The Portland daily press., 1892-03-14

SENATOR CULLoM IN TIE c. AMBER.
cidentally reached my ear, inferred
that in their household, as in many other
households in this country with which I
am personally familiar, there exists a
necessity for saving the pennies, turning
down the gas and treating beefsteak as a
luxury to be INDUCED in only on state
occasions. The couple were Senator
Cullom and his wife, and after we had
all finished our marketing, and the SEN
ator and | walked to the Capitol together,
we talked of the expensiveness Of living
at Washington.
'sThe fact is," said Senator Cullom,
81 find it very hard to keep my nose
above water financially. This morning
it alarmed me. As you know, my wife
and l live plainly and economically.
We pinch in every way we can and
make no effort to put on style, and yet
have more bills out than my months
salary will suffice to meet. am as poor
as a church mouse, and the longer stay
in congress the poorer | viii be. The
day is coming in which will have to
get out and go into something where
can make little money for my declin-
ing years.
Senator Cullom meant what he said,
too, and if his party doesn't nominate
him for the presidency | shouldn't be
surprised to hear of his resignation at any
time. He is one of the poorest men so
far as this worlds riches go in the SEN
ate. He has nothing but his salary to
live on, and if friend of his in Illinois
had not at different times lent him
oney which he never expected to have
,aid, Cullom would have been actually
ven out of public life long before this.
owns no property in Washington.
tSpringfeld he has pretty home, but
am sorry to say it is mortgaged for
more than it is worth. A splendid rec
ord as legislator, governor and senator,
possibility of being president of the
nited States, mortgaged home and
an accumulation of tradesmen's bills to
be paid out of his next months salary
is what Shelby M. Cullom has to show
for the thirty years which he has spent
in the service Of the people.
Senator Cullom was born in Elk Spring
Valley, Wayne county, KY, sixty-two
years ago. His father, r. N Cullom,
was poor farmer who owned only two
slaves and who turned them loose when
he decided to go to Illinois. When the
present senator, who had been christened
Shelby Moore, was only year old, Major
Cullom took his family to Tazewell
county, Ills, and settled at the edge of
a piece of woods in which lived tribe
of Indians. The redskins were sup
posed to be friendly. but soon made so
much trouble that the few white settlers
had to band together for protection, and
finally drove the Indians away at the
muzzle of the gun.
Young Culloms introduction to the
state ON which he was afterward to re-
fleet so much credit was made under
rather unfavorable circumstances. Be-
sides the Indians and the newness Of the
country, that was the famous ''winter
of the deep snow" If the traditions of
the country may be believed, the snow
was about twenty feet deep on the level
ground.
Young Clllom grew up on his fathers
farm and performed all sorts of farm
work in the days when agriculture was
still without the advantages of modern
machinery and implements. In those
times there was no such thing as rid
ing plow or cultivator, no moving ma
chine, no harvester. Shelby was trying
to earn money enough to take him away
to school, and he begged his father to
give him the use Of a breaking team and
plow. A breaking team consisted Of
five yokes Of oxen, and the plow was an
enormous, unwieldy affair, with a two
foot moldboard and with handles like
pair of fence rails. Young Cullom took
this outfit from farm to farm and
.'broke" the prairie sod with it for SO
much an acre. It was hard work and
trying work, as the ground in many
places was ''barrens" full of brush and
roots. There is nothing like breaking
plow and five yoke Of oxen to spoil ones
temper and plunge him into the unfor~
tunate habit of expressing himself pro-
fanely.
Down in Tazewell county lives to this
day an old man named Findlay who
keeps on the mantel in his house piece
of dried mud. 1t is piece Of mud OF