t be Conservative * fr ?
THKSLOCUIK
Liquor Dealers
Association , unless
belied , published many thousands of
pleadings for the election of House Rout
Holcomb. They denounced Judge ROORO
as a prohibitionist and turned thousands
of voters against him by that denun
ciation. Is this a fact ? Did the Whole
sale Liquor Dealers' Association of
Nebraska issue those circulars or author
ize their issue and distribution ?
The Slocum law provides that any
person selling any adulterated beer ,
liquor or wine shall upon the testimony
of any reputable chemist have his license
taken away from him. How many
dealers in Nebraska are ready to abide
the test that a reputable chemist can ,
by analysis , apply to their liquors , beers
and wines ? When will they be ready
for the trial ?
GOV. S AUNDEKS
IIISAIINISOKNT.of Alvm Saunders ,
ex-governor of Ne
braska , calls to mind a peril which the
writer shared with the governor about
nineteen years ago in New Mexico. At
that time the Denver & Rio Grande
railway had not reached Santa Fe , but
Espauola , a town of inchoate civiliza
tion , was the terminus , and from there
to Santa Fe , a distance of about thirty
miles , the old-fashioned stage made the
distance. Gov. Saunders and one or
two of his friends had been at Santa Fe
and were on their way home by the way
of Denver , and they were on the stage.
The writer's destination was also
Espanola , thence he designed going to
the Indian village of Santa Olara , where
he was to procure a party of Indians ,
and explore the mountains westward.
The stage , with four horses attached ,
rolled out of the sleepy old town one
summer afternoon in the rainy season ,
and two hours behind time ; the weather
when we started was flue ; not a cloud
in the skies , but before we had reached
the Sau. Juan river a violent storm
came on , flooding the country with
water and made the roads heavy and as
muddy as they could be in that land of
sand and clay. We did not , therefore ,
reach the Sau Juan river until after dark
and the "river" that is ordinarily but a
dry arrayo with scarce enough water in
it to satisfy the thirst of a mule , we
found to bo a raging torrent , one hun
dred yards in width , its tawny surface
agitated , angry and forbidding. The
driver hesitated and seemed loth to urge
his horses into the current ; those who
know most about the treacherous stream ,
its quicksands and the murky waters ,
were those who seemed most willing to
camp on the shore and wait for the
waters to subside ; we did wait a time
: > nd at last the passengers , of whom
there were eight or ton , voted to go on
and the driver gathered up the reins ,
cracked his whip and encouraged the
leaders of his team to plunge in. The
waters wore surcharged with mud and
sand brought down from the mountains
and each one realized that if the stngo
wore overturned there would ba nar
row chances indeed for any one to
swim out with clothing saturated in such
a mixture of mud and water ; all de
pended , therefore , upon crossing the
stream without turning over. I was
sitting on the same seat with Governor
Sauudors , ho on the loft and I on the
right or that side which first encountered
the current. I deemed that I had a
most fortunate position and had made
up my mind that in cnso the stage
should turn over I would jump so as to
throw myself out of the entanglements
and thus escape from being rolled over
and over inside the conch and drowned
like a rat in a trap. I was quite con
fident I could escape according to the
plan I had laid , but remember now how
sorry I felt for the big governor who
would have no chance to jump. The stage
rolled , tumbled , groaned and trembled
and several times it seemed to bo evenly
balanced between turning over and
holding on ; the water leaked in at the
bottom and rolled over in a wave over
the side of the coach and I presume
everybody prayed for deliverance ; the
driver , however , was a superb fellow ;
he kept cool , cracked his whip , en
couraged his horses and the faithful
beasts at last pulled us out of the jaws
of death. By this time it was pitch
dark and lanterns were brought out :
the coach ascended a hill and the
assistant driver from the station who
had met us at the ford , went ahead
with the lantern to explore the way.
The driver at last yelled out : "You
fellows who want to save your skins and
bones pile out of that coach for hell's a
poppiu all round here ! " We fellows
piled out , the big governor at the last
and the coach had not gone fifty yards
further when it turned over and over
and disappeared in the depths of a
ravine. We all walked on to the station
of Sau Juan and it was there that I last
saw ex-Governor Saunders.
S. B. EVANS.
Ottumwa , la. , Nov. 10 , 1899.
Those temper ,
BRINKS.
ance people m Ne
braska who wish to do a useful thing ,
and sincerely work for lessening the
evils of stimulants in this state may now
avail themselves of the Sloouin law.
Under its provisions pure and whole
some stimulants can be placed before all
the bibulous citizens of this common
wealth.
THE CONSERVATIVE awaits the institu
tion of law-suits by the temperance
leaders of Nebraska which shall test the
possibility and practicability of shutting
up every drinking or selling place in this
state which dispenses anything else than
absolutely pure and unadulterated
stimulants.
JUG FOUK ACTION.
Looking to a Future Supply of Cross
Tll'H.
There arrived at Indinnnpolis over
the Big Four a few days ago a very
largo and very peculiar consignment of
freight. The Big Four company is
planting its farm near Brightwood with
catalpa trees , which , twenty years from
now , when , as is expected , they will
have reached a height of sixty feet and
are twenty inches in diameter , will be
used for cross ties on the company's
system. This work is being done by
Mr. J. P. Brown.
The trees will come from Kansas ,
where twenty years ago the experiment
was first tried by the Kansas City , Ft.
Scott & Gulf railway company. It
planted 640 acres with catalpa trees ,
running 080 to the acre , and those trees
are now being sold for telegraph poles at
-S3.50 each.
Other experiments have since been
made successfully by railroad com
panies in utilizing waste land or land that
was otherwise occupied , and the Big
Four company has now taken up the
idea with the intention of planting other
tracts in the same way.
The fact that the timber of the coun
try is rapidly decreasing is causing rail
road companies to begin figuring upon a
future supply of cross-ties , which have
boon steadily increasing in value in the
last ten years until the cost of main
tenance in this particular alone is one of
the principal factors in railway expendi
tures.
The trees , Mr. Brown stated recently ,
are planted at first very thickly , and
after they have attained some growth ,
or , to use his expression , "after they
have headed out , " and the upright
growth has been assured on account of
their close position to each other , are
thinned out and the remaining trees are
left to complete their growth.
The catalpa wood is one of the best
kinds of timber found where there is
necessity for coming in contact with the
damp earth. From each one four or five
cross-ties can be cut after it has com
pleted its growth , and should the price
of ties continue to increase as it has in
the past it is estimated that twenty years
from now these ties will each be worth
$1 or upward.
A writer in Oassier's Magazine com
putes that by 1988 ocean steamships will
in all probability bo built 1100 feet long.
The traveler can then , by embarking at
the stern and lauding from the bow ,
shorten his passage quito considerably.
MATUIMONIAI , .
seato of Nebraska ,
Hon. John Milton Thurstou , has an
nounced his engagement to Miss Pear-
man , of Washington , D. O.