New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1891-11-04


thankful for such splendid opportunities
to practice the Christian spirit of pa
tience and the gentlemanly duty of de-
cency in address. Let them maintain
an evenness of temper at all times even
amid the fierce attacks uf a country
newspaper, and if they do but this,
then the press will have become an in
strument for good and for the chasten-
ing and moral discipline of which some
people are so much in need.
The great daily newspapers of mod
ern times have long been waiting for
some one to turn up who could correct
ly pass criticism upon theatrical pro-
duction without witnessing it, and it
would seem now as if the ''long felt
want was about to be filled. Editor
Strasser of the Post. seems to possess
this remarkable faculty that of tax
ing some une else's opinion and passing
it off as his own and as ''jest so.''
The object and purpose of a good
newspaper is to look after the interests
of the people, to see that the public is
not imposed upon, and to reproach and
rebuke all attempts, be they ever so
small, at deception. The minute it fails
to follow out these lines, it forgets its
calling and ceases to be alive to the in
terests of it's readers. 1t cannot, there
fore, be averse to stepping on peoples
toes if people insist on getting their toes
in the way, and above all it cannot re-
f:ain from publishing news if there is
news to be published. or of passing
criticisms If there is. something to be
criticized. It often occurs to US that 1t
would be nice to say that this or that
man raised the largest cabbage in town,
but a newspaper can hardly be expect
ed to do this if it is apparent that some
one else raised larger ones. And again,
it would, pehaPs, afford gratifaction to
the newspaper writer's to tell their read
ers good things about. everybody, but
it is not quite so gratifying to sit up
whole nights trying to think what to say
and at the same time forget that perhaps
something had occurred that would
make it look as if .whaf the newspaper
said wasn't so. These are facts, per
haps, that it would be we'll to bear 10
mind.
A"White Cap' organization has been
set afoot in this city, it is said, for the
sole purpose of adding to or detracting
from the personal appearance of one OF
the local editors by administering the
customary coat of tar and feathers.
While such treatment would certainly
be most unwelcome, and while the ed
itor, who is singled out for this indeli-
cate but warm reception, would nc
doubt be painfully anxious at such a
warning were he a resident of t'the
white cap region'' of Kentucky, or Of
the wilds of Arizona, yet the thought,
that in New Ulm all people are su-
preme(y good and that they are care
full at all times of the feelings of their
fellow men and of their neighbors, may
to some extent console the victim select.
ed for the slaughter. Violence, the law.
yers and preachers say, is mode ol
yindication which is never justifable
when other means can be employed,
Besides, it is seldom practiced except
by essentially narrow-minded people
and only in the heat of passion. Surely,
then, in Now Ulm, where all, excepting
the pencil pushers, perhaps, believe in
weighing well their thoughts before con
verting them to action, there is no dan
ger that such an organization as the
s.White Caps, with all the terror anc
low revenge that the name implies
could exist. To encourage such !:
thought and to give it publicity in prin'
is equivalent to leading people to be-
lieve that there are some here, who ART
away from the benign effects Of ciyiliza
ton and whose sense Of right and Ions
Is only manifest in demonstrations o
vulgar revenge. But such a state of af
fairs, we all know of course, 3aoes no
exist, and the more suggestion that Al
individual, even though he belongs t,
the detested newspaper tribe, canno
walk the streets Of this peaceful cit,
without fear Of a coat of tar and feath
ers is preposterous. The New Ulm dis
ciple Of the Arizona Kicker, whoeve
he may be, may, therefore, make a
his mind that the report Of the hit
i Cap organization was only fake
and go to his rest from night to nigh
with unrufled p.ace Of mind and th