VOL. xiv., no. xlix.
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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
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