VOL.13. NO. 44
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LINCOLN. NBBR., SATURDAY. NOVEMBER 5, 1898.
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SARAH B. HARRIS.
Editor
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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
