THE COURIER
3
ing more unpopular and disgraceful.
The constant enunciation of an Idea
and of 'earnest convictions produces
conviction and a change of conduct in
the erstwhile careless. The W. C. T.
V. Is somewhat of a busybody. The
members are strenuous-minded women
with a cdhvlction that continual reso
lutions. Investigations, speeches and
objections will lessen the amount of
whisky men drink and eventually pre
venl its being offered for sale. Since
the society was organized, there Is no
doubt that drinking has steadily lost
caste. Whether the efforts of the so
ciety have accomplished this result or
w.hether itis the effect of a slowly de
veloping public opinion, of which the
V. C. T. U. Is a part, nobody knows.
We have certainly progressed. A hun
dred years ago it was not a disgrace
to get drunk. It was expected that a
gentleman would freely imbibe and
when he drank more than he could
walk straight with, it was a peccadillo.
In the case of the young man whom
whisky Inclined to murder, he had
been drunk before and had learned the
efTect of the drug upon him. He knew
that as soon as he had swallowed a
certain amount that he should want to
kill someone. The murder, therefore,
was not the fault of the rumseller or
of whisky but it was the fault of the
youth who drank the whisky. The W.
C. T. U. creed blames the rumseller or
the whisky.
In the commons newly built and in
stituted by Harvard college beer is to
be sold by the authority of the govern
ors: of the university. The institution
is intended to bring the students of the
university together in sociable recogni
tion of their college fellowship. It is
hoped to produce the same fraternal
spirit on tap in the beer halle fre
quented by the university students of
Germany. Cambridge isa prohibition
town and it is claimed as a great hard
ship that the Harvard students can
not get a drink in Boston later than
11 o'clock p. m. The commons will
be organized as a club and the stu
dents can get all the beer they want
at any time they want it. The atten
tion of the W. C. T. U. is directed to
this matter. There is no Harvard pre
cedent for the innovation and the time
to break up a habit is before it is
formed.
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The Way of an Island
Mrs. Patrick Campbell is supposed to
be one of the most beautiful and
graceful women in England. She is
now playing In this country. Her re
cent full-length picture printed In
Harper's Weekly is not exactly grace
ful. She is apparently a large, tall
woman and wears her hair parted on
the side and combed flat down on her
forehead in what used to be known, on
this side of the water, as the bar
tender's cut. The hair at the side of
the head droops over the ears In the
fashion of seventy-flve years ago. She
is handsomely and, according to Eng
lish standards, becomingly gowned.
The material Is heavy, brocaded silk
and the front breadth is embroidered
in roses with stems a yard long. She
stands in front of heavy portieres with
her left hand resting on a small table.
Her right hand has an Iron grip on
the front of her dress. The lines of
the bodice and drapery of the skirt are
"bunched" in the familiar style of
English gowns. Notwithstanding the
bunchiness and heavy grip of her
dress on the front breadth where it
does not need to be held up, the Eng
lish actress is a beautiful woman, with
eloquent large eyes, a beautiful, straight
nose and a mouth in perfect drawing.
It is curious about the lines of an
English woman's frock. Her gowns
seem to have been cut out by an archi
tect with a ruler and a triangle. The
lace, embroidery or jewels attached to
the gown are not a part of It. As ar
chitects say, the ornamentation is not
structural, but seems In all cases to
have been added to the gown, because
of its costliness, or separate beauty.
The unity of a gown and the necessity
of preserving a distinct style has not
occurred to the English dressmaker or
her patrons. The fashion of Queen
Alexandra's coiffure has been followed
by the ladles of the court for years. It
Is long since American or French wo
men have worn a heavy, built up and
probably artillcial bang like that af
fected by the queen. It Is made of
very frizzly hair kept in place by a
finely meshed net. It Is not a very
graceful or becoming style but island
ers having once adopted a distinct
style of coiffure are not apt to lightly
change It. Japanese women for cen
turies have done their hair in wooden
fashion and slept on wooden pillows in
order not to disarrange the elaborate
coiffute. Then there are women of
Itomco and the inhabitants of the oth
er islands of the Pacillc. Encyclopedic
pictures of the lady inhabitants of
these islands indicate that for hundreds
of years they have followed a stereo
typed fashion of doing the hair. Short
and tall, fat anil spare, all follow the
unchangeable mode. In the case of
an actress, who is usually emancipated
on the subject of dress, even an Island
er might be graceful and adopt styles
suited to her own type and complexion.
Ellen Terry seems to have broken the
island chains. The leopard's spots
and the Ethiopian's skin are only oc
casionally changed.
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The Isthmian Canal
In all the continents isthmuses con
nect one part with another, yet even in
China when the two words Isthmian
canal are spoken, the Chinese know
the projected canal connecting the At
lantic and Pacific ami dividing North
from South America is referred to.
Not the least of the advantages of the
Panama site over any other is the fact
that the area has been thoroughly sur
veyed and experimented upon for
nearly a quarter of a century. The
engineering difficulties are appreciated
and mapped. The contractors by con
sulting the elaborate specifications and
maps prepared by the De Lesseps" en
gineers can approximate within a few
thousand dollars the cost of the fin
ished canal. The Nlcaraguan site Is
untried. It has Its advantages. The
disadvantages and problems are un
known. But we do know that the
Nicaragua canal must be more than
twice as long, more tortuous, and at
each terminus a harbor must be built.
The recommendation of the Isthmian
Canal Commission since the offer of
the French owners to sell right of way,
machinery, maps, plans and the record
of all experiments to the United States
for $40,000,000 In favor of the Panama
route should have a strong influence
upon the senate, in spite of the Nicar
agua lobby that pushed the Nicaragua
bill through congress. Every great
enterprise is paid for in the blood of
human beings. It is as though an
angel stood at the gate and demanded
his price in life. Hundreds of men
have died in the great trench which
extends a third of the way from the
gulf to the Pacific in Panama. The
dusky men who dug and operated the
machinery of digging in the Panama
route have paid the price. Their flesh
is dust. Climatic conditions have also
been studied and conquered in Panama.
It is now possible to go on with the
work In comparative safety. Cheap
ness, sanitation, directness, experi
mental treasure, all are on the side of
Panama. On the Nicaragua side is an
impalpable something of which the peo
ple are very distrustful. At any rate
the congressmen refused to listen to
the reasons for selecting the Panama
route and passed the bill locating the
canal in Nicaragua. The wisdom of
an upper house is never more apparent
than on such occasions as this where
the lower house alleges as sufficient
reason for ignoring business consider
ations that the French company had
once asked too high a price for the
property.
.' ...
'.- - ..-
A Reorganized Department
In case of another war and sudden
mobiliaztion of troops it is not likely
that there will be so much trouble
about the hospital supplies, fodder and
food for the volunteers. Secretary
Hoot will soon recommend to congress
the abolition of the quartet master's.
subsistence and the pay departments
of the army. Kesponslllblty for army
supplies is no longer to be divided
among several departments. Hereto
fore the quartermaster's department
has provided furniture for the mess
rooms, the ordnance department the
mess-kits, but not the ovens, the sul
slstence department the food, while the
cooks enlisted by the adjutant gener
al's department, received their pay
from the pay department. The subsist
ence department did not feed the
horses. The same arbitrary division of
functions which may have had a rea
son for being some time but has none
now has made confusion and defeated
attempts to locate the responsibility
for mistakes.
Secretry Knot's plan substitutes one
partmcnls whose functions are confus
three separate and inharmonious de
parements whose functions are confus
ingly mixed and overlap one another.
In the new classification one branch
will supply clothing and subsistence,
a second will have charge of the dis
bursements, a third of transportation
and a fourth of construction. Each
division Is headed by a brigadier gen
eral, and at the head of the whole is
a major-general. The simplification of
the present system is apparent to those
who studied the reports and complaints
of the bad hospital conditions at the
time of the Spanish-American war.
list year Secretary Koot made the
first step in the modernization of the
army when staff officers were detailed
to their positions instead of holding
them permanently In accordance with
his recommendation. The Sun says
that "The detail system applied to the
new supply department will keep its
ofllcers in touch with the needs of the
line of the army, as they vary from
time to time, and can be applied to the
new bureau as to the old staff."
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Gty Council
The citizens of Lincoln are more and
more suspicious of a council whose
members are afraid to wait for their
opinion upon a measure so important
as ths cession of a part of one of the
down town streets to a railroad. At a
recent meeting the city council grant
ed leave to the Elkhorn railroad to lay
a track on Ninth street. Anticipating
objections from the property owners
and the citizens whose property they
gave away the usual procedure was Ig
nored and the bill was read and re
read and voted for all in one evening.
The ruse recalls the gas contract
which Mr. L. E. Thompson induced
the council to accept in the
same way, without allowing time
for discussion. The salary of
twenty-lie dollars a month which
a councilman receives is trifling
and he has just as much right to piece
it out with the price of concessions as
the state treasurer has to loan the
school money and keep the interest on
it. It is unreasonable to expect great
er scrupulousness of city councilmeu
than of state treasurers. But the city
taxpayers seem to be hypnotized.
There is a picture on the billboards
representing four men resting on one
man whose head and heels rest on
chairs. The subject is supposed to be
unconscious and to be held rigid by
the will of the operator. The burdens
carried by the taxpayers of this town
are as burdensome and as unneces
sary. The catalepsy of the citizens
who supply the tissue on which the
confirmed office-holders stand is com
plete. O J 2
" fc ."
Camilla Urso
Born at Nantes in France on June
13. 1842, and died at the New York In
firmary on January 20, 1901', Camilla
Urso. In the sixty years that lie be
tween these dates Camilla Urso became
one of the few great violinists of the
world. Her father was a flutist in the
opera at Nantes. When she was six
years old she began the study of the
violin and made her first public ap
pearance a year later. Her work
showed the unmistakable signs of
genius and she was sent to the Paris
Conservatoire. When she was ten
years old she had played at the great
concerts of the Salle Hertz, the Soelcti
Polytechulque and at the performances
of the Association of .Musical Arts. She
was only ten years old when she re
ceived an offer from an American im
presario of $L'0.ooo to play for him for
one concert season. The child vlilu
osa accepted only to find that the man
who made the offer was Irresponsible
I tut .Mile. Urso was engaged by the
(.crmaula Society anil her period of
prosperity began. Since that time she
has played In all the large cities of the
world and In numerous smaller ones as
well. She has appeared In Lincoln
perhaps a half dozen times. She was
always brave, she had the Indomitable
courage of genius. Her playing pos
sessed ctherial lightness, verve and
depth of tone. She was short and
somewhat swarthy and 1 remember
when she came out to play on the oc
casion of her last concert here a I. In
coin gamin sitting on the first row of
orchestra seats said: "Oh what a
funny little Dutch woman." .Madame
Camilla held her bow in the air poised
above her Stradivarius while she look
ed at the boy whose impudence faded,
under the gaze, into an uncomfortable
smirk. .Madame Urso led a strenuous
life. She was a serious genius. She
practised as conscientiously as though
she had not the aid of genius and her
reward was in proportion.
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The Advantages of Competition
The report of the Interstate com
merce commission addressed to the
congress of the United States alleges
that five or six shippers of packing
house products get large rebates from
the railroads that distribute their
goods over the country.
Kailroads are incorporated for the
purpose of making money. There Is
no historical reason for believing that
the men who built and have operated
them are philanthropists who consider
that by means of ru-ilroads the human
race is to be introduced to each other.
Chinese walls broken down and fra
ternity firmly established. Neither did
they build the railroads to give a large
number of men employment and save
them from the devil's trap for idlers.
The railroads that lace Nebraska have
brought settlers to the state and the
settlers have plowed, seeded and har
vested the state, hauled their grain to
the stations and sent it from coast to
coast of this country. The relations of
the settlers and the railroads are Inter
dependent, they are ineradicably, un
changeably mutual. Although railroads
and steamboats are mixing racete and
removing prejudice, although they give
employment to millions of men, they
were built because men who had money
thought they could add brains, brav
ery and energy to their capital and
make the consolidation earn more mon
ey than the government was willing to
pay on its bonds. Men build railroads
for the same reason that they dig for
gold and for no other, but they art
much more likely to find gold in the
dusty cattle, coal and grain cars than
in the virgin ledges of Colorado and
California.
There Is a difference the world over
between the wholesale and the retail
price of articles. The poor woman
who goes to the coal dealer carrying a
bushel basket to be tilled with coal
pays a larger price for her bushel than
her more prosperous neighbor who
buys it by the ton. Yet no one visits
the poor woman soliciting her custom,
while the man who pays half as much
but buys a great deal is besieged by
dealers offering a special rate. The
coal dealer is in business for money.
The large advertiser can buy fifty
thousand inches in the newspaper
cheaper than the man who wants a
hundred. But If there were no corn
petition the man who hail to have a
hundred inches could get them as
cheaply as the man who had to have
fifty thousand. Just remember this
Everybody Is in business for nloney,
for all the money it is possible to make
and stay on this side of the peniten
tiary walls.
The report of the interstate com
merce commission regrets the fact that