THE COURIER.
.
each one is very small. To this one
man more than to any other is due
the activity and t-e glorious record of
the First Nebraska. The regiment
was maiiily composed of Nebraska
farmer boys and I have it lrom Colo
nel Stotseuburg's own authority that
never a finer regiment took the field.
After it was rid of all the p!ay sol
dier nonsense, after drilling, stand
ing guard, and learning obedience
and becoming reconciled to the eti
quette of oflicer and private, the First
took the field like veterans. And yet
they were not veterans. They had all
the fire and dash of youth. Under
fire they were steady but impatient
for the command to charge. And the
charge of the First Nebraska was a
saying in the Filipines. Once start
ed nothing could stop them until the
ditch was won, not even the habit of
discipline. In spite of Colonel Stot
senburg's military genius he could
not have trained and inspired a
wooden lot of men to the deeds of the
First Nebraska. The farmer boys
that joined the regiment were anx
ious to learn their duty and do it.
They were teachable and their quick
response to discipline was the reason
pestered by camp followers who set
up groggeries and dives, that break
down the constitutions of the men.
Liquor is an evil, but it is surely bet
ter to control and limit its distribu
tlon.At any rate the testimony of offi.
cors of the army is surelj reliable. The
prohibitionists demand the suppres
sion of the canteen while the practical
ly unanimous report from the officers
is that as an institution it has lessened
drunkenness and vice and increased
the comforts of the private soldier,
by adding luxuries to his mess not
included in the issue of rations,
and by providing them with a read
ing room and periodicals. The Meth
odist, ministers who were unwilling to
accept tliis report from the oilicers
and to whose reproaches President
McKinley has yielded, undoubtedly
believe that the army in a Iwide-open
country can be prevented from drink
ing by suppression of the canteen.
The conduct of soldiers, history says
is never as seemly as that of men at
home in the shadow or the light of
woman's influence. But under the
canteen drunkenness is rare. Tem
perance and self control are compul
sory. If the ministers, good and holy
throw the old papers into the
or leave them to accumulate in
like that on N and Twelfth streets
for the wind to whirl into the air
and over the neighborhood.
Literary Crispness.
There is one phrase that appears in
every club admonition or address
from the national president of the
street gical instruments, and garden seeds,
a hole so little is the demand for anything
but illustrated editions de luxe for
wedding presents or as bric-a-brac for
the centre table in the drawing room.
Mrs. Henrotin suggested to the
members of a Chicago Woman's club,
recently assembled in the rooms of
the Fine Arts building in Chicago,
that the men's clubs should have a
G. F. W. C. It appears in the com- little ante or waiting room where wo-
munications addressed to State Chair
men of correspondence by members
of the local Biennial board who are
preparing for the meeting at Mil
waukee. It is used in nearly every
summary made by club women.
When women make speeches on phil
anthropic or religious, subjects they
lean upon it and reiterate it. It has
got on my nerves, as it has upon the
nerves of every editor of a woman's
club department in this country. It
is a vague, a slipshod phrase. Besides
if it were the most telling and graph
ic, which it never was its triteness
would long ago have put it out of use.
The ptrase is. "Along these lines''
why the First was continually select- as they are, could only have inspected
ed for the positions of the greatest the system in the divers camps of the
United States, I believe they would
of peo- not have so unanimously condemned
glad to the system.
danger and responsibility.
There are many thousands
pie in Nebraska who will be
give to this fund. I know of no way
"of reaching them except by the chain
letter. So far the response to the
appeal has been limited. On last Sat
urday I received from Mrs. Charles
Francis Roe of New York City, one
hundred dollars. Mrs. Roe wrote
that the money had been raised for
this purpose by some women in New
York City.
It is Nebraska's duty to look after
this woman and her children. Cali
fornia has easily done it for Mrs. Law
ton. Are we who sent out such a
magnificent body of troops deficient
in gratitude and appreciation ? The
few letters which have come to this
office have expressed a generous hope
that the series would be successful.
It will fail, however, if only a few of
the letters fall into the indifferent
hands ol men or women who disap
prove of chain letters and have not
reflected upon the fact that it is the
only way yet discovered to ask a great
many people for a small contribution
to an exigent fund, at small expense.
Blessed be those few simple-hearted
childlike people.who are willing togive
a little aid to many, those who are
not distrustful of all the world, who,
rarely asking for help themselves are
willing and anxious to put their own
shoulders, however tiny against the
wheel of mired wagons. And it is
the united energy of these unnum
bered tiny strengths that keeps the
wheels moving, that helps the crippled
and the widowed and the little chil
dren.
Gty Improvement.
Lincoln has a luxurious and hope
ful supply of children. The City
provement society has decided to take
advantage of the enthusiasms, the
teachableness and responsiveness of
the litt'e children and enlist them in
the beautifying of the city. Neat
ness and order is the first step to
wards beauty. No flowers or sward,
no trees or shrubs can obscure the
ugliness of a broken walk and of piles
of rubbish in the alleys. It is pro
posed to organize neighborhoods into
bands under the captains and lieu
tenants elected by the members of
the band. The officers in each band
are, the keeper of the hammer and
nails, the keeper of the broom, the
custodian of the saw, etc. The func
tion of this band is to watch the
walks in the neighborhood, if a board
or walk is found broken or loose the
keeper of the hammer and nails is
notified and the damage is repaired.
If the repairs are more complicated
and extensive than the band is able
to accomplish the householder is noti
fied and reminded until the walk is
safe and neat again. Such responsi
ble duties placed upon the children
will do more than improve the ap
pearance of the whole city. It oc
cupies children through vacation tfme
and above all it prepares them for
citizenship, enlightens them upon the
burdens, responsibilities and inter-
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social, educational, religious, etc., etc.
As a sex, 1 think, we are fond of
vague high sounding phrases. This
one has crept into so secure and cen
tral a place in club vernacular that
it is most difficult to dislodge it. The
M.S. reader on The Courier has for
several years cut it out of club re
ports. Its recurrence is, however so
incessant that occasionally it slips in.
Unless an adjective belongs to the
Im- noun it colors, limits or expands it is
better to use none at all. Splendid,
dainty, awful, horrible, tine, cute,
magnificent, bowling, have been so
often hitched to nouns they have no
relation to, that discriminating and
conscientious writers no longer care
to use them to describe occasions,
phenomena and feelings they were
especially created for. In purifying
the language club women should have
a part. The simplest report may be
written with nicety. So many club
women write papers and reports in
the midst of their family chattering
about all sorts of things. '-Select"
writing cannot be thus accomplished.
The legend of Harriet Beecher Stowe
has induced many women to believe
that it was their duty to write let
ters and reports in the midst of quar
reling or frolicsome children. But
there are few women who are Beech
ers and the sloppy English of "Uncle
Tom's Cabin" emphasizes the need of
seclusion while writing. Nothing
worth while can be accomplished
with a divided attention. The ama
teur essayist or reporter should either
g.ve her whole mind to her wsrk or
none of it.
schools, but their benefactions are
trifling to the sum of the gifts of
those poor in spirit and in pocket; the
unsophisticated, the unsuspicious, who
respond to appeals with the same
born compliance to nature as a flower
yields perfume.
The Army Canteen.
President McKinley procured more
than a year ago an expression of opin
ion from every officer in the United
States army in regard to the canteen.
Of the whole number there were less
than five who thought it should be
suppressed. There is much less
drunkenness than under the old sys
tem. Beer and the lighter wines are
sold and it is against the regulations
to sell an excessive amount to one
soldier. Camps the world over, are
erty, and the labcr which careless
ness causes some one. Faithful work
ers in such -a band will not tbrjw
pieces of paper into the street. Such
organizations will tend to make the
raids on All Hallow'een less distruc
tive. They will accomplish what the
citizenship boys settlements are try
ing to teach. Boys and girls who
have once thoroughly digested the
truth that Lincoln is their city will
make grown citizens who will in the
next decade transform it into a clean,
wholesome, pleasant city. Boys so
instructed are not apt to grow up in
to the repulsive loafers who stand all
day long in groups about the city,
spitting on the walks and staring at
the women for whom they have made
the walk impassable.
The men of the next decade will
not allow the billboard posters to
Literature Per Se.
Writers and professors of belles
lettres devote themselves to litera
ture as a plumber to plumbing or as
a farmer to agriculture. If a plumb
er devoted to agriculture all the time
not actually occupied in soldering,
hammering and making the extraor
dinary confusion and clamor that
only a plumber can make, his profits
would be small. And if the farmer
took "The Plumber's Guide to Mil
lions" instead of the '-Barnyard Jour
nal," his sons and daughters would
have to return from the university
and speud the-rest of the semester in
plowing, seeding, harvesting, milk
ing and butter-making. It is quite
as inconsistent for a man who does
not make his living from literature
to give a disproportionate part of his
time and attention to the study of
literature. Not many men in the
west need to be reminded that novel
and poetry reading is a dissipation
and unprofitable. The booksellers of
the west are obliged to sell drugs, surj
men who desired to see their relatives
might be conducted instead of being
obliged to wait in the halls stared
at by the club servants or in the
streets. Mrs. Henrotin also said that
the new club houses women were
building for themselves should make
provision for the occasional rare man
who might want to see his wife, his
sister or his daughter. (No others
need apply.) In the discussion which
always follows Mrs.IIenrotin's trench
ant suggestions some of the women
expressed the fear so often heard that
women are devoting so much of their
time to books that in a few genera
tions they will far outstrip the men.
The fear is an idle one. Competition
whets men's minds and the struggle
for the possession of the dollar hard
ens their muscles and keeps them in
training for any sort of match. Men
may not be able to pass a creditable
examination on the causes of the fall
of the Roman Empire or upon the
latest Egyptian excavations but they
know all about the Puerto Rican
question. They talk intelligently
upon and listen critically to discus
sions on national,state and city polity
They know the geography of the world
the products of the principal countries.
They have a working knowledge of
all of. these subjects. Some men have
a highly vitalized command of all the
knowledge necessary to make a mil
lion, and they have the determina
tion and the muscle. Such an equip
ment wins and is because of its in
spiration and initiative superior to
mere book learning.
Thompson Rosewater.
Mr. Thompson denies that he is
tied to Mr. Rosewater, who, in turn
says, that Mr. Thompson's ambitions
are nothing to him. Meanwhile all
the enemies of Mr. Rosewater's now
.include Mr. Thompson in plans of re
venge and all the enemies which the
latter has accumulated have become
Mr. Rosewater's heritance. The al
liance is not a popular one. News
paper editors make enemies easily
and permanently and an Omaha
editor's enemies are particularly vir
ulent and active. The long feud be
tween the editors of the two Omaha
daily papers has a Kentucky persis
tency and intensity that only stops
short of shot gun ferocity. In as
suming Mr. Rosewater's vendetta, Mr.
Thompson is brave but scarcely dis
creet. Some of Mr. Thompson's
friends have complained that The
Courier's analysis of Mr. Thompson's
life was severe. That analysis is as
falling dew to the vitriol splashes
Mr. Thompson's career will receive
when Mr. Hitchcock begins to review
the life of Rosewater's friend and ally.
w
Trades Unions.
The crudest and most tyrannical of
all trusts are the trades unions.
They obstruct and delay business,
hinder individual advancement and
deepen distrust between employers
ana employes, in the struggle be
tween the trades unions and employ
ers of skilled labor now going on in
Chicago the former have the sympa
thy of the most skillful laborers tired
of being controlled and held down to
a uniform product by the dull aver
age, and of enterprising employers
A
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