davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-13

Upon the relationship between the helium that occurs in natural gas and that which these heavy metals pro- duce depends the possibility of i'm mense radioactive ore deposits. Small amounts of helium occur in the air and it Is generally acceptel that it's origin is the radioactive changes that are going on in the uranium and thorium minerals in the earth's crust.
 Out in Petrolia, Tex, 60,000. 900 cubic feet of helium have been thrown out of the earth with the natural gas that has been produced by this small gas field, 50 to SO square miles in area at the most. A little less than 1 per cent of the gas produced there consists of helium. The gas wells of this country, principally those of Ok lahoma, Kansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia, bring forth into the atmosphere probably as much as 300,000,0 900 to 400 ,000, 900 cubic feet of helium each year.
 If the helium of natural gas is due to uranium. radium or thorium, ex- tremely large deposits of ores bear ing these elements may be discov- cred inside the earth" says pr. Moore. "Either that will be the case or something is going on inside the earth's crust that we do not know about. If these deposits should have the same percentage of radioactive material as the surface ores now known, they must be measured In ore bodies are measured in only thou sands of tons.
 Another explanation Is that the helium is more or less primordial," added pr. Moore. "rhe helium might have been brought from the sun ct the time the earth was thrown off from this body, whose red hot atmos- phere consists of hydrogen and hel- ium."
 Some idea cf the enormity OF the possible subterranAan radioactive de- posits can bs obtained by these facts. Figure them out for yourself. Alton of metallic uranium produces. 4by ra- dio-active processes. about seven thousandth of a. cubic inch of he1ium per year. Only about to parts of uranium oxide per hundred exist in the ores we know of today. Then re- member that each year the natural gas of the United States contains some three or four hundred million cubic feet of fe1fum-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-13
 LUKE M'LUKE SAYS

What has become of the o. f. man who used to tell the bartender the story of his life?
 And maybe you have noticed that the people who are most anxious to keen money in circulation are those who haven't any.
 Funny how a boy can stand so much exercise with baseball bat and SO little with lawn mower.
 And when a wise guy does get fooled, he certainly gets good trim ming.
 It isn't your earning capacity that fattens your bank account, young man. It is your saving capacity.
 Another damli: Once upon time a wife let her husband tell a story of something that happened to both of them and she did not interrupt him and contradict him eleven times.
 Any woman can tell you that the snake that caused all the trouble in this world was a two-legged snake
 Almost any 16-year-old girl thinks she knows more about love than her grandmother.
 Probably the easiest way to make enemies is to go around offering free advice.
 You may not believe ih But most of the time 1t is the things We don't get that make us happiest
 The Eureka Literary and Home Brew club has decided that while a man born in tiz9 may have missed relativity. he also snissed volstead- witty.
 The stout Nonaa n who nurses pug dog all the time should remember that one gradually grows to look like one constant coinpAnion.
 Copyright 1azl.>
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-13
THE OLD SONGS
From the Providence Journal.


 ~ EoRGE L. sPAULD1NG, the V 7 author of the old song, TWO
 Little Girls in Blue" is dead. This was probably his best-known production, and yet it is not listed in his biography in the latest volume of Who's Who in America" In that bulky book we find that he wrote My Mary Green" When You Know the Girl You Love Loves You" Take Back the Engagement Ring" and Somebody Has My Heart" Not all his work was sentimental, however; he wrote songs for children, for in- stance. But it is these ballads of the heart by which very likely he wilt be longest remembered.
 The writer of popular songs--songs that really deserve the name of pop ular-has no reason to find fault with his share in the worlds approval and applause. His work may not last; but then again it may. And, either way, it has it's season of general vogue, and millions of people sing or whistle the strains. Back in the Civil war period, Stephen Foster enjoyed a unique fame. and a good deal of what he wrote still survives. Indeed, several of the Civil war songs--his and others--were sung by our boys in France during the World war.
 In the early seventies the country sang Captain JinksH and "Shoo Fly" Later came lover the Banisters," Tn the Gloaming," Sally in Our Alley and After the Ball." In the long train of favorites were Annie Roo ney,' Daisy Bell" White Wings" Just as the Sun Went Down." The Blue and the Grey" and that most popular of Spanish wartime ballads. "A Hot Time in the Old Town To- night" The country has also en- joyed "On the Banks of the Wabash,'' Bill Simmons" "Alexander's Rag Time Band" and. within the last few years. Bubbles" Wedding Bells Beautiful Ohio" and such World war sings as Keep the Home Fires Burn ing" and "The Long, Long Trail" Whether George spaulding made a fortune out of his work it would be interesting to know. But he did his fair share toward giving his day and generation innocent and wholesome pleasure through the medium of the popular song.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-13
A DANGEROUS HABIT

From the Dial.
 William Ernest Henley and Oscar Wilde figure in the first installment of the "reminiscences of William But Ter Yeats. On one occasion these two compared notes about a publishing house which had first employed Hen ley and then Wilde.
 How often do you 90 to the off, fice?" said Henley. "I used to go three times . week." said Wilde, flor an hour a day, but have since struck off one of the days" My God" said Henley, T went five times a week for five hours day, and when wanted to strike off a day they had special committee meeting" Fur thermore," was Wilde's answer, Il never answered their letters. l have known men to come to London full of bright prospects and seen them complete vrecks in a few months through . habit of answering let tsrs."
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-13
wiIDE THE PARvENU

William Butler Yeats, in the Dial.
 Oscar Wilde, lived with no self mockery at all an imaginary life; perpstually performed play which was in all things the opposite of all that he had known in childhood and early youth; never put off completely his wonder at opening his eyes every nothing on his own beautiful house, and in remembering that he had dined yesterday with duchess, and that he delighted in Flaubert and Pater, read Homer in the original and not as schoolmaster reads him for the grammar. think. too, that because of all that halff-civiltzed blood in his veins he could not endure the sedentary toil-of creative art and so remained a man of action. eNagge-- ating. for the sake of immediate cf- feet, every trick learned from his masters, turning their easel painting into painted scenes, He was Par venu. but Parvenu whose whole bearing proved that if he did dedicate every story in the House of Pome- grantes to a lady of title. 1t was but 10 show that he was Jack and the social ladder his pantomine bean stalk
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-13
ARE WE A NATION
 WITHOUT HONOR?

From the Chicago Tribune.
 5N VOW comes the United States UV Senate with a resolution fol S investigation of the treatmen of ex-service men. It w1ll take week' or months to determine the samt facts which have already been deter mined and proved. Tn the meantime mangled veterans are lying in over crowded hospitals with their wounds bandaged chiefly with red tape, and tubereular or shell-shocked men arc farmed out to poorhouses or institu- tions where their chief food is prom ises.
 For the honor of this nation and for the maintenance of patriotism among it's people we must have done with these interminable investiga- tions which get nowhere, while the young men who sacrificed health or limbs for their country are left to die in despair. If we cannot care prop erly for these men who have made such sacrifices for us, by what right or with what hope can be ever again call upon the youth of the nation to rally to our defense?
 Gen. Charles c. Dawes and a com mittee, acting at the suggestion of President Harding months ago made all the investigation necessary, in dorsed the report of the American Legion showing the fatal neglect and injustice accorded to thousands of our disabled veterans, verified evil dence, piled up proof upon proof, and made the recommendations necessary to correct the evil wipe out the stain upon the country, and restore the men to strength and some hope of life.
 little has been done in the way of following out those recommends tions. But still men are dying daily because of neglect and despair. A group of men is showed into a corner of a crowded ward in an isolated hos pital to eat their hearts out in lone Illness. Another group is transferred from one district to another, farmed out to an institution in Tennessee, for instance, to live upon the cheap and insufficient food provided by some money grubber and to die of tubercu- losis while the. Senate of the United States is investigating. Cut off from friends, without money to es- cape. deprived even of their natural medium of communication because of the tangle of red tape attending the transfer, they are buried alive.
 If the United States is ever again to hold up it's head If it Is ever again to be able In emergency to put 1000, 900 fighting young patriots in the field in its defense; if 1t is to remain 8 natioin instead of resolving itself into a mass of pickering politicians, it must have done with 'investigat- ing" and act. General Dawes has made the way clear. There is no greater duty, and none half so press ing. resting upon President Harding than to see that relief for disabled veterans is provided, and provided now.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-13
NEXT STEP IN RADIUM

An Interview with pr. Richard B.
 Moore. chief chemist of the United
 States bureau of mines.
 (By Science Seryice)
 M hAY man expect to find in the Mll interior of the earth at some
 future time, when he will be will be able to penetrate 1t. mass of radium bearing ore millions of times larger than any now known?
 Helium. the non-inflammable gas that was first isolated from natural gas in large quantititIes during the war for use in our balloons and dirig- tivity that have been discovered in the last 20 years are making the scientists ask that question. accord ing to pr. Richard B. Moore, chief chemist of the bureau of mines who has been Instrumental in the devel- opment of both the largest radium ore body in the world. the .carnotite of Colorado, and the worlds only helium plants, erected during the war by the bureau of mines and the army and navy at Petrolia and Fort Worth, Tex.
 How Is helium, an inert balloon gas, concerned with the pentrating radium that is curing many cancers?
 Here Is the story:
 Uranium. heaviest of the chemical clements. disintegrates into this so- called rare gas, helium. one of the lightest of the elements. It takes some 5000, 100000 years for this mother metal to use up half of itself in breaking down into helium gas and another uranium that lives only few days. This Is what scientists dis covered when they investigated the strange radioactive substances that at the beginning of this century wrecked their notion about the im- mutability of the chemical elements. Not only uranium. which is seeming ly the starting point of these con- stantly decomposing elements that finally end in lead, but uranium 2, ioniun, five forms of radium, and polonium all shoot off into space at velocity of about 1S,000 miles per second, alpha rays which are actually helium atoms clothed in positive elec- tricity. And scientists have found that actinium, another heavy metal. and +l,orii,r whosa axida ic ,ised in the incandescent gas mantles, also split up into metal of lower scientific order and the sky-rocketing atoms.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-13

A FAyOR1TE STORY IN DETROIT From the Detroit News.
 "A tall prosperous individual drove his Packard sedan into tho drive or a local filling station recently, and in- quired the distance to Detroit" says the Marshall Chronicle.
 About 1OS miles," the filler replied
 "Gimme about 20 gallons of gas and two gallons of oil." the lank eeezer then ordered.
 |The next day short man with glasses asked the sarne-S filler the same question and received the same answer.
 .Let me have 15 gallons of gas and one of oil" he ordered.
 A little later fliver was driven up to tho filling station and man with goggles and duster stepped out. How far's Detroit?" he inquired.
 The same answer.
 "Gimme two quarts of water and hold this thing till can get sin." he demanded.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-13
X X x
"Absolute Facts" Will
 EeIp a Good Cause

TN an address at the department ll convention of the Union Label trades at Denver, President John w. Hays urged the appropriation of 2 fund of $2,500,000 by the Fedora tion of Labor for advertising the cause of organized labor as an off set to the publicity campaigns by "employers' organizations opposed to trade unions" He specifically urged that "the only way to direct public sentiment to right channels is to give absolute facts."
 The American public enters no objection to this proposal. It wants the "absolute facts" in every mat ter related to it's welfare.
 sut there is wide gap between
 absolute facts" and propaganda. foo often even the best of causes kaS been injured by presentation of piart truths. The discovery of a lnsk of candor in any kind of prop sganda leads to the public's dismiss ssE of the good as we'll as the bad, becausse the public, realizing its Inability ito separate the true from sAe false, wfill not consider mixed sl dement's at alS
 Mr. Hays is ainking in the right tiirection if he meana what he says about absolute facts.N They never injured good causeN and never will.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-13
DRY OHIO

DRY OnlO
 From the New York Times.
 MT. Don V. Parker, prohibition com missioner of Ohio, gives rather dis tressinx view of the ravages of alco- hol in that state. Two years ago not more than 100 stills were in operation. Now. according to tho Columbus cor respondent of tho Cleveland Plain Dealer, MT. Parker ~is willing to con- cede that an estimate of 50.000 active stills in the state is conservative" As melancholy is the census of the chill dren of malt and hops:
 Prior to prohibition there were, per haps, a few more than 200 breweries in Ohio. Now,-tt. is said. the number runs into hundreds of thousands"
 Fortunately, "it is said" suggests wide region of guess and surmise. The Columbus police. men of wet bias. evidently estimate that one family out of every four bfews it's own beer Many women ''ars making beer for themselves, their family and friendsN Female hands are also busy in pro ducing wine and whisky. Apricots' raisins and so on for forbidden pur7 poses have an enormous sale at the groceries. Officials of the prohibition department admit that in some com munities nearly 100 per cent of the homes are engaged in the illicit pro- auction of either distilled or ferment- ed liquor" Wet statisticians, airiiy playing with the estimate that one family out of every four is brew cry, are happy in the conviction that Ohio, with . population of 5,Soo,ooo, is running 2so,o0O breweries. N One tale Is good till another is told vet if the prohibition commissioners oi 1 Ohio grants that an estimate of "o0,- 900 active stills in the state is con servative," the Buckeye heather are much more numerous than anybod, would have expected. Why shouls Ohio be. if it be, SO much more wicked than New xork7
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-13

that there is need for prompt ac- tion in caring for the unemployed, and particularly in providing for women and children. Colonel Smith states that conditions now are worse than they were when the Red Cross made it's survey. He has named chairmen from the various civic organizations of Birmingham, and at a luncheon to be held at the Southern club today, plans will be formulated to carry on a success ful campaign for relief.
 R. A. Porter has been appointed commissary general. He will have charge of all food supplies and John H. Frye will serve as treas urer. These gentlemen and the oth- CTS who have already been enlisted by Colonel Smith to aid in this work have distinguished themselves in war and philanthropic campaigns. At the luncheon today an executive committee will be appointed and a strong organization perfected to re- lieve suffering in the Birmingham district.
 The people of this city who have been apathetic in responding to ap- peals for help have not realized, perhaps, the extent of unemployment and the urgent claims presented for their sympathy and assistance. In spite of the frequent calls for money, no citizen of Birmingham who has any regard for his fellow man is willing to let unfortunate people starve for the lack of life's necessities. When we consider that most of the sufferers are women and children, the need of prompt action is apparent.
 The men who are behind this movement have the confidence of the people of Birmingham. They. are giving their services because they realize that something must be done, and done quickly. Their standing in the community is as- surance that every dollar donated will be made to go as far as possi- ble, and will be spent where it can do the most good.
 There is real distress in the Bir- mingham district. It would be a re- flection on the people of this city if they permitted it to continue.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-13

From the Kansas City Star.
 61 HE secret training of M. Car
 pentisr has aroused m much .sn
 S speculation as to what it Is the Frenchman has. Is it a fast foot, a shifty head, swift punch or just few boxing tricks? Many have come forward to tell us, but few agree, and some even admit they don't know. For time the fast foots had it all their own way. Carpenter was wonder at foot work. He would waltz all around Dempsey, who has nothing but the two-step, and in the end Jack would be so dizzy he would fall down.
 Recently, however, the fast foots have given way little and the shifty heads have had the floor. Accord ing to these theorists, Carpenter bears & brain. He thinks like 8 French academician. In the ring his intellectual processes will be so rapid and so sure that poor MT. Dempsey WILL never hliOW Whdt AuPPShSN NA&S-~ he can sit up and read about 1t In the papers. This theory has been very attractive one, for nobody ever could come to know just what its bearing was on prize fighting. Every body knows in vague sort of way that it is very helpful to fighter to be able to think fast, provided he thinks correctly, but just how that faculty Is applied to cause an oppo- nent to go heavily to the floor, roll over and draw up one knee in con- vulsive pain IS clear only to few and they won't explain.
 The swift punches are perhaps the most confident of all. That is nat ural, for they do not have to deal with psychology or any of the more subtle speculations. They simply say with a directness almost brutal that Georges will knock Jacks head off. That is the whole of their argument. They scoff at foot work and head work. they will hear nothing of stamina, of condition or of the will to win. They say that is all bunc.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-13
sOMEWHNT STRONG

From the Manchester Gnardlan.
 There were times when the lam guage used by 'the first Commoner" would have been considered fulsome in an eastern court, as when Speaker Rich compared Henry VIII for jus tice and prudence to Solomon. for strength and fortitude to Samson, for beauty and esmelinsss to Absalom."
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-13
MYSTERIOUS CARPENTER

What M. Carpenter is really conceal- ing in his quarters at Manhassett, and what he will disclose at Jersey City
 on July g, is a simple, old-fashioned
 punch like the one John l.. Sullivan
 used to carry around. All he has to
 do is to deliver 1t and get MT Demp-
 sey's receipt.
 So much for the F'renchman's of-
 fence. Partisans of the foot, the head and the punch can. and doubtless will, continue the discussion. We pass on to a late and remarkable discov-
 cry made in regard to his defense.
 This relates to his marvellous ability to assimilate a punch. The discov- erers do not pretend to explain it-- it cannot be explained. It is a physi- cal phenomenon. The doctors are all baffled and simply throw up their hands. The plain fact is that blow
 delivered on Carpentier's body, of force sufficient to lift 8 steer over
 a rail fence, is gathered up, absorbed, Iassimilated. dissipated-what you willard distributed over his entire physical structure in such manner
 that he doesn't feel 1t at all. He is
 human lightning conductor as we
 understand it, and if Dempsey hits him the force of the blow will simply
 run down Carpentier's legs, come out
 at his toes and be dissolved in the air. That may not be the scientific explanation. Probably it isn't. In fact, there Is no scientific exp1ana- tion-,lt is just one of those won
 derful physical facts that have burst on us since Georges began to puzzle the profession. It is the secret of
 his defense, carefully covered up for the present. But in the ring he will walk right through Dempsey's ter rife blows. get inside his guard and
 but we will leave 1t to MT. Dempsey to explain to the reporters how he heard faintly as though far. far off the voice of tho referee counting, but
 couldn't seem to rouse himself or concentrate his faculties in an effort
 to get up.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-13
High Cost of Swatting
 Flies In Illinois

7r1HE Woman's Club of Pana, H.,
 U reckoned on more than it's treasury would bear when it offered 10 cents for every 100 house flies brought to it by the children of that town. The campaign began May "A. The busy youngsters soon had 256,000 flies and $256 to their credit. The club was forced to withdraw its offer.
 If all education could be pitched on the same plane as that of the Pana women's fly swatting cam paign the problem would be solved. The child wants to know things. He is essentially inquisitive, and he is relentlessly active. He will learn what interests him. The problem is to solicit that interest.
 Spare the rod and spoil the child" has been placed in the dis card long ago. The unwilling brain will not absorb. The rod incites falsehood and stubbornness.
 Educators are more and more seeking to give the child that to which he will naturally apply him self, to educate him by getting him to do what he feels like doing.
 Those who undertake the educa- tion of children should try to dis cover what they want. They child is best schooled who is least con- scious of being educated.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-13
AUTUMN

v Padraic Colum, in The Dial. A good stay home season is au- tumn; then there's work to W done uy all; Sreckled lawns, where the brackens mako covert, range away unde- tered; And stags that were seen upon nll- locks now give heed to the call To the believing call of the minds, and they draw back to the herd.
 A good sy-at-home season iu Au- tumn; the brown world q striped into fields, The corn is up to it's growth there are acorns in the deep wood; By the side of a dowr-falitn tors even the thorn bush yields A crop. and there by the path the hazel nuts dfop frolr load.