THE COURIER
came to them but rarely, and when It
came they caught at it wildly and
crushed its fluttering wings in their
strong, brown fingers. They had a
hard life enough, most of them. Tor
rid summers and freezing winters,
labor and drudgery and ignorance,
were the portion of their girlhood
and; a short wooing, a hasty, love
less marriage, u oil tinted maternity,
thankless sons, premature age and
ugliness were the dower of their wo
manhood. That night Eric's hair
Shakspere, Goethe, Schiller and the
moderns whose names have grown
above the bushes, were not and are
notdilletanti. They are not playing,
or writing to see how we will take
them. For this vivid, vital interest
and concern a small world is taking
an interest in Miss Cather. I con
tidently believe this interest will ac
cumulate and grow more sensitive
till the time she has looked forward
to all her life arrives and from its
stony path she looks down into the
was yellow as the heavy wheat in the pleasant valleys of youth, that looked
ripe of summer, and his eyes flashed
like the blue water between the ice
packs in the North seas."
Last week in speaking of the "Story
of a Country Town," I said that the
author and his characters took no in
terest in life. Being part of a thrill
ing drama, which is frequently a
melodrama, they still took no in
terest in it, or at least, betrayed none.
Acquaintances of-Mr. Howe say that
he does net take an interest in people
or things. The absorbing drama in
which every man has a principle part
goes on without him. He does not
hasten the climaxes or have any in
fluence at all upon the action. He
sits upon an eminence and watches
the spectacle with half-suppressed
-s. ennui. He records the story of the
not so green while she trod them.
Sanitary Literature.
The endeavor to suppress ''Sapho"
has been worth while even if the
most obfious result has been a large
increase in the sale of Daudet's book.
"Sapho," the book, is admired by
writers because of its technique.
This tribute is possibly the only one
it has ever received. The depraved,
unhealthy French point of view that
all men and most woman are bad is
the basis of "Sapho," the book. It is
unfortunate that the discussion of
the play lias revived the book. Puri
fication of the drama or of literature
is not accomplished without an ex
aggeration and dissemination of the
dr&nia because he is inclined to write , odor it is intended to suppress. A
and noVViscyuse he loves. In all of
Miss Catber's-" her interest in
life and living, her .'rsonal experi
ence and understanding of the beauti
ful in music or art constantly appeals.
neighborhood! slowly poisoned by the
insidious cdors of a dead horse is
brought to the doors in violent pro
test when the health officer takes it
away. But on the whole it is better
She is in the procession (and everyone the horse should be buried.
w.ho knows her rejoices that she is
getting near the head of it.) She is
not a .looker-on. If there is a dif
ference of opinion she is on one side
or the other. She is never blasl ex
cept affectedly. If she is writing
about the pyramids of Egypt, it,, is
because she has entered their shadow
and is fascinated hy the sharp sil
houette thrown by the Egyptian sun
and of a sudden remembers Cleopa
tra and other things in connection,
she was fed on and became, at the
University of Nebraska. Like a
country lad who becomes a great man
This community and every other
needs an inspector of the drama. De
caying animals in the streets do not
accomplish so much harm as the con
stant presentation on the stage of de
generate types of men and women.
The horror and dread of French ideals
in the drama and literature is real.
The bubonic plague is more written
and telegraphed about but it threat
ens less. Its appearance and devasta
tion would mean the death by dis
ease of fewer people than the ap
proaching reign of French standards.
'No matter what you say; it is all in
because the world is new to him, Miss the way you say it" the French pupil
Cather's interest in poets and plays
io authors and actors is absorbing.
This is - one reason why her stories
and lectures, poems and essays are
never tiresome. The subject she is
Interested in for the moment means
so much to her that the fatigues for
get themselves and love, loathe, wor
is instructed. The low vitality 01
the French people, the stationary
birthrate, the constant -insults to
which women who walk unattended
upon the streets of Paris are subject
ed are accounted for by French litera
ture. If English literature were a
thousand times more awkward it
ship or exalt with her. Dispassion- csuld be borne, for the sake of its
ate, unattached, unconcerned con
templation of any object is fortunate
ly not within Miss Cather's power.
She is therefore not always a just
critic And I have known learned
women and men who had not to rid
themselves of predilections, for they
had none, or of prejudices, for they
had none or of passion, for they had
none, and who were learned in the
vitality and its sanitary influence.
Dr. Parkhurst's periodical exposi
tions and attacks upon the sore spots
in New York have not done so much
good as this one outcry against the
increasing influence of the French
drama. In spite of the advertise
ment Miss Nethersole's manager has
lost a large amount of money in can
celed engagements, and Miss Nether-
literature 9f the Hebrews, of Greece sole herself has been led to make a
and Rome, of France. Germany and
England, but yet they could not just
ly judge and analyse. They take no
interest in auyone and consequently
nobody takes an interest In them.
If they write, it is after the manner
of Ed. Howe in "The Story of a Coun
try Tbwu," whose hero might have
cheered.his mother and prevented his
old father from wandering out into
the night again, who might have
saved his friend's life and applied a
saving common sense to his love af
fair, who in short might have been
the "boss" of that novel, if he had
taken anything out a spectator's in
terest in life and literature. All the
men and women whose writings con
tinue to influence us were profoundly
ipreSfidJnlife, in their work and
in life anapolrrk'vS. Dante, Chaucer,
few remarks about the predisposition
to cleanliness and the indifference to
art for its own sake shown by the
American people.
Webster Davis.
A walking delegate or a professional
lecturer and a tramp are the survivals
of the old fashion of nomads. The
tramp.Iecturer and delegate nuissacce
has received the attention of econ
omists but the nomadic instinct was
planted deep and survives civiliza
tion. Webster Davis is a professional
lecturer. The perfectly satisfied
moments of his existence are only
those when he has heard his own
voice expounding ethics, politics or
religion to at least a thousand people
at a dollar a head, or pair of ears.
The rigors of a federal office shut him
out from the joys of lecturing. There
are numerous duplicates of his type
in Lincoln and in every other town
in the country. Only they have not
Webster Davis' volubility and their
hall is the street corner of Eleventh
and O or Tenth and O, where they
stand all day long chewing tobacco
and expatiating to nausea-proof gam
ins about the war in the Transvaal, or
about persecuted Aguinaldo and our
assassination of .liberty in the Fili
pinos. Their own lack of activity
and unpopularity with the woman at
home over the wash-tub is a subject
taboo. Mr. Davis perceived the op
portunity of Ills life and he was possi
bly the first lecturer on the African
field. In his poeition of under secre
tary he made a great hit with the
Boers who showed him abcut and ad
mitted him through doors usually
shut to lecturers with kodaks and a
mercenary eye for the picturesque in
feelings, scenery and situations.
After he got home he resigned from
the position which had induced the
Boers to believe that America had
sent a secretary relief expedition to
them. Now he is on the road and ad
vertised to draw tears from eyes that
have not known moisture for twenty
years, groans from depths heretofore
unsounded and contributions from
pocket-books double strapped against
churches and charity. But the medi
tative and fastidious traveler is here
by warned that the tears that Web
ster Davis sheds are absolutely genu
ine African crocodile tears, and his
tremulo is turned on by the lecturer's
stop and turned off for use again at
the next exhibition point, with a cal
culated nicety of touch only acquired
by the natural lecturer.
The King is Dead.
And there is no young king to take
his place. Miss Behan is playing in
"The School for Scandal," the version
devised by Mr. Daly. But Mr. Daly's
absence from the company is sadly
apparent. Miss Eehan plays with the
same correctness, attention to detail
and literary feeling she has always
shown, but time is passing and Miss
Rehan is growing old. And the mati
nee girl has begun to wish she could
have seen her in her prime."
The Priceless Senate.
By its exclusion of Senator Clark of
Montana, the United States senate
has reasserted its dignity In spite of
accusations. As it has dealt with
Senator Clark so will it deal with
anyone else who buys his way in, that
is if the purchaser has an opponent as
rich as Mr. Marcus Daly, who can
travel from Montana to Washington
and is able to spend as much in prov
ing the charge of purchase, as the ori
ginal honor cost the buyer. Very few
senators who purchase their elections
have the bad luck to be watched, op
posed, and finally exposed by as rich
and sleepless a man as Marcus Daly.
If Senator Quay is finally pronounced
ineligible this -senate will have made
a record in ejections. When a man
gets rich revenge and hatred are quite
likely to be absorbed in self gratula
tion. But some men like Hannibal
vow a vow that they keep. Wealth has
not drowsed their sense of injury. The
ability to inflict a blow has "not
quenched the sanguinary vow.
The Gty Election.
The republican councilmen and
other city officers elected in the re
cent city election insure another per
iod of an honest and able city admin
istration. The report prepared by
Mr. Roscoe Pound, chairman of the
city central committee, of the con
duct of the water department and the
management of finance for two years
was accurate and convincing. Then
he was active and worked incessantly
for the candidates of his party and
his methods were clean and legiti
mate. No cigars or liquor were dis
tributed. He only took great pains
that the people should know whom
they were asked to vote for and why.
The result proved the soundness of
his campaign.
Political Conditions.
As the time for holding the state
convention approaches the situation
within the republican party com-
mences to assume definite shape. Al
ready in Douglas county a protocol,
has been signed by the terms of
which the high contracting parties,
heretofore leading the numerous war
ring factions, have united for a com
mon purpose the election of Edward
Rosewater as a delegate to the na
tional convention and his installa
tion as a member of the national com
mittee. This is a position which he
resigned a few years since in order
that he might the more consis
tently and unreservedly attack the
republican nominee for governor.
Senator Thurston is wholly excluded
from the combination. The excuse,
given for his "untimely taking off,"
is that he accepted employment by
the Standard Oil Company, frequent
ly designated as the Oil Trust, left
his place in the senate, came to Lin
coln and in the supreme court de
fended that corporation in an action
wherein it was sued by the state. In
these times of anti-trust agitation
this will be accepted as ample justi
fication for the elimination of the
Senator and the omission of the
Thurston ingredient from the poli
tical medicine now being mixed. It
is reported that at the expiration of
his present term Senator Thurston
will become the genera1 attorney for
the Standard Oil Company and that
he will remove to New York. If such
be the plan of the Senator his prom
inence in Nebraska politics, and espec
ially as representing the republican
party in its state or national conven
tions will piove an clement of weak
ness rather than strength to the party
in Nebraska this year. However, the
reason assigned for the exclusion of
Mr. Thurston from party convoca
tions is not everywhere accepted as
the true reason because the same fac
tion which refuses to admit him to
party councils is supporting Mr.
Schneider of sugar bounty fame for
the position of delegate at large from
Nebraska in the national convention.
It is doubtless true that the Sugar
Trust is a sweeter trust so far as its
saccharine quality is concerned than
the Oil Trust, but it is not less ob
noxious to the public nostril. The
selection of either Senator Thurston
or Mr. Schneider as delegates to the
national convention will not bene
fit the republican party in Nebras
ka. If the party is to be used only
to foster the ambition of individuals
and to enable them to accomplish
personal ends, there can be no serious
objection to sending both or either of
these gentlemen to Philadelphia. If,
however, the party seek political
ascendency in this state, both should
be defeated.
DIEDRICn.
Mr. Diedrich of Hastings, has been
an active candidate for the guber
natorial nomination. While pursu
ing his particular phantom he has as
a side line attempted to advance the
interests of a senatorial candidate
whose election he bitterly opposed
during the last session of the legis
lature when the friends of that can
candidate pretended that the danger
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