THE COURIER
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his head, hta eye-brows and eye-lashed
are going, his nose is losing its func
tions, his teeth are disappearing; his
nervous system is weakening, and all
this is also' accompanied by moral de
cline. Clothes are largely the cause
of disease, the body demanding the
naiural stimulants of sun, wind and
ralii. The disadvantages of man De
gas when he stood upright. If people
whb take the Kneipp cure by walking
barefooted in the grass would go on
all 1 fours they would carry out the
whole-theory of- the" cure. Knowledge
Is what is making all our women un
womanly. There is something so
healthy and natural about ignorance
that I have an ambition to found a
society for the suppression of knowl
edge. As for dress, I would say: 'Give
me a blanket for cold weather.' " Dr.
Stevenson said all this to a finale of
clapping hands and wreathed smiles.
If the women had had any idea that
the doctor's "advice must be followed,
solemnity would have settled down on
that meeting, and the speaker's repu
tation for eccentricity, combined with
her. evident popularity, would not have
saved her from signs of disapproval.
There Is always something rotten in
Denmark. The odor of death and dis
ease waits at the turning of the stairs
for everyone passing that way; and oc
casionally the bon vlvant. satiated
with too much and too rich food, Jumps
on to the nearest stump and announces,
to those who will listen, that we are
on our way to the dogs and that we
must change our rules of conduct and
our style of living and of dressing if
we wish to escape the fire that burns
always. Nausea of life overcomes fhe
young and the middle-aged. But it
must all be worth while or we would
noC be here.
-31 -t -'li
A Commercial People
By strenuous exertion. Congressman
Burkett secured an appropriation for a
new federal building for Lincoln. A
tiw days ago he returned to Lincoln
and was met at the station by a band
and a crowd of enthusiastic fellow
citizens. The energy, perseverance,
tact, knowledge of the ways and means
and never-faltering determination that
it requires to secure an appropriation,
deserve the recognition of a brass band
and lungs at the station when the con
gressman, who has exercised all these
virtues in our behalf, returns to his
home.
Two years ago Congressman Burkett
secured another appropriation, or rath
er a pension, for the widow of a man
to whom Nebraska will ever be in debt.
He gave the bill granting a pension of
fifty dollars a month to the widow of
Colonel Stotsenburg his personal at
tention. Unofficial friends of the dead
colonel and his widow and daughters
went to Washington for the purpose of
interesting indifferent congressmen and
senators in the bill. They were told
that all the chances were in favor of
the defeat of such a measure. That it
was finally granted by both houses is
due to the exertions and the patience
of Congressman Burkett. Good na
ture, his temperamental denial of de
feat, and a tireless activity won in
this case, as in his more recent victory.
For both, he is entitled to the thanks
of the people whom he has served so
well.
Probably the widow and children of
Colonel Stotsenburg are the only ones
who ever thanked him for the pension.
Every Nebraskan who cares for the
good name of his state, and for the
noble history of the Nebraska regiment
in the Philippines, is indebted to Colonel
Stotsenburg and the debt will never be
cancelled.
Other men have given up their lives
in the Philippine insurrection. But
Colonel Stotsenburg brought the Ne-r
braska regiment to the point of para
mount effectiveness In a few months.
Another man led his command into the
ambush from which Stotsenburg res
cued them by the sacrifice of his own
life. He was oft duty, and he rode
as fast .as horse could take him to the
field where the Nebraska boys were
lying flat on their faces in the tropical
sun. He ran across the exposed field.
ordering a charge and made himself a
target for fifty rebel rifles. The ofll
cer who had gotten the men into the
scrape was behind a knoll waiting for
Stotsenburg to come up. He knew,
and all the men knew, that when Stot
senburg got there the situation would
change instantly. "
Congressman Burkett is one of., the
very few residents of this state who
appreciate Colonel Stotsenburg's ser
vices and their relation to every Indi
vidual citizen whether or not the 'citi
zen recognizes the final renunciation
and the previous loyalty and devotion
of the colonel to his regiment. The
debt Is a debt quite the same as though
it were written in a note which be
gins: "Ninety days after date we
promise to pay," etc. There is no such
commercial evidence of Its existence,
and as we are exclusively a commercial
people the debt will never be paid.
As a commercial people, when our
congressman gets an appropriation of
dollars for a postofflce building, we
thank him with all the public emotion
and effusion we can command. If we
had anything more emotional and ex
pressive than a brass band and a num
ber of hoarse citizens to send to the
depot, we should have sent them. But
we collected and sent that which rep
resents the climax of our emotional
expression, and some of U3 who thought
we should have expressed thanks to
the congressman when he returned
from the performance of a knightly
deed two years ago, reflected upon the
manifestations of the commercial
standards of a people whose apprecia
tion is measured by the dollar. The
next time that the congressman" Is
moved to exert his influence for a.
righteous cause which will not put a
dollar Into the pockets of any of his
constituents, he Is to be excused if
he remembers his cold welcome and his
warm one. and reflects that he is a.
representative of a district In Nebras
ka which will thank him for no action,
however patriotic, which is not cal
culated to put money In tile pockets
of his constituents.
a-
A Golden Wcddk
Mme. Marches!, the teacher of most
of the contemporary prime donne, and
her husband, the Marquis de Castronla,
have Just celebrated their golden wed
ding In Paris. The bridesmaids were
Mme. Marchesi's American pupils. This
famous teacher Is a sort of St. Peter
at the gate of a vocal paradise to
American girls who have good reasons
for believing that they have voices
which will electrify the world if prop
erly trained and developed. She is a
somewhat commonplace appearing old
lady, but many a girl has thought her
existence depended upon the Madame's
verdict. No bewildered soul seeking a
way to Heaven is more frightened and
hopeful than the young woman with a
voice who goes to Madame Marches! to
be told If she can become a Patti or a
Nordica or a Christine Nielson.
It was fitting that the bridesmaids of
her wedding anniversary should be
American girls. For the last thirty
years a procession of American girls
has passed into her door. Some of them
went in despair and came out hopeful
and some of the girls went to see her
in provincial over-confidence and came
away with the first sensible and sincere
vocal advice they ever received; came
away to return to their homes and ac
cept the secluded existence for which
alone their modest talents were fitted.
But of this latter type there are not
many. A great army of self-deceived
girls with small domestic voices persist
in thinking they were born for the con
cert or opera stage, and, such is their
large influence at home, succeed in con
vincing their parents that they have
voices it will pay to spend several thou
sand dollars on. For this kind there Is
only bitter disappointment in return
for the waste and misuse of the limited
family income.
Mme. Marches! is a woman of Imag
ination or she could not be a great mu
sician, and besides she is a woman.
She is, therefore, doubtless aware of
the tragedies which ring her bell and
enter her studio every day. Sameness
hardens the tenderest heart, and a mu
sician's heart Is generally responsive
only to musical woe and tragedy. No
doubt she and her faithful husband,
who has been supported all these fifty
years on the Madame's reputation and
tuition fees, contemplate with equa
nimity the palpitating, the thinly-hidden
hopes and fears which appear be
fore them every day In the shape of
a newly arrived American girl. She
represents to the Madame and her
Marquis so many dollars per minute.
To be sure there Is always the chance
that the new girl may be "la belle can
tatrlce" and add to her teacher's world
wide reputation; a reputation which
must, nevertheless, be fed with new
successes or go out like the lamp which
has burned up all its oil. Those Amer
ican girls who were her pupils and, for
the moment, her bridesmaids the other
day, did they think, as they walked be
fore the admirable old lady and her
fortunate spouse with lighted candles
and flowers, of the long procession of
American girls who had come to Paris,
studied with Marches!, and gone home
to fail?
Alloc Twit k Bent
An observation In a recent Courier
has attracted some adverse comment.
Certain readers of these columns have
said to the editor that she Is too se
vere upon the foibles of youth. The
foibles of the young! The foibles of the
young are the crimes of the old, unless
those who are old and experienced,
when the foibles of the young are
brought to their attention, call them
by their right names and uttejr the
warning they have lived to know Is
needed.
There are a number of mothers in
Lincoln who take their young daugh
ters or sons with them when they go
marketing of mornings. It Is natural
when a youngster passes a tempting
basket of fruit to take a cherry or an
apple or pinch off a grape. The moth
ers complacently contemplate the ac
tions of their children and occasionally
pilfer themselves, during the matuti
nal round of the groceries and the fruit
stands. There is impotent wrath in
the grocer's breast as he sees what he
regards as imps mutilating his "top"
fruit, but he can not reproach them for
fear of losing a good customer, and he
smiles the hypocritical grocer's smile.
Well! These children, grown older, are
students in the high school. They see
gloves or mittens or books that they
want and they take them. The Inci
dent that they belong to some one else
has no bearing on the case; their own
mother's silence has taught them this
at a time when they were learning the
ineffaceable lessons of childhood.
At a later period these boys or girls
are in the university and they steal
whatever stray wraps, books or pocket
books they find lying loosely about as
though they were in the grocery store
and the articles were dried currants ot
raisins.
Later some of the boys whose educa
tion was begun by their mothers are
employed in a bank or store where they
have access to money or goods. They
have taken things all their lives that
did not belong to them. Why should
they first draw a line now? Five dol
lars is no larger to a young man than
an apple is to a little boy who chances
to be very fond of apples and a trifle
hungry. Then for the first time when
the boy is arrested and his family dis
graced, his mother reproaches htm and
accuses him of ingratitude and of un
flllal selfishness. She does not know
that all the trouble began In the gro
cery store and her failure to Impress
upon a plastic mind and a tender con
science that stealing is taking any
thing which belongs to someone else,
whether it is a raisin or a dollar or a
brick of Ice cream.
There Is a woman In Lincoln who is
the mother of five sons. They are middle-aged
men now with families of
their own. All of them are respected
by their fellow-men. Not one of the
sons has ever made money by playing
tricks on his fellows. They have kept
In mind the early lessons of their
strenuous mother who taught them
when they were little, boys to keep
their hands off what did not belong to
them. However small the object cov
eted by the boys. It had no bearing
upon the universal application of the
commandment: "Thou shalt not steal."
Long ago one of the boys heard his
mother say she wished she had some
onion sets for her kitchen garden. The
next day the little fellow of six tri
umphantly deposited In his mother's
lap u handful of onion sets. His face
was flushed with the gratification of
having, by his own exertions, obtained
something he knew his beloved mother
wanted. The mother was a wise wom
an. She saw the eager little face
shining with love und the Illumination
of serving the beloved object. But she
said: "John, where did you get these
onions?" The little boy said: "Down
nt Wathan's, where we get all our
things." "Did he give them to you?
Did you nsk for them?" "No, I saw
them and I heard you say you wanted
some and he had a bushel basket full
out In front, and so I took this hand
ful for you." But the expression of
the small face had changed. He saw '
with his mother's eyes that he had
done wrong, and the wall of a child
who has Impulsively wronged a
stranger for the sake of obtaining a
gift for his mother broke from his lips.
But the mother was In the wuy of
helping a little boy to become u good
man, and she made him take back the
onion sets and explain to the grocer
that he was sorry and would not do It
again. The boy, grown to manhood.
Is distinguished for his scrupulous In
tegrity. The habits of our youth are graven
into our brains in deep ruts. In ma
turity the brain Is tough and the
graving tool that cuts a deep line there
must be finely tempered and sharp.
We forget trifles. Our characters are
made. The surface of the mature brain
is covered by a complex system ot
lines. Like a bank note the brain has
received the impression, and the char
acters -will remain until the-note la de
stroyed. The brain of the child is
smooth. He and his mother are writ
ing thereon.
Tr r ir
Vandalism
The residents of Lincoln have re
sponded to the exhortations of the City
Improvement society as well as to
their own longing forbeauty and or
der. The very large number of house
holders who keep neat lawns are dis
couraged by thieving men, women and
children who come at night and carry
oft plants and flowers and ruthlessly
trample the lawn and flower beds.
Every part of the city is infested by
thieves, who defeat efforts to create
beauty by uprooting plants and mak
ing paths across lawns. The grocers
boys and all kinds of hucksters and
delivery men walk on the lawn and.
make dusty paths where the owner oC
the lawn desires the grass to grow.
Wires stretched across corners to keep
pedestrians on the walk are torn
down, and a flower In bloom on the
lawn is picked after only a few hours
of decorative existence. The society la
respectfully invited by hundreds of
resident gardeners to consider this
question for the purpose of discovering
some means by which the vandalism
and destruction of plants and lawns
may be lessened, if it can not be en
tirely prevented.
Dr. Zakrzewifca
On the fifteenth of May In Boston
the body of an unusual woman was
reduced to ashes. Dr. Zakrzewska was
a Pole who came to Boston forty years
ago. She was a doctor possessed of
keen insight, supplemented by wonder
ful anatomical and pathological
knowledge; a knowledge and ability
which made her respected by the good
physicians of both sexes in Boston.
She came to this country poor and
unknown. She died, a few days ago,
one of the most highly respected wo
men in this country, the founder of the
New England hospital, one of the larg
est and best women's hospitals In
Massachusetts, and the revered friend
of the noted men and women of the
most famous city In America.