Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, February 26, 1893, Page 10

LIFE AMONG LOWLY ITALIANS A Vivid Pictnre of the Wretchedness and Degradation that Prevail. CHARCOAL MAKERS OF MT. PRATOMAGNO The Sharp Contrasts of Neapolitan Life-The Dazzling Besuty and Most Hideous M ness of the Wom Wakemun's Letter, [Copyrighted, 1893.] Loxnos, Feb, 13.—[Correspondence of Tue Bee.]--One of the most delightful experi- ences of my wanderings in Italy was a night passed with the charcoal burners in the mountaius to the north of Florence. At the village of Tosi I looked up the mountain of Pratomagno and saw lines of blue smoke i feathery pencilings against the dark green of the massed mountain firs, “Those are the carbonari. They ve the mou n, save on feast-days said a kindly carrettajo. *“When they come 10 Tosi for wine and oil, they black and dreadful, our children run and hide. But they do no harm.” So with a vagarous impulse of adventure, 1 turned aside from the paved mountain way, and, with the cart- man's son for a guide, skirted the mountain, coming in a two hours tramp through ¢ forests of beech, chestnut and pine, with here and there a b \ed opening where the trees had already been burned, or sunr space, where sportsmien and shepherds the mountain birds, to the ‘charc burners camp, and was hospitably rec for the night. These carbonari form a distinct class in the mountains of Italy, They generally live in the villages, the wife and daughters en- gaging in the vineyurds, gathering olives or enestnuts, and oftén as shepherdesses with small flocks. The fathers and sons go from one forest to another as the owners desire charcoal nia The landlord secures the felling and cutting of the trees, and the car- bonaro simply attends to building the pyres and watching day and_ nighu their smoider- ing progress. In this labor the s.us share, and regular watches are taken. The logs re stood on end in round piles of perhaps eighteen feet in diameter, covered and chinked with mossy earth and then fired in a central hollow which has been filled with chips of dry timber, fir cones, chips from the logs and déad leaves and grass. Once well ablaze, this flaming funnel is d with moss “and earth, and the pile is left to smolder for five or six days. When reduced to earbone or charcoal the carbonaro delivers it to the owner, packed in sacks, two sacks comprising a donkey load, for which he rec About 10 cents, or about §2 for euch burning yielding forty sacks. At this camp, an unusually large one, a score or more carbonari were at work, and as the burning was to be foran extended period some six or eight of the carbonari had buily temporary huts and removed their entire families to the forest This gave life and pleturesqueness to the scene, especially at night. A few iron cre sets had been fastened to the tree trunks, and the crackle and flarings of cones aud knots lcnt weird colorings to the motley groups of women with dazzling teeth and eyes and men grimy and swarth beyond all recognition. 1 could not repress the feel- ing that I was at my old wander- ings with my gy friends again, and as thé night gathered over the majestic forest trees above, and one by one some strange instrument of music was produced from the shadowy huts, while mel- ody and dancing added their fascination to the wild, strange scene, a thousand lections of days with 'the Romany swept back on Pratomagno’s darkened heights, Deeper still grew this feeling as I was shown 1o a couch of fir branches for sleep. It came not for hours; for in the gentle soughing of the firs, the calls of the watch- ers to each other, and here and there through the camp suppressed tones of melody as those who watched grouped together and reassuringly sang,low and soft, the stornelli of Italy, I was with my vaga- bond friends by their witching camp fires in my own loved land. When the morning came, after a breakfast of pan unto, or bread fried in olive oil, and many a kindly addio!" and *vale!” from my grimy hosts, 1 found my way back to the friendly villag- ers of Tos The traveler in Italy will remember of Naples itself that it possesses no one grand predominating place. thing or characteristic of surpassing interest. This might perhaps be modified by saying it was a city of won- derful contrasts—of the tremendously rich and_wofully poor; of the oldest and best Italian nobility and the most wretched of titled adventurers; of dazzling beauty and most hideous haggishness in women; of most learned savants and the most sodden ignor- ance; of the highest virtue and the most dis gusting lewdness, so shamefaced that even male devils accost one everywhere with printed tariffs for licentiousness ; of the latest modes in dress, and garb among the lowly as ancient as the time of Tiberius; of frightful activity and tropical siesta: of deafen- ing din and solemn hush; of the shrillest and most ceaseless shriek- mgs day and night and meanwhile the most sibilant and melodious of tender voic- ings:of content and despair; cruelty and kindhearteduess; loyalty and treachery; and ~just as all Ttaly physically seems to be in o flower embowered heaven smiling over a thn‘uu‘nlnf volcanic hell—of laughing-eyed humans with hearts in which the worst of human passions forever brood, ready at an instant's kindling for sedition, rapine or wurder. In every partof southern Italy you will come upon a broad, grass-grown Nighway. It is called the “traturo.” For twenty cen- turies it has served the same purpos On this “traturo” occurs the yearly spring exodus from the lower valleys and coastwise moors and marshes to the Apulian mountain summer pastures. In the “autumn hundreds of thousands return nlong the ancient way: During the winter the herdsmen and shep- herds live in town hovels, or in hutsnear the towns and villages, The herds and flocks are then driven out toand returned from daily grazing. But in the summer time on the mountain sides is the real outdoor life of tno guardian of the flocks and herds Whether he be herdsm, goutherd or shepherd. he is usually rge of a or herd of from fify als. hese folks rarely in arry with other classes. When they do they instantly de purt from the focks, are absorbed in lower orders of the cities, or become the most des- hopeless of the human catttle that ubor 1 the flelds. vide in their own descent, in the exclusi s of their class, in thedong line of shepherd ancestry they can trace, amounts aly A passion. 1t is practically the one p possess. This isolation of blood and interest has preserved interesting traces in physiognomy. They re wonderfully Saracenic in their look. he tall, slender, supple figure, the oval face and shioning skin, the neck, tiny at the throat spreading quickly and heavily in protuberant muscles, like a broad-butted tree, o the shoulders, the yellowish-blue tinge of the white or the eye, distended nostrils, and the dazzling teeth all pronour the eastorn origin and retained physiologi afinities. Straight as an arrow, this shepherd is clad rom head 10 foot in 'undressed skins ifurcated gavient of untanned hides, fash foned after the pattern of that one so well known to American dress reform ladies, forms a sort of waiste and trousers com- bined. The latter are opened at the sides, below the knees, often displaying gaudy but tous ornamenting the sides of his half-gaiter, undressed skin boots. Over his waistcoat is a long, loose, armless jacket of hide, pro- vided with humberless pockets, his rain- proof storchouse of meager treasures. A aunty, brigandish hat sits perkily upon is fine, curly head, and brings into jef his olive skin, his large, grave eyes crinkly, curly beard. ' Slung from bis right shoulder across his left hip by a broad band of hide, with occasionally the priceless treasure of a polished brass or bronze buckle, is the inseparable capsella or shepherd's pouch. A rusty carbine, which is never dischargea, or a stout staff as high as his breast—hut never the shepherd's erook of olden tales and modern tableaux vivants—complete the picture. And it is always a picture; for this fellow with the fuce of un upostlo and the eyes of a saint is 80 deliciously languid and inexpressibly lazy that his splendid formi is forever in pose and re| never early overy shepherd of southern Ttaly is married. He inarries youug He THE rears, or rather thore grows, scemingly all unconsclous to himself, o large family The sons marry other shepherds’ daugh- ters; tho daughters other shepherds' sons. Himself perhaps born in the grass by the side of the “traturo,” in the cleft of some rock in the edge of torrent’s gravina, or in some low hut on_ hill or moor, he emcrges from childhood to manhood a nomad; is a nomad in youth and manhood ; he mates as a nomad; and never ceases a nomadic life until the quicklime of some village Campo Santo consumes his bones. 8o that to every flock belongs a family. The tattordemalion group possesses no home but that of the daily grazing land of the flock. The sole possessions never equal 5 in value, Their total earnings do not ex- 1 11 cents per day. Like Wallachian gypsies they squat anywhere for rest and sieep, and eat anything that will sustain life. If they poasess a single aspiration on earth it is that secret one of so many other Ital- ian field and moor laborers to *take to the hills,” that is, to become outright brig- ids. Universal indolence and repugnanc are safeguards against thi Apulian shepherd himself is a picturesque fellow enough, despite your consciousness of his vacuous ignorance, his unvarying cruelty to this flocks, and his utter sodden, rathe than active, bratality to his wife and chil- dren, who serve as his pack mules, like the American squaws, for transporting his slen der belongings to the hills On the mountain sides the lite of this shep- herd family is a changeless one the whole summer long, unless the terribie hail storms of southern Italy fall upon the mountains, o the still more destructive wind storms, that frequently fling both shepherds and flocks from the crag_to death, come whistling over peak or howling through gravina. Then the human marmot awakens from his lethargy and accomplishes prodigious feats strength and wondrous acts of valor in rescuin \dangered members of the flock or of his own terrified brood. His food is polenta and chestnut-flour bread. He is the one [talian who drinks water instead of wine. His field-lore, though unconscious to himself, is marvelous. When spurred by extreme hunger, all mountain moorland birds are doomed where he sets his snare. 1t is a wild, strange, mel- ancholy land he looks down upon, if he have the energy for looking. His wife and chil- dren around him are as voiceless as himself and his flocks. The very melody of the sheep-bells becomes o meaningless din, One carries away from his environment and com- panionship with him only a vathetic sense of his hopelessness and * degradation. You an only remember him as another animal in wairy hide, insensate to the trumpetings of ernal nature around him. The sheep browsing at his side are his equals in intelli gence; his superiors in demonstrable forces and activities, The lone kestral wheeling above this Apulian shepherd has a wider horizon of view Those who care for the flocks of Piedmsnt, Lombardy and radiant Tuscany are a differ ent foll of whom a sunnicr picture can be drawn. In the main thoy are the little children and_youths and wives of all the peasantry. In northern and Alpine Italy the beauty of the cities, quaintness and peacefulness of the villiges and hamlets, the radiance of the valleysand the noble picturesqueness of the forests and moua- tains, seem to_have given a reflex peaceful- fulness, sunniness and even virility to the people. The shepherd lagers. He or is alws she shares their everyday espousals, marriages, fu- nerals, al for enjoyment and con- templation. Nearly every s its own little flock. Often several these are y8 one of the vil- of highest mount mer, In such family accompany much’ as do their kind in In October the same flock be driven to the moors and marshes of Mar- emmie, where the shepherd and his family subsist almost entirely on snared wild fowl which comes here in myriads to escape the winters of the British isles, the Baltic re- gions and the German forests. But tens of thousands of little flocks led by tens of thousands of little shepherds and shepherdesses leave the village greggia or sheepfold and home every morning for the higher glades. Sometimes a dog, often a pix trained to heard a flock, goes with them. If a maiden has charge of the flock, she will have her spindle or knitting, and will work and sing and tend her flock ‘the whole day long. Ifalad or stripling lead a flock, he will let the pig or the dog tend the sheep, with an occasional moment of execu- tive observation, and the rest of the day he gathers mushrooms, hunts the young of birds, all of which are eagerly eaten’ save those of the swallow and hawk, snares forest fowl, or pipes on his flute in idle fantasy. Both must bring a backload of ferns, grass, oak, elm_or vine leaves, with the flocks at night. Some of this is for temporary use; but the winter store is thus chiefly gathered. 1 have counted more than 100 of these little flocks descending from the mountains with the shepherds at eventide. The valleys are voiceful with thousands of tinkling bells, with the notes from hundreds of shepherds’ flutes, with the trill of scores of shepherd’s songs. Then, as the shadows fall softly upon the hamlets, comes the housing of the sheep in the greggia, and the pastoral yields to the prosaic while “Ravella” and “Nencia” gain new strength for the morrow from their bowl of steaming polenta, or porridge of crushed white beans. The fairest possession of all Ttaly is sunny Sicily. Yet Sicily has no homes for the lowly - of the countrysides as we know and love even the lowliest home. Nearly all Sigilians are serfs of the few. Doubtless 2,300,000 souls out of Sicily's entire population of 2,584,000 inhabitanis hold this relation to the nobility, governing classes and ecclesiastics. An infinite compassion fires one’s heart for the hopelessness of such a peovle; and when interest in tremendous natural phenomena classic regions and dead-age remains lessens the pathetic side of life begins to possess and hurt you. Any land boasting no progressive farming population, masters of the soil they till, or without a fairly contented peasantry possessing secure and well defined rights in their holdings, is doomed to desertion and y. Inthe entire length and breadth of this island, from the highways not half and hundred “farm houses” will be seen. ‘'hese are not farm houses as we know them, ch is a desolate stone structure, inhabited by the family of some soprantendente or overscer, where tools are stored, and in the busiest seasons of labora gang'of wolfish- faced men and women are Zed on slops and herded at night on stone Benches for sleen. ‘The montanaro, or mountaineer; the atore, or plowman; the pecorajo, or shepherd; the vignajo, or vinearesser; the vendemmiatore, or grapegatherer; the wiltere, or reaper, and every manner of human animal that labors withi flocks, or in vineyard or flelds, is in tact a contadino, illager, tiving in low and poisonous hovels in cities or hamlets, from out of which hollow-eyed crowds pour before daylight, munch.ng their food as they drag themselves to their flocks in the mountains or their toil in the vineyards and fields IDGAR L. WAKEMAN, in lands for the entire s a shepherd them, and they uck treats c —— tarrh, Barker block. - A Vennl Pedugogue. Detroit Free k : One day, as I rode along the banks of the north fork of the Kentucky river, I came to alog school house, an institution usually conspicuous by its absence in that section. It was about 1 o'clock, and the teacher, a lank strip of humanity in homespun ¢lothe sat on a log, watching a lot of noisy chil- dren at play. “How ave you?" 1 said, as [ pulled up and the children gathered around. “Howdy?" he replied, driving the children away. Are you the school teacher?” “*Yes; Treckon 1 am." What kind of a school have you?” Only fair to middlin’.” You haven't much competition?” ;\u eddication ain't popular in these parts.” **Don't the childven like books?” "'Not unless they can tear the leaves outen 'em.” Can’t you make them study®" :l © .l\lm tryin’.” “*How long have you bees J hered" 14 y n teaching ‘This makes the third term.” \'ml_ You can't muke them learn?” “No. *Then what do you teach for?” “Well, mister, bein' as you're a stranger in these parts,” he said, in a half whisper, “*I'm willin' to say I teach for $27 @ month and board 'vound, and notanother darn thing,” and the unam- bitious pedagogue turned on his heel and went in after his scholars, Dr. " Fro e, STAGE REALISM RUN RANPANT The Actor Has Been Brushed Aside by the | Modern Stage Oarpenter. EVIDENT DETERIORATION OF PUBLIC TASTE A Local Critic Condemns the Average Play Urging That it Shows & Lamentable D oline from Older and Better Stand- ards—Whither Do We Drift? There is no way of getting round the fact that the drama is not what it was once. Kean, John Philip Kemble, Junius Brutus Booth and Kdwin Forrest passed away long ago. Their mantles have been worn with more or less distinction by Edwin Booth, John McCullough, Lawrence Barrett and Thomas Keene. But now that two of these are dead, another retired, and the last named has almost outlived his usefulness, it would seem that legitimate drama is almost at the end of its rope, for there are none to taxe their places. In the matter of theatrical productions the present is truly an uncritical age. Almost everything goes —on the stage. Scores of “attractlons” come to Omaha that, judged from a dramatic standpoint, have no right to exist; but they do exist, and, strange to say, they escape mob violence. The demand of the times seems to be for something either light and airy or black and bloody. We are days people go to the play to while away a tedious hour, not to learn a moral lesson; they go to be amused, not to study the perplexities of human - life. They care not what the play is nor who plays it, s0 long as it leads their minds from worldly care and anxiety. In these piping days of bustling trade, severe competition and over- wrought business life, the average theater- goer never thinks of a play until he steps into the marble-tiled lobby, and it never en ters his mind after he comes out. The classic-browed youths of Athens would sit for Lwelve hours at a streteh listening with rapture to the imp sioned lines of Sophocles, the rythmic strophe and antistrophe of /Eschylus, the plaintive lyrics of Pindar and the mirthful music of Aristophanes: but we of the nineteenth cen- tury Omaha feel awfully bored if a play lasts more than two hours, even though the at- traction is the best to be had. 1t is true we have not the same style of entertainments that the ancients enjoyed, and it is well for the profession that such is the se, for philosophy spouted from the stage would not be tolerated now. Instead of Greek tragedy we have “rvealism,” in piace of Pindaric odes we have skittish songs by high-kicking soubrettes, and in lieu of Aristophanes’ comedy we have horse play in all dialect Aidipus Tyrannus has taken a back t for ‘“The Vampires of Hoboken ;' the Hymu to the Grices has been crowded out by “De Bowery” aund “Gilhooligan's Twins,” and the comedy of The Frogs has been ignominiously displaced by “Morearty's Mishaps.” Stage realism has run mad. has not been 50 very long since people we isfied with the comedies of Goldsmith and Sheri- dan and the tragedies of Shakespeare, with- out any mechanical effects and stage set- tings; but now it requires two car loads of machinery and a master mechanic to keep an ordinary play on the road for any length of time. We have had so much of this real- istic effect busincss that it is becoming sim- ply nuuseating. In the last twoor three years an endless procession of machine plays has been passing thirough Omaha. We have seen saw mills, flour mills, fire engin steamboat aud dynamite explosions, circus parades, pile drivers, rail- road wi locomotive races, horse races, rafts in midocean, log jams and balloon as- censions, all presented with astonishing me- cunanical accuracy. There have been other features equally as startling that do not come to mind, and the question is Where will this fad for realism end? It is not be- yond the range of possibility that we may some day see a stage representation of the divorce mill at Sioux Falls, a legislative war in Kansas, an Amazonian revolt in Dahomey, or a lynching bee in Texas. A few months ago there was a play at one of the theaters in which two noted safe breakers, cx-con- viets, appeared and cracked a safe in the latest and neatest style known to modern burglary. Prize fighters and heroines of celebrated divorce cases get on the stage as soon us they can learn their par If prog- ress is to remain the watchword of the cen- tury, we may expect to see soon a horde of thieves, counterfeilers, anarchists and mur- derers turned out of Sing Sing and Joliet and exhibited on the stage, where they will ply their vocations to chilly music before the gaze of admiring thousands. When that thing comes, prepare to be disappointed if announcements something like the following do not appear in the newspapers: A Drawa of the Greatest Human Interest, “THE PIG STICKERS OF KANSAS CITY” One week only, commencing Monday Niglt. Don't fall to see the great slaughter house scene, with the sausage-making process in full view of audience, You will teel like kicking yourself if you don’t hear the celebreted Butcher Boys quar- tot in the latest topical songs. Jim Bender, the reformed murderer. and Frank James, the noted train robber, wili per- form specialties in thelr respective Tines. 8labs of delicious boiled hany will be dis- tributed among the audience freo of charge between the acts. It is not alone in the direction of realism that the stage is showing a decline from older and betterstandards. One of the most popular forms of entertainment is the ex- travaganza or burlesque opera 22ling conglomeration of music, gandy snery, scintillating colored lights, fairy figures and ainbow hosiery; a sort of musical com- plexity bathed in red fire and dreamy tinsel A show of this kind is usually accompanied by a well drilled corps de ballet, o Parisian danseuse, occasionally (though not often) a comedian of fair ability, a quartet of male puppets for wood logue and a _miscel- lancous assortment of gangrened jokes and cheap rouge, The last actis followea by a transformation scene, previous to which the house is darkened for no other reason than to impress the audience with the fact that something startling is going to happen, Then there are the farce comedy and the Trish play, many of which should have been called in long ugo,but by the good graces of an indiscriminating public they are still with us, Oh, how tired one grows of seeing the ob- streperous intruder thrown down an imagin- ary flight of stairs towed by a noise like the report of a Gatling gun fired off in an empty halll When will there ever be relief from the sporty individual who wears a diamond irt ud bolted to his back? Who is there among us who will earn enduring fame by everlastingl, sandbagging the loquacious policeman who spills sand out of the end of his jimmy and dances on it? What will the recording angel set down against the poverty-proud charac who always displays a standing collar without any shirt? Will not some dire dis- aster overtake the sentimenta! gossoon and the sickly smiling colleen who gush like a weaned calf over its first bucket of milk? A lack of originality characterizes the lat- ter day productions. Old plays aresworked over and presented as new, and we have the “eleventh edition”. and the “nineteenth series” of that. Fresh verses are added to the same old songs and the wrinkles are smoothed out of the same old jokea. ' is an unwritten law that something good must be imitated by something bad of the same class. Ole Oleson s followed by Pete Peterson, and Pete Peterson will probably be followed by Knute Knutson. There are war plays, naval plays, Swedish plays, German plays, south- ern plays and wostern plays, but there is a woeful scarcity of good plays; plays that your mother would enjoy seeing, aud play: in which intelligent beings could find some- thing to bring honest tears or smiles. But a truce to these unpleasant reflections. ‘The conditions are ours and we make them what they are. Theday is coming that will witness a_reaction against this riotous dis- sipation into which the stage has plunged, and in that day the spirits of those who gave the drama its now forgotten glory will walk the earth in the persons of their Worthy successors. M S, ancient It - Modjeska begins her engagoment next Thursday night at Boyd's new theater, pre- senting her superb production of Shake- speare’'s “Henry VIIL" This play has re celved unusual commendation where it has OMAHA DAILY BEE been preseuted this yeur, as she has mouated wh e B ey A SUNDAY,, FEBRUARY e 1t a8 sumptuously as' gand taste will permit, costumed it with rarehistoric fidelity of do. sign and coloring, Afidfptéprots the charact. ers withacast eminéhtly suited to the various ts. On Modjeska’s, part 1t has required on and scholarly intelligence as well as a thorough knowledizo of stage art to know what to present and what to omit, and that she has done her workt with rare skill has been generally condodad. This bill will be repeated at the Saturday matinee. On Fri- day night it will please many of the great actress’ friends to know that she will present a Camille which ,is regarded by many as her greatest interpretation. On Saturday night the engagement will close with her familiar role of Mary Stuart. —_— 8 T A KISS. Baniun Banner. Tt a body meet a body Coming through tho rye— 1t 3 body kiss a b Doctors say disedse germs travel Through the sew of bliss, Swinming where the lips aro lingering In kiss It one germ should meet another Coming through u kiss, Would they stop and talk sweot nothings? Would they fight and hiss? Must the kisser ask the kissoe, Most delicious mald, Whose red lips the kiss invited, If she i 7 ¥ Today Hopkins' ceanic Star Spec- ialty company will close its engagement at Boyd's theater by wiving two ot its excellent performance The performances of this brilliant galaxy of variety stars appear.to have caught the fancy of the Omaha theater. woing public, and the business hus been sur- prisingly good for a new attraction. The swey, with his wonderfully clever . is alone worth the price that it costs see the whole show. A special matinee will be given at 2:30 this (Sunday) after- noon, at which the price of admission has been fixed at the remarkably low price of 50 cents to any part of the house. The engage- ment closes with the performance tonight. This afternoon at the matinee at the Far- nam street theater “Mr. Potter of Texus" begins a_five nights engagement, with a matinee Wednesday. It is clamed that “Mr. Potter of Texas,” aside from all other points, is certainly one of the best con- structed plays on the st It is, at all events time-tried and while sart” eritics find plenty of fault with it, from a literary standpoint, all practical ties speak of it asa marvei of construc The first two acts are devoted to yusine the interest in the story and the motive of action of each character; the third act is devoted to action, the last act to the consequence or denouement. Many people feel o desire to write a play, espec ally after witnessing athoroughly bad one, and regret that there isno text book or 100l of dramatic consthuction. To ali such 1 be said, “experience teaches.” Read novel, sketch the play to convey the s and introduce the characters;” then mpare the work with the master's own finished play. Mr. Gunter's works are now concede 1 to be original, but his earlier works are not entirely so and would-be playwrights are advised to follow the usual course, to elaborate some other author’s idea until some original idea is found to be more avail- able. “Mr. Potter of Texas,” the novel, is almost a play as it stands, which may be counted for from the* fuct that it was first wr(|t).|'n asap and afterwards was novel- izex the The first performances of ‘“‘The Crust of Society" at Boyd's' theater on tomorrow and Tuesday nights will make a more than usually interesting event. ' Heré is a play by Dumas that has lan dormant foy over twenty years and which in France has always been con sidered his mastorpieoe, Mr. John Stetson had the play adapted for the American stage by Miss Louise Imwen Guiney, well known in the literary circles of Boston, and Mr. William Seymour, & stage manager, and it was presented at the Glibe theater, Boston, and afterwards at the Union Square theater, New York, under the ndme of he Crust of Society,” meeting with the greatest of suc- cess in both cities. . The. criticisms were in all cases tible to it, while the com- pany that Mr. Stetson. has engaged for the presentation of the case is said to be the best. The story,of course, is thoroughly French; it deals with an adventuress masquerading as & widow, who has been the innamorata of two of the chief persons in the drama ana has just been deserted by her last admirer but one and who has decided to establish herself in good social standing by marrying a gentleman of fortune and family. He has fallen in love with the adventuress, but is ignorant of her character and cher- ishes for her an honest love. It is the sav- ing of this gentleman from the clutches of the adventuress that forms the business of the plot. The engagement is limited to two nights, Unusual interest is felt in the forthcoming engagement at the Farnam street theater of James J. Corbett in ‘“‘Gentleman Jack’ Friday and Saturday next, with matinee. Unlike other men who have shown their powers to excel and conquer and their su- perior physical development. who have ap- peared upon the stage, Corbett has gone about things in a more rational and business- like manuer. Instead of appearing in any sort of an excuse for a play, in which he might show himself, he secured the services of one of the most experienced playwrights, Charles T. Vincent, ana_had that dramatist weave an interesting comedy drama around much of the story of Corbett’s own life. Hec next secured an unusually capable company to support him, and had the play dressed in the most suitable scenery and other en- vironments, and named it “*Gentleman Jack." Assurances have been offered from critics of reputation in other cities that if the attractive personality of Corbett was withdrawn entirely the play of ‘‘Gentleman Juck” is of suffi¢ient strength to reign as one of the dramatic successes of the cur- rent theatri on Another peculiarity which has not strongly evinced itself in per- formances upon the stage in which other famous pugilists who have preceded Corbett have appeared 1s the large patronage, espe- cially at matinees, of ladies. Altogether, Champion James J. Corbett is of unusual and interesting composition. A tall, handsome fellow, with a face that is the very picture of health), polite and considerate, never loud or boisterous in his methods, either on or off the stage, a neat dresser, Champion James J. Corbett, the rather phenowenal record- breaker in many ways, will undoubtedly stand out as one of the most striking and prepossessing characters in the history of American pugilism. The most renowned company of vocalists that has ever been presented to the Ameri- n public will appear at Boyd's theater on Wednesday evening next. I'he company is composed of Mme. Lillian Nordica, prima donna soprano, Mme. Sofia Scalchi, pri donna contralto, Miss L ingel, mezzo soprano, Signor Italo Campanini, prima tenor, S iseppe del $Puente, prima baritone, Herr Emil Fischer, basso, and Mr. (sidore Luckstone, pianist and m i is styled the Nordica Operatic Concert company, and is under the direction of Mr. C. A. Ellis, manager of the Boston Symphony cercerts, . Zach of these artists has a world-wiae reputation, and although some of them have "“béert heard in Omaha separately an opportunity of hearing such a magnificent aggregation®f talent has never before been presentéd t6 our music loving people, and the oppgrtunity will not be stighted, judging from,the interest already manifested. The fellowing is the program that will be rendered by the Nordica com- pany at the Boyd on Wednesday night: AU 5. Hungarisn Rhapsody, No. 6 Mr. buckstone. Aria—The Jewess ... g Mr: Adel Lizy .. Halevy Plano Solo {de . .oooone s Beethoven Mr, Campanin. Nobile Signor, frow Les 1 Song: Cavatina nots uo. . orbeer M. Seu Toreador, trom Urme Mr. Del Puente. Polonaise--Mignon Mai Song—T oter ng—Trumpoter Song .Bizet oA Thomas Nordica. f Suckingen ischer. Finale to Act TL, Luela. ... .. Donizett! Mme. Nordica, Miss Engeland MM, Cawpanini, Dél Puente and Fischer. PANT 1L utiful opera, “OCavalle: i+ Rus- t form and sung in It Nessler Mascagni's " in con ntuzzn o Lucia Turiddu Sz Altio . Big. The sale of seats will open tomorrow morn ing. HRNEY | “Champagne that has the least alcohol is a stimulant and restorative,” says Dr. Pavy, Use Cook's Extra Dry Luperial. 26, 1893—SIXTEEN LIFE INSURANCE ANTIQUITY The “Higher Oriticism” Applied to the Genesis of the “Solicitixg Specialist,” SAMSON'S WEAPON THE INSURANCE MAN'S Humorous flomily and Exceodingly Eradite by Rev. Wright Butler—Hon, A, K. Cady on Insurance From s Patriotic Standpolnt. The list of toasts at the Nebraska Life oanquet of the Underwriters association was s0 long that several of the best re- sponses were not heard until time had turned into a new day, and the birth of an other offspring from the mighty Press could not be delayed for even so instructive and | alluring attractions as the feast of wit and | eloguence and reason spread for the under- writers and their friends. Some of these | specches were too good to be lost aud are worthy genoral perusal. This is what Rev. S. Wright Butler of St. Mary's Avenue Con- gregational church had to say of the unsus pected antiquity of the insurance man: Mr. President “soliciting specialist’ tho euphonious title pre tion of the life insuranc nce whose premiums ave ‘‘without money and without price,” and whose policies give “‘prowise for the life that now is and that which is to come,” T fecl much at home in this company, and am most happy to be your guest “Life insurance” as discussed by the speakers preceding me, has been presented characteristically according to the vocations of the gentlemen speaking, the magisteris by our worthy, mayor, and the legal and journalistic by representatives of those pro fessions. You will allow and expect me to treat my topic, “The Origin of Life Insur ance,” characteristically as a clergyman—in fact it would be quite impossible for me to treat it otherwise; as the dray horse, al- though in the procession, decked with rib- bons and accompanied by bands of music, yet shows the chafing of the harness of his humble toil, so a minister will unconsciously reveal the harness mark of his calling. To date the origin of life insurance to the close of the eighteenth ceutury, as the en- eyclopedias do. would be the boldest empir icism on my part, and to dismiss the sublime subject with an unworthy hast | I shall proceed to show you that this ban- yan tree, whose vast proportions shelter so | numcrous and wide a constituency, ramifies its rootlets into centuries remote and times prehistoric In searching them for the origin of life insurance, I shall appeal to sacred scholar- ship, and ‘examine the subject as becomes a minister, under various heads, archaological, philological, sociological, exegetical, homi letical, with theaids of modern interpreta- tion, involying both the lower and higher criticisms, First, archwologically. Doubtless in the preparation of your Sunday school lessons, gentlemen, you have scen illustrations of th hieroglyphics and engraviugs upou the monoliths and tablets exhumed from the sites of Assyris armf Babylonia and have noticed the reputed bas relief of reputedly ancient conquerors—Senachorib or Nebuchadnezzar, with uplifted index fin- ger holding, in shivering awe, a figure reputed to be a Judean captive; but in the light of modern science it is now known that the story figures of triumph and subjection were emblematic of the soliciting specialist, hypnotizing his victim to the writing of a policy upon his endangered life. 1n fact, the petrified man of Chadron and the Cardiff giant are no doubt subjects turned to stone by the Medusalike eyes of the life insurance solicitor. Indeed, the human remains of the Caucasian defiles, mingled with thdse of the cone bear, and the ancient lake dwellers, whose homes wero on spiles at the center of the Swiss lake, instead of antedating Adam, are, in the light of the higher criticism, found to be allegories, teaching the presence of the life insurance ageut in times prehistoric, for is not he always a bear on the life market, talking it down, and of old as in modern times to climb a tree is the only method of escape from the indefatigable so- licitor. Secondly, the argument for the antiquity of the origin of life insurance from philology, or the study of language. But here we meot a dificulty. The philological argument seems to collide with the archwological. It is well known that as we recede into the past_the lingual facility of the race rapidly declines. Our present vocabulary is en- riched by about 25,000 terms. Shakespeare used about 10,000, while all the old testament has to say was written in less than 5,000 terms. Probably in ancient times the Ign- guage of the race reached but a few hundred words, and yet who remembers any soliciting specialist for life insurance whose vocabu- lary did not exceed 250,000 terms? And yet this seemmg conflict of the archwological and philological argument is only seeming. Were there not prehistoric Silurian _times when the plesiosaurus, the icthyosaurus and many other “sauruses,” together with the pter- odactyl and other festive fowl, were denizens of those unrecorded dayst Does not the scripture refer to a mystic era—when “the sons of the Gods loved the daughters of men and there were giants in those days,” and did net, mayhap, those monsters have a monstrous vocabulary and might not the lost art have been recovered by the rustling mity represented here tonight—else how can we account for the voluminous ve bosity that outruns all present yocabularies peculiar to the life insurance agent? Let me now come to my specially familiar resource, sacred literature, and trace your ancestry along the lines of men und events that are salient in the saving pro- cesses that have uplifted the race. ~As the Masonic brethern claim all the great of sacred history as patrons of their craft, let me show you your noble predecessors in life insurance. In the epistle of Jame your life?” Has not th and does it not indicate_the acquaintance of the first bishop with life insurance? Isairh’s injunction to Hezekiah, “Set thine house in order for thou shalt die and not live,” is rich in its suggestion of your noble and beneficent vocation. ~ Pharaob, the child of the sun, wearer of the double crown, said to the batriarch Jucob upon meeting him: “How old art thou?” no doubt intending to compute an expectation of life, looked to an _issuance of a policy—no record of such issuance is given, as no doubt the rate was too high, con- sidering his confessed longevity when he answered, s old am L But, in passing, it is quite an error to ex- pect early demise as contingent upon great age. AU leastso thought the centenarian, who being told upon his 100th birthday an niversary that he could not expect. to's much longer, replied: “Oh, I may live another 100 years now; certain Iam that I begin the second 100 4 good deal stronger than I did my first.” It is well known that the longest lived classes ave first gentlemen and ud clergy- men; if only one could find a clergyman who was also & genileman, no doubt” he would live forever. But 1w return to the research origin of life insurance from sae: In the book ot Judges we find recorded of mson, the hero of lsvael, that when the sport and jeer of the Philistines, who, after making him captive, brought him into the temple of Dagon to make sport for them in his misfortune, he, clasping the supportin pillars of the dome, tore them from their places, killing more in _his death than he had done in his life.” Now, according to the higher critieism, we may feel that this is an allegory of the jeerings of poverty and ad versity, and that having'taken out a life in- suraneé policy for o large amount he died, and by the payment slew more of his creditors in death than he had done in his life. Some persons are so lucky, and their posthumous earnings far exceed those of the years of their vital efforts. Probably John Wanamaker with his wiflion and a half policy, if he live not so long will, by dying, strike a bigger bargain than he has ever found or offered at a bar- gain counter. But to return to Samson's feat, recorded in Judges xv., 15, when ina rage of patriotic zeal he caught as nearest t hand fora weapon the jawbone of an uss, and with it “slew a thousand men This sowetimes difiicult statement becomes clear when we compare it with experiences mwon, perhaps, to your reunions, when and _ Gentl (for that ferred for the vo agent) foran insur en: As he asks, “What is t a familiar sound, for the lor remarkable vou soliciting agents meet after & caw- PAGES, palgn and relate your victories In rlm-lnu thousands of dollars in policies, and some- times is it not done with the like instrument that Samson used t There are no traces of life i garden of Eden—rather the opposite. And to your credit, gentlemen, be it remarked that the old serpent, the deceiver, reversed your perpetual reminder, saying: ‘“Thou shalt not surely die.” Heaven will have its larger happiness from the entire absence of both our vocations, There will be no ciergymen in heaven, for it is written: “There was no temple therein.” Neither will there be a life insurance ofticial, His occupation will be gone, for ‘“they die no more." Gentlemen, were you to visit my church you are too much gentlemen to talk shop and seek to persuade my patronage. I have sought to rec and in your gather- ings T have not pressed my persuasions We have, I repeat, much in common—you resent various companies, The Mutual e, Omaha Life, Vermont Lifo, New York Life, and T am a hustler, a soliciting special ist for the “immortal life," and T trust and desire that you all hold policies in my com: pany. Insurance Hon. A. E. timent urance in the rom @ Patriotie Standpoint. Cady, in response to the isurance from the Stanapoint riotism," said By general consent insurance men are as. signed u place among the professionals, and vet in contrast with that given his profes. sional brethren, it is questionable if he re ceives th dit that is really his due. The doctor attends our ills and_bleeds us here, the clergyman attends to the hereafter and the lawyers divide the estate, while the in surance man alone takes the very prosaic part of paying the bills, And yet to the unthinking or malicious it may appear that the association of insurance with patriotism is an invention of the ubiquitous agent. But the fact is that the agreement of modern civilization that to in sure is a patriotic duty was merely the in- fluence that converted so many talented gentlemen to the service of patriotism by making of them insurance missionaries. Every missionary within the hearing of my voice, as wel the many who are unavoid ably avsent, will 1 am sure bear cheerful testimony to the truthfuluess of my state ment, _ There is a_popular fallacy that patriot- ism means to be leroic. In some way the patriot has become associatod with service to country, deeds of valor and military glory and while it may be true that the man who is wiliing to go out and be shot at to settle some dispute about taxation or the removal of a boundury line that only exists in in ination, while it may be true that he is a patriot, it is not true that he enjoys the ex clusive distinction. The real germ of patriotism in 1its higher sense is unselfishuess, the willingness to deny or sacrifice to benefit another. Patri otism does not necessarily wear a uniform, noris it adorned with a badge. It necessarily asserting or demonstrative. greatest tragedies are not enacted in the glare of the footlights with the tinsel and trappings of a mock heroism, and the loftiest patriotism may be both modest and obseure I believe the man who insures his life for the benefit of others is not only a benefactor but a patriot. Idon't know just how many kinds of patriots there but he is one of a kind that in common with insurance men I like. I like him because he has indicated one of the possibilities for good that men possess. He has shown how a man can reach the summit of human goodness by utterly forgetting himself in his unselfish de sire to benefit others. I like him because he is possessed of that holiest of all ambitions, the desire to leave the world better for his having lived in it, for when a m rounded by all the strife, the avarice allurements of the world, can deliber plan for others a benefit in which he not only will not participate, but which will only accrue with his final departure, that man has born unconscious testimony t the fact that he had inherited the true spirit of a patriot. One life does not contribute much to the world's welfare as a whole, but if every man became possessed of a desire to leave some benefaction, a gift, a memory or a hove, something that would lighten the burden and make life brighter and. better to those who were to follow, what an inviting plac this would be for a permanent residenc Perhaps in the fulness of time this may come to pass, but for the present its appro ci- mation I believe lies in contemplating insur- ance from a patriotic standpoint. sen- of is not The e A commission has been received by Dona.d Burns (who recently presented the late John Hoey's fine_collection of swans to Central park, New York) from John D. Rockefeller, to arrange for a swannery at his palatinl residence on_the Hudson.” Mr. Burns says no expense will be spared to make the Rock- efeller swannery one of the finest in the world, not excepting the famous ones on the Thames or in the gardens of the Luxem- bourg at Paris. Are those ignorant pretenders who, without any qualifications, any ability, any experience, any skill, claim to possess the power to cure all the ills of the human race. But their want of worth soon becomes apparent to their would-be dupes, and these conscience- lessquacks are soon consigned to the oblivion they so richly merit. In strange and strong contrastwith these miserable boasters is the quiet, dignified yet courteous demeanor of hose noted leaders of their profession, ts, Botts & Betts Who, during the past 27 years, have abundantly demonstrated their ability to effect speedy, perfect and permanent cures in all the worst forms of those del- icate sexual maladies embraced within the general terms of NERVOUS, CHRONIC AND PRIVATE DISEASES. Send 4 cents for their illustrated now book of 120 pages, ‘‘Know Thyself.” Consultation fres. Call upon or ad- dress, with stamp, Drs. Betts & Betts, 119 S, 14th Streat, Cor. Douglas St', __OMAHA, - NEB. NERVQUSDISORDERS EVILS, WEAKNESSES, DEBILITY, K t a9 company thew 1n men QUICKLY' aad 'PERMA- NENTLY CURED. ¥ull' STRENGTI wnd tone given to evory partof the body. L will send (se- roly packed) ¥iLKE w any sulferer the presorip. 1100 that curod me of thess troubl Addross, A BUADLEY BATTLE CHEBK, MICH 1350, JAN 1, 1809, Forty-third Annual Report OoF THN itz INSURANCE COMPANY. 156 and 158 Broadway, Now York, Insurance in Force. over . ... ... ... 8100000 Total Payments Lo Poliey-hoiders, over 83.600,000 THE YEAR 1892 SHOWS: INCREASE IN ASBETS, INCREASE IN INS, IN FORCE. INCREASE IN INTEREST. INCREASE IN PREMIUMS. INCREASE IN PAYMENTS T0 POLICY HOLDERS, Total Income during 1502, v 2,730,601 63 Total Disbursoments 2,400,063 08 ASSETS. Ioal K 3 Flrst Mortgago Loans on Real Estate United States Bonds and other securl tios Loan W04 63 268 3,160,262 00 v 708,084 03 y 12412 5 of Colloction an ftor deducting %0 per on Pollcies in foreo. Loaus on stocks and bonds Premiums tn Cours tsston 201,718 38 hand and in Banks and Trust panies at lnterest ... . Interost acerued and all other proporty TOTAL ASSETS $13,293,778 11 APPORTIONED AS FOLLOWS: Reserve on Polleles, New York State Standard (4 per cent) less Deferred Premiums Allother liabilities...... .. .. SURPLUS.. 200,800 08 266,518 07 202,846 08 ..'$1,138,584 08 Wo hereby certify that we have oarefully oxam- fned In detatl tho assets as shown above, and the E. A WALTON, ) P.VAN ZANDT LANE, 3. OTIS 1OYT, BENJ. GRIFFEN ) BRICE & WASSON, 244-246 Bes Building. Good men wanted to act as district, local and traveling agents, to whom we can offer good contracts, JOHN MADEIRA and LOUIS KELLS, Agency Suporintendents, PROTECT YOUR EYES GCHRERG g~ AND USE H;"s{—lf- Now c..'rfc.ual * prcTACLis s, Hirschberg's V s} Nonchangeablo Spelaclos Committes. and Eyoglasses EYE CLASSES MaxMeyer Bro PATENTED Juiy 21971885 COMPANY, Max Meyer & Bro.,Co., Sole Agents for Omaha. DR. R. W. BAILEY Teeth Fillol Wit ont Pain by tas Latest laveas tion. Teeth Extracted Without Pain or Danger. A Full Set of Teeth oo Rubber for $3.0). Perfect fit guaranteed. Toeoth extracts1 la the morning. New ones Insertea in the eveulug of ssme day. Zéo specuiens of ltemovable Bridga. Eee specimons of Floxiblo Elastio Plats Allwork warrantod as reprosonto Office Third Floor Paxton 310k Telophone 1055, Iith and i'nrnam Sty Take elevaLor or stalrway (rom Iith St eatranoy. DONT HMISS 1Tl You don't need to sacrifice the lives of your loved ones when Dephtheria and Membranous Croup willendanzer the neighborhood of your hi There is u sure spacific medicing TO PREs VENT contaglon of then, and there s also fure specific medleine for The Cure of Them when they huve not run beyonl human reach Write to R.C. SIGEL, In Crete, Neb., 1f 1n need of any treatment, and you willfind that his treatment—based on many yoars' ex- periments ang study “hasseoured him a suo- Coss which will not-disappoint you. [ DO YOU KNOW THAT L. Page’s Liquid Wash Glue od by familios, car- penters and all classes of mechanics. Jas.Morton & So n Co., 1511 Dodge Stroet. 5> 10UR EYES Well,come and have them examined by our optiola: churge, and, 1f nesessary, fiited with a pulr ol FROTION” SPECTACLES or EYE GLASS st in the world. “If youdo not neod ginssos you 80 and A 1vise you what to do. GOLD BPECTACLES or EYE GLASSES FlOM £.) UP. ¥ noke, bluo or white klasses, for proteoting the m0Jc s puk up. Max Meyer & Bro. Co Jewelers and Onticians, Farnam and Fifteeot Street OUR EMPLOYMENT DI?'f. while costing the employer and employee nothing, has enabled us to advance the luter- estsof both, and also our own, by securing better resutts with the machine. Wyckoff, Seaman & Benedict TELEPHONE 1753 1712 FARNAM 80 DR. MCCGREW THE SPECIALIST. Is unsorpassed in the treatment of all PP'VATE DISEASES . 1l Weak und visorgers of MEN 18 yoars exporience. Writo for circulars and question list free. 14th and Farnam Sta, ‘Omaba, Neb *cumplateManhnnd AND HOW -TO ATTAIN IT. Amedical work that tells the causes. deseribes tho effecta, poluts the remody, Sclouuilonly Uie riistically the most beautiful or publishoed U pages, evory page bearing o ialr tone ilustratfon 1u’ tints ubjects treated : Nervous Debility, Tmpotency, Suerlliey, Development, Varicocelo, Tho Hus band, Those Intending Marriage, et Evéry man whowould know (he Grand Truths, the Plain Facts, the Old Scorets and New Dis coveries of Medloal Solence as appited (0 Mar. ried Life, who would afone for past follies and avoid fulure pitfaile. should wrile for Uhis WONDERFUL LITTLE BOOK It will be sent free, Guder seal, while the edl tion lasts. Address the publis ERIE MEDICAL CO., Bu