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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 9, 1899)
6 Conservative * The vnst variety DESICCATED OKATOUY. of conserved foods which nro cnnned nncl kept for use in American homes , hotels , nrmy cnmps , nncl on board men- of-war suggests the desiccation of elo quence. Warmed-over speeches , rich , juicy , luscious and swimming in the gravy of Bpellbinderism are among the luxuries of which the readers of THE CONSERVA TIVE are cordially invited to partake. At Lincoln , September 8 , 185)6 ) , Col onel Bryan exclaimed with vocal fervor : "Talk about trusts in various articles we produce ! My friends , all the trusts put together fall into insignificance when compared to the money trust. " There is a very piquant flavor to this intellectual edible. The fact that , with out dread of "the money power , " Col onel Bryan , at that date , had already begun to receive contributions of cash , with which to illustrate the value of "the money power" in steaming up and putting in motion , all possible machin ery for vote-getting , gives peculiar zest and spice to this taste of desiccated elo quence. And possibly the remembrance that the silver mine and bullion owners unselfishly chipped in a few hundred thousand dollars from month to month , as the campaign progressed , to help Colonel Bryan "break down" the "money power" may also affix a feli citous flavor to this delicious morsel. Then again the recollection of the division of the gate receipts of money , at bucolic fairs , wherebv Colonel Brvan bearded "the money power" right in the midst of prize bulls , boars and stal lions , and took his share of gate cash without the slightest fear of plutocratic contagion with refrigerated calmness and tranquillity lends this tid-bit a palate-satisfying power. Perhaps no short sentence , so perfectly preserved , in the desiccated oratory of 1896 , so beau tifully illuminates the incisive force of analytical statement. At Knowlsville , N. Y. , August 28 , 1806 , Colonel Bryan gave utterance to a sentiment which he , however , seems to have personally ever since ignored : "The great common people do not need any particular class to tell them what they shall do. . " This conies out of the can perfectly pure and wholesome and the Colonel may ruminate. It is a cud worth his chewing. Nothing in the way of conserved con fections , like candied ginger and citron , however , opens up . Desiccated Smile * more lusci o u s 1 y than some of the desiccated smiles of Colonel Bryan which , after being shut up in darkness for nearly three years , are as sweet and alluring as when fresh from his mobile mouth. A specimen gob of sugared pabulum , especially for farm , use , is found in a very able and exhaustive speech made by Colonel Bryan at Lexington , September 15,1896. THE CONSERVATIVE cuts a cold slice out of this saccharine solid : "Nature smiles upon your husbandry. Your soil gives forth in rich profusion , but according to the experience of the farmer , with all ho can do , with all liis industry , with his economy , with all his patient toil ho finds that the load of the American farmer grows every year. " What a rare flavor and what a delic ious aroma pertain to this delicacy. The load grows every year sometimes many , many loads ; alas ! poor fanners. Since January 1,1899 , Colonel Reeves , a farmer within ten miles of Nebraska City , has sold sur- Loails of Money. , , . plus corn from his crop of 1898 to the Argo Starch manu factory at Nebraska City for more than ten thousand dollars. If ho had been paid for the same in sixteen-to-one sil ver dollars they would aggregate a weight of more than seven hundred and sixteen pounds and Colonel Reeves could not carry his money home in his fine light carriage. He would bo obliged to have this metallic specific against the infection of "the money power" taken to his domicile in a lumber wagon with a mule motor. This crop dividend , evolved by Col onel Reeves from fertile land , through intelligent tillage and good manage ment , averages forty bushels to the acre. And his corn brought him twelve dollars an acre ( thirty cents a bushel ) while the laud upon which it was pro duced is worth fifty dollars an acre. That is to say the cash dividend on the money of Colonel Reeves , invested in each acre of corn laud , has been at the rate of twenty-four per cent per annum for 1898. In this computation 110 allow ance is made for the cost of tillage which will bo partly paid for , by the standing stalks eaten by cattle in the fields. Colonel Reeves must agree with Colonel Bryan that "the load of the American farmer grows every year" the load of money. Seven hundred and sixteen pounds of silver dollars make more than a buggy load ! Poor farmer crushed , crucified farmer why did you repudiate the financial fancies and fallacies of Colonel Bryan in 1896 ? With corn selling at about thirty cents a bushel it makes THE CONSERVA TIVE melancholy Some More , , , , Growing tourta.to enumerate the following farmers , all of them within ten miles of Nebraska City who have witnessed their "loads growing" during the last twelve months. Each one has on hand "loads" as fol lows : BUSHELS. Mike Gordon 20,000 Jacob Payne 40,000 Mat O'Brien 40,000 Col. Reeves 20,000 Mrs. M. U. Payne 60,000 \ t B. O. Wilkinson 20,000 Pat Reeves 10,000 Geo. Gilmore 10,000 B. O. Gibbins 40,000 total "load" for these Mailing a op pressed and downtrodden subjects of "the money power" of just an even two hundred and fifty thousand bushels of corn. And strangest of all the strange thinking in this Western wilderness the farmers really think that rain and sunshine , compounded with intelligent work and sensible economical manage ment , have more to do with making them prosperous and happy than has even oratory , whether fresh , canned or desiccated. Without dread , with no signs of alarm , these muscular , healthy and well-read farmers contemplate with tranquillity the statement of Col. Bryan which THE CONSERVATIVE now reprints , that "the load of the American farmer grows every year ! " More than that these same farmers calmly challenge the diabolism of "the " to money power" con tinue , if it dare , to raise the price of corn , and take corn away from them ! During the last ten days sixteen farm ers whom THE CONSERVATIVE could name and who live Consumed by Cnsli. . . . , within twelve miles of the Nebraska City Cereal Mills and the Argo Starch manufactory have sold more than forty thousand dollars' worth of com for the rollers and wheels of those grinding institutions , to work up into human food. Thus the poor land tillers have their substance snatched from them by "the money power. " Among the most abject of American citizens , whose hard fate elicits floods _ of sympathetic erA - A Tenant. . , , atory from Colonel Bryan , is the tenant farmer. Only last week one of those manacled serfs dropped in at the Argo factory and sold his share one-third of the corn he raised last year , on another man's laud , for twenty-seven hundred dollars in gold standard currency. Poor fellow ! He too feels that "the load of the Amer ican farmer grows every year 1" wh ° THE TKUE TEST. ted the populist members of the last senate certainly got their money's worth , inasmuch as four of those statesmen are credited with one-sixth of the entire consumption of the English language accomplished at the last session. Senator Allen getaway away with 5) < per cent of the gross amount , taking 170 lineal feet , accord ing to the standard measurement of the Congressional Record , out of the 8,000 feet in which the entire senate effected its deliberations. Senator Allen's elo quence can now uncoil itself in perfect freedom over the Nobi aska prairies , but it will not give the impression of magni tude that it produced when the senate- chamber resounded with it , nor will there be anybody to measure it in feet and inches.
