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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 18, 1896)
SiEps,'r-,SJ5;,5og . 'i'y r.sw j3; - --- J a" "!'".1 w .-t," THE COURIER. i fi : - THROUGH COLORED GLASSES Continued from page 3 spectable press of the eastern states to a stage of the most barbaric hilarity. Tho editorial in question is passed on from onepapcrto the other aud pub lished us an example of what journalism in tho fur west can do toward the devel opment of brain power. One paper stops long enough to suggest that under this new dispensa tion tho editor who charged tho opposi tion candidate with infidelity to the marriage tie would lay himself liable to action for divorce on the part of his wife. Great is the poor old Journal. In last week's Courier the esteemed 6enior editor and tho esteemed junior editor, reinforced by tho redoubtable Col. Tom Wing, subject me to bo 6tinging a fusilade of jabbing goose quills that I am almost led to conclude that I have been so unfortunate as to entertain some views with which they cannot en tirely agree. Now, my opinions, how ever awful and damnable they may be when Been through tho rose tinted glasses of tho orthodox optimism, have, at least, the nowadays doubtful merit of being sincere, and because of their sincerity I shall have the "temerity" with the kind permission of Col. Wing, to attempt their justification through these columns. And, first in order, I would deny that I have ever, in The Courier or else where, "spoken slightingly of the men who wear the badge of the G. A. R." For all the honest men who wore the blue, and for all tho honest men who wore the gray, for heroes everywhere. with badge or without it, I have the ut most respect. I6ay all honor to the heroism and the patriotism that for love of country and truth and justice went out freely from home and loved ones, to do and to die for the eternal right. To every old soldier of Farragut post, I take off my hat. But there I stop. I deny their right to a monopoly of opin ion. I deny that their belief is the only belief. Unanimous agreement in any opinion means stagnation, and stag nation means ruin. I submit, that it is not to "speak slightingly" of the "Far ragut Post,'' as soldiers, to say that the "Farragut Post," as citizens, wero hasty, ill-advised and wrong when they cen- contrary. Each nation and people have a "golden age," but it comes in their pioneer days, not in their full blown vigor. The people of Greece and Rome were honest and pure, once, and had high ideals and lofty standards. But they degenerated fell, and their stumb ling block was that curse of curses public dishonesty! It was laxity on tho part of the people of Rome in public af fairs, that made official dishonesty pos sible, this brought on the days of "panem et circentem," Caesar, and the dissolution and fall of a profligate dis honest and degenerate people. And France, today the moral leper of civilization, once boasted a De Gues celin and a Chevelier Bayard, "sans puer et sans reprocho." And, there, too, the mad race for wealth, the materaliz ation of all tho ends of life has made public life dishonest. This, in turn, has reacted on the people, and France is ac cordingly marked as a moral degenerate. This fate I most sincerely believe is now impending over tho people of our own country. The "good old days" of Wash ington, Franklin, Jefferson and Adams, of Jackson, Webster, Clay, Calhoun and Benton, even of Lincoln and Seward and Summer and Chase are days that are gone, seemingly forever. Public ser vice is no longer a badge of honor. It is not tho occupation of statesmen, but the comparison with Col. Wing'e "Spec trum." And yet, admitting that this wonderful feat was really accomplished, it cannot be denied that any one who might be so privileged as to see things through so very unusual a medium undoubtedly would see Btrange sights. And Col. Wing un doubtedly did see strange sights. So numerous and so varied wero they that I shall not attempt to consider them. Seriously, I have no desire to discuss evolutionary religion or religion of any kind, with so distinguished an exponent of religion pure and undefiled, b:causo I have noticed this remarkable peculi- tfSSKlaU I V"" HiEJExTJ vCv Time Reduced great Roch Island Route Roch Island Runs their Cars to i time trade of politicians. The halls of con gress that used to ring with the honest eloquence of American statesman and patriots are now disgraced and con taminated with political bosses who buy their seats as brazenly and opinly as though it were a legitimate business. And our municipalities seethe in cor ruption. The most sacred rights of the people are bought and sold and bart ered, just as in tho days of slavery. True, there are honest men in politics, but when oce is found he is made an object for a seven day's wonder. Think ef Daniel Webster returning to his old seat in the senate, and engaging in a running debate with David Bennett Hill and Matthew Stanley Quay! And the most discouraging feature of arity. Every one who finds himself ghillips' Pullman JxCUrS'On uaueu upuu 10 ueienu iuo religion 01 Jesus Christ immediately finds it nee essary to do what his Master never did; to-wit, lose his temper. And Mr. Wing is no exception to the rule. He descends from the plane of dignified, gentlemanly debate, and, leaving his religion with his coat and collar and tie proceeds to belabor, not my arguments, but myself personally, with all the choice collection of verbal clubs and bludgeons in his possession. Now, I do not believe that the Lin coln public are interested in this sort of thing. People in general are much more interested in ideas than in the men who have them. When Mr. Wing has some ideas, and can present them in a manner befitting a gentleman, I shall be glad to help him ventilate them. But when he manifests an overweening dispo sition to discuss only my age, the color of my hair and my general "damfoolish ness" I shall assume that these are not subjects of sufficient general interest to justify their discussion through the columns of the Courier. In concluding, however, I would simp. Iy remark on the pathetic weakness of Mr. Wing's attempt to reconcile the doc trine of evolution with the doctrine of providence. This attempt was never made until it was found that evolution was established. Until that time Dar win and his theory were denounced by an unanimous orthodoxy as damnable on their fast trains. Examine cards and seo that we are nearly TWO HOURS quicker than any other route Chicago to Los Angeles. The Phillips excursions are popular. He has carried over 125,000 patrons in the past fifteen years, and a comforta ble trip at cheap rate is guaranteed, and the fast time now made puts the Phillips-Rock Island Excursions at tho top Post yourself for a California trip be. 'ore deciding, and write me for explicit nformation. Address, JOHN SEBASTIAN, G-. P. A., Chicago. all is the great common people. Their and pernicious and atheistic For tho whole lives are lived only for the al. church saw clearly enough then that mighty dollar. Their whole attention providence and evolution "won't mix." is centered on getting rich. We are in But now, finding evolution securely es- the midst of the rankest materialism; tablished, orthodoxy has determined to even the churches preach of golden "make them mix," and confusion is the streets and crowns and harps. Tho "material age" is upon us, and this is the age that has marked the fall ofevery dynasty and kingdom that the stars ever sured Prof. Fossler for a lack of patriot- shone down upon. Shall we, too, go the ism. I submit that they have no right common road? There is but one way to and no divine privilege to pick at motes escape it and that lies through the in their neighbors eyes, and then com- hard and stony path of public honesty complain that he "speaks slightingly" and moral regeneration. Yet who can who points out the beams in their own. deny that we have strayed from I contend that when they made them selves the supine instruments in the hands of the A. P. A. to censure for un patriotism as patriotic an American and as good a citizen as lives in tho broad state of Nebraska when they did this, they cannot in common manhood, hope to escape ju6t criticism by hiding be hind the badge of the G. A. R. And even though this opinion has drawn forth an apology, I will say in all candor, that it is an apology in which I do not concur. I believe that Prof. Fossler is right and Farragut post is wrong, and if I called their hot headed strictures on Prof. Fossler "a tempest in a te pot" I did so only because I believed that to be the fittest term in which to characterize their action. And in this belief I am sat isfies that an overwhelming majority of the good people of Lincoln concur. A little further on, in the to me extremely interesting Courier of last week "We and Our Neighbors" take good natured exception to the phrase "the good old days" as applied tj Amer ican history. There never were any good old days," Bays the writer; "the good increases faster then the bad." To this I demur. All history proves the the path? It was therefore I spoke of "the good old days." And it is because I believe that our salvation as a nation lies only in the spiritualization of the people that I say "God 6peed the churches," although be lieving not in their God or their heaven or their hell. For they are teaching, or should teach, men to look higher; they are lifting humanity out of the rut of materialism. They are doing it slowly and tardily. Too often they are singing gentle lullabies where they should be sounding, stirring trumpet blasts to action. I honestly believe that our churches have a greater power for good than have even our schools.. For it is not our minds but our consciences 'that need educating and uplifting. And now as toT.E. Wing, who looks ' through A Spectrum. If Mr. Wing will brush the dust off his "Webster's Unabridged" and turns to the word 'Spectrum" he will discover that he could hardly have made a more unfor tunate selection of something to look through. A stone wall or the Burr block would be easy to see "through" in' result. Let any man with the trace of a heart in his breast spend a month or two in the poorest and vilest portions of a great city like Chicago; let him see teeming theusands of human beings, fellow men and women, living lines of poverty and degradation and crime through no faults of their own; let him 6ee hovels into which the light and souk into which truth never penetrates; let him see humanity dying, dying, dying, yet not living, and seeing all, let him say that a merciful Providence, up behind the clouds, in loving kind ness, decreed the survival of the fittest! Only let him say it, and his heart will rebel within him, and the God, whojn ho worshipped at his mother's knee, will be to him as a phantom of the mind. H. E. NEWBRANCH. Purjtle Pansy, Her Majesty's Per fume, has that delicate, yet refined and lasting odor, much desired by the coni sumer. Riggs, the Druggist, is head quarters for all the latest Toilet art cles, corner Ttcelfth and Ostreets. GO TO OaJtiforrxia In a Tourist sleeper It is the RIGHT way. Pay more and you are extravagant. Pay less and you are uncomfort able. The newest, brightest, cleanest and easiest riding Tourist sleepers are used for our Personally conducted excursions to California which leave Lincoln every Thursday at 10:30 a. m., reaching San Francisco Sunday evening, and Los An geles Monday noon. Ask G.W.Bonnell city ticket agent, cor 10th and O Sts., Lincoln Neb for full information or write to J. Francis, G. P. A. Omaha, Neb. Maricurirg ard Hair dressing parlors 111 IIS I Mrs. Rosecrans, Prop. The largest stock of real shell pins in the city. We have lately enlarged our rooms and customers will no longer have to wait. Hair goods, toilet articles and pure cosmetics. De veloping the form, beautifying the face, superflous hair removed. Table board 82.00 t a -r it-i tti i , , ....Roomandboard.KLOOaweek PALACE BEAUTIFUL 121 North 13th Street .Next to Lansing Theatre 1212 N Street 1212 Lincoln Neb. t " r- Vt-v" U car. 'h'3f 5-VS- ji 4 ' AY A '' ' tSwflS-k lu v t