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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 16, 1899)
5SISS(KSHBHSSWBHBbbsh1 THE COURIER. away, abd that he wished to say adieu. She looked at him without Booming to hear. At length eho said in a friendly tone: "Well! it surprises you to boo me, don't it? Yes, it's true I threatened to strangle the first of my family who went down again, and hero I'm doing it my. self. 1 ought to strangle myself, oughtn't I? Well, I would do it if I hadn't the old man and the little ones at home." "Does Joanlin work?" "Yes, the gentlemen have found him outside work. lie earns twenty sous. . . . Oh! I don't complain, the chiefs have showr themselves to be very good. The boys twenty sous and my thirty, that makes fifty boub. . . . There are six of us to feed. Eatelle eats now and the worst ie that we'll have to wait four or five years before Lenore and Henri are old enough to go down in the mine." Btienne could not restrain a sad gesture. "They, too." The wan cheeks of la Mahue reddened while a llame seemed to light up her eyes. But she bhrugged her shoulders HB if under the burden of destiny. "Certainly, they're after the others. . . . They haven't all lost their lives yet, it's heir turn now." So Etienne went forth upon bis jour ney, givibg up forever the problem of the equilibrium of empty stomachs, knowing himself ta( be the prisoner of poverty, and realizing that if he should wander to the world's end he would only change his prison house. A new writer of promise has cou.e up in England in the person of Mr. Eden Phillpotis. His new book, "Children of the Mist," has been pronounced by some critics the novel of the year, though I think it should scarcely be rated above "Number 5, John Street." One of the most daring innovations of M. Rostand's novel "Cyrano de Bergerac" was its astonishingly long list of dramptia per Bonae. Playwrights have found that a drama can be worked out very well with a dozen characters, or even fewer, and that thia economy of time gives an op portunity to develop the really impor tant people of the play more fully. The same change has taken place m the novel in France, in Russia and in Eng land. Mr. Howells and Henry James enjoy fewer characters in a single novel than did George Eliot. As the drama has grown more like the novel, so the novel has taken upon itelf mora and more the limitations and direct methods of the drama, and contents itself with situations which involve all the charac ters conzernod. But Mr. Phillpotta bus returned to the older manner, and his book takes up the Uvea and fortunes of an entire Dartmoor community. His novel deals not with a few persons and a problem, but with many people and the universal, ever present problem of get ting through the world somehow. He considers, tho life of a town, the in fluence of the environment upon the people, of the people on each other. His canvas is wide enough for comedy and tragedy. He takes up the village hero, the village bollo, the village scholar and the village clown and fol lows them through the checkered dra ma that they play. I am not sure that this is worth doing quite as well as Mr. Phillpotta does it. I am , not sure that his rich and exhaustive writing would not be more effective if it were governed and tempered by a little artistic discre tion. The novel is not cloeely knit to gether, it seems not to have been care fully planned. Scenes of noble pathos lose their force because they are fol lowed by chapters more or less irrele vant; The comedy is not always tact fully placed and ia persistently placed, sometimes to the extent of being fie trop, like the later comedy of Dickens. The current of the story is split up into so many channels thai one somehow loses the force of it and scarcely realizes how splendidly the whole thing is written. A man with a much narrower range, without half Mr. Phillpotts' wide grasp of divergent types of life, without half his vividness and richness of style, by a more skillful arrangement might have made his joints better. In "The Mill on the Floss,'' George Eliot had much the same problem to confiont. She too wrote the drama of an entire com munity, she too wished to make a com plete picture of country life and took a largo canvas and brought a company of stolid, earthly people about her more feverish characters. But she knew when to lay all of them aside and saved herself for that one supreme dramatic moment in which she brought about her tragedy. The crescendo begins with Maggie's ride down the river, with Stephen and from thereon the dominant theme is brought steadily to the front. At the proper time she subordinates evory interest to one, throws all the lesaer characters of her book into the shadow, destroys the scaffolding by which ahe built this tragedy and leaves Maggie l'ulliver's cross and expiation above and supreme. The tragedy rises like the black Hood that came down the Floss, engulfing field and hamlet and town and mill, leaving those two figures to stand out alone above all the world for a moment before they sink into the flood. "The boat reappeared, but bro ther and sister had gone down in an embrace never to be parted; living through again in one supreme moment the days when they had clasped their little hands in love, and roamed the daisy Melds together." And so the reader, in one great moment of illumi nation, sees the whole of these two lives, as a man sees a whole city by a flash of lightning. Ah Heavens; when will the man or woman be born who can write like that again? Perhaps sometime Mr. Pbillrotts, whose career began not long ago, may give us something as full of nature and truth as his ''Children of the Mist." Yet fashioued with a more rigorous and compelling hand. He baa the temper from which all health in literature springs. He sees the world freshly, as though it had been made but yesterday, and be ceases not to wonder at it. His book is full-blooded, free from literary' affectations, lusty and wholesome and full of ioy in out of door life, with roots that reach deep into the soil and a Horesence pale and beautiful fas the Dartmoor Mists. SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS Under the old plan of having men teachers for the boys, and young ladies for the girls, things at the Sunday school bad been going from bad to worse, The childred were all glad enough to go, not for the spiritual good they were to re ceive, but for the jolly good time- they were sure to have. Ab a last resort someone suggested that the men should take the girls, and the young ladies the boys. This was tried, and the girls were a little better, but the boys were worse if anything. Finally one of the teach ersshe was the prettiest girl in the school after a vain attempt to make her class of bos tee that they ought to behave themselves and study their les sons, because it waB "meet, right, and their bounden duty' so to do, determined to try the value of a direct per eon al ap peal. So she drew up the very worst of her boys, the ringleader in all the mis chief, and holding him by the band and looking deep into his eyes, she said, "Won't you learn your lesson to please me?'' "Why, cert,' was the prompt reply, "but who's your steady?'' iiiniMniMii LBBS. LOUISA L KIOKRTTS. IIKIIIMMMI1HMMMMMHIIHIIMI The following are the officers of the General Federation of Women's clubs: President Mrs. Kebecca D. Lowe, Atlanta, Ga. Vice President Mr. Sarah S. Piatt, Denver, Colo. Recording Secretary Mrs. Emma A. Fox, Detroit, Mich. Correspond i ng Secretary Mro.George W Kendrick, Philadelphia, Pa. Treasurer, Mrs. Phillip N.Moore, St. Louid, Mo. Auditor Mrs.. C. P. Barnes,-Louis, ville, Ky. State Chairman Mrs. Louisa L. Rick etts, Lincoln, Nebr Officers of the State Federation of Women's clubs; President Mrs. S. C. Langworthy, Seward. Vice President Mrs. Anna L. Apper Bon, Tecumseh. Recording Secretary Mrs.F. H. Sack ott, Weeping Water. Corresponding Secretary Mrs D. G. McKillip, Seward. Treasurer Mrs. H. F. Doane, Crete, Librarian Mrs. G. M. Lambertson Lincoln. helpfulness. To be included in thia cal endarit will be necessary for each club 10 send to tbe editor of this department its year book or mail a, postal containing the date and subject to be discussed at lea9t ten days before each club mooting. I hope that this effort in behalf of dub work may meet with the cordial co. opera tion of the club women of the stato and that it may prove helpful and auggea. five in many was. Latest advices from Paria Bhow that Mrs. Rebecca D. Lowe, president of the G. F. W. 0., while on a vacation for rest and recreation, is still mindful of tho in forests of club work, she called a moot ing of the honorary members of tho fed" eration who live in Paris, that they might confer on the advisability of or ganizing women's clubs there. Sho has alBo arranged that the details of the womens' club exhibit at the Paris expo- v sition'shall be in the .hands of a local committee which shall-be in direct com munication with the special committee appointed by the board of directors of the general federation to take charge of the Paris Exposition exhibit. Mrs, William Tod Helmuth was mado the chairman of this committer and its plans will soon be completed and published. CALENDAR OF THE CLUBS OF NEBRASKA September 4, The Gauls, Monday c, Wayne. . 5 Changes of Musical Notation, Mozart c, a' ( Plattsmouth. ( Amorica Before Discovory, Mary Barnes " c, Fnllorton. 6, William & Mary, Woman's c, StroroburK. 0 j ''In Ills Stops" roviowed. Zetetioc, Weep ' ( inn Wator. 11, Early France, Woman's c , Mindon. , j Painting in Flanders, Political history of "' I America, XIX Century c, Seward. 10, Summor Romlnsccucos.W onion's c, North B 20, The Roman Empiro, Woman's c. Dundee. o 5 Introduction to American Literature. " ( Ladle's Litorary c, Sutttn. 21 , Vacation eminisconcos, V oman's c.Aubu'n ,r j Current Events, Macbeth, XIX Century c. ' Aurora. 20, Holland, Century c, Lincoln. '.'6, Business meeting, Sorosis. Lincoln. 29, Hamlet. Sorosis, Croto, October 2, Miscellaneous, Inglesiduc, David City, 2, Peace Movoraout, Woman's c, Omaha. . j Reception and President's address, Mati- " uoo Musicalo, Liucoln. 8, Poriod of Henry VII, Hist & Arte. Albion. 3, Sculpture, Social & Literary c, Croto. .. j President's address, Vacation Rominscon " Woman's c, Fairpury. 4, Primitive Germans. Coiy c, Tecumseh, 4, Eng. Lit., Friends in Council, Tecumseh. 4, Hamlot, Woman's c, Scbuylor. 4. European Hist., 861-1496, Acme c. Tccumsoh 4, Social meeting, Woman's club, Ashland. .' j Macbeth and current topics, Mutual Im- ( provoment c, Croto. 7, Current Litoraturo. Woman's c, Fremont. 7, Busjnoss Mooting, Woman's club. Columbus 7, Summor Romlnosconcos, HUt.A Art.Soward 12, Washington Irving, Ment. Cui.c, 8 Auburn 15, Roc. it Pros, address, Woman's c, Lincoln, 18 J Characteristics of Victoria andllor Beign " Woman's c, ABhland. With the purpose of increasing the in tereet in woman's clubs aud the work they are doing, The Courier will attempt' with tbe co operation of the clubs in Ne braska, to print each week a calendar of the statu clubs, which will include tho name andlocation of each club in the state and what it 1b studying. The suc cess of this effort to serve the clubs de pends entirely upon the general co-operation of tbe women's clubs of the state of Nebraska. There is no doubt that such a compilation will increase the sympathy and iuterest between clubs by placing each club in direct communication with every other club. Clubs studying, the same subject may obtain bints and give them by a comparison of the course of study and the manner of developing it. The bonds between state clubs cannot be made too close and sympathetic, and the more clubs know of each other the closer will be the ties, and the closer the ties then the greater the sympathy and As this number of The Courier will be sent to each federated club in tbe state, according to the year-book, and every other club whose name I could secure, it is an auspicious time for your state chairman of correspondence to present the question of joining the general fed. eration to each club. The three ques tions that arise when considering this subject are: What it the expense? What are tho benefits derived? How. do we make application? The answers are: First, The annual dues for clubs ehall be at the i ate of ten cents per capita, which shall be paid annually the- first of May c beginning with 1000. ' The answer to the second question involves the whole subject of the ad vantages of organization and may be divided into general and individual bene tits, hence it cannot be answered aa tersely as the first. Organization is tbe key note of modern success. We see it in religion, education, philanthropy, poli tics, and business, and it is but natural that womens' clubs should feel and re spond to this all pervading social force. The tendency of dub life today it toward practical work, and tho advant ages which come from organisation are too self evident In need recapitulation. Tbe proverb that -"In union there ie strength" is too old sad too fruj to ad mit of question. Hence the supreme benefit which comes from federation is, the strength which comes of unity. Id the G. F. W. C. there are today nearly a quarter of a million of women pledged not only to mutual improvment, but to the betterment ot humanity by means of educational, philanthropic, economic, Y and financial agencies. Who among us ' can estimate tbe power for good of so mighty a force? Men have long recognized tbe advan tages ot co operation, but only in the '0M0 OO fXKMO 0JQ Ladies' ininjg Hall. t Meals 1 5 cents and up. o The UTOPIA is a 8 murouniy up-io-uaie it sort for hungry people, especially the ladies, Clpati. rnnK ntirl irtvit- P " O "y n n Divrnu in nniiTM ii i id RHB Id! e M II
