Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 3, 1900)
saeaBMBiaccasr' ;.y.-.i.Tft: THE COURIER. .a The characters are revealed by what they do and say an'I no time Is wasted In secret society or hieroglyphic con versation . Mrs. Burnett should take just a short course in realism, a course too short to reach the dreary common place where Ilowells bas stuck fast, but long enough to make her realize the absurdity of impossibly virtuous Fauntlcroys and of modem Sir Ga laliads. She does better with the character female wliom she does not fail to make willful and humanly imperfect. Tom De Willoughbly is six feet four inches tall and proportionately broad, with the tender heart of a girl. He is not very brilliant, he is not graceful and he is not proud. For these reas ons his father swears at him, his bro thers SDeer at him and his mother does not take his part. The mother of a great innocent, tender-hearted booby knows him for what he is and if his father should express his con tempt too frequently and bitterly the father would, more than likely, take up his residence else where. Mrs. Bur nettallowes the father in her story, to drive the son into the wilderness. He disappears and not one of the family ever enquires where he is gone. A big, tender man, truthful, shrewd, honest and loyal is a rara avis and everybody loves him. his own family most of all. Novelists and dramatists The British defeated the Boers (1813) and took possession of Natal which they annexed for "the peace, protec tion and salutary control of all classes of men settled at and surrounding this important portion of South Afri ca." The Bocs moved farther north and settled between the Orange and Vaal rivers, south of the present Transvaal. For the same causes viz. the Boer enslavement of nations and constant insurrections, the English took this country. Slavery and in surrections and denial of rights to all but Dutch emigrants have been the causes of English intereference with "the brave little republic." The Boers acknowledged England's in terest in maintaining peace in the Transvaal when they asked for and accepted aid from her in the Zulu war, a war that was caused entirely by Boer cruelty. The Boers bad hunted the Zulus whom they called "black ivory," burned their kraals, appro priated their best lands, and carried olT the Zulu children to work their farms, not withstanding the anti slavery convention which was a part of the treaty whereby they acquired the rights, though they never adopted the manners nor extended the blessings of a republic. Thus, by treaty and otherwise the right of England in the Transvaal has been repeatedly acknowledged. The present war is not the result of still make six footers their spotless an abrupt decision to take possession heroes, rejected by pretty girls, the butt of their families and the helpless prey of dark, slender villains of medi um height with black hair and a black mustache. Mrs. Burnett has made this error. The reason for it is obvious. If Tom were not six feet four, his tenderness would not be in contrast, and would therefore not be enhanced. If he were not despised, flouted and rejected by his family he would have no chance at our sympa thies. But six feet four inches, pure as a lily, with a mother's heart to wards children and weak ones, perse cuted by his family and rejected by his sweetheart wins more volunteers than the Baers. That six feet four of tenderness, humour and sweetness s rarely persecuted by the world and never by his mother is indisputable. Mrs. Burnett has deformed life to make it more interesting. She has succeeded, but we feel less respect for the book when we reflect upon the size of the yarn the author f2lt ob liged to tell us. The tragedy of Mar gery Latimer and the minister is dramatic but it is unlikely that such a man and such a New England snow drop of a woman would concoct so dark a plot. However,unlikely things are happening all the time, only this one does not justifj, as printers say. England in the Transvaal. In 1632 one hundred immigrants from Holland under tho auspices of Dutch East India Co., settled on the site now occupied by Cape Town. Later they were joined by Huguenots w ho had fled from France to Holland of the Transvaal. England was con ducting negotiations with "the brave little republic," when they were cut short not by the English but by President Kruger's ultimatum. Eng land has been in South Africa almost as long as Holland, and if it were left to the natives who had the first right to the country England would have their vote. A Pacific Cable. It's little we know in inland Nebras ka about ocean cables. But when the First Nebraska was in Luzn we wished for a cable across the Pacific every day. "With thirteen cables across the Atlantic connecting Amer ica with Europe it does seem as though we might lay a double cable across the Pacific. The Pacific is very deep in spots and 10,300 miles wide while the Atlantic is only 5,000 miles wide. But it is neither depth nor width that has pre vented tne laying of a cable between the new world and the oldest. The volume of oriental trade has never been great enough to warrant the outlay of so many millions. The ab sence of intermediate points, besides lessening the business done on one cable, necessitates longer links. The transmission of an electric current without reinforcement implies a slow system of sand filters which is useJ rate of transmission. i0 gjve London its pure water supply. With the development of Alaska, He said that such a filter, properly the building of the trans Siberian conducted, would not only remove all railway, (across Russia, Siberia and sediment, but practically all living eventually across China) the door in- organisms. Experiments showed that to China which Uncle Sam has open- 99 per cent of the bacteria were re ed and set his foot against, and the moved and part of the small remain- tion with Russian land wires. "In this manner connection is effected with the whole of Asia by two differ ent routes, making interruption im possible beyond the boundary and in suring the neutrality of one route, in case the United States were at war with either country. A short Amer ican line will connect the Filipine Inlands with Formosa, so that mes sages from the United States will touch but one foreign country, Japan, and if Japan should be unfriendly, they can be sent via Russia and China. Mr. Emerson's Alaskan route re quires only 5,000 miles of cable as compared with 7,000 and 8,000 miles for either of the two southern routes. To meet the objection of not touching Hawaii Mr. Emerson shows that a line of cable can oe 'aid to the United States from that point as a terminus for much less meney than to continue the cable from Honolulu to Manila. The coldness of the northern waters is altogether in favor of this location. For the plant and animal life of tropi cal waters is especially harmful to the cable. Among the most fnstfious enemies of submarine cables are the submarine borers of which the most destructive is the teredo navalis. The teredo has a special liking for the gutta percha insulating envelope of the cable. There are no coral fami lies and no sharp coral reefs in the northern waters. This route besides being shorter, cheaper and freer from cable enemies, includes Alaska and will bring it nearer to the United States. Mr. Emerson's company, which lie says is ready to lay the cable but which he does not name, will lay tne cable witnout any gov ernment subsidy. The other com panies ask an annual subsidy from the United States of $400,000. The long cable is via Honolulu to Manila, the short cable is via Alaskan Isl ands and Japan to J-'acila. The pro moters of the short cable offer to build it and in addition to lay a cable from San Francisco to Honolulu, for less tban half the cost of the long cable from San Francisco to Manila. The Chicago Drainage Canal. "With almost the diagonal length of Illinois between Chicago and St. Louis, with Lake Michigan reinforc ing the current of the sluggish little streams it will make swift running rivers of, St. Louis has not much to fear from Chicago sewage. "With the opening of the canal however, St. Louis began to think that the flood gates of typhoid fever were opened and fifty representative men and wo men met to consider the filtration of the city's supply of water. Mr. Robert Moore explained the will have to be filtered, hence this St. Louis experiment should be very interesting to us. Mr. P. J. Kennedy, remembered cordially by many Lincoln people has issued a brochure on the subject of the canal and what dangers it is bear ing to St. Louis. The dangers have not yet been demonstrated and there is every probability that the Missis sippi wil! be clarified by lake Michi gan. The little book also contains stories of ranch life and memoranda of some range, cattle and cayuses the author has known. It is called This and That and has many original and quaint observations on men, ani mals and politicians. Ethics of the Line. Tickets to the Paderewski concert were placed on sale in one of the stores in this city last Monday at ten o'clock A. M. By that hour perhaps thirty people were in line to buy their tickets. Nearly every new comer, glanced at the line, sighed and took his place behind the last man with a resigned expression. The sale was advertised to begin at ten o'clock and, very properly, the ticket seller did not take his station in front of the line until the stroke of ten. Meanwhile tho crowd argued among themselves the foolishness of keeping so many people waiting after so many busy people had arrived. Some men and women ignored the immutable law of precedence and tried to step in ahead. They were usually foi'ed by the closing up of the line. There are those who are always willing to ignore the simple conventions men invariably adopt to avoid confusion. Such a man rushed in after the sale had been opened. He scanned the line and picked out an acquaintance in the van and handed him the mosey for his tickets, congratulating him self on his ingenuity. He was ob livious to the remarks of the line of Americans, who understanding the ethics of the line, were waiting their turn patiently enough. TLe scene is an old one and this particular man has an unfortunately large number of prototypes. It is some satisfaction that Nemesis waits with large retri bution for all men and all women who underestimate the spirit and final vindictiveness of the line. and whom the Dutch republic sent to approaching development of the Fili- der could be accounted for by the Cape Colony. In 1795 the Colony was pine islands, trans Pacific com manner in which the water was kept conquered by the British under Ad- merce is on the point of unprecident- after filtration. miral Elphinstone and General Clark, ea expansion. Mr. Harrington Emer It was restored to Holland in 1803,( son's plan is to lay the cable from annexed to Great Britain in 180G, and the point in the United States near ceded to Great Britain by Holland in est the Filipines. The route he pro 1814. In 1833 the English liberated poses does not touch Hawaii. This 35,000 s'aves. This . exasperated the short course touches the Alaskan uoer siave ovnep uim cucy uukhcu lsiauusiuur nmeb at intervals or 800 nlant in five or six years, ii conducted editorsnipor anv publication (pvrot northward. They issued a manifesto miles Aitu, the last of the Aleutian upon strictly business principles, as the Police Gazette etcetera) in this denouncing "vexatious laws" passed islands is only 650 nautical miles from heretofore. A set of resolutions was n"JfrJf!,,Pfri She!do,rV No the Japanese Russian boundary where addressed to the mayor and citycoun- consent to any shade Dr. Sheldon the proposed cable will divide, one cil asking them to have the subject raightsuggest for the sake of the un branch running south outside the thoroughly investigated and the best limited patronage of the good peonle .-... - iirnr virion imi-t i.: Jiarile islands to a junction with the sort of a filler built. V"" .:"""' Jmu nurse the Japanese land wires and the other It is a matter of a very few years branch runuing due west to a junc- when the water supply of Lincoln Water Commr. Holman estimated est of a sand filtration plant suffi cient for the city's needs at $3,000,000, with an annual cost for running not to exceed $300,000. He said that the de partment could pay for the entire A Christian Newspaper. It would pay any publisher to get the Rev. Charles Sheldon to run his paper a week. If the advertising rates of the Topeka Capital are based on the circulation of the week that Dr. Sheldon edits ii, the paper will make enough to run it in Topeka for a long time. Judging by the reports, The Ladies' Home Journal is an ob scure sheet compared to The Topeka Capital in the week of Dr. Sheldon's editorship. Brother Ed. Howe of Atchison wants Dr. Sheldon to let him preach from his pulpit while he is editing the paper. Mr. nowe thinks he can give the world an ex ample of a Christian minister that may not be without value and point. Dr. Sheldon has not yet taken his first step in journalism. The first step is only the beginning of a long course which leads over a rougher steeper path than he has ever trod in the ministerial profession. So long as his fame, the strength of the ad- urtisiug, anu uis vogue lasts, the in the interest of the slaves and com plained bitterly of the losses thereby sustained. They settled in Natal and enslaved the natives who rose in re lwllion. the Deace of the Cape was threatened and England interfered. who wish to heln him American newspaper from everything which the Doctor thinks makes it unfit to enter homes. ' ? r T
