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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 26, 1912)
wirr''' jTOfH JTf t " ' v ' V The Gommoner. 13 rANUARY 2, 11J ,'' i in V? fTl Brain Jjcaks I lerpmoaori jk MLLI.Mfcipin: Love laughs at locksmiths, but seldom at goldsmiths. It Is by doing the little duties that kwq are fitted ior periorming me great ones. The more men, you lift up the fewer there will be who are able to drag you down. who was leaning . heavily upon the bar. "Positively criminal the way they are giving us polluted water. We have a right to demand clean, pure water, and we ought to have it." Not hearing any contradiction of his statement the man forked seven mouthfuls of free lunch sauerkraut into his face, using the fork that froze, couldn't get washer, wagon no ush, an' I had 'or git off. I do zen's contrac' t' drive lsh wagon." Wretch "You married mo for my money!" Bho eXclaimqd. "And I earned it, too," ho retorted. Then the lawyers got most of it. It is difficult to make the House flftnine other men had used with out its being washed, then wiped his lips on a bar towel that had been used by 127 men since morning. "We are being poisoned and filled with disease germs because of im pure water," he exclaimed, after wip ing his lips, "and I for one am not going to submit to it any longer." After which he repeated opera tions on the saudrkraut and towel. of Have understand why there should Jbe a House of Want. The law's delay is responsible for fthe growing disrespect for and loss !of confidence in our courts. There is considerable difference '.between telling the other fellow how ho do his work and doing it yourself. Wo insist that we are riot growing old, but we admit that we think more mf our slippers than we used to think. If "practical politics" would make fewer strange bedfellows and more tcellmates business genuine business -would be bettered. The good advice a friend gives ns is not heeded because it coats noth ing. The advice the lawyer gives us is heeded because we pay a lot for it. Your real friend never tells any- Ibody but you about your faults and llf ho tells you the chances are you Swill no longer consider him your friend. r, It used to be that marriages were Sleade in heaven, but judging by the jrevalence of divorce it is evidence ither of inattention to business or le need of, a strict apprenticeship rstem. '. We'll be getting somewhere in the solution of economic problems when pwe grasp the fact that there is no touch thing as "over production" of (good things. Our trouble is under consumption. Nothing Personal A lot of men shave smooth be cause the gray shows so plainly in their beard. Seldom we see anything more amusing than the facial expression of a man who imagines that no one detects the fact that he wears imita tion teeth. Ever notice how often the other fellow's success is due to luck? If every man could make his own religion and win by it, wouldn't heaven be an awfully crowded place? Needed "I think Smithkins is honest ac cording to his lights," observed Tompkins. "That may bo," Bald Jimkins, who had just been through a business deal rlth Smithkins, "but if he is all I've got to say Is that he ought to put some more oil in his lamp and then trim his wick." WHISKEY AND NEGRO VOTES So completely does a typewritten circular tell its own story that it shall be burdened with few words of preface. It was distributed through the mails among the little cornfield cabins of the negroes near Dublin, Ga.; at the top it bore ths legend: "Office of Clark, Grier, Chairman Republican Campaign Committee 19.08, Delegate at Large to Republi can National Convention, Cli airman Republican Executive Committee 12th Cong. Dist. of Ga." To the Informati6n contained In this letterhead we are able to add that until recently Grier was, by virtue of the favor of a republican president of the Unted States, post master of this Georgia town of six thousand; just now he seems to have transferred the office to his wife. The circular reads: "Dear Sir On the reverse side of this sheet you will find information that will explain how you can regis- i ter and vote. . "The impression prevails that all colored men are disfranchised in 'Georgia; this is not true. Post your self, and the way is open if you de mand your rights. . .... "Georgia is not one of the states that has passed laws that disfran chise a man on account of his color; to let the colored man know this fact, and to aid him in an honest effort to retain his franchise, is the object of this letter. A Reminiscence T?nr obvious reasons I will men tion no names, but the man in ques tion was an elder in my fatner s church, and that's why I got the wrong impression. I was only ten or eleven years old and the elder employed me, with several other boys, to pick and pack apples. The first thing he told us to do in filling a barrel was to put a couple of layers of the finest apples in the bottom of the barrel, then fill it nearly full of the common apples, then fill the rest with more of the choice apples. We followed directions, of course, That was my first lesson in "good business" from the elder's stand point. Naturally I thought that anything a good elder would do was all rieht. and doubtless my boyhood companions thought likewise. I've often wondered since then if it wasn't more luck than sense that -kept me out of jail. I'm afraid that all the praying that elder did and he did a lot of it sounded so much like the thud of 'inferior apples that no attention was paid thereto when they arrived up yonder. Also, I'm afraid that the elder's example led a lot of young boys to believe that Christianity Is only a pretense and that dishonesty ia the best policy. Anvhow. it is quite evident that the practice of putting the good apples at the ends and. the poor apples in the middle is applied to many branches of "big business" today and by elders, too. Particular "Yes, sir; I think it la criminal the way our city authorities manage or water ayatom' growled ths man Dull Times "How's business, old man?" queried String M. Wells of Beecher Game. "Rotten!" said Beecher. "The only gpld brick I've sold in six weeks I sold to a fellow who succeeded in palming off a lot of mining stock on me in payment. There is more exhortation in the same spirit so far. The letter Is full j Collier's Weekly. enough of tho qualities that make up tho frightful tragedy which tho re publican party fastened on the south in reconstruction; it pictures, with out meaning to, the sort of white man that manages the republican party and holds federal office in tho south; tho attompt to mako personal gain out of party prejudico is clear; tho effort to stir up race feeling is unconcealed. But Clark Grier docs not rely merely upon the potency of English words to foment race pas sion. Read tho next paragraph: "In sending tho printed instruc tions on the back of this letter to every colored man whoso name is furnished mo, I am spending lots of money, and this expense is being paid by the Georgia Distributing company of Jacksonville, Florida, distributors of pure whiskies, etc., whoso circular I inclose, and I want you to patronize this firm for this generous act on their part toward tho colored men of Georgia." There you have tho picture. But, northern reader, It will only faintly suggest to you toe awful tragedy tho decent south endures from men like Clark Grier, unless you happen to know the part that whisky plays in clashes between tho races "nigger" whisky, well known to stimulate tho crimes which most often lead to lynching. Doubtless Clark Grier will bo a delegate to tho republican conven tion in Chicago; doubtless ho will shake the hands of statesmen and fraternize with the groat; on-his way back ho may stop at Washington, lunch with the postmaster general, and receive assurances that his dis tinguished zeal In behalf of the party shall bo rewarded by tho postmas tcrship again. As ho walks from his home to the office where ho repre sents tho government of the United States, there will be plenty in uhis town to bid him good morning. Often a young singer named course from a There was Beecher Who took vocal teacher, But her pride took a tumble When she heard the man grumble, "Gee whiz, what a horrible screecher!" 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