256
A RECONCILIATION.
A Comedy in One Act by Elia W. Peattie.
CHARACTERS.
FRANZ [?]. } KARL SCHULTZ. } Musicians.
Mercy Woods -- Her daughter.
(Scene: Two very small lodging rooms in a large city. The partition between the two rooms divides the stage in halves. Each room contains a single bed, a table, and some chairs. One room has a piano. The other [?] a violin case conspicuously placed.
Mrs. Woods and Mercy enter the room of Franz [?] -- the one which contains the piano. "Mercy" carries a bunch of roses. Mrs. Woods has a tea tray.)
MRS WOODS -- It's fifteen minutes past his time. When he does come he'll be in such a rush to get away again to that dreadful society, where the men drink beer and sing bass choruses. It's raining worse than ever outside, and if he gets wet it will make his cough a great deal worse.
(Mercy puts in it the roses in a Flemish jug on the trouble and carries the rest of the roses [?] the adjoining room and puts them in a vase on the table beside the violin. There is a slight noise without us of the elevator stopping. The women look up expectantly. And Mueller enters his room. Throughout he speaks with a slight German accent not necessary to indicate in the spelling, and more a matter of ludiction than anything else. The same applies to Heri Schultze.)
MUELLER Good evening, Mrs. Woods. I see you have not forgotten to bring up [?]. You are very kind, I assure you.
MRS. WOODS -- I knew you would be wet to the skin. You see, I have a fire started. What a shame it is you have to go out tonight! Come over here and dry yourself Why is it, I should like to know, that you never carry an umbrella?
[MURILLER?] -- My dear Mrs. Woods, you so exaggerate. I do sometimes carry an umbrella. But the truth is, Mr. Schultze until I have only one between us, and he has it.
MRS. WOODS -- Now you see the inconveniences of falling out! Here are you with a tire, and [?] without any. And him with an umbrella, and you without any, and all because of a quarrel over goodness known what. When are you going to make up? You promised me last night -
MUELLER -- Pardon me, Mrs. Woods. I promised you nothing. You tried to make me apologize to a man to whom I owe no apology -- to [?], madam, who, under the preleuse of friendliness, has wounded my feelings -- a man who had the impertinence to say that I did not know how to phrase Ratt's andanto in A major. A composition, [?], that I know as well as you know your alphabet! The truth is, he is not willing to give the piano a chance in it. He has got too used to relegating the piano to a secondary place. He wants to play a continual solo. He is not fit for a composer -- who knows how to balance the [?] And it is impossible to discuss with him -- he can no more keep his temper -- its a disgrace to a man of his age -
MRS. WOODS -- There you go again. Herr Mueller. Now don't talk to me about that Ann Dante! I don't know her from Eve, and I don't want to But what I do wish is that I could hear you playing that serenade together again. That's just like heaven, Herr Mueller.
MUELLER -- The serenade will never be played by me again, Mrs. Woods. I have never played it without -
MRS. WOODS -- Without Herr Shultze. Of course not. And nobody wants you to play it alone. I want to hear the piano moaning and moaning away underneath, and the violin sighing and sighing above, and the whole making you forget that you are in a dusty down-town lodging house, and imagine you are out in the woods at night, with the moonlight shining through the leaves, and the nightingale singing, and you singing too, as hard as you can, to your sweetheart. That's what Mercy and me like. And we don't see why two old friends, who can't get along without each other a minute and be happy, should fall out and get like a couple of school boys.
MUELLER - Madaurl
MRS. WOODS -- Now Herr Mueller, don't be [?[ with me. it isn't worth while to be dignified with a plain sort of woman who makes her living taking lodgers. It isn't indeed. Did you see the roses Mercy brought you?
MUELLER -- Dear me, no! That's just like me -- just like me. They are as sweet as she is? She is a good daughter, Mrs. Woods. She is a comfort! The older I grow -- and I'm getting an old man, Mrs. Woods, an old and lonely man -- the more I love youth, and freshness, and beauty, like your daughter or the 40 roses.
MRS. WOODS -- You ought to have had a daughter yourself, Herr Mueller.
MUELLER (sighs) -- Perhaps so. I might have had, maybe, only -- but what's the use? I have had no one but a friend, and now I have lost him.
MRS. WOODS -- Noncsense! You haven't lost him any such thing. All you have to do --
MUELLER -- Say no more. Mrs. Woods! Not another word, I beg. Do you mean to repeat your request to me to apologize to a man who said I did not know the [?] -
(Mrs. Woods puts her hands over her ears and runs from the room. Mueller smiles grimly and sits down before the fire. He pulls off his shoes, puts on his slippers, draws the tea table up and pours out his tea. Now and then he smells of his roses, in the meantime Mercy has been tyding the adjoining room. It is left and returned with a tea tray, and placed the slippers in front of the big chair. As she is finishing, Karl Schultze cuters. He shakes out his umbrella, and hangs up his hat and coat.)
SCHULTZE -- [?] that you Mignon? And did you bring me those wonderful roses? Ah, the wonder of the good God is in the roses -- and in the kindness of heart that made you bring them to a lonely man. Where did you get them, my dear?
MERCY (hanging her head a trifle) -- Oh, they were given to me by a friend. And I had so many -- four dozen -- only thing! So I brought you some, and I gave some to Herr Mueller. He has such a pleasant fire in his room. I do wish you would go in there and sit with him by his fire, the way you used to do. I can't take any comfort thinking of you sitting up here alone. it is just the same with mother. When we are down in the sitting room together, and it is so cheerful and bright, she says: "There's those two [?] men sitting up there smoking their pipes all alone!" And we're just dying to hear you play together again. If I could just hear you play the serenade -
SCHULTZE -- There, Mignon, there! Don't mention the serenade again. I shall not play the serenade ay more, at all, forever. You are a sweet maiden, and know nothing of sorrow, or the disappointments that one [?] in friends. There's that man I've lived with, traveled with, worked with, feasted with and starved with, and for [?] miserable criticism he leaves me! His temper is worse than his phrasing -- and I must say the way he phrased to that [?] in A major would have disgraced a beginner. He can't keep his instrument down. He wants to be spectacular all the time. I tried to show him that it was the violin that had to bring out the climax. But what is the use of talking to him? Serenade, Mignon? No, it will be a long, long time before you will hear us play the serenade together again -- a long, long time.
MERCY -- Well good night, Herr Schultze. You are going to stay in tonight, I suppose.
SCHULTZE -- Yes, I'm glad to say I am Why?
MERCY -- Oh, nothing. Only Herr Mueller has to go out.
SCHULTZE -- Yes, that's so. This is the night he rehearses the Lelderkrutz.
MERCY -- It's raining dreadfully.
SCHULTZE -- What of this, Mignon?
MERCY -- Nothing at all. Good night (Exit).
(Herr Mueller to his room, looks at his [water?], puts down his cup of tea, gently folds up his paper, combs his long, straight gray hair by running his hands through it two or three times, gets into his out-door garments, takes an arm full of music, which he carefully selects from his music cabinet and prepares to leave. Then he look s at his blazing [?], and toward the door which communicates with the room which Schultze occupies.)
MUELLER -- It's [?] a fire to go to waste. It wouldn't be speaking to him to knock on the door to let him know I am going out. (Hesitates a moment.) But I won't do it. A man who doesn't appreciate not any more than to say -- (exit, muttering to himself)
(Schultze hears him close his door behind him, and instinctively jumps up, seizes the umbrella, as if he would rush after him. Stops and looks at the umbrella a moment, and then sits down, scowling very much, lights his pipe, and begins [?] up his violin)
There is a sudden knock at the door, Schultze calls: 'Come in." Enter Mrs. Woods.)
MRS. WOODS -- Mercy would make me come up, Herr Schultze, to ask if you wouldn't come down and sit by our fire. We made up our minds that if Herr Mueller was so hard-hearted and stingy that he wouldn't ask you to, that we would.
SCHULTZE -- Hard-hearted, Mrs. Woods? I am bound to say that whatever the faults of Herr Mueller. I have never observed that he was hard-hearted.
MRS. WOODS -- I don't know, of course, how you Germans look at such things. But we Americans would call him manner than dirt. The way he went back on the alter all you had done for him makes me boiling mad.
SCHULTZE -- My dear madam, you must permit we to explain that he has done everything for me, and I have done nothing for him. Why are we together in Germany in '48. That was when we were young. He was with me at the university. We belonged to the same society. He was a hot socialist, and so was I. We made our minds to incur together the dangers attending a blow struck for Germany -- and for liberty, madam. Those were days worth talking about -- days to remember. Mueller was magnificent. He was a hero. I was his slave. I did whatever he told me. As well, nothing came of our struggle. We were banished. I was a poor [?]. He had money. he brought me to this country, and we have lived and studied together ever since.
MRS. WOODS -- lie may have done that, but that is no reason why he should go back on you now, and leave you sitting here alone. For the old men like you to fall out over a woman -
SCHULTZE -- A woman, Mrs. Woods?
MRS. WOODS -- Yes. Didn't he even mention her name to me -- Ann somebody, I have forgotten who.
SCHULTZE -- We fell out over an andante, Mrs. Woods.
MRS. WOODS -- Yes, that's it. Ann Dante! Now the idea! Of course I don't know her, and she may be a very nice woman. But is she worth having two old men get mad about? You don't mind me calling you old? I'm old myself.
SCHULTZE (sighing) -- Yes, Mrs. Woods, we're all getting old together. Old, and very lonely.
MRS. WOODS -- Well, you may be lonely, but I can't say that I am. No one could be lonely and have Mercy around.
(The voice of Mercy is heard without)
MERCY -- Oh, Herr Mueller! You back already? What was the matter? (They appear.)
MUELLER (in an irritable tone) -- That Liederkranz has no more enthusiasm! A little rain [?] them [?] off -- not a soprano there and only two tenors. I said to them: "Go to your homes. What you do is an insult to music. I will not teach such indifferent ones. Go to your homes."
SCHULTZE (sympathetically, to Mrs. Woods) -- The pigs! They appreciate nothing!
MUELLER (to Mercy) -- When a man has nothing left but his art, and that brings him only disappointment, he has had about enough of life. (Enters his room. He is dripping wet, and sits down to dry himself before the fire. Mercy brings him dry slippers and dressing gown.)
MERCY -- It is dreadful for you to get so wet. You must get your an umbrella tomorrow.
MUELLER -- Oh, yes, Miss Mercy, that is very well to say. But we musicians never have enough money to buy an umbrella when it [?]. When we have money we spend it, and then there is nothing left for a rainy day -- not even enough money to buy an umbrella wish.
MERCY -- Oh, yes, I know how you spend your money. That poor little Fraulein Paula told me how you paid her doctor's bills.
MUELLER (grossly) -- You must not talk too much, madchen. It is not proper for a young girl.
MERCY -- Will you take some cough syrup if I get it?
MUELLER -- Cough syrup? No! What do I want with cough syrup? My heart is broken with that perverse generation, and you offer me cough syrup. Go down to your mother, like a good girl. I am very sad tonight. I want to be alone.
(Mercy goes out. Schultze, who has listened to all of this, walks back and forth through the room, stopping every now to look at the door that divides the rooms. He motions Mrs. Woods to leave. She goes out. Once he picks up the umbrella and looks at it Then he sets it down and resumes his walking up and down the room. Mueller, meantime, has become dry and warm by his bright fire).
MUELLER -- it must be very dull in a room without a fire. There's nothing like the creature comforts. A man may think there is nothing worth living for, but when he is warm and has had he [?], it is hard to keep from enjoying life, even if one is friendless. Friendless!
(He gets up and also begins [?] the floor. Finally he sits down at the piano and runs his fingers over the keys. Little by little he falls into the melody of Schubert's serenade. Schultze listens, starts, listens again, and rushes for his violin, which he takes from the case, and begins playing the serenade in harmony with Mueller. Mercy softly enters Mueller's room and opens the door between the two apartments. Mrs. Woods, wiping her eyes with her apron, appears to Schultze's room, and as she does so the two men leave their instruments, and, meeting in Mueller's room before the fire, throw themselves in each other's arms.)
[?]
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
The New Lake in India -- A robort on the great Himalayan landslip of September, 1803, has been prepared by Mr. T. H. Holland of the Indian geological survey. The slip occurred at Gohna, British Garhwal This village is on the river Birah Gauga, which flows northward into the Alaknanda one of the principal tributaries of the Ganzes. The bed of the British Gauga, sloping about 24 degrees, is at Gohan 4 600 feet above the sea level, and is the bottom of a narrow gorge, with steep, and sometimes precipitous sides. The river basin, twenty miles long and nine miles wide is bounded on the north and cast by a snow-clad ridge rising to 21,286 feet from whose snow much of the water of the river is derived The area of the basin east of Gohna, and now draining into the new lake, is ninety square miles. On the north side of the river the mountain spur called Maithana by the villagers rose almost vertically to over 11,000 feet high, and near the close of the rainy season, on September 6 and the two following days, this was projected across the river gorge in a series of falls, accompanied with deafening noise and clouds of dust that whitened the ground and trees for miles around. The mass of broken material that fell stretches two miles along the river valley and rests against the cliff of similar rocks on the opposite side, a mile away. In March 42d acres of this dam was still exposed, but the water was rapidly rising over it on the eastern side and had already formed a lake covering 370 acres. Mr. Holland concluded that this lake would overflow the dam, at a height of 5850 feet above sea level, about the middle of August and that, if the channel then cut through the mud should not exceed 100 feet in depth, an ordinarily permanent lake three and one-fourth miles long and one and one-fourth wide would be preserved. At several places in the Himalayas lakes have been similarly formed in recent times.
The experiments made in France and other European countries with tree leaves as food for cattle seem to have resulted very satisfactorily. The leaves of the hazel, aspen, ash, elm and willow are found to be suitable, and are collected, dried, and stored like hay. Each
257
ART AND SOME ART MATTERS
Mrs. Peattie Writes of the Recent Academy Exhibition in This City. She Finds Much of Merit in What Was Shown by Omaha Makers of Pictures. A Little Dissertation by Mr. Snyder on Local Studies--A Column for Art Lovers.
The Art academy gave an exhibition of its work Friday afternoon and evening in a large, well-lighted room over the [nataroium?] on Howard street. The exhibition had not been contemplated, but at the last moment Mr. J. Laurie Wallace, the director, concluded to make a showing of the work in hand. Much of it was unfinished, but was none the less interesting on that account. And, indeed, one felt that the element of self-consciousness had not entered into the work of the students as it might have done had preparations been deliberately made for an exhibition.
The rooms in which the exhibition was held had been made very attractive by the young girl students. They had cleaned and tidied, strewn rugs and hung draperies, arranged [?] and secured punch, and what with these comforts, a grand piano, the pictures themselves and the young ladies who [?] them, the place was a very esthetic one.
In the evening there was a musical program. Mr. Albert was present with his violin, Mr. Gahm was at the piano, and Mrs. Metcalf and young Mr. Fischer sung. There was a large attendance, and the young girl students talked high art, and talked it in beautiful costumes. Miss Uhl wore a Turkish costume, Miss Lumbard was dressed as a lady of the empire, Miss Dillon was in Japanese dress, Miss Ruth in a jaunty continental costume, Miss Brown was in Grecia robes, Miss Evans in Japanese and Miss Young in seventeenth century costumes.
As to the pictures, there were some beautiful water color sketches of Santa Fe by Miss Evans, the instructor of drawing in the public schools; and an exquisite water color of a vista at the World's Fair by Miss Young, director of art work at Brownell Hall. Miss Young also had some copies of pictures at Lininger's gallery. Mr. Huntington, who is in the hide and leather business, and who paints pictures at night, because he cannot help it, and who, by the way, points some of them [?] well, had a number of things on the wall. Among them were two beach scenes in oil, very delicate and true. Mr. Fred Parker kindly sent down a mellow woodland scene, which is one of the best things he ever did, and which gave decided tone to the modest display. Frank Shill, who is doing some good work, has a number of things on the wall, among them a portrait of his mother, which, though still unfinished, gives promise of being excellent. Mr. Shill is hardly a student of the academy, although he has studied some good work. Mr. Wallace had nothing displayed at all, which was certainly over modest. Omaha is interested in Mr. Wallace and likes to look at his work. Moreover, there is every reason to feel that he is fast reaching the place where he will definitely decide in what way to express himself. Some ambitious pictures are expected of him. At the World's fair his pictures looked very creditable, even in comparison with the work of much older men. It is said that Mr. Wallace contemplates the painting of society pictures as his specific line of work. He will try to paint the emotions of faces of the affluent, the self-contained, and the cultivated as they have been painted in thousands of times in the faces of the lowly. It is a thing requiring much ability, a sincere art feeling, enormous study and a story of [pictorist?], histrionic power, if the expression may be used. But there is reason to suppose that if Mr. Wallaces bends his energies to the task he will succeed.
Mr. Rotbery sent over one fine portrait.
As for the students, their work was not being censured. It was often unfinished, as said before. In many cases it was the result of but a few months' study. It showed thorough method. Sometimes it showed he individuality of the pupil. The charcoal work was good and honest. The studies in oil were some of them really delightful. Some were very crude-that goes without saying. Miss Uhl's work attracted a great deal of favorable comment. Miss Dillon was given the prize for the most rapid advancement. Miss Uhl, Miss Brown and Miss Ruth were pronounced competent to teach. Mrs. McKnight had a good interior in quiet colors. Mrs. Clement Chase a chic head in water colors. Mrs. Monell was represented by a study of white and maroon-colored chrysanthemums on a table covered with maroon plush. The effect was artistic and the work good. Miss Uh's portrait of Miss Winter was among the best things in the selection.
Some little unframed sketches of sunrise over the bluffs, or of sunset on the prairies, or the river bottoms, done in the true art of the impressionist, were in a way, the things which held most promise. These were done by a number of the students, and indicated a line of work in which they may hope to find some expression of their environment, some expression of their environment, their capabilities and their own individuality. Fortunately they have an instructor who appreciates to the utmost the value of the truth in art, and who will encourage them to paint, what they see and in the way they see it.
The work of the Art academy appears to be thorough, sincere and aspiring. ELIA W. PEATTIE.
258
CLUBS MADE UP OF WOMEN
Mrs. Peattle Writes of Some Things She Learned at Philadelphia.
The Noisiest State of the Union Secured the Office of President for Mrs. [Heurotin?].
An Interest in Material Current Affairs Does Not Mean the Overthrow of the Household.
Since the women's club has reached a membership of about 400, it is perhaps permissible to print in the columns of this paper an article which will be interesting to those members alone. If this matter is incidentally of interest to other women, so much the better.
The women's club sent two delegates to the General Federation of Women's clubs at Philadelphia and fees, naturally, some curiosity as to that federation, and the meaning and results of it.
On the whole it was a demonstration which distinctly belonged to the close of this century. Forty-five for fifty thousand women were represented by the 600 delegates who assembled to discuss subjects relating to club developments and to higher education.
Men's clubs are very apt to be founded upon their vices. One dislike saying this, but it is really true. Eating, drinking, smoking and poker playing are the bonds that hold together the members of a good part of men's clubs. Women's clubs are different. Social, intellectual and philanthropic motives are those which hold them together, and that there are in such motives the potentialities of closer comradeship that lies in the motives underlying men's clubs is evidenced by the fact that the Omaha Women's club is today the most successful and solvent club in this city.
The clubs with it met in representation at Philadelphia were similiar in their aims, although their line of study was often very different. The federation admits only such clubs as are chiefly social and intellectual in their work, for the reason that if it did otherwise it would be obliged to admit temperance and suffrage organizations, and intellectual work would soon be swallowed up. In short, the Women's club as a development of the last decade may be looked upon simply as a popular movement for higher education and for the abolition of that social cable for which women have been chiefly responsible the world over.
The New Century club house at Philadelphia is a beautiful structure, with an audience chamber frescoed, lighted with electricity, exquisitely draped and finished; and with drawing rooms, dining room, tea rooms and committee rooms beneath. In this fine building the delegates met every forenoon. In the afternoon they met at the Chestnut Street theater. In the evening at the quaint old Academy of Music.
The mornings were given up to business, the afternoons to general discussions, and the evenings to the reading of papers and the giving of addresses. the orchestra of the Academy of Music enlivened the evening's programs. One evening was devoted to a reception at the New Century club house, at which 1,000 guests were present and which was owing to the number of distinguished women present one of the most brilliant affairs ever given in Philadelphia. At least, that was the verdict of Philadelphian women who were in a position to know.
Nothing was more striking about this peculiar social gathering than the beauty of the elderly woman- the women over 50. They were grande dames, with their white hair, the beautiful gowns, their elegant manners, and their air of experience. Too often in America society is given up almost entirely to crude young girls who have nothing but their assurance and their freshness of face to recommend them. But for once, at least, distinction, achievement, experience and elegance held their own, and the young were forced into that attitude of respect which it would be far more becoming for them to habitually maintain.
Mrs. Charlotte Emerson Brown, the retiring president, is a woman of calm and regal manners, and her stateliness and genially in her social relations were as admirable as her judicious manner of presiding at the meetings.
It was a matter of gratification to me to see how large a number of the representatives of the New York, Boston and Philadelphia journals reporting the federation were women. And it was still more gratifying to note how accurately they did their work.
The Metropole theater the finest in Philadelphia was the headquarters of the club, and the delegations met there and did their business and held their [caucuacs?]. There was no denying that there was politics in it all. It snowed May Wright Sewall under. And it made the east afraid to lift up its voice for a president. In fact, the offices were distributed among the states with much care, the south and west standing together, as they do in national politics, and the east trying hard to be politic and polite, and not succeeding any too well. To a person who has not; and who never had any sectional feeling, and who likes a good man or woman, whether he of she comes from Kamchatka or New York, all this was very funny. But Illinois, which seems to be the noisiest state in all the union, got the president- Mrs. Hentrotin. She is a woman with a great deal of fact and experience in intellectually with many another woman in the federation, and from her own city, yet she does well enough. Dr. Sarah Hackett Stevenson of Chicago would have made a fine president and so would May Wright Sewall. But both of these women have views which are too aggressive to suit the majority who fear that the federation might be led to take measures more radical that it desires under their leadership. Pennsylvania got the vice presidency- Mrs. Mumford, a woman of much power and enormous popularity, who has hitherto been president of the New Century club of Philadelphia Mrs. Charles P, Barnes of Louisville Ky., was made recording secretary; Mrs. Philip N. More of Missouri, corresponding secretary; Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper of San Fransisco, treasurer, and Mrs. Fannie Purdy Paler of Rhode Island, auditor. The advisory board consists of Mrs. Charlotte Emerson Brown. East Orange, N.J.; Mrs. Julls Ward Howe, Boston; Mass.; Mrs. J. O. Croley, New York; Mrs. Virginia J. Berryhill, Iowa; Mrs. Ritta B. Oagood, Portland, Ms.; Mrs. Lucie E. Blount, Washington, D.C.; Miss Mary E. Steel, Ohio; Mrs. Elizabeth Lyle Saxon New Orleans, La, and Mrs. Samuel McKinney, Tennessee.
I am aware that this is not news and that it is distinctly bad journalism to publish this at a date so late. But I know that the members of the Omaha Women's club would very much like to have an article on the subject of the biannual meeting of the federation, which they could preserve as a general and condensed report, and this is written for that reason only.
The discussions in the afternoon were participated in without break or pause. One afternoon was given to the discussion of "The Ideal Club," and the second afternoon to the discussion of "The Ideal Federation." Some of the women had announced their desire to speak, and were therefore announced to do so by the president. Others arose upon the spur of the moment and spoke with agreeable spontaneity.
There were some bores, of course; they were generally elderly women with famous names. I have often noticed that the more distinguished a person the more of a bare ho or she is. But there were many crisp, witty and eloquent speeches made. And it was quite astonishing to me to notice how active the southern women were, and how eagerly they advocated club work for the women of their section, feeling that this would give them that mental activity and interact in public affairs which alone would awaken them from their excursion and lethargy which is so characteristic of them. They were beautiful- some of these southerners- and their fine voices and gracious manners were very charming to the matter-of-fact northern women. The New England women were very incisive and they had some ideas worth remembering. The western women, especially those from Illinois seemed rather aggressive, though it was hard to tell what they had to be aggressive about. The Michigan women were clever, and bright, and altogether entertaining. There was an exuberance about the California women. And the delegate from Syria had eyes that were adorable, and spoke with an eloquence in which similes bore a large part. Mrs. Shattuck, who is the authority for women's clubs on parliamentary law sat beside the president most of the time and at difficult moments gave voice to parliamentary wisdom. It must be admitted that the maner of conducting the meetings was very businesslike, and that no one was out of order or did anything not parliamentary. All of which dazzled me, who have a genius for being out of order.
The first evening's session showed a very large attendance with at least a third of the audience composed of men- who could enter by the purchase of a ticket, as at any other amusement house.
The first speaker said the Philadelphia Press was, Mrs. May Rogers, ex-president of the Ladies' Literary club of Dubuque, Is. She discussed the subject, "The New Social Force." She said the organization of the women in clubs is the new force. This organization means the She is something more than a loving or jealous creature. She is enjoying a higher education and this earth is no longer a man's world. Women have entered. She has entered upon all problems. Club women are trained in practical affairs of life and versed in literary and philosophical education. In America she has met her greatest advantages. Here she has made her greatest success.
"The Daughter of Sorosis" was the subject of the address of Mrs. William Tod Heimuth, president of Sorosis, who followed. In her Introductory remarks she said; "We number 50,000 women. What they have done and will do cannot be till in ten minutes." Mrs. Helmuth then traced the early history of Sorosis and paid a high tribute to Jennie C. Curley, the founder of the society in this country.
"What Women Should Do for Mankind" was the subject of Mrs. Florence Llowe Llall's address. The general expectation was that it would be an impassioned speech but Mrs. Hall cleverly used the opportunity to indulge in satire and humor, and man got the worst of it. She pictured him as a fickle giddy creature, who loved to see baseball games, go a-yachting and a-coaching, whom the self-appointed apostles, women must try to rescue from some dreadful fate. She declared that women was capable of doing this, because in two hours she could discuss all the philosophies under the sun, settle the greatest economic questions of the day, set the fashion for the next year and enjoy some music beside. Her address was frequently interrupted with laughter and applause.
Mrs. Edward Longstreth of this city discussed the question, "How Can Women Fit Themselves for Taking Part in the Affairs of City and State?" She pointed out the present evils in the city and state government and said that were women allowed to have a voice, she could bring about a better condition of things. She thought the time was coming when women would have the right in vote, and it was time that they should awaken to the obligations that would be imposed upon them. They should study upon such lines as would fit them to take part in politics.
Mrs. Kate Upson Clarke of New York gave an entertaining talk upon "The Democracy of the Woman's Club." The first requisite for membership, she said, was a high moral character, and the second the applicant must have ideas. All other things were subservient to these. Snobbery and toadyism are not tolerated. The rich and the poor girl are on an equal footing. Democracy is the foundation of the federation. Her address was enlivened with many interesting incidents.
Other addresses were made by Mrs. Estelle H. Merrill on "Women's Demands Upon the Newspapers;" Mrs. Charles W. Bassett on "After College Days," and Miss Kate Tannatt Woods on "Club Courtesles and Discourtesies."
At the last evening's session Mrs. Julia Ward Llowe of Boston made the opening address and was given a warm welcome. She spoke a few words of encouragement and exhortation to the federation and likened the organization to the union of the states. Though there may be differences on minor matters, yet in essentials they were one.
Mrs. B. F. Taylor of Cleveland, O., spike of "Club Training as Preparatory for Women's Work for the World." She presented first the home, the beginning of all work for humanity and them the club, which is the assistant in this work.
Mrs. James G. Berryhill of Des Moines, Ia, had for her theme. "What is Our Shibboleth?" She said women had developed an impetus in learning and had made some actual addition to the knowledge and culture of the time. the federation embodies the conception of women's search for wisdom. Shall wisdom stand alone? It is cold and lifeless, but wisdom and love, that dust power, shall they not be known as our Shibboleth?
Mrs. Etta II. Osgood of Portland, Ma, spoke of "One Woman," She said: "In the present age we must get down to the unit in everything. Every woman must cultivate her individuality as a heritage from heaven. When every woman has become one perfect woman, then will we have the perfect club."
Mrs. J.P. Clapp. president of the Shakespearesons of Grand Rapids, Mich. read a paper by Mrs. Elizabeth Ballard Thompson of the same place, on "the Reciprocity of Clubs." She said that the old power of contact was to be used to keep up into club sympathy. She suggested founding's bureau to which each club should contribute essays and then from the lists thus obtained each club should choose someone to come and visit them and talk to them on the subject chosen, because of its interest. At first all might want the same women but falling to get them they would choose others. This would be an incentive to others and would help the growth of American literature.
Mrs. IL. LI. Boyce of Los Angeles, Cal., recommended the study of archaeology for club women, it was full of interest and gave habits of concentration and close investigation. Owing to hoarseness her voice could be heard by but few of the audience.
Mrs. Johnson of the New Century club, read a paper by Miss Louise Stockton of this city, on "The Lecture Habit." She said women were better listeners than talkers and that women of today had a thirst for knowledge which was totally lacking in discrimination and prudence.
Mrs. Charles Henrotin of Chicago, was introduced and spoke of the benefits to women of the Columbian congresses. She praised the board of managers of the fair, saying that they secured national recognition of women. Out of the 5,977 speakers at the congress 1,447 were women. For the first time she took her place as a specialist and advisor in great social questions.
The retiring president, Mrs. Brown, then made an address thanking the federation for its kindness to her during her four years in office. At the close she was given a salute of waving handkerchiefs. Mrs. Henrotin was then presented as the new president and made an address, outlining her policy for the year. She was presented with a beautiful bouquet of daisies by the Chicago delegates.
Men are well aware of the education that lies in the friction of mind upon mind; in the meeting together of large bodies of men; in the comparison of ideas; in discussion, disagreement, organization and work. Women seem to be coming to an understanding of this, too, and no one could attend such a meeting of women as the one at Philadelphia without feeling that this intellectual impetus is carrying illumination into the lives of thousands of women who would else have remained mere household machines.
The old objections that an interest in such things mean a neglect of household duties, fall to the ground in the face of facts. Happy women work better than unhappy ones. Developed women raise better families than undeveloped ones. There is no argument against growth except that which the fool makes. Sweetness and light are the missions of the women's clubs- development of mind, encouragement of altruism, and the increase of good citizenship- which includes motherload of necessity.
That these women met for the encouragement of such ideas, that they were from every part of the country, from many classes of society, rich, poor, elaborate or simple in manner, from country and city, magnificently dressed in imported costumes, or modestly attired in home-made agreements, is all a great encouragement to those who love to see women progress and grow in democracy and independence.
The entertainment which the New Century club in particular, Philadelphia in general, and the railroads, gave to the delegates and visitors was exceptional. It could not have been more hospitably or more perfectly given.
This is practically, only a report for the benefit of the Omaha Women's club, and other persons are advised not to waste their time or irritate themselves in reading it. ELIA W. PEATTIE.
MISSING LINKS. Jeweled dancing slippers have become popular in Paris. New York city has more southerners than any city in the south. One-third of the earth is controlled by the Anglo-Saxons race. A dental infirmary, to care for the teeth of the poor, has been proposed in Toronto. A third set of teeth is now coming through the gums of Wesley Free of Pawling, Pa. He is 40 years old.
The price of platinum has increased five-fold at the Ural minces within three years. This is due to the heavy demand for this metal for electrical purposes.
259
NO NEED OF PROSTITUTION
Mrs. Peattie Refuses to Accept the Claim That the Wanton Is a Necessity.
A Powerful Arraignment by a Woman of the Plea That Women Must be Debauched.
This is a law-abiding state. Of course. Do we not hasten to arrest the freezing man who steals coal, or the shivering woman who steals clothes? We must do this or the foundation fo the law will crumble.
But we were nevertheless convulsed with amazement when the mayor of Lincoln suggests that a certain law on the statute books be enforced.
Nor are we alone in our amazement. The rest of the world looks with equal surprise and not a little amusement at this extraordinary man, who proposes to see to the enforcement of the statues of his state and the ordinance of his city providing against professional prostitution.
That anarchy is not necessarily so unpopular among men as it is commonly held up to be whenever a redistribution of property is suggested is evidenced by the fact that we have been living in anarchy all along and never noticed it. For if it is not anarchy to disregard a law, then what is it? And the form of anarchy in which we have been so openly indulging appears not alone to have been encouraged by common citizens, but to have been encouraged and supported to the utmost by the makers of the law themselves, the legislators at Lincoln.
Ray Cameron, who has the reputation of being one of the most charming and witty cyprians in Nebraska, says, "I predict that my girls will continue their work secretly until the legislature opens. Then they will come back to their quarters as usual. There is too much money in circulation during legislative sessions for them not to take some risks."
It is incidentally understood that the business interests of Lincoln are likely to suffer greatly from this order of Mayor Weir's and that the business men feel that the order should not be enforced at a time so financially stringent. I have lived in the west too long to underestimate the necessity of systematic "booming" and am tremendously impressed with the last argument; feeling that the continuance in crime of 200 sister women is the merest trifle compared with the dividends which Lincoln merchants will receive as the outcome of flush pocketbooks in the demi-monde. But setting aside for a moment the embarrassment in trade, which must naturally result from the failure of 200 women to offer their bodies daily for sale (immortal [?] thrown in, as a cap to the bargain). I am obliged to confess that I see no reason why Mayor Weir's direction to the chief of police to enforce a law should awaken any discussion. Once before and quite recently has a similar effort been made. That was in Pittsburg, but the authority of the mayor went for nothing; the majesty of the law was scoffed at as if it were no more than the majesty of a king of carnival. Trade reasserted itself, and men continued to break the laws which they themselves had enacted.
It passes my comprehension to understand why the legislature of every state should go to the trouble to enact laws which do not respect themselves nor which they do not respect themselves nor anticipate that others will respect. Can it be that they merely put these statutes on their books to [?] posterity? Or is a fact that society unites in holding up before its composite eye a colossal image of fictitious virtues?
However that may be the 200 prostitutes of Lincoln are told to move on, and move on they will to Omaha, Kearney, Beatrice and Hastings. They will stay away for a brief time, until the vigilance of the police is relaxed, and then they will return. Everyone seems to recognize the fact that they must be back in time for the legislative session. Real politics appear to have difficulty in proceeding without the aid of prostitution.
Men and women who do not believe in innocence are apt to denominate themselves men and women of the world, and they appear to think that by this open confession of their sophistication they have made sufficient apology to society for any vicious views that they may hold, and any overt actions they may commit.
Men and women of the world have often assured me that prostitution is a necessity. I know the queen of England thinks it is. And I am acquainted with a great many wives who assure me that they believe so, and that if professional prostitution were not permitted, it would not be safe for any pure woman to walk the streets alone. I always wonder what sort of personal experience these women must have had to give them such an idea of the brutishness of man. I have noticed, too, that women who tell me that they think such institutions as the Florence Crittenton homes, or the Open Door, immoral. And when they assure me that they consider it injudicious to restrict men in their vices, and immoral to rescue the women these men have ruined, then, indeed do I look upon them with the eyes of pity, knowing that a black leaf of shame lies in their life's book. Only the last great heart sacrifice that a woman can make will cause her to become so indecent in her mode of thinking. When a pure woman thus condones sin it is because her husband or her son is a sinner, and she had to do one of two things--disapprove of the sinner or approve the sin.
There are hundreds of thousands of women who think they are Christians, who have done the latter.
I do not know whether or not these women are as bad as prostitutes. I suppose God knows. But there are some things that I do know.
I know a young wife who says she is glad John has sowed his wild oats, and that she never could have married a ninny. I saw her baby the other day on the street. It's eyes were as blue and innocent as heaven. And on its cheek was a dull, angry sore. I wondered what that sore meant.
I know a young man dying of softening of the brain, and his sweet wife and little children weep for him, loving him still. And the heaven of a home he might have had is guarded from him by angels with flaming swords.
He, too, was a man who had sowed his wild oats.
I know a woman who for years has lived with a polluted man and been forced to acknowledge him as her husband. And she shrinks from him in loathing; she cringes before his tyranny; and she lives with him in bitterness and hate. Why? Because she preferred to live with him as a legalized concubine and enjoy the approval of society rather tan leave him for poverty and the loss of social position. How is she better than the prostitute? Did I say I knew one such woman? I know twenty. And some are young and beautiful, and some are old and plain, but from the eyes of all looks a sorrow ancient as sin, and a bitterness that comes alone with loss of self respect.
For such things is professional prostitution responsible.
As to who is responsible for professional prostitution, that is another matter.
Anyone who chooses to read Chariton Edholm's "Traffic in Girls" will perhaps learn something of the subject. This book is published by the Woman's Temperance Publishing association of Chicago, and contains reports concerning the Florence Crittenton missions, with incidental descriptions of the way in which young girls are entrapped into lives of shame. It also contains the famous reports which Mr. William T. Stead inside in his [P?] [Mall?] Gazette of the slavery of the brothel.
After reading this book, with its terrible revelations, I have no doubt that many of general interest, and that such things do not happen in Nebraska. I have no means of knowing just how bad Nebraska may be. But I do know of a girl 14 years of age who this week found the shelter of the Open Door. The man who ruined her was over twice her age. The girl has been placed in the Milford home, where she will be cared for physically and morally, and taught a trade, so that when she leaves she will not have to join the ranks of the unhappy sisterhood Two other girls, barely past 16, also found shelter in the Open Door this last week, and will be sent to the state home at Milford. They will leave here, let us hope, armed with the courage to be true to their better selves. Had it not been for the provision tt these institutions make they would have had no choice but to accept the hospitality of some house of wholesale midwifery, from which one emerges only to enter the doors of a house of debauchery.
That the recruits to the sad sisterhood are young maidens, deliberately ruined by men much older than themselves. I am convinced. What else is there for the ordinary woman to do when she finds herself betrayed but to join these miserable ones? The frantic fear, the shame, the suffering, the cruelty of society, leave little choice.
I have often heard it is said that women are much more cruel than men to their fallen sisters. My experience has not corroborated this. On the contrary, the cruelest acts of uncharity of which I have ever known, have been perpetrated by men. The most unjust insinuations which are today poisoning the ear of Omaha society, were concocted in the offices or the clubs, and are being circulated with an assiduity worthy of a better cause. As for the women, they have not encouraged these reports, which they believe to be unjust, and to have no substantiation in fact.
If a good woman desires to take a fallen sister into her home for the purpose of helping her to a better life, the good woman's husband is almost sure to overbear her impulses with objections. And I distinctly remember reading a sermon preached in this city by a young and dogmatic clergyman, in which society was cautioned against forgiving the fallen woman. He seemed to think the Lord had a monopoly of forgiveness. I think he afterwards apologized for his attitude by saying that the standard of womanhood ought not to be lowered by her presence in society. But I could not see how the standard of womanly purity could be lowered by the reform of a bad woman. And as for the possible contamination, that counts for nothing. There used to be a saw which said: "Evil communications corrupt this good manners". Like most saws, is only partly true. Mr. George W. Cable puts it very much better when he says that it is not the company we seek, but the reasons we have for seeking it, that makes the difference.
I do not want to be unfair or one-sided. But I feel convinced that in nine cases out of ten it is the brutality of man which is directly responsible for the downfall of woman, and not any innate viciousness in the woman herself. There are stories today being enacted as sad and as tragic as that of Virginia. I will admit that anyone who sees a company of these fallen women together in "the cage" at the city jail, swearing, jeering and laughing with a gaiety more dreadful than any grief, will find it difficult to believe that they were ever pure. But the very violence and excess of their obscenity shows to the thoughtful mind how far they have fallen and what killing shock their sensibilities received when, in some black moment, life was suddenly transformed for them into death--a death without the peace of the grave.
I know they seem happy. I know they resent pity. I know all their coarseness, their harness and their folly. Yet my heart aches for them and I could weep for the curse that curses women, and which seems never to rest on man.
Some time ago a widow, with a child, tried in the Christian city of New York to find a place as housekeeper for a widower. She knew of no other way in which she could earn a living without parting from her child. One morning she blew out the brains of her baby and then herself. Her act was that of a Lucrece.
At the Mission of Our Merciful Savior in Omaha there is today a young widow with a child who tried in Omaha to get a position similar to that desired by the young woman in New York. The experiences she met with caused her to fly to the Mission for refuge.
Apropos of all this, I cannot help recalling a little "etching" once shown me by Miss Higgins, a young writer in this town who has much originality of theme and method. Miss Higgin's little sketch was abrupt tragic and not to be forgotten. Divested of all the phraseology which gave it charm, the story was briefly this:
A young gentleman had an episode- men must have episodes of course, if they would cut their eye-teeth. The girl he ruined crept away into a wretched life cheated of all her birthright of happiness and innocence. The man outgrew his infatuation forgot his wrong doing married a lovely woman and was happy, Moreover he was good. He thought no evil. If he ever remembered his escapade it was to think of himself merely as having been selfish. In time he and his sweet wife had a little daughter. One day she was stolen from her cradle. No human ingenuity availed to find her. But eighteen years later the woman the young man had been selfish with stood before him, hardened for years of sin into a dreadful thing, with the soul dead in her, and by her side stood the daughter he had lost in her babyhood. And in her face, triumphing over the fair lineament her mother had bestowed upon her, was te same look as of a demon that [?] the face of her companion. It was Nemesis, of course. It was fair play--turn and turn about. Yet the writer know that everyone would sympathize with man and condemn the woman.
Such things go on constantly under our eyes. These tragedies are never to be escaped from.
"It cost me a thousand dollars," said a well-known young man in this town, speaking of a girl who had left the city, driven away by the [?] and cry made against her when her shame was found out. "It cost me $1,000. But it was worth it."
It certainly was, to the woman. A thousand dollars is dirt cheap for the price of damnation.
If one were to ask me the cause of the present financial misery, and the hunger of so many men, I would say that it was the aggregated result of millions of small, greedy and unjust acts.
If one were to ask me the cause of the prevalence of prostitution, I would say that it is the aggregated result of innumerable acts of brutality and deception.
How quick men are to protest against any folly or trivial selfishness in which women indulge! Yet this satanic crime of selfishness, this black sacrilege, this [?] hellishness of action by which they create and sustain prostitution, they say is "necessary." They object to its discontinuance because it will "hurt trade!"
Mammon! Is trade more than the souls of women, the purity of home, or the health of young men?
Do not talk of "necessity," for science stands ready with a voice cold and clear as that of justice itself to give you the lie! There is no necessity for the debasement of the human body--else God were a fiend and it would be best to curse him and die.
Mayor Weir of Lincoln, the prostitutes may defy you and the [protigates?] jeer at you, and men blind with their own egotism find epithets for you; but a women--who sometimes see clearer than men, and who find out sophistries sooner--Fold out to you pure hands, and thank you. For they have had the sweetness of their lips sullied by kisses that bore the taint of wantons' lips; they have known the fear of nursing their children with plagues worse than Egypt ever knew, because that the crimes of the father are visited upon the children, and their hearts have been torn because of those other women, once wholesome as themselves, whose pitiful feet have taken hold on [?].
Never mind the censure, Mayor Weird. There's an exalted pleasure to be found in persecution which most of the world will never know. ELIA W. PEATTIE.
HISTORIAN GREEN'S WIDOW. Success of Her Illustrated Edition of Her Husband's Great Work
The widow of John Richard Green, author of that series of fascinating pictures of life among the English people as it used to be, has made a remarkable success with her illustrated edition of her husband's work. She has just finished the volume which brings the narrative down to the middle of Charles II's reign. American readers have been made familiar with the excellence of the work Mrs. Green has undertaken through the edition brought out by Harper Brothers, who are the publishers in this great country. It has required a great deal of time and patience, as well as wide knowledge and skill, to find and select the subjects for these illustrations-- the quaint weapons, varied costumes and curious armor of the different epochs. Mrs. Green says the task grows more trouble some as the work progresses. The "Short History of the English People" was written entirely by his wife from dictation. Since his death Mrs. Green has revised the various editions. Naturally she has not left much time for original work. She wrote "Henry II," in Morley's Statesmen series, and is soon to bring out "A History of Town Life in the Fifteenth Century," in two volumes. Mrs. Green is an Irishwoman, a native of County Meath, and lived in Ireland until she was grown. The representative of a London paper who mentioned her the other day says Mrs. Green has a slight, [?] figure, a fair face, with regular features and a small head covered with masses of light hair. She has a low voice and a winning manner.
A BIG GASOMETER. East Greenwich, England, has the largest gasometer in the world. When full it contains 12,000,000 cubic feet of gas. It is 180 feet high and 800 feet in diameter and cost $3,000,000.
[FIGILLY-MILE?] POWER. At Gringesburg, Sweden, power from a waterfall is transmitted by electricity along a copper wire to mines eight miles away, where it runs motors and supplies arc and incandescent lamps.
260
STAND UP, YE SOCIAL LIONS
Mrs. Peattie Arragins the Sickly Forms That Sin From Nature's Rule.
A Few Clear Cut Expressions Regarding Omaha's Society in Common with That of Everywhere.
The San Francisco Argonaut, the other day, printed a London letter on the subject of the manners of the society young man of London. It was a severe but probably a just arrangement. It says:
The germ of unhappiness to marriage. I believe to consist entirely in their utter laxity not to any the brutality, of modern manners. In fact, they shine by their abusers. Beyond the mechanical fact that a man lifts his hat to a lady in the street, or gets up when she leaves the room, what distressing acts of [roiteness?] is the guilty of the smart nineteenth century young man thinks he confers a favor on his hostess if be accepts her levitation to dinner, generally keeping her waiting for the answer as long as the possibly can, in case something more agreeable might happen to turn up. If he goes to a dance he takes very good care not to arrive till supper time, completely ignoring the smiling faced, nicely gowned young ladies who are anxiously awaiting his advent. He wisely avoids asking the opinion daughters of the house to dance as lie abhors absence of beauty—looks upon it, indeed, as a personal insult—selects a few of the prettiest young married women for the recipients of his favors, lounges away an hour in a sitting room, fakes a couple of turns in a waltz, settles himself down to an excellent supper (for the smart young man never visits a house where he is not quite sure of the excellence of the cook and the wine) and walks home jauntily in the morning air, with overcome thrown around and hat poised at the back of the hand, in the serene confidence that he has passed a well spent evening.
Should some misguided person venture to introduce a young lady to him, however nice or attractive, he promptly after the formality of presentation, turns on his heels and walks away.
"Such check!" he matters under his breath, "to introduce a girl to me when I know such heaps of them already."
As to card-leaving after dinner or parties he considers that an exploded relic of the past. His presence at the entertainment was honor enough, and any further acknowledgment he leaves to the struggling young man who is not yet smart enough to be uncivil. A friend of mine, a mother and hostess herself half-fainting with heat and fatigue once, in her early days of chaperonage, whispered to her daughter, "Tell your partner I should like to go down to tea." To which the well trained damsel promptly responded "Mamma, if I wore to tell him that, he would never ask me to dance again!" So the patient mother had to wait until some grizzly bearded friend of youth, in attendance on his own daughter, took pity on her loneliness and offered her his arm.
Many and bitter are the experiences of chaperons, they must smile and smile ever on the fastidious young men, and tempt them with good dinners and invitations to the theater and opera, content to be relegated into solitude and silence themselves With the matronly robe, an elderly woman puts on utter imperviousness to all the natural sensitiveness of a woman If she is wise and effaces herself utterly and is content with the distant bow from the men she has so generously entertained, she may have the satisfaction of knowing that her pitty daughters dance and enjoy their balls.
It will not do for Americans to set this down as an exclusive definition of London society, and to thank heaven that we are not as they are for, by the most incontestibly correct evidence, our own society is no better. Mr. Ward MC Allister, writing is the Sunday World of New York, says that society is the gay, fashionable element from the upper 10,000. He assures us that it must have larger proportions than mere wealth confers. It must have strife, and contention, and jealousy, and envy to be brilliant. It's motto is, "I go you one better." That is, if a society man gives dinner, all other society men must give a better one if a society woman appears splendidly dressed, all other society women must possess a proper envy and appear yet more richly attired. This is brilliancy—so Mr. Mc Allister says—and society. it is safe to believe that he has not been trying to be satirical. He has, indeed, been historically accurate. Society, which owes its cohesiveness to a love of fashion, is as it has been described above.
When one touches upon Omaha society, one touches a tender point. There are so many persons in it who are there almost by force of circumstances, and whose hearts are warm, and their lives pure and useful in spite of their connection with a body that aspires to be purely fashionable, that one hesitates to relapse into unkind generalizations. Omaha society, for the very reason that it is yet new, flexible, and unformed, it not contained in the version vices of its kind. But it already possesses much of which there is cause to be ashamed.
The manners of many of the young men here are no better than those described in the London letter quoted above, it is a well known fact, and one hears it whispered everywhere, that hardly echo of the parties and balls of the winter has been a success, owing the facing the young men would not dance, nor talk, nor pay attention to the young ladies, nor do anything that a gentleman is expected to do on a gala occasion. They have stood around the doors in stupid groups, looking cynical—or trying to do so— and discussing without much interest, the relative charms of the young ladies who, arrayed for their approval, and launched out into society for their allurement, have endeavored in vain to make themselves attractive.
Perhaps it is not the young men, so much as society, that is wrong. There has always been, and always will be, something almost shameless in the cold-blooded putting up of a young girl into the matrimonial market. The coarseness of it is disguised to be sure. It is an immemorial custom, to begin with, and most folks are apt to think a thing venerable because it is old. It is surrounded by a glamour of elegance, happiness and youth. But if the facts are plainly presented they show that the entrance of a young girl into society is the formal admission of her readiness for marriage. The young men certainly think of it so. They have the arrogance of sultans, the cynicism of [roues?]--although they are not such--they know they are expected to compare, examine and select. They know that the money so prodigally spent, the dinners, balls, costumes, carriages, flowers, wines, ceremonies and all the nameless elaborations of society are for their benefit in a way. And it is little wonder that they do not show proper respect for the mothers who thus flaunt their daughters, or the daughters who prink and pose for their benefit.
It would seem as if any woman who possessed so beautiful and dear a charge as a daughter--a girl woman--would spend her best efforts in trying to protect her daughter from the inquisitorial glances, the degrading frivolity, the envy, malice, treachery and contentions of society. One would think that pride would insist that the daughter should be sought and not that she should be set up in the public place [?] view. One would imagine that the more a mother had traveled, studied and possessed, the more refined would be her heart, and the more desirous she would be of teaching her daughter to put humanity before society, the delights of learning before those of flirting, and the preservation of health before gayety. Think what a pitiful exchange all this is for happy home life. I do not want to be sour and absurd. I would not think of denying any wholesome pleasure to the young. I think young men and women should be much together. But when society interferes with them, when it introduces the [?] in the peculiar way that it does, when it throws young men and women together under such conditions that both are forced to think of the materialistic side of a matrimonial union, then it seems to me that the sweetness of youth, and love, and life is deliberately taken from them.
No one supposes for a moment that these young men and women want to be competitors in expenditures, or that they desire to be meanly critical, or to give up the last things of life for the tiresome proud of noisy gatherings where people clamor like peacocks and eat half melted ices and oily salads. Not at all. They are forced into it all, and only now and then is there one who, having the money and position which enables him or her to enter society, has the [?] and popularity to renounce it all, and to live the unselfish instead f the selfish life.
The idea that society polishes the manners of the young is only true to a very limited extent. I have seen it replace modesty with bravado, truth the deception, kindness with pertness, gentleness with bluster, and politeness with arrogance. Society, so far as I know, does not teach veneration for the aged, love of parents, love of learning, love of humanity, sympathy for the unfortunate, beauty of thought, or the brotherhood of man. I have seen all the graces of manner possessed by the home brought-up boy to an equal extent with the society-developed manners of the home have a much more formative effect than society upon the manners of the young, so far as the improving of them goes.
A large part of Omaha naturally felt a good deal of wonder the other day that the more fashionable part of our community should have turned out in its very best others, spent an enormous amount of money and exerted itself in every way, to listen to the bad playing and worse singing of the Yale Glee club. It seems to me that there can be little doubt that the reason was the opportunity offered to the young ladies, for once, to have partners in the dance, and admirers who might by some remote chance, become suitors. Certainly, the enthusiasm about those well dressed but very inartistic young men needs an explanation. When Omaha has had the opportunity of listening to one music it has frequently refused to take advantage of it. By the expenditure of a small amount of money it might now keep in the city a band of excellent musicians, who would like to settle here if there is any chance of their earning a living. But so far as known no one has bidden a welcome to these talented music students. These men who have studied under the best masters of Germany remain here without a cordial hand being extended to them, although they have it in their power to make our evenings beautiful with music such as we have never had here. We neglect them and spend thousands on these somewhat impertinent young Yale men who travel around the country under the false pretense of being musicians. At a tie when our honest and industrious working men, are, with their families, undergoing the cruelest privations, we let all of that money go out of the town. I must say that it looks bad for society--it shows a low average of intellect in that body, and a disregard of the sacred responsibilities of citizenship.
I do not feel inclined to mitigate these remarks by looking for the excuses which might be discovered for such foolishness. It seems to me that these mitigating facts are too feeble to be mentioned.
Society must, if it would show a reason for existence, have some dignity about it, and some brains. It must have other things in common besides champagne and jack pots. It must not ask guests to its houses to fleece them out of their money at the beginning poker table. It can never lay claim to hospitality while it does this . It must not permit its young girls to drink so much champagne that they have to be cared for by their friends. There is no use in pretending that society has elegant ladies while some of them disgrace is like that. It must not have in it persons who owe their grocers while they buy diamonds, and who freeze the grocer's collectors with frigid stares and rebuking voice till the poor man cringingly apologizes for existence.
All this sort of thing may do over in Europe, but it isn't what we want here, in the country we all love, and would beautify with fine acts. We do not complain because society is elegant, or rich, or refined, or well dressed, or curtly. So far as it is these things it is to be commended. Would we all possessed these good things. But in so far as it is coarse, stupid, dishonest, of low taste, mercenary, selfish and ill-bed, we do condemn it. We condemn the young men here who do not even thank their hostesses for the money and effort they expend in entertaining them, and warn them that the edict has already gone forth from some of the really best houses in town that they will be punished for their boorish manners by not being entertained there any more. We condemn the young girls for their ridiculous affections, their utterly inane exchange of flatteries, and their belittling conversation. We condemn the men for their pretension--which they cannot afford, and for which the tradesmen suffer. We condemn the women for the rivalries to which they incite their daughters, and the coarse ideas they implant in those young minds. We condemn them for not impressing upon their daughters any of the responsibilities and duties of life--for not looking after their hearts and minds as well as their bodies.
Society--the more leisurely part of us--could help us all if it would. Why is it false to its trust? Why does it set us poor examples? Why are its manners bad and its tongue sharp, and its acts selfish? ELIA W. Peattie.
WOULD NOT TALK POLITICS. Hon. Brad Slaughter Turns Interview--Result Not Satisfactory.
Hon. Brad Slaughter is a pretty good sort of man form a reporter's standpoint, but when a WORLD-HERALD man ran across him in the Millard hotel office Friday night he was 'no good." He stated positively that he had no news, did not want to talk politics, and turning interviewer himself, the following conversation ensued.
"A man told me in Lincoln the other day that Rosewater was mayor of Omaha, is that correct?"
"It is so stated on good authority?"
"And they say lie is not making a very satisfactory one. Is he going to be impeached?"
"You will have to ask a prophet o wait awhile for an answer."
"What is going to become of the gamblers?"
"I don't know."
"Well, what is the WORLD-HERALD going to do with the [?] mortgage sharks?"
"Hang 'em."
Then Mr. Slaughter admitted that he thought State Auditor Moore had been "a little previous: in jumping onto State Treasurer Bartley and saying his books were not correct, also that he could not give the exact date when Omaha people will have the pleasure of reading the first issue of a straight republican paper published at home. He added:
"I am very sorry, very sorry indeed, to see that all was not peace and harmony among our populist friends at their listings convention. On the newspaper proposition I see that though the convention decided the populist daily should be issued at Kearney the editor of the populist weekly published here announced that he would establish a daily in Omaha. Well, may God have mercy on him, is all I have to say."
KEEP 'EM AT HOME. Proceedings to Compel County Justices to Give Up City Offices.
The legal fight to determine whether justices of the peace elected in country [?] can come into the city and set up branch establishments or be compelled to keep their office and [?] their business exclusively in the precinct where elected was carried into the courts yesterday.
The case is entitled the state of Nebraska on the relation of V. O. Strickler against C. W. Edgerton, and is an application for a [?] to compel the defendant to keep his office in West Omaha precinct, in and for which he was elected. Edgerton keeps an office at 1216 Farnam street, in this city. There has been a great deal of dissatisfaction, not only among the city justices, who claim that their business is interfered with by these outside justices, but the attornies, who have had great big and tall kicks on account of the manner in which busines is done by them.
The proceedings against Edgerton are commerced by the attorneys, who are dissatisfied with the present state of affairs.
"Royal Ruby" Rye Whisky is guaranteed absolutely pure and eleven years old. Its great popularity attests merit. It is "a [?] that is a Rye," recommended for the invalid, the convalescent and the connoisseur, but up on honor and quality guaranteed. (Bottled at distillery.) Ask for it. For sale by Kahn & Co., 15th and Douglas, and W. J. Hughes, 16th and Webster and 20th and Farnam sts.