I'wiwgfr Ji'w -J
THE COURIER
Is.
r
toll to the new structure a rod away
that will be finished by tnat time. This
will make a little more high school
room but not enough. To study now
the students must be seated in the
auditorium and its light is decldedjy
poor; aside from the laboratory there
nre only class rooms, from which the
pupils are shifted every three-quarters
of an hour. Rooms are needed where
the pupils can study under a teacher,
undisturbed, a thing impossible nt the
high school.
Many students are here from out In
the country, out in the state, and out
side its boundaries. Their tuition Is
$4 a month at the high school and alto
gether it will be $1,600 this year. At
the graded schools they nre admitted
for $2 a month if they are from outside
the county, and l a month if they live
Inside. Less than $300 will be raised in
this manner from the common schools
this year. Last year the tuitions
nmounted altogether to $1,421.92. Lin
coln is chosen by these students be
cause of the presence of the state uni
versity. As mentioned before the per
capita expense of each pupil is $21.51.
In seventeen other cities of about equal
size where text books are not furnished
the per capita is $21.21; in Omaha and
four other cities where the books are
provided the average per capita is $26.23
The Lincoln school children are furn
ished their books. The difference is
significant. As for the teachers, their
salaries here range from $40 to $57.50,
while the principals are paid from $70 .
to $90. The wages of the latter have
been slightly raised during the last two
years.
None of the teachers are paid as high
salaries as they received during the
hard times, even after the -wages were
supposed to have been cut to correspond
to the situation. Moreover the com
missions they then received on their
warrants always amounted to about $3
a month to each teacher. Now they
are retained by the board. With the
rise in price of everything it is obvious
that the teachers are not feeling as
well requited as they should be for
. their sen-ices. . The result is that many
of them are seek'ng employment else
where. This does not mean that the
teachers who stay are incapable
but it does show that the tendency is
to lose the best. There is also a need
for more teachers. None should be re
quired to manage more than forty pu
plls, yet many have fifty and flfty-flve.
In methods of teaching and in re
sults the progress of the past few years
has been very satisfactory. The teach
ers have more freedom than ever be
fore and are consequently more zealous
Jn their work. That is, they are allowed
more independence In methods of In
stilling facts and philosophy. Not be
ing tied down to a set plan they feel
warranted in putting vim and enthus
iasm In their work and they do It In
reading, geography and drawing the
labors of the children have been much
better. In these days schooling Is not
tied down to the ossified curriculum of
ancient days. There Is variety for the
sake of testing and developing all the
powers and tastes of the pupils. Art
is no uncertain educator and the stu
dents are given a good chance at It
Drawing is made a regular study and
school' decoration comes In for a good
share of attention. Only the best
grades of pictures are hung in the
Bchool rooms and the chromos of earlier
days are quite out of date and custom.
The students have cultivated a taste
for pictures in their work in drawing
and in the various art exhibits that
have been held in town of late years.
One great need is tetter school li
braries. Not general reading, but ref
erence books volumes that will be
supplemental to the studies. In some
of the schools the pupils have bought
these .libraries themselves. The board
of education does not Invest In them
because it is practicing economy. Be
cause of this campaign of frugality
many rooms are In need of more up to
date maps and globes. Blackboards
are particularly poor. They are com
posed of material which has a bad
habit of scaling off after a few months'
use and this is disagreeable for all
concerned.
If some new scheme is not adopted to
do away with the overdraft the schools
will trail along for years with but
more and more sluggish progress. This
debt is a. drag anchor which is bound
to hold the Lincoln schools far behind
their peers In other cities.
OBSERVATIONS
BY SARAH B. HARRIS
Hiss Lippincott
( Studio, Room W
( Brownell Block
New Jcmys Croat
In Nebraska a very bad wind with
complications of dust, a wind that
penetrates to the marrow bones and a
dust that gets into the narrowest
cracks "of the best built houses, is the
greatest drawback to happiness. The
doctors say that it is the wind, the
high wind that blows away malaria and
that that is the reason why there are
no cases of fever and ague in the
Btate exported, from Indiana or from
some other low-lying country. Very
likely; but when the wind blows one's
hair and skirts out of the conventional
order and besides Alls the nose, eyes
and mouth with gritty dust, the laws
of health and the creditable health
statistics of Nebraska are of inconsid
erable importance. New Jersey, where
a large number of well-to-do Ameri
cans go every summer, has a pest
which can be mitigated, If not obliter
ated, by an appropriation from the
legislature to buy coal oil. When this
appropriation is put on the spots where
it will do the most good, the mos
quito eggs or the young mosquitos in
whatever form the mosquito deposits
them are killed painlessly and immedi
ately. Ten thousand dollars will not
kill all the mosquitoes in New Jersey,
but it will kill a good many billions
and the proprietors of summer hotels
and cottages should exterminate the
rest They are directly benefited by
the pilgrims fleeing the heat who pay
New Jersey landlords high rent and
It Is up to them to prevent their
guests from being bitten by poisonous
insects. If only Nebraska dust-storms
could be prevented by an act of the
legislature this state might become an
ante-room to the garden of Eden.
&
r: To the Ndghbon for News
Eastern papers are commenting on
the recent report made by the secre
tary of the Nebraska state banking
board. In spite of the failure of the
Nebraska staple the deposits made in
the state this year exceeded those
made last year by $12,000,000. We lost
one hundred million bushels of corn'
but nevertheless we gained twelve mil
lion dollars on the preceding year.
Eastern people are pointing with pride
to this state. Our prosperity is so near
that we do not see it and estimate It
The Saturday Evening Post says:
Tet besides caring for home Inter
ests, the Nebraska banks, according to
the secretary's report have had so
much money that at least twenty-five
per ceut of the loans and discounts
have been to eastern financial Institu
tions and on eastern securities. In
plain English,-Nebraska has become a
"capitalist state." States, like indi
viduals, change their manner accord
ing to their poverty or wealth. In a
very old story, which is not read as
much as it should be, the patrlkrct
Job, wise, good and wealthy, is pre
sented by the highest authority as a
model "A perfect and an upright
man" "None like him in the earth"
but when, at the suggestion of Satan,
Job was deprived of his property and
his children, he became sick in body
and mind, went down into the dumps,
and found the world so awry that with
much eloquence of detail he cursed the
day in which he was born, and his wife
urged him to make the curse more
comprehensive so as to include the de
signer and manager of all things. From
poverty-stricken states, as from men
reduced to penury, come all sorts of
financial and social and moral heresies
and lunacies, some of which are in
fectious, turning the heads of the peo
ple and unsettling business founda
tions. It would be Invidious to name
states where this has been the case,
for no one can say with certainty that
similar disturbances may not begin, at
scant notice, in one of the oldest and
wealthiest.
But at present Nebraska deserves
thecongratulat!ons of her sister states
for having made so handsome a -showing,
and for having proved herself will
ing and able to spend less than she
earned, and thus fortified herself
against the bad years which always
are possible.
ji a j
Education and the SalooM
This is a free country and it Is more
than a question If one man or set of
men can say to another man or men:
"You shall not drink whisky or any
kind of alcoholic drink." In prohibi
tion communities men nre driven to
drink by the consciousness that they
are under a childish regime and that
the law is officious and intrusive.
Whatever the temperance exhorters
urge, it is still very difficult to. dis
possess the idea from an American cit
izen's head that he can put into his
stomach whatever he and his wife
shall agree is fit to be put there.
On the other hand the American
community has no right to make
whisky drinking or allow whisky
drinking to be made more alluring
than it Is inherently to the youth of
this country. There is one place In this
city where a bar and billiard tables
are almost in the same room. They
are both under the same management.
This place is making drunkards faster
than all the rest of the saloons in Lin
coln. Any passerby may see the room
full of young men who are sent to the
university by self-sacrificing parents
in the expectation that they will Im
prove the opportunity to prepare them
selves for a strenuous life. The boys
go In to play billiards and an Invita
tion to the bar is inevitable and it is
churlish to refuse. They play a game
and take a drink between games nat
urally, sociably, easily. The proprietor
claims that he can not afford to pay a
two thousand dollar license. Lincoln
can not afford to let him do business
here any longer. If a two thousand dol
lar license vould drive him out of the
billiard saloon business it would be the
most fortunate windfall to the business
of Lincoln. Among the thousand boys
who come here from the smaller places
In the state there are many who return
to their homes in the spring with de
praved consciences, blackguardly man
ners and small increment of culture.
Their first year away from the paren
tal roof has not justified the sacrifice
the parents are willing to make. Wise
parents take such sons out of school
and give them to understand that
henceforth they are entirely on their
own resources. Responsibility will
sometimes make a man of a youth
from whom parental love and unsel
fishness has had no response.
But as an educational community
the ''Lincoln municipal administration
should ihke new laws in regard to
billiard tables In saloons. We have no
right to allowthe saloon keeper to en
tice the youth. Moreover, the policy,
from a business point of view, does not
pay. Parents with their eyes open are
not going to send their boys to a sink
of iniquity. An education is a valu
able adjunct to a young man's career,
but If its acquirement is complicated
with too many spiritual and physical
dangers the business career preceded
by only a common-school education Is
preferable. There is no question that
the boy who comes to the university
and puts In his time smoking, playing
billiards and drinking or Idly hammer
ing coon songs out of that fraternity
beast of burden, the piano, ja in
jured rather than helped by the
process. His course amounts to
four years of self Indulgence. At
Lessons in Drawing, Painting, ? '
PvTfwrrhv.WOOdCrvinu.im- t v
proTed China Kiln, China
(dCarrlncr.Im
In. China deco-
1 rated or Bred.
Btnrtln rawn Mnndav. Tuesday.
i nursaay , na r numy uci uuuus
2 to 5 o'clock. Saturday mornings 9 to 12.
DR. BENJ. P. BAILEY,
Residence, Sanatorium. Tel. 617.
At offlcs.2 to 4, and Sundays, 12 to 1 p. m.
DR. MAY L. FLANAGAN,
Residence, 621 So. llth. Tel. 869.
At office, 10 to 12 a.m.; 4 to 6 p. nr
Sundays, 4 to 4:80 p. m.
Office, Zehrung Block, 141 So. 12th. TeL618.
LOUIS N. WENTE, J). D. S.,
OFFICE, BOOMS 26, 27, 1, BROWNELL
BLOCK,
137 South Eleventh street,
Telephone, Office, 630.
J. E.vHAGGAED, M. D.,
LINCOLN, NEB.
Office, 1100 O street Booms 212, 213, 214,
.Richards Block; Telephone 535.
Besidence, 1310 G street; Telephone K984
M. B. Ketchum, M.D., Phar.D.
Practice limited to EYE, EAR, NOSE,
THROAT, CATARRH, AND FITTING
SPECTACLES. Phone 848.
Hours, 9 to 5; Sunday, 1 to 2:30.
Booms 313-314 Third Floor Richards
Block, Lincoln, Neb.
THE.
First National Bank
OF LINCOLN, NEBRASKA
Capital, $200,000.00
Surplus and Profits, . 54,255.08
Deposits, 2,480,292.18
S. H. BuBNHAM, A. J. Sawyeb,
President Vice-President
H. S. Fseehak, Cashier.
H. B. Evans, Fkank Parks,
Ass't Cashier. Ass't Cashier.
United States Depository
The quality of the Piano you use
will bare more to do with the
success of your career as a musi
cian than possibly you may think.
If you use a
Weber,
Bauer, or
Matthews
your success is assured, every
thing else being equal.
You can buy any one of these
beautiful instruments on easy
terms at the lowest possible prices
consistent with quality, of the
Matthews
Piano Co.
arcrooau 1120 O S'xtt, Liacok