davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-09

posing buildings. France spent 500,o00 pesos to give her repre- sentatives adequate accommoda- tions and the British and Italian elaborate quarters. Right across the street from the American em- bassy is building twice as large and handsomely furnished which is occupied by the Cuban legation.
 The same state of affairs pre- vails to greater or less degree in every world capital where the United States maintains diplomatic representatives who are not able to supplement the government ap- propriation from their private means. It has created wonder and astonishment abroad, made all the more pronounced by the realization that the United States, the richest nation in the world, where millions are squandered for other purposes, could well afford to be generous to- ward it's diplomatic representatives.
 It is impossible for an American to accept the more important dip lomatic posts unless he is rich. Ordi- narily that might cause less able men to fill these positions, but for tunateiy we have usually been able to find men of capacity, who are also blessed with considerable share of worldly goods. One of the complaints made by Walter Hines Page in his letters now being pub lished in Worlds Work is against the niggardly policy of the American government in this respect.
 A fitting place of residence should be provided everywhere the United States government has a foreign representative. In course of time Washington may realize the ad- vantage of being more liberal to- ward it's diplomats and treating them more in accordance with their own and the nations dignity.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-09
PIGS PAY THE RENT

From the Manchester Guardian.
 Quaint though they seem, the rents, customs and services paid to the Prince of Wales at Launceton were once common enough all over Eng land. and 1t would be easy to show many parallels for Lancashire and Cheshire. In the fourteenth century in Cheshire rent in kind was often paid in sparrowhawks. barbed arrow heads. pepper. gloves and especially in pigs.
 Arrowheads would be useful, but e large rent roll of the other things might be inconvenient. They were. therefore. sold. and the relative values are interesting The sparrow hawks were worth about 25 cents, the gloves cents pair and the pepper about 20 cents pound. Pigs, of course. vary in size and weight and must have given rise to contro- versies between bailiffs and tenants. Some approach to a standard size was uouUSicsS ooeoAHee, anu the pikS are usually described as reason able or "customary" pigs. Even so. the price the bailiff obtained varied greatly, some selling for 35 cents each and some. for 90 cents. Pigs were rAid not only by poor tenants for thesr tiny holdings. but also bs fam- flies as rich and powerfu as che GYosyeaors.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-09
MISFIT IMMIGRANTS

certain evils of the new immigration forced themselves upon American at tention. The infamous padrone sys- tenn commenced to make itself felt. and Mafia outbreaks proved the ac- tive existence of foreign societies of blackmail and terrorism. Strange diseases swept the country, alm- houses and charity hospitals null tiplied, and existing penal institutions had to be enlarged to meet new needs.s
 An immigration commission was finally appointed, and it's report, made in 1910, was vigorous attempt to arouse the country to very real danger. For instance of 24,000 char ity patients treated in the Bellevue and allied hospitals of New York. in the seven months between August. 1908, and February, 1909. 52 per cent were foreign born and 2S per cent native born of foreign parentage.
 According to the 1910 census there were 5000 foreign born in our in- sane asylums, as compared to 115,00J native born. On basis of compari- son of population there were twice aa many foreign born as native born. However in considering our burdens we are more concerned with the to- tai weight than with percentages, and 54,oo0 insane foreign born pub lie charges may well stand as proper cause for protest.
 As to crime, the commission re- ported that in study of 1,0oo.000 offenders in the various city and state courts of New York police courts of Chicago. and penal insti- tutions of Massachusetts. the foreign born criminal constituted almost half, despite the disparity in the popula- tion of the respective groups. Here again with the American must be more concerned with the actual cases than with percentages.
 The new immigration, as compared to the old, is grossly illiterate. For the period from 1900 to 1910 the per centage of illiteracy for the former was 35 per cent as compared to less than per cent for the latter. The report of the commissioner general of immigration for the year 1912 shows that of 724,o00 over 14 years old, 177,000 could neither read nor write, the Polish, southern Italians, Lithuanians, Russians, and Hebrews being the most illiterate. averaging 25 per cent and over.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-09
SELLING RELIGION"
From the Chicago Herald and Ex

From the Chicago Herald and Ex-
 aminer.
 Selling religion-that is the only business of the church," writes pr, Lewis Seymour Nudge, in the Pres byterian magazine. In explanatl he adds:
 The church Is not a manufacturing corporation; it is selling corpora tion. It was founded not to make religion. It was founded to place religion. The church has the goods it is to deliver. Its problem docs not have to do with production. Its problem has to do with distribution. |"
 pr. Mudge's motives are good. The article from which we have quote l shows that they are of the best But his language will not do--will not do from any point of view.
 What is religion? That force, not ourselves. which makes for righteous ness. The effort of religion is to lift us out of ourselves; or, rather. to lift ourselves up, out of the mud diness and confusion of our anlmal instincts. True religion is in every day affairs, but 1t Is not itself an everyday affair. It must appeal to the highest in man, not to the com monest AS an abstraction, it must be expressed by symbols; and t,e moment those symbols are cheapeneJ that moment what they represent is cheapened also Robert G. Ingersol, great man in his way, used to de- scend to the coarseness of referring ing of the religion of Jesus in the to U. Christ" pr. Nudge, in talk terms of the bargain counter, is all most equally inept. It is a pity.
 Religion is not "sold"-not "soldr in any sense real or figurative, ideal or commercial, and it is gross CT. TOT of taste and language to use words that even suggest a sale Religion is far removed from such associations as mother love, family devotion, and hope of immortality. So it is and so it must be.
 No violence ot language can bridge the gulf that we all recognize and acknowledge. What gulf? Read t.e seventeenth chapter of the gospel according to St. John; then read the quotation from Dr. Nudge. There is the gulf! Whether Christian, de,st agnostic or atheist. you will feel i, and see it at a glance
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-09
NEWS OF THE STARS
By ISABELLE NJ. LEWIS,

Of the United States Naval Observa Of the U. s. Naval Observatory. Science Service.
 By the end of September all the planets that graced the evening sky in the early spring and summer months will be found to the west of the sun before sunrise. having grad ually departed from the evening sky during the summer. Venus, the first to leave the estern sky, has been Morning Star since the last of April. It Is now on the farAslde of its orbit as viewed from the earth and in the telescope shows the gibbous phase, re- sembling the moon between full and last quarter. On the 18th 1t will be in conjunction with Neptune. The latter planet is too faiu. to be seen without the aid of a telescope. however. Venus is, as always. the most re- splendent object in the heavens.
 Mars, also a conspicuous object in the heavens just before sunrise. Is likewise on the far side of it's orbit and so is below its average in bright ness. On September Is 1t Is over 230,- 100000 miles from the earth, but it's distance from us is now decreasing. Saturn and Jupiter, the last to leave the evening sky, are in conjunction with the sun on the 21st and 22d re- spectively. Neither of these planets, therefore, are visible this month, and will next be seen in the east before sunrise some time in October.
 Mercury, though at it's greatest dis tance east of the sun on the 7th, and therefore In the evening sky, will have such a, low altitude at sunset that 1t probably will escape observa- ton. Uranus is now in the constel- latiop Aquarius and as it is in oppo- sition to the sun on August 31 1t is most favorably placed for observation at the present time, but as 1t Is at Lest only a sixth magnitude star, only be found with the aid of a star map and field glasses, and when found is of no special interest to the ob- server
 The sun crosses the equator and autumn commences on September 23, SEQ a. m. eastern standard time.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-09
Protection Should Be
 Given A. B. & A. Road

1N HE dynamiting of train, in
 U which an engineer was killed, is the latest outbreak of lawlessness committed against the Atlanta, Bir- mingham and Atlantic railroad, which has been the object of at tacks by miscreants following a strike on the road last spring when union employees were replaced by non-union men. Colonel Bugg, president and receiver, stated yes terday that he would ask Governor Hardwick of Georgia for military protection.
 Frequent dynamiting, train
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-09
Doing Big Thing.

They are making the dirt fly down at Cooper's, on the Louisville and Nashville" said A. C. Reilly. Already the sidetracks of the new railroad line of the Alabama Power company to the new dam site are being laid and the company road is being gradually extended to the Coosa.
 "Copers is about six miles from Verbena and materials for the dam are now being carted from verbena in trucks over the county road. When the company line is completed move ments will be over it. This Is to be about six miles long. It is big job building that dam and even the preparation to do so makes big showing.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-09
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
 AND ELSEWHERE
Speed Up Mall

Business houses in Birmingham are hard to wake up on the early mail posting idea" declared Post master R. B. Smyer yesterday. Eighty per cent of the mail in Bir- mingham is collected between the hours of and s:so p. m., causing congestion which slows up the dis patch of mall
 If business houses would speed up dictation and get out a batch of mali in the morning, the mail collections before o'clock would be increased 50 per cent. This would enable us to get mail out earlier. Lots of mail which now has to remain over until the following morning would go out on the afternoon of mailing under these conditions"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-09
Gross Exaggerations" By
 Thoughtless Pessimists

17N HE Journal of Commerce, one J of the best informed and most reliable opponents of commerce and industry, alludes editorially to the "gross congregations" in current assertions as to unemployment and its reputed injury to the purchasing power of the nation. Of actual con- ditions in retail trade, as shown by the federal reserve board, it says:
 The volume of sales in July
 measured in dollars is but Is per
 cent less than that of July, 1920
 Prices have beyond doubt fallen
 at least to similar extent
 probably in the stores included
 in the survey the decline has
 been measurably greater. The
 actual amount of goods moving
 over the counters, 1t is reasona-
 ble 10 infer, is therefore as great
 or greater than last year.
 Nor Is there anything especial
 ly new in these returns. On the
 contrary, substantially the same
 condition of affairs has been reg-
 ularly revealed each month.
 It has developed first in one place and then another that this nation was more frightened than hurt by the depression. It has also been known that tens of thousands of men dropped from pay rolls of iron and steel concerns have found oth- CT employment and that tens of thousands of others, who worked in cities during the war, went back to the farms and earned a livelihood there,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-09
SUCCESSOR TO FAMILY ALBUM

SUCCESSOR TO FAMILY ALBUM From the Montgomery Advertiser.
 The family album served we'll it's day, although truth to say some of us never did regard it as g. thing of beauty, either on the score of archi- lecture or contents. But 1t has gone out of style, along with the parlor, and man must have substitute. He has found one, at least ono man has found a substitute, and this he hopes to pass on to his fellows everywhere as soon as the device can be per- fected
 F. II. Lifshey of New York, pho- tographer, now takes all of his pho- tographs with a motion picture ma chine. according to g writer in the Picture-Play Magazine.
 Instead of the family album on a table in the parlor, says the writer, there will be sheet that Is hung on wall for special exhibition oc- casions. "Then Uncle Joseph. with whiskers, will be shown not staring at a birdie forever and ever. but driv- ing a golf ball at the Country club. You will see Uncle Joseph's swing and the singing flight of the golf ball. Then Uncle Henry, as groom. will not sit in the photographers carved backed chair till death do them part and beyond with Aunt Linda as bride standing with her hand on his shoulder forever. Instead. the pho- tographer will have been concealed behind bank of ferns at the we'd ding. Two hundred feet of film will preserve the actual ceremony in all its solemnity and beauty. Coming generations will know how mother looked into fathers eyes when mother said, I do,' and how he dropped the ring"
 If the New York mans invention is practical, which it must one day be- come, even though 1t is not now, | it is fair to say that he not only will earn . fortune for himself. but he will have the satisfaction of knowing that he has contributed inn measurably to the sum of human pleasure.
 A motion picture of the wedding but especially of the children that come later. should be an endless source of pleasure to any family in after years; far more satisfactory, in fact, than the stiff and faded photo igrarks or portraits which .h~v now jrnly npon Co eeDsind them of how imeni ibers ~ the family looked in iyears soee oy-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-09
AN OPPORTUNITY

AN OPPORTUNITY
 q never saw the equal of those Jagsbys next door," said Mir. Bibbles. They are always wanting to borrow loaned them everything In the house except the piano and our twin beds." I'm sorry you are so wrought up," said Mrs. Bibbles. MT. Jagsby has just sent over to know if--'
 Don't say it! Don't say it!"
 If you have a few empty bottles you could spare, pint or quart size." Out of the way, woman! I'll take them over myself"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-09
AMONG HIs YRIENDs

From the Fort Scott Tribune.
 One of John Caldwelrs old Drywood farmer friends, knowing of old John as well as if not better than any of the rest of us. upon hearing that he is Minister to Persia calculated: :: Well, I'd like to heal one of John Caldwelrs sermons.'
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-09
cAowIElylMlAacssil
DEMOCRATIC GLOOM

From the Montgomery Advertiser.
 We are pleased at the appearance of the new postoffice building of Birmingham, picture of which has just been published. As one who be- lieves that to the democrats belong the postoffices by right of inheri- tance we do not contemplate the im- mediate future of the Birmingham building with confidence and joy.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-09
People Make Town

"It Is always pleasure to come to Birmingham" said John A. Turner, governor of the Eighth District of Rotary. land the Rotary club here Is composed of splendid bunch of men. There is such good fellowship among them and cordial welcome always awaits you.
 Birmingham is a great city, and 1t isn't hard to understand this when you meet men like those composing the various luncheon clubs, for after all it is the people that make the town. With such leaders as these, great things are expected from Bir- mingham"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-09
PAT HARRIsoN,s JOp
From the Houston Post.

From the Houston Post.
 Mark Sullivan says Senator Pat Harrison is the light horse cavalry of the democrats in the Senate. Where does Mark get that military stuff in these days of peace? Sem ator Pat Is our official salt rubber yho makes saline applications to the raw spots of the republican galled fades at wincing time.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-09
Named Him Jonah

We had quite snake story de- velop the othsg day down near Cot tondale, where 1 have been at work, said Marion Holt, of Birmingham.
 One of the crowd killed big water moccasin with a lump in it. When the snake was cut In two big bull frog jumped out.
 I've put the frog in a big pan or water where we heard him croaking for two or three nights and then he hopped away to the swamps.
 I've had named him. Jonah"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-09
WORD FROM MARS

What are the Martians saying?" Maybe they are saying, wen tell the world.'"
 WHEN ART WAS ROBUST T sigh for the old-fashioned trage- dian."
 "who could choke lady to perfec- ton"
 "Yes, and the kind who rustled every programme In the audience when he breathed heavily"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-09
ENDLESS PROCESS
From the Chicago News.

From the Chicago News.
 One economist wants to know what the automobile industry will do when the point of saturativn" IS reached in the market. Probably prices will soon he so lowered that a new point of saturation will be established
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-09
oLD-FAsHIoNED BOARD
From the Kansas City Star.

The Lake Forest. H.. school board has barred women teachers on the ground that a "a wife's place is in the home" A school board with such old fashioned ideas as that may pass a resolution now forbiddng the un- married women who are teachers from smoking cigarettes in public.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-09
A MERE NOVICE

But, madam" said the lawyer, I've can't make out good case un- less you have some love letters to submit as evidence"
 "He told me to burn all his letters, and did"
 "Ah, madam. Let this be lesson to you. Many a man lays 8 predi- cate for paying out a large sum of money. when he signs his name to an impassioned epistle."
 PAUL COOK.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-09
POINTED PARAGRAPHS From the Chicago News. It takes hot fire to purify gold.

From the Chlcago NeWS.
 It takes a hot fire to purify gold. We hate to see man shy at op- pcrtunity.
 It's still question whether love is an asset or a liability.
 Bottled sunshine sometimes turns out to be uncorked tempest.
 There is one consolation for the man up tree--he lives high.
 Tears which are shed inward fan rather than put out the flame of anger.
 No matter what you happen to be- lieve, your deeds are going to at- tract q good deal more attention than your creeds.
 The fellow who doesn't need an alarm clock to interfere with his morning nap illustrates the triumph of mind over matter.
 It is sometimes true that the mora girl could help around she nousd the more she would ratAer her
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-09
TROupLEs OF KANSAS

From the Macon News.
 It has been suggested that since Kansas has outlived the seven-year locusts. the populists. the hot winds and other evils. 1t may yet outlive Alexander Howat
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-09

Gearge Cleeer in Golfers Weekly
 melting pot worked in the
 S days of the old immigration. It broke down only when an entirely different sort of material was poured into it. The Nordic immigrants, com ing to a land populated by their own blood, settled down and became constructive and productive workers. They invested a large part of their earnings here. They amalgamated easily and became Americans. Also, coming from farms for the most part they went to farms and played a so- Der, industrious part in the upbuild- ing of the country.
 Of the Alpine and Mediterranean stocks, 30 per cent of them habitually return to their former homes. In 1907 they sent out of the country $275- 900, 900 and that sum may be accepted as the average from 1900 to 1914, when the war caused a subsistence of emigration. It is true that this money for the most part was earned but its greater value after investment was lost. The new immigration also tended to form floating population without community interest. and this naturally stunted the growth of citi- zenship.
 This was due of course to the fail ure of the melting pot. but it was due also to certain fundamental differ ences between the Nordic stock and the Alpine and Mediterranean stocks. At no point was there similarity of ideas, ideals. and customs of tradi- tions, and such sharp conflict of op- posites did not lend itself to amalga- nation. As a consequence. Alpines and Mediterraneans came as aliens, remained so, and then went back to the old country with scarcely break in their nationalism.
 Even when the great change was well under way no special alarm was taken. The American-now nodded into the distinct Nordic type-but all of the Nordic confidence in his su- periorities, abilities. and high desti- ny. Also. in the new immigration, were many who proved to be useful citizens, assets to the action making notable contributions to the nations progress in various fields of achieve ment.
 As tho years went by. however.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-09
ONE WAS ENC eH

"Join the army and g.. llain.sa with a top sergeant" e4ia ihe re- cruiting officer.
 You are not talking to me. bo." replied the husky young American. T met top sergeant over in France and I've been looking for him ever since we were mustered out"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-09
OUT. OF COURSE

From the Chicago Herald and ExAnls
 iner.
 We often wonder wistfullF whesp the cashiers of the restaurants k'c during their lunch hour.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-09
SONNET

 From Shakespeare. Full many glorious morning AsN's Platter the mountain tops with sos
 ereign eye Kissing with golden face the ms@F
 ows green. Gliding pale streams with neaNeA,as
 alchemy;
 ride " With ugly rack on his celestiai fae And from the forlorn world his visa stealins unseen to west with thti Even so my sun. one early nor TX With all triumphant splendor or n
 brow; But out. aiack! he was but one hal
 mine, The region cloud hath mask'a h-s
 from me now. Yet him for this my love no
 disdaineth; suns of She world may stain. l
 hs4<en's sun sErsinsth.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-09
COMMERCIAL sTRATEGY.

COMMERCIAL STRATEGY.
 Ike" said the proprietor of the Boston Bargain House. stand out in front and advertise our fire sale" What do you want me to do?
 Yell Fire as loud as you can and add Sale in whisper. Youll soon draw a crowd"