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VOL.13. N0.4L
ESTABLISHED IN
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LINCOLN. NBBR., SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1888.
brraxDix thk rosTomcx at likcoui as
aacnsD CLASS MATTXX.
PUBLISHED EVERT SATUBDAY
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Telephone 384.
SABAHB. HARRIS,
Editor
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g OBSERVATIONS. g
UwwV00AW
Tsi An, the Chinese dowager em
press, who is more absolute than Em
peror William dares or than Queen
Yictora dreams, belongs to a nation
-where it has been customary since the
invention of the first missionary to de
plore the subjection of woman. But
she has grown a deprecatory and
haunted look, in America it is known
as the henpecked look, on the face of
the Emperor of China. The latest ad
vices show that the emperor is still
alive, though frightened almost out
of his wits by a little o!d woman. She
has probably been restrained from
killing bim by considerations of the
revenge his ghost would take upon her
if she ordered him strangled or pois
oned. The emperor is supposed to
possess the most powerful ghost in
China and if his spirit took possession
of- that ghost it would keep Tsi An
out of Chinese heaven forever.
The templed entrance of the new
Builingtou depot in Omaha, the lofty
rooms, the stair flights in complimen
tary curves, the mosaic floors and
tiled walls, the pure blue and clear
white of the decoration and some
thing else to which these are acces
sory, that something inherent in a
Grecian vase and called proportion for
lack of a better word to express the
harmony and correlation of parts and
fitness for a specific purpose, distin
guished this station from all others I
have seen. There are larger depots in
Chicago and St. Louis and elsewhere,
but none with the cool recessed en
trance and admirableproportions that
rest and cool and preach to the
through passengers to death who stop,
to rest their souls smarting with cin
ders and the dust of time in this sta
tion for a moment. It is idle to an
ticipate the verdict of posterity, but I
would all wagers were laid upon so
sound a basis as this: When young
Mr.Kimball's black locks are whitened
by age still nothing better in archi
tecture of this kind will have been ac
complished. Even imitation cannot
vulgarize it because its beauty is of
line and must endure so long as the
stones last. When the Greek made
the vase which inspired Keat's "Ode
on a Grecian Urn'' he must have
known the chord of lines was perfect.
WBaoU age stall tbit gcacratioa waste?
Tfceu sfcak fcsaafa, fa midst of otker woe
Taaa ovn, a iricad to maa, to waom the
say's!,
'Beauty is tratfc, tratk beaut-tkat k afl
Ye kaow oa carta asd all ye seed to fcaow."
Queen Victoria's grand children are
in the habit of playing tennis seven
days in the week on the lawn at Os
born house or wherever the queen
chances to be in summer. Observing
what it is customary to consider a
desecration of the day, the queen's
neighbors were shocked and addressed
a written remonstrance to this grand
mother of say forty grandchildren.
The queen was shocked by the im
pertinence and replied that it was no
one's affair what her grandchildren
did, that they bad done nothing she
did not approve of. that tennis was an
innocent amusement suited to Sunday
afternoons in summer, etc. etc Her
letter is making more discussion and
is read with more interest than any
of the queen's previous literary pn
ductions. She is the head of the
Church of England and is more or less
distinguished for piety. Tnis ex
pression will undoubtedly lessen the
veneration which many of her subjects
have cultivated for her. They forget
that the queen is really a German and
the difference between the continental
and Puritan sabbath. On the'eonti
nent in Spain, France, Germany and
Italy the people go to church in the
morning and in the afternoon family
and neighborly groups play cards,
dance and drink coffee or beer. The
Sunday we keep is the Puritan appli
cation of the Jewish law. We have
grown so accustomed to the negative
of activity and anything like recrea
tion on Sunday that most people insist
such an observance is enjoined by the
New Testament. On the contrary no
such regulations are to be found ex
cept in Christ's recognition of the
commandments. He was several
times reproved for ignoring the letter
of the law. But the Protestant and
Catholics of the continent were in
fluenced very little by Puritanism,
whereas it is the bone and sinew of
American religious thoughtand habit.
Queen Victoria is of the continent
and her grandchildren are the gayer
by a continental sabbath.
There can be no question about the
innocent nature of lawn tennis, but
there are few American parents who
would allow their children to play any
game on Sunday. Fiist, because they
fear it will lead to recklessness and
irreverence but more especially be
cause of the lingering Puritanism
which teaches that Sunday is a day
not to be enjoyed, but for meditation
and mortification and denial. The
heart of a child clings to joy, he loves
action and noise. Meditation, prayer
that iw not spectacular and before an
admiring mother and nurse, or in
duced by fear, is repugnant and all
the sufferings of adults to make him
observe the day according to the Puri
tan's code are only partially success
ful. The only effect appears in later
years when the habit of reverence and
observance, firmly implanted, in
youth, the only springtime blossoms
in a serious character willing to re
nounce happiness for duty.
In the clear yellow autumn light
the Omaha exposition was never so
beautiful. The plants and vines
banked up so cunningly against the
midway end of the lagoon are in bril
liant and rapidly changingcontrast to
the white cloisters they partially
cover. Then, the whole court, from
end to end, is filled with people. The
thousands of bootheels crunching tne
gravel and ringing on the tiles are a
human music very soothing to the
brave men who planned and built this
summer city. Everyone else who con
templates the ensemble rejoices tbat
thecreators are not to be embarrassed
by non-appreciation. Quite as in Chi
cago, just before frost began to crum
ble the beautiful white walls, the peo
ple of the United States are crowding
the exposition and the entrance fees of
the last two months turned financial
failure to success. Since the walls rose
and the grounds were laid out and
planted, since the buildings were first
illuminated, the success of the exposi
tion architecturally hag been con
ceded. The readiest recognition has
come from those possessing the widest
culture and knowledge. The Courier
once ventured to criticise the admin
istration arch. The criticism'was ill
considered. In its position it is an
object of much beauty, sustaining in
dignity and triumph its. arch-festal
character. The ornamental detail,
though not so rich and varied as at
the Chicago fair, is satisfying. The
Jacey frieze or railing on top of the
electricity building is an arrangement
in cogwheels just as ingenius and
characteristic as the Turkey cornice
at the world's fair. The reserve and
refinement, strength and unity of it,
in part and in whole, tends to a grow
ing conviction of the patient genius
of the architects. In only fourteen
days the gates of the fair city will
close forever. The waters of the la
goon will stain the walls, perhaps tire,
set by tramps incited by lumber deal
ers, who object to having their market
shaken by the sale of so large a quan
tity of second-band lumber, will
blacken the whole view. Anyway, the
weather will not be cajoled by the
board of directors or President Wat
tles to let the frail staff alone It will
crack and peel and drop, exposing the
skeleton, as soon as Jack Frost bills
the town for Winter. "So slip the
work of men back to the earth again."
But, like the fabric of a dream, or the
famous lost chord, this vision will not
fade from the minds of this genera
tion but will remain as a permanent
standard of beauty and elegance.
'
The exposition grounds lack waste
baskets. Many a little boy and girl
taught by their teachers and members
of city improvement associatiocs not
to throw fruit rinds and papers on
walks or streets go searching for the
baskets that are not there. Finding
none, the chiH places the unsightly
remains of a lunch in a corner and the
training of many months suffers a
shock. 1 he charming arcades which
connect the buildings are disfigured
by papers and old fruit. Where no
waste boxes are provided visitors can
not oe blamed for throwing away en
cumbering boxes and bags, but the
management should have provided re
ceptacles for such rubbish. At the
world's fair it took the people a little
while to learn that the admonition
displayed all over the grounds not to
throw trash anywhere but in the
waste baskets meant business and tbat
an offender would be reprimanded and
made to pick up what he had ruth
lessly thrown down. After the idea
had once penetrated the sub-consciousness
of the men who are accustomed to
spit in street cars and "n steps and
walks and of the women and men too,
accustomed to throw papers and rub
bish into the streets, the baskets were
found by the garbage man on bis early
morning round to be filled with all
sorts of rubbish. For the ffrst time
in America a crowd had respect for it
self and the race Wondering hands
filled baskets in a public place which
before had defaced public property by
vendal signatures and wanton sloven
liness. The grounds were kept neat
and seemly, but far more important
than the aspect of things, was the
effect upon the men and women them
selves who went home to village or
farm and for the first time perhaps
appreciated the squalid ugliness of
their surroundings produced by their
own untidy habits. The vision of a
city set in smooth green lawns,
gemmed with flower beds, which, for
the first time, they did not destroy or
deface, followed them. The inspira
tion of beauty induced them to look
to their own yards and then to at
tempt to improve their own city.
Much of the effect of the beauty at
Omaha is destroyed by untidyness. It
is only at night when the kind moon
gilds things ugly and beautiful and
the rows and crescents of electric
lights jewel the gravel walks that the
human squalor is obscured. Buc it is
a pity that in the beneficent result of
