The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1902-08-07


and his co-workers understand and utilize.
| The gentleman who complies the column Of
paragraphs known as Daily Drift for the STATE
Journal Of Lincoln, Nebraska, is responsible for the
following:
Eve regret say that the editor THE PRISON MIRROR
the with which he was given credit in these
serves to be in the penitentiary."
They re very set in their ideas and quite free in
expressing their opinions down in Lincoln, charac
terstics doubtless imbibed from the boundless and
untrammeed prairies surrounding the city. And as
words pass current for thoughts in that neighbor-
hood the gentleman who wrote the foregoing para
graph is probably person Of importance in the
community, strange this must seem to jewellers in
other portions of the land On this occasion the
gentleman is mistaken As matter of fact the only
poem that has appeared in the editorial columns
lof The MIRROR for several months was four line
verse from of the best known of Kiplings works
and dozen words from the writings of one William
Shakespeare both Of which were enclosed in in
verified commas. That we failed to credit these
quotations to those who wrote them is our mis-
fortune, since the Nebraska State Journal has evi-
IDENTIFY reprinted the other of them as original
ing in The MIRROR. In justice to ourselves we
must say, however, that we fully believed credit to
be unnecessary in these instances.
The editor Of The MIRROR does not claim to
possess encyclopaedie knowledge, and there have
been occasions in the past when he has neglected to
discover that certain contributions not properly
credited until the paper had gone to press But
this occurs with all papers even with the State
Journal of Lincoln, Nebraska In conclusion we beg
to reproduce another paragraph from daily Drift:
"Russel Sage fell from street car in New York CITY
rdava he
clerk to fall on himself considerably bruised How
easy and natural it is to say something mean
Yes it's very easy, and apparently very natural
LIEUTENANT HILDEBRAND, the young German
officer who killed his friend Lietenant Baskowitz in
a-duel last November and who sentenced to two
years imprisonment in consequence, has been par
doned by the Kaiser This is no more than simple
justice. Both the unfortunate men were victims Of
the utterly and completely false system under which
German army officers live It will be remembered
by those who followed the case that Lieut. Hide
brand came upon Lieut. Blaskowitz lying drunk in
the open street, sound asleep He leaned over to
assist his comrade to arise and the latter accidentally
struck him in the face. A court of honor decided
that duel necessary; it fought and resulted
in the death Of Lieut.. Blaskowitz who, up to the
moment of receiving the challenge, was absolutely
unconscious Of his offense The details Of the whole
affair were unusually sad.
There was no insult offered and none should
have been accepted. Only mans equal can insult
him. Certainly one hopeessly inebriated can't any
more than idiot or child. As the old saw
| says .Only gentleman can offer an insult, and
gentleman won't This is SO self-evident that
| it is platitude. But it must be admitted that
it would have been too much to expect Lieut..
Hldebrand to refrain from issuing that challenge.
would have been contrary to the enets of his pro-
fession Army men, more than any other class, are
slaves to ceremonies they have imposed on them
selves. This is true of them the world over They
are part of q machine and seldom think for them
selves; scarcely outside of established lines It
would have required q man. of considerable in
diyiduality, to say nothing of moral courage, to-
defy custom and pass that drunken blow in
silencea man of higher grade of intelligence than
either of the principals in that duel Lieut. Hide
brand is neither better nor worse than his com
panions; he acted ninetynine ont of hundred of
them would have acted under like circumstances;
he is not criminal, and should not be made to-
suffer vicariously He is victim Of outrageous
| custom.