the only dishes served will
be roast beef baked potatoes, mnce pie and
cheese. Pipe smoking will be encouraged
and large casks of cider will salute the eve
We shall endeayor to live up to the maxim
of Leigh Hunt lin his delightful paper on
Coffee Houses and Smoking" y
The union Of certain domestic COM
fort with Embellishments of literature
as well as news-a fire visible to all
cups without Notwithstanding without
Vulgarity.
SOCRATES.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09

Bolshevsm is a masmatic germ disease
disseminated by two legged mosquitoes with
foolish tongues.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09

The tailor's goose never lays golden
eggs during strike.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09

ThelH. G. of L. may affect the mistletoe,
INIT II can't touch what goes on under it.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09

Bolshevism in Switzerland appears to be
os full of holes as the national cheese.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09

When Santa Claus comes to Philadel-
,bia our local bandtti are likely to steal
his furs.
Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-09

~ Mayor Weaver, has a great store of odd
incidents connected with his official life
tucked away in the corners of his memory.
To little company of friends he recently
related an incident. in itself matrimonial
meodrama which is only one of the many
at his command.
One day during Mayor Weaver's term a
couple appeared in the reception room at
CITY Hall and expressed a wish that his
honor marry them. As it was part of Rob
ert's official duty, as Mayors secretary on
such occasions to act both as best man and
Mayors assistant, he was present in his dual
capacity.
The knot was neatly and expeditiously
tied, and at its conclusion the bridegroom
forked oSer a S5 bill to Mr.. Weaver, 1t
isn't customary to collect on such occasions,
ard so the Mayor returned the money, but
to the bride, with the suggestion that she
and her husband take it down to one of the
banking institutions and start a savings fund
against rainy day.
The incident faded from Mr.. Grier's mem
ory, until year later, when woman ap-
neared at the Mayors Office with the request
that he inform her how to go about securing
a divorce 1t was the bride of a tw w,lve
month with her life robbed Of all its ro-
mances for the sake of 81 bill.
After leaving the Mayors Office on her
wedding day her husband, the instant they
we're outside the official precincts, demanded
The return of the money. She refused to
surrender it. There were high words and
tbe husband left her in a rage. She had
never seen him from that moment, and had
finally decided to get a divorce.