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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 5, 1898)
VOL.13. NO. 44 ESTABLISHED IN U PRICE FIVE CENTS. V s ;2 .& - '- -A- i 1 LINCOLN. NBBR., SATURDAY. NOVEMBER 5, 1898. fifeS - mMBR" GKTUKDIIC TBS POSTOFFICK AT LINCOLN AS 8KCONO CLASS MATTKX. PUBLISHED EVEBY SATURDAY IE COIRIER raiMTIK UD NBUSIIK GO Office 1132 N street. Up Stairs. Telephone 384." SARAH B. HARRIS. Editor Subscription Kates In Advance. Per annum - 2? Six months i Three months One month Single copies 05 Thk Courier will not be responsible for toI untary communications unless accompanied tr "Smmunications. to receWe attention, must be stoned bj tno full name of the writer, not merely as a guarantee of good faith, but for publication if advisable, OBSERVATIONS. The fourteenth annual report of ' the Bureau of Animal industry gives the number and value of horses, mules, milch cows, oxen and other cattle, sheep and swine in the United States for the years 1867 to 1896. inclusive, and by states for the years 1870 to 1896, inclusive. These statistics, with those on the imports and exports of animals and animal products for the years 1892 to 1895, inclusive, make the volume valuable to all who desire to have such facts in form for ready ready reference. At the outbreak of the Cuban war most of the people and many news papers were violently opposed to what has been termed expansion. It is an instance of the molding effect of cir cumstances on opinion that it is only the occasional, isolated man that is now opposed to expauding the boun daries of the United States till they include Cuba and Porto Rico on the east and the Philipines on the west. The change has been produced not by any national land grabbingdisposition, but because, having once acquired a territory, whether by war or other wise, it is inconsistent and repugnant to return it to the tyrannous rule from which this country has rescued it. Therefore we will keep the Phili pines, Porto Rico and Cuba, not be cause we need the territory, but be cause there is nothing else a republic can do. The Midway department of every exposition is demoralizing. Both at Chicago and at Omaha many of the shows on the Midway were mere de vices to get money without offering a satisfactory equivalent and this fault was the least. Some of the spectacles were demoralizing and had no other excuse for being. The badly painted picture called Triiby was a daub not superior in quality to those which decorate the outside of side show screens, but crowds poured in to see it on the invitation of the barker at the door, whose hideous grins indicated more than it is polite to set down. There were others, like Ilagenback's, the sinking of the Maine, the Ostrich farm and many unremembered spec tacles, that were interesting and not shocking. But several hours on the Midway was quite sufficient to give an unpleasant impression or tawdry ness, cheapness and imposture not easily dissipated even by the beauty of the lagoon and its surroundings. It is ungrateful to criticise -what has paid for itself besides attracting thousands to Nebraska, but the same result should be possible of accomplishment without the importation of the sights of the Tenderloin. If a vote were taken on the subject there is little doubt that the city and the state would vote gladness that the fair is ended Not altogether because the Midway was corrupting the youth but the merchants who supply the smaller markets have missed the buyers who were crowding the shops of Omaha. The Leader-Independent of Greeley reproduces an observation printed in these columns three weeks ago about Queen Victoria and her practice of the continental Sunday rules instead of those adopted by the Puritans and kept by their descendants. The edi tor of that paper reproaches the editor of this one for "seeming to plead for the continental Sabbath instead of the Sabbath of the Puritans." The remarks in question, instead of being a plea for the continental Sab bath, were intended to remind ad mirers and critics of Queen Victoria, and she has many more of the former than of the latter, that she is German bred, that her traditions are German and that under English custom she is in sympathy with the habits of her ancestor's home. Furthermore it was a plea for charity in criticising cus toms not our own. Then, as Queen Victoria is the nominal head of the English church, her conduct was striking and provoked comment. As to the continental Sabbath as an in stitution, its adoption into this coun try would be very unfortunate. The highest and best qualities of Ameri cans are those inherited from the Puritans. By reverence, seriousness, industry, by self denial which in the Puritan was sometimes self-mortificationby the steadiness with which we hold to our religion and traditions shall we continue to conquer. The continental Sabbath is shocking to the Puritan product and is only accepted by him after a moral lesion. It is worth while to teach the rebellious heart of a child that the first day belongs to God and that the stores and shops are closed and the beasts of the Held resting because that one day in seven He made for a rest and pause wherein an invisible mightiest force may com mune with the littlest child. The in fluence of that pause repeated fifty two times a year has been of incalcu lable influence in making the history of this country. The child may at first lay down his toys petulantly, but as he grows up the memory of Sundays at home with his father and mother interpreting the messages of life to him. at the cost of their own repose, make him, in turn, a Puritan and a worthy heirof their sacrifices Some of the continental nations have wandered a long way off the road of racial development and in the case of the French, more than any other, it may be because their religion has degenerated into formalism and they have forgotten the meaning of Sunday. A good American will never advocate the continental Sabbath or any institution tending to decrease reverence or Idealism. In order to re pudiate any such intention in the carelessly written article referred to the last sentence is republished here with: "The only effect appears in later years when the habit of rever ence and observance, firmly implanted, in youth, the only springtime, blos soms in a serious character willing to renounce happiness for duty." The death of Harold Frederic, the brilliant newspaper correspondent and novelist, in consequence of a stroke of apoplexy, is being investigated by the coroner and his jury. The christian scientist who advised him to take a ride a few days before his death, ad mitted that she knew nothing about his disease or that it was necessary to keep patients in Mr. Frederic's con dition very quiet. On account of the prominence of the deceased and the peculiarly fatal course urged by Mrs Mills, the Christian scientist doctor, the case is being watched with great interest on both sides of the ocean, which is not so wide nor yet so deep and impassable as the gulf which di vides the practice of and belief in Christian science from the rest of the world. The science of medicine does not develope or add to the really small store of knowledge gathered since the days of Aesculapius, very rapidly, but there are a few facts which have been establishtd by several hundred years of experiments and are thus, humanly speaking, indisputable. To such be long the dietetic treatment of typhoid fever and the quiet prescribed for a patient suffering from a recent apoplectic stroke. The liquid food and inaction are not remedial agents, but solid food and exercise cause death. In advising Mr. Frederic to pay no attention to the advice of his physician in regard to keeping quiet. Mrs. Mills, whom the correspondents describe as a large swarthy woman, who charges her patients a guinea a week, disputed a tew established as firmly as the one called gravitation. From the standpoint of an outsider the death of Mr. Frederic was the direct result of a fanatic disobedience to a natural law. On the other hand the Christian scientists deny the ex istence of matter which cuts away the ground on which and from which the materialists argue, so the discussion stops, for we have come to the gulf just referred to. Last week Councilman Woodward published his latest and newest scheme for increasing the debt of the city and raising the rate of taxation. He expresses the opinion that the municipality should expend thousands of dollars in laying water pipe, pur chasing expensive pumps, digging wells for reservoirs, etc. lie wants an emergency declared and the debt contracted at once. What a relief it would be to have some member of the council suggest some measure that looked towards retrenchment and economy rather than to increased and unnecessary expenditures. Councilman Webster did last April introduce an ordinance, the purpose of which was to curtail municipal expenses; when it came up forconsideration Council man Woodward cast twenty-two votes at one session in favor of increasing expenses above the limit fixed by the ordinance. In his communication Mr. "Woodward says: "We have enough of these bare walls standing in the city at the present time, without allowing more." The bare walls here referred to are doubtless the ruins of buildings destroyed by fire. Why are the buildings thus destroyed not re built? One reason is that the city council has raised the rate of taxation so high that the income of the prop erty will not pay the fixed charges. Bare walls and vacant buildings fail to teach those charged with the ad ministration of municipal affairs that something, should oe done towards curtailing expenses. The legal limit of expenditure having been exceeded it is now demanded that an emergency be declared as a cover for further un necessary oxpenditures and this by one who seeks the position of mayor and who voluntarily and publicly ex presses himself thus: "It is certainly wrong not to have two pumps at this station, because they are liable to break at any time. What would the citizens do in case of a large tire, if that pump should break down and have no other to take its place?" The quotation is not intelligible ow ing to Councilman Woodwaid's singu lar uee of English. A conscientious attempt to paraphrase what is evi dently intended as an exhortation to the public does not simplify it. As: "It is certainly immoral or wicked not to have two pumps at this sta tion, because they (two pumps) are liable to break at any time. What