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.
