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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 7, 1901)
T H E (' () U K T E K The second annual banquet and the ewenty-flrst anniversary of the Lotos t Uit was celebrated at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Rhodes on Thursday eve ning'. Two long tables were set in the drawing room with fourteen covers il each table. Two rows of caudles on each table banked with white -oscs and ferns furnished the mellow. t Ur light which helped the continental belles to look beautiful even aftei youth had lied far down the i.ist. The president. Mrs. Kichards. presided. The menu cards were decorated with t.xquislte water color pictures by Mrs. Lyon. Every card was unique. There were no replicas and the inscriptions and mottos titted the individuals to whom they were presented. The gutsts were Messieurs and Mesdames Lewis. Kichards, Eason, Kuruhaiii. Brace. Og- den. Taylor, Gere. Bessey. Rhodes. Chancellor and Mrs. Andrews. Mrs. Weeks. Mrs. Jamleson. Miss Harris. .Miss Hayden. Mrs. Lyon. .Mrs. Harris, Mr. K. A. Koss. The menu: Oyster cocktail. s)ii. fish. sherhei t. chicken and mushrooms, lobster salad and cucuml)ersandwiches. ice cream and cake, coffee. After dinner Mrs. Kichards. the pi ev ident, gracefully introduced the follow ing sieakers: Mr. C. K. Hessey, "A Tale of the .Modern Lotos-eaters." Mr. Kurnhum. who sang Schubert's "Sere nade" and "Taking the year together my dear:" .Mr. Koss. "Women of Leis ure:" Miss Harris. "Anecdote:" Mr. Kurnham. "Kendemir's Stream;" Mrs. Lewis. "A Year's Report:" Chancellor Andrews, "The Emancipation of Women." Last Friday the W. R. I. C. club held a largely attended meeting at the home of Mrs. Houston. The history lesson wan read by Mrs. Wilson. Mrs. Gregory read a paper on "The Ancient City of Mexico." and Mrs. Itutler read a poem by Whlttler. Refreshments were served. The club decided to re ceive New Year's calls. The next meeting will occur on the thirteenth at the home Mrs. Violet, H-'l U . " The history department of the Wo man's Club met last Friday. "The Or ganization of the Government Cnder the New Constitution." Mrs. Stan hope. Mrs. K. J. King. Mrs. Hatfield and Mrs. Lyman presented different diversions of the subject. Mrs. Chap man talked of "Hamilton and His Fi nancial System," and Mrs. Kroady of "The Rise of Parties." The next meeting will be devoted to the foreign relations and Internal dis turbances of Washington's uditilnls tiatlon. Members are requested to re spond to roll call with some anecdote of General or Mrs. Washington. The Aldine club met Thursday after noon with Mrs. M. W. Folsom. The club is studying Egyptian history and Mrs. Pickup read a paper on the eight eenth dynasty. Mrs. Folsom gave an interesting review of Eben Holden. The chili will meet In two weeks with Mrs, Frankish. Mr. .1. H. Harley entertained the Round Table Monday evening. After dinner Dr. H. O. Rowlands talked of criminals and their treatment. The Eames Amateurs mi t Thursday afternoon with Miss Anil L A. J. SAWYEU SOME MEN WHO HAVE BEEN MAYORS Sketches Reminiscent of the Administrations of A. J. Sawye.' and F. A. Graham When They Were at the Head of Lincoln's Municipal Government. . Jt The autumn of 1SS7 deserves a sepa rate page in the volume of municipal history, for at that time Mayor A. J. Sawyer and eleven councilmen made a bold stand for the legal rights of the city. Furthermore, the entire munici j pal government of Lincoln was incar l cerated in the Douglas county jail for a whole week. This is how it all hap pened. A. J. Sawyer was elected mayor on an independent reform ticket in oppos ition to the regular republican nominee. E. P. Roggen, in 1SS7. The city had been "wide open" for some time, and a Law and Order League had been formed to settle things down and purge the city of gamblers and tough all around blacklegs. Of this organiza tion Mr. Sawyer was president. "When Mr. Roggen was named by the regular republican convention a large number of the most influential citizens bolted, and, calling a rump convention, nom inated Mr. Sawyer. The latter was found to have a majority of 537 when the votes were counted. Mr. Sawyer promptly made war upon the gamblers. As a result of his oper ations, charges were preferred against Albert P. Parsons, the police judge. . w the reformers alleging that he was iKuuiy oi inaneasance in oiuce aim iwu not turned over the moneys collected ' in fines as provided by law. A com mittee of the council was appointed to investigate the charges. After listen ing to the testimony this body report ed that the police judge was guilty as charged and recommended that he be removed and the office declared vacant. The ordinance then in force relating to the removal of city officers required that the trial be by the whole coun- ' cil. This was amended and the report "f the committee again filed. Rut while the resolution declaring the office vacant was pending. Mr. Parsons showed up, accompanied by his attor ney, L. C. Rurr. The police judge re quested that the trial be held before he whole council on a certain day. and if all the members concurred he would e satisfied with the result. To this Proposition the mayor and council agreed. Then Mr. Parsons attempted to steal a mfrch on the city official's. His at torney went before Judge Rrewer. of the United States circuit court and ob tained an order restraining the mayor and council from taking any further action in the matter until the whole case could be re newed in his imirt. This interpre tation of the law was very distasteful to the municipal offi ce is. They regarded the order as a direct blow at local government, and. after consultation with sev eral prominent attorneys, con cluded to ignore the mandate of Judge Rrewer. The mayor declared the office of police judge vacant and named a successor for the place in the per son of H. J. Whit more. The council confirmed this action. No time was lost by the opposition In calling attention of the circuit court to this action and then the trouble began. Judge Rrewer directed the city offi cials to appear before him and show why they should not be fined for con tempt of court. They presented their reasons for disregarding the order of the court and averred that the court had no right to issue it. This course of reasoning Judge Rrewer overruled. As an eye opener he sentenced Mayor Sawyer. and Councilmen Rriscoe. Rurks, Cooper. Pace and Dean to pay a fine of $30 each. Councilmen Billings ley, Graham, Hovey, Ensign. Fraas and DaiUy were askc.i to donate $C00 each The city officials declared that they would rather suffer imprisonment than pay the fine so the United States marshal quietly gathered them in and took them to comfortably furnished quarters in the Douglas county jail. Here the obdurate prisoners were ban queted and congratulated by everybody while Hon. G. M. Lambertosn hurried to Washington to file an application for a writ of habeas corpus with the United States supreme court. The writ was granted, the prisoners were released and in the following Jan uary the stand taken by the mayor and councilmen was vindicated by a decision of the supreme court. In Lin coln there was great rejoicing over the result and all the imprisoned officials were looked upon as heroes. Mr. Sawyer was born in Ottawa. III., in IS4 1. !! i-aine to Lincoln in 17.". and has since practiced law in this city. He has been a democrat from his youth up. At one time he was candidate for district judge on the bourbon ticket and although the nor mal republican majority was in the neighborhood of 2,000. he came within ."00 of being chosen. He served four years as United States district attor ney for Nebraska under President Cleveland. Mr. Sawyer has never lost his ardent belief in the justice of his cause in the Parsons altercation. At the end of his term he refused to be a candi date again. Concerning the state of affairs at present, he said: "We have a clean city administra tion now. We have good city officers ind i good 't ountii Al! of th officials seem to have the b -st welfare of the people at heart, an 1 I .m sugKest no iinp-oement " Frank A. Graham has passed most of his life in Lincoln. Al" but ten years of l lie time, since he left school to make his own way have been devoted to the livery business at the old stand. When he came to Lincoln in 1871. at the age of fourteen years the ilty was not in the least prepossessing. There was not a building between O street and the present site of the eapitol and so far as appearance was concerned it did not seem that there ever would be. The city buildings were inconsequental affairs and the Jail did not appear to be capable of barring much water out or of barring a very desperate sort of prisoner in. But it was good enough for thoe days, as were all the build ings. Gradually the town grew, but it was a long while before it had spread so far that there came a time when there were residents who did not know Frank Graham. When Mr. Graham first struck out for himself, after complet ing a common school education, he was employed by W. H. B. Stout, the fam ous politician who hail the prison con tract and held it. Thus Mr. Graham worked at the penitentiary until the time arrived for him to turn liveryman. Eventually in 1S9.1 the people decided to try him for mayor and he was will ing. For two terms he was the chief executive and it was his portion to en joy a rather stormy administration. He succeeded Mayor A. H. Weir and it was one of his principles that the city should be run not so "tight" as it had during the administration of Mr. Weir. According to Mr. Graham there was much complaint among the people who had observed from the attempt to run a "tight" city that surreptitious sporting places were in operation squarely under the noses of the nice people of the town. It was his opinion that if the sporting element were ap portioned a reservation of the city it could be better kept under control and with less discomfort or disgust to peo ple who deplored its promiscuous exist ence. When he was elected he forth with carried his theory into effect. Another thing to which he gave his immediate attention was a plan for the extermination of the board of public works, of which It was the general opinion that it was an unconscionable expense. It was composed of three members, the chairman who drew a salary of $1,200 a year and two whose salaries amounted to $i" a month each. Their duty was to keep their eyes on public improvements and needs of the time, a thing which came to be viewed as wholly unnecessary. In a little while it became property of the past. Much of the credit for the Mocki It F A OKA II AM well Mr. Graham thinks is in a way due to him, as it was by his advocatlve communication to the council, he says, that agitation for the well finally evolved its construction. Later an at tempt was made to impeach him on tin; charge of engaging a man to plug It In order to compass Its ruin. The council was unable to muster a suffi cient number of votes to accomplish this end and the mayor retained his seat. "The idea that I should want to de stroy the well after the efforts I made for its construction Is absurd on its face." he says. While he laments the great quagmire of debt in which the city has sunk Mr. Graham feels that the city is running along about as well as need be. At least he says that so far as the present officers are concerned he thinks they are performing their duties conscien tiously and as well as may be asked. If any change were to be made in any respect, he woulil say. let the council be reduced to seven members, one from each ward or let their salaries ! cut off entirely. He would prefer to see the councilmen working as do the members of the school board, without money- and without price. Even the office of mayor, he says, ought to be detached from Its salary. When he oc cupied that office suggestions were made that the salary ought to b can celed and he did not oppose th idea. The only question is its practicability. To do these things the charter would have to be revised. This could b don, he says, but it would mean si lot of trouble. Mr. Graham was born In Herkimer county. New York, in 1S3R. From there his parents removed to Illinois where they- lived four years before coming to Lincoln in 1371. Since leaving politics Mr. Graham, though not having parted with his livery business has succumbed to the magnetic influem e of farm life and passes most of his time on his ranch near town. Though this has been a very discouraging year to those of his profession, he says he Is still no less zealous for agriculture. Personally Mr. Graham Is an affable man. his genial manner winning him many staunch friends who supported him loyally In his politbal entures ''I