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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (April 14, 1894)
JSJ- k K VOL. 9. No. 18. LINCOLN, NEB., SATURDAY, APRIL 14, 1894. PRICE FIVE CENTS " 4 ) "Var wine, which we 5 fp$ Jv It would appear from certain re cent developments in this city that are told should be avoided' under all circumstances, should be given an especially wide berth when it is found in tho pocket of the young man about town. A moral from the Chaney case: - Women who are taken ill down town should return home instead of going to a hotel whose respecta bility is not securely established. Even those persons who have assailed the Journal most vigorous ly for its conservatism must acknowledge that a marked change has come over our morning contemporary. Whether the change is due to Mr. Jones' school of journalism we do not know; but it is a signi ficant fact that since Mr. Jones inaugurated this most popular de parture at the Btate university the Journal has exhibited an unac customed sprighthnesp. There has been an infusion of life intoevery department, and what is even moro notable, there has been a more conspicuous independence in the conduct of its news columns. The Journal has improved in many ways; the Sunday edition, especially has become a mostjnteresting and readable paper. Mr. Jones has ventured to put some of his ideas into execution, and the result has has been a distinct gain to the readers of the morning newspaper. Rev. John Hewitt witnessed "Panjandrum" the other night from a box, and as the rector has the happy faculty of finding enjoyment everywhere, we presume ho derived much pleasure from the per formance. There are still a good many people who believe a minis ter should draw the blinds and shut the light out of his life and we observed that there were some critical comments on Mr. Hewitt's presence. Mr. Hewitt has been to the theater before and it is to be hoped, if he enjoys it, and we are sure he does, that he will go again Why shouldn't he go to the theatre? There may be, and there are, undoubtedly, ungodly people on the stage; but it is, pretty hard to find any place where there are not ungodly people. There are a great many worse things than the theater. Mr. Hewitt believes that a minister is not called upon to cloister himself, and it is grat ifying to note his independence in overturning old traditions. Lincoln looks to Mr. Ebright, the manager of the Lincoln base club, to do his best to keep our banner out of the dust. Mr. Ebright's predecessor, Dave Rowe, was an unscrupulous jockey who confidenced the public, and Dave Rowe caused some people who had an enthusiastic liking for honest base ball to become disgusted with the game. Mr. Ebright's record is good, and he comes to us under favorable auspices. He can do much to increase tho popular ity of base ball in this city by making his men do their best, and by giving us exhibitions of ball playing that are invariably honest. Lincoln people take a peculiar delight in voting bonds. In a little less than a year thero will be another city election, and that there will be moro bonds to be voted on is as certain as that there will be candidates for office. A good many cities are traveling to bank ruptcy along the bond routo with great rapidity. Miss C. G. Tennant Clary, that vigorous woman who established the opera festival school in Omaha, and who is striving, through the . meane of tho Western Opera association, to awaken an interest in opera in western cities writes as follows to Kate Field. "There aro many better ways of suppressing anarchy than courts of justice. Clean homes at low rent; clean streets; good food at cheap prices; banks where the poor can obtain loans at low interest; good class of amusements free;-schools that teach practical work these will do much to keep poor people quiet. There is no reason why a city gov ernment should allow such awful shanties in such dirty places to be rented. No man should be allowed to rent such a house to a work ingman. It is on a par with the woman who puts her serving girl on a cot under some stairs every room in tho house comfortable tiiit that of her hired girl. Then she complains because her food is poorly prepared, A city government should see that somo of the taxes are spent in making the poor quarters clean and fresh. I also think two or three hours a jay in our public schools should be de voted to useful instruction in useful arts and lessons in cleanliness. Tho children of the poor need it. It seems to me that if some of the vacant unsightly lots in a city were planted to vegetables or llowers they could supply stores in the poor quarters with food and llowers at a very low cost. Some of the tramps that we feed could be set to work under a superintendent to cultivate these gardens, just as well as to cleaning streets, which has been done. They would then pro duco something, at least, and the ground would help support the poor. I see no reason why people serving out a short sentence in our jails should not be allowed to exercise themselves a little and also produce. A man goes to jail because he drinks or is idle. We support him there, and his wife' and children besides. He is con tentedno work; food and congenial company. Why should he not work in public gardens and help raise some food for his family?" Miss Clary in her enthusiasm loses sight of some things. One reason why prisoners are not more generally put to work is because of the protest of organized labor, as Kate Field points out. Then the class which Miss Clary seems most desirous of reaching has, in most cases where the experiment has been tried, manifested its entire independence, and disinclination to receive any sort of assist ance that demands a modicum of work. The tramps that she would set to work cultivating gardens in the cities would probably inform her that they didn't have to work. And the squalor which she finds in the shanties isn't so much the result of honest poverty as it is of shiftlessness and indifference on the part of a people who care little whether they have or do not have work, and who are content to live in dirt. A great deal may be accomplished in the way of cleaning up the filth of the cities, and of imparting health to the poor, and providing work for the needy and deserving;