THE OMAHA DAILY BBEs SUlSrJtAY. SEPTEMBER 4. 19i7.TTTlT ! r PAfWR ia
SHALL THE WOMEN VOTE ?
The Question Diacnaeed by United States
Senator Ingalls.
feUFFRAGE NOT A NATURAL RIGHT
It It a PrlYllFRe , and Will bo Granted
Whenever Woman Wantii It ,
and Boclnty Nooda It ,
and Not Before.
Frr m the Sfj > teinlier Forum.
The political dogmatism which assorts
( hat sufl'raKo la a natural right , and that
ftorcnimcnt rests upon consent , ha *
naturnlly led to a vigorous demand for
the enfranchisement of woman. If thu
premises arc granted the argument la
conclusive. If voting is a natural right ,
then everybody has the auma right to
Vote that ho has to exist , and the dlsfr.m-
chisoment of women , minors , aliens ,
pmipors and polycamlsts is indufunsiblo
tyranny. If government rests upon the
consent of the governed , then all who
are governed are entitled to express their
assent or dissent , by the ballot , upon
questions affecting liberty , property or
lifn.
lifn.But
But if suffrage ia a privilege conferred
from considerations of expediency , and
if government rests primarily and ulti
mately upon force , then there is a ra
tional and satisfactory explanation of the
universal exclusion by all nations of
women , children and other dependent
elates from participation in legislation
and politics. It is not a question of in
telligence or morals. There arc infants
of twenty years who could votu more
wisely and with greater advantage to the
state than many registered electors of
half a century. Multitudes of educated
and patriotic women could be moro
safely intrusted with the ballot than the
bloody thugs , repeaters and assassins
who have for a generation nindo elections
in the south and In Baltimore , Chicago ,
Cincinnati , New York and other areat
cities , shameless and brutal parodies ,
and havu built intolerable despotisms
upon the ruins of public liberty.
But the supreme crisis in the lifo of the
state comes when its laws arc violated
and its energies assailed by combinations
too formidable to bo overcome by pacific
agencies. Then only the final appeal to
force remains ; tbo beak , the talon and
the thunderbolt , which are the emblems
of national authority. And thus the state
has always confided the control and
direction of its powers to these who can
enforce its decrees. The most passionate
pleader for female suffrage has never
affirmed that women would make valua
ble judges , public executioners , guards ,
Jailors , policemen , militia or regular sol
diers. 'Iho contention is that they should
bo permitted to enact laws and formulate
policies , whose enforcement , if resisted ,
should be left entirely to the other sex ,
against whose judgment they may have
boon decided at the polls.
The dogma that suffrage ia a natural
right has no support either in reason or
experience. Suffrage Is u privilege , con
ditioned upon age , sex , birth , property or
intelligence , conferred by the state upon
such citizens as are considered most
likely to aid in the accomplishment of
the fundamental objects for which gov
ernment is established ; the diffusion of
civil rights and political equality , with
efficient and vigorous guarantees for the
protection of lifo , the security of prop
erty and the preservation of personal
liberty. The decision is necessarily arbi
trary and not susceptible of accurate
definition. It expresses the ultimate
judgment , and reflects the final convic
tions of the state as a political entity ,
upon the essential conditions of its own
existence.
Thomas Jetferuon , the father of mod
ern democracy , borrowed his ideas of
the social contract from Rousseau and
the French philosophers , who believed
that the state of nature was the ideal
condition of man , and that numbers
would ultimately prevail against intelli
gence , duty and justice. Ills dreamy
imagination was captivated by their
vague phrases and imperfect generaliza
tions , lie had no conception of the
moral forces which give a nation
strength , duration and grandeur. lie
failed to comprehend the supreme obli
gation of law as the bond which unites
ociety , superior to the will of individ
uals and the discontent of minorities ,
capable of executing its statutes , re
pressing injustice and preserving its
autonomy. The rule of action for states ,
as for men , is obedience to law. The
doctrine that just governments derive
their powers from the consent of the
governed , in the Jeffursonian phra
seology , is an imperfect statement of
fact , it is the truth , but not the whole
truth and nothing but the truth. In the
last analysis all governments , the just
and the unjust , rest , not upon consent ,
but upon forco. So long as individuals
submit to the laws , and minorities con
sent to the decision of majorities , so long
government rests upon consent , but no
v longer. If the citizen violates no edict
or ordinance he consents to bo governed ;
but if ho commits murder or refuses to
pity taxes , behind the law stands the
sheriff , tbo posse , the militia , the army
and navy of the United States.
The south , in 1801 , endeavored to act
upon the theory that government rests
upon the consunt of the governed. Dis
satisfied with the lawful expression of the
will of the majority at the polls , they
refused to consent to the administration
of the government by the republican
party under the presidency of Abraham
Lincoln. They wore logical , but the
reverberating thunder of the guns of
Grant at Uonolsonx Vicksburg and Appo-
mnttox refuted their fatal syllogism , and
the proclamation of emancipation dis
posed of the fallacious rhetoric of the
composer of the Declaration of Inde
pendence. Had this government rested
upon the consent of tno governed , slavery
would not have been abolished , nor
would the cloven seceded states hava
returned to the Union. Like the kingdom
of heaven , the Union suffered violence ,
and the violent took it by force. No
confederate leader has ever admitted
that slavery was wrong , or that thu Cal -
noun interpretation of the constitution
was incorrect. The most penitent of the
prodigal sons appeases his couscieuco by
tbo guarded admission that "the south
accepts In good faith the results of the
war. "
Volitics is the metaphysics of force ) ,
The rule of the majority is still the rule
of the strongest. But modern society
has agreed to determine the question of
supremacy by counting instead of by
fighting. Mathematics has been substi
tuted for muscle ; computation for war.
\Vo count yea on one Hide and nay on the
other , and call it suffrage. Hut the same
principle underlies the ballot-box and
the battle-field. The apponl from the
ballot to the bullet remains. The north
had much greater reason to bo dissatisfied
with the election of Cleveland m 1884
than the south with that of Lincoln in
1800. There were moro imminent dan
gers of bloodshed and civil war in the
disputed election of 1870 than have ever
been disclosed. The principal actors in
that Uniedy hare been ailuut , and its
secret history bos never been written ,
lliul the seat of government been in Now
York instead of Washington , and a less
resolute- executive than Grant been com-
mandcr-iu-chief , the final verdict of the
electoral commission might not have
been recorded.
In considering tbo wisdom or cxpe-
dmncy of enlarging the voting classes in
this country by compelling all the states
peremptorily to confer suffrage upon all
women , under penalty of forfeiting representation -
rosontation in congress and the electoral
col logo , as is proposed by the ghampiopa
of the sixteenth amendment to the con
stitution , It is not necessary to affirm nor
to imply that woman is incompetent or
disqualified for the ballot by reason of
moral or intullcctu.il infirmity. The
intellect of woman may be weaker or
stronger than that of man. but it is uot
the sumo. It may bo higher orlowor ,
but it is essentially different. There
have Iwen women with masculine traits ,
as tbrro have been mun with feminine
oharacturlstics , but between the mental
functions and activities of the sexes
there h a great gulf fixed , bridged only
by the sen Union la , tbo emotions and the
passions. In her own dominion woman
Is invincible , but if she abdicates and
inviU-s competition with man upon equal
terms , in bis province , she always has
been , and always will bo , vanquished , It
is impossible to conceive of a female
Blackstone , Webster , Napoleon , Shak-
spearo , Gladstone or Bucon. Many
women may have been greater and wiser
than thesu , but none have been able to do
the work that these have performed.
Women have made no imuorLkut on'.ri-
button to any of these great subjects of
thought with which the science and practice -
tico of government are concerned :
finance , diplomacy , international law ,
the tariff , war , the regulation of com-
uicrcc , internal improvements. Oppor-
tuulty and capacity have not been wanting -
ing , but inclination and disposition huve
been absent.
It cannot bo claimed that the faculties
of woman are under duress , for the
tendency from subordination to equality
has been irresistible and her cmancipa-
tion has long been complete. The fatali
ties of sex and the obstacles of tempera
ment arc the only obstructions to her
unrestrained competition with man in
every field of physical or mental action.
Christianity , co operating with the spirit
of the age. has abolished injustice and
removed the degrading servitudes im
posed upon her by the ignorance and
prejudice of mankind. She can practice
law or medicine , preach the gospel ,
engage in the pursuits of commerce and
business , participate in politics , write
books , edit newspapers , paint pictures ,
carve statues , build railroads , cultivate
the soil , toil in the field , the quarry and
the mine if she will. The world is
hospitable to her thoughts and to her
labors.
The question of suffrage belongs , under
the constitution , exclusively to tbo states.
Congress has no power to center or limit
suffrage except in the territories and the
District of Columbia. Each state now
has the right to grant full suffrage to
women whenever a majority of its elec
tors dosire. No amendment to the con
stitution is necessary , nor could it have
any other effect except to force the
enfranchisement of women upon reluc
tant states that are not prepared for it ,
and do not wish for it , nnder the penalty
of a reduction of representation in congress -
gross and the electoral college. Why the
proponents of equal suffrage appeal to
congress , rather than to the state legisla
tures , by whom alone the appeal can bo
made effectual , is uot clearly perceptible.
Their reply to this interrogation is that
woman has as much right to the ballot as
the nogro. Nothing could be more irra
tional than this pretext. The fifteenth
amendment was as much a war measure
as the draft , or the legal tender act. The
negro was enfranchised by the states and
not by congress. The alternative made
the process compulsory for obvious rea
sons ; but those who pretend that there is
any similarity between the present
condition of American women and the
status of the freedmcn nt the close of the
war arc either ignorant or insincere.
The abolition of slavery by the thir
teenth amendment , in 1865 , was appar
ently unaccompanied by any purpose to
interfere with the control of suffrage by
the states , The congressional debates
disclose no snch intention. This amend
ment was the ratification by the people of
the emancipation proclamation of Sep
tember 22 , 1863 , anQ January 1 , 18G3.
The enfranchisement of the frccdmon
was not then contemplated. Tbo idea
was repugnant even to the radical
element m the dominant party , which
had been rendered homogeneous by the
destruction of slavery. But the intelli
gent and wealthy classes in the south ,
who had exclusively held the political
power of that section till the close of the
rebellion , were reluctant to surrender
their prerogatives , and it soon became
obvious that the rights of the negroes
were not to be adequately protected in
the conquered states , li was also evident
that the liberation of the slaves would
increase the political power of the south
unless the negroes wore made citizens
and voters. These convictions led to the
adoption of the fourteenth' amendment
in 1808 , and the fifteenth amendment in
1970 , which , with the reconstruction act
of March 2 , 1867 , coerced the seceding
states into negro suffrage as a condition
precedent for their restoration to the
union. The thirteenth , fonrtoonth and
fifteenth amendments to the constitution
wore incident to the war. Their advo
cates were consistent and logical. But
there is no logio in politics except the
logic of events , and , judging by events ,
it must be admitted that thus far the ex
periment of negro suffrage in the south
under the constitutional amendments has
been aa absolute and unqualified failure.
None of the anticipations of its promo
ters have been realized. This declaration
docs not imply that tbo negro is incom
petent to vote , nor that he should not
vote. Bat the south , having obtained
thirty-eight additional members of the
lower house of congress , and an equal
increment in the electoral college , by the
operation of the fourteenth amendment ,
has practically nullified the fifteenth
amendment , and neither educates the
negro nor permits him to voto. Political
power in that part of the republic is as
exclusively in the hands of the whites as
it was in 1880 , and the indications are
that it will so continno for an indefinite
period in the future. The national
authority has boon exhausted , and noth
ing remains but the final appeal to the
national conscience. So formidable has
the danger become that the most active
champions ot equal sullrngo for women
are also the most ardoat supporters of
the recent measures for national aid to
common schools , whoso avowud purpose
Is the education of the colored rotors of
the south , at ttiu cxpin- > of the public
treasury , upon thu romin thru their
ignorance is an instant 'i'i I constant t
menace to constitution)1 : government
and civil liberty. Under uii-.r i-ojjunt ap
peals the senate of the I'uiUiil States
passed a bill appropriating $70,000,000 >
for this purpose , and there is httln doubt t
that It would havu passed the house ot
representatives had it not boon for the
obstructive parliamentary tartica of its
'
enemies in both political'parties.
iffly the statistics of the tenth census wo
nru informed that the colored males in
the Uuited States above the ago of
twenty-one , who worn unable to write ,
numbered 1,0 ,151. or 03 7-10 per cent of
the entire class. The white males simi
larly disqualified were & 6 , 59 , or 7 8-10
per font of the voting population. It Is
an appalling rellcction that in x govern
ment theoretically based upon intelligent t
citizenship , such an enormous proportion
nf the electors are destitute of the rudi [
ments of education. The adoption of
the proposed sixteenth amendment woulu
add to this stupendous mass of illiteracy ,
colored females 1,135.749 , or 77 0-10 per
cent of these who would be enfranchised I ,
and white female * 1,1 .1,803. being 11 per
cnnt of thoie who would bo entitled to
the ballot ; a grand total of nearly 3,300-
000 illiterate and disqualified electors , in
addition to the existing millions whoso
condition is a confessed menace to thu
perpetuity and stability of free popular
government , These , therefore , who con
tend that there should bo a sixteenth
amendment because there was a 11 f teenth ,
and that all women should be allowed to
vote because the liberated slaves were
enfranchised , are uot felicitous in their
argument.
suffrage under our political system has
been extends < l to the extreme limit con
sistent with national safety. Wo have
reached the danger lino. It is too Into to
cure the evils and correct tbo mistakes of
thu past. They are irremediable and
irreparable. The cowards and the dema
gogues of all political parties have been
emulous in obsequious subserviency to
the most dangerous and destructive eln-
menu in our civilization. The total
number of immigrants from foreign
countries for the twelve months ending
Jane 30,1887 , at the nix principal ports of
the United States , was 483,116. The
arrivals not reported would swell this
number to more than 000,000 , or nearly
1,400 for every day in the year. Thia
exceeded the arrivals of the preceding
year moro than 40 uer cont. Many of
of these wore unskilled laborers im
ported by corporations to destroy the
intelligent industry of American artisans
by their degraded competition. Myriads ,
like the Poles , Finns , Italians and Hun
garians in the mines of Colorado , Ohio
nnd Pennsylvania , are only restrained by
armed force from arson and massacre.
Paupers , criminals , fugitives , malcon
tents , outlaws , connecting links between
the savage and the beast , tbo feculence
of decaying nations , the sediment and
oxtivitfl of humanity , are discharged like
sewage upon the continent. The emissa
ries of anarchy , the re-enforcements for
the brutal army of ruin , whoso war cry
is the destruction of organized govern
ment and social order , whose weapons
are the torch and bomb , are welcomed
upon the strand with tumultuous waving
of the star-spangled banner , with per
petual Fourth of July , with continuous
"Yankee Doodle" and "Hail Columbia ,
Happy Land , " with the tender of the
ballot and a quarter section of the public
domain , before they can speak the lan
guage or distinguish tiio uificrcnco be
tween the constitution of the United
States and the proverbs of Solomon.
Hy the close of the present century ,
and perhaps earlier , there will not be an
acre of the public domain upon which
corn and wheat can be raised without
irrigation , subject to pre-emption or
homestead entry within the present
limits ot the United States. Real estate
will increase enormously in value. Our
surplus population no longer havinir in
the fertile area of free land over which to
difl'uso itself , will accumulate in cities.
The rich will become richer and the poor
will become poorer. The middle class
will gradually disappear , as the struggle
for existence becomes tierce and relent
less. A dim consciousness of impending
peril has already penetrated the public
mind , and in obedience to its admoni
tions the Chinese have been excluded
with barbarous rigor , in violation of
treaties , and notwithstanding the sono
rous manifesto of 1803 , that ' 'expatria
tion is a natural and inherent right of
all people , " and that any declaration ,
instruction , opinion , order or decision ot
any olhcor of the government which
denies , restricts , impairs or Questions
this right , is "inconsistent with the prin
ciples of this government. " In obedience
to the name impulse the acquisition of
real estate by aliens has been rigidly
limited by act of congress. The demand
for further legislation in the same direc
tion is imperative , and cannot be disre
garded. The sophistication of the na
tional suffrage by * the unrestrained
admission to citizenship of assisted pau
pers , fugitive felons and the avowed
enemies of the social contract , must
cease. Our capacity for assimilation is
exhausted. Moro than one million skilled
and unskilled laborers are now unem
ployed , or employed at wages inadequate
for the support of themselves and their
families. Trade and industry are men
aced by unlawful combinations that
resort to the destruction of life and
property to accomplish their designs , and
the hour is approaching when the active
coalition of the conservative forces of
the country will bo necessary to prevent
destructive organic changes in our social
and political system. The constant
infusion of fresh blood is essential to
national health , but there is no blood poi
son so fatal as adulteration of race. We
are no longer homogeneous. Unity of
purpose and interest does not exist. Tbo
hordes of socialism and anarchy are
openly organized under the red flag ,
drilled and armed , inflamed by incen
diary appeals , denouncing property aa
robbery and openly declaring war against
all social institutions. The atrocious
murder of policemen in Chicago found
its apologists , and so feeble was the force
of public opinion that at the next munic
ipal election it required the co-operation
of both political parties to prevent the
capture of the city government by those
execrable malefactoro , whoso insolent
challenge should have been met by the
bayonet and the gatlows. And so strong
is the sympathy among the hitherto un
suspected classes that it is doubtful
whether the felons who were convicted
by a courageous jurv do not escape the
penalty of their boasted crimes through
the intrigues of pusillanimous politicians
or the inevitable conservatism of an
elective judiciary.
To these portentous perils the advo
cates of the sixteenth amendment would
add the nnknown element of unrestricted
female suffrage , with the certain , but
unknown , elements of ignorance , degra
dation , inexperience and corruptibility
that would accompany the experiment.
The reply to this suggestion is that the
vote of women would purify politics and
constitute a safeguard against the evils
which all admit and deplore.
But this theory that all women , or a
majority of them , would always vote for
the purification of politics and society ,
has been practicallv tested in Utah. The
legislature of that territory gave
women the ballot. The efforts of con
gress to elevate women by the extirpa
tion of the crime of polygamy have been
strenuously resisted by the Mormons
The revolting practice destroyed the
purity , delicacy and refinement o
woman , the sacreduess of her sex , the
sanctions of society. For the family i'
substituted the herd ; for the homo i
substituted the sty. Hero , if ever , was
the placa and the time for the instincts o
woman to exhibit their highest and
noblest activity. But either from choice
or by compulsion , Instead of cooperating
ing with the law they thwarted and
battled it by their voles at every election.
The women of Utah became the strong
tower of defense of polygamy at the
polls. They voted for their continued
degradation and for the corruption of
society , so that congress was compelled
at its last session , by the twentieth see-
tion of the anti-polygamy act , to dis-
franchise them absolutely , and to annul
the territorial enactments providing for
thu registration and voting of females.
The silence of the champions of the
sixteenth amendment concerning this act
of congressional tyranny is like the stlll-
ness 01 the sepulchre. Possibly it has
escaped their attention. But if voting -
ing be a natural right , then the
women of Utah have suffered redoubled
injustice , for they have been deprived by
national authority of a prerogative con-
ferred both by nature and oy law. If
just government rests upon the consent
of the governed , then the Edmunds
statute is the quintessence of concon-
tr.itod despotism. If woman suffrage bo
the panacea that is to cure the ills of
society and purify politics , the intervention -
tion of conercia was superfluous , and
polygamy should have perished in the
house o ! its friends. The truth it that
good women tyroj bettor than the best
men , and bad womin nro worse than the
worst men , but in politics the virtues of
women would doiuoro harm than tholr
vices. Thu strwnjrtjst evidence of their
capacity for suflfraio is the admitted fact
that they do not M nt it. No ono doubts
that whenever women desire to vote , the
ballot will bo alvpn to thorn , The insur
mountable obstacle to the sixteenth
amendment will bo found , not in the
hostility of men ; but in the indifference
and aversion of women. There Is not a
state , county nor township In the United
Status in which yio proposition , if sub
mitted to the decision of the wives ,
mothers and daughters resident therein ,
would not bo rojoctad by nu unmistakable
majority.
The agitation is not now. Nearly a.
century ago the French muUiphyslcian
Cordorcot published his celebrated plea
for the enfranchisement of woman. A
little Inter New Jersey tried the experi
ment tor several years , nnd then aban
doned it , with the concurrence of both
sexes. The first national woman's rights
convention was hold in 18oO , and for
moro than twenty .years congress lias
been annually petitioned upon the subject
of woman suffroeo. The question has
been respectfully treated , and Us advo
cates have been accorded courteous
consideration. In many stales qualified
Htiffrage has been granted to women in
school and municipal affairs , with
interesting and significant results. The
statistics in Massachusetts are most
minute and accessible. The national
movement began there , nnd the agitation
has been most vigorous and persistent.
Its ablest orators have not ceased for
nearly half a century to nssuro the
women of that commonwealth that they
were in bondage , and Unit the ballot
would make them frco. Frequent con
ventions have been hold , bureaus estab
lished , newspapers ably edited , to organize -
izo and direct publio opinion. Thu
opponents of the measure have , been
held up ( o scorn and derision , as cowards
who were afraid to allow women to vote.
Those who have ventured upon the right
of private judgment have been denounced
as intellectual felons , punishable by
outlawry. Professional agitators , male
and female , have devoted long lives and
respectable talents to the presentation of
the arguments in favor of equal suffrage ,
to committees of the legislature and to
the people. And they would not for
awhile , but afterward , like the unjust
judge , they said within themselves :
"Because this widow troubleth us wo
will avenge nor , lest by her continued
coming she weary us. " So in 1879 the
school suffrage bill was passi'd. It was
hailed by the suffragists us the dawn of : i
new era for woman. Hope elevated and
joy brightened the crests of the reform
ers. It was not doubted that ; the un
shackled and liberated women of the
Bay stnto would Hook to the polling
places like doves to their windows. But
it resembled the acoustic experiment ,
when the philosophers declared that if
all the inhabitants of the earth would
shout simultaneously they could attract
the attention of the man in the moon.
The arrangements wore made , and when
the moment arrived everybody was so
anxious to he 'r tup tremendous uproar
that nobody shouted except an old deaf
woman in Pckiu ; and thus , instead of an
unprecedented / , there was an unusual
and embarrassing silence. *
The women . , of , Massachusetts have
betrayed an insensibility and indifference
to tholr enfranchisement which is shock
ing to the philanthropist and discour
aging to the patViot , ' , There arc 347 cities
nnd towns in the"state. . In 170 of thcso ,
from 1879 to i88'not ono woman has
over registered , Wteil. In 200 , or moro
than one-half , no wqman has over voted ,
though in ! JO qfafteso a few have occa
sionally registered By the state census
of 1885 there , yorja,442,010 male voters
and ' 180,310 female-voters , and of thcso
in 1880 there were 4,219 who registered
and 1,911 who vatqd , or less than 00 per
cent of these who registered , and 1 in
254 of those" who were eligible. The
population in the interval from 1880 to
1885 increased nearly 200,000 , while the
female vote increased 231. In Now
Hampshire women have been eligible to
ollico and authorized to vote in school
district affairs since 1879. The same
apathy has prevailed in the Granite
sfUo. In Concord , where there arc 3,000
female voters , since the novelty of the
first meeting not 25 have attended. The
experiment has had the same result in
Vermont and elsewhere. The collapse
has.beon complete. Like the socd which
fell in stony places , where they had not
much earth , these ideas have sprung up ,
but when the sun came up they were
scorched , and because tboy had not root
they withered away. It is another case
of leading the horse to water. It shows
the futility of attempting to manufacture
reforms , hoping that they will be called
for. In explanation of these embarrass
ing statistics tiio champions of the six
teenth amendment atiirm that school and
municipal affairs are too paltry and
trivial to attract the attention of women ,
but if they are allowed to vote for the
president , and for members of the legis
lature and of congress , their response
will bo immediate and universal. There
is a slight discrepancy between this
depreciation of school and municipal
suffrage , and the exulting acclaim with
which their enactment was hailed. Half
a loaf is pouularly supposed to bo better
than no bread , but partial suffrage is
worse than nono. If the women of
Massachusetts had boon active and
zealous in the exercise of school suflrago
when the opportunity was afforded them ,
it would have been R powerful , an un
answerable argument in favor of their
advancement to absolute equality with
men in the obligations and responsibili
ties of American citizenship. "Thou
hast been faithful over a fo\v things , 1
will make theo ruler over many things :
enter thou into the joy of thy Lord ! "
Social and nolitical institutions are a
growth and development to moot the
requirements of some antecedent and
pro-existing aspirations of the human
soul. Whenever woman wants the ballot
and society needs her enfranchisement ,
then the sixteenth amendment will bo
adopted. Till then they labor in vain
that build it. There is no legislation that
can annul the ordinances of nature , or
abrogate the statutes of the Almighty.
JOJIN JAMES INOALLS.
MysterloiiPiWaSrnlnur of Robbery.
Chicago Herald : ' Tire people of Jeff
erson are not natur'ally superstitious , but
it is safe to prelicthat they will be in
the future. Barrister M. H. Reynolds , of
that place , went to.lns friend's , Dr. D. B.
Fonda's , house 'early Sunday afternoon
to help in making out some business
papers , and together they worked and
chatted for several hours. Suddenly
Mr. Fonda looked' up and exclalraod :
Mark , I've got an idea that somebody's
about the store ; * something's wrong with
the safe. "
"Stuff and nbnsenso , " responded the
attorney : "you're crazy. "
'No , I'm now Just put on your hat ,
Mark , nnd come''along. I'm going to
see about this. "
They started together , Dr. Fonda lead
ing the way with rapid and long strides ,
looking neither to the right nor loft until
his drug store , in the centre of the vil
lage , was reached. They unlocked : ho
door and on the moment of their en
trance they hoard n rustle. The drug
gist walked around the prescription
counter and there caught a six-foot thief
bent down in hiding. st > that the top of
his head just showed over some boxes.
Fonda ran to grapple with him , but the
thief dashed around the proscription
counter again and into the front of the
store with his hands full of | 5 and * 10
bills. Hero the gallant barrister clicchod
him , the two rolling with the money on
the floor. Thnir cncj brought hnlp and
the thief was overpowered nnd f 00 la
bills taken from him.
AUTUMN
, A.2STID
* , , h
i t ;
WINTER
CILIOITIHIIINIGI
mson&uarmon
We have placed in our store the largest and
best selected stock of
IVIens' ' , Youths' ' , Boys' ' and Childrens' '
CLOTHING
EVER OFFERED FOR SALE IN OMAHA ,
And at Prices Lower than Ever Before
Known to the People in this City.
WE HAVE SELECTED ODR CLOTH !
And Had Them Made and Trimmed with
Special Care ,
To Make it equal in all Respects to Custom Work , and
Guarantee Our
Cassimere Suits from $6 $ to \
As Well Made , as Well Trimmed and in as
Good if not Better Style as if Made to
Measure.
.WE CALL PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO OUR
FINE SUITS AND OVERCOATS ,
In all varieties of color and price , . We have also a fine line ot
At all prices. It will please you , it will pay you to see our
goods and get our prices ,
ROBINSON & GARMON ,
1311 FARNAM STREET.