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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 30, 1899)
vol. xiv., ro. lit ESTABLISH KD IN 188(1 PHICE FIVE CUNTS LINCOLN, NBBR., SATURDAY, DEGBMBIili JK), 1800. ENTERED IN THE POSTOFFICK AT LINCOLN AB SECOND CLASS MATTES. THE COURIER, Official Organ of the Nebraska State Federation of Women's Clubs. PUBLISHED EVEBY SATURDAY BT THE COURIER PRINTING AND PUBLISHING CO Office 11.32 N etreot, Up Stairs. Telephone 384. SARAH B. HARRIS, - Editor Subscription Katep In Advance. Per annum 9100 8ix months 75 Three months 50 One month 20 Single copies 05 The Courier will not bo responsible for vol untary communications unloss accompanied by return postage ' CommunlMtions. to rocolvo attontion, must bo stoned by tbo full name of tlio writor, not merely as a guarantee of good faith, but for publication if advisable r u L OBSERVATIONS. 1 The Carnegie Library. Like a man or a woman who lias lived an obscure life and has suddenly come into a fortune Lincoln Is now the envy of the undowered towns of Nebraska. Tiie news of Mr.Carnegie s gi ft of $75,000 for a public library in Lincoln is not yet authoritatively confirmed but there are trustworthy indications that the offer has really been made. The placing of money where it will do the most good Is a problem for the benevolent rich. The building of a library to house books and for reuding rooms for those who have neither books nor a place to read them, is a benefaction of .the sort the charity organization students are trying to encourage. It helps the poor and the ignorant and they are not identical to help themselves. It is a gift of travel, of poetry and romance of science, of tongues. For all these are in books, and all the life that has been lived since- long beforo Moses headed the animal samples Into the ark. The inlluenco of the library upon the future of Lincoln Is inestim able. Association with the noble spirits of tho past through the Inven tion of letters will In time euro us of Political as well as other errors which have in spite of statistics given Ne braska tho reputation of Illiteracy. r V The Library Site. Tho Topcka public library Is erected on tho Capitol grounds, tho stato bavlng given permission. The site Is, of course exempt from taxation and its nearness to the capitol building is a great convenience to students who consult law books and State records as well as more general works. A seventy-live thousand dollar building contributed by a man as familiar with good architecture as Mr. Carne gie would ornament the Capitol grounds. Tho stream of people, visit ors and and residents, towards the State house, makes that locution a centre. It Is the newspaper and real-estate fashion in Lincoln to consider the elTcct the city makes upon strangers and visitors rattier than our own comfort, though the wisdom of sucli a system is us doubtful in the case of a city us in that of an individual. But so long us the doctrine of spreading our web for strangers lias been preached it is perhaps as well to con centrate as many fascinations as possible in one spot. Strangers and visitors whom the union-commercial club suspects cf having money arc shown the capitol, the penitentiary, the insane asylum and the university. The university campus lias a library building on it, and besides the uni versity authorities say they are crowded for room inside und outside of the building?. The building is certainly not needed and not wanted on the campus. The penitentiary grounds are also confined. The asy lum grounds arc beautiful and ex tensive but the sights und sounds nrc depressing und both ure too far away to be cons dered. The state-house grounds ure spacious and the six jani tors ure so overworked in the summer time that even with the assistance of u horse und mower the grass is al lowed to grow long enough to mature a crop of hay. A large library build ing while decreasing the size of the hay crop, will lighten the summer labors of the junitors und gardeners, who like all other public servants of the state, tin county, the city, go to work at nine A. m , and leave on at four P. M. Nevertheless they have not time to keep up with the men who work for private parties or for themselves. The library building on the capitol grounds in Topeka is well placed and Irs convenience is a matter of fre quent comment. The session of the legislature is a year .In the future but the site is so evidently appropriate that it is worth biding our time to ask the state for the loan of it. English Supremacy, The unmilitary, bucolic, Boers, even If they arc beaten eventually by over whelming numbers have established the truth, long suspected, that Great Britain is not a champion lighter. Her supremacy is of trado; it is literary, it is manifest in constitu tional and institutional development. It is duo to tho large English family, Anglo Saxon inheritance und tradi tion, tospreuding, ceaseless industry, to ship commerce, rather than to war ships. The army and navy are officered by lords and sons of lords who have bought their commissions. The British bcerugc, as Americans have found it, has not been so hard to beat either with guns and swords or with boats and horses. The British middle classes, the farmers, man ufacturers, trades people who do not. scorn work are another sort. They will keep the British army in the llo'U till from among the brave, impulsive ".ittleorfcer bhoys" adversity selects real leaders. It is not likely that this England will be beaten. It is not likely that this yeomanry will accept the mediution of the United States. They were not for war, but being once engaged in it they will not retire from the field till they ure forced. And they, at least, are not enfeebled by luxury and can stand their ground as long as Americans or any other nation on the earth. The testimony of the mest reliable witnesses is unanimously for the su premacy of Great Britain in Africa. A Catholic bishop, an Irishman, who received a petition from his country men to assist the Boer in his fight against the English, replied that he could sign no such petition, that the victory of the English meant the salvation of the land. The Boer en slaves the black natives and kills them when they displease him as nonchalantly as tiie Red Queen com manded "off with his head" when a subject was awkward. Their appeal to the wor'J in the name of liberty to sustain them in the fight against England is equivocal. The English pay nine-tenths of the Transvaal taxes. Their development of the country has enriched the Boer. Yet the Boer refuses him representation, the very principle we fought England for and the very prlncip'e we finally and partially established. The Boers are really lighting the cause of tyran ny, slavery and Ignorance but tley have wrapped their cause in a flag and labeled it autonomy and people in Ireland and America arc deceived by appearances. Eng'and is figiiting tiie battle of civilization and liberty. Tho Dutch in Africa are on the side of slavery and retrogression, soeiah commercial, political and educational. If the Boer win, that part of Africa will stand still, like China, while the world goes on around it. One of the most significant lessons of national development, and the one most neglected is the history of the Children of Israel. They were God's chosen people et he led them into captivity. After four hundred and thirty jears he sent a man to lead them out of it. Tills man led them up and down and around, in timber and over the boulders of a wilderness for forty years. It Is a wonder how ho did it, since we have found out what a little wilderness it was. After Moses' dcatli a Columbus discovered tho Promised Lund und the peoplo set tled down with Joshua as king. But thoy ceased to develop and rot to talking too much about Illicit and King Nebuchadnezzar stormed Jer usalem took it, and carried the in habitants oir to Babylon and the years of Babylonian captivity began. It was a mild sort but since the days of Jerusalem the ten tribes have been lost and the descendants of the two tribes are scattered over the earth. The Biblo and subsequent history teaches tiiat no people has a claim to any spot of the earth. The soil is given to the people for only the usu fruct. "The land is mino said Jo hovuh " The Bjcrs spoak in biblical language. They arc familiar with the wanderings ot tho lost children. And there is nothing more certain either biblically or profanely, than thut if they do not use the land to their own 'nd all settlers' best use they cannot keep it. Wherever the English go the land hums witli in dustry uifd business will take tho Transvaal away from tho Boers. The Mind of Woman. Professor Edgrcn, the president of the Plii Beta Kappa society has an nounced the election of the following students from the senior class: Mr. L. E. Ayleswortli, Miss Grace E.Cook, Miss Eugenia Mackin, Miss Eva Me Cunc, Miss Grace Kushton and Miss Laura Stratum. Phi Beta Kappa in tho reward of scholarship. So rigid is prcdjudicc that only of late has a Pill Beta Kappa fraternity been es tablished in a woman's college. Yet in the coeducational institutions, where men and women are neither handicapped nor given points, the yeary announcements of admissions to this fraternity of scholarship have been distributed between the sexes ubout in the proportion of this year's awards as announced in the opening sentence, viz. as five women to one man. An illiterate man can not un derstand what a severo'test of scholar ship most of the Phi Beta's must bo tried by. The most slovenly of news paper writers, the most Inaccurate of scribblers, and tho most bigoted wo man hater of all will admit that out or three thousand students of both sexes and all ages, the six selected b the professors of belles lettrcs, an cient and modern languages, science, mathematics, etcetera as the most distinguished scholars aro quite apt to possess extraordinary intellectual ablllty.Slnco the establishment of Phi Beta Kappa in Lincoln the proportion of accepted candidates has not before been so disproportionately feminine, but, according to a somewhat unroll ablo memory, tho number of young gentlemen whose Intellect lias graded A hasbeen always smaller than the young women thus recognized. To bo included among tho Aspaslas of this year's list of Phi Beta Kappas Mr. Ayleswortli is entitled to tho samo consideration and distinction which tho young women will receive. I hope that no prejudice as to the ac
