Mi
THE COURIER.
quired to set hundreds of men at work
and 'ur present system wlien per
fected, will make brain workers of
men with muscles and frames llttcd
for manual labor. Even now It Is
making manual labor more and more
dlsplsed and withdrawing men from
the avocations which they were built
to follow. It Is rulliilnir u people be
yond their environment, to their in
evitable discontent and disadjust
ment with life
Wide Tires.
An asphalt pavement requires
wider tires than macadam or brick.
In order to resist the cracking effects
of frost, the asphalt is mixed so that
it will soften at a comparatively low
temperature. The pavement on
Eleventh street shows the clTeet of
tires. The cuts made by tires in the
asphalt will melt together again, but
we need an ordinance regulating the
width of tires. Other cities have such
an ordinance and the taxpayers who
lay the paving have a right to ask
that their property be not destroyed
by the country people and buggy
owners who drive up and down on the
asphalt pavement with so much en
joyment. Tests of the relative
draught of wide and narrow tired
vehicles on hard and soft, level and
hilly roads have demonstrated the
superior advantages of the wide tire
so that it would be no hardship to
require the gradual displacement of
the narrow tire by the wide.
Newspaper Ethics.
It has been the experience of most
newspaper people that the general
public believes that reporters and
editors have no conscience at all, and
that they will sacrifice personal prin
ciples for the sake of printing an
unimportant item of news that is,
unimportant to everybody, except the
party or parties concerned. My own
experience with the newspaper folk
of Lincoln and elsewhere, though
somewhat limited, has been sufficient
to convince me that In comparison
with other professions, newspaper
men have a keener sense of responsi
bility and a greater unwillingness to
do any one an Injustice than other
men. Tho very ease with which an
injustice can be accomplished and a
scandal disseminated makes an editor
more careful than the lawyer for
Instance whose training and instinct
incline him to a one sided view of
persons and cases. Newspaper folk
are human and make mistakes but
their mistakes are fewer, though they
may have wider consequences than
those of other people whose work Is
easier and better paid. The world
believes that an editor will uso his
paper to punish a private wrong. No
successful editor ever practised such
a principle, no reporter could hold
his job and use it for revenge. No
community would support a paper
published for private revenge only.
Newspaper ethics are not theoretical.
They are practical and practised by
all professional newspaper workers
who have any standing whatever.
The judicial temperament, which
realizes that there are two parties to
a suit, two sides to a question, that
the world is Jew and Christian, Mo
hamedan, Budhlst and whatnot, and
that absolute and dogmatic decisions
must do some one an injustice, is
cultivated to a sturdier growth in a
nowspaper office than elsewhere.
Members of the profession in good
standing do not publish detracting
statements of anyone unless they are
humanly certain of their truth and
not then, unless Justice to tho in
nocent require it or unless tho trans
gressor is running for office and the
editor considers that his election
would be a public calamity Re
putable newspaper men do not use
Information obtained iti friendly and
unguarded converse with a friend.
It is safer, in fact, to reveal a secret
to the average newspaper man, than
it is to the average man who babbles
more constantly than a brook, on the
street corner, to his wife and In his
office or club. If a reputable news
paper man, concludes to roast an
Institution or person, he does so over
his own signature or as a responsible
member of the stall' of a responsible
paper. A reputable newspaper editor
never composes a roast and takes it to
another editor with the request to
publish It anonymously. That cowar
dice is reserved for politicians and the
unnumbered host of people who write
anonymous letters, or seek to hire a
newspaper substitute for nothing, to
stab their enemies. Tho assassin
surely earns his hire. It Is a danger
ous, a loathsome and loathed mission,
but tho editor who has ever darjd to
publish his convictions concerning
any vicious character or Institution
in the community Is forever after
supposed to be an assassin for love of
bloodshed and to bo willing to un
dertake the private and particular,
battles, as well as the family and po
litical feuds of all the brawny, large
listed, broad-backed army of the in
jured and martyred who walk up and
down the streets of Lincoln gossiping
about those they really hate but pre
tend to love. In reality it is not a
pleasure to roast anybody but it Is
sometimes a duty. The devil could
have planned no better, for the
worst rascal is apt to have a pleasant,
innocent wife and other relatives and
connections whom it is cruel to offend
but who must share in the expiation
the community generally wrings from
those who cheat it, even if the culprit
is the head of an interesting and
blameless family. As tho voice of a
certain part of the community the
editor is sometimes obliged to call up
tho sins of sundry individuals, and
then for the rest of his life he must
sneak by the female relatives of
wrongdoers, as though he were guilty
of something besides the accident of
being an unwilling vocal organ of the
body politic.
Then a reputable editor does not
publish private matters like engage
ments, etcetera without tho consent
of the interested parties. It was only
last week that a young man with a
very red face entered The Courier
office remarking that lie had come to
suppress an item which no paper had
any business to print without his
consent. His appearance and tone
suggested that the item concerned
matrimonial arrangements on his
part, heretofore entirely unsuspected
by his neighbors. He was pacilled by
the assurance that the code would
prevent the publication of such an
Item without the verification and con
sent of one of the contracting parties.
The incident is referred to because it
happens so often, and because it shows
that few outside the profession credit
those in it with any sense of propriety.
Tramps and the Railroads.
Mr.Josiah Flynt, who becomes a
tnmipforsix mouths at a time, oil
and on, undertook an Investigation
suggested to him by tho general man
ager of a railroad which had made
stealing transportation practically im
possible on Its lines. In the current
Century, Mr. Flynt admits that the
management of this road has suc
ceeded In an attempt which began
three years ago to rid the cars of the
tramp nuisance. Tramps know the
investigator as Cigarette, and ho lias
travelled all over this country for
nothing but the discomfort of as.
soclatlng with lazy and dirty vaga
bonds. Ills devotion to the Baconian
meMiod of investigation has been re
warded for he is the best tramp
authority In the United States and
his contributions to tramp literature
are helping economists and charity
organization students to solve the
problem of wandering vagrants. The
most unpleasant part of the conduc
tor's and brakemen's duty is the con
stant ejection of tramps from the tops
and trucks of cars. The men who
run trains in and out of Lincoln have
been particularly bothered thisspring
with tramps. In unusual numbers
they break the seals on box cars,
stretch themselves on the trucks and
climb onto the roofs of the cars. The
very ease with which they can travel
Increases the number of su?h travel
lers, itdevelopes the nomadic instinct
never quite extinguished in the most
industrious. Besides the tramps be
gin by begging and as soon as beg
ging has extinguished all self respect,
and that is very soon, they are ready
to steal to satisfy their wants. There
fore if the railroads can keep tramps
oir the cars they will be benefitting
the cities which they infest, in decreas
ing the number of objects of charity
and of arrests. It will have a direct
effect upon the crimes of arson and
assault. It is easier for the police to
handle criminals with whom they are
acquainted, whose habits and haunts
they know. The daily reports of the
police court is largely made by prison
ers accused of having no visible
means of support. The agents of the
charity organization societies through
out the country are also becoming
familiar with the history, antecedents
and peculiarities of the local paupers,
and by intelligent treatment have
reduced the number of mendicants.
Their work too Is complicated by
the nomadic beggar. The number of
tramps which are carried free and
which destroy company property in
crease the expense of the road and
thus makes traveling more expensive
for the honest and industrious. The
general manager already quoted who
succeeded in making the tramps be
ware of his road, says: "There are
three conspicuous reasons that have
deterred railroad managers from at
tacking the tramp problem. First it
has been thought that it would entail
a very great expense. Our experience
shows that this fear was unwarranted.
Second, is has been thought that no
support would be given the movement
by the local magistrates and police
authorities. Our experience shows
that in the great majority of cases we
have the active support of the local
police authorities and that the mag
istrates have done their full duty.
Third, it was feared that there might
be some retaliation by the tramps.
Up to date we have very little to
complain of on that score. From the
reports that I get from my men I
believe that we are gradually ridding
not only railroad property, but much
of the territorv In which It Is situated,
of the tramp nuisance. ' ''Mr. Flynt's
summary of the cost of tramps is
interesting. In summer the entire
tramp fraternity may be said to bo in
transit. The average number of
miles traveled dally by each man at
this season of tho year Is about llfty,
which, If paid for at regular rates,
would cost, say, a dollar which multi
plied by 00,000 tramps equal sixty
thousand dollars a day worth of trans
portation abstracted from the rail
road company. This sum multiplied
by a hundred which is about the
number of days that trampdora
tilts, represents approximately tho
cost of the traveling they do.
Tho people pay the bill in transpora
tlon rates and arc assessed in addi
tion for the cost of crime and charity.
"There Is one more fact which, can
not be overlooked the temptation
which the railroads have for a ro
mantic and adventuresome boy. a
child possessed of wanderlust gen
orally wanders for a while anyhow,
but the chance he now has to jump on
a freight train and 'get into the world
quick,' as I have heard lads of this
temperament remark, has a great deal
to do in tempting him to run away
from home. Hoboland is overrun
with youngsters who have got there
on the railroads and very few of them
oyer wander back to their parents,
Once started 'railroading,' they go on
and on, and its attractiveness seems to
increase as the years go by. Walking
has no such charms for them, and ir
it were their only method of seeing
the world, the majority of those who
keep on seeing it, until death ends
their roaming, would grow tired.
The railroad makes it possible for
them to keep shifting the scenes they
enjoy, and in time change and variety
become so essential that they nre un
able to settle down anywhere. They
are victims of what tramps call 'the
railroad fever,' a malady for which a
remedy has yet to be prescribed."
"You're bigger'n me, ain't you, paw?"
"tea."
"But you're not the biggest man in
the world, are you?"
"No."
"God's the biggest man, ain't he?"
"Yes."
"He's long, awful long, ain't he?"
"I suppose so."
"Awful wide, too, ain't he?"
"1 guess."
"But be uin't big though, is he?"
"I really caa't say, my child."
"He's thin, ain't he?"
"Oh, I don't know."
"Don't you know anything about God,
paw?"
A New England school teacher re
ceived the following note from one of
her pupils:
"Dear Miss; PleaBe do not push
Johnny too hard for eo much of his
branes is intelleck that he ought to be
held back a good deal, or he will run to
intelleck intirely.an I do not dezirethis.
So pleze hold him back, so as to keep
his intelleck from getting bigger than
his boddy and injoor'ng him for life.
The Bazar.
"You should hardly blame him for his
lack of success. He does his best, and
thinks everything out before hand."
"That's just the trouble. He's a man
who shouldn't think; he was born with
out anything to think with."
Jenckes They say that liquid air is
the coldest thing known, I wonder if it
will ever be put to any ubb.
Jonkins-Of course it will. Properly
flavored it will be sold in Boston for ice
cream.
HALF FARE TO HOT SPRINGS
AND RETURN.
For $15.50, Juno 0th and 20th, anyone
can buy tickets to Hot Springs, S. D
and return at the Lincoln offices of the
Elkhorn line, 117 South 10th street, or
depot, corner S and Nineth streets. If
you have a stubborn case of rheuma
tlsm, stomach or nervous trouble, take
t to Hot Springs aud 10 to 1 you will
leave it there after a Bbort stay. Other
ills of life quickly vanish under the in
tluence of a high altitude, healthful
climate, picturesque scenery and finest
bathing in medicinal waters. A short
sojourn there will renew your life. For
booklet describing Hot Springs call on
or address
A. S. Fieldimj, O. T. A.,
22-Ct in South 10th street.
mmmtmrnmsam