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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (May 19, 1894)
A ; hvr-' VOL.. 9. No. 23. LINCOLN, NEB., SATURDAY, MAY 19, 1891. PRICE FIVE CENTS. v. . " - & f I Sr mr X "-J X. -f I .-" Ari&JfiA f I lr.A "- t u a ' b-v w - - f OWATOtf ly yV "0 X 1 X 2 - ' cva .T 5. .- ' ? '.'- r- -j ". ray 1 Those i)ersons who remember tho sudden disappearance of Judge Clarkson. of Oinalia, a year or bo ago will find in "Witherle's Freedom," by Cornelia Atwood Pratt, a sketch in the May number of tho Century, some more or lees striking points of resemblance to certain features of the Omaha lawyer's exit. With orle was a minister. Why he sought "freedom" and how he found it may bo gathered from tho following extracts from tho story: "Either you do tho things you want to do in this world, or elso you don't," said Witherle. "I had never done what I wanted until 1 left home. I didn't mean to hurt anybody by coming away, and I don't think I did. I'd rather not be selfish, but life got so dull. I couldn't stand it. I had to havs a change. I had to come. The things you have to do, you do. There was a Frenchman once who committed suicide, and left a note that said, 'Tired of this eternal buttoning ar.d unbuttoning. I know how he felt. I don't know how other men manage to live. Perhaps their work means more to them than mine had como to mean to me. It was just dull, that was all, and I had to come. "When I was twenty-one I was in love; tho girl married somebody else. Before I met my wife she had cared for a man who married another woman. You Fee how it was. We were going to save tho pieces together. As a business arrangement this sort of thing is all right. I havn't a word to say against it. She is a ood woman, and we got on as well as most people, only life was not ecstasy to either of us. Can't you see us tied together, sneaking our way along through existence as if it were some grey desert, and wo crawling on and on over the sand, always with our faces bent to it, and nothing showing itself in our way but tho whito bones of the men and women who had traveled along there before us, grinning skulls mostly? "And my work was only another long desert to be toiled through with the sphinx at tho end. I wasn't a successful preaeher, and you know it. I hadn't any grip on men. I couldn't see any use or any meaning or any joy in it. Tho whole thing choked mo. I wanted a simpler, more elemental life. I wanted to go up and down tho earth, and try now forms of living, new ways of doing things, now people. Life that was what I wanted to feel tho pulse of the world throb under my touch, to be in tho stir, to bo doing something. I was always haunted by tho conviction that life was tremendous if only you once got at it. I couldn't got at it where I was. I was rotting away." "And you like it?" The man's eyes (lamed. "Like it? It's great. It's tho only thing there is. I'vo been from Maine to California this year. I wintered in a Michigan lumber camp that was hell. I was a boat hand on tho Columbia last summer--that was heaven. I worked in a coal mine two months a scab workman, you understand, and now I am at this, shoveling coal. I tell you it is lino to get rl of endyeling your brains for ideas that aren't there, and of pretending to teach people somothing you don't know, and take to working with your hands nino hours a day and sleeping like a log all night. I hadn't slept for months, you know. These people teli mo about themselves. I'm seeing what life is like. I'm getting down to tho foundations. I've learned inoro about humanity in tho last six months than I ever knew in all my life. I believe I've learned more about religion. I'm getting hold of things. It's liko getting out on tho ojicn sea after that desert I was talking alout don't you see? And it all tastes 6o good to mo." Judge Clarkson may have entertained ideas somewhat similar to those expressed by Witherle; but in his caso his "freedom" was tho result of a state of mind brought about by overwork and worry. His experience after flight was not unlike that of Witherle. lie was away from homo several months, a portion of which time ho spent in a lumber yard in an Iowa town as a laborer. Judge Clark son, it is said, was soon restored to his former condition upon his return. Whatever may bo tho cause many men feel at times tho impulso that caused Witherle and Clarkson to escapo the involved resjonsi bilities of a iKsition in society. There are so many ties, so much respectability to bo maintained, so much care for appearances, so much responsibility, so many conventionalities to be observed, that sometimes there are moments when the life that we lead seems irk some, and there is a desire for a new and untrammeled existence, an existenco in which ono could lead a perfectly free and selfish life, coming and going, working and playing, as ono is inclined, without consulting anybody's wishes. Mr. Bryan's letter may be viewed in many lights. Following closo upon the announcement of Judge Field's candidacy it may be con sidered as an unconditional surrender to Lancaster county's repub lican candidate. It has been an open secret that Bryan did not want to meet Field again. The democrats of the First district will probably take the congressman at his word, and though there are remoto possibilities of a gubernatorial or senatorial boom, the trend of Nebraska politics seems to foreshadow the retirement of Mr. Bryan to private life at the expiration of his present term. Follow tho procession and order your Sunday ice cream and fruit ices of Sisler. Phone G30, KB south 12 St. Tho time and place to buy tine stylish footwear is next week at Le Grande M. Baldwin's, 1129 O St