When Governor Garber became a citizen of Nebraska he possessed all the training and experience necessary to adapt him to his surroundings. At that time he was thirty-seven years of age, having been born in Logan county, Ohio, in 1833. His education was principally acquired before reaching his seventeenth year; subsequent to which time he removed to Clayton county, Iowa. Entering the army in the war of 1861-64 as a private in the Third Missouri Regiment, he afterwards recruited Company D, Twenty-seventh Iowa Infantry, of which he became first lieutenant and afterward captain. His next experience was four years in California among the stirring scenes of that slaughter-house of hopes, and of thrilling adventures. Without fear of Indian depredations, he took up, and maintained, an abode in Red Willow, Webster County, when he had only been preceded by two families. In the community that grew up around him, he became probate judge and representative in the legislature. From a year's administration of the register's duties in the United States land office in 1874, he was promoted to the governorship, and was reelected in 1876.
   On assuming the duties of governor, January 12, 1875, Mr. Garber presented a. clear, concise and sufficiently comprehensive inaugural. In this document he called the special attention of the legislature to the subject of economy.

   Deprecating hasty legislation, he said:

   He would administer the affairs of the State as a prudent man his individual affairs, and congratulated the people upon the fact of no bonded debt and but a slight floating indebtedness. He advocated a new constitution, that should be equal to the increasing demands of a new people and adapted to the experience of an elastic and progressive community.

   The legislature of 1875, to which he delivered his inaugural, had just received the retiring message of Governor Furnas, and hence Mr. Garber's first annual message bears date January 5, 1877, since the legislature only convened every other year.

   Taking up the subject of state finances he showed:

   He also gave as delinquent taxes the amount of $765,815 of which not more than one-third was likely to be collected.

   He highly commended the "wise administration" of the university, and anticipated the time when it would "become the pride of the whole State."

   Of the institution for the blind the governor reported that there had been received by the trustees during the past two years $19,457, and all expended but two hundred and twenty dollars. A building of sufficient capacity to accommodate fifty pupils, had cost $9,795. He reported a new building for the Deaf and

Dumb Institute under way, at a cost of $14,495, and during the past two years the number in attendance was fifty-three.

   In the matter of the penitentiary convicts the governor sought for practical reforms and benevolent results, and reported a change of warden, in the interest of less severity and better personal influence. His sensible and humane ideas can be best expressed in his own words.

   Early in his administration it became necessary to organize military companies on the western frontier of the State, and procure from the general government arms and ammunition. In accomplishing this he gave bond in the sum of $18,000, for the return of the guns when demanded. Another similar emergency arose in the case of the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, the legislature having failed to make an appropriation. The governor assumed the responsibility of borrowing of banks a sufficient amount to enable the State to obtain a creditable showing and receive a premium on soil and apples.
   The message gave the population of the State in the spring of 1876 as being 257,749. Having submitted facts and opinions on the question of usury, of banks and bankers, a proper disposition of the vast land endowment of the State, and amendment of laws, and submitted an elaborate statement of the necessity of a geological survey, with official reports of state officers, he concluded with hearty promise of legislative co-operation.
   His last official communication was made to the legislature of 1879, after four years of administration. From a glowing recapitulation of past progress, he found additional sources of congratulation in the condition of the finances, which showed that the total receipt for the two years ending November, 1878, was $1,908,337 and that the assessed value of taxable property, 1878, was $74,389,535, being an increase of $3,077,957, over the previous year, and that the condition of the common schools, of the normal school and state university had exceeded the most sanguine expectations, and the conditions of the charitable institutions, "devoted to the care and education of our children of sorrow," were flourishing.
   These sources of commendation were supplemented by valuable recommendations. First, that provision should be made for leasing the salt springs and "utilizing the lands donated for their development;" and that an agricultural bureau of reports and statistics should be established for distribution, such as to induce immigration; that fish culture should receive encouraging legislation; that the Indian control should be given over to the war department-, and the laws receive a. careful revision.

   His plea for a reform school for juvenile offenders was hearty and intelligent, containing references to the experiences of other states, and saying:

   In the career of Albinus Nance we have a splendid illustration of the energy and pluck of Young America. He was born in March, 1848, at Lafayette, Stark County, Illinois. At the age of sixteen years we find him a soldier in the civil war. He passed through the war with only slight wounds, and was mustered out with his regiment. Next we find him in civil life, a student at Knox College, at Galesburg, Illinois, where the foundation for his professional life was established and where he was admitted to the bar in 1870, in the twenty-second year of his age.
   If his better genius should not fail him, all his past successes indicated early achievements in the future. Soon thereafter he graduated as a preemptor and farmer, and became a representative in the Nebraska legislature; was chairman of the state delegation in the Republican National Convention at Cincinnati in 1876; and in the same year again elected to the legislature and made speaker of the house of representatives, while still under thirty years of age. With the dawn of 1883, in the thirty-fifth year of his age, he had added to his other triumphs and services, four years in the gubernatorial chair of his adopted state, and was retiring to private life respected for manly virtues and official integrity.
   The inaugural address of Governor Nance gave the population of the State in 1881 as over 400,000, with not more than one-tenth of its area under cultivation, and only about one-third of the State populated.
   The Great American Desert had receded as settlement advanced, and he predicted that soon, as an agricultural State, Nebraska would have no superior, with a large amount of land devoted to grazing in the western part. The time was most auspicious, as good crops had been secured for several years and financially the people were exceptionally prosperous. He urged

the claims of agriculture and horticulture, of equitable laws as to interest and capital, and placed the moral and intellectual culture and protection of the people on an even higher plane than exemption from Indian and monopolistic domination. He made it a source of congratulation that a high standard of instruction had been attained in the schools, with an endowment of near $20,000,000. Four years thereafter, at the expiration of his second term of two years each, his statement of progress was very cheering.
   On the third of January, 1883, Governor Nance delivered his last message to the legislature, with the following introduction:

   Having given the treasury balance as $343,018 at the end of his first term, it was now, in 1883, $472,114. Inasmuch as $92,984 were due the State as interest and rentals, on sales and leases of school lands, he recommended that school land contracts be cancelled (sic) in cases of default, believing that persons had been holding these lands for speculative purposes. On schools he said:

   The friends of the University were congratulated that distracting questions were beng (sic) settled in indication of enlarged usefulness and prosperity. His previous message gave the normal school 275 students while the one of 1883 reported 318. The state library numbered 21,487 volumes. The attendance upon the institute for the deaf and dumb, during his administration had increased from seventy-five to one hundred and twenty, at an expense per capita of $3.29 for maintenance per week. The patronage of the institute for the blind remained about stationary, and at a cost of $5.33 per person per week. There had been no special increase in the number of penitentiary convicts and the number of deaths annually, there being but one during his incumbency. Under the fostering care of Governor Nance's administration the Reformatory came into existence and had received thirty-seven inmates. On retiring he said in its behalf:

   The Home for the Friendless also dates back to 1881:

   Conceding the great advantages to the State, by virtue of the stimulus imparted to settlement and traffic by railroad construction, the governor gave prompt consideration to the comparatively new question of legislative control:

   After giving information relative to many items of business and enforcing many duties upon the legislators, Governor Nance came to his final conclusion:

   During the summer and fall of 1882 an active canvass of the State was made in behalf of the "rights of suffrage," an amendment to the constitution being submitted to extend the right irrespective of sex. The discussion which followed the passage of the amendment was participated in by most of the distinguished orators of the United States, such as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mrs. Sewell, Mrs. Hinman, and numerous others. As early as 1856, by invitation of members, that pioneer worker, Mrs. Amelia Bloomer of Iowa, presented the cause before the legislature of Nebraska. The rejection of the amendment by the vote of 1882 argues nothing against the willingness of the people to keep step with the onward march of progress. All preliminary acts have been passed and heartily approved by them, and although they declined a place at the head of the column, they will finally occupy it. Already they have made woman the equal Of man in the marriage contract and the divorce court, in trade and transferring and holding property, in the collection of wages, and the right to bring suit at law, whether married or single, and in the professions and trades, and clerical positions, limited only by ability, inclination, and taste. On the assumption that they who are specially interested in a subject shall be allowed to discuss and control it, they have provided for women's votes in school meetings. Presently old-fogyism, prejudice, and ignorance, will cease to control, and the honestly conservative will decide that the rights of women to influence through the ballot should be conceded in county and state. The vote in behalf of the amendment was 25,756 and against it, 50,693. The manufacturers of spirituous liquors, the

retailers, and many of the drinkers, were a united phalanx against it, on the ground that the ballot of women would be directed against the traffic and in behalf of sobriety, pure morals, and better government.
   As the high license or Slocumb liquor law was approved and signed by Governor Nance, it seems appropriate that the events preceding it should be recorded among the results of his administration, During the early administration of the Territory, Nebraska could claim a devoted band of temperance workers. But while a large element of the population consisted of single men and families holding only temporary residences, with recent immigrants from lands unacquainted with restrictive or prohibitory legislation, even a reform in a license system was difficult of accomplishment. So early as 1861, an act was passed to amend one of. 1858 requiring "an applicant for license to pay for the use of the school fund not less than $15.00 nor more than $200.00 at the discretion of the county commissioners." As the population became more settled and homogeneous, permanent associations were established. Delegates from thirteen local lodges organized the "Good Templars" in 1867, and in 1881 the local bodies numbered 113 with a membership of 5,000. The organization of the Temple of Honor and the Red Ribbon Clubs date back to 1877. This revival of interest, much accelerated by the splendid services of John B. Much, antedated the failure to pass a prohibition bill in 1879. In 1881 the legislature, declining to pass a proposition for an amendment of the state constitution in favor of prohibition, did finally enact what was known as the "Slocumb Law," in honor of its originator, Hon. C. B. Slocumb of Jefferson county, which was approved by Governor Nance February, 1881. In order to secure some semblance of prohibition, the law made it a penal offense to sell or give away intoxicating liquors in any precinct or township where thirty freehold petitioners could not be found; and in any case made it discretionary with county boards to decide the expediency of granting license. A prohibition county could thus elect a board to carry out their will. It prohibited utterly the sale to "minors, appren-

tices or servants under twenty-one years of age; and to Indians, insane persons and idiots and habitual drunkards." The same principle was applied to the protection of about fifty-five days in the year, on Sundays and election days. The advocates of reform had contended, that the support of paupers, criminals, insane, and poor and the robbery of wives and children and community were largely due to the traffic in liquors and should not be borne by the unoffending and helpless, through public taxes and social charities. This proposition was conceded by provisions, that the retailer should pay all damages resulting to the community or individuals, and support all paupers, widows and orphans made so by the traffic; and pay for all civil and criminal prosecutions growing out of it.
   The amount of license was to be not less than $500 nor more than $1,000, and a bond in a penalty of $5,000 was to be given, with which to defray legal damages and costs. It was made a crime to treat or give away liquors to be drunk in any saloon or place where they were sold, or to obstruct the view of doors or windows with screens, paint, blinds, or other articles. This law, under which the traffic was to live, if it existed at all, was the most fearful commentary on its infamy ever published, and was only accepted by the craft as more desirable for them than legislative prohibition. But the almost utter impossibility of putting its provisions in practice, and the interested protection extended the saloon by unscrupulous, politicians, and the paralysis of morals from replenished school treasuries, caused the friends of temperance to desire another effort at legislative prohibition. In 1885, an act passed the legislature, providing that after the first of January, 1886, "No certificate shall be granted to any person to teach in the public schools of the state of Nebraska, who has not passed a satisfactory examination in physiology and hygiene, with special reference to the effects of alcohol upon the human system." This was considered a valuable acquisition to reform literature. All necessary preliminaries having been arranged, a prohibitory amendment proposition was voted upon in November, 1890, but failed to receive a majority endorsement.

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