davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-05
Caruso,s Appreciation

When I read Dolly Dalrymple' S story In Thursdays Age-Herald about Carusos Hospitality and cordiality to her when she was in New York, was remined of such sweet thing that happened to me in regard to Caruso last winter" said Miss Mattie Lou Brown, director of the voice department of the Womens college at Columbus, Miss, who is visiting her sister Mrs F. E. McNeely, here.
 We were all so distressed over the great tenors illness and when he recovered l, like Dolly, wrote him a letter conveying the warm personal regards of myself and the several hundred girls in the college, for his speedy recovery, and what do you supposed happened2 Mrs. Caruso an swered the letter herself, and said 'Enrico as she referred to him, had asked her to do so, and tell me how greatly he appreciated our thought fulness and that he hoped sincerely some day he could sing at 'the col lege for US.
 He said it touched him very deep ly-our thought of him-and that he was especially pleased at receiving a letter from unknown friends way down south. Truly he was correctly called the golden-voiced and golden hearted Caruso'"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-05
LETTERS TO EDITOR
JUSTICE TO OUR HEROES

To the Editor of The Age Herald.
 By going in the army and navy during the war and helping save and defend our nation, over 30,000 of Ala bama's youths lost their political rights. Is not that a remarkable documentary on our patriotism? Some of the states paid the bonus right through the war, every month a check arrived for s1O or so to even up for the loss the boys were sus- and the boys came back home there were more favors done them, more bonuses paid them, and all their po- litical rights were, of course, safe guarded. Everywhere the soldier boys seem to have been looked after except in Alabama. We paid them nothing while they were in the army, we paid them nothing after they came out of the army; some of us are even protesting against the federal government paying them anything; and we made a bluff at protecting their votes, the result being that these soldier boys are sw disfran- chised, and as helpless as an alien to say how this state that they went to war to fight for shall be run or governed.
 What are the people going to do about it. The politicians have messed 1t up. Have not the people, the com mon people, something to say? Will they stand for this botch? Every soldier ought to have been granted life certificate, entltling him to vote henceforth without any poll tax Ala bama's legislators were not gener- ous enough to do that; they merely undertook to exempt them for year or two, and even that poor acknowl- edgement was so stupidly handled that the boys were deprived of their votes. In other words, by relying or the generosity of their legislators the boys have lost rather than gained. Many of the boys came up at poll tax time and offered their taxes. but acting on instructions from the probate judge and elections officials the money was turned down, and the boys were actually treated as badly thereby as if a statute had been passed disfranchising them.
 Surely the rank and file of the people will rise in their might and demand of the governor that he call special session or whatever is nec- essary to undo this great wrong that has been committed. Alabama needs the votes, she needs the interest, she needs the cooperation of these SOL dier boys, who are the very cream of our citizenship, and yet are the most neglected. It is an honor to be an American citizen. Everyone should live up to the dignity of such honor. MRS H. SWOPE.
 Birmingham, August 8, 1921.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-05
THIS IS RUSSIA

From the Philadelphia Public Ledger. A peasants cart dragging weariiy under burning sun. Flat lands cracked open by heat and drought with dead grain stalks withered and dry in the sun. Emaciated bodies ly- ing by the roadside. Black wings circling in the brassy sky overhead.
 More carts,l many, many carts at a river bank at sundown. What need of campfires when there is no food? The river is wide, but off acros the Nolga to the southwest somewhere, weary versts away, are the domcs and minarets of Moscow. More bod ies, some cholera smitten. Back to the east and northeast other carts come crawling across a dead land slow procession. One must go some- where.
 A dead village, utterly cleaned out. Street Uttered with broken jars, bot ties, rags. rubbish. A few dead foll, in the doorways. The wave of hum ger and mad has come. The villag- CTS had fought for their food stores. Those not dead are driven like dry leaves in hot wind.
 Multiply these things by thou sand villages until they cover an area as great as all the United States east of the Mississippi It is even greater.
 Look east and north from Moscow Up there along the Volga twelve dl- visions of infantry and two of cav airy wait to shoot down the hunger driven as they come. Will there be cartridges enough? Will the sabers grow so dull that they will be mere metal bludgeons?
 In Moscow men plot how they may live fatty through and gain more power from the misfortunes of the dying and the bones that will whiten the landscape when spring comes again. They claim to be the true disciples of the Brotherhood of Man" They have their troops on the Rumanian and Polish frontier S to strike at the Europe that is now taking from its scanty stores to he;p them There are 100000 Red troops in Georgia and Armenia alone.
 They must ride in armored trains. loaded with bayonet-carrying guards, when they travel to the edge of the onward rolling mass of~ hunger stricken. The instinct of the dying tells them that these men are the causes of their helplessness.
 pasant dying in a withered fieid A fanatic studying a map and dreac1- ing of the red fires of> world revolu- tion. vulture wheeling, slow winged, overhead. This is Russia in 1921.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-05
Americans Held in Russia
 Have All Been Released

TIT was announced yesterday by J the London headquarters of the American relief administration that all American prisoners held in Russia had been released and are now leaving the country.
 Presumably arrangements are under way to expedite the transpor- tation of food and medical supplies into Russia. Fortunately for the Russian masses who are in the grip of famine and pestilence, the relief administration is already function ing, is provided with sufficient funds and stores to save the Russian people, or at least, large numbers of them, and has merely been wait ing for an agreement to be reached with the soviet authorities to begin its humane work.
 With the victims of bolshevist stupidity and cruelty in Russia the American people have deep sym pathy, and there will be general sat- isfaction in this country when some of the horrors there have been lessened by the efforts of the relief administration which has made re- markable record of efficiency wher- ever it has been permitted to op- crate.
 Senator France, who has recent ly returned from short stay in Russia, says political and eco- nomical conditions are improving. and while there is no reason to question his sincerity, his state ments will be received with skepti- cism. It is manifestly impossible to gain complete knowledge of the situation in a country as. large as in few weeks. A great deal of the news" from Russia and many of the reports made by indi- viduals have been misleading, but there can be no doubt of .ne fact that millions of Russians are facing death by starvation and disease. Everyone admits that, including the soviet authorities, who made the admission when they agreed to ac-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-05
ANOTHER .FAGFAN. STORY

From the Pittsburg Dispatch.
 The public has become more or less familiar with the commercial crime organizations of New York. but the statement which virtually amounts to a confession by young man under arrest at Conshohocken may startle by the charge laid against Philadelphia. It is famil- iarity with the modern commercial model of crime which prepares the public to at least listen to the story of boy of 20 who declares himself one of 10 others of about the same age who have been trained in bur giary by an older man in Philadei- phla. A long series of successful robberes in and around Consho- hocken and other towns is said 70 have been the work of this class of intensively drilled youngsters. The boy held at Conshohocken explains that all of his preceptor's enter prises are planned for towns within easy riding distance of Philadelphia which are reached always by the last night trains.
 The youthful prisoner naively ex- plains to the Conshohocken police that the teacher has always "helped' his students out when arrested, but for some reason he cannot guess seems to have neglected >hm. lie adds that if assistance doesn't reach him soon he will tell story that will involve many and prove a sem sation. If there is grain of truth in the confession. tho commercial criminal is growing into d worse danger than many believed possible.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-05
Deflation Appears to Have
 Reached the Last Stage

~AAON NAh> AeNASA AAD 7H HERE are many signs to show U that deflation has run its course. This is not true of all ar ticles, and never has been so in price fluctuation, but deflation has pro- gressed far enough to justify con- fidence in future purchasing.
 When the American Woolen com pany opened for the spring season of 1922 a few days ago, prices ruled as high as fall prices, domes- tic woolens remaining on the same level and foreign woolens slightly above the fall prices.
 The New Yorq Daily News com mented as follows:
 Perhaps one of the most inn
 portant results of the opening is
 the seeming definite assurance
 that the liquidation in the busi-
 ness has been more thorough
 and complete than the advocates
 of this had dared hope in such
 complete sense.
 The deflation in iron and steel has about run its course. Renewed activity in the Youngstown and Pittsburg districts at steel works shows a pronouncedsydisposition on the part of the purchaser to accept present prices and to re-enter the market for a large tonnage. In numbers of lines underproduction has caused depletion of stocks. The incoming crop yield is almost at hand. The farmers will sell rather than attempt holding this year, and their money will soon en- ter the channels of trade.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-05
x x
Des Moines Is Deprived
 of Trolley Car Service

1MES MONIES, Iowa, is the < lO only city of it's size in the zUnited States without trolley car Htransportation. When traffic was lsuspended by federal court decree, because the car company could not meet its obligations, there was a wild scramble to find substitute for trolley cars. Motor vehicles there were in abundance, but that sort of transportation when it isn't regulated and systematized is f'confusion worse confounded," as the citizens of Des Moines soon dis lowered.
 z Nevertheless, Des Moines now offers an excellent opportunity for the motor bus theorists to put their theories into practice and prove bheir contention that the trolley car Is obsolete. The jitney is not a
 satisfactory and dependable substi- alte for trolley cars and never will
 e, for reasons that are obvious,
 hiefly on account of it's limited passenger capacity. It requires a dozen jitneys to do the work of a single standard trolley car, and enough jitneys to take the place of large traction system would leave but little room on the, streets for other vehicles.
 The motor bus has one great ad- vantage over the trolley car. It can be rup on paved streets, or roads, without expensive tracks and overhead wires.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-05
ORIGIN OF POLKA-DoT

From the New York World.
 Viscount Northcliffe need no long CT wonder how the polka dot" of which he heard for the first time last week. though he has been wear ing polka-dots for years, got it's name. Here's the answer:
 Three quarters of a century ago a Bohemian peasant dance called the polka swept the old world and then the new, creating as much of sem sation as the one-step and the fox trot ,of our own day.
 Every one talked of the polka. The Presidents name was Polk. and there were many plays upon the names. Just then some enterprising manufac- turer got out new style of silk dark fabric with contrasting spots The new fabrics, worn by the Nash ionables dancing the polka, became polka dots" just as later we had Merry Widow hats and Alice Blue costumes, on so on. There were polka shoes" polka gowns" and all sorts of polka things.
 This information for Lord North cliffe (who is girdling the globe for information) came to The World from Mir Ditchett, editor of Dry Goods Economist-and as capable an editor in his line as Northcliffe in his own; from Herman Bergman of Bergman & Alder haberdashers of this city, and from Joseph T. Foxoe, haber- dasher of Troy.
 What ho, Milford.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-05

portation are being sounded as never before in this country. It is no longer the case of a few river steamers on the Mississippi and the other inland streams with small capital backing them and capable of moving only a small tonnage. Now it is one of great steamship in- terests and the inland waterways, with whose fortunes they have be- come linked.
 Lines of freighters are plying regularly between the Pacific and eastern seaboards, making stops going and coming at the southern Atlantic and gulf ports. The strong est industrial concern in this country, the Steel Corporation, has a fleet of thirty-three freighters of the most modern type and of 10000 tons capacity, each available both for coastwise and export trade. One of these ships has already made voyage to the Pacific coast with Birmingham steel products and another is loading at Mobile.
 The eyes of the nation have been opened to the business that can be done by ships passing through the canal from coast to coast and by such streams as the Warrior meet ing them at port terminals and their cargoes inland.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-05
SIVAS A TEMPORARY CAPITAL

R0 R WASHINGTON, August 4.-
 W\W (Specisl.)-"If the so-called
 Angora government of the Turkish natlonalists has left Angora and shifted it's capital to sivas, as dispatches state. following the defeat of its armies by the Greeks in Asia Minor. 1t has truly moved into the Turkish back country" says a bull letin from the Washington, D. C., headauarters of the National Geo. graphic society. Tn fact it might almost be said to have moved from the twentieth century into the thir- teenth. Angora is the rail head of the only steel highway that pene- trates northern Asia Minor. Beyond this outpost of the age of machinery the country is wholly dependent for transportation on the camel and other beasts of burden, operating over roads that are far from good. Sivas lies more than POO miles east of Angora and over 100 miles south Of the Black sea.
 The city exists, however, in a re- zion that reached very high state of development long before the smoke of puffing locomotives ever darkened an Asian landscape. and it is no mean city. as cities go in its part of the world. It is credited with a popu- lation of 65,000, and is therefore of about the size of Little. Rock, Ark, and Sacramento, Cal, cities with which it, has the further point in common that it is the capital of a state or vilayet.
 "Sivas is situated on high plateau which Is bleak and even frigid in winter when the blasts from the steppes of central Asia swirl around and over the Caucasus and give the region climate comparable to the snow-swept plains of Russia. But it Is by no means waste country. The grain of the plateaus of the vilayet of Sivas and the fruits from it's val leys help to feed the less favored sections of T'nrkev It is rich in copper, iron, coal and other valuable
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-05
x x x
Bifmingham's Record
 in Building Homes

56, IRMINGHAM has reason to ID take pride in the home build ing record of her citizens.
 In the seven months of this year permits were issued for $50 homes at total valuation of $1,81S,00O, compared with 476 at valuation of $l,419,o0o in the entire year of 1920.
 Compared with the $50 homes built in the first seven months of this year, 226 were built in the same period of 1920. We have built nearly four times the number of Aomes this year that we did in the
 ahne time in 1920. ' x Our total building record for the Seven months is 2,113 permits, with a valuation of s3,4S9,O ,OoO, compared with 2,513 permits and valuation of s2,4o4,Ooo in the same period of 1920.
 In other cities, Atlanta, for exam 8ple, larger amount of money has kone into construction, but no city
 tside of Houston, Tex, in the Btire sixteen southern states has
 bilt homes at the Birmingham }pace of 1921.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-05
Growth of Domestic
 Traffic by Water

A MOTHER important angle A of the Mississippi Warrior Transportation business was noted this week when barges on that line brought goods to Mobile, which were there transferred to coastwise steamers for Pensacola and other northern Florida water points.
 3 The coastwise ships established a lspecial rate, which, combined with 3that of the differentials incident to carriage by the Mississippi Warrior barge line, make total saving of 's0 pr cent over the all-rail rate.
 The possibilities of water trans
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-05
IN A HOSPITAL

Erene E. Angleman. in the New York Times. Day after day they come to me and
 say: You ~ill be better; you are strong
 today" And then they turn and bring me
 dishes fraught With love and science. tender care
 and thought. And cunning drinks and flowers
 whose fragrant bloom Throw rainbow colors round my
 bare-walled room. And IT laugh and take the things,
 they bring, Though I have felt the sable of his
 wing. . For once. on walking swiftly from
 my sleep, saw their unveiled eyes and knews
 the deep. Yet day by day we play our little The while they use all efforts known
 to fame. smile, and smiling let them have
 their way. Dear God. how precious grows life's
 little clay. I find myself long dwelling on faces To hold its human beauty. gsntl6
 grace, Long looking into keen and skillfuf
 eyes, So deft in hiding death, and deaths
 surprise. And all the dear familiar things that In life 50 common grow like ea =
 dream, Until apart I watch the world gO Dy And marvel that my lips should
 make no cry. do not think the waiting will be
 long. Though brave the fleshs the spirit
 grows more strong. And while my life is dear, ah. God.
 how dear I lift my lips to kiss the sable near So when at dawn they find me. they
 shall go And say, Thank God, thank God. she
 did not know
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-05
ADRIFT WITH THE TIMES

THE RED" AwAKEs. Blood and thunder, Rend asunder!'
 Cried the joyous boIshevik While we're footing. Burning, shooting,
 All the bourgeoisie are sick. Comrades. pillage Town and village,
 spread the terror far and wide; Did not love us,
 Now we'll crush them in their
 pride" Devastation .' Held the nation
 In it's bolshevistic thrau; / Wheels stopped turning, Workmen earning
 "Pshaw" they said. why work
 at all?"
 Thus cavorted, Whooped and snorted
 Through this stricken land the
 red"
 Now he's crying, Millions dying ~ Save us! Save us! Give us breadi'
 THEN HE STROLLED OUT. I'm waiting for my wife" said the bold, bad man to an attractive young woman he met in a department store. Yes?
 Are you shopplng?" No"
 Have you any particular place to go just now?"
 No"
 Couldn't we-er-become better acquainted?"
 We could. but don't think it will be necessary if you'll behave your self, I'm the store detective"
 THE PROFESSOR ABROAD. I'm on the wrong car" said the absent-minded savant to tn. conduc- tor, but put me off as near as vou can to the museum of natural bi.- tory.'
 There's no such place in this city. sir"
 "Dear me! I'm in the wrong town"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-05
LoOKERs-ON IN GEORGIA

From the Dahlonega (Ga) Nugget.
 Too many fellows in this town like to stand around and grunt while the other man lifts.
 solieitously, inquire as to their plans and wishes and all during their stay lavish upon them those friendly and unselfish attentions which are at the. root of human friendship
 This is pretty large order, espe- cially in the case of hotel capaple of accommodating 1000 guests To make them all feel intimate at home a whole army of bustling humanlzers would be required. There is' no douDt' somethingIin the idea worth consider ing. The atmosphere of some hotels seems to the incoming stranger to be charged with armed neutrality. He has to fight or tip" his way to what he wants. This sort of thing should be remedied. if only as matter of
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-05
A Bigger Chamber

We are headed to early and bet ter times" said 0. l.. Bum, secretary of the Chamber of Commerce. "Only blind man will dispute and deny the signs. The crops will soon begin moving and iron and steel show a marked improvement.
 "We already have a fine chamber with 2,3oO members. The past year was a good one from an inside build ing up standpoint. We are going to make this really progressive year. Our slogan is 5000 members, and we are going to get them. We say 5000 membership, and that is exactly what we mean Watch the dial going up this early fall and winter"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-05
How He Keeps Cool

When l say that l do not suffer from the heat, but enjoy 1t, l am tell- ing the exact truth" said l.. P. Hill. editor of the Ensley Enterprise. "I do nothing calculated to make my body hot. My breakfast is hot wa ter milk and sugar; baby diet. if you chose to so call it, but health- ful and cool one just the same.
 T seldom eat meat and I use the dumb bells every morning of my life. My other constitutional is daily swim in East Lake. I do not smoke. chew tobacco or drink liquor. Neither do I shove cold drinks bearing stimulants into my body
 Whether my habits have to do with it or not. the fact remains that I was comfortable throughout the severe hot spell in spite of the two hundred and odd pounds which I carry about with me-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-05
Coal Business Improving

Yes, the coal business is better; not by any leaps and bounds, but better than. it was.' said A. w. Nogtle, traffic manager of the Corona Coal company.
 The bunker business is picking up at the gulf ports and, with crops soon coming in and larger move ments by ships, the business will be better still.
 "of course, there is always a big ger business in the fall than in spring and summer. but fine crops this year make it look really bright in some respects. I have an idea that there will be less hoardng of farm products this year and quick CT sales. That will bring crop money into early use and benefit all"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-05
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
 AND ELSEWHERE
Bridge, Basebnll or Footballf


 When the news flashed over the wires that MT. and Mrs. Ty Cobb an nounced the birth of another son yesterday, Sez l to myself sez I, pears to me like that completes a baseball nine," said Henry Vance, the "Old Town Pump" Which re- minds me that some big guy things it was Dr. Elliott of Five Foot Book Shelf fame said that families ought to be regulated in numbers so that four, nine or eleven would be the most popular number of children, then thered always be enough for a bridge game, q baseball game, or a football team"