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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 26, 1899)
10 Che Conservative. The pulpit for- A NKIIIIA.SKA 111 o r 13 * filled by rilKACIIKIt. Henry W a r cl Bcechur at Plymouth church is now oc cupied by the Rev. Newell Dwight Hil- lis , who is n product of Pawnee county , Nebraska. Prom the Christian Herald and Signs of Our Times , dated January 18 , THE CONSERVATIVE clips the follow ing : "Dr. Hillis is of Puritan ancestry. His father , before moving to Iowa , was deacon in the church of Lyman Beecher , father of Plymouth's famous pastor. Newell was born in Iowa , Sept. 2 , 1858. Subsequently his father went to Ne braska , where Newell received a com mon school education and worked on his father's farm. At the age of seven teen ho was drawn into the missionary field , and worked energetically for three years , during 1878-79-80 , under the di rection of the American Sunday School Union , building up churches and Sun day schools. He was the general mis sionary of the Union in southwestern Nebraska. As the result of his labors in that capacity , many Sunday schools were founded , and a number of churches have sprung up. Even in those early days , he gave evidence of marked abil ity as a preacher , and people came from long distances to attend his services. During his summer vacations , he went to Wyoming and did excellent mission ary work among the miners. "His first call to the ministry came after he had concluded his theological studies at McCormick seminary in 1884 , and was from the First Presbyterian church of Peoria , 111. There ho con ducted a most successful pastorate and built a largo church. His next charge was at Evanston , where another hand some and commodious church edifice had to be built to accommodate the crowds who flocked to hear him. While there lie received a call to Chicago to succeed Prof. David Swing. His services are held in Central Music Hall , Chicago , where ho attracts oven larger congrega tions than his predecessor. The congre gation is very wealthy , and their pas tor's salary is a princely one. Central church holds but one service a week , and its membership is so widely distri buted that pastoral work is impracti cable. " IUVKKSJTV OF 1'KOWUCTS IN NK- lillASKA. Nebraska is noted the country over for its rich and increasing variety of production from the farm. Agriculture , horticulture , timber-culture , in great diversity , constitute the strength of the young commonwealth in material , in dustrial and commercial resources. In all these respects , from having been con demned by a great and damaging pub lic opinion for many years as being in capable of successful occupation and settlement for absolute lack of 'such re sources , it has grown by gradual discov ery and demonstration to take a front rank among the richest of the distinc tively agricultural states of the union. It is not merely full of fecundity as a corn producing state. That the yellow staple is the chief corner-stone of its power to enrich the homes of the intelli gent , industrious and thrifty with every thing that conduces to the moral and material happiness and comfort of man , is admitted , but it has a broader strength which consists in a wide range of diver sity in its capacity to produce , in great abundance , all the important staples of the temperate /one. And it is in this bounty in variety of farm products which enables men who cultivate the soils of Nebraska to find the next thing to certainty of fair re turns for their labor , if they will but take advantage of it by a constant di versification of the crops. Winter wheat has recently been added to the long list of others upon which our people ple previously relied. By alternating this crop with corn , and others , it seems a reliable statement from experience to say that land will bo the better for the change , and that the farmer can scarcely fail , in any season , of fair re turns. One crop failing , ho will almost certainly be safeguarded by fair success with the others. With regard to science of book-keeping , a s taught in the public schools , it may bo said , that , whether it does good or not , it can do little harm. But there are two related arts which receive rather too lit tle attention. The children should bo taught that any books which they may design to keep should be kept as clean as possible , and they should be given some instruction in the gentle art of returning books , which is of no less importance than that of keeping them. It is per haps not too much to say that many children have never seen a clean book in their lives ; they get them already dirty from former users , and pass thorn on as much dirtier as they can well contrive , to the next. Each teacher should keep a reasonably sanitary book somewhere , and ( after learning some other method herself ) instruct her pupils how to turn over its pages otherwise than by the ve hicle of a wetted thumb ; telling them many pretty stories , which she can readily invent to suit her circumstances , of authentic cases of nostalgia , appendi citis , strabismus , talipes and other de vastating pestilences , directly traceable to that abominable practice. The returning of books is a matter which concerns grown people rather than children. Fortunately , there are more determined lenders of books than there are hardened borrowers ; and it is sometimes held that a man who insists oil lending you a book , has only himself to blame if you drop it in the first alley. This , however , is needless cruelty. If you have a friend who is addicted to this vice you should , while being firm with him , practise the utmost tact and con sideration in dealing with him. It would be well if you could send him , anonymously , on his birthday , an illu minated motto reciting that "A man can lend more books in five minutes than ho can recover in six months. " But when he has once fairly run you down , you should in every case cany the book all the way homo ; then you should immediately enfold it in several thick nesses of clean paper , and tie it firmly with a stout cord. You should then keep it in plain sight for a period vary ing from two days to a week , according to the number of pages ; and at the end of that time , carefully unwrap it and return it to its owner , with suitable ex pressions of appreciation and gratitude to him. Or if ho is a lady , it is proper to open the book in half a do/en places and write "How true" on the margin. The reason Cuba is so woefully poor as to require downright charity is very evident ; her commerce has been cut down by her wars to one-twentieth of what it should normally have been. The French poets have a king , whom they elect by ballot ; their king has just died , and they have chosen a now one , named Dierx. Do they vote in verse ? If so , how did they make Dierx rhyme ? The students at the State University have a fine opportunity at Lincoln to be hold the kind of character , ability and acquirements which constitute a modern law-giver a nineteenth century Moses. Arizona alfalfa is very pretty and strong in stock and leaf. Wo received a few days since a beautiful specimen of the same by mail , from Mr. Nathaniel Adams , who is passing the winter in that ardent territory. It has been suggested as a bit of prac tical economy that any member of the legislature who , upon examination , is found unable to correctly draft a statute for the prevention of cruelty to animals shall receive no pay. The unconverted and the unvaccinated - nated are not yearned for equally by the congregations of this immediate vicinity. The unconverted are more acceptable in Christian assemblages throughout the whole United States , at this time , than the foolish iinvaccinated. An act repealing the inoperative and unenforceable laws of Nebraska ought to be prepared and passed during the present session of the legislature. There can bo little respect for laws in general when there are so many dead laws on the records of Nebraska legislation.