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VOL 13 NO. 10 ' Oflgfo s.U P"
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ESTABLISHED IN 1886
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LINCOLN. NEB.. SATURDAY. MARCH 5. 181)8.
Entered ix the postojtick at Lincoln as
8ECOXD CLASS MATTER.
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY
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Business Manager
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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.
