davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-20
~AoxNUaMaA1nsfI
A BUSY MAN
memory

{. Erom the Washington Star. These are strenuous times Tor the President. His callers are nu- merous and as a rule their business is urRent. He sees them all. hears them all, and considers what they lay before him,
 Then he has Congress on his hands. It was inevitable that the warning factions should seek his advice. They have probably done so none too soon. Differences of opinion on Capitol Hill are sharp just now. and there is work in plenty for a referee.
 Then he meets the members of his cabinet for consultations; and the af- fairs in their hands are always imr portant.
 His daily card. therefore. is crowded. Questions of all kinds foreign and domestic, are submitted to him. and decisions are expected promptly.
 Fortunately for MT. Harding, his party. and the country. he is strong man physically as well as otherwise and is of a temperament that ac- commodities itself to the situation that exists. He has patience. He is not easily confused or rattled. He listens well. When he speaks, it is te the point.
 The~pressure is steady. One day is ike another in its appeals anc anxieties. A President has no under study. He must puzzle out problems for himself, and tacnle them as the, come. and when. as at present, they tread upon each others heels, so fas they follow, he is the busiest man 1T the country.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-20
A BLOOD SACRIFICE

From the Pictorial Review.
 An extraordinary story has just come to light. Two brothers of Chinese decent recently met in New York. It was IS years since they had met. but all through these years one brother had been planning the other for what he de- clared was his brother's disregard vf his father and mothers memory. Eighteen years ago. the father of the two boys died in China and one of the sons who had by that time be- come successful San Francisco merchant. refused to pay his respects to the dead in a manner prescribed by Chinese custom. Although ap- pealed to, by cable and letter, sevral times to return to China to worship at his fathers tomb, the American ized brother declineds to have any thing to do with what he called an- cient superstition. The brother re- maining in China considered it his duty to appease his ancestral gods by blood sacrifice. This brought him to America and with characteristic Mongolian patience he waited his op- portunity to inflict terrible punish- ment upon his brother. Recently he met him in the Chinese quarter in New York city and lured him to an underground vault he had had espe- cially prepared for the occasion Hav- ing captured his brother, he pro- ceeded to carry out his long planned revenge in order that the spirits of
 his ancestors might rest peacefully. The whole lurid story has been writ ten up in detail by Achmed Abdullah In Pictorial Review for August.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-20

00 F AsHINGToN, July 1e.--(spe- MhW ciaI) "The n anne of the recent retreat of Gree k forces made possible an attack on Constantinople by the Turkish nationalists and raised the first grave. threat of drawing other Euro pean powers into the fray, would have appeared many times in heavy black headlines if the modern news paper had existed throughout his toric times" says a bulletin issued by the National Geographic society from It's Washington, D. C.. head quarters.
 "Ismids once important harbor Is now silted, and it's population is barely 10000. But before Constan- tinople was enlarged by Constantine the Great, Ismid-then Nicomedia-- was for time the capital of the Roman empire and the metropolis of the near east.
 "Situated at the head of the Gulf of Ismid which forms the sharp Asiatic end of the Sea of Marmora, and with high ground behind 1t, the town lay in the route of the natural highway from Syria, Persia, Mesopotamia and the entire near east to the Bosporus and Europe. In the old days camel caravans innumerable carrying the the riches.pf the east plodded around the end of the gulf, paused to pay commercial tribute to the strategical- ly situated city, and continued west along he low coast of the gulf for the 50 miles that separated Nicomedia from Byzantium and now separate Ismid from Constantinople. And when the steel highway and iron horse that were to connect Berlin ands Bagdad came to replace the more picturesque but less efficient camel and his dusty road the same natural path was utilized, and Ismid became a railway station
 Darius and his hosts swarmed through the site of the present Ismid 800 years before Christ to bridge the Bosporus and conquer Thrace and Macedonia. Xenophon and his 10000 Greeks passed through the place in their memorable retreat from Persia
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-20
* * * Home Building Pace Brisk in the East

@ OOD news from New York is NJ to the effect that home-build- ing has passed the $100,000,000 mark. It is announced by the presi- dent of the Borough of Manhattan that since February 25, this year, plans have been filed and construc- ton has begun for dwellings to house 20,S97 families during the same period last year.
 1t is encouraging to hear that the east has also started to build homes in earnest. Here in Birmingham we began in January with a substan- tial increase in home building over the preceding year and by the end of the first six months we had built and were building more than 700 homes, compared with less than 200 in the same period of the preced- ing year. We were housing just three and half times more fami- lies in the first six months of 1921 than in the first half of 1920.
 The Birmingham district has felt the effect of some of this eastern building in demand for our sani- tary pipe. Severse of the Alabama factories Have been catering to the eastern building trades.
 The merriest sound in the nation is that of the saw and the ham mer, just as the cheeriest note of pioneer days was the swish of the ax cutting down trees for the log cabins that sheltered the families of American pathfinders.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-20
ISMID, CITY WITH A PAST

to their homes. Near there the de- reated Hannibal, refugee from the Romans, committed suicide, and in villa close by Constantine the Great died. Force after force of crusaders held the town during the Middle Ages.
 From Nicomedia Diocletian di rected his implacable campaign of persecution against the Christians and later the first Christian em- peror, Constantine. governed from its palaces. Barely 20 miles to the south at Nicea the church council sat which framed the Nicene creed; and only a short distance to the west on the Ismid peninsula in 451 A. D. was held which the Armenians bolted to form the separate Armenian church, which, with the Roman Catholic. the Greek Catholic and the Protestant>churche helps make up the four major divi- sions of Christianity.
 History is closely repeating it-' self at Ismid. Just as the Turkish nationalists drove the modern Greeks from the town In recent weeks, so III 7S1 the Moslems, pushing far into the Aslatic territory of the Byzantina Greeks, defeated their armies -at Nil comedia and camped on the east bank of the Bosporus. The Empress Irene ransomed the city and the other oc- cupied territory. But the Moham- medans slowly encroached, and in 1888 Nicomedia fell permanently into the hands of the Turks. It remained a threat to Constantinople until 1453 when the threat was made good, and Constantinople became Stamboul and the church of Sanota Sophia Mohammedan mosque.
 ''The Ismid/ of today has little to remind the observer of it's glorious history. An old Greek acropolis, flanked by Roman and Byzantin. towers is about the only remaining link with it's opulent past, The iron and wood caravans of the Bagdad railway do not need to pause in Ismid as did the camel trains. and its toll from commerce has dwindled away. To it the world no longer looks either for creeds or the treas ures of Araby-only for a modes. supply of silk cocoons, >tobacco and forest products"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-20
LETTERS TO EDITOR
Effects of Prohibition

To the Editor of The Age Herald:
 note how your chief of police goes Gas Mark Twain used to say) incoming along" playing the game of the westerville (O.) Republican Annex. the tricky. two-faced political organization so forcibly denounced by our splendid leader. Hon. James NJ Cox.
 The cleaning up and improved llv- ing conditions in the country are due solely to the vigorous, impressive campaign for knowledge and better living inaugurated by the democratic party under the leadership and direc- tlon of ex-President Wilson! A mo- ment's thought will bring this truth home to the consciousness of every fair minded man in this country. But so many people do not want to give Woodrow Wilson credit for anything
 Here is the proof: Cleveland, O., and Pittsburg, Pa, are, Including territory about Pittsburg not taken into the city as yet, of practically the same size. Cleveland has been called "dry" for two years. All know the record of that city for crime, law-breaking. vice and crime.
 On the other hand Pittsburg has never been dry. Beer, wine and whisky have been openly sold. Wet Plttsburg.
 Yet Pittsburgs record for decency, crime, etc, is white compared with Cleyeland
 This proves my statement. The great thing that prohibition has done Is breed contempt and hatred of law, change a nation of people from drinkers of healthful beer and wine into a nation of whisky drinkers, heap up taxation, put a premium on snooping, spying and sneakism, and make our claim of free country collosal joke! All to please the bunch of fanatics, the Republican Annex, known as the Anti-Saloon league,
 W. L. SMITH.
 The Tutwiler, Birmingham. July fSA 1921.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-20
kIPPs

Humbert Wolfe. in the London Na- tion. Don't flash your bull's-eye on me.
 I'm all right, l shant do nothing wrong-nor I'm
 not lost Nor drunk. You've seen me ere be-
 fore at night? ~ Quite likely! We'll who am I? I'm 2
 ghost Haunting? We'll. 'ardly (Hardly I
 should say) But as to bein' dead, we'll. who'll deny He'll not come back again. not Folke-
 stone way Art Kipps-the shop assistant-who
 was I? You'd 'ardly guess how lonely Heaven
 can be, Constable-for chap who has no use For all this business of immortality And those dark trees in the long
 avenues! It's like a church-only this differ
 ence: The saints 'as left the windows. and
 the bells Are always ringing, and you've got
 the sense That all you see and ear means some
 thing else: I'm puzzled in Heaven. See? l am.
 It's not What I've been used to. Makes mo
 want to come Badly--to see poor Buggins and his
 lot Tidying up the old Emporium.
  I've thought of them when swells
 with some great name Awe spoken to nle-not that they aSe But swells and me can never be the
 same: I want to be along of my old crowd. My sort don't suit with immortality. 1t hurts, does living after deathv-ite
 wrong IT want to rsst with other chaps iiAe Must you be soings Well, old chap- se long.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-20
< *' x
Same Rates Eastward
 As From the East '

rIT1 HERE is no reason why >Bir- Il mingham should not have the water rates to the eastern ports and interior points by the Warrior barge line and the Mallory steamships it has by the same route in this di- rection. The southbound rates were declared April 15. Efforts to have the northbound rates promulgated are still without effect.
 It is difficult for the public to un- derstand this discrepancy. The ve- hicle of transportation to the north is the same as that southward, and it is no harder to carry burdens go- ing north than coming south. There is precisely the same machinery and the same method and personnel for handling the goods one way as the other.
 The southbound rates were se- cured after years of effort and were obtained finally after Frederick l.. Thompson, Alabama member of the shipping board, intervened and con- ferred with representative of the rail carriers and the steamship line. He will be requested to exercise his good offices again, and there is lit- tie doubt that he will do so.
 The water rates to the eastern seaboard are sorely needed at this particular time by the Birmingham iron interests, which were wont to do business of 100000 to 250,OOO tons per annum with the east, but are now shut out by rail rate o1 $1O.26, compared with former one of about $6. If the water rates. to the east are made the same as from the east Birmingham iron will gel to the east at $2 under the present rail rate, which would be con. siderable help in dull market.
 Nr. Thompson is known to be alert and efficient. It is confident Y sxpected that he will succeed thil
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-20
Hoover Believes iR
 Ability to Recuperate

1T N advising against urging pay ll ment of interest on the war debt owed us by European nations, Sec retary Hoover relies on the human power of recuperatior. In that he is justified by all records of his tory.
 Germany was "a waste after the Thirty Years war, closing in 164s, with the loss of 10,O0O,000 human beings, devastated cities and ruined fields. In less than a generation it was prosperous again and rising in power and influence. The low countries were drained of blood and money by Ava and his bloody suc- cessors, but emerged with an inde- pendent state and in few years were richer than ever.
 Addressing the merchants from over the country assembled at the Shoe and Leather Exposition style show in Boston last week, and re- ferring to the inadvisability of pressing distressed nations for i'm mediate payment of their debts, MT Hoover said:
 I am confident that our debtors
 can eventually carry the debt due
 to use with ease. provided they
 have the time necessary for the
 healing of their economic
 wounds; that they may succeed
 in the reorganization of their
 fiscal policies so as to balance government expenditure, and, above all, that they secure dis armament and a continued peace.
 Before the war the world car ried debt to a single European
 nation of twice the size of our foreign claims without knowing it, and, with renewed growth of the worlds commerce and wealth. our debt will be no bur- den. Our problem, is the'1diffi- culties of our debtors during the few years until these blessings
 are attained.
 Humanitarianism and good busi- ness go hand in hand. MT. Hoover states no new truth, but one that needs to be repeated now and then.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-20
THOSE YOUNG GIRLS AGAIN
Senator Reed: My cake is dough.


 From the Pictorial Review.
 It is the fashion for everybody just now to state that the up to date young lady Is on a swift descent to the lower regions. The majority of pieople say that she is merely conn bination of jazz, cosmetics and in- sufficient clothes. Chaperones tell .us that her mind is bounded on the north by fashions, on the south by slang. on the west by dancing and on the east by flirtations.y She is the de- spair of her parents. the abomination of her aunts, and the joy of the male youth of her own age. Mrs. Grundy holds her hands up in horror at the wsvwardness of the girl of today. Is she worse than the girl of yesterday. or merely different? Is her modern carelesE way a disregard of hypoc- risy? Is her frankness based on bravado or is it an indication of her truthfulnessc Which way is she head ing. up or down? Helen Ferris in studying the situation has looked be- meath the plucked eyebrows and has discovered that the head of the flap per is not as empty as it seems. Mrs. Ferris inflicts a we'll merited rebuke on the suspicious Mrs. Grundy ana quotes instance after instance to prove that though fashions may change and manners. too. the only way the modern girl has changed is for the better. No mother or teacher or settlement worker should miss Mrs. Ferris article in Pictorial Re- kxisw for August.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-20
Discussing the Bonus

From the Baltimore American. Senator Reed (opening figh against recommitting the bonus bil by picturing MT. Harding adorned il the horns and hoofs of Mr. Wilson,
 Why, man, he doth bestride the world like a Colossus, and we petty men walk under his huge legs and peep about to find our selves dishonorable graves! The fault, Mir. President Is not in our stars. but in ourselves, that we are underlings.
 Senator McCumber (refusing t, stray off into the trap set by MT Reed): W
 Senators, countrymen and sol diers hear me for my cause and be silent that you may hear. Who is here so base that would be a bondman? If any speak, for him have l offended. I come to recommlt the bonus not to kill it. I pause for reply.
 Senator Reed:
 When love begins to sicken and decay it useth an enforced cere- mony. There are no tricks in plain and simple faith. I'd rather be dog and bay the moon than re- commit the bonus. l am no ora tor as McCumber Is. but, as you know me all. @ plain, blunt man, who loves this bill. Senator Watson dnterrupting)
 And oftentimes, the instru- T o,-Iy fol trt, win us with hpest trifles. only to betray us in deepest conse- quence. If we recommit this bill it will be dead forever. Senator Harrison Gin a satirica aside) Letting q dare not" wait upon q would" like the poor cat in the adage.
 Senator McCumber;
 I still have the floor. Senator Reed:
 Delay means death. Mellon as good as said so.
 Senator McCumber: He did not say so.
 Senator Reed:
 Angels and ministers of grace defend us, Be thou spirit of health orr goblin damned, bring with thee airs from Heaven or blasts from hell, be thy intents wicked or charitable, thou eomest in such Questionable shape that I will speak to thee. I'm tired of being called liar. Senator McCumber;
 Come outside when it pleasest thee.
 Senator Reed:
 There is no terror William, In - your threats. for I am armed so strong in honesty they pass me by as the idle wind, which I re- spect not.
 Thunder booms and lightning flashes through the Senate sky light)
 Senator Penrose (yawning): Let's call it a day. (The vote is taken.)
 L'envoi--
 Senator Reed:
 My cake is dough.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-20
ADRIFT WITH THE TIMES
HERE'S MARY AGAIN.

HERE'S MARY AGAIN. Mary had a little skirt
 As short as short could be, And everywhere that Mary went It showed her dimpled knee.
 Macon Telegral h. Mary had a little skirt, The shortest she could find, And seeing her we wept to think That some poor chaps were blind. For everywhere that Mary went The skirt was sure to go And all the multitude could say Was simply, "Ah" and "Ohp
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-20
APPROPRIATING GEORGE ,m the Arkansas Gazette.

At the unveiling in Trafalgar Square in London of a bronze copy o& the Houdon statue of George Wash ington. Lord Curzon said George Washington was the greatest Eng lishman of all time.'' The day may come when America will have to fight the British to keep them from taking our George Washington away from us
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-20
Do His own Choosing

Already 1 have been told who to vote for for city commissioner by my different friends" said Eugene Johns- ton, who will cast his first vote in the coming city election. T have all ready learned that 8 lot of folks want office, and hence 1t would be unwise to pledge ones self until they are all in the race, and you know which you really prefer out of the bunch.
 "I am going to try and make my first vote a good one, and have made up my mind to pick for myself Man or woman I am going to vote for the five whom I think will"make the best commissioners"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-20
RATHER MILD AFFAIR.


 Was the last municipal campaign in Chiggersville a lively one?"
 'No,' ,'r~said Squire witherbee, T can't say 1t was as lively as some political fights we've had here in tn old town"
 "The candidates didn't indulge in personalities?"
 None to speak of. The Hon. Jas per suggs. who was candidate for mayor, called the Hon. Cicero Filli- kins, who was tn rival candidate, pillager of widows an orphans, white-livered skunk an Appeared hound, an Fillikins told tn voters1 \ that suggs was wolf in sheep's' clothing, an a ginssoaked, booze- guzzling political turncoat. but out side of few little pleasantries like that, it was one of tn quietest cam paigns we ever had in Chiggersville.'
 ONE HUNDRED PER CENT
 DO you still believe this is free country?
 Certainly, sir. certainly" replied Mir. Bibbles, with some heat. Its true that have applied for pass port to Europe. and If had my way I'd never come back, but I yield to no man in admiration of my native land, even though I hate like the dickens to live In 1t.
 TOO MUCH FOR HER.
 There was 6 fat woman standing in the lobby when the bank was robbed. Why didn't she scream?'
 "she was overcome by flattery. One of the robbers said, Keep still, little girl.'" PAUL COOK.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-20
Splendid Highway

The Montgomery highway to the top of Shades mountain is one of the most beautiful roads I have ever travelled" declared Mrs. H. E, Schae- fer of Louisville, Ky, who is here on a visit. T had considered some of our Kentucky roads to be in fine shape, but the smooth surface of the paving which has been built to the top of the mountain is superior to anything in the vicinity of Louis- ville.
 This roadway Is certainly a monu- ment to the foresight of the engineer and officials who were responsible for its construction. The scenery along either side is as beautiful as mountain scenery in other parts of the south, in my opinion"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-20
HOW TIT HAPPENED

From the Louisville Courier Journal.
 The St. Louis Post Dispatch finds Missouri farmer who got a net re- turn of 27 cents Swhen he shipped four calves to market. In that case the farmer held the bag. the net held the farmer, the middleman held the net and bagged the cash of the con sumer.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-20

A FoREGoNE CONCLUSION. T never will deceive my wife" Remarked young Charley Pill. Said one who'd seen bit of life, My son, you never will"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-20
Old Sweethcnrtn

Speaking of old sweethearts," said Frank K. West. "The other day I visited my old home in a small town in south Alabama. Tn fact the town was just large enough to sup port a picture show, so my mother and I went to this only place of amusement. I had only been there a short time when In walked my first love! I hadn't seen her or thought of her in years, and she had been married for a long time, but I can tell you my heart went pit-a-pat.
 "It is a real pleasure to return to the old home once again, see your first sweetheart and talk over the days when you went footed"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-20
WHY HE BACKED OUT

From the PittsburE Dispatch.
 Sir. James Craig has the attitude of one who fears he may be the Wood row Wilson of thi5 conference.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-20
MUSICAL COMEDY.

MUSICAL COMEDY.
 Does an organst in movie the- atre have to have a sense of humor" Not necessarily keen sense Of humor. If he can just remember to play a funeral march when 8 mar riage is performed in film comedy that's about all the management ex- poets of him."
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-20

time as he did in having the south bound rates declared.