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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 15, 1898)
. , f , JHlifrft . - / , Conservative 13 to the liiHt stop cannot bo oitocl in rccont uuuuls except perhaps the first part ol Moltko's cunipuign against the French The achievement was a great one , but its political consequences are likely tit bo greater. The only justification of war is that it sometimes opens the way for a more certain advance of civilization That has boon done by Kitchener Pasha The tenacious clutch of the self styled khalifa and his dervish hordes on the upper Sudan has been for many years the impassable barrier , across whose /ouo there was no passage north or south. Now the march of progress is opened to the great African lakes , and the dream of that empire builder , Cecil Rhodes , has become practicable. The newly cemented friendship between Germany and England makes the ad vent of railway and telegraph across the eastern middle belt an assured thing , and the opposition by the Portuguese in the Zambezi region can bo brushed away without trouble. The connection between tween South Africa and Egypt by steam and electricity has made a giant stride in the success of Kitchener Pasha , and the next score of years will probably see through travel between Capo Town and Alexandria. Political obstacles removed ed , the physical obstructions to bo over come are not to be compared with those conquered by the engineers of the Si berian railroad. The dramatic feature of the great victory atOmdurmau flows out of its association with the lamented Gordon , who full pierced iu Khartun by a dozen lances 14 years ago this mouth. Its true significance is that it has demolished the last absolute barrier in the march of civilization on the dark continent. Nurses at the sick beds of dying sol diers relate the same story full of the deepest pathos of human nature. In their dying delirium it is not the eweot heart whose name is called , but "moth er , mother , mother. " To enjoy reading is a perpeUml in surance against being bored. This is because wo have such a wide variety of friends to ohooso from. One can always drop an intellectual acquaintance with out giving offense. In spite of the dominance of steam a the motive power of ships , the sailing vessel is still an important factor in commerce. This has como abou through the value of labor saving in volitions which enable one man to d the effective work of two. Some of th crews iu these big ships , which reach occasionally 4,000 tons burden , are not numerous enough to form more than two watches , yet they are not as help less iu nasty weather as the bigger crews of an early period. They.are fit ted with a great multiplicity of skillful d * 'ieea , the more important among thorn buing automatic methods of furl- mg and unfurling sails , reeling , hoist ing the anchor , steering , handling the canvas and sheet ropes in all exigencies likely to befall , and loading and unloading cargoes. For the most part built of steel and of great beauty of model , many of these ocean carriers look like exaggerated yachts. They sail with extraordinary speed and offer oven more comfort to the crows than the steamships. The largest will spread 10,000 yards of canvas to a fair breeze. The day of the sailing ship is not yet numbered. It is said that some of the Now York merchants who promised clerks who enlisted - listed their positions when the war should be over now retract their pledges. The ground taken is that they meant the tirno to moan the actual fighting , not the detention in northern camps waiting for discharge. Do these patriot ic traffickers of their own honor expect their old clerks to desert ? The National Irrigation congress , which recently mot at Ohoyonuo , dis cussed many important problems in volved in the subject matter of its pur pose with its usual zeal and knowledge. The facts that the region needing irri gation makes a body of laud roughly aggregating 1,800,000 square miles ; that this laud , which can bo made im mensely fertile by water , mostly belongs to government , and that most of the I naturally desirable farming laud is al ready taken up lifts this public ques tion to immense importance. Plow the irrigation problem can be successfully solved , however , is a baffling crux , just as it is iu the Mississippi river question. There are immense difficulties in the way. If it were possible to use the sur plus volume of the Mississippi flood to irrigate the western deserts , it would happily kill two birds with one stone Louisiana and Arizona would congratu late each other with true southwestern forvor. The merest trifle sometimes is the secret of great results or of the absence of them. Pascal wisely said that if Cleopatra's nose had boon shorter the face of the whole world would have boon changed. Throe men have boon mistaken for deer and shot in the Adirondack this year. But then the deer season has bare ly opened. It will show a bettor bag by the end of October. There was a certain republican sim plicity amid all the splendor of Queen Wilhomina's coronation which gave its pomp an added dignity Salt as well as sugar wout to the making of the cere- niouial. Habitunl gravity of demeanor is a stratagem to conceal poverty of mind. The most highly gifted uaturos are streaked with gayety as quartz with gold. TIMELY ANNIVERSARIES , Koine Current Selections From His tory's llroad Pnge. September 1C. 1500-Philip of AiiHtriu , father of Charles V , died. 1770 Now York city captured by the British. At the beginning of the war the British hold the harbor , nnd in August , 1775 , the forts at the lower end of the city wcro evacuated. The disastrous hattlo of Long Island lost the city to the patriots. 1780 James Fcnhnoro Cooper born at Burling ton , N. J. ; died 1851. 18130 Opening of the Liverpool and Manchester railway , the first in England. Forflriu Diaz , Mexican Holdior , statesman and pres ident , horn in Ouxucu. 1862 Surrondci of Harper's Perry and death of the commander , ColonelDixon H. Miles ; the most important Union hurrcndcr of the war. September 10. 1780 Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit , noted for thermometers , died in Amsterdam ; Lorn 1080. 1812 Moscow set on lire Ly the Russian gov ernor ; over 30,000 buildings destroyed ; Ions , $150,000,000. The lire lasted many days. Napoleon's soldiers vainly attempted to suppress the Humes. The French begun to leave Oct. 10 , on that march which de stroyed them faster than great battles. This disaster is considered the beginning of tl.o end for Napoleon. His army never recovered from it. 1804 Captain John Banning Spcko , the famous African oxplorcr , accidentally killed by the discharge of his fowling piece while hunt ing at Noslon park , England. 1800 The palace of the Alhuinbrn , in Granada , Spain , damaged by lire to the extent of $250,000. 1893-0,000,000 acres opened to settlers in the Cherokee strip. September 17. 1575 Henry Bullingor , Swiss reformer , died at Zurich. 1748 Jean Antoine , marquis do Condorcct , mathemati cian and friend of Benja min Franklin , was born in Pieurdy ; died by poison , self administered , while imprisoned by Robo- spiorro , 1701. 1783 Samuel Prout , famous I.ANDOH. painter in water colors , died in London. 1802 Battle of Antiotam , the bloodiest single day's battle over fought on American soil. As a result the Confederates abandoned the invasion of the north and retired to Vir ginia , and out of gratitude for the victory Lincoln made his proclamation of cmnnoi- pation. The struggle was between the Army of Northern Virginia , xinder Leo , and the Army of the Potomac , under McClollan. 1804 Walter Savage Lander , scholar and poet , died at Florence ; born 1775. 1371 Mom Cenis tunnel opened. Remarkable naval battle in the Yalu river between Chinese nnd Japanese. The Jap- uneso forced the lighting. Their llcot num bered more ships than that of the Chinese , nnd they were swifter and carried more rapid llro gunn. The Chinese had heavier battleships than their enemy and heavier gun . The contest llnally narrowed down to a desperate struggle between two Chi nese battleships and live Japanese vessels. It ended in a draw , although the Chinese rut i cat ml. September 18. 1402 Columbus , 400 leagues west of the Ca naries nnd moving rapidly before a breeze , noted the great purity of the air. 1507 Founding of St. Augustine , Flu. , the old est town in the United States. 1772 The first partition of Poland , Russia tak ing 4,157 square miles , Austria 1,800 nnd Prussia 1,0(30 ( ; in 1703-5 they took the rest. 1703 George Washington laid the cornerstone 'of the original capital nt Washington ; com pleted 1801. 1873 Financial crash In Now York ; beginning of great pnnio and five years of "hard times. " . . -WAKE IT