S? Uwf v VOL XV., NO. VIII ESTABLISHED IN lSSU PRICE FIVE CENTS . W I JfLff w r .P LINCOLN. NBBR.. SATURDAY. FEBRUARY 21. 1000. &kk m SS Entered is TnE postoffice at lincols as SECOND CLASS MATTER. THE COURIER, Official Organ of the Nebraska State Federation of Women's dubs. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BT THE COURIER PRINTING AND PUBLISHING GO Office 1132 N street, Up Stairs. Telephone 384. 8ARAH B. HARRIS. Editor Subscription Kates In Advance. Per annum $1 00 Six months 75 Three months 50 One month 20 Single copies 05 The Cocbier will not be responsible for vol untary communications cnless accompanied by return postage. Communications, to receive attention, must be sicned by tuo full name of the writer, not merely as a guarantee of good faith, but for publication if advisable. rices and the sting or a state's otH- the one thing possible. He might cial ingratitude should contribute to have staid behind the trees, ordered a a Stotzenburg fund Tor the widow retreat, and been on bis way to the and children or the brave s:ildier who rank or a general now, but he did not. fell before the trenches of the Fil- He ordered a charge, led it. and fell pinus at -Quingua. The good sani- with a bullet through bis heart tation of the camp of the First Ne- When a Lincoln boy, a young lieulen braska was due to Colonel Stotzcn- an?, just out of the hospital came burg's discipline,("to his treatment of upon bis body he threw nimself down his soldiers,' their soldierly, envied beside his colonel and buried his head record, is due to his training. He made in the trampled dust and wept. The soldiers out of raw recruits in the men returning from their captured short time or the encampment in the trenches took up the slender body, Alameda and before the actual be- and wailing carried it back to camp, ginning of hostilities near Manila. When a man dies as Stotzenburg It was not by chance that the First died, for others, and leaves his family Nebraska was at the front during its in want, bis family are frequently stay in Luzon. Colonel Stotzenburg saved rrom want by the gratitude of had made a fighting regiment out of his countrymen. Colonel Stotzenburg's the Nebraska volunteers. Colonel family has been singularly ignored. Stotzenburg knew it; the command- He ent into the wara comparatively lug general in the Filipines knew it young lieutenant. Notwithstanding and the First Nebraska was assigned the brilliancy of Colonel Stotzen a post at the very first where trouble burg's victories, his name was not was expected and where it began. It frequently in the newspapers. He was not by chance that the First gave all the credit to the men or the Nebraska was kept busy lighting, First Nebraska and that name flashed that it was kept at the front and that around the world, other men and other officers were as- ' signed safer and less glorious duties. Marriage and Divorce. Considering these things it seems to ..A Mm ncnnle of Nebraska have a Kecently the discussion of the qucs- duty to perform to the widow of this tlon of marriage and divorce, more man who so unhesitatingly led the particularly oi uuorce na oeen charge at Quingua s ''fWSQO,-Sf H OBSERVATIONS. A Soldier's Widow. The fund for Mrs. Lawton has reached the sum of iiW.OOO, which is more than enough to pay oir the mortgage on her borne in California. The people or California have con tributed generously and in very large numbers to this fund. The widow and children of Colonel Stotzenburg were left with very slender means. Through Colonel Stotzenburg's de votion to and knowledge of his duty in the face of cowardly and treas onable criticism the First Nebraska made i famous record in the Fili pines. which the Nebraska legisla ture, recognized, by passing a vole of censure up-n bis treatment of the men who formed a weeping escort to his body afterwards: his men who cheered him as be leaped into the lield where they crouched ucder a deadly lite, and who cheered him as he ordered a charge upon the in trenched Filipinos. Colonel Stotzen burg did more than lead Nebraska troops, be patiently drilled them day after day so that when the lime came for action they were soldiers enough to follow him anywhere. In recogni tion of the silent heroism of bis char acter, or bis stern acd unfaltering obedience to bis soldierly training and convictions, the individual citi zens or the state who appreciate ',hc meaning or Colonel Stotzenburg's ser re vived. It is asserted by those who urge amendment or divorce laws with the view or establishing stronger bonds of matrimony or at least of increasing the difficulty or severing those bonds that the number or divorces annually granted is increas- Tlie Courier will receive subscrip tions for this fund. If every citizen of Nebraska who knows how Colonel Stotzenburg kept the name of Nebras ka high up, where the men of all tvitiniw s:iu- it, and knew that a trreat Hi,rr. a irre.it military commander. !c with alarming rapidity. The was keeping it there, will give in pro- probabilities are lliat such assertions aif ciu.-uiuiuij niuiuuii lummaiuiii in Tact. They are most frequently jn dulged by those irresponsible speak ers and writers wlio-if cot sensational are torpid. Lancaster county has a population or about seventy-five thousand, about two-thirds or whom reside in the city or Lincoln. The records or the courts show that dur ing the past ten years marriage licenses have been issued and divorces granted as follows: portion as he has been prospered and as he treasures the fame of his state, we can perhaps convince Mrs. Stot zenburg that Nebraska is not unmind ful or ungrateful. Colonel Stotzei burg was in the direct line of prt niotion. IT he had lived no subscrip tion would have been necessary as it is now. If he had lived, the path of glory lay as straight and plain berore him as it lay before Ocneral Lawton at the close or the civil war. The two men were singularly alike in their avoidance cr military ostentation, their quick perception and action on the battle field and the trust and con fidence in them as leaders felt by soldiers who had oeen with them in battle. Unless Colonel Stotzenburg had made that last gallant charge across the rice fields the less of lire would have been very heavy. While bis superior officers ordered a retreat arter he bad run into the field where the men .had lain Tor hours under a burning sun, Colonel Stotzenburg or dered them to run towards the Fil pinos whose inability to stand a charge be knew. The other officers before his arrival were standing un der the trees debating bow to extri l.lfKNSKS MVOHCKS I'KK ISSl'KII. liltAN'TKII. I'KNT. 18!M)-Xlfi. 7ti. 14. 191-570. lit. . 11. 1892-570. 105. ' IS. 18!tt-14. !f 15. 1 94-4 S. 55. 11. 1895471. 75. 1.1. 1S-:190. 51. i:t. 1S97 407. 74. J 5. 1898499. m. 13. 1890-545. 77. 14. Total Total Avcr.ii.-c unmial 5,159. 7:18: 14. These statistics do not indicate that there has been any severe break in the general levei of marriages and divorces during a period or ten years. Nor is there anything to indicate that what has obtained here is not gen- cate the men from their perilous eral throughout the states. There position. When Stotzenburg came up appears to have been a marked in he comprehended the situation and crease in divorces in 1892 over 191, and a slight derrease In licenses is sued . The year 1892, was phenomenal in many resects. Iloth licenses issu ed and divorces granted reached the lowest stage in 189;.The horrors or the crime or '7:i, never berore fully realiz ed, so completely engrossed the at tcnlion of miny ieop'e that year as to cause some to forget their antici pated plans while others became ob livious of present misery. On the whole there does not appear to be any present necessity Tor amendment to the divorce laws or the adoption or a uniform system by all the states. The Lincoln School Boaro. In considering the subject or Eng lish in the publi? schools or Lin coln I regret that I have seemed to under-rate the services of the present school board. The board as a whole is composed of scholarly men with a single mind to the interests or the schools. The system or education In use at the present time does not edu cate ninety-eight per cent or the pupils. It' is nut- exacting to de mand that the hair a million dollars which eight years maintenance of the grades costs this city should pre pare the children fairly well for life, that it should furnish them a work ing knowledge of English. The sys tem does not do this. Excluding all the "natural spellers and writers' who are r.tre, the average product of eight years instruction in the Lin coln schools has a very small vocab ulary of words he can spell, he can not, or does not use simple, accurate English and his work as a clerk, as a reporter and a a stenographer is, in consequence, slovenly and unsatis factory even to the least exacting employer. J his system however i not the invention of the Lincoln school board. The same system, with variations, is operating all over the United States. Elsewhere also the high school is considered as a pre paratory sch-ol for a university or college that an overwhelming pro portion or the pupils never enter. The public school system begins at the top with the education or a rew and works down, where it shou'd be gin at the bottom and work up. Every grade is a component part of the system, but so far as it goes every grade should bean integral part. As it now is, the high school teachers are doing grade work, and the uni versity professors arc doing high school work. After long encourage ment of fads the pupil, whose parents can afford to keep him in school, arrives at that point of educational progress where he begins to specialize. This is just the point where previous practice of five ringer exercises in grammar, arithmetic, orthography and geography will leave his atten tion free to occupy itself with the characteristic problems or science or literature. But the system has uot been disciplinary. His m:nd is rigid and untrained and elementary know!-