8 Conservative *
Curious and
SOME OLD amusing , though
WORDS. not meant to be so ,
arc the struggles
of the early missionary-monks to turn
the scriptures from the Latin which
they loved so well into the vile jargons
1
gons that our barbarian forefathers
spoke. Many a word has changed its
I
: meaning since then , and some pas
sages are understood differently from
the way the good fathers interpreted
them. As a rule , they know nothing
of Greek , and their monastery Latin
was not that of Cicero's time.
The beverages mentioned in the
New Testament narratives seem to
have bothered them ; not for paucity
of vocabulary , our ancestors always
had drinks in sufficient variety and
names enough for them ; but to decide
which of the fluids of their acquaint
ance probably corresponded most
nearly to that designated by Holy
Writ.
In the book of Luke , certain liquids
arc named from which John the Bap
tist was to abstain. Tyndale's trans
lation , in 152(5 ( , uses the same words
that have prevailed since : "He shall
nether drynke wyne ner stronge
drynke , " says Tyndalo. Wycliffe , in
1380 , thought "wyn and sydir" were
probably about what was meant ; the
Anglo-Saxon translator , 400 years
earlier , gave his voice for "win no
beer ; " and Bishop Ulfilas , working
at it in the 4th century , set down be
sides "woiii" a liquor no doubt pop
ular among his Gothic flock in that
' ' leithu. ' '
hoary antiquity , called
"Beor" was certainly a good deal
in the minds and on the tongues of
the f the real
Anglo-Saxons Anglo-Sax
ons , who came over from Schleswig-
Holstein after the Romans left Brit
ain ) and it seems to have sat in their
councils on the day of the battle of
Hastings , or the Normans might not
have come off so well. Anyway , no
assembly had any air of joyousness to
them , from which that cherished bev
erage was t'lbsont. This is why a feast
is called in their translations a "beer-
ship , ' ' but the effect is funny some
times. "Beware of the scribes , " we
read , "who love the foremost settle
at bcerships ; " "when tliou makest a
beership , call the poor , " and so on.
It is said that the Lord's Supper is
called a beership , but the writer has
not seen the place.
Our word whisky is the Gaelic
ulsge , which means water ; uisgebealh
is living or lively water , and that is
how the word came into our language.
It is a little startling to come upon it
sometimes in a Scotch bible. "John
baptizeth you with uisflre ; " "who
drinketh of the uisye that I shall
give him shall never thirst ; " "let him
dip the tip of his finger inuixge , " are
$ a few such places.
For the fertilizer in the case of the
fig tree in the gospel of Lnko , the
translators had only to turn to the
husbandmen of their acquaintance ,
who were not at a loss for suitable
words. "Till I digge ronndo aboutc
it and it " "bo-
donge , "says Tyndale ; -
throw it with meoxe , " says the Anglo-
Saxon version , a mixoii being a dung
hill in Somerset to this day ; and ' ' til
I delve aboute it and sondo toordis"
is the language of Wycliffe , the morn
ing-star of the Reformation.
Wycliffe's expressions are often
'
strange and weird. Ho says it is pre
ferable to enter "gogil yghed" into
the kingdom of God in some cases , the
later rendering being "having one
eye ; " after the miracle of the loaves
and fishes , he says that "xii coffyns
full" of fragments wore taken up ;
his use of "Nay , I gesso" is exactly
equivalent to the colloquial "I guess
not" of today. . A. T. R.
To become very
NEGATIVE MEN. popular and to at
tain and retain ,
even for a short time , the unanimous
acclaim of the multitude in the
United States , negativism is essen
tial. The complaisant , non-combative
man who can agree , or seem to agree
with almost everybody , on almost
every question , is always a popular
man. The public life of the United
States , during the last seventy-five
years , has been luminously illustrat
ive of the success of the negative
men. Conkling was a positive , able
accomplished statesman and as a stu
dent of statecraft had few equals
among his contemporaries in congress ,
either while lie was a member of the
house or senate. To Conkling all the
tricks and compliancy , the pretence
and the subserviency of the mere
place-hunting politician were disgust
ing and nauseating. He never de
scended to the level of the negative
class of statesmen. But his bitter ,
rival , James G. Elaine , seldom rose
above it. Elaine was never any
thing else than negative at the dawn
of a new question or condition.
Elaine only became positive after a
seemingly strong public sentiment
had concentrated and expressed itself
among members of the republican
party. In that way he sometimes
posed quite successfully as a positive
character. But as a rule lie never fn-
tended to be positive on any question
which had not been positively an
swered either affirmatively or nega
tively by the republican party.
Even today there are men before the
American people who , though natur
ally negative , seem very positive.
Men sometimes misinterpret the mind ,
trend and intentions of the people
and committing themselves in accord
ance with the erroneous interpreta
tion are too negative to recant. Such
v
i * > -
men hang on to all kinds of fallacies ,
long after their repudiation by the
mass of the people whom they first
sought to conciliate and to follow ,
while posing as their leaders. The
men who have no records are usually
the most successful in partisan poli
tics. The man who has a life as
blank as a sheet of unwritten paper is
not so easily criticised as one whoso
entire existence has been of strenu
ous endeavors and ceaseless struggles.
A lawyer without a client , a states
man without a statute , a soldier with
out a battle , a financier without a dollar
lar , a philanthropist without a single
human being bettered by his works ,
or a general counsel and solicitor giv
ing advice never asked for , is al
ways invulnerable to assaults , be
cause ho has made no positive and
only a negative record.
Many years ago
GET MONEY FROM before the soil of
THE STATE. Nebraska had been
proven capable of
producing apples , plums , pears , , cher
ries and other fruits common to this
latitude , some pioneer pomologists ,
Masters , Donohoe , Gilmore , Allen ,
Furnas , Grinnell and others , formed
a Nebraska horticultural society.
Those ardent and industrious friends
and promoters of fruit growing met
twice a year. The meetings wore in
January and September. At the form
er the flavor , keeping , quality ( and
hardiness of the tree ) , of each kind of
apple were discussed. Experiences
were compared. Careful observations
upon the habit and growth of each
variety were submitted.
At the September meetings , which
wore generally held at an orchard
agreed upon , the debates and deduc
tions were illustrated by the trees
and their fruition.
That ancient organization for en
couraging and promoting the cultiva
tion of orchards and the production
of fruit in Nebraska did an intelligent -
gent , useful and patriotic work. That
organization was the primary cause
of every fruit farm now flourishing
in this state. But it subsisted and
flourished and accomplished without
becoming a charge upon the public
revenues.
Then the amateur as well as the
adept in horticulture gave time , ex
perience and mon-
Then and Now. oy to the advance
ment of that beau
tiful and satisfying branch of rural
industry. Then for such work no
public funds wore demanded. Then
demonstrating by cultivation , the
value of Nebraska land for fruit pro-
dution was a work of altruism , freely
contributed to the general welfare.
Then the experiences , experiments ,
failures and successes of pioneer horticulturists
ticulturists were valuable and prec-
