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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (June 11, 1898)
VOL.13. NO. 24. ESTABLISHED IN 188G PRICE FIVE CENTS. r , - ,-,. 9Nhw v V LINCOLN. NEB.. SATURDAY JUNE 11, 181 fife Entered in tiie postoftice at Lincoln as second class mattec. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BI THE COURIER PRINTING AND PUBLISHING GO Office 1132 N street, Up Stairs. Telephone 384. 8 VRAHB. HARRIS, - Editor Subscription Kates In Advance. Per annum ' 29 Six months 7j Three months 50 One month -" Single copies 0 The Courier will not be responsi ble for voluntary communications un accompanied by return lostage. Communications, to receive atten tion, must be signed by the full name of the writer, not merely as a guaran tee of good faith, but for publication if advisable. 8 OBSERVATIONS. 8 In the death of Thomas W. Keene the stage loses a tenacious believer in and actor of the old school: a school that in art is represented by Haydon, in literature by Dickens, Miss Austen and Scott. Their common possession is self-consciousness. Mr. Kecnc never forgot lie was acting, that rs were to be rolled and a quivering hand to be pointed when enraged and at all exits the villain must do the tiendish laugh. He was inspired by noble lines, but incomraunicably, because he could not forget himself and the impression he should be making. The difference be tween him and Edwin Booth was one of character. Mr. Booth forgot him self for his lines. He knew the mean ing of literature and expressed it in his acting. Mr. Keene was fervid and at times picturesque, but to many he was always inadequate It is unfor tunate that a critic, however un worthy, can but express his own taste and the result of the r.pplication of his own standards of merit. There are competent and scholarly dramatic critics who have found much to praise in the dramatic work of Thomas "V. Keene. Temperaments that Hnd any thing artistic and there are many--in Clara Morris' methods like an even ing with Keene and will pronounce my judgment unjust. Mr. Keene between calls to the stage walks behind the. scenes with bent head, rehearsing his lines. Mr. Booth chatted with his friends, smoked and only put on Othello or Hamlet when he was on the stage. He left Mr. Booth back in the wings. He im posed no stageries upon his friends, no Bootheries upon an audience. Herein is the difference between the two actors. Richard Harding Davis and I'oult ney Bigelow are commenting quite frankly in their correspondence to the New York papers on the bad sanitary conditions of many of the cau.ps olli cered by militia officers M r. Davissaid he had inspected a number or camps but had failed to Hnd one not offi cered by officers from the regular army or largely composed of regulars, with ditches dug about the tents and lead ing to a larger one through the centre of the company street tlirougu w men the rain may be conducted away from the tents. The pneumouia which has appeared in the southern camps could i. lanrelv prevented by dry camp lloors. Then in many cases the latrines are not dug far enough away from the camp and are not proiwrly covered and the poisoned air threatens the soldiers with typhoid fever. The offi cers should be held responsible for the health and comfort of the men. The volunteers are ignorant of the dangers of camp life. But the officers draw much higher pay. not beciuso they work harder, they do not work so hard, but on the theory that they know more and will use their knowl edge in behalf of the men, both to protect, them from unnecessary danger and to make them most effective lighters. As the large ier cent of soldiers die of disease and not of bul lets, it follows that it is an officer's duty to take extra precautions against the deadliest enemy. Officers who fail to secure their command from typhoid fever and pneumonia arc in the war for ornamental purposes only and ought to be retired for the sake of the'emen who are slaughtered by their negligence. Those who have opiwsed adequate appropriations for the navy and army or the United States because or the cost of a standing army and or a large navy have railed to learn the lessons ot the civil war and of all wars. It costs millions to maintain a righting torce on land and sea so large and splendidly equipped that it inspires European and Asiatic respect, but it costs billions to maintain an 'made quatc force. China is an example of a peaceful people, whose iolicy for cen turies has been to maintain an army only large enough to resist aggression, out to he aggressive or to pro tect those of her citizens who chose to travel. In consequence Chinamen can he attacked with impunity by citizens of countries the size and wealth of which in comparison to China is insignificant. Today the Ieace-at any-price policy in China has reached its inevitable climax and England, Germany and Russia are preparing to make a battleground of the Chinese empire and divide it among themselves. Neither will the agreement and hoistingof the separate Hags be final. That will lnj only when .each shall have a military force of such instant effectiveness as to make the result of a declaration of war de pendant upon chance. Longcontinued peace in any nation is the resu't of its own ability to resist encroachment and aggression. Captain Mahan in an article on "CurrentFallacies Upon Naval Subjects" says "that the most beneficial use of a military Torce is not to wage war, however successfully, but to prevent war, with all its suffer ing, expense ami complication or em barassments." Captain Mahan shows the weakness of "a navy for defense only" if by that is meant a fleet only strong enough to protect our seacoast and not strong enough to injure th"J enemy. The former indeed involves the latter, for a navy large enough to patrol the At lantic and Pacific coast line of the United States would be strong enough to dare the "ruler of the seas" to come out and tight. There are rew national methods so. effective in lengthening and strength ening the chain or brotherhood be tween dwellers or different parts of the globe as colonization. Only those nations which have attained a degree of civilization worth engrafting are tempted to try it. The children of Israel were developed from savage nomads into beings with educated muscles and brains and souls by a scries of enforced emigrations into nations which enslaved and at the same time taught them. But in going about the Jews lost their capital and government, though not their nation ality. The Romans learned the les son and colonized the shores of the Mediterranean as radii of Rome. "Ele ments," says Captain Mahan, "long estranged, but of the same blood, can, in no way more surely attain to com munity interest and or view than by the development or an external policy, or which the benefits and the pride may he common to all. The virtues mid the powers or the British and the German people may prove unequal to their ambitious, time alone can show; but it is a noble aim in their rulers to seek to extend their inlluenee, to establish their positions, and to knit them together in such wise that as races they may play a mighty part in the world's history. The ambition is noble, even if it fail; if it succeed our posterity may take a different view of its folly, and of our own wis. dom in this generation." In order to protect ourselves and to ensure peace we must have a navy and army of a size and strength to injure tue commerce and couiront the battle ships of any first-class power sent against us The state which in war relies simply upon defending itself instead or hurting the enemy, will in cur disaster for the reason that the party which proposes to strike a blow has but one thing to do, whereas the defense has a dozen things, for he can not know upon which of a dozen vulnerable poiirs his enemy's blows may fall. A man's defense against a snake, when cornered, is not to pro tect himself but to kill the snake." Those who criticise the batt'e or Manila because or the distance from Cuba have railed to perceive the writhing or Spain from the blow dealt by Admiral Dewey. The fallacy that improvements in battleship building make ships obsc sete before they are launched Captain Mahan says is easily disproven. The revulsion from the monitor, or tur reted style of battleship, "to the broadside battery analogous to that carried by the old style ships of Far ragut and Nelson," shows that the newest des'gns are not always the best. The day can be recalled when the broadside battleship was consid ered as dead as Cock Robin." Yet most naval officers agree today that the broadside guns are of primary value in fighting. It would not be necessary that the navy of the United States should equal that or England in order to lie a naval power or consequence on our side or the ocean. We should need only ships enough to meet the fleet which can He spared by a foreign foe No European country can send its cntical condition of European poli tics." So the outburst of horror which greets a proposition to make the American navy of equal strength to any European power is unreasonable. t i M ziL- AidkHBBHrAv-
