davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-20
SOME BALL STATISTICS

From the New Orleans Times Plea
 yune.
 1T USUALLY when someone an U II nounces ex-cathedra that the
 frogs in the United States each year devour two hundred and ninety-one squillion, four hundred and sixty stillion. etc, etc, mosqui- toes, we assume at once that the re- condite person has counted the sealps and knows what he is talking about. We admit similarly the claims of the mathematical prodigy who declares that if all the matches used in the United States to light cigarettes were placed end to end they would disprove Those are, of course, problems not really difficult to settle, but when gentleman connected with one of the worlds greatest producers of balls, announces cooly that the golf balls lost annually on American links-that we assume to be the ultimate fate of all golf balls-have cost six times as much as all the baseballs under the starry flag, we rebel and ask proof.
 The same authority places the value of tennis balls at twice that of the spheres used in our national sport, but still that leaves the tennis ball at eone-third the value of the gutta percha pellet used in the ancient and honorable game of golf.
 Julian W. Curtiss. president of an internationally known manufacturing and merchandising sporting goods company, puts out the figures under his own name and places the con- sumption of golf balls in the United States as s,ooo,0oo for the year, at
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-20
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
 AND ELSEWHERE
Good Roads and Rad

Birmingham and Tyler and Dal- las, Tex, remind me very much of each other as far as good roads are concerned" said A. l.. Burge, secre- tary of the Kiwanis club of Tyler, Tex, who stopped in Birmingham yesterday en route to the interna- tional conyention of Kiwanis clubs at Cleveland.
 For many years we have had some pretty bad roads around Tyler and Dallas Tex, but just now we are be- ginning to see the light of day. Sew eral roads are now under construc- tion, and before the year has passed we hope to complete the continuation of the Bankhead highway from Mount Pleasant Tex, to the border Condi- tions are getting better in Mexico daily, and good highway running to the border for the tourists will mean much to the cities located along the route"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-20
RenI SufferinS

While I know that there was real suffering and want in many sections of Birmingham and Jefferson county I did not realize just how many worthy families there were totally without food or resources" declared Jay Smith, vice chairman of the emergency relief committee T made a tour of the district last Friday with the head of the city welfare de- partment and party of newspaper men, and we found families living almost in the heart of the city who were totally without food and would suffer serious physical Injury but for the assistance rendered by charitable organizations.
 This was true of many families living in all parts of the city and the suburbs. I was especially sur prised to find so many men who had formerly had positions, but had been out of work in some instances since Christmas. During this time they had used up all the money they had saved. Other families had had the period of want hastened by illness and other misfortune.
 These people are good citizens, and most of them are in want through no fault of theirs. It Is n most worthy call, and I am sure the people of Birmingham will rally to their necessities"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-20
HOW HELEN KELLER LEARNED

Arthur c. Chamberlain, in the Thrift
 Magazine.
 1A0o o one ever overcame such ob- UWl stacles in securing an educa-
 ton as did Helen Keller. Blind, deaf and dumb since babyhood. she is now a college graduate and a noted writer and lecturer. Think of rising above blindness, deafness, dumbness. of securing a college edu- cation and, best of all, of living a life of helpfulness to others and en- toying life. It Is not surprising that Mark Twain once said. "The two most interesting characters of the nineteenth century are Napoleon and Helen Keller"
 She was a normal child until 1e months old. At that time 8 serious illness left her blind. deaf and dumb. Even during these early years In the dark, she learned many things through the sense of touch. Her chief playmates were a little colored girl and an old setter dog.
 She was nearly seven years old
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-20

about Birmingham, it would have been forced to say:
 Birmingham building record this year is an example to the rest of the south of sound conditions and the disposition to go ahead. Bir- mingham began the building of homes in January with 54 permits, more than doubling this record in February with 110, making a still higher record in March, with 168, is- suing 130 permits in April and all most touching the high mark of March in May with 165.
 The total of permits for resi- dences in Birmingham is 621, com pared with Atlanta's 400, which is 50 per cent better than the Atlanta record, while March, April and May all passed Atlanta's high record of May.
 Incidentally, Birmingham, in spite of the dull period, has com pleted and put into operation the most modern pressed steel car plant in the country.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-20
GERMAN VIEWS AMERICAN
 GRAVES

From the Kansas City Star.
 Paul Block, Paris correspondent of the Berliner Tageblatt, was recently sympathetic observer of the de- struction wrought by his country men in northern France, and sent to his paper detailed report of his trip through the devastated region., Of a certain point in his journey he writes:
 The guide relates in a matter of- fact way that of the 131 villages which he covers in his trip some so have been utterly destroyed. This part Of the journey, from Clermont- en-Argonne to Boureuilles has all been wrecked by the war, but the worst came after we reached Va rennes. From there to verdun 1t Is & desert-over which the horsc- men of the Apocalypse have swept.
 ''At only one point is there any evil dence of restoration, and this has become one of the sights of the re- zion. l mean the American ceme- tery at Romagne below Montfaucon. Whenever the Americans take any thing up they do it in a wholesale way. Although we had come solely to see ruins, we could not pass this cemetery without a visit. It is the only one of it's kind.
 "On a gently rising hill purcha seq outright for this purpose are buried the 2l,400 Americans who fell du.- ing the fighting around Moutfaucon. Some lsilometers before we reached this point we noted little white sign boards along the road directing us to this gigantic graveyard; for many of the relatives of the fallen cross the sea in order to visit the last resting place of those dear to them.
 But when you come within half a mile of the point you need no fur ther guidance. An apparently limit less field of white suddenly greets the vision in the distance. This is the effect of the 21,400 tombstones of equal size shining in the sunlight There are crosses for Protestants and closely side by side, at the heads ot 2l.400 uniform, well-kept graves. They all lie there, the officers in the middle. A great star of foliage plants separates the world of the dead from the world of the living. High above the graves flutters the Stars and Stripes. Sad indeed as is the thought that a whole army oi vigorous young boys here slumher in death, this cemetery has nothing gloomy about it. It is a bright and cheerful burial place.
 And the army of the dead has it's commander An American officer and his staff reside in the group or tidy houses opposite the entrance. ;o guard the resting place of their dead countrymen. One of them came for young man with wholesome ruddy .countenance. What had induced him to hide himself here in this solitude High pay? A sense of duty? Love for France? The last suggestion is not very plausible, for he does no, know a single word of French. In any case, his nerves must be sound else he could not live here day aft CT day, hour after hour, guarding the 2l,<oo graves, without soinl mad"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-20

when a teacher was found to under-I take what seemed an impossible task. This teacher, Miss Anne Sul- livan, began at once to talk into her pupils hand with her fingers.
 The first word Miss Sullivan spelled into her hand was "doll." the next word was "cake." The words were quickly spelled back, even before the little girl knew what they meant. Very soon, however, the spelled words with the hard lam guage were connected with 8 real doll and real cake. Within month she knew 80 words and could talk them back with her fingers. How few children of seven who see, hear and talk could do as well within the first month at school!
 AS soon as she grasped the thought that objects have names. she learned very fast. Within three months her vocabulary had increased to about 300 words and within year to 300 words.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-20

1 value of s3,0o0.O0O. He places III number of tennis balls at 1,560.oO' worth at present prices s1,00o,0o0. an the baseballs at million in numbe and in value paltry $500. 900.
 Can this be possible? Is it reasonl able to suppose that the comparative ly few golf links in the United state can vie in number of balls consumed not only by the leagues large an,| small, but also and especially by tn thousands, we would almost gues hundreds of thousands, of back lots and side yards. and streets, and fields and school grounds. and colleg grounds, and the noon hour plots 0 our industrial plants?
 Then league balls cost considerably .0 over the 50-cent average that M. Curtiss would establish, and if to re duce his general average to 50 centsl as we are inclined to believe. he would have to admit as baseballs thu small and cheap articles that woulo normally be termed as toys and sure ly by their multiplicity would raise the total estimate far beyond the one million mark. :.
 Then we fear Mir. Curtiss' figures are entirely too clean-cut and round Consumption does not work out to such smooth millions. It may be also that the gentleman's concern goes in stronger at present for golf balls and does not admit the production by others of the plebeian baseball.
 But baseball is, has been and we trust long will be our national pas time, and we are not prepared to &C., cept, without corroborative testimony under oath, that the figures an nounced are the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-20
EQUITY IN TROUSERS

Artbur H Folwell, in Leslies
 When liquor is seized in transit, the car, the boat or the truck on which it is loaded is also seized. Get ting the vehicle back, the owner finds. takes time and trouble. One of the laws latest wrinkles is to att tach the building in which liquor has been illegally sold or kept. thus giving the owner as we'll Sa as the leassee of the premises something to worry over. And right here our unruly mind gets curious. What about the peck flask, carried on the hip, if the hip pocket is part of a suit sold. and being paid for on the instalment plan'
 We have mentioned before, we think. the liability of trousers to seizure as vehicle, but the ques- ton of equity did not occur to us till now. Instalment clothing houses should look into this without deiay. If the police put lien on a pair or trousers because it is--or they-are being used as vehicle for the trans portaton of liquor, and said trous- CTS are part of suit costing S4o' on which only s6 has been paid, the loss falls heaviest on the merchant 10 whom s34 is still owing. lie has the most equity in them.
 Therefore, it behooves every deal- CT who sells on credit to follow up his suits as far as possible by pri- yate detective agencies to see that the trousers are not used Tn Vio- latiou of the Volstead law. Other wise. in the course of year, he may face. serious loss. If the po- [ lice can attach trucks. boats and houses. they can attach pants, and 1 pants on which there is first and perhaps a second mortgage will i cease to be desirable form of inr
 vestrnent. Perhaps the simplest way out will be to make instaiment gar ments without hip pockets.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-20
To Explore Amazon
By Science Service.

By Science Service.
 New York, June 19.--(Spe peeial )--To penetrate into regions of South Amer ica untrodden as yet by the scien- lists, to discover and collect plants, insects, fishes, and reptiles, and to study health conditions of the Anna zon region, are the objects of a party of eight men who are now sailing to- ward Antofagasta, Chile, to begin a tropical explorataion trip that will last until the middle of 1922.
 This expedition, backed by the H. K. Mulford company. is headed by pr. H. H. Rusby. dean of the college of pharmacy at Columbia university, who aspects p bring back at least 5000 species of plants, many of them new. Especial attention will be paid to medicinal plants which he will ob- tain in quantity, so that they may be studied in this country. Dr. William M. Mann of the bureau of entomology of the United States department of agriculture, and the national muse um, will collect insects and conduct extensive experiments with different insecticides and repellents in an at tempt to find an effective method of protecting travellers and natives from attack. Fishes of the Amazon will be collected and studied by pr. E. N. Pearson. Dr. o. E. White, a repre- sentative of the Brooklyn Botanic accompany the party to collect rare orchids that have made that region famous.
 Health, longevity. administration and sanitary progress. particularly as regards the American residents, will be studied by Dr. Frederick l.. Hoff- man, third vice president and statis- tician of the Prudential Life Insur- once company who has joined the ex- petition. G. s. McCarty, an expert rifleman, and two expert camera and motion picture men will complete the party.
 About July l they will reach La Paz, Bolivia and plunge into the for ests and jungles on the eastern slopes of the Andes. The City of Hanaos, Brazil, will be reached about Novem- Der of this year, when collections will be sent in Early In 1922, they will set out, ascending the Rio Negro and Rio Uaupes, and crossing at one point the trail of the famous Roosevelt ex- petition to the "River of Doubt"
 Perhaps no other expedition with the possible exception of Roosevelt's party has ever entered the South American tropics so well protected medically against levers, skin dis eases and the numerous tropical af- fections. Every member of the party has been vaccinated against smallpox, typhoid fever and pneumonia, and In addition they carry among other sup plies. large quantities of serums and medicines of all kinds. The most important among these Is anti-snake venom to counteract the poison of snake-bites, quantities of antidysen- teric serum, important in combating dysentery, which is so prevalent in the tropics and quinine to ward off everywhere present malaria.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-20
WHERE MISSISSIPPI LEADS

From the New Orleans Item.
 Mississippi leads the nation in the number of farms operated by ne- srocs. It has 157,o00 of them and 2e : 900 or more are operated by negroes who own them. Many of the state. which express so much sympathy for the southern negro just before na- tional elections couldn't produce lpO colored men who own their own farms. Their sympathy for down and-out colored man carries them no further than to call him mister and direct him to the nearest Salvation Army headquarters.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-20
Birmingham Leads in
 Building of Homes

mIRMINGHAM is pleased to lD learn that the city of Atlanta has had its "best single month" in building. Speaking of residential permits, the Constitution says:
 'Irrespective of apartment houses and business buildings, more than 400 permits for homes have been is sued by the building inspector this year. beginning with 42 in January and ending with 13o in May, which is the largest of any month in Il years"
 Had the Constitution been writing
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-20
sS.OOO SehoInrshin

MT. and Mrs. E. M. Grimsley of Fayette, Ala, have pledged s5,o00 scholarship to tho Birmingham Southern college" says pr. L. C. Branscornb. which means that long after they are dead their memory will be kept fragrant by the fact that their gift will be educating some worthy boy or girl. More and more our people are learning that one of the best ways to get continuous divi- dends on ones money is to invest 1t in a scholarship. Of course, Rev. J. l. Williams, the pastor of the generous couple is proud to have them as m embers of his church."
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-20
Hoke Smith Objects to
 Criticism of Georgia

TN an address before the Georgia J society in Washington, former Senator Hoke Smith protested against "the wholesale tirade against 'peonage'" in that state, (which has recently found its way into the press of the country" Mr. Smith declared that such criticism was "unwarranted and unjustifiable."
 It would be manifestly unfair to charge that the entire citizenship of Georgia is composed of negro bait CTS and lynchers, but the disclosures made in recent investigations and the testimony of the notorious Will Hams trial indicate that attacks on the persons responsible for such conditions are both warranted and justifiable. They reflect on Geor- gia and to some extent on the whole south. The indignation created in Georgia by stories of cruelty to negroes, as well as the courageous statements of Governor Dorsey, who was bitterly assailed for his plain speaking, show that the best people in Georgia do not countenance such practices. The condemnation of Georgia has never been general, ex- cept perhaps in some irresponsible publications in the north and east, which seize upon any opportunity to abuse the south.
 MT. Smith says a few technical cases of peonage have been found, but hurts his case considerably by admitting that farmers have been in the habit of paying the fines of ne- groes and working them until the amount of the fines was repaid. That is simply ease of tweedle- dunn and tweedledee. To all in- tents and purposes, it is peonage. Negro convicts worked in that way were at the mercy of their employer who could and did mistreat them in many instances. Some kind of con- trol was necessary to keep them at work and prevent them from run ming away. Stockades, chains and whippings were the inevitable re- suit of such practice, and farm CT whose greed was greater than his humanity would be apt to over work and underfeed his convicts. The discredited convict lease sys- tenn was bad enough, but the cor porations to which convicts were leased were at any rate held re- sponsible,< for their welfare and humane treatment, although this system, in spite of attempts to reg ulate it, led to many abuses.
 MT. Smith deserves credit for helping to abolish the convict lease system in Georgia, which has also been repudiated in Alabama, but Georgia should go step further and pass legislation to prevent the pay ment of fines for negro criminals by employers who hold them in vir- tual slavery.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-20

newspaper reporters. They should take into consideration the fact that MT, Descamps is a stranger in q strange land and also has a Gallic temperament.
 ,: # * Anti-tobacco crusaders should give a thought to the beautiful cigar store clerks7-the female variety--who would be thrown out of employment if smoking were made penal of fense
 young man in Washin gton state who says he intended to work his way through college by 'moonshin- ing" has been arrested and may never figure in the biography of self made man.
 The inability of republican referees in Alabama to get together is not causing any excitement among demo- cratic office holders who are slated to lose their jobs, anyhow.
 # < # It IS predicted nat New Yorks Fourth of July 'bo se parade" will be a failure It will fail to get results no matter how many thirsty mortals are in the line of march
 # * $:
 The discovery that Dantzig was manufacturing arms for Mexico should not have surprised the League of Nations. Human nature isn't to be made over in day.
 The attempt to put the lid on Montgomery will be watched with in- terest by state politicians who go there to rest and recuperate.
 < ;; < Peggy Joyce fled from photogra pher in New York. However, there must be at least 10000 photographs of Peggy in brisk circulation.
 2. * * The report that 1t cost Banker Still man S50o,00 to break" with Mrs.  Leeds is probably no exaggeration. Stage ladies come high.
 ;; # * Berlin's night life may be false gayety, but to an observer from France, England or America 1t looks like a good imitation.
 j. :* $ A band of boy robbers in New York claim to have gotten their idsa for career of crime from movie. Now let the reformers rage!
 s; x :s Considering the amount of money spent on congressional investigations, it is remarkable how few of them ever get anywhere.
 * $: x By sneaking out of America by the underground route" the lord mayor of Cork missed a farewell party at the pier.
 * $. *. Mme. Curie has at last eluded tho lien hunters by diving into Lake Michigan and swimming about for % minutes.
 srcn Wellesley as the result Of a poverty party wGlch be,ied it's name.
 IL may or may not interest the pub lie to know that Mr. Dempsey has a weakness for cherries.
 * x Ss It is claimed that stockings make it harder for beach beauties to swim. How many of them swim?
 g $ .' Colonel Harvey may eventually amend his statement that we were afraid not to fight.
 x xs :*
 It may be something in the cliate that causes Haiti to have so many revolutions.
 * * *
 If comet should happen to hit the earth full amidships it would set tie the Russian problem.
 |; j. x
 Disarmament makes slow progress, but we don't need anybody to tell us trat the gun tot.ng habit dies hard x x x
 The Greeks and Turks may have to nant without full attendance of war corraspc
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-20
SUN SPOTS GIVE EARTH A FEVER
Here ward

Hereward Darlington, Ph.D, In Leslie's.
 YN .ECTRICAL disturbances of un- I precedented magnitude swept G1 ocer the world a short time ago which completely disorgsnized the telegraph and telephone lines, and even the deep-sea cables. so they were unable to function properly for a number of hours. These disturb ances were associated with several enormous sun spots, which appeared at the same time. and also with magnificent aurora" which was seen flashing in the sky like beaii- tiful many -colored cloak.
 What was the connection between these electrical and magnetic dis turbances and the sun spots and the aurora in question: And just what are sun spots. and what Is the aurora?
 We do not know exactly what the sun is or how 1t maintains It's heat. Whatever its nature, however, we are certain that the sun emits light, heat and electrical waves; we also know to great extent, Its chemical structure. The sun appears to be a mass of flaming gases, at enor- nous temperatures. These Flames sometimes shoot outwards into space: and it has been calculated
  that these spurts of flame may be. op occasion. two and three hundred thousand miles high!
 One theory of sun spots is that they are rents in the outer cover ing of the sun, which thus allow us ta see into its darker interior through the brilliant "sheath sur
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-20
WHY DE AN ALDARMANr

From the Kansas City Times.
 What is this fuss in St. Louis over the discovery of 24.000 bottles of beer in an alderman's barn? Have St. Louis aldermen no privileges?