Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 4, 1900)
Conservative * AN EXPLORKIV HEAD. BALTIMORE , Md. , Dec. 26. Professor Elliott Cones of Washington , D. G. , the world-famed ornithologist and ficiontist , died last night at Johns Hop kins hospital , nged fifty-seven years. Professor Goues entered the United States army as a medical cadet in 18G2 and left it as surgaon many years later. He was connected with the Smithsonian institute , the United States geological and geographical surveys , and was pro fessor of biology iii the Virginia agri cultural and mechanical college. He was one of the associate editors of the Century dictionary and other publica tions , and was a member of at least fifty foreign and American scientific societies. For some years he was an enthusiastic theosophist , a friend and coadjutor of Madame Blavatsky. No man in the United States probably had a wider acquaintance with men of thought the world over than Professor Coues. THE CONSERVATIVE entertained Elliott Coues , Frederick V. Hayden , James Stevenson , Prof. St. John of Cambridge and Prof. White , then of Iowa , at Arbor Lodge in 1868. The party came from Des Moines by wagon directly to Ne braska City. They were entering upon the exploration of Nebraska for coal. They thought and said that a workable bed of coal , or its geological equivalent , could be found at Nebraska City within twelve hundred feet of the surface. Dr. Coues was the author of the ' 'Birds of the Northwest" and many other useful books. Many , many INDIANS. moons ago there were two leading tribes of Indians in Nebraska who fought a common enemy for horses , plunder and scalps. Their antagonist was strong in numbers , villages , guns , powder and headmen and braves. But not strong in keeping their young men and warriors from committing depredations upon all sur rounding territory nor to prevent them telling lies , breaking treaties and steal ing all kinds of portable property. The two tribes fighting these savages were about equal in numbers. But the older one of the two had more discipline , better organization and decidedly the best courage. It had certain adored traditions and legends as to what it was right to do and wrong not to do. For its inheritance of principles it had been always ready to fight even unto death at the stake. To battle whenever challenged , whether victory or vanquish- ment was assured , was the creed of that ancient olan. Scalps more than plunder were its inspiration. But the younger tribe was after plunder , not honor. And by infection it soon emasculated the courage and love of principles of the older one. In six years it made the older one a toad and itself a serpent and then it beslimed the poor toad with nauseous saliva and swallowed it. Sometimes the serpent is sick at its stomach and wriggles ter ribly in its efforts to finally "benevo lently assimilate" the enchanted , allured and engulfed toad. The old tribe was democracy ; the new one populism ; the common enemy republicanism. The vngaristB CONSISTENT ECONOMISTS.wh ° lnnk ° UP aml lead Bryanarchy in this state and everywhere else are everlastingly prating of the enhancing purchasing power of gold and uttering economic proclamations for its re pression and restriction. In 1896 the howl was for higher prices. The free trade theory of low prices for nil things to consumers and producers alike was abandoned , re nounced. And now in the closing week of 1899 the same ernctatory economists are belaboring railroads for raising transportation rates. It is admitted that coal , iron , ties , labor have all risen in price. It is admitted that in offeriiig to serve the public by transporting persons and property the railroad company tenders a composite service. Its integrals are every effort , mental and manual , which humanity makes for gainful purposes. And the World-Herald and all the other advocates of regulatory legislation ; all the other attorneys for divorcing the right to own from the right to control railroad property are demanding that the secretaries of the Nebraska Board of Transportation shall prevent , by royal edict , the railroad owners and managers from putting up the charges for carry ing persons and things over their lines. The same economists yell for higher wages for employees. They applaud higher prices for pork , beef and wheat. But they damn as diabolical any higher prices for carrying them. The integrals ought to go up and the concrete go down in price. * * * ' ' THE CHRISTMAS - MAS TREE.Morton , ex-secre tary of agriculture , is a great friend of the trees and has used his powerful influence to good effect in behalf of their cultivation in Nebraska and other western states , but we think he goes too far in a good cause when he condemns the cutting of the young fir trees for use at Christmas time. He argues that the destruction of these trees are a serious loss to the country , causing a decrease of the rain fall and an increase of the arid area. Every year at Christmas P4time he puts up this plea for the evergreens. Now , in fact , in the land where the fir trees grow , they shoot up as thick as the fur on a dog's bask. They crowd each other to their mutual injury and what there is needed for the develop ment of good timber is a continuous thinning out of their ranks. The young trees , such as are used for the Christ mas festivity and for decorating grow like weeds and when a large part of them are cut down the others remain ing are vastly improved. Nature is so bountiful in this pro vision that a hundred times the number of trees cut for the children could be spared without endangering the future forests in such localities. We need most , perhaps , telegraph poles and tim bers for houses , but we have no better use for trees than to make the children happy at Christmas and no tree of the orchard bears fruit more productive of blessing and happiness than the Christ mas tree with its strange burden of candles , oranges , candies and toys. St. Joseph Daily News , Dec. 25 , 1899. THE CONSERVATIVE very recently answered the objections set up by the esteemed St. Joseph News. So did the Chicago Tribune. White Pine and nearly all the valuable timber trees of the coniferae stand thick ly on the ground. As they grow and shut out the light from the systems of lower limbs the latter drop off. Dark ness is the pruning knife. In a forest near Saltaburg , Germany , which THE CONSERVATIVE visited in 1886 in com pany with Hon.George H. Pendleton , the pine seeds had been sown broadcast. In apiuetnm , at Arbor Lodge , if The News will visit this propinquity , we can show the value and importance of having pines "crowd each other" and determine the survival of the fittest ones out of which to make "clear stuff" knotless boards. DESTROYING THE CHILDREN. "Do American men and women realize that in five cities of our country alone there were during the last school term over sixteen thousand children be tween the ages of eight and fourteen taken out of the public schools because their nervous systems were wrecked , and their minds were incapable of going on any further in the infernal cram ming system which exists today in our schools ? " inquires Edward Bok in the January Ladies' Home Journal. ' 'And these sixteen thousand helpless little wrecks , " hd continues , "are simply the children we know about. Conservative medical men who have given their lives to the study of children place the number whose health is shattered by overstudy at more than fifty thousand each year. It is putting the truth mildly to state that , of all American institutions , that which deals with the public education of our children is at once the most faulty , the most unin telligent and the most cruel. " Judge Scott of Omaha has found more "contempt" for his court than any judge who ever before officiated in Nebraska. He has gone out in "contempt" and no one will attempt to reinstate him in the ermine.
