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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 4, 1899)
VOL. XIV., NO. XLIV. ESTABLISHED IN lHl 8 PRICE FIVECBNTS .-. .. , LLa H 1 B j3SrBIMKeiiBlHtirJClMF8BB"' bB "bbbt"- H K"w" bb1 ft ,f 'ifl 'nil v ." -orf. 1 LINCOLN, NBBR... SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1800. BNTBBEDIN THE POBTOPFIOB AT LINCOLN AS SECOND CLASH MATTBB. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BT THE COURIER PRINTING AND PUBLISHING GO Office 1132 N street, Up Stairs. Telephone 384. BARAH B. HARRIS, Editor g OBSERVATIONS. 8 Subscription Katep In Advance. Per annum - 9100 Six months 75 Three months 50 One month 20 Single copies 05 The Courier will not bo responsible for vol untnry communications unless accompanied by roturn postage Communications, to rocolve attention, must bo sisnod by tlio full namo of tlio wrltor, not moroly as a Kunrantoo of good faith, but for publication if advisable. Paving. When the brick Intersections were being laid on Eleventh street and N street few people were able to un derstand why it would not be better to wait until the contiguous property . holders were ready to pave tho blocks between the intersections. Now that the landlords on both sides of P street wish to pave the street that bounds their holdings there Is no fund to pay for the intersections. In vetoing the council resolution which ordered the paving done in spite of there being no funds in the treasury to pay for it, Mayor Winnett has tlio support of a very large pro portion of tlio tax payers of all parties. The Mayor has that very rare qualifi cation of a public man greater scru pulousness in incurring obligations which the city must pay than in ex pending his own income. Anxious to keep tluj letter of the law and obedi ent to tho spirit of municipal govern ment, Mayor Winnett Is striving to do ills duty and make no mistakes. Even tho P street landlords who are inconvenienced by tho very bad con dition of tho street must confess the singleness and purity of the Mayor's reading of tho law and of his con duet. Whenever a student of economics begins tho study of practical city poll tics and city administration, ho Is Im mediately shocked by the reckless spending of city funds by mayor and ' mncilmen Conservative business 1,1 ' who live within their Income 'iiefully apportioning their household expenses to their earnings, reverse their rules of living when directing how much the people shall bo taxed and how and for what purpose the sum shall be spent. The cities af the United States are all In debt. No matter how rich, they have borrowed money and a very large proportion of the amount annually raised by taxa tion is paid out in Interest. In Lin coin lastyear-(the city year ending in September) $55,817.50 was paid out as interest on the bonds, and 818,000 was paid as interest on paving bonds, making a total of ".'1,817.50. The pav ing bonds arc, of course, paid by the city treasurer but the property hold ers pay the tax as a special assessment so that the amount cannot be sub traded from the income of the city. The levy for last year was 8107,385.0:1, much of which has not been collected. Reckoning upon the whole amount of the levy being collected, which it has not and cannot be, the 855,817.50 of in terest money, the whole of which must be, and is, paid annually, is al most exactly (me third of the total in come of the city. If preceding mayors had been gov erned by the standards which con trol Mayor Winnett the city would not now lack a paving fund. The mayor of Lincoln is entitled to the loyal support of all students of eco nomics, of all over-burdened tax pay ers whose Interests for the flist time in municipal history are being consid ered. The mayor has ignored tlio blandishments of the agents of the asphalt company who assure him, af' tor the manner of all agents selling articles on tho installment plan, that they are not anxious about the pay ment for the work and are willing to take chances and all that. He is a man who does not mix propositions, nor allow them to become complex. If there is no money in the treasury for paving he is not willing to make a contract binding the city to pay mon ies which will involve it in a lawsuit. Being assured by council for the as phalt company that tho city is safe and that a contract for paving when there is no money in the treasury to pay for paving is expedient and will involve neither him nor the council In dlfflcu'tles, does not seem to bo effectual in inducing the mayor to change his mind. The trouble is, tho mayor has had experience. It is his habit to consider only the elements of a bargain and in a contract for paving when there Is no paving fund he can not see anything but trouble. - The Chaperone. In Europe whero young women, of oven the daughters of middle class families are not permitted to go to parties, to go "buggy-riding," and to other places of entertainment with young men unaccompanied by a much older, or by a married women, there aro very few young girls shot by Im patient and jealous sweethearts. Not being granted any privileges what ever, tho young men of Europe do not assume tho right of life or death over the young women they admire. Tlio chaperone is not a romantic feature of society cither in tills country or Europe but her presence is a constant reminder of the claims of society and family upon both the young man and the young woman. Miss Mahoncy who was shot in Peoria last week was a victim to the American custom of allowing young men to monopolize the society of young women. Her parents did not approve of the young man who want ed to marry her and he concluded to shoot her. He supposed tnat ho loved hcriind he was certain that If ho killed the girl he would be revenged upon her parents and Justify their un favorable opinion of him. Incident ally ho shot himself. Crazy young lovers generally do. If he had not shot her he would have had to go to work or lose his sweetheart, and he preferred murder and death either to the loss of Ills sweetheart or to the necessity of work. If he had never seen Miss Mahoney except In the pres ence of her mother or guardian, he would have acquired no unreasonable hopes and his plans might tiave been tinged with temperance an:', reason. At any rate Eurpean murderers of tills sort are very rare and in America they happen every day. Even tho young peasant girls of Europe aro ac companied to dances by their parent. The bachellors make calls on them but the father and the mother and the children, who can stay awake, ap propriate his call and keep him from vain imaginings: No young girl any where so unprotected from herself and faom maddened egoism as tho Ameri can girl. In the last ten years the number of girls who have been killed by silly men is greater than tho total number of dead In the Spanish Ameri can war. Tammany Tho Mazet committee has shown conclusively just how'RIchard Croker has made bio fortune and is dally ad ding to it. By his own testimony, evoked by the skillful questioning of the chairman of the committee Mr. Croker confessed that the patronage of the city of Now York was deflected to this or to that one according as Cro ker gave orders. The Mazet committee has also shown that Mr. Croker con trols the police and that the police do not interfere with tlie pool rooms, which run day and night. In retaliation Mr. Croker has ac cused the Mazet republicans of be smirching the fair name of the city The police tried to drag a man to jail who cheered John Proctor Claikcfor denouncing Croker at a meeting of in dependants and republicans last Sat urday night. The police did not daro arrest Mr. Clarke but when ho said that Croker's pockets were lined with the gold paid him by the proprietors of pool rooms and an unknown man in the audience cheered, three police men immediately pounced upon him and would have dragged him off had nottheaudlenco and Mr. Clarke per emptorlly demanded his release Tho periodical revolt against Tammany has about reached another climax. It has been proven for about tho tenth time that the organization ex ists for the purpose of enriching tho leaders by the proiltsof allowingcrim Inals to slug and rob tlio citizens of NowYorkwhodo not trouble them selves about politics. Such revela tions have succeeded in past times in creating an interest In municipal poli tics among tUose who buy and sell and walk tho city streets, and It is hoped this elect ion is an anniversary of tlio other occasions when Tammany has been defeated at the polls. The only trouble is, between Piatt and Croker there Is only a difference In namo and not In principle IvTediacvalismt When we read of times and people long past and dead, of knights clad in armor who rode out to adventures of rare thrill and of import vast wc aro tilled with a bootless longing to be, at least, a spectator in tho fourteenth century. To he sure, life was not very comfortable in the seven hundred years between the ninth and the six teenth centuries. Tho richest pcoplo were very cold in winter and when it rained were without mackintoshes or umbrellas. The menus served to kings and queens were unspeakable. If the same cold, badly cooked, un seasoned messes were served to an American laborer by the wife of li's bosom in the year of our Lord 1800. the result would depend upon family discipline, but in most households such a revival would cause a tragedy. The men and tlio times were inter, estlng but brutal and there were no bathtubs. The priests and bishops frightened peasant and peer too by threatening eternal punishment to those who stayed away from confes sion, or were slow in contributing what the clergy demanded. Without the discomfort and ex pense of presenting a play from the middle ages, leaving out the old ar mor and tho costly properties and stage settings of the time of Old King Cole, Lincoln people can see a genuine survival of, let m say, the times when priests pretended they had the direction of the soul, after death. Father Reade of the pro-cathedral, to. a'l appearances, is genuinely convinced that ho can, locate a soul in heaven or hell or in the intermediate place. His calm assumption of a power and perception, that even tils Holiness Pope Loo XIII is slow to claim, is an unm'stakable characteris tic ot tho priest of the middle ages; Even the best and roost rigid of Catho lics do not claim nowadays to be able to speak positively about the exact stage a departed soul has reached; About what happens to the soul im mediately after It has escaped from the body even the most pious, tho most believing, aro doubtful. They cannot answer tho questions of little' children nor their own. Father: I! m l a li v