THE COURIER.
slant privilege of examining and this
fault of directing attention to the
perfectly obvious humour or pathos
they see fit to introduce, is so common
. that,I have seized this opportunity to
discourse upon the exacting and fas
tidious taste of contemporary readers.
J J
A MiMtoo&ry from China.
Dr. Murdock, a missionary from
China who escaped across Mongolia
and over the Trans Siberian railway
to St- Petersburg related her inter
esting adventures to Lincoln audi
ences last week. In company with
other foreigners fleeing from Chinese
rage, Dr. Murdock crossed the Mon
golian desert in aspringiess wooden
cart, drawn by a camel and driven by
a boy on a pony. Dr. Murdock's camel
was a fast animal with a longer stride
than is customary even to camels. It
required for the poorly mounted and
equipped little missionary caravan,
fifty days to cross the twele hundred
miles of the Gobi desert. Her cara
van was in the wake of the empress
retinue, which escorted H. I H.
into the Chinese interior over the
same route, a few days ahead of our
missionaries. All the nomadic inhab
itants who met them, had a story
to tell about the groans and screams,
of the aged empress as her sacred
bones in the lumbering cart were
jolted over the rough roads. The
wheels of the cart are so1 id pieces of
wood closely mortised. The cart is
set directly upon the cross pieces hold
ing together the two wheels. A jour
ney of 1200 miles over atrocious roads
in such a conveyance is therefore no
more describable than the torture
produced by suspending a man by bis
thumbs. Rather than ride, an enciente
fellow-traveller walked the whole
twelve hundred miles. The refugees
were obliged to travel by night on
account of the peculiar grazing habits
ol the camel, which nibbles a tuft of
grass and steps two yards before
snatching another mouthful. It is
an inveterate habit and hobbling
only slightly lessens the flight
of thin ship of the desert. A graz
ing camel can easily, if unhobbled
and unburdened travel fifty, miles in.
one night. It was therefore necessary
to pasture the camels in the day time
when they could be herded and driven
back to the camp. If the missionaries
had any sins they expiated them on
this trip of fifty days across Mongolia.
The camel is only attached to the.
torture cart by tugs. He is not har
nessed except by a rleg through the
cartilage of the nose. A rope is tied
to the ring and a boy on a pony is at
tached to the rope. The occupants of
the cart are therefore, eventually at
the mercy of the boy, who if the camel
decides to run away can allow him to,
without danger of abrasion to his
own skin. Dr. Murdock's boy was a lad
in imminent need of sleep after the
voyage was a week old. The occu
pants of the cart had to waken him
-every half hour. He rode with his
body fallen forward over his pony
which was also asleep, the spirited,
never-sleepy, never-tired camel pull
ing at the same time the heavy cart
loaded with four people, the pony and
the boy. It was a journey devoid of
comfort but aovel and full of sur
prises. For instance, where there
was sparse grass at the edges of the
desert the air was full of nightingales
who sang in angelic chorus, all night
and springing skylarks took up the
refrain when the nightingales went
to bed at sunrise. With the begin
ning of the desert sand forty miles
deep, the birds no longer sang to the
caravan. Their place was taken by
beetles, fleas and moths which fol
lowed the caravan in swarms. It was
difficult to prepare the rice and keep
out the insects. The ration of the
missionaries was mutton and rice
without change
When the caravan reached Kiachta
on the Russian frontier the travelers
changed vehicles. T.hey rode to Irkutsk
In a tarantass, a carriage swung on
leather bands like the ancient stage
coach and drawn by three horses, two
abreast, and the other one hitched in
front. This would have been com
fortable had the horses been allowed
the gait of civilized carriage horses.
But they were driven at a gallop, and
over obstacles which an American
Jehu would have driven around.
When they reached Irkutsk, the
terminus of the Trans-Siberian rail
way they found the cars In which
they were to travel to Siberia, very
comfortable and clean. The cars are
built in compartments for four.
There is no extra charge for sleeping
accommodations. Every traveller
carries his own bedding and makes
up bis own bed. There is no porter
to wait on the passengers but a man
comes in twice a day and sweeps the
floor. Every morning the floor is
scrubbed and every day the windows
or the car are washed. At every sta
tion there is a samovar of hot water
for the passengers who can fill their
teapots for steeping tea. Food is very
cheap A plump, broiled spring
chicken costs only ten cents. The en
tire Siberian route is through magnif
icent forests of pine and fir, which
have not been destroyed by fires or by
the much more fatal lumberman. The
five thousand mile trip from Irkutsk to
St. Petersburg costs only sixteen dol
lars second class. The only difference
between the second class and first class
cars, apparent on examination is in the
curtain and materials of upholstering.
The second class cars are upholstered
in wool and the curtains of the first
class cars are of silk and the uphol
stery is a finer quality of woolen
goods. The guards are very polite
and attentive, not for tips, but be
cause the whole policy of the railroad
directorate is solicitous for the trav
ellers' comfort and determined to en
courage patronage of this great Rus
sian adoption of an Institution of the
Western world. The can are much
higher than American cars and have
an airy comfort also quite in contrast.
The comparatively slow rate at which
the cars are run would nut be popu
lar in America which is a new coun
try and makes up in speed for her late
start in the race of nations.
Dr. Murdock reports that the
churches and mission buildings are
all burned. Although the Chinese
government will probably be forced,
to replace all missionary property
which the Boxers have burned or
looted, diplomatic arrangements are a
long time in the consummating and
it will be years perhaps before any
governmental reparation is made.
We have not collected the Turkish in
demnity yet. In the meantime Dr.
Murdock advises church members not
to desert the thousands of Christian
converts made by the missionaries in
China and as soon as peace is declared
she thinks the missions should be re
built and the missionaries sent back
there.
It is in the interior of China where
the foreigners are scarcely known and
where foreign institutions have not
intruded that the strongest opposl
tian to foreigners has developed. It
is therefore to be inferred that, the
outbreak has been incited at least as
much by prejudice and by ignorance
as by patriotism. The devotion of
the thousands of Chinese convert to
their adopted religion is also a tribute
to their sincerity and a rebuke to
those who assert that every dollar
spent on foreign missions is an un
warrantable attempt on the part of
foreigners to denationalize a half
heathen people. The rage of the
Boxers has been directed especially
agaibst the Chinese convert who has
given up his life rather than recant
with the steadiness and cheerfulness
of the Christian martyrs. If his con
version were for the sake of food and
education be would recant when
steadiness meant death by torture.
in and near the cities where rapid
trausit has been introduced the Chi
nese mandarin may be frequently
overheard conversing on the merits of
the progressive foreigcers and their
machines. In the interior, foreigners
are real devils in the imagination of
the Chinese. Dr. Murdock said that
the sick flock to the missionary dis
pensaries. In three months in the
Peking dispensary of which she was
the bead, four thousand Chinese pa
tients applied for medicine or treat
ment. Dr. Murdock herself is the embodi
ment of cheerfulness, good will and
the benevolent spirit, which is not
satisfied until it has offered up all its
possessions, its comfort and its leis
ure on the altar of altruism.
Republican Ropomibility.
With a republican governor, and
state officers, with a republican senate
and house of representatives, the re
publicans of Nebraska can for the
first time in years open the books of a
new administration with a clean con
science on a clean page.
Nebraska is a republican state. It
was lost to republicans by the un
speakable corruption of a state house
ring. With the return to power, the
machine responds to the energy that
is simultaneously connected to it.
State treasurer Bartley's delalcation
was but a culmination of improper
practices long in use in the treasurer's
office. The apple was so rotten that
it dropped. The time had come. Re
publicans lost the state because state
conventions nominated corrupt poli
ticians and afterwards the cry was
raised about loyalty to party nomi
nees, etc, which is never used .to whip
men into line for square candidates.
It is the cry and threat which has
elected, criminals, and degenerates
into office since nominating conven
tions were first instituted. The
whippers-in are particularly active
and vociferous in Lancaster county,
and in this ccunty politics is at the
lowest ebb. The Douglas county-legislative
ticket was weighted down
with the name of an elderly man who
has accumulated a reputation during
his long residence in Nebraska that is
offensive to the fastidious Douglas
clan. Douglas county republicans al
most elected the fusion ticket just be
cause of certain moral considerations
of force in Douglas county. Lancas
ter voters despise such considerations
and refer to them as sickly sentiment
alism etc. The local election in this
county firmly established the futility
of all appeals to the conscience of
Lancaster county. Political treason
and commercial obliquity in Lancaster
county do not disqualify a candidate.
Not in this county. The hope of the
city, and county is in the sturdy jus
tice and judgment of the citizens of
the state, citizens who are uncorrupt
ed by the subtle and pernicious influ
ence of the old ringwbiise members
used to control the state house pat
ronage and are now attempting to in
fluence and make themselves of large
size in the horizon of Governor-elect
Dietrich The low mural tone of Lin
coln is a distinct disadvantage to its
citizens who are passively responsibly
for it. The citizens revile the office
holders and a jury puts them in the
penitentiary when they are caught
stealing, but the citizen's poor judg
ment and apathy is what the ring
counts on for the next time. When
the state institutions located at Lin
coln apply for their biennial appro
priations the reputation of Lincoln in
the state, conferred upon it by a com
parative few residents, operate to
create suspicion and has lowered the
sum of money voted by the legisla
tors for tho support for two years of
institutions located here.
The incoming administration and
legislature has a chance which Ne
braska republicans have not bad for
many-years to make a clean record.
The Color Line.
The Chicago Woman's club has ap
pointed a committee to consider and
take preliminary action in the matter v
of the refusal of the General Feder
ation to accept Mrs. St. Clair Ru (tin's
credentials as a delegate to that body
from the New Era club of Massachu
setts. The membership of this club is
composed entirely of colored women.
The committee appointed by the Chi
cago Woman's club is composed of
these well known women: Miss Jane
Addams, Mrs. Elia W. Peattie, Mrs.
Robert B. Farson and Mrs. Granville
M.Holt. This committee has -asked
the biennial board to furnish a report
in detail of the deliberations and ac
tion in Mrs Ruffin'scase. The report,
when received will be duly laid before
the club. At the recent meeting of
the Illinois Federation at Rockford
the color line controversy was dis
posed of by referring it to a commit
tee which should look Into the mat
ter and report to the general board If
advisable.
The abolitionists of all social and
racial distinctions between blacks and
whites have induced every state fed
eration which has met since last Sum
mer's Biennial, to discuss this ques
tion. But it has been handled and
discussed gingerly. Reckless senti
mentalists have suddenly grown care
ful while handling this bomb of a
subject. The South Is solid against
the admission of colored women to
clubs and I believe that the greater
number of northern women agree
with the southern on this subject.
In the first place northern andsouth
ern women in a body have come close
together again in the Federation. It
is a common meeting place and the
hospitality, naturalness, tact and
charm of the southern women are
qualities that make them ideal club
women. They are not stand-offish and
reserved. They are volatile, humour
ous, never pedantic, they work with
rare energy and effectiveness and the
Federation without them would lose
in energy, comllness and enthusiasm.
It is not old enough to deprive itself
of so valuable a part of its member
ship for the sake of accomplishing a
debatably quixotic measure. To pre
serve the integrity of the Federation
is of much more consequence than
that a few colored women, here and
there be admitted to fellowship. The
negro race. 3S a whole, has not yet v.
reached the degree of development .
where women, white and black can '' ,
associate together as members of the
same club. As students of varying
attainments and progress are sorted
into different classes to facilitate
their own better instruction and to
preserve the sanity of the teacher, so
the grade schools were established.
The very large majority of white wo
men are many grades yet above the
negro women. At the recent meeting
of the Nebraska Federation two negro
women from Omaha attended the ses
sions as visitors. They had pleasant
manners, an intelligent expression,
and joined in the hunt for culture
-A
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ri