The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903, April 10, 1897, Image 1

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VOL 12 NO 15
ESTABLISHED IN 1886
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LINCOLN, NEB., SATURDAY. APRIL. 10. 1807.
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BIKTHIFOaT omCllT
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SARAH l. HARRIS.
DORA BACHELLER
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OBSERVATIONS.
In the current number of the Re
view of Reviews thpre are pictures of
two former citizens of Lincoln who
since leaving have bad a chance to grow
famous. I refer to tho future comp
troller of the treasury, C. G. Dawes, and
the probable minister to Greece, the
once Chancellor Irving J. Manatt, now
professor of Greek in Brown uuiver
eity. If Lincoln, Nebraska, is not wel'
known all over this country it will not
be the fault of the citizens who live and
leave here. They come w-th high hopes
and leave with energies and patience
strengthened by a struggle against con
ditions which finally defeat them. Lin
coln is a training school of mighty men.
Many of those who remain are as
strorgif not stronger than those who
have travelled into tho zone of celebri
ty. They are fighting the same fight
which the otherd gave up, they have
been hit just as many times, but like
Fitzsimmons they do not know they are
whipped.
Professor Manatt's recent book,
The Story of Myceaaeus," as well
as his very acceptable service as
consul at Athens makes him a strong
candidate for the Grecian mibeion.
which he is said to be working very
hard to Eecure. Fitted by learning and
liking for Grecian archaeology for the
place, he is not the beau ideal of a
minister from this country to another.
That is, if a foreign minister's dutiep
bring him into close contact with men.
Perhapi the duties of attending to the
wants of the traveling American, of ex.
plaining and introducing America to
Greece and Greece to America are at
tended to by deputies, vices and assis
tants of various kinds. If so tho ec
centricities o" Prof. Manatt's dispo
sition which were unfolded while he
was at the head of tho Elate university
unless they havo been modified, might
get America and Greece into trouble.
On the other hand a diplomat must un
derstand that words were meant to
conceal thought and Professor Manatt
"has practised this for several years.
His learning, his unusual comprehen
sion of (he Greek language, old and
new, pre eminently tit him for the
position ho hopes fot. And in this con
nection it is impossible not to remember
the sweetness, the affability, the positive
genius for social life that Mrs. Manatt
always showed, sometimes under do
pret sirg circumstances. As the wife of
the minister to Greece she would dis
pense a hospitality that would warm
and cheer exiles as well as natives. Mrs.
Manatt's sunny, joyous nature has
modified the arctic stream beside which
she glistens and bubbles, modified it in
spite of the frozen source from which it
springs. 'I he duties of a wife
and mother have never been
able to lessen the vital, unworn interest
which Mrs. Manatt takes in everything
beautiful and human. She sings, she
paints, she entertains guests with a
grace unrivallcJ. Her manners are
simple and genuine. She is the first
and ablest to help a neighbor in trouble.
As the wife of an American min ster to
Greece she will abl represent the
American woman i. e. if the union in
one person of the best qualities of
many, can be called representative. In
the atmosphere, natural and intel'ectual
best suited to his organization and to
his life long preparation, in the little
kingdom of an American min'ster to a
foreign country, the qualities which
opposition and western assertiveness, ex
aggerated, might not appear, and Pro
fessor Manatt might begin to b!oom by
tho side of his wife in sunny forget ful
ness of other scenes. (lis neighliors
and friends in Lincoln will rejoice to
hear of bis appointment.
On another page of tho Review
is a picture of "Charlie"' Dawes
Mr. Dawes is quite a different type
from the Professor of Greek afore
mentioned. He is in the best sense a
politician. He understands how to get
a large number of men to do what he
thinks they should do. He has an over
flowing geniality that attracts all classes
to him personally. This is the especial
gift of the politician. To be successful
votes are necessary. To get them, a
large number of all kinds of men must
be influenced. Oratory is frequently a
means of applying influence, but it is
not necessary. Senator Plumb of Kan
sas probably got more bills through
congress for the benefit of his district
than any other western representative
and ho never made a speech. To attain
results by means of the requisite num
ber of votes is a faculty apart and not at
all dependant on education, oratory,
money, color, or character though it
may bo accompanied by many accom
plishments as in the case of Mr. Dawes,
or by few as in the case of a famous
local dictator. Hut Mr. Dawes comes of
a famous family of jol ticians all
branches of it according to genealogical
record have been senators, governors,
makers of constitutions and signers of
declaration?. So that the latest repre
sentative of the family is only another
example of the strength of hereditary
tendencies.
The most intelligent, the most con
servative of all classes, strongly disap
prove of the decision of tho supreme
court in the case of the Trans-Missouri
freight association. The decision was
carried by a majority of only one mem
ber of the com t. Since it has been
conceded by railraad employes that the
decision applies to labor unions as well
as to unions of capital the satisfaction
of those who consider that the interests
of capital and labor are always opposed,
has decreased. Nothing would be more
disastrous to the spring revival of trade
than a railroad rate war. All kinds
of meichandise and produce aro imme
diately and disastrously affected by a
daily changing scale of freight rates. A
relapse into the distrust and appre
hension of a year ago which the de
moralization a freight rate war would
produce is dreaded by all. The good
sense and good faith however of rail
road managers may and probably will
prevent the disorganization that the
court has made imminent
Richard Harding Davis' story,
Soldiers of Fortune now running in
Scnbner's magazine has all the rich
coloring that a tropical country and the
uo of unlimited wealth can give it.
Mr. Davis heros and heroines are so
good looking, so handsomely dressed, so
well acquainted with the manners of good
society it is an education, an honor to
meet them. Their conversation in
Etiucts the very latest usages of a
society into which no westerner can
ever penetrate, but Mr. Davis sp?aks
from tho insiic. Although we are
separated from his world by mile3 of
atmospheie as thin and as cold as tint
between us and the moon still it is in
teiestirg to know how the dwellers in
that rare air sit, : nd stand, how they
pronounce their r's and a's- and how
they take their nourishment. Hie
manner is that of a clever country boy
who has been taken up by wealthy
city people. When his abashed ag
ricultural relations arrive, the boy must
exhibit to them the familiarity of tho
rich people towards himself. Mr. Davis
does it with modesty but bis innocent
pride in the distance he has sped from
his pastoral beginnings is evident and
must be touching to his
mother. "Soldiers of Fortune" is more
than usually fascinating because it
shows the way from hero to tho moon
or, which is tho eaino thing, from
provincialism to metropolitan favor.
Tho hero was born in an ugly little
house no Irgger than Abraham Lincoln's
birthplace. He is n civil engineer who
has built bridges, tunnels and railroads
that are tho marvels of a century. Ho
i3 decorated wi'h orders from tho
moDarchs of Europo but the girl to
whom ho offers everything can not for
get his origin and thinks his pride in his
work belittling. So Richard springs
another heroine tho first girl's sister
not yet out, one of those magnificent
young creatures who take so much
pleasure an I intorast in living, tho
sight of them revives tho capacity for
enjoj inent for those who perish of ennui.
Even those who know Mr. Davis for a
snob can not help liking his girl. She
rpdeems the story, just as such as she in
the world make life worth living.
While the new administration group
at Washington is getting housed and
settled the first lady question is still un
decided. Mrs. Hei9tand who was in the
lead for so long has fallen behind. She
had the misfortune to offend some of
the society reporters, whose pastime is
making and unmaking social favorites
At the same time Captain Heistan J and
Secretary Porter had words and now tho
Captain, who in Canton, had immediate
access to Mr. McKinley has to stand
aside and await permission from the
secretary before ho can see tho Presi
dent. It is very galling to the captain
after the hard work of so many ears,
to be ousted by the little man in glasses.
The Washington people of all classes
are delighted with tho president's ac
cessibility. His private detectives, uni
formed policemen and secretary Trur
ber barred. all approaches to President
Cleveland. Many senators, who have
not been to the capital in the last four
years have entered it since McKinley "a
inauguration and have been very much
gratified by the simple friendliness of
President McKinley. Besides his pri
vate audiances which he grants to as
many as possible, the president takes a
daily constitutional through the streets
of Washington. As he strides alon?, a
democratic but celebrity-loving people
have an opportunity to become familiar
with bi3 sturdy figure. Socially he is
what Mrs. Cleveland was during her
husband's administration, gracious and
friendly to everybody, tactful and un
selfish, although never forgetting the
dignity of her position.
Tho protest whijh all artist's socictys
of any importance in this country havo
made against the reimposition of the
McKinley bill tax on foreign pictures
should be heeded. Amerlcin art is just
emerging from the influence which a
protective tax, destructive of tho art it
was intended to preserve, has had upon
American artists. Th large group c
artists in New York, the smaller one3 in