I
the Conservative. 3 ii i i
L-
8 < ? . , - .
aid in opening up n now country to civ
ilization.
But as Galton wisely suggests"servil
ity has its romantic side , in the utter
devotion of a slave to the slightest
wishes and the smallest comforts of his
master , and in that of a loyal subject to
his sovereign ; but such devotion can not
be called a reasonable self-sacrifice ; it is
rather an abnegation of the trust im
posed on man to use his best judgment ,
and to act in the way ho thinks wisest.
Trust in authority is a trait of the char
acter of children , of weakly women , and
of the sick and infirm , bxit it is out of
place among members of a thriving , res
elute community during the fifty or
more years of their middle life.
"Those who have been born in a free
country feel the atmosphere of a pater
nal government very oppressive.
"The hearty and earnest political and
individual life which is found when
every man has a continued sense of
public responsibility and knows that
success depends on his own right judg
ment and exertion , is replaced under a
despotism by an indolent reliance upon
what its master may direct , and by a
demoralizing conviction that personal
advancement is best secured by solicita
tions and favor. "
But the despotism of a majority in a
republic may become more exacting
and unreasoning than that of a monarch
in his kingdom ! If the autocrat bo ed
ucated and intelligent and the majority
are ignorant and brutal who can choose
the latter as the safest or best govern
ment ? And what' modern monarch in
Europe can more thoroughly impress
his subjects "that personal advance
ment is best secured by solicitations and
favor" than a purely partisan adminis
tration of a republic ? What European
potentate can evoke from his subject
more "indolent reliance" upon the
crown , and its partiality in the distribu
tion of political places and favors , than
an intensely partisan president , with a
personal cabinet and administration , can
inspire among citizens of the United
States by the appointment of incompe
tents to military and civic positions of
honor and responsibility ? And how can
the American republic be perpetuated
except by carefully and intelligently
breeding a race of thoughtful , self-
reliant and self-denying citizens who
shall recognize that there are duties as
well as privileges for every thoroughbred
American.
And if the law of heredity , laid down
and maintained by Sir Francis Galton ,
that "the offspring inherits , on the aver
age , one-half from his parents , one-
fourth from his grand-parents , and the
rest from all his other ancestors , " be
correct , how long may it be , by a ra
tional investigation and observance of
this law , before the United States shall
have bred a race of men and women
who , with proper environments in
youth , shall bo capable in adult , middle
:
and old age of efficiently aiding the
maintenance and administration of our
present republican form of govern
ment ?
What further advance , physical or
intellectual , can humanity make , either
under this or any other form of govern
ment , without a more universal obed
ience to the law of heredity ?
The Republic needs some thorough
bred American citizenship.
ANOIKNT TRKKH. .
press at Somma ,
between Lake Maggioro and Milan ,
which has the reputation of being coeval
with the Christian era , and , to avoid
destroying this venerable tree , Napoleon
being more careful of vegetable life
than of human caused a road which he
was making to deviate from its straight
course. This cypress is about twenty-
three feet in girth , but the average
jrowth of a cypress is estimated as about
two feet of girth in a century , though
even this is a matter of great uncer
tainty. It is , therefore , quite impossible
to say from the size of the tree whether
its planting took place in the time of
Christ or later , though there can be no
doubt of the tree's great antiquity.
Traditions are of course far more fallible
than the condition of a tree itself ; and
yet it is very difficult not to yield to the
seductive voice of legend. One is very
liable to accept the pleasing supposition
that the aged olives in the garden of
Gethsemane are the same trees that wit
nessed the Savior's passion ; and few
travellers can resist the temptation to
connect the cedars on Lebanon with di
rect Biblical times. An American trav
eller , speaking of the Gethsemane olives ,
' ' of barked and
says'One these.tho largest
scarified by the knives of pilgrims , is
reverenced as the identical tree under
which Christ was betrayed ; and its
enormous roots , growing high out of
the earth , could induce a belief of al
most any degree of antiquity. " But
even could the trees have lived so long ,
it is certain that the knives of pilgrims ,
here referred to , would have destroyed
or removed them long ago ; neither is it
considered likely , by those who may bo
called experts , that the present cedars of
Libanus reach a greater ago than eight
or nine centuries.
Another tree that reaches a great ago ,
but an age that is very difficult to prove ,
is the Spanish chestnut. The difficulties
in this case are increased by the fact
that some of the largest chestnuts known
often prove to be a growing together of
several different stems , which accounts
for the enormous bulk and the appear
ance of vast antiquity. The celebrated
Tortworth chestnut , which lays claim to
be the oldest tree in Britain , is probably
an instance of this growing together.
Though now a mere fragment , it is as
serted to have attained a girth of fifty-
seven feet , which measurement has been
far surpossed.by chestnuts on the conti
nent. It is stated that King John held f-
a parliament under this tree a tradition
which reminds us that forests and groves
were over the world's earliest parliament ; t' > '
houses , and that Celt and Teuton alike
, (
held their assemblages under the trees
or on breezy hillsides. The largest
chestnut in the world is the Castagno di
cento cavalli , in the forest of Carpinetto
on the slopes of Mount Etna. Its girth
is ICO feet , and a lain for drying chest
nuts has been constructed in its hollow
trunk. Judging not only by its bulk ,
but by its rings , the age of this gigantic
tree has been estimated at from 8,000 to
4,000 years , which takes us back into
times that are almost mythical. If such
an ago bo possible , the tree atTortworth
is modest in claiming only some eight or
nine centuries ; but it is tolerably certain
that the tree on Etna is not one , but
four or five different trees associated to
gether like one. This must materially
affect any considerations of its age , as
also in the case of the famed Glouces
tershire chestnut. The soil of Etna
would also prove specially favorable to
vast growth.
When wo come to the oak , our favor
ite British tree , we find the same diffi
culty in accurately estimating antiquity.
It is certain that size is not an infallible
criterion. Tradition has been particu
larly busy with the oaks of our wood
lands , in attributing to them ages which
appear fabulous. The Cowthrope oak
is said to be the largest in England ; but
it need not therefore be the oldest.
Pliny told some remarkable tales of the
antiquity of the Quercus ilex , which wo
know in Britain as the Helm oak , but it
would seem that Pliny was sometimes
either given to romancing or to great
credulity. In the second century of the
Christian era there was said to bo exist
ing in Greece a plane tree that had act
ually been planted by Menelaus , which
is much as if wo were to assert that a
certain oak had been planted by Merlin
the wizard or by King Arthur. London
Standard.
The farmers , in
BEFORE THE
fche Missouri valley
CRIME OF73.fche -
ley when they
borrowed money , between the years
1854 and 1872 , on a farm mortgage paid Jf
invariably as much as twelve to * " .
eighteen per cent interest and somev
times as much as forty per cent per * " ;
annum. But in this issue of THE CON
SERVATIVE money to loan at six per cent
per annum on farm mortgages is advertised - . . .
tised and anxious to bo employed. How ,
the "appreciating" dollar , the insatiate " ; > '
"gold standard" and "plutocracy" dot' .
crush , pulverize and annihilate the4
"plain people ! " ) , ' , '
In the ' 50's forty per cent , and in the- " " * '
' $ * .
'GO's twelve to eighteen per cent and in ' , ' \
the ' 70's ten to twelve per cent and1"
in 1898 six per cent for money loaned on
Nebraska farms 1 . . . .
n * " i t *
