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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (March 2, 1899)
12 T3be Conservative * OTOE CITY * * . . . . . houses stand that mark the postofiico and shipping station called Minersvillo , sonio six miles below Nebraska City , there was nt one time a town established , which might have been the metropolis of the western hemi sphere if things had turned out differ ently. The town was laid out in the early 50's by eastern capitalists , who sold a great many desirable town-lots in it to their speculative neighbors , after the time-honored custom of people who lay out towns in remote places ; but it seems never to have been materially bigger than it is at present. It was calledOtoe City , and it had a steam ferry-boat and a brick store ; the store stands there yet , a well-preserved structure in the architec ture of that early day ; it and a couple of dwellings are all that are in sight from the railroad , standing on the high bluff , whence they overlook a great sweep of the river. There is also a place where farmers can drive to the edge of the bank and dump their corn into cars standing beneath , but other wise the early settlement has vanished , as its name has vanished. The name and the steam ferry were lxth coveted by those who established Nebraska City. The ferry was for a time a great advantage ; many a pioneer went from this place to Otoe City for lumber ( at $40 per thousand ) to build his home and farm buildings , making one round trip in a long clay ; but the enterprise of our fathers was sufficient eventually to gain that steam ferry for their own town. The name , however , was not to be gotten away in that man ner. After the establishment of New Fort Kearney on the Platte river , 200 miles further west on the Oregon and Salt Lake trail , our town of course lost the name of Fort Kearney which it had borne up to that time , though it was still called Old Fort Kearney for a while. The next best name available was Otoe City , which was appropriate for the city which was to spring up on the lands of the Otoe Indians. The county was called Otoe by common consent , but the eastern capitalists were a little too speedy , and were first in the field with the name of Otoo City for their town. That loft nothing for the dwellers on Table Creek to do but to call their settlement Nebraska City , which has this main dis advantage , that from the nature of things the "City" can never be dropped , any more than it can from Kansas City. It was notoriously characteristic of the American pioneers , from the time they first crossed the Allegheuies , to call every place where two or three of them met together a city. Early English travelers commented on this propensity ; Bayard Taylor , writing from Denver City in 18G7 , wondered why his country men so persisted in that habit ; and as the towns in question grew to respect able size , their citizens themselves be came ashamed of their tag , and Omaha ttf City , Council Bluff City and many others shed their appendages , oven as Kearney , Leaven worth , La amieBenton and a host of such places dropped the "Fort" which had adorned them , as they passed the frontier stage. But Ne braska City , thanks to the enterprise of those eastern capitalists six miles down the river , is destined to go down to posterity in the same category with Falls City and Pawnee City. The Arkau s a s 1 * * VSTI It 11 ° y UI aS Gln COLORADO. Xa , , Colorado demon strates the possibilities of converting arid into fertile lands. Nowhere east of the Rocky mountains has irrigation been so successful and no where in the west has immigration been so quick to respond. It is claimed that this valley has doubled in population in the last three years. Last year there were over 700 cars of melons shipped out of the valley and they were of such a fine flavor that they found a market in all of our large cities as for east as Bos ton and New York. Alfalfa is one of the principal crops and by experience the farmers in the valley have learned that there is more money in bringing cattle and sheep in to feed than trying to ship their hay out. Thirty years ago thousands of buffalo could be seen along this valley feeding on the native grasses and now the val ley is dotted with thousands of well- graded cattle feeding on alfalfa. To parties wishing small farms for the cul tivation of the higher grades of agricul ture the Arkansas valley is very attrac tive. HIGH MORAL STANDARDS IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. Senator John M. Thurstou , our noncombatant - combatant progenitor of war , sole pro prietor of the star-spangled flag of the Union , and the original embodiment of all the patriotism of his suffering coun try , is said to bo giving some very re markable exhibitions of high moral standards in the personal and public life of Washington. The well-authent icated fact is reflected in the appoint ments to federal office that he is dictat ing to the president , which give some republican newspapers pains , many respectable republican citizens pain in the stomach , and also something re sembling nausea. The Omaha Bee is giving proofs to its readers of the sena tor's latest effort in selecting a man for surveyor of customs at Omaha who , ac cording to that newspaper , is full of harmony with those great moral ideas which are said to guide Mr. McKiuloy in all his public acts. It is Senator Thurston's second effort to demonstrate the beauty and grade of the peculiar standards of morality which continue to obtain wherever Mr. Thurston's influ ence asserts control. WAR NOT NECESSARY TO THE EX PANSION OF TRADE. Without either the fact or fear of war with any nation , and under the gentle influences of peace , the commerce of the United States with foreign countries has been extended by the enlightened ener gies of our people to the four quarters of the globe , until , in the very hour that the advocates of war as on instrument of gain are noisiest , it has risen to pro portions which astonish the world , and 110 part of it more than our own. Armed conquests , diabolical in them selves in being at wai with the principles upon which self-government is founded , and abhorrent to the sober judgments of all good men , could never add to our gains as a trading nation when the con quered countries consist of distant islands of the sea , or the mainlands of regions remote from our own coasts. The simple reason why this is so is that , if gain , mere money-making , is the mis sion of the nation , so great would bo the cost in dollars and cents , saying not one word about the perpetual liability to war , in providing vast naval and laud arma ments for defense as well as conquest , it would not pay. Lord Charles Beres- ford , who has just paid a notable visit to our country , in public addresses and in terviews on what is needed , to secure our share of the future trade of China , has made an argument for expanding commerce by preventing war which it would be well for our country if it would accept his principal contention without further debate. The simple plan is peace , on the principle which Arthur Balfour defines in eight words "an equal opportunity for traders of all nations. " Rear Admiral Beresford , "Fighting Charlie" as the "jackies" of the British navy call him , "the hero of the Condor , " as all England expresses pride in him , himself a man of war of tried valor and renown , pleads with invincible logic for treaties of peace between four of the dominant trading nations which he is sure will avert the calamities of a colos sal war , and , as he assures us , and as most men who hear him agree , would give to the United States all the expan sion of trade which it can reasonably desire. The vast volume of trade , Sir Charles maintains , will bo forever lost to us , if wo do not join Great Britain , Germany and Japan in preventing the dismemberment of the oldest nation and the gigantic wars which this otherwise inevitable result would entail. Not one word has Sir Charles spoken about "holding the Philip pines" as being either a commercial necessity or advantage to our coun try. This sort of stuff conies from less thoughtful and less competent men , in England and in the United States , to the confusion of them all , bo it stated.