davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16
By John P. Marquand

assembled well-swept flight of steps and
fumbled with latchkey. The hall was
dark, but through a chink in door up
stairs bright light was streaming.
Thither he made his way.
1t was brilliant scene before him, but
weird and antique, like some fast fading
photograph Wondering in aforgotten album.
like a piece of fiction with which we feast
our imaginations and long, perhaps guilty,
for the reality. But here there was reality.
albeit furnished. 1t was as though he had
stepped backward through more years than
we care to remember, backward from
drab present, made coloress by mans own
ingenuity; back through the decades of pa
tient improvement, where our better natures
fought the good fight over our worse, into
that senseless period of acknowledgements
which we had so gloriously left behind US.
But he was not stepping backward. He
had opened the door and advanced two
PAGES forward, and there he was in the
midst of aromatic cigar smoke, lulled by the
noisy talk and laughter, dazzled by the
shining of brass fixtures and the brilliant
mahogany trimmings. The door closed be-
hind him and he was ina barroom
There it was in all its pristine ugliness,
with all its pristine lure and all its CHASTITY
conventions but to it's Grant sentmentality
added pathos had cast a glamour over its
hoary vices.
1t was the last barroom in the city of
New York. Yes, the last of those dens
where crimes were Matched, now mercifully
removed; the last of those hotbeds of in
Equity that furnished so many with inter-
csting figures to strike dumb fear into the
patrons. Almost forgotten haunts, banned
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16
ok OF Trouble in England, Too, Over Demobilizatio

Tough without the necessity of again re-
porting except by post The cash payment
covers the pay of this period with certain
other allowances, among which is sum
with which to buy civilian clothingz-the
uniform excepting the coat is the property
OF the soldier and he wear it until the
expiration of the furlough. The "out of
work" policy provides for twenty weeks
wages through year and the payments
are graduated according to the number
of children under fourteen years. In adj
ditlon there are numerous subcommittee
to prevent unemployment, all formed with
the idea of putting the worker in touch
with the job and on the assumption that
there is somewhere a job
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16

or agreement on raw materials England
will not be able to demobUize her army
and reconstruct herself as an industrial
nation.
That is what the control of raw materials
means to England.
There must be employment, and without
the material with which to work there
cannot be employment
Take this half-offcal statement:
There are many different aspects of
this problem of the supply of imported
raw material. Our financial standing as a
nation is dependent upon imported raw
material for the production of goods for
export. Our cotton trade, for example,
is a great part of our export trade, and
cotton manufacture in England is entirely
dependent upon imports. Again, if we do
not assure a supply of imported raw ma
terlal Tor the boot and shoe trade or the
woollen trade, our manufacturers of machin-
cry Will be unable to find sufficient orders
employment, however, is a more urgent
problem than the problem of finance and
commerce, and employment depends upon
imported material. 1t is, therefore.
only from CnlS point OF view that we shall
here attempt to describe the situation with
which we shall be faced during the trans-
ton from war to peace. There were about
100000 men and 100000 women in the
metal and chemical trades during the war.
Most of these women and about 200 900 of
these men will be leaving their occupa-
tons and seeking for denominations work.
About three or four million men will come
back from the fighting forces, and there will
be a considerable transference from one in
dustry to another. But the industries which
now have less labor than they had in july,
1914, are precisely those which need import
ed raw material. For example, the building
industry has about 100000 men less than
it then had, the textile industries 100000
less, the paper and printing industries
100000 less. Those numbers show that
there will be work for all returning men
and exmuntion workers if we have raw
material We need cotton, wool, timber.
wood pulp and many other materials from
abroad"
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16

the men about the bar, and their voices
rang merrily, though through the song
there was a certain strain of suspense,
though the singers were ready to stop on
the instant, given the proper signal. Even
as they sang their minds seemed to be filled
with pleasant "reminiscences; their glances
wandered almost affectionately over the
room
The song ceased; the voices ceased. The
burly figure of the stranger had made its
way behind the bar and was facing the
rest.
The package he had guarded so carefully
was resting on the wood in front OF him.
AS q dignitary changes into his robes of
office he had laid aside his street clothes
to don coat of white, strangely antique
in cut.
"Gentlemen,' he said slowly, I'VE have
arrived at solemn time in our little group.
Our perverse sentiments have led US to
how much pains you know. For a time we
have resurrected bit of the past, placed
it in the present, contrary to the Federal
laws, a piece of American tradition dis
credited by popular opinion. But now the
time has come when it must drop back again
where it belongs-among the anachronisms.
Gentlemen, stand in the last bar
room in New York tonight we will
drink''--
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16
An Episode Under the Super-Terror''

he bore stamped upon him something of
the dignity of age. He was majestic, even
with the nautical trend of his gait; majestic:
digniiied and even little melancholy, were
his smile discounted
A strange figure, and small wonder that
they looked twice at him as he passed down
the street alone
1t required trained IMAGINATION to con-
meet his predcament with the bundle he
carried beneath his arm. but strange as
were his actions the bundle equalled them
in oddness. In the terms Of solid geometry
it might be termed right angled prism.
long and symmetrical, done up with meticu-
lous care in sturdy brown paper. Stronc
hempen Irvine held the paper in place, and
attached to the Irvine was q handle of wood
and wire, of q singularly antique make. But
he was not carrying the bundle by the
handle. Instead he held it like a thing of
price. Were it not for the handle and
brown paper it might have been a doll he
was bringing to happy offspring But it
was not a doll, nor yet was it patent
medicine.
Something it was beyond the ken of hoi
pollol, yet IN the eye of the man who fol-
lowed came CLEAN of recognition and he
heightened his stride. But the other had
glanced over his shoulder. The smile had
left his face, to be suppanted by look
akin to terror. Clutchng his bundle the
more tightly beneath his arm, he became
suddenly electrified with activity. Three
leaps and a sideward bound sufficed to carry
him into the vortex of the crowd about a
subway entrance. A second more and he
was lost in the clamor of the modern
catacombs. Painting from his unaccustomed
exercise, staring at some vision his fears
had conjured, dishevelled by his haste, he
followed in the direction of a green line
painted on the arched roof of concrete
passage, shifted to a red line and thence
to black, to end exhausted in the depths
of an outgoing express. The roaring whrr
of the wheels seemed to revive him, but
fast as the train could go there was some
thing in pursuit, something perhaps born of
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16

4l6kl6lId|ill6k:

The door opposite opened. A gaunt fig
ure in frock coat stood framed on the
threshold. Sheer defiance was all that
kept the speaker erect. AS their glances
met his voice rang out again:
eve will drink tonight the last bottle
of whiskey in America" He paused. Every
one followed the direction of his gaze.
The stranger did not move, but somehow
the hard lines of his features had softened,
they might on entering some sanctuary
With even stride he entered the room
There a metallic clang. His foot was
on the rail. A glass was cutched in his
lean fingers.
"The last bar" continued the impromptu
dispenser Of the drinks, land I, the last of
the New York saloon owners, will pour you
the last drink"
Something akin to a sigh escaped from
his audience. Yet one man they raised
their glasses to receive the brown LIQUID
and kept them raised while the speaker
finished.
II could propose many things in this
last toast, but l will not. Here's looking
at you, gentlemen"
There a silence after the last simple
words which even the wings of that ST.
lence seemed to be floating back into the
mists where they belonged.
The tall stranger raised his glass, drained
it, turned and vanished through the still
open door. Something glittering had
dropped from his hand It's metallic clink
as it hit the floor was heard clearly
throughout the room.
1t was gold pen which was inscribed:
January 20, 1919"
What date that?" some one inquired,
and then they remembered. 1t was the day
they signed the proclamation of the Eigh-
teenth Amendment.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16

not to be reflled, mute witnesses of many
a garish evening. There was the goddess
reclining on a dingy cloud, that execration
of art that once sullied our judgment of
beauty in painting, and the frame that
rounded her a writhng, twisting piece of
moulding, STOPPING to meet other over
decorated bits Those mute testimonials to
the tobacco chewing propensities of our
forebears, the massive brass cuspidors,
had their place, and, near them. inexplicable
institution, the brass rail, on which so
many feet rested moment before taking
that final plunge into the bottomless pit.
Indeed, it was curious and fantastic ira
dition that man drinking alcohol was
obliged to raise one foot above the other,
as peculiar as his taste for the green pickles
stood in the corner. Still, the rail and
everything else stood for constructive i'm
agination. No European teaching had
helped US evolve our barroom. From first
to last it an American institution,
just the products delivered over it were
American, to be copied vainly by our Latin
brethren across the ocean. The final bar
room in that city of barrooms, it could not
be a Jingle of patriotism that swept over
the arrival as he surveyed it. But
there was a certain pride in his sad refiec-
tions, strange, unholy JOY, that his past
had stretched far enough back to encompass
a little of the era Of the mixed strong
waters and dash of orange juice.
His mind ran back to the times when the
tired business man actually laughed on
leaving his Office, when sounds of merri-
ment and music rang out along the noisy
streets and numerous meetings took place
in front of the mahogany barrier, and full
many man left cheered enough to shout
der the burdens Of tomorrow with smile.
Too true, the merriment was artificial and
the jokes had, perhaps, hollow ring, but
still there was laughter, certain artif-
cial joie de vie that stimulated frankness
and friendship. Out of its sordidness had
risen glory, reflected in certain pieces of
literature and in bits of song
They were singing a snatch of one now,
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16
Restoring Trade
Union Rights

1-"They should introduce the bill for
the restoration of trade union rights and
privileges suspended during the war
Everything, it is said, turns on this meas
ure and on the attitude which trades unions
will take toward the restriction Of output
Enterprsing manufacturers take excep-
ton to high wages and shorter hours, but
say that these conditions can only be main
tanned If output is increased. With i'm
proved machinery and Standardization
high wages can be paid readily in this
country as they are in America, but DELHI
crate limitation of production would be
fatal.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16

object most strenuously to being forced
back into an unwanted job. On the one
hand there is already a considerable
amount of unemployment due to the clos
ing down of many munition works, and
on the other hand it is quite impossible for
most small employers to obtain men--onc
Bond Street jeweller told me that he could
not guarantee. to fix the handspring of my
watch under three months, and a round of
jewellers gave three weeks at the smallest
time IN which they thought they could have
repairs made. No one even bothers to try
to have repairs made about the house
the men not to be had
The soldiers complaining that others
are taking their jobs and the UNEMPLOYED
munition workers are laughing at the
thought of work while the government is
paying them unemployment allowance.
From the employed end the job question
is paradoxlcal enough between those who
want work and cannot find it and those who
do not want work. But it is the employers
who are in the really difficult position and
especially those who agreed to take their
men back and not only want to, but will
take them back, but have no materials with
which to work and, at the present writing,
no promise of getting any On the top Of
this the employer does not know upon what
terms he is to hire back his men, or what
they Will sell to him in the way of services
The workers are striking every day in some
industry or other for shorter hours and
higher wages, but have not said a word
about increasing production so that the
manufacturer can get even line on his
costs. In addition, he does not know what
his taxes will be, how high the railroad
rates will stay (they at en- almost
prohibitive fgure) or what he will have to
pay for coal. Aside from the question
of raw materials these are the two big
points as stated by large manufacturer;
he asks that the government settle them:
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16
Terrific Job of
Bookkeeping

The assumption that there is a job await
ing every man and that no matter what
happens, the job will be there, is one of
the nubs Of the scheme, and the other is that
the bookkeeping promises to be so enormous
as to be absolutely battling. Therefore what
we find in practice is that the employers
have by no means jobs for all of the re-
turning soldiers and they are up against it.
while the soldiers who have found Jobs
also discover that the War Department is
quite incapable of getting through its
forms in time to let them take advantage
of the offers.
Like everything connected with this war,
the industrial rehabilitation Is so complex
and so full Of paradoxcs that it is difficult
even to give summary Of what is actually
happening. One cannot say that this is the
or that is the case, for no sooner are
the words written than it turns out that
an incident happens which is proof posi-
tive that has been wrong.
Take a few instances For some days
past delegations Of soldiers have been visit
ing Whitehall and insisting upon expla-
nations as to why they should be sent back
to France when they are provided with
contracts for jobs and only the supreme
wise Of Some One is necessary for their re-
lease. There has been no actual roting
and the spirit of the thing is splendid,
but the men refuse to be bound in red tape
and sent off to the front only to be brought
back again. Incidentally they are Willing
away hours Of dulncss by exercising the
English right to object. On the other
hand, number of employers have paid
full salaries to their chief men and clerks
and are anxious to get them back from the
colors so az to resume business, but have
heard Of no end Of these cases where the
men, especially If they have been clerks
positively refuse to give up the open air
life for the confinement of an Office, and
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16
Taking Real Care
of the Fighter

And the English reply is that her armies
IN the field and in the shops, together
with her ships on the seas, gave their all
to keep the world safe-that she did not
think of the morrow in making sacrifices
and that it would be small business for the
world TO forget that there was war and
say that now is the time for the devil to
take the hindmost. None of the English
men whom l met are taking this exact
position and far from phrasing it in
so many words, yet that is just what it ell
amounts to. France has her own rebuilding
to look after and so has Belgium. but in
England the question is one of industrial
reconstruction, and if the present plan of
rehabilitation is to be carried out the world
has simply got to help. The experiment
IN state socialism--that is what it really
ISIS so vast and so complex as to 20 far
beyond the borders of the empire.
There is another side-a banker gave Il
to me. He said:
IF we coddle rehabilitation and try to
escape the inevitable hardships of the war
we may get on for time But we avs
bound to have day of reckoning; our silver
platter is being used so much that it will
wear out in time and then where shall we
be! think it might be better to take
our medicine now while we are used to
trouble and not soften ourselves by some
years of artificial prosperity. We have been
pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps and
dong spiendidly at it, but the ordinary
laws of industrial gravitation will have to
return in due season, and then where shall
we be ?"
Getting the British army together wa.
chiids play as compared with its demobii-
cation.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16
With Suitable Apologies to Honore de BazSac

fading memory, merely q feeting thought,
perhaps-his figure stiffened. There seemed
to be eyes upon him, eyes everywhere filled
with malignant suspicion. He sprang into
the street, to rush needless through tan
gle of traffic, beneath the shadows of high
cornices, through brightly lighted passage
ways and out into the evening air. But in
his ears there still echoed something besides
the tread Of his own footsteps, something
that had nothing to do with the rumble of
the city. The lights of little drug store
shone before him like haven of refuge
The mirror in back of the counter showed
a drawn, panic-lined face staring back into
his. The clerk looked at him, startled
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16

that the government has underwritten en-
pIoyment just as an incident to war
Here Is the plan of dispensing the English
army (the Canadians, the Australians and
the other Colonials looking after them
selves and simply gathering up units
and sending them home as transportation
facilities permit: The Britshers are ex-
pected to fill up forms giving their trades,
particulars of previous employment, trade
unions, and whether or not the employer
at the time Of enlistment promised to hold
a job open. The men with jobs are known
as "slip" men, and some 1900 men day
are being released on furlough for the pur-
pose of finding employment, in which case
they also become "slip" men. Then with
the troops thus classified they expected
to be again classified in industrial groups
which are given priority according to the
Importance of the industry to the national
welfare. The idea is to reduce the various
units by successive drafts of, say, hundred
men from a regiment, according to the num-
Der Of men who may be required to be left
behind to deal with stores, horses and the
like-that is, to reduce the regiments to
skeletons, or "cadres." The actual order
of rehabilitation is:
1-"Demobiizcrs," that is, those required
in their military or civil capacity to enable
the work of rehabilitation to be carried
out.
pivotal" men, that is, those men in the
various industries without whom the bulk
of the to be employed cannot get to
work effectively.
2--Men who have definite jobs waiting
for them on their return-(thc "slip" mem
in the order of the priority of their indus
trial groups.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16
Regular Correspondence Of The
TribuneI
LONDON, February 3.

LONDON, February 3.
HNGLAND'S ability to get back on
- her industrial feet depends entirely
i 4 upon her ability to demoblize her
army within reasonable time and
with reasonable amount of success. In
lines past after war was over the troops
SIMPLY came home and were discharged to
and their several ways back into civil life.
me authorities, so to speak, simply tipped
over the barrel and let the water seep into
'ne ground. But the enormous number of
men tnat England has drawn to the colors
AUG 10 the munition works-a number so
great that 1t is hard to find a male human
Osihg who has not somehow been in the
"sf-makes regmental rehabilitation a
ssniyhg experiment.; there seems to be
general impression that unleashed soldiers
ale natural Bolsheviki, and hence they are
DC returned as individuals, with jobs and
Mha OF guarantee that they will stay put
me army was finally organized on the
'''sc'ive principle-taking men from where
"ey were least needed for war work at
o'he; they are being disorganized on pre-
- Wv SoHc principle, working backward
@Ains the men out as they are most
"'edeo for peace work at home
and 1t is all beautifully scientific and on
.Aper IL ought to work like clock, and SO
> would work were the people of the coun-
" sne least inclined to a return to pre-war
saai'ions and were the jobs still in being,
'aen the employers promised the men
Ash tnsy enlisted. But great number of
men have changed their ideas about
-" futures and great number Of employ
nave changed their businesses. On top
'S there IS great shortage of most
materials, an almost complete disor-
sN@son OF markets, an inability on the
80 VI labor 10 decide IL it wants the moon
:. 'aiy half OF it, and superabundance Of
FINES OF reconstruction. SO, while the
,.saKat OF scientific rehabilitation is pure
s'sar, its TRANSLATION into fact practically
les the stupendous task Of providing
~ i'F about 100000 men and then get
M. 1ss men into the jobs, with the added
~ -l ,s2 Of associating the man and the
'h AZ least some show Of happiness.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16

Of gait and finally that smlIe-they were
not rational. They were not right; since
nothing that was not rational could con-
form to modern laws of efficiency. With
that burly stranger came the visions of bad
places. From him there seemed to emanatc
an aura, aura not altogether unpleasant
to Judge from those who passed him, for
many a man turned his head, while over
his features there seemed to be borne an
effort Of recollection, of Renaissance al
most, such as comes over one on greeting
a long forgotten friend. He seemed to con-
jure up visions of vague impossibilities, to
be the embodiment of legends of dimy lit
dairy lunches in which strange things had
once TRANSFERRED behind the walls of oranges
and grape fruit. Yet, withal, his face wore
benign expression. Despite his dark hair
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16

There was the shining mahogany Of the
bar, that bulwark reared against a nations
progress, against which the youth of the
land dashed itself, to fall back bleeding
and broken-the bar with all it's old per-
tainments, the taps and the silver pitchers,
and behind the imposing glitter of glass
ware, dedicated to outrageous and forgotten
mixtures. The bottles reflected in the tall
mirrors, bottles providentially emptied and