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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (April 15, 1899)
VO L. XIV. NO. XV. BSTABLISHBD IN 1886 PRICE F1VK CENTS LINCOLN, NKBR., SA'I URDAY, APRIL, 15, 189J). ENTEBEDIN THE POSTOFFICE AT LINCOLN AS SECOND CLASS MATTER. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY bt THE COURIER PRINTING AND PUBLISHING CO Office 1132 N street, Up Stairs. Telephone 384. SARAH B. HARRIS, Editor Subscription Katep In Advance. Per annum $100 8ix months ,. 75 Three months '. 50 One month 20 Single copies 05 The Cocbieb will not bo responsible for vol notary communications unless accompaniod by roturn postage Communications, to receive attention, must be signed by ttio full namo of tho writor, not meroly as a guarantoo of good faith, but for publication if advisable, g OBSERVATIONS. 8 Considering the history of Mayor Graham's administration, his fare well speech to the council is humor ous. He said that tho criticism of his conduct had been caused by ignorance and malice and in reality he had been a devoted servant of the taxpayers. His appointees, he intimated, had given perfect satisfaction. In his re view of tho water department he neg lected to draw a parallel between the conduct of that department under his own M,r. Byers and under the present water commissioner, but assumes the credit of Mr. Tjler's management. Perhaps if ex-Mayor Graham's ad ministration had been Detter the tax payer's would not have insisted upon a chief executive like Mayor Winnett, so that after all, the late administra tion was useful. Tho new mayor and council possess the conlidence of the public. The late mayor has been the object of suspicion ever blnce the revelations concerning the sale of policemen's and liremen's positions, and .any recommendations from the mayor aroused suspicions of a deal. Under these conditions he was of little service to the city and undoubtedly the close of his adminis tration is a relief to himself, the coun cil and the people. The attention of the street commis sioner lias been frequently directed to tho lilthy condition of tho alleys with out result, but Lincoln has a mayor now who is at tho samo time a doctor and consequently familiar witli the effect of rotting vegetable and animal matter upon the health of the citi zens. It lias been frequently urged that the present street commissioner attends to his duties. If the maj or as lie passes to and from his office will glance at the alleys piled witli all sorts of rubbish and already beginning to reek with unpleasant odors, he will be convinced that Mr. Llndsey lias not lavished much time on them. An elllclentand conscientious street commissioner would do more for the improvement of the forlorn and neg lected city we live In, than any num ber of new buildings, There Is little hope that anybody will be selected because he has peculiar qualifications of business ability, neatness and devo tion to duty. On the contrary, it has been the immemorial custom to bestow the street commissioncrship as the order of the garter is bestowed in England, purely as a decoration and with no expectation of any services In return. There are onerous duties sketched by the statutes for the street commissioner, but they have not been seriously considered, at least, by the present incumbent. Upon the fulfillment of these duties the health of the citizens and their children's health depends. Yet not withstanding this the office is still be stowed upon some ttiick-pated incom petent for "gallantry at the primaries" or on election day. Because putting things to rights, cleaning, scrubbing and an orderly arrangement of her surroundings is a woman's special heritage and her daily work I think this city metamor phosis can best be accomplished by a woman. Not every woman, but such a one as Is described in Proverbs. Tills tidy woman who keeps the accounts of her own household and brings order and beauty wherevershe reigns dwells in every village and city in America. If the auditorium were begun it would be easier to secure f urtlier con tributions. Skepticism as to the real intentions of the board which col lected the funds discourages those who are really anxious to see a large auditorium here. Kansas City's audi torium was paid for after It was built by a lottery scheme which was more effective than admirable. There is enough public spirit in Lincoln to build an auditorium without resort ing to lottery methods, especially after the building has been begun. The Mormon tabernacle, with its miracu lous acoustic properties, Its enormous capacity and Its dozens of ground floor exits could be built more cheaply than a more ornate building. Egg shaped and built witli as little archi tectural affectation as an egg, a whis per can be heard from one ovicular wall to the other, while Mr. Bryan's voice would be a whole orchestra. The Mormon elders simply speak and read in a large-family tone of voice. Its proportions, like the temple on the acropolis at Athens, have never been copied, though all the world acknowledges their perfection. Such a building would attract con ventions to the city and bring tho crowds which in turn dcvelope enthu siasm and incubate prosperity. The first chapter of Count Tolstoy's new novel describes a Russian prison, the air of which is so foul ttiat all who come into it from the outside are sickened. It Is Inconsistent, however, for an American to be shocked. Our own prisons arc worse. Monday's pa pers contained an account of a man, not arrested for any crime and cast into a dungeon, but of a sick man overcome with hunger and cold in Chicago on the night of April 8th, in this year of our Lord, 1809. He ap plied, it is stated, to the South Chi cago avenue police station eurly in the evening for a sell to sleep in, saying he was out of employment and had no money, and he was placed in ttie lodg ers part of the basement. "Some time after, while Morgan was dozing in the gloom of ttie basement, he felt some, thing bite him on the hand. Startled, he stretched out his hand and caught a rat. The animal squealed and as if that were a signal for a combined attack, a horde of enormous rats swept upon him, biting him in the arms end legs and sinking their sharp teeth into his scalp. Morgan screamed witli terror and pain. His cries were heard in the police headquarters above and several policemen rushed down the stairs. They found Morgan half un conscious and with the big gray ro dents clinging to all parts of his body. Nearly a dozen of them were killed by the policemen. Morgan will recover unless blood poisoning sets in". It is likely that tills basement, infested with rats and other vermin, has a prototype in every city in this coun try. Here in Lincoln the air of the city prison is as foul as Tolstoy's Rus sian jail and the lodging the city gives to the unfortunate, whether his pov erty and bruises are caused by misfor tune or laziness, differs not from the South Chicago avenue station in which they put poor Morgan. The Filippinos and the Cubans must be civilized and the indications are that we are going to administer it, but our municipal housekeeping is so slovenly and our hospitality so mean and cruel It requires an unusual degree of self-satisfaction to keep us convinced we are capable of instruct ing our savage neighbors. It is a world old discussion as to the object of literature, whether it is to please and Instructor just to please. Shakspere, the greatest writer that ever lived, may be accepted as author ity and the moral teaching of tho plays is even greater than their beauty. Ugliness, sin and vulgarity are incor porated. It is hard to get an aesthetic effect with decuy. Shakspere avoided the ugly and the commonplace. His characters have the grand air and it flatters one's amour propro to be of their company. On tho other hand Zola deprives his character of self respect, he strips them of the rags they would cling to, even tho basest of them, to cover their sores. After reading a diagnosis of Zola's the world is sick and degenerate and hope for tlic race seems silly credulity. But Shakspere laughs at Falstaff and lets us laugh. Ills perspective Is true and his values are maintained. Badness is an incident, a digression, an excep tion. Goodness is the rule of the multi tude, who, walking In the sunlight on the main travelled road to the goal which Is the development of tho race, are portrayed with truth and fidelity, but with a spiritual insight that pro vents him from making tho stragglers heroes and heroines. And tho Journey from the cradle to the grave is a steep rocky road and the wayside ditch Is full of wretches who have fallen there, but ttie ditch is not so wide or so full as tho road that is full of persistent crusaders. Badness is so serious a hindrance to progress that the books which encourage It will be discarded at least by experienced travelers wild have found that lascivious books lead to the ditch. Charles Dickens Introduces his read ers to intimacy with people whom we avoid in real life. Every book has two or three insufferable cads, who would bo taught their place in actual life. His men and women lack dis tinction and Mr. Dickens loses his prestige by letting them do most of tho talking. However cleverly a com monplace, vulgur character may bo .treated does not affect the fact of commonplacencss and vulgarity, and the author like Dickens who chooses to fill his pages with men and women on the edge of tho ditch will bo ig nored by the procession on the road. So fur as tills taste for the disagree able and brutish Is concerned Dickens and Zola are in the same class, though the former Is conscious that the Brit ish public must have a sprinkling of highly moral, aspiring characters to offset the bad ones. General Miles lias been severely criticised, not for saying the army beef was embalmed, but for saying It to newspapers and for not making his plaint to Secretary Alger. The two investigations into the kind of beef furnished the army, one conducted under the immediate supervision of the department at Washington which resulted In nothing except the dis. missal of General Eagan from a posi tion he had never filled, and tho com mission now in session in Chicago, have vindicated General Miles' un willingness to address his complaint to the bureau at Washington. The commission now in session has exam ined army doctors, beef contractors, government inspectors, and commis sary agents, privates, non-commls-sioned officers, army cookf, and all ranks of officers as well us the in ventor of the "preserving process." Tho mass of testimony proves that a