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ESTABLISHED IN 1S-C
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LINCOLN. NEB., SATURDAY. APRIL, 3. 1807.
nmion omciAii
AS nOOVB-CLAM MAT
rUBLUHXD XTZBT SATUBDAT
CMIEBPtllllK Ul Wllliim
Office 1132 N street, Up Staire.
Telephone 384.
.SAHAH If. HARMS.
DORA BACHELLEIt
EJitor.
liusiuess Manager
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t OBSERVATIONS. I
The populist party attacked corrup
tion with a virtuous vim that lead the
unprejudiced to really holieve that
when they got to" running things they
would consider truth and justice be
fore everything. Instead of that it is
the same old story. Public office is
a private snap to be held en
to as long as possible and at the same
time boost relations and friends into
paying positions.
Since political history began the men,
who, out of office, have cried "Reform,
corruption, malfeaeancc, tyranny, in
office, have cast aside all precedent,
have grabbed everything in sight and
have broken the rules of fail' play wbieh
even thieves have found it expedient to
adopt. In short a party which has
been on the outside a Iod, time is worse
than the gang in a case of looting. The
consciousness, whether true or not, that
the outs have been robbed without re
course for years, makes them, when a
change come3, more rapacious and bold
than the former incumbent;. The con
temporary Nebraska populist legislature
owes a grudge of many years standing
to railroads, to banks, to all republican
state officials. The state officials in
question, to be sure have given
the party a black eye which no
amount of oothing applications can
conctal. There is cause for the accusa
tions which the state house orators
make. But this recount ballot is strik
ing a blow at democracy which no
party can afford to deliver. From the
governor down to the most insignifigant
pop of all no one has shown a disposi
tion to have the votes counted by
methods above suspicion. It wou'd be
an easy matter to have the recount con
ducted in such a manner as to satisfy
member of all parties. Instead of tint,
when a memberof the commission made
grave charges against the way in which
the recount was being made, the gover
nor rebuked him by withdrawing his ap
pointment and refusing to investigate
his charges against the other members
of th? commission. If the recount is
regular and ever thing fair and abovs
board, why in hugger-muggir thus inter
him? Party loyalty iaa tine quality but
loyalty to the principles upon which
this creat experimental government is
founded, is better.
"But nevertheless it does move." Gal
lleo whispered Just after the rack of the
inquisition had forced him to renounce
hs belief in his scientific discoveries.
This was in 1632, and he was put to the
torture by order of the Spanish inquisi
tion. The V. M. C. A. of this country
exhibits the same spirit, though It lack
the powers conferred on that sslf
rlghteous inquisition by an absolute
monarch. Science and religion were
never opposed though protagonists have
been trying to get up a tight between
them since the first thinker on physical
phenomena legan to announce his con
clusions. The German writers on the
Bible have done more to bring the Bible
into the daily lives of scholarly men
and to induce them to make it their
rule of conduct than uny other influ
ence. Ignorant preachers. like Mr.
Moody, who insists that the Jonah
story and all others like i tmust be ex
cepted, or sinners must stay sinners
and suffer in the lake of tire along with
the culprits who have died in their sins
before and since the christian era, go
much farther than Christ's teaching
warrants. He told the people when they
asked Him what it was He came to
teach, that it was love and love alone.
Unselfishness, meekness and all the
Blesseds of the Sermon on the Mount
are include in the new commandment:
"Love one another." That includes all
the law and the prophets. If Jonah and
all the miracles had been necessary to
salvation, the new law would have
stated it in some of the verbatim re
ports of Christ's sermons, but it does
not and the inference is that "love is the
fulfilling of the law." This being the
case, the Philadelphia Y. M. C. A. young
men who shut out Dr. Lyman Abbott
from their lecture-room have missed
the lesson of the New Testament,
though they can repeat whole chapters
with the oily glibness of their kind.
Oh! "It flecks me on the raw" to hear
a Y. M. C. A. secretary holding a Bible
In flabby covers, profusely marked with
a blue pencil, and himself Just about as
ignorant as the day he was born, eluci
date what he considers necessary to the
salvation of the people he addresses.
This kind have a sort of Bible -lang.
a jolly, intimate way of speaking of the
Force which created everything, intend
ed. I think, to impress upon any unbe
lieving young man in the audience that
religion is a cheerful experience, and
that the speaker himself is private sec
retary to the Lord. None of the hesi
tation and humility which Invariably
characterize an old minister is to be ob
served in the young exhorter's .attitude.
He speaks with a brazen flippancy that
attracts some and repulses more. It
was this kind that locked the doors on
Dr. Lyman Abbott. It was this kind
that criticised that good scholar and
eloquent preacher. Dr. Duryea. It Is
this kind that without desire or ability
to tudy the modern critics of the Bible
themselves, condemn and assault thie
who do. Dr. Lyman Abbott believes that
the doctrine of evolution Is not incon
sistent with "God's way of doing
things." Dr. Abbott says: "I believe
In the resurrection cf Jesus Christ as the
best attested fact of ancient history; I
do not believe that the sun stood still
and the mopn stayed In the valley of
AJalon at Joshua's command; and I am
uncertain of the interpretation of the
wonderful stories of the Book of Dan
ielwhether they are to be regarded as
Dean Farrar regards them, as 'lofty
moral fiction.' or as essentially histori
cal, or as partly imagination and partly
historical. Hypotheses must, however,
be conformed to attested fact, we must
not determine whether we will accept
the evidence as to facts by considering
whether they agree with our precon
ceived hypothesis. If I were convinced,
for example, that the resurrection of
Jesus Christ is not consistent with the
doctrine of evolution, I shold be com
pelled to abandon or modify that doc
trine. That resurrection is a fact, evo
lution is a theory."
Dr. Abbott's preaching is instinct
with the spirit of love. Self-sacrifice
and reverence are as natural to him as
impertinent familiarity and all-over of
fensivene's is to the Y. M. C. A. ex
horter. Further east, or north or south
there may be a type of Y. M. C. A. work
er possessing culture spiritual and so
cial. In which case these strictures do
not apply. The kind described has in
fested the west long enough to make
the office of Y. M. C. A. secretary a re
proach. The opposition to Dr. Abbott
will teem as unwarranted to the com
ing generations of Bible students as the
persecution of Galileo seems to us.
Oliver Optic William T. Adams, who
died last Saturday In Boston, aged 75
years, was the most prolific juvenile
writer of the day. He was not versatile,
he lacked style, his heroes were impos
sible, twelve year old athletes, mar
vels of courage, patience, chivalry, hon
esty. Very tiresome reading for grown
people his books. But they were not
written for grown people and the an
nual reports of public libraries show
Oliver Optic books to be more In de
mand than those of any other Juvenile
writer. He knew that boys loved ad
venture and he told them stories of the
American boy in many lands and vic
torious In nil. In tropical forests where
the boy meets treachery from th na
tives and from venomous reptiles, at
home In America, as the poor and vir
tuous lad tyranized over by a mean,
cowardly rich man's son who enn not
swim, nor run, nor ride, nor work sums
nor do anything In the splendid per
fection that the poor widow's son can.
In the hundreds of stories and series
the boy who represents virtue Ik the
same brave lad rewarded after many
trials by honors and In many cases
by unexpected riches. His enemies
who represent vice are always defeated
and disgraced, so that the effect of hU
books on the most unreflecting of the
genus was good. The men are gray
headed now who read Oliver Optics first
stories nnd they confer upon the author
o' them u Undernefs that the more
brilliant purveyor to their mature taster
d ei not receive.
The sirong point of fraternities, as- I
feaid last week, Is the fraternity which
they teach and practice among them
selves. "Liberte, egalite, fratr-rnite."
The fraternity whih means "me and
my wife, my son John and his wife, us
four and no more," Is not worth as
much as i: might if it were more uni
versal. Everyone who knows anything
about fraternities knows that the se
crets are formal and of no consequence.
Therefore when a group cf men osten
tatiously whisper and keep silent until
an outsider who has innocently ven
tured near, has withdrawn, they are
without excuse. By Euch lack of breed
ing fraternities have made enemies
whe will grow in number and power
until the reformation of one eliminates
the other. .Members cf a fraternity
are very touchy about th discussion
of questions which involve the merits
of the system. But the new journalism
was born to discuss these subJS".
which those who consider themselves
the proprietors of wcuid rather have
let alone. The fraternity subject is one
te be considered with gravity and im
partiality, and from time to time The
Courier will treat fraternities the good
which they dc the jealousy which thry
cause, the noise they make, and the
fvil which lives after there, with im
partiality. Taking everything into cons'.-Jeration
Mayor Graham ha Leen a cipal.lt
official. The experience of the las two
years and week has made us ausp:ci .i:s
of reformers, of men who have someh jw
climbed iuto a biahi r place in the
estimation of the publ e than they can
keep when the devil tempts them. Mr.
Graham has done the work he was
elected to do. There is r o rtajon, judged
by the standard Lis predecessors Lave
l
