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VOL. XV., NO. XLl
ESTABLISHED IN 185
PRICE FIVE CENTS
LINCOLN. NEBR.. SATl'Hl)AY.OLTOrtRi:i 1900.
THE COURIER,
EMTKBEOIN THE POSTOFFICE AT LINCOLN AS
SECOSD CLASS MATTER.
PUBLISHED EVEBY SATURDAY
BT
THE COURIER PRINTING UNO PUBLISHING GO
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SARAH B. HARRIS. Editor
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Communications, to receive attention, must
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g OBSERVATIONS. 8
Courtesy.
Governor Roosevelt came to town
and the fusionists offered to take
down the picture of Bryan and
Stevenson, the "Save the Republic"
banner, which stretches across O
street, and, for the tirst time, suggests
that Nebraska populists have a
sense of humor. The republicans
have never objected to the Bryan ban
ner and replied that they would
rather it were left hanging, and that,
anyway, the McKinley and Roosevelt
banners would stay where they are
till after election.
There is no courtesy in politics. Be
tween two opposing political parties
there is only distrust and unlimited
enmity. The presidential candidate
that wins this year will distribute to
loyal workers post-ollices, foreign con
sulships, cabinet positions, attorney
generalships and various kinds of dep
uty positions not hard to till and well
paid for. Courtesy is not proof against
this hope. In this Christian -land,
courtesy is practiced at functions and
on polite occasitions where man ceases
for a few isolated moments to think
"of the rewards of activity, the diffi
culties of competition, and of short
cuts to political office. Deacons and
elders who are bankers never take
their consideration and worry about
souls into the bank. The fusionists;
therefore, who profess to be deeply
shocked by the discourtesy of the re
publicans should pause and reflect
that there is no such thing as cour
tesy in politics. It is only within the
last ten years that decency has been
introduced into politics, and we have
not yet grown familiar with the oh
servances thatdecency has introduced.
The oiler from the fusionist breth
ren recalls the offer of Judson to
Brandon in "When Knighthood was
in Flower." Judson and Hrandon
were fighting a duel to the death.
Judson hud on a suit of mail, hut he
was exhausted, having just fought
two duels with Brandon's father and
brother, whom he had killed. He
offered, then, when he saw be was
sure to lose his lire if the tight con
tinued, to spare young Brandon's life.
He breathed hard, and his thrusts
lacked force. He .aaid:
"Boy, 1 would spare you. I have
killed enough of your tribe: put up
your sword and call it quits."
Brandon replied: "Stand your
ground. You will be a dead man as
soon as you grow a little weaker. If
you try to run, I will thrust you
through the neck as I would a cur.
Listen how vou snort. You would
spare me. would you? I could preach
a sermon or dance a hornpipe while 1
am killing you."
Lincoln is a republican town, and a
democrat would never have been elect
ed here if republicans had remained
worthy ol their trust and nominating
conventions had remembered that
party loyalty will not stand the strain
that the members actually subjected
it to in nominating ignorant, corrupt
bosses to honorable positions. Be
cause Lincoln is a republican city,
the number of McKinley pictures and
banners greatly exceed Bryan pictures
and banners. When Mr. Bryan and
his friends come to town, he must
be confronted by repetitions of Mc
Kinley on banners and posters.
The Street Fair.
It requires a week to prepare for
the street fair and a week to tear
down the booths and clean the streets.
Not all the merchants get back the
money the booths and space cost
them. Some of the most energetic
and boldest traders get an adequate
return. The same amount of energy
can doubtless be expended to greater
profit coincidently with the state fair.
The loss of effort in putting up an
elaborate booth for five days and
tearing it down on the sixth is appar
ent. The displays must be removed
at night and replaced in the morning.
The textile fabrics are injured by the
dust and by the continual handling.
The demoniacal uproar of the merry-go-round,
promenading bands, squeak
ing rubber toys, megaphones and
diversified human gabble tire the
really delicate drums of the ear in
much less than a week 1'he state
fair managers believe that this years
attendance predicts tremendous
crowds next years. Accepting this
probability, Lincoln people can calcu
late on entertaining a fair proportion
of the farmers of Nebraska. One
week's revel in pumpkins, Uie races,
fie "art palace" and 9lde s'iows is all
we can expect. Two weeks of fun
making arc too much, even though
the weeks are separated by a month.
We are not a carnival people. Allow
the American populace north of Ma
son and Dixon's line any liberties and
it quickly becomes a head-smashing,
rowdy populace In New Orle.-ms, in
the south of France, in Venice tUe
carnival revellers disport themselves,
but are sti'l bound by the laws of
decency and courtesy. No one is
struck by anything heavier than con
fetti, and the police are obliged to
watch only the d sorderly classes.
How different is the northern carni
val spirit. Men and boys stand in a
long line on the streets, armed with
rubber balls, and the passers-by aie
peppered with blows which sting
occasionally, when the balls are tilled
with water or small stones Neither
young girls nor old ladies arc re
spected, but some times a man of the
right size, with a glitter in his eye,
passes in front of the loafers and nit
a ball is discharged. After the Police
Judge of Lincoln announced that be
would not fine any one for assault and
battery committed on account of a
provocative rubber ball assault, the
rubber-ball bravos disappeared. The
benefits and disadvantages of a street
fair have just been demonstrated in
Lincoln. The general discussion of
the institution is pertinent, and The
Courier invites an opinion from any
who are interested in the subject.
Rid Pottage.
Catting, slashing and thrusting,
dark alleys, lanterns, tall, comic opera
boots, cloaks worn over one shoulder,
plumed hats, cavalier oaths (s'deatb,
s'hlood) and manners are all the style
with novelists now. It is a style
soon over. "To Have and to Hold,"
'The Helmet of Navarre," "When
Knighthood was in Flower"' are in
great favor momentarily, buo a little
adventure goes a long way with grown
up men and women. Boys are not
easily surfeited with fights and assas
sinations and midnight, hairbreadth
escapes. But theirs is a wholly youth
ful appetite, and the large part of
the reading public is middle aged.
The author of "Red rottage" set
her scenes and her men and women in
the world of today. They do not
crumble to dust at a touch. We are
not dragged into the past by costume,
furniture or old usage'of Words and
musty convention. She has drawn
three tine men, entirely unlike each
other, but, quite possible, blood and
bone heroes, and of the three I like
Newhaven best, and he was not drawn
for a hero. The bishop and Dick
Vernon, the Australian vine grower,
are virile types, too, whose prototypes
live in Lincoln, Nehraska, whose
hands we have the honor to shake,
whose footsteps ring on our sidewalks
whose burly forms till up the door
ways they pass through. There are
not many heroic souls, but there are
enough to furnish every human belpg
with u practical demonstration of the
truth that the hero is not extinct A
men are superficially alike, and il!a
only when danger and death threaten,
that the lion hearted are distinctly
grouped by themselves. not-Dy any.de
sire on their part for isolation, how
ever, but by the fleeing crowds who
have left them at the pest of duty.
Although 'Red Pottage" is a psych
ological struggle, on of the "in
side' tragedies that are to modern
novelists what the symphonies of the
masters arc to the musicians, the ac
tion is rapid, and the story never de
generates into that internal question
ing and weighing and everlasting re
tracing that Mess's. Howells anil
James and Edith Wharton mercilessly
inflict upon us.
The beginning of every chapter ban
a keynote in italics from Kipling,
Meredith, the Bible and Shakspere,
from Goethe, La Fontaine, etcetera.
It would be better if authors would
put these italic quotations at the end
of chapters, instead of at the begin
ning, then their apposi ten ess would,
be accredited. As it is, the lover of
old things applied to new ones, in
obliged to turn back to the begin
ning of each chapter, as he finished it,
if he wishes to find out what instance
of Shakspcre's, or Goethe's, or Kin
ling's prophesy has been again ful
filled. It is not a book for la jeum femme
but for those who are unfortunate
enough to have experienced the
average man and woman it is a moral,
stimulus. The contemplation of the
world in average, leaving out of
vision the heroic souls who actually
exist and finally die for others, is a
sickening experience. It is product
ive of the blessed conviction, how
ever, that a God of absolute purity
who can contemplate so low an aver
age for many thousand years, without
disgust, is of incomprehensible tender,
ncss and patience, and must be sure
of human regeneration eventually.
The old philosophers believed that
God could not stand wickedness be
yond a certain point, and they ar
ranged the Flood and the destruction
of Sodoui and Gomorrah to reconcile
the problem of absolute goodness,
confronted for a long period with
irredeemable vice. The good bishop
in uRed Pottage" has heavenly pa
tience and an insight into human
nature only occasionally possessed by
the clergy. The bishop 'is sorely
needed to balance a detestable rector,
who is a busybody, a bigot and an
egotist.
Club "work, the Year Through.
The meeting of the Nebraska club
women, in effect, begins the clul
work of the year. Eastern clubs busy
themselves in the summer time large
ly with elcmosynary missions. In
Nebraska, except for the village im
provement societies, and some dc-
