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
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