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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 8, 1900)
* ' * ' / 'I . , _ - _ _ 12 TTbe Conservative , A NEAT TRANSLATION. Last week wo offered n pri/.o of one guinea for the best translation , in similar length , me tro and rhyming scheme of this poem , by Alfred Do Musset : Mes chersamis , qunnd jo mourrai , Planter un Baulo au cimoticru ; J'aimo so fouillago eplore , La paleur m'on cst deuce ot chore , Et son ombre sere legero A la terre ou jo dor mi rid. The best of many sent in is this : Dear friends , whene'er I come to die , Plant near my grave n willow tree. I love its weeping branches nigh ; Its wnn , sad leaves are dear to mo ; And light , so light , its shade will be Above the earth where I must lie. . London Academy. CONSERVATIVE NUTS. The following nuts are offered to those to crack who disagree with those funda mental conservatisms that "Might is right and might makes right. " If might is not right why do they pro claim God as "The Almighty ? " Is it not to deny God to deny that might is not right ? Do they not assert that God is the incarnate spirit of right and might ? To deny that God is not both might and right is to deny God. To deny God is pure atheism. Atheism is the negation of as theism is the dogmatism of ignorance. The wisest of the wise was the un known who caused "Man know thyself" to be carved on the Stoa of the Oracle at Delphi. The truly wise man has never lived. He who knows himself , and lives accordingly , knows God , for he has become God. To know self is to know all. He who is truly monarch of himself is monarch over all he surveys ; surveying all he is Almighty. He who is monarch of himself is a true stoio. True stoicism is intelligent self- control. Self-sacrifice is not intelligent self- control. On the contrary unintelligent suicide is the result of the loss of self- control. If self-sacrifice for the good of human ity be the correct thing for the individual why should not that agglomerate of individuals called humanity be equally moral in regard to the individual ? What is ' 'sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander. " There is not and never has been one case of true self-sacrifice. Self-sacrifice must be with intelligent intent , unpolluted with any shade of self-gratification , ambition or hope , either here or hereafter. Stoicism is not indifference. The in different are invariably ignorant. Self-sacrifice must bo stoically intelli gent and free from emotionalism , other wise it is self-deception , or the result of ignorance. Patriotism is intelligent self-hood , not ignorant or emotional suicide. Suicide is either the result of the loss of self-control or else the most magnifi cent self-control. The mightiest display of might is offered in intelligent suicide. He who cannot maintain life and therefore commits suicide shows supreme control over life. FUANK S. BILLINGS. Sharon , Mass. Considering how 8horfc a fci ifc * since the old freighting trails were alive from end to end with teams , and how many persons , thoroughly familiar with them , wrote guide-books giving detailed descriptions of every portion of those roads , it would seem a very simple matter , with the aid of such a book and a good map , to fol low any given trail from point to point. But this is a mistake ; the matter is not so easy. The writer has before him three sep arate itineraries of that very important trail which led from the Kansas and Missouri towns to Fort Kearney , and that large scale atlas of Nebraska which was published in 1884 , giving a map of each county on the scale of two miles to the inch. These itineraries are calcula ted by stage-stations and crossings of streams , since there were no other fea tures to go by in this part of the coun try , and give the distance from each point mentioned to the next. With such a map and a foot-rule , this ought to be sufficient. But see what happens. All the roads from Kansas City , St. Joseph , Leavenworth and Atchison con verged at Marysville , Kansas , where was the ford over the Big Blue. One of our guide-books prepared by Captain Burton , an Euglish officer begins by saying that twelve miles west of Marys- villo is the frontier line between Kansas and Nebraska. This is not correct , for one going westward from Marysville would never come to Nebraska in the world ; but it need not mislead any one , for all that is necessary is to read "north" instead of "west. " Next , however , one of our guides tells us that the first stage is to Cottonwood Creek , eleven miles , while another says that it is to Cottonwood Greek , seven teen miles , and the map shows not only no Gottonwood Greek at all , but no stream oven which we can suppose to be the one meant. This is annoying , and even perplexing. Can any of THE CON SERVATIVE'S friends in Gage county tell us whether any creek by the name of Cottonwood ever inhabited the southern portion of that county ? After crossing this watercourse , we are told that we come to Walnut Greek. Now almost every county in the state has one Walnut Greek , and some have more than one ; but according to our atlas , Gage county is without one. The nearest shown are in Saline county , and it is not possible that our trail should be concerned with them at this stage. There is , however , a certain Big Indian Greek , on which the city of Wymore is privileged to dwell , and which agrees well enough , as to distances , to warrant a guess that it is the Walnut Greek of 1800. But here comes Captain Fremont in 1842 and encamps on a Wyeth's Greek somewhere along here ; he even found a second-hand pack of cards in the grass , left by some preceding pathfinder. But there is no Wyeth's Greek , neither on the maps nor in the other books. Who knows what became of Wyeth's Greek ? Another instance of confusion appears at the end of the same day's journey , when we are supposed to halt on the banks of West Turkey , or Rock Greek , which is said to be a branch of the Big Blue. Now there is , by the map , a Tur key Greek flowing into the Big Blue , but it is far to the northward ; and there is a Rock Greek running into the Little Blue , on the natural way to the Little Sandy , for which we are headed ; the investigator can take his choice. Also , there are , as in the case of Walnut Greek , Turkey Greeks and Rock Greeks in abundance all over the face of Ne braska. These are mentioned merely as exam ples , to show what havoc the occupation of a country by a new class makes in its landmarks , more than would be caused by hundreds of years of continuous hab itation. The trails were discovered , or invented , by the buffalo , according to Senator Benton ; they were named by the hunters , who came after the buf falo ; and the settlers , who came after the hunters though in a different sense may have disregarded the nomencla ture of a class of men with whom they had so little sympathy , or , as is quite possible , they may have neglected the matter of naming the streams in their neighborhoods entirely , leaving that de tail for the attention of a third class , the map makers. People who spend their lives in a cir cumscribed community , like some farm ers , do not require a name for the stream near which they live. It is simply "the creek" or "the river. " Only when their range embraces several such does it be come necessary to distinguish between them. So among savage tribes , the possession ot distinctive names for na tural objects is taken as evidence of a certain degree of civilization , as giving proof of some travel and consequent culture. And even when there are ac cepted names for such things , one will often meet , among the adjacent natives , with a peculiar reluctance to admit a
