Indiana American. [volume] (Brookville, Ind.) 1833-1861, 1857-08-21

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which ended with the spring term OF
1890, when became u candidate Tor
Congress, and resigned, Amos Lane
was appointed my sueeeanor, The
most Of the aketohea that Will yet DO
given aro Of after occurrences,
My competitor for Congress IN 1896
John Test, was one Of the hrnt men
In the State, had been on tho bench,
was u fine lawyer, good speaker,
and had represented tho district three
full terms. The contest on my part,
looked NJ first almost hopeless, The
stump spenklng was Just coming into
fashion. The people mel our appoint.
monts by thousands, The judge had
his high character 10 mid him, and !
brought TO my aid strong voice.
reaching to the very extremes OF the
largest crowds. The Judge went for
tho graduation OF the public lands,
and went for homo gifts TO actual
settlers. My poaition was the most
acceptable 70 the masses, We met In
Allenvillo, Switzerland county, on
enc occasion, The whole county was
thcro. The Judge was speaking, and
for tho first time introduced tho now
subject Of railroads, lilo ayowed
himself m favor of thom, and said he
had voted for tho Buffalo and Now
Orleans road, aud then rising TO the
top of his voice, 81 toll you, follow
citizens, that In England they run the
cars thirty mIles an hour, and they
will yet be run alta higher speed In
America" This was enough The
crowd set up n loud laugh ut the ex-
pense of the Judge. An old fellow
who was standing by me bawled out,
care you crazy, or do you think
we are NIL fools2 A man could notlive
n minute at that speed The day
was mino. The Judge, had ruined his
prospects by telling such an improb-
able story on that day On another
occasion the Judge was speaking In
favor of the tariff, in the highest OF
terms The people knew but little
about il, but what they knew was
decidedly against II. Few knew the
meaning Of the word, and fewor what
il was like. One old fellow said he
had never seen one, but he believed
il twas hard on sheep"
PERILs OF A CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN.
There was fun in those days. We
had no parties then, and there was
some life in a contest, very different
from after times, when the candidates
had TO be engrafted into the party
stock, and drew all their life and
strength from tho party to which
they belonged. On one occasion in
after years, was speaking at bat
tallion muster in Ripley county, and
had spoken over two hours. ] MOTTO
ed an old man leaning against tree
in front Of me. As l closed he roar
ed out: "Mr. Smith, you have made
one of the best speeches that l ever
heard. agree with all you have
said. Will you answer me one ques.
tion pefore you leave the stand?"-
"Most certainly "Will you vote
for General Jackson mo sir, /
shall vote for Henry Clay "Then
you can't get my vote The ques-
tion was between Jackson and Clay,
and not between myself and compet-
itor, as to who should go to Congress,
with the old man then, The contest
grew warm, and grew more and more
doubtful. My stock was rising, and
with it my spirits. Ny district COW
cred one third of the State. / had
not, as yet visited the county of AL
len, some hundred miles north from
Randolph. There were no roads,
nothing but Indian paths to travel at
that day, through the wilderness. In
the early part Of May, 1 turned the
head of my pony north toward Fort
Wayne. The streams were high and
paths under water in places. rode
in that campaign, a small, brown,
Indian pony, n good swimmer, fine
PAGER, and u fine traveller. The first
day after left the settlements at the
Mississinewa, reached the Indian
station, at Francis Godfroy's. The
chief was from home, but one of his
wives came out atsan opening in the
picketing, and pointed towards Fort
Wayne; the chief was there. She
could not speak word Of English.
l pointed to the stable, then TO my
pony, then to my mouth, thenlaid my
head on my hand, and commenced
snoring. She seized the reins of my
bride; | dismounted and passed into
the house. My faithful pony was fed.
Night came on; at length supper was
announced, by motions; corn bread,
venison, and sassafras tea, bear skin
on the floor for a bed, and sound rest
followed Breakfast of the same over
and / was about to start away alone,
when there came up an Indian who
could speak little broken English.
j agreed with him for guide for two
dollars, for day, TO get me over the
Salmonia and the Wabash rivers
We were soon on our horses and off
went my guide at full speed on his
pony, and was soon out of sight. /
overlook him, however, at the Salmo-
MIA. In we went, he leading. The
ponies swan beautifully, and away
we started for the Wabash. The
path wound around the ridges until
the river came full in sight. 1t was
high, clear over the bank, and the
current very rapid. The sun was
three hours high, the day warm and
not unpleasant. 1 had neglected to
provide any food, or even a knife for
defence. The moment we reached
the river the Indian jumped down,
peeled some bark from ahickory sap
ling, and spancelled the fore legs of
our ponies. l sat down on the bank
The Indian was out of sight in a mo-
ment, in the woods, and / saw moth
ing of him for an hour, when he re-
turned with the bark of hickory