THE COURIER
OBSERVATIONS
BY SARAH B. HARRIS
Aaaa Eva Fay
An old man named Noah Long wan
thrown Into the Kaw river at Argen
tine, Kansas, about the first of Febru
ary and drowned. Anna Eva Fay was
making- the town a visit and she was
asked to locate the body. Her occult
lower. In spite of the many exposures
of the machinery by which she nccom
pliHhes her remarkable guesses, are
still believed In by the people who an
nounce that they do not believe in re
ligion or In anything else that has not
been demonstrated according to their
own formulas. Consequently they ap
ealed to Anna Eva Fay, who answers
questions sitting in the middle of the.
stage with a sheet thrown over her
body and head, which also conceals a
tube lending from the under part of the
stage to her ear, to locate the body of
the old man who had been murdered.
She was told that a girl had con
fessed that she saw two men throw the
old man into the river from the bridge.
She demanded to be taken to the bridge
and after looking over the spot, she ad
vised the searchers to look under a
sand-scow that was moored a short
'distance from the bridge. The awe
struck laborers followed her advice and
found the body of the old man caught
in the jetsam lodged against the ob
structing sand-scow.
When the body of .the poor stone
mason was brought to light the con
viction that Anna Eva Fay possessed
supernatural powers spread and was
confirmed.
The scoffers were chagrined and the
show played to large houses. Miss
Fay's occultism supports two large,
useless men, her husband and her son.
They claim the box-office receipts
Nothing demoralizes a man so thor
oughly and quickly as to be supported
by a woman. Nothing makes a woman
so cynical and disgusted as to be
obliged to support two able-bodied men.
Whether she does It by deceiving an
audience which wishes to be deceived
or by teaching or washing, It does not
matter; the disintegrating, demoraliz
ing effect upon the men and upon the
woman who supports them Is the same.
Miss Fay is cynical. Off the stage
she does not claim to know everything
and If the Interviewer refers to her
advertised powers she looks disgusted
and changes the subject. In her youth
she was frank and a preternaturally
acute child. Upon temperaments like
hers detective stories are founded. She
comprehends character and its mani
festations. Her answers to questions
are founded upon her ability to gather
up the clues which the questioners
themselves furnish her and consider
them by the light of a singularly un
clouded Intellect and an experience
that teaches her that the answers to
most puzzles are obtained by the man
who keeps his eyes open and allows no
preconceived theories to blind him to
that which is just under his nose. It
was by the operation of these faculties
and no others that she discovered the
old man's body.
The Kansas City Star says: "Yes
terday Anna Eva Fay began the pre
liminary work of a systematic search
for the body, and while the circum
stances tend to show that the discovery
was due wholly to accident, yet there
are plenty of people who are willing to
give the mind reader some of the
credit. Miss Fay, standing on the
-bridge shivering with cold yesterday,
'ooked Into the water where the body
was said to have been thrown. 'If I
were looking for the body I think I
would have those boats moved,' she
remarked, as she turned to enter the
carriage. I will come back In the
morning and have it done, for I think
if the body is in the river. It is lodged
there.' "
She did not say that she could see
the body beneath the ice, where it was
actually lodged, but she observed the
- L.
current und knew from aforetime how
the jetsam in a sluggish current piles
up against a broad obstacle like a scow
The men who were searching for the
body might have found it without Miss
Fay's assistance, but men are not in
the habit of thinking. Unlike Miss Fay
they earn their living by following a
routine, and an emergency finds them
unprepared and panicky. It Is not sur
prising that thinking seems to most
men like a supernatural, mysterious
process. They do so little of It that
when a sharp-eyed little body like
Miss Fay begins to think and to offer
them the results, they are as awe
struck as though they saw a burning
bush that was not consumed or heard
a disembodied voice, or saw a ghost.
The occasional Napoleon Is not abso
lutely great, but In comparison with
.the gables who are his fellow citizens,
he Is almost a god.
The Newspapers and the Primaries
The total defeat of the council gang
which has been trying to administer
the affairs of the city without regard
to the interests of the city and in be
half of the gas company Is due primar
ily to the efforts of the editors of the
Journal assisted by the editors of the
Courier.
It is conventional and customary to
elect councllmen to two terms. If It
had not been for the publicity given to
the schemes and conduct of the coun
cil gang, the records of each council
man printed In full with explanatory
notes in the shape of editorial comment
In the newspapers, there Is no "doubt
that the councllmen who were candi
dates Jor .the second term would have
been re-elected. Over and over again
the Journal has printed the names of
the members of the gang, so that there
was not-a voter in the city who did not
know why It was Inexpedient to re
elect Councllmen Albers, Bacon, Law
lor, Fryer, Malone, Erlenborn, Pentzer,
Stewart and Thompson.
The Bacon attempt to divert fifty
dollars of city taxes Into his son's
pocket was abetted by the votes of the
gang and was defeated by the veto of
the mayor. The sum is a small one
but it illustrates the fact that the
members of the gang did not consider
that they were elected to represent the
interests of the city but to trade favors
with each other and to divide up as
nearly even as possible. The effect of
the constant newspaper references to
this particular episode in which Mr.
Bacon was principal and the other
members of the gang were accessories
before and after the act, was reflected,
in the vote of the Fourth ward. Out
of 388 votes Mr. Bacon received 72.
Not in one edition or two, not spas
modically or with favor to this inter
est or that, have the republican papers"
of Lincoln exposed the schemes of the
gang and ihe attempts of Mark and
George Woods to regain municipal in
fluence. Every edition of the papers
has informed the- subscribers of the
schemes of the councllmen against the
city and the mayor, and every impar
tial, disinterested, honest republican
who reads the papers made up his mind
to vote against the men who were try
ing to destroy the prosperity of the
water department and to deliver the
council Into the control of the gas com
pany. It is frequently urged against our
kind of democracy that it is a failure
because owing to the strength of the
ward machine the cities of the United
States are controlled by the lowest,
not necessarily the most ignorant, but
the most unscrupulous men. It is true
there is a constant effort at control on
the part of men who have found that
it pays to obtain an influence over
councllmen and city officials to be used
for corporations, but so long as it pays
a newspaper to work for the public
against a part of ihe public, their
schemes will eventually be futile. Ex
posure and -defeat is the final portion
of all such men as Croker. He was the
shrewdest politician and most accom
plished engineer in this country and
a. protracted term of power made him
feel secure. But he was defeated and
has retired to live out the balance of
his days on his ill-gotten capital. It
is not likely then that there are any
small-bore politicians in Lincoln able
to defeat the tendencies of evolution
actively at work in American politics.
President Roosevelt prescribes pub
licity for the evils Incident to trusts.
Publicity is the one disinfectant that
the corrupt politician dreads above all
others. Councilman Bacon did not
squirm until the newspapers printed
his O. K. of his son's bill to the city
of seventy-five dollars for ten days'
clerical work. As Mark Twain says,
the wickedness Is being found out. The
municipal function performed by the
papers Is rarely recognized and never
rewarded by anything but the ac
complishment of the general good.
In the patient, never-omitted, daily
service performed by the city papers,
whose effects are illustrated by the
primaries held last week, the people
have an example of the value of pub
licity applied to city administration.
Of course the publicity is ineffectual
unless it appeals to the conscience and
the unpartisan reasoning of a great
people. The seventy-two votes re
ceived by Councilman Bacon in the
Fourth ward should be a warning to
all future councllmen who contemplate
a raid on the city for the benefit of
their families, of the certainty of dis
covery, punishment and disgrace. For
a man cannot be disgraced, no matter
how flagrant the offense he has com
mitted, until it has been made public.
Disgrace follows upon the announce
ment of a crime and Is not inherent in
its commission. This Is where the
newspapers come In. Fear of publicity
restrains many a greedy councilman
or other city official, who is without
self-respect, whose Inner light has been
so long put out that his vision is ad
justed to darkness, but who, never
theless, has an intellectual conception
of the effect of light upon other people
and of Its reflex effect upon himself.
The function of reporting the dia
bolical schemes of corrupt officials is
not an agreeable one. It is much more
comfortable when we meet our fellow-men
and their wives and daugh
ters to be able to maintain the social
fiction that the head of the house is
Impeccable, an upright citizen and all
that the head of the house should be.
The editors who deliberately repudiate
the fiction and prove that their neigh
bor is a highway robber can not ex
pect to be invited to any more ken
slngtons In the neighborhood. In de-
cidlng to expose the machinations of
their neighbors they renounce the le
gitimate desire to be invited to "pour"
or to "dip" at receptions. They fi
nally renounce these -social decorations
and distinctions when they put on the
editorial veil. The ceremony should
be accompanied by the dramatic re
nunciations adopted by the Catholic
church on the admission of sisters to
conventual life. For the embarrass
ments ofan editor who tries consclen?
ttously to perform the duties of his
position are many and real. As to
rewards, there are none this side the
Judgment That is one reason wfiy it
is occasionally permissible for an edi
tor to call the attention of the public
to his own and. to other editors' pub
lic services.
ANcw Member
The "Won't Perform Club" which
was organized a short time ago meets
a long-felt want. Mrs. Stoutenborough,
one of the best speakers In Nebraska,
writes that she .almost believes that
the organizer of the club has seen her
In the solitude of her attic to which
she is accustomed to flee after a com
mittee has wrenched a promise from
her to speak, or sing, or pray. Al
though Mrs. Stoutenborough does eas
ily and gracefully what the rest of us
do awkwardly and to no purpose, she
is human, she is a housekeeper and
j Studio, Room W '(
I nruwncu diui;
liss Lippincott
Lessons in Drawing, Painl
Pyrorphy, Wood earring,
l prored Chin Kiln, China d
Painting,
J.un-
deco-
1 nied or fired.
Studio ooen Monda v. Tuesday,
Thnnxlaw rnnA CS41avafYapnnAns
2 to S o'clock. Saturday inorninga 9 to 12.
w .
f X ha i
DR. BENJ. F. BAILEY,
Residence, Sanatorium. Tel. 617.
At offle,! to 4, and Sundays, 12 to 1 p. m.
DR. MAY L. FLANAGAN,
Retldenoe,621So.UU. TeL969.
At office, 10 to 12 a.m.; 4top. nv
Sundays, 4 to 4 :80 p. m.
Office, Zehrung Block, 141 So. 12th. TeL618.
LOUIS N. WENTE, D. D. S.,
OFFICE, BOOMS 26, 27, 1, BROWNELL
BLOCK,
137 South Eleventh street,
Telephone, Office, 530.
J. R. HAGGARD, M. D.,
LINCOLN, NEB.
Office, 1100 O street Booms 212, 213, 214,
Richards Block; Telephone 535.
Residence, 1310 G street; Telephone K984
M. B. Ketchum, M.D., Phar.D.
Practice limited to EYE, EAB, NOSE.
THROAT, CATARRH, AND FITTING
SPECTACLES. Phone 848.
Hours, 9 to 5; Sunday, 1 to 230.
Booms 313-314 Third Floor Richards
Bloek, Lincoln, Neb.
THE
First National Bank
OF LINCOLN, NEBRASKA
Capital, $200,000.00
Surplus and Profits, . 54,255.08
Deposits, 2,480,252.18,,
S. H. Burkham, A. J. Sawyer,
President. Vice-President.
H. S. Freeman, Cashier.
H. B. Evans, Frank Parks,
Ass't Cashier. Ass't Cashier.
United States Depository
Prince Henry
THE
Grau Opera Co.
AND THE
WEBER
Y Y PIANO
The Maurice Grau Opera Company
gave a special performance in honor
of Prince Henry at the Metropolitan
opera house in New York city on the
evening of February 25. In this pro
gram each of the prima donnas and
all the great tenors took part. The
schedule of prices charged was as
follows:
Orchestra chain, $30.00; Dress
Circle, $15.00; First rows Balcony,
$12.50; Bear rows Balcony, $10.00,
and standing room, $5.00.
As usual, the WEBER PIANO was
used. The General Western Agents
for this grand old Piano are the
Matthews
Piano Go.
1J20 O Street, Lincoln