Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1917-01-03
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Never Mind, Sports.

Never Mind, Sports.
Omaha, Jan. 3.-To the Editor Of
The Bee: You remember the very
successful week the auto drivers had
up on West Farnam last fall? They
bagged two women, two men and a
child along a little stretch up there.
Got most of them as they were board
ing or leaving street cars. Then Chief
Dunn and certain other officials made
themselves very obnoxious and spoiled
the sport For a while the auto driv-
ers stopped a good twenty feet behind
every street car they saw that was
taking on or dropping passengers and
many of them did not even dare to
creep past moving car in the mid
die of the block; but that was long
time ago-quite beyond the memory
of any living autoist, and now they
are playing the same game again.
saw six of them speed past the
car ] was coming down town on last
Tuesday, while the car was stopped
to let off and take on passengers; but
they did not have any luck. The best
they could do was to freighten an old
lady nearly to death by shooting past
within foot of her as she was STEP
ping off the car. l think II was the
next day that one of them actually
got an old man as he was getting out
of the front door of car but the
driver bungled the job and only jam
med the old man between the door
and the car. breaking a few of his
ribs.
Friday I saw driver try for a man
who was crossing Farnam at Nine
teenth street, but again the shooting
was very poor. 1t was a good oppor-
tunity. with no street car at hand to
spoil the sport. yet the driver missed
the man with his front wheels by a
good four feet. Then he took a quick
turn and tried to get the man by skid
ding his hind wheels around on the
icy pavement. No luck again! The
machine spun around in a wide half
circle, the rear wheels sliding beauti-
fully on the ice; but the pedestrian
took a mean advantage and side-step-
ped.
Never mind. sports! The pave
ments will be in very fine shape for
this kind of work during the next
few weeks, and even il most of the
younger men and women prove too
spry for you, you ought to be able
to bag few more old men, old
women and thoughtless youngsters
before Chief Dunn and other Off
Gals make themselves obnoxious
again. BYSTANDER.
Hanscom Park Skaters Wen-Betaved.
Omaha, Jan. ITO the Editor of
The Bee: Publication in another paper
charging misconduct by the skaters
at Hanscom park is unjust and I'M
fair. Order has been exceptionally
good this season and Park Commits
sioner Hummel has not been lax in
providing police protection, as there
are always two police on duty at the
pond, sometimes three. Not one in
stance of lady having been insulted
has been reported to the police or
heard of by them. Oficers Saltzgiyer
and Sudds will bear me out in this
statement. An argument between
bunch of small boys living over on
Leavenworth street was promptly set
tied by the police.
The statement in reference to the
boys from the Shelley neighborhood
is an injustice, as their conduct has
been good, and only last Sunday these
boys helped the park laborers clean
the snow off the ice, giving the hun
dreds of skaters more time to enjoy
the ice for the day.
A. C. FLoTHoW,
Manager Hanscom Park Pavilion.
Basis of Demand to Sell School Land.
North Platte, Neb., Jan. Ito the
Editor of the The Bee: When Ne
braska was admitted into the union
congress donated to the state in aid
of the common schools sections 16
and So in each township, comprising
one-eighteenth Of the the land in the
state. The disposition of the land 80
donated was left with the state, and
the people in adopting the constitu-
ton in 1855 provided for their sale
at not less than IS per acre. In the
constitution Of 1878 the people again
provided for the sale, fixing the mini
mum price at 81 per acre, the pro-
ceeds to constitute a permanent
school fund to be invested as therein
directed. This constitution also pro-
vided for leasing the unsold lands
In pursuance of these provisions
the legislature passed laws for leasing
such lands for twenty-five years and
to protect the lessee, so that he would
feel safe in improving the land, these
leases provided for sale to the lessee
at any time during the life Of the
lease.
Under these provisions nearly one
half these lands have been disposed
of, so practically all of these lands
in the eastern half of the state have
passed to private owners and have
been improved and are helping by
taxes to support the state, county and
schools, and build up the country.
A later legislature, ignoring the
mandate Of the constitution, repealed
the sale provision and it is now pro-
posed to make the occupiers perma-
nent tenants, subject to rack-renting
reappraisements, with never an oppor-
tunity of becoming land owners. Any
system of permanent landlordism re-