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About The Valentine Democrat. (Valentine, Cherry Co., Neb.) 1896-1898 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 18, 1897)
f V 1 v 4 te u r v iEfi T mi n rR 15 s T X pfcr BUNCOED DEMOCRATS We now have the assurance not only President elect McKinley but also Mark A Hanna and Thomas G 2latt and other less great and con spicuous Republican leaders that a change in the tariff is the thing that the people decided at the last election and that more protection to the monopolies engaged in manufacturing enterprises is what the incoming ad- ministration is bound to devote itself to Strange as it may seem to those few Democrats who helped the Republican party to achieve victory in November the financial question was not an issue then and there is consequently no ne cessity for even discussing it now Mr Hanna who had something to say un doubtedly about sound mouey is sure of that and Thomas Collier Via it who certainly did do a good deal of talking about the paramount import ance of the gold standard during the campaign have both come out Hal footed within the past weeic in favor of suppressing all reference for our years to come to anything but higher duties on imports and bigger appro priations to enrich contractors Even the blindest of the so called gold Democrats must see now that they have been buncoed by their late allies The appointment of Ly man J Gage as Secretary of the Treas ury is even corroborative of that for this eminent Chicago national banker is on record as being very weak on the money question from their standpoint mid is therefore not likely to do any thing more than obey the orders that inay be given to him by the men who want protection at the espouse of the people The Reicn of the Bankers We have had government by various classes of people AVe have had gov ernment by farmers and there were those who objected to it We have had government by lawyers and still oth ers objected We are now in the midst of a reign of bankers and inoney lend ers We may say that the power and ascendency of this particular class is now at its height The President elect ignoring the statesmen in public life and listening only to the seductions offered by the money centers has given to the presi dent of the First National Bank of Chicago Lyman J Gage the office of Secretary of the Treasury He quits the back parlor of his board of direc tors to assume the seat of chief finan cial officer of the American govern ment in the Cabinet at the White House At Albany in the State Senate in spite of the newspaper announcement that he had ceased his opposition Sen ator Grady fought to the end the vi cious principle of exempting from tax ation our State bonds a bill giving State money away to bondholders The bill passed by just a constitutional ma jority There is likely it is said to be but one bid accepted for the bonds about to be put on the market and it is for the interest and advantage of those who will stand behind the purchase that this exemption of the bonds from taxation has been arranged It is a bankers bill appropriate enough in a government of bankers by bankers and for bankers Here in New York City Ave have a banker for Mayor and our taxes are ten millions more than when we had Mayors of other professions We have just parted from a banker Governor who lost his office as Governor by be coming a candidate for President and during his administration our State which had just emerged from debt was plunged into fresh debt again On every side the illustrious profession of money lending crops out and asserts itself It looks as though it were time To call a halt New York News Dodsinjr the Tariff The tariff dodger according to the evidence of many New York merchants has a conspicuous following in the many thousands of Americans who are in the habit of taking occasional trips to the old world At a recent meeting of the large dry- nrrvrwlo r1rilnio linlrl in Vnw Vnrlr if W13 stated that at least o0000000 worth of dutiable goods get into this country every year through the connivance of returning tourists A recent decision of the United States Supreme Court has largely aid ed -this evil All wearing apparel be longing to the owner it has decided can come in free of duty But there is no line to decide just how many garments or dresses the returning tourist should have The result is that one dress maker can return with forty dresses and bill all of them as her wearing apparel or a man can fill ten trunks or more with clothing and declare all of it is for per gonal use So notorious has become this smug gling that one of the merchants at the meeting said a rich man recently boast ed to him that the clothing and other effects which he brought home after his usual summer tour and smuggled through the custom house more than paid for the traveling expenses of him self and his family When such large quantities of goods come in free of duty it is not fair to the merchants who import goods and must sell them at a fair price plus the duty It disturbs the standard of values and the Ways and Means Committee which is now wrestling with the tariff should 1 take notice of the evil and resolve to end it Unfortunately the people who ar foremost in this work of tariff dodging are those who can well afford to pay duty But while the smuggling is rec ognized those guilty of it look upon it more as shrewdness than as a crime The fact that they are cheating Uncle Sam and incidentally all the people in the United States is overlooked Ihila delphia Item An Old Republican Trick The manner in which the Repubi cans will try to stave off action indefin itely on the financial question and give them further opportunities to fool the people is indicated in the bill pass ed by the Senate authorizing the Presi dent to appoint delegates to any inter national money conference that may be called or to call one himself if he thinks it judicious to do so This means of course the expendi ture of another nice sum for salaries for a number of eminent and high priced lawyers and financiers for doing over again what has been done thrice before without securing any practical results The last of these conferences was held in Brussels only four years ago If the Republicans were sincere in their professed faith of internation ad bimetallism even they would not put forward this old worn out scheme of talking the matter all over again from the beginning They would in stead formulate some positive plan and act on it The Republicans in this Congress and those who will be in the next as well as those who will compose the Mc Kinley administration have no idea of accomplishing anything through an other such conference as that which was called in the last months of Ben jamin Harrisons occupancy of the White House They have resolved on a do nothing policy but they want to deceive the public if possible into the belief that they are really trying to help silver by sending junketing dele gates abroad once more to take part in useless palavers Empty Phrases Henry Watterson says that if the rich manufacturer can go to Congress and demand legislation in the interest of his business so can the poor agricul turist so can the poor mechanic and it is here where the evils of anarchism took their start and have their fortifica tion The foregoing is just about as full of meaning as the general run of Watter sonian pronunciamentos That is to say it is an empty phrase without any meaning in it at all Why and how would the evil of anarchism take a start from or find root in letting the poor agriculturist or the mechanic ex ercise the right of petition It occurs to us that a plea to lawma kers for the enactment of law would have an effeet decidedly opposed to anarchy Anarchy knows no law and respects none A petitioner by his very conduct manifests a regard for consti tuted authority The Kentucky editor is rather clever at putting words to gether but analjzed his utterances are mere palaver with no more body to them than Swiss wine and they are quite as innocuous Chicago Dispatch The Question in a Nutshell The New York World which aspires to be a money lender and goldbug or gan asserts that the greenback ques tion simply is that it is foolish to keep on issuing promises to pay something which you may have to buy at a pre mium Oh no that is not the question at an as the people understand it It is that the governmcJt owes the people so many hundreds of millions of dollars which the people lent the government to carry on the civil war of the sixties that the government by issuing green backs saves paying interest on all these millions while the greenbacks serve as money currency for the peo ple and that it would be foolish indeed to stop issuing these greenbacks with out interest and to issue instead bonds on which government and people both would have to pay interest to money lenders and goldbugs That is the question in a nutshell Gov Alccrs Record The Chicago Chronicle in an article upon Cabiuetmaking So Far says The appointment of Alger for Secretary of War is unfortunate He was not a brilliant soldier in the war He has a military record that is not clear and which is alleged to have been misrep resented in the sketch of his life fur nished by himself to the war histories It has been charged also that the cam paign of the war generals previous to the late election for which he furnished his private car and was said to have paid all the expenses was in the na ture of a financial fraud It is stated by William E Curtis the well known correspondent that Alger presented to the Republican National Committee a bill of 47000 as the expenses of this crusade and that after some stormy dis putes the bill was allowed and he re ceived the money This should have extinguished his claims for a cabinet appointment Generous Pullman the man who cost the State of Illinois thousands of dollars gives a paltry 300 to the poor of Chicago And the next move he makes will probably be to reduce salaries in order to make up the donation World Herald The second move came next day HOW THE PE0PLELI7E DROWSY EXISTENCE OF THE CITIZENS OF HAVANA Military Display the Only Change in the Conditions Surrounding the Place Coffeei Siesta Promenades and Ball Fights Go On as Usual Few Indications of War While Cuba as a whole has been ter rifically and completely changed by the violent upheavals of war its chief city still sits on the shores of the northern sea sunlit and odorous Havana too has un dergone changes says the Xew York Her ald but the changes are not those of fire and sword and famine It has become de cidedly more military than a few years ago but this is all Its cafes formerly haunted by well dressed crowds of civil ian Cubans and Spaniards now clank with spurs and sabers and ring with brim stone gossip of trochas of battles and red routs where the men who formerly sat cheek by jowl in the restaurants have met in deadly conflict Havana is full of marching soldiers that signify nothing but harmless dress pa rades relief detachments and the like The civil guards still form on the Prado and sweep down between the trees to the tune of a lively Spanish quickstep with rifles at all sorts of angles and their hats cocked over their eyes in a style that would be considered aggressive in any other country But the real life of the city moves on steadily and quietly just as it will con tinue to move until the day of judgment unless stricken by some mighty cataclysm Across the blue waters of the bay the low white houses of Casa Blanca sleep under the shelter of the bushy hill Farther away beyond the tile roofed sugar houses that are empty and deserted now and on the high mesa of the palm dotted prairie hill are the sleepy houses of Regia and farther still the village of Guanabocoa where the insurgents have made things lively during the past month But outside of the bodies of moving troops you could not discover a sign of war in Havanas front with a microscope The lovely land conveys no hint of the savage and bloody exterior The mule teers still perambulate the lonely roads with their enormous pack saddles croon ing to their sun dreaming animals while hammering them townward with their ragged heels Venga Moolah Arrica Moolah But Moolah wise from experience only lays his long ears back in dogged resentment and plods on in sleepy comfort In Havana proper while business is comparatively stagnant there is still enough to give the usual air of slow and easy life to the streets The narrow thoroughfares are swarming with low topped carriages beasts of burden jost ling drivers and negro women with such huge panniers on their heads that the mind tries in vain to grasp the effect of such a burden on the Caucasian brain Some of these panniers are filled with bread Others contain fruit and vegeta bles Visitors have seen an Havana ne gro woman walking along the streets with l basket upon her head the size of a bu reau and smoking a cigar which for gen eral size and black suggestions of nico tine has never been equaled They are physical wonders these tropic negresses The morning life of Havana is brisk Then everything looks dewy and fresh and bright and whatever odors there may be have not yet risen Odors are late risers in Havana although it may be truthfully observed that many of them never go to sleep at all In the morning come the peddlers with their strange wares and shrill cries Here and there half dozens of asses may be seen waddling along with full udders of milk They are attended by a ragged owner who milks into a measure whatever you may choose to buy This is a decidedly comfortable way of running a milk route and you are sure of setting the pure article Said to Be Wholesome This asses milk is said to be very whole some too There is no tuberculosis about a jackass except in his heels On one oc casion the writer saw one of these lowly and intelligent beasts kick a yellow dog over the counter of a casa de cambio or money changers and knock down 1S7 in gold coins that were stacked in the rear Only one stack was left standing and it BELIGIOUS PROCiSSSIO IX HAVANA was generally regarded as a spare But the jackass didnt care much about it He simply closed his eyes and kept on think ing long eared thoughts All Havana breakfasts on black coffee and oranges Somehow Americans always found this poor fare for a matutinal Anglo-Saxon stomach The oranges are the best in the world but the coffee has the strength of a porous plaster After cof fee at 9 oclock comes a period of com- parative activity for Cubans They hus tle about and attend to their marketing and other necessary duties They go shop ping in little peseta carriages drawn by small and sturdy Cuban horses But young and pretty Cuban girls do not go shopping unaccompanied In fact they never go out on the streets alone Thej are always accompanied by a forbidding relative with a machete a yard long All the courtine of Cuban sweethearts is done through perpendicular iron win dow bars three inches apart This is pret ty hard lines on anybody accustomed to the delights of a solitary parlor low gas jets and a rocking chair built wide enough for two In fact the Cuban youths have a rather hard time of it The writer has seen more than one of them come into the cafes with the red marks of the iron win dow bars along his face But just now the boys are all away to the wars and the maids have no sweethearts They Make Siesta About noontime the average Cuban be comes too strong to work He must have A CAFE IN HAVANA his siesta and the world may wag on as it will while he takes it Each member of an establishment has his own particu lar spot in which to take a nap and it is a very rude thing for another to pre empt it The writer always knew where to find the barkeeper of one particular cafe when he wanted a rabo de gallo at siesta time He would reach over the bar and prod vigorously around among the empty bottles and buckets until he struck a pro test Then he had him Here Chico Get up and attend to business Si hombre Si Que dice Oh dos mil cientos Then he would fish out an old lottery ticket of which he had been dreaming OBISPO THE PRINCIPAL BUSINESS STREET IN HAYANA lay his head on the counter and go to sleep again leaving the cafe in charge of his 6-year-old daughter who ran about the place in a state of unblushing and Eve like nudity Siesta time lasts anywhere from noon to 3 oclock Then Havana yawns stretches itself and resumes business where it left off a few hours before Even the beg gars who have also had their siesta be gin to show signs of almost hnman intel ligence They creep out from their vari ous lairs and begin languidly to ply their trade The blind girl who put her own eyes out in a fit of pique starts on her sunlit journey in tow of her brother The man with the horrible leprous foot bare and terrifying stretches himself out in the shade of a deserted building on the Prado like a huge and offensive spider Many of these beggars are manufac tured to order in Spain or the Canary isl ands and they are certainly champions in their classes There is one old fellow ragged and with a yellow withered face like a boiled onion gray whiskered pursy and pop eyed who walks about the streets And yet he used to be one of Havanas most wealthy and prominent merchants He lost all his money through drink and morphine and at present has just sense enough to beg for more He has a staring strabismic eye which he winks broadcast and a dicebox laugh He is a Havana landmark In the Evening In the evenings the church bells begin to ring They do not ring with the slow measured cadence heard in Northern climes but whang away as if hit with a hammer And such is really the case Two men climb up into the belfries and pound away for dear life until the ethics of Cuban bell ringing are fulfilled After nightfall begins the most attrac tive features of Havana life to a foreign er The parks are filled with a strolling chattering crowd The Cuban girls and their mammas while hooded in their man tillas are dressed in the lightest and fluf fiest of pink blue and white frocks The bands play the seats are filled with spec tators officers mashers and plantation owners and the scene is full of life and movement Ten cents plata is the price for a seat on one of these benches and the revenue is supposed to go to the mu nicipal authorities It is doubtful how ever if a tithe of it ever finds its way into the nublic coffers There are three collectors and they never overlook any thing that any man could discover There are no tickets to punch no cash registers or bells to ring It seemed to me to be one gigantic game of grab Over in the Inglaterra and the neighbor ing resorts the cafes are full of Spanish officers laughing drinking talking and smoking their endless cigarettes When ever an American makes his appearance they scowl and make remarks that are very audible even if not understood Every well regulated Cuban is afraid of the moon There is no kind of lunacy that is not attributed either directly or indirectly to the effects of moonlight Mothers teach their children to avoid its rays as they would the smallpox There is so much difference in the temperature of the Cuban sunlight and shadow that the sensitive constitutions of a icate people feel the chiiige dreadfully In the first place the atmosphere Is ever surcharged with moisture that boils end steams in the sun and grows cool in the shade like the air at the bottom of a well Then up comes the moon with her attend ant fogs and gets all the glory of breed ing rheumatism colds fevers and con sumption Keep out of the moonlight is a Cuban mothers first maxim Have Bull Fitrhts Now During the first year of the present war there were no bull fights in Havana They are being indulged in again however and are as thoroughly enjoyed as in ante-bellum days There is one feature of these bull fights that is seldom dwelt upon by chroniclers of Spanish customs It is the bull for the people After the matadors have properly slaughtered their bulls an animal is brought in for the pastime of the spectators Its horns are sawed off until their ends are about an inch and a half in diameter enough to prevent it injuring anybody seriously Then a gold piece is fastened to the end of one of its horns and the public is givenj an opportunity to take it off And howl the spectators rush to the fray The writer saw a dozen sailors jump into the ring and fairly hack tke bull to death be- fore it had time to find out where it wast It was slashed with machetes until its hide would not have held pumpkins It fought as well as it knew how and on one occasion caught its most daring per j secutor and tossed him a beautiful somer sault over the ring fence Not until the bull had fallen did the sailors get the gold piece Altogether however Havana cannot be called a beautiful place It looms above the sea like a gaunt white coral reef ridged about a blue pool of a bay which it clutches in its rocky arms like a sap phire The houses small and plain and white stand in long rows like the tombs of the dead and it takes an Anglo Saxon some time to get rid of this graveyard feeling Carpets are unknown in Havana hotels The writer came across one once and was tempted to throw it into the street it looked so stuffy and out of place The smooth marble stones which are univer sal are very cool and grateful to the feet in this hot climate With stone floors and broad windows without glass the Cuban sleeping apartments are well adapted to the climate And the sunsets are dreams of loveli ness The western sky at times is one vast rose colored ocean flecked with small crimson cloudships that sail placidly along fading gradually from orange to saffron and from saffron to purple and from purple to black The writer has stood on the punta and watched the sun go down behind the western gulf Twen ty minutes later it was night and the lamps were glimmering along the Prado Why He Was Defeated Hanibal Hamlin the war Vice President possessed a keen wit and a merry fun loving nature The follow ing anecdote found In the Lives of Twelve Illustrious Men is one which Mr Hamlin took great pleasure In nar rating It generally happens as in this case that when a man amuses himself at the expense of another the punish ment follows closely upon the offense When Hamlin was Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives away back in the forties there was in that body a certain gentleman of faultless attire pleasing manners good address and some reputation But he had one foible his hair was very thin and he was highly sensitive in regard to it To hide his approaching baldness he had a habit of carefully stroking with bandoline or other preparation each particular hair in Its place One day while in the chair as Speaker Mr Ham lin in the innocence of a good and joke loving nature sent for this gentleman and looking fixedly at his smooth anf polished pate said with a chuckle Blank old fellow I just wanted to tell you that youve got one of the hairs of your head crossed over the other You Insult me sir you insult me replied the member with unexpected and altogether unnecessary Indigna tion and then refusing to listen either to reason or explanation he left the Speakers desk and returned to his seat When Mr Hamlin became a candi date for the United States Senate this gentleman was a member of the upper house of the Maine Legislature Al though a member of the same party and only one more vote was needed to secure Mr Hamlins election he posi tively refused to vote for the man by whom he believed he had been insulted He was defeated for a seat in tha Senate by a hair But when the nex vacancy occurred he was elected Blouse Bodices A blouse bodice of black velvet cov ered back and front with a lattice trim ming of gold cord and turquoise beads set in at intervals so that there Is a bead at each crossing is very effective with a wide corselet belt of black sat- in a black satin collar and plaint sleeves of wlvet with a small puff at the top EPUCATIOXALCOLIIM NOTES ABOUT SCHOOLS AND THEIR MANAGEMENT No Competent Teacher Can Decry the Careful Study and f horoiich Teach ing of the Principles of KnIinh Grammar The Study of English We clip the following paragraph from an educational paper Parsing analysis diagraming and text book syntax are weak legs for cor rect daily English to stand upon They are except the Tast good in their way but writing and speaking English must be learned by practice We had thought that this hobby had been ridden to death some time ago but now and then it seems to indulge in an expiring kick The man who writes the paragraph evidently knows little about teaching and less about En glish grammar Any successful teach er of English will not undervalue either analysis or exercises in syntax as aids to scholarship or mental development but the schoolmaster who grinds through recitations for the mere pur pose of getting through the work will be apt to slur these exercises and con demn them A grist mill will be quite as effective in grinding grain to powder as are ones teeth But the process of education like the process of eating in cludes something more than grinding a recitation through The teacher who doesnt understand the further process es of digestion and assimilation doesni understand his business and he is apt to cry out against anything that does not show its value in a so called practi cal light Writing and speaking En glish must be learned by practice Very true but when two thirds of the childs waking hours are spent in the company of those who do not profess to understand the best English the practice is more likely to be detrimental than otherwise Or does the writer mean that the teacher shall distribue himself to the pla3grounds and the homes of the pupils that he may be omnipresent to regulate the practice of which he speaks Practice must be reg ulated How shall it be regulated How shall the child know wheii his is correct Indeed we doubt if he would be safe oven in the hands of one who insists that parsing analysis diagram ing and text book syntax are weak legs to stand on Candidly we should be afraid to put a child of ours in the hands of a teacher who held such opin ions for we really have never met a teacher who understood grammar or the the teaching of it that talked in that way From careful observation we have come to the conclusion that the men who decry the careful study and thorough teaching of the principles of English grammar are sounding the cry of Stop thief while they lead the chase Honestly does any one- know of men and women who are thoroughly versed in correct English usages both theoretical and practical who decry the teaching of the principles governing that usago Educational News Suggestions for a School Cabinet The following suggestions may be helpful in arranging a cabinet of curi osities and materials for busy work in a primary grade The objects should be collected mainly from the immedi ate vicinity and the children should be encouraged to help in furnishing them They should possess additional Interest to the children from having been studied in object and language lessons Where the pupils are made to feel that the cabinet is really theirs the visitor will be astonished to find with what interest andpride they show their collection and dilate on the peculiarities of the objects The children should classify from the first and should learn to recognize the objects know their names and a few facts concerning them The cabinet may consist of five shelves arranged as follows Top shelf Animal kingdom In sects mounted Bixds and mammals stuffed Other specimens preserved in alcohol e g the frog in different stages Animal products Blue wood silk coral shells etc Second shelf Vegetable kingdom Vegetable products of the vicinity grain flowers fruit nuts etc Manu factured vegetable products Linen cotton wicker work wooden objects etc Third shelf Mineral kingdom Stones and pebbles of the vicinity iron gold ore flints arrow heads etc Fourth shelf Objects illustrative of form measurements and color manu factured by children when possible First and second kindergarten gifts clay forms etc Fifth shelf Objects used in number work and reading splints script etc Primary Teachers Manual School Management Children will aH shout if you shout On the- other hand if you determine never to raise your voice whenyou give a command they will be compelled to listen to you and to this end to subju gate their own voices habitually and to carry on aH their work in quietness The moral effect of this on the charac ter of the pupil is not insignificant A noisy school is one in which a great opportunity of civilizing and softening the manners is habitually lost And a school whose work is always done on a low tone is one in which not only is the teacher healthier and better able to economize the resources of his own life but as a place of moral discipline it Is far more effective Fitchs lectures Useful Birds Parrots are put to a practical use m Germany They have been introduced into the railway stations and trained to call out the name while the train stands there and thus save people the troubles of making inquiries i 1