VOL. XIV., NO. XLIV.
ESTABLISHED IN lHl 8
PRICE FIVECBNTS
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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:
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