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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (July 22, 1899)
rWq9T1PllNlflPMfflHWR THE COURIEK. funeral processions. The number of funerals on Sunday when the cortege can he long and Hie carriages filled with citizens taking their usual Sun day holiday in a manner above re proach substantiates this accusa tion. When women yield to cheap temptations for parade it Is time for someone not too sensitive to the per fonnance of a very unpleasant duty, to protest. "A Stimulating Atmosphere." Mr. 10. S. iMartin, who contributes to Harper's Weekly Its most interest ing page, according to the taste of the observer in Ibis department, said in a recent issue that many persons lind the atmosphere of New York stimulating. Mr. Martin thinks that Is perhaps the reason why Dr. Bu chanan, who came from Kansas City to New York, three years ago, to organize the llrst boy's high school in Manhattan borough, found that the work of the boy's school in the latter city was distinctly superior to the excellent work of tMe mixed school from which he came. Dr. Ruchanan ascibes the superior work of the New York boy's high school to the exclusion of girls, and I would rather his explanation were accepted, than that the atmosphere of Kansas and Nebraska should be blamed. So well read and far traveled a gentleman as Mr. Martin is, ought to know that the atmosphere of Kansas and Ne braska Holds the stimulating record. New York's atmosphere has a damp, apathetic, Sleepy Hollow ell'ect. Doc tors are sending weekmiuded chil dren out here purely for the awaken ing, bracing effects of the atmosphere which is as peculiar and uumistak able as New York's cosmopolitanism. The Greater American. An Omaha correspondent says in regard to the warmed over show there that: "1 do not know that the pros pects clearly indicate either success or failure, but a good many people seem to think that the chance is better, now that the board has changed hands, for they may say what they like, but Rosey was doing it a great deal of harm, and no doubt, he would continue to do more. I guess the railroads ate back of it now to some extent, and if they make good rates, I should not wonder if the crowds came, later on in the season. As a moral factor in the development of the city, it is already a total fail ure. Really, it is tough beyond ex pression; men like Skip Dundy, Bit Linger, etc., have a lion's share of the concessions, and most of them arc unlit for any one to patronize, and I am not, referring to the callow youth alone in this. Not only will we need a jack lantern to tind an honest man, but it will take a locomotive bead light to discover a decent woman, before the show is over." Tliis is testimony of a loyal, upright citizen of Omaha whose judgement is unimpeachable. The elfeet of a midway, such as he de scribes, upon the youth of Omaha can not be estimated. It will last when liie buildings are dustand the war of the Koseys has been forgotten. Fath ers and mothers who are seeking to promote the exposition can not con sistently warn their sons away fiom it as an evil, poisonous thing. And they go there and form acquaintances openly, which, under ordinary cir cumstances, they would be ashamed of and repudiate. If the exposition is a success tinan chilly, it will be on account of the crowds from smaller places who will spend their money, as they did -last year, to the direct loss of country merchants. If it be a failure it will mean a large loss to the confident capitalists who have subscribed for stock in the exposition. Wither way, it Is of questionable policy politically for country merchants control a large influence and they resent an invasion of their territory for two years in succession, and will be likely to re member it against the next Omaha candidate for state favor, however innocent and unselfish he himself may be. "Expositions" are a cause of local war whercever they are held, of state jealousy and of state reprisal. They disturb trade and always deflect the small profits of the country tradesmen into tills of the shopkeepers in the exposition city. So many have been held in the last fifteen years that it has been possible to study their phe nomena more or less exhaustively. All investigators agree that a large exposition raises the price of foods, domestic service and raises rents in the city of the exposition, li de presses trade in other parts of the country where the exposition is held. It is like ,i boom, in that when it is over, the condition of the people is ten times worse than when it began. It creates jealousy and local and national dissension; and flnally,unless the amusement features are depraved and intoxicating liquors are freely sold.no exposition has succeeded. It is said that they promote interna tional sympathy and knowledge and stimulate manufactures. The Amer ican centennial unquestionably was the cause of an Immediate improve ment in the manufacture of textile fabrics, of furniture and eeramivs. Hut having raised his product up to and higher than the European, the American manufacturer has nothing in particular to gain from a yearly exhibition of his goods. And inter national amity isgaining through for eign residence and travel In Ameri can and American residence and travel abroad. There is a point with nations as with neighborhoods when friendly visiting lias degenerated into gadding and sympathy for one an other into gossip and this exposition habit encourages idle gazing and comment rather than sympathy. The New York Federation. The executive board of the New York State Federation of women's clubs has decided that nobody ex cept members of federated clubs shall speak at the next annual state con vention at Rochester. This does not exclude professional upcakers or writers if they are also members of a federated club. Rut as most women who earn their living by writing or speaking have sold most of their time, there is not enough left for the con scientious fulfilment of the duties, which are also pleasures, of club membership. Yet if a woman like Octave Thanet or Mrs. Peattie, both of them distinguished by a fervid and unwavering love for humanity and for women in particular, should have a message to club women, an Inability to deliver it on account of a rule excluding every one not a member of a federated woman s club from such a privilege would be most unfortunate, and a disappointment to all who realize the unselfish devotion which these authors and many others have paid to the cause of the rights of women to life and the opportuni ties of happiness. Insofar as the resolution excludes, book agents and all those with de signs on the club for business pur poses, it is commendable. The clubs were an expression of a common de sire for intellectual development. The federation of clubs is a more or less conscious admission that the study of Shakspcre, the Roman Em pire or the Italian Renaissance, by a sort of national conservatory meth od Is not the principal reason of such association. If there were no other reason for federation, the ex pense of the biennial meetings and of meeting the expenses incurred by the otlicers of the federation would be out of proportion to the object of associa tion. Culture can be attained quick er and with smaller loss of energy in smaller groups. A national federa tion quickens and stimulates the desire for culture doubtless, but not enough to warrant such an expend! -turo of energy and money. What the federation really means Is the unity of woman and her inchoate sat isfaction witli a national expression of it. Tills being so, the exclusion of every body who has not an important message, important to the clubs rather than to the messenger or those who sent him is decidedly expedient. Only, it seems to me, the committee who prepares the program of each state or general federation meeting should be competent to judge of the importance of every message which it is claimed that the delegates should hear. The New York State executive board has adopted the rule under discussion for only the ap proaching meeting in Rochester, and if it is found unsatisfactory its tem porary nature is fortunate. The War Correspondent's Protest. Those who sympathize with the war correspondents in Luzon and are clamoring for General Miles in Gen eral Otis' place forget that General Miles is if anything, a stricter dis ciplinarian than General Otis and would, like the experienced old sol dier he is, endeavor to keep every thing from the enemy calculated to encourage them and prolong their resistance. Tliis government and the people of this country hold General Otis re sponsible for the conduct of the war in the Filippines whether the papers get the news or not. It is generally necessary for the general on the field to exercise a strict censorship of the press and General Otis is probably but fulfilling his duty to the govern ment in revising the newspaper let ters. It is in the interest of justice to wait until we can hear General Otis' report and if he does not choose to present it until the war is over, to wait until then. The war corres pondent is intent upon getting the news, the whole news, and anything that has the aspect ot news for his paper at home. He is not at all con cerned with the elfeet his letters will have upon the enemy and the cessa tion of hostilities. If anything he rather hopes the war may be pro longed. Otis be succeeded by Miles and Miles by somebody else in order that the excitement and the interest in war news be not diminished. And the public is so eager for news, that on ilrst reading the spiteful criticism of Gen. Otis from the war correspondents it was inclined to take their part.Rut on reflecting that Gen. Otis is held responsible for the conduct of the war and not the scribblers and picture makers, and that It Is far more im portant that helpful Information should not reach the enemy than that we should be specifically informed of every move and plan of General Otis, the public is inclined to think he has done exactly right In making the war correspondent's letters of secondary Importance. Nothing that walks the earth or skims it is so Important and so hard to sit on as a good war cor respondent and if General Otis has accomplished it, it is another Manila Ray victory. The men who have done the work are heroes hut who would have known about It If the war correspondent had not chosen to report their heroism? Who can ever forget Richard Harding Davis' ac count of the Cuban campaign and the illustrations of himself conversing with General Shafter or riding a horse alongside Colonel Roosevelt!-' He never for a minute forgot that he was there to make any man famous or drown him in oblivion as he chose, nor did he let any of the fighters nor men of action forget it. Mr. Mc Cutcheon, Mr. Rass and other cor respondents in Luzon are able men and very clever and graphic writers but they are newspaper men and not fighters and they are apt to take hazardous chances on aiding the en emy and injuring this country if only they can send their newspapers the news. However able and clever they may be all thoughtful Americans re joice that the control of the Ameri can army in Luzon is not in their hands and If General Otis sees fit to suppress any of their stuff, he is just the man to do it. THE FIRST SONG. 'Twas morn in Eden, and the summer sun Shone round and full above the trees; The sky, in which the shadows of the night Still hung amidst the splendors of the dawn Like wreathing smoke in flames; was opal-tinged And like the pearly lining of a shell. The air was laden with the holy scent Of opening buds: the blossoms that adorned The first great spring; when new-create, the world Was hurled along the viewless paths of space From God's all powerful hand; and ravished with The dulcet chorus of the golden-throated birds. Through bowering branches overhead, the rays Of dawn crept softly as a summer sigh And lighted on the dew-wet eyes of Eve Who slept upon a bed of fern-strewn moss Beneath, and slowly from the thrall of dreams She roused, and flashed her creamy lids apart. Then, springing like a hind she stood full-length, Her hair a golden robe around her form Of perfect mold; the velvet flesh beneath Like blushing roses under strands of gold; Her eyes still full of haunting dreams; her hands Still idly clasping fadeless Eden blooms. The lifting breeze b'ew coyly through the leaves And made a wider rift through which the sun His radiant glances poured, and, shining like A pillar wrought of pearl and finest gold She stood, a vision fair as dawn, aa pure And stainless as a bud still wrapt in green. Around her, every sound was full of joy; The rippling rill that spilled its silver flood v. r w t