davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-11-28
MISS HANDLEY APPOINTED

Miss Virginia Handley of Birmlng ham was appointed assistant direc- tor of the child welfare department of the state at the Monday afternoon meeting of the child welfare conn mission of Alabama. She has for more than a year been extension di- rector of the department and will begin her new duties at once.
 In attendance at this meeting of the commission were Governor Bran don. ex officio chairman; Dr. J. w. Abercrombie, state superintendent of education: Lawrence II. Lee, Mont gomery; Mrs. l.. B. Bush, director of the child welfare department; Mrs. w. l.. Murdock, Mobile: w. T. Mur- phree, Gadsden. and Dr. Lee Bid good University.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-11-28
LOCAL DATA

For the 24 hours ending at D. m., November 27, 192Sa
 Highest temperature .............. 56 Lowest temperature ............-.,.\ 4l Mean temperature ................ AS Normal temperature ............... 51 Deficiency in temperature since Jan
 uary ..........a.,...l..... III Rainfall ...... ................... % Total rainfall since January ..62 47 Excess in rainfall since January l.. s 03 Relative humidity ' a. m, A....... 73
 F noon .................. 4S
 D. m .................. SO Dry thermometer. a. m. ......... 42
 12 noon .................... 55
 D. ln ................... AS Wet thernoneter s m, . 3S
 12 noon ................ 45
 D. m .................... 42
The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-11-28

Summary of observations made at sta tions of United States Weather Bureau during the 24 hours ending at D m, 90th meridian time, November 27, 1923:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-11-28

Rotary club luncheon at the Tu wiler hotel at 1 o'clock.
Evening star., 1923-04-01

Fire Girls, the Girl and Boy Scouts,
etc. A lecture on bird life usually
precedes the opening of the classes
each year.
In 1922 Miss Marion Peuew organ
lied a spring bird class especially
for children. The course. included
three study meetings and two bird
walks. AS many as 250 children at
tended the first lesson. There was an
average attendance of 95 at the reg
ualr bird class. in 1922. AS nature
study in the public schools was tenn
porarily suspended that year, cer-
tain groups Of children were instruct
ed in the regular class.
The instructors and lecturers vary
somewhat from year to year, but in
clude DIR. Oberholser. DR.. Bartson,
DIR. Palmer. Mr.. Preble. Mr.. Howell,
DIR. Alexander Wetmore, DR.. Jack
son, Mr.. Kiambach, Mr.. Hollister.
E. G. Holt. DR.. Ned Dearborn, Leo
D. Miner, Mr.. Shoemaker, L. D. Miner,
Raymond Moore, Maj E. A. Goldman,
Miss Pellow, Miss Baird, Miss Cook,
Mrs Reese and Mrs. Aspinwall.
The Audubon Society has a series
of five bird walks or discovery hunts
during April and May of each year,
scores being kept of the number of
different species seen on each trip.
AS many as hundred persons join
these excursions. and in their course
about 120 to 150i different species of
birds are usually identified. The
expeditions start earls and the whole
dav is devoted to the fascinating but
Evening star., 1923-04-01

/ have duly received. In my expert
ence with the most eminent men of
your profession all the world over
1 have met with nothing like 1t.
Your charges are four times those of
the best doctors of London, seven
times those of good doctors in cities
of the United States, and more than
twice the highest war prices of our
specialists who have the best stand
ing in your profession. They are so
excessive that / cannot hold my self
respect by paying this bill without
an objection, a thing which 1 have
never done in the past. Twenty dol
lars a call seems to me out Of all
reason. None of your twenty-three
calls involved a stay of as much as
thirty minutes or any physical treat
ment other than penciling my throat
which, as you know, is a two-minute
job.
IT am wondering if you realize how
this account looks to an -unprejudiced
observer, who knows something as
to present conditions in Germany. I
mean as to house rent, low, cost of
living, and or wages. L am told you
are paying for your beautiful twelve
room apartment on one of the finest
corners of Kurfurstendamm just So
year. If this be true, you are ask
ing me for each of your calls enough
to pay your house rent for more than
seven years, and for your whole
service, comprising less than twelve
hours, what, at the present rate of
exchange, Is enough to pay your
house rent for 176 years. In other
words, when your charming boy of
eight has reached the age of thirty
three and has a son, and that son
thirty-three years thereafter has an
other, and SO on down through the
one and three quarters centuries your
blood goes, the fifth In the line of
Evening star., 1923-04-01

many. 1 have it from his own mouth.
He has five thousand men under him,
and is receiving only $40 a month.
His technical education is. I venture.
equal to yours. Your bill would pay
his salary for almost four years. You
may say your cook has her board
but this man boards himself and
so, / submit to you the equity OF
changing your bill
You will do, of course, as your con-
science dictates and I must submit
If you see fit to make out new bill
at So per visit, l shall not feel that
your charges are excessive. II you
make it SO l shall regard it as high
but L will remit, and if you still in
sist you must have. like Shylock,
your whole pound of fiesh--I mean
$40. or more than 1 cent a clock tick
making $40, the total amount your
bill calls for--I will pay even that,
however unjust it may seem.
But if, on the other hand, you
should grow angry at this letter and
on the spur of the moment write you
will take nothing at all, will send
the full amount of your bill to the
German Red Cross to be devoted TO
their restaurant in the Red Cross
building. where students. professors
and other intellectuals of our class
are now being fed at a cost of less
than l cent per meal. In that case
we shall have the satisfaction of
knowing that my money and your
labor are giving a dinner to more
than 47,000 unfortunate and half
starving souls.
I'm closing I would say that this
experience is one of the most inter
esting l have had during my 1000
miles of trav@ over the world. Indeed,
l know of nothing TO compare with it
excepting that of Jacob, the great
patriarch. who, after he had served
for his beloved Rachel was put off
with her plain, old-maid sister Leah,
and forced to serve seven years
longer before he got the wife of his
choice. And, indeed, it seems to me
that Jacob did better than ! am able
or willing to do, for he tricked his
father-in-law Laban out of more
than half of his focks by making the
lambs come ring -streaked, speckled
and spotted, whereas l must pay to
the uttermost what my Laban asks
Now, my dear Professor DR.. -
will you please reply to this letter at
once. 1t shall be just as you say, but
/ would like your answer in writing,
as want a record of this, one of the
most interesting of many newspaper
experiences.
with much respect. I am. etc"
x X
THE answer came the next day, and
J. with it some printed extracts
from German medical journal, stat
Evening star., 1923-04-01
ysicans of Berlin Combine Fix High Prices for Tourists

docter classified my case as pneu-
mona, and he may be right, but II
so his skill was such that my whole
illness left me with no more lack of
energy than comes from a bad cold.
During my illness he made twenty
three calls, ranging in length from
ten minutes to perhaps half an hour
and at its close ! visited him once at
his house. There was no surgical
treatment whatever excepting the
dab of iodine with which he now and
then swabbed my throat. Neverthe-
less, when the bill came it was in
American money and for. $470, item
lied at twenty-three visits at $50 per
visit. and a house consultation at $40
more At the present exchange s4T5
would be over twenty million marks.
x x X s
THE bill came to me as a shock.
l. 1 had liked the professor. DR.
"Spezialarzt fur Innere Krankheiten,"
as his bill states, and at his invita-
tion had even visited his home in one
of the most fashionable streets of
Berlin. His apartment is beautifully
furnished. the floors being covered
with oriental rugs and the walls
hung with paintings by the best Ger
man artists. l confess I might have
anticipated the charge by the way
he showed me his treasures, for he
took me from painting to painting,
adding as l looked at each that 1t
was present given him as a mark
of gratitude by some one he had
cured. l remember one snow scene,
about as big as a dining table, which
he called the pneumonia picture"
1t came from a pneumonia patient,
and l can see now that he was think
ing. perhaps of another such paint
ing from me. A second was the
"Mastoiditis picture" the reward for
treating a boy who had caught a cold
back of his ear. And a third, 1 think,
had the mental label "Gastritis." 1t
was tho same with the rugs on the
fioor-each represented some cheerful
disease which his skill had destroyed,
and about the only sickness not rep
resented was housemaid's knee; but
can see why that is omitted, as his
speciality is fur Innere Krankheiten," "
meaning that he treats only diseases
of the lungs, liver and lights, to
which "housemaid's knee" may not
belong.
Indeed, this bill was so large that
felt could not pay it without pro-
test and / wrote the Prof. DR.. the
following letter, asking him to make
out a new bill on the ground that
the first was too high.
+
THIS letter gives such an insight
l. into present conditions here in
Germany that l may be pardoned for
publishing it almost in full.
Hotel Kaiserhof. Berlin.
My Dear Prof. DR.:
Il as surprised at your bill which
Evening star., 1923-04-01

a list of wild flower books is kept
on hand at the library, as well as a
list recording initial bloomings Of
wild flowers of the District Miss
Helen P. Childs, secretary of the So
ciety, Connecticut avenue at Irving
rstreet, Chevy Chase. Md, may be ap-
Piled to for information regarding
membership.
THE work of Washington bird
= lovers is one of the parts that
go to make up the whole of the
great edifice for the protection and
cherishing of and pleasuring from
birds that has been built up through
out the United States and Canada by
the Audubon societies in recent
years. 1t is an enterprise of i'm
mense economic value, as agriculture
Of most sorts in most places would
be destroyed by its various insect
and other vegetable and small ami
NAL enemies were it not for the
birds, and the world would be over
run with pests that man, unaided
by the birds, would not subdue
Thanks to the work of the Audubon
societies, many species of birds have
been saved from extinction, bird pro-
lection laws have been enacted in
almost all of the states. public senti-
ment has been educated to protect
them, innumerable bird refugees and
breeding places have been estab-
lished where vigilant wardens stand
guard, the game birds and wateR
fowl have been given a chanG
against the sportsman. the commeT2s
in the plumage of birds has b@G
outlawed. and vast volume of the
ancient wild life of the land whose
existence is entirely compatible with
| a dense population, and, indeed, neces-
sary to it, has been assured.
The United States today leads the
nations in its legal protection of
birds. and although the thousands of
prosecutions under the laws each
year show how much is yet to be
done in teaching people not to harm
the blameless birds. it is likely that
in no other country is there such a
general respect for bird life. What
has been done for birds and inci-
dentalIy for other be1efcent wild
life gives hope that America will not
become the lonely home of genus
homo, leaving him the sole survivor.
Evening star., 1923-04-01

ing that it has been agreed that Ber-
lin doctors shall charge their patients
from countries of high valuta the
same honoraria they would have to
pay at home, and asserting that the
usual charges in the United States
are from s5 to $40 a visit for the
general public and from $40 to $25
for the well-to-do. The Prof. DR..
- wrote he did not regard me as
being among the billionaires, but that
am a we'll do American and for
like treatment at home l would have
to pay more than $50 a visit He
added that he would reduce my bill
0ne-half on the understanding that
when l return home and look into the
question of fees. if / find the above
half too little, I shall send him the
balance
Upon the receipt of this letter
sent the professor doctor my check
for $235, saying it would be interest
ing to our American tourists to know
that the physicians of Berlin had
combined to exploit them. This, il
seems, made him angry and he re
him in writing he would ask the
board of German physicians to sub
nit my letter to his government and
also to the State Department at
Washington to see whether a highly
respected profession in foreign coun-
try might be insulted without justi-
fication. To this / have not replied
and am awaiting his action.
1t is now several weeks since the
receipt of his letter. He may be de-
TERED on the ground that if such a
fee becomes known it will add TO his
income tax, and also by the law, re-
Gently passed, establishing a penalty
for any German who renders a bill in
dollars or in any other currency than
that of the mark. He is subject to
fine and 1 am told the whole might
be confiscated.
In the meantime 1 think there is
some justification for his extra charge
in that he probably has to treat many
OF his former patients for nothing. or
for what. at the present exchange, is
very low rate.
And by the way, speaking of the
overcharges of doctors, l have just
heard of physician at Hamburg
who makes every patient tell the kind
of food he eats every day. This is
so whether the ailment is dyspepsia
sore throat, broken arm. or bunions
or corns. Upon being asked why he
always had to have such full details
as to the diet, he replied: 1T is only
by knowing what my patients eat
that l can get an idea of their wealth
and charge them accordingly"
Carpenters World Travels. Copyrighted. 1928
by Carpenters World TravelsD
Evening star., 1923-04-01

harmless sport of hunting birds with
out weapons.
On a trip to Black Pond last May,
fifty-nine species were identified.
Many Audubon Society members keep
records of their Individual scores of
bird identifcations, not only on the
walks, but throughout the year. Ac-
cording to the list of birds compiled
by DR.. Richmond of the Smithsonian
Institution, a perfect score in life
time of bird hunting in the District
would be 291, there being records of
that number of different species hav-
ing been seen; but some of them will
never be seen here in the future, and
one of them, the passenger pigeon,
will never be found again on earth,
as of the countless billions of this
species fifty years ago, not one in
dividual remains alive today. Other
species are nearly extinct and urban
conditions have warned still other
away for good.
X X i: x
WHILE Theodore Roosevelt re-
w sided in the White House he
was the honorary vice president of
the Audubon Society and wrote down
for Mrs. L. w. Maynard, a list of the
birds he had observed on the White
House grounds and about Washing
ton. There are ninety-six birds on
the list, which was written from
memory, the President explaining:
sDoubtless this list is incomplete;
have sAAn others that 1 have forgot
ten" Fifty-seven were scored on the
Evening star., 1923-04-01

, White House grounds alone. This
shows that bird hunting is good al
most anywhere in Washington.
Referring to seeing sparrow hawks
at the White House, Roosevelt wrote:
"A pair spent the last two winters
around the White House grounds,
feeding on the sparrows = largely,
thank heaven, on English sparrows."
The Roosevelt list, as well as other
lists, may be found in Mrs Maynard's
indispensable book, Birds of Wash
ington and Vicinity" Last spring
Mrs. Maynard observed twenty-five
species of birds from the west porch
of her home, at 1870 Mintwood place.
Even in winter as many as seventy
| four kinds of birds have been seen
in the District.
There are hundreds of people in the
District who feed the birds in winter
around their homes. provide nesting
boxes and water for them in summer.
guard them from cats and other enc
mics and take daily delight in OBJ
serving them and listening to their
calls and songs. In hard winters the
Audubon Society, with the assistance
of the police, regularly feeds about
a hundred coveys of quail. of which
the last census showed about 1000
in the District, which, by the way, is
always a bird refuge, as no hunting,
even of game birds, is permitted at
any time. During the past winter
ducks and gulls were regularly fed
at the Tidal Basin. Countless stories
of interest of the doings of Washing
ton birds may be heard from members
of the Audubon Society.
| Special bird sanctuaries have been
established at different places in the
| District. Observation of the purple
| martins around the Red Cross build
| ing in the summer has become almost
rite with Washington bird lovers.
During August, as they mobilize for
their departure to Brazil, as many
as $4,000 of these beautiful and grace
/ full birds may be seen of an evening
| in that neighborhood.
The society has compiled a list of
| books on birds, which is kept on an
open shelf in the Public Library. Just
now, with the annual spring north
| ward migra tion of birds in full swing,
the society also posts there each
week a list of the new arrivals from
the south. 1t is also to be noted that
Evening star., 1923-04-01

vaudeville show that would cost me-
So in New York or Boston, or SO
cents to hear the best. music in the
IT does not bother me that these half
starving Germans pay less. On the
whole, it has seemed to me that for
eignerS are fairly we'll treated, and
that this treatment will be continued,
in all probability, when the excite
ment regarding the French in the
Ruhr has died down.
Nevertheless 1 would give all tour
lists who are now starting for Europe
a word of advice. This is-"Don't get
sick in Berlin" And / might add
"You had better keep we'll in the
other cities of Germany" 1 base
this on a personal experience 1 have
had this winter with a physician of
more or less note who was called in
for me on the advice of his brother
in-law, to whom I had introductions
I shall not give his name.
My illness came from a bad cold
and fever which / had contracted in
Latvia, and which ] carried with me
to Warsaw, thinking it would soon
pass away. / labored with it off and
on for two weeks, having doctors
betimes, who charged me from SO
cents to a dollar a visit, and then
concluded to come to Berlin and stay
here until we'll
The doctor called at the hotel and
put me to bed. He kept me there for
a week, and 1 remained in my room
under his treatment for a week
longer, when I was thoroughly cured.
During the whole time I had no more
than two degrees of fever and at the
close none of the weakness that fol-
lows case of grip or influenza.
read novels and dictated to my stem
ographer while in bed, and after
khat wrote my letters as usual. The
Evening star., 1923-04-01
BY FRANK G. CARPENTER.
BERLIN.

BERLIN.
Y HEAR many complaints about the
exploitation of the American
tourist. Certain hotels in Paris
- are charging as much OR more
than the best hotels in New York. Mo-
tor car travel is everywhere quite as
expensive as with US, and some of
the hotels have one rate for natives
and four or five times as much for the
foreigner. The travellers who attend
ed the Passion Play" at Oberammer-
gau last year had indignant stories of
the overchargeS at Munich and the
additional prices paid at the palaces
and the picture galleries.
Here in Berlin there has been talk
about a parliament act taxing foreign
visitors so much per head, and it is a
common belief that Americans ought
to help pay the German reparations.
Foreigners are sometimes charged
more in the stores, and the law says
that export duties of so to 200 per
cent must be paid on all purchases
taken out of Germany. If such pur-
chases are not declared the tourist is
f1scated as we'll
For instance, an American was re-
Gently fined $25 for attempting to
take out an opera glass which cost
him $5. The merchant who sold the
glass told him the duty was paid, but
when he made his complaint he could
get no redress.
the customs frontier. and new shoes
on ones feet and the hat on his head
may be confiscated if not declared.
The excess charges of dentists. doc
tors and other professional men are
a matter of frequent complaint. and
there is no doubt that some of the
medical associations are making the
foreigner pay all that the traffic will
bear. For instance, the doctors OF
Bremen have recently published 9
new schedule, according to which
foreigners have to pay more than the
natives. Swedes are to be charged
thirteen times the usual fee, the Swiss
ten times, the French and Italians six
times and the English. Dutch and
Americans nine times. Just how they
figure the Swedes and the Swiss as
better able to pay than the Americans
do not know.
x x * =
U TNTIL recently 1 have been prone
to take all such statements with
many grains of salt. 1 have not OBJ
jected to paying more at the hotels
and restaurants for the food is excel
lent and still very cheap, nor to the
tip expected. which is about ten times
that paid by the Germans. / have not
objected to the prices in the stores
for they are so low that one seems
to be getting many articles for moth
ing, and when 1 pay II cents to see a
Evening star., 1923-04-01

nth the return of spring
NN/ the call of the wild comes
" " to many city-bound men
and women, but few re-
spond energetically to the call. They
do not know how to take up the
quest of nature. Veto mention
only one of several open roads to the
understanding and appreciation OF
nature-the Audubon Society of the
District of Columbia welcomes be-
ginners. old or young. Yearly 1t
opens the great book of nature for
the delight of hundreds. Lover and
protector of the wild birds, it pro-
vides ample facilities for all who
may be prompted to seek knowledge
and satisfaction in nature through a
study of the birds.
The annual bird classes are now in
session, and soon the regular series
of bird walks, will begin-walks
which, in the quest of birds, take the
walkers into the widest and most
delightful hooks of country and rem
nants of wilderness in and around
the District.
Organized twenty-siX years ago
long before the national Audubon or
ganization of bird lovers had been
effected-the District Audubon So
ciety has been active in all the inter-
vening years in that successful move
ment for the protection and restora-
tion of the bird life of America which
is the best monument to the memory
Of that great naturalist, John James
Laforest Audubon, who wrote the
monumental book on the birds of
America a hundred years ago.
At the organization meeting there
were only IL persons, and at the first
annual meeting there were SO mem
Evening star., 1923-04-01

five years, if she should be so for
tunate as to live with you that long.
You are asking for that half day
forty-seven times the monthly salary
of the manager of a department of
the biggest electric works in Ger
Evening star., 1923-04-01

descent can still be living with his
family in your magnificent home at
my expense. OF course. times may
change andl rents may rise. 1 am
speaking only of present conditions.
"And then. my dear Professor Dr.,
Evening star., 1923-04-01

bers The society now numbers more
than 900, but many more are needed.
not only for their own benefit and
pleasure, but for the advancement
of the care and protection of bird
life in the District, as well as
throughout the nation.
X X
THE first president was the late
L Gen. Sternberg. who was sue
ceeded in 1907 by the late Judge Job
Barnard, who was until the Hast a
devoted bird lover. The first public
lecture under the auspices of the
society was delivered by FRANK Chap
nt the National Museum, No
Evening star., 1923-04-01

let US look at the bill on the basis
of the labor involved. The best
housemaids and cooks in Berlin are
now receiving in marks what amounts
to less than 10 cents a week. Let US
suppose that. in your greatness of
Evening star., 1923-04-01

heart, you are especially liberal and
are paying your cook 90 cents a week
You are asking me. for your half
days work, as much as your cook
will get for her twelve hours hard
labor every day for more than forty-
Evening star., 1923-04-01

o Go
Published
chandA
TmeDscusn Parliament
Fees Accoring to Diet