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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 7, 1901)
Conservative. and proceed to go under zo house and it catch I could not , and I am BO compel ze old dog to kill and him to cook. " Instantly Colonel Gil more was up out of the room , onto the piazza and hanging over the railing thereof mimicking a sea sick passenger at the gunwale of a ship. Other stomachs were uneasy as though a dog-fight were proceeding within their inner sanctuaries. But the excitement abated and the host explained that the stew , of which we had partaken so lavishly , was made of prime mutton , although a dog feast was the highest honor possible to tender aboriginals of real distinction. Antoine had been coached and trained for the farce and played his part with genius and skill. Colonel Sarpy declared that the hoax was merely to initiate the Easterners into Western methods and to demonstrate the power of mind over matter , of the imagination over the gorge and stomach. He was a grim joker as all his guests then and there agreed. When THE CONSERVATIVE THE COMMON PEOPLE. SERVATIVE came to the Territory of Nebraska in 1854 there was an active , ambitions , intelligent young man of very industrious habits clerking in the dry goods store of Potter Palmer in the city of Chicago , which then claimed a population of forty-five thousand. The young man was of a very good Massa chusetts family and had been brought self-reliance self-denial and self- up to - , - - respect. He had never been taught to depend upon legislation or agitation for subsistence , but to rely upon his own efforts , good habits , frugality and honesty. Personally this splendid repre sentative of the common people has been known to THE CONSERVATIVE for about a quarter of a century and in that time the former clerk of Potter Palmer has developed into the greatest merchant of Chicago , of New York , and of the United States Marshall Field. His benefactions to the Field Columbian Museum have cost him about three millions of dollars and in many other laudable ways he has bestowed judi ciously his wealth for the education and elevation of the American people. By demagogues Mr. Field is denounced as a hard-headed , tight-fisted plutocrat. And how much have the leaders , who denounce Field and pose as the people's only friends , accomplished for the com mon weal ? Where are the museums , _ ythe libraries , the hospitals , the homes for the indigent aged and the asylums for the friendless , which these mouth- philanthropists have established in this great republic ? The emotional orator who condemns everything of a social , political or com mercial character now existing , and advocates the institution of only the perfectly illogical , impracticable and impossible is not a good leader for the plain people. He belongs to the un common people who always damn every thing that is and laud that which is not and never can be. Mr. Field is as admirable an illustra tion of the common people in commer cial as Mr. Lincoln was their highest possibility in political life. They need no guardians save their own consciences and their own intelligent industry. * REDUCTION OF WAR TAXES. tle possibility of the senate acting at this session in the matter of reducing the war taxes. In his annual message the president recommended a reduction of $80,000,000 in the revenues of the government. A bill was introduced and passed the house of representatives making a reduction of $40,000,000. This bill has been severely criticised on the ground that it left the tax upon many articles where it should have been removed and took it off in many in stances where it should have remained. As an illustration the tax on beer and tobacco was materially reduced , virtually giving about $14,000,000 to the brewers and $8,000,000 to the tobacco interests. While there are no doubt more worthy beneficiaries of the government's favor than the makers of beer and the dealers in tobacco , it would still be better to pass the house bill than to permit the accumulation of surplus to be given away to foster private interests. The insistence of Senator Frye upon immediate action upon the ship-subsidy bill and the urgent demand for the con sideration of the Spooner bill for civil government in the Philippines , both of which are administration measures , will so completely occupy this session that there will be slight possibility of agree ment upon a measure to reduce the war taxes. Then , too , conditions have changed somewhat since the opening of the session. If the many propositions now before congress , involving a material increase in the expenditures of the government , receive favorable action there will not be any surplus to reduce. POISON AND ANTIDOTE.monfc Tribune THE CONSERVATIVE copies this prescription : "Every reader of Mr. Bryan's new paper will have to become a reader of Mr. Morton's paper. " We quote in a manner similar to that used by some distinguished spellbinders when , for personal and political pro motion , they snatch words from the works of Lincoln. But everybody knows that whisky or other stimulants of quick-action , must be administered soon after a snake bite if the patient is to be saved. The circulation of thoughts by THE CONSERVATIVE is , when com pared to the commoner weeklies , at the ratio of sixteen-to-one. It is a panacea for , political maladies. It tones up the reason. It allays fallacies. It gives vigor to the mind's muscles. It sharpens the eyes of the intellect. It shows how to dissect , analyze , exposeand , pulverize the parvenu in partisan politics. Take one every week. ° r6aU r6- HIS CHRISTMAS. , - twenty-five years ago THE CONSERVATIVE heard an affec tionate and thoughtful mother ask her youngest son , then about ten years of age , what he desired for the Christmas time which was near at hand. And the answer came quickly : ' 'If you will let me have five dollars to buy things for poor old Grandma Blank and the little orphaned children whom she is trying to take care of in that old and cold shanty on the west edge of town I will ask no Christmas presents from anybody nor want any. " Never shall the look of gratitude and triumph which flashed through the big tearful eyes of that boy , when his com petent and judicious mother handed him the required sum , be forgotten. It was a forecast of the generous goodness that was to illumine , with kindly and benevolent acts , his whole life. Never shall be forgotten the eagerness with which he sped into town and down to the store of Mr. Robert Hawke to invest his own mother- given money , and other money which he had begged , in substantial foods and raiment for the poor old woman and her grandchildren. Never shall fade the memory of the light and glory that shone out of those brown eyes , when the boy came home and told the story of the delivery of his presents and the gratitude and up-lifting of their re cipients. Thus self-denial was a primary lesson , solved and demonstrated to be good and ennobling to human nature , in the years of his youth. And now when the record of his brief and brave , loving and useful life has been closed forever , that act of charity and thoughtfuluess for the happiness of others shines in the memory of his father like the morning star in a beautiful sky , tranquilly tell ing the truth as to the coming day and its ineffable brightness. For more than twenty-five years an irrepressible sympathy for the distressed , and helpful and generous aid to those in trouble and affliction , made Carl Morton a benefactor and an honor to the efficient and stately mother who gave him birth. Carl did nothing in all his career which those who knew and loved him wish to forget. The signals from EXPLAINED. the planet Mars have been satisfactorily explained. They were made by the populists of that world who wished to subscribe for the new periodical just started , at Lincoln , Nebraska , U. S. A. , by a valorous and militant son of Mars.