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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 9, 1899)
VOL. xiv., no. xlix. ESTABLISH BD IN 1868 PRICE FIVE CBNTS M v. -X aa, aaw HVSlflBM&pftSSr BviflPHC aBSl BSSSl BaBSSl s h LINCOLN, NBBR., SATURDAY, DECEMBER 0, 1809. A m&m? Entxrkdin THE POSTOrnCE AT ltmcolm ab SECOND CLASS MATTER. THE COURIER, Official Organ of the Nebraska State Federation of Women's dubs. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY -Bt- W COURIER PRINTING AND PUBLISHING CO Office 1132 N street, Up Stain. Telephone 384. SARAH B.HARRIS. Editor Subscription Kates In Advance. Per annum " 29 Six montha Jo Three months oO One month 20 Single copies " The Courier will not be responsible for vol nntary communications unless accompanied by ., "communications, to receive attention, must "if be sUned by tne full name of the writer, not merely as a guarantee of good faith, but for publication If advisable, ' t OBSERVATIONS. 8 Senator Monroe L. Hayward. One of ttae distinguished group of men who came to Nebraska between 1860 and 1871, Senator Hay ward's life and character has contributed not in considerably to the reputation of the state. All his life Interested In pon tics, and occupying an influential place in affairs of state his politics have been those of a patriotic and in telligent citizen. He was vitally in terested in the country as a Union and in Nebraska, his own state. He never resorted to those tricks of politi cians the use of which- Is excused by the plea that other people experiment with them. Nobody ever suggested to lilra to trade off his party to get a place for himself., Men and women who had only a slight acquaintance with him regarded him with affection. He had a warm, faithful, loving heart and the state sorrows with his family because ho is no more. There is little doubt that the sena torial election In last winter's legisla ture is the cause of his death. A daily ballot for two months would try the temper and the health of a young athlete and Senator Hayward had pass ed the meridian of life. It is not alone the dally ballot but the plotting, the cabals and the unnumbered coups of a legislative election which follow and precede the balloting, that makes bui'h an experience fatal to men grown old in the wisdom fit for senators, Iti the crisis of last winter after the ivimbllcan caucus had finally decided upon Mr.. Hayward the Thompson forces proposed to deliver their party to the populists If they would elect Mr. Thompson . It was while waiting for the assembling of the Joint sea slon that, at last the cord, stretched taut so long, snapped, and Senator Hayward's days were numbered. If constitutional reforms were in duced by history this example of the fatal effect of a legislative struggle upon even the successful candidate and of the ease with which eight or ten men can defeat the wishes of the peop'.e, would be valuable. But It has happened before and will happen a gain until the people at large elect United-States senators. Throughout the struggle Senator Hayward showed no bitterness. No young man could have passed through so strenuous a struggle and kept the even tenor of his way, kept the stream sweet and unsullied. The sympathy felt for his family throughout the state. is, genuine. In addition to the loss of a good man and a pioneer the republi can party looses a senator as, of course, Governor Poyntor will appoint a mem ber of his own party to take Senator Hayward's place. Ethically as a re publican senator was elected and has died a republican should be appointed to take his place, but such transcen dental politics is still unheard of in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and ninety-nine. Spare the Trees" The plea for pine and fir trees made by Mr. J. Sterli oar Morton in The Don. servatlve deserves consideration. Id every city in the country In the fort night before Christmas trees are piled up before the shops so that the crowd Is forced onto a few feet of sidewalk next the street or struggles between an aisle of rootless young trees In tended for the houses and ships of the next generation. The fragrant fir hung with presents, glittering with lights, and surrounded by the beautl-i f ul, happy faces of children is a pleas ant sight. But it costs the life of a tree and we cannot afford it. The de struction of the trees means a decreas ed rainfall and the increase of the un fruitful arid area. More than to anyone else Nebraska owes the present vigorous timber growth in Nebraska to Mr. J. Sterling Morton. Twenty-five years ago he was like one who had received a mes sage which he must deliver. The Im pulse has not failed and ho is still preaching the gospel of trees and the penalties of their destruction. He is now exhorting the country to sparo the trees for the sake of those who will heed tnemfor houses, whose souls will need the medicine of the forest, whose "crops will perish for the rain that falls not, for their .sakes whose 'bones will ache under the midday sun when ours are crumbled Into dust. Children will be happy anyway at Christmas time. They are not ex. acting and they are quicker than grown people to realize the presence and the expression of love. Tree or no tree the mysteries, the gifts, and the joy of Christmas are theirs. The children will not miss the trees so much as the grown people who are ac customed to the Christmas symbol of the tree. Anyway the trees would not be cut down If It were not for the grown up people. Professionalism. The endeavors of the athletic board of the state university to make it im possible for a professional football player to remain a member of the football team in the university should receive the commendation and sup port of everybody who realizes the value of clean athletics. In the older colleges of this country, the blighting effects of professionalism do not re quire analysis. The epidemic has raged there and consumed honor and all good effects of athletics. The older colleges are on their way to recovery as the reward of unrelenting vigilance and sanitary destruction of the mi crobe, professionalism. If professionalism has been dis couraged in the university it is a far greater cause for rejoicing than any number of trumpery pennants. In the newness and inexperience of the west professionalism has flourished and has fastened a reproach upon col" lege sports not easily stricken off. If the university, athletic board' have resorted to heroic measures the condi tions justified such action and the purification justifies itself if the uul university team never win another game. It is better to have no sport at all, if it must be secured by hiring players. And victory under such cir cumstances is the worst defeat. Even the Lincoln high-school team was dis ciplined by the league for allowing a man to play who had coached the Hastings high-school team for money. Young Elliot, against whom the charge is preferred, was a paid coach o a foot-ball team and is thus dis qualified for membership in amateur teams. He is and has been a regular student at the Lincoln high-school now, but in consideration of this pro fessional incident in his past, the de cision of the board awarding the pen nant to Omaha is unquestionably sound and in the interests of fair play and good sport. Caspar Whitney, and other distin guished writers on sports, have main tained from the first, in spite of an gry protests from the west, that west ern college athletes could not be con sidered from a sportsmanly stand point because the colleges employed players and did not exclude every player from the college athletic field who was not an undergraduate in the regular academic course or who had sold or exhibited for money his agility, strength, and skill. At first sight these disabilities seem innocent enough, but their sufferance Involves deceit, cheating, encourages gambling, jockeying, and everything else which has made horseracing and baseball Ignoble and debasing sports. The vast audiences which gather to witness the foot-ball and other ath letlc contests e very year do not appear at any professional show however skillful the contestants may bo. Peo ple are Interested in realities and tho genuineness of a trial of skill between hired performers is so questionable that real sportsmen would rather play croquet themselves than form apart of an audience of gulls. Consequently unless football can be freed and kept . f reo from professionalism it has start ed on the same career that has brought baseball to its low estate. No tem porary reputation which either the Lincoln high-school or the Nebraska state university can secure through a loose interpretation of the rules is . really worth while. The Mormonev' In Utah, more than in other states of the Union, woman 1b man's inferior. In investigatingpolygamy Miss Helen Gould was surprised to find that the' Mormon women meekly submitted to the rigors of the religion. Such sub mission is only partly explained by the facts that women "are more religious than men, and that the Mormon re ligion teaches the wife that unless her husband approves of her she cannot inherit Immortality but her sou crumbles to dust with the body. The Mormon women are ignorant. As polygamy is a survival, so those who accept it as a part of their religion must be crude and undeveloped. The' civilization of the nineteenth century, that the college boy talks about, baa not effected ever so slightly the polyg amous Mormon. He or she is still' living in the time of Abraham. The centuries came and went leaving their ancestors still browsing with the flocks of the children of Israel. No logic can reach them for they live In tents and ethics that are- too compli cated for the nomad do not appeal to them. The stupendous assertions of. their religion, once accepted, recon. die everything. A miracle will ex plain anything and miracles are spat-' tered all over the pages of the books of Mormon. The olever Impostor who wrote the books, burled, and found them was a man, and It Is but natural that he should have selected an expedi ent for the rapid growth of his sect and for the increasing supremacy of his own sex. Too Ignorant to be reasoned with, too superstitious to use the weapons of suffrage the Mor mon women are not especially to be pitied. Occasionally there Is one who realizes the weight of the chains she Is bound with and sometimes such an one escapes. As a whole the faces of the women seen on the streets of Salt Lake city or In the temple are not un happy, only apathetio and heavy. As for the spread of Mormon doc. trine it Is so preposterous so mon strous a collection of fables it is not easy to believe that It is dangerous or that It will make many converts. It la recruited from the Illiterate peasantry of Europe. Those Mormons which a j.i )! ,! 4' 1 jw lr Jaten.1 v, tfcv'.Vj.'y' .-i .( .. i. ..- . A, . -L' "