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.
