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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 19, 1901)
L.XVI., NO. Ill ESTABLISHED IN 1886 PRICE FIVE CENTS ' r . . ! .11 bbbm Z "'"bbbbbVx voJtw""bbi bbtbbbbbbbbw bbbi bbi 9 HHHHWr ft II 1 VkkW, , BBBA BBBB LINCOLN. NBBR.. SATURDAY, JANUARY 19.1001. THE COURIER, KaraXDIN THK POSTOFTICB AT LINCOLN At 8BCOMD CLASS MATTES. PUBLISHED EVEBY 8ATUBDAY BT TIE GOORIER PRINTING AND POBLISHlNfi GO Office 1132 N street, Up Stairs. Telephone 384. SARAH B. HABHI8. . Editor Subscription Rates. Per annum 1 50 8ix moDtha 1 uo fifty per cent discount for cash payments. Single copies 05 The Cockier will not be responsible for rol untary communications unless accompanied by return tfosUgo. Communications, to receive attention, must be sixned by tne foil name of the writer, not merely as a guarantee of rood faith, bnt for -publication if advisable. m''xyw-f O nRCEPUATinMS o v ljkj&s k i i x 1 1 c 4oo An Hallucination. Id the last ten days of tbe picture exnibit hung in the art gallery of the state university, by the Western Art Association, adult patrons were un able to enjoy the pictures on account of te presence of children under picture age. I know it is a darling belief, held by those who do not ob serve children closely, or observing, idealize tbem, that all children are elevated and cultivated by a momen tary view of good pictures. 1 have closely observed the public school children at. the art gallery in the last week of the exhibit. There is occa sionally a boy or girl of eleven or a precocious child of eight who ap pears to be impressed and appears to be making a comparative study of 'he exhibit. A large number of the chil dren stand with their backs to the pictures swaying on the ropes which keep them from feeling and smelling of the trees, water, still-life and fig ures on the walls. In the eyes of an other large part of the children as they enter the hall, dawns, an imme diate appreciation of the splendid proportions of the gallery and the smooth floor 'howbeit encumbered by the immovable bulk of grown people) as a running track. Some of the boys without glancing at the pictures, which their parents have paid a dime lor them to see, arrange a race and agree to terms. The race is no sooner started than stopped by the unsympa thetic teachers who do not compre heud that the boys have found a run ning track such as they have dreamed of, but have never hoped to enjoy. Children are fascinated by the sight of money and the young man at the door who receives the tickets was continually surrounded by littl children listening eagerly to the clink of the silver coins, counting the piles of dimes and quarters and specu lating on the enormous income of the young man. Meanwhile severa' games of grab a-hat-and-run and tag were in progress all over the large room whenever the children were there. Most of the pictures were beyond the comprehension of the young chil dren. The dog and cat pictures be ing the only ones to receive spon taneous, uninfluenced commendation from them. If it were possible to hold an exhibit keyed just a little above a child's taste the school chil dren would be benefited. But as it is, it is very hard on the teachers who are anxious that their children should get out of the exhibit just what im plement, gushers say may be ex tracted by a proper application of pictures to a child. Tnese pictures are like classical music. If one or two were hung in the school room, or where the children might see them in moments of enforced repose for a num ber of years, the effect upon their taste, upon their appreciation of color, values, composition and drawing, would be permanent. But these ex hibits except in the case of the ex ceptional child, where the children are sociably herded into a large room obviously and originally designed for p!ay, do them no good. The annoy ance of noise to patrons who wish to examine the pictures, and to the members of the art class, who are copying them, is of little consequence, of course, if the children are benefited as much as the art expositors say they are, and personally the sight of the children and their naive remarks when they forget to say what they have been taught, is the most inter esting part of the show to me. But my observation of the children in the four or five annual exhibits indicates that they consider the pictures a bore but welcome the opportunity of get ting out of school and making a win ter picnic out of the hallucinations of their elders. A mother of an only child remarked lately while receiving an afternoon call that her son had remarkablediscrimination and picked out the best picture in the gallery immediately, and without being led to it. Then the son came in and the mother directed him to change his clothes as she intended to take him with her into town. "Well," he an swered, "I'll go down town with you. but you don't get me up to that pic ture gallery again." jt Quisante. Anthony Hope's other books are stirring tales, to be read at a sitting. This one, Quisante, is a book of men tal questions and answers. It is dif ficult to acquire an interest in the characters, and afterwards to keep it alive to the end of tbe book. Mr. Hope has, in all probability, met Henry James, who has told him what bad form it is to write interesting books. So this is entirely without the dramatic quality Mr. Hope has given us reasons to expect from him. The hero, Quisante, is an orator and a politician. He is one of those gifted political beings furnished with the insight to see what course and what beliefs will interfere with his career and unscrupulous enough to recant any belief and desert any friend the people who vote for him object to, and besides he recanted and deserted gracefully, as though the acts of re nunciation were prompted by an inner light. Quisante possessed what every great orator must, the power of being greatly moved by the expres sion of his own opinions, or rather by those he thinks bis majorities desire him to hold. He is described as hav ing inspired moments, when his sub jpet gets possession of him and he is ao!e to make converts. In one of these moments one of the guests of his host whom he has fascinated, is a young woman with whom Quisante has fallen in love. She lias despised him for his bad manners and for his lack of principle, but she comes under the spell. We have to take Mr. Hope's word for Quisante. He tells us that he is clever. We never see him clever. He does not allow him to exert his fascinations upon the read er. Nobody cares for him or his wife. Mr. Hope puts a case: Suppose a beautiful, desirable much courted wo man falls in love with an unscrupu lous, statesman with vicious instincts, wh will lie, get money under false pretenses, and who will destroy an innocent man's reputation for his own gain. Suppose the hero-villain loves the woman who finally marries him. Suppose she is one of the chil dren of light and eschews deceit. Suppose after she is married, loyalty towards her husband compels her to endorse his lies and reenforce his statements. Will she continue to love him? Anthony Hope explains that Quisante's genius, which the reader knows only by hearsay, com pels his wife's allegiance, though she fears him and is horrified by his vices and is only really satisfied with her choice when lie is making a speech. If Anthony Hope were not the author it is doubtful if many would have the perseverance to per sist in the perusal of Quisante. The book is not in the form of a diary, but it might as well be. It is concerned with the fluctuating love and loath ing of May Quisante for her husband. It is a long garrulous tale of woe by a strange woman we do not care for. It would be a policeman's duty to lis ten to her, or an agent of the cha-ity organization society might be induced to give her the time, on account of his sociological studies, but Anthony Hope has disdained, though be knows how, to make her interesting, and readers who read for recreation and a love of literature who finish tbe book because they bought it, will not rec ommend it to their friends, unless they belong to that class of practical jokers who express a satisfaction with a purchase they do not feel in- order that they may have companions in chagrin. A Bank Receiver. Excellent reports arc received from Rutland in regard to Mr. D. D. MuirV conduct of the funds and resources of the Merchants' National bank of Rut land Vermont. The reports do Justice to Mr. Muir's knowledge of banking, good judgment in rapidly closing up the affairs of an insolvent bank, and are another confirmation of the discrimination and discretion of the Comptroller, Mr. Charles G. Dawes, who appointed Mr. Muir. The Rutland Evening News edited by Mr Charles T. Fairfield, formerly of Lincoln, in the issue of January !, 1901, says: The twenty-five per cent diidend disbursed this week by Receiver D. 1)1 Muir of the looted Merchants Nation al bank of Rutland amounts to nearly 180,000. A previous dividend of fifty per cent has been paid and.it is more than likely that nearly, if not quite, twenty-five percent more will be real ized before this rotten and unfortu nate financial incident in this city is closed. This means that .already, within less than ten months since the bank was closed and the frightful looting of its funds by Cashier Mussey was discovered, nearly a quarter of a million of dollars have been realized upon the assets of the institution and paid out by the receiver. Consider ing all the circumstances the owners of the 1320,000 in deposits at the bank when it closed have suffered mini mum inconvenience and deprivation. The work has been done in afairly re markable way. This quick liquidation and straight ening out of an almost inextricable tangle has been due to two or three noteworthy facts. In the first place, the delegation by the Comptroller of the Currency of Mr. Muir to the task was the best selection that could have been made. Without fear or favor he has prosecuted his dillicult mission of saving the depositors everv dollar possible out of the wreck. His long banking experience and unswerving devotion to duty have stood him in good stead. Secondly, the stockhold ers have come to the front heroically and, fortunately or otherwise, have had the ability to pay to a larger de gree than anyone anticipated the full assessment on their shares. To pay the assessment has caused many a stockholder "actual deprivation. Of the 3100,000 stock, more than 100,000 has been paid on the assessment and probably ninety-five per cent will eventually be realized. The most san guine at the outset did not dare to predict that over eighty-five percent would be paid in. Thirdly, the loans of the directors of the bank must necessarily have been of the most part gilt-edged, or it would have been out
