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VOL. IV. NO. 27. NEBRASKA CITY , NEBR UARY 9. 1902. SINGLE COPIES , 5 CENT ?
PUBLISHED WEEKLY.
OFFICES : OVERLAND THEATRE BLOCK.
.T. STERLING MORTON , EDITOR.
.A JOUBNAI , DEVOTED TO THE DISCUSSION
OF POLITICAL , ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGICAL
QUESTIONS.
CIRCULATION THIS WEEK , 13,975 COPIES.
TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION.
One dollar and a half per year in advance ,
postpaid to any part of the United States or
Canada. Remittances made payable to The
Morton Printing Company.
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 , 1808.
The wonderful
LEWIS AND exploration of the
CLARK. Louisiana purchase
by Lewis and Clark
began on Monday , May 14 , 1804. The
expedition set out on that date from
the mouth of Wood river , "a small
stream which empties itself into the
Mississippi , opposite to the entrance of
the Missouri. It is situated in latitude
38 degrees , 55 minutes , and 19.5 seconds
north , and longitude from Greenwich
89 degrees , 57 minutes and 45 seconds. "
And just ninety-seven years ago , that
is , on the ninth of January , 1805 , the
exploring party were housed at Fort
Mandan , and the diary is : "Wednesday ,
Jnn. 9 , 1805. The weather is cold ; the
thermometer at sunrise is 21 degrees
below zero. Ka-go-ha-mi breakfasted
with us , and Captain Clark , with three
or four men , accompanied him and a
party of Indians to hunt , in which they
were so fortunate as to kill a number of
Buffaloe ; but they were incommoded
by snow , by high and squally winds ,
and by extreme cold ; several of the
Indians came to the fort nearly frozen ,
others are missing , and we are uneasy
for one of our men , who was separated
from the rest during the chase , has not
returned. "
It is seen by the above that the
Buffalo did riot all go south during the
vvinter and that , all
Buffalo. the year round ,
grazing on the
upper Missouri was then sufficient to
subsist large herds. The extreme cold
in that camp on the morning of Janu
ary 10th , 1805 , was registered at "forty
degrees below zero or seventy-two de
grees below the freezing point. "
Telling of the sufferings of an Indian
boy thirteen years of age who had lain
out all night in the
Indian Kindness , blizzard with very
little clothing upon
him , and of an Indian who , though his
dress was very thin , "had slept on the
snow without a fire and not suffered the
slightest inconvenience" the diary
declares : "We have indeed observed
that these Indians support the rigors of
the season in a way which we had
hitherto thought impossible. A more
pleasing reflection occurred at seeing
the warm interest which the situation
of these two persons had excited in the
village ; the boy had been a prisoner and
adopted from charity , yet the distress
of the father proved that he felt for
him the tenderest affection ; the man
was a person of no distinction , yet the
whole village was full of anxiety for his
safety , and when they came to us bor
rowed a sleigh to bring them home with
ease , if they survived , or to carry their
bodies if they perished. "
Those Indians before they became
civilized 7iad kindly sympathies for
those in affliction.
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition at
St. Louis next year ought to have a
map of the Missouri river on exhibition ,
showing each of the daily journeys and
camping places of Lewis and Clark dur
ing their expedition. Perhaps a plaster
cast of the Missouri valley would be
better. And it might show the then
and the now of that stream and the
country it permeates.
In the remark-
SIXTEEN TO ably terse and
ONE. cogent "What of
the Morrow" pub
lished in the Conservative of January
2 , 1902 , over the name of 0. H. Reeve ,
of Plymouth , Indiana , there is a very
just statement as to Peter the Hermit.
And then Mr. Reeve points out in
numerable classes of Hermits who
have dreams and rave and rant as to
the future , giving out prophecies of
disasters and portents of calamities for
the whole earth. And then he comes
to the sixteeu-to-ono crusade and re
marks , as to the philosopher , states
man , soldier and orator of this state ,
who has been and is Peter the Hermit
of the Platte and platitudes.
"Finally , there came one extraordi
narily gifted witli eloquence , but with
a single impracticable idea for the
cure of all public ills , and that idea
was that , two things unequal in value
auyhere in the world , could be made
equal by local legislative enactment ;
and two principles utterly antagonistic
and irreconcilable , could be made
harmonious by the same method.
"He succeeded in turning things
upside down and they are not righted
yet , while ho continues to preach his
fallacies. "
Mr. Reeve is eighty-five years of
age and sound in body and mind , and
drawing from a vast and varied ex
perience , this able and honest citizen
gives the readers of The Conservative
a taste of old-fashioned patriotism
seasoned with wit and garnished with
wisdom. It is hoped that he may
continue to favor us with his great
and good teachings in civics.
The writers for
THEORISTS. many farm papers
are mere theorists ,
and know nothing about life on the
farm. After forty-six years' residence
on the same farm , the editor of The
Conservative concludes that the book
of his experience in agriculture , horti
culture and arboriculture is to him far
more useful than many recent publica
tions by grange officers and other
guardians of plowmen , herdsmen and
orchardists. And the returns made in
cash by the farm are not , as a rule , the
result of having followed grange advice
or having practiced the precepts laid
down by associated wisdom in any sort
of secret societies.
Are we to con
ALL RIGHT ? clude , since the
Omaha Daily Bee
has ceased to censure State Treasurer
Steuffer that he is now an honest and
efficient officer ? And if he is honest
and efficient , is it not the duty of the
Omaha Daily Bee to retract all that
it said and all that it implied as to
certain of his official acts having
been unlawful and not honest ?
The Conservative , believing in the
Bee , was led into censure of the state
treasurer because of the very direct
charges made against that officer.
And now if the Bee retracts , The Con
servative will apologize. And if the
state treasurer is innocent it is the
duty of every decent citizen and de
cent journal to uphold and defend
him.
