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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (May 25, 1901)
r VOL. XVI., NO. XXI ESTABLISHED IN 18S0 PRICE FIVE CENTS - B LeB jggESsgsjLVJ"''' .JLvWMy.SirS!PGBifciPBr' B, eeeeB eeeseB- B B LINCOLN. NEBR., SATURDAY, MAY 25, 1901. THE COURIER, RwrnXDIX THE FOSTOmCE AT LINCOLN AS W SECOND CLASS MATTER. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BI TIE COURIER PRINTING AND PIMM GO Office 1132 N street, Up Stairs. Telephone 384. SARAH B. HARRIS, : : : EDITOR Subscription Rates. Per annum f 1 50 Six months 1 00 Rebate of fifty cents on cash payments Single copies 05 The Coubiee will not be responsible for vol notary communications unless accompanied by return postage. Communications, to receive attention, must be signed by the fall name of the writer, not merely as a guarantee of good faith, but for pnblication if advisable. over, as the delegates and their part- tary church going tendencies. Con nors were strangers, every delegate sidering all these things, it is not 8 t00f OBSERVATIONS. 8 Business Women. There is much solemn talk in the newspapers and elsewhere, where talk is cheap and not especially signif icant, about women not possessing business ability. An occasional demonstration of such ability is more conclusive than many paragraphs.The dinner given by the president of the French Republic to the mayors of France a few years ago, was in charge of a woman. Over a thousand peo ple were served with more than ten courses in the time in which a dinner is usually served. Xo man had to wait and although there were not many hot dishes included in the menu, coffee and a few meats were served piping hot. Hundreds of waiters, thousands of dishes, complex French courses, hundreds of hungry :nen with aldermanic annetites did not fluster the woman who was in charge of the feast. Last week the local chapter of the Delta Gamma fraternity entertained the biennial convention. A series of entertain ments, a ball, a banquet, a reception, a play put on by the local chapter, and other functions characterized the week. The arriving delegates were met at the station by a young woman who took charge of all checks and attended to the transference of the passengers and their luggage to the hotel. This young woman met all the trains on the days of arrival and attended in the same way to the departure of guests. Everybody who knows girls has observed that the supreme test of their hospitality is at a ball. Even the most conscien tious and anxious hostess hates to give up her time to girls at a ball. But these young hostesses danced only a few times in order to insure he enjoyment of their guests. More- was assigned to a member of the local chapter who Investigated her ball book, hunted out missing part ners between dances and brought them together. The members of the local chapter have been working with zeal and unity for months. The financial arrangements were as com plete as the others; although these are family matters and cannot be men tioned in detail, the adequate prep arations are instructive to much older managers of conventions. The ability to work harmoniously with a large number of people is be coming more and more a necessity of modern life. Clubs, church and so ciety conventions and all sorts of annual and biennial reunions are uniting the people of this country in a fraternal order that no future schism.no disagreement about poli tics, no religious discussion can af- fect. With the increasing recurrence of many books, of the of these meetings the ability to work many newspapers, harmoniously and effectively togeth er is an important part of American ism. These young girls have demon strated their cooperative culture. In future combinations in which they may be interested they will be pared to do things in the large, church, the family, the club, the lernal society and all social combi nations will be the Letter for this their early training in entertaining strangers from widely separated parts of the United States. Church-Going. A Lincoln minister has asked the newspaper editors to tell him what is the matter with the modern preacher and his sermon or with the church service, that they do not at tract a larger audience. The trouble is not so much with the minister, his sermons, the choir or the service as with the people themselves. The habit of church-going has been brok en up by the distractions of modern life, by the strain of a week's nervous endeavor, by the multiplied organi zations which demand attendance and loyalty. A man is no stronger now than he was a hundred years ago. But that man's task, his daily stint has been doubled. The old man welcomed the Sunday church going as a diversion. The example of the Puritan church-goer is often quoted. The Puritans lived a calm routine. They were occupied with ideas. They evolved theories. They were men of action, but the field of their action was limited. Theological dis cussion was popular. People haven't time for much of that sort of thing now. Business methods are more aggressive. There are plotters with fertile minds and sharpened wits whose schemes must be circumvented with plans equally sound by the suc cessful merchant. Six days' effort tires and satisfies the love of action. On Sunday men who have no strong spiritual inclination resist heredi- surprising that so few go to church. It is difficult now to get an audience together to hear a lecture. Formerly every city and village offered lecture courses by the best speakers and most learned scholars. People are not as fond as they used to be of listening. They read and study more, talk less, or at any rate listen less than they did. The preacher used to be the apex of the community: he was in sight from all points. He was the arbiter of social, family, religious and sometimes commercial disputes. He takes his place now, a man among men. He occupies no dais, but speaks to them from their own level. He dresses as they do, and he uses habitually no ex-ollicio authority, and the most successful minister is the least professional. Preaching is doubtless better today than it has ever been, but because of the making publishing of the preacher speaks to an audience as well read, as well informed as himself. The min ister was formerly the learned man of the community. He taught Greek and Latin to the young men prepar- pre- ing for college. He was the conser The vator of learning, as the old monas-fra- teries were the conservatories of- books before the days when paper backed classics were the common property of all. Tiiis being so, the preacher cannot hope to dazzle or awe his audience by his learning. But sound logic, melodious English and originality are alwnys attractive and restful to preoccupied and fatigued minds. Sensationalism is no long er popular, and a minister who relies upon logic and sound ideas is sure to conquer an audience, though he has not the aid of the old reverence for the profession, and lacks the distinct ion of being the oply scholar in the community. The modern preacher has an influence upon his sophisticat ed audience that the old preacher lacked. It is the influence of the good comrade, ot the good citizen, of the pure philanthropist. Some sur vival of traditional reverence for the priesthood adds to his influence as a man. But the larger part of his effect upon the community be preaches to, is earned. In candidly considering the question of what is the matter with the preacher?, every honest man is forced to admit that the trouble is not with the preacher but. with himself. Advertisements. Many otherwise clever advertisers seek to hide their advertisements in a story or news item. With an edu cated public which has been taught at large expense to read advertise ments the disguise is a confession of weakness and it is also an expensive failure to take advantage of a mag nificently developed opportunity. The Sun and other large newspapers of the first class, label advertisements that appear on the editorial or tele graph pages "adv." Such a policy is in accordance with the growing fash ion of frankness in all matters. A man who has some excellent article to sell, who is honest himself and is convinced of the merit of his mer chandise is behind the times if he conceal his exploitation of medicine, tobacco, bicycles, or soap in an arti cle porporting to be an account of the President's trip or in a description of Queen Willielinina's trousseau. De ception disgusts. When the trous seau turns into soap and the Presi dent's trip into an emlusion of cod liver oil the metamorphosis is irritat ing and creates a prejudice against the soap and oil that reacts on their sale. Consequently such an adver tisement is worse than none at all. The progress of the last seventy live years toward frankness and genuine ness is the most encouraging sign of that millenium or the thousand years mentioned in the twentietii chap ter of Revelations when Satan shall be bound and holiness become triumphant throughout the world. Three decades ago men wore queues, society women painted their faces and used palpably false devices, as a mat ter of course. Men and women lisped, addressed each other In forms of ex aggerated politeness and servility; they pretended to be all sorts of men and women that they were not, and the accepted forms of conventional deceptions were more numerous. Athletics have been an active factor in changing all this. What began in croquet has arrived through tennis at golf. Tan and the blowsy effect of the wind are fashionable. Affecta tion disappears on the plains or in the forests. Plein air effects can only be obtained by moving the easel into the open. Oratory, literature, letter-writing, music, as well as man ners and painting show the effect of the progress toward realism. And the advertiser who ignores the pop ularity of frankness and calculates his effects upon a discarded standard, is throwing his money away. .. J "Resurrection." There are doubtless young men in America as high-minded and spirit ually determined as Tolstoy's Nekhlu doff, but I do not remember having met one in literature. The minister in The Scarlet Letter is the most celebrated case of remorse I can re call. He suffered a life-long remorse, but he was a pindling little coward. He did nothing all his life and only when death scared him still more he acknowledged his crime.He expiated it in his own body, as by flagellation. He owed it to Esther to share the shame with her, but he was afraid and he suffered a coward's agon ie?. Tolstoy's Nekhludoff lives the life of a gay young otlicer exempt from all moral reflections and restraints until the discovery that a young girl whom he loved in his youth but with whom he LI