Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 7, 1899)
. iiililOUKLUnimil A ?? 1 THE COURIER. It1 2 1 T . ' V ' w and ud Justs the lens, that we can see what he has seen and know whut he knows The chronicles of Mincrvy Ann Perdue are running In Scribner's Monthly. Compared with Ml nervy Ann, Uncle Ilemus is a vague story book, old negro. , Mlnervy Ann's drawling vowels and syncopated con sonants and her brave, self-sacrificing devotion to "Marsc Tumi In" arc so convincingly recorded that nobody thinks of his prejudice against a di alect story or against Sunday school tales of heroism and devotion to duty. Yet when the tales are told and made into a book the reviewers who com monly pay no attention to serial stories will herald another accom plishment by which the nineteenth century will be remembered. This creation of Mincrvy Ann Is really one of the notable discoveries of the cen tury. She is flesh and blood and has all the peculiar charm and loveliness of'the negro character; compound of tact, devotion, ingenuity and the primitive keen-uess of observation and deduction that unfinished races possess. Readers of the Century know already that Mincrvy Ann will make a sensation among the sleeping and Indifferent critics when it ap pears in book form. But as in the case of Trilby, which originally ap peared as a serial in Harpers, only when it has become a book between two stiff pasteboard covers, upholster ed in some of the fashionable shades of light green or terra cotta" will " the critics become aware of the "Chroni cles of Minervy Ann." Judge Reese Never was a nomination more unani mous than that of Judge M. B. Reese. If elected, he will leave a large prac tice and will resign his position as Jcan of the university law school -which he has tilled with h-nor. Ho neither soughfi Jlie .nomination, nor. accepted it without much urging. Ho believes that the office is one which should be bestowed by the people, and tie will not make an aggressive at tempt to secure his election He is a roan of spotless Integrity, of wide learning, and especially learned in the law. Republicans are united in sup port of him, while many fusionistsare still unreconciled to Mr. Holcomb, and unconvinced that his Integrity In the matter of house rent was beyond criticism. Judge Reese possesses Judicial attri butes and accomplishments. Ap. a Nebraska Judge his decisions, would become a very valuable addition to the body of records which as applica tions and interpretations of the law have as much bearing on decisions as the law itself. The Boers. All the learned International cor respondents, all the profound leader writers on the thousands of papers In this country and in England express the opinion that the Dutch in Africa will be conquered when England gives the word. It is not so certain that England will como off first in a contest with the Dutch. The rise of the Dutch Republic and the banish ment of Spain from the Netherlands occurred when Spain was a flrst-class power and Holland only an aspiration. 'The Dutch in Africa are stronger and more united now than in tho days they fought Spain behind the dikes. "With the Orange Free Stato to help them and Emperer William Jealously watching England for a chance to interfere and help the Boers tho re sult is not so certain. The Dutch are still the Dutch, and more obstinate, tenacious flghtars never were born. In their fighting there is something ufluaiUD V ctlcs, They take advan tage of darkness, of hiding places lo the hilfs, they wl Upturn South Africa 'on the redcoats, talcing 'advantage of Jungle, climate and conformation and reinforcing their geographical and climatic allies at unexpected times and places. The Widow knows that a fight with the Dutch is not the snap the Egyptiain campaign has been'. Tho Dutch are not Zulus, nor Indians, nor Egyptians; they are uncomprom ising, rather thick headed, protestant Dutch, with a belief in foreordina tion and convictions as strong as the Presbyterians of Scotland. Oom Paul Kruger isa.typical Dutchman and his heavy face is lined with the mental habits of a lifetime. It would be easier to convince and easier to Con quer a cleverer man. Faith in him is so deeply imbedded in the Boer heart, that the army win bo entirely at his command. There will be no criticism of the administration and the Dutch will on!y have to tight England with what aid the Orange Free State, Hol land, and the Emperor William can give them, and only diplomatic, help is expected from the last. The Public Library. No institution of the city has been conducted with so much economy and wisdom as the city library. The board has met regularly and although its memoes serve without pay, there are very few absences in the year's record. The burning of the library was a great calamity. It furnished booksto the bookless, and the self-culture it made possible is Inestimable. No thoughtful tax-payer ever begrudged the per cent of the tax which went to the city library. The city library Is one of the reasons why we can get along with so few policemen. Its quiet rooms tilled with books and papers were tilled every afternoon, and with all sorts of men, women, and youth;-'Teachers,' students,'' clerks, day laborers, club women, lawyers; every, profession, trade, and business was represented by the borrowers and readers. There is no suitable room for their accomodation now. To keep people out of mischief is not one of ijhe ac knowledged functions of a city library. That it is an actual preventative of crime and misdemeanors the records of disreputable and disorderly dis tricts in large cities both before and after libraries have been established there will demonstrate. Lincoln is a quiet and orderly city. Even on car nival evening there was very llttlo harm done. The influence which the city library has had In ejecting this good order it is impossible to measure. That it has been considerable no one who has watched the patrons of the city library come and go will deny. ThcproJectof ercctinga city library oh the high school grounds seems to mo unwise. The location is out of tho way. It should be in the central part of the city, jf it were on the. high school grounds It would bo overrun with noisy children, and tho other people who have been in the habit of reading the papers and books would be driven away. The school children do not need the library as these others do. The children are being Instructed by teachers. The other patrons are teaching themselves. Locating the library on the high school grounds and giving teachers and scholars spec ial privileges would set it apart for a class and destroy its universality. And its democratic rules and use is its chiefest claim to favor. One building a year Is doubtless all that the city of Lincoln can erect and the auditorium has been begun. If some public spirited citizens, who appreciate tho commercial yalue of a quiet and or derly city, not to mention tho other benefits conferred by a good public library,, would but add to the auditor ium fund epough to erect a wing for a city library they would deserve the gratltud'of posterity, though they might not receive it so forgetful are beneficiaries. Meagre Telegraphic Reports. In recording Admiral Dewey's ar rival In New York it was stated In the 'State Journal of the 28th of Septem ber on the first page and top of the seventh column, counting from the 'left, ''New York. Sept. 27 Through frol icking white caps the Olympla moved majestically up the lower bay today and passed through the picturesque strait guarded by Foils Wadsworth and Hamilton." A reader who had not read In The Journal of the preceding day the fore going explicit statement of the time of the Admiral's arrival in New York would conclude, if he had no ether source of Information, that the Ad miral arrived in the harbor on the twenty-seventh. As a matter of fact The Journal of the 27th contained an account of the arrival of the Olympla and intciviews with the Admiral, though neither interviews nor de scriptions were as full as in other western daily papers published in cities no more important than Lin coln. Mr. W. O. Jones, the managing editor of The Journal, patiently ox plained to me the other day that it was the policy of the paper lie has the honor to manage, not to print full re ports of anything. He said that in his opinion newspaper readers were given too many particulars of storms, murders, arrivals of the great, etcet era, etcetera, and that he was seeking to correct the taste of the subscrib ers to The Journal. The Professor of Journalism in the State University .said further that his idea', of. a news paper was the New York Sun and that In a modest western way, The Journal was doing the shining for Nebraska. Those people who prefer metropoli tan papers whose management has no educational aspirations for their sub scribers take another daily paper wherein the news is printed and not assorted and selected for them by a professor who knows oh, so much bet ter, what Is best for them to read. Nevertheless the local news in and about Lincoln is found in detail, and in the main, with reliable accuracy in The Journal. Therefore the ex igeant who take a Chicago paper for unexpurgated telegraphic reports take, and will continue to take, tho local paper for its record of current local events. Narrower Streets. The streets of Lincoln are at least a third too wide. 1 hope City Attorney Webster's suggestion that they bo narrowed before any raoro paving is done, will be adopted. The most dis agreable feature of tills climate Is tho dryness and the everlasting wind which blows It all over the parlor furniture, destroys the most caro fully arranged coiffures and perma nently Injures naturally cheerful dis positions. The expansive pioneer who laid out Lincoln, saw a city crammed with people and traffic in terfering with each other and block ing business for lack of room. He was a man with a Colonel - Sellers' Imagination to whose opulence the tax payers and "abutting property owners" owe tho tax assessments which in the last ten years have transferred so much property into tho keeping of the sheriff. There are many reasons why the streets should bo narrowed boforo they are repaved. Most of them have been very succinctly and forcibly stated by the city attorney and the subject Is only referred to here in order to help the project along In g0 far as one of the papers published In Lincoln may. Tho abutting property owners wlll.be much more likely to choose tho smooth and less noisy asphalt if the area to be paved is reduced by one half. A street sixty or seventy feet broad between build Ings only two stories high is an ab surdity and an extravagance. We do not need it and when the dust blows which is at least six months of the year, our pretentions to a stato we cannot afford take revenge upon us. " Nebraska's Provisional Government. Tho State historical society has is sued the third volume.of its valuable saries cf documentary history or the state. In full the title of the latest book is -'The Provisional Govern ment of Nebraska Territory"' and the Journals of William Walker, provis ional governor of Nebraska territory, edited by William E. Connelly. The book has a complete and scholarly index. It will be reviewed In these columns soon. The Work which the historical so clety Is doing for tho state In the pre servation of records and the publish ing of these Journals is not sufficiently recognized. On the occasions when the annual meeting of the society is held, or on the appearance of a vol ume like the one just mentioned, its real activity and unique function be como apparent. Mr. J. Stening Morton of Nebraska City, is the president of the society, Mr.Charles H.Gere is treasurer and Prof. Howard W. Caldwell is sec retary. Mr. Jay A. Barrett is librar ian and assistant secretary, The members and officers are scholars and lovers of learning. They are anxious to spend money and time to foster learning and to cause to be written and preserved for the use of scholars and historians, -hundreds of years hence, the records of a great state in its infancy and youth. In times when every action is determined upon or rejected by the measure of gain the nobil.ty of the devotion of the mem bers of thi8vsociety to Jts purposes is unobscurecVby many other examples of the same description. Among the most devoted members of the society was that gentle scholar and brilliant lawyer Judge James W. Savage or Omaha, who was its early pres.dent and an original investigator or the ethnological evidences of early explorers. The Dewey Arch. It is most fitting that the arch which the sculptors contributed to New York city's Dewey triumph, should become a permanent structure' In bronze and marble it will rewind remote generations of the time when the American idea took root in tho orient. Wo have not yet concieved the change that democracy in the liliplnes willetrect in oriental cus tom and thought. It is not deplorable Ny that tho Tugals insist upon democra- ' cy. We are too far away, to prevent thm fromlattaining it if they want it, and there is no one in America who looks forward to an eventual Filipino subordination any more irk- SOme than that. Imrumorl ilium the citizens of any state. Democracy is something like the law of gravita tiononly dangerous when defied or Ignored. Tho Filipinos arebravomen and they have proved their real ap preciation of freedom by dying for It. They still have racial peculiar ties which will be, ut least, partially de stroyed by democratic usages. There is also much that Americans can probably learn from them. Being accustomed to dealing wltn Spain It is not surprising that toe Filipinos should distrust America' Intentions towards themselves and requlro a positive and specitio state ment before yielding. Their rebellion rnimrri tnr frnnHum unrl r.lin IllinOBSl-F blllty of establishing anything but" democratic form of government In tno islands. ?J
