bly when he said he would consent to be
the means of raising the average of the
United States senate. The governor is
not a senatorial possibility at this time,
and no one knows it better than himself.
Being a fallible man it is only natural
that his political experience thus far
should make him desirous of remaining
in public life, but he will find himself
fully, occupied in the work of making
good as chief executive and securing a re
election. If it transpires that he is suc
cessful in his efforts to be re-elected gov
ernor, it will be certain that he enters the
senatorial race. Not being at all preju
diced by partisanship, and being at all
times desirous of dealing fairly, Will
Maupin's AVeekly holds that thus far
Governor Aldrich has made good, meet
ing the expectations of his friends and
disappointing his enemies. This of itself
is a record of which Nebraska's executive
may well be proud. But he has some
thing ilke two-thirds of his first term yet
to serve, and this leaves plenty of time in
which fatal political mistakes may easily
be made.
The primaries being over this newspa
per takes occasion to remark that it does
not want to see again another such scrap
as that which beclouded the issues in the
judicial struggle in the Lancaster dis
trict. We had our preferences, to be sure,
but in our efforts to secure the nomina
tion of the men of our choice we did not
find it necessary to impugn the motives
or attack wantonly the record of other
candidates. While not opposed to Judge
'Frost's re-nomination we preferred the
nomination of another, but in expressing
this preference it was not necessary to
deal in bitter personalities. The effort
to injure Judge Frost by criticising his
administration of the juvenile court re
acted upon those who made it. If there
is any one part of Judge Frost's record
that stands out brighter than another, it
is his handling of juvenile court affairs.
If there-be those who are surprised at
the fact that so many self-sacrificing gen
tlemen offered to immolate themselves
upon the altar of the public good and of
ficiate as members of the railway com
mission, let us put them wise. A rail
way commissionership is the best paid
office in the gift of Nebraskans. A com
missioner hot only draws 20 per cent
more salary than the governor, but has
an unlimited expense account, greatest
opportunity for travel and more clerical
assistance. A little study of the job will
explain why so many patriots are after
it. We wouldn't mind tackling that sort
of a job ourselves.
"Scratch a Russian and catch a Tar
tar" is merely one way of remarking
that our boasted civilization is a mighty
thin veneer. This is evidenced by the
burning of a negro in the very heart of
Quakerdom Coatsville, Pa. Just as
we were about to begin a scathing edi
torial calculated to blister and burn the
epidermis of the Pennsylvanians we hap
pened to recall the fact that only a few
years ago a mob in the metropolis of Ne
braska wreaked vengeance upon a negro
rapist. Whereupon wTe paused and after
sober reflection contented ourselves with
the above reflection.
One of the crying needs of the day is
a uniform divorce law and one that will
make divorce difficult instead of easy; a
law that will make the marriage tie again
sacred instead as of now, little more than
a form of legalized adultery. That mis
mated couples should not be compelled
to live together in strife will be univers
ally admitted; but, on the other hand,
would it not be better to provide legal
separation that would not permit of what
lias come to be a stench in the nostrils of
the decent portion of the public, a sort of
progressive concubinage, j
But more stringent divorce laws will
not cure present day evils. Something
else is needed a stricter supervision of
the marriage relation. As it now is there
is nothing to prevent the mating of crim-.
inals to breed other criminals ; nothing
to prevent the mating of diseased men
and women to foist upon public charity
weak-minded and. diseased children;
nothing to prevent race deterioration.
What this country needs is about as
much attention to breeding up the hum
an race as is paid to breeding up hogs
and horses and cattle. The last legisla
ture took pains to enact a law calculated
to produce a better class of horses, but it
failed to make similar provisions for a
better class of men and women in the
future. A lot of people in this day and
age give more attention to the four-footed
male animal they admit to their breeding
pens than they do to the two-footed male
animals they admit into the sacred con
fines of their homes. We may hope to
secure relief from the present epidemic
of divorce, with all of its attendant social
evils, after we have taken steps to pre
vent indiscriminate marriage.
The esteemed Blair Pilot maintains
that Will Maupin's Weekly was wide of
the mark when it asserted that the "pro
gressives" showed a yellow streak at the
late republican state convention. As an
innocent bystander and unprejudiced ob
server, Will Maupin's Weekly rendered a
verdict on the evidence. Before the con
vention the La Follette supporters were
loud in their declarations of what they
were going to do to the Taftites and
standpatters. At the convention the La
Follette supoprters took their medicine
without a grimace. Whereupon the ver
dict. It may be, however, that the "pro
gressive" performed thus for the purpose
of putting the, Taftites off guard in the
near future, when the real fight is to be
staged.
Somehow or other this La Follette
Taft, Bryan-Underwood scrapping re
minds us of a story. A big negro lad tow
ered above a little negro lad and called
him all manner of vile names. The little
fellow listened in patience until the big
fellow's vocabulary and lungs were ex
hausted. Then he piped up and retorted:
dem t'ings you says I am you is."
Admiral Togo took lunch with Colonel
Roosevelt the other day, and we are pre
pared to bet a couple of two-dollar cats
against a four-dollar dog that ere the
lunch ended that affair between the Jap
and Russian fleets compared with the bat
tle of San Juan hill about like a tallow
dip compares with an electric searchlight.
PHARISEES AND HYPOCRITS.
"Let him without sin among you cast
the first stone."
Thus spake the Carpenter of Nazareth
when the Pharisees, and hypocrits about
Him sought to rebuke the fallen woman
who sought the kindly touch and the for
giving words of the Master.
The pharisees and hypocrits are not
extinct tribes. On the contrary the mem
bers thereof show remarkable fecundity,
and as a result the world is full of them.
Every time some one not of their caste
offers to do a kindly deed, or seeks for
giveness for sins committed, these scribes
and pharisees draw about themselves the
mantle of their self-righteousness and
stand apart. It has been so since time
began it will be so until time shall be
no more. But it does afford one delight
to now and then see these self-righteous
ones rebuked, and the rebuke of the Mas
ter will go ringing down the ages to con
found the pharisees and hypocrits of
every generation.
Just now the pharisaical and hypocriti
cal of Omaha are having an inning-. Anna
Wilson has offered to the city for hos
pital purposes her palatial home on low
er Douglas street. Let us be frank aoout
the matter. Lower Douglas street is not
a savory location. It is embraced in
what is known as the "red light district,"
and for many years the home of Anna
Wilson was one of the bright resorts of
this section. It is not necessary at this
time to enter into the details of Anna
Wilson's' life. What made her what she
is, or was, Anna Wilson and her God
know it does not matter about the rest
of us. What she wants to be now is of
moment. She wants to make amends,
as far as possible for her past life, and
she seeks to do so by helping the unfortu
nate, providing the sick and needy and
making lighter the burdens that fall up
on so many. And shall the pharisees and
hypocrits, isolated in the lonely confines
of their own ' self-righteousness say her
nay?
Perhaps some of the old-time news
paper men of Omaha could add a word to
the discussion. We all knew Anna Wil
son, just as every good newspaper man
knows every nook and corner and turn of
the city in which he works; just as they
know many a secret that would, if re
vealed, cause scandal and heartaches;
just as they know that many men of great
