The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903, October 15, 1898, Image 1
T "" - ' - ' -i; -. i' i?B?' .T8F"T" '- """ 'Vi-c- k t. - (V if f.- fc I ,!?. Fivr- FX VOL.13. N0.4L ESTABLISHED IN PRICE FlVti CENTS. -afiE ; J u Wi..rylitllH nUHI J k.y X. o' mw: -: . y sav bbbbtb bbbtbm bbbB jBBsMBsiMBs3tBBSBB7a5SBi9 h v bsbbP LINCOLN. NBBR., SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1888. brraxDix thk rosTomcx at likcoui as aacnsD CLASS MATTXX. PUBLISHED EVERT SATUBDAY IKCMIEI WIITHK IH fttlSIIK GO Offlce 1132 N stret, Up Stairs. Telephone 384. SABAHB. HARRIS, Editor Subscription Kates In Advance. Par annum 1 22 8ix months 75 Three months 0 One month 20 Siaglecopies 05 Tmi Couanw will sot be respoMiU for toI aaUrr eomsanaieatioBS unless accompanied by Commanicatioas, to receira attention, mmat be simed br tne full name of the writer, not merely as guaraatoe of good faith, but Jor publication it adUable, 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