VOb. 10, No. 31
-XL . J9
ESTABLISHED IN 18S6. S&UZsif Mfmlk ZCc
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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.
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