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VOL.. 9. No. 22.
LINCOLN, NEB., SATURDAY, MAY 12, 1894.
PRICE FIVE CENTS.
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Tho fact that Lincoln is a univer
sity town has been rather forcibly
impressed upon the peoplo of this
city in the last week or two. There
has been a breaking out of politics
among the students. There has
horn a rrf at deal of amusement for
the majority, and, as in a game of boot ball, one or two men have
been thrown down and carried off.
Who wrote McMullen's oration? This is almost as momentous a
question as tho memorable query, never as yet satisfactorily answer
ed, who struck Billy Patterson?
The other night a new telephone ordinance was passed by the city
council. It provided for a material reduction in the price of tele
phone service. It contained several good provisions. It may have
contained some that were not proper or expedient. But there was
no occasion for the unseemly haste exhibited by Mayor Weir in veto
ing the measure.
Mayor Weir said that the ordinance was passed too hurriedly.
He would veto it, and then the peoplo could think about it, and a
new ordinance could be passed. The mayor knew that this ordi
nance was passed unexpectedly, and he also knew that it would be
impossible to pass a new ordinance dealing with this question in a
just and proper manner. He knew that in vetoing the measure
passed a week ago last Tuesday night he was giving a quietus to the
only measure that has attempted to regulate the telephone business,
or that will attempt seriously to deal with this monopoly.
The mayor gave a great many more or less tiresome reasons why
ho vetoed the ordinance. He omitted to name the real reason, viz:
That the ordinance was not satisfactory to the telephone people, and
that as the telephone people have "influence," he did not care to
offend them. It might effect his candidacy for governor.
Some months ago The Courieu ventured to assert that Mayor
Weir is a humbug. Succeeding events have made it more and more
clear that our statement was entirely correct.
A couple of years ago when James Whitcomb Riley gave a lecture
and some recitations to a handful of people in the Lansing theater
tho writer of these desultory observations was bold enough to say
that tho peculiar intellectuality of this town grasps eagerly at base
ball and vaudeville and farce comedy and melodrama while it often
passes by in almost utter indifference slightly more elevated and
certainly more deserving entertainments.
We were promptly informed by one of our contemporaries that
tho taste of the people of Lincoln is of tho most retinedsort. Riley it
was said, is no poet any how, and the fact that only a handful of
people attended his entertainment was no argument that there was
anything the matter with tho intellectual discrimination of
Lincoln people. Perhaps Riley isn't very much of a poet, but
intellectually, his entertainments aro quito as profitable as many
that are patronized much more enthusiastically.
This ;veek, Mr. Leon II. Vincent, a lecturer of polish and keen wit
and much intelligence has made three appearances, lecturing on
Hawthorne Monday, on Emerson Wednesday and last evening on
Dickens. On all three occasions the audienco present could havo
been put into a very small corner of the grand stand at tho baso ball
grounds and you would scarcely have been able to see it. There were
not enough people present to offer the lecturertho slightest encourage
ment. But the ball games continue to draw well. There is some
thing too gross about a dissertation on Hawthorne or Emerson, to
appeal to the delicato sensibilities of people who talk about culture
and spend their money on 'A Texas Steer," or "A Rag Baby" or
entertainments of that ilk.
Homer West, a real estate dealer in this city, has just returned
from Geneseo, III. He met there a gentleman who has a very large
amount of money, something over 810O.C00, stacked up in the banks
awaiting investment. He can't tind any use for the money in his
own town. Mr. West suggested that he send it to Lincoln. The
capitalist replied that he had read of Lincoln and that he had no
money to put into a town composed of Coxeyites and anarchists. So
much for the effect of the mob and rabble which Mayor Weir pub
licly encouraged.
Apropos of Coxeyism our contemporary, Town Topies, opines that
the real cause, the causa cattmns of tho movement, is "the almost
universal childish American desire for a badge, a feather, a uniform,
a title of some sort. We arc a nation of captains and majors and
knights and Grand Worthy Supreme Second-Hand Squirts. Coxey,
who is an immitigable fakir, advertising his horses and silica sand,
and laughing at the public in his sleeve, saw this rudimentary mili
tiaism, this primitive savage delight in plumes and sashes and tin
medals, of his countrymen, and played the public for the ass it is.
Instead of seeing blood and revolution and walleyed anarchy in the
raids and marches of Coxey and his marshals, the thing to see is
that we are pleased with a bugle, tickled with a sword. The clean
march; no wonder the dirty do. I believe that if gome eccentric
millionaire were willing to spend his fortune in drums, fifes and togs
of war, the whole American people would do nothing but parade, not
a whit madder than the Neapolitans that danced the tarantula."