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VOL 11. NO IS
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PRICE FIVE BNTb
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LINCOLN NBB., SATURDAY. May 2 1896
jHck"
KNTKMD IN THE POST OFMCK AT LINCOLN
AS SECOND-CLASS XATTKK
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY
Office 217 North Elerenth St.
Jelephone 384
not so, Omaha. Would you go to tiie
head centre of pulsing, palpitating prog
ress? Would you get not only in the
push, but in the push of pushes? Would
you go where life has not lost its savor?
Would you go to a metropolis that com
bines the sombre gratdeur of London,
the airy graces of Paris, the whir-r-r of
Chicago and the solid comfort of Ber
lin? Then gentle reader, take your rail
road pass or your bicycle or your shoes
INE COM PRINTING AND PUBLfSHING CO and hie away to Omaha, the Alpha and
Omega, the beginning and the end, the
sum total of the effort of civilization
In Omaha ennuyi will drop away as the
now disappears when the south wind
W. MORTON SMITH Editor and Manner Ki o,.,. n,n K . .,, ,;.,
SARAH B. HARRIS Associate Editor blows, and there can be no such thing
as surfeit where there is kaleidoscopic
Subscription Rates In Advance. change.
Per annum $2.00
Six months 1.00 Themajestic Missouriasit flows its
Three months 50 . . . .. ... n .
One month 20 fltate'y course passes no city like Omaha,
Single copies.".."."."..".."..".".".".." 5 "b"dk 'rom the banks with its noble
towers and glittering minarets and great
(gxaas stone walls after the manner of the em
fj battled cities of old. The great trans
I OBSERVATIONS continental lines of railway pay tribute
jg g to no city so wonderful as Omaha, with
ILv- its W7.000.000 union depot, almost too
ImMMMMMMMMMMmK magniflcent to be real. All of the wealth
That beautiful, if innocuous paper.the and luxury and beauty of the Seven
Omaha Excelsior, says: "The Lincoln Cities of Cibola are as nothing to the
Courier has a serial story entitled, miasma of magnificence that floats over
'Omaha, and Why We Hate Her,' in the the One City of Omaha and gets tan
publication of which it pauses long gled in the twin towers of the New York
enough in a recent issue to make some Life building, and the teemiDg turretB
sensible remarks upon State Superin- of the Krug brewery,
tendent Corbett and the late Mrs. Not- a
son." Hate Omaha with memories of
Schlit:.'6 place still hovering about us
and with the brass key to Room 47 at
McTague'o in our pocket? The Ex
celsior will have to guess again.
Hate Omaha, indeed! Journalistic en
terprise that runs exclusively to half
tone portraits and tinted paper might
profitably be diverted into other chan
nels. The Excelsior might take on a
little more wit. A little more wit and a
little more perspicacity would enable it
to see that The Courier, far from hat.
ing Omaha, loves the great, throbbing
metropolis, loves it with a fondness that
is satisfied only with an bebdomodal ex
pression. How could it be possible for any one
to hate Omaha? Could any one look
upon the moon and hate it; or look upon
the sun and hate it; or look upon the
north star and hate it; or look upon any
specimen of nature's handiwork or any
human masterpiece; and hate it? What
ever the opinion the beautiful Excelsior
may have concerning Lincoln, The
Courier can have only one opinion of
Omaha, that of profoundest admiration,
deepest love. And the people of this
city are of the same mind as The
Courier on this one point at least.
m
Omaha is great, delightful to look
upon, a daisy place to live. Life in that
charming city has a piquant flavor. The
corn beef and cabbage of common urban
existence have, in Omaha, the spice and
Are of Worcester sauce. Life in Omaha
is seasoned with zest in much the samo
manner and with much the same effect
if hat Welsh rarebit is seasoned with
paprica. Council Bluffs and other places
may be flat, stale and unprofitable; but
Albert Watkins who, with Andrew
Jackson Sawyer, enjoys particular dis
tinction as a classical scholar who is
there in this city who has not heard
these learned men make Greek and Ro
man speeches of exquisite beauty and
elegance pays tribute to Governor
Stone, of Missouri, or rather to Governor
Stone's address delivered in this city.
Mr. Watkins in addition to being a
classical scholar is able to use his pen
as a two-edged knife. For instance, he
says: "For a stump speech the address
was remarkable for its rhetorical excel
lence; and it was very effective as a
vote winner perhaps the most effective
address that has been made in Lincoln
for many years." This is the way Mr.
Watkins gets even with William Jingling
Bryan, the boy orator of the Platte.
The city of Lincoln expects Messrs.
Talbot. Burkett, Clark and Waite, and
the country members of the Lancaster
county delegation in the legislature,
to secure the passage of a bill for a new
city charter. The Lancaster delegates
will, in all probability, have little trouble
in getting such a measure through.
The legislature is nothing more nor
less than a huge grab bag. If the Lan
caster delegates and their friends stand
by and allow the Douglas county dele
gates to grab unmolested, the Douglas
delegates and their friend will not dis
turb tho Lancaster delegates. And
Omaha will want to do bo much grabbing
this time that Lincoln ought not to have
much difficulty in getting what she
wantB. there ought not to be any
trouble in getting a new charter or in
securing an adequate appropriation for
the stale university. Omaha will want,
among a great many other things, an
appropriation of S30.000 or 1100,000 for
the Trans-Mississippi exposition, and
that want will make the Douglas dele
gates tractable.
Some years ago in a spasm of enter
prise Lincoln citizens got together and
determined to make an effort to secure
such freight rates for this city as would
place it on something like an equality
with Omaha. One John E.Utt.a cherub
faced, resourceful man. was employed to
carry on the tight. In those days Lin
coln enterprise occasionally counted for
something. The fight was won. Now
Lincoln has another freight tight on her
hands. This time the contention is not
for better rates, but for the maintenance
of the existing schedule. The Union
Pacific and Fremont, Elkhorn and Mis
souri Valley railway companies want to
break the agreement that has stood for
years, and make a rate that will be a
most unjust discrimination against Lin
coln and in favor of Omaha. It is said
that Omaha business men have promised
these two roads a big increase of incom
ing tonnage if they will put the new rate
in force. The Omaha people have &n
able gentleman to look after their inter
ests, and, singularly enough, it is the
same John Utt, cherub-faced and re
sourceful. Mr. Utt is trying to undo
what he helped to do a few years age.
The importance of this question that
is now before the state board of trans
portation cannot be overestimated. Lin
coln's future prosperity is to a consider
able extent bound up in it. Jf railway
companies are to be permitted to dis
criminate against Lincoln in an effort to
build up Omaha this city will lose its
commercial importance and become a
mere country town. As it is the whole
sale business is in a reasonably flourish
ing condition, and under the present ar
rangement, v ill certainly expand. Un
til this question is settled the energy of
citizens can find no better employment
than in working up public sentiment.
Mr. Lambertson has charge of the case
before the board of transportation, and
the outcome is awaited with great in
terest.
The vigilance of our municipal au
thorities is constantly seeking some new
outlet. The desire to do right and to
make others do right is so intense that
the effort sometimes assumes an un
usual or peculiar form. Witness the
curfew ordinance. When this measure
was passed by our most worthy council
some months had elapsed since anything
had been reformed. Councilmen were
panting for reform. Official zeal de
manded a victim. So the kid whistle
project was devised, and the city fathers
fell over themselves in their eagerness
to make a new reform law. Almost be
fore one could say "Jack Robinson." the
law commanded, and the steam whistlo
spoke in stentorian tones, and the small
boys rushed to cover. The curfew hav
ing been given a place on the statute
book councilmanic ardor cast about for
some new exploit. The appetite for true
reform which has taken hold of our
councilmen cried aloud for food. And
it was clear to everybody that it must
be appeased. But. horror of horrors,
there was nothing left that could be re
formed. The curfew had settled the
small boy nuisance. The law, spurred
by Mr. Hatfield and his co-workers, had
visited the abode of the gambler and
stilled the whir of th wheel and the
rattle of the coin, and turned the specu
lative gentry adrift in the streets. Even
the saloons, usually sacred in the eyes
of a wide open administration, had lately
felt the rigor of the law. And so on to
to the end of the list. Councilmen
looked about and saw law and order a
foot deep all around them. Reform had
rolled over the city and left it clean and
pure. Official zeal had taken a wicked
city and made it good. Councilmen
gazed upon their work and groaned
despairingly, "Perfection!" Who can
measure the agony of one whose soul
yearns to reform somebody or some
thing and who can find nothing that is
susceptible of reform? But the coun
cilmen as they scini.ed the city over as
tha threa wm mjn scanned the
plains suddenly started, and taking a
secoad look, uttered in unison an ejacu
lation of relief and joy. "Tuh-hee and
gloria" chorused the excited fathers. An
opportunity to carry forward tiie work
of reform beckoned to the vigilant au
thorities, and away they ran street com
missioners, councilmen, policemen, ex
cisemen, the mayor and a dozen other
lieutenants and captains of th? city's
regiment of salvation; running as if to a
fire, councilmen failing over the street
commissioner, the Honorable Linger
Longer Lindsey, and the excisemen get
ting in the way of the mayor's high
stepping charger. In the grand rush
some were bruised and arrived at the
journey's end bleeding blood. But
they all got there and a mighty shout
went up: "Vive la reform." "Down
with wicked obstructions."
And, what think you. was the occas
ion for this demonstration? Was it
grand larceny of the great seal of the
City of Lincoln, or expectoration or the
Honorable Linger Longer's clean streets.
or a woman beating her husband, or D.
G. Courtney talking in a loud tone of
voice? No, indeed. Worse than that;
worse than gambling or selling liquor on
Sunday or the practice of the social
evil In fact somebody with unparalleled
audacity and shocking denravity, had
commenced to erect a bow window that
projected a few inches over the sidewalk
on one of the principal streets. In an
orderly and law abiding and virtue lov
ing community such as Lincoln it is al
most past belief that any one should be
so low in the depths of degradation as