VOL. XVI., NO. XXVII
ESTABLISHED IN 1886
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LINCOLN. NEBR.. SATURDAY. JULY 6, 1901.
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SARAH B. HARRIS, : : : EDITOR
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s
g OBSERVATIONS
1
Farming.
Allied for concerted offensive action
against Crokerism at the next New
York election are the Citizen's Union,
the City Club, the Greater New York
Democracy, the Brooklyn Democracy,
the New York County Kepublicans.
the King's County Republicans, the
German-American Municipal League
and the American-German Indepen
dents. Mr. Croker is in Europe and
professes to be entirely indifferent to
the movement, gathering volume
everyday, against himself and his ex
ploitation of the citizens of New
York. It may be that his "cold
blood" is not assumed and that he is
satisfied to permanently retire from
New York where he has made enough
to support himself in good style in
Great Britain. All signs indicate
that Crokerism will bo defeated at
Vhe coming election. Tammany is
overwhelmed, once in a cycle, by the
plundered, deceived, disgusted citi
zens of New York. It is indicated
that such a rising of the voters is
about to occur. And it is likely that
Croker has read the writing, although
he does not read much.
It is idle wasting any objurgations
on him. The tax payers of New York
who have allowed Croker or riatte,
or both together, to farm out the city
for their own benefit for so many
years, deserve to be plundered. Their
excuse is that they are too busy to
attend the primaries. Some of them
say they-can better afford to be rob
bed by Croker than to spend time
enough in politics to drive out tue
robbers. Relying upon this preoc
cupation, the machinists have en
joyed, ever since the renaissance of
Tammany after the disorganization
caused by the Tweed trial, undisput
ed access to the treasury of New York
city. But it is impossible to have the
law on Croker, or on Dowie, or on any
body who, unlike a gambler, extracts
money from the public not by games
of chance, but by politics or the fana
ticism of the credulous. Dowie and
Croker would have to work for a liv
ing if it were not for the credulity of
their clientele. I believe there is a
statute against taking advantage of
a crazy man, or of an imbecile or of a
drunken man; but against the pecu
liar kind of idiocy manifested by the
Dowieites, for instance, there is no
recourse against the operator who
induces the people to voluntarily
donate him their property. No com
mission of insanity would pronounce
these people insane. On examination
they reason as well as the average
man, but the submission of their wills
and of their property to an India
rubber fakir like Dowie is a sign of
insanity. If the sane survivors
should at any time decide that it is
expedient to shut up the people who
give away their money to confidence
men like Dowie, they must needs im
prison them in tents, and it is doubt
ful if in such a case there would not
be more people on the inside than the
outside of the tents. There are no
more false prophets now than iu the
time of the Pharaohs, so their kind
is not increasing. The populace
railed at them then. We rail at them
now, but vituperation is not fatal to
the object of it acd the fakirs are not
exterminated. They will continue to
tlourish until the far-distant day
when they cannot find gullible fools
to fool.
The Cultivation of English.
Mr. Alfred Ayers, an essayist in one
of the month's magazines, says that
he knows from observation that in
Germany, France, Spain and Italy
the knowledge of the mother-tongue
is reckoned the most desirable of all
the polite accomplishments. Cora
plicated as the German grammar is,
Germans of refinement speak it cor
rectly. "How different in the most
cultured English-speaking circles!
True, one cannot, without attracting
attention, use seen for saw or done
fordid, or put two negatives in a
sentence: but one can misuse the
auxiliary verbs continually, misuse
the tenses, use adjectives where ad
verbs are required, misuse the cases,
use lay for lie, since for ago, without
for unless, the indicative where the
subjunctive is required, and so on and
on without attracting attention, un
less there chances to be a stickler for
purity present."
The last clause of the preceding
sentence is purely subjunctive and
should read: "Unless a stickler for
purity chance to be present." But
the subjunctive, because of this very
carelessness, which Mr. Ayers so
poignantly regrets, is passing out ot
use. The simplification of the Eng
lish language has been .accomplished
by this anglo-axon tendency to do
everything in the shortest time and puted points for the time being. He
with as little fuss and feathers as is not an agent in the development
possible. The German language is of the game. An expression that was
still burdened with gender. Even slang ten years ago has now a certain
inanimate objects like dipper and ink- dictionary standing, if It was good,
stand have a eender. and which of picturesque, expressive slang. Mr.
the three dipper Is can be known
only to the native or to the man with
a marvelous memory. The German
is slow, a trille heavy and he takes
his language as he does military ser
vice, as something which cannot b3
changed The impatience of the an-
ulo saxon has cleared a lot of rubbish
out of the way of the North Ameri- tery in the use of any
nn imni.hnv T.itf 1 r.prmnn hnvs bevond the reach of all
l,UU CUIIUVI-UUIS uui.w Uw-S.. - j
Ayres' plea for cultivating the Eng
lish language contains sound advice
and valuable hints. Some of the par
agraphs are somewhat unfortunately
composed, as: "There are a few word
that by well nigh everybody are very
much more frequently wrongly used
than they are rightly used." "Mas-
language i
but a very
are still spending years learning the lew; proncicncy, nuwever, in me umt
gender of objects, genders bestowed or ones motner-tongue is witiun me-
upon them during the Cesarean peri
od of the Sprache, when the super
stitious herders personified everything
and referred to things respectfully as
he or she and sometimes it. The dead
hand would not have held live Eng
lish rigid but the Germans speak the
speech their fathers spnke conscien
tiously and patiently. We escape our
custom easily. In Germany it mar
ries, buries, or consigns a youth to
five years service In the army and his
parents never think of combining
with several thousand other parents
to change the law. So it is likely
that German children for the next
thousand years will spend their time
reach of most of us; and that pro
ficiency, it has always seemed to me-r
is beyond compare the most to be
desired of all the polite accomplish
ments." Any discourse on language, how
ever, is embarrassed by the writer'
own technical imperfections in its
use. Only a genius can play upon a
language, express his ideas, and pro
duce no discords, no examples of the
cery solecisms he is declaiming
against. The editor of these pages
frequently discourses about the de
plorable English used by the public
school children, although there are
mistakes on this page that the chll-
. ...: ioo, tin. .rnnrinr nt nnti nnri dren would be ashamed to make. But
LI VHJh tU 1WUIII WIIV rfUV v jswww w.w
pans beer glasses, policemen and there are so few geniuses Those that
maidens. The descendant of the are born here do not stay here, and if
anglo-saxon has wiped out the three it could not be said until a master
declensions (or is it four?), he is said it, it would not be said at all.
rapidly making the subjunctive case In te meantime the Lincoln teach-
nhsolete. and he is making more and
more fashionable the simplest forms
of the verbs. Only the most fasti
dious use the subjunctive in speak
ing nnrl nf the few who use it in writ
ing, their punctilious printers put it placent, and the parents would cease
" . . Via rl Ifra fori rvI .alt tlkiQ ia,ti1l
riflit hack in the indicative, lo tins
ers mignt trur.ic tney were reaiiy
teaching the pupils in the public
schools to speak, read and write the
English language correctly, the pu
pils would grow unwarrantably com-
taste for simplicity and compactness
the English language owes its use by
all nations. If in tha process of sim
plification the speech loses feminine
endings, the subjunctive case and
some irregular tenses, we can afford
it. For the sake of the larger use of
our tongue by the peoples of the'earth
we are prepared to sacrifice a part of
the indicative, and it is not unlikely
that, before we get through, we shall
be called upon to do it.
Writers assume that our language
to be dissatisfied; all this would
happen and more besides if the editor
of this paper ceased to apprise the
people once a week that things edu
cational, things political and things
religious are going to the dogs.
The Fourth of July;
Small boys are quiet only when they
are asleep Their noise is a serious
inconvenience and trial to grown
people all the year through, but on
the Fourth of July they are a menace
is more jealously guarded by English- to life as well as to nerves. I know
men than by Americans, in spite of it is the latest note in child studr
the fact that foreigners cannot tell that a boy's system demands noise,
how aa English proper name is pro- and that in entering a room of studi
nounced until it is vocally pronounc- ous people with a wild whoop which
ed for him by a native or by some one sets the nerves a-quiver, he is but
fulfilling a law of his nature which
the child professors say it would be
dangerous to interdict. It has been
my unhappy fate to know and endure
some of the children of professors of
pedagogy, physiology, and child study
(none of them residents of Lincoln.)
whom the native has taught, so far
has the pronunciation departed from
the sound of the letters which ori
ginally were indicated. Of course
these changes have come about from
the ground up. Scholars keep a lan
guage from changing too rapidly.
They act as a drag or anchor; they are Considering that they were only ex-
not an active force in changing it. perimental apparatus and had had
Changes come about by means of one system after another tried on
those who are playing the game from their protesting little entities they
year to year. The umpire settles dis- were remarkably good children. But
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