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mXXD IW THB POST omCBATUKOUi
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1 OBSERVATIONS
When Mr. Bryan was nominated for
president by the national popocratic
pirty an unwonted fervor was imparted
to politics in this state. In this city,
where the penalty for taking the state
capital from Omaha and not locating it
in Nebraska City, has been constant
political turbulence, the enforced com
pany of political adventurers, the ex
ample of politicians' shiftlessness, the
effect of the 6udden elevation of the Boy
of destiny has been particularly marked.
If we were surfeited with politics be
fore the late unpleasantness in Chicago
we have been buried beneath the crush
ing burden of it ever since. When the
Boy emerged from gloom in Chicago
and became the dazzling center of light
there was started an avalanche of agita
tion in this city that has all but over
whelmed us. Mr. Bryan has a good
deal to answer for in disturbing the
home life of our people and in making
politicans of us all, even of the children,
and when he comes back to us after
November 3, our sympathy for his mis
fortune will bo tempered by a feeling of
vengeance for making ward heelers of
our women and political pests of the
little children.
a
Lincoln presents a political aspect
that is nearly if not quite unique. With
the poEsible exception of Canton it is
doubtful if there is another city in the
country of any thing like Lincoln's size
that bas a political activity at all com
parable to Lincoln's. There wasn't
much business doing before the cam
paign ( ommenced. Now there isn't any.
Everything, except politics is in a
state of statu quo. Politics is warmer
than the boiling springs, livelier than a
merry go round.
We have in this city a considerable
class of people superinduced to abstin
ence from work, people with a natural
inclination to ganulity.with an inherent
fondness for basking in the sunshine.
These lazaroni have always had a bent
for congregating at the intersection of our
principal streets, and congesting the
avenues of trade. They have sunned
themselves and set their tongues wag
ging on politics, while, mayhap, the wife
was bending over the washboard at
home, and the little children were
searching the railroad tracks and sun
dry back yards in quest of wood and
coal. But as soon as tho Boy spoke his
piece in Chicago and was called to tako
his place at the head of the screaming
popocratic brigade, these were rapidly
increased in number. Where before at
Eleventh and O, there were ten or twelve
gentlemen of elegant leisure, there are
now one and two hundred, and some
times the ranks are swollen to several
times this size. Garrulity has given
place to impassioned eloquence and wild
gesticulation.'! hes: street corner gather
ings are no longer annoyances merely.
They are public nuisances, an adver
tisement of muncipal shiftlessness, an
obstruction to business. This wonder
ful development of street corner politics
was tho firat result of tho apotheosis of
the beautiful Boy. In other cities men
gather on the streets to talk politics, but
Lincoln is the only city where garrulous
political gossips and wild eyed cranks
have been allowed to take complete pos
session of the public thoroughfares.
The visiter who comes to this city for
tho first time in these hysterical days is
shocked at the changing spectacle of
puling patriotism. He is bewildered
by the prevalence of idleness. He
wonders if all the people of Mr. Bryan's
city have no occupation, and are able,
like the Boy, to make a living out of
politics. He is surprised and shocked,
and if he came, intending to transact
any business, he leaves town by the first
train in disgust. Travellers and news
papers are carrying tales of these street
mobs, and far and wide aro wo being
advertised as a lot of screaming idlors.
It is wonderful how idleness is con
ducive to wisdom. Did you over stop to
think, gentle reader, how much more
these shambling sidewalk gentry know
about all the questions of the day than
you do? These mec of the stroots,
these men who make up the human
blockades, not only possess all knowl
edge, but they are men of the ripest
judgment. They aro statisticians and
philosophers, preachers and poets. Ven
ture into any one of these throngs and
at random ask, ''What was tho public
debt in 1870?'' and you will find out to
a fraction of a cent. Tho information
jou secure may not exactly coincide
with the figures you already havo on
the subject, but candidly, would you
not rather trust these men of leisure,
who have time to think, than a mere
machine like tho secretary of
tho treasury, for instance? You
can gather more facts about this
nation than you ever dreamed of, in a
five minutes' attendance upon one of
these public intedigence offices. You can
learn more beautiful schemes of govern
ment than ever Moore put in his
Utopia or Bellamy gave to fiction, or
were gathered together in tho new At
lantis. Venture into one of these gath
erings at Eleventh and O, and you will
be convinced that you are at the source
of all knowledge the fountain head.
You will stand appalled at the ebullition
of intellect. You will appreciate, per
haps for the first time, the miserable
paucity of vour own knowledge. These
men. who have nothing on earth to do
but plan schemes for the salvation of
the country certainly do a proper job.
Perhaps, after all, their wisdom is an
adequate eveuse for their idleness.
A few days ago we spent a fpw min.
utes in one of these gatherings that are
daily instructed by Col. Pace and Father
Hardy et. al., and learned that:
George Washington was the first man
to advocate the free and unlimited
coinage of silver at the ratio of sixteen
to one, without waiting for the consent
of any nation on earth.
Thomas Jefferson believed exactly the
same things that the Boy believes.
This is the worst country on the face
of the earth for the poor man.
Tho national debt is larger now than
it has been since the war, and the taxes
are higher than they have been since
the war.
Abraham Lincoln advocated the free
and unlimited coinage of silver at the
ratio of sixteen to one, without waiting
for the consent of any nation on earth.
The only thing that has interfered
with our prosperity in recent years was
the "crime of 13."
Into this arena plunge all of the
bright minds and idle bodies, without
reference to color, weight or previous
condition of servitude. Sam Grant
may find himself in close juxtaposition
with PatBy Meurg, and John W.ngo
may touch shoulders with Ah Lung.
The negro and tho Irish, the German
and tho Swede and the American they
are all thero. Theso meetings are eru
dite und cDsmopoIitan. But thoy are
not all the Boy has done f.r us.
The second distinctive manifestation
is pictorial. This presidential cam
paign, more than any that have preceded
it, is heightened and made ppectacular
by the lithographer's art. Lincoln was
one of the first cities to catch on to the
illustrative features of tho prevailing
excitement, and the result is our erst
while happy hornet are transformed
into political signboards. Windows
that used to let in the sun light now
show to the pas6er-by the stern and
serious countenance of the "advance
agent of prosperity" or the bland visage
of the Boy.
Some years ago it was the custom to
suspend ground glass transparencies of
of Niagara Falls and other exciting
scenery in the front parlor windows.
The custom finally gave way, probably
because people got tired of looking at
the world out of doors through the
translucent Falls or the geysers in Yel
lowstone Park. Tho pictures of the
Major and the Boy are certainly a big
improvement over the old fashioned in
auities. The houses are dotted and
placarded as if quarantined or to let. At
first a stranger might imagine everyr
body wanteJ casoline, cr had furnished
rooms for rent, or would like day board
ers, or an old thing, But a closer view
discloses the familiar countenances, and
the heart of the partisan swells with
joy as he parades by McKinleyized or
Bryanized residences, as the case may
be. Republicans who walk down towm
have carefully selected their routes, and:
they walk or. those streets only that ex
hibit a preponderance of McKinley lith
ographs. Followers of the Boy in like
manner select for their dally march
those streets where they may gaze upon
the Bryan glad smile every two or three
minutes. Candor compels us to add
that the admirers of the Boy have a
dizzy, zig-zag time of it keeping in sight
of their favorite.
Pictures of McKinley are especially
numerous and prominent in the neigh
borhood of the Boy's house on D street.
We met the other day a man who lives
a few blocks from Mr. Bryan. He was
carrying a Bryan picture. We remon?
st rated with him because we had ob
served that his house was already
decorated with a McKinley lithograph .
"That's all right." ho said. "The Mc
Kinley picture was hung up in the