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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (July 20, 1895)
VOb. 10, No. 31 -XL . J9 ESTABLISHED IN 18S6. S&UZsif Mfmlk ZCc !!.-- :. - '-Ml 'AwS LINCOLN, NEB., SATURDAY, JULY 20 1S95. OBSERVATIONS. THE Omaha Bee a few months ago in referring to the Rev. Byron Beall, of this city, called him the Phillips Brooks of Nebraska. I imagine it was the worthy divine's appearance, rather than his sermons that suggested this comparison. Not content with having himself called the Phillips Brooks of Nebraska this preacher is now evidently yearning for fiesh dis tinction. He would be known as the Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst of Lincoln, a title for which Rev. Shepherd and Rev. Chapin have for some time been run ning a close race. Rev. Shepherd com menced a Parkhurstian campaign as far back as two years ago. Rev. Chapin joined him not long after. Now comes Byron Beall with a loud fanfare of trumpets and joins the other two cru saders. Messrs. Shepherd and Chapin said much that is true in their remarks about municipal corruption and no one doubts their sincerity of purpose. And, although Rev. Byron Beall is 6omowhat given to sensationalism, ho also is doubt less honest and sincere. Mr. Beall is a thoroughgoing partisan republican; citi zens of Lincoln are familiar with his polit ical sermons. Hence his address of last Sunday, reprinted fully in Monday's Journal, Is something of a surprise Ito that gentleman's friends who remember how he mixed Tom Majors and salva tion in his last year's pulpit discourses, and exhorted the dear people to vote the whole republican ticket. His sermon was not without force and suggests the query, What in the world are we going to do with the evils that afflict our municipal life? This question has been debated for upwards of three years now, and we are no nearer a solu tion of the problem than we were when the alarm was first sounded. Mayor - Weir tried one plan, and there were many objections. Now Mayor Graham puts into practice another policy, and there is, if anything, greater complaint. Unquestionably there is a corruption in this city that is an outrage upon the law and distasteful to the moral senso of the people. The law is not enforced. That much is admitted. Tho difference between Mayor Weir's administration and Mayor Graham's administration is that during tho former an attempt was made to stamp out evil practices in tho accredited resorts of vice, while cor ruption was permitted to hold sway under cover; now under Mayor Graham certain evils are looked upon as irre pressible, and the policy is to confine the corruption to designated places. There was no "reservation'" under Weir; and property holders and tenants in all parts of the city complained of disorderly neighbors. Now there is a "reservation" and one form of vice is practically con fined to this area. There were former ly few, if any open gambling houses. But gambling was carried on in every hotel in the city. Now gambling is treated in the same manner as the other Til. It is regarded as impossible of suppression and it is "regulated" instead. moraj 8tate is by a tightening of tho lines in oursucial life. AH tho laws in Neither policy is in conformity to tho law or tho principles of morality. Mayor Weir tried, after a good deal of prod ding, to exterminate tho two principal evils. I believe they wero both abated somewhat under his rule, but there was no extermination . Now Mayor Graham would "regulate" the practices which Mayor Weir was unable to exterminate. Which would you have? The Weir pol icy, which was strongly opposed by many good citizens, or tho Graham pol icy, which draws the fire of the Shop herds and tho Chapins and the Beallp? Let it bo admitted that tho ministers have told the truth, it is still but just to accord to Mayor Graham decent con sideration. When reformers like Prof. Giaham Tayler, who spoke daily at the statute books cannot make men moral. You cannot legislate virtue into sinful man. But when society reaches that point when tho man or the woman who is known to bo morally derelict is not tolerated by respectable people, a long step will have been taken in the way of that reform which tho Park hursts and tho Byron BeaMs would bring about. It is a fact that tho vice that blackens this town is made possible by tho assistance of persons who are not only tolerated by society but respected. . Nearly six months ago Professor Frank S. Billings wrote mo that as a consequence of the enormous success of his book, "How Shall the Rich Escape?" he would shortly publish other volumes entitled, "How Shall the Poor Escape?" "How Shall We All Escape?" etc., etc. A POSSIBLE SITUATION. What mjr happen when Leo Lunff. the Uth street celestial Laun.lryman rides awheel and ho muiiu-j ut i.u t.Ji.ii ...KFtininnnbnrini introduced on O street. aUU lOm IllCkCJ a uaao "" ...w... . Crete during the Chautauqua assembly and who spoke in this city last Sunday, after bitterly inveiging against the so called reservation system, admit that they have nothing better to propose in substitution thereof, it is easy to under stand the difficulties which the mayor has to face. But Mr. Graham voluntar ily submitted a platform to the people of this city when his election was pend ing last spring, and the people have a right to insist that that platform shall be lived up to. Wheu he gets away from its provisions it is the duty of good citizens to cause him to face about. Lincoln, with its schools and colleges and accompanying culture, has not at tained that moral tone which should characterize a city of its advantages There is great need of purification. After all the best way to bring about a What has become of these projected books, I wonder. At the time the pro fessor wrote he intimated that the presses coulu not be run fast enough to meet the demand for his book. Perhaps he has learned from his publishers that these volumes were printea not to meet the demand of the public, but for pre sentation to the newspapers of the country; and he may have decided that writing books for gratuitous distribut ion to editors is not a profitable busi ness. If such is the case the editors are "escaping" much. But it is safe to predict that it will not be long before Billings breaks out again in some fashion. There is an idea prevalent in the east, or some portions of tho east, that the people of the supposedly benighted region known as "the west" swooped down upon this section like the barbaric denizens of tho northern forests swooped down on ancient Rome. They came, in tho opinion of the people of tho east, from no civilized land or community and aro so many nomads without ancestry, home history or a past of any hind. They would scarcely credit us with having any claim, howevor remote, on tho carload of human freight brought over to theso shores in the Mayflower, and wero our more elToto relatives to bo informed that here in the wilds and sand dunes of Nebraska we aro busily en gaged in the task of rehabilitating fam ily trees and tracing geneological con nections with tho fathers of American independence, they would doubtless lo annoyed at the implication that, nomads that we are, we aro yet their brethren, springing from tho same source and sharing the same glorious history. Do you know that people in Lincoln are busy preparing for themselves and their descendents, a membership in that inevitable American aristocracy? With in the past year or two, some of tho leisure afforded by the dullness of busi ness has been devoted to family history As formerly the early settlers "proved up" their claims to land people aro now proving up family ties, and tho move ment for the proper organization of the Society of the Sons of the Revolution and tho Society of Colonial Wars is going steadily forward. Many persons have become interested in these organiza tions, and both societies will have a large membership in this city. We too, in the prairie land where the south ern wind blows the tall grasses, and the ilutter of the prairie chicken entices the wary sportsman, have had grandfathers and grandmothers and great grand fathers 'and great grandmothers, and have no difficulty in tracing our lineage back to the first families in the days when the men wore buckskin knicker bockers and carried Hint locks instead of canes; when tho women helped the men in building new homes in a virgin land. When the list is finally published it will be seen that some of our people's people were great people. There is a tendency in this so-called democratic country toward the same In stitutions and customs that mark tho monarchical nations. When the officers in the American armies in the war of revolution organized the Society cf the Cincinnati .he first step towardlhe found ation of what may be called an Amer ican aristocracy was formed. The two societies I have named above, and the Loyal Legion, composed of commission ed officers "of the union forces in the rebellion, and numerous smaller patriot ic associations havo given this tendency added impetus. The time is coming when the people of the United States wiil be just as proud to trace their an cestry back to the revolution, the col onial wars and the landing of the May flower as Englishmen are to go back to William the Conquerer. These orders are all patriotic, and without developing a snobocracy, will serve a useful purpose in spreading the spirit of true Americanism. I i l I h e- 'J m. tSI t j i Hi r IfctffBXi "."" -a
