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LINCOLN. NEB., SATURDAY. MARGH 20. 1807.
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CMBIER PRINIIIG UlNlliSMI
Office 1132 N street, Up Stairs
Telephone 384.
SARAH if. HARRIS.
DORA BATCAELOR
Editor.
Business Manager
Subscription Rates In Advance.
Per annum 82 00
Six months 1 00
Three months 50
One month 20
Single copies 03
2 OBSERVATIONS. :
f
vrm
Wednesday, March 1". St. Patrick's
day, Corbett and Fitzsimmons fight
Mosher released from prison, and the
greatest or the three is Mosher. It i3
dangrrous to say that C. W. Mosher
has good qualities, that the law would
not have been able to reach his case
if it had not been for his own confes
sion, and that he is credited with fidel
ity.and loyalty to the unnamed friends
who got into the scrape with him. He
.has taken his punishment as stoically
.and recklessly as he kppt books. The
suspicion that he has money put away
somewhere or that now that he is out
of prison the confederates, whom he
protected, will protect him and help
him into a paying job. is the main
reason that keeps his real virtues from
leceiving the recognition they deserve.
His crimes were of the audacious,
"nothing venture nothing have kind."
He counted upon taking his punish
ment for them, if luck went the other
way, when he committed them. When
hte doors of the bank closed and the
rapers announced that the Capital Na
tional had suspended, it will be re
membered that Mr. Mosher assumed
the whole blame and insisted that he
be sentence d to the penitentiary for the
term that his offense demanded.
It may be that he alone was to blame.
At any rate, no one rise in any of the
bank failures which succeeded the Capi
tal National epoch has suffered the ig
nominy that Mr. Mosher has. He was
self-condemned. The other bank presi
dents and cashiers laid the blame on
the hard times, and the hard times
bore the blame so long as sympathy
is the only circulating mrdium that
the cashiers and the hard times have
left in the city the unfortunate bank
officials aie not denied a portion of it.
Every bankrupt in the city has the air
of not being the only bean in the sdup,
excepting Mr. Mosher. He has done
no more than some. He confessed his
sins. He has received a long, severe
punishment of which he has already ac
knowledged the Justice. Why not con
sider him as the first victim of hard
times instead of the cause of all our
woe? We have lost just as much by
other guardians of trusts, Treasurer
Bartley and Auditor Moore for in
stance, yet men do not hear curses as
they pass by. In spite of the unpopu
larity of anything like impartial justice
when considered in connection with
Mr. Mosher, I think that according to
the scale of punishments applied to
ether malefactors of the same class,
he has received punishment and ig
nominy enough.
The indictments presented against
him in exact justice are doubtless cor
rect, but until a few are prepared
against a large proportion of the popu
lation of the state who have gone out
of business for various very ingenious
reasons, which appear to satisfy the
law, those against Mr. Mo3her should
be quashed.
Du Maurier's new story, "The Mar
tian" 13 not so interesting as either the
story of "Peter Ibbetson" or "Tribly."
The new glory that he was able to shed
on "la chass. aux souvenirs d'en
fance" has faded. The fear as well as
the hope that "Tribly" and "Peter Ib
betson" were, to a great extent, auto
biograhpical has been realized. "The
Martian" is the tale of an old man who
has lived his life, and whose pleasant
est memories are of the three years of
his early boyhcod when he saw the
most of his school mate, Barty Josse
lin. More than in either of the other
two stories the lack of constructive
skill is apparent. Trivial details, which
have apparently nothing to do with
the story, the unfolding of the plot
or influence upon the characters,
fill the chapters up to the present time.
The atmosphere cf reminiscence is
fascinating and Du Maurier is an old
master at reproducing it. Fiction, as
well as history, must use the past
tense, yet Du Maurier, by introducing
the hero's widow and children, with
reference to his own loneliness, im
presses the fact that these people are a
long time dead.
Such treatment substitutes a liter
ary, historical interest for that which
kind has for kind. All. of Du Maurier's
stories tell of past joys, and of a pres
ent that is endurable only because of
the light from the past. He even more
than Thackeray or the poor "Duchess"
apotheosizes his hero or heroine. Barty
Josselin, "Trilby" and the peerles3
countess of "Peter Ibbetson" are
wraiths in a double- sense, separated
from today by time, by unheard of vir
tues and by a heavenly and enslaving
beauty too perfect to awaken desire.
But the drawings of "The Martian"
have not the anatomical impossibilities
of "Trilby." Barty, though a trifle
emaciated and with an expression too
flcwer-like for a man, is still, take him
for all in all. a man. In the December
number of Harper's Monthly, in wh'eh
the story is appearing, there is a quite
wonderful picture of a dream that the
old boy has who tells the story. The
roots and branches of a tree kept him
from moving on the solemn, ugly little
boys who bear a dream-likeness to his
former school mates, and on the mock
ing usher who orders him about with
the old malignity. The picture has the
impotence and dumbness of a dream.
Did anybody ever feel the flesh creep
with horror, or contrariwise, a worship
ing gratitude for the beauty of char
acter, when looking at one of Gibson's
irreproachable pictures? Du Maurier,
with dimmed vision, sometimes draw3
poor torsos, and sometimes legs
are dislocated. When he was a
little boy he had an idpal of what
a I eautiful woman should b,andnoeub
sequent work on the model was able
to get her back into drawing. My
self, it does not matter. No one can so
atmosphere a drawing and produce
in effect like Du Maurier. Not every
one admits the beauty of his ideal wo
man, but he produces the effect of be
ing in a most lovely and gracious pres
ence, and that is much more than
splendid drawing. Gibson is Gibson,
and we cannot be too greateful for him,
and he can beat Du Maurier drawing a
thing, but the latter's work effects the
imagination and recalls experience
wi h unmatchcl power, lfo.vev.jr, to he
failure'in the btler press of "The Mar
tian," t? jeach the level of "Trilby"
rathy than to the effect of the popu
larity of "Triiby." Du Maurier's death is
due, if there were a sentimental ressjn
for it. .Try does not even kill the a:ed
and sick, but defeat take3 away the
reason for living.
The people who live in a town as in
land as Lincoln who keep track of the
price of corn and who are trying to
keep the state cut cf the rule of the
ropulists, who take the eastern papers
only for thp market reports, political
news and funny pictures, are not fa
miliar with the reputations of treatrical
companies who play only one night
here. Some very respectable companies
have had pesters no more risque than
Cissy Fitzgerald. There is nothing
especially sktc'-twir about ths corps du
ballet, gauze skirts, tights, masculine
attire and bloomers. Mercuries. Di
anas naiads are not shocking
to end of the century eyes. There was
an outcry among the Romans while the
toga was going out of style. Thy
thought any other dress Immoral. Mod
esty Is not a question of dress, but of
speech and action. Modjcaka and Julia
Marlowe In boy's suits are funny and
awkward, never immodest. So long as
the posters, then, cannot be accepted as
a sign of the respectability of a play,
there should be some means besides the
announcements or an exhaustive re
search into contemporary dramatic
criticism of knowing the character of
a play before the company arrives.
Sissy Fitzgerald hers If was not so bad
as the play of "The Foundling." though
she was depraved enough. The play
was the thing. It could not be printed
in the newspapers or sent through the
mails legally. Then why should it bo
allowed dramatic representation?
In view of the event in Carson City
en last Wednesday, the following
prophesy from Town Topics last week
indicates a promising young writer on
art:
I pick Prof. Robert Fitzsimmons for
the winner of that little scientific argu
ment in Nevada on March 17. I may
be wrong in my selection, and Ir events
prove me to be c. I shall cheerfully
make my ob Isance3 to Professor Cor
bett and acknowledge that I have un
derrated his capabilities. But I do not
think I am wrong. My present opinion,
that Professor Fitzsimmons will ham
mer Professor Ccrbett In a most un
merciful and heartrending maner, if.
indeed, he permits him to leave tha
ring alive, is based upon the most logi
cal reasoning in the world. In all of
his earlier fights Prof:s?or Fitz3iinmon3
has proved himself a whirlwind and a
wonder. In times more recoat h
licked in about ninety f-cont'i Profes
sor Maher, the really cl-ver fighter to
whom Professor Corbett z-v fit to pre
sent the world's championship on a sil
ver plate. He made what gentlemen
cf sporting proclivities call a "holy
show" of Professor Shark' y, the mus
cular sailor who nearly slew Professor
Corbett in San Francisco. In iself.
the red-topped processor's pTonality
is a terrific one. A blacksmlih. who
loves a fight for amusement's sike. and
selects lions and bloodhounds for pliy
mates. is not the sort of per-on mo
men wuid choose for an anta?on'?" ia
a battle to a finish with fist. Profes
sor Corbett i3 a strong man and has
been a mighty gladiator ia his day. and
I hope he realizes that he is going into
the most ser!oii3 situation of his life
I expect to see him beaten en March 17
that is, if thp fight i? a fair one.
I am rather surprised to "bser thit
no serious outcry has so far been in
dulged in by eithor pulpit or press on
the subject of this fight. This should
t? regarded as a feather in the cap of
the state that has had the mirage to
legalize this form of entertainment. I
