H
THE COURIER.
attracted the attention of iiuiny more,
liu illicit have lived the moderately
obscure life his comparatively medi
um) talents entitled him to. Hut as
II was ho found the attention from the
pulpit pleasant and the advertising
profitable and ho never got over the
excitement tall on his sidei of defying
tlio deity.
It Ih not given In an. man to say
whore Mr. Ingersnll has gone to and
ll h extremely bad taslo in some min
isters to pretend lo know. Hoi lovers
in a (Sod of inlluite mercy and knowl
edge do not believe that h's is going
In punish Mr. Ingersoll now for deny
ing Ills existence. Keprisal of that
poisoinil sort is just what Mr. Inger
soll denied to doviuity. logically
enough.
It is doubtful If Mr Ingcrsoll's skep
ticism ever did much harm. His lack
of seriousness and of sebolars'iip in
the treat inent of biblical topics was
apparent u all but the light minded
whom brilliant oratory can persuade
to inot anything while the voice lasts
and who areas easily dissuaded by the
next fluent speaker. Preachers, like
Dr. Kowiands. who make a text of Mr.
Ingei'MiU's life and dogma overesti
mate the influence of his lectures and
underestimate the harnilessne.ss of his
lire, lie was rather goodnatured and
Inclined to charily when it did not
involve any sacrilico to himself or to
his wife and children. To bo sure he
was not a saint, neither was he an in
corrigible sinner, but just an ordinary
man who hud lost his bearings in the
relations of CSod to man and overesti
mated the signilicHiice of his own
opinion of (Sod and man.
Mr. Ingersoll's treatment of biblical
.subjects is largely responsible for the
ecclesiastical Jibing which has follow
ed his death. If his criticisms had
been founded on original research like
tiniest Kenan's they would have had
an excuse for being, or in the pros
ecution of hclentillc studies if be had
urged that ho did not believe the scrip
tares for lack of scientific continua
tion. Ills pleading would have received
respectful hearing. Hut because he
plead without special knowledge and
lor no special reason and i.ubcicntili
cally reviled the clergy or those who
differed from him. he was more or
leis hated and the ungenerous portion
of the clergy are gelling even with
him now. it was not so when Darwin
and Kenan died.
Trite Jokes.
Weather Indications CS. .A. Love
laud observer, appears in the daily
Nebraska papers .m"i times a year.
Put yourself in hits place, all you fun
ny people, who Happen to love humor,
or who have acquired the habit; of
ovoiestimating your own endowment
of it. If Mr. Loveland. the weather
man. is your friend, thank your good
fortune for it and his patience in list
ening to your jokes on the weather
you say you hold him responsible for.
Ho lias hoard those same Jokes in one
year :iti." times multiplied by the num
ber of times all his acquaintances have
spoken to him. and to this nauseating
sum must bo added the friendly, if
zoological rallvings of ail the editors
and waiters "ii the Nobiaska papers
at'orjsiid. If Mr. Loveland has been
studying the weather and taking
down meteorological indications for
ten years, and speaks or listens to tif
loen people a day, then Mr. (Sere, Mr.
.Jones. Mr. Dobbins or Mr. Walt
Mason who commonly rally Mr. Love
land on his business have to take the
chance that out of the I tT." people who
have spoken to Mr. Loveland on the
weather subject not one of them has
loproached him for his choice of
weather or for his judgment in select
ing so much rain or heat or drouth as
the case or the crops may bo. Of
course, everybody knows Mr. Love
land merely studies the dally recoid of
very clover and very delicate baromot
Heal instruments and from the vari
ous indications of moisture, dryness,
velocity of the wind or no wind at all,
inalros up his report which he contin
ues to send to the papeis. and to at
tach his name to in spite of the
temptation which he must experience
to lot cackling people who have ho
dollclent a sense of humor get good
and rained on, uu forewarned by his
calculations or by those of hissoientlfle
big barometer.
The Corn Crop.
Never before in Nebraska were so
many thousand acres rustling with
corn leaves from forty to lifty inches
long, curling from stalks throe inches
in diameter, and from twelve to llfteen
feet high. As far as the eye can reach
the prairies are a dark green and
moving in billowy sibilant waves.
The plants are so dark a green thai
the shadows are black. In spite of all
these good prospects, it is not to bo
denied that there is anything but
prospects. The crisis of the year has
arrived, when hot winds or a lack of
moisture will destroy the corn crop in
Nebraska. These .July days when a
cloudless blue sky is watched by fann
ers whose wealth is threatened by just
such beauty are the most anxious days
of the year: it is the time when a year's
harvest is determined. The skies of
July and August mean plenty or pov
erty for tlie farmers, and if the farm
ers have no money to spend, the condi
tion of a purely agricultural commun
ity is entirely sympathetic.
W ii
The Brooklyn Strike.
It does not appear from a perusal of
the daily papers that there is much
sympathy with the Brooklyn strikers.
Yet they demand very little: Tei
hours to bo a day's work: two dollar's
a day's pay: twenty cents an hour to
'extra'' men employed only when the
needs of the company compel, and reg
ular hours assigned for meals. These
arc not extravagant demands, but
President Kossitcr met them with
specious generalities, advising the
strikers to go back to their work and
threatening if they did not to never
again permit them the prlvelege of
working on Ills cars fourteen hours at
a stretch for less than two dollars and
eating whenever convenient for the
company. There is nothing in these
demands to alarm capital. President
Kossiters refusal to accede to them
and his attitude as of a shocked and
generous patron and philanthropist is,
considering what the strikers ask,
somewhat forced. The responsibility
for the disorder caused by the strikers
is not to be charged entirely to them.
It must bo shared by Mr. Rossitcr who
says lie Is deeply grieved and shocked
that the men should so misunderstand
his kind intention toward them as to
injure his cars The mistake that
many a large employer of labor makes
is in believing that help may be under
paid, yet placated and kept humble,
grateful, and cheerful by gifts of gym
nasiums, libraries, baths, public lec
tures, and intellectual entertainments
of various kinds. Help" like the em
ploying class, value justice higher
than kindness or gratuitous benevo
lence. The long hours required 1'ioin
car employes are a set oil' to the small
skill and littlooxortion required, tin
durance, exposure, to the extremes of
heat and cold, long hours, scrupulous
honesty and closest attention to the
duties, neglect of which is dangerous
to Huongs of people are what Hie
street car manager bargains for when
lie hires a motoruian or conductor. If
all street car managers were obliged
to perform for six months the services
they bargain for at studi a low price,
there would bo fewer exclamations of
hurrorand surprise when the employes
ask for a scale of ten hours a day, reg
ular meal intervals, and two dollars a
day. If the men who write the edi
torials concerning the unreasonable
ness of the striker's request also had
to support their families on the two
dollars a day which the strikers ask to
be paid, the dilForeut point of view
might affect Jieir learned essays on
the question. Jf. also, they should,
for a while be compelled to endure the
heat and cold, the long time between
meals, and the very early rising and
lhe late going to bed of the niotormcri
and conductors the question would
not be long presented to the news
paper readers as quite so one sided
When in the course of human events
it h accepted by employers that em
ployes have a right to. at least a fair
proportion of the values and earnings
of their labor and that labor has a
right to negotiatoou equal terms witli
capital, violent strikes will be of rare
occurrence. In. such a time employers
will not assume a Pecksniftian atti
tude of shocked virtue, but will treat
their employes with the respect due a
partner who has invested all his capi
tal and puts all bis time into the busi
ness. In that lime when the body of
emp'oyes concludes that they are re
ceiving a disproportionate return from
their labor and scud a committee to
the executive head of tlio business, it
is likely that labor will have estab
lished such respect for itself and rec
ognition of its rights that the most
arbitraiy employer will have learned
that he is negotiaMng. not with men
whom ho can discharge with an cental
chance of hiring others just as valu
able, but with men who arc only a
part of an army of laborers and that
none of that army will work for him
at less than a living wage or less than
liunian privelcges. That employer of
the twentieth or twenty-lirst century
will not tell the men impatiently to go
back to their work and they will be
treated well. He will listen to their
side of the case as though he had to or
lose his job, and even if he be a Sun
day school teacher, like Mr. I Joss iter,
lie will not proceed on the false assump
tion that evasion is diplomacy l'ordis.
contented workmen are the last per
sons whoso parsnips can be buttered
with line words.
Cultivation of Waste Places.
More than ever before it is notice
able tills year that the farmers have
planted the space on both sides of the
road contiguous to their farms with
oats, corn, and wheat. If every fann
er would sow tills part of the public
demesne, which lias heretofore been
allowed to grow weeds whose ripened
seeds are scattered by the winds over
all the laud, the sunflowers, rosin
weeds and thistles would become
less of a nuisance Every farmer who
thus plants the roadway is a public
benefactor. Over against ills own
farm he is doing bis best to destroy
tlio native sunflower whose hardy hold
upon the laud chokes the wheat and
all the .small grains which cannot be
cultivated. The effect of the sunflower
is most apparent in the oatflelds, per
haps becauso there are more oatflelds
in this, neighborhood. Where tlio
sunflower has a squatter's light
it is almost impossible to dislodge
it and it sucks all the mois
ture and nourishment from tbo soil
and air in its vicinity, in a Hold
sowed to oats but practically held by
Minlloweis. the oats area pale sickly
green, beaded at Hie top of the stalk
by a light row of grains, the stand is
sparse and the farmer will scarcely got
back as much and surely not as good
tts the seed ho planted. The farnieis
who have earned the gratitude oi
their neighbors and theii descendants
by causing ensilage corn to grow
where the giant sunllower possessed
the soil, ate welcome to the extra
grain they harvest from the highway
in consideration of the greater beauty
and value of the land thus cultivated
by them.
The Army Canteen.
Out of six hundred replies received
from ollicets of ho army in answer to
the cnqul ries of the war department as
to the expediency of retaining the
canteens in post exchanges only six
were in favor of abolishing them.
The low groggorles which would ini
mediately appear on the disappear
anceof the canteen, where the soldiers
would be allowed and even encouraged
to drink too much and to drink bad
whiskey instead of beer are what in- w
duco these five hundred and ninety
four olllccrs to express their preference
for the canteen, where only beer is
sold. The temperance reformers are
not pacified by the testimony of the
officers in regard to the canteens that
since their establishment drunken,
ness and brawling has decreased and
sobriety and the sum of tlio soldier's
comfort and savings increased. Hut
until this testimony grows less certain
in quality and of loss volume, the do
partnient in Washington can not, in
all probability be induced to act con
trary to it
The Italian Lynching.
A paper published in Rome, called
the Konia Tribuna says that the
lynching of the Italians in Tailulah,
Louisiana, "was not only judicial
infamy but shows social degenera
tion." Sheriff Lucas of Tailulah
says that "The chances are thai, with
the exception of the sworn officials
of the court, every able bodied man Y
in Tailulah took part in the lynch
ing." Tills means that ministers,
lawyers, teachers, all the members
of professions that in the north con
tain reflecting, refined dispassionate
men are replaced in the south by
men lacking the self control, when
aroused, or brutes. This social de
generation tint the Roma Tribuna
recognizes has been accomplished by
slavery. It is the historical elfect
of slavery upon the race which en
slaves. The southern people are of
the same blood and the same tradi
tions as we in the north, though they
are accustomed to insist upon a
deeper tint of blue and upon an
ancestry more or less royal. Except
for the difference in temperature
which is said to make them more
fiery, there Is no reason except slavery
why the southern people should have
lost respect for human life and for
law. That they are degenerate is
shown by the constant lynching of
black men, shooting of each other and t
the miscellaneous lynching of for
eigners who happen to displease them.
It is popular and customary for
other parts of the ITnited States to
express horror and indignation at
the polygamy of rtuh, and let the
atrocities constantly perpetrated in
the south escape special attention,
tior its own speedier civilization I
hope the Italian government will
Insist on the punishment of the mob
of ''our most respected citizens" who
lynched the Italians without a hear
ing A little federal attention to tlio
crime of murder in Louisiana, Geor
gia, Alabama, Mississippi and other
southern states, is as much needed as
it is in benighted and obstinate Utah.
Letters received from the south
complain that northern people have y
no conception of the brutality and
