The times., 1900-12-31
SENATOR VESTS STOLEN PIGS.
An Incident of An:e-BeIlum Politics
in Missouri Recalled.
From the Kansas City Star

(From the Kansas City Star)
THAT reminds me-" said Governor Crit
tenden yesterday, that over thirty years
| ago l heard Senator Vest tell a very
amusing story on himself, which shows
| how often, or how occasionally, an inno-
cent man must confess guilt to avoid pun
| ishment. He said he was a candidate for
| the Legislature in Cooper County in 1850
| against Thomas McDearmon and Judge
walker of this city. 1t was a close ard
| exciting canvass involving in the daily
discussion the approaching secession and
war questions. 1t was Vests first caDGi-
dacy for Office, although his reputation as
an orator was rapidly spreading over Mis-
souri,. No one OF the three candidates
favored secession per Sc at that time
Vest was rapidly drifting in that direc-
tion. The friends of the candidates had
made a personal house house canvass
and each claimed the victory from three
to five majority. Vest was supposed to
be in the lead by the mere disinterested
canvassers. A few days before the cleo
toE a story was put alioat that Vest had
stolen three pigs of the value of Sc and
they had been found in his pig-sty at his
residence in Poonville Vest said he was
so hard pressed by the charge and it was
doing him so much harm that he had a
once to come out and acknowledge that
the pigs were found in his pen or else he
would be defea ted.
"The crowds were large that attended
the daily discussion and the excitement
ran very high. The day before the canvas
closed it was we'll known throughout the
county that Vest had to meet the charge
in his next speech. either in Boonyille or
Bunceton, which caused the crowd to be
unusually large. The partisans of each
candidate were present in great numbers
and seemed SO deeply interested that no
4 Ill ~hD
result Vest, in that peculiarly happy
style of his. was equal to the occasion. He
appeared on the hustings in the best Of
huInor and his face was radiant with joy.
That silvery voice OF his was as clear as
sunbeam. He said he had two sons that
had very much of the trait of many Mis-
sourians about them; they had traded an
old pocket knife, a few cents in money,
an old brass ring and few other such
trinkets to niger for the pigs, on the
streets of Boonville. and 1t was the boys
who had put the pigs into his pen without
his knowledge. and they were the stolen
property and he was ready to pay for
them. As soon as this explanation was
made Vests friends gathered renewed
strength and made the welkin ring with
their shouts. 1t saved tho day for Vest.
west said that had he denied the charge |
his opponents stood ready to prove 1t, and !
a warrant was there for his arrest. He |
said that he cast no reflections upon his |
children, as there was no father who did |
not know that his boys would trade all |
day on Barlow knife and for anything to |
be trading This was the commencement /
of Vests political life. Had he been then
defeated i, may be he never would have
become United States Senator, and would
never have been known throughout the
as one of its foremost orators and
greatest debaters.
after Vest had told me this story l
said to him: That was very good cam
paign dodge of yours Now tell me the
truth about the pigs He replied. i myself
had bought them of the damned niger. ex-
pecting to have Christmas pig for din
ner as a jollification after the election