8 Conservative.
A CHAKMING HOSTESS.
Our Grtinilinniiinin gave luncheons
In dear old days of yore ,
She served them in her kitchen ,
Where shone a yellow floor.
A useful , quaint collection
Of bric-a-brac was there ;
An antique churn Htood open
With most inviting air.
Tliu hostess , dear , kind Lady ,
Received with gracious ease
And smiled when children's children
Came near and murmured , "Please. "
The guests all won ) checked aprons
And shoes adorned with dust ,
And earnest tongues were pleading ,
And eyes were full of trust.
For Grandmamma , wise woman ,
Knew such a charming way
Of helping little mortals
\Vlio toiled long hours at play.
She lllled her shining glasses
For eager hands to hold
With buttermilk made tempting
With specks of creamy gold.
From an alluring pantry
That hid nice things away ,
Such queerly twisted crullers
Were brought out on a tray ;
And caraway seed cookies
With scallops on the rim
On plates that had for borders
Blue roses round the brim.
For floral decorations ,
An open window's screen
Was woven by the roses ,
With twining leaves of green.
Long wreaths of honny-sucklo
Held blossoms by the score ,
That swung and shed their fragrance
Around the shaded door.
And strains of joyous music
Among the trees were heard ,
While tones of gleeful laughter
Chimed in with song of bird.
The little winds came wafting
Soft puffs df garden air
O , no'er was breeze more balmy 1
And ne'er was scene more fair !
Far down thn years' long vista
Where childhood lies in view
The simple , sweet old fashions
Seem touched with grace anew.
Still o'er those summer mornings
Blend all the charms they wore
When Grandmamma gave lunchc.ons
In dear old days of yoro.
MAHY FRENCH MOKTON.
1JENKVOLENT ASSIMILATION.
SAN FUANCISCO , OALIF. ,
May 27 , 1899.
Emiou TUB CONSERVATIVE ,
Nebraska City , Neb.
Viewed from the standpoint of dem
ocracy , the movement for retaining the
Philippine islands "imperialism , " "for
cible annexation , " "benevolent assimi
lation , " or by whatever name it may bo
called , is one of the most delusive prop
ositions that over perplexed the Amer
ican people. To cite but one of the
many phases of the folly : Think of talk
ing about opportunities for our laboring
people in tropical Oriental lauds some
1,400 islands , comprising , all told , aboul
100,000 square miles of terra flrma
which lie on the sea level in the torrid
zone between the Cth and 17th degrees
of north latitude , and have a native
population of ten millions of people , or
one hundred to the square niilo.
Per contra , lot us consider the vast
territory embraced in the Louisiana
purchase , the cession of the Floridas ,
; he Texas annexation , the Mexican and
Gadsdeu purchasesAlaska.etc. , in round
figures some 2,500,000 square miles , in
which the census of 1800 showed only
six people to the square mile. If we
assume that our population has in
creased fifteen per cent since the last
Federal census , the present population
of this immense territory would not bo
seven people to the square milo.
Yet with an area of 2,500,000 square
miles acquired in the last ninety-five
years , we , in quest of additional terri-
; ory , are butchering on their native
slauds in the tropical seas the Filipinos
who have nearly fifteen timns as many
people to the square milo as we have in
; ho extensive acquisitions mentioned
above. Even with the present popula
tion of the region constituting the origi
nal thirteen states , the inhabitants of
bhe Philippines are more than three
rimes as many to the square mile as
those of the United States. In other
words , we must have 250 millions of
people before our country will be as
thickly settled as Luzon , and 500 mil
lions before it will be as populous as
Cebu. This alone should deter us from
further pursuing the course marked out
by the present administration , to say
nothing of the self-evident fallacy of
thinking that people of the temperate
zones could long thrive in the deadly
tropics of an Oriental , sea-level country.
These reasons are overwhelmingly con
clusive argument against the wisdom of
the present policy of expansion , unless ,
indeed , it is the deliberate purpose of
our administration to exploit Asiatic
labor by compulsion.
A Dutch Letter.
For its relevance to this point I ap
pend the following letter just received
from a Hollander. It is the third com
munication of similar tenor that I have
received from natives of that country :
"Your pamphlet , 'Imperial democ
racy , ' has attracted a great deal of at
tentiou. The United States certainly
will have a great task before it to devel
op the Philippines as Holland developed
Java , and your question as to how this
can be accomplished by annexation and
bringing the islands under United States
laws is one that cannot be easily an
swered. The labor question will , I
think , be the hardest problem for the
government of the Philippines to solve.
"I have worked in the tropics of
Africa , Surinam , and British Honduras ,
and conducted the most productive and
valuable sugar estates in Surinam. Af
ter the emancipation of laborers to free
dom in the tropics , agricultural enter
prises were ruined.
"Calcutta and Madras labor imported
into the British West Indies has brought
relief to England's possessions there ,
but bring oven negroes from Barbadoes
and Jamaica to the mainland , Guiana ,
and one will see the failure.
"While in Surinam we tried to get
consent from the European powers to
import negroes froni Africa under the
same conditions as coolies are imported
from Calcutta and Madras , to save our
large agricultural interests there. Our
petitions were endorsed by the most
prominent public men in England and
Holland , but we failed , and we had to
see our sugar estates go to ruin. We
also tried white labor from Holland ,
Belgium , France , and Portugal , biit met
with such disastrous sickness among our
men that our labor accounts were more
than tripled.
"The contract labor for Surinam un
der government supervision brought
some relief , especially to the small
coffee and cocoa planters , but sugar
suffered , and how the United States will
make the Philippines produce regular
labor under American laws is a question
which will take some time before it is
answered. I do not think that the
Americans who may embark upon agri
cultural enterprises in the Philippines
will have the natural patience of the
Hollander , which is always essential in
dealing with the laboring classes of the
tropics to make a success there.
"As you justly say in your paper ,
tropical climates , no matter where , are
demoralizing. I remember well the
first day I set foot in the tropics , being
then very young , and how much I de
plored the lack of wisdom displayed by
my family in sending me to such a zone.
It is not only what a man suffers physi
cally in the tropics , but the severe
moral deterioration which is siistaiued ,
and how disgusted he feels in his sur
roundings. Anyone who has not been
there and whoso higher feelings are not
developed cannot understand it. All
the tropics are described as luxuriant as
a paradise , but I wish many times I had
never been in such paradises they are
a real hell on earth.
"I could go on speaking about this
subject , as I have had years of exper
ience in the tropics , but I will not take
up more of your time. Excuse me for
having intruded upon you , but I have
at least had the satisfaction of expres
sing my opinions to somebody who can
understand thorn. "
J. H. VAN ENSCIIUT.
Another delusion entertained is that
Americans going to the Philippines will
bo able to get lauds , etc. , in those is
lands. Now the very formidable ob
stacle in the way of so doing , free of
cost , is that a very largo portion , per
haps the major part of the arable land
down there is owned by the religious
orders. The insurgents rebelled against
this feature of the Spanish system. In
Mexico the same condition confronted