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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 17, 1900)
THE COURIER. v In this wav Uic conspirators against foreigners indicate to the Chinese that they are patriotic and that they die voluntarily for the love of the cause and their country. J j Education. The annual repqrt.of the United States commission of education shows that the grand total of pupils enrolled iu all schools is IG.738,362 of which the number enrolled in the common schools, elementary and secondary, is 15,15715. The school population is about twenty per cent of the entire population. The Methodist church has $30,000,000 invested in schools which employ 3600 teachers to in struct 50,000 pupils. .. ." Social Settlements. Miss Jane Addams and Dr. Graham Taylor have established, the one, a social settlement and the other, a university settlement in Chicago. In most of the large cities of this coun try there are social settlements more tfr leas prosperous and influential. It is proposed to help and inspire the poor by living in squalid neighbor boods. To set the untidy residents of poor neighborhoods an example of clean, wholesome cheerful living. In the case of undergraduate students of economics the poor neighborhoods, serve and is meant to serve exactly as a laboratory. Poor people object to. being studied and their misery ;nade use of in this way. The access ft generous feeling and pity for an other's distress frequently felt by young people and the conviction that 'they can change it all by giving up something or other and by associat ing -with the poor is sometimes un pleasantly evident in this movement to 'provide a laboratory for college students. Miss Addams and Dr. Gra Ifam Tavlor are inspired with unusual fflfts of common sense. They live . with their poor neighbors exactly as (jhey might live next door to rich ones. Tbey assume cot the patroniz ing air, and tbey use the human ma terial for a thesis with a just consid eration for the feelings of the appar atus. It is also blessed to receive but itTequires a profound Christian grace cot always possessed by poor people. It-is reported that Miss Addams her self confesses that very little can be done for the poor, who are even as you and I, by people who take to settle ment work for the sake of "the expe rience" and the opportunities for tudy at first hand of very interesting "types." Only the love of doing good and of making one's life helpful to somebody is the motive of the real social settlement settler. . When Dr. Graham Taylor was in Lincoln, be advised -the purchase of a house wherein the light intended to illuminate the neighborhood may be -sheltered and made a permanent jjuide. For four years members of the faculty and students of the State Uni versity hav2 coptfucted a social settle ment In the northern part of tbe city. .They think the time has come, and I (believe tbey are right, to establish Ufle settlement in a house of their own from which . to extend the work Jto all parts of the city. The locality decided upon is in the neighborhood of twenty first and M streets. Ibe university people Interested propose 4 live in the house tbey desire to purchase. Instruction in, sewing .looking and varieties of manual train ing will be contributed. Reading and .game rooms will be opened. Ibe bouse will furnish a place for sociable neighborhood gatherings and enter tainments. Lectures will be given. .There will be a "free for all" platform where people of all opinions may meet in friendly discussion. In a word, it will be a sort of social clearing house for the city of Lincoln. The student committee of the university says: "To do wtiat we have here outlined is out of the question, if we are t depend upon the university for the means. And yet, this is a needed thing. The city needs it', the working people need it, and we of the university need it. By its help we may to some extent ward off that monastic influence of student life which kills the interest in every day life and people. It will also help bring the university and the people into closer touch for the good of both. But since this ought tube done, and we cannot do it alone, we turn to you for help in the financial burdens that this work will impose. Firstly: Being largely ethical, it is not hampered by the sectarian lines which cripple churches. Secondly: The work we are contemplating is not done by any other agency, nor can very well be done by any other. Thirdly: All the money goes directly into the work, not one cent is paid for superintendents of work, if you could see this work and its possibili ties as we do, you would contribute to it, not as a charity, we do not want that, but as a part of the debt you owe to society. We ask you to trust us that if you contribute at this time, we shall present you with a balance sheet next year that will convince you of the wisdom of your invest ment." The Y. W. C. A. is doing work simi lar in character. The board of that institution provides amusements and mild educational classes for all young women who can be induced to accept its mediation. It is a strictly ortho dox institution and the rules and reg ulations accepted by the board, sev eral years ago, exclude everybody who is not a member of an evangelical church from any influecce in the management of the association, the object of which, primarily is not to clothe the naked, nor provide home less girls with temporary shelter, not to amuse them, instruct them, nor teach them the hygienic advantages of cleanliness truthfulness and hon esty, but the object is 'to save souls" in a strictly orthodox a ay. The good the institution has accomplished is reckoned up at the end of the year, by the number of young women who have joined an orttodox church di rectly induced thereto by members or officers of the association. The asso ciation really accomplishes much more than this every year. The good it does can not be included in a annual report. At the present time it is the only place in Lincoln where a woman, stranded, but respectable can be cared for, encouraged advised and sent upon soms way rejoicing. Although the evangelical clause iu the constitution is objectionable to many people, they continue to Lelp the association be cause of its actual unreported aid to those who. without it, might perisn. lhe many whose principles have prevented them from helping the association at all, and those who have ascribed their neutrality to the uar rownes of the exclusion clause in the constitution, can help with a good conscience, if they love their kind, this social settlement movement, which in striving to secure a shelter aud point of radiation in the neigh borhood of twenty-first and S streets. J J Seventy Times Seven. Everybody knows that however ki dandge tie King Humbert I of Italy was he was not loyal busand. Queen Margherita of Italy was hu miliated aud neglected even when she was beautiful aud young She was always queenly and always beau tiful to the people of Italy and finally supremely beautiful and desirable at last to the King whom she forgave and revered while be was still alive in spite of his excursions. Since bis death she has written a prayer, which she wrote, she says: "Just as I thought it, simply, and from my heart, so that everyone may understand it." The prayer was promulgated by her bishop to the people of Italy. Prayer in memory of King Hum bert I., my lord and most beloved con sort.: "Because he was merciful according to Thy law, O Lord, be merciful to him and give him peace; because be cared only for justice, have pity on him, O Lord; because he always for gave every one, forgive Thou his errors, inevitable to human nature, O Lord; because he loved his people, the good of la patria, receive Thou bim into Thy glorious kingdom, O Lord; because he was good until his last breath, and fell a victim to his goodness, give him the crown of martyrs, O Lord." This prayer bears internal evidences of sincerity and Queen Margherita, the dowager, is quite unconscious that she herself has worn the crown of martyrdom for many years. . J New York F.W.C. The Sixth annual Federatipn of Wo men's Clubs of New York was held in Albany this week from Tuesday, No vember 13 to Saturday, November 17 inclusive. More than two hundred clubs are represented and ninety-five are from greater New York. The total membership of the federation is more than 30.000. The convention met in the assembly room of the Cap itol. There were three sessions daily devoted to art, science, law, litera ture, housekeeping, and child train ing with social affairs and business sea-urns interspersed, lhe programme is devided into sixteen departments each of which has a separate set of speakers. This programme will be found by those who desire to examine it in the club columns of The Courier. Jt J Free Text-Books. It is idle to expect children to pay a more ascetic observance to duty and rules than we pay ourselves. Yet the free text book and the school board's rules impose such rules on the child ren of the public schools. The school books which are used by the pupils of the public schools of Nebraska are bought by the school-boards in ac cordance with the state law and fun.ished the childred with printed rules and penalties glued to them. The books are very soon soiled. A neat child has no respect for a dirty book and a slovenly child has less. There is something in the clean black aud white of a new book that delights a child especially if it be his property, Mothers used to sew gingham or cali co covers on their children's books and they were carried carefully to and from school in a bag. They were re garded with a peculiar delight because they were the first property aside from toys and clothes that children possessed in the dajs of yore when children bad few treasures. Then the little children held pieces of paper or the corner of a handkerchief on the inside angles of the pages where their sweaty little thumbs grasped their books A very dirty torn book was a disgrace. It bad only one owner and he was solely responsible for itscondi tion Tbe present generation receives dirty, greasy, torn, schoolbooks from their school-mates of the class above, who had them from tbeir betters. Their firs'; introduction to a book as a guide to knowledge and power being in this guise, it is no wonder that the high school teachers complain that tbe alumni of eight grades have no scholarly reverence for a book and little curiosity in regard to literature. Nor is it surprising that tbe books loaned from the university library are returned written full of marginal an notations. University undergradu ates are products of the lower schools and if the lower schools have insti gated assaults on books a few polite requests from a librarian naturally have little effect. But it is not the hard usage of the books that matters so much nor the germs of measles, scarlet fever and diphtheria shut in their pages, it is the reactionary effect upon the child ren themselves of tbjs law. Tbe law is making thieves as well as paupers of the children. In order to pursue tbe study of history in accordance with the teachings of the "source" school it is necessary that the high school pupils have access to the sources. Therefore perhaps thirty duplicates are bought and kept on hand for their convenience. These books are constantly disappearing, tbe pupils evidently thinking them use ful and valuable enough to have in the house permanently. These boys will become mayors, treasurers, audi tors, governors, cashiers, tellers. When called upon at the bar or by the pros ecuting attorney to relate the story of their lives they will be unable to trace the sewing, cultivating, and harvest ing of dishonest habits. A few may Le analytical and still honest enough to find the beginning of their disre gard for mine and thine in the work ings of the paternalistic text-book law. For the moral and physical health of the children the law should be repealed. Neither Teachers, mem bers of the school-board or school superintendents approve of the law, but yet the attempts to repeal it have been defeated by a silent but power ful influence. School book publisheis are in favor of the law. School boards change books oflenerwben their ac tion is not likely to be criticised by and does not involve direct expense to the patrons of the schools. The de moralizing effect of paternalism is al ways the same, but it is a pity that the most paternalistic law in the state should apply solely to children before they are old enough to resist its insidious poison. The Pure Food Congress. The domestic problem has received much thought, much has beeu writ ten concerning it, and many theories have been proclaimed, but until the last few years, in spite of much ado, there has been little practical expe riment. The new School of House keeping in Boston has excited wide interest in the results it may accom plish. The home and economic depart ments of clubs are giving time to this question and it is sincerely hoped that they may aid greatly in its solu tion. The Housewifery Congress held in Chicago two weeks ago was an im portant movement in this direction. The congress considered ways and means to make housekeeping more effective. The first meeting was held in October, 1897, but it was organized on paper in 1894 by the Ladies' Aid Association. Soon after tbe first con ference the Fruit and Flower League of Alabama was consolidated with it. At the recent meeting of tbe congress tbe exhibits of pure foods, manufac tured, grown or developed, was most interesting. The department of cookery for the sick, started at the re quest cf Chicago physicians, has been popular and successful. Valuable pa pers were read and discussed on sub- 11 til -A v r h