Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (June 21, 1900)
Conservative. ably rainy season. Prices are lower today than I have over kiiowu thorn iu the Transvaal. When Jameson crossed the border , four years ago , forage was $32 50 per hundred bundles ; today it is $6.25 per hundred bundles. Potatoes have fallen from $11.25 to $0.75 the bag. To its own astonishment the Transvaal has emerged from the battle smoke an agricultural country. In war time , in the face of a possible siege , prices in Pretoria are less than one-half of those current in Buluwayo. Forage is $18.76 in Buluwayo , but only $0.25 in Pretoria ; Boor meal is sold at $18.75 in Buluwayo , but fetches only $6.55 in Pretoria. I saw bags of potatoes change hands today at $3.75 the bag , when the price in Buluwayo is $45. Whatever else may fail them , the food supply is assured. " The extraordinarily favorable season which-has marked this year of war has seemed to the Boer women a direct evidence of the hand of God : "They remember that the year of the raid was the blackest in the country's history , with its miserable tale of drought , rinderpest , and locusts ; and they joyously proclaim the difference from this year of plenty. In every phase of this struggle one nnist recog nize the religious fervor of the people , and , without a full understanding of it , no one can realize the forces at work within the republic. The Transvaalers believe themselves engaged in a holy war , and the fact is one which the statesmen who arrange the final settle ment may not neglect. Every night the people meet in the big church on the Kerk Square , a vast congregation of women and children , with such of the men as can be present there. Wounded burghers from the front and those on furlough sprinkle the audience. They attend the service as they would a war- council , and esteem their predikant as they would a well-tried general. The war seems to have burned out in great part the influences of the gold rush , and the people are become simple as in their pastoral days. " Meantime there is neither death nor desolation iu the silent dorps and farm houses : "Boer women are carrying on the work of their sons and husbands , direct ing the Kaffir labor , and themselves driving to market as goodly loads as ever were seen there in peace times. But it is quietly done. There are vacant chairs and dusty , uuteuanted velsohoen to still the heedless laugh and to set the sad-eyed vrouw bustling about unneces sary duties when the children grow noisy or the Hottentot kitchen help shouts across the yard. They are not beautiful , these Boer women , nor promising candidates for romantic treat ment , but I have seen enough to know their practical value in the land. On them falls the slow sorrow of the times. The politics of the war were in other yaw hands , but the prosecution of it rests in great part with the women. Had they not taken the direction of the farms into their own hands famine would now be staring the country in the face instead of well-filled granaries and forage sheds. While the ladies of England have been employed devising comforts for the troops the Boor women have busied themselves with getting in the mealies and digging up the potato crops. The same woman's heart beats with the same divine compassion under the Boer vrouw's lyfje as under the daintiest vestment from Worth. This is a war of the Oromwellian period. The men at the front may be degenerated Oalviuists , may have all the vices of the century- end ; but the women are simple in the faith , and their faith kept the men in their trenches at Ooleuso and at Spiou Kop. When the history of this war is writ ten , the influence of Boer women will de mand a special place. They have been single-hearted in their determination to maintain the independence , and have not faltered in giving their dearest to its defense. I saw one woman turn dry- eyed from the train at Pretoria , with the hoarse whisper : 'He is the fourth son I have lost for Land en Volk since Elandslaagte. God preserve the re public ! ' " "With such , " concludes Mr. Story , "lie the prosecution of the war and the difficulty of settlement. Paul Krnger has not only the back-country Boers to wrestle with ; he has the women in and around Pretoria , who dog his steps and exhort him to remember the sacred cause the people have sworn to defend. Their influence ennobles patriotism , but it makes policy vastly more difficult. " The Argonaut. LITERARY NOTE. The title of Miss Johnston's romance of early Virginia is one that readily lends itself to popular paraphrase , and the cartoonists of the daily newspapers , as well as some advertisement writers , have been quick to perceive its effective ness in this direction and to make use of it. The uses to which it has been put have ranged from service as the title line of a cartoon on the president down to the "catch line" of a department store advertisement. It is related that a child entered the Providence Library a few days ago and asked for a book for her mother , preferably "that novel of Mary Johnston's called 'To Get and To Keep. ' " THE BISHOP AND HIS SON. New York , May 8. Bishop Potter , speaking last night at the annual dinner of the New York commandery of the Loyal Legion of the United States at Delmonico's , said that his mind had not undergone any radical change concern ing the Philippines since his return to the United States. Ho thus illustrated his views : "If my sou should come to me and say he proposed to marry a young Tagal woman with seven children , I should all him a great big ass. But if he came to me and said he had already contracted such a marriage , I would still try to sustain intimate relations with him. "No , gentlemen , what we have done has established just such a relation as this , and it would be a source of national mortification if we gave up our respon sibilities because we find them difficult. " Associated Press Dispatch. Son "Dear papa , what would you say if I told you that I was matrimon ially engaged to a Tagal widow with seven children ? " The Bishop "My son , I should say that you were an ass. " Son "But , papa dear , I must , how ever , regretfully tell you that I have already married her. " The Bishop "Well , then , my boy , the wisdom or unwisdom of your mar riage is a purely academic question. We must all make thobest of it. You will do your duty as a man. You surely would not mortify mo by giving up your responsibilities because you find them difficult. Your matrimonial obligations will probably develop in you what my friend Roosevelt calls 'the strenuous life. ' " Son "But , papa , I must unburden the whole truth. I found the widow most unwillingly married to a Spaniard. I drove him away at the point of the sword. The widow overflowed with gratitude. She called me her 'redeemer. ' She frankly told me that for years and years she had been iu love , and in love unto death , with a man whose name has a strangely familiar American sound. It is Mr. Independence. None the less I compelled her to marry me by force and violence. Now she hates me. Her chil dren hate me. They are all eager tote to kill me on sight. In consequence , I was forced to shoot some of the children in self-defense. But , as you said , it is only an academic question. I cannot retreat. If I give her up some other foreigner might force his attentions on her. And besides I think she is rich. " The Bishop "My son , my son , can you not see what my friend McKinley calls 'a plain duty ? ' Are not the divorce courts open ? I would not perpetrate a pun in such an hour , but have you for gotten the scriptural verse : 'Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor , and another unto dishonor , ' My son , a moment ago I thought you a great big ass. Now I am constrained to call yon a revolting monster. " Louis B. EnniOH. Colorado Springs , Oolo. '
