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Lincoln, Nebraska, February 9, 1891.
Rev. Luther P. Ludden appears just now to be without honor,
either in his own country or abroad. Perhaps he has not done all
that he might have done, but much of the abuse that has been
heaped upon him is unmerited. The peoplo who are so quick to
complain and abuse, do not appreciate the difficulties of. Mr. Lud
den's position. The most effi ;ient man that ever lived could not
distribute relief supplies on a large scale such as Mr. Ludden has
done without making some mistakes, and nobody could do this work
and escape criticism. We believe Mr. Lud3en has honestly tried to
do the best ho could, and we admire the manly way in which he
has stood up under the fusilade of spite and spleen.
The legislature is well on its second month now and barring the
passage of the relief measure, it has accomplished nothing. Just
now there is a good deal of talk about regulating stock yards charges,
and it is said that the stock yards companies will have to come to
the terms dictated by certain influential members. Bill Paxton
stands ready to hand over the necessary amount, and when the end
of the session comes it will be found that there is no radical anti
stock yards legislation on the books. What with Bill Paxton and
the representatives f the telephone, telegraph and insurance com
panies, etc to bleed, some of the members will take home several
dollars more than their salary.
The senate is, as usual, utterly regardless of public opinion. It
continues in its shameless waste of public money through the
employment of an army of ufeless employes. There are thirty-three
senators and ninety-eight employes three employes for each senator.
The senate is a fraud. The whole legislature is a humbug.
The State Journal boasts of its complete report? of the proceed
ings of the legislature. Why doesn't it say something about the
lobbyists, the members of the powerful third house? Why doesn't it
tell about the smooth bribe givers and corruptionists, the oily and
fat pursed scoundrels that shadow the legislator, and "influence"'
legislation? There are plenty of them in the city all the
time, ami there is nothing very secret about their operations. Why
does the Journal omit all mention of these most important persons?
The World-Herald is the only paper that pretends to tell the truth
about the legislature. Its reports aro worth reading. Metcalfe
knows everything that is going on, and when ho gets down to telling
the plain truth, the home office doesn't blue-pencil him.
"How Shall the Rich Escape." by Dr. Frank S. Billings, of patho
biological fame, formerly connected with the state university in this
city, and probably the biggest intellectual crank in the country, is a
compilation of heterodoxy. No bo i c ve have ever seen is so full of
unorthodox views the established order doesn't suit him in any
particular. Everything from political parties to the marriage rela
tion is attacked. Here is an extract: "Tho highest possible evolution
of man is such a degree of sexual control that there shall be no rela
tion between the sexes and tho production of children shall cease.
Who cares an iota whether humanity continues or not. The ques
tion is that it lives at as little misery as possible." Startling as this
statement iB it is not surprising coming from Billings. Something
has gone to his head. Much learning has made him mad. God, ho
says, is a fetich, and Christianity is crumbling to pieces. Jesus was
an anarchist and communist. He combats the idea of the equality
of man. Dr. Billings finds morality in a strange place, viz.: "in tho
business law of self protection." He says: "Individuals owe
nothing to the state." He says there may bo virtue in suicide, and
ho upholds foeticide and infanticide, under many circumstances.
Ho attacks our form of government. The book is thoroughly Bil
lingesque. It will probably fall flat.
Louie Meyer was convoyed to the insane asylum the other day.
Two years ago Lincoln had two great financiers. Now one is in the
pen at Sioux Falls and theother is in the asylum.
The trouble in this town seems to be that everybody wants to
havo a charity dispensing bureau of his own anu have somebody
else furnish the stuff. There isn't too much charity in Lincoln, but
there are too many people puttering away as charity dispensers.
. GOOD WORDS FOR MCALLISTER.
New York papers have begun to discuss Ward McAllister's suc
cessor. "Nemo," tho social authority on the Vanderbilt paper, tho
Mall and Express, says: "Mr. McAllister will have no successor.
Tho Patriarchs may and doubtless will elect a secretary in hiB
stead, but I doubt that anybody ran fill the place which he occupied
in our social life. Nobody that I know possesses the requisite qual
ities or enthusiam for tho work in which he took so much pride to
successfully carry it on. I do not now allude especially to the Patri
archs' balls, which may yet move forward for sometime of their own
momentum; the outside part, if I may call it so, wherein lay his par
ticular strength that place in the public ejo as the organizer and
leader of social gayety which he filled so interestingly and so pictur
esquely will, I fear, long remain vacant. And this is in the nature
of things. There is not now so great a need of talent like his, as
there was when he first took up his labors; society is already well
marshalled and arrayed for the perpetuation of its existence and de
pends for guidance but little upon individual effort to keep it going
along the rijrht path. That this is so is largely due to him more
so, perhaps, that it is agreeable for us to admit. That is his legacy,
and it cannot be taken away from its beneficiaries."
"Nemo" also discusses Mr. McAllister from another acd very in
teresting standpoint his incorruptibility. He says: "It was in
the nature of things that anybody undertaking to do what Mr. Mc
Allister has done should expect to be attacked. He who stood
guard over the doorway through which entrance might most easily
be gained to the sacred precincts or society necessarily made many
enemiee among the large and rapidly growing class composed of
those who think that because they havo money they ought to have
admittance everywhere. No means were spared, as I happen to
know, by many of these gentiy to obtain concessions which Mr. Mc
Allister felt constrained from a scope of duty to refuse; nor was
there hesitation on the part of some to resort to bribery where' other
means had failed. To all such Mr. McAllister opposed" a relentless
and unbending disapprobation, which no cajolery could influence,
and which left nothing to bo done by tho offender save to quietly
subside. He was charged by many with being unduly liberal in
taking up "new" people, but I happen to havo had actual proof that
none got in through his means who did not first 3how good reasons
for their admittance. You would be amazed to know how many
people sought his advice from day to day and year to year how
multifarious were the agencies brought to bear to qnlist his influ
ence, in view of which it is marvelous that he in such matters rare
ly erred. The good done by his service to the general body of soci
ety is incalculable. Byexeicising that eternal vigilance which in
society is the price not of liberty but of exclusiveness, he
kept the lists free from the elements which hemmed it in on all
sides, and which never ceased to menace it with the power of over
whelming numbers."
