The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-07-13

store for him, for at that time the state
was soldly Republican. But Buck
persevered and accepted such small local
Offices as fell to his lot with good grace
At the age OF 81 he was elected justice
Of the peace and resigned the office three
years later to become deputy sheriff of
Morgan county.
When his term of Office expired, he
had recognized the power of the press
in politics, SO he became a country editor
by purchasing an interest in the Demo
cratic paper of the county seat Then he
started in to enlarge the circle of his
friends. In all towns in the center of
Illinois there is a public square where
the farmers collect, especially on Satur-
days, to swap views and discuss the con-
dition of crops. For a year or more
fBuCk' was to be seen at all these
gatherings, shaking hands with great
enthusiasm and making anxious inquir-
les of the farmers about their families
and crops. Every body knew Buck, -
and Buck knew everybody.
So when ''Buck'' Hinrichsen came to
leave Jacksonville the town felt almost
as proud Of him as it did of the fact
that Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A.
Douglas had once been struggling at
tOrneys there. Hinrichsen bought an al
most lifeless Democratic paper in Quincy
and removed there that he might have
a larger field. With two papers at his
command his political prestige was con-
siderably increased. He managed the
second paper with as much care as the
first, and IN a short time it was equally
successful. From being elected delegate
to county conventions he was sent to
the state convention and improved the
occasion by making himself known to
all the party leaders. In time he became
the acknowledged leader of a district
which could be depended upon for big
Democratic majority. He was made
member of the state central committee
and given place on the executive board.
In 1892 he was further rewarded by be-
ing appointed chief clerk Of the lower
branch of the state legislature, one of
the few offices which his party had at
its disposal
In 1899 BUCK announced that his
friends wanted him to accept the nomi-
nation for secretary of state. This being
the case, the party leaders thought that
it should be offered to him, and it was.
Buck" accepted. At the time the NOM
ination was made it was considered but
an empty honor, for the party had not
hoped to elect a state ticket. But that
year Illinois, with several other states,
swung from the line, and the Democrat
ic ticket, headed by Judge Altgeld, was
swept into Office, Buck Hinrichsen
along with the rest of the candidates.
There he has been ever since
In Hinrichsen it seems that Governor
Altgeld found a man who could be most
useful to him and in whom he could re-
pose confidence. Thus it happens that
Buck became a power in the state if
not in the land. He has a happy, cheer
full disposition and is a notably good
story teller, always having a fund Of
good yarns at his command. AS presi-
dent Of the Society of Cheerful Liars of
Quincy Buck had a reputation for
telling bigger and better fish stories
than any other man in the state, even
when the late Eugene Field and OPie
Read were members of the same society.
@. T. BAXTER.