VOL. XVI., NO. XXXII
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OBSERVATIONS.
WILLA SIBERT CATHER.
1
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Real Strike Instigators.
Whatever may be the real cause of
the disturbances that come up from
time to time in Pittsburg steel cir
cles, one fact Is peculiarly significant,
that strikes never occur wheu the de
mand for worked steel and steel prod
ucts exceeds the supply. The press
dispatchers, in figuring up the total
losses to the steel corporations
through the inactivity of the mills,
have neglected to figure what the
steel magnates would lose by meeting
the weekly pay roll when their ware
houses are already overstocked, and
an inevitable depression in the steel
industry stares them in the face.
If alt strikes are the fault of the
workmen altogether, it would seem
but a common sense measure to strike
when their labor is indispensable, as,
for instance, when the government
orders that followed the declaration
of war against Spain had to be tilled,
or when Russia's orders were heaviest.
The repeated occurrence of strikes
when orders are light and work is
slack would seem to indicate that the
steel corporations of Pennsylvania
and Ohio can avoid tliem when they
find it expedient to do so, and that if
they lose money through the idleness
of their mills they would lose more
in the long run through their
operation.
Lax Denver Law.
The wounding of Professor Howie
of the Peru State Normal in Denver
by a stray bullet from a gambler's
pistol last week gives all western
cities a right to make certain sugges
tions to the city authorities or that
place.
Denver is one of the last of the
"ring towns" left in that part of the
LINCOLN, NEBR., SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 1901.
west which has indisputably estab
lished its claim to recognition as a
part of civilization. Other cities to
the east and west and north and
south of it have worked their way out
of the clutches of that debasing form
of municipal government which, at
one time or another, has existed in
most American cities. Even St.
Louis lias effected au arrangement
whereby the city gets some considera
ble portion of the service and protec
tion for which it pays. But the funds
of the Denver treasury are so largely
exhausted in oiling political machin
ery and in concealing and repairing
the bungling work of incompetent
orticers, that the city has experienced
severe reverses of reputation during
the past ten years.
Certain forms of vice and lawless
ness are expected and condoned in
mushroon mining towns, in the
wealth-flushed copper towns and in
that line of outpost cities in the new
states where the Old West has made
its last desperate stand. But Denver
is only twenty-four hours from Chi
cago, a city with settled and perma
nent sources of income which eastern
capitalists regard as a tangible fact
in the kaleidoscopic history of the
west. This prolonged Jesse James'
melodrama is unnecessary and un
dignified, and is a poor card of invita
tion to the tourist.
An old argument is that people who
come there from the east want to see
a wide-open town and would not be
satisfied with any thing else. There
is, however, nothing picturesque
about bad city government and a cor
rupt city council: and in the present
state of affairs there is nothing to
tempt the curiosity of the most jaded
sensationalist.
The city has long been a menace to
the tourist's pocketbook, and now it
threatens his life.
An excellent and well-chosen police
force has been the only tiling which
has kept Denver from reverting into
absolute and unrestrained lawless
ness, but innumerable hold-ups and
shootings have demonstrated the fact
that though the police may mark the
danger, they cannot avert it; and that
if a city keeps snakes in its cellars,
occasionally somebody will get bitten.
The lack of discipline and "I'm as
good as you and a little better"' holds
throughout all grades of public ser
vice. It is one of the first things
that strikes the tourist. Everywhere
the most, exorbitant tips are demand
ed. He goes to a hotel and notices
that the bell boys and porters all ride
in the guests' elevator, and on tiie
second day of his stay the bell boys
begin to critically discuss ttie other
guests of the house with him.
Mrs. Potter Palmer told an amus
ing story in Paris about a hotel clerk
there who, when she went on to meet
Mr. Palmer there, told her that Mr.
Palmer tiad been suddenly called up
to one of ttie mining towns, but that
he himself would be entirely at her
disposal until her husband's return
and would be glad to show her about
the town.
A Dramatized Omar.
After Lis production of Stephen
Phillipps "Herod" and Bootli Tark
ington's delightful "Monsieur Beau
caire," Richard Mansfield intends
staging a drama entitled "Omar
Khayyam," written by a talented
young Pittsburger, George Seibel.
Ttie text of the play is so arranged
as to permit Mr. Mansfield to quote
many of ttie most beautiful passages
of the "Rubaiyat" in situations of the
play to which they peculiarly apply.
The heroine of the drama is the
daughter of the potter to whose house
the poet often repaired to meditate
upon "the things of clay." The play
contains a double interest the ro
mance which is concerned solely with
Omar's affection for ttie potter's
daughter, and an exposition of his
philosophy in his lialf-humorous pro
test against the Pharisaical creed of
theMusselmen. It contains a bril
liantly written drinking scene; and
the last act, which is in blank verse,
is an idyl woven about the beautiful
tiieme:
"A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou
Beside me, singing in the wilderness."
The scenario of the play is sucli as
will give Mr. Mansfield ricti oppor
tunities for ttiose feats of stage man
agement witli which lie lias occupied
himselr much of late years; and an
oriental play offers unusual tempta
tions in the line of scenic display.
The author of the piece is a news
paper man, American by birth but
German by descent: a scholar by taste
and habit and widely read in three
languages. His study of Oriental
manners and religions has been suf
ficient to warrant ttie play's being
free from anachronisms in spirit and
letter. If the play is s'.cessfully
produced, it will be an occasion of no
small importance: for, so far, Ameri
can dramatists have shown them
selves woefully lacking in ability to
handle poetic subjects.
J
Constant's Victoria.
The rejection of Benjamin Con
stant's portrait of Queen Victoria
lias at last been thoroughly adver
tised in this country, though Mme.
Cecilia, Marquise de Wentworth, who
is also a painter after a fashion,
brougtit the news of its unpopularity
with the royal family to Washington
last winter.
The Marquise paints portraits in
the old, hard manner. One of the
Pope 1 believe is accounted a very
good one, and she was a pupil of
Cabanel and Gorome. She goes about
a good deal among the studios of men
of the older school, and as she tias a
handsome house and a good cook and
makes a specialty of dinner-giving,
the men of the newer schools drop ii
on her frequently.
She tiad seen the Constant port
rait of ttie Queen when it was ex
hibited at the Salon, and Constant
had told her the story of ttie paint
ing of it. Queen Alexandra had a
high appreciation of Constant's work,
and had repeatedly urged the aged
Queen to sit to him. Ttie artist went
to England on that one commission,
and received a fabulous price for his
work. The old Queen granted lilui
only half a dozen sittings, and ttiose
were grudgingly given and unsatis
factory to the artist. He was obliged
to work from photographs, and resort
to makeshifts that he abominates, as
tie usually requires from fifty to
seventy-five sittings from any sub
ject. Finally tie decided to transfer
his study of the Queen to a large can
vas and make it one of the figures in
a figure piece, filling the canvas up
witli portraits of the more approacha
ble people of the court and royal
family. This he did; but whether it
is this picture or the original study
of the single figure of the Queen, that
King Edward has rejected and re
fused to admit into any of the royal"
collections, the press dispatches from
London do not state.
Ttie picture was completed about
four months before Victoria's death,
and on the sole occasion on which stic
inspected it she conceived sucli a
violent prejudice against it that it is
quite possible tier disfavor lias caused
its rejection by ttie King.
Edward MacDowelt.
"What is ttie best thing that can
be done for American art?"' said
Ignace Padcrewski to Mr. Krebbeil,
the foremost of New York Musical
Critics, "why, buy pictures and get
the people to look at ttiem." "What
is ttie best tiling ttiat can be done for
American music?" "Why, give Ed
ward MacDowelt twenty ttiousand a
year and make him quit teaching and.
write."
Yet every day one comes across
pedantic music teachers who ask:.
"Who is Edward MacDowelt?"
With the exception of Dvorak,.
Grieg, Massenet and Saint Saens,
there is probably no living composer
who is writing music of such an in
tensely individual nature as Mac
Dowell, or whose work seems to have
more of that quality which gives un
limited youth and tenure to works of
art. Ten or fifteen years ago his com
positions began to appear in the rep
ertoires of foreign concert pianists,
and for the last eight years they have
figured from time to time in Ameri
can concert programs; but MacDowell
seldom gives recitals himself, and,
except by his pupils, very little is
known about his personality.
He is a man of leonine head, witli a
physique not unlike Rosenthal's.
For some years lie has been professor
of the theory of music at Columbia
university.
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