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About The Loup City northwestern. (Loup City, Neb.) 189?-1917 | View Entire Issue (July 9, 1908)
loup City Northwestern J. W. BURLEIGH, Publisher. LOUP CITY, - • NEBRASKA. The Vulgarity of Waste. When you see a housewife who keeps bread lying around until it molds; who permits mildew to get into the clothes; who allows her stockings and those of her family to fall to pieces for want of darning; who cooks up a lot of food which she ought to know will not be eaten and that will be cast into the garbage can; who "thrashes through” her best frocks by putting them on to do kitchen work,' you may be sure she is “tacky.” You will never find a woman of that de scription who is not cheap and who hasn’t a common streak in her as wide as a gate. Well, it is exactly the same with a people or a nation, says the Kansas City Star. When you see a country reckless in the use of its re sources and heedlessly destructive of the treasures with which it has been endowed by nature, you can depend upon it that it possesses the ingredi ents of cheapness and inferiority. We laugh a great deal about the proverbial disregard of the future commonly wit nessed in our “colored brother” as long as he has a dollar in his pocket. But what essential difference is there between the complacency of the “Sene gambian” with the price of a meal and a lodging ahead, and the blind indif ference of a country and its people that go ahead despoiling timber lands, consuming coal with heedless extrava gance, permitting vast quantities of gas and oil to get away, and taking no care whatever to make provision for any reinforcement of the supplies which it consumes. So. while the con-, gress of conservation at Washington is in mind, let us not forget that the wastefulness habitually practiced by the American people is not only wick ed and hopelessly stupid, but that it is likewise cheap and “tacky” and re veals not one trace of sane judgment or proper breeding. Canada After Settlers. The Canadian Dominion has not yet found it necessary to begin the con servation of resources, though the time may come sooner than is antici pated. Just now the principal effort appears to be to attract settlers and to open up regions which the railroad companies are desirous of having de veloped. The announcement comes from Vancouver that the government of British Columbia is planning to sell vast tracts of land, having decided to dispose of $5,000,000 or $6,000,000 worth this year. In the operations the government will have the active aid of one of the big railroad concerns An American has been engaged to manage the deal, says the Troy (N. Y.) Times, and part of the project con sists of laying out a model city, with paved streets, sewers, water system and other conveniences. Another feature of the plan will be the employ ment of a landscape gardener to ar range surroundings that will be ornate and attractive. All this is done with a view to making settlers feel at home and providing them with advantages such are are seldom found in a fron tier region. The contrast with the ex periences of the earlier pioneers in the United States and Canada is impres sive. Automobiles have ruined so many macadamized roads that an interna tional congress has been called to meet in Paris on October 11 to con sider plans for saving the roads. The macadam road, as everyone knows, is composed of layers of crushed stone held together by a binding material rolled into the surface. This method of paving was devised for the use of iron-tired vehicles. As the iron-bound wheels roll over the road they crush the small stones, and the dust sifts into the crevices between the larger ®tones and binds them more tightly together. With judicious use, such a road improves with age. The automo bile, however, runs on an air-filled rub ber tire. This tire, instead of crushing the small stones, sucks the dust out from between the large stones, and the wind blows it away, leaving the road bed rough and uneven. Road experts on both sides of the ocean have been seeking for some surface dressing that will seal the road when once made so tightly that the rubber tire cannot draw out the binder by suc tion. Oils with asphaltic bases, coal tar preparations and calcium chlorid have been used with some success in allaying the dust and preventing the wear of the roads, but they are not ■wholly satisfactory either here or in Europe. Getting right down to a final analy sis, one of the most successful navi gators of the day is he who can paddle a canoe with a nervous woman of 150 pounds or upward as a passenger and land the cargo safely. Altogether during the year 1908 there will have been under construc tion buildings directly or indirectly connected with Princeton university representing an expenditure of nearly 12,000,000. Capt. Fltghugh Lee, Jr., military aid to President Roosevelt, has been designated by the war department to attend the course at the French school of equitation at Saumar, France, this summer. Capt. Archibald W. Butt, depot quartermaster at Havana, will be ordered to duty at the White House as military aid. A Chicago Judge holds that a woman has no right to wear a man's overalls. It is a safe bet he is not a married HEAD OF PHYSIGIHNS COL.WILLIAM GORGAS,CLEANSER OF PANAMA ZONE, HONORED. New President of American Medical Association Has Attained an In- „ ternational Reputation Among the Scientists. Chicago.—Col. William C. Gorgas whose work as chief sanitary officer of the Panama canal zone and previous work of like nature have been recog nized by the medical profession in his election to the presidency of the j American Medical association, has at tained an international reputation among scientists. He is generally given credit for the measures that freed Havana of yellow fever and made the canal zone, once considered one of the deadliest spots in the world, as healthful as Illinois or Vermont. Col. Gorgas is a native of the south. He was born in Mobile, Ala., October 3, 1854. His father was a leader in the confederate army—Gen. Josiah Gorgas. At the age of 21 Col. Gorgas was grad uated from the University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn. He finished his professional course four years later at Bellevue hospital medical col lege, New York city, and became a member of the house staff of the hos pital. After a few months of this work he entered the army service. His first appointment was as a lieuten ant of the medical corps, in 1880. He was sent to Fort Brown, Texas, where he was the victim of an attack of yel low fever. Misfortunes have been the making of many men, and in the case of Col. Gorgas personal experience with the dread disease gave him an in terest in it that was destined to bear important results for the good of the world. One year after the appointment of Lieut. Gorgas to the army service. Dr. Carlos Finlay, a practicing physician in Havana, first brought to the notice of the world the theory that mos WILLIAM C. G0RG4J\ u. 23 quitoes caused the spread of yellow fever. Maj. Ronald Ross of the Brit ish-India medical service also discov ered that malaria was also carried from one person to another by the bite of the anopheles mosquito, and scien tists began to awaken to the impor tance of systematic and thorough in vestigation on this subject. Col. Gorgas made such an investigation in Cuba. Mosquitoes, according to the army investigations, do not originate the germs of either yellow fever or mala ria. but carry both, after biting human beings. The stegomy'ia insects are na tives of India and the Philippines, but the yellow fever organism has never been taken into those countries, hence the mosquitoes are not dangerous to life or health there. For his work in Havana Maj. Gorgas was promoted to colonel by special act of congress in 1903. He was sent to the Panama zone as chief sanitary of ficer, and March 4. 1907, was made a member of the isthmian canal commis sion. At Panama he proceeded to “clean up" and to prevent the devel opment of disease by fighting the mos quitoes. “We fought the yellow fever mos quito with chemicals and screens, de stroyed the breeding places of the ma laria mosquito, drove him back sev eral hundred yards from our camps and villages, put wire netting into the houses and advised everyone to take three grains of quinirte daily,’’ said Col. Gorgas last October. “I think I am justified in saying that we have malaria under control. Our death rate among Americans last year was less than four persons in 1,000, and we have 4,800 men and 1,200 women and children along the zone from Panama City to Colon.” Describing the general measures for sanitation along the Panama zone, Col. Gorgas said: “We found a strip of country ten miles wide and 4G miles long, with a considerable settlement at each end and almost 25 hamlets between. We followed the methods which had rid Havana of yellow' fever, a scourge that had been epidemic for 150 years. We stopped the fever in 16 months. “In the city of Panama alone, where each house was fumigated three times, we burned 100 tons of pyre thrum. 200 tons of sulphur and large quantities of other disinfectants. Four hundred men were engaged in the work. Ninety-eight per cent, of the West India negroes, who came to dig the canal, had malaria, and the para site was found in the blood of 70 per cent, of those persons whom we exam Ined at random.” What He Does. Pa. what does a king or an em peror do when he grants anybody an audience?” "He does about what your mother does when she grants me an audience —talks most of the time.”—Chicago Record-Herald. A Leader. “There goes one of our leading citi zens.” He doesn t look very prosperous.” "He isn't. He leads unmuzzled dogs to the pound.”—Chicago Record-Her ald. aTHESCENES |^9L< nh N POLITICS ELLO. Hilly!” ‘‘How are you. Jack? Glad to see you got that appoint ment. What is there in it for you?" "Four thou sand a year.” "Oh, I don’t mean the sal ary—to h—11 with the sal ary; but what is there in it for you ‘on the side?’ ” "Not a cent. Just the salary, that's all." any friends. In the first place, he had not stolen enough so as to lay away anything for high-priced lawyers, so he could neither pose as a martyr, nor go into court and make a fight. Usually he "lost his job for quite a while," his petty peculations were laughed at, and he found himself in the street, an object of contempt and jeers. But when a man had gotten away with forty or fifty thousand dol lars, it was an entirely different proposition. He could then put up a good, stiff "bluff.'’ In the first place, it was “up to him” to pooh-pooh all rumors or assertions which had been made against his office. Next, to explain that all this talk about "graft" 'SKATE'NO. / MH/LD 'ENNTEN02 •'Come off! Why, two of that last bunch cleaned up ten thousand apiece be fore they walked the plank.” "Well, it s a new deal. No side issues for me. Just the little old four thou. That's all.” "Why, you ain't honest, are you, Jack?" “Well, I never had ‘Honest John" tacked onto nte for a handicap, but I don’t want to go along the street looking back to see if anyone's following me.” "Hut those fellows are alive and well today, and the statute of limitations has run on 'em.” "Yes, maybe; but it would be just my luck to get 'snaked.' My tailor says stripes are unbecoming on tall men, anyway.” “You're foolish, Jack.” “A regular lobster, Billy; but when I'm let out 1 want to sleep nights, without listening for some one to ring the door-bell and ask ‘how about it?’” The foregoing conversation is verbally a correct transcript between an appointee to a city office and a political acquaintance, the well-known and almost ‘disbarred” attorney, the Hon. William “Skiphis name.” It occurred just as written down, and is merely given to illustrate the general idea prev alent among the crooked, the crafty and the un scrupulous that public office was a private “snap.” The salary was supposed to be merely expense money for being in the political game; the real "money” was to be gotten out of “side deals,” schemes where the official was to use his influence and his opportunities to get into “something good,” whereby for favors either directly or indirectly granted he got what is known sometimes as his “rake-off,” or his “bit.” If he was in a position where contracts were to be let “to the lowest bidder" it was his business, if a “grafter," to see that his “man” was the low est bidder, or to have a “combination” among the bidders so that the contracts would be divided among two or three favored firms or individuals; or to work in some one as sub-contractor, or in various ways "get a finger in the pie,” so that he could “holp up” somebody for “a divvy.” Where individual officials had the entire control of their offices, their opportunities for “graft” were, of course, extensive; where officials were co-associated in city work, there had to be either a complete and general understanding as to "crooked work,” or there might be underhand work by one or two men which was hidden from the rest. The public had weird and unique ideas about “graft.” The fact that “grafting” was carried on in city hall and city departments to a greater or less extent during every political administration was a fact that was undeniable. Sometimes an ad ministration was especially corjupt; sometimes the administration was headed by a man who was even by his bitterest enemies acknowledged to be strict ly honest. But as no one man could oversee the ins and cuts of every department in the city, there was bound to be some “grafting,” however petty, somewhere in the various offices or departments. Hut the public generally seemed to be of the opin ion that the instant a man was appointed or elect ed to office his entire nature changed. The people imagined, apparently, that a business man whose integrity, through many years, had never been questioned became “crooked" the instant he took the oath of office. And because of this, the most insulting and libelous statements were being ban died back and forth by irresponsible parties, con cerning men who were honestly and conscientiously doing their duty in public offices. Citizens who appropriated without any legal right the sidewalks in front of their stores for shipping purposes—men who would follow an alderman for weeks in order to get a bay-window put in a down town shop contrary to the ordinances, people who hung about the city hall from dawn to twilight try ing to get a railroad pass, would enter a public office with the air of Daniel going down the eleva tor into the lions' den. And if a question was asked them when they stated their business, they always imagined it had a hint of graft in it. Well, now, let me tell you: These folks that are always scent ing “graft" in every public office and officer—these “Holy Willies” that assume such an “unco guld” air, they are often the people that will bear watch ing themselves. The fact of the' matter was that that real “graft” was handled by men who worked it so that nearly always it was entirely legal, in the strict letter of the law. A measley five or ten-dollar bill handed here and there for some favor was a mere bagatelle. And as for "graft" in politics, the legislatures of the various states are as mighty universities to kin dergartens compared to city administrations. As for the United States senate—but that is the "king row” on the political checker board, and not a mat ter for comment in this article. Money is the cheapest and least dangerous form of “graft.” 1 mean money that buys favors; bribes, in a word. Dig “graft” concerns itself with “shares,” “stock,” “interests”—things that cannot be traced so easily to corrupt sources. Big grafters are afraid of cold cash. They want something that can be IS HAUNTED BY GIRL’S GHOST Spectral Form That Inhabits Old Forts at Southwick. Southwlck, the pretty little seaside resort a few miies from Brighton, Eng land, ha3 found out that It has a ghost, and efforts are being made by the Inhabitants to discover its iden tity. The story of the discovery is told by a correspondent of the Hove Ga zette, who states that one evening re cently he visited the disused forts at Southwlck in company with a friend. "We walked ’round the moat,’’ he continues, “and were looking through one of the narrow windows into a small room, whose wall3 used to echo with the songs and laughter of the soldiers stationed there, when sudden ly (it was about 9:45 p. m., and dark ness was just setting in) we saw a tall white form attired in a white sheet. “It was horribly ghastly and grim. It seemed to come from the far end of the room and slowly approach us. I must say I was dreadfully afraid, and my young friend, who had just re marked: "Oh, this would be a capital spot for a ghost,’ shook all over and nearly fainted. “The figure was tall, and Its cover ing, as far as one could see, was ex tremely thin. “An old Southwlck boatman told us a wonderful yarn about a young sol dier who had rowed a beautiful maid en over the bar late one night and had cruelly murdered her there, and ever since her spirit had haunted the fort. "I think there is no doubt that the peculiar spectral form which we saw in the room of the old fort was the spirit of the dead and long-forgotten maiden.” Like Fiflhting Like. “On the new sheath skirts—?” jug. gested the fashionable dressmaker, tentatively. The police official, stern in his sense of duty, frowned. “It is war to the knife," he declared. © " W/ifiT'S TH£ COM'S T/TUr/Ort serwcc,v £/?/£mds?" ▼ manipulated so that the ugly word “mon ey" can be eliminated in case of an ex posure. Cash is a hard commodity to “juggle,” but shares and stocks can be better explained to a jury. So only the ignorant or most brazen of the big “grafters" go after the money in the form of U. S. bank bills. Records are telltales; .and money taken wrongfully and unaccounted for often returns to plague the hypothecator with a penitentiary sentence. Another thing that seems to be overlooked is that legislation will not cure "grafting.” True, it can and does punish the individual; but noth ing but an aroused spirit of higher citizenship will effect a general cure of the evil. If you want to know how many people in your city and county are out after "something for nothing" get into a political position which either actually gives you chances for bestowing favors, or apparently offers ihe opportunity. Ninety-five per cent, of the peo ple who call on you come for the purpose of hav ing you do them some favor, either for them selves or others; and they are not at all particu lar about how the favor is done, so that it be done. For myself, I know I was bombarded day and night after I got into office with requests that ranged all the way from the impudent to the ig norant. Requests to aid in the way of evading or ignoring city ordinances were matters of daily occurrence. And the charming thing about it was that the parties assumed that this was a mat ter of course in the routine business of the city hall. It was not merely "what's the constitution between friends?” but “what's honesty between acquaintances?” skate No. 1 would introduce Skate no. <s, and the latter would unfold a scheme to “pull off” something in some other department of the city hall, which was not only against all canons of decency as regarded common honesty, but so ridiculously apparent that no one but an ignoram us would concoct such a plan. Now these things happened so often that if you got mad at each occurrence you would be in a state of semi-apo plexy half the time. The only thing to do was to cut the interview short by saying “I haven’t any thing to do with that department, if you have any business with that end of the city go there yourself.” Hut when you come to pin down any great amount of "graft” in most of the city administra tions’ offices you failed, from the simple reason that there was comparatively little of it. Was it because greater publicity and greater vigilance was being had through a hostile press and a watchful opposite party? Or was it because an improvement was being made in the character of the men elected and appointed? Or was it both? At any rate, there was a steady advance for the better during the cycle of at least eight years of my experience in politics. Given an able and vigilant man at the head of a city's affairs, and "graft" will be reduced to a minimum during his term of office. Given any other kind of a man, and once more “graft” will lift its hydra head. It is a curious thing about manifestation, that the tendency to make "a little on the side" seems to be apparent in all administrations, but is either dormant or active as the man at the helm is either alert or inattentive. Like yellow fever in Cuba, it is always present, even if only one case of it. The cheap "grafter,” when found out, never had The Cue tjp OPHETEP UEYEP ' Any EE/end 5 was the work of political enemies or "a dis charged employe seeking revenge." A very fine article of “rosy talk" was usually indulged in by a "grafter" who "was on the run." Then, when he was finally indicted, his lawyers would consent to tell what an outrage it was that their client should be so persecuted. All criminal proceedings which seek to bring a "grafter" to "book" are known by his lawyers as “man-hunts.” The big "grafter's” friends flock to the court room, and quite frequently the utmost courtesy is extended to him by officials high up in jail circles; especially if he be of the same party as the jail officials. If he happens to be on the other side of the political fence, these courtesies are omitted. After a big “grafter" is convicted there is the usual appeal to the higher courts and a lot of skirmishing to keep him out of the penitentiary, but he gets there just the same. He may, after serving a year of his sentence, become so ill that he will have to be pardoned. If he has re turned part of the money he stole, this is a chance not to be overlooked. But if he is “stiff-necked” and insists on hanging on to what he got, the chances are not so favorable. Only a ridiculously small percentage of the big "grafters” have been punished. Some of the biggest of them ail have absorbed their graft legally. But it was “graft,” nevertheless. On many, the statute of limitations has “run,” and prosecution made impossible. But it is cheering to relate that “grafting” is not quite so fashionable as it used to be by reason of these prosecutions; and much as the “reformer” has been held up to ridicule, it has been the reformer and the reform organizations that have made “grafting.” if not unpopular, at least dangerous. Petty “grafting" can never be wholly stamped out, as it can be handed around by means of presents, privileges, etc., in such a way that it cannot be traced so as to provide ground for criminal prosecutions. The technical term “graft,” while peculiarly applied to politics, is not confined to that splv-re only. Business, banking and railroad circles have the disease. In city administrations the spot .where it is liable to make most insidious headway is in city councils. There it may be found either indirectly or directly apparent. And it is there, after all, that it is most dangerous, because affect ing an entire city. If a public official steals from his office, it is net such a direct injury to the public man as the man who “sells out” to jam a franchise through a council. And so, in the last analysis, the eyes of the re formers and the citizens should be fixed steadily on city councils. The best candidates for aider men are none too good; the salary should be such that a man could give all of his time to the work and be well and even handsomely paid. If the public expects a man to give $5,000 worth of time in the city council for $3,000 salary, they ate merely putting a premium on "grafting.” The day of the brazen “grafter” has gone by. The new regime is making for better things. The only way that "grafting” can flourish nowadays is by having a city administration in full accord with the most influential newspapers of a city ! apply the "graft” legally, pocket the “rake-off,” point to the "statutes *n such case made and pro vided, and so far as the public is concerned, “let the galled jade wince.” The reason why you shouldn't appropriated instead of took cause it gives the smooth getnl n more time to get away in. ’GATOR ON THE RAMPAGE. Edifying Story That Is Vouched for by the Georgia Ananias. “Yes,” said the fisherman, “the n.in had fished all the forenoon, sn' ha got a nibble, so he took another s* ler out the jug, pulled off his boo' - lay down on the river bank an' w to sleep. As soon as he went snorin’ good, a alligator that had b • watchin’ him all the mornin' ora.’ up an' swallered his boots, lik* w the jug, with 'bout half a gallon in . I reckon. The cork came out. and f course, the 'gator got the full ben o' the whisky, which so turned head that it lashed the w'ater w i tail till the river was a foamin' after which it crawled up on th* agin an' made desp'rit efforts to « . • trees an’ turn double-scmersault. do all manner of impossible thing ‘Why didn't it swallow the fi man, instead of his boot?" son;* asked. ‘"Gators, gentlemen,” said thu • teller, “can't stand ever'thing T must draw the line some'rs.’—AtU: ta Constitution. Romance and Reality. "Let the youngsters have their ro mance—an' it'll be all the better ; ’em ef they git a purty good dose n It; but don't hide from 'em the fa> r that thar's somethin' in the shape f trouble awaitin' fer 'em up the road said Mr. Billy Sanders. ‘ Not big rr i ble, tooby shore, but jest big enough to make ’em stick closer together L ain’t no use to try to rub out he f . r that life is what it is. It's full of rough places, an' thar are times when you have to leave the big road : • take a short-cut through the bit briers for to keep from slippin’ in .. mudhole. The briers hurt, but mudhole mought smiffiicate you It ain't no use to deny it, trouble is • sonin'. I never know’d it to hurt a: \ body but the weak-minded, the w; ■ an’ them that was born to the purpl- * —Joel Chandler Harris, in Uncle K mus' Magazine. Up to His Tricks. 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