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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (March 5, 1898)
- J jt."j ' "" " " VOL 13 NO. 10 ' Oflgfo s.U P" . . ' -. ESTABLISHED IN 1886 PRICE FIVF CENTS I 'fg&; 1 t s.v. ' ' f t r '4 LINCOLN. NEB.. SATURDAY. MARCH 5. 181)8. Entered ix the postojtick at Lincoln as 8ECOXD CLASS MATTER. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BT TIE COURIER PRINTING 1ID PUBLISHING CO Office 1132 N street, Up Staire. Telephone 384. SARAH B. HARRIS, DORA BACHELL.ER Editor Business Manager Subscription Kates In Advance. Per annum $100 Six months 75 Three months 50 One month 20 Single copies O5 I OBSERVATIONS. g The unanimous choice of Mr. H. W. Brown and Mr. J. C. Harpham by all the republican clubs in the city for excisemen is commended by all repub licans whose opinions have reached the party organs published in this city. Mr. H. W. Brown is one of the old residents of Lincoln. His reputa tion for fair dealing and justice is established by twenty years of com merce with the citizens. A more ad mirable type of a good citizen does not exist Mr. Harpham's nomination is equally justifiable. J The decision in tvP Bartley case is in accordance with justice and in spite of a foolish and inconsistent law which says that the state shall re ceive interest and yet run no risks. All the risks to be assumed by friends of the treasurer who receive no compen sating or corresponding recompense. The people of Nebraska elected a man to be their treasurer. When he fails to account for what he has re ceived, the people of Nebraska must pay for their lack of judgment in not selecting and electing an hon esterman. The bond signers took Nebraska's word that the man was worthy, and Nebraska is alone respon sible for her poor judgment. It is hoped that Mayor Graham will decide to follow the example set by Exciseman Vaill and resign, before the impeachment proceedings begin. He would thus prevent official confirma tion of the ugly rumors which have discoloured his reputation. But how ever much the element of the repub lican party which has recently as serted its control, may hope and ad vise such a withdrawal, there is little cause for such a hope based on the mayor's character. He has shown absolute indifference to public opinion and there is reason to believe that he is relying upon the loyalty of certain councilmen, and the difficulty of establishing official misdemeanor to carry him throug what even his honor will admit is a very tight place. J The city council is apparently rest ing until the mayor is either retired or his "honor" washed clean of the stains which the Call says have been made by office-desiring politicians who have designs on the mayor's office. The regular meeting on Monday night was enlivened by two specialties in troduced by Mr. Woodward and Mr. Hammond. The latter, several years ago, was paid eight hundred dollars bv the city as damages, with the agree ment on Mr. Hammond's part that he lower the sidewalk in front of his property to correspond with the street grade. The chairman of the sidewalk committee intimated that instead of applying the money to the stipulated use, Mr. Hammond had put it into something which returns a more usurious rate of interest than side walks. Mr. Hammond naively retorted that he had loaned the money at 7 percent, which was probably less than his accuser's rate. But the council ordered Messrs. Hammond and Paine to bring their walks to grade. After a discussion about changing the loca tion of a street light the general man agers of the city adjourned for an other week. The fighting that the Irish Catho lics did in the war of the rebellion has been often urged. In reply to this plea of Irish willingness to fight for the union it has been said that con sidering the whole number of soldiers engaged in fighting on the union side, the proportion of Irishmen to native soldiers was infinitesimally small. But, considered in proportion to the Irish citizens of this country at that time, they made a record not to be ashamed of. And the quality of an Irishman's fighting is so fiercely joy ful and so persistent, that the quality is unexceptionable. The priest in Bondout, New York, who is said to have advised his congregation, in case of war with Spain, not to take arms against a Catholic nation, is probably misquoted. In either case there is not much cause for alarm, if there is a fight the Irish will be in it. This is one of the indisputable truths of modern history, and no priestly exhortation will keep them out of it. And as the Irishman's sweethearts and wives and children are in Amer ica, it is sure that he will light for them till his home-loving heart stops beating. It is considered good poli tics and consistent Christianity by some men and newspapers to get up a periodical scare at the Catholics and the pope of Borne and their designs on the United States. The one being suspected of a design to crush the public schools of this country and to acquire the power to make it illegal for Protestants toassemble to worship God, while the Pope of Bome is ac cused of wishing to leave the beauti ful gardens and the wonderful Vatican, to settle in Chicago or St. Louis. There are many who believe that Pope Leo is scheming to get a resi dence here, to subvert the constitu tion and to establish a theocracy in this.country. The scheme includes both North and South America and the idea is to create a Catholic king dom on this side of the water, unap proachable by the warring protestant powers of Europe. It is a larger dream of conquest than Napoleon dared, but its absurdity does not daunt the real Catholic scare-crow builder, who re fuses to be convinced by the sight of the patient, peaceful priests who con fine their attention to the needs of their own parish, who are stirred to fervent patriotism by any attack on the American flag, and who, I doubt not, will be the first to volunteer as chaplains when Johnny goes march ing off. J The Daily Neics of London says, in speaking of Spain, that she "can ex pect no support, moral or otherwise, from England against the United States. She has ruined Cuba, as she has ruined or lost every other colony, by the grossest corruption, cruelty and maladministration, and she must be left to settle the account for it with those whom it may concern without any aid or sympathy on our part." The ability to colonize is the last test of the vitality of a nation. French, Spanisii, Italian, even German colo nization is a failure, broadly consid ered. The Italians during the Roman Empire settled in Africa, Asia Minor, Asia and around all the shores of the Mediteranean. But they were citizens of Bome, not of the small states they were numerically strong enough to have formed. They were a part of the periphery of the circle whose centre was Bome. But the English who have colonized the world, understand that ever' community should bcself-gov erning. America is a gigantic devel opment of the colonizing nation-making idea. In Australia the tendency is towards centralizing the govern ment in their own continent instead of in London. In Ireland, India, Af rica, and all of the English colonial dependencies, the principle of self government is developing so rapidly that it is only a question of time when English stock will insist on being free and independent. The Spanish colonics are, and always have been, plundered by appointees of the home government. It is only because the Spanish settlers are an unconsciona ble time in learning the English rights of man that the numerous rev olutions have not completely severed Cuba from Spain. Spain has no scien tific right to survival. She is an anachronism, and in a war with the United States she will attract no more international sympathy than a pirate ship would. Edward W. Bok in The Ladies Home Journal discusses the Sunday School and says what many people have thought for a long time as to the tire some and inadequate nature of the Sunday school. The writer says he has examined over two hundred Sun day schools and finds that their strength is on the wane, attendance on the decrease, and the interest of those who do attend lukewarm. "It is a common experience of the parents to have their girls and boys beg off from going." "For the most part the average Sunday school is in a state of mouldering decay." Mr. Bok thinks that the fault is in selecting any old thing for a sunerintendant: a man who has been a failure in everything secular being quite as apt to be se lected for superintendent as one who has succeeded by energy and fertile resources in making his own business pay What he says of such a man is worth quoting: "And here is oneof the fundamental causes of the present decay of the Sunday school. I have in mind not less than twelve different men who are acting as superintendents of our Sunday schools. Not oneof these men has even a suggestion of force; not a spark of personal magnetism, not a personal possession which goes to draw children to him or to the school over which he presides. In five of these cases the men have been failures in business: by men in the outer world they are passed over, and yet the church places them in positions which call preeminently for every element which they so distinctly lack. The superintendent of a Sunday school strikes just exactly the same keynote for success or failure to every teacher or scholar in it, as does the head of a commercial establishment to every Continued on Page 8.