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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 28, 1906)
I, -p I 1 Tf j I . l.n.-al-ig-irii7li ftj xt:m-imS: The Commoner. VOLUME C, NUMBER ationsiron-mongers or mournoHn., created by the toil of t Z ,' in class, is a mere bagatel o?rk!nB to that Which the8rstV Y tuu.L wmca tllese wnt;u give awav -thninf . wrker3 liquor and tobacn ,i no 1 .,... , mt. liouor nn f" U' . into tho nnlfrt , ., "-"- b minds dc- best frlAn,l0 rnT; "" V ; ;; : r"a "na p eaamg, e their leir ien- ",. .."?. ". inaustrlpa mnn. tlUilHM DTIVA thnm - 1 l 'uw'' i.i " T ." 'L a M ICG. nn,1 lIO i i i n i i " 'fi t a i r- m t: .' 7 4i fe 4. v - 'a '' . Warp and Woof "" .Ail night the beautiful snow came . ; , down, j', . ,And folded the world In Its' stainless ' Till over the bleak hill's rugged crown The morning laughed from a rosy . " t cloud. .And. the earth was a jewelled and . , . ponderous loom, . ' v . ' .Where winter .his- pallid' web had 'hung ,;,'.,.! .-'Awaiting the checker of light and tS,-T y .gloom, .iL- '' . ' Anr? flin mvRjHnnl wonvora nt firwl - yuuus. "'.'' The blank warp waited; and suddenly, From field, and highway and paved street, -' The sound of labor, and laugh and song ' . . - Blent with the trampof the restless , feet. ; From the latticed cabins beneath the i - "5 hill, ' .The rosy children, with tumult, pour, A.. ' ,'. As the whirrine wheels of the "wakirifc 8V , f - ' Ml ' - '- " .!" ' ,'t " . w' i . J . mm jJar on the wind with a stifled roar. WiNi I fr ,.iV- ;ff Frorq manse and cottage, with haste and din, I . ;. ' - .. The world's great army-of workers hie. i , o -: "V ''Some the battle -with fate-to win . "t ome to faint by the way, and die. w ttin the busy hives of the crowded mart, The shuttlesrlng and h the. plans ri -; unfold ., . l"- "".And the black thread spun from a 'broken heart Is woven in with the thread of gold. t Here blacken, the frosts,, and the rude - iw winds blow u, ..' T,here gleams the desert, with well '.- - r i ', and nalms. . . ,,,;. Ajid. yonder the lilies of springtime ." ",V-rj ' glOW, 4 " ' j.v Or autumn mellows in golden calms. : tAnd .always the workers, early and, . . late, -. , By clews that are heid in the Hand ..'. i Divine, . "Weave into the year-long web of fate t . The blind dRbiiln hf the Vooc design. A" t il- And hither nni TiitVio. n 4.-. .i The restless feet of the nameless Lr- throne: ,4T, Blazon their wanderings through the "';; snow, ".-- T,o.a mingled burden of wail and ' song; rv So the mystical pattern gtows and ;. -; s thrives, Till the night shuts down, and the Year is done, ' ' U thieivfed threads .f the broken Gou gathers them softly, every one. And the flawless pattern our lives hath wrought Gleams up from the loom to the Master's eyes The wondrous pattern the Old Year ' 'Miding(sklgesSOaSOnS' 'nth Chan We neve shall W, till the Dawn of aSr fiEUreS -re Br,"ndf?r and over ad In and out The threads were guided py His dear hand. My ais Selected'. the Old' Year fades into the New, and I can not refrain from thanking our readers for the many . bright spots their kind words have strewn along the pathway-of the past twelve months for me. We have All had sorrow, as well. as joys; sunshine has played with the shadows, and there have been tears as well as laughter. Our songs have not all been paeons of joy; neither have all our tears, been drawn by pain. In pleasure, as in pain, the Guiding Hand has held us, and now, out of the closing night of the year, we seem to hear the "All's well" that gives us courage to lay aside the old with calmness while we take up the new in loving faith. After all, the coming year will bring- us the same old, work-a-day duties, and we shall need just the same (perhaps more) strength for the new ihafc We craved for the old. It is Useless to "resolve" and "turn leaves." We must aslc ' for the strength jthat up-bears ua for the "one step at a time." We must strive for the faith that lets "tomorrow take care of tomorrow' while we' toll- for today.' You, who ate the home-makers and the homeJ-k'eepersY will -have to, go on doing the pleasant an4 the disagreeable, just hb you have done ta ttle past, while those who are doing the world's work will come to you for the strength that fails no,t, but of which the world's exactions have robbed them. They must lean on you; they must, com,e to you for rest, re cuperation and- renewal of, courage r ,for you are the foundation-stones of tne world. Some of you will cet verv weary i of this incessant giving; but, you nvusc learn to take, as well as give. You must learn to demand your price to , take of the life they bring with" them; to grow - interested in thhigs above the pots and pans, to partake of the harvest of their ex periences. And you who go out to do battle with the world do hot forget to bring with you a share of the spoils; giye, as you are given unto; lift the toil ing one to yoursown heights, taking her into the outer crowds. For the home-cheer and loving rest she gives you, take her with you in spirit to the loftiest hill-tops her home love has enabled you to climb, he gives more than she gets give her the love and honor and tenderness that is her due. May the New Year bring you all that is beautiful and blessed. The Passing Year This will be our last meetingSbefore ' The Worry Habit Not long ago I warned you against the stay-at-home habit, and now I must point out to you another habit often but the offspring of the first, but usually of a much more mischiev ous .character. "The woman who worries" seldom gets the sympathy she deserves, for a worrying woman is, in nearly every case, a sick woman. No really healthy woman ever frets, or scolds, or nags. Health Is, in all cases, nappiness; sickness, it Is claimed, is sin or the result of it, and sickness of the body affects the men tal as well as the moral nature. The worry habit can not, in all cases, be controlled by the will. Nine-tenths, of the fretful worry and despondency which map the face .with fine wrinkles are the outcomA nf m.Tionif-h oi .by house-nerves" lack of fresh air, uverwunc, unsuitable food, or dis agreeable environment. There is al ways a cause hehinr? Hlioh O innimiAn land the wise woman will forget to fret ""b vuuusu to lerret out the trouble and seek.to remove it. Wprrving. is .de structive to good looks .and yQiilhful appearanqe, and, unless the woman is too utterly crushed to carp how' she looks, this fact may be an incentive to her to. "brace upland cultivate an. optimistic disposition.' But few wom,en can. effect a cure alone through their own efforts. The iamny must help. The husband, most of all, is responsible for the con dition he deplores, and he should study the matter as a business propo sition, if his love for his wife is pot strong enough to set him te think ing. Many of the- ills that afflict both men and 'women .aretbutr the hereditary bequeathed us by former generations, leaving us with "weak spots" that must be carefully guard ed, and many of the effects of heredity are hard to overcome. In these cases, we must bring our higher and better natures to the task of developing our resisting powers and freeing us- from the consequences of the weaknesses of our forpears. A knowledge of. our selves should be sought, and there is no excuse for ignorance of vital mat ters, in these days when books are ,so plentiful. Every library, howeyer small, should contain one or more of, the 'most authoritative books treating on these matters; Many of tthe.'best are not expensive. - b!e 2? J'. 'or XKJ thrco lies to somo extmif hi.f , .v. Classes rcfarrorl i .l the three-fold degradation which Stroys body and soul, often passing on through hereditary, even to tho -M and fourth generation." So long ; 2 men will willingly-nay, cagerlvIbS v,0 aiaves 10 tneso manufacturers they should be silent as to all otSJ Sources of poverty, for no man who fefuall(iWe(1 ? 1IcilI0r and tobacco habit t6 master him can refer his downfall to outside sources, if tho worhingman will "boycott" drink and tobacco, he will find many a dime in his pocket that would not otherwise be there, at the close of the day's Why Some Workingmen Are Poor Many- a ;"workingman bitterly " ar taighs the capitallst-the irionopolistf loudly blaming his employer for' his failure to get along comfortably on the wages paid him for his labor. He admits that his wages are prompt ly paid, and that, In most cases, he has -"privileges." But his cry is that he can not make his income" cover Tils expenses. There must be some cause for this, and it is well to look into it. There-are three classes of capital ists manufacturers who grow rich largely through the willing support of the wdrking class. "Without money, and without price," literally, to these men, the wage-earner brings the profits of his labor, getting nothing in return but degradation and disease to Himself and disaster to all who de pend upon him. There is the tobac conist. The money they give to him brings them neither food, fuel, cloth ing nor shelter. It in no sense adds to his self-respect or- material suc cess. Why do they work for him? Then, there .1s the brewer, and the distiller. Here, as in other countries,, .these alone thrive whdn other indus tries may be working at a loss. Who is to blame for this traffic? "Who are its patrons? Are' not the workingmen its cmer supporters? Do they need urging, or promlsp of pay, to induce them to squander on drink tho mnnnv for which their fantllies are suffering? wny do tney choose to fatten these Industries on their, souls. and the souls of their families? Who haye they to blame? Why -do they not choose as representatives among the nation's law makers men who will legislate these worse-than-cancers op the busi ness body out of existence? "Why do the voters uphold the liquor trade by giying tho making pf their laws into the hands of the liquor Interests? Here, at least, the workingmen have the remedy in their own hands. They have-not tho slightest excuse for worse than wasting their wages on what brjngs them no returns but deg radation and its accompaniments. The wealth' won by railroad kings, corpor- The Increased Cost of Living "Interviews with city housewives brought out the facts that nine-tenths of them are struggling with the prob lem of how to make a ten-dollar week ly income cover a twelye-dollar weekly tTApuuae. ji:ne cost of food, fuel, cloth ing, rents, house-furnishings, helps, and all items of household expense has increased to such proportions that tho problem of making the earnings cover the actual .necessary outlay is becom ing a serious one. Jn. every community. It is claimed that the uniformity of the price-scale pf,wall food products all over the United States lends color to the charge that there' ft a strict agree rnent among cbrpbrations which handle 'them. ;A11 kinds of textile fab rics have advanced" 20 to 60 per cent In price during the' last 'fivetyears, and the statistics of the department of labor and commerce- show an increase in the cost of foods' alone during the past ten years of 50 per cent. The increase of rents is attributed to the increased cost of labbr and building material not to 'increased values of real estate. It is shown bv t.h mv- 'ernment's figures' that the cost of ba con has advanced 43.5 per cent; po tatoes, 43.1 per cent; eggs, 41.8 per cent; dry and pickled pork, 31.1 per cent; fresh pork, 30 per cent; Hour, 29.3 per cent, 'and com meal 28.6 per cent. These are the articles selected by the bureau of labor as the staples of a workingman's bill of fare. Tho increase in the price of beef has been even greater than the figures hero given, and other items of diet have increased accordingly." Globe Democrat. For Corns A corn is simply a callous spot, caused by wearing an ill-fitting shoe or stocking, pr both, the constant rub bing of the leather against the foot, or pressing one toe against the other. Some neonle are more nublect to corns than others. The first step to ward a cure Is to get a shoe that fits the foot-1 Insist upon having it; if possible, get one without tips. Next, soak the feet in quite warm water before going to bed, and while wet, rub off all the hard skin you can with a piece of pumice stone--do not rub until tho flesh is sore. Then apply a poultice made of common laundry soap and brown sugar, well-kneaded together, and' leave , on over night This may have to be' repeated several times. It does not act so .quickly as some others, but is JiarmlesB and usu- Afr OLD AWD WKLLVaUtti RSHVDT Kxs. Wtwsixm'ssooTxixe btxvp for etdlffMS te iking nhoHld always btuted for children while lethlnr. Itsoftans tfeeframs, allays til pain, ennm wind oUe aad U tbe bast -rMtadjr fer UarrbMb Ywat:r-flYa&f A bm Ji s'lyv" K t'akt&tuxtA