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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 3, 1900)
- I K i I 1, I VOL. XV., NO. V ESTABLISHED IN1SS0 PRICE FIVE CENTS HZ v- 1 LINCOLN, NBBR., SATURDAY. FEBRUARY .1. 1900. -Imbht ENTERED IN TBE POSTOFFICE AT LINCOLN AS SECOND CLASS MATTES. cord history impartially. Tills par ticular one was published in New York seven years ago. No sympa thizer with the Boers has denied that their proteges enslaved the natives (nor that they have resisted, and North America, in Australia, in In dia, in the islands of the sea aro with her in this debate with the Boers over the right of men of all nations to settle in the Transvaal to do busi ness there and to have something to THE COURIER, Official Organ of the Nebraska State Federation of Women's Clubs. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY THE COURIER PRINTING UNO PUBLISHING CO Office 1132 N street, Up Stairs. Telephone 384. SARAH B. HARRIS. Editor when resistance was fruitless trekked) say about the laws. If the rule of England were oppressive, her colonics would seize this favorable oppor tunity to declare themselves free and independent entities. On the con trary they are eager to help her. Then; is little probability that America, will take any part, advisory or sympathetic, or belligerent in this war. But because England is a powerful nation and the Dutch are insignificant, we should not dull our sense of justice, our notions of right and our hope of constitutional de velopment in all parts of the earth. Subscription Katee In Advance. Per annum $1 00 Six months 75 Three months 50 One month 20 Single copies 05 The Coceiee will not be responsible for vol untary communications unless accompanied by return postage. Communications, to receive attention, must be signed by tno fall name of the writer, not merely as a guarantee of good faith, bnt for publication it advisable. : i g OBSERVATIONS. The English and the Boers. Sometimes the under dog is a snap ping, vicious cur, who has taken ad vantage of his diminutive size and the magnanimity of his opponent, to make unwarranted attacks on a peac able neighborhood. A small dog may steal a large dog's stored bones, a smaller man may affront and insult a large one with impunity, protected by the whole world, which, always, without regard to specific justice is on the side of the weaker. A candid investigation of the causes of the war in Africa can but incline the man given to espousing the cause of the weaker, right or wrong, towards the English. In the tirst place the Boer lover an- ield Coronet's roll. the efforts of the English to chris tianize the natives and make them into free laborers. The spreading of a race over the earth, is its own justi fication. From England, too small to contain all her sons, the English have colonized the earth. Compared with the freedom of the tyrannical, dull Boer, the constitutional government that groups of Englishmen establish when they make another country their home is the most complete freedom we know anything about. It is popular to refer, to the "brave little republic whom England has picked a quarrel with and intends to destroy." A republic is a govern ment of the people in a certain def initely bounded locality by rules adopted, revised and enfoiced by all the people or their representatives. The Transvaal Boers have adopted a set of rules which the people whom they are pleased to call uitlaender bad no share in making and which despoil them, who pay nine tenths of the taxes, of a fair share of the pro duct of their toil and enterprize. These people are outlanders and not citizens because the folksraad has anticipated the results of naturaliza tion and has passed laws to prevent it. England and the Transvaal has made several agreements. About 18 0 the Boers agreed that British subjects should have the same privileges and protection as citizens of the Trans vaal, except some slight differences in the case of young persons coming into the country. In 1882 a law was pass ed which required a residence of five years and the payment of $125.00 be fore citizenship could be acquired. This the British government accept ed as complying with the slight ex ception as to young persons just com ing into the country. In 1891 a new law required a fourteen years' resi dence and the registry of the emi grant's application for citizenship fourteen days after his arrival, in the Through ignor- nounces that the English have no right to object to the absolutism of Kruger, nor the obstruction of trade by the Boers because the latter were there first. This is not exactly true. The Dutch found Kaffirs, Zulus and other natives, both cultivating the ground and raising herds of cattle when they arrived in 1652. The Co lumbian encyclopedia published in 1893 says of the Hottentots that "they became the slaves of the Dutch set tler or Boers. From this condition they have been delivered by the en lightened and humane policy of the British government, and as free laborers they make excellent herds men and drovers."' An encyclopedia is supposed to be colorless and to re- ance of the requirement, or if for any other reason the newly arrived, ne glect to register within fourteen days, the right to ever become a citizen of "this brave little republic" is forever lost. A concise statement of the wrongs long patiently suffered by the English in the Transvaal is reprinted on another page. It was delivered to a club of gentlemen in some city not stated. It is reprinted, not with the hope that it will convert any one of those who are always and hopelessly on the side of the under dog however he may deserve a thrashing, but for the edification of those who care to look into and to hear both sides be fore taking part in a quarrel. All of England's colonies, in British Assessments. Convicts in the penitentiary are hardend and confirmed in evil by the difference in the sentences awarded to rich and poor criminals. The man who steals because he or his family is hungry is consigned without long preliminaries to the penitentiary, but it takes time and patience to im prison the man worth a hundred thousand dollars who stole two hun dred thousand more because he need ed the money, but concluded to spend all of it in keeping out of jail. That much money will keep a man out of jail a long time and it will shorten bis final stay in prison, if his guilt is too plain for concealment. When he reaches the penitentiary and his case is reviewed by the poorer criminals, they are led to reflect on the coquet tisbness and frivolity of law as ad ministered by judges or juries. When a retired capitalist living on an income received from stocks, bonds and mortgages hands back to the assessor a list of furniture, jewelry, stocks, bonds and mortgages upon which the interest is computed at thirty-eight cents a year, the shock to his neighbor who has returned a fairly accurate list of his property is apt to disturb his faith in municipal in tegrity. The next time the virtuous citizen replies to the questions of the assessor his valuation of hi? own property will be much lower. These two individuals represent the reasons for the constantly sinking city assess ment of Lincoln. One man after an other finds out the unpatriotic du plicity of his neighbor, sees the as sessor and his assessment is decreased. The result is that the income of the city is insufficient to pay the expenses of police, fire department and the various other departments. Unless a more equitable method of assessment is adopted the city's income will de crease more and more. In Connection with the De Willougnby Claim. Whatever may be sa:d of the nat uralness of Mrs. Burnett's characters and plots, the stories she writes are always interesting. Her stories gen erally begin with the birtli of and end with the happy marr'age of the heroine. Her heroes accom plish something, her heroines are lovely, and thanks to her regard f;r our taste they are not of the Dante Gabriel Roselti sort who pine and think and love and love and pine and think, never arousing to the necessity of accomplishing something for the sake of us who are reading about them. The Howells girl and the Rev. "Watson man is entirely satisfactory to the student of effects and the story apprentices who are being taught to write stories for The Kiote and sim ilar col'ege publications; but the great unfed, on the outside are hun gry for tales of adventure, of conquest over self and dragons. The world is still young. It is not so blazzy as Mr. Howells has taught the book carpen ters and their apprentices to believe. Indians, Norsemen, Greeks, the Is raelites of Genesis listened to tales in the evening when the work of the day was done. "The Ship of Stars' that never came to port, would not have interested them and it does not in terest us. Unless the soul growth that Mr. Howells cultures so assiduously can bedeve!op:d by action, incident and with thf ancient story tellers charm and mystery his audience will go on dwindling till it is entirely included at it is almost ristricted now to the literary department of the colleges which teach story writing as an exact science. The De Willoughby Claim is from the first to the last page a very in teresting story. Having begun it, even one of Mr. Howells' most devoted stu dents will read it to the end, letting other things go, until the last page is turned. To be interesting is the first need of a novel. It profiteth nothing if a novel conform to all the rules and describes a soul's birth, growth and disappearance to the en tire satisfaction of the professors of psychology and literature. The author has to "make good" with the public. And every man knows that from the cradle to the grave he is alone. Every man knows that If he would, he could not throw open the poatals that were locked before he was born. Moreover if he could there is perhaps not more than one who cares enough about him to enter,exp!ore,and comprehend. All but the rulgarest of gossips shrink from explorations of this sort. Therefore the books of mysterious communings, aspirations and revelations arc written to a few who have finally forgotten reserve and modesty for something they have been taught is art. Mrs Burnett has not fallen into the prosing of the soul-writers. She tells a story very simply, it is full of incident, of the breath of the woods, of the cool air of the mountains and' of unsophisticated human nature.
