THE COURIER.
s
tlcians. "After the resignation of
Secretary Bllsli and the appointment
of Mr. Hitchcock, it was evident that
there were serious differences between
Davis and his chief." Then the
former said he required a vacation,
and, enjoying all the honors and pres
tigeofa United States government
official, he visited the Boers. The op
portunity to become conspicuous was
tempting and the subject of this sym
pathetic sketch was not the man to
resist It. He returned to America,
resigned and took the lecture plat
form. Before retiring he started a
vice presidential boom for himself as
the "coming Missourian' and the
President's personal favorite. Th
President objected to the false posi
tion Mr. Davis thrust upon him, and
let it be known that he was rigidly
opposed to the election of any federal
office holder as delegate to the con
vention. This rebuff and the failure
of his conspiracy to worm himself
Into another's place, are more obvious
reasons for Mr. Davis' withdrawal
from the party which has fed him too
long.
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Competition.
The common people who never talk
about the common people, who never
pose as willing to be butchered for
more liberty to others and more jus
tice are hoping that the council will
grant a franchise to the second tele
phone company which has asked for
it. The establishment of another
company here means an immediate,
fifty per cent reduction of rentals
which in the aggregate is a saving of
over thirty thousand dollars a year to
the citizens, most of whom are the
great common people referred to.
The suspicion is gathering strength
that the telephone company already
here are making extraordinary exer
tions and 'using all their influence to
keep the new company out. The
former has charged exorbita.it rentals
for so long that it is alarmed at the
prospect of a competitor and anxious
to use what influence and power the
company has to keep out competition.
I hope the council can mane it clear
that tne company which has erected
its poles on our streets and charged
an exorbitant rental for so long is
notlnc? influence which prevents the
council from favorably considering
an application from a new company.
A reduction of rates is within the
power of the council. If this were
done relief from present existing con
ditions would be secured without the
bother of a double telephone system.
Jt jit
Modus Operandi.
It is very doubtful if the Tired
Mothers Excursion and Rest, ma
neuvre will have any effect on the
election of a United States senator
next winter.
Whose Business Is It?
"With the democratic presidential
candidate, a resident of Lincoln, it is
likely that the state house grounds
will be the place for many open air
addresses before the summer is over.
With the present carelessness in
regard to public property that exists
at the state house some of the fine
trees which have been planted by
previous servants of the people will
be entirely destrojed. The two large
evergreen trees of twenty or thirty
years' growth next the band stand
were tilled "on Tuesday night with
large boys who backed and tore the
branches in order to secure com-
fortable seats. Not one of the mob of
janitors who are employed at the
- state house cared whether the trees
were destroyed or not and apparently
no official elected by the people to
care for their property cared either.
J spoke to a police officer who was
lounging about in characteristically
indolent fashion. lie replied that it
was none of his business. Mr. Mc-
Intee at the state house when inform
ed of the damage already done to
these beautiful trees, was equally in
different and impudently replied to a
plea for future protection, with an
intimation that the state house
grounds arc no republican's affairs.
In his speech on Tuesday evening
on the Capitol grounds, Mr. Bryan
said:
"There is a privilege in being an
American citizen, and there is re
sponsibility commensurate with the
privilege. If we lived in a land where
a king thought for us we would feel
no responsibility for the action of
that king. But we live in a land
where the people determine the poli
cy. We live in a land where the citi
zen impresses his own opinion upon
the government, where the policv of
the government may be determined
by one vote."
It is said that Mr. Bryan has large
influence with the state house officials
Consequently, he might be able to
teach them that a man once elected
to office is attending to the duties of
that office for the whole people and
not exclusively for those who voted
for him. AH' the citizens have an
interest in the preservation of the
Capitol and the trees which have
required so long to grow and so
much cultivation. Republicans still
pay taxes. But when they venture to
call official attention to the vandalism
such as that perpetrated by Com
mandant Fowler at the Milford Home
or in the case just referred to, there
seems to be nn privilege in being an
American citizen. We are reminded
that we have no responsibility com
mensurate with the privilege, that we
do not live in a land where the peo
ple determine the policy, nor wfcere
the citizen impresses his own opinion
upon the government. The people of
this community would take it very
kindly if Mr. Bryan would occasional
ly say some of these things to those
custodians of the state's property who
regard their surroundings as inaliena
ble conveniences to use for thdir own
comfort irrespective of the time and
taxes they have cost.
jt J
Quivera Legends.
A compilation of the Indian tales
of this part of the country is promis
ed by E. E. Blackman, the publisher
of Qui vera Legends. About all that
survives of the early occupation of the
"shallow-water" country Is in the
names of the streams. There are few
hills and fewer rocks that the nomads
named for us and the prairie which
rolls in every direction, indKtinguish
ably, could only be named by the
white men who surveyed and marked
it off into sections and counties.
If the publisher qfQuivera Legends
fulfil his promise after a scientific
and scholarly pattern the historical
and scholarly value of the magazine
is unquestionable.
The Belgian Hare.
The hare was a" pest in Australia
and numerous expedients were adopt
ed to drive it out of the continent.
Periodical drives were organized,
when thousands were slaughtered, in
fected hare were loosed to start an epi
demic among the species.the mongoose
a justly celebrated hare and "snake
killer was imported from India and
became another nuisance, but noth
ing was effective until it was dis
covered that the hare was good to eat.
The pot hunter has made the hare
scarce in Australia, and the farmers
are now asking for game laws includ
ing the hare. There is no historical
instance of a food animal becoming a
pest. The timid, frightened little
things that write editorials on the
daily papers about the probabilities of
a hare pest in this country might as
well be shocked by the amount of
food consumed by, and the rate of in
crease of sheep or rattle or hogs. All
food animals are fond of grain and
grass, but they transmute them into a
more valuable food product.
The Belgian hare has provided the
millions of German, French and Eng
lish peasants with an occasional meal
of meat. The flesh of the hare is ten
der and very nutritious. His bones
cook up into a soup and it is said by
those who have experimented with
broths for the sick, that hare soup is
especially easy of digestion. Since
the hare has been accepted as a staple
meat we might as well be alarmed
over the large coveys of a prairie
chjeken or of the quail. Both haunt
the grain fields and eat quantities of
grain, but it is a rare farmer who will
allow pot hunters on his farm.
J
An Expensive Rest.
Almost all gifts are paid for by the
recipient. Except those donations
from parents to their children or from
members of the same family to each
other or from intimate friends, both
donor and recipient know when the
gift is received, acknowledged, and
sometimes enjoyed and sometimes
not, that the pay day will surely ar
rive, It is not always possible for the
very poor who receive a gift to pay
their own debts. In such cases a
community sometimes rewards with
its esteem the man who lets his bene
factions be known, and sometimes it
rewards him with votes. But com
munities are not to be depended upon
iu this regard. Lincoln is a suspic
ious community. In the last twenty
or thirty years, and especially in' the
last five years, Lincoln people have
seen a deal of politics, and they could
pass an examination on the tricks
and manners of the latter.
Mr. Thompson really under-esti-mates
the price of a United States
senatorship, and the inteligence of
the voters who can send him to Wash
ington or keep him here, a hope-deferred
suppliant.
About three or four years ago it
occurred to Mr. Thompson that if he
were United States senator he would
be a distinguished man and would
enjoy the consideration and deference
that his Nebraska constituents at
least would pay him. He was ham
pered by a record then as he is now.
He was something of a boss and men
who had felt his heavy hand while he
was securing privileges and bargains
forthe gas company from the city
would have to be conciliated. Then
his close friends and allies were not of
a calibre and a character that United
States senators are apt to be sur
rounded by. Nevertheless Mr. Thump
son doubtless decided that he could
reach the altitude of a United States
senator by making various and con
stant and well advertised donations
to worthy objects. In pursuance, he
got up an excursion to the Trans
Mississippi exposition for the child
ren of poor people who had not visit
ed the show; he gave various barrels
of flour to the convenient '"poor," anc
he loaned the state $20,000 to bring
the First Nebraska boys "back to the
land that bred them." His anxiety
to give something large and monu
mental is so apparent that when a
site for the new library was needed,
it was immediately assumed that Mr.
Thompson would give it and he did
offer two sites.
While Mr. Thompson was In Texas
his allies of the old Mayor Graham
days, who know nothing of the tem
per and cannot estimate the tone or
number of those who oppose Mr.
Thompson, got up the Abraham Lin
coln club celebration which resulted
in Mr. Hall's production of the four
teen affidavits proving Mr. Thomp
son's offer of sale of his vote and in
fluence to the populist party.
On his return Mr. Thompson recog
nized that it was his play and he is
now organizing a Tired Mothers' Ex
cursion to Beatrice.
A Scandal.
It was not Mrs. Cohen of Utah who
did a cake-walk at the Kansas City
convention. Mrs. Cohen behaved very
well. Some emotional woman imper
sonated Mrs. Cohen and every club
woman who read of her performance
in the next morning's papers, were
shocked. They were willing to giveup
for the moment the principle no taxa
tion without representation. But
it was all a mistake. The woman who
danced and sang with disheveled
locks was a fanatic who had wander
ed in from the street. She was not a
delegate and the morals which have
been drawn from her conduct do not
apply. Visitors to the convention
report that Mrs, Cohen was as modest
and shrinking as Mr. David B. Hill
himself. It is a relief to know that
politics alone cannot make a woman
forget gentle birth and breeding and
the proprieties of life and it has been
completely demonstrated by compet
ent witnesses that Mrs. Cohen's con
duct was unexceptionable.
V.
Reserve.
Lincoln people do not howl them
selves hoarse when the city is honor
ed by a visit from distinguished 1
democrats, not because they do not "
appreciate the honor, but because we
are a non-emotional people.
Army officers taking their com
mands from one coast to another in
the late war, complained that when
they reached Nebraska, although the
people surrounded the station there
was little cheeririg.and that of a halt
hearted sort. When great musicians,
actors or actresses visit Nebraska they
complain that their fame and their
genius are wasted on a bucolic, stolid
people, unwilling to confess that the
music or the acting has moved them.
I think we are a sophisticated people.
Some of us have been to Chicago, a
few to New York, and a very few to
Europe. But we are unappreciative.
Like the rustic who visits jl city for
the first time, we have steeled our
selves against surprises and the dis
play of any emotion whatever.
It is therefore not because the in-V"
habitants are mostly republican fel
low townsmen of the democratic vice-
presidential candidate that his dieting
uishe. visitors excite only an agricul
tural stare, but because, take us for
all in all, we are cold-blooded and ungenerous.
Patriotism, heroism, self-sacrifice,
are as spectacles. They do not affect
us. The one man to whom Nebras
kans are more indebted than to any
other, who gave up his reputation and
then his life that Nebraska troops
might be prepared to fight a worthy
tight and then to fight it, has not re
ceived any adequate recognition.
The attempt to secure the surplus
remaining from the amount subscrib
ed to the celebration of the First Ne
braska for the Stotsenburg fund
was partially foiled by the de
determination to divert these funds
to the uses of the state fair. WhenCA.
it is demonstrated that only the ex-
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