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THE OOURIEll
8
n-eat mans momer was ever uncov
ered who was not noble, strenuous and
trave
Woman Suffrage
There was a debate on the question
0f woman suffrage last week during
Ihe annual meeting of the state woman
.uffragists' association. The debaters
were Miss Laura Gregg of Omaha and
Mr A. I- Ulxby. a Lincoln journalist.
ihousiunl or more people assembled
in hear the discussion, hoping that it
might be a dignified, able presentation
of both sides of a most important cur
vnt question. Mr. Blxby intimated
that it was a "jaw match." He said
that he could not understand why
noman wanted to go chasing around
over the country aner omce. wnen
she should be at home cooking
something to prevent men from
nanting to kill the president. He
said that the difference between men
and women was illustrated by the dif
ference between the character of the
sytal meetings enjoyed by man and
those perpetrated by women. Man
meets with man to talk, smoke, and
talk politics and the important hap
Inings of the day. Men's clubs (in-fa-entially),
stimulate the understand
ing and are rich in social and spirit
ual uplift. Woman's clubs and social
meetings of various kinds are devoted
to gossip if not to scandalizing. The
women talk about their neighbors and
any acquaintances who do not chance
to be present, and return to their homes
refreshed and strengthened by what
would enervate and disgust a man.
God created woman so that it was
against nature for her to desire to have
any voice either personally or by repre
sentative in the deliberations of man
concerning herself, her home, her city,
her state or her country. Mr. Blxby
seemed to have received an Intimate
lrsonal communication from the Al
mighty in regard to His plans for
woman and the things which she must
by no means be allowed to do.
Miss Laura Gregg, of Omaha, af
firmed that it was right and expedient
for women to vote. She possesses that
Quality in woman, a clear, reso-
ant voice, and she enunciates con
scientiously. She has an exhaustive
knowledge of the subject of woman
suffrage, the reasons for adopting it,
its effects in the states in which it
has been adopted and of the trite argu
ments alleged against It since It was
proposed. She has studied suffrage In
Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and Kansas,
and she has a thoroughly reasonable
mind. She says there are no reasons
against woman suffrage that may not
be urged against man suffrage. Fifty
years ago when women were striving
to enter colleges there was the same
opposition, the same prejudice, and the
"ame fear expressed by those who pro
fessed to have the tenderest love for
oman. the fear that higher education
would unsex her, make her like a man.
make her disapprove of the marriage
'ate, render her obnoxious to man:
and that if the movement to educate
omen was successful in America it
aeant the eventual death of the race
for dearth of mothers.
Prophecy is not argument; but it has
terrifying potency in the days when
1 is ""ered by a prophet who claims
be a Seer. When the prophecy is
"Proved by time the prophet is not
ehed at because he is forgotten. A
fcn dead long enough Is safe from
"dicule and all discomfiture. He is as
"re from mockery as dust. Higher
"cation has not changed the nature
' functions of woman and it Is at
t questionable if any human Insti-
0n can change her. Prophecy can
hi h refute1 by taling the course
the prophets warn the com
munity
the
against and Iettlmr time do
rest- Analogy is not safe because
:lcuime important- unrecognized par
'erent" ana,osue may be vitally dif-
Mrs. Piper
,esembers ' the society of Psychical
eareh thought they had established
the possibility of communicating win,
the world of spirits through the
medium of Mrs. Piper, the celebrated
medium who can at will lose conscious
ness and answer questions addressed
to her about people and things she
never heard about. The society of
Psychical Research is located at fain
bridge and is composed of professors
and post-graduates of Harvard col
lege. The secretary engaged Mrs.
Piper's time, or at least her tratues,
exclusively. Several very learned
monologues were published by Pro
fessor Hyslop and Professor James,
who were convinced that during
the unconscious hours called trances,
Mrs. Piper saw and conversed
and correctly reported the con
versations of certain long dead friends
and relatives. During a trance Mrs.
Piper is able to converse In foreign
languages, though in a normal state
she is familiar only with her own. A
few weeks ago Mrs. Piper sent an
article to a New York paper in which
she said she did not believe that she
conversed with the spirits of those
dead and gone before, but that the ex
planation of what she said and of the
secrets she revealed is thought-transference.
The communications, like all alleged
spiritistic messages. were vagje.
mournful and imbecile. If we go from
mortality to a state of chaotic crude
consciousness like that haunted by the
spirits who report back through
mediums, it is fortunate that the
future is hidden from us completely,
and the man or woman who endeavors
to remove the veil is worse than a
Mormon and deserves to have some
kind of an anti-movement organized
against him.
During her trances Mrs. Piper trans
mitted messages which Professor Hy
slop concluded were from his father
because they contained references to
trivial occurrences of which she could
by no possibility have had any knowl
edge and which he had even forgotten
himself until they were recalled by the
medium. In regard to these matters
Mrs. Piper says that they may have
been sub-conscious thoughts trans
mitted to her by the peculiar and un
known laws of thought transference
without the professor's knowledge or
consent. The scientists engaged in the
search for the psychical pole are
undismayed by Mrs. Piper's "confes
sion." They say that she was only a
medium for the transmission of ghost
messages and that while she was
simply a telegraph instrument and the
wires too, she was as unconscious as
wires and brass.
Her confession reads like the report
of an honest woman who lent herself
for the sake of undiscovered truth to
the experiments or psychologists anx
ious to discover the laws of the mind,
and the connection, if any. between
mind still confined to the brain and In
corporeal mind alloat somewheie in
the region of the doleful splrit-woild
that the shabby spiritualistic fakirs
are fond of talking about. In dis
claiming conscious connection with the
spirit world Mrs. Piper has placed the
living under new obligation to her. The
spirits of the Indian chief and the
other doleful familiar who used Mia
Piper's sensitive condition to com
municate with a world from which
they had definitely and Irrevocably re
tired, are snubbed; but so long as she
refuses to go into a trance again they
can not touch her, and their disap
proval of her conduct and renuncia
tion can not have any effect. Mean
while the society has filed away the
records in her case and they will be
used to convince future tyros of Tacts
about which the medium herself was
most doubtful.
-i ' -it
Special Privilege
There is a city ordinance to the ef
fect that merchants shall not place
signs across the walks or hang them
across the streets. Before the ordi
nance was adopted by the council all
sorts of signs swung from building to
building above the streets. The town
presented a ragged, untidy appearance,
and pedestrians were in danger when
ever strong winds blew, and strong
winds blow in Nebraska from January
first to January first, with intermit
tent short recesses. A short while ago
a local clothing firm petitioned the
council for permission to build a sign,
extending from the store front to the
edge of the walk. The council granted
the petition because the firm said it
was an electric sign and would save
the city from lighting that part of the
block.
The streets, the sidewalk space and
the atmosphere above the streets and
sidewalks belong to the people. The
council has no right to grant the space
to any man or corporation. The city
Is unsightly enough as it is, covered
with the hideous rotting poles be
longing to the electric lighting plant
and the street car system. The sucess
ful merchant realizes the benefits of
advertising, but the streets and the
sidewalks belong to the people, not to
this man or that one, and no man has
a right to advertise his private busi
ness in space or over it which belongs
to the people. More than that, the city
council has no right to give away, for
any reason whatever, public property.
Councllmen were elected to care for
and prevent any one from making an
improper use of city property.
The signs suspended in the middle
of the street and projecting from
business houses into the street
should come down. Klther that,
or everyone should be allowed to build
what obstruction he pleases. If so bo
that It attracts attention to the ar
ticles on sale in the adjacent building.
It has been said that the greatest ob
stacle to a city government by the
people Is the opposition of successful
business men to an honest and impar
tial city government. Business men
want special privileges not granted to
everyone. If they were granted to
everyone they would not be special,
and neither would they be privileges.
For instance. If all firms were allowed
to project signs any distance Into the
air space belonging to all. there would
be mi object in it because In the con
fusion of banners and street signs, one
man's sign would be overlooked.
The volume of people who pass up
and down a given street make It val
uable. To grant the privilege of the
most conspicuous place In the street
to one firm is an injustice to all other
firms In the same business in the city,
it trespasses on the prerogative of the
whole people, it makes the law ridicu
lous and teaches contempt for it. The
city can afford to do its own lighting.
It can better afford to lessen the num
ber of lights than to allow one firm by
the authority of the city council to
defy Its own ordinances. Lincoln had a
city council three or four years ago
which was impervious to the blandish
ments of this or that business man.
and dealt out even-handed justice to
all. The present council is now experi
encing the result of granting the privi
lege of sidewalk space to one firm.
Many firms are now demanding that
they be given the same privilege. The
sign in question should come down or
all the other merchants In the city
should be granted the same privilege.
The lattei alternative would make the
city still more untidy and unattractive,
but a material loss Is not of so much
consequence as a loss of municipal In
tegrity and a recession by the city
council from its own laws.
rtr Vv
The Overcoat Gauge
It is the hour of the overcoat! In the
past two months the wholesale houses
of Chicago have sold four hundred
thousand winter overcoats, and every
garment was sold before the cloth of
which it was made had been received
from the mills. Chicago is the proud
overcoat centre of the world. More
than that, the jobbers have solil the
coats to the country west of Chicago
and a tremendous sale of overcoats Is
a reliable gauge of prosperity. When
men are hard up they do not buy over
coats. The most they can afTord Is to
wear their old ones. At a lower stage
of prosperity they give up the luxury
of overcoats altogether, and buy food
with the broker's loan. Notwithstand
ing the failure of the corn crop, Ne
braska men are wearing their share of
the half a millon stylish long over
coats. Forebodings of hard times have
been dissipated by the overcoat sale.
'.'
JeSSfiaBi' -
REV. II. T. DAVIS, First Pastor. REV. F. L. WHARTON, Present Pastor
inong Methodists who took leading parts in dedicating St. Paul's church none were more prominent than Presiding Elder II T Davis
of Lincoln district, and Rev. F. L. Wharton. The former is a pioneer of Nebraska Methodism, and one of the three surviving preachers who
were members of the Nebraska conference when it first was organized ; he came to Lincoln in 1S6S. Rev. Mr. Wharton came from Columbus.
Ohio three vears ago. and ha- done much toward the upbuilding of this chnrch. Thirty years intervened between their pastorates
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