r&? u THE COURIER. II i I1 J: t i i I 1-1 lit Its r - 1! n H I! B ij it t it H! 1.1 H H considered simply as children tbey were more than usually trying, mis chievous, and noisy. Their fathers considered it an insult to a child to etrike him and these imps practiced the most excruciating tortures on adults with impunity. They yelled, shrieked, exploded things, and made their neighborhood avoided of all but new-comers. In delivering the Fourth to the small boy we give him up to almost certain accident, we make the day hideous, we jeopardize whole cities and actually lose by fire from smoul dering fire crackers, every year, mil lions of dollars worth of value in buildings. The mayor of this city in consequence of continued dry weath er issued a proclamation directed at the small boy and forbidding him to set off fire crackers and fire works.but after the rain he withdrew the pro hibition and the day in Lincoln was the usual nerve-racking, explosive torment. If there is anything which can make us lose affection for the signers of the document of independ ence it is the celebration of the Dec laration by young America. It is an undignified way of celebrating so glorious a birth. There is no con. nection between the anniversary and the manner of 'celebrating it. The Christmas rejoicings do typify a birth day, and the gifts and spirit of giving a great thankfulness. But the cele bration of our national birthday is trivial, cheap, vulgar and irrelevant. Ho wonder the boys know nothing about tbe day they celebrate; there is bo connection between the horrid . noises tbey are encouraged to make by fatuous parents, and the occasion they commemorate. If the mayor bad persisted in his prohibition tbe mothers and fathers might have taught their offspring something about the document and the man. who wrote it and the men who signed it. As it was, nobody's voice could be heard above the din made by tbe spoiling little boys, and another dread ful insult to our country was added to those we have heaped upon it. Failure. The happy man, humanly speaking, is the man who succeeds in what he undertakes. The miserable man, one who tries all bis life to accomplish something and fails. Tbe opinions of Mr. Andrew Carnegie, Mr. Bird Coler, comptroller of the city of New York, and our own Chancellor An drews of tbe State university, are collated in a recent number of the Saturday Evening Post by Mr. Coler, who says that "Tbe young man who cannot go to college need not lie awake nights worrying, especially if he is planning for a business career. Instead of being handicapped by the absence of a university training, he will find that the handicap is with the other man . The college graduate has five or six years to make up when he finally goes to work. To over come this drawback requires an ex traordinary mental equipment and few men in this world are extraor dinary." Mr. Carnegie says that "A college education unfits, rather than fits men for affairs." Chancellor An drews' opinion is so closely descriptive of the literary work of college gradu ates that I quote it in full: "Young people end their studies with flabby minds unable to analyze keenly or to generalize truthfully or far. This comes out clearly when tbey come to write. The bad quality of the writ ten work done by fresh college gradu ates is notorious, not to mention commencement orations and theses, usually the most arid and awkward compositions imaginable. Young doctors of philosophy, brilliant spec ialists in their chosen lines not sel dum compose altogether wretchedly. Wry grammar and a shocking choice of words are not their worst- faults. It is the higher traits of rhetoric which suffer most. The report, news paper article, essay, treatise, or what ever the writing is, lacks unity, con tinuity and progress. The discussion is begun with points that ought to come later; arguments, if any, are not arrayed, but hopelessly fumbled. The author says what be does not mean, often contradicts himself, and not seldom without giving the reader any clear idea of tbe view which he would like to present. These are the results of general mental confusion. The de partment of rhetoric is never wholly, and hardly ever mainly, responsible for them. The trouble is that, the whole mental training has been de fective. . . . These ill features of college education are closely connect ed with those classical studies which, in most of our colleges, still remain the centre and pivot of curriculum. The antiquarian and the devotee of tbe science and history of religion may have some use for a book like Ovid's Metamorphoses, but the ma jority of us have none; on the con trary, wa suffer net loss by every moment we devote to such reading." jt . Dancing. Crime is sin, but sin is not crime. Crime is punishable by law and law sometimes punishes it if the prisoner at the bar chance not to be a woman or a rich man. But the sin that is not a crime is amenable to law. Sin concerns only the sinner, broadly speaking, although no one can injure himself without affecting tbe whole body of society. There are times and circumstances when it is a virtue to lie, but the lie will be ineffectual un less the one"who" tells it has establish ed a reputation for truth-telling. Every man must settle with himself what is right for him and what is wrung for him. It is certain that his code will not coincide with his neigh bor's, and yet both may be upright. There can be no dispute about what the law calls crime, and that Is for tunate, because there are a sufficient number of occasions when a man bat tles with himself, blinded by trying to find out if what he wants to do is wrong. After too long a self-examination conscience wabbles like the needle drawn from its loyalty to the pole by the iron on board the ship. Then the man, like tbe ship, drifts out of bis course. The statutes are unaffected by sophistry or desire; and if tbe denominate certain conduct criminal, it is an undebatable rock from which self-examination may leap where it will and return with certainty. There are amusements, like danc ing, cards and the theatre, which some hold harmless and others de nounce as vicious. Every recreation which tends to increase the attrac tions of the social group is beneficial. Crime isolates. Vice slinks about in small groups or couples. The large ness of au assembly of people come together to dance, for instance, en forces tbe adoption of general rules and a rigid convention. A few years ago dances were held at Burlington beach pavilion contigu ous to Lincoln, where every body was welcome except the notoriously vic ious. Large numbers of observers stood around tbe railing which sep--arated tbe dancers from the crowd. It was a most favorable opportunity to study dancing and to decide for one's self if it is a sensual dissipation or the natural expression of joyous ness and the love of musical move ment. It was an excellent opportuni ty because the dancers belonged to no one social set. They were restrain ed from improper conduct by none of tbe conventions which fix manners in an intimate social coterie. The dancers were acquainted with each other; introductions in an assembly of tbe kind I refer to are insisted upon much more severely than they are now in society where It is con ceded that the mere fact of being present at a ceremonious function is a guarantee of election. There was no doubt in the candid mind of an observer that the dancers were there for dancing and for nothing else. The youths bad paid for their tickets which included a certain number of dances, and they intended to get their money's worth. There was no dal liance or sentimental linger;ng in corners or shadowy places. The young men and women danced as children play games in the school recess with evident determination to get out of their short vacation all the pleasure possible. The intervals be tween tbe dances were short although the time was summer, tbe exercise vigorous, and tbe dancers themselves warm. The young men desired to fulfill their obligations to each one of their acquaintances, as well as to en joy an extra dance or two with a favorite. As the dancers whirled past the point of observation there was not one who was not busily occupied in keeping time to the music and in guiding or being guided, without col lision by her partner through tbe kaleidoscopic pavilion. Men and wo men who work six days in the week take their pleasures seriously and with a kind of conscientious care very touching to an observer with sense or experience enough to know the cause. The graceful, light insouciant manner is not cultivated in feeding an engine with twelve or fifteen tons of coal a day or bv running along tbe tops of slippery cars going around curves at thirty miles an hour. Tbe effect on the expression and bearing of six days' of hard labor cannot be obliterated in a moment, as the en gineer washes off the stains of the engine from his face and hands. But the effort to enjoy the society of young women is refining. The brake man wbo puts on his most gorgeous and becoming tie and his best clothes and goes out to enjoy a dance within his means, who strives to participate in the innocent functions where he is welcome and which he can afford, is cultivating the social graces and he is kindlier and saner for it. In the miscellaneous company of dancers at Burlington beach there was not one whose expression indicated anything but pleasure or an anxious desire to fulfill the duties of the occasion cred itably. There are dance halls sup ported by saloon keepers whose object is to sell liquor and where all sorts of characters are admitted. The places are bad without a redeeming feature, and tbe police, if they are instructed to do their duty, keep a close watch on them. Lincoln has no resort or amusement for poor young people who live in small and squalid homes but who, notwithstanding, desire the com pany of the other sex, long for an op portunity to get acquainted with a number of tbe young people on their orbit and to enjoy all the privileges of youth, which, somehow, at their birth, and without their consent, were withdrawn from them. Larger and wealthier cities than Lin coln reserve parks In parts of the city inacessible except occasionally to the very poor, but still patronized by tbem on holidays. There are blocks in the cheapest and most thickly uettled parts of Lincoln which could be purchased by the city at small expenditure now, on accoun ( tbe accumulated taxes which w.u never be paid. A small green - t where the people swarm is be r than an enchanted garden ful. . f fountains and singing birds wit,, n reach of the poor man and his fatL.ty of children only at the rate of n cents a bead car fare. A census if one district in New York, a citj of parks, revealed tbe fact that hun dreds of children bad never been in side one of them. Their parent should have taken them to the park, but the wretchedty poor do not ! what tbey ought in spite of their unmistakably shocked richer fellow townsman. Even In this prairie town, bounded on every side by unbroken horizon, there is not room enough in the bot toms which will grow more and "more crowded as the laboring popula tion increases. Summer recreation in this mountain-less, lake-less and river-less region is a problem which the versatile council should consider, remembering that Satan's tools and victims are the bored young men and women who, having earned a holiday, are denied a place in which to pleas antly spend it. The Water Supply. The city water department is in better condition than it has ever been but this is not saying mucli because under water commissioner Byers the water department was run for the behoof of a few politicians and the receipts never equaled the expendi ture. The present commissioner ad ministers the department with mure regard to economy, but unnecessary men are still employed and paid high er wages for less labor than private employers are paying, and the present council have just been foiled in an attempt, to make the discrepancy still greater. If the water department of this city were in charge of a com petent engineer who administered it without regard to politics, and ex actly as a private owner would do there is little doubt that the expenses might be greatly reduced. It is idle to com pare Mr. Tyler's administration with his predecessor's, for Mr. Byer's is igaorant; he had no conception of hi duties to the municipality which hired him, he employed as many men at as high wages as possible thinking thus to increase the patronising power of the office. Comparing the present conduct of the office with the scale of wages and with the managing regime of the gas and traction companies, which each serve the public, it is ob vious that the expense might be fur ther reduced. Mr. Burns' proposition to furnish the city with water at eight cent per thousand gallons is not receiving much consideration for several ons. Mr. Burns' connection with tlie water department of Lincoln has not been productive of satisfactory re suits. He insisted upon digging well on the Salt creek side of the city and, in consequence, we were obliged for many years to drink salt water or something else when we were thirsty. The unpleasant, unsatisfying taste cf the water did very well for a sani tarium, but I fear that it drove man to drink and into druukards' graven When a few people finally concluded that the curse should be lifted from this city, Mr. Burns and Mr. Thomp son did what they could to defeat the movement, but the city council wa composed of vertebrates who refused to yield to the representations of the politicians that fresh water was pro curable from a salt basin. Then be sides his record Mr. Burns is a water wizard and we are as much afraid of wizards now as when they went about reas--- k 1 M ii rtf in;. amituet:-