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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 16, 1899)
12 'Cbe Conservative * PAIN. I niu n Mystery that walks the earth Since man began to bo ; Sorrow and Sin stood sponsor at my birth , And Terror christened me. More pitiless than Death , who gathereth His victims day by day , I doom man daily to desire Death , And still forbear to slay. More merciless than Time , leave man Youth , And suck Life's sweetness out ; More cruel than Despair , I show man Truth , And leave him strength to doubt. I bind the freest in my subtle hand ; I blanch the boldest cheek ; I hold the hearts of poets in my hand , And wring them ere they speak. I walk in darkness over souls that bleed ; I shape each as I go To something different. I drop the seed Whence grapes or thistles grow. Grace Denio LitchQeld in the Independent. The domiciliary DOMESTIC STKIFE. infelicities of the family of Douglas couuty republicans are intense and infectious. Since the election the cutlery and fire-amis which had been concealed by the Rosewater and Webster factious have been brandished with much show of savage wrath. Each chieftain attributes the recent disaster to candidates of the McKinley - Kinley brand to the treachery of the other ; and the general public is awestricken - stricken by the depravity , hatred and revengefuluess depicted by the general inventory of charges now exposed to view in the separate wigwams of these great warriors. * 1 The scalps of truth , of fair dealing and common honesty are said to dangle from the belts of braves on both sides. The proposition to lay a telegraphic cable from the United Stages to the Philippines by way of Alaska and Japan seems at first sight to imply going a long way out of the road ; at least probably ninety-nine out of a hundred would so consider. And yet it is the shortest possible route , as any one who has access to a globe can satisfy himself at a glance. From Seattle a perfectly straight line leads along the southern edge of the Aleutian Islands and the east coast of Japan to the city of Manila. To go by way of Hawaii is to describe almost a right angle. Resting from the patriotic labor of to make "the " trying plain people" believe that their best interests can be promoted by a debased currency , it is hoped that Colonel Bryan will resume his gatekeepership as the only St. Peter with keys to the democratic Heaven , Bryan and Croker sole proprietors. One Mr. Archer , explaining concern ing us Americans and our peculiar speech in the Pall Mall Magazine , is good enough to consider that we have per manently enriched the English language by adding to it the verb "to rubberneck. " -Jf * CONSERVATISMS. Traditionalism is a living lie. The has-been can never be true. Science is the endeavor to know self. Traditionalism is dead and erroneous science. Truth always is and has neither past nor future. Traditionalism is the shadow of a dead substance. Traditionalism is fetishism and knows naught of religion. McKinleyism is sorely afflicted with chronic aural pronatiou. McKiuleyism is bribsry , robbery , usurpation , tyranny , treason. McKiuleyism is acephalic , Bryanism multi-cephalic , Orokerisui mono-ce phalic. Crokerisui is safe so long as the boss can control the machine and throttle the stokers. Truth is self-knowledge. For this reason ignorance provaileth and inaketh much noise. Bryanism is dangerous because it promises much which it either cannot or does not intend to fulfill. McKiuleyism represents a ship's figurehead , the captain being out of sight in the wheel-house. McKinleyism is the political mon strosity of the nineteenth century ; all body , no head , and no backbone. Traditionalism is the blind leading the blind into the slough of despond filled with the moulding and decaying weeds of error. Bryanism is like a Hindoo fetish hav ing numerous heads looking in all direc tions and no head fixed in any one direction. McKinleyism is a constant menace because it lives on and by bribery , cor ruption and usurpation. When the funds fail then political decapitation. Crokorisrnis absolute despotism , while Bryanism is to be compared to Baruum's "What is it ? " which so successfully fooled the dollars out of the dear people. Crooked is the gate and broad is the way of traditionalism along the pathway of aborted misconceptions , while straight is the gate and narrow the way of truth. Traditionalism builds on the shifting sands of error , while truth is founded on the rock of eternity against which the storming of traditionalism is as naught. Traditionalism i * the machine of the ecclesiastical and political boss , the guillotine in which the "sons of God" are tortured and crushed by the children of the devil. McKinleyism may be likened to the government of England , the president being the king ( in name ) , the ministry doing the work , while an unseen privy council runs things. Should Bryanism become mono- cephalic instead of poly-cephalic then look out for Robespierreism and the guillotine of anarchistic communism in the United States. When the people again become sovereign eign and assert their constitutional rights McKinley will be known as the Casabianca of American politics. Some body will be seeking the fragments of republicanism. FRANK S. BILLINGS. Charles Morton , MUSIC ANI > . , , . the fflther ° f th ° THE UIIAAEA. music hall , " was recently given an extraordinary testimonial menial benefit at the Palace theater in London on the occasion of his eightieth birthday. It is said every person of note in the theatrical world of London participated. In an interview with a correspondent of the New York Times the veterau gave a brief outline of the origin and development of the music hall as follows : "The germ of the music hall might be found in the old-fashioned bar parlor , wherein 'mine host , ' possessed of a good voice , would add to the merriment of his guests and fill his own money bags by trolling forth a rollicking song after supper. Sometimes he would accept outside assistance , and would welcome a proffered song , even if it were arranged on the terms of 'no song , no supper. ' Gradually we find that music became so desirable a digestive that 'soug-and-supper' rooms were quite an institution 50 or (50 ( years ago , con stituting themselves unwittingly the first precursors of the modern music hall. "The variety saloon was the next development. These places of enter tainment stood in mid-distance between the concert rooms and the theaters. Their programme not that they had one comprised all sorts of turns ; drama , farce , everything , in fact , except Shake- sperean drama ; but the turning point in their history came on the passing of the theaters registration act in 1843 , when they had to elect whether they would class themselves as theatres or regular music halls , with drinking license , but without the right of producing stage plays. "The Grapes , under the more preten tious title of the Surrey Music Hall , and afterward rechristened the Winchester , was among the first of the tavern con cert rooms to blossom out as a music hall , as we now understand the term. " American methods are followed in building the Siberian railroad , and American tools and track-laying ap pliances employed.
