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VOL. XIV. NO. IV.
HSTABLISHBD IN 1880
PRICE FIVli CENTS
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LINCOLN, NBBK.. SATURDAY. JANUARY 28.18011.
H MTirvQ
KNTEKKD IN THE P08TOFFICE AT LINCOLN A8
8KCOND CI.A88 MATTKU.
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." HRQERVATONS. S
O v"V
4V00''
It Is proposed to ask the legislature
to mako an appropriation to ereet a
statue of Abraham Lincoln in this
ilty. This whole country, the fra
ternity which exists today between
the sections, many cities named for
him, and histories and biographies In
numerable are monuments to Abra
ham Lincoln. It is written in tho
law that a slto should be selected and
a city built thereon and it should be
called Lincoln. All tills was done
and tills city is a monument to a
western man, who, more than any
other western man, was a typical
American. The humour, the shrewd
sense, the tenderness, the simplicity,
the forgctf ulness of trilles and the
steady adherence to the main issue,
of Abraham Lincoln's character is
truly American. Foreigners are al
ways searching for tho type American
and it lias been surprising that In
Abraham Lincoln they do not recog
nize the complete type, even to tho
vein of coarseness characteristic or a
strong intellect reared in tho west
where there is everything necessary to
the production of a tough libre, but
not much of that atmosphere of art
or literature or that classical social
symphony which reilnes the speech,
the manners and occasionally and
eventually, tho thoughts. Notwith
standing that foreign writers do not
appreciate either Mr. Lincoln's liter
ary excellence, or his symbolic repre
sentation of what is most truly Amer
ican, he Is first In the hearts of his
countrymen and can never bo forgot
ten. In a. few years tho Cuban war will
have been relegated to iho history
books. It will be necessary to look it
up in the encyclopedias to llnd out
what It was all about. Like the war
of 1812 its elTects are likely to be of
much more importance than its inci
dents or causes. The young Nebraska
men who eagerly responded to the cull
for volunteers, who left collego or
business to cuter upon a routine of
daily drill, of unappetizing food, and
who accepted a privates humble
place cheerfully, keeping In mind that
they wore doing It for their country,
and who linally died of fever at Chick
amauga or Manila, arc likely to be
forgotten. They arc buried at Chick
unmuga or Manila and one of them
lies in the Pad lie ocean, which re
ceived his body after the funeral ser
vice on shipboard. Those buried on
land have only a narrow piece of board
with a number and name' painted on
it, to remind the casual passer-by
that a soldier who gave his young
life for his country, lies beneath
Their fever wasted flesh will not en
dure long and unless the state whom
their self sacri flee and patriotic Uevo
tion lias made honorable among states,
recognizes it in some way, their names
will be forgotten and their sacrifice
will seem to be for naught. Oblivion
may not be the ill it seems, but all
men dread and spend their lives in
endeavor to make u name which may
be remembered when their bodies are
dust These young men gave their
future, they gave the" homes they
might have made, tiicir career in poli
ticsfor only those intensely inter
ested in the affairs of the nation in
listed, they gave their hopes of dis
tinction in literature, in science or in
commerce. All the possibilities and
small victories and signs of future
greatness they gave to their country
with an heroic generosity that kept
back nothing. The least the state
can do and perhaps the only thing it
can do, is to erect a monument to the
Nebraska boys who died in the Cuban
war, whether of fever or of gunshot
wounds, it matters not. Too young
to have made a name for themselves
the state can write their names on a
shaft of marble so that when the
cheap little boards which mark the
place where their heroic young bodies
lie, arc rotted, in their Nebraska home
people may read that in the year 18!)7
tliCBe boys, whose lips had scarcely
lost tho tender curves of babyhood,
gave up their lives for love of country
and a knightly wisli to succor the
oppressed. The sight of tlitse boys as
tlioy marched to the station, aftercn
listment, was both noble and heart
breaking. With faces paled by the
leave-taking, but with eyes shining
with the light of high resolve, they
inarched away Into a routine that
tried their devotion more severely
than war und to an unaccustomed dis
comfort of dally existence for which
no previous experience had prepared
them. Instead of erecting a monu
ment to Lincoln, who does not need it
for remembrance' sake, let us civet
one to the Nebraska boys who died in
the Cuban war of 1807. Nothing that
has occurred since the civil war has
made so strong an impression on this
country as the character and quality
and appearance of the volunteers as
they marched olf. They were of such
a high type of young manhood. There
were no shuilling feet nor sidelong
glances, The ranks were tilled with
young Idealists, whose broad fore
heads, clear eyes and ruddy skin
showed that they were offering lives
wortli living to their country. Itwas
a concrete lesson of what it means to
beau American. And there is not u
citizen of tills state who would not
willingly be taxed in order that a
monument may be erected to the
memory of the boys who died in the
camps of Chickamauga or Manila, or
on Bhipboard or wherever their fervent
spirits completed the sacrifice of the
body.
Nebraska has never shown any
formal appreciation of the soldier
boys. She let them go without paying
them for tho period they epont in
drill before leaving the state and as
sum I relays have drifted back no pub
lic recognition of their devotion lias
been made by the state whose name
their regiments bore. Michigan sent
Pullman cars after her wounded sol
diers, so did Maine, und as the pallid
soldiers arrived at the little towns
they lived in the peop'c threw up
their hats and cheered them. I think
it must liavo done the sick soldiers
good to know that that abstraction,
the state, for which they had enlisted
and almost died, was anxious to do
them honor and to make them com
fortable. Illinois towns have given
banquets to celebrate the return of
her regiments and to say a public
thank you for a public service. We
have not done much, cither, for the
Eick or the dead soldiers. A monu
ment to those who dice' may be of
some little comfort to the mothers and
fathers and sweethearts who have
been bereaved by this war. And the
stale is not absolved from doing her
pari because the dead cannot hear us.
The mu filed cars and the dumb lips
made a contract with us before they
died and theirs lias been fulfilled.
What Rome died of has furnished
the point of bo many orations that,
after all, the dissolution of that
mighty empire was not for nothing.
Not that the effect of any oration or
exordium is apt to be lasting, but a
truth repeated a sullicient number of
times wears its way into flinty hearts
us effectively us tho wuter dropping
from year to year upon the stone,
finally hollows it The lesson of the
collapse of the Roman empire has,
therefore, in the course of u few hun
dred years, worn. its way into the con
sciousness of the world so deeply that
the absorption of men in mutter to
the deptli of ignoring entirely tho
spiritual meaning of life lias become
voluntary and recognized suicide Wo
have learned that the same cause pro
duces the same e licet and that the
Unmans were even as you and 1. They
owned nearly the whole world and
traded it oil" together witli their souls
for a little money.
If tho character of the men a people
Is content to be represented by Is
vicioHs, tho fate of Home Is Indicated
witli sullicient clearness to Justify
newspapers, preachers and all those
who have studied the body politic, in
announcing the presence of dangerous
symptoms.
When Mayor Graham was nomi
nated it was urged that he was a good
business man and would manage the
finances of the city well. Nobody
claimed that his record was creditable
or that lie possefsed the respect of tho
community or that his character was
at least that of the average man en
titling him to represent a city made
up of the good and the very bad and
the medium. (Alas! there are no very
good to raise the average of the very
bad.) No, everybody, even his sup
porters, knew that lie was without
ideals and had few scruples Yet he
was elected because, It was thought
that the shrewdness which he had
displayed in the conduct of Ills own
business, would keep him within the
law, and if there were any advantages
in unscrupiilouHuess, the city might
bo the gainer The history of Mayor
Graham's administration Is exactly
what the citlzons who elected him de
serve. The HHine arguments are now
being used to bring about the election
of Mr. Thompson, who lacks the one
essential qualification for an Import
ant representative position. He is a
man of foree.u self-made man who has
done what his hands found to do with
out a too fastidious examination of the
task. As director of a bank which a
yeur ufter his secret withdrawal from
it, failed, lie incurred suspicions which
are now blocking the way to the ful
fillment of an ambition that when lie
first announced it. was received with
Incredulity. IT he believed the bank
perfectly sound when he withdrew
from it, It is difllcult to understand
why lie did it secretly, and what
means lie used to induce the president,
Mr. Mosher, and the cashier, Mr. Out
calt, to give him their notes and to
secure them by mortgages which were
not recorded until news of the sus
pension reached Ills confidential clerk.
As every man is held innocent by the'
law, no mauer how strong the evi
dence against him, until the public
prosecutor shall have proved him
guilty as charged, in a court of law,
neither should Mr. Thompson be con
demned because he has neveroxplulned
now he wus nble to muke Mr. Mosher
give him his note for $20,000 for bunk
stock when he (Mi. Mosher) knew that
the bank was looted. He should riot
bo utterly condemned, but neither
should lie bo elected to u position so
eminent und honorable that even men
of tho most spotless and untainted
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