2
THE COURIER.
feor, never tamed or attracted by any
etber speaker. But the effort to
quiet and interest all out-doors,
though apparently effortless, has af
fected Mr. Bryan's pronunciation of
common English words. Whether
repetition and the outdoor conditions
of speech-making hare caused the
change in Mr. Bryan's reading of his
mother-tongue is uncertain, but, in
contestably, he says pepul for people,
re-pub-lick-cunz, bat-tuls, all pro
Bounced with a heavy accent on the
last syllable. "My friends" has been
corrupted to "Muff friends" and the
free coinage of silver at the ratio of
sixteen to one without waiting for the
aid or consent of any other nation, to
"the free coin-nudge or silver at the
ratio of sixteen to one without wait'n'
for the aid or cun-sent of any other na
sfcun," with the last word heavily ac
cented on the last syllable.
Mr. Bryan has been selected as the
safest human example by a large num
ber of American parents. The two or
three thousand oabies who, in 1896.
were named William Brjan, are now
able to talk. When their god-father
starts to make his second tour of the
country, lusty, round-eyed namesakes
will be upheld on ingenuous shoulders
at every station where the train stops.
Such moments are crucial. They
sake votes or lose tbem. And should
Mr. Bryan's corrupted English fall on
the ears of a mother who is a club
woman and studying English liter
ature, or should a father hear him,
who has organized a Bound Table
club in his town for the expansion
and culture of the intellect and the
development of a vocabulary, it is
easy to believe that the parens of an
idolized child might decide to vote
for a man who keeps the well of Eng
lish undefined. A man whose advan
tages as a godfather are more impor
tant than the natural claims of the
grandparents on both sides, has an
educational value in the world of
juveniles not to be frivolously exer
cised. Taught by their parents that
Mr. Bryan is the man of the century
and the uncle of his country, the
juvenile ideal must suffer a severe
strain or be replaced by another. If
it were ootthat child study has been
given so conspicuous a place in the
carriculum of parents these consider
ations on the effects of the most con
spicuous American's pronunciation
would be purile. As it is, they cannot
be too carefully weighed.
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LcsFeauotfUc
Politicians allege that women are
responsible for the split between the
populists and democrats in Kansas.
At the recent joint convention in that
state of populists and democrats,
Annie L. Diggs broke the fusion slate,
ousted the democrat nominated for
attorney general, and succeeded in se
curing the nomination of populist
Martin in his place. Aftei wards,
when the democratic and populist
committees met in Topeka, the demo
crats led a revolt against the wives of
populists who bad been admitted to
ska fusion assemblage. The populists
clang to chivalry and the democrats
have established separate headquar
ters at Kansas City. The Kansas wo
men's Bryan clubs are particularly
strong, and many of the unmarried
women have sworn not to marry a
ssan who does not vote for Bryan.
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Pictures aad IHutntioBs.
Illustrations illustrate, exemplify
aad expand the meaning of a story
writer. They are to a historical or
scientific writer what a map is to a
geographer. The artist who paints a
picture is dealing with color and line.
Bis horizon is wide. His imagination
and draughtmanship are controlled
only by truth and beauty. But his
task is all the more difficult. Many
picture painters, therefore, prefer to
paint historical themes, like Ulysses'
Departure, the Execution of Mary
Queen of Scotts, King Benry VIII.
and his Wives, or Bluebeard and bis
Victims. Mr. Whistler has explained
that all this sort of thing is not paint
ing. And people who only look at
pictures and do not make them are
beginning to accept his gospel. The
illustrations of Maxfield Farrisb, of
Peter Newell, have no particular fas
cination as pictures by themselves.
Thev are like words which are only
signs of Idea?. The beauty of line
and color is not comprehended by the
ordinary man and woman. It is as
classical music to the young woman
who sits down before a piano a dozen
times a day for her own recreation
and the torture of the rest of creation
and plays coon tunes or the latest
vaudeville vulgarity. The men who
carefully differentiate between the
two kinds of painting, and have chosen
cne of them as their vocation have
planted the idea, and magazine illus
tration, which immediately re'tlects
the popular taste, is beginning to
demonstrate the existence of a dis
criminating public.
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A Kentucky Juc'ge.
The conviction of Caleb Powers,
the Kentucky secretary of state, for
complicity in the murder of Goebel, is
not a certain indication of his guilt.
Of the twelve men on the jury, eight
were Goebel partisans, one was a pro
hibitionist who voted for Goebel, two
were Brown democrats and one was a
republican. Judge Cantrill, who tried
the case, made a number of speeches
from the bench, which were mostly
unfavorable to the prisoner. Tne
trial and sentence are said to have
widened the breech existing' between
the democrats and the Brown-democrats.
The latter are just as bitter
in their denunciation of Judge Cant
rill, the prosecution and the jury as
the republicans are.
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Femmolin.
St. Louis is trying to get anew
word adopted, a more difficult feat
than the inauguration and successful
conduct of a world's fair. Besides the
word is ugly and suggests a patent
medicine or oily unguent. Old maid
or spinster is preferable to femmolin,
which is no more attractive than
oleomargarine, gasoline or cottolene.
The Concent of the Governed.
Dispatches indicate that Manchu
control of China is at "an end. The
Chinese have been ruled by outlanders
for more than six hundred years, first
by the Tartars, then by the Mongols,
and, since 1644, by the Manchu dynas
ty. For China, as we have learned
since the American minister was be
sieged in Pekin, is composed of three
countries, inhabited by three races,
speaking three languages and believ
ers in three religions. But the Chi
nese proper, number 386,000,000 out of
the 400.000,000 people in the empire, as
opposed to 9,500,000 Manchurians and
Mongolians. Yet the Chiniave
allowed a people, only one fifty-fifth
of their number, to hold them In sub
jection for two'hundred and fifty-six
years. That is what it means to be a
peace-loving, vegetarian, pastoral peo
ple. A short, sharp war with the
Manchurians, if the Chinese bad pos
sessed military genius, would have in
sured a larger liberty and a certain
degree of progress.'
A most effective method of teaching
American school children adequate
reverence for the character and deeds
of the fighting Puritans' whose death
accomplished our liberty, is by, con
trast with these very Chinese who
have been enslaved for two hundred
and fifty-six years by a people fifty
five times weaker than themselves.
The battle of Lexington, the battle of
Bunker Hill, the minute man plow
ing with a musket strapped to his
shoulder, the soldiers atValley Forge
and the heroic Washington, do not
profoundly move the children who
study American history in order to
pass an examination or to get credit
so that they can "pass" into the next
grade at the close of the year and
thus avoid parental reproach or some
thing sti1! more painful. These deeds
were done more than a hun
dred years ago. They are now
a matter of course, though In
the contemplation they blanched the
cheeks but fired the hearts of the
men who had determined to resist
tyranny to the death. The same belig
erent, unconquerable spirit animates
the torso of young America now and
he does not realize the heroic stature
of the men who signed the Declara
tion of Independence, or who enlisted
to starvation and freezing in the con
tinental army. Chinese history should
be taught side by side with American
history. By 1920 sympathizers with
the Boers and with the Chinese of
that period would not exist. The
school boys, grown up then and voting
for the first time, would have learned
that no people could live unto them
salves, that a free people cannot be
oppressed, though they may be gov
erned by and with the consent of only
one-fifth of the governed.
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A Hot Time.
The rain on Tuesday cooled the air,
raised the spirits and increased the
confidence of politicians in the suc
cess of one candidate or the other.
Excess! reheat is depressing and the
increase in the number of suicides is
as reliable a register of heat as the
thermometer. The Chicago Times
Herald says that Doctor Schafhirt, a
druggist on North Capital and H
street, fried an egg on the pavement
in front of his store when the mer
curv registered one hundred and
twenty degrees. The egg was done
to tbe turning point in seven and one
half minutes after it was broken on
tbe pavement. It was then turned
over and in ten minutes was thor
oughly cooked and a negro lad ate it.
On tbe white stone walk in front of
the postonlce in Lincoln during tbe
hottest weather the hungry might be
fed on eggs cooked on a pavement
which receives not only the direct
rays of the sun, but the radiated heat
from stone and brick as well.
Street Banners.
By order of tbe republican county
committee, six or more large flags
have been hung over the middle of
the down town streets. Each flag de
pends from a rope stretched across
tbe street, from block to block. On
each flag, across tbe red and white
stripes, is sewed a picture of McKin
ley and Rcosevelt. Now, although I
hope for republican success and be
lieve that it is certain, it seems to me
that this is an abuse of privilege.
Anybody's picture is out of place on
the Stars and Stripes. That is a
sacred emblem pf the unity of tbe
whole people. This country is divided
nearly equally between two parties,
or rather, between pne united party
and fragments of three or four, desig
nated by changing and more or less
fanciful titles. But anyway there is a
difference of opinion between loyal
American citizens, all of whom, if
need were, would die for the union
and for the flag which symbolizes it.
It is in poor taste, and it is short
sighted politics to tack tbe pictures
of any candidates for the presidency
to the flag. But the democrats and
populists in Lincoln begun it by past
ing a portrait of Mr. Bryan in every
window in the capitol building. It
is especially difficult for populists to
put into practice principles of 'non
partisan administration, but it is a
lesson which all state officers should
learn if they care for the approval of
their fellow citizens and the unpar
tisan verdict of posterity. The Lin
coln postmaster, whose republicanism
is unquestionable, has refrained from
filling the windows of the govern
ment building with President Mc
Kinley's picture, and members of both
parties are grateful for this singular
evidence of good taste. The portraits
of President McKinleyand Governor
Roosevelt or of Mr. Bryan and Mr.
Stevenson pasted in the windows cf
the private residences of Lincoln are
neither decorative nor appropriate,
and they make no votes for one candi
date or the other. If all republicans
were to place the republican candi
dates' pictures in their windows tbe
effect would be maddening. Lincoln
is a republican town and Lancaster a
republican county and tbe repetition
of the not uncomely features of Mc
Kinley and Roosevelt would be most
tiresome, it is our good luck, then,
that most republican men and women
can distinguish the trivial and the
cheap lrom tbe important and essen
tial. It is characteristic of a sordid age,
that there are laws against mutilat
ing tbe currency and none against
pasting the most sacred emblem in
America on the sidewalk where men
must step on the stars and stripes
used for a background to an advertise
ment of soap or bitters.
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Strenuous.
Governor Roosevelt's public life
from tbe time he began to tame buck
ing broncbos in Wyoming to tbe
present time, when be is considering
the case of Mayor Van Wyck and
making campaign speeches with the
thermometer anywhere between a
hundred and a hundred and twenty
above, ha9 been strenuous. That word
is a part of the season and tbe times.
No patriotic republican editor can
leave it out of his editorials without
incurring a suspicion of disloyalty to
Teddy. And better to be trite, hack
neyed, stale than to give the impres
sion of cherishing only a lukewarm
admiration for the young man's hero,
-the cowboy's toast, the scholar's jus
tification, the statesman's anchor,
the athlete's champion and tbe unan
imous choice of the republican na
tional convention for vice president.
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America in Asia.
Turkey in Europe, Russia in Europe,
Britisb, French and Dutch Guiana
and British India are examples of a
people's expansion, or the breaking
over of boundaries grown too narrow
for the age or period of development.
America has the Filipines and even
Mr. Bryan's election cannot alter
that fact. Our possession insures
eventual Filipino autonomy. No peo'
pie can 'be absolutely autonomous
io the sense of governing by them
selves without the consent, advice or
intrusion of any other nation. The
nineteenth century completed tbe
binding together of the peoples of the
earth. Like a group of Alpine climbers,
oo one of tbe nations can fall without
dragging all the others to the edge of
the abyss.
I hope in the case of China that a
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