I&JW. . . * ; f & > 5r
4 The Conservative *
THE BROKEN VASE.
What fallen I Crushed I The graceful form
Broken , ruined I There It lies.
Alas I What though It was but small and
frail ,
I loved It. Wo all will prize ,
Will make us shrines of trifling things
That come on drifts of fortune's tide
To store among the heart's best gifts
Some thoughts of pleasure that abide.
Such wealth of beauty decked this vase.
Above its curving , leaf like top
Each year the short-lived roses hung ,
And let their leaves of crimson drop
To mark the flight of summer days ;
There lilies rose like white-souled maids ,
And pansies'called for touch of lips
Upon their purple , velvet shades.
Throughout the great , wide-spreading earth
With all its mighty space ,
Was there no spot for ruin's touch
Except the cherished little place
Where stood this slender , fragile form
Which now lies shattered ? Scattered o'er
The rug's dark surface , gleaming like
Mosaics on the polished floor ,
Are its fragments , all alight
With a tint of sunset hue ,
Worthless as are blighted joys
Or baffled hopes , o'ercost by rue
To lie downtrodden in the dust
Of time , in ashes strewn by sorrow's hand ,
While hearts , perplexed , see visions pale
Aud , grieving , fail to understand.
MAKY FRENCH MORTON.
ONLY ONCE.
Will the readers of The Conservative
bear with the editor "for once , " if a
'personal experience involving the break
ing of the Sabbath into smithereens is
submitted for their perusal ? On Feb
ruary 9th , 1902 , it being Sunday , we
were detained in the ancient .Spanish
city of Chihuahua , while enroute to
the City of Mexico. This important
mart of the Mexican Republic was
founded in 1589 , by Diego de Ybarra.
The name is pronounced Oho-wow-wa ,
and it means "a place where things are
made. "
Piety in Variety.
Early in the morning the aisles of the
church of San Francisco were thronged
with devout worshipers. The edifice is
elaborately and extravagantly orna
mented. It glows in those barbaric
colorings , and resplendent gildings
which have been so dear to the Moorish
and Spanish eyes in all ages. Its con
struction began in 1717 , and its com
pletion was in 1789. It has been con
stantly in use , and numbers thousands
of communicants who believe , as their
ancestors of three hundred years ago
believed , having abated nothing , and
added nothing to their declaration of
creed. But from the Cathedral services
to the high betting of the cook-pit , the
devotees of the former make only a
hop-skip-and-jump. And their zeal at
the Cathedral is more than equalled by
their enthusiasm at the cook-pit. It
happened that on Sunday , February 9 ,
1903 , the closing contests of a cocking-
main between the States of Dnraugo
and Chihuahua which was made of
forty-one fights came off , and so our
party saw the deciding battles , five in
number , between very game roosters.
The stake fought for by the two states
was $25,000 Mexican money. The
side betting amounted to many thou
sands of dollars. We saw single bets of
$5,000 , dozens of bets at from fifty to
five hundred dollars , and the money all
in sight , and all promptly paid over as
battles were lost and won.
Chihuahua seemed to have the best
birds or the best luck , and the main was
won for that city and state. There
were about one thousand spectators ,
and the interest , and exhilarated bet-
tingness of the crowd , surpassed , in ac
centuated mania for gambling , anything
ever dreamed of by the sporting gentle
men of the United States. A. Durango
plutocrat , the owner of a rich and very
productive mine , proposed another
cocking main between the two states
for one million of dollars. Whether the
cheapness of Mexican currency , as to
its purchasing power , has any influence
upon the gambling conditions of the
people , it is difficult to determine. We
have changed United States one dollar
for two dollars and a quarter of Mexi
can. That is to say , for one hundred
dollars of our money you receive two
hundred and twenty-five dollars of
Mexican.
Common peon labor is thirty cents a
day in Mexican , and less than fifteen
cents a day in American currency. The
intelligent watch markets. They read
and think and take advantage of the
fluctuations of the purchasing power of
silver. But the ignorant , the reading-
less , and the thoughtless are the poorest ,
most squalid and degraded of all the
earth. The rich are very rich , and the
poor are very , very poor. There seems
no future for those who are born into
this wretched , naked , starving poverty.
The Breed.
The race is bred as by brutes , and
without any forethought as to the kind
of children , physically or mentally ,
which are to come into the world/ The
Mexican is a mixture of Indian and
Spaniard , with now and then negro
and West Indian blood intermingling.
And in a climate almost tropical , where
nature , by spontaneity furnishes enough
fruit and food for an indolent and un
ambitious race , and little clothing is re
quired , such a people , as a rule , make
no effort to advance or elevate them
selves. It is a deteriorating , down-grade
mass of men and women who consti
tute "the plain people" of this Repub
lic , and it takes at least sixteen of them
to equal , bodily , or in intellectual force ,
one well-born , well-read and well-fed
American.
On Purpose.
. There are relatively few men and
women in all the world who were be
gotten on purpose , who are not the
mere resultant incident of sexuality.
And in Mexico , among the peons , nearly
all of the children look like accidents ,
which came to the parents as afflictions ,
as additional burdens to bear through
their sombre journey of life , lamented
for the coming ; and whose entire pre
natal existence was environed with
poverty , sadness and hopelessness , can
not meet and match one whose concep
tion is in happiness and plenty , whose
birth is looked to with great joy , and ,
with all that sacred eagerness for
parenthood , which intelligence , health
and a Home can alone inspire , in a bet
ter race.
People who accomplish things in this
world are those who were wanted in
this world , by waiting , loving and am
bitious fathers and mothers. There are
few such among the lower classes of
Mexico. The two things left to them
by the Spaniards are the Cathedral and
the bull ring , or plaza. Anything which
is bad the Mexicans inherited , anything
that is good among them has been
acquired as against the inexorable laws
of evolution and heredity. J. S. M.
City of Mexico , February 15 , 1902.
It having been
YELLOW LAW. decided that it is a
fraud to sell oleo
margarine , colored to imitate butter ,
it is now in order to forbid the selling
of lard unless it be wrapped , branded
and colored in a manner that will
distinguish it from oleomargarine. As
every pound of farmers' butter which
reaches the eastern market from the
west , has to be worked over and
colored to make it marketable , per
haps it would be well to color it a
bright green with pink trimmings , in
order to distinguish it from the real
creamery article , which has a monopoly
ely of yellow as a distinguishing
mark.
Of the 558,720
ARTIFICIAL acres included in
FORESTATION. the proposed Ne
braska forest re
serves , less than one per cent is held
under private claim. The laud is the
very worst of the sandhill region , is
nearly unfit for grazing , as it takes
about forty acres of it to support a
single animal through an ordinary
season , of course it is absolutely un
suitable for agriculture.
Strange to say , this land has been
found adapted to the culture of several
varieties of pine , and may grow to beef
of great value commercially , and an
ornament to the state , instead of a
barren and desolate waste.
According to the advice of the
attorney general , the president has
authority to withdraw this land from
settlement. Should he see fit to dose
so , he would have the support of all
Nebraskaus who. would see the
desert blossom as a rose.
