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
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