money prizes or played for a compensa
tion is eligible to amateur athletics. Uni
versity base ball players would play on
teams in small cites during the summer
for goodly salaries, then return in the
fall and cheerful lie about it. While play
ing ball they would work an hour or two
a. week in some store and the money they
received for playing ball would be called
"salary for clerking." If the athletic au
thorities of the University of Nebraska
did not see through this fliinsj' subter
fuge it was because they did not have
brains enough to have a headache. Of
course University football players have
played for money probably every year
since college football became the rage.
Why continue the deception any longer.
Rather, why continue to attempt to de
ceive the dear people?
When Louis Brandeis said he could
"show the railroads how to save $1,000,
000 a day he was laughed at by railroad
managers, lint the more the railroad
managers thought it over the less they
laughed. Now they are acting on the
Brandeis hint. The Rock Island has just
issued a little booklet entitled "A Nickle
a Day'1 and sent a copy to each employe.
The Rock Island has 50,000 employes. If
by more intelligent work each one of
these can save the company a nickel a
day it would mean $75,000 a month, or
nearly $1,000,000 a year. The Hock
Island tells how this may be done. The
fireman by more intelligent work can
save a few scoops of coal and get just as
much boiler pressure. Trackmen can
save a spike or two a day, and by using
ordinary intelligence make ties last a bit
longer. Agents can save on stationery
and by promptness can save claims for
damages by delays in shipments. The
ways of saving are unlimited. Five
cents a day is not much, to be sure, count
ed a nickel at a time, but they count np.
When the baby is born put a nickel a day
in the bank for him, and keep it np until
he is 21. The day he attains his majority
he will have a pretty good financial start.
Chief Clerk Richmond of the Nebraska
House of Representatives has very sensi
bly broken another precedent. He sensi
bly broke one when he declined to ap
o.iop oi xos .nui ot jo joquwui ;Cui? liiiod
ships in his office. "I want work, not con
versation matches," remarked Richmond.
"If I appoint any pretty women as clerks
all the old ducks in the legislature will be
forever chinning them. But who wants
to sit down and have a flirtation with a
male biped who is probably smoking an
odiferous pipe or chewing finecut to
bacco?" And the Richmond position vin
dicated itself early in the game. Now
he comes along with another sensible
move. Instead of repeating the full title
of a bill every time the bill is referred to
in the house journal, he will print it once
and then refer to it by an index number.
In this way he will reduce the Journal
about 50 per cent in size, and at the
same time save the state a handsome
amount of money. If Richmond will
posess his soul in patience for a few
years we'll see to it that he is elected to
the governorship, or something equally
good.
Lacking the capital Ave are unable to
undertake the task, but there is a gold
mine awaiting the enterprising news
paper inan who will establish a "house
hold magazine" that will give some real
information to the average workingman
and the average housewife. The Lady's
Home' Journal, the Woman's Home
Companion, and like publications, are
long on giving advice, but the husband
of the wife who undertakes to follow
that advice either has to have a purse as
long as a congressional tariff debate or
he goes broke. "How to build a cheap
and handsome bungalow for only
$9,706," or "how to fit up a cosy corner
in the hall 1 at the trifling expense of
$780.77," or "simple menus for a week"
that would put the average 'mechanic's
weekly wage on the blink before supper
Monday evening have made us tired for
a long time. Would that we had the
money to establish a magazine that
. would tell a workingman how to live well
and save money after paying the bills for
a family of six or eight out of $15 a week,
with about one-third of the weeks in the
year skipped because of lack of employ
ment. Would that we could tell the aver
age man how to secure a lot and build
a nice little six-room modern cottage
with a salary of $1,000 a year and only
himself, a wife and five children to feed
and Clothe and educate. Of all the
tommyrot in the world and there is a
lot of it the worst is to be found in the
big "household magazines" that have at
tained such tremendous vogue. They are
edited by visionaries for impossible peo
ple, and handsomely supported by
women who dearly love to be victimized.
Andrew J. Minor , whose death - oc
curred in Lincoln last week, was an old
and valued citizen of Nebraska. He was
a member of the last legislature, but was
unable to participate in its deliberations
during the latter half of the session,
owing to failing health. Mr. Minor was,
a veteran of the civil war, an exemplary
citizen and a good neighbor. The com
munity suffered a distinct loss when he
passed into the beyond.
Lafayette Grover, former governor of
Oregon, died last week. Mention of the
name of Grover does not mean anything
to the young politicians of today. But
a few words will recall him to the mem
ory of those who were interested in poli
tics away back in 187G. Grover was gov
ernor of Oregon in 187G. Hayes had to
have all of Oregon's electoral votes to
stand a show of winning. Governor
Grover sought to supplant Joseph Watts,
a republican elector, claiming that be
cause Watts was a postmaster he was not
eligible. He issued a certificate of elec
tion to a democrat, E.'A. Cronin, but, the
republican electors refused to recognize
him. Watts resigned his postmastership
and cast the vote that enabled Hayes to
win out. The electoral commission
which never had any legal existence
gave the three votes of Oregon to Hayes,
and in the filial summing up Hayes had
185 electoral votes and Tilden 184. Had
Cronin not made the mistake of trying
to secure the three votes of Oregon for
Tilden he might have made Tilden presi
dent. But the commission sat down upon
his scheme of appointing as electors a
couple of democrats who had. not even
been voted for. Watts was clearly in
eligible to the office of elector. The whole
story of the Oregon matter is clearly and
succintly told by James G. Blaine in the
second volume of his "Twenty Years of
Congress," page 58G. It will be inter
esting reading to the "old-timers" who
recall the troublulous days of 187G.
It is difficult to get at the facts of the
Mexican revolution, the daily news
papers, as usual, devoting most of their
space to "fillers" and sensational stuff.
One day Diaz is down and out, the next
day he is up and in. One day the revolu
tionists are within gunshot of the City
of Meixco, and the next day they are
within sight of Uncle Sam's domain. A
lot of us would give quite a bit to know
the exact status of affairs in the so-called
Republic of Mexico and more if we
could be assured that Diaz is about to be
bumped for keeps.
A majority of the excise board has re
fused to stand for Mayor Armstrong's
anti-treating plan. Unless the saloon
keper can be cinched, for allowing treat-,
ing in his place of business the anti-treating
law is a farce. Mayor Armstrong
had a plan which would have made the
law of some effect, but being in the
minority his plan goes glimmering. There
seems to be a disposition, now that Lin
coln has gone "wet," to give the saloon
keepers a "chance for their white alleys."
The new rules are not so drastic as a
whole as the ones in force during the
last year of saloons. But one of the new
rules is drastic enough in all conscience,
and the excise board deserves thanks for
having enacted it. Reference is had to
the rule forbidding saloonkeeprs to cash
checks, drafts or other evidences of in
debtedness. The readiness of saloon men
to take long chances in cashing checks is
responsible for a lot of wage squandering
in saloons. It is natural for a man to
"buy" after the barkeeper has cashed his
check. Will Maupin's Weekly opposed
the return of the licensed saloon, but now
that the majority has decided that it
wants them, Will Maupin's Weekly will
insist that the saloon men be given a fair
show. With high rents, expensive effort
to secure petitions, a $2,000 license and a
horde of "us fellows who made it possible
for you to resume the business" to take
care of,' the twenty-five men who secure
license are not going to have any picnic
in their efforts to make a profit. ,