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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1901)
,,-jp T THE.COURIERJ - &' be wicked not to teach success in the schools. A boy may practise all that Mr. Schwab, or any other successful mm teaches, and, as the world sees, fail. Success is a matter of chance, temperament, or of the personal equation. To give a boy exact rules for succeeding is like encouraging him to believe that he has a good chance of becoming president of tbe United States. If a boy grows up with his eyes on tbe stars or fixed on the presidency of his country, he is likely to underestimate the small pre ferments that come to him. Depres sion succeeds to the high hopes which have been sowed in him by aspiring but injudicious orators. He belittles his own attainments and loses his courage to bear manfully tbe part assigned him by fate and by bis own limitations. Robert Louis Stevenson said that "Whatever else we are in tended to do. we are not intended to succeed; failure is tbe fate allotted. Itissoinereryartand study; it is so, above all, in the continent art of living well." Jt jt School-Days. "Little Puck," a play popular a few years ago, wherein Frank Daniels played the principal part, is founded on the mistaken idea grown-up peo ple have of children's joys. A father who is a bon-vivant exhorts his son, who is spending a brief vacation at home, upon the pleasures of youth and particularly upon the pleasures of school. The youth knows more about both of these subjects than the father, but youth is humble and fath ers are wise about some things and besides they occupy a place of vant age. So the boy listens to tbe father with a show of attention. Suddenly father and son change places, by the magical interposition of an Indian relic. The pompous old man, ac customed to subservience from em ployes and relatives, Is set in life with altogether different surroundings. The teacher whom be has patronized, bullies him, the big boy of his son's school pounds him and his son cuts off his whiskers. The real boy has a chance of conquering the school bully. But tbe father blubbers and cries 'enough," thus disgracing the son for ever. His school mates have placed even bets on tbe son because of his well known courage. The father, enervated by a life of self indulgence, is not the man his son is and the big boy linds him easy to whip. The life of dependence a child leads is not pleasant even to the most obedient of children. To be subject in all things: to have one's food se lected, one's reading assorted, by some one else, to be told to go there and return in so many minutes, is not agreeable to the infant, it is intoler able to tbe adult- The man forgets how the boy felt about it, and either writes poetry or exhorts the youth at commencement about what a good thing it is to be young. Helpless, the slave of everything taller, moneyless, of no account in council, expelled from the room when anything im portant or unusual is being discussed, reckoned of no discretion, despised of all men and some women, this is the daily lot of a child. In another mood adults sing of liberty and its joys, for getting that the love of freedom is common to all ages. The happiest period in one's life is still a question, but the candid man who remembers his childhood, as well as the exulta tion of his early manhood when he first discovered his ability to care for himself and that men of affairs -sought his opinion, will award tbe distinction to the later period. As for myself I never pass a grim school house without gratitude that- 1 am passing it and not entering it and that 1 can do so safely; that no teach er's watchful eyes mark my truant passing. So The Courier's advjectotheyouth who are about to be graduated from the high-schools of this country is not to be easily frightened by tbe re flections of tbe self-satisfied old ladies and gentlemen who will address them. Tbe senior classes know very well that their school experience has not been all enjoyment. They can tell very well that the speakers do not know whit they are talking about, that they have forgotten the weari somenessof tbe school routine and the vexation of never having their own way. Senior classes are in re ality looking forward to life with an eagerness that tbe croakers cannot adulterate. The commencement ora tor who will expatiate upon the joy of conquering a modest place in the world, of attaining by one's own ex ertions a home and the esteem of neighbors and of the community will deserve tbe warm gratitude of the class to which he speaks. That chestnut, too, of the self 'conceit of tbe new college graduate is unworthy a grown man'sdiscrimination.A young man or woman just graduated has, in reality, a child's heart. They are afraid that tbe world will not find them useful, they are nervously anx ious to be trusted and to prove, more to gain their own confidence than for the world's sake, that they have learn ed to be actively useful. There are college graduates who are conceited, but they were born conceited. Col lege training has not developed, but rather schooled it. Your self-made man is your real egoist. It is as ap parently Insincere for the successful business man to commiserate, tbe graduates upon getting through school as for an officer to congratu late the privates that they are still in tbe ranks, or for a member of the senior class at West Point to felici tate a tortured plebe upon his im mediate prospects. These few hints to the orators who are preparing the usual guff for the classes will have no effect upon the product. The disease is too old, too deeply fixed in the ora tor's affections as the eloquent req uisite for tbe occasion. And for many centuries to come bored and secretly scoffing high-school and uni versity graduates will be obliged to listen to these antique addresses. Gty Wages. Lecturers on economics, socialists and the various types of men who are dissatisfied with the way the present commercial system is working and who hope to make it better, assert that manual labor should be paid just as high wages as mental and creative exertion. Creative effort is stimulat ing and pleasant in itself, and manual labor is deadening to the nerves and higher sensibilities. Yet the man who labors on tbe roads, or cares for horses, or lays railroad ties is serving the community and performing an essential part of the labor of the world. He is entitled to as large a wage for his labor as the man who writes books, or invents, or paints, or preaches and a little to boot, because creative labor is a joy in itself. The artist or the author is an artist or an author because God made him so, and it is not fair for him to claim wages for another's work. Indis putably most of tbe work of tbe world is manual and only the occasional man has been presented at birth with more than enough brains to do rou tine work. Therefore there is force in the contention that it is not fair that the most of us shall be in sub jection to a few, especially as the product of our labor is as necessary to the life and happiness of the genii as theirs to us. But these questions Involve the whole economic, and social system now in operation. It is not for the council to settle them or to accept as a basis of legislation any other sys tem than the one under which they were elected. This being so, there is great impropriety in paying firemen larger wages than private parties are paying them. The citizen who rep resents the average tax-payer of Lin coln is not a very opulent person. He receives less than five hundred dol lars a year himself. Obviously then, it is unjust for the council to force him to pay more than the price of a fireman in the open market. At the most the city can employ but few men and by payingfancy wages to them the council forces tbe large number un employed by the city to bear more than their share of city maintenance. The council was elected in good faith by tbe citizens of Lincoln to admin ister, in connection with tbe mayor, its affairs. Some members of the council are allowing a pique against the mayor to interfere with a wise administration. Such conduct is of fensive to the citizens. It is of no consequence to citizens whether coun cilmen Lyman and Pentzer like the mayor or not. It is of importance that they confer together without prejudice concerning tbe business of the city. To be sure the influence of an employed man in an election is three times greater than that of a man to whom the election of Tom is no more than the election of Harry. And it may be that this reasoning is influencing certain members of the council. But there are more tax payers In this city than tax consum ers and their interest in the next elec tion may be aroused by judicious advertising. jt jt Portland Cement. Mr. Edison announces that he has discovered a new and much cheaper way to make Portland cement. This is not in his latest manner. Mr. Edi son and Mr. Tesla, whom tbe news papers are pleased to call wizards, have an Irritating habit of announc ing that they are just on tbe point of a discovery that will revolutionize industry and of leaving the world waiting further information and busying themselves about something else. This time Mr. Edison has def initely announced that his invention is a cheap process of making Portland cement. If it be so the long sought for new pavement is found. It is said that it will revolutionize build ing; a man can erect a mould of a house and pour tbe cement in from the roof, thus making a perfectly solid house water-proof, rat-proof, warm in winter and cool in summer. The process is so cheap that the poor man can have as warm a house as the richest. Mr. Edison says that by the new process the cement can be sold cheaper than stone or brick or wood. Therefore it will stop the demolition of the forests. The Quality of Mercy. Tbe treatment of animals by the butchers of Lincoln is not a pleasant subject to consider. It is the habit of one butcher to dislocate the wings of fowls brought to him and then throw them down in a heap together. The agony of such a position is worse than the thumb-rack. Butchers are callous because of their calling. They regard the animals they sell as the carpenter regards his lumber. They dispose of them to suit their own con venience and pay no attention to the animals' capacity for suffering, Bug the butchers in other respects are good citizens. If the laws in regard to tbe treatment of animals were in .sisted upon by. their. customers, if the women of Lincoln would refuse to pa tronize a meat market where chick ens are kept for days in a close coop, or where they are thrown in aheap with wings or feet tied together, tbe butcher's cruelty might be prevented. The torture inflicted upon that silly fowl, the ben, before being killed for our food is unnecessary and although we do not-inflict it ourselves we are responsible for it because if we were not too selfish to spare the time and to run the risk of being called names by the butcher we could stop it in a short time. The butchers are ic the business for money and when the women, their custom ers demonstrate to them that cruelty does not pay they will be merciful. Mrs. Plumb, the state superintendent of the department of mercy of the W. C. T.TJ. has organized a band of mercy in every school building in the city but without the aid of tbe house keeping shoppers of Lincoln it is impossible to reach the butchers who. from the nature of their business, are tbe most flagrant offenders against the humanitarlanism of the last de cade which is quite a different thing from the kindness of any other period. Mr. Bixby is doing his best, which is very effective, to convince the men that it is cruel and ignoble as well as unsportsmanlike to shoot trapped pigeons. If he succeeds, the women of Nebraska can afford to forgive him for his mean flings at woman. They will forgive him anyway, for the sake of the effort he persists in con tinuing, to induce the men to forsake a degenerate sport, which involves the wounding and slow death of hun dreds of pigeons. Mr. Bixby's cham pionship of dumb animals is chival rous. The more loquacious individ uals whom he persecutes, can answer back and make a good deal of trouble for those who abuse tnem. jt jt Tbe Order of Don't Knock. A "knocker" is an Individual who is continually reviling or gossiping about the people who are unfortu nate enough to be numbered among his acquaintances. Buffalo, where that silly, guzzling, hold-up society of the "Buffaloes" was lately organ ized, has started something worth while perhaps in extenuation. In veterate, confirmed "knockers" are rare. We have too much to do to spend all our time doing evil. For very novelty we occasionally say a good word of our neighbor or our friend. But the temptation to tell an interesting bit of gossip to a friend who may reciprocate with just as good a story is persistent. A regular "knocker" who talks scandal for the sake of injuring someone is rare. Habitues of afternoon teas and card parties, clubmen and the village loaf ers repeat scandalous stories for the love of tattling and not to be cruel. But the victims squirm as though we bad tied them to the stake because we enjoy writhing. The object of the new society is to encourage the virtue of silence when our neighbor's faults, or escapades are referred to. In a place the size of Lincoln, where every body is almost as well acquainted as the members of one family, where the scions of families have intermarried to such an extent that the "knocker" is obliged to select his items with great care, the order of "Don't Knock" should be immediately estab lished. The object and creed of the order are herewith reprinted: Section J. To overcome in its membe the deplorable habit of speaking ill of our j !2 !5
