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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (May 19, 1900)
I fe r .- i h y- l- rs It A VOL. XV., NO. XX ESTABLISHED IN 18S6 PRICE FIVE CENTS fc v AT. a m LINCOLN. NEBR.. SATURDAY. MAY 19. 1900. BNTWDnf THK POSTOFFICK AT LIHCOLN AS SECOND CLASS MATTKK. THE COURIER, Official Organ of the Nebraska. State Federation of Women's dubs. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY -BT- TIE COURIER PRI1IIIG MD POBUSHIHG GO Office 1132 N street, Up Stairs. Telephone 384. SARAH B. HARRIS. Editor Subscription Kates In Advance. Per annum tl 00 8ix months -75 Three months 50 One month 20 Single copies 05 Tmt Couanw will not bo responsible for vol imtary communications unless accompanied by return jtostaje. Commup'cations. to receive attention, must be signed by the full name of the writer, not merely as a guarantee of good faith, but for publication if advisable, s OBSERVATIONS. 1 OBSBRVAT! The Tyranny of Tears. Isabel Irving played an ungrateful, rasping part consistently. As Mrs. Parbury, who spent all her time either gushing or weeping, or accus ing her husband of no longer loving her, Miss Irving succeeded in mak ing herself as disagreeable and ob noxious as the ordinary stage villain. The ingenuous gallery would have hissed the villain, as it always does, only this villain was graceful, wore pretty gowns, and cried ad nauseam, and the gallery's heart was touched. The heart of the gallery is a com posite of candy and starch, absorbent of much moisture, and hung on a hair trigger that any one can move. The owners of the heart have an in dividual one by day and as soon as they get on the streets after the show, but at night in the sickening atmos phere of cheap tobacco and unwashed bodies, the gallery's emotions can be proved by the cheapest actor. Ap parently attached to the heart Is a whistle and ruffianly fraternity yells. The yells gratify the undergraduate's taste for making himself conspicuous and comfort him for being tempo rarily out of sight. Education is sup posed to be refining, and finally per haps it is, but whenever the Lincoln public has an opportunity of seeing the university students in an unoffic ial body, the Influence of education seems to have been misrepresented. The best behaved young men in a Lincoln audience are the clerks, pro fessional men, and young society men who are earning their own living. The mob in the gallery, two thirds of whom are university students, would put the town bullies of the border days to the blush. The mob allowed Isabel Irving to weep, gush and exhibit her gowns without hissing or groaning and the illiterate part of the audience were grateful for her ability to propitiate the arrogant gallery. Miss Irving's gowns fit her perfect ly and the advance notices did not misrepresent their number. She ex hibits them however too frankly. Like the elegant models In the win dows of the dry goods stores she re volves too often. An actress of the first quality frequently overestimates the interest we take in her gowns. The moment she stands with her back to us for the obvious purpose of exhibiting the fit and the style, we lose Interest in her and her gowns. The taste for a great variety and rich ness in gowns has been overstimu lated. Occasionally an pctress like Ada Reban or Julia Marlowe, is able to make even the local audience, which is famous for its single devo tion to dress, forget the clothes in reverence for an original intellect. After the first brilliant entrance of a pretty gown even-the most interested are willing to be diverted by acting. The type of woman Miss Irving so ably reproduced is not so common as it used to be- Tears played out fifty years ago. The heroines of Fielding, Smollet, Miss Austen and Miss Bir ney had only one weapon tears, or occasionally another fainting spells. The modern woman is game. If she must cry, she secludes herself. The modern wife respects her husband's working hours. So many club women are reporters, essayists, historians. crit ics and poets, that a sort of feminine comprehension of the exacting nature of literary production is an evidence of new-womanhood. The lawyer's, the doctor's the minister's the editor's wife realizes the strain of creation, the necessity of seclusion, the nerve and attention wracking effect of in terruptions. The new woman does not (not if she is a real newwoman) begrudge her husband his old friends nor try to drive them away. She may have been educated in the Nebraska State university where she has ob served a daily demonstration of the pleasure men take in the society of their own sex. Perhaps she has been a member of a fraternity herself and has learned the satisfaction of good fellowship. In contrast to the old fashioned girl, who bad one sworn bosom friend she knows the joys of comradery, she has learned after many disappointments that there are more virtues in a company than in one person. The new woman no long er expects to take the place of the whole world to her husband, and she can see beyond him a pleasant com pany of women in clubs, or sitting about a luncheon table or perchance a card taole. For not seeking to monopolize him and absorb him, for having Interests and a life of her own to live, she is the more Interesting to her spouse who does not feel the tether or the chains of matrimony. The weeping, gushiog woman of "The Tyranny of Tears" is gone. At any rate her type ie as rare as the breezy, Independant girl in the days of Eve lina and Clarissa. Therefore the Ir ritation of contemplating the sel fish woman who rules by tears, was modified by the reflection that the type was extinct-except on the stage or In literature, of course tbere are isolated survivals of everything. John Drew as the thoroughly sub jugated husband was adequate and at the end when he asserted the tradi tional rights of bis sex and the actual law of good sense he satisfied the audience which was tired of the spec tacle of persecution. The company of seven people were excellent. Mr. Byron has the wooden expression, per fect repose, and infallible cynicism of Gillette. The Law and the Student. In comparison with undergraduate students of other states and other countries, Nebraska students of the State university are doubtless well behaved. But compared to young men who are taking care of them selves, they are not orderly or well behaved members of society. In England and Germany students take advantage of tradition. Turbulence, aggression, and lawlessness of all kinds began when colleges were 'first established. A timid police and a peasant's awe of learning have con tributed in foreign college towns to submission on the part of the dis pised towns people, to all sorts of con tumely and abuse from the students. This Is quite a different community. The university students who carouse and fire off pistols within the city limits, who paint silly signs on costly public buildings and churches are treated like other people who break the law. The arrogance of the idler among working people has begun to manifest itself In the State univer sity. A student has the rights and privileges of any other citizen and no more. It makes a difference whose ox is gored. Merchants who have lost valuable signs, stolen by students in play, owners of buildings which have been daubed with an ineffaceable C or 97 are gratified that the Chief of police dared to do his duty on the sacred person of a student discharg ing a pistol within the city limits. On previous occasions when students have sought to express their jcy by making hideous noises, or by paint ing symbols on buildings the police have not interfered. But Chief Hoag land knows his business and his duty towards the property and safety of the citizens. Police Judge Comstock is also not easily diverted from de livering a sentence in accordance with the law as he understands it. He sentenced the disorderly student who fired the pistol in the celebra tion of last Satuaday night, to pay ten dollars and costs. Mr. Pound was disgusted because the lawbreaker was a student and warned the Judge it students were arrested for breaking the city ordinances, It would very likely be the cause of serious trouble. If the Chief of Police and the Po lice Judge should be afraid to do their duty to the students and the citizens of this young university and this new town, it would be the beginning of "serious trouble" in precedent. Students of the Nebraska State University are no worse than stu dents of other and older schools who have been petted and suffered by the adjacent or surrounding municipality until they have grown to consider smashing windows, painting build ings, stealing signs, and firing off guns their inalienable, unassailable privilege. But this is a young school and there Is no better time than the present, and there are no better men than Judge Comstock and Chief Hoagland to teach these student that citizens have rights too. That students eventually get over the demoralizing effects of the raids hitherto permitted the matriculates of the university is demonstrated by the number of orderly, intelligent men who have recovered from their degrees. Mr. Pound himself, who pro fesses to be profoundly disgusted at Judge Comstock's profanation promis es to develop into a good citizen in time. We are just emerging through the grace of the Judge ana the Chief from a state of undue respect for those who are supposed to be study ing books and listening to lectures. Like spoiled children In a neighbor hood which lackes the courage to appeal to the law the university stu dents have been suffered to become a nuisance. The New Telephone Company. The Independent Telephone Com pany asks a franchise on the same terms as the company now in posses sion and making an estimated income of over fifty percent on its franchise for which it pays the city $500.00 per annum. The present circulation of about a thousand phones in Lincoln would be multiplied by the entry of a new company charging cheaper rates. Unless the present rates were cut to correspond with the new rates, the new company would have all the Lin coln subscription. On the other hand, in consequence of the establishment of a competitive rate, two telephones will cost less than one and thousands of homes will be within speaking dis tance of the butcher, the baker, and the candle-stick-maker at a monthly cost of less than car fare. The care- si