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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (March 27, 1902)
Conservative. cd by the frost ) also went out to hunt for something to preserve existence. Near evening wo woundpd a buffalo with three balls , but had the mortifica tion to see him run off notwithstanding. We concluded it was useless to go home to add to the general gloom , and went amongst some rooks , where we en camped , and sat up all night , as from the intense cold it was impossible to sleep : also , hungry and without cover. "January 19. We again took the field , and after crawling about one mile in the snow , got to shoot eight times among a gang of buffaloes , and could plainly perceive two or three to be badly wounded , but by accident they took the wind of usand to our great mortification were all able to run off. By this time I was become extremely weakand | faintbe ing the fourth day since we had received sustenance , the whole of which time we were marching hard , and the last night had scarcely closed our eyes to sleep. We were then inclining our course to a point of wood , determined to remain ab sent and die by ourselves rather than re turn to our camp and behold t he mis ery of our poor companions ; when we discovered a gang of buffaloes coming along at some distance. With great ex ertion I made out to run and place my self behind some cedars , and by the greatest good luck the first shot stopped oue.which we killed in three more shots , and by the dusk had cut each of us a heavy load , with which we determined to immediately proceed to the camp in order to relieve the anxiety of our men , and carry them some relief. We ar rived there about twelve o'clock , and when I throw my load down , it was with difficulty I prevented myself from falling ; I was attacked with a giddiness which lasted for some minutes. On the countenances of the men was not a frown , nor was there a desponding eye , all seemed happy to hail their officer and companions ; yet not a mouthful had they eaten for four days. On de manding what were their thoughts , the sergeant replied , the most robust had determined to sot out on the morrow in search of us , and not return unless they found us , or killed something to preserve the lives of their starving com panions. "January 20. The doctor and all the men able to march , returned to the buf falo to bring in the remainder of the meat. "On examining the feet of those who II were frozen , we found it impossible for two of them to proceed , and two others only without loads by the help of a stick. One of the former was my wait er , a promising young lad of twenty , whose feet were so badly frozen as to present every probability of his losing them. "The doctor and party returned to wards evening loaded down with buffalo meat. "January 21. I wont up to the foot of the mountain , to see what prospects there was of being able to cross it , but had not more than fairly arrived at its base when I found the snow four or five feet deep. "January 22.I furnished the two poor fellows who were to remain with ammunition , and made use of every ar gument in my power to encourage them to have fortitude to resist their fate , and gave them assurances of my send ing relief as soon as possible. "We parted , but not without tears. ' * Toward the end of February they were captured by Spaniards , which was probably their design , and taken to the city of Chihuahua. THE OTHER SIDE. Editor Conservative : In your issue of February 27th I no tice a letter from Mr. Lumbard , of Omaha , who , in speaking of the war in South Africa , says the contentions of the British in this conflict are in defensible on any grounds whatsoever , and alludes to these countries as re publics. If this article had appeared in the Commoner or some other Bryan paper , it might have been passed as a political subterfuge , for the party that has tried to ruin this country twice by debasing its currency sys tem , now tries to plunge us into war with Great Britain , because they are conquering two so-called republics. It has always seemed to me that the word republic means back to the people and that Mr. Lumbard has as sumed that any country having no monarchy must be a republic. For my part , I would choose to live-under the Czar of Russia rather \Iian under Mr. Lurnbard's friend , Paul Kruger. Mr. Lumbard says the country now being sought has never boon part of the British Empire. I maintain this territory has been under British pro tection , the same as Uganda , Egypt , and other possessions are now. I maintain further that there never were two republics in South Africa unless wo assume the following , viz : One man president for eighteen vears : no concessions to foreigners : foreigners invited to the country ; forty-two dollars allowed per head to educate Boor children ; thirty cents per head to educate the children of the foreigner ; Roman Catholics and Jews not allowed to bo citizens under any circumstances ; all dynamite used in mining taken charge of by Krugor ; heavy railway tax , etc. In fact , 999 per cent of the taxes of the Transvaal wore paid by the for- eicnor. If this is all right , why did wo complain a century and a quarter ago , when George the Third was an exact counterpart of Kruger ? Taxa tion without representation was the direct cause of this lamentable war , and while I see much to admire in the Boer , I fool that any man who will dismiss all political prejudice will admit that the men who have done most for this country and the world at largo are of British origin. Look at Canada , South Africa , Aus tralia , New Zealand ; do wo enjoy more freedom than they ? and again , let mo ask Mr. Lumbard if ho would choose to live under Paul Krnger , or bhe British flag ? One delusion Mr. Lumbard labors under is that England declared war ; al v me to say Kruger declared war , and if there had been no Krugor there would have been no war. As to Great Britain's decad ence , when she arrives at that stage it will be time to disouss it. Let mo ask Mr. Lumbard whence came this money that has carried the Boer war so far ; wore the Boers a rich na tion ? For they had the finest artil lery the world has seen. They paid high prices for some of the bes.t gen erals in Europe. To buy up the con tinental press , to pay well for speak ers to come to this country , to pay for envoys traveling Europe and America to make hatred and envy. JAMES H. HUNTER. South Omaha , Neb. , March 18 , 1902. LIFE OF GENERAL STEVENS. My first knowledge of Isaac Ingalls Stevens was obtained when I first began reading western history , when in young Mr. Edward Everett Halo's book on "Kanzas and Nebraska" I read an ex planation of the name of the South Pass ; how it was so called because it lay south of the pass found by Lewis and Clark , which Governor Stevens was then ex ploring in behalf of the government. Since that I have read more than a little of him. Still , even with some know ledge of his work in the northwest , it is a pleasure to gain such an acquaintance with the man himself as is offered in the biography just issued by his son , Gen eral Hazard Stevens. A handsome two-volume book , nicely * gotten up by Honghton , Mifflin and Co. , it tells a fascinating story of a fine character. Born in Andover in 1818 , of an old Massachusetts family with a military record ; taking first engineer honors at West Point ; serving through the Mexican war and coming home with a crippling wound ; reorganizing the Coast Survey ; electing to eat at the second table at the Washington boarding house , rather than lose his children's so ciety : demanding and obtaining in 1853 , the governorship of the new territory of Washington and charge of the survey of the northern route for a Pacific railway ; executing , with his friend George B. McLellau , that great work , on the lines now occupied in great port by the Nor th em Pacific road ; spending eight years in active work in the mountains and among the Indians of the northwest , and in congress ; and hastening to Washing ton on the outbreak of the war , and as colonel of the 79th Highlanders , dying
