1
1HE COURIER.
tho now Ideal of tho American voter
a man who is physically and men
tally bravo and not afraid to face any
subject, not afraid to be quoted In
newspapers, or to face a crowd which
lias recorded an adverse opinion to
his. This mental attitude of Cover
nor lloosovelt's Is well expressed In
the speech he made on May 15th, at
the dinner of the Independent club
of Hulfalo. Taken In connection
with the extract from Mr. Hryan's
speech the di Iference in the attitude
or the two men is made plain by con
trast and needs no comment.
"Oh, If I could only Impress upon
you the two sides of the question
that the rich man who buys a privi
lege from a Hoard of Aldermen for a
railway which he represents, the rich
man who gets a privilege Mirotigh the
legislature by bribery and corrupt ion
for any corpoiation, that man is com
milting an offense against the com
munity which it is possible may some
day have to be condoned in blood and
destruction, not by him, not by his
sons, but by you and your sons If J
could only make you understand that
on one side, and make you under
stand on the other make the mass of
our people, make the mass of our
voters understand, on the other
that the worst tiling they can do is
to choose a representative who shall
say, 'I am against corporations; I am
against capital,' and not a man who
shall say, 'I stand by the Ten Com
maudmeiits; I stand by doing equal
Justice to the man of means and the
man without means; I stand by say
ing that 'no man shall be stolen from,
and that no man shall steal from any
one else; 1 stand by saying that the
corporations shall not be blackmailed
on the one side, and that the corpora
tions shall not acquire any improper
power by corruption on the other;
that the corporation shall pay its
full share of the public burdens, and
that when it does so it shall be pro
tected in its rights exactly as any one
else is protected."
Advertising Beggars.
A newspaper has but one com
modity to sell publicity. If that
publicity is presented to every one
who asks for It, the newspaper soon
bee. noes a benevolent institution and
must be supported, as such institu
tions are, by free will offerings from
the charitable A man who would be
ashamed to ask his grocer for a bag of
Hour or his tailor for a coat is not at
all ashamed to invite an editor to an
opening where his own wares are dis
played and request a free write-up.
The man may not even be a sub
scriber to the paper, he may never in
any way have recognized the exis
tence of the institution which he
thinks to work for a pull'. Jt has only
become momentarily useful and if
the editor is unsophisticated enough
to give him for nothing the advertis
ing he wunts, the paper will be for
gotten until the next annual blow
out when the merchant or politician
desires publicity again. Yet If the
editor refuses to give his commodity
to the man who asks for it he gets the
reputation of not being punlic
spirited, for every man considers that
his own business is a great public
blessing.
Reciprocity in business Is practised
by all merchants The banker's
family buys hardware, furniture, gro
ceries, etc., of the dealers In those
commodities who are depositors in
his bank, in preference to competitors
who deposit their profits in a rival
institution. The rule stands the test
of fairness for It works both ways,
yet the same business men criticise an
editor for applying It, and accuse
him of being subsidized for tho price
of a subscription.
Every other letter in an editor's
mail contains more or less cunningly
disguised bait to secure free advertis
ing. One of the most frequent and
llagrant beggars for free advertising
is Mr. Outright of Omaha, who has
been selected by the managers of tho
Oinalfi Heer I'lalsance to cajole coun
try editors and editors of weekly
papers, out of advertising by the offer
of a pass into the grounds, it Is a
fakir's talent to get something for
nothing, and Mr Outright may sue
ceed in his plans unless he Is defeated
by tho experience tho editors have
had with just such attempts. Eight
thousand dollars was set aside by the
showmen to pay for advertising in
newspapers which were supposed to
have found themselves and Mr. Out
right was employed to coax the rest
to work for nothing. Hut Mie Ne
braska exchanges do not appear to
contain much advertising of the
Omaha show,
Mr. Bookwalter's Russian Letters.
Siberia and Central Asia by John
W. Rookwalter of Ohio, is a book of
f48 pages and 2) Illustrations. It is
printed on line, smooth paper with
wide margins. It opens Hat in one's
hand like a silk-sewed bible. The
mechanical appearance is especially
grateful to a book reviewer to whom
authors and publishers arc accus
tomed to send defective or paper
covered copies for revision Thus an
edition de luxe like the book under
consideration, is of great importance
to a book lover.
Mr. Rookwalter started from Mos
cow last- July to journey through Si
beria, designing to inspect the extent
and quality of the railroad building
done by Russia in the last ten years.
The lino of the trans Siberian rail
way runs in general way through
middle European Russia, the centre
of tho western part of western Si
beria and along the southern border
of eatern Siberia. Its western ter
minus is Moscow, and in the east
Vladivostok on the Pacific ocean.
One thousand miles of this railroad
is completed and (1,100 miles are con
templated. "The railway, like all
Russian railways is well constructed,
the road-bed firm, track well bal
lasted, generally with stone, and easy
gradients. The road has a live foot
gauge, uniform with all the roads in
Russia. Tills gives an ample breadth
to the cars, which with their unusual
height imparts an air of comfort to
travel. The stations are handsome.
It is a perfect delight to take a meal
in the station restaurants. You can
get soup, line beefsteak, roast chicken,
whole and done in Russian style, and
a bottle of beer all for one ruble, or
llftv cents."
Everything else is sacrificed to
safety. "Resides the electrical and
other appliances used in the best rail
way service, they have an immense
army of guards, both for the train
and the track. The road is divided
into sections containing about two
thirds of a mile each. On each sec
tion a little cottage is built where
the guard and his family live. Jt is
the duty of tho guard or one of his
family to patrol his section night and
day. As soon as the train passes the
guard stops into the middle of the
track, holds a "flag aloft at night a
lantern-and watches the retreating
train until it passes into the next
vcrst or section. Where there is a
heavy curve that prevents the view
of a road for a verst, several guards
are employed on a section. A train is
therefore, never out of sight of a
guard. Women often perform the
service which Is qulto apart from that
of the section gang, whoso duty is to
repair tho road.1'
In building tho now road into Si
beria the Russian directorate follows
a curious plan in regard to the loca
tion of tho stations along Its right of
way a plan which Mr. Rookwalter ap
proves, but which seems to an Ameri
can the rankest Injustice to the tirst
or original settlers. In America w
call the men who go far enough
ahead of the railroad to have settled
and made their plans of life quite
without reference to the railroad,
frontiersmen or backwoodsmen ac
cording to our point of view. What
ever their name they are adventurous,
brave and willing to accept the con
ditions of a new and wild country.
Daring to go out and possess the land
they, if any, should reap the reward,
of their brave venture. Rut the Rus
siau Railroad company does not lo
cate its stations on towns already
existing, but selects localities on the
steppes or prairies of Siberia where
only the vast herds of cattle watch
the arrival and departure of trains.
Mr. Rookwalter thinks such a policy
expedient because ho thinks it will
get the Tartars accustomed to the
railway gradually. Then he tells
how the old towns which wore pros
porous before the R. It. Co., carefully
laid out its route several miles away
from them, have fallen into ruin
since. Americans believe It is better
to be shocked, to have old habits
uprooted, to be intruded upon, in
short, by something new, noisy, and
dirty, than to be left to crumble in a
forgotten and deserted corner.
Tho Steppes of Siberia are like the
prairies of Nebraska in richness of
soil, uncertainty of waterfall, in the
vast herds of horses and cattle the
Tartars pasture on them, in the large
iields of corn in the southern part
and in the small grains grown in the
northern and central part.
In Sibcra and Central Asia may be
found the common things we want to
know, the aspect of the country and
the people, what they eat and wear,
what their houses arc built of, and
the furniture they have in them.
The effects of tho railroad construc
tion have already begun to appear.
Externally in the nervousness of Eng
land as the terminals creep nearer
China and India and in Russia in the
migration of Russian farmers into the
steppes. Any Russian who wishes
may take up eighty acres of land In
Siberia and the government will loan
him a sum of money without interest
sunicicut to start him in a new coun
try. The half tones that reproduce the
photographs which Mr. Rookwalter
took in Russia are remarkably clear
and interesting. They arc selected
by an American .who is at, once a good
business man, a lover of learning, and
an extensive traveller and they show,
without being a railroad prospectus,
what and what sort of building has
been done, and the lay of file land as
well as tho picturesque ruins,
churches, city walls and native cos
tunics. In spite of the many travel
ler's books on Russia which are being
published daily I know of none, so
satisfactory for so-many reasons as
this of Mr. Rookwalter's.
The State University.
The schools all over the country
and especially In Nebraska, are clos
ing an unusually successful season.
Our own State university is growing
and prospering more rapidly than the
people of the state realize. It is ex
tremely fortunate in its Chancellor
who steadily, with more than human
tact, patience, energy and ability, has
guided the university through a dlftl
cult period including a trying legis
lative session. Chancellor MacLean
has a night and day working capacity
and he does not measure his time by
the ten hour scale, but works night
and day for the university. Every
alumnus who has received the price
less gift of an education from the
state is under obligations to Chancel
lor MacLean for the success with
(which he Is conserving the resources
and enlarging the usefulness of the
university. It Is difficult to believe
that any alumtiHS whose horizon has
been expanded by the generosity of
the state will hesitate to recognize
the value of and be grateful to u man
through whose efforts the blessings of
an education are being extended to a
larger and larger number of the
youth of the state. Wo have freely
received and if we can not as freely
give, we can, at least cultivate tho
negative virtue of doing nothing to
harm an institution which is edu
cating the generations of Nebraska.
When the demands upon the time,
the conscience, and the mind of the
head of a great school are considered
the largeness and completeness of the
answer made by Chancellor MacLean
Is apparent. The governing boards
of other and mqre composed schools
than the Nebraska State university
have lately Invited Chancellor Mac
Lean to accept a presidency, but the
people of the state, the alumni and
the undergraduates of the university
earnestly hope that he will not be
tempted to accept any oiler which
will take him away from tills uni
versity. First Nebraska.
Tho last review of tho troopB of the
First Nebraska may bo held in Lincoln.
Prominent politicians, plain citizens end
tho patriotic generally are working for
such an event. Tho boys of the First
havo conferred more distinction upon
Nebraska than auy one olso who has
ever borne tho name into a foreign land
or into other states of this. To be sure
Mr. Bryan iR a Nebraskan but no one
except Senator Allen bus over talked so
long at a time, Mr. Bryan is in the way
of being a phenomenon, anl all the
world knows it. Wo can not boast that
Nebraska did it, Besides speeches are
not deeds and when ho had a chance to
endure till tho end ho did not take it.
Senator Thurston has said valiant
things too, and Mr. T. Sterling never
forgot to honor Nebraska bb secret try of
agriculture, anJ both by a famoiiB ad
ministration and by tho good words ho
Bpokoof thottato ho has oxtonded its
fame. Many other men from Nebraska
have become fatnouB and have not for
gotten to share it with the state, but
they wont out by themselves and tho
world may justly think them phenom
enal, But tho members of tho First Ne
braska onliBted from StromBberg, Crete,
York, Seward, Grand Island, Omaha,
and Lincoln. They may as justly bo
considered a type of tho young man in
Nobruska as thoy havo been brave,
obotiont and equal to tho occasion so
will Nebraska bo in tho day of trial.
Though among ourselves it is woll
enough to admit that the young fellows
who onlisted wore tho bravest and
choicest of the youth of tho Btato. Their
Bolection was not quite at random for
tho physician's examination was rigid
and many offered who were not chosen.
The strong and tho well aro braver than
the sick, and those that enlist at th
first call aro what is known as tho flower
of the youth.
What is left of tho First Nebraska has
the strongest claim upon our affection
and our admiration. A final review in
tho capital, tho state whoso name in tho
regiment has borne so well, would give
the ciiizons of tho statu an opportunity
to express their appreciation.
PHILOSOPHIES.
We know not what doth lie beyond the
Door,
But chained and guarded here, behold us
grown
Enamoured of our Cell in scrolling o'er
With tales of freedom each confining
stone,
Harper's Magazine.