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About The independent. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 31, 1907)
JANUARY 31, 1907 THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT 9 DRIFTWOOD "For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die; but if ye through the spirit do morti fy the deeds of the body, ye shall live." Komans, viil:13 A great many people dig their graves -with their teeth. They eat to gratify their animal desires to the very limit, and not with the nobler object always in view of nourishing their bodies. Gourmandizlng is the cause of more kinds of physical grief than the entire army of microbes which the bacteriolo gists mamtnm is the primary cause of all or nearly all of our multiple physical in firmities. LiTing to eat" Questioning jperpetually what we shall have for din ner or what particularly palatable dessert for the evening meal, which should be of light and easily digested materials. And whether wo lingwr along and suf fer for years in a state of chronic invalid ism or are gathered to our fathers as a result of living after the flesh the scripture Is fulfilled. There is such a thing as death in life. It is where the vital organs refuse to perform their func tions normally and we go about with a blue cast of countenance like Kachael weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they are not. Nevertheless the recuperative powers of tho vital organism are something wond erful for which man ought to get down on his knees and thank the Giver of every good and perfect gift every day that he lives. How often in the strength of your young manhood have you found it neces sary to work over-hours in order to ac complish a task that would suffer through delay. It looks like rain and there are ten acres of wheat to put in the shock and night is approaching. You are al ready tired when you begin the task, but it Is something that must be done and you buckle in to get as much of It finished by daylight as possible. Night comes on, but you keep a-going. You see the storm gathering and it nerves you to greater effort despite the weariness and the aching bones At midnight the job Is done and you drag your way to the house, tired enough to drop down in the stubble anywhero and go to sleep with the crickets and toads. Once in bed, you fall asleep as soon as your head touches the pillow, and the roar of the tempest, the thunder crashes and the rain beating on the roof only make you sleep the sounder. You are awakened at last by the sound of the breakfast bell and. ex cept for a slight stiffmss of the Joints on arising, you feel none th worse for the late carnival of extra hard work. Na ture repaired all the damage while you slept And because nature Is so kind, and so Indulgent, and so assiduous In repairing the self-inflicted damages to this wond erful piece of vital machinery, mankind Is careless, thoughtless and sometimes flagrantly abusive of this "temple" of clay until the limit of recuperative pos sibility has been passed and a talk about the "mysterious dispensations of Provi dence," as though the one mourned had been arbitrarily cut down for some un known and unknowable reason. Tom Reed, the "czar" of the house of representatives, who lnsisied that a con gressman occupying his seat in the house was there whether he said he was or not, was a man of sedentary habits and convivial tastes. He was fond of good victuals in considerable quantities and took particular delight In late dinners where speeches followed the terrapin, little-necked clams and wine with the diamond-colored bead in it. He had a pow erful physique and an iron constitution, but he couldn't keep up with himself. He lived after the flesh, and was called hence In the prime of a prudent man's years. The list of illustrious men who cut themselves down as he did is monot onously long and sorrowful to contem plate. Some have broken down under the strain and only half lived when they should have been most alive. Ben Frank lin became gouty and apopleptic by rea son of time worse than wasted in high living and chess-playing when he admits himself he might have enjoyed the best of health had he taken plenty of out door exercise and eaten the simplest foods he knew were best for him, but he pre ferred to eat those articles of diet that tickled his palate, and he had to pay tho penalty. Our old friend John S. was a man of means whose wife had the reputation or being one of the very best cooks in Fari bault county. Everybody liked her cook ing becnuoo she put nothing on the table that didn't taste good, and It was the Joy of her heart to set a fine table and have htr friends take hold as though it were not a burden to cat what was set before them. John worked hard and ate hearty for a number of years before ho noticed that something was seriously wrong with his digestion. Nature had borna the Imposition as long us she cnuld, and then tho breakdown came. John's stomach refused to perform the tak trial was set before It, and he went to the dot-tor who first cleaned his system with calomel and then prescribed those akU to diUon which do atwut as much C'Kd as a doctrinal sermon does to a hardened sinner, and tho man jtrew Mead lly wor'. lit thrt years, ut the f forty-right, he hul become as near a total wrw:k a may he en any ,f the most startling t.. fore-1 akin k pictures, and tho Bt'ter.ii toetors who by tli.it ttm had had to d- with his c'Ufe were agreed thut It ws h.trdly worth while to do more than collect th" fees comiig to them and let him pas peacefully on. lie was In thai eitremeU- HRsr.ivatJnB condition whin It seemed th.it nothing would tay on his stotmoh. It wns after th doctors had Riven hifti up. th.U a kind oil ldy of tha m?lRhb'ho d suttCMetl that may li his stum h would tolerate a spoon ful tf "clattlti red ' milk. Tb spoonful was swallowed .tti.l It taml put. In an ,our or two h took another, and then anothrr. II stepped U mistical In nnl itrnk no form of nourishment for several 4 s but lbs oer ite ti.Uk. Tlx r Ut added to it a little toasted corn bread, which also seemed to touch the right spot, and on this simple and to the un educated taste, repulsive duet, he throve and ultimately recovered his health and with it a happiness he had never before experienced. He took to cultivating the spiritual side of his nature and Instead of becoming morose and hard to get along with in his old age, he was the most thoroughly happy and contented character in the whole neighborhood and everybody loved him because his presence was a benediction to all. He lived t be nearly ninety years of age and was hap py to the last. Who mortifies the flesh below And gives tho soul a chance to grow Is on the track and on the train Bound for the goal man should attain. Toward higher things we should aspire Iord, let it be our heart's desire To put aside the wrongs that lure, Lest earthly las mat have no cure Assail us here, for those who try To rim that course may sin and die. Teach us, dear Lord, from day to day, To do Thy will in every way; In all our going while we mix Among our fellow-mortals. BIX. House roll No. 110 is a measure that ought to pass. Its purpose is to put the hobo out of the game, and the time has come when it cannot be accounted a cruelty to do so. It having been de creed that all men who ride on the choo choo cars must pay regular rates, there is no good reason why authority should not be vested in the trainmen to call Weary Willie from off the bumpers in the name of the state of Nebraska whose statutes he has offended. Weary is a dangerous character. The man who scorns to work for a living when labor is in such demand as It has been for the past few years has a head for mis chief and needs watching all the time. If trainmen are vested with police power, Weary will soon learn that It isn't healthy for him to talk back or to re fuse to skldoo when the brakeman says "begone." Weary sees the world is wide, Weary has a will mendacious, Weary wants to take a ride Let him pay his fare, b'gracious. If he tries to steal his way Where the flying cinders choke him, Vest the trainmen, then, I say, With the legal power to soak him. Why should Weary Willie rock On the bumpers unmolested While I pay my fare or walk Let the damcuss be arrested. Tli en the rock pile or the soil Where the herds of cattle forage; Weary should be made to toil Or deprived of clothes and porridge. Satan finds for idle men Evil thoughts and schemes pernicious; Weary, busy in the pen, May not be so pesky vicious. Elect a man to office and bind him by a party platform to do the thing he doesn't want to do, and he is sure to limp around with a sore foot during the entire session. A Chinese chop suey artist in St. Paul was fined $1 by the court for refusing to serve a hungry"TTegro. The race prob lem is indeed a complicated one. STATE FAIR OFFICIALS. The board of managers for the state fair, to be held the first week of next September, have made the following appointments of controlling officers: "William Foster, general superintend ent. C. J. Tracy, Loup City, chief of po lice. Win. James, Dorchester, superin tendent agricultural hall. L. E. Emerson, Lincoln, superintend ent of transportation. E. M. Searle, jr., Lincoln, superin tendent of gates. Dr. II. Pritchard, Wisner, assistant superintendent of gates. Jos. Roberts, Fremont, superintend ent mercantile hall. Jno. F. McArdle, Elk City, superin tendent amphitheater. W. J. O'Brien, North Bend, superin tendent fish exhibit. S. ( Bassett, Gibbon, superintendent premium revision W. A. Apperson, Teoumseh, superin tendent claws "A." horses. f). F,. Mickey, Osceola, superintend ent class "B." cattle. I,. W. Itxmard, Pawnee City, super intendent class "C." swine. It. M. Wolcott, ralrr.fr, superintend ent clax.s "P." sheep. C. M, IweltlnK, Braver City, super intendent class. "R" poultry. Wm. James. lV.rchnte r, superin tendent class "F." farm product. Mrs. J. II. Ilaok'.nson, Benson, super intendent tlaa "VS." tMtlles. Mr. F. M. Hall. Lincoln, Kuperln trndent class "II." flno arts. V. Arnold. Verdon, superintendent class "I." dairy. Mm. 1. Frewhotte, JJncoln. mtrrln tendent t huts I." lots 8 to H. E. ". Bishop. Lincoln, superintend (lit tUai "J" educational. W. C. t'aj y, Crelghtnn. superintend ent claw "rC." be and honey. I. W. lUw. Minden, superintendent class "M." machinery. ('ha. Mann ("hadron, superintend' enl svvtUi tad foraf. SIDE LIGHTS I SfftFTER the doctor and lawyer had fA told of their trials with cranky people the undertaker told his tale of woe, says the New York Tribune. "You fellows don't know what trouble is," he said. "If you had to buck up against the superstitions that I do you'd have a right to talk. Most people think that our business is as dead as It seems to be, but we have some right lively times, I can tell you. "The white horse superstition is one of our greatest bugaboos. Again and again I have had people refuse to go to the grave because there happened to be a pair of white horses on one of the carnages. They said it would mean that they would die before a year was out, so now, when I order my car riages for a funeral procession, I al ways add, 'And no white horses, please. Then there are the people who believe that If they ride in the last carriage they will be dead before the end of the year, and if the last car riage is the proper place for them, ac cording to their relation to the de ceased person, there is no end of a row. "There are many persons who cling to the old-fashioned superstition that the coffin must be placed in tho room so that the head will be toward the west, or the corpse will be uneasy in Its grave, and in a small room it is rot always easy to arrange it so, with out blocking up a doorway. "Some Italians insist that tho body ,ae taken out of the house in the same way that the person went out last alive. On occasions I have even had to take out a window or tear down a par tition to gratify this whim, or observe this superstition, for of course a heavy coflln cannot be taken out of the house with the case with which a live per son walks out. "Into the coffin of a baby the Ital ians pour quantities of bonbons, so that it will not be lonesome on its way to heaven. But that isn't a circum stance to what some people ask me to put Into the coffins. I often put in jewrelry, pet pictures, trinkets of all sorts, letters addressed to some one who has died previously, revolvers so the person may shoot himself if ho is perchance buried alive, and even pitch pipes." , Mrs. W. E. Morgan, of -Missouri, is boss of one of the richest zinc mines in that state. To her employes she is known as the "sunbonnet boss," and they are said to like her and work well under her direction. Garbed in rubber skirt, coat, hat and boots, she goes down into a mine when necessary and she is on the ground to superin tend operations. It is said to be due to her business foresight that the mine is being worked, anyway, for the prop erty had been condemned as worthless and was lying fallow, a combination of dump pile and water, when Mrs. Mor gan saw its possibilities. She organized a company, purchased the engine, pump and other necessary machinery, employed the men, drained the mine and sunk the shaft deeper and now is rewarded by a rich yield of zinc ore. Some French recruits recently threw a great light on the state of general intelligence in the French republic. They were ".ioining the colors." and underwent an elementary examina tion. The papers sent in by a typical company of sixty-two men, all from the north of France, have now been read and their glittering contents given to the world. If we hear with shamo of any intellectual peculiarity exhibited by fellow-countrymen of ours a family who spell their name Enroughty and pronounco it Darby, or a gentleman who gives up his seat in a car to a lady lot us take comfort ablo thought of these Frenchmen. Tho first question nsked of these re cruits was: What Is tho present rov crnment of Franco and how estab lished? Four men answered correctly. Thirty-four men merely wroto "The Republic" on n sheet of paper. Three replied Irrelevantly; seventeen did not know how to write-an enormous pro portion. The remaining four answered: "Tho Gove rnrnent of Franco Is the French Government." "Th Govern ment of France Is the president of th4 republic," "Th" French government Ims been established by all the other countries together." and finally, "The French governim rt was wtiibiiphed by a general assembly of all the mil d'etat " This mart's mild w;is evidently mixed over rotijvi d'etat wild while getter!. Th recruits were next asked to Rive the. name of some ron fninout In French history, who unruled parti, u l.irly to them. Thirty ncht spoke rlht out, naturally, for NapoU-on I Four tern w-er for I.ouh XIV, Iwilve for llenrl IV.. ten for rh.irle m4Kn ml four for G tmix tta. rnrmot, Wri-lnnc torli, nrd Thiers, severally, IhiN .XI, IniH XV, tollert. Generals Mrt-etiii and Kb-her, and Mnrhl Mnrmahoti each had t otes S far tl.e niiers could pa muir more or lees. But among the great Frenchmen who received single votes were Bismarck and Baxaine! The third question was a very harm less sum. A captain, commanding a company of 118 men, has determined that each man shall have a quarter of a litre of wine. The wine costing 4d a litre, what will his total expenditure be? Twenty-three men gave up the problem In despair, over and above the seventeen illiterate recruits. Among the others only six worked out tho sum satisfactorily. Lastly, they were asked what they would do with a foreign coin having no value In France, but not counterfeit. The replies were most gratifying in one way; not one man suggested trying to pass tho coin. Most of them advised taking it to the bank of France, to a money changer, or to a stockbroker. One last man had the most brilliant and truly French idea of all. He said he would have the coin made into a scarf-pin. Tho inefficiency of Mexican labor was under discussion by a group of mining promoters. "On my last trips to Mexico," said one, "while our train halted at Jim ulco, a dinner station on the Mexican Central, I alighted and watched the mechanic who went from car to car sounding the wheels with a hammer, presumably to test their condition. He was a fair type of a native 'skilled workman.' Just to draw him out a llttlo I inquired: " 'Why do you rap the wheels?' "Setting down hia torch, he stared at me in amazement. 'Because tho mas ter mechanic tells me to,' he replied. " 'But why?' I persisted. 'What good does it do?' " 'I do not know, senor,' said he. The master mechanic tells mo to strike each wheel, and I do so. That la enough for me.' '"How long have you been working' at this job?' I asked. " 'Two years,' he replied. For two years he had been going through the form of sounding the car wheels, with out the slightest knowledge of the ob ject of the test or the slightest curi osity concerning It!" '' The modern woman, by adhering rigid ly to the rules laid down by the up-to-date authorities for the benefit of her sex, can make the following useful dis position of her time each day: Physical culture exercises y hour Morn tub , hour Massage and application of cold cream l hour Brushing and treatment of hair.. 1 hour Manicuring nails Vi hour Eati'ig breakfast, with thorough mastication 1 hour Brisk walk .:. 1 hour Massage and anointing with cold cream 1 hour Brushing dust out of tho hair ..Vi hour Luncheon, with thorough masti cation 1 hour Afternoon nap 1 hour Dressing for afternoon calls 1 hour Making calls 2 hours Massage and application of cold cream 1 hour Brushing hair Vz hour Modeling finger nails hour Shaping eyebrows hour Pedicuring , V3 hour Sponge bath hour Erossing for dinner 1 hour Dining (in simple King Edward style) 1 hour Opera 2 hours Supper (no mastication) 1 hour Hot lath z hour Brushing hair k hour Massage and cold cream 1 hour Physical culture txercises hour Shower bath U hour Sleep 8 hours Total 11 hours ATCHISON GLOBE SIGHTS. Sense I nonsense to a fool. As a rule the greatest help in mem ory is youth. A.e a rule a man who fays he will be governed by your advice is another. Men arc so ornery they would rather lose money at poker than to w in prizes at a ladies' card parly. Women have as many ways of hold up tlu lr skirts on a rainy dav as they have of doing up thrlr hair. If y.u spend your time In growling about an Imaginary wrong. ru are apt In nee! vt your own hort oruinjr. Alut the poorest e.on.miv ihit j practice.! py uie man who trie to . make a saving on his laundry bills. " ; As ions' us Father retains IU1V right f at all. ho is pretty si.re to remove his prior out by the MttitiK rom f.re, 1 Preacher nr nbout the onh j., npi. I who can work less an I jjh t tt r .itlf.o tU'ti, short m n.i.nn .ilw,is j pieilM , ! Say to almost tiny child ,, VO! ! know what your molU r if ung in ill t on?" and the ehsid wilt r. t.'y j "Hpanh me." j A many of the th.ii,n l d .!Ur j tape i-mwhs look like the grt-.n-r i.trt j of the. eojt must hVe ivf far iT4Vrl . lot; ' t J" IV e.