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VOL. i. NEBRASKA CITY , NEB. , THURSDAY , JULY 6 , 1899. NO. 52.
PUBLISHED WEEKLY.
OFFICES : OVERLAND THEATRE BLOCK.
J. STERLING MORTON , EDITOR.
A JOURNATj DEVOTED TO THE DISCUSSION
OF POLITICAL , ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGICAL
QUESTIONS.
CIRCULATION THIS WEEK 6,016 COPIES.
TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION.
One dollar and a half per year , in advance ,
postpaid , to any part of the United States or
Canada. Remittances made payable to The
Morton Printing Company.
Address , THE CONSERVATIVE , Nebraska
City , Neb.
Advertising Rates made known upon appli
cation.
Entered at the postofflce at Nebraska City ,
Neb. , as Second Class matter , July 20th , 1808.
The common
A NEW COLLEGE.
schools , high
schools and universities of the United
States have been pronounced a failure
by those great and good patriots , Coin
Harvey , Colonel Bryan of Nebraska ,
Colonel Jones of Arkansas , Col. W. J.
Blarney-Stone of Missouri , Col. John P.
Altgeld of Illinois , Colonel Teller of
Colorado , and Long Talk Allen of Ne
braska. i
According to these luminaries the
schools enumerated are deficient in in
culcating knowledge relative to the
functions of government and the science
of exchanges. American citizens are
not fit for presidential-voting purposes ,
although they may have taken common
school , high school and university
courses , until they have paid something
into and studied with "The World-Her
ald Educational Fund. "
This purely philanthropic institution
of learning is especially designed , how
ever , for the education , at their own ex
pense , of the damphool citizens of the
country who wish to believe that by a
more "be-it-enacted" the congress of
the United States can make sixty equal
one hundred and twenty-nine , or a pat
riot out of a partisan.
Ever since the
MISSOURI stormy and vigorous
STATESMANSHIP
ous career of Thos.
Hart Beuton , Missouri has been faith
fully trying to fertilize the field of poli
tics so as to propagate a standard strain
of statesmen. At the present moment
THE CONSERVATIVE cannot go over the
long and eminently luminous list of
Benton's intellectual , moral and patriotic
superiors who have'as members of the
United States senate , made Missouri
glad that the pigmy passed and the giant
arrived.
But Missouri recognizes talent. Mis
souri has taste. Therefore Missouri
when offered the soft summer-drink oratory
tory of Champ Clark or importuned to
take a draught of DeArmoud's fizzle-
and-pop eloquence , with great good
judgment , an uneasy stomach and an
educated discriminating palate demands
"a Joe Rickey" gin sour.
Never since Missouri praised the
"mint drops of Benton , " until Rickey
came , had that state conferred such af
fectionate regard and crowned with
such childlike confidence. And as long
as there is thirst and limes , or lemons
and gin , so long will the Honorable Joe
Rickey bo remembered in Missouri and
his famous beverage tickle the palates of
discriminating citizens. A hundred
summers hence Joe Rickey will be called
and Champ Clark and DeArniond for
gotten.
FALSE METHODS OIT TEACHING.
If we consider the matter frankly , we
shall find that the study of our litera
ture is in a state quite as unsatisfactory
as that of our language , says Mark H.
Liddell in the July Atlantic. For our
notions of English literature are con
ditioned at every turn by that mixture
of opinion and prejudice which we call
"taste. " English criticism has contin
ued to reflect it with varying moods of
petulance and arrogancy from Shake
speare's day to ours. The formal teach
ing of English literature , which is of
comparatively recent date , has taken its
cue from criticism. When the indepen
dent teacher has attempted to escape
the critic's tyranny , it has been by
flight into the by-paths of history and
philology rather than by open revolt.
At its best , therefore , our teaching of
literature is imperfect , resting now on
the study of biography , now on the
study of history , now on the study of
sources , now on the study of foreign
influences , now on the study of style ,
now on the study of a metaphysical
testhetic turned wordward always on
some partial aspect of the subject. At its
worst , it is unworthy the name of teach
ing , being merely a generous dole of
opinions gathered from various books of
critical essays , and salted with the
teacher's own prejudices , or larded
with that transcendental vaporing to
which students have not unaptly given
the name of "drool. "
Our teaching is thus entirely inade
quate. A clear idea of the part litera
ture has been playing in the lives of the
English-thinking people is not to be
found in it. There is equally little in
the way of a concrete statement of what
literature is. Some of the most funda
mental distinctions , such as that of the
difference between poetry and prose , are
left unexplained. The student who
has enjoyed the benefit of such train
ing is not much better off than he who
has had to get his understanding of lit
erature by dint and stress of journalism.
Indeed , the self-made scholar in liter
ature is really the better , for he will
read more of literature itself and his
thinking upon it will be more original.
The system has already been much crit
icised on the ground that it is not teach
ing , but mere talk. It holds its own
only because it is thought to be a means
of culture , culture being here synony
mous with literary emotion. But it is
no more a means of real culture than
running through Europe with a Bae-
decker is.
LIMPING TRUTH , SPRINTING LIE.
Some years ago a story was invented
to the effect that Henry Ward Beecher
had with deliberation declared that one
dollar a day was enough for any wage-
earner and sufficient to maintain any
ordinary family. Mr. Beecher never
said any such thing. But during his
long and useful life his oft-repeated and
truthful denial limped along away be
hind the sprinting lie. And so Mr.
Beecher died without vindication as to
that particular slander , but he has come
to be universally acknowledged as one
of the brainiest and best citizens , whoever
over so persuasively and successfully
addressed audiences inimical to the
United States in a foreign laud and con
verted them from enemies into friends.
The lie , however , "that one dollar is
enough wages for any laborer , " is still
doing business at the old rate and gait.
The remark has been falsely attributed
first to one and then to another public
man. * It is told again and again with
malice and envy , by men who ought to
know that no person , with common
sense enough to have acquired reputa
tion as a public man , could or would
have been ever capable of such idiocy.
But lies leap and truth crawls.
