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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 26, 1899)
THE COURIER. the success of a fair In the summer time in a city whoso mean summer temperature Is over a hundred. They are probably right. The most Inveter ate sight seers will not go from a hot city to a hotter one for the sake of seeing the merchandise display which comprises the principle feature of all world's fairs. And unless the people from out of town can be induced to come to the fair there is no object in holding it. For the ultimate object of this and all other fairs is the en largemcnt of tho local market inci dentally accomplished by Intrusion on neighboring markets. Need of Watering Troughs. Lincoln has only two watering troughs, one in market square and one on the corner of Fourteenth and O. The latter is a shallow trough with a tiny stream of water flowing into it, and the other one is but little larger and is fed by a similarly stingy spray. One thirsty horse can drink up all the supply at Fourteenth and O, so that the next horse whose throat is parched and dusty can not do more than lick the moist basin. At market square there are fifty or more horses standing about who have dragged heavy loads into the city. Their tongues are hanging out and their need of water is apparent to the most thoughtless and horse-ignorant. They have stood there before and they will stand there again, suffering tiic tor. turcs of thirst. If their opinion of Lincoln could be expressed, it would not flatter us. The horse sense of it might be of more value though and of more direct appreciation than volumes of sermons on more abstract virtues. Weary and heavy laden, pulling heavy burdens, dripping with perspiration, tormented by flies and by a thirst which we might easily quench, it is surprising that the patient affection ate horses, do not hate and kick the heads oil the human race whenever it comes within reach of their only means of redress. If they could only vote there would be drinking troughs all over this town inscribed with affec tionate references to his strength do cility and industry to the Horse, by tills or that sleepless politician. As it is, anyone who reads the appeal in the big beautiful linguistic eyes is called a sickly sentimentalist. Neither the cruel welts of the whin nor famine for water nor the small but unceasing torment of flies appeal to the men who have a horror of sentimentalism. In the vicissitudes of the soul's migra tions from this body to that, it may not be so very long before some of the matter of fact citizens of Lincoln are li itched up there in Market Square offering brick-blocks, political "in flunce"or jobs to people who pass them and pay no heed to their inarticulate offers considering which these citizens will thank their stars for something they never realized tho blessedness of before, viz.: the shortness of a horse's life. Governor Roosevelt's Genial Ways. Nobody more than Governor Roose velt lias stirred and warmed the popular heart. After all, the French are not the only people who love a man on tiorse back and arc willing to devidewitti him even to the half of their kingdom. Dash, bravery, the ability to plan and execute a bril liant coup and tho last requires a patient strugglo with trifles that only tho truly-great ever concern them selves with, can conquer a kingdom worth having ovon in this country. Thcodoro Roosevelt has passed tho examination for heros and is en titled to a first grade certificate which will admit him to the presi dency race in four years. It is unfortunate, however, that as soon as a man begins to think of him self as a presidential candidate, he begins to be genial to everybody and everybody distrusts his smiles and his desire to shake hands. Ot course, in order to bo solid with the boys every old boy must recelvo an affectionate look and a smile and a shako on Ills own private and particular account. Probably there novor was a haughty president excepting Gcorgo Washing ton and ho got Ills pull by super natural lighting and staying qualities that would make anyone president. Even Abraham Lincoln cultivated Impulsivo outbursts of good feeling. Not that lie did not love ills fellow men and venerate democracy, ho did. but it was a tenderer more real kind than that which was expressed by shaking three hundred G. A. II. hands in an afternoon. Governor Teddy has no more sincere admirer (count ing out Ills personal friends and at taches) than the editor of tliis paper, but the palavering and petting he has begun to do is distasteful to moro than one of his admirers. If he has begun, four years before lie can bo a candidate, to shake thousands of moro or less grimy and sweaty hands every week the habit is likely to grow upon him, until, instead of the breezy, rattier dic'atorical and obstinate Ted dy, whom New York loves, ho will present tho smiling complacent oc casionally sickening face of a per petual presidential candidate who smiles a frozen smile upon the clean and the unclean, the perfumed and the offensive, the civil and the un civil At Cliatauqua, the other day, Governor Roosevelt insisted on shak ing hands with several hundred mem bers of the G. A. TX) and addressing to each one as he passed down the line, a brilliant, magnetic smile accompanied by a few words of appreciation of the opportunity they had granted him of laming his right arm for a month and a few other grand-stand remarks. Of course the dear old fellows cheered him and "hoped to sec him president" and all that, but it hardly seems worth while. The Fuslonist's Choke. The greatest mistake the tusionists could make, they made when they nominated Governor Holcomb for judge. The number of democrats and populists who are disgusted with ttie record Mr. Holcomb has made, is overwhelming. His nomination re quired the insistent exercise of Mr. Bryan's influence Without it, Mr. Holcomb would now be without even the prospect of a job. It is doubtful if Mr. Bryan s influence at the Aus tralian polls will be as potent as in the convention where his dynamic voice and eye were at citizen Hoi comb's service. A governor needs brains and in tegrity and feels the convenience of a spotless reputation, how much more does a judge upon whose impartiality often rests a man's living and a man's life? A governor makes derisions which affect tho state en masse, a judge, those which affect two men, or at most only a few, vitally. A gov ernor's veto or signature is frequent! v like applying electricity to a thous and people holding each other's hands. The same voltage applied to one man by a judge electrocutes him. Then if Caesar's wife needed a blameless reputation, how much more a judge, upon the unquestionable uprightness of whose decisions rests the respect of a people for law and the courts. A judge needs also a clear and in cisive and comprehending mind, one which cannot be diverted by legal ver biage, appeals, and the repeated trials which ooscure so many cases, from, the essentially simple points which are the basis of every case. No one who lias heard Mr. Holcomb speak or who has had the opportunity of read ing his headless sentences has failed to receive ttie impression that the' speaker or writer is overwhelmed and conquered, both by the intricacies of the English language and by the sub ject lie is mistakenly endeavoring to analyze A Judge who has the for tunes and the. lives of the people in ills hands should possess an intelli gence not easily thwarted and su perior to that of the average man. When a man lias so small a concep tion of the dignity Incumbent on the governor of a state as to sign a voucher of fifty dollars for house rent, when he actually paid his landlady only thirty dollars, the people are safe in refusing to bestow upon that man any other public office. In tho case of Mr. Holcomb, he himself wrote finis to his public service when he accepted fifty dollars from tho state and spent only thirty garbled dollars for rent and the people have accept ed his own estimate of himself. i MMMMMMMMmMMMMM 8THE PASSING SHOW ? W I LLA GATHER tmM IHIMMMMMMMIMMMIIIIMII Bovary" aro Btudirs in tho samo fomi nino typo; ono a tlnlshotJ and comploto portrayal, tho othor a haflty sketch, but tho thomo Ih oBBontinlly tho Bamo. Both womon bolong to a cIbbb, n"t largo, but forovor clamoring in our oaro, that demands moro r Jtnauco out of life than God put into it. Mr. O Bur nurd Shaw would my that tbey woro victims of tho ovor-idoalizatlon of lovo. Tlioy ara tho Hpoll of tho poots, tho IpbigonlaB of fioatlmotit. Tho unfor. tunnto feuturo of thoir disoaso is that it attacks only womon of bralnR. nt IcaBb of ruditnontary brainB, whoeo dovolop mont is ono-Bidod; womon of strong and lino intuitions, but without the faculty of obBoivation, comparison and roaEon Ing about things, Probably, for emo tional people, tho moat convoniont thing about boiog ablo to think, Ib that it occasionally gives thorn a rest from fouling. Now with women of tho ' Bovary" typo, this rolaxation BDd rec reation is impossible. They aro not people to write, hers is a gonuinolycrit,CB of U'0' but-ln tho m0Bt Phonal Hlprarv fltvlP- of no art nlmannn nr BOnBO Partakers of life. Thoy receive solidity; but light, flexible, aubtlo and 'PHmm through fancy. With thorn canable of producing tolling effects nns egins wiin xancy, ami pas directly and simply. The story she has A Creole "Madamo Bovary" is Miss Kato Chopin's littlo novol "Tho Awakoning." Not that the horoino Ib a croolo exactly, or that Mies Chopin Ib a Flaubert save tho mark! but tho thomo is similar to that which occupied Flaubert. There was, bdeed, no nood that a socoud "Madamo Bovary" should be written, but an author's choice of themes is frequently bb inexplicablo as his cboico of a wife. It ia governed by some innate tomporamontal bias that cannot bo diagrammed. This is partic ularly so in women who writo and I shall not attempt to say why MIbb Chopin has devoted so exquisite and sensitive, so well governed a stylo to so trito and sordid a theme. She writes much better than it ib given to moft to tell in the presont inatanco is not new either in mat tor or treatment. "Edna Pontellier," a Kentucky girl, who liko "Emma Bovary," had boon in love with innumerable dream heroa before she was out of short skirts, mar ried "Leonce Pontellier" bb a sort of reaction from a vague and visionary passion for a tragedian whoso unrespon sive picture she used to kiss. She ac quired tho habit of likiog ber husband in time and even of liking her children. Though we are not juBtifled in presum ing that she evor threw articles from the dressing table at thorn, as the charming "Emma" had a winsome habit ot doing, we are told that she would sometimes gather them passion ately to nor heart; sho would some times forget them. At a croolo water ing place, which is admirably and deftly sketched by Miss Chopin, "Edna" mot "Robert Lebrun" boo of the landlady, who dreamed of a fortune awaitiog him in Mexico while he occupied a petty clerical position in Now Orleans. "Rob ert" made it biB business to be agro able to bis mother's boarders and "Edna," not being a creolo, much against bis wish, and will took him seriously. "Robert" went to Mexico, but found that fortunes were no easier to make there than in Now Orleans. He returns and dots not even call to pay his respects to her. She encounters him at the home of a friend and takes him home with ber.She wheedles him in to staying for dinner and we are told she sent the maid off in search of some delicacy she had not thought of for her self, and she recommended great care in the dripping of the coffee and having the omelet done to a turn. Only a few pages back we were in formed that the husband "M.Pontellior" had cold soup and burnt fish for bis dinner. Such is life. The lover of course disappointed her, waa a coward and ran away from bis responsibilities before they began. He was afraid o brain a chapter with eo serious and limited a woman. She remembered thn .novel is sea where sho had first met "Robert." Perhaps from the same motive, which threw "Anna Karanina" under the engine wheels, she threw herdolf into the sea, swam until sho was tired and then let go. She looked into tho dis tance, and for a moment the old terror flamed up, then sank again. She heard her father's voice, and her sister Mar garet's. She beard the barking of the old dog chat was chained to the syca more tree. The spurrs of the cavalry officer clanged as he walked across the porch. There was a hum of bees, and the murky odor of pinks filled the air. "Edna Pontellier" and "Emma Biona rise in tho brain rnthor than in tho blood, tho poor, neglected, limited, ono-Bidod brain, that might do so much bettor than badger itself into frantic efforts to lovo. For these aro tho peo ple who pay with thoir blood for tho tino ideals of poote, as Marie Dolclasso paid for Dumas' great creation "Mar guerite Gautier." These peoplo really expect the passion of lovo to fill and gratify evory need of life, whereas na ture only intended it to moet one of the many demands. They insist on rack ing it staod for all the emotional pleas ures of life and in expecting an indi vidual and self-limited passion to yield infinite variety, pleasure and distrac tion, to contribute to their lives what the arts and the pleasurable exercise ot the intellect gives to ieBs limited and leBs intenso idealists. So this passion, when set up against Shakspere, Balzac, Wagner, Raphaels fails them. Tbey have staked everything on one hand, and they lose. They have driven the blood until it will drive no further, they have played their nerves up to the point where any relaxation short of absolute annihilation is impossible. Every idealist abuses his nerves, and every sentimentalist brutally abuses them, and in the end the nerves get even. Nobody ever cheats them, really. Then "the awakening" comes. Sorbe times it comes in the form of arsenic. as it came to "Emma Bovary;'' some time! it ie carbolic acid taken covertly in the police station, a goal to which unbalanced idealirra not infrequently leads. "Edna Pontellier," fanciful and romantic to the last, chose the aea on a summer night and went down with the sound of ber first lover's spurs in her ears, and the scent of pinks about her. And next time I hope that Miss Chopin will devote that flexible, iridescent style of hers to a better cause. It over the tints and odors aid sounds of summer were caught between the pages of a book, they are in Maurice Hewlett's "The Forest Lovers." The a medieval romance, the old story of a knight and a maid and an other woman. It is one of the strongest examples ot direct treatment that I know, and as different from the con ventional historical novel as possible. Consider, for instance the masterly and yet laborious' method by which Scott constructs his stage, assembles his dra matic persooae and produces his atmos phere, In.'Ivanhoe." If I remember rightly, there are some pages devoted to the historical situation, the condition of the country and the relations of the Normans and Anglo-Saxons. Then there are pages of geographical ' ex planations, aud detailed descriptions' of .Ml iMk.iKSEfc. .:&kdl Hfl&Jfo jj .iiJVl M vi( j,i. LfaMt nfilt flAlA ir-'iifatiflitorf- r la3sj.jLA.-tftetibMt& . , &. 4o
