The Conservative *
K is a ftllO lot Of
l.
SAXONS. Anglo-Saxons that
have been mauling
Spanish ships to pieces this summer ,
under the flag of the United States.
Evans is a Welsh name , Schley pure
German. Taylor and Clark cnmo to
England with the Normans in the XII
century , and Dewey probably as well.
Philip is Greek and Sampson more or
less Hebrew ; both monuments to the
curious time when our forefathers had
no faith in themselves , but thought that
nothing could be of any account which
did not come from Greece , Rome or
Jerusalem. Wainwright the wagon-
maker is the only Anglo-Saxon name
in the group.
We have received copies of J. Sterling
Morton's paper , THE CONSERVATIVE. It
is needless to say that it is ably edited.
Considerable space is devoted to old times
in Nebraska. No one is better fitted to
write of the events of early days in Ne-
hrr. ka than is J. Sterling Morton.
Nebraska Advertiser.
We are in receipt of the first two
issues of J. Sterling Morton's new pa
per , Tun CONSERVATIVE. Should de
mocracy follow its advice , that party
would miss many a pitfall in the troub
lous times ahead of it. THE CONSER
VATIVE would amply fill the mission of
a balance wheel to the isms which the
pops would tack to democracy. As a
republican , our estimate of the new
venture would bo that it is a sterling
democratic sheet without populistic
frills. Culbertson Era.
The first number of THE CONSERVA
TIVE , a weekly edited by J. Sterling
Morton at Nebraska City , reached our
table last week. * * * # *
The writer has bpen privileged to have
a limited acquaintance extending over
twenty-five years with , T. Sterling Mor
ton , who is one of Nebraska's most
early pioneers. He served in many
honorable and responsible positions ,
from Secretary of State or Territory ,
back in the fifties to a member of Presi
dent Cleveland's cabinet as Secretary ot
Agriculture. Mr. Morton has lived all
these years on his farm , known as
"Arbor Lodge , " near Nebraska City.
He is the father of Arbor Day , which
has given us the name of the "Tree
Planters' State. " Mr. Morton was endowed
dewed with a rare literary talent thai
has been used by him either through his
pen or from the rostrum largely to the
advantage of the people of his state
We have heard him 011 the political
stump and on the literary and scientific
platform , and on Nebraska early history
and always contributed to our pleasun
and edification. We believe that Tin
CONSERVATIVE , just launched by Mi-
Morton , will fill a niche in Nebraska's
newspaper field , covering a long-fol
want , a conveyor of matxiro , intolligon
thought based on practical experience
shorn of demagogy and political bias.
Wo may honestly differ with THE CON
SERVATIVE on some features of national
policies , but it will always bo with the
utmost respect for the views of its able
editor. Burt County Herald.
CURRENT COMMENT ,
i >
v57 ©
Blsmnrck mid William II.
The now book of memoirs of Bis
marck by Dr. Moritz Busch is like an
other volume of an autobiography , fol
lowing two predecessors. After reading
it one is tempted to doubt whether Bis-
nnu'ck really left anything moro to bo
published in the way of personal reve
lations. Ho scorns to have looked on Dr.
Buhch as his literary executor and Bos-
well , for he certainly emptied his heart
and memory into the voracious diary of
this servile and faithful expositor , who
had that first requisite of a biographer ,
boundless admiration of his subject
Bismarck needed such a confidant in his
brutal and garrulous cynicism , knowing
that the world would thus get his views
pretty much as he thought them , with
out the immediate responsibility of pub
lication over his own name. It is not
for the purpose of reviewing the book ,
but to call attention to a certain Bis-
marckian phase that the present com
ment is written. This is the great em
pire builder's relation to his sovereign ,
William 1. It seems that he gloried iji
his career as the "alter ( majorque )
ego" of Prussian king and German
kaiser , yet running all through his ex
pressiou of affection and devotion to
ward William there is a tone of con
tempt which sometimes readies the
verge of scornful mirth. There was
something fierce and hard in the arm
gance of the great chancellor , oven in
reference to one for whom he had the
most sincere affection , and who lay un
der such a burden of obligation to him
William I was a ruler of uoblo dis
position , but narrow minded , obstinate
and conscientious to such a painful de
gree that his industry and alertness im
pelled undue supervision of detail. He
did not know how to leave responsibil
ity where ho had placed it. Bred iu the
old days of absolutism , he expected un
compromising obedience , though this
haughty will was often the iusilions
voice of the chancellor , crafty as ho
was resolute , speaking through the im
perial mask , the living mask uncon
scious that it was only a "vox ot pra >
terea uihil. " Bismarck indeed knew
how to play ou this difficult instrument
with infinite skill , yet at times wo
loam from Dr. Busch thnt it tested all
of the mentor's nerve and audacity to
manage William. The uncomplimentary
expressions which sometimes fall from
Bismarck's talk iu reference to Wil
liam's intelligence are as blunt as if
they wore spoken of one of his own
crooms. The ruler hud sometimes to bo
pitched into a policy , as it were , by the
"scruff of his neck , " only to fool grate
ful afterward for his minister's audac
ity. The episode of the doctored dis
patch from Ems , which precipitated the
Franco-German war , whereas the text
of that dispatch as William wrote it
would probably have averted the war ,
is only one of many coups similar in
character. Bismarck wns wont to do-
soribo himself as his sovereign's "soul
doctor , " according to Dr. Busch. Thu
relation wns n peculiar one. With all
his personal reverence 1'or his king nnd
emperor , into which genuine affection
entered as well , the greut chancellor
scarcely concealed n sentiment of con
tempt for bis master. Yet ho know that
only with such a king on the ohess-
board could ho have played his great
game in European politics in his pecul
iar fashion. Bismarck was fortunate in
having just such a master , oven as Wil
liam was lucky in a minister so su
premely dexterous and unscrupulous in
adapting means to nil end.
There is BO much which is tragic and
revolting in the various manifestations
of the Dreyfus case that it is a gcnuino
relief to find a ludicrous phase associat
ed with it. This smile gets its wrinkle
in the antic performance of the young
Bourbon pretender , Philippe , Duo d'Or-
leans , whose main recommendation is
that he was the sou of that very sensi
ble and decent fellow , as princes go , the
Comto do Paris. This young gentle
man has been shrieking in the van of
the anti-Dreyfus mob and accusing the
French ministry of everything short of
high treason in admitting a revision of
proceedings. Plis princely heart , all
quivering with patriotic fire , burst out
as follows :
Frenchmen , we are masters In our own
country. Your servants , subject to occult
and peink-lous power , presume to impose
upon you the will to which they submit
under pretext of proving the Innocence of
u man whom the military tilbunals have
condemned as a traitor. It Is the army
they aie trying to destioy and France they
are stiivlng to ruin.
Frenchmen , we will not allow it !
How reckless Paris , nlwnys ready to
be amused even at death and disgrace ,
always keenly susceptible of a joke ,
muht have guffawed at the sonorous
sound of the royal "we" and made
faces at the great-great-grandson of that
arch scoundrel among princely rene
gades , Philip Li. Egalite.
The eminently respectable citizen of
New Jersey , Mr. Van Hise , who sus
pends its criminals at call , shakes his
head with dissent at a proposition to go
to South America as oxeoutioner on a
big Hilary. He has his eye bent in fa
therly affection on certain persons now
in the Jersey prisons , it seems , and he
cannot tear himself away from his na
tive laud , according to an enthusiastic
reporter , till he has soothed their pas
sage to another world with his effective
ministrations. It is n highly creditable
devotion to home industry.