THE COURIER nicnt in a new law and new officers, New York city would not now be at the beginning of a new period of bet ter city government. The legislators now in session in the capital of Nebraska, reply to argu ments based on evidence of the bad character of Mr. Thompson. "Well but he has been a local power in Lin coln politics.'' It is true that his in fluencc was sufficient, several years ago to elect a very bad mayor, who sold appointments to an incompetent chief of police, and chief of the lire department. But decent and exas perated citizens changed all that. In spite of Mr. Thompson Mayor VTinnett was nominated and in spite pf Air. Thompson one of his closest friends and workers was defeated overwhelm ingly in this republican town and county. The country legislators are respectfully invited to study the his tory of Lincoln and Mr. Thompson's connection with it, especially his ac tivity to prevent the city of Lincoln from getting good water from the east side of town. Legislators who believe that the opposition to Mr. Thompson is founded on envy or upon any unworthy or private reason owe it to their representative oath to study his connection with and influ ence upon Lincoln politics, before voting against the convictionsof men who are trying to keep Lincoln from slipping back into the condition from which the revolt against Mr. Thomp son rescued it. The capital city of Nebraska belongs to the state and the statesmen who have been elected to look after the well-being of this and every other city in Nebraska, men who are not of this faction or that, who have only a patriotic interest in doing their duty owe it to the state as a whole to send some Nebraskan to the senate who will represent it proudly, creditably and unstained by a reputation which makes it impos sible for the state organ of republi canism, The Journal, to support him. When a unanimous press condemns a citizen, whea it refuses urgent invita tions and inducements to say a good word for a candidate for the second most exalted onice in the gift of the people, surely it is incumbent upon the representatives of the citizens and of all the cities of the state to listen to the objections and arguments urged by the most reputable of his fellow citizens. The Courier has op posed Mr. Thompson's candidacy and his pernicious influence in city politics for years. But The Courier is edited by a woman, who may not fully com prehend the exigencies of city politics, and who may be attracted by imprac ticable notions of reform. But The Journal is edited by a man who knows city politics from beginning to end, who, has lived in Lincoln for thirty years and who knows by expe rience .what is practicable what is possible and. , what is abominable in politics,. Mr.. Thompson has not been ab'e to induce Mr. Gere to say one word in his favor and' The Journal's dally' reports-are a'truthful and hence unflattering comment on -Mr. Thomp son's methods; and the progress of his campaign. There is little doubt but that-the legislators will be influenced by a moral sentiment so unhesitat' inglyand repeatedly iterated: - A Gty HospitaL '"Several cases of small pox in the city emphasize the necessity of a city h6spitiV,"orf br hear somebody's pror erty, ndV bn or near mine or yours, but across the city somewhere, where it will 'not depreciate any thing we hare paid taxes on. It seems to be impossible on , account of the fastid iousness "of ' remote neighborhoods, latent until a city hospital is dumped near, to locate a hospital. This being so, it becomes necessary to quarantine small-pox cases wherever they chance to develope. The necessity is not al together desperate. The medical profession is by no means unanimous ly certain that carting patients from all over the city to a house already containing millions of small pox germs, is the most effectual way of repressing a small-pox epidemic. Sick people are most comfortable add least dangerous, at home, especially if the home be a house by itself and not in a block. Lincoln is fortunate in the possession of a doctor-mayor whose temperament and disposition inclines him to firmness and steady adherence to a policy which hehas determined is wise. If the Doctor-Mayor considers it sanitary that Lincoln should pos sess a city hospital for contagious dis eases, Lincoln will have such a hos pital somewhere. The Right to a Living. In the past certain men made a liv ing by exchanging shoes for money which bought clothing, lodging, food, education, others made houses, wove blankets, or cloth. Every man made some one article or set of ar ticles which he exchanged for all the other things he needed, took pleasure in or was educated by. We have changed all that and no one man is responsible or to blame for it. The inevitable result of the accumulation of capital in few hands and the consequent need of vast enterprizes for its investment, combined with the human inclination to corner the market, have produced trusts. The department store is a combination of the little stores under one roof and under one management. The change has been accomplished in little more than a quarter of a cen tury. Where the're used to be in this small city numerous flourishing hat, glove, trunk, hardware, book, furni ture, and candy stores, there are now but one of each and Ave department stores. The natural expansion and development of the city would have doubled the number of these single line merchants were it not for this centralizing and irresistible tendency of the decade. It is idle to rail against it or against the men who have interpreted, anticipated and taken advantage of the movement. It is expedient for a department store to pursue a policy of under selling some article, jewelry for in stance, in order to attract cus tomers to the store, who are more than likely to buy a number of other articles on which the merch ant makes a legitimate profit. But the men who deal only in jewelry can not afford to cut the profit from the selling price, because they have noth ing but jewelry to sell. It is not legitimate competition for a merchant to use any commodity as an advertise ment, from the sale of which another map makes his living. Disobedience to this principle has already driven a large number out of business into clerkships and correspondingly di minished their scale of living and their desirability as customers. When the system shall have reached its inevitable conclusion, three or four department stores in every town the size of Lincoln will be selling goods to farmers, professional men and their families, department store clerks, mechanics, servants, day labor ers merchants of raw materials and politicians. In other w'ords, when there are no jewelry, book, drug, con fectionery or any other kind of single line store, and the former proprietors have all become clerks for their more prophetic rivals, the purciiasing pow er of the present-day customers will be very much lessened. The trans portation companies will appreciate the falling off of freight, the news papers will miss their old subscribers, ministers will miss once generous parishioners, landlords will advertise in vain for tenants of small stores on O street and the dead-lock will seem to be complete. Perhaps it will break up the urban habit and drive men and women to the farms. But specu lation is idle as repining. Vaporings of men like Herronwhosee nothing worthy in the civilization we have ac complished and who fail to recognize the man-making qualities of the com petitive system are applauded onJ' y a few whom disgust with the ways of life has removed from its activities. Influential men have stayed in the procession of their times. To turn the procession one must lead it or propel it. A scoffing bystander only adds to the tumult. If someone has genius and philanthropy enough to run on ahead and pick out the best of the maze of roads, time enough to get. back and lead the procession or influ ence enough to induce the leaders to accept his information and advice, there is a benefactor worth a monu ment and the gratitude of the race. Mr. Uerron is not the kind of man to help his fellows. Saturnine, with long black hair, pale sallow skin and mournful eyes with a voice that for ever cries woe, he attracts the disap pointed, disgusted people who believe only in negations. We may be in the stage of the children of Israel but he is not the cheerful alert Moses that the tribes are looking for. Every stage of development is interesting and worth while. A process that in dividuals are not accomplishing is going forward. We have not any more to do with it than the dough which is being raised by the yeast and is after wards baked and made into some thing very much more wholesome than dough. Exhibit of the Western Art Association. Maria Brooks' portait of a woman called "Mental Conflict" in a black frame carries further than any pic ture of the size in the gallery. Ac cording to the catalog, Miss Brooks (I suppose she is an unmarried woman as -Mr. Taft left word that married women whatever their virgin genius, never painted, modeled, played the piano, wrote books, or created any thing worth while) was a student at the South Kensington and Royal Academy schools of London, England. This is a typical English portrait and familiarity with the English style should have made consultation of the catalog unnecessary. South Ken sington is as plain as a label on it and on the little nursery genre under it, "Unbutton my Shoe.'" Andre Dauchez. whom Mr. Taft said that people who knew in Paris prophesied, the coming man, has three pictures, the Reefs, the Plain, the Marshes. Each picture is a generalization of reefs, plain or marshes, with trivial, individual acci dents omitted or obscured. The painter understands the essential character of what he is painting and does not distract the mind with irrel evant detail. I know this is so from the ease with which the pictures are recalled. Solitude, by Dougherty, eve ning in a wet meadow lias the same dignity and repose. There are two very peculiar pictures painted by Albert D. Gihon. He was born, according to the catalog, in 1866, a comparatively modern date. I looked because the pictures give the impression of great age. Early Evening at Episy France is a light green and olive landscape in the style of-1830. If there were fig ures in the landscape their costumes might be of this period without ex citing surprise. But Mr. Gihon was a pupil of Constant, Gerome Laurens and the Ecole des Arts at Paris. The other picture, the portrait of a young girl is called a "fantaisie." It is framed in a dingy oval frame and seems to have been rescued from a very smoky place. They are antique.1 or painted by a man in love with tb past and determined to recall i Mont St. Michel is a study of a moui tain when it is too dark to see it Whistler teaches that things are on) beautiful when almost invisible an Mr. Alexander Harrison has strive to paint the velvet thick dark be tween a mountain and the spectator, if it is difficult to paint light which can be done only by painting its effect on some object or objects, fancy the difficulty of painting the dark with nothing but brushes, a few purples, browns and blacks with nothing vis ible to paint the effect on. The Old Town Dinkelsbuhl is a walled Dutch town, seen across a marshy fore ground grown up to reeds and, water lilies. ' The ground is very wet and the effect of the tall straight reeds in the middle foreground fascinates me. It does not matter that there is not a dry place to stand on. Not very many people care to get on to a pic ture. Miss Lee Lufkins' portait group of two sisters has an indefinable re finement. Mr. Maynard's two contri butions are very decorative. A Studio Corner is a picture of that bust, the laughing boy, I think of Donatello's. It is painted in green and the color is better than white for the irrespon sible little kid. The other contribu tionis a group of objects done in blue. Both are characterized by a glistening radiant light, very cheerful, and encouraging to the pilgrims who stray into the gallery. Mr. Leonard Ochtman's Autumn Afternoon is mel low as his pictures always are, yet about his style and subjects there is a monotony, that in time produces indifference to his good technique and irreproachable composition. Mr. Law ton Parker's pictures are covered by glass and I have not been able to get a satisfactory view. Glass is doubt less a great protection to pictures, but so long as it effectually obscures the pictures they are supposed to protect, seems to me the protection comes high. Mr. Frieseke's portrait, a cloudy day, and a study, of blacks, suggest Whistler, but they have not Whis tler's gift of tantalizing and irritat ing, and do nothing more than sug gest that the painter admires Whis tler. Irving R. Wiles' In Summer Time, is a smooth and finished pic ture, with the details worked out to the taste of those who do not paint and do not propose to spend money on a picture that does not show labor. A pretty little girl is sitting in a gate way, while about her the grass is green and full of grasshoppers and all such summer boarders. It is a quiet, and very beautiful water-color. Mr. B. S. Sanders' Old road and beech -tree should not be overlooked. The composition is especially fine, with the beech tree in the foreground and the old wood-road disappearing in the trees. A portrait bust of Mr. Stuart by Mr. Kimball, the young sculptor who has done very good work is at tracting notice and much favorable comment. The Pioneers. Dr. James O. Carter, one of the pio neer doctors of Lincoln, is ill at his home on L street. In the early days of Lincoln and of Nebraska Dr. Carter traveled up and down the prairies visiting his patients between the wide spaces. He is an old-fashioned ' w EH - i-r- - .H mil am 1 1, iBcam .- - JL .