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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 28, 1901)
The Courier Published Every Saturday Entered In the Postofflce at Lincoln as second diss matter. OFFICE, 900-910 P STREET ,. I Business Office 214 Telephone jEdnorial Rooms . 90 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Per annum, In advance, $1.00 Single Copy, 06 LINCOLN LETTER Dear Penelope: Since receiving your very welcome communication I have been thinking! With deep humility I confess the fact, and take the occasion to warn you nev er to be guilty of a similar indiscretion. If you value the good opinion of your friends, my dear, never think! At least never let them think that you think. If you find yourself in danger of being overpowered by a thought, by all means let it develop in secret; take every precaution to conceal from your friends the calamity that has overtak en you. For so sure as you begin to think, your natural impulse is to ex press your thoughts in words and words, without a listener, are dead. From the instinctive reluctance of hu man beings to assume the role of lis teners, one would Infer that two tongues and one ear was man's natural equip ment, and the danger, therefore, very great of over working the single mem ber and under-exercising the dual. Two facts have been impressed upon my inner consciousness during my mental aberration. One, that this is a world of misfits and of continual and painful readjustments. Some persons are Hooded with love, much of which is unappreciated if not actually unwel come, while others are starving for the affection which perverse fate has turned into another channel. That is the gist of one of my thoughts. My brain was quite exhausted with the simple statement of the fact, and, like other would-be reformers, I had no mental energy left to devote to a reme dy! Indeed, I doubt if a remedy ever will be discovered this side of the ever green shore. My other thought is that a deep- un wavering love is a liberal education to the lover. It is worth more as a chai-acter-developer than a four years course in the state university. All the graces mentioned in the good book and a few omitted from that first catalogue will grow out of a constant and persist ent love. Patience, humility, long-suffering, charity, tact, adaptibllity-all these and many other virtues character ize the genuine lover. To these may be added the intense desire for self-improvement, the craving for more beau ty, more wisdom, more accomplish ments to make one's self more attract ive to the beloved being. I have a sneaking conviction that I have thought these same things before pos sibly written them to you. I don't be come well enough acquainted with my thoughts before they are crowded out by new ones to recognize them on their second appearance. Th-y may have a familiar look, but I am never sure whether they are my own os something I read in Shakespere. This is the season of church fairs and dinners, when your female friends try to inveigle you into paying Wal-dorf-Castoria prices for messy meals that make you sick and where all soits of things you don't want are poked under your nose in the name of sweet charity. My chronic financial embar rassment is a partial protection from these attacks. Poverty is not so bad, after all, if it saves you from some thing worse. How many things In this world people do that they don't want to do! Nobody in his right mind ever really wanted to go to a church fair, yet there are chuich fairs regularly every season, and there are people who go to them in spite of their better judgment. There are insane asylums, too, and penitentiaries, and occasional ly people find themselves in those places much against their inclination. Mojeska played here the other night. I had tickets, but at the last moment gave them away and stayed at home. It may be sentimental more likely it is plain idiotic but the last time I saw Mojeska was In Omaha with Jack and I didn't want to see her again when he is so far away. Dear Jack! If he only comes home for Christmas, my joy will be complete. This sudden cold weather has been an expensive luxury. Plumbers are at a premium, and their prices have steeples on them. The cold has been Intense, and the wind strong enough to blow you straight to the equator, if only you were headed that way. To day it is snowing very fast and very persistently. I am reminded of tho.se beautiful ver.-es by Longfellow : Out from the bosom or the air. Out from the cloud-folds of her gar ments shaken. b Over the woodlands brown and bare. Over the harvest-fields forsaken, silent, and soft, und slow. Descends the snow. K'en as our clouded fancies take Suddenly shape In some dlvlno expres sion; ' K'en as the troubled heart doth make in the white countenance confession. The troubled sky reveals The grief It feels. This Is the poem of the air. Slowly silent syllables recorded: This is the secret of despair, Long in Its cloudy bosom hoarded; Now whispered and revealed To wood and field." If you do not care for poetry, and prefer to have your fancies dressed In prose, you will like better Lowell's description of a snowstorm, where he says. "The preludlngs of winter are as beautiful as those of spring. On a gray December day, when, as the farmers say, it is too cold to snow, his numbed fingers let fall doubtfully a few star-shaped Hakes, the snow-drops and anemones that harbinger his more assured reign. Now, and now only may be seen, iloating on the horizon's eastern edge, those blue clouds from forth which Shakespere says that 'Mars doth pick the masoned turrets " Sometimes, also, when the sun is low, you will see a single cloud trailing a Hurry of snow along the southern hills in a wavering fringe of purple. And when at last the real snow-storm comes it leaves the earth with a virginal look on it which none other of the seasons can rival, and compared with which, indeed, they appear soiled and vulgar. And what is there In Nature so beau tiful as the next morning after such confusion of the elements? Night hath no silence like this of busy day. AH the batteries of noise are spiked. We see the movement of life as a deaf man sees It. a mere wraith of the clamorous existence which inflicts itself upon our ears when the ground Is bare. The earth is clothed in innocence as a garment. Every wound of the land scape is healed; whatever was stiff has been sweetly rounded as the breasts of Aphrodite; what was unsightly has been covered gently with a soft splen dor, as if. Cowley would have said. Nature had cleverly let fall her hand kerchief to hide it. It is the fanned snow, That's bolted by the northern blasts twice o'er. Winnowed and packed by the Sclavonian winds, packed so hard, sometimes, on the hill tops that It will bear your weight. What grace Is in all Its curves, sis if every one had been brushed by that inspired thumb of Phidias' Journeyman." You doubtless have been acting on the principle that silence Is golden, knowing that on general principles I am an ardent advocate of the gold standard. In our correspondence, how ever, no political Issue Is at stake, and silver Is plenty good enough for in I'm tired and you're sleepy, so with these few remarks I will sign myself Yours Affectionately, Lincoln, Dec. IS. IDOL KLKANOU. A BENEVOLENT ENTERPRISE x Is tho British Medical Instituto tit Oor. 11th and N Streets, Shol don Block. It Gives Threo Months' Services Free To All Invalids "Who Call Before Jan uary 7, 1002 A staff of eminent physicians and surgeons from the British Medlcul In stitute have, ut the urgent solicitation of a large number of patients under their care In this country, established a permanent branch of the Institute In this city. In the Sheldon block, corner of Eleventh and N streets. These eminent gentlemen have de cided to give their services entirely free for three months (medicines ex cepted) to all Invalids who call upon them for treatment between now and Jan. 7. These services consist not only of consultation, examination and ad vice, but also of all minor surgical op erations. The object In pursuing this course Is to become rapidly and personally ac quainted with the sick and ailllcted and under no conditions will any charge whatever be made for any ser vices rendered for three months to nil who call before Jan. 7. The doctors treat all kinds of disease , and deformities, and guarantee a cure in every case they undertake. At the first Interview a thorough examination Is made, and if Incurable you are frankly and kindly told so; also ad vised against spending your money for useless treatment. Male and female weakness, catarrh, and catarrnal deafness, also rupture, goitre, cancer, all skin diseases, and all diseases of the rectum are posi tively cured by their new treatment. The chief associate surgeon of the Institute Is In personal charge. OHlce hours from 9 a. in. till 8 p. m. No Sunday hours. Special Notice If you cannot call, send stamp for question blank for home treatment. (jus -yw( njr The Progressive Store si. y Mta To all Our F r i e n d sBE We wish you i Bright and Happy Xew Year. The Old Year is fast fading away. At its close will be completed the most successful W business year in the history of the Progressive Store. We thank all of our patrons who have traded with us in the past, and hope w bv our same courteous and fair treatment to merit in the future a continuance of your kind favors. W 1 SUGGESTIONS FOR A NEW YEAR'S GIFT Leather Goods at Half Fancy China, Etc. A Great Opportunity One of the largest Leather Goods Manu facturers in Hoboken, New Jersey, dissolve partnership the 1st of January, 1902. To clean up their stock they sold us an immense lot of regular goods made to sell at 60c and $1.00 each. The lot consists of Purses, Combination Pocket Books and Card Cases, Finger Purses, Shopping Bags, Boston Bags, Chatelaine Bags, Gird Cases, Music Rolls, Wrist Bags, etc., in all styles of leather, including Seal, Walrus, Morocco, Alligator, Plain and Mounted Effects. It's a great chance, and only once in a lifetime to buy your Leather Goods Presents at One-half Price. m L LOT1, Qfl WORTH TO 50c, .fll FOR U)) LOT 2, HA A WORTH TO $1.00 "H II FOR )J) Elegant values in beautiful French China Plates, 50c, 75c, $1.00, 1.25, to S.50. Carlsbad China Bread and Butter and Dessert Plates, 10c to $1.00 each. This elegant China Tea Cup and Saucer, in fine Jap ware, $1.00. 200 styles of Cups and Saucers to select from, 10c to $2.50. Fancy After Dinner Coffee Cups and Saucers, an immense variety, 25c and 35c. Beer Steins, 50c, 75c, $1.00 to 6.00. tt i"V"