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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (April 8, 1899)
THE COURIER. was u real altar, that "ho contracted large debts and wandered over I0ng land indulging in freakish excesses and was at last'' (unfortunately) "dis covered in rags." She says "the eternal feminine thwarted him at every turn, that his life was full of strange disappearances, which clouded It and perplex his biographers, and that he drifted from place to place, from strait to strait, from disgrace to disgrace, pursued by an Implacable fury -a hate which never slept,'' etc. liichard Kealf was truly a poet, but for all the misery he wrought upon himself and others there is no logic In the excuse, old fashioned though it be, that it was the woman's fault in stead of his own unacknowledged re sponsibility to the race and to life. Mr. Walt Mason, who questioned the genius of Kealf and criticised Miss father's apology referred to her as the best woman writer on Nebraska pa pers. The sex qualification might as well be omitted. Miss Gather is im measurably the best literary and dra matic critic whom Nebraska publish ers have ever had the good fortune and good taste to employ. It is to her large power of appreciation and in terpretation to less gifted people that she owes her distinguished reputation as a dramatic critic. In this capacity, feeling the dearth of real talent and the disproportionate weight of eoni mouplacenuss which discourages many critics; I think Miss Gather is apt to forgive errant and erring genius too freely. Upon reading the eitlqucuponKip ling'Which appeared InTheCouricr of March fourth, Mr. Frank McClure, one of the publishers of the Day's Work, wrote Miss Gather a letter in which he said It was the best newspaper criti cism of the book he had seen. It is perhaps unprofessional for the pub lisher of a paper or a magazine either to praise or blame any of his regular contributors, except in the advertis ing department, but so long as The Courier is neither a "great daily" nor a magazine, nor a member of any editorial association, a conviction of unprofessionallsm sentences nobody connected with the paper to any par ticular penalty. Consequently these pages are free from any conventional restrictions. Speaking of the newspaper criti cisms upon her work, Miss Blanche Walsh said to Miss Gather that some body on the Lincoln Journal had called her work "immature,"' and that it was such a funny piece of work al together, she had cut it out and sent it to her family. It is the same critic who "tenderly commiserated Mr. Sol Smith Russel becuuse the cold and cruel cast would have none of him and in a haughty rhetorical Might added: 'He is of the west, he belongs to us.' " This In spite of the fact that Mr, Russell plays to standing room only even in New York. Destructive critics are apt to be very ignor ant and overwhelmingly self satistied. If they ever get within sight of the gates of pearl they will call up what they suppose to be an architectural expression and try to remember what they have been laboriously taught on the subject, and very likely call them "crude."' Only the critic whose lips have been touched with a coal dares to uuqualitlcdly admire his kindred. American military rule In Cuba has made Havana habitable and actually cleansed politics. Harper's Weekly, a consistent opponent from the first to American Interference with Spanish rule in Cuba, admits that "the politi cal, social and sanitary conditions pre vailing in the Islands were such that they cannot be compared with any thing known to North American life. In politico, corruption, ignorance and Incompetence marked every branch and grade of the public service. The customs otllcials stole from the mer chants. The merchants robbed the government by bribing the apprais ers. Every tax was milked before it reached the treasury. At every point of contact between the citizen and the otllcial, the taxpayer was bled and the citizen was robbed From the bottom to the top the plundering went on, the amounts of money stolen, Increasing as the grade approached the palace of the captain-general, who was thcchlef criminal. Under the rule which wus carried on for the benefit of captain generals, every taxpayer and all busi ness interests were under the harrow. The tobacco and sugar growers were robbed in so large a measure, that their ability to pay at all, afforded a strik ing instance of the wonderful wealth of the island. In no savage city in the world can the filthy conditions be worse than were those of Havana as described by Colonel Waring and General Greene." All this lias been changed. Havana has been cleaned. "The Havana mer chants first driven to consternation by tin order which prevented them from making favorable terms with custom house clerks, then astonished by the frank Ingenuousness of Colonel Tasker Rliss, the collector are now delightedly and for the first Mine, pay ing duties on their Imports to men who neither rob nor accept bribes." This change has been accomplished by military men trained in the vigor ous schools of both the academic and field course which graduates generals and oolonels. With a high standard of personal honor and self respect, they obey orders and enforce them and It Is very rare that a bribe taker or bribe giver is found among them. Far different will the Cubans find the carpet baggers, who, In all probability, will be appointed in the near future to succeed these conscientious army offi cers. To avoid the terrible ellect on the Cubans of an exposition of what the real carpet bagger is, it is sug gested by Harper's Weekly, which seems at last to be reconciled to an American occupation of Cuba, "that we must maintain the soldiers and their arbitrary authority or adopt a system which shall give to our colonial possessions the services of American citizens who are capable of carrying on those distant governments in a manner that will benefit their people and reflect credit on the mother republic." The army in the Philippines is not only fighting for America but for civilization. That army has no poli tics and the brave boys of the First Nebraska, who have so gallantly earned distinction in that army de serve the thanks which the legislature was prevented from sending by a gov ernor who meanly refused to sign his name to a document which might have cheered the homesick, loyal sol diers In their exile. No pretense of objections to expansion or the posses sion of opinions on peace and war, can excuse so contemptible an action. The populist party in its eagerness to have a policy and be In opposition to the administration comes very near being anti-American in such a stupid action as Governor Poynter's veto of the resolution of commendation and appreciation of the conduct of the First Nebraska by the legislature. He has never been a soldier himself doing his best in camp and risking his life every day for his honor as a man and for his country six thousand miles, more or less, away, or he would not have refused the poor meed of thanks, offered by more patriotic men than he to these boys in the Philip pines. It is said the governor decided to veto the message after an hour's con ference with Mr. Bryan. Even for consistency's sake and for the presi dential nomination it Is questionable if such an action was justifiable. Survivors of the Windsor hotel fire say that before the alarm was sounded the rooms and halls swarmed with dozens of murderous pugs bent on robbery who seemed to know just where valuables were kept and se cured them. It is surmised on ac count of their simultaneous and ap parently concerted appearance that the lire was planned and set by these men. While men and women and children were shrieking and jumping from windows the men kept a way of escape open and systematically plun dered the rooms of the wealthy guests who patronized tills hotel. Among the horrible memories of those who escaped arc the meetings witli these devils with shining eyes of greed and the evident determination to club anybody who should interfere with their quest. There can be no cer tainty, but it is supposed that some of the panic stricken women who found a man that refuge of the weak and terrified prowling about clung to him desperately and were brained for their mistake. If Zola had written such a tale he would be promptly con demned for pessimism and a distorted view of human nature. NIGHTFALL AND DAWN. (In Memory of Sam E. Low.) 0W MM i omMMMiflfl i THE PASSING SHOW I LWILLA GATHER t nnKinfooooonoooonoo(i ((! ixoo rjflftl His day was just begun, the east still red with dawn; His earthly path still wet with sparkling dew, His sky was bripht with hope awhile but all is gone, And solemn darkness shrouds the heavenly blue. He sought the higher levels of this life to find, And through the mists he saw his ideals gleam And strove to reach them, leaving sordid things behind; Till came the end of all his golden dream. The last great quietness hath fallen like the dark Across the brilliant day of his young life; The cruel shaft of death hath hit the shining mark And stilled the hero in the battle strife. And yet we hope his eyes behold a brighter day The like of which we mortale ne'er have seen; And that his feet now press a smooth and thornless path, And that his brow is wreathed with fadeless green. William Reed Dunroy. April 3, J899. "My boy, now that you are starting out in life, rnmembor, there are two kinds of women to uvoid; too murried and the unmarried." "How about the widows, Governor?" "Don't try, it would be useless." "My boy, I Bhould like you to Buccoed mo in the management of my business. Would jou likoto?" "Why, yes, Dad, but if you don't mind I would likoto wait until I am seven teen. I wnnt to be fully equipped." Tiik CouniKii is for sulo at the lead ing newsstand. Subscription price for one year is l. 'Phone ,'J84. "Gentle Northumberland, If thy offenses were upon record, Would it not shame tbee in so fair a troop To read a lecture on them?" Richard II. I am surprised and rather disconcerted to hoar that my remarks on the subject of Richard Roalf should have been con strued as a dofonso of that erratic genius' life. Nothing could have boon further from my intentions, and I think I said nothing to warrant such an inter pretation. I did, indeed, writo for my own paper an interview with FranciB Murphy, tho temperance roformor.which was a very ardent defense of Roalf, but that presontod Mr. Murphy's view and not my own. However, very much hot ter people than 1 have taken up tLe argument for tho defense. Col. R. J Hinton, who wrote the sympathetic memoir of Realf which appears in the published volumn of his works, is a tem perance reformer and a writer on that radical temperance organ, Tho Voice. Francis Murphy, who certainly needs no certificate of character wherever his great work has been heard of, says of Realf that "his weaknesses, grave as they were, to tho6e who knew him best seemed Btnall beside his noble qualities." Now one of three things must be true: either these men are fools, or they are hypo crites, or Realf had his redeeming vir tues. To call a man a sot and a biga mist is not characterization. It does not explain bis paradoxical existence, nor reconcile his contradictions. A man may be both of theBe and yet be of our common species, in many things very like the best of ub. If my article seemed to paliate his faults, it must have been merely because I tried to get at the man's motives, to understand the im pulses which drove him to wreak such wretchedness upon himself and others. For I maintain that of all his victims, he himself Buffered most, and then perhaps I sympathize with him a little because I know his wife, Catharine Cassiday, whom my friends in Nebraska do not. Knowing her, I can forgive him much. Shortly after my interview with Murphy was published, Bhe turned up, that ter rible woman whoso name is known and dreaded in every newspaper office in Pittsburg, and whose face, by her long cherishing of one Herce passion, has be come a veritable mask of hate. It was the same woman who rented a child from an orphan asylum when she wanted to claim alimony from Realf, and who has kept tho manuscripts of his poems all these years, refusing them to every pub lisher, as a sort of supreme vengeance against the dead. She appeared at the ofllce speechless with fury, her features twitching and jerking with the bitter hato which twenty years have not cooled. When she was calm enough to listen to reason I promised to write and publish her story, entirely from her standpoint, in her own words, which I did, though they were not pretty words by any means. This woman has been for years the most notorious termagant in Pittsburg, and Bhe huB accumulated a vocabulary which froezos one's blood. As nearly as I can judge she and Realf answer to Daudefs famous description of tho two cats sewed up in a loather bag and thrown in the hot sun to scratch each other to death. Her chief griev ance was, of course, "them other worn en," and she had a crazy story which she was never tired of reiterating about Realf once taking forty dollars which Bhe had hidden "in the family Bible, on tho center table, a marble table it was, too, in tho parlor,'' and buying cham pagne for an actress with it. That eeemed to he her casus belli. When I asked her why in the name of goodness m v mr