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daily practise, the effort to accom
plish a more specific and more di
rectly personal end than the creation
of a work of art counis for much more
than inspiration or the coquettish fa
vor of the muses. In his own experi
ence, M. Coquelin says that unremit
ting effort and study have brought
him the success he modestly under
estimates. In this estimate ot the
comparative value of inspiration and
practise, Demosthenes, Lord Bacon,
and all philosophers who have studied
the effect of constant effort upon the
quality and value of the product agree.
Tbe very large number of great auth
ors who have filled space in a daily
newspaper, for years, corroberates
this view, disputed by so many
gushers who idly wait for the descent
of the spirit instead of getting to
work.
RURAL DELIVERY.
F. A. Harrison.
(For The Courier.)
Rural mail delivery is in operation in
many parts of the state, and of its suc
cess and popularity there is now no
question, yet the average inhabitant of
tbe city or town knows little or nothing
of the new system which is bringing so
many of the farmers into daily touch
with the outside world.
A sample community is Pawnee City,
a county Beat town of 2,000 inhabitants.
Running out from Pawnee are four
rural routes, the Grbt having been es
tablished in June of last year, and the
last two in January of this year. Tbe
routes aggregate 109 miles in length,
and deliver mail to 3,075 people, cover
ing a territory of 146 square miles.
This is one-third the area of tbe county,
and practically one-third of the entire
population.
Daring the month ot March, 1901,
there were handled on the four routes
22,539 pieces of mail, indicating a total
for one year of 270.463 pieces, an aver
age of 440 letters and papers for each
family. Since the establishment of the
routes this average has largely increas
ed. One item of increase has been in
daily papers. In a community where
there was one daily paper taken a year
ago, now there are twenty-five dailies,
and this ratio of increase will hold good
on all the routes.
Money orders may be purchased of
the rural carrier, who is made the agent
of the farmer desiring to send money
away. The application is made out,
the letter is carried to town unsealed,
and the money order is made out and
placed in the letter at the general of
fice. This is a convenience quite gen
erally taken advantage of, as is shown
by the increase in the money order
business of the Pawnee City poBtoffice.
During the year ending April 1st, 1900,
there were issued by the office 3,090
money orders, while for the year end
ing April 1st, 1901, the number was
4,632, an increase of 1,512. Registered
letters may also be made out and sent
by tbe carrier, but there has been very
little increase in the registry business.
There has been a perceptible increase in
tbe sale of stamps at the city office,
most of it due to the rnral routes.
The farmers living along the routes
purchase their stamps of the carriers.
A patron who has letters to mail, and
has no stamps, awaits the carrier, buys
stamps and bands over the letters.
Many of these lettors are written to
other farmers along the route. These are
cancelled by the carrier and delivered
on the same trip, so that the farmers
are placed in closer touch with each
other as well as with the outer world.
The other day a farmer was telling
me of the many advantages of the rural
system. He said: "First and foremost,
it haa increased the price of land five
dollars an acre on every route. It saves
mo a good deal of time in running to
town. If I need a piece of machinery I
order it by mail instead of driving to
town. If tbe merchant has to order it
from a distance, he notifies me by the
next day's mail. When it comes he
Bends it out to me.
"Another bandy thing ia the daily
paper. I never took one before, but I
get one now. I can keep posted on the
markets without going to town, and I
can take advantage of good prices. We
farmers are not so much at the mercy of
the dealers now as we were. And I
think we are getting a better price for
our produce along the routes. If a
town merchant wants to buy and ship a
car of apples he comes out along tbe
routes and contracts them. When he is
ready to have his car filled he drops
cards to all of us, and we haul them in
the same day. It is handy for him and
handy for us.
"We write more letters now, and we
get more letters and papers than we did
a year ago. Our old practice was to go
to town once a week, and sometimes let
ters would be in the office six days be
fore we got them. Weekly papers were
stale, and dailies were useless. Now
our mail comes right to the door before
noon on every week day. It's getting
to be a great country."
At Pawnee the carriers own regula
tion mail wagons, and drive their own
teams. Each of them drives 8,500 miles
during the year, in all so'ts of weather,
receiving the munificent salary of ?500
per year. They sort part of their mail
early in the morning before starting,
and part of it they sort enroute. Each
carrier travels twenty-seven miles, stops
to gather and deliver mail at 150 boxes,
and transacts business with fifty people
everyday. He is a wofully underpaid
servant of Uncle Sam, and the first re
form in the service should come in the
form of better salaries.
Why are the merchants in the larger
cities interested in the rural mail de.
livery in distant counties? For the rea
son that their mail orders from each of
these communities have increased four
fold. It may be that th9 merchants in
the rural towns Bell less goods, or it may
be that the farmer on the route buys
more than he did a year ago, but the
fact remains that with his mail deliver
ed every day be finds it convenient to do
business with mail order houses. This
furnishes a point for argument between
city and country merchants as to the
desii ability of rural free delivery.
APPLE BLOSSOMS.
Dancing bits of pink and whiteness ,
Fairy forms of airy lightness
Up against the blue sky seen
In your tents of tender green ,
Have you any message for us
As you scatter rose-leaves o'er us?
"We mean not alone the May-time :
Ours is not a long year's play time I
Pink and white and dancing youth
Soon must pass, because, in truth,
By and by comes earnest living,
Autumn days, and our fruit giving ."
Lilly Maxwell Strong.
Nothing is Sacred.
Pitter The supply of books worth
dramatizing will soon be exhausted.
Patter Yes, I knoW; but so fierce is
the craze that the dramatists are now
utilizing everything they can lay their
hands on.
Pitter Is it really so bad?
Patter Bad! I should say so. Why,
Augustus Thomas is dramatizing with
enormous success the map of the United
States. He has already done Arizona,
Missouri and Alabama and is now at
work on Colorado. Town Topics.
IHIIHMMIMMMIMMIMIIIIIIIIIIII
LBB3- I
Edited by Miss Helen G. Harwood. I
MMMMMIIMHMMHIIIMOHIMI
The Lincoln Woman's club has closed
its meetings for the year. The pro
grams have not only been interesting
but have developed interest in the or
ganization. This, the first yeir of Mrs.
Bushnell's regime has been one of ef
fective results. Not only Mrs. Bush
nell but the other officers, members of
the board and leaders ot departments
have been so well prepared for their
various positions that a happy spirit ot
unity and good will as well as that of
progress, has been the guiding attrac
tions of the club during the year.
Tbe leaders of departments have al
ready plans for tbnir work for the com
ing season. Mrs. Morning has furnish
ed the following for the current topics
department:
The Evolution of the New Woman.
1. Social and educatinnpl development.
2. What has the Christian church
done for woman?
3. Woman before the law for two
hundred years.
4. Origin and elimination of emotion
alism in woman.
5. Women as writers and artiste.
6 Women in tbe professions.
7. Woman's history as voter and law
maker. 8. Tbe legal status of woman in Nebraska.
disease is rapidly decreasing in Europe
and that if the samo rate of decreaso
continues in the years to come, the
disease will be stamped out. In New
York City, one ot tbe D. A. R. chapters
has become an effective auxiliary.
This question is being agitated in Bos
ton, where a special hospital, if I am
not mistaken, is maintained. California
and Colorado, owing to the great army
of patients that flick to their territory
for rehef, are directing a movement for
isolated hospitals. Tho lattor idea does
not apparently have even an altruistic
surface, but it is self protection, and tbe
hospital care that would ha offered as a
recompense for the isolation would be
of the greatest valte to the patient.
The musical conference held in Cleve
land this week has been a great joy to
those in attendance and even those far
off have at least enjoyed a look at the
fine program offered. The Matinee
Musicale was represented by Mrs.
Doane and Miss Annie E. Miller.
Tbe Women Pioneers of California is
an association that oies its birth to the
oversight of the California Men's Pio
neer society. For a number of years
tbe women eligible to the society ex
cept by reason of their sex, have waited
patiently with the modest hope that
some day they might be urged to be
come members ot tbe existing Pioneer
Society. At last realizing that there
are times when patience ceases to be a
virtue, they have formed an organiza
tion of their own. The requirements
for membership are so tremendous that
it seems great wonder how the men
could have been so placidly heedless of
the deserving ones of the other sex.
Eligibility demands that a woman shall
have crossed the plains before 1854
behind an ox team.
The Home Reading club of Rahway,
New Jersey, has made a happy combi
nation of charity and culture. A liter
ary program is given at each meeting
which occurs fortnightly at which time
every member is assessed ten cents
which goes towards the support of the
Kahway Orphans' Home. Large a
mounts have been obtained by means of
this simple and effective plan.
Much has been said of late in regard
to the responsibility of Bociety toward
the consumptive. In New York City
the Stony Wolde Sanitarium society is
doing great good in sending poor con
sumptive patients to a proper climate
and to a location where they will have
proper care. Auxiliaries are being
formed all over the city and work has
now attained such proportions that ef
fective results are seen. Doctor Alfred
Meyer, at a recent meeting of one of
these auxiliaries, gave some encourag
ing statistics: "Twenty-five years ago
consumption meant death. Now twenty-five
or thirty out of every hundred
incipient cases which have hospital care
are cured and forty-five or fifty more
are able to return to wage-earning."
An English authority rays that the
The Pairbury Woman's club held tho
last meeting of the literary department
April the twenty seventh. The pro
gram, under the able supervision ot tbe
preeident, Mre. Allie Leet, was especial
ly enjoyable, consisting of vocal solos by
Miss Conrad and Miss Sarbach, piano
solo by Miss Henshaw, violin eoIo by
Miss Davis, and short talks on club
work and methods by Mesdames Steele
Letton and Cross. A social hour was
then enjoyed, and refreshments woro
served.
The music and art department closed
the year's work on Tueeday, April the
thirtieth, with the following program:
Business; Response, music; Music;
Talk, Should classical music be render
ed to ali audiences; Song; Recitation;
Music, classical and otherwise; Song;
Music.
The annual meeting of the club will
take place on May the seventh.
A plan ba9 been proposed for tho
establishment ot a Normal and busi
ness college in the grammar school
building at Tekaraah. A kindergarten
and departments of music, literature
and elecution also are talked of. It is
thought that the work could bo dono
by lectures, and but one resident pro
fessor would be needed at first.
The Village Improvement society ot
Exeter held a meeting on April the
twelfth. Great enthusiasm was mani
fested in the subject of village improve
ment, and resolutions were adopted
relative to the planting of trees and rid
ding the town of the garbage and rub
bish nuisance. A village park enclosed
by a fence and planted with trees and
flowers will be the object of particular
effort this summer.
The Zetetic club ot Weeping Water
met on April tbe thirteenth with Mrs.
Shannon. Responses to roll call were
on tbe subject ot the afternoon, English
art. Mrs. Girardet, the loader, guve an
interesting general talk followed by
short biographical sketches of Van
dyke, Hogart, Reynolds, Turner, Land
seer, Blake and John F. Herring. The
discussion was conducted according to
the Socratic method, and beautiful re
productions ot the works ot these artists
were given to the members as souvenirs.
The poem to be read at the launching
of the battleship "Ohio" at San Fran
cisco this month will be written by Mrs.
Ida E;kert Lawrence of Toledo, Ohio.
A stepdaughter of Governor Nash of
Ohio, Mrs. Worthington Babcock of
Columbus, will name tbe "Ohio."
The annual festival and banquet of
the New England and Massachusetts
Woman Suffrage Associations will be
given at Faneuil ball, Boston, on Wed
nesday evening, May the twenty-second.
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe will preside at
this meeting; Mr. W.M. Silterot Chi
cago, will speak on "Women in public
affairs;" Honorable William Dudley
Foulke of Indiana, on "Woman suffrage