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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 18, 1899)
r VOL. XIV. NO. VI 1. BSTABLISHBD IN 1880 PRICE FIVU CENTS LINCOLN, NBBR., SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 180. 1 Entered in the postoffice at Lincoln as second class matter. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY lit THf COURIER PRINTING AND PUBLISHING CO Office 1132 N Btrcot, Up StiiirB. Telephone 384. SARAH R. HARRIS, Editor Subscription Katop In Advance. Por annum $100 Six months 75 Throo months 50 One month 20 Single copies 05 Tin: Courier will not bo responsible for vol untary communications unless accompanied by roturu postHKo. , .... . Communications, to rccnlvo attontion, must bo stalled by tho full iiiuuo of tho writer, not mnroly as a uuaranteo of Rood fultli, but for publication if advisablo, g OBSERVATIONS. 8 The city attorney's letter to Chief of Police llosiuhtiid in which lie asks the chief to give a demerit to the po liceman whose beat includes the cor ner of Twelfth and N streetB, for not notifying the vigilant street commis sioner that part of the fence around tho cellar on that corner was down is based on his ignorance of the fact that the patrolman has notified the street commissioner several times in regard to the dangerous condition of tho fence around this deep excavation. The records of the police office are carefully kept and the several occa sions on which the street commlsslon sioncr lias been notified of tho absence of any protection around this cellar are recorded. It is encouraging that the city attorney has begun to notice that someone is to blame for our dan gcroussidesvalks. It does not require a special knowledge of the duties of the different functionaries to recog nize that it is the street commission er's businesa after being notified once of a particularly dangerous condition to remedy it instantly. Yet Mr. Llnd sey has had his attention called to this particular place a number of times and ho has allowed weeks to go by without ordering its repair. There Is a still inoro dangerous cellar cor ner, "because it is not lighted, on Fourteenth and P, which has no rail ing at all around It and where any one who wishes to break a limb may do so any night and have a sure case against tho city for at least five thous and dollars. Tho street commissioner has tho power and it Ishlsduty rather than that of the chief of police to re pair such places. A valuable commis sioner would not need to be informed by the police of such large pitfalls. Consider the present street commis sioner as an applicant to a railroad company for the position of track in. speotor or common section hand. No railroad superintendent would seri ously consider his application. Or if, through some sudden contingency, as, for instance, a strike or an epidemic, he should bo employed, ills fathomless ignorance and neglect of ills duties, unless his work were supplemented by that of a competent and conscicn tious man, would cause so many caias trophies that he wmld be obliged t take his own life or run for it. Net, the citv of Lincoln pajs a man seventy-live dollars u month who, oven when repeatedly notified, fails to cor rect a condition dangerous to life and limb and hence potentially costly to the city. The learned city attorney is of course aware that the largo damages awarded to plaintiffs against the city since his incumbency of the oflice might have been prevented by ordin ary watchfulness on tho pare of the street commissioner. Hut having failed to advise the council how best to insure the city against future dam age suits Tiik Courier takes this oc casion to remind the city attorney that the seventy-five dollars a month should represent services performed, that those duties arc specified in tho statutes, that the present incumbent does not (perform them, and that in consequence judgements are piling up against tho city much faster than the city can pay them. If the street commissioner is really unable to Improve dangerous condi tions, why not discharge him and apply his salary to a judgment fund? As the city attorney is conversant with tho law and the liability of a city which docs not fence in pitfalls, it is liis place to advise the council what to do in these lamentable cir cumstances in which the city finds herself, possessed of a commissioner who does not inspect, and when pit falls are reported falls to act. If In the cases in which Mr. Webster has attempted to defend the city, -and which have gone against him, it lias been clearly shown that the accidents occurred because of a condition, to avert or modify which wo pay an offi cer seventy-five dollars a month, Is It not, as consequently, the attorney's place to notify the council that their man is costing the city in excess of ills salary five thousand dollars or so several times a year in judgments? General Webster would have almost the unanimous support of the taxpay ers of this city If he would recom mend the plan proposed oy The Courier, viz.; the employment of a competent carpenter who would, from day to clay, inspect the walks and re pair what dangerous places ho found. Such a man would prevent accidents and consequent damage suits. The present man, or another with the same methods, cannot bo much longer en dured. Sucli service, intolerable to a private person or a corporation, is fast becomingso hateful tothocitlzenswlio pay the commissioner's salary and are still further assessed to p;ty the dam ages caused by the failure to perform liis duties that, in the nature of tilings, a change must occur soon. Edmond Demoulin's hook, Tho Su perinrite of the Anglo Saxon, ought to be adopted as a text book by every co'lege in 1 liis country, (seems to me.) Not hecau0 it e-lebrates the Anglo ft.ixon and increases 'the i-ll'-sati-fae-tion of every niciilier of that haughty race at his most haughty period of lite, nor because undergraduates need any additional reasons for self gratu lation, but because tho college student is tempted by an unfettered mind, lie is without a boss, and his allowances drop upon him like manna, without any preliminary perspiration oii his brow, ho is not coerced to think so or to act so on account of the necessities of a job which probably influences his humble parent who supplies him with money. Tho undergraduate is given to soaring. There is little reason why he should not soar. lie is in contact with life, but life is cloaked and gloved. Between him and the world there is perhaps a little man with a stubbly beard, a turndown collar and baggy trousers, tho hireling, it may be, of a corporation. In appearance ho is not so attractive as the young ster in the tall collar, irreproachable linen and creased trousers. And men tally there Is even a greater difference between the young man and his father. The latfer has learned by struggling that conformity to conven tion and a system creates less friction than independent acting and think ing and hence he is obedient to tho rules of a corporation if lie happen to be working for one, or to the laws of commerce if he chance to be in busi ness for himself. These rules are to his son as far-fetched and unnecessary as arithmetic rules to the little scholar who has not yet worked many sums by them. Thus the student contem plates the customs of society and com merce, which, by long agreement be tween man and man, are more binding than laws on the statute books, as matters which lie can change when lie goes out Into the world If they happen to be out of harmony with things as they should be. Human rights, as expressed by the Declaration of Inde pendence and various reformers and sociologists, have few correspondencies in real life. The modern political economist who writes tho text books consulted by the undergraduate sees no remedy for the evils of competition but some kind of socialism or depend ence upon society and the state to chango tho present system of "every uian for himself and the devil take tho hindmost." M.Demotilins' recog nition of the iulluencc which the par ticularistic formation of Anglo Saxon society has had upon the predomi nance and spreading power of tho Anglo Saxon in contradistinction to the inlluonce of the socialistic forma tion of the Latin races makes his book valuable as an antidote or counter agent to Karl Marx and other advo cates of the benefits of socialism. Tlio wealth of the world, the stores of science, literature and art have been made by individuals and not by so ciety and tho Tartars and Mongol's among whom society is tlio most com pact and paternal in tho tribal form have the scantiest treasures of civili zation. Tho Anglo Saxon on tlio con trary has developed the Individual to the point of break'ing away from all dependence upon society in tho shape of the family, the community or the state. Hut to reconcile one to tin; evils of the formation partlcularisto, there is nothing better to contemplate than the ignorance and weakness of those portions of tlio human race which have adopted the formation soclale. Mr. Oscar A. Million, who died in Lincoln on Monday, February l.'l, came to Lincoln in 1871, where he has since lived. He was bom in Wakefield, England, in W.l'2. His early youth was spent working in a dye house for tlio support of his widowed mothr. During tills time ho attended a me chanics' school and prepared himself for newspaper work. For fifteen years previous to his coming to America he was connected witli the Bradford Ob server, first as a reporter and finally as managing editor. In the summer of 1871, in company with tlio London agent of the Burlington and Missouri USvcr Railroad company, lie met Mr. GeorgoS Harris.tliocommissionerof B. &M. lands in Iowa and Nebraska, and lie induced him to como to Nebraska. Mr. Million's fervid descriptions of the soil, climate and beauty of Ne braska were printed in tlio newspa pers of England, they wore translated into Dutch, Bohemian, Russian, Swe dish, Norwegian and Gorman. The large settlements of colonies from these nations along the line of the road wore very largely duo to Mr. Mul len's power of accurate description and Ills appreciation .of the advan tages and beauties of tlio boundless plains of Nebraska, at that time un cultivated, and to an unproplietic soul not especially promising. His English newspaper acquaintances wore glad to print his letters discriptive of a land just ready to break Into bloom of corn and wheat and rye, until thoy discovered that every lettor contained information of a certain railroad com pany that had thousands of acres of land to noil on ten year's credit at six per cent Interest Then they wrote Mr. Million their advertising rates. The sale of the laud was so rapid tiiat advertising was soon unnecessary and Mr. Million accepted the position of court reporter of this district. He kept ills position till a few years ago. i 'I 1