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VAMJKSKAHT All odyprtiBO-
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AND WEST. aP-
pen rod in The
Boston Herald of September 24 , 1898 ,
would seem to disprove the statement
of the Western c'lilnmity howlers that
farm lands in the East are valued higher
than Western farm lands. Here is a
sample of the high-priced , plutocratic
farm land of Massachusetts :
"Old age , feeble health and loss of
wife forces sale of 110-acre farm , 8 miles
to one of the leading cities of central
Massachusetts , accessible to Boston ,
everything included , 2 cows , horse , 2
hogs , vehicles , harnesses , farming tools ,
crops , hay , 2 years' supply of cut wood ,
carpets , beds , chairs , tables , crockery ,
sewing machine , personal property in
lirst-class shape , possession given in 48
hours , 25 acres of mowing and tillage ,
keeps 8 cows and team , balance pasture
and woodland , 200 barrels of apples
some seasons , cranberries , 8-room house ,
painted and blinded , carriage house
connected , well shaded , neat as wax ,
almost new barn , # 8x50 , clapboarded
and painted , cupola , cellar under whole ,
shop 12x18 , henhouse , with yards , milk
conies to Boston , 1 mile to churches ,
station , stores , etc. , $2,000 , $1000 down ,
balance at 5 percent. ; see photo at office.
P. F. LHLAND , 118 Devonshire st.
In the last iium-
K bcr of the THE
CONSERVATIVE ,
comment was made on Mr. Kipling's
having elected to display the death's-
head at Queen Victoria's jubilee feast ,
and to predict , in the only literary mon
ument of the occasion worthy of being
read twice , the downfall of her empire.
It would have occurred to the chief
speaker of no other people , perhaps , to
look on the dark side on so remarkable
an occasion ; and it is a curious subject
of speculation , whether it is not char
acteristic of us as a race to take just
this gloomy view of the end of things ,
whore other men would be rejoicing in
the sunshine of today.
We would like to call attention to the
manifestations of this spirit in the most
conspicuous remains which have come
down to us of our forefather's ideas.
The mythology of our Scandinavian
ancestors had the usual run of gods and
goddesses ( only not so disreputable as
most ) , but was unique among all my
thologies in this ; that it foretold the
death of them all , telling how , on the
great day of Twilight , that should have
no morrow , they were to go out to
gether , knowing that they were to die ,
to battle with the Fenris-wolf and the
Midgard-serpent.
The early Germans had one epic poem ,
the Lay of the Nibelungs. In it the
cheerful element is withdrawn early in
the story , upon the deatli of the youth
ful hero , Sifrid ; but the poem continues ,
uninterrupted , until the last of its char
acters sinlts in murky and revengeful
slaughter after forty years.
In Great Britain proper , there have
been three great popular heroes told of
from one generation to another ; Fin ,
son of Cumhal , who was Irish ; King
Arthur , who was Welsh ; and Robin
Hood , who from his association with
vrchery would seem to have been a
eltic hero too. Possibly Satan , who
nid his highest development at Milton's
lands , may have been a fourth. At any
rate they all came to mournful ends.
En the Ossian poems , Fin and the heroes
are all long since dead , and the story is
told by a blind old bard , who weeps for
them all as he sings their deeds. At the
end of the Arthur legends the queen
and Lancelot are dead , the king con
veyed away with his mortal wound , no
one knows whither , and all the fellow
ship of the Round Table are likewise
dead or turned hermits , and no one is
left on the stage to promise that the
curtain will rise again. Tennyson , who
changed much of the story , loft the close
as he found it , only making the gloom if
anything more intense. And Robin
Hood dies in our sight , with only one
man of his powerful band by lihn , and
is buried "with a green sod under his
head and another at his feet , and his
bent bow by his side. "
Another peculiarity , very noticeable
in the Celtic heroes , is the disrespect
with which they are ordinarily handled.
Although the central figures of the
poems which treat of them , it is only in
great crises that their dignity shows
forth ; at other times they are contin
ually represented in unbecoming or
ridiculous attitudes. Fin is revengeful ,
but is always browbeaten out of his
revenge by the younger heroes ; he is al
ways getting into scrapes , from which
they have to extricate him. Arthur is
systematically deceived , and willingly ,
it would seem , on very tender points ;
and seldom appears in action throughout
the greater part of the story , only sit
ting up in the balcony and saying "O
mercy , Jesu , " as his knights win wor
ship on each other's persons in the tour
nament. And Robin Hood is constantly
getting lambasted with his own weapons
by passing strangers , so that John has to
come and help him away.
No other people is like that ; to ridi
cule our immortal heroes , and then to
kill them , that we may mourn for them ;
but that is the way we are made. As
our fathers thought so we think , and we
can't help ourselves.
OHKKIIINO WOJUDB. .
end .Tonkin
Lloyd Jones kindly cheers THE CONSER
VATIVE onward with the following char
acteristic language. Mr. Jones is such
an italicized individuality that he can
bo unlike everybody but himself ; and
ho is as earnest and as honest and as
altruistic as any toiler for the betterment
of mankind :
* * * "Now the last thing
I am doing before starting back for my
work is to look over again the pages of
TIIE CONSERVATIVE. The last letter I
shall dictate is to you to tell you how
creditable a venture it is ; that such a
paper as this should be started in what
was n half century ago marked the
Great American Desert is one of the
astounding things and if you can secure
a sustaining constituency , it will bo still
more astounding. I who have been an
editor for twenty years , know what it
means. The only comment that comes
to my mind as I turn over these pages ,
as I have many a time , is that it is too
good to live. I doubt if such an effort
could be sustained in Chicago. I hope
it can bo in Nebraska. I do not con
gratulate you , for your own labors and
your own rewards are obvious , but I
congratulate the people who are to re
ceive this weekly visitor. The hand
some typography of it is manifest , but
the balanced wisdom , the breadth of
sympathy , the radicalism that handles
this CONSERVATIVE challenge my ad
miration. Above all I admire the 'de
liberate patriotism , ' to use your own
phrase , which insists on the intellectual
element in our love of country and the
sustaining quality in our patriotism.
"I hope you will put The Now Unity
on your exchange list. As soon as I re
turn to the city I shall order it sent to
you. My work of editing will be light
ened with such an exchange upon my
table , for although I am suspected of
radicalism I find myself in close sym
pathy with the purpose and spirit of
your paper.
"Wishing a long life to THE CONSER
VATIVE and health and strength to you
who must shape and sustain it , and hop
ing for a better acquaintance , I am
Very fraternally yours ,
JENKIN LLOYD JONES. "
T h e interview
, between Dr. Geo.
KOOSEVKLT.
L. Miller of Om
aha and Colonel Roosevelt of the Rough
Riders , at Oyster Bay , on September 26 ,
wherein the former invited the latter to
attend the great exposition at Omaha ,
was distinguished by a most agreeable
interchange of courtesies between West
ern and Eastern representative men.
Doctor Miller exceeded himself in pre
senting the values of the lauds of
Nebraska and Colonel Roosevelt was
convinced that Nebraska real estate is
the best security in the world upon
which to loan money , the best soil to
till , and that Nebraska skies are the best
to live under.
The French newspapers have some
thing of a blue look in discussing the
Russian suggestion of international dis
armament. The French don't want to
disarm until they have got Alsace and
Lorraine back , and seem to think that
that day would bo further off than ever
if they were to disband their army.
The Matin says "satisfied nations may
beat their swords into plowshares , but
Franco is not satisfied. What with the
Germans in Alsace-Lorraine the
- , Eng
lish in Egypt , and the loss of French in
fluence in the East , we would be a
second-rate power if wo disarmed. "
But really , after 1898 , what position ,
above the second rate , will there bo for
any nation that does not speak English 1
Always allowing for "the Slav who has
done nothing yet. "