davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1924-04-25
THE WAY 1T is SAID.

The Sultan awokc with a stifled scream,
His nerves were Stacked by fearful dream,
An omen Of terrible import and doubt D..
His teeth all in moment fell out.
His wise men assembled at break of day,
And stood at the throne in solemn array;
Each felt a shudder. his blood ran cold.
And all stood silent. in fear and dread
And wondering what was best to be said.
At length a soothsaycr. wrinkled and gray.
Cried, Pardon, my lord, what have TO say
"Tis an omen of sorrow sent from on high,
Thou shalt see all thy kindred die"
wroth was the Sultan: he CRASHED his teeth,
And his very words seemed TO hiss and seethc.
As h, ordered tho wise man bound with chains,
And gave him hundred stripes for his pains.
The wise men shook as the Sultans eye
Swept round to see who next would try;
But one of them stepping before the throne,
Exclaimed, in loud and joyous tone:
,''Exalt, o head of a happy state!
Rejoice, o heir of glorious kin
"For this is the favor thou shalt win,
o Sultan, to outlive all thy kin.
Pleased was the Sultan. and called slave
And a hundred crowns to the wise man gave.
But the courtiers nod. with grave. sly winks,
And each one whispers what each one thinks:
"Wen can the Sultan reward and blame;
Didn't both the wise men foretel the same"
Quoth the crafty old Vizer. shaking his head,
80 much may depend on the way things
said !" Unknown.
San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1924-04-25
PASSING OF MOVIE STARS"

The moving picture has come to stay.
1t has established itself as one of the
great entertainment features of the mod
ern world and while its relation to the
speaking stage may change with time
for it is yet in the early days of its
infancy-there is no doubt that it will
continue definitely to be one of the great
influences of the times.
|. There are some strange differences
between the picture and the stage that
exist for no apparent reason, but which
are nevertheless clearly evident. In the
first place, the 'life" of a movie star
seems to be of extremely short dura
ton. 1t is seldom that man or woman
lasts more than very few years in
the movies. On the stage, an artist
of leading capacity may continue indefi-
niteIy-in fact, for life time.
Mary Pickford, possibly the best
!-r~vn screen actress of today, has al
ready announced her prospective re-
t..enent She has said that she will
make three or four more pictures and
then abandon pictures forever. The
public, she says, demands a change
from her type There is no evident de-
sire on the part of the public to dispense
with the work of Miss Pickford. Out
''~~''lv, at least, she seems to attract
as many people as ever she did. 1t
is evident, however, that this actress who
is credited with possessing more than
the average amount of correct business
Judgment has felt the first tide ripples
running against her and realizing that
screen favorites last but a short time.
has made up her mind to retire while
she is still great favorite.
j Miss Pickford is still young woman.
On the speaking stage she would be
commencing to show signs of real ability
and would, in fact, be just entering upon
her real career. There is no reason why
! she could not, if she desires, return to
San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1924-04-25
EVENING AT SAN FRANCISCO.

The air is chill and the hour grows late,
And the clouds come in through the Golden Gate,
Phantom fleets they to ma .
From shoreless and unsounded sea;
Their shadowy spars and misty sails,
Cnshattered have weathered n thousand gales
Slow wheeling. To- in squadrons gray.
They part and hasten across the bay,
Each to its anchorage finding way.
Where the hills of Sausalito SWELL
Many in gloom may shelter well:
And others-behold .-unchallenged pass
BY the silent guns Of Alcatraz
No greetings of thunder and flame exchange
The armed isle and the cruisers strange.
Their meteor flags widely hown.
Were blazoned in world unknown:
So. charmed from war, wind. tide,
Along the quiet wave they glide.
What bear these ships? What news? What freight
DO tLcy bring us through the Golden Gate?
Sad echoes to words in gladness spoken
And wthered hopes to the poor heartbroken
Oh. how many venture we,
Have rashly sent to the shoreless sea!
Tic air is chill and the hour grows late.
And the clouds come in through the Golden Gate
Frcighted with sorrow, chilled with -
But these shapes that cluster. dark and low,
| Tomorrow shall be all agow,
! In the blaze of the coming morn these msts,
| Whose weight my heart in vain rcsists.
| Will brighten and shine and soar to heaven
| In thin white robes, like souls forgiven;
For heaven is kind. and everything
| As well as winter, has spring.
! So praise to God who brings the day
/ That shines ous regrets and fears away:
| For the blessed morn I can watch and wait.
While the clouds come in through the Golden Gate
| Edward Pollock.
San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1924-04-25
THE HAPPY RAINMAKER.

The business of producing artificial
rain should make a stfong appeal to
the average person. The idea of col
Letting bounty on the showers is
singularly attractive. Instead Of 60
ing through the tedious process of
waiting for backward crops to grow
or of storing the water in great
reservoirs, the professional rainmak-
or begins ringing the cash register
with the first downpour.
California's rainmaker, who last
year tried his hand on the skies
above the Alberta prairies, recently
fulfilled n contract with the grain
growers and cattle raisers of his
state. He guaranteed an inch and
onc-fourth of rain between March 10
and April Is. A few days ago a
small flood came down and nc re-
corded it as one of his successes.
The United States Weather Bureau
is strangely skeptical about the
ability of man to produce rain at WILL
The hard-headed scientists who study
tiOuhce Atmospheric anu
mechanics of storms, assert that no.
body can produce rain from skies
which hold no water vapor. Also
that any given area accustomed to
rain may enjoy that blessing without
the aid of rainmaker. They hint
strongly that coincidence and FORUM
ate chance are factors in the rain
makers successes.
At any rate the rainmaker has
noted the fall of two inches of rain
and estimates that it means $4,000
in his pocket.
Whether the miracle worker is a
good weather prophet or successful
rainmakcr has no bearing on the case
in point. A contract is contract
and everything that falls from the
clouds is water on his wheel. Pre-
sumably the husbandmen are salts
fled with the rain even though it was
more than was bargained for and the
rainmaker is quite content with a
brisk business in showers.-Seattle
Times.
San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1924-04-25
CHAPTER III.

Looking back to that April morn
ing eighteen months ago. it all seemed
such foolish. stupid blunder.
She had hated her life of nursery
governess to n couple of spoiled, UNI
manageable children: she had hated
their mother, o naughty. upsympa-
thetic, nouveau richie; and, most OF
all. she had hated the unkind freak
of fortune that had made Robert IIur-
ham n poor man. All her life she
had lived amongst poverty--the gem
teel. hard-to-bear kind of poverty
which struggles so hard 10 keep up
appearance-afld her soul shrank
from perpetuating it by marriage
with Robert Durham.
She loved him she loved him as
well as it was in her TO love any man.
and yet she could not face the pros
pect of succeed villa and n small
income for the rest of her life.
And then one golden April even
ing Nigel Bretherton had opened The
school room door and walked into her
life.
She could recall it all so plainly
now, though it was eighteen months
ago; see him as she had seen him
then-tall, and good to look upon
with the quick admiration in his
eyes as they rested on her face.
He had come to the school room
often after that, and. b. the tint
she had found out that no was q
| well-to-do younger son with pros
poets. he had proposed.
They were married in less than .
San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1924-04-25

ashamed, because she knew that in her
heart was strange feeling of relief.
Life was TO go on as usual; Nigel's
bankers paid her generous allow
ancc every month; she was to keep
on the flat, and have Mary to live
with her.
Nigel had known Mary Furnival
long before he ever met his wife. She
was one of those quiet, wondeNul
people who are never missed or real
ICED until they are taken away.
He had asked her-in his selfish
mans way-to be a friend to the girl
be was about to marry. He had
never seen the sudden look of shock
that crossed her quiet face. or the
blanching of her lips before she
forced them to smile.
"Why. of course l will,' she had
said. and she had kept her word.
She had given up the two unpre-
tcntious little rooms which were her
home, and moved into Dolly's smart
flat. where the sight of Nigel's pos
sessions lying about wrung her heart
every day.
San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1924-04-25
the speaking stage and work for many

the speaking stage and work for many
years.
There must be some reason for this
difference in conditions surrounding the
work OF stage and screen Stars" Pos
sibly it may lie. to some extent. in the
lack of dramatic quality that is re-
vealed in many of the screen plays
Some of them are idiotic to the last de-
gree. They strain human intelligence
almost to the breaking point.
This is not intended as any indictment
of the moving picture. 1t is fully real
lied that the producers of this form OF
artistic entertainment have their troubles
and that they are cropping their way
through the perplexities that invariably
surround the launching of any new form
of public amusement.
A picture-a most excellent picture in
most respects-was recently shown in
this city which showed a most gro
tesque weakness in point of dramatic con-
struction in just one detail. The hero
of this pictorial drama was engaged to
marry young woman. He happened to
see his fiancee patting the shoulder of
his brother. Immediately, without ask
ing question. seeking any explanation.
or saying word, he rushed off and
married another woman whom it was
absolutely necessary to kill before the
hero and heroine could be properly mar
ried and happy ending obtained.
No human being could possibly have
shown such utter and abandoned STU
pidity as the author of that scenario
compelled his chief actor to perpetrate
No man in existence would have acted
in such manner. This mana hero,
mind you-did not grab a gun and
shoot or try to shoot anybody; he
did rot throw brick at anybody; he
did not even walk up to the patted
brother and his patting fiancee and
say show Gomez" He merely regis
tered look of sloppy sorrow> and
without word went off and married
another woman.
great or how divine the genius that
may have been lavished on them by
all the gods. can survive a repetition
of such dramatic construction. The
public will surely weary in short order
of such "hero" and his time on the
screen will inevitably be brief
Better and stronger plots may help
the situation. The men and women
of the screen are good enough but they
must have good stuff to work in and
with.
San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1924-04-25
AN IMPOSSIBLE BILL

The Rents Bill which produced much
strong argument in the British House
of Commons, has been defeated. 1t was
inevitable that this should be the case
as. Fundamentally, the bill was opposed
to common sense and elementary justice.
In effect, the bill proposed that if a
man was out of employment he should
be allowed to retain whatever rented
premises he might be occupying until
he had again secured employment. He
was to remain in occupation at the en-
pense of his landlord and could not be,
at any time, called upon to make up the
amount of unpaid rent, even after he had
secured work.
The bill ignored several most impor-
tant factors. In the first place. it de-
clared that if the head of the family was
out of employment the family should
pay NO rent Even though the wife and
several sons and daughters might be
earning good salaries and the family,
because OF those earnings, might be in
comfortable circumstances, no rent could
be collected because the man of the
family happened to be out of work. The
bill took cognizance of no income but
of the so-called head of the family.
No provision was made in the bill for
the cot tingency that man out of work
might die while enjoying his quarters
rent flee. 1t is obvious that dead man
woud never be able to work and yet
MS f;nily might 60 on holding the prem
Uses at the expense of the landlord until
such time as the dead man had gone to
work again. Such a situation would be
absurd but there was nothing in the bill
to prevent it.
Moreover, the bill held the fatal de-
fect-among others-that it penalized
the class of house owners for the benefit
of other people to whom it granted no
redress of any kind The sponsors of
the bill were compelled to assume that
the owners of houses could afford to be
penalized to the extent of the practical
seizure of their property. This of course,
is not true in England or elsewhere.
There may be few property owners
who could afford such penalty, but
they are few in number. AS class. the
property owners could not stand the
penalty and such an Injustice should
never be asked of them.
If the unemployed were to be aided,
why should the help be compulsory on
the house owners alone? Why not drag
in the grocers, the milkman, the coal
man and all other sellers of any form
of household supplies?
The questions that brought about the
defeat of the bill were not due, in any
sense to lack of sympathy with the un-
employed. The bill was simply impos-
sible Conditions that bring about pow
erty cannot be remedied by wholesale
injustice. Such a bill as the one that
was proposed would simply make trag-
edy contagious throughout the country
and intensely aggravate the situation it
was intended to relieve.
San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1924-04-25
CHAPTER III
"GIad to Co."

UuO 10 10.
Mary Furnival's gentle voice broke
the silence of the sunny room again.
He will come back, Dolly dear
ploese God he will scome back safe
ly."
Dolly flung aside the caressing
hand. and rose to her feet.
you all seem determined that l
shall go on pretending" she said
harshly. Sometimes i feel as il 1
must scream when people ask after
Nigel, and pretend to be so sorry for
me. Why. you must know, if no.
body else does. that we were tired of
each other almost as soon as we were
married. oh. know i ought not to
say these things" she burst out. as
Mary gave little cry, '.but / shall
die if l can't say them to somebody.
l feel such o humbug-such an abso-
lutte humbug."
She came back to where Mary was
sitting. and dropped on her knees by
the elder girl, hiding her hot face in
her lap.
CONTINUED in Our Next Issue.)
San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1924-04-25
CHAPTER i.
The Shadows of War.

Mary Furnival was knitting khaki
socks.
The September sunshine, piercing
| the lace curtains, shOne on her quiet
| face and the flying needles in her
white fingers.
From her curled-up position in q
corner OF the couch, Dolly Brother
| ton watched her with concealed I'M
| patience.
Dolly could not have knitted socks
had her life depended on it; she had
made one or two attempts, and had
given it up in despair.
The stitches would drop from be-
tween her pretty, Understanding fin
gers, and the wool get entangled: but
she envied Mary Furnivafs quiet ca-
pability as she sat there in the af-
ternoon sunshine, placidly adding row
upon row of the buff-colored wool.
In the middle of turning heel,
she looked up, and met Delly's yes.
"Well?" she queried.
Dolly frowned.
al suppose you think that ! ought
to be making socks. too!" she sub
mitted. half-resentfully.
Mary Furnival laughed, a laugh
that ended with n sigh.
81 wasn't thinking anything of the
sort: / was just wondering if-if
Nigel will ever come back"
The words seemed to escape be-
fore she realized their import !; she
broke off hurriedly, and, leaning over,
caught Dolly's hand.
"Oh, l am so sorry, dear! l ought
not to have said that. Of course he
will come back"
There was little silence. Dolly
had flushed to the roots of her hair:
her left hand-the one that bore Nigel
Bretherton's wedding ring, opened and
shut convulsively over the folds of
her frock.
The half-finished sock had fallen
from Mary's lap TO the floor; Dolly
looked down at it, and little SILVER
shook her.
Nigel had been one of the first to
answer his country's call, and since
then everyone had been so good 10
her. They had all taken it for grant
ed that she must be heart-broken at
parting with him; they had all been
so sorry for her.
That had been the hardest part of
it all-the having to pretend, to eter-
nally act. and keep them all blind to
the horrible truth that Nigel had been
glad to go; that for the last few
months Of their married life he and
she had been unwilling prisoners.
chained together, each straining at the
bondage holding them.
1t had been a mistaken marriage,
for which she now knew she alone
had been to blame.
San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1924-04-25
BENIGHTED PENNSYLVANIA

Missionaries are called for Their task
will be to penetrate the moral wilder
ness Of Pennsylvania, a part of the
United States OF America, and enlighten
the PEOPLE thereof in details of proper
moral behavior. 1t will also be entirely
proper to tell them how they should
vote. particularly when the question OF
select ting delegates at large to Republi-
can national conventions is to the fore.
1t will he remembered that Gov Gift
ford Pinchot recently appealed to the
people of Pennsylvania to send him to
the convention as a delegate-at -large.
lie asserted, in his appeal. that the hon
or might be taken away from him sim
ply because he was a patriotic. law
fearing n an. 1t was, he said the inten-
ton of his enemies to deprive him of
the honor and pleasure of attending the
convention in the capacity of delegate
at-largc, Gust because he was good
citizen. The people who desired to pre-
vent him from attending the convention
were. he declared, tools of the rum pow
er, people who desired nothing more
than to break down the law and run
riotously and lawlessly throughout the
community in many and devious
ways. The people who would vote
against him, he made it plain, were
actual and potential enemies of the COM
monwealth of Pennsylvania. BY their
votes the world would know them.
With this issue clearly drawn be-
fore them, the people of Pennsylvania
went to the polls.
The result of the voting is rather
staggering to Governor Pinchot and
those who believe, as he evidently be-
lieves, that the high morals, good name
and prosperity of the state of Pennsyl-
vania are bound up in one word aud
that word is spelled "P-i-n-c-h-o-t." The
voters of PENNSYLVANIA somehow went
wrong. They failed to measure up tc
the Pinchot standard. They rejected
the appeal of the governor to be sent
to the Cleveland convention as delegate.
at-large from Pennsylvania. They de
clared themselves to be in favor of the
criminal element, the depraved percent
age, the submerged tenth. They-al
ways reasoning according to the Pin
chot formula-announccd themselves a:
being strongly in favor of crime. or law
breaking. of bootleggcrs and other thing
of that kind
In other words. they buried Governo
Pinchot under an avalanche of votes
They put him on the shelf by major
ity of about 100000 OF course tina
proves, according to the infallible Pin
chot system Of logic and computation
that the residents of Pennsylvania ar
undesirables by the exact majority the
piled rp against Governor Pinchot
incidentally. the vote was grea
victory for President Coolidge. Coy
erno- Pinchot has made a number {
attacks on the President and the friend
of the President accepted the issue. The
claimed that the vital point to be estat
lished by the vote was whether Penn
sylvania is in favor of the renominatio
of President Coolidge. Governor Pr
chot asserted that President Coolidg
was not involved and that the real i:
sue was the liquor question. If Penn
sylvsnia sent him to the convention
Pennsylvania was in favor of the, Vo
stead act If it did not send him t
San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1924-04-25
OPEN DIPLOMACY FOR BRITAl

British craftsmanship Of the !
school was shocked when Arthur ~
sonby, undcrsecretary for foreign
fairs. announced in the house OF col
mons that all future treaties wo5
be admitted to both houses OF Pard
ment for discussion before final rs1
fication. In other words. Britai1
Labor government is resolved ull
open covenants openly arrived at, a
the disciples of secret diplomacy n
orally are appalled,. They denouq
it as an attempt to "Arlericani1
the British constitution, and are
sentful that so momentOus 81
/ should be undertaken by governing
whic his in office by sufferance 81
lacking Il parliamentary majority.
In addition to announcing that \
the future all treaties would lie on
table for twenty-one days before II
ratification, with opportunity for
cussion of more important compa2
Mr.Ponsonby states that the govea
ment likewise would submit to
house all agreements, eommitme
and understandings which in any "a
bound the government in its relati
ship with other powers.
If the Macdonald government
make this program stick, III the
of British conservatism and devotI
to ancient practices, it will mark
beginning of new era in the dill
macy of Europe and of the woyj
The United States already has dem1
strated that a nation can brosperV
world affairs without resort to seq
bargaining, and if now the tremendt
influence Of the British empire is
be thrown into the scale i'll favor
straightforward intercourse among
tons that policy will be given a
mentum which other governments
find it difficult to resist. The n
pies of continental Europe are liz
to begin asking why, if open diplom
is good for America and Britain,
should not enjoy its benefits.
Open diplomacy, such as pract
by the United States and propc
for Great Britain, viii not serve as
absolute preventive of wars. but
one of the greatest discouragcrS
war of which we have any kncwlef
Washington Star.