Arizona republican., 1902-09-03
Beveridge's
 Kansas Days

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 Well, Mac, good-by; some day Til b. president of the United States. and then I'll remember you.
 It was in the spring of 1886 that a tall. slim, eager-faced boy made this remark in the then town of Dighton, Kan, to D. G. Mcclellan, real estate dealer of that town.
 The young man had spent about nine months in Dighton, and had been asso- ciated with Mcclellan in business. He had come to Dighton the summer be- fore-about August. 1sS5-for two req sons-his health was poor: his purse was poorer When he left his health was much improved. and his purse.
 while not plethoric. had yet fair amount of money in it to show for his work in Dighton, This tall. slim eager faced boy was Albert J. Beverdge, new junior United States senator from In
 diana.
 Beveridge had been out of school a little more than q year. He came west to avoid dying, and worked in southern Kansas, near Kingman, with a railroad outfit for a time. Then he went to Dodge City. Later he went to north
 west Kansas. This was just before he went to Dighton. One day D. G. Me Clellan. who had been in Dighton and
 Lane county since 1879, when buffalo and prairie dogs were almost the sole occupants of the town site and county, and had prospered in the real estate
 business. went to Wakeeney. then. as
 now. a United States land office town. The register of the office was B. F. Hanna, well known a quarter of a cen tury ago in Kansas politics. Hanna was the father of the young man who as solicitor for the navy department figured in the Schley court of inquiry in Washington a year ago. Mcclellan told Hanna if he came across bright intelligent young man, who knew some thing about running an office. to send him down to Dighton-that he could take care of him. Soon Albert J. Bev- eridge came along, and Hanna sent him to Mcclellan at Dighton.
 This then, was the Indiana mans introduction 10 Dighton, where he lived for some time. He proved valuable in the office. Mcclellan says, and was all that was desired. He made out papers. swore settlers and claimants. wrote let- ters, looked up things. and Mcclellan | was busy throughout the country To- eating claimants on their land. Busi- ness was good. Both the senior and ju- nior partner thrived. Immigrants wera piling into Lane county. and Dighton had a population of 1,5OO. Those were great days. and activity and bustling
 were required to keep up with the times. Mcclellan says his thin, pale partner kept up with his end com pletely.
 When Beveridge was elected United States senator from Indiana three years ago, there appeared in eastern prints weird story of how the young senator once got into a brawl in Digh- ton. and in the gun play which fol- lowed was almost exterminatad by burly cowboy. The writer, this story in mind made careful inquiry in Digh- ton last week concerning this hair raising story, and found not a trace of
 truth in it so far as the memory of "the eldest inha bitant" is concerned. Me lClellan says the senator did have a lit tie altercation one day with a native a carpenter-but that it had no serious results. The carpenter had no gun, nor did Beveridge, and Mcclellan says il is improbable that either would have used one had he possessed it. Dighton
 was a peaceful community. The people were too busy locating their land, prov ing up, trying to farm. coming and go- ing, trafficking and bartering to be
 bad" So the little illusionary story of Beveridge and the bad cowman must be relegated to the obscurity where it belongs.
 There was one incident. however, which Mcclellan relates. One night he caught a man stealing from an immi- l.~... ( +Fr- and had him placed in the lookup. The next day a few hotheads made as if to do violence to the man, and young Bev- eridge climbed onto a box and talked the crowd out of it. That is the only incident. Mcclellan says, to mar the otherwise peaceful atmosphere which pervaded the place while the future statesman was there.
 Reveridge now lives in a fine house in Indianapolis, and in Washington is snugly domiciled. but his surroundings in DightOn were not so luxurious. He made his home in a sod hotel, the rem nants Of which still adorn the town site. He ate and slept here, and was one of the boys His tastes were plain and simple and he was largely unassuming and attended strictly to his business, so his old partner says He was not regarded as a ''tenderfoot," therefore the boys had no fun out of him during his short stay.
 Mcclellan, in a reminiscent mood the other night, talked of the Indiana | tatessman's early days.
 'Beveridge was nothing but a boy" he said. He was about 23 years of age, and a square, honest boy at that. i He had apparently been well educated but l take it he knew very little law in these days. None was necessary anyway, tor the principal work there was to get located-trouble and courts came later Many days I left Bever- idge to run things, and he ran them well. so far as l know. I must tell you one joke on him, or me, or both of us - guess that's it. I was out one day locating some persons on their claims l hadn't had a bite to eat except a green watermelon. I was tired, ana had started in. l met Beveridge, en- i thusiastic and full of hope, because he ! had mn end of in,