Omaha daily bee., 1889-02-17
CURRENT tories.

pany. This is a device about as big as O
silver dollar, which is carried in the palm OF
the left hand, the bell which IL contains
beng rung in imitation of the sound of the
bell. punch when a fare is collected. a mum
Der of detectives were employed and the two
conductors, who. plcadcd guilty, we're de
teCted in the very act. There has always
been an irrepressible conflict between street
car conductors and their employers on the
subject of "knocking down. Whether the
dollar or two q day to be mzde by the use OF
a four dollar "brother-in-law' ia considered
sufficient compensation for the chance of q
six months sentence and its attendant conse.
quences in the shape of loss of character and
of employment remains to be seen.
Lord Wolselcy in the Fortnightly Review
has a paper on "War," A good deal Of a
snob is ''my lord" says the Salt Lake
Tribune. He affects q kind of disdain for
advice TO soldiers in the field from men high
in civil station, who have not received a mill
tary training, which history does not Justify.
The president of the southern coufederacy
was a thoroughly educated soldier, yet his
advice was a terror TO the generals who
commanded the southern armies. Abraham
Lincoln was absolutely unlettcrcd in the art
of war, but his advice was so pertinent that
much of it reads now like Inspiration. The
natural conclusion is that a mar who has no
natural attributes for gcncralshlp cannot be
made a far-secing commander of an army,
no matter how much labor the schools may
bestow upon him, while another man without
knowledge, but with the instincts of a SOL
der, may draw shrcwd conclusions of what
ought to be done and what would be a sue
cess, though he may not understand the de-
tails necessary for the carrying out of tho
plan.
The reported threat of the Chinese vice
roy that he would exclude Americans from
the FlOwery Kingdom in retaliation for our
exclusion act must be taken with many
grains OF allowance, observes the San Fran
cisco Chronicle. The Chinese government
has always expressed dIsapproval of the en-
igration of its people across the Pacific. 1t
prefers that they should COLOMBO the Phil
liplnes and the Slant settlements where they
can get control Of trade and be near home.
Nine-tenths of the coolies who came here
were from the provinces near Canton and
| Hongkong, and were natural nomads. The
viceroy is governor of Chill, one of the
most northerly provinces, and he can have
no feeling in regard to the exclusion of II
few thousand OF the tramp and criminal
classes. He is also shrewd enough to know
that the balance of American trade has
always been in favor of China, ana that it
| would be Door policy to cut off this lucrative
trade for a matter of national sentiment.
Commenting upon the development of
Japan, the Philadelphia North American
says: The PRONUNCIATION of a new constitu-
ton in Japan marks one of the most wonder
full strides that civilization has ever taken,
if everything not Caucasian is to be regarded
as barbaric. But whether it brings Japan
nearer the A~nglo-Saxon idea of civilization
or not, it Is the opening of a new era that
promises to make the land of flowers a part
of the rest OF the world to which it has been
so long a mystery. Usually such changes
are made gradually. but IN this case an abso-
Lutte monarchy for twenty-five centuries is
changed INTO a constitutional government in
a single day. Twenty years ago the rnikado
and his consort were held so sacred that it
was death for an ordinary subject to behold
their countenances The ruler was absolute.
To-day the masses rule. Had the mikado
resisted this encroachment upon his heredi-
tary power, ii might have been put off in
definitely, but with a wisdom and broadness
Of mind that has rarely been exhibited by "A
monarch, he has seen that Japan to hold her
o''A ~ UNIV eSAotS hAho Aabl III "tg
of the dominant westerner, and has aided
during the past ten years to bring about the
change which strips him of his right TO rule
alone. Japan has always been a land of
wonder, and her latest step stamps her as
marvellous beyond compare.
The members of at least one church in
New York appear to have serious doubts
about the fitness of strangers and persons too
~ = - ,,n,, ,,n,,, -r-S- -.- -. Iii.
worship, says the Chicago News. Benjamin
W.. Williams, one of the officers of the
Church OF St. Thomas of that city, is re-
ported as saying:
1--WE haven't any room in our church for
people who haven't paid for their seats. Our
trouble is not to find places for strangers, but
to keep them out. We don't ask them to
come, and we don't want them. If they come
they are in the way, and we have hard work
to get them out of the way; but we manage
to DO it nevertheless. We have to watch
them, but sometimes they elude us and con-
trive to find seats somewhere. Then we have
to tell them very plainly to get up and and go
out. And we make them do it,"
Mr.. Williams had been asked to give his
reasons for compelling a lady to rise from
her knees while in the midst of her devotions
and leave the church. He had no hesitation
in giving them. The lady, he said, did not
own the pew and had not been invited TO oc-
cupy it. Consequently she was an intruder
and it was right to make her 20
away. There were no free seats except
a few from which the pulpit could not
be seen. So the lady, who was a stranger
in the city, could not be permitted 20 re-
main.
Mr.. Williams, whose church is one of the
wealthiest and most fashionable in New
York, is an extreme example Of Il class Of
inhospitable church functionaries who are
too numerous for the good of the cause in
which they claim to be l~aboring. A church
run as "A close corporation, from the benefits
of which all outsiders are excluded, in
variably has a great deal more fashion
about it than it has religion. OF what use
in this world is a church which has no wei.
come for strangers: A society to promote
seltishness in the guise of religion can ac.
complish no good thing, On the contrary, |
it is a standing reproach TO the cause of |
christianity.
To exclude strangers from the churches |
is to leave room for sin to enter and enjoy |
itself. Sin is no stranger even in fashion |
able church congregations,