Omaha daily bee., 1889-02-10
CURRENT TortCs.

seven continental powers, counting the
Balkan states as one, has risen from 6, l42, 900
| to lO,4s0O00 or nearly eleven million, If we
| add TO this host of trained fighters on q war
! footing of the classes of partially trained
men in the second and final reserves, we get
an imposing total of 2S00O0OO soldiers all
! liable 70 be drawn into the next Europcas
| war, and now more or less withdrawn from
| peaceful vocatons, at a total annual cost of
! 100000 900. This vast war taxation wrung
| from people who do not hate each
| other, who do not want TO fight,
| who ask only for opportunities for
! peaceful industry and mutual traffic, is a ter
| riblc burden. This blood tax or blood money
| must be borne, however, for no better reason
than that it is still in the power OF a few fam
| lies -Hohenzollcrns, Hapsburgs, R0manotfs,
| Bourbons and Coburgs-to set all of Europe
| on fire with their dynastic intrigucs and am
| bitions. II is only when these modern figures
! of armies and war taxation are studied, zig.
! ures at which Frederick the Great or Napo-
| leon would have paralykcd with amazement,
| that one can thoroughly and perfectly realize
| what lNngship means.
a negro exodus from South Carolina has
| started up within n few weeks. Arkansas
| and Louisiana are the states benefited or
| burdcned by this movement. One would
| think by the press discussion in the south of
| late that commonwealth with coored
| population of 600, 900 or more would be quite
| resigned TO see small percentage of them
| drift to other parts, says the Springfield
| Republican. Such, however, is not the case
in South Carolina. The farmers there are
| furious over the activity of colonization
| agents. One farmer is quoted as sayin -
| don't know but one remedy for the evil,
| and that is to keep off the emigrant agents.
| "A year or two ago they became so obnoxious
| in the upper part of the state that they were
| warned to stay away. This warning was
| sufficient, aud know it would be unhealthy
| Tor any of the agents to go back to any OF
the places where they were warnedto dis
| continue their visits. It's bad state OF
| affairs In my section and hope and trust
| that somebody will suffer for the literal
invasion in our country and farms. We
| farmers are heavy losers by this exodus, and
| If ii is not summary ended lear there
| will be much more trouble.
A remarkable feature of this noxous de
| velopment is the prominent part taken in it by
| women. 1t is somewhat startling to find
| upon the title page of work whose cold,
| deliberate immortality and cynical disregard
| of all social decency have set the the teeth
| on edge, the name of woman as the
author. We are so accustomed to associate
| modesty of demeanor, delicacy of thought
| and word, and purity of life with women,
| that certain set of adjectives, expressive of
| virtue and morality, have come to include
| the idea of femininity in their Specification.
| 1t is certainly surprising, if not repellant, to
| find women the most industrious laborers in
| the work of tearing down the structure of
! honor and respect for their sex which has so
| long been regarded as the basis OF social ex-
| istence. II this breaking Of the holy images
| be but another manifestation OF the revolt OF
women against the too narrow limits OF an
! cient prejudice, it is only additional proof
! that misguided revolution easily becomes
| mere anarchy. 1t is probable that the women
who write this kind of fiction are misled by
vanity rather than actuated by evil i'm
| pulses They imagine that in thus throwing
| off all restraint they are giving evidence of
originality of thought and force of charac-
! ter; whereas they are, in fact, counting un-
! worthy suspicion and winning only that sort
! of applause which is thinly veiled contempt
! Such colonization policy as Germany is
/ pursuing can result IN nothing but ultimate
| disaster, says the San Francisco Chronicle
| The very first serious reverse will inspire
| the anti-colonial party in Germany
| with new courage, and will bring the
| timorous and wavoring over; and be-
! fore he knows it Bismarck will
| have stirred up such fierce opposition at
| homo that he will be only too glad to make
] his peace with the people by abandoning his
| ambitious schemes. Germany is u mon
| archy, it is true, and Bismarck is almost an
! autocrat; but IN the end the people are al
| ways stronger than their rulers, and emper-
! ors and chancellors have to bend before
| their will There is more danger to the i'm
perial power in Germany from the colonial
policy of Bismarck than from the combined
| armies of all the hostile powers of Europe
| for it cannot fail TO excite domestic discOrd
and dsscnson
| 1t is the testimony of public prosecutors
everywhere thai the effect of very severe
penalties for vote-seling or bribery is to
! render convictions almost impossible, says
! the New York World. We should like to
see the experiment tried of disfranchismg
| for five years any man convicted of selling
| his vote, and providing for posting his name
and sentence on the registry lists. This
| would take venal voters out of the market
| as fast as discovered and tend to bring the
practice of vote-seling into greater disre
pute For the briber seyerer penalties
| might be imposed, and could probably be
enforced If the person who accepted
the bribe were offered indemnity
against prosecution for testifying to the cor
ruption. Such measure, in connection
with ballot reform law, would go far
towards purifying elections.
NJ. Carteret, the leader of the Swiss radi-
Gals, whose death is announced, was an illus
tration of the extremes to which men in
power may be carried when it is proposed to
grant to the people the full possession of
civil and religious liberty, says the Philadel-
phia Record. While ostensibly seeking to
divorce church from state, M. Carteret
proved himself to be autocratic and intol-
Grant, suppressing the Roman Catholic
church and setting up in its place a subsi
died establishment in which every man was
to be law unto himself. The result, of
course, was dlsorganKatlon, and religious in
differentism. Centuries ago Geneva was the
center of theological dissenslon, and it
seems to be perpetuated today even under
government purely republican.
Like the Marshalsea and the Fleet, New
gate prison is soon to become thing Of the
past, and London will be bereft of another of
its old landmarks A body Of architects has
just been paying 1t visit to note the peeu-
liarities of its structure. The rglnal build
was IN use for the confinement of prisoners
of rank as early as 1916. 1t was rebuilt two
hundred years afterwards, and again after
its destruction by the great fire in London
in 1866. just before the Gordon riots of 1850
it was reconstructed and the interior being
burned in those disturbances, 80 vivdly de-
a