The Wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, January 27, 1911, Image 7
SOME OF NEBRASKA'S COUNTY SEAT FIGHTS OF THE OLD DAYS A Lincoln evening paper recently made mention of some. of the county seat fights that have been pulled off in Nebraska, making especial mention of the way Knox county farmers put a quietus on county seat boomers. After three or four fruitless county seat elections the farmers of Knox took things in their own hands and located the county seat in the center of the county, miles from any town or railroad. They named the new county seat Center, and now the warring factions have the fun of traveling overland whenever they want to transact business at the Knox' county capital. There have t been some" really historic "county seat fights in Ne braska', notably the one in Kearney county when Lowell was de prived1 of the seat of county government.' And the fight between Trenton- and Culbertson in Hitchcock county was a corker. 'AAnd that reminds us of something that happened the night the Trenton supporters loaded up the county records at .Culbertson-and pro ceeded to drag them over to Trenton. The writer was at that time on the World-Herald staff, and as a side issue attended to the Nebraska correspondence for a Chicago daily. There was really wo fighting at Culbertson, although guns were, flourished and fists shaken. The -World-Herald had all the facts, but the Chicago paper "got a "bulletin" from somewhere that there had been a pitched battle, and its night editor wired the Omaha correspondent for full par ticulars. The correspondent wired back that he had sent in all the facts. The night editor wired back to this effect. "Reliably in formed pitched battle at Culbertson. Must have story. Rush." Whereupon the Omaha correspondent proceeded to follow instruc tions. He . wired in the story of a battle a little less sanguinary than Gettysburg or Cold Harbor, going into details at great length, generously-using local color and-giving an occasional name in a way-that "would not bring on any libel suits. The "story" made a couple of columns in the Chicago daily and was printed on the first page under big ''scarehe&ds" as a' sample of; the wild and wooly west ern method of doing things. iThe only blood that was shed in that battle wag ( shed; iWhen. an intoxicated man , attempted to climb into a iwagony .slipped : and bumped his nose ' on the wagon wheel. Jleference to this incident lis made merely to show upon what flimsy pretexts some of those big western "news stories" are based. Eut if that Chicago paper had kept on insisting for more about the "Battle of Culbertson" the Omaha correspondent would have been forced to call out the state rKiitia the next day, and follow it up with federal interference on the next day. He believes to this day that he would have been equal to the task at so much per column. Short Arm Jabs at the Jaw Nebraska needs a new constitution as badly as a ship needs a rudder or a wagon a tongue. that it is what Senator Ingalls would have called a "d d irridescent aream. rr ; u i t-i" t ii " t kji course we arc iduuii' lu ace. xiatK uiu xr. jvuiicf wrcsuc, r- . , -r . , , . , , , ' , , . t . ,j . j r . Au-u . 9i nne enterprise and thrift and put a premium on sloth and lack of but we d go a great deal further to see Governor Aldnch put Dan! . , 1, , - " e e r pntprnnse msr sr Inner will ixr navo iinniiol t-mm-n .. All this talk about gettting good service out of precinct asses sors, whether elected or appointed, is tommyrot. The thing is impossible imder our present system of taxation. As long as we Butler's shoulders to the mat. Some of these days an enterprising Nebraskan will make the race for governor on the platform, "To hell with false economy" and he will poll a lot of votes, too. We take it very much to heart that the "capital movers" should renew their agitation after having deprived us of that promised barbecue on the state house grounds. We dare Governor Dix of New York to follow the goodly example set by Governor Wilson of New Jersey in the senatorship matter now pending in the Empire state. Just why the city councilmen declined to occupy boxes at! the hospital benefit at the Oliver is a puzzle. They are experts on boxes, having put the public therein on more than one occasion. t A plate at the Lincoln Ad Club banquet will rejuvenate you something surprising. The spring that Col; Ponce de Leon looked for wouldn't have been a marker to the banquet, even had he found it. ... " :'. . One by Dr. Farnam : "Too much talking through the -mouth, too little breathing through the nostrils. This much, because the rcputatble physician's chief ambition should be to prevent disease, not to cure it." enterprise, just so long will we have unequal taxation on account of unjust asssessments. - Beating Prohibition in Oklahoma He'was'always at the depot in the little Oklahoma town when the southbound trains pulled in. Spying .a man who looked thirsty he would sidle up to the car window and whisper : "Like to have a bottle of 'cold tea' to take with you ?" "Sure !" would be the usual response. "How much?" "Dollar for a pint, but you musn't take a drink till the train pulls out or 111 get into trouble." "All right." The "dollar would drop into the hand of the man on the platform, and he would slip a bottle into the hands of the man in the coach. A minute or two after the train started the man in the coach would un corw the bottle and take a deep draught. And it was always cold tea, for a fact. The vendor was never at the depot when the northbound trains pulled in. In Something of a Fix After waiting for weary months to get the ornamental street lights to going, the city suddenly discovers that it has not arranged to connect up with the city lighting plant, that it. will take $12,000 to do this, and that no provision has been made for raising the money. AH of which reminds us of a German friend down in Missouri. He came down town one morning, his face wreathed in smiles, and chuckling to himself. "What makes you feel so good this morning, August?" asked a friend. "Veil, such a fine jokes as I got on mein frau." "Joke on your wife- What is it." "Say, she yoost got two babies at our house an' she ain't got only vone clothes." Lincoln Ad Club Banquet February 7 will be social night 'with the Lincoln Ad club, and it Too many elections in Nebraska! State officers last year, su- will be observed by a banquet at the Lindell at 6:45. In addition to preme judges and university regents this year. Next year state the feast of good things to eat there will be the usual "feast of reason officers again, and the next year supreme judges and university and flow of soul." This much is assured because the program com regents. Let's elect our state officers for four years,1 making them initteehas framed up something especially good and wholly "differ ineligible for re-election. ' ent." The printed program when it appears will not contain all of the features, but it will contain enough to assure the guests the time of Representative Gait's effort to make campaigns clean is very -their lives. Governor Aldrich, Senator Ned Brown, Representative commendable; the trouble with" it being that he has gone at it H. G Taylor and -other distinguished public men will respond to wrong end to. He. should have provided for the filing of candidates toasts. There will be incidental music we came near saying acci against whom no word of detraction could be said, or by legislative dental music and a vaudeville stunt or two. enactment provided for an entire change in human nature. Rep-" - " The. Lincoln; Ad club is framing up a lot of surprisingly good resentative Gait's bill 'reads well, the chief objection to it beinjg'stun.firSr the 'benefit -f when a live bunch t The "big stunt" billed for Lincoln this winter is the Ad Club banquet to be pulled off at the Lindell hotel on the evening of Feb ruary 7, Marquis of Queensbury rules, not hitting in the clinches and pivot blow barred. Speaking wholly as a dininterested party, we are of the opinion that the "wets" went a step too far when they took that sort of thing into the selection of an executive commitee for the chief business or ganization of the city. Eleven buckwheat cakes, liberally smeared with butter and syrup; nine large sausages fried in their own grease; three eggs poached, two cups of coffee well creamed and sugared. After such a breakfast as that a man is fit for the morgue or a poor day's work.