THE COURIER-
x
winters defeat. Other men doubt
and hesitate and consult with their
friends as to the chances of success.
Mr. Thompson with a rare self con
fidence and surety of aim lias, as lie
says, in his recent letter in The
Journal to the republicans of Lan
caster County, "effectively done much
in several other counties recently to
quiet discordant factions." In the
face of a strong open opposition, and
of a stronger and more subtle hidden
opposition, in spite of the combina
tion of politicians of influence who
arc eacii convinced that lie himself
should bo sent to the senate, if Mr.
Thompson succeed in getting senat
ors and representatives from Lan
caster County who are professedly his
friends, nominated, it is good politics
and good sense tbat all republican
opposition to him in this county
should be withdrawn. Success would
demonstrate a sleepless energy and
singleness of aim impossible of ap
preciation by politicians unacquaint
ed with the conditions of this dis
trict, and the strength of the opposi
tion to Mr. Thompson's ambition.
Owing to Mr. Thompson's freedom
from the habit of writing letters to
to the newspapers it is uncertain as
to just what and exactly whom he
means by the letter to the many men
of many minds called the republicans
of Lancaster County. The letter is
herewith republished for the sake of
reference and analysis. It seems
there are men in this county who from
Mr. Thompson's point of view are
unduly influenced by '-other men
holding federal appointments." The
former have banded themselves to
gether, in response to this mys
terious "influence"' to foil Mr. Thomp
son. They arc surcharged with envy"
and ako are charged by the ' federals"'
to "pit the field" against any friend
("known or thought to be") of Mr.
Thompson's. Translating further,
Mr. Thompson apparently dares his
opponents to pick their men and if
his friends are elected to accept the
consequences, that is, the unanimous
support of Mr. Thompson for United
States senator by all the other as
pirants for the place. If his oppo
nents accept these rules and terms,
Mr. Thompson offers, if defeated, to
give his successful opponent "my
best efforts, if he wants them until he
is elected or defeated by the represen
tives of the whole state." I have
shown the energy and devotion to a
single purpose that these "best ef
fons" represnl: a dynamic energy
forced exclusively in one direction
that would have elected any man
against whom there was no extraor
dinary opposition.
LINCOLN, Nebr , March 13, 1000.
To the Republicans of Lancaster Coun
ty: There aro a few men in Lincoln
who, prompted by certain men holding
federal appointments, have banded
themselves together and vowed their
intention to, at any cost, prevent men
who may bo friends of mine from re
ceiving nominations on the legislative
ticket. I have not announced mjself a
candidate for the United States sen
ate, but these few home ,inen surcharg
ed with envy, have determined that
conditions making it possible for me to
be a candidate must not be permitted
and their avowed intention is to, when
ever a man thought or known to bo my
friend is a candidate, to put a man of
their choosing beside my friend and
pit the effortB and influence of the field
against him. My offer to them is that
they choose their man, or if preferable
to them take their whole list of aspir
ants placing the name of one or all with
mine on the primary ballot and the
man who receives the largest number
of votes of the people of the county
be considered the choice for United
States senator, and to have the delega
tion with the haarly support of all as
pirants and their friends if ho wants to
become a candidate when tho time
comes for voting on Uniteo States sen
ator. It is not my wiBh now and never has
been my wish to forco myself into a
place where the people of my own town
and county oppose mo going, but in
fairness to the people and myself I
cannot think it Vight that six men who
consider themselves bettor bred, col
lege educated and otherwise equipped
for political favors than I am should
constituto themselves sponsors for tho
whole people of the county and to theeo
people I appeal for fair play and jus
tice. If I may have a vote of the peo
ple on their estimation of me, if this
vote repudiates mo and choo3es an
other I will give this man my best ef
forts if he wants them until he is
elected or defeated by tho represen
tatives of the whole state.
1 have effectively done much in sev
eral other counties recently to quiet
discordant factions. I consider it the
duty of every republican in the state
to, at this time of all times, do this.
The integrity of our state and our na
tion depends upon, as I look at it, re
publican success in our next national
election. We cannot quarrel amoug
otraelvas and hope for anything better
than defeat. Any man or set of men
who will not at this critical time agree
to harmony care little for our political
causa. Respectfully,
D. E. THOMPSON.
The Stotsenburg Fund.
The Lincoln Courier is advocating a
fuud to give the widow of Colonel Stot
senburg who lost his life while leading
the gallant First Nebraska in the Fili
pines. The Courier claims, with truth,
that Colonel Stotsenburg made the
First Nebraska what it was and now
th citizens of the state should show
their appreciation by contributing to
the support of his widow. The Cou
rier will see that all money sent to it
for this fund is properly turned over to
Mrs. Stotsenburg. Auburn Poet.
Received for this fund:
Lincoln 8100.00
Geneva 1.00
The First Shot in the Filipines.
On the evening of the 4th of February
when the Filipino insurgents attacked
tho camp of the Firtt Nebraska at Santa
Mesa, Mrs. Stotsenburg was visiting
with her husband at tho headquarters
tent. When the firing began, tho
colonel 6ent his wire, escorted by two
officers of the regiment, to the house of
an Englishman, which was located
about two huudred yards from the camp.
Leading from the camp to this house
was a plank road, built on the crest of a
hill, which was in the direct line of fire
from the insurgents. They had started
along this road; the bullets from the
Filipino trenches acros3 tho river were
singing all around them and zipping
uncomfortably close, as oue of the men
afterwards expressed it. Finally some
one suggested that they leave the road
and walk along under the protection of
the hill. "Ob, no," said Mrs. Stotsen
burg, apparently unconscious of all
danger: "this is all right. We will get
there sooner than by going tho other
way."
Tho men said afterwards that they
would have much preferred the protec
tion of the hill, but as she desired to
keep to the plank road, they walked
the whole distance under a heavy fire
from the Filipinos.
What's the population of Chicago ?J
Don't know. They've been so full of
this drainage canal out there for tho
last few weeks tbey have not had time
to take a census. Town Topics.
:the passing snow:
? WILLACATHER
Of course everyono has heard of Jano
A dd mn 8, the founder of Hull House, in
Chicago, who has dono such remark
able work among tho poor of that city.
Ordinarily I am not interested in phil
anthropy, and I have an absolute
aversion for women who lecture Hut
Miss Addams lectured hero on Tolstoi,
and I wont in boar her. I think I have
mot no ono sinc9 I mot Hanson who im
pressed mo as beirg so full of poer, so
keen and bo unafraid. Sho rides no
hobby. Sho is not a lady who talks
about the rum cureo, sho does not bo
lieve that cigarettes will destroy civi
lization She is a student and a mem
ber of that reckless fraternity that
hunts for truth. Sho is not fortunate
enough to believe tbat any ono thing,
such as tho abolishing of saloons, or tho
prohibition of cigarettes will right tho
wrongs of the people among whom sho
works. She would be much happier if
she could only bo a fanatic. She does
not believe that society will ever bo
very much bo'ter ofi. I think sho
sometimes doubts oven tho elfectual
ness of her own work, ard so much tho
greater must her courage bo in doing
it so loyally.
She is a grave, quiot woman, perhaps
forty-five years old. She is elightly
stooped and somewhat indifferent to
her appearance Her iron-gray hair is
knotted carelessly and plainly at tho
back of her head. Hut her face, as
you look at it, seems the face of a
conqueror, of ono who lives far above
the tides of feeling. You are conscious
of a purposo anil an intelligence that
burns like the lamps of a light house,
above the toiling of the waves and the
stress of the sea.
Miss Addams began her lecture by a
discussion of the relations of the Hus
sion peasant to his lord, and a brief
anaijsie of that strnnge being, tho Rus
sian peasant himself, his heavy Slavonic
nature and his fondness for tho soil.
Miss Addams is not a Tolstoian to the
full extent, indeed Mies Ai'dams is not
an extremist in anything, but a can
did, large minded student of men ami
measures, a fearless critic of life. She
spoko calmly, dispassionately, with un
failing fluency and conciseness. Miss
Addams is strangely unlike tho well
known woman with a hobby, or woman
with a theory, or woman with a wrong.
Sho seeni3 rather to be a woman with
a mind, and a large, large humanity.
Count Tolstoi's life Miss Addams di
vides into three periods. The first
thirty-five j ears of his life were spent
as young men of his class spend their
lives. He served in the army, had tho
common exDeriencea and common plea
sures of young men of money, birth
and leisure. Tho age of his greatest
literary activity was from tho years of
thirty-five to fifty. During that period
ho wrote all his great novels, "Anna
Karenina," "War and Peace," etc.
During these last fifteen years Tolstoi
lived on his estates and had been much
concerned in tho condition of the Rus
sian peasant, lheygoton his nerves,
so to speak, and his tireless literary ac
tivity could not still tho unrest of his
soul.
When he was fifty-four, ho decided
that the farce wjb plajed out, that he
could no longer live under conditions
utterly obnoxious to him, as he put it,
he would "get off tne backs of his peas
ants," he would wring his own living
from the Eoil. His property he made
over to the Countess anJ their eight
children and he himself proceeded to
follow out his own theory of life, the
only existence which could bring him
peace.
His theory of the conduct of life he
divides into four points; that all tho
heavy laboi of the world should not bo
relegated to it few, whom it bruiulizut,
but should bo divided among the many,
whom it would strengthen. That all
men should e.xerc so the heavy muscles
of tho body by doing some heavy labor,
tho finer musoles of tho hand by some
eort of handicraft, the intellect, and tho
social faculties. Ho believes that tho
entiro system of tho division of labor m
a mistake, that it brutalizes ono cIuhh
and elTeminiitizeB another.
As to tho rumor that 'lolstoi himself
is not sincere in the practises of Ilia be
lief, Mies Addams sajs, such a state
ment is absurd. Ho does not indeed
insist that his family shull espouse his
belief, and sinco they do not he does
not make life a burden for thorn. His
second daughter, however, before hor
marriage shared his beliefs, and on tho
day that Miss Addams visited them
had been in tho hay fields sinco tivo
in tho morning. When ueked it sho
were tireu sho replied, "yes, ono gets
tired when ono mikes hay for twelve
hours."
Tho Count makes his own boots, and
is very modest about it, and in reply to
tho jests about tho quality of his work
manship sajs simply that ho never
tried to make boots until ho was fifty
four. On the night that Miss Adt'aniB
dined with him, dinner was served in
the orchard by waiters in white gloves
and with coats of tho proper cut, but
the Count himself ato only the coarse,
homely fare of tho peasants.
"If you were to visit him today,"'
Miss AddamH said, "jou would see a man
of seventy jears of age, dressed in a
peaeanl's garb, living in great sim
plicity, often eating under tho trees, and
alwajB the plainest of food."
He writes still, but now only simple,
stories for his peasants. That sacri
fice alone is proof of his sincerity.that ho
abandoned a its Hood tido tho greatest
literary career of tho century to give
his life to bis people.
Miss Addams believeB that the great
quality of Tolstoi's art and the distin
guishing feature of bis novels is his
broad and compassionate humanity.
No mind, ehe thinks sinco Shakspere's
has been so keen in discerning tho
springs of action in other people, Ins
had nuch a complete intuitional realiza
tion of just what those people would do
under all circumstances. This same
quality, she says, is evinced in hi con
duct of life.
"On tho night I was there, a Lindon
reporter was presort who succeeded in
making himself just a little more dis
agreeable than any other person I ever
met. Ho was what we should call
vulgar and ho was not a gentleman.
He kept asking the Count all manner
ol absurd, impertinent questions from
which his age if not his honor should
have protected him. Tho best thing I
know about Tolstoi is tho way in which
he broke through the pretentious out
side crust of this vulgar, silly fellow,
and made him forgot he bad a 'paper'
and found the man under the officious
reporter. Eo has perhaps the greatest
brain of bis age and country, but his
humanity is greater by far. Ho has re
nounced for his belief more than the
other great artists of tho world have
been ablo to win by tireless selfisbnees."
w
Tolstoi's theory on art Miss Addams
6et forth briefly as follows: A number
of peasants were working together in a
hay field, and one of tbem went down
to the brook to got a drink and cut a
reed and found that be could make
music with it. His comrades heard him
playirg and were so delighted that they
said, "Come, jou needn't make hay any
more. You play for us oq jour pipe
and we'll cut your hay, for we would
rather do more labjr with music than
less without it." So this piper ceated