davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-21
Plans Being Fastened
 for Traffic in the Skies
$ # #

A FRENCH aviator, after success GA fully landing on top of a de- partment store in Paris, announced that he would fly around the world Those dauntless lady birds, Katherine Stinson and Ruth Law, are reported to be planning to fly across the At lantic. Yesterday British aviator made the first official air flight from London to Paris, carrying dispatches to the peace conference. He covered the distance from London to Paris, de- spite unfavorable weather, in one hour and forty minutes, without mishap. His return flight consumed two hours. In the meantime valiant attempts are still being made to perfect the Ameri- can governments aerial mail service and transcontinental air routes are be- ing mapped by aviators who seem to have better luck when they don't carry mail sacks.
 These and other activities are the straws that show which way the wind blows. In another twelve months it is safe to assume that the transatlantic flight will have become a reality and perhaps aviators will be winging around the globe. At any rate, these achievements will not be much longer postponed. One of the Sunday news paper supplements contains the de- scription of a huge air liner with a Ning-spread of one thousand feet, ca pable of carrying numerous passen- gers and providing them with all the comforts of first-class hotel.
 The prospects for aerial travel and aerial commerce are exceedingly bright.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-21
ON GERMAN MUSIC

Harold Baurer, in Musical America.
 I feel that in making up a pro- gramme it is needful to use some of the German classics, like Bach. Haydn, Mo- zart or Beethoven, in order to give solidity and balance to the whole musi- cal scheme. Of course. it is quite pos sible to arrange a programme without this solid foundation, using music of other nations; 1t may be interesting and delightful as a novelty, but it will lack something. certain depth and profundity. The musician will under stand. but the general listener will not. He may not know why the recital or concert did not please or satisfy him as usual He may in all modesty think the fault lies with him; that he really doesn't like music as well as he thought he did, and the result will be that he will stay. away next time.
 It is the same with orchestral con- certs. If the rule is enforced to bar all German music from the orchestra as it is now in Pittsburg, and was all last season. orchestral conductors will have great difficulty in arranging suitable lists. And the listener will wonder why orchestral concerts do not appeal to him as he thought they did or as they used to do.
 There is not this feeling in the al- lied countries against German music, Tn EnSIdH dt IlTSt, lntTe was d te- sentiment which affected music of ene- my origin. .. But this feeling was very short-lived: in very few days nor nal conditions returned. It was seen that German composers could not he left out of concert and recital pro- grammes without serious loss to gen. eral musicianship.
 At the concert very recently given in New York by Frances leading orches- tra, under Andre Messager the prin- cipal number was Beethoven's Sym phony No. 5. As MT. Finck then re- marked: 'If the French. who have suffered so much more than we have from the war. have the good sense not to vent their spite on innocent old masters, it would i'll become American musicians and audiences to show less common sense. I have not seen the slightest indication there will be such lack of common sense. Where it has seemed to appear in few ii,- stances was only, no doubt, an hysteri- cal phase which will soon pass away
The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-21
DICK

F. Gregory Hartswick, in Leslie's. The roads branch of on either hand
 And leave amid the battered waste A small peninsula of land
 To which there cling, still undisplaced, Two gnarled and twisted apple trees
 That sentinel a tiny mound, And seem to whisper in the breeze,
 ''The ground we guard is holy ground" A little grave, sflr fresh and green,
 Still tended, watched, by loving hands: The grass is clipped, the turf is clean. And at the head, erect. there stands A small white cross, where one may fead His title who lies buried there One worthy of the victor's need
 A hero-Dick-Chien Sanitaire. Twice wounded-gassed-no dead. No
 more
 His questing nose shall lead him on To bring to shattered men a store
 Of hope when hope has almost gone No more at his appointed task Shall Dick explore the shards of strife And bring his welcome pack and flask To ease a soul and save a life. Another cross-another grave
 In that gray land of grave and cross Where side by side repose the brave Like them he served-hke them he died Like theirs. the cross that bears lis
 name
 Shall mark amid five Nations pride.
 His home upon the field of Fame.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-21
New Yorker on AIabamians

"I was interested in a clipping from the Baltimore Star sent me by my old friend Capt J. Cary Thompson, Seven teenth infantry, Camp Meade, Md.,' said Paul Barnett: "'The Alabama units, ac- cording to one New Yorker, who was a fighter from the "Old Sixty-ninth," :" which struck terror to the hearts of Huns all during the long time of it's service at the western front were "fightin fools." They stripped to the waist and went in armed with bayonets and knives and what they lacked in dis cipline, they more than made up for in enthusiasm.
 (" Discipline? Why those boys didn't need it, he Erinned. saw a sign they had hung up on some of the German barbed wire. It said: Give your soul to God. but your body belongs to Ala bama."'
 The Alabama men have won i'm mortal fame for themselves and the state ought to feel mighty proud of then."
The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-21
THE KIDNAPPED JEWEL

George E. Phair. in the Chicago Herald and Examner.
 GA Story of 1s4z)
 CHAPTER
 "A MISTY sky, dull moon, shad- A owy cove. S = SCliffs on either side deepened the shadow as a low, rakish, gray craft eased in and came silently to stop.
 There were few muff1ed sounds and a flash or two of a dimmed light and all was silent, all but the soft splash of the ripples as they washed the side of the low, gray craft that nestled in the shadow of the cove. An hour passed and half an hour more.
 Desbrough Dubuque known the world over as the King of Jewel Thieves, paced impatiently to and fro in the cabin.
 q wonder! he muttered. 'T won- der.
 Presently there came slight jar  aboard
 Did you get it?" asked Desbrough in a hoarse whisper
 ''Yes,'' came back a whispered voice. Silently a low. gray, rakish craft made its way out through the shad- ows into the open sea-
 CHAPTER II
 J. Oswald Van Truffie was awakened at S:3o a. m. by violent pounding on his chamber door.
 "Sayv' he said. as he sat up in bed. Where do you get that noise:" For even billionaire is human when awakened suddenly in the morning. 1t was Giles. the butler, who burst through the door pale and open mouthed.
 Its gope" he said, dropping in a faint. It was sometime before the terrified
The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-21

servants could make J. Oswald com prehend Finally they led him in his pajamas to the library.
 He was stunned at the sight that met his gaze.
 The great wall safe behind the DOT trait of his grandfather had been thrown open. Diamonds. rubies, emer- aids, strings of pearls. lay scattered about unheeded on the oriental rugs.
 One look into the empty vault was enough.
 "It's gone~' he cried, measuring his length on the library floor.
 CHAPTER III
 A low, gray rakish craft anchored just inside a coral reef.
 Never a breeze rippled the tropic bay.
 Desbrough Dubuque, the interna- tional jewel thief, sat in his palatial cabin and gazed exultingly on the glowing gem which stood in all its glory on the table before him.
 For weeks his wireless station on the hill had intercepted messages flashed across the sea. First there had been hue and cry and the na- vies of the world had secured .he seas to find him. Then there had been a weakening and the offer of re- ward had begun to flash across the sky. A million, twenty millions, hun dred millions five hundred millions. Finally there had come the flash: "A billion dollars offered and no questions asked!'
 'I am now a billionare, he said to himself as he lighted four-bit cigar and placed his feet comfortably on the table.
 As if in answer to his golden thoughts, ray of afternoon sunlight streamed through the cabin window and mingled it's mellow glcam with a quart bottle of bonded redeye
The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-21
crOyyder Learns to Work

Having served for a year as president or the Chamber of Commerce, I have learned the great amount of time and work it takes" said Arthur C. Crowder, and I have also learned just what a part it plays in the civic life of this great city.
 q, however, believe that it is just beginning to be in training for the things it is to accomplish in the future under the hand of the new secretary, P. A. Fenimore I congratulate the nominating committee on bringing out such strong ticket to be voted on at the annual cleo tion of officers to be held in the audi torium on Thursday, January g. I hope big crowd will be out and that we can start the new officers off with a vim"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-21
Sob1iquets of Cities Suggesting Beauty

1.-THE World Almanac in it's list of
 G sobriquets or by-names of the principal cities in the United States styles the south's industrial center as Birmingham the Beautiful. This is an improvement on the familiar and commonplace name, Magic City.
 Almost any rapidly growing town may be referred to as a magic community, but the term beau tiful connotes landscape, refined taste and all that enchants the finer perceptions. Birmingham the Beautiful! It is simple phrase, but it carries at once humanizing idea of far-reaching import.
 Other names in the World Almanac classification that suggest beauty and that touch the imagination are Port land, Ore, and Little Rock, Ark, each the City of Roses; Oregon, Me, and Savannah, Ga, each the Forest City; Galveston, the Oleander City; Charles tnn, s. C., the Palmetto City; New
The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-21
LUKE M'LUKE SAYS

Any time you hear woman con- plaining that she made an awful mis- take when she got married, you can bet that the husband is betting the same way.
 We may be finnioky. but we would just as soon have man talk about us behind our backs as to have him talk about himself to our face.
 During the engagement he tells her that he would die for her. But after marriage he seldom meets his finish by working himself to death for her.
 A pretty girl doesn't have to have anything to talk about to make men sit around for hours and listen to her
 A reformer hates every kind of sin except the kind that he specializes in.
 And. believe us, the Mormon church would have a heap more members if more men could afford five or six wives. 2
 Funny how man can't carry an umbrella and keep the rain off his own wife the way he can carry it and keep the rain off some other mans wife.
 The reason why they know during the engagement that they can live on his salary is because he thinks she won't spend any of it and she thinks he won't spend any of it.
 And, at that rate, it would make big difference if married men were as cheerful at home as they are on the street.
 Do not knock the Anti Everything league. my friends. Knock the red- nosed boobs who kick in with the coin for the salaries. No salaries no league.
 You can preach for thousand years. But the girl who has that kind of a shape is going to wear that kind of clothes.
 If the girl has dimples; do not frisk your mind for new story. Tell her any old joke and she will laugh.
 Once in while durn fool thinks that he can get rid of his stenographer by marrying her. and tries 1t
The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-21

is fair to assume that in 1920 the population will reach fully 250,000. And it need be no surprise if it were to go over the 300,000 mark. The census bureau strives to give the facts. All we can ask for is in telligent and public-spirited co-opera- tion on the part of householders.
 * T. #
 It speaks well for his preliminary training that a former Age Herald man, now a major in the army, "cut in" three times and took the Prince of Wales partner away from him at a dance at Coblenz.
 + # F It is hard to realize that Paderews!li, who used to shake his luxuriant hair over a piano keyboard for 5000 or more a night, is now the Polish pre- mier and the savior of his country.
 < * <
 It would be hard to find an unhap- pier lot of mortals than the 800 or more American correspondents who went to France to "cover" the peace conference.
 An automobile repair man says fliv vers cry for his service. The cry of a flivver in distress is one of the most heart-rending sounds on earth
 * * *
 Evidently 1t isn't much satisfaction to be pointed out in Washington as secretary of something or other when you can't live on your salary.
 # * * Seed catalogues are again cluttering up these premises It might pay the seed barons to find out who lives in flat and who doesn't
 * J. Je Another sign of the times is, the picture of a baseball magnate in a place formerly reserved for war he roes.
 Ex-Kaiser Karl ought to hire de- pendable press agent. He rarely ever gets into the newspapers now.
 * * S. The legal machinery for enforcing nation-wid prohibition will present more than one knotty problem.
 * < st People who formed their ideas of Russia from Russian dancers have a great deal to learn.
 # # x
 While the war is conceded to be over there is still a great many storm cen ters in Europe.
 # * #
 I. w. w. leaders can't get over the fact that Sam Gompers hobnobs with the mighty.
 * < <
 Considering his radical views, the late pr. Liebknecht was a smart dresser. \ * * *
 Wagnerian music has been played publicly in New York without starting riot.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-21
ANOTHER BLOCK SIGNAL FAILURE

From the Washington Star.
 To give emphasis to the demand for immediate adoption of measures to pre-
 vent rear-end railway collisions Aomes the wreck on the Reading at Fort
 Washington, Pa, in which nine persons
 were killed and over a score were in
 jured. A local train was stalled when
 it's engineer observed" locomotive
 derailed ahead. While it was standing flyer" crashed into it.
 Here is the block system at it's worst.
 Had the engineer of the local not seen the derailed engine in time he would
 probably have struck it, as there seems
 to have been no signal to halt him. If when he stopped a signal was set be-
 hind him to protect his train it was ignored. An automatic stop would have checked the local within safe distance of the derailed locomotive and the ex- press within safe distance behind the local. No conceivable failure on the part of the automobile system on the i'have been worse than the complete failure of the block system
 Thus within two days 30 persons have been killed on two well managed roads through dependence upon a | safety" method that has fully demon strated that it is one of the most mur- derous of devices. An inquiry has been started in the South Byron wreck case, Hundreds of such inquiries have been conducted in the past and still the
 cause of this slaughter remains un-
 checked.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-21
THE UNDRAMATIC ARMY

ing street lamps. Faintly silhouetted against ,the gray sky were visible tho great ramparts of Ehrenbreitstein and not far below, where the Mosells swings into the Rhine. could be seen in sharp relief the stupendous statue of the first Wilhelm
 But the procession grew impressive enough as the doughboys tramped across, an endless column that thump- ed ahead, deliberately oblivious to the beauties of the Rhine or their signifi- canoe of the occasion, listening indig- nantly to the batter of the rain on their
 helraets and wondering if the quarter
 master had enough shoes. Close to the further shore, the swaying, scarce dis tinguishnble column of olive drab
 melted into the all enshrouding mist
 Not so the flag and the standards,
 when their turn came to cross the
 Rhine. Always they shone bravely
 from shore to shore
 It was the enc touch of color in all
 that drab and cheerless morning. from
 the moment when. midstream, the river
 wind caught and flung them wide, till.
 dwindling, dwindling, they became only
 point of scarlet in curtain of mist,
 like a poppy blooming in the cranny
 of a gray wall And always, faintiy
 from the other shore. came the music of the band playing in the rain.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-21
FLATTERY

I can't dissemble my surprise, My modesty absconds When some misguided person tries To sell me mortgage bonds.
 Akron Times. I too get chesty, and am far More proud than I should be When someone tries to sell a car. Or new-laid eggs, to me.
 Cleveland Plain Dealer I try to look quite woe-begone -/ And almost shed a tear, When some chap says he can't live on Ten thousand plunks a year
 ORDINARY PEOPLE q understand you have some new neighbors." "Yes."
 What do you think of them?" Haven't had a chance to form an opinion yet. but they seem to be normal
 SOMEWHAT GLOOMY They have a photograph, a dog and two babies"
 'He's a pessfmist, al, right" ~Why sor' -I remarked that tho wnr waa over. He replied. Yes-in Epots.'"
 LIGHT LABORS '-Sher wardrobe mistress for tf1s girl show" "The chorus doesn't wear enough clothes to wad a gun" ~weIl, Two always contended that there are plenty of easy jobs a woman can i'll, if she'll look around . bit" N
 PAUL COOK.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-21
AmzMM1AnutfU
COVERING HE WET srors

From the Florida Times Union.
 United States of America finally dry in 1920 Ho-hum. Now if Congress will authorize the employment of 1o.- 900 spies, arm them to the teeth and give them full and free rein. it may be troublesome to get liauor almost anywhere.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-21
ar ST Getting Ready for the 1920 Census

1.-THE United States census bureau
 0 will be busy all this year work ing out plans for enumerating the population in April of next year. Each state will be divided into census districts, with a supervisor in charge of each district. zs olt. There will be six or seven super visors for Alabama and each super visor will have the authority to select the enumerators who will do the field work under his direction. The super visors will be appointed within the next six or eight months and the enumerators about one month before the time for beginning the count. Time was when ambitious cities padded the census, but in 1910 the government made an example of the padders by causing those suspected of making false "returns" to be indicted by the federal grand jury and brought to trial As there were several con- Ivictions, it is supposed the padding habit will be little in evidence next year.
 With many cities the complaint has usually been that the enumerators failed to make complete count. In l191O, where the total fell far short of what city boosters had claimed, the bureau made special investigations, and in few cases had new enumer- ation made.
 Birmingham was one of the cities that asked for an investigation. It was known that in certain boarding or rooming house districts many resi- dents had been overlooked or un- counted.
 The government was about to order partial recount, but the Chamber of Commerce, at whose instance survey had been undertaken, concluded after reconsideration of the matter that as the census had credited Birming- ham with seven or eight thousand more population than the city direc- tory count called for to 'let it go at that"
 If every soul entitled to be enumer- ated had been reported the population would have made even a better show ing, say about 140,O0O, instead of 132,6s5.
 Before the next census enumeration begins the Chamber of Commerce or the Civic association should conduct a campaign of education so as to im- press upon every landlady the inn portance of furnishing Uncle Sam's representatives with full information as to the number of persons claiming residence under her roof. According to the law, temporary absence from the community does not deprive the absentee of the right of being Icounted. On the contrary express provision is made for all such.
 . Birmingham is growing rapidly. It
The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-21
@ADRIFT WITH THE TIMES
THE DOORMAN

THE DOORMAN | Don't mistake him for general.
 Or an admiral of the line, Although he's most imposing
 And his uniform is fine. He's never seen the soil of France, Nor sailed the wide seas OCT, This military parsonage
 On duty at the door,
 WITH THE WRONG CROWD You say you are bolshevks'' Yes"
 Whats your trader" "I'm barber"
 'Wheres your common sense, man? Don't you know that if barbers had to depend on bolshevik patronage for liv- ing they would starve to death?"
 DEEP ABSORPTION "Being the husband of an intellectual woman. don't suppose you ever try to make any of the time-worn excuses for being out late"
 'fIt isn't necessary said Mir. Nubwttz When Mrs. Nubwitz is doing research work in the library che never knows whether I'm on the premises or not"
 IN 19O. Look what we found in the attic, mother. It's pair of overailA- Yes. dear. Put them back in the trunk where you found them" '"They are of no use to anybody now. are they. mother?A "No, but they are a family heirloom. Your grandmother wore them during tho great war"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-21

BEGINNING THE DAY-Start me out afrcsh today, Lord. May life have the o1d-time thrill! Make the world young again to me! Restore my fond hopes. May victory be as dazzling and virtue as splendid as they were. Give me a new heaven and a new earth! For Christ's sake. AmeB.-H. M. E.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-21
suBsCkIpTION NA1ks

Washington, bureau, 2oz Bipps puiio ing.
 European bureau, 6 Henrietta sue0'' Covent Garden, London.
 Eastern business office, o O building, New York city; western ~ ~ousi ness office, Tribune building, Chlcabo The $. .. Beckwith Special Agency agents for foreign advertising.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-21

Haven, the City of Films; Springfield, H., the Flower City; Los Angeles, City of the Angels.
 Some of the older sobriquets have a play of humor, such as Porkopolis for Cincinnati; Gotham for New York; The Hub, or Bean Town, for Boston; the Pretzel City for Reading, Pa, and the Windy City for Chicago.
 Other names carry the idea of tranquility Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, and Springfield, Mass, the City of Homes. The term, Queen City, by which Cincinnati was known in years gone by, had the claim of distinction, but half dozen of the newer cities have appropriated the same designation. And so it has been with the term, Gate City. There are now several Gate Cities.
 But Birmingham the Beautiful stands out alone in the World Almanac as the city bearing that all-compre- hensive appellation. Long may 1t deserve the distinction.