Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1884-06-07
ALEX. m'kEHzIE.

sermon at 10 a. m. Sunday school at p. m.
ALEX. M'KENzIE.
PaInud Draws Pen Picture of the Modoc
Chief of Dakota Politics and Legisla-
tion.
Special Correspondence of the Inter-Ocean.
Huron, d. T., May 81 shall style
Alex. Mckenzie the great Modoc Chief,
by way of comparison with the great
Si-ox Chief, as Governor Ordway is
dubbed at Washington; and 1 want to
say right here that the Modoc chief is
very much the greater OF the two-yes,
and the cleaner, the honester, the more
feared, and the more respected among
the Dakotaians.
Alex. Mckenzie is the versatile genius
Of his time, and one of the most conspic.
uous characters of this, the history shap-
ing period of Dakota. In the affairs of
this great territory he is always prom
inent figure, and by all odds the greatest
igurer the Dakota northwest has ever
produced or even seen.
When Alex. Hughes deserted the
Tankton colors and became capital re-
mover and the confidential adviser of
Governor Ordwsy he seemed to have OBJ
liberated by single stroke, the honora-
BILE record of past made memorable by
tue effort and achievement of the bril-
liant political leader. In the popular es.
timation he had bartered away his honor.
For the people he had served so gallant
ly as leader looked to Alexander Hughes
to preserve the laurels placed upon his
brow at the Grand Forks convention.
And to-day there is ''none so to do him
reverence"-no, not even the home of
his adoption.
With Alexander Mckenzie, how differ
ent the case! He, the bright, compan.
ionable fellow personally, who had new
er been credited with the possession of
such thing as scruples may be said to
have been without any moral RESPONSE
liant in another direction, Alexander the
personal reputation by the coup d'etat at
Va. .:kton, and the celebrated chase be
gave the capital commissioners in search
of reasons to Justify the agreement en-
tered into at the start by the great
Modoc chief, principally with himself,
and subsequently ratified by the Si.ox
chief and the medicine man of the
Northern Pacific railroad, that the capi-
tai should be located at Bismarck.
Although Mckenzie is democrat
"personally," and although Dakota is
practically republican unit, it remains
the fact. all the same, that the Modoc
chief is, whenever he wants to be, the
chief engineer, so to put it, of the do
mestic affairs of both parties. It was he
who, at the republican convention at
Huron, snatched from the jaws OF defeat
and humiliation q partial victory for
Ordway and Ordwayism. Alex. wasn't q
delegate himself by any means. He
never is, or rarely is. He poses, smiling
and serene, as figure on the floor of
your convention, and gayly proceeds to
figure you ont of your boots.
What is the secret of his success All,
there are more secrets than one, and it
must be admitted that they are for the
most part open ones. In the first place,
Alex. Mckenzie is, personally" again,
man you would like.
Tall, broad.shouldered, and of full
proportions, with light sandy hair and
mustache, and the round, ruddy face
of the good-humored Scotchman, Alex.
ander the Great, of the north, is every
body's friend on principle.
There is not political or "public"
enemy, to adapt word to my meaning,
against whom Alex. Mckenzie ever
finds himself arrayed, who stands with
out the pale of the adroit chieftain's
speaking acquaintance. He can slap
them all on the shoulder and sit down to
o confidential chat, held personally"
with them.
Alex. understands human nature, and
always rubs the fur the right way-that
is, down, of course. With the same clear
insight into the human breast, he is free
handed to degree. He always carries
roll of bills, among which the V. is o
small denomination, and spends his
money SO freely and with such All evi::
dent relish, that fancy some of the
virtuous innocents from south Dakota
who now and then get taken in, secretly
wish, at the bottom of their hearts, that
there were only more chiefs like him
like the merry, merry Modoc in the land
of the Dacotahs.
Mckenzie is always ready for trade,
and if he does get the best of it he
generally manages to make the other
side feel as we'll pleased for the time
being. He pays the highest market
price for everything and everybody he
gets, and knows just exactly how to ap-
proach things and people.
Alex. Mckenzie is the type of o rustler
who takes the world as he finds it, and
employs the methods in popular use to
his own advantage. He is generous to his
friends and friendly toward his enemies,
and upon the whole is about as we'll
liked, personally" as Ordway is detest-
ed.
The great Modoc chief is expected at
the democratic convention at Pierre on
the 14th, where he will be greeted as the
conquering herewith another conven-
ton before him.
Alex. is supposed to be waiting for
the verdict" in the capital commlssi on
case with his usual composure. Should
Bismark lose in the game at law, Nc
Kenzie's aid will be invoked to secure
the relocation of the capital at Bismark
by the legislature next winter.
Bucklsn's Arnica salse.