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THE COURIER.
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OMAHA LETTER.
Omaha,. Ncbr.,
JnJy.15, 1001.
Dear Eleanor:
Project your mind into the past once
a little, mine own familiar friend, and
you may be able to recall a period in
your existence when, with the ther
mometer at twenty degrees below, you
froze toward me; icicles clung" to your
pen point and "no letther did you Bind
me all the long toimethat I waited."
When the thermometer reverses its
pilgrimage and climbs instead of skates
out of eight, I meet my Waterloo. My
ideas, such as I hare, run together, be
come a liquid maes and "hair" under
the sun like melted sugar over the blue
ilames of the gas range. 1 reach lan
guid fingers and bring them back empty
of everything save blisters. Suppose I
had sent you quires of paper decorated
with words "that burn?" I fancy some
one would hare thrown cold water on
my efforts with rery little ceremony.
Do not misconstrue this into an apolo
gy; there is no apology due, unless- it
should come from the Weather- Bureau.
Mr. Welch, our local forecaster, moves,
I beliere glides would be a better" word,
among us with a cheerful,- almost radi
ant expression of satisfaction which,
whether natural or assumed, seems to
add insult unto injury.
I heard him ask.a gentleman in the
street car a few days since if he didn't
suppose that His Eoyal Highness in the
region below would like a good man to
help run his business.
"If he does," replied the addressed
and perspiring gentleman, "there will
be no trouble about your getting fine
recommendations from everybody in
IhiB locality."
Of course it is all very well to speak
lightly on this subject, hut as our
butcher man said yesterday, "Dis is
getting so it vasn't any shake already
any more." As he contrary to the
time honored conception of butchers, is
naturally pessimistic, it may be that
the joke has escaped him. There is no
more 400 it too has melted and run
together until it looks like 4000000000 or
any other indiscriminate number with
a tail piece of innumerable ciphers.
There "ib no "smart Bet." no aristoc
racy, no elect. We are just as indis
tinguishable, panting, perspiring mass
of humanity; upon a molten earth be
neath a sky of brass.
Of course everybody who could has
escaped and fled to the sea or the
mountains, which ever way their in
clinations or passes indicated.
Count Creighton leaves Saturday with
Doctor and Mrs. Allison for Europe.
We do not feel in the least ashamed to
6end our only titled representative
across the big waters and risk compari
son upon the native soil of Kings and
Queens.
In fact we have already officially noti
fied them on the other side that our
well beloved Count is to have the beet
that their land and larder affords to
use his own language ho must have
"butter on his custard pie, 'ave he so
desires." See to it, most noble Lords
and Ladies! If you do not care to have
us, au a Nation, descend upon you in
righteous indignation. Count Creight
ton will visit Miss Mary Munchoff, who
is a distant relative of his, and it was
through his advice she decided to go
abroad for the perfection in training of
her naturally beautiful voice. You
have no doubt read of the success of
her venture in this line. We are very
proud of her, too. In fact I am not
sure but we are cultivating pride in our
citizens and citizenesses, to the point
of weakness.
There is some excuse for ub from the
fact that for many long years, it was
a natural query, "Can any good thing
come out of Omaha?" Now, boweve
we have laid that doubt under the as
phalt and pass it alongjo South Omaha.
But to return to Miss Munchoff. I
am in a position to know that all her
remarkable success has left htr utterly
unspoiled. She is the -.same unassum
ing, gentle girl who left us four years
ago with her laurels unwon. Every week
she sends home her journal to the moth
er, who lives and moves and has her
being in her thoughts of this gifted
daughter. Each little item of her daily
life is faithfully recorded for the pleas
ure of this same loving, unselfish moth
er, who gave up hef greatest joy when
she cheerfully resigned Mary to her
career.
The simplicity, of these recitals would
surprise and delight you. I know it is
trite to say that there is no royal road
to the heights she has reached, but it is
true as trite eayings are apt to be. Be
sides the labor'neceesary for the culti
vation of her voice, Miss Munchoff has
perfected herself in both the French
and Italian languages since she has
been in Europe. When one of the best
critics of the old world speaks of her as
a "rejuvenated Patti" it would seem
that there is not much more to be said.
I have as you know been pronounced a
wonder as an advance notice writer. If
I could only manage to have this fall
under the eyes of Miss Munchoff, I
might be reasonably sure of a compli
mentary ticket' to her first American
concert. I wish that were not a possi
bility so far in the future, for I think I
"would cheerfully "give the price" and
sacrifice my only pair of Jouvin gloves
in such a cause.
General and Mrs.. Manderson have
gone in somebody's private car to
Bockyford, Colorado. They expect to
meet and bring home as their guest, Mr.
and Mrs. Henry Oxnard. Mr. Oxnard
is he of the beet sugar fame. Mrs. Ox
nard is of the sweet variety a beauty
so rumor hath it French sweetmeat!
That is rather an obvious effort to be
funny and a most conspicuous failure.
It is the kind of witticism the Daily
News indulges in. But the Examiner
says that the News is an entirely u in
fluential sheet. How can that be, when
you see how it has influenced me?
There is something painful In a natural
ly serious minded person attempting
jocularity. Fancy McKiniey making
faces at Mark Hanna, or telling him to
"come off!"
Miss Blanche McKenna has gone to
Buffalo as the guest of Mrs. Clifford
Smith. Miss Mabel Balcombe, who has
won my cordial dislike by having a
story accepted by Town Topics, is at
Mackinac for the summer, and Miss
Penelope Mayfair is casting about for a
cheap high sounding summer resort, so
that she can have her address in the Ex
celsior. By the way the Excelsior has
become a rather dressy looking affair,
and has given us some entertaining
reading lately.I wish Miss Harris would
get somebody to make some other pic
tures for our paper than the patent in
sides for dreg stores. I really think if I
could have a few illumined posters
through my letters, it would help me
out a lot to find out what I mean when
I read over two or three of my old let
ters and they really made some of those
excavated Pompeian tablets look like
primers. I find that my letters, like
Bryan's speeches have to be taken "hot
from the griddle" in order to be di
gested. The lead in my S2 eagle pencil is be
ginning to melt, and what is more to the
purpose mother appeared at my door a
moment ago in a kimona which out
Japs all Japan, and wearing an expres
sion left over from last winter and made
a few economical remarks about the gas;
reminded me further that tomorrow
will be wash day and that we wore
booked for an early breakfast, Mother
means well, biit there is something nar
rowing to the best of women in a long
life devoted to gas bills and wash days
which even the possession of a gifted
daughter cannot entirely counteract.
I have literally stuck to this pencil
and paper pad from eight o'clock until
the present writing ju6t to prove to you
that there are worse afflictions than no
letter at all.
Yours, etc.,
PiNELOPB.
M. Stewart, 1000 James St., Syracuse
N. Y. In the latter. Mrs. Sidney J.
Parsons, 239 West 28th. Street, Los
Angeles, Gal. Prom The Club Woman.
CLUBS.
(Continued from Page 5.)
intelligent, sympathetic direction to re
store it to its former artistic value. In
forbidding the ubo of aniline' dyee, our
government has wisely followed the ex
ample of Persia and the Sultan of Tur
key, who foresaw the ruin of their
people's rug industry through the ani
line temptation. Pueblo pots should be
seen more frequently in eastern homes
as jardinieres. The Indians are expert
workers in leather and silver, and their
product in these materials should find
its way into the eastern shops. Bead
work has undeveloped possibilities in
ecclesiastical embroidery as well as in
.the demands of the women of fashion.
The Indian woman's handicraft suffers
nothing by comparison with that her
most skilled white sister; let her work be
received and exhibited by the women's
exchanges. Each article praised or pur
chased encourages the maker to produce
another. Clubs and patriotic societies
should take a hand in the advancement
of Indian arts and arrange exhibitions
where the public may become better
acquainted with Indian basketry, pot
tery, rugs, bead-work, leather and silver.
NELTJE DeG. DOUBLEDAY,
111 East 16th Street, New York.
Landscape Gardening.
The Woman's Auxiliary of the Ameri
can Park and Outdoor Art Association
offers the following suggestions, made
by members noted for their knowledge
of this art, such as F. L. and John C.
Oimstead, Warren B. Manning, Thomas
H. McBride, L. E. Holden, Mrs. Cyrus
McCormick and others:
1. Park designing is a creative art, re
quiring special training to enable the
designer to suit his plan to the character
of the land and produce a picture har
monious in its details. The preservation
of natural beauties should be the civic
pride of our women. A bluff, a shore
line or cove, a succession of richly col
ored boulders, or a clump of trees may
form the central point in a delightful
Bcene, where the planter should ubo hiB
materials as a painter his pigments.
2. School buildings and their Bur
rounding grounds should be object les
sons in architecture and landscape gar
dening. Our public schools should en
courage the study of plants and trees
with reference to their decorative use
in the town, the park and along the
highway.
3. The signs and billboards that so
frequently mar our landscapes should
be abolished.
4. Every tangled roadside thicket and
every river bank has individual beauties
which should be preserved, and, where
possible, heightened by combined ac
tion of those whose love of nature is
supplemented by special training.
Mns. ALBERT H. BROCKWAY,
In the past requests have been made
for suggestions and directions for Bchool
room decoration and for lists of suitable
works of art for school rooms. The
committee will cheerfully respond to
such requests.
The committee will furnish clubs with
bibliographies and with suggestions for
the study of history of art, and of liter
ature as illustrated by art.
In the former case address Miss Luella
The Ninety-ninth street play ground
in New-York'city thiB year is proving
reven a greater benefaction than it was
last summer. It is located in one of the
poorest and moat densely populated
neighborhoods of the upper West Bide,
and occupies twelve' city blocks. Over
twelve hundred children were registered
the first day. Base' ball, basket ball
and an open air gymnasium are provided
for the older boys', while swings, sand
piles and toyB furnish entertainment for
the smaller children. A large pavilion
which was erected last summer is used
for kindergarten games and as a shelter
from sudden showers. A girl's library
'also has been started in the play ground
and is growing in popularity. The play
ground is a popular resort for mothers '(
who take their babies and derive great
enjoyment from watching the sports of
the children.
Kate Miller, aged eighty years, of
Fredericksburg, Pa., is probably the
oldest woman employed in an industrial
establishment in the United States.
For more than fifty years she has been
a "factory girl," and' for twenty years
she has worked in the same building.
Miss Herminia Davila of Porto Rico,
who is staying in New York city, has
just completed a needlework portrait of
.Andrew Carnegie which has been placed
in the Porto Rican exhibit at Buffalo.
The picture is an enlarged copy of a
photograph showing the head and
shoulders of Mr. Carnegie, and the pro
portions and shadings are accurately
reproduced. The stitches of black and
white are invisible except on closest scru
tiny. In the corners, formiug a setting
for the portrait, are embroidered pansies
which are so finely worked that they
appear to be painted. The whole is
mounted in an elaborate and beautiful
frame designed by Miss Davila.
Four years ago the name of Lincoln,
N. J., was known throughout the coun
try. It waB the first of the eastern
towns to try the plan of equal rights for
men and women, and at the first elec
tion in 1897, all but one of the city offi
cers were women. On Wednesday, July
10, by order of the court of chancery,
the town of Lincoln, with its goods and
chattels, properties and franchises was
Bold at auction to the highest bidder.
Mrs. Anna McDonald of Marysville,
West Virginia, is the only woman jailer
in the United States. She occupies the
position of deputy sheriff, and her
charges are among the most desperate
characters in the country. She is a
widow forty-three years of age, and
lives with her two children in the jail,
where at the present time are confined
two of the most desperate moonshiners
ever captured in the state, also a man
Charged with murder. When her pris
oners are wanted in court she is obliged
to take them ten miles to Petersburg,
the county seat, and none have ever
escaped from her custody.
A button especially suited to uniforms
has been patented in Europe by Mrs.
Dudley F. Phelps of New York. This
button requires no sewing; it iB fastened
to the garment by means of two small
prongs, to which the top is fastened like
a glove fastener. This top may be re
moved for polishing by pressing a
spring.
St. Peter Well, who are you?
Applicant at gate I'm the first shirt
waist man.
St. Peter Ladies' entrance, please.
Newark Advertiser.
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