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About The American. (Omaha, Nebraska) 1891-1899 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 21, 1894)
'94 THE AMERICAN "AMERICA FOR AMERICANS." We bold that all men are A nerlcaos who Swear Allegiance to tho United SUUs without a mental reservation In favor of the Pope. PRICE FIVE CENTS A WEEKLY NE... OMAHA, NEBRASKA, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1S94. Volume IV. Number 51 VISITING CARDS BOYS! GIRLS! Don't You Wnt Some Mict Neat "VISITING CARDS? Y'hy Not Make Your Friend a Christmas I'resont? 25 For 25 Cent, AMERICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY. OMAHA, NEBRASKA. NOTES AND COMMENTS. Pkikstly outrages aro not al ways committed In the adjoining coun ties. Occasionally they occur almost at the very doors of our homes. This Is especially true of Omaha, and particularly just at the present time. It has been equally true In the days that are gone, yet these outrages have seldom been printed. Just why this is and has been so we leave a gulled and gullible public to 6olve to its own satisfaction. While It Is doing that we shall relate the experience of a prominent German citizen, as told to us by himself. To get at the story as it should be told we will have to take up the thread of life in the old country some thirty years ago. At that time Herman was a young man, a soldier in the regular army un der a three year enlistment; while Gretchen was a comely maiden In his native town. They met, by chance; perhaps 'twas willed by fate they should so meet and be encharmed one with the other. At all events they courted; wed; the girl renouncing Romanism to get the soldier boy. More, she pledged the children born in wedlock should be raised in his re ligious faith. A year or two they spent in peace, then war was in the air; the draft was mentioned in the village where Her man and Gretchen lived. They held a long and earnest consnl tation; planned a flight to the new world; and a few days later Herman kissed his f row goodby and took passage tor America. In time he reached this city, where he worked and planned and saved in order to bring his family here to share the blessings of this great new world. In the meantime, he received a letter from his folks from which he learned that Gretchen had had their baby bap tized into the Roman church. He wrote condemning her; she then confessed; her folks had been to blame. She made anew heranti-huptial vow; begged to be freed from their base in fluence; and plead for life in America. He sent for her. She came and brought the children of their youth. And for a time they lived as happy as mortal man and women ever lived. Then, in an evil hour, he listened to a daughter's pleadings and sent her to a Roman Catholic school to finish her musical education. Prior to allowing her to attend, how ever, be called on the mother superior who agreed that his daughter would be free from religious instruction; that they never interfered In the religious beliefs of the pupils. He left the school satisfied. Poor fellow, he little dreamed of the dissembling of these agents of old Rome. So he sent his daughter to their school; they praised her; the Nashea, the McShanes and the Gallaghers pet ted her, and incidentally she became aware that there was no religion worth having unless its head was in old Rome. She left the school; a "finished" edu cation. For a time her father took her to the GermanJLutheran church. She offered no complaint, and one Sunday when he was Indisposed the went to church alone. On her return he said, "Annie, who did you see at church this morning?" and she answered promptly, "Mr. Bolln, Mr. Heimrod," and several other prom inent men whom she knew would be there. For several week the same questions were asked and like answers returned, until her father became suspicious. As a con-sequence the following Sun day morning found him dressed in his best suit to go out in Walnut Hill and look after a lot he thought of buying. He went out Cuming street and came back on California, getting in sight of his house just as his daughter started for church. It required no tact to shadow the un suspecting girl, so he soon saw her enter St. John's Roman Catholic church. Then he returned and waited. In the course of an hour or two Annie came home, and he asked her who she saw at church. Instantly came the answer, "Mr. Bolln, Mr. Heimrod." But before she could get any farther the indignant father was on his feet, livid with rage, and crying, "Why do you He to your father why don't you tell the truth? You were at the Cath olic church! You are a Roman Cath olic!" It was a stormy scene! Finally he told her she would have to make her own living, that not one dollar of his should a daughter of his have who would join the Roman Cath olic church against his will, and with out his knowledge. The mother, the daughter and their priest held a consultation. Then the father and husband was subjected to the most outrageous per secution in order to drive him from the home and afford the wife an excuse for suing him for a divorce and alimony. His victuals were poisoned, bed clothes torn into shreds; towels, sheets, pillow-cases and soap were carried from the room as soon as he left the hob.se, and as often as he purchased a new supply they were removed. But he remained at the house, when not working for the city as an inspector. One day he was at home, and a bald faced gentleman stopped at a neighbor's house on the corner and asked where Mr. lived, and upon being informed, went across the street, up the walk and Into the house. Herman was in the yard watering the lawn; he saw the priest enter; waited for his exit, which did not take place as coon as he thought proper, so he went in the back door, noiselessly passed to the front part of the house, where he found the priest and the daughter in an embarrassing position. Indignant at what he saw, he asked, "Who are you, sir, that you come and see my daughter, and treat her as a young man does his sweetheart?" The other replied, "I am her father con fessor; I am confessing her sins." "And do you have to have a lounge when you hear women confess their sins to you? You get out of my house, ana if you ever come back here I'll give you the worst whipping you ever had Getout, before I kick you out." Since that day his wife has sued him; and the daughter has been employed in the Morse Dry Goods Company store. We do not know what the out come will be in the stand taken by Ireland and the pope regarding secret societies. Last week Ireland said Romanists could join any order but that of the Masons. This week the pope says all secret societies not under the control of the church are under the ban. Of course Ireland's opinion as a free American ci izen does not count (or much when placed in the balance with that of the prisoner of the Vatican, and our opinion is that Ireland will have to back water. Nice church that, where a man has to think just as the fellow above him thinks. The Corbett-Bonacum con troversy will not down. The latest move is an appeal by Martin Corbett from the decision of the district court of Otoe county, in the case in which Rev. Thomas Bonacum secured an in junction restraining Corbett from prac ticing his clerical duties, was filed to day in the supreme court. The history of this case covers some four years, but the matter did not culminate legally until May 7, 1894, when the petition of Bishop Bonacum was filed: The case now comes up on a motion of Defendant Corbett for an extension of the time of filing transcript of the evidence adduced on the trial of the action in the court below and for an order upon the official stenographer of the court to prepare and furnish to the defendant such trrn script with all convenient spcod. In his complaint Bishop Bonacum alleges that the defendant was removed as priest from missions and prohibited from further officiating as priest in any church of the diocese for refusing to follow his Instructions. In his naswer, Corbett declared that the matter was purely ecclesiastical and not civil, and that on an appeal to Monslgnore Satolll he was reinstated and the sentence of suspension of Bonacum set aside. This world i3 made up, prin cipally, of strange things, not the least curious among the number being the choosing of Eugene Kelly by tho pope to act as his chamberlain. A dispatch from New York says: "Eugene Kelly, the veteran banker, is lvlng at the point of death at his home. At mid night Dr. McCreary Issued a bulletin that his patient had shown slight signs of improvement since 10 o'clock tonight. He gave it as his opinion, however, that the question of Mr. Kelly's death was but a matter of hours." If we have not confused the names and the dates, it was about one year ago that Kelly was selected chamberlain to the pope. At that time Kelly was credited with being a rich banker of New York city and a liberal contributor to Peter's pence. But the strange part is that the pope, being Infallible, would ap point a man as near death's door as Kelly is; yet, when we consider the question, we discern the reason, al though it requires an admission of Leo's infallibility. The pope knew Kelly was in the last year of his life. He knew Kelly was rich, that the church of Peter was poor, and that if Kelly accepted the call to act as cham berlain, left New York, entered the Vatican, and associated with the Jesuits there assembled, when death marked him as Its own, he would leave his mil lions to the church for a single-trip pass through purgatory into the king dom of heaven itself. Kelly would be no worse off than if he Lad not received the pass, the church would be richer and the world would NOT be wiser because of this manipulation. A dispatch fAm Topeka, Kansas, says: "Rev. E. KInsells pro poses to make the burdens of life lighter by teaching the people to avoid debt and pay cash for everything they buy. His idea has taken form in the organ ization of a cash purchase association with headquarters at Holton, although it is Intended to be of national char acter. It has been in successful opera tion for several months. The objects of the association are fully expressed m its charter as well as its motto, 'Owe no man anything.' In detail, however, they are financial: educational, and benevolent. The financial benefits which its members are to enjoy are de rived from the discounts which they will receive from tradesmen by reason of their paying cash on everything they buy. To an ordinary family Father Kinsells estimates that this saving will amount to about $00 per year. In Hol ton all of the merchants who do a cash business have entered into the scheme heartily and give members of the as sociation a liberal discount on all pur chases. They can afford to do this, as it relieves them of the labor and ex pense of making collections, and they have no bad bills among the members of the 'Cash Purchase Association.'" The merchants of this country will hail this departure as a rift in the unbroken financial clouds of Roman patronage. Forjears it has been known to mer chants that Roman Catholics were the most conscienceless dead beats the world possessed, and now that a few Romanists have decided to pay cash, they will hope the "malady" will spread to other sections. R. W. Breckenridge, Esq. won a great legal fight In the recent decis ion of the circuit court of appeals at St. Louis, Mo. in the case of the Flournoy Live Stock & Real estate Co. vs Captain William H. Beck, the agent of the Omaha and Winnebago Tribes of In dians, whose reservations are situated in Thurston County, Nebraska. There was involved in the case decided about 37,000 acres of land, and depending up on that decision are four other cases still undetermined in the United States circuit court for the district of Ne braska involving about as much more land. As Is the case on the borders of nearly every Indian reservation in the country, particularly in the west, there seems to be large numbers of white men in Thurston county who have very lit tle respect for the law, and the author ity of the government; and numbers of persons so disposed have been for sev eral years engaged in the unauthorized and illegal business of leasing Indian lands direct from the Indians, in viola tion of an express statute of the United States which requires leases of Indian lands to be made by and through the gent In charge, under certain rules prescribed by the secretary of the Inter ior, la every case; the object of such statutory regulations and rules being to protect the Indians against improvi dent contracts concerning their lands. The lands In the Omaha and Winne bago reservations are among the very finest in the state and tho Flournoy Live Stock & Ileal Estate comjiany, whose president, a man by tho name of Lemmon, Is the husband of a Winne bago squaw, had leased something like 37,000 acres of land from Individual Winnebagos at a price greatly less than their value; under instructions from the department of the interior, Captain Beck proceeded to take the initial steps to eject the Flournoy company and Its sublessees from the lands held by them, when he was enjoined from further pro ceedings In the matter. The case was heard last July, before Judge Dundy, who granted a porpetual injunction against the agent, and Mr. Hrocken ridge, who was apiointed special coun sel for the United States, in these cases, appealed to the Unltld States circuit court of appeals and secured a very sweeping victory. The court of appeals composed of Judges Caldwell andThayer rendered a decision revering the de cree of Judge Dundy, directing his de cree to be vacated and the suit dis missed at the cost of tho Flournoy com pany. This ought to teach the Indian land speculators in Thurston county, that if they want to deal In Indian lands, they should do so regularly and legally and not in defiance of law and In con tempt of the law officers of the govern ment. The Indians themselves wlil be very greatly benefitted by this decision, for the lands now held under these var ious illlgal leases can be rented to de sirable persons at approximately their vaiue for both agricultural and grazing purposes. One of the greatest evils our country will encounter in the future unless immigration is practically sus pended will be found in the numerous "colonies" that dot the north t and northwestern states, and which just at present are beginning to turn south ward, c A recent news item sent from New York to a daily paper in this city states that "over 10,000 German immi grants are to arrive here shortly, and will locate near Brunswick, Ga., where Colonel T. P. Stovall of Atlanta, repre senting a German syndicate, has closed a deal for a tract of land, embrasing about 10,000 acres, some twenty miles from Brunswick. The syndicate has completed arrangements for colonizing the property with German farmers. They will be taken from Castle Garden by steamer, special rates having been already secured for the purpose. This Is but the first step In a gigantic immi gration scheme which Colonel Stovall has on foot. Within tho next year he expects to have 10;000 ruddy checked, thrifty Germans in Gtorgia. The syn dicate that is backing Colonel Stovall is said to number its capital by the millions, and now has a number of agents in Germany working up immi gration to Georgia. Reports from their agents say that they find no difficulty in getting the Germans interested, and just as soon as the syndicate gets pos session of the land well-to-do German farmers are ready to come and settle. Of course, it will take the syndicate several months to get in shape for the coming of the Immigration, as it has yet to purchase the greater portion of the land and get the titles perfected, but jujt as soon as this is done the im migrants will come and settle " The government should pass strict laws for the government of these colonies. Peo ple who come here should become American. We have room enough for every loyal man, but not room enough for one who desires to bring his foreign ideas and customs here and set them up as his rule and guide. Meteors falling from the heavens are not an uncommon thing, and it is but natural, probably, that dif ferent people should see the same one In a different light. That they do see things in a different light we are able to attest. As we were going from lodge Tuesday night, Nov. 27, 1894, the earth was illuminated by the most brilliant "falling star" or meteor, the eye of man ever beheld. We had just reached a point in front of our house and were preparing to step from the street upon the sidewalk and from there ascend the steps leading into the yard. The night was starlit and the trees cast a shadow into the street and across the walk and steps. Situated at the farther end of tho block was a large electric light, but if it threw any light athwart our path it was unnoticed, and extremely dim, for we remarked to ourself as we trudged up the five or six steps that "that was a good old electric light to come out so bright just when we needed it most" Ere the thought had vanished a new one took form, "why do the shadow from the branches of tho trees move so rapidly?" and wo looked over our right shoulder to see why the light was sway Ing, and as we did so we beheld a most magniOcient sight a star, trailed by a sheet of fire, lndtscribably bright and mellow, shooting from the south centre heaven toward the western hemisphere, It was visible but an Instant, and while we stood looking at It, and while yet high in the heavens, above any build ing that could obstruct the view, it dis appeared from sight. We stood for a moment then hurried into the house and told our wife altout tho beautiful sight. Toen It occurred to us to look at our watch and note the time and watch the puiwrs to sue who else had seen the phenomenon. Hut,after three weeks, we have seen but two references to It. One was In a Harlan, Iowa, pa per, which declared tho star had struck the earth near Pacific Judction, Iowa, a town lying fifteen or twenty miles east of our house, while tho other was In the Columbus Journalnni sald"Tuos day night of last week what is dlscrlbod as looking like a big ball of fire burst over Omaha, with a noiso as loud as thunder." To our certain knowledge the star we taw Tuesday night, Nov. 27 at 1 1 :18 o'clock did not strike the earth near Pacific Junction, Iowa; neither did it burst with a noiso as loud as thun der. And our humblo opinion Is that it will be several thousand yoars beforo It roaches this planet. This is One of the things that makes man realize how little he knows about God and Ills plans, His Illimitable resources and His matchless wisdom. The Record say s, in a dispatch from Sioux City, la., that "Tho Goth enburg liquor tystem Is to be tried, for the first time in Iowa at Ida Grove. Last winter Representative M. D. Nicol, ot Ida county, tried to get the legislature to adopt the system, but failed. He has succeeded better at home, and his own country will try the plan. An association has been formed by leading citizens of Ida Grove, and has secured from the town council the exclusive right to cell liquor in the town. The association will open a sa loon at once, having overcome the many obstacles that have been thrown in its way by those who oppose this plan. The association agrees to give all of its profits, above an agreed per cent of in terest, to tho town and the Young Men's Christian Association. All its appoint ments of officers are to bo approved by the town council. The association has filed a bond which the council has ap proved, and the only serious difficulty is the opposition of one property owner within the legal limit of distance, who refuses to give his consent, and is being encouraged by the anti siloonists in his opposition. The organization has fixed the salary of the treasurer and man ager at $1,000 a year, and elected to tho place Patrick Scanlon. An assistant at a salary of $480 will bo employed. The men who are back of the scheme have been violently assailed by their oppon ents, and but for their high standing In the town would not have been able to carry the scheme into effect. They declare that their Interest In it is rather scientific than financial, and that they will at least prove that the saloon business can be conducted by the com munity rather than by the individual, and that under this arrangement it will reduce the consumption of liquors and minimize the evils of the traffic. If they succeed they expect to bring the matter once more before the legis lature for consideration, and urge the plan for adoption by the state." We may be wrong in our opinion, but it seems to us that the Y. M. C. A. has strayed a long way from the path of usefulness when it enters into partner ship with any number of men to con duct a saloon. We do not think all men engaged in the saloon business are bad, any more than we believe all men engaged In the ministry or priesthood are paragons of virtue, yet we believe It the duty of every man, for the sake of mankind, to retard instead of fostering the liquor traffic. It Is not the saloon run by criminals, in violation of every law upon the statute book, that is to be feared by mothers and fathers of re spectability. It is the gilded palaces the respectable saloon into which no man is ashamed to enter. In them their sons see judges, law-makers, the family physician, deacons in the churches, and editors men who stand next to the parents in the estimation of the childran who believe U such men visit those places, there can be no harm in their stepping Inside. We have nothing against a saloon-keeper. We never had one of them pull us into a saloon to get a drink and we have drank a good deal in our time but we think the . M. C. A. saloon would do ten thousand times more harm in year than the reputable saloon would do in a lifo-time. We hope the Y. M C. A. saloon has not come to stay. We would rather our boy would take bl chances without the Y. M. C. A. saloon in the contest for the prize. The Chicago Timex, in speak ing of Belgium says: "Belgium has, since Its creation as an Independent kingdom, been a most suggestive politi cal experiment. Students of iolitieaI, social, and economic problems could no where else find so fruitful a commentary on what has come to be known as tho British system. Constitutionally, the little monarchy is a most consistent type of jrliamentary government. Here, if anywhere, the famous maxim is true the king reigns, but docs not govern. Had the design to bring to gether clashing contrasts guided the councils of the powers that made the Belgian people a political nationality, they could not have succeeded bettor. Religiously, this small but most densely populated country Is divided Into two sharply defined and bitterly hostile camps. A Uoigian is either a most de vout Catholic or ho Is a dogmatlo free thinker. This antagonism has up to tho last decade dominated also the political controversies. From tho free thinkers was recruited the liberal party; the church furnished the con tingent for the liberals' olltlcal op. poncnts. Parliamentary majorities and hence also the king's ministers al ternated between theso two, the liber als being periodically In tho ascendancy, to yield again to their Catholic rivals. This soo-saw gamo has of late been dis turbed by tho appearance of a third iwlltical factor. If the line of cleavage between the two old contestants was fundamentally religious, tho young as pirant for political recognition traces his credentials to the social conditions of the people. Bolghftn has been thor oughly bourgeois or capitalistic. Politi cal franchise deponded upon property qualifications. The liberals were doc trinaires of the Adam Smith and Man chester school, while the Catholics, in tho pursuit of their own Interests, hold also to the doctrine that tho ameliora tion of the social condition of tho work ing classes should be loft to the church rather than be attempted through the law. As might be expected, the state of affairs In the industrial centers bog- description. The exploitation of the masses has nowhere been carried fur ther than in this pattern statu of Brit ish political theories. The myth of European pauper labor is only truth In the Belgian mines and glass blowing establishments. Social Democracy found thus In King Leopold's domain a fruitful soil. The leaders of tho work ing classes were not slow to recognize that the prime condition of necessary influence over legislation was a change in the existing regulations affecting tho franchise. Universal suffrage became the incessant war cry, and In order to give it effect tbey Inaugurated a few years ago a huge strike, not for the pur pose of readjusting the scalo of wages, but of coercing the chamber into ac quiescence in their demands. Before such an argument even the inveterate bourgeois, who had been the beneficiary of the property clause, deemed discre tion the better part of valor and y leldod. Universal suffrage; was conceded In prin ciple. In practice, however, certain modifications were insisted on. Every Be'glan is entitled to vote, but in order to offset this concession thoe that pos sess certain educational qualifications, such as a university degree, are by law given the right to two votes, while others whose rate tax is above a certain minimum have even three votes. The first elections under this new arrange ment have been held a few weeks ago. The result is extremely signifi'ant. The last senate conis'ed of forty-six Catholics and thirty liberals, the lower house of ninety-three Catholics and fifty-nine liberals. According to tho returns, the new 3 nate will have seventy-six Catholics and thirty liber als, the lower house 101 Catholics, thirty-three socialists, and fifteen lib erals. These figures show that the lib erals have had to pay the cost of the new departure. Tho thirty-three so cialists combined received 350,000 votes, and as theie are undoubtedly individual, not cumulative votes, they are a symp tom of how widespread is the dissatis faction with the existing order of things. The Belgian liberals deserve no better fate. Doctrinaires, they were most con tent to enjoy the freedom to rob and ex ploit others. Lalssez 'aire was their creed and for the misery and wretched ness which the worship of their moloch entailed they had even no tear. The Catholics, too. are beginning to lay to heart this significant upris'ng. The government will now make haste to in-t'-oduce bills for the amelioration of the wage-earner '8 condition. The finance baron's hay days are happily over In Belgium, the land of orthodox econom ics par excellence. Have we nothing to learn from Belgium?" Read Whitney's add. Ho desei ves American patronage.
