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.
