The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-04-25

credentials. We went to Washington
with George Q. Cannon and others and
worked all winter, but our efforts were
in, vain. I went to Europe that sum-
mer and my credentials, which I hap
pened to take along, kept me out of
prison. 1 was writing letters to the
Sacramento Union. Passports were not
often examined in those days, and /
had a lot of large cards with my name
written in the center, which I used in
stead of passports. l found these cards
very convenient for taking notes on.
In France / met an old Frenchman
whom | could understand with what
little French 1 had, very well. I found
him a strong Communist and took
notes of what he said on the back of
one of these cards.
REVOLUTIONARY LITERATURE.
"On that card 1 wrote Their Govern
ment fraud. MacMahon in the inter-
est of Napoleon. See Bergueret at
Lausanne. Vive la Commune! Vive
la Commune! Vve la Commune!'
These notes were just to refresh my
memory on what the old man had said
to me. There was at that time a Car
list instruction in Spain and we were
detained at Culoz on the border be-
tween France and Switzerland to en-
able our baggage to be examined. L
handed the official one of my cards
he turned 1t over, and then I saw 1t
was the one on which 1 had written
the notes of my conversation with the
old F'renchman. The official then put
me through what the New York police
call the thirty-third degree. In vain I
protested that I was the correspondent
of an American newspaper and that
what L had written was merely notes.
He listened with an air of polite in
credulity, but said he would have to
detain me for two weeks until the Pre-
feet should arrive.
A HAPPY THOUGHT.
This would never do, and I happen
ed to think of a scheme | said to the
official, who spoke English, Well, sir,
have maintained this incognito long
enough. l am United States Senator.
You will find my credentials in the
trunk there. l am about to telegraph
to Mr.. Washburn, our representative.
You would do we'll to be careful what
you are about. For a new republic you
have adopted very high-handed meas
ures. We have already begun to think
that your republic is not DESTROYS of
being friends with ours, and there is
beginning to be, a suspicion that you
are running France in the interests of
the Bourbons and Napoleon. The man
got out my credentials as Senator
from the State of Deseret. and also my
States Supreme Court, and as he saw
the imposing parchment with the great
seals and the beehive he almost faint
ed. We were allowed to go, but a
brass-bound official kept US under sur
veillance until we reached Paris. Had
it not been for those credentials
might have been 1anguishing in
French dungeon until this day. am
going to hunt up my credentials when
1 get to California and send them to
the Utah Historical Society. I think
they would like to preserve them"
TOMS BEGINNING.
Where Tom began his career is not
clearly remembered, but it was proba-
bly, in New York. He arrived at San
Francisco in the early sixties and
made an impression on the public
through a strange incident (which.
says Ella Stirling Cummins, in her
Story of the Files. has now become
legendary lore" The arrival of the
steamer with news of the Civil War
was always a great occasion at San
Francisco, and especially so on this
day. when the wharves were alive with
people and the steamer brought great
er tidingS than usual. The war news