VOL. XIV. NO. XVI.
KSTABLISHBD IN 1880
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OBSERVATIONS.
Work on the streets and alleys has
decidedly improved the appearance of
Lincoln. The attention of the coun
cil is soon to be called to an ordinance
prohibiting spitting in the street cars
and on the floors and steps of public
buildings. Such an ordinance has
been successful in New York city and
in other places where it has been tried
and there is no reason why one should
not be successful here. Even in Spo
kane, which was settled by frontiers
men as untamed and regardless of the
decencies as any of the men who live
here, is rid of this unhealthful nuis
ance. Before the ordinance went into
effect the citizens were warned in the
papers and by posters of the passage
of such an ordinance, and the penal
ties of transgressing it as well as the
date when it would go into effect. At
tirst several men were arrested for
paying no attention to the ordinance.
When brought before the judge he let
them off with a reprimand and a
warning that next time they should
be fined. A few were arrested for the
second time and lined. The second
arrest and fine were effective and Spo
kane's sidewalks are free from the dis
gusting and unhealthful filth which
is a disgrace to Lincoln. The men
who lean on the railings of the build
ing on Tenth and O all day long are a
nuisance and an annoyance. They
decrease the value of that particular
corner because their continuous pres
ence hinders pedestrians and makes
access to the bank on that corner a
difficult matter. There is an ordi
nance forbidding loafing on the streets
but we have never had policemen who
would enforce it. Witli a mayor and
excise board such as we have happily
begun to enjoy there is reason to
hope that the present ordinance in re
gard to loafing and the prospective
one in regard to spitting may be en
forced. Under the present condition
it is impossible for a woman to mount
the steps of the postofllce building
and save her skirt from soil, while the
floors of the street cars are unspeak
able. Spitting is so old a nuisance
that unless it had been stopped else
where It would not be complained of
here, but a city ordinance has made
cities habitable again and it chances
that we have a mayor who is a doctor
with a scrupulous regard for cleanli
ness and a will to make Lincoln a less
disgusting place to live in. Hence
there is reason for hope that an anti
spitting ordinance would not be ve
toed and would be enforced.
The lien has been exalted in the re
ports of the comparative bulk of farm
products to a place undeservedly high.
The statistics and the cuts of gigantic
hens compared to colossal sacks of
flour and big steers whl'.-h accompany
them do not show the damage the hen
has wrought. This would be extremely
difficult because the hen owner pas
tures his stock on his neighbor's gar
den. That is one reason, indeed, that
delights the statistician with the hen
figures. The hen ranchero does not
Inscribe on the debit side of his ac
count book, his neighbors' ruined
plantations, his neighbors' loss of tem
per and the temptation which assails
them (when the hens destroy their
neat patches) to renounce Christianity
and all religions which interdict the
eye for an eye and crop for a crop
rule of conduct.
Every man who spades, rakes, plants,
waters and weeds a patch of ground is
entitled to the results of his hus
bandry and if his neighbor's hens dis
pute it, let them take the conse
quences of their squalking, stupid
raid, and let their owners be prepared
to lose their stock when they fail to
restrain it from tresspass. Juries
will not convict a man for murder
when the victim has broken the laws
of society and invaded the murderer's
family. I think the sentiment of the
community would support the hup.
bandman who should assassinate the
fowl destroyer of his peas, his beats
and his flowers. The selfishness which
can turn hens loose on a neighbor's
yard should be rebuked and equity,
which occasionally regulates dislo
cated law, would refuse to recompense
the man who should claim the price
of his hens from the man who killed
them for despoiling his garden.
Why is it that although Macbeth
and Lady Macbeth are the villains of
the play we do not hate them and even
the gallery does not hiss the actors who
assume the parts, when they appear
before the curtain? Yet this man
and his wife kill an old man who has
given them land and castles and titles,
to whom they owe loyalty, and Mac
beth kills the king in his own house,
overstepping the guards whom his
drugged wine has made insensible.
Tiiey kill him, not to avenge a wrong,
nor to right any, but to gratity an am
bition us selfish as any which incited
llichard III to murder men and
women and children. Yet no audi
ence loathes Macbeth and his spouse.
Richard III is haunted by ghosts and
frighted by dreams. lie too sees gory
spectres and experiences the tortures
of a disregarded and abused conscience.
Nevertheless the audience hates him
for a villain and enjoys seeing him
vanquished at last and all the insults
and contemptuous spurnings that the
villain receives at the end of nearly
every play are especially enjoyed in
the fifth actof Richard III. Richard
has a conscience and suffers from it,
though he has tortured and dwarfed
it into a shape sosmall and misshapen
he only fears it in his dreams. And
then lie does not love anybody. His
own ugliness has lost him the love of
women and his assassinations are un
tinged by the grace of a desire to place
a companion in an enviable position.
Macbeth and his lady love each other
and thus are kept in spite ot their
crimes still within the sympathies of
the audience. Then the witches wtio
foretell the fate of Macbeth share
(dramatically) the responsibility for
liis crime. Like the Greek chorus and
the draught that Isolde drinks, they
foreordain and Macbeth is (dramatic
ally again) controlled by them. There
fore we do not loathe this cold-blooded
murderer who is really no better than
Hamlet's uncle, the husband of his
mother, whom we are supposed to hate
because he is so wicked, but who, in
reality, Shakspere chooses to make an
object of aversion because it conforms
with the purposes of dramatic compo
sition. The effect of the fatalism and the
love motive is appreciated by Mod
jeska. She makes the most of the few
opportunities for tenderness that the
role affords and those opportunities
are those of "business" rather than
words. Modjeska's playing of any
Shaksperian part is more enlightening
than any variorum edition. The plays
were written to be acted, and al
though, as in Macbeth, there is a deal
too much of spouting and too little
action, they gain by being put on the
boards and freed from the two be-'
tween which they lie when the scholar
studies them and draws fantastic con
clusions that will not justify on the
stage.
It will be, perhaps, but a few years
longer that the gentle Modjeska will
continue to interpret life and litera
ture. Meanwhile her intellectual ap
preciation and knowledge is deepen
ing and it is a tribute to the western
taste that the absence of those youth
ful charms which are the principal
assets of most ingenues, do not de
crease the audiences which greet her
with as much enthusiasm and affec
tion now as when she was the most
beautiful as well as the clovcrcst,
actress on the American stage.
Pure romance, such as Robert Man
toll has chosen for his metier, has the
advantage of a very looso connection
witli consistency and probability, al
lowing the actor a large liberty. Mr.
Mantell takes advantage of this fact
to the injury of realism. In the last
act of Mo n bars he is supposed to be at
the point of death. His face is ghast
ly, his limbs totter and lie asks assist
ance when he wishes to write his last
will and testament at the table a few
feet from his bedside. While writing
it lie sees in the mirror Ills servant
pouring a powder into his medicine.
He immediately accuses him of his
treachery and the servant tkrows him
on to his bed and chokes him, but
Monbars, springing to his feet, solaes
two swords, one of which ho throws to
the servant. Then he fights a stage
duel with all the agility and strength
of an athlete in prime condition. Of
course he sends the sword spinning
out of the hand of the servant and
finishes the struggle by running a
dagger entirely through the body of
his opponent, an act requiring more
strength than he has. But the ro
mantic drama is not to be discarded
because it contains impossibilities and
Mr. Mantell's fine voice and perfect
use of it will keep him popular for
nanny years. His support was excel
lent and the love story was well
staged, and barring the inconsisten
cies referred to, which annoy a literal
mind, rather interesting as love stories
are apt to be
W
The civil service system is doubtless
better than the spoils system, in proof
of which is the fact that most large
railroad companies, banks, and vari
ous corporations have adopted it as
the basis of promotion among em
ployes. Under such a tonure. length
of service, faithfulness and discretion,
together with the accidents of loca
tiod, et cetera, determine the rapidity
of an employe's promotion. In the
spoils system appointments are made
with direct reference, not to th ap
pointee's capacity to perform the du
ties, but to a political service which
has no relation to those duties. Yet
tlfe spoils system has not created an
office holding class, and the civil ser
vice must if it is carried to its in
evitable conclusion. After a man has
worked for a certain number of years
in a department, which is commonly
divided up to afford as many jobs as
custom will permit, and tlat is a
great many, after going to work late
and quitting early, he loses the most
valuable characteristic of the Anglo
Saxon, and that is the power of indi
vidual initiative. He is enervated.
He does what he is told to do and
actually dislikes to think for himself.
What bureaucracy has done for the
French it has begun to do for Amerl-
