THE COURIER.
V
E. Thompson said at the time we were
attempting to test this well, that lie
would make it his business to see that
that well should not become a part
of the city water system. The lire
man at Mayor Graham's tria testi
fied that he had been instructed by
the mayor to plug the well so -that
the test for the aoundance of water
should fail. It was said in the .coun
cil that tbe stream of water which
supplied this well was shallow and
irregular, not worth digging for and
puttiog in an expensive pump to
raise. But the councilman was per
sistent and The Courier was satisfied
that the citizens had used salt water
long enough. No other paper in the
city was on the side of pure water.
The salt water comes from the Salt
creek. basin. It spoils irorr boilers,
lead pipe and warps and destroys the
.human s'tomach. Nevertheless the
coal Sealers and Mr. Thompson
thought the water stations should re
main on the west of the city, and Mr.
Mockett was advised in language
which he said was unique, because of
its profanity, to attend to his own
business. But in spite cf plots and
counter-plots the Mockett well was
dug, satisfactory tested and now
supplies the city with a stream of un
tainted, refreshing water, whose con
duit is now being widened.
"The Management."
Mr. Thompson's managers are a
blundering lot. In the hands of the
opposition they are as cattle Jed to
the shambles by a disguised confede
rate of tbe butcher. The opposition
to Mr. Thompson had deadened in
this section. .Former opponents had
accepted the inevitable, made up
their minds to be quiet and do noth
ing to interfere with republican suc
cess. Mr. Thompson's chances were
never better in Lincoln when Messrs.
Bud Lindsey, Billingsley, Tom Ben
ton and Courtney mistook passive
disgust for popularity. They decided
the time had come to take the horses
out of Mr. Thompson's victoria and
give him a triumphal entry into the
city, where he has advertised that he
means to build three large, very ex
pensive and ornamental wholesale
houses. For this purpose the Abra
ham Lincoln club was assembled and
a resolution was offered endorsing and
pledging loyalty to the county con
vention which nominated well known
Thompson men for the legislature.
When it was first offered it stirred up
only two anti Thompson men who
happened to be at the meeting.
These men responded to the pole and
Captain Billingsley magnanimously
offered to let the matter rest for a
week. In addition Mr. Thompson's
intimates dared the opposition to pro
duce proofs of his offer to sell what
republicanism he had for a place in
the senate. And this, though every
body, populist, democrat or repub
lican assuredly knew that Mr.
Thompson made the offer and attempt
ed to effect the sale. A week from that
time, last Saturday night, the anti
Thompson men were present with four
teen affidavits,sworn to by well known
legislators of character. When Mr.
Ilall began to read the affidavits it
occurred to the four men to whom Mr.
Thompson has entrusted his destiny
that the affidavits and the proceed
ings would be published and would
not increase his reputation with the
republicans of the state or with those
non-partizans who are not politicians,
but who prefer not to vote for a can
didate who has been incontestably
proven a traitor.
With this end in view they howled
and made so much noise that Mr.
Hall could read only a part of
what he had prepared. They still
; -. r--'"'
MMMIimilMMMIMIHIIOMHIIMI
LHB3-
might have passed the esolutJonV'byJthe leaves, the old, old vines, whose
approving Mr.xThompson's .Cn'di- Jripgiug slivered bark, was sign of
dacy, for the opposition was only-one- age to everything but ,a head full of
eighth of the audience, butr they dough, have becn''lgnored by com-
nolsilv Ipff, t.lift hrainv minnrTfcv- in nianrlenr, Fnwlfir fnr fpnro twists nnrl
possession. and-passed tbe resolutions because the birds disturbed -his slug- f mum mm c0nmnmnoo appoint
somewhere else. If Mr. Thompson be gard slumber. Travellers to Milford
not defeated on his own record the.- are blind with impotent rage at such
lack of .acumen of Messrs. Lindsey, imbecile spoiling of "monumental, .ir
Billingsley, Courtney arid 5?omV-Bi-"recoverable beauty. But we have no
ton will insure it. The denou'ment recourse. A man -grossly unfit for
of last Saturday night and the active such a charge is in control, and the
opposition which it evoked and is surroundings of the Soldiers' Home
OFFICERS OF N..-F. W.
still stirring up was entirely of their
preparation. Though Mr. Hall's
quickness to take advantage of their
mistake was admirable.
Van Wyck and Tweed.
Mayor Van Wyck's confession of
his acceptance of stock from the ice
trust has overwhelmed New York
with shame. A student of human
nature has suggested that thirty
years ago when the New York Times
secured the testimony that convicted
Tweed of having stolen $40,000,000
from New York,
astonished. They
large sum of money and were interest
ed in the exposition of his robberies.
Now the conscience of the people is
profoundly shocked. People are not
talking about the money Mayor Vau
Wyck has made. School children are
which his predecessors have preserv
ed and enjoyed and for the beauty of
which the site was selected, will be
ruined by a brute who prefers fence
posts and the price he gets for them
to his reputation, and century-old
trees.
a, 1K9 4 1900.
Prcs., Mrs. Anna L..Apperson, Tecumseli.
V. P.. Mrs. Ida W. Ulair, Wayne
Car.' Sec., Mrs. Virginia D.Arnup, Tecumseh.
RecSec., Miss Mary Hill, York.
Treas., Mrs. H. F. Doane, Crete.
Librarian. Mrs. G. M. Lambertson, Lincoln.
Auditor, Mrs. E. J. Halner, Aurora.
The Chrisman.
Mr. Chrisman, the teacher of paid
ology in the Kansas Normal School,
who made unscientific statements
about women before the Mother's con
gress at Pes Moines has been investi-
the people were gated by the regents of the Kansas
talked about the school. One half were in favor cif
asking for his resignation, and the
other half willing that he should re
main till he sighted another school,
willing to employ a survival of the
dark ages or a Turk.
Kansas clubdom is a particularly
taught the duties of cit:zenship, the strong and progressive body of women
relation of the mayor and other city and as more than four-fifths ol the
officers to the community, and the undergraduates in the normal school
heinousness of betraying a city. are young women, Chrisman's early
This changed attitude of the peo- departure from Kansas is predicted
pie towards Van Wyck's crime demon- with some show of authenticity,
strates that civic consciousness is
deepening, and that, however it may
seem we are not advancing in a circle.
The Tweed scandal, the revelations
of the Lexow committee and now
evidence of Mayor Van Wyck's cor
ruption are discouraging. Apparent
ly they indicate that city officials are
all dishonest and that a few of them
are found out. In Tweed's day it is
doubtful if the discovery of ice stock
under the same circumstances of its
possession by Van Wyck would have
disqualified the mayor from holding
the mayoralty and earned him the dis
favor of men of his own part. There
is no discussion now about the im
propriety of his acquirement of the
stock and his inevitable retirement
from politics.
The World is a yellow newspaper
but its services to the city in this case
are just as grateful as those of The
Times in the Teed case. By the
cleverest and patientest detective
work World reporters discovered that
the mayor held five thousand shares
of ice trust stock. Their lawyers cit
ed him to appear in justice court
where they produced the irrefutable
evidence of his guilt.
Sacrilege.
The destruction of the fine old trees
on the grounds of the Soldiers' Home
at Milford is an inexcusable act of
vandalism. Com'mandant Fowler or
dered the big tree near the home cut
down because the song of the birds in
the morning disturbed his slumbers.
The rustling, verdanfvine-hung grove
has been denuded of trees large
enough for fence posts by this un
mitigated philistine. The ancient
venerable trees, among the oldest in
the state have been cut down and the
rights of the people of the state, to
the property of the state have been
ignored in order that the command
ant may not be disturbed by the
meadow-larks, robins, orioles, and
blackbirds that he says "infested the
grove." The noble girth of the an
cient trees, the wide reach of the
branches, the years they had been
Census Questions.
Mrs. May Wright Sewell, president
of the International Council of Wo
men refused to answer the census
taker's questions as to whether she
was black or white and whether she
could write or not. The newspapers
have advised her that it is silly to get
mad at anything the government
chooses to direct the canvasser to ask.
But the canvasser represents the
whole people and even an average in
telligence would not be guilty of ask
ing Mrs. May Wright Sewell it she
was black or white, or if she could
write. There are also doubtless in
telligent people at the head of the de
partment, but the agents, "O worse
than senseless things'' that the com
missioner generals send :nto the sa
cred homes of the people incite them
to revolution and ambiguity.
Reorganization.
The General Federation of Women's
Clubs will remain what the title in
dicates: an aggregation of womens'
clubs. The state federation is repre
sented only incidentally, because it
may be broadly considered a woman's
club. Strictly speaking the state fed
eration is in the general federation
only on tolerance. The individual
clubs are the basis of representation.
They are the units and will counter
act the inevitable approaches of aris
tocracy or exclusiveness- The over
whelming verdict against an aristo
cratic composition showed that tbe
large majority of the delegates ap
preciated the meaning, the value and
the vitality of democracy. Adoption
of the reorganization reccommenda
tion would have made the Federation
an aristocratic body. It might have
met in a small place without crowd
ing the touchiest inhabitant. Rail
road rates, hotel rates and all sorts of
the consideration it receives for its
size, would no longer be offered it.
Most of the women recognize the
wholesomeness of the present organi
zation and refused to meddle. And
' rlll1iC !im pnifiiporl
FIFTH BIENNIAL.
Officers for 1900-1902.
President Mrs. Rebecca D. Loue. Georgia.
V.-Presldent Mrs. C. T. Denison. New York.
2d V.-PresM't Miss Margaret J. Etans, Minn.
Rec. Sec. Mrs. Emma Fox, Michigan.
Cor. Sec.-Mrs. G. W. Kendrick. Pa.
Treas. Mrs. E. SI. Van Vechten, Iowa.
Awl. Mrs. George II. N'oyes, Wis
Director Mrs. Edward L. Buchu alter, Ohio;
Mrs. Charles W. Fairbanks. Indiana; Miss
Margaret J. Evans, Minnesota; Mrs. Margaret
J. Lockwood. District of Columbia. Mrs. Annie
West. Massachusetts; Mrs. W. J. Christie,
Montana: Mrs. W. J. Coad. South Dakota: Mrs.
William Streeter, New Hampshire: Mrs. R. L.
Priddy, Kansas.
growing, tho traditions of Indian en- all the womens' clubs are
campments and councils whispered over their sagacity,
Milwaukee, Wis., June G. While the
Mason and Dixon line was being re
traced by members of the General Fed
eration of Women's clubB today Mrs.
Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin. the colored
representative of the New Era club of
Massachusetts, came quietly into the
convention hall and took a seat with
the Massachusetts delegation. The
few that know she was there whispered
to one another: "Wait until the board
acts." The southern states, with the
exception of Tennessee, claim that the
passing of the Georgia resolution is all
that stands between them and secession.
The northern state?, some of them, cry:
"Let the South secede if it will."
The board must deal with these fac
tions, both of which have presented pre
tests for and against the admittance of
colored women into the federation. And
so these women are digging up the
hatchet of discord buried by their hus
bands and fathers. "Southern women
will leave the federation at once if the
delegates admit colored women," said
Mrs. Kate Cobell Currie of Dallas,
Texas, president of the United Daugh
ters of the Confederacy. Mrs. Currie
was a warm personal friend of Mies
Winnie Davis and wears an exquisite
miniature of Mis Davis at her throat.
She says "we women of the South."
The cry of "no North.no Soath.no
East, no West," does not ring out as it
did at former biennials. Tho cry has
changed to "You of the North, we of tho
South." Perhaps when the FeJeration
vindicates Mrs. Lowe in her attitude
against reorganization tomorrow the
South will smile again. The smile
would broaden if the nominating com
mittee would put its arms around Mrs.
Lowe and place her in the presidential
chair once more. The board of direct
ors of the Federation wants to postpone
action so it will avoid the discussion
that will come when it makes its report
to the convention.
Chicago women, who, with all Illinois,
urged the board to ratify the admission
of Mrs. Ruffin's club and to reconsider
its former, action, were glad when they
got a long message from Mrs. Ida Wells
Barnett, the colored club woman of
Chicago, to-day. Mrs. Barnett has been
looking after the anti-lynching bureau
of the National African-American coun
cil. The message was sent to Mrs. J. Ed
ward Thorndyke of the Catholic Wo
man's National league, and was as fol
lows: "The color-line tide is stronger than
ever. Friends of justice, to say nothing
of Christianity, seem more and more
afraid to Btand for right and justice and
J
4
A
Hi
;
y
J: