THE COURIER.
with the seriousness which the subject
itself and she hereelf deserve.
Many of the clubs of the city and
state hare left off the Btudy of literature
and history and turned their attention
to the city improvement work. This
work ie directly in lino with the recom
mendations of the Nebraska federation
of womens club, clause 1, of which
reads: That each club appoint a com
mittee to be-called the public school
art committee, whose duties shall be to
visit the schools and encourage the re
moval of all decorative rubbish, Fuch as
advertisement cards and crude and
meaningless pictures. II. Town and
Tillage improvement works, in the clean
liness and sanitary condition of our
streets, cases of inhumanity to animals,
children and the poor. III. The foster--JDg
of public libraries, etc Toward-the
improvement of school grounds the vil
lage improvement society of Lincoln has
made considerable progress in two ways
and by far the most important and last
ing can not be seen by the casual passer
by. The grounds surrounding several
schools of the city, notably the capital
and park have been sodded and planted
with flowers. But the second result
preserves and makes of consequence the
first; the children havs been taught that
the grounds are theirs and that they
are responsible for their neatness and
beau'y. They have learned the civic
responsibility of each citizen to the
community of which each one is a unit.
The children look upon a boy who
throwB hand bills in the streets as a law
breaker and disturber of public order.
When the Capitol school children of to
day are grown up they will be willing,
when they are councilmen, to enforce
the ordinances against9 tobacco
spit'.ers .and street and walk
nuisances of all kinde. When a child
who is petted a little and snubbed
much, realizes his importance as a part
of socic ty, able to injure it by his own
misconduct or advance and beautify it
by a self denying neatness and watchful
neap, he is outside of the jurisdiction of
the switch forever. He iB thereafter to
y reasoned with, not punished, except
by the inevitable consequence of wrong
doing. The juvenile heads of commit
tees who have reported to the society
have unconsciously shown that they have
learned the lesson that they are a val
uable part of the community and as
auch willing to perform the duties of
citizens. Fully half the citizens never
iearn the lesson and Lincoln will be a
better place to live in for everybody aa
soon as thess youngsters begin to be
heard from.Whon they get into the uni ver.
sity their citizenship will not suffer them
to daub red paint in public places as an
expression of private joy. The city is
their's and they are the city's, and the
partnership is full of dignity and self
respect. They will resent vandalism
and help to punish it as the students
themselves have expelled from Harvard
the men who painted red the statun of
John Harvard. Then the name of the
university student will not be a name of
reproach and suspicion among the
merchants, for the students will have
accepted their birthright as citizens ot
the state.
, A European lour.
STORIES IN PASSING.
unusual tenderness and thankfulness in
her heart.
Th6 little mother sat in her pew at
church, somewhat tired from the length
of the serine. The light stealing through
the stained windows overhead dropped
in blue and red patches on her gown,
but she did not notice this. She was
lost in the thought of her two boys away
at college. She was thinking ot them
as they were ten years ago, when they
sat at her side in this very pew, restless
and wide-awake enough at the begin
ning of the service, but dropping off to
sleep during the sermon, each with a
curly head against her shoulder and a
chubby hand grasping her's as if they
feared to lose her.
In the midst of these thoughts she
was conscious of some one leaning over
from behind and placing a newspaper
clipping in her lap. She took it up and
glanced over the contents with dreamy
mind. Then as she read she grew hor
rified. The clipping, a part graph from an
Omaha paper, was not a long one. But
it was in regard to foot-ball to the
make-up of the university team for the
coming year. James, her son, had played
the gbme for two years but she never
could be reconciled to it. The clipping
Bpoke of a new rule to be followed in
choosing members that spring for the
coming season. The rule she scarcely
comprehended it for a moment was
"that every candidate to show his grit
was to drink a gallon ot whiskey at one
sitting before he would be allowed to
play." Then the full significance of it
all came upon her. Oh. the shame, the
horror ot it! And she a member of the
W. C. T. U. and teaching a Sunday
School class in this very church! How
could she ever hold up her head again
And as she read further, her cheek
blanched with horror. The paragraph
went on to state that James, her great,
strong-hearted boy, who had been al
ways bo fortunate in pljying had tried
for a place again, and had died in the
drinking of the liquor. The thought of
it crazed her. But though stunned by
the shock she arose, and regardless of
sermon or audience, tied out the dcor
and on toward her heme. His father
she must rind his father and they
must Eend for the body the body of her
boy. But father where was he? She
ran into the house and through all the
rooms but he was not there. She fled
out and around the house, but she could
not find him or anyone to help her. She
felt as if she must drop to the ground
overcome by exhaustion and grief.
Suddenly something broke in on her
misery and disturbed her. It was the
congregation standing up for the last
hymn. And mechanically Bhe also arose.
The sun streamed through the stained
windows as before. The choir filled the
church with song. And outside the
birds in the trees took up the iefrain.
It was the old familiar, restful, worship
ful scene again. And when she went out
into the morning brightness, there was an
Costs no more than one taken in this
country everything being taken into
consideration. Thousands of Americans
are finding this out every year by actual
experience. Before arranging for your
summer trip call at B. M. city office,
corner O aod Tenth streets, where
steamship berths, tickets and full infor
mation will be furnished.
George W. Bonneix,
C. P. & T. A.'
A woman sits across the aisle and
watcher me constantly. I look aside
but am drawn back irresistibly. For
her eyes are serpent's eyes and fascinate.
Their cold, steely glitter eats into ones
brain and seems to read the inmost
thoughts of the mind. They make me
uneasy in my chair and cold along my
spine, and a lump goes grating up and
down my throat. Such eyes, I have
seen once before when, as a boy, I
killed a "copperhead" that had just
allured a rwallow to its death. I killed
the snake but its eyes haunted me in
my s'eep for nights. And now, how
vividly this woman's eyes, thoueh set in
a mask of beauty, brings back that
"copperhead" and very jouthful nightmare.
It must have been the hot weather,
for strange to say, the crowd sitting rn
the shady side ot Perkin's grocery were
telling stories of winter.
"Yea, sir-ee,' remaiked old Utcls
Biram, "I rtmenber that winter o
s
seventy-two. I was back in Michigan
then and jest sich weather as Tim here 's
been tellin of. I 'member Christmas
morning 'twas co!de" 'n Baffin's bay
mercury way down out o' sight in the
tube. That morning I'd gone over to
Hunker's Ford for a load o' wood with
the bobs and ox team. Comin' home, I
started down Kelly's hill on the trot
Jest at the bridge by the holler, those
oxen gave a lurch and pulled up sudden
like and I went a rootin" down in front
o' the bobs, and the runners came right
up on my legs and then that gol fired ox
team stopped dead still in their tracks.
I hollered ter that team 'till I was hoarse
bb a fog-horn, but those durned old
brutes nar budged.
The old man stopped, stood up,
stretched himself and walked over to
the door of the store without another
word. Just as his band was on the
knob, one of the group spoke up.
"Well, what'd you do, Uncle? You
were in a mighty tight fix."
"You bet I was," replied Uncle Biram
turning and surveying the group ser-.
enely. "I had a tei r.b!e time. Why, I
had to go fifty rois fur a pole to pry
that load of wood off my legs."
And winking faintly at the small boy
astride the salt barrel, the old man
s'.ipped into the store.
Every old soldier remembers his first
night of picket-duty. At least I do and,
it Etands out in my memory as vividly as
thirty years ago. The guards were
mounted at 2 o'clock one dark June
night. I had just been pulled out of a
sound sleep, and at first, scarcely awake,
commanded several trees and the two
pickets at the end of my btats to halt,
which brought the laugh on me the next
day. But that first timidity, or eager
ness to perform my duty, or whatever
you wish to call it, departed as the dark
ness gradually disappecred and the nig h
wore on. Then I first felt fully the
beauty which attends the coming ot a
summer's day. The stars began to
vanish one by one; the trees detached
themselves separately from the wall ot
shadow on every side, and a faint, grey
Fght grew in the east and paled the
horizon. Then one little bird away off
to the right awoke and began to ring its
welcome to the approaching dawn. The
little songster was answered by another
at the far end of the woods; and then
another and another followed until the
trees on every hand were alive with the
feathered singers, and the woods one
grand invisible chorus of melody. The
roosters of a farm bouse were crowing
Across the river came faintly tho bark
ing of a watch dog. Men's voices rose
and fell from the same direction, but
distant and irregular. The light had
been steadily growing until the camp
was nearly visible in the morning mists
rolling off among the trees. Then they
changed the pickets, and as one marched,
into camp, the full, round face of the
sun mounted the tops of the eastern
hills and awoke the sleeping camp to the
early meat of the morning.
H. G. Shedd.
Fairy Tales.
I used to tell her fairy tales
When I was ten and she was four;
And never itemed the satisfied
Until I told them o'er and o'er.
She'd watch me with her great blue
eyes
And I'd recount some goblin's flight;
She'd clap her hands in childish glee
At Cenderella's midnight flight.
3
Some twenty years have passed since
then,
And we've been married many a day;
But I grow sad asl note how
Time makes youth's idols turn to
clay.
4
For now my fairy tales fall flat
Though worded well and smooth of
plot.
She pulls the covers o'er her head
And softly says: Oh I guess not.""
TOWN TOPICS.
CURED
Rheumatism, Eczema, Kidney and
Stomach Trouble.
It is but the truth to say that hund
reds of people suffering from the above
and other diseases have been cured or
greatly benefitted by the use of the
medicinal waters at Hot Springs, S. D.
If you are interested address for par
ticulars. A. S. Fielding City Ticket
Agent Northwestern Line, 117 South.
Tenth street, Lincoln, Neb.
BURLINGTON ROUTE PLAYING
CARDS.
Those elegant cards of the very best
quality only 15c per deck. For sale at
B. Sb M. Dopot or city ticket office, cor
ner Tenth and O streets. 4
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