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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 2, 1901)
THE COURIER 2 man's grammar and the white man's table manners. Rut savagery is stub born, and docs not vield to stiff linen collar, Prince Albert coats, low yel low shoes and the forms of speech. If it take four generations to make a gentleman out of a common Cau casian, it will certainly require a much longer time to make a white man out of a red Indian, so very well set are the colors of barbarism. The African negro responds much quick er to civilization than the Indian, for the very reason that the negro has been enslaved long enough to thor oughly learn the ways of white peo ple and the comfort of eleanliness. Slavery to the black people of th south was not an unmitigated racial misfortune. The southern blncks arc several centuries more civilized than the savages of Central Africa, who still eat their captured enemies. The slaves who were indoor servants learned in a comparatively short time the fastidious habits of clean men. Emigration to Africa is now obnox ious to the negro, because if he went there lie would have tc associate with savages whose king lives in a squalid hut and eats food disgusting to the American black man. It is a matter of taste with the African, too. be tween him and his African brother whose grandfather happened not to be caught by the slave traders, there ii more difference than there Is be tween two average examples of the black and white race in America. The negro In America resists man fully all the hints and plans made to colonize him in Africa. He considers himself, and he is superior to the negroes whose ancestors oatran the slave hunter in a race for liberty a hundred years or more ago. No laws and no precedent can remove a -ocfal disability. Booker Washington bai disarmed criticisst zed made friends in the soeUi 07 dcteriag that hi-? race -a. a ymz rsce. tbat it had its wa 'alvatlcs to tot oet, 3d that social 6U&clifa -rzs far from bis own boe?bt of hat s bes for hU people. To ierc to be vfit is the building trades ssd s azDeottcre, and in the many ways in wfecb men make themselves of the greatest eco nomic importance, i Mr. Wa.shisg ton's constant advice to his people He is oce of the trcly great mer of his time. The Presklest tboeght it a privilege to have him a a gsest at his own table. There is no docbl that this man and several others of his race are eqoal to the finest white product of the time, hot the southerners obstinately consider the invitation was addressed to a colored man and refuse to consider the character and accomplishments of the President's guest. Like all men born with a love of literature and of greatness, the Presi dent long ago forgot the essentially local and temporary distinctions which separate man from man In localities. Then to be president cos mopolitan Izes a man. Before be took the oath of office he was Theodore Roosevelt in the direct succession to the presidency, but standing at one side and exercising no initiative in fluence on national affairs. After be had taken the oath and realized his relation to seventy-five million peo ple he was as a man upon whom a miracle had been performed. There is no color to character or to mind, and President Roosevelt was uncon scious of color when he invited his distinguished visitor to dine with him. This emancipated mind is pe culiarly the mind of the president of white men, black men and red men. 9 9 9 What the New York Women Did. A week ago Mrs. William II. Schicf fclln, Mrs. Douglas Robinson and Mrs. Charles II. Strong, President Roosevelt's sister, representing the Women's Municipal League of New York, carried 332,500 entirely sub scribed by women and collected by them to the treasurer of the Citizen's Union Headquarters. They present ed it to the treasurer to use in the ' ami Tammany campaign. The rev elation of what the control of New York by Croker means, the unspeaka ble "cadet"' system and the collection of subscriptions by the police from "guns," madams, and all sorts of law breaking saloon keepers, has implant ed the crusading spirit in the breasts of the women of the metropolis. The work of collecting this money was done in consequence of the ad vice of Justice Jerome delivered at the home of Mrs. Strong, a little more than a fortnight ago, to the members of '"The Women's Municipal League" in session there. The League was organized to fight Tammany, on the issue of the slavery of women and the "cadet'' system, but, lacking experi ence in campaign work, the women decided to call on Justice Jerome for advice. He was equal to the occas sion and told Ihem that all the hor rible stories had been printed and rehearsed until everyone knew them. What was needed was money for legitimate campaign expenses. He told them not to go down on the East Side and exhort, by no means to do that, but to collect money and hand it to the treasurer of the Citizen's Union. They accepted his advice and in a week collected the surprising sum of $32500. Like all reform movements in which victory will make no man rich, the Citizen's Union is short of funds. Tammany of course has money to spend because every one who con tribates as a matter of course has a financial interest in the result. The men who bold sinecures and semf sinecares contribute money to elec tions as a man puts money Into his business to extend or maintain it. While the good men whoee business is legitimate have only a patriotic aod moral interest in the success of the reform party. It is perhaps true that the minis ters and truly good men who are will ing to pray for the election of Mr. Low aod of the whole fusion ticket areas anxious as the dive-keepers for the success of the movement they be gan by denouncing Croker from the palpit; nevertheless it is true that these people do not easily respond to the assessment, or envelope, system. Tammany is strong because from the most Inconsiderable office within its power to confer upon a man, to the highest, every office has its fixed rent, collected by the police in envelopes and gradually transmitted to Croker with losses on the way as toll to the different officials through whose hands it must pass to reach him. An old organization has established the assessments which police officers, d I ve kcepers, gamblers, "guns," clerks and all sorts of workers and loafers must pay to Tammany. The reformers say they arc willing to work, which means to talk, lecture, etcetera, but they do not readily re spond to the assessment system, the very system which has made Tam many vlctorous In so many elections. Of course an honest city government mean3 that the reformers' pockets will not be picked in the many in direct ways that Tammany has of getting back from the good people tho money which it was necessary for the bad people to spend at election time. If the reform movement could be organized so that every man who cxprcsess vigorous opinions on the subject of an honest and pure city gov ernment could be taxed pro rata for quality and weight of his indigna tion, it is not likely that in a season or two there would be a recrudescence of Tammany. Tiic contribution of the New York women to the funds of the fusion campaign is a timely and most pertinent suggestion to the vot ing reformers as to the best way to conduct a campaign of reform in op position to one of the most perfectly organized machines in the world. For collecting money from everybody, rich and poor, bootblacks, newsboys and contractors, there is no organi zation like Tammany. Any move ment, however deeply set In the mor al consciences of the people, must be supported as soundly and by just as many small contributions. It is likely that Omaha will be aroused by the revelations of Josiah Flynt to elect an honest mayor at the next city election, a mayor who will appoint a chief of police who will not be in collusion with the Omaha crim inal class. When the struggle be gins, the women of Omaha who are organized in one of the strongest and most efficient clubs of the west will be of great help. Tne example of the New York women Is worth consider ing. Betting men are not talkers as a rule. If a real sport is overheard expressing extravagant opinions some one of his con-fraternity is apt to de mand bigger odds than the sport thinks just, but having expressed an extravagant opinion It is a point of honor to back it up. Reformers are not especially careful of what they say, because, whatever it is, it will not cost them anything. The word of a reformer, therefore, is lightly considered by the men who bet on elections and races. But the day has come when it is cowardly to denounce vicious municipal government and thereafter refuse to pay a small as sessment towards reforming it. The magnanimous women who are so greatly interested in the triumph of virtue that they contributed 33200 to the reform forcea have set an ex ample both to other women who de sire the town they live in should not be a den of thieves and a safe retreat for the vile from all parts of the coun try, and to pious men who ar dently long for the political regen eration of their neighbors. 9 9 9 Fashion. Listening to the slow transla tion of Cicero by a student of Latin, the modern phrasing and sono rous divisions of the long senten ces are striking. I mean modern as Daniel Webster, or Henry Clay, or Charles Sumner, or Patrick Henry are modern, not contemporary orators. Students of schools like Harvard or Yale use short, simple sentences and they do not use at all the melodra matic, classic oratory after the man ner and style of the worthies just quoted. It sounds like heresy to say that the speech is n longer con structed on the model which Daniel Webster found so effective. But read the speeches now made in congress and the addresses delivered by the best lecturers and preachers of the day. Then read Webster's reply to Hayne and the pose and the deserted style of the burning words of the lat ter's speech can be felt: "When my eyes shall be turned for the last time to behold the sun in heaven. Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the ensign of the republic, no known and hon ored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured, bearing for its motto no such miserable interroga tory as 'What is all this worth?' nor those other words of delusion and folly, 'Liberty first aDd Union after wards;' but everywhere, spread all oyer in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sect , to every true American -n erty and Union, now and ' -vyer and inseparable!" Ge There are people who ran wr;te it? this now if such writing .Terr- n,,m lar. Although it is doubtfu. .f .jj " is a single man alive m 'i.e raited States who has so diti.1?Ui,hed an appearance and the pow-r u, Jt ter this long sentence as :t ,Vis ' uttered in the senate r,ani'ei Webster made a commoti'n ;,t , walking along the street. Hr- iwarfed other men, body and head. La mine with the majesty of a lion, 1 seaw audience was swept by the ,b,M of a great presence before Tetefer spoke. There used to oe 1 ay:n that no human being was e ,- 3i so great as Daniel We'j-trr , ked". "He had, in fact that temperament a! tendency to pose found :n x.me preachers and all actors. And this he enforced in a manner wau-n & thoroughly acceptable to the Amer ica of his time, by an extreme.;, eiatw orate rhetoric based partly ,n to parliamentary traditions ,f eight eenth century England, and. psrt.y. like those traditions theme.v. n the classical oratory of Greece and Rome." Some of the soporific, on- nu. hundred-legged sentences con-t not ed by Graver Cleveland indicate that he made, at some period ,1 in life, a conscientious study f eight eenth century English oratory. ht politicians of superficial culture and dizzy ambitions, coupled with what Mr. Morton of the Conservative -a.. "gab," fall to studying Webster and Clay, Pitt, Burke and Fox ,ut as soon as they decide what they want and discover a chance of getting it. Without impertinence and in a,. humility let me suggest that therf models are no longer copied by men of culture and knowledge. A debutante might as sudden y ex pect to make a favorable im predion on society by copying the gowns if the Empress Eugenie, arguing th. she was a great belle and -et the styles for the world in the time of the Empire. But hoops are nut vvnrn now and her partners would be em barrassed by the ancient style.and she would not be able to convince them by asserting Eugenie's popularity and beauty. There is a style in orat' ry as well as in crinoline. 9 9 9 A Children's Theatre. Most theatrical performance are unfit for the eyes and ears uf clul dren. All successful drama, comedy. tragedy or melodrama is based on love, and love, as it is understood and felt by men and women, is a region unknown to children. Sometime, tu be sure, there is an eerie little cXwli with inhumanly selfish parents win take him into a theatre auditT"ira polluted by the rank, unwholesome respirations of clean and unclean 1.j man beings. Children learn quicker than adults and a course of entertain ments selected by the sort of mother who takes her baby wherever there is a crowd, rapidly teaches him tinnis he is not old enough to comprehend, and which can only harm him. The harm once done is done forever. When a bud is once forced open by anything less skillful and more ab rupt than the atmosphere, sunlight and time, forever the bud is bla-ted, and the sweet consciousness of the rcse, a consciousness of ineffable puri ty and of fresh creation, is never realized. To such a child, blasted by cruel, clumsy fingers, childhood i not a fairy-land but a nightmare to i'1'1 the awakening of maturity is a relief and a laying down of responsib! ity because of the knowledge and defen sive power that arrive with maturity. When infants cry in a church or aud itorium of any character stuffed