- *
.
Conservative. 11
returns have been received to show that
the totals for the two parties yesterday
will not vnry materially from 74,500
republican and -12,000 democratic. This
would be a republican plurality of 82-
500 , as against 48,877 in 1800 , 12,522 in
1802 , 18,048 in 1888 , and 10,851 in 1884.
Taking the figures from 1884 to 1000 ,
and using such as they like , party
organs on either side can draw conclu
sions which are entirely satisfactory to
the supporters of either MoKiuley or
Bryan. Republicans will point out that
the plurality for their party this year is
far beyond any precedent except in the
unprecedented campaign of 1800. Bry-
anites will point out that the republican
vote has fallen off about 10 per cent. ,
while the democratic has increased
about 22 per cent. , and by applying
these ratios to other states , will easily
carry the electoral college for Bryan.
Neither seems a fair test. What it ap
pears reasonable to say is that the
republican vote has settled back some
what below its normal proportions when
the party is at its best , 74,500 , as against
about 70,000 in 1884 and 1888 , while the
democratic Of 42,000 is very much more
short of the range between 55,000 and
6 1 , 000 from 1884 to 1892.
Many Democrats Still Unfriendly to
The result justifies the indications of
the canvass. That developed nothing
like the interest or enthusiasm , on the
republican side that there was four
years ago , and it was correspondingly
hard to get voters to the polls. On the
other hand , while the democratic ma
chine was in much better running order
this time than four years ago , and lists
could be printed of prominent democrats
who had returned to the fold , it was
"clear enough before election day that a
large element of life-long democrats
will never support the party so long as
Bryauism stands for democracy. That
seems the real moral of the result in
Maine , us in Vermont that whether
the financial question be the "immedi
ate" one , as McKiuley puts it , or imper
ialism the "paramount" one , as his rival
claims , the real issue with the masses of
voters is what all recognize as Bryauism.
While that stands for democracy , a
great many partisans who believed in
the principles of Tildeu and Cleveland
will stay away from the polls , while
most republicans , however much they
dissent from McKinleyisin , are ready to
accept it as the only way in which they
can escape what they detest still more.
The real moral of the Maine election
is the same which the Evening Post
drew from the voting in Vermont last
week , that the republicans can carry the
country for McKinley in November by
hard work , but that they cannot repeat
the "scare" of 1890 and frighten a host
of democrats into supporting their can
didate. Little heart is felt in the cam-
paign by the mass of voters on either
side , and no approach to the MoKiuley
majorities of 1800 is anywhere possible ,
while if the republican managers were
to suspend the most earnest efforts to
overcome the apathy which evidently
exists , the Bryanites might come out
ahead next November. Evening Post.
Up to date Qrovor Cleveland has de
clined to lend any aid or comfort to the
men who denounced him as a traitor to
his own party because he , more than
any other member of that party , insisted
on being true to its essential principles
and doctrines. Davenport Democrat.
REMINISCENCES OF A PIONEER.
EDITOU CONSEUVATIVE :
Many a year is in its grave since I
descended into the valley of Salt Creek
on the outside of a Missouri mule , and
crossed its restless wave. That was in
the year 1868. There was not even a
farm in sight from the- highest hills
around Lincoln. We camped , that dis
tant year , at the crossing near the pre
sent site of the asylum. No hint , in
any dream of mine that night , was
given me that in my time a beautiful
city would arise at this point. No mat
ter how wild and fevered might have
been my dreams they scarcely could
have equalled the reality of this day.
Today was fair and cool , a very bridal
day of the earth and sky. The streets
were alive with extraordinarily thrifty-
looking people. I saw no poor nor in
ferior-looking horses , no shabby , ill-kept
harness , and nearly every vehicle was
in irreproachable keeping. A fine-look
ing set of people they are too , girls of
rosy cheeks , and goodly , graceful forms ,
and matrons of comely countenances ,
and men evidently from thrifty homes.
Then with the teeming stores and mar
kets , the many cars and freight depots ,
and the great university here , I could
not but recall the earliest telegraph
message : "What hath God wrought. "
What wonder is it , in the presence of
miracles like this , that cunning men rise
up and seek to take toll from the dwell
ers on these fertile plains far beyond
what is just or necessary and call it
"protection. " "What a people to
plunder ! " George the First would say ,
were he here , but he would do it in the
name of protection. Had the versatile
and vigorous young man , who so ably
debated the McKinley bill , in 1891-2
stuck to his original task , as Oobden and
Bright stuck to theirs , he would have
fulfilled a better fate than that which
awaits him ; for he must fall upon the
evil fame and days of the false prophet ,
and "the deluderer of men , " as Father
Tom called the pope , while enjoying
that fine old Irish whiskey which he
carried with him to Borne that famous
distillation which , new to His Holiness ,
BO overcame him with its aroma at the
very start , that he exclaimed : "Howly
Virgin ! but it has the divine smell , "
and crossed himself five or six times
band running. However , that was in
the days when popes wore not ascetics ,
as now.
One thing here leads mo to fear that
Mr. Bryan is the Mrs. Jellaby of politics.
While he is abroad trying to bring about
an average on dinners , or rather to fix
the maximum at a dollar , ho has loft the
minimum to take care of itself , just as
Mrs. Jellaby left her own children to
take oaro of themselves , while she looked
after the darkened ones of Boorioboo-
laga. The minimum dinner here , with
in Bryan's very gates , is ten cents , and
comes perilously near to five cents , for I
saw a sign on an humble street corner
stand "try my five-cent chicken lunch"
a darky proprietor by the way. In
Mr. Bryan's name , I tried a toncent
dinner , and it was very good. Soup ,
one meat , two vegetables , butter , bread
and coffee. "Here , " said I , "is a task
worthy of the prophet of sighing and
lamentation. Let him adorn himself
with a new and moro startling "scare-
head , " and cry out upon the ten-cent
dinner , for even political pot-hunters
are getting great wages for going about
"imagining wicked things. " Here is a
real danger no wind-mill , no man of
straw at which to tilt. No nation can
live on ten-cent dinners.
But once more let us return to "Fair
Lincoln , " and muse the praise of the
pioneers who laid the foundations of
this fair young state so long ago and yet
but yesterday. Theirs was a faith which
fed at full fountains , for it was strong ,
and endured much. Nothing should be
too good for the men who fought the
fight and kept the faith , when this was
"a far country , " that here , within their
three-score years , there should be more
than a million of as prosperous and
happy people as can be found in all the
circle of the sun.
"They rise to mastery of wind und snow ;
They go like soldiers grimly into strife
To colonize the plain ; they plow and sow
And fertilize the plain with their own life ,
As did the Indian and the buffalo. "
POSEY S. WILSON.
Lincoln , Neb. , Sept. 15 , 1900.
. KVKKKTT ON WKYAN.
Dr. William. Everett , says :
' 'He has tried to set section against
section , state against state , class against
class , and nation against nation. There
never was a man whose utterances and
whose measures breathed more of a
spirit of rivalry and antagonism , and of
that kind of civil war , the war of class
and sections , which is worse for us than
any external war. * * * I fear that
the causes that made us fear the demo
cratic party four years ago the fear
that he would wreck the business in
terests of the country ; the fear that ho
would set the farmers against the mer
chants ; the fear that he would set the
west against ; the east ; the fear that he
would have a firebrand going all through
the country ore not yet dead , are not
removed. "