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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 1898)
Conservative. Bluff.s mid return , or to St. Marys ( in MDls conny ( ) and return , taking letters to mail and bringing back ( hose jfrom the old homes in the East. The result , therefore , of having placed confidence in those rude , unlettered savages , was the development in them of a self-reliance to do and perform in numerable services entirely unknown to them in a state of savagery. More than this , from the confidence thus reposed , there grew up , in addition to the sturdy self-reliance , the beautiful flower of Fidelity. Faithfulness is only readily evolved out of irnl tires fertilized by be stowed confidence. The unfortunates in human life those whom wo call criminals and paupers have , as a rule , never experienced generously reposed confideiice. How can any human nature improve itself , be stimulated ( o endeavor to attain a higher place in the social and political fabric , without being trusted by his fellows ? If any youth feels that he or she is distrusted by parents and friends , how can that youth have cour age to seize opportunity for advance ment , or have thd determined depen dence upon himself or herself to attempt high and honorable achievements ? ° f COUrS ° ' lh ° re KXCKITIOXS. will be isolated cases of intense individuality which obstacles and opposition render all the more strenuous and strong in their efforts for success. But these combative charac ters are not in the majority. They arc only a small percent of the uncounted myriads of humanity. It is consequently quently incumbent upon parents , and grandparents and teachers to instruct children and youth as to the best meth ods of commanding the confidence , esteem and encouragement of those by whom they are surrounded. Nothing is so facile and expert in making friends as frankness , open-hcartedness and fre quent acts which indicate a desire to be generally useful. Constant consider ation , expressed in deeds , for the com fort and happiness of those with whom you are associated will give you pro found pleasure ; it will also secure to you the esteem and good will of your ac quaintances. They will place trust in you. That makes you self-reliant. The more you help others the better you understand how able you are to help yourself. In these modern WEALTH A J11S- ern times it is rOUTUXE. the misfortune of children born' into opulence and all the circumstances of wealth and luxury which accompany it , that they are generally brought up and trained in helplessness. The child who is con stantly waited upon by servants , who.se meat and bread are prepared for it at the table , whose shoes and stockings are put on and oil' , and whose raiment is adjusted by serving people , is in immin ent peril of.entering upon maturer years an utterly helpless and therefore worth less member of society. Under the customs and fashions of these modern days of showy extrava gance it is a disaster to any human being , having only ordinary intellectual and moral tendencies , to bo born into wealth and its surroundings. It is vulgarly considered by many of the newly-rich quite improper and disgrace ful for their children to be useful or even to wait upon themselves. There is an idiotic contest among the incompe tent , ignorant and silly wealthy of the United States to sec in what extreme and accentuated idleness they can bring up their children. In the estima- suolbery absolute helplessness on the part of either a boy or a girl is a charming accomplish ment. Children of sur-h parentage and environments are far more to be pitied than those rugged and ragged youngsters who first saw daylight in the rude cabins and dugouts of the Nebraska frontier. Hero they had the stimulant of poverty which braces mankind to self-helpfulness and keys up to self- reliance and plucky indcpendenco. Poverty is a plain but practical teacher. It gives great lessons. It teaches the value of self-control and .self-denial. It writes on human life as on a slate the proverbs and rules for usefulness and happiness. The children born in Ne braska thirty and forty years ago very soon came to iinderstand that life was a battle. They speedily saw that each individuality must win because of its own disciplined strength and persistency or fail and lose because of its own weakness and piu-poselessncss. The rough asperities which surrounded the pioneer children of the territory and state impressively and sternly taught them-that they must , rely for fortune and fame entirely upon themselves. Their parents were obliged to impose burdens of labor upon them. Those burdens were larger and heavier than are imposed upon children of similiai age in the older and wealthier states. And so the pioneer childhood came to understand that a good home and its comforts where the family should be domiciled , necessarily meant self-denial on the par ! of the then dwellers in dug outs and cabins. They soon compre hended the fact that if parents did not deny themselves desired things , which they even scorned to really need , no fund could bo accumulated with which to buy schoolbooks , pay for the pre emption claim and build the hoped-for dwelling. All through those early years of the settlement of Nebraska every child and youth had the advantage of a primitive object lesson environment. It told in acts of self-control , solt'-dimial , self-relianco and solf-rcspect the des potic necessity of those virtues in the attainment of substantial and solid suc cess. The visible truth , thai every hu man home , every vast manufacturing plant , every grand railway system , all incorporated capital , represents self- reliance and self-denial on the part of some human being , or human beings , either in this , or some preceding gener ation , stands out an economic Gibraltar , against which the waves of declama tory socialism and communism roar in vain. The pioneers of Nebraska and their children stood on this great fund amental fact in sociology and from it very many climbed up to competence and the satisfying comforts of contented and refined homes. TWO KINDS. A new country j'lSKMANKNT attracts always ANJ > THANtwo kinds of ad- . . .SIKNT. venturers to come within its borders. Nebraska demon strated between the year 1854 , when Tan COXSEKVATIVE first contemplated life and the possibility of a permanent home on these prairies , and the year 1874 , the existence of two distinct classes of pioneers in staying qualities. The first class and the smallest in numbers came to make permanent homes and to become a part of the polit ical , financial and social fabric of a state. The second came to quickly make some money out of the frontier , and to return to the old homes in the East. This class was a majority over the first. It favored every artificial means of forc ing material development. It proposed and voted the evidences of public debt in the form of precinct , city and county bonds to private corporations. It was always ready to vote debts and obliga tions upon posterity. And being in a majority it created nearly all the inter est-bearing debts now owed by any part of Kansas or Nebraska. The transients made the debts. They led the populace ; they denounced all opposition as old fogy. The permanents , the solid home-builders who were so characterized are now paying the debts then created. When we settle in another new coun try wo shall straightway find out who come to remain and who come to spec ulate and return. Only those who make a declaration of a permanent homebuilding - building intention should manage the revenues and finances of any country , now or old. When political COMMON GOOD ? candidates to the people and solicit votes for them it is very pertinent to inquire as to the character , ability and work of each seeker after a place in the public service. But- how seldom is this reasonable inquiry made ! Hero in Ne braska wo have now , and have often had bo fore Congressmen who never did a day's work which resulted in any good to the