Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (May 25, 1901)
fr THB COURIER. i? . & had failed to keep faith, had become a courtesan and was then under ar rest for murder. The revelation of this direct consequence of his crime not only causes him remorse but in duces him to repent, with the repent ance of Paul. Flagellations satisfied the conscienceof the Middle Ages, but the modern monitor demands repara tion to the individuals sinned against. N ehkiudoiT confesses his sin to the world, to the girl; to his intimate friends among the nobility, and more than all he constantly renews his resolve, in spite of the arguments of friends and relatives, to marry the woman whose feet he had set on the downward way. Maslova. the wo man, is condemned to Siberia, though she Is innocent. The penitent fol lows her and aids her in every pos sible way, identifying himself with her at all times. On the march to Siberia, at the halting places, the morale of the prisoners is shown to be of a high order. Tolstoy, like some otter humanitarians, may be lieve that virtue is found more freely among the poor. At any rate the poor in "Resurrection' are generous, gentle and patient. The rich are cruel, unjust, rapacious and over-fed. The impression that remains after reading the book is one of an experi ence of great kindness, and also of great trankness. Russians, high and low, judging from the books of Tols toy, Gogol, Turgenieff and Stepniak are distinguished by a frankness, an acknowledgement of the facts of life, that we ignore. The Russians are where we were in the time of Eliza beth. They are writing Elizabethan Russian now, only with more power and virility and more integrity than the Elizabethans themselves. The tendency of a highly differentiated existence like ours, is to obscure the really few and simple rules of life. "Resurrection" has been severely criti cised, and by an artistic standard Anna Karenina is a greater book, but as an example of direct dealing and of the Russian manner it is very satis factory. Anglo-Saxon men and wom en neither understand nor like the frankness that Is Russian. We drape everything and cultivate a false modesty thereby. So that when we are self-convicted of sin against our neighbor, we are too much ashamed to confess it. "Resurrection" is the story of regen erated characters accomplished through the repentance and repara tion of one man. The morality it teaches is so far beyond our standard that it is not surprising that the book lias received very unsympathetic criticism in this country and Eng land. The Russians are nearer the eternal verities than we are, and it shews in their literature, much as we hate to admit it. J j A Risorgimento. A society to Americanize Italians and protect them from the sharpers who on their first arrival in America attempt to get their money and ap propriate their labor, is called II Hisorgiinento. On historical grounds every Italian should feel as much at home on American soil as the Anglo Saxon. Columbus was a Genoese; John Cabot, the discoverer of the continent of North America, waa born in Venice; Verazzano, who sailed into Iew York harbor nearly a hun dred years before the coming of Hen ry Hudson, was a Florentine. About a hundred thousand Italians per an num are now arriving in the port of New YorK. "It has long been known that on account of a specially dependent temperament, on account of polyglot dialects, through the schemes of in triguing padroncs, corrupt officials and interpreters, and because of a wide-spread prejudice against Ital ians, life in America for these immi grants is but a sorrowful experience." The prejudice is more tenacious than the slavery to the padrone. In a com paratively short time the Italian im migrant learns that he is being im posed upon and asserts his freedom. Prejudice, while more impalpable than the contract to the padrone, is more difficult to overcome. "The glory of our age is Its helpful spirit, its applied Christianity. In a pathological sense Christ did come to torment us, as the two men possessed of an evil spirit said. The ablest thinkers of today are "tormented" with a noble discontent, striving to lift some of the fallen and despised." The New York state bureau of labor statistics for 189S contains photo graphs of the shanties in which the padroncs herd the newly-arrived im migrants. The text which accom panies the photographs is a narrative by the paid agent of the bureau who in disguise worked with the gangs from the different shanties. Al though the investigation has made the padrones more careful, the sys tern is still in force. The immigrant arranges with the padrone before he embarks for this country, and goes from the barge oflice directly to his office. All kinds of greedy boarding house keepers, bogus conductors and guides and pettifogging lawyers guide the immigrant into traps kept set the year through. In 1894 Gaetano Conte of Boston, doing city missionary work there, discovered the dreadful condi tions surrounding Italian immigrants, and aroused public interest in their Improvement. But the society final ly disbanded for lack of funds. A new society, II Risorgimento, was organized last November. Among the officers is Miss Sarah Wool Moore, an artist, a scholar, and a philanthropist. She was formerly a resident of Ne braska, and sends The Courier the preceding account of the society. The constitution of the society states that the objects are 3. To explain to newly arrived and other immigrants that their own well-being in America and the good will of Americans will depend largely upon their learning our language and upon their adoption of our customs and principles; and that, to secure this good standing, they should prom ise: 1. Not to carry concealed weapons. 2. To learn the English language. 3. To sacredly guard the privileges of the franchise. 4. To respect the Sunday laws. 5. To assist compatriots in all right ful ways. These objects of the society are be ing accomplished by sewing classes, mothers' classes, English classes and cooking classes, and by all other means by which sociable contact can civilize. Miss-Moore adds that "the American branch ought to represent in its membership every Christian denomination, and the efforts and aims of II Risorgimento (the Renais sance) proper ought to enlist the sym pathy and support of every public spirited citizen. Friends of this movement who wish to offer to it substantial aid are invited to become members meriting gratitude, or as the Italians express it more concisely, 'memberl benemeriti.' The honor arium for which privilege is placed at five dollars." "So many gods, so many creeds, So many ways that wind and wind When all the help this sad world needs Is just the art of being kind ." A prejudice against a nation is un just, because the prejudice was form ed in consequence of the conduct of the vicious of that nation. A prej udice against a nation, therefore, is a prejudice against a few, but in cludes all. The good vastly outnum ber the bad or vicious. Upon inno cent Italians we visit the crimes committed by a few criminals. If the society does no more than call atten tion to the injustice and cruelty of the American prejudice against Ital ians, it will have justified its creation. After the assassination of King Hum bert, the Italians of Chicago organ ized a procession in honor of Italy and to the memory of Iving Humbert. The Americans who watched this parade were surprised. They were surprised because the intelligent, manly, strong masons, carpenters, contractors, merchants and profes sional men did not harmonize with their idea of Italians. The fervent patriotism, the expressions of loyalty to their country and to America em barrassed the Americans who watch ed the parade, by demonstrating what erroneous opinions a great number of our people may hold. Dante, Pe trarch, Michael Angelo and Raphael were Italians. The high water mark of such a civilization must descend verj low before reaching the estima tion in which we hold their nation. The average Italian is not so gifted as these great ones; but the average Italian is nearer to them than he is to the type we designate by "Dago." Birds. Robins, nut hatches, black-birds, jays, meadow-larks, song sparrows, thrushes, wood-peckers, and other birds innumerable make Nebraska just now a paradise of birds and spring. Nature has provided this state with enough birds to keep the insects of Nebraska in their place. Since the population has grown to mature proportions, man has given his occasional leisure and all his vacations to destroying the balance of power between the birds, trees and grains. There is not a tree in the state unless it has had professional attention from its planting that is not riddled by borers. Trees will live with the bark peeling off and the heart pierced by myriads of holes, and have the appearance of sound ness. The first strong Nebraska wind will crack off the brittle limbs and perhaps the bole. Therefore, a Ne braska home-maker's work is never done. His trees have a short life, and must be replanted at least every dec ade. Prairie-chickens and quail are voraciously insectivorous, and upon them particularly because they are succulent,hunters have made a merci less war. They a" in the way of being exterminatea. Whether by hunters' lust or for woman's vanity the insect insurance in this vicinity is fast expiring and is without re newals. The recent legislature pass ed a more stringent game law and what is indeed an insistent public opinion will make a man asham ed to kill birds out of season and a woman ashamed to wear a dead bird on her hat. We do not live by bread alone, and the birds are jhe music of nature. Morning and evening they bring us back from a crass material ism. But the farmers can best be reached by the argument that the protectors of the grams are being ex terminated by selfish hunters. Farm ers are not blind to beauty, but I reckon, if we plowed, harrowed, sowed and cultivated fifty acres of wheat and grass-hoppers ate half of it, we too would regret the birds as protec tors rather than as musicians and professional beauties. Long ago when the temperance agitators be gan to complain that other people drank too much whiskey, they wore informed that whiskey always had been served in private houses and al- ways would be, that hospitality de manded it. It is a long way fn.tu then to now, where only a fewsere drinks on ordinary occasions to nu cellaneous guests. The force of pub- lie sentiment has accomplished the change. It is now very bad form to get drunk and men who do are wel come guests in no man's house, in no man's club, and aboard no mans yaciiw iii is iiuo ioipossiuie inai alter fifty years of exposition of the bad economy of exterminating insectio rnus birds it may become bad form to be known as a pot-hunter out of sea son. Women will give up, for fash ion's sake, what they would not f.r humanity, and in this form the Au dubon propaganda will reach the women. Fastidious sportsmen al ready refuse to join in the butchery """. of pigeon shooting and the hour ap proaches when the practice will be illegal even in scornful Nebraska. "He Willed It So." Mr. Robert McReynolds has writ ten a book, "He Willed It So." It IS not an autobiographical sketch, and he calls his hero Rodney Wilkes. The frontispiece is a picture of a young man with his thumbs looped into his pockets, and reminds me of Mr. McReynolds when he first ap peared in Lincoln many years ago. Mr. McReynolds has an imagination that soars and swoops. It lights on a crag, on the ground, on another crag, and the human mind does not quite comprehend its means of loco motion. It is a duty an author owes i his readers to make every step of the way plain. An amateur author who has not written many books and may not write another, has so much to say that his mind outruns composi tion. Walking is too slow, and fre quently he adopts a means of loco- 7 motion not intelligible, because not practiced by his readers. Mr. Mc Reynolds has a glowing imagination, but owing to what is perhaps a poor memory, these reminiscences are fragmentary. Periods of his life have made a strong impression upon him. These are graphically related, but the ' book lacks unity. Mr. Mc Reynolds has a fervid love of na ture and an interpretative ability only possessed by a genuine lover of nature. I recognize early scenes of Nebras ka life and early Nebraska pioneers. There is an occasional paragraph of spicy characterization, and more than an occasional good description of scenery and weather. If Mr. McRey nolds' lot had been placed among literary people, if he had early im bibed traditions of Hawthorne, Thackeray, Holmes, Hardy, or even- ' of Smollett, he might have been a popular story writer. Early educa tion, atmosphere, the peculiar in spiration of literary folk have much to do with a novelist's success and with his product. We do not know how the food we eat becomes us, un til deprived of that food. A starred environment deprives a truly creative genius of its proper expression. "He Willed It So" is an indication of what the author might have accom plished under more favorable circum stances. Yet the book is not without intrinsic merit, and it is of especiai interest to Nebraska people who know the author and the plains, skies, winds and wide horizons which have influenced his development. Occa sionally we read a book with the feel ing that the author has expressed more than he meant to say: in thi book there is the constant impression that the author feels and has expert-