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VOL 12 NO 11
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LINCOLN, NEB., SATURDAY. MARCH 27, 1807.
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AS OOOVB-OIM AI
rUBLUHXD ITXBT lATUMUT
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cmieiniiiiin uimtmnia
Office 1132 N street, Up Stairs.
Telephone 384.
SARAH II. HARRIS.
DORA BACHELLER
Editor.
Business Manager
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J
OBSERVATIONS.
The trouble at the state house is a
bail case of politics. Just now the
pops and the republicans are calling
each other names which it is not worth
while to repeat. When two pure
blooded members of the African race
are mad at each other "black nigger"
is the favorite epithet. When a black
republican and a black pop disagree it
is impossible for the general public
to pick out the spotless one. They
both look black, and they are both in
suspicious company. The pops have
been crying "wolf, wolf" for so long
that when the object of their fright
begins to cry "wolf" the people are puz
zled. After all the honest farmer has noth
ing to propose. Hedespisesthe means at
hand for increasing the productiveness
of the soil or for adapting the cultiva
tion to the exigencies of drought. He
simply want3 to make it hot and dry
for everybody else, and so far this ses
sion he has succeeded. If the condi
tions of agriculture under which hard
work is certain and a crop uncertain
can be modified by irrigation and sci
entific treatment of the soil, a populist
legislature, which is supposed to repre
sent the farming interests of the coun
try, should be generous to the agri
cultural school which is striving by the
laboratory methods of study to do for
fanning what that method has done
for chemistry, electricity and med
icine. But the real farmers are
not sent to the legislature. Those who
loaf about the streets howling calamity
while the weeds grow and the machin
ery rusts are the kind that are now
skillfully spitting tobacco juice in the
capitol building. Such correctness of
aim was never learned in a plowed
field. It takes hours of practice on a
country sidewalk sprinkled with nail
heads to produce such sharp-shooters
as the present legislature contains. It
is unfortunate for the state that as a
iule only the farmers without crops
and the lawyers without clients get an
opportunity to make new laws for the
state and change the old ones. The
real farmer and the able lawyer have
business of their own, which, save in
exceptional cases, they do not sacrifice
to held office.
"Beware the vengeance of a woman
scorned." Mrs. Cushman K. Davis of
St. Paul, Minn., has defeated the hope3
of ex-Governor Merriatn of Minnesota,
first for a cabinet position under Mc
Kinley, and then for an appointment as
ambassador to Germany. Mr3. Cush
man K. Davis is the Becky Sharp of
St Paul society. Ten or fifteen years
ago Senator Davis, who was then a pri
vate, but very brilliant citizen of St.
Paul, allowed his first wife to get a
divorce from him and immediately
married the present Mrs. Davis. So
ciety in St. Paul is as tenacious and as
touchy as it is elsewhere. Although
Senator Davis had money, talent and a
brilliant future, in marrying he had
snapped his fingers at society, had
flouted if, and Fcciety has '"gnorcd
him ever since. His conduct might
have been overlooked in Chicago or
Brooklyn, even in New Ycrk if he had
pre-divcrce claims upon forgiveness
there. But never in St. Paul. That
old fur-trading station has the same
basis of aristocracy that Philadelphia
has, viz., long residence in St. Paul
with enough money to dres3 and rid?
and live up to the position, and enough
morality tc keep respectable. It is not
the old Dutch and meney as in New
York, ncr Mayflower seasickness and
money as in Boston, nor money as in
Chicago, but just ancestral residents in
St. Paul and money. The denominator
is the same in each case. But in Phila
delphia the richest cannot buy an en
trance to that society to which old
families decayed to one dress suit have
easy access. Such a state of affairs
with reservations and allowances for
the broadening effect of western ml
giiilcn exists in St. Paul. Because the
mevement between, and displacement
of the upper layer of sreiety by the un
der layers, is freer in western society,
that society is more careful that the
standard shall net be lowered. Al
though blindly charitable to the favor
ites of fortune who remember to break
the laws of convention only in secret
it is inexorable to the man and woman
who openly defy its laws.
As many a "taboo" has entered New
York society "through the Prince of
Waifs' set which lets in American gold
without much examination of what is
attached to it, Mrs. Davis expected to
enter St. Paul by way of Washington.
She Eaid when Mr. Davis was elected
United States senator: "I'll make
those old hens flocks around me yet."
To which a dewager replied, when it
was repeated to her: "Perhaps so, but
there will be a great deal of cackling
first." And so far the Washington re
ceptions to which the Davises have
been invited have had no preceptible ef
fect on the St. Paul temperature.
Ex-Governor Merriatn is the particu
lar friend of Mark Hanna, but that did
not save him. Mrs. Davis opportun
ity came with the appointment of Sen
ator Davis as chairman of the foreign
relations committee. She openly an
nounced that she and the senator had
determined to block any official ap
pointment for Governor Merriam under
this administration. "Rather than
complicate matters and give cause for
offense to so powerful a factor in the
senate, with its present slender repub
lican majority, the president held a
long confidential chat with Governor
Merriam and explained candidly his po
sition. Realizing the hopelessness of
the cause, the governor discretely re
tired from the field." Speaking of St.
Paul's liken' fs to Philadelphia, it is in
teresting to discover that Mrs. Merriam
is a native of the Quaker city.
m m a
Mrs. Buckingham and Mrs. Hardy,
who died last week, were notable wo
men. They were in the second decade
cf thir lives at the time c: the civil
war. That five years' struggle with
the preceding discussion in the pres3,
pulpit and plat.'orm of the question of
slavery and the greater one of union
made the wemen of that period more
serious than a generation which has
been undisturbed by a national dis
agreement. The earnestness with
which they learned then to face life
is cut cf date now. They got used to
standing up for a principle, when it was
necessary, even if it was dangerous.
Such training gave to the war women,
pro-slavery and abditionist alike a
r.emness, a seriousness, an inability
to take things lightly that the new cen
tury doss not comprehend.
Elizabeth Nancy Horr was born in
Lansingburg, N. Y.. in 1826. When
she was about twenty ;rear3 old, her
father failed in business and came west
to Hannibal. Mo., jus: south of that
celebrated line which separated slavery
from freedom, where there was more
friction and distrust than in the south
ern states because the n'pulatloa wa3
mixed; free niggers and slaves, abcli
ticnis.s and slave-holders in about
equal proportions. But the rich people
who composed the larger part of "Mi3S
Lizzie's" patrons, in the school which
she established, were slave-holders.
But there was no such school as hers
in all that western country. She could
only take a limited number of pupils
and her tact and sweetness overcame
the prejudice which the people had
against Yankees. My childish memor
ies are cf a gentle lady whom every
body spoke of with love as "Miss Liz
zie." Around her centered all that was
most cultured. Miss Lizzie was quoted
and invited to her heart's content.
These southern people know how to
glorify time for a guest. They appre
ciated what she was doing for their
tens and daughters, and nothing was
too good for that Yankee girl who hail
shouldered the burden when it slipped
from her father's shoulders. At the
end of ten years she put into his hands
a receipt for all the debts which he
had been unable to pay. In spite of
the war her union sentiments and her
rebel pupils, her school went right
along. Like Barbarie Frletchle she
kpt the flag waving in their faces
but they forgave her much because
they loved her. They turned to her for
advice in sickness and in trouble, and
when the war was over Miss Lizzie's
popularity was undimmed. She left
Hannibal to marry the R'v. Ebenezcr
Buckingham, for twenty-five years the
pastor of the First Congregational
church of Canton. O. When her hus
band, and later his daughter, Mrs.
Lewis Grrgory, died, she came to Un
rein and assumed the care of cf Mr.
Gregory's bereaved household. Her
rcciher's last years wer shadowed by
the tame e'eud which dimmed Mrs.
Buckingham's mind for the las: seven
years. Hers wa3 a life of burdens
tome lovingly and willingly for other,
and cf great accomplishment for herself
cf culture and character. In reality
"Mis3 Lizzie" died ten years ago and
was buried in the hearts of those who
knew her gentle deeds. But it is well
to recall her as she was before the
darkness of a mind diseased hid her
frcm Light.
Charlotte Abbott Hardy, who d.eI
last Friday, had the modern spirit. In
1852 she was graduated when few wo
men strove fcr a degree at Ingham uni
versity, and in 1889. when many wo
men were- studying, she took another
degree from the C. L. S. C. Although
in type she belonged to the women
already referred to, whose stern train
ing accustomed them to serious views,
she was mest gentle in expression and
most charitable to all. Every genera
tion has a characteristic type. These
rerr'rentatives cf the first half of the
Nineteenth century are disappearing.
The recognition of their beauty, sweet
ness and strength is the oaly tribute
we can pay.
Mr?. McK!nley's unfortunate physi
cal condition will prevent her, in spite
