The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912, 1901-09-27
THOMAS BUTCHER WAS ONE OF
THE CAMPAIGN ORATORS.
HE SLEPT A NIGHT IN A BARN
Got Hayseed in His Whiskers, Caught
Cold and Concluded He Would
Retire From the Plat
form.

II have been reading few of the last
years campaign speeches recently"
said Thomas Butcher at the Thornton
this morning to a party of friends who
had been discussing oratory. land they
they remind me of the thrilling part I
took in the campaign myself. 1 live
in Rochester, N. r., and among the pol
iticians in my home town I am consid-
cred a pretty warm member, or at least
! was when the battle opened last fall"
I'VE. that is, lot of my friends and
myself, met at a political club one even
ing, and the question of furnishing
speakers for some of the country dis
tricts came ~ for discussion. Finally
it was decided that half dozen of us
should take journeys out among the
ruralists and tell them why they should
vote according o our political faith. I
was selected as one of the half Dozen
and within two days was out among
the cornf1elds with a couple of speeches
under my arm prepared to help save the
country. The first evening I spoke there
were about 500 farmers present, and l
thought I was making quite a killing
with my language on the various topics
of the day. l had a young man along
with me, who as posted to stand out
In the crowd and ask me question, which
We're supposed to be deadeners on the
theories 1 was advancing. OF course
I knew just what the questions were in
advance, and when they were hurled at
me ] made retOrts to them that caused
the farmers to roar with laughter and
presumably chagrined the ,voung man
who had the temerity to PROFOUND the
Undergraduates
when the meeting was over I was
an easy winner with the people who had
come to hear me, so I thought, but it
just occurred to me that had made no
provision for place to stay over night
I informed one of the men who lived in
the neighborhood of my predicament.
and he told me that he could not do
much for me, but that if I would not OBJ
ject to sleeping in his barn I could go
home with him and put in shift in the
hayloft. That seemed pretty tough for
great political speaker, but thought
it was part of the chances of the cam
paign, and so decided to try the bed in
the clover My young man who had
asked the questions went along with
me, and shortly before midnight we
were safely, hope it was safely, tucked
away among the long timothy. The bed
was not exactly what you would expect
to get here at a hotel in Butte, but
was working to save my country, or
thought was, and a soldier who is wag-
ing battle in a great cause cannot be
too particular about the sort of a cot
he finds when night comes upon him."
I'VE got through the night fairly well,
but there was a difference in the morn
ing, and no mistake. When I awakened
I had a stiff neck and there was hay
seed enough in my wniskers to SOW all
over my front yard al home. There were
long grass straws hanging down my
back and burrs between my toes. had
caught cold and was mad enough to vote
the opposition ticket myself. The young
man who was with me was about as
comfortable as 7, and when the farmer
came to call us to breakfast we We're
almost ready to do him violence. We
ate all we could, and that was not very
much and then struck off across the
fields to the nearest railroad station.
When we got there we waited for the
first train back to Rochester, and that
afternoon the president of my political
club was sending kilograms over the
state canceling my dates / had won
all the glory I wanted as a political