davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-02-04

and what must have been the daily cruel
fixion of that daughter who had loved not
wisely but too well. The mother died
first. Then the bitter, silent old fathe'
After his death neither brother nor sis
ter were ever seen by the neighbors to
leave the house. Food and necessities
were left at the door. If Robert did come
out it was at night, when none could
know. And this miserable, Swallowed life
of these two went on for twenty years!
Then Anne began to fail She lay for
days unattended. Only when her brother
knew that she was dying did he summon
doctor and nurse. They found the
House of Mystery" cluttered with rub
bish and garbage. ill-smelling and damp,
the rooms dark, dirty and forbidding.
Robert Bruce Kyle followed the doctor
and nurse wherever they went. His sus-
picious eyes seldom left them. Plainly
he grudged leaving his sister with the
nurse at night.
And the dying woman. they say, never
spoke to either doctor or nurse except to
The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-02-04

And there Anne Kyle lived almost as
prisoner.
Gone were the old happy days of par
ties and gay gatherings. The Kyles had
kept open house in Louisville in the old
hospitable Southern way.
They kept a closed house in Oakland.
They made no friends; kept no servants
who might gossip. Sometimes the mother
would be seen, fitting like ghost around
the house. Whenever Anne went out she
was guarded either by. her stern, unsmil-
ing father or by her brother.
The house was always kept barred,
locked and dark It was Robert Kvle's
duty to answer the door; If he CHANGED
not to be home, then no one answered it,
Inside that house was the broken
mother, the grim and watchful father, the
brother and poor Anne-hiding the little
baby shoes that were all her starving
heart had of love to feed upon!
Only the gloomy imagination of a de
Maupassant could picture that household
The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-02-04

answer their questions as to how she was
feeling. Wasted, silent, ereat black eyes
filled with an unspeakable sorrow, she
waited patiently for death to bring her
forgetfuIness.
1t was not until after death had come
that the little baby shoes were found.
Robert Bruce Kyle made no comment
when they were placed in the coffin with
her. After the funeral he went back to
the dark and lonely house.
That was in the Spring Of 1921, and
not long after Anne Kyle had been buried
Frank "Hill" returned to old Nanny
Liza for one of his visits. He was now
forty-four years old. He found the with
cred old colored woman weeping. She
had just heard of the death of her "Miss
Anne" in Oakland.
"Why, what's the matter, mother?" he
asked. "Why are you ctying?"
For long minutes Nanny Liza looked
at him, silently. By the death of the
mother she was released from her vow
of silence. But should she tell this man
who thought himself her son, and black,
that he was neither? Nanny Liza knew
well enough. the hidden unhappiness of
this man whom family pride had cheated
out of everything life owed him. Should
she tell him? What might he not do
to her who had kept Inn in ignorance
all those years? What might he not do
to that uncle out in Oakland who more
than any other, perhaps, was responsible
for both his true mothers misery and
his own?
Nanny Liza made up her mind No
matter what might happen to her, she
would do what she could to right the
wrong. She would tell her foster-son the
story of his birth. But she would not
tell him where that uncle lived.
Frank" she said, "you amt my son,
honey. You amt black at ALL You're
white man. Sit down at your mammy's
knees, honey, like you used to when You
were a boy and let Nanny Eliza tell
YOU"
Before she was through Frank "Hill,"
kneeling at her feet, was weeping. The
wrinkled old hands caressed his head as
she went on with her tale of thwafted
love, bitter hatred and long sorrow
But when she had ended Hill arose,
deadly purpose in his heart.
II don't blame you, Nanny Liza"
he said. "You did what you thought
right, and you always loved me. But
where is that devil of an uncle of mine
now"
Nanny Liza looked at him. Here
was white man now where little before
had been, as he thought, black. And
this white man was a true Kyle. The
same infexible hatred that had wasted his
own life and his mothers shone in his
eyes--the same lust for vengeance.
Nanny Liza would not tell.
Hill bought a pistol and began his
search for Robert Bruce Kyle. That was
almost two years ago. y
The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-02-04

Two days before Hill arrived ii natg- =
land Robert Bruce Kyle was found dr. y
in q big arm chair by an open fire mace
in the "Hounse Of Mystery In that IRE 90
place were found the fragments of valu- 9ns
able papers, securities, pictures and .v
letters. Plainly he had felt death coming
on and had tried to get rid of all 80
evidences of that love tragedy which had ~
destroyed him and his family; had tried a
too to destroy what property he could %
lest It fall by some chance into the hands -
of that nephew born out of wedlock whom e.
he still hated!
With Hill in Oakland now is Nanny 80
Liza, helping his attorneys to check up -
the story and prove her foster-son's real Il
birth. Already, in every essential detail, e';
they say, that story has been proven.
And although Nanny Liza says that 1aa
never from the time Anne Kyle kissed 10
her baby good-by at the old slave cabin
door until she died in the "House of 1ia
Mystery" did she, the foster-mother, COM i
{ municate with her, yet in some way from
time to time the unhappy mother man. sd
aged to send money to her for the use of 80
the "love-child. This explains to Hill -
was always little better dressed than =
the pickaninnies he thought were his own ~
brothers and sisters. 1t also explains why "a
he could go to school when the other chill -.
dren had to work.
1t Is not at all the estate left by Anne -.
Kyle for which Hill is making his fight, I'D
ne says. He wants to become the legal
owner of the name of Kyle, to be declared 8
by the courts Anne Kyle's heir, and SO
have fixed officially his status as a white ST
man. ,.i
He admits that there is a great bitter II
ness in his heart against the dead family ~ -
of his mother. To put upon him, besides
his handicap of illegitimacy, the stigma of -
black blood in Southern community ~
such as Louisville was piece of cruelty =.
that he cannot forgive. Nor can he for Is
give the treatment of his mother. ans
Far better for him would it have been -.
if he had been abandoned as a founding -.lB
He could then at least have grown up 81
among those of his own race rs;
And Hill is bewldered too He is like ,i,
a man reborn but at the age of forty ,ai
four He has not yet gotten his bearings
in his new world His bringing up as y
black, his Southern view of the status of =
a black, his belief for more than half "a.
a lifetime that he was black, and the
long and intimate association with the
negroes have formed habits of thought nc
hard to change. -
Such is the tale of thwarted love, of -
bitterness and hate and vengeance and
of wrecked lives which Frank Hill and the -
old black woman tell.
And surely no more grim or hopeless rsss
pattern has ever been woven out OF cd
twisted threads in the loom of life. Es-
The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-02-04
Confined from Preceding Page1


ing of it. The unhappy mother, coming
up out Of the valley of death, did not
know that the love-child's father was bat
ting for life at her very door!
John Spofford never saw her again.
But il he had possessed strength
enough to stagger to his own window a
month later, when he had begun the slow
upward climb to recovery, he could have
seen that lost love of his at the threshold
of Liza Hills cabin, not five hundred
feet away. He would have seen her strain
to her breast little baby boy-her child
and bis. He would have seen her rain
kisses upon its face, its hands, its neck
while her tears bathed her cheeks.
He would have seen her take the little
shoes from the baby's feet and thrust
them in her bosom.
Take care of him. Liza" he would
have heard her sob; ooh, be good to him
for my sake! And when / am dead
tell him who his mother wasp
And then, with one last despairing kiss,
he would have seen her pick up her trav-
cling bag and stumble, weeping, away.
But Spofford saw none of this. And
when he had recovered the Kyles were
gone from Louisville. The father had
hastily sold his business and his estates
and had taken wife and daughter to Mex
leo to join Robert. There was no clue to
where they had gone. Deliberately the
elder Kyle had exiled himself and his fam
lily from all and everything they had
known. Not a friend, not business asso-
ciate knew where they were.
Eliza Hill knew. Before Kyle had
left he had paid her a sum of money and
made all the arrangements with her to
bring up his grandchild as her own son.
But Eliza Hill would not tell the lover;
said she did not know.
And John Spofford, questioning her
and looking at the baby boy growing
up to him from his cradle, had not the
faintest inkling that he was looking at
his own child!
Nothing stirred within him, no good
angel whispered to him that this was his
son. He looked at the baby-and passed
on.
Had he known-were there truth in the
old idea that there is some mystic bond
between parent and child that speaks to
the heart-then the tragedy of the life of
Frank chip would have been no tragedy.
And the martyrdom of poor Anne Kyle
might never have happened. For certain
ly John Spofford would have taken his
boy with him and given him the career
that was his right.
But he did not. He looked and passed
on. He never saw his son again; never
knew he had a son.
Thereupon began Frank "Hill's" life
as a negro-a black boy.
Liza Hill kept faithfully both the
promise she had made to "Old Master"
Kyle and to her beloved "Miss Anne"
She brought the boy up as a negro, but
she took the best of care of him. She
named him Frank. He played his child
ish games with the little negro bows and
girls and he thought Nanny 'Liza's chill
dren were his own brothers and sisters.
/. When he grew old enough to notice the
difference between his skin and theirs and
asked questions Liza told him that he
was her SON, but that his father had been
white man. He never knew the differ
ence. How could he? His own mother
and her people had cnt themselves abso-
The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-02-04

For Almost Half Century Frank
Of Nanny Liza and That He Wa Negro His
Real Mother Released the Old
Told Him That He Was 4 White Man Overcome by
Revelation. Hill Sank His Knees Before
Then Arose. Vowing Vengeance against Those
Who Had Wasted
The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-02-04

tc' 1928. By a tc.n Weekly. Inc
The Washington times., 1923-05-22
GIRL HELD FOR PASSING
FIFTY WORTHLESS CHECKS

An inappeasable desire for pretty
garments on meager salary
yesterday caused the arrest of
nineteen-year-old Gladiola Peyton.
1903 Ninth street northwest, IN
charges Of passing about fifty
Valueless checks.
Weeping as the charges were
lodged against her, following her
apprehension by Headquarters De
tectives Thompson and Embrey, the
girl sobbed that she wanted to live
like other girls Of her age.
II wanted stylish clothes" she
said, land was unable to buy them
on my small salary. Whenever I
saw something I wanted, / would
go and purchase it and give a
check"
She will be given a hearing in
Police Court today before Judge
Hardison.
The Washington times., 1923-05-22
TRAFFIC SIGN s
FORSHR|NERS
PUT Up
One-Way Streets Designated
White Lines Painted on
Many Thoroughfares.

Thousands of signs denoting one
way streets, mo parking" sections
and similar traffic restrictions were
erected today by the police depart
ment in downtown Washington, in
preparation for the coming of the
Shriners.
A large force of workmen from
the traffic bureau of the depart
ment was employed throughout the
day in attaching the signs to arc
light poles.
Heavy lines of white kalsomine,
showing the course of automobiles
permitted by the special regulations
adopted for the Shrine convention,
were painted on principal streets
in the congested area.
Inspector Albert j. Headley, chief
of the traffic bureau, said that
painters for weeks have been get
ting the signs ready.
The Washington times., 1923-05-22
He Wants P.O. to Send
to Convention by
Air Mail

The proposal of the, air
mail service to inaugurate night
flying has aroused new interest
in this service and has elected
scores of letters from indi-
viduals in different sections of
the country.
One of these communica-
tions, addressed to Postmaster
General New, comes from a
man in a Western town, who,
desiring to attend a conven-
ton in an Eastern city, wants
to be parcel posted" via air
mail.
The Washington times., 1923-05-22
7 j D D R HALL s.
RENT SCUT
BY BOARD
Structure Is Valued at $685.
900, and Owners Are Allow
ed 8 Per Cent in Case.

Rents in the seventy-five apart
ments comprising Tudor Hall, 92C
Massachusetts avenue northwest
were reduced today by order of the
District Rent Commission.
The rent cuts amounted in most
instances to $3.50 and SIS month.
The largest reduction was $40.
The board heard the Tudor Hall
case on it's own initiative, in line
with it's present policy of adjusting
rents in as many apartment houses
as possible.
The commission in it's decision to-
day set value of $685. 900 on the
property, and authorized an annual
maintenance allowance of $685.
The rent adjustment is planned to
give the owners a net return Of
per cent.
The Washington times., 1923-05-22
N. c. ROADS SURPASS D. c.,
GOVERNOR DECLARES

North Carolina roads are better
than many Washington streets. We
have it on the word of Gov. Cam.
eron Morrison, of that State, who
spoke at a reception and dance OF
the State society in Wardman Park
Hotel last night.
The governor declared that edu-
cational progress in the State has
of late years been rapid, and that
highway work has gone ahead by
leaps and bounds.
Robert H. McNeill, chairman of
the board of governors, introduced
the speaker. Others who spoke
were Rear Admiral e. r. Stitt, sur.
The Washington times., 1923-05-22
PAPER CLOTHING KILLED
BY AMERICAN COTTON

The paper clothing industry in
central Europe, which gave Ameri-
can textile manufacturers big
scare Immediately after the war, has
collapsed, w. F. Epson, American
trade commissioner at Vienna. in
formed the Department of Com
merce today.
American cotton coming into Aus
tria. Germany. and Czechoslovakia
has put the paper textile business
out, and practically all producers
have closed their plants.
The Washington times., 1923-05-22
MAN AND WOMAN CUT
BY SUPPOSED MApNI1AN

Police Of the Fourth precinct
were instructed by Captain Sheetz
today to make every effort to arrest
q negro who early today attacked
and cut Samuel Lattisaw, colored,
twenty-five years old, 93S p street
northwest and Beatrice Hull.
colored, eighteen years old, T06
Columbia road northwest. Neither
victim knows of any reason for the
savage attack. Police are inclined
to the belief that the man is either
a maniac or a dope fiend.
The man and woman were stand
ing at Four-and-a-half and e streets
southwest when the man wanted
The Washington times., 1923-05-22
GIRL s cURLS LOOKED
GOOD TO EAT TO HORSE

NEW YORK, May 22.-The curls
on the head of Katherine Taraglino,
seven years old, looked good enough
to eat to peddler's horse at Ninth
avenue and FOrtieth street.
He gathered in a mouthful as she
PASSED, and held on until a police
man freed the girl.
The Washington times., 1923-05-22

geon general of the navy; Rear Adj
miral Thomas washington, chief Of
the bureau of navigation: James =.
Britt. prohibition unit counsel, and
Commissioner Of Internal Revenue
David HI. Blair. Eugene f. Hart
ley presided.
The Washington times., 1923-05-22
YOUTH TRIES SUICIDE
AFTER ROW WITH PARENTS

ANDOvER. Mass. May 22.-After
quarrel with his parents over the
purchase OF clothes he wished to.
wear as best man at his cousins
marriage, nineteen-year-old Jannea-
e. Smythe, jr., fired two shots into
his abdomen. Smythe, secretary OF
the Christian Endeavor Society, has
an even chance OF recovery.
The Washington times., 1923-05-22

sprang from doorway and at
tackled his victims from behind.
The girl was stabbed in the left
groin and the man was cut about
the back. They are being treated
at Emergency Hospital.
The Washington times., 1923-05-22
ADVERTISEMENT. 5
SICK, BILIOUS
TAKE No DRUGS
new Discovery ISOMA

quickly overcomes worst cases OF con-
stipa tion-Great surprise and puzzle to
doctors. Medical research shows that
the presence of poisonous acids in tho
intestines weaken and partially para
I've the bowels and cause constipa ton
and intestinal troubles. To neutralize
and carry off these dangerous acid
poisons. science has at last discovered
a remarkable product called Misoma
which is made from milk soda and mag
nesia under seven hundred degrees Vacu-
um heat. Although it contains no ca
thartic drugs. 1t produces an easy. nor
NAL bowel movement hitherto unknown
from any drug, medicine or other prepa-
ration. Its discovery sh ows what truly
remarkable products can be made by
chemistry from the apparently simple
things right around us. MISOMA is
quite inexpensive and may now be OBJ
tanned from all leading druggists in this
city. including Peoples Drug Stores (13
stores). and O'Donnelrs Drug Stores a
stores).
The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-04-01
TOWER KILLS SIX
Employees Lose Lives When Tower
 COIIODscs

HARTFORD. Conn, March 31.-Six employees of the Fuller Brush com pany were killed here today when a water tower collapsed. A huge tank at the top of the tower fell on the workmen when several beams broke.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-04-01
or To Support Harding On His International Court Proposal

fourths of that amount-the effect of restricted output on the American tire purchaser becomes readily ap- parent.
 The rubber industry was suffering badly before the restrictions were imposed. Rubber was selling below cost and the whole industry repre- senting an investment of S500,000,- 900. was falling into ruin, ac- cording 10 Mir Churchill.
 Satisfactory Basis.
 T do not believe that the United States rubber manufacturers wilt be at all injured by the measurSs taken to secure a stable price for rubber at levels which enable the industry to exist" Churchill states. "On the contrary. some of their best authori- ties have expressed the opinion that stabilization at two shillings a pound would afford a perfectly satisfactory basis for ths American manufactur- CTS. and would be preferable to the violent fluctuations which otherwise would have followed on the bank ruptcy. of the producers and the col lapse of so many plantations" proprietor may think of the Steven son scheme, there does not seem to Do the slightest probability that 1t will be abolished, or even altered. The Duke of Devonshire. the present colonial minister, is said to approve of the rubber restrictions and to place the same confidence in Steven son which Churchill imposed.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-04-01
WILL AUTOMOBILE OWNER IN AMERICA PAY BRITISH DEBT
Winston Churchill Says So in Commenting on Provision
 of Rubber

LONDON. March 31.-The Amerlcan n automobile owner is expected 10 pay the British debt to the United States This admission has just been made sby Winston Churchill, who was colo nial minister at the time the system Of rubber restrictions was instituted in the British colonies.
 Th8N American car owner had sus- pected as much. as he scrutinized his tire bill, and irate protests to that effect have been capIed across the Atlantic. Not until now, however, has Britisher in high position ad- mitted the fact.
 In a statement to The Evening Standard. in which he comments on the Stevenson scheme of rubber re- striction. Mir. Churchill declares:
 One of the principal means of paying our debt to the United States is in the provision of rubber"
 See. No Obligation.
 Churchill goes on to say that EEg- land was under no obligation to sup ply the United States with rubber below the cost of production, and hopes that the increased price which the limitation of export has caused will improve the rate of exchange between Great Britain and America.
 The scheme which sent up the cost of automobile tires was evolved by Sir James Stevenson. business adviser to the colonial office. The plan was that only so per cent of the output from British colonial rubber planta- tions should come on the market. If the grower wanted to sell his re- maining 40 per cent he could do so on the payment of higher export tax.
 As practically 75 per cent of the worlds crude rubber is within the British empire--and as the American market consumed nearly three
The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-04-01

PARIS, March 31.-(By Associated Press. .)-How the chief magistrate of a republic might lose his citizenship is question likely to be established in case here that promises to be- come celebrated. Mexican officials, 1t has just been learned, have ques- toned the right of Francisco de la Barra, former provisional president of Mexico. to call himself citizen of that country.
 high official of the Mexican for eign office Is understood has made a declaration to that effect upon the receipt recently of erroneous advices that Senor de la Barra had just landed in New York where, according to the Mexican newspaper report, he was given enthusiastic welcome by Mexican friends and political parti- sans.
 The former president, when asked about 1t. replied: T may say, after the fashion of Mark Twarn, that the news Is greatly exaggerated It is many years since I landed in New York and I am sorry to say do not see before me any indication of the date when I may again have that pleasure. I am too busy here"
 Senor de la Barra was much pained at the thought that any of his fellow citizens should consider excluding nm from the repupuc over winch ne presided. The grounds for the of ficial declaration of his "excommuni- cation" are said to be contained in a provision of the Mexican constitu- tion that citizens may be declared 10 have lost their nationality If they enter tHe service of foreign coun- try for any other than scientific or humanitarian objects.
 Senor de la Barra has been acting as the president of several boards of arbitration called on to settle ques- ton growing out of the war. In this capacity. it is contended here, he is not in the service of any nation but is acting as an entirely independent arbitrator chosen by all the different nations represented on the boards. His work, in a sense, also Is human- itarian since the bodies over which he presides are doing effective work in settling those troubles left hang ing over Europe by the great con- fltrt
The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-04-01
ATHLETICS BOOMING
GERMS MAY GET SICK

LONDON, March 3l.-An interest ing controversy is at present engag ing the attention of bacteriologists. It's subject is theory advanced by Dr. q d'Herelle, of the Pasteur institute to explain the fact that bacteria may suddenly dissolve when brought into contact with tissue fluids.
 According to this theory. explains The London Times, the reason of the dissolution Is attack by still smaller organisms which are invisible under any known microscopic power. In short, even germs themselves may be attacked by other germs and fall sick of diseases peculiar to themselves.
 This theory has been tested by sew eral observers, and notably by Pro lessor Bordet of the Pasteur insti- tute of Brussels. whose recent lec- ture on tho subject at Edinburg is printed in the current issue of The British Medical Journal Professor Bordet offers an alternative explana ton of the observed facts, suggest ing that, owing to some disturbing factor, germs become unwell and de- velop a chemical poison within their own bodies"