Che Conservative.
VOL. III. NO. 39. NEBRASKA CITY , NEBRASKA , APRIL 4 , 1901. SINGLE COPIES , 5 CENTS.
rUBMBIIED WEEKLY.
OFFICES : OVERLAND THEATRE BLOCK.
J. STERLING MORTON , EDITOR.
A JOUHNAI , DEVOTED TO TOE DISCUSSION
OF POLITIOAIi , ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGIOAIj
QUESTIONS.
CIRCULATION THIS WEEK , 10,000 COPIES.
TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION.
One dollar and a half per year in advance ,
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Address , THE CONSERVATIVE , Nebraska
City , Nebraska.
Advertising rates made known upon appli
cation.
* Entered at the postofflce at Nebraska City ,
Neb. , as Second Class matter , July 29 , 1898.
On Thursday ,
ARBOR DAY ISSUE. April llth , 1901 ,
THE CONSERVA
TIVE will issue a number devoted to
arboriculture and forestry.
Arbor day comes this year on Monday ,
April 22nd , and it is intended to fill THE
CONSERVATIVE of the llth with instruc
tive and interesting matter for its com
memoration and practical observance.
Superintendents of schools and teach
ers in all the counties and school districts
of the state should become readers of
THE CONSERVATIVE because it is the
only periodical in Nebraska making a
specialty of tree-planting and forest
conservation.
There has been
TWO MORE so much maudlin
COMMON PEOPLE , oratory relative to
the impossible
barriers which no plain , poor youth can
surmount , that plutocracy has erected
across the paths which lead to political
or other preferment in this great repub
lic , that THE CONSERVATIVE points with
pride to the origins and careers of O. H.
Dietrich and J. H. Millard , who were
elected United States senators from Ne
braska , on March 28th , 1901. The only
doubt about these gentlemen as repre
sentatives of industrious , strenuous-
breeds of men arises when one wonders
whether there can be , honestly and
truly , any genuinely "common people"
except among the Bryanarchists ? Can
any man be a "plain people" person and
not vote for 16 to 1 , the initiative and
referendum , and all other vagaries and
discontentments compacted , contracted ,
impacted and enlanguaged in the single
word , Bryanarchy ?
The State Journal of March 29th ,
says : *
" 0. H. Dietrich is a self-made man ,
one of those typical Americans who
have fought their
C. H. Dietrich. way single-handed
from obscure
poverty to a competence and positions
of honor and trust. His parents were
both natives of Germany. His father
was a shoemaker who had worked up a
good business in the town in which he
lived , but on 'account of his radical es
pousal of the cause of the patriots of
1848 he was forced to flee his native
laud in disguise. His wife , with seven
small children , followed him a year
later , but the father had landed in Que
bec , and the mother landed in New Or
leans. They were very poor and the
story of their long search for each other
is as pathetic as the similar history of
the exiled Acadian peasants.
"After a year of struggle they finally
met at St. Louis and together worked
their way to Chicago. Here the father
found intermittent work at his trade
and the mother took in washing , all the
water and wood used being carried from
the lake half a mile away.
"In 1858 , during a driving snow storm
which piled the snow in drifts upon the
floor of their wretched home , Charles
Henry Dietrich , the subject of this
sketch was born , and was baptized in
the German Lutheran church.
"The industry and thrift which char
acterize the German people began to
conquer adverse conditions and the cir
cumstances of the family improved , but
there were many mouths to feed and at
the age of nine Charles began to work
at anything he could find to do. At
twelve he left school for good and
worked out among the farmers near
Aurora till he was sixteen , when .he
went to St. Joe , Mo. , and worked for the
Wyeth Hardware company for three
years. He went to Chicago and engaged
in the same business till 1878 , when
having saved a small capital , he decided
to remove to Arkansas and venture into
business for himself.
"But fate ruled otherwise , for while
traveling through Arkansas he was set
upon by highwaymen , robbed of all ho
possessed and left in a nearly dying con
dition. There he was penniless , in a
strange land , with the battle to be
fought all over ; but nothing daunted ,
he went to work for O. P. B. Breoken-
ridge on a plantation , rebuilding cabins
and fences , afterwards cutting cypress
logs in the swamps. If any man im
agines that cutting cypress logs all day
under a southern sky is easy work let
him try it , but Mr. Dietrich remained
at it six months. He then went back to
Aurora and worked at the blacksmith
trade for a year.
"In the winter of 1875-76 with-just
$126 in the world , he started for the
Black Hills. He bought the necessary
supplies at Cheyenne and walked to
Deadwood , passing through the famous
Bed canyon where so many people were
murdered by the Indians.
"At Deadwood he cut logs and helped
to build the pioneer store of that place
and for a long time he delivered mer
chandise for this store on pack animals
throughout the Black Hills. Much of
the delivery had to be done at night to
avoid danger from the Indians. He was
also one of the locators of Spearfish.
"Mr. Dietrich is of
a man great physi
cal strength and courage and these two
qualities stood him in good stead during
his pioneer experience. Several times
his own life and that of his companions
have been saved by the exercise of these
traits , and , be it said to his credit , he is
as generous as he is brave. Few men ,
perhaps , have endured the hardships
and privations and passed through the
thrilling experiences that have been his
lot.
"In 1877 Mr. Dietrich , in company
with others , located the Aurora mine ,
which was made famous in the early
days by the many fights that were made
over it and the frequent attempts to dis
possess the original owner.
"In the spring of 1878 Mr. Dietrich
sold his share to Brown & Thumb ,
bankers of Deadwood , Boscoe Conklin
and T. 0. Platt of New York , and Senator -
tor George E. Spencer of Alabama , for
a good round sum , which gave him his
start in life. The following Septem
ber he located in Hastings , Nebraska ,
and engaged in the mercantile
business. In the early days , when
customs were decidedly primitive in
Hastings , Mr. Dietrich worked in his
store all day and in the evening he took
a wheelbarrow and delivered his goods.
From that time till now he has always
stood in the front rank of those who
tried to build up their town and their
state. He was instrumental in organiz
ing the German National bank of
Hastings , of which he is president. He
has given unsparingly both of time and
money toward all business enterprises ,
which he deemed to be for the benefit of
his town.
"Church and charitable organizations
have always found him a liberal con
tributor , but the recipients of his private
bounty are without number.
"But while Mr. Dietrich is generous ,
he is also just , two qualities that , un
fortunately do not always go together. "
The editor of THE CONSERVATIVE has
known Mr. Millard personally since
1858 , and always
J. H. Millara. as an honorably
dealing man of
affairs. , His cautious kindness in loan
ing us money from the firm of Barrows
