VuL. XVI., NO. XL
ESTABLISHED IN 1886
PRICE FIVE CENTS
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LINCOLN. NEBR., SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1901.
THE COURIER,
KKTKMDIX TBS FOSTOFTICK AT LINCOLN AS
SECOND CLASS MATTER.
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BT
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SARAH B. HARRIS, : : : EDITOR
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g OBSERVATIONS. f
A Funeral Service.
The McKinley memorial services
held simultaneously in all cities and
towns of the United States, were im
pressive. The universality of the
mourning and its simultaneous dem
onstration were most significant.
The consciousness of being a humble
actor in a historical moment or crisis
tilled every American with pride in
his country and inspired him with
renewed devotion to it.
At the Presbyterian church of Lin
coln where overflow services were
held, there was a moment of tension
in which the object of assembly was
forgotten.
Among the speakers on this occas
ion was Mr. Strode, an old soldier and
federal officer in the civil war. Mr.
Strode has made an honorable record
in the war, in politics and in the law.
" He is a man of surprises. With a gen
tler voice than many women possess,
with a manner that is never aggres
sive, he is at the same time loyal in
all places and occasions to his con
victions. He is the kind of man who
would nail the flag to the mast-head
and go down with his ship if he were
the captain and he had views about
the impropriety of a captain's saving
himself while his ship went to the
bottom without him. Or at a time
when Christians were burned alive
for their religion he would not have
recanted though the fagots were light
ed. There have been great generals
as soft-spoken and modest-mannered
as a girl. Mr. Strode is a soldier of
this deceptive aspect. Many people
profess not to understand the poem of
''The Boy Stood on the Burning
Deck." But Mr. Strode might have
been the very boy if his author had
allowed him a rescue.
Mr. Strode believes that Mr. Bry
an's campaign speeches and his ar
raignment of President McKinley in
"The Commoner" are partially re
sponsible for the assassination. On
the dais of the church of which Mr.
Bryan is a member, Mr. Strode said:
"An unpleasant side of this tragedy
consists of the causes that led up to
it Chief among these are the un
disciplined and unlicensed utterances
of the press, and the unwarranted
and inflamed utterances of partisan
opponents from the platform. They
have filled the minds of aliens, the
vicious and discontented, with a sub
tie and insidious poison which led
them to believe that President Mc
Kinley was the organizer and protect
or of institutions that have oppress
ed the people. When a man is chos
en to the chief magistracy of this
country the position ought to exempt
him from such attacks. They are at
the bottom of this trouble. Let us
be careful to withhold our support
and encouragement from those who
make utterances and expressions mak
ing such acts of revolution pos
sible wherever expressed and by whom
soever uttered.''
The pastor of the church was anx
ious that such a characterization of
one of his parishioners should not
proceed un rebuked from that pulpit
so he hastened to assure the large
audience that Mr. Bryan was all right
and sincerely sorry for the death of
the President. lie also said that the
spectacle of a defeated candidate as
sisting at the obsequies of his suc
cessful opponent could only be seen
in the United States and implied
that its production in Lincoln was
due solely to Mr. Bryan's magnanim
ity. Without replying to the reflections
upon his sincerity, Mr. Bryan an
nounced his disapproval of anarchy
and his admiration of the character
of the man whose life the country
memorialized. Before the audience
at the auditorium where these two
speakers repeated their addresses in
the some order, Mr. Bryan read his
speech in accordance with his cus
tom on such occasions. When he
arose to speak the old soldier who was
holding the flag lowered it. A sol
dier of the Rebellion is tenacious.
His republicanism is a religion and he
says his creed on all occasions with a
conviction of the value and meaning
of iteration.
Free Translation.
To consider subjects from an en
tirely impersonal, imaginary point of
view is peculiarly the attainment of
a scholar. The constant reading of
many books, the mind's occupation or
preoccupation with psychological
problems has a tendency to make a
man forget his place in time and his
local and accidental business and re
gard himself abstractly, as it were.
Doubtless when Chancellor Andrews
referred to the hanging of the anar
chists as a "judicial murder" he was
in the scholar's frame of mind. The
evidence developed at the anarchist
trial was not enough to convict a com
mon murderer. Few people have any
doubt that the anarchists were justly
punished, but the conviction sprung
from the portentous menace of anar
chy and not from the connection of
these anarchists with the Haymarket
massacre. The Chancellor meant to
say not that the punishment of anar
chy with death by hanging is too
severe, but that tbe evidence which
convicted Spies, Parsons and the rest
of murder and conspiracy was insuf
ficient and inconclusive. The evi
dence analytically and impartially
considered is ambiguous and a com
mon criminal accused of a cowardly
and base murder would probably not
have been hanged unless stronger
evidence than that on which the an
archists were convicted was fur
nished. The present Chancellor is not an
astute politician and the newspapers
have marked him for their prey. His
frankness and willingness to announce
his opinion on any given subject, in
stead of disarming criticism as it
should, seems to increase the eager
ness of his pursuers. Taking him for
all in all, as a chancellor, as a man
and as a citizen, the university, Lin
coln and the state are very fortunate.
It is much better for the community
and the university to look up to a
man as chancellor who occasionally
speaks his mind perhaps too unre
servedly and publicly, than to the
over-cautious man who at all times
suits his words and his opinions to
his auditors. Those who have deal
ings with Chancellor Andrews take
occasion to express their satisfaction
with the directness and detiniteness
of the negotiations. Subtlety, di
plomacy the several methods of con
cealing thought and future action
which the late Chancellor employed
are entirely foreign to the mind and
purpose of Chancellor Andrews.
On another page of this issue of
The Courier appears a correction from
the Chancellor refuting the newspa
per charges that ir. a lecture on "Ver
acity" before the students of Chicago
university he advocated lying, and
in a street car conversation with a
neighbor he expressed what is equiv
alent to an approval of anarchy.
By interrogating a number of peo
ple on the question of invariable ver
acity, it surprises one to discover how
few advocate its application to all
occasions. It is a Machiavellian
statement, but from a human stand
point, and the human standpoint is so
low that it is not possible to get a
really broad view, the truth is oc
casionally fatal to life and destruc
tive to material prospects. Generals,
doctors, parents, statesmen and all
sorts of officials in charge of defen
sive and offensive operations appre
ciate the value of strategy and usually
employ it. The conceivable circum
stances in which the confession of
the actual truth would be fatal arc
numerous.
For instance, suppose a general has
the opportunity of letting papers en
tirely misrepresenting his army and
fortifications fall into the hands of
the enemy; would it not be his duty
to prepare these papers with smalt
regard to truth and with the idea of
fatally deceiving the enemy? Of
course, unless most people told the
truth, lies would be of little use. IT
lies were known as lies they would be
ineffectual. It is only because they
deceive that they sometimes serve a
worthy purpose. A liar who has
established a reputation by long years
of lying is debarred from making use
of either truth or its counterfeit. I
am aware that admitting the utility
of an occasional lie is almost the same
as saying that it is best to tell the
truth most of the time so that when
we need the services of a lie we can
employ it. But such a discussion
pertains rather to the class room of a
professor of ethics than to the col
umns of a paper devoted to the fri
volities of life.
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Machines.
The Republicans of Douglas county
are jubilant because in the recent
convention the Mercer machine was
more powerful than the Rosewatec
machine. The former made tbe nom
inations in spite of the activity oC
Mr. Rosewater and his friends. Po
litical machines resemble each other
as machines for sewing, reaping,
printing or threshing resemble each
other. One has the name of McCor
mick and another the name of some
other manufacturer, just as the po
litical machines in Omaha are tag
ged or stamped with the names of
Rosewater and Mercer. But they are
all machines and their product has
the characteristics of machine-made
things, and is stripped of all the beau
ties and individual character of
things made with human hands and
directed by a mind. Some accom
plish the work quicker and with less
dirt and noise, but all political ma
chines chop up the liberties of the
people into so fine a powder that the
original character and aspect is en
tirely changed. After the machine
men get through with popular gov
ernment it looks like something e!se,
though their constituents are assured
it is the same thing in another and 3
better form.
Chimes.
There are towns in this country and
in Mexico which possess too many
chimes. On Sunday morning at
church time the air is full of mixed
hymns; big bells, little bells and me
dium sized bells, and one gets a con
fused idea of something religious
going on. This mixture of tunes and
of impressions is not desirable. Tbe
effect is something like a visit to an
international exposition. When the
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