Arizona republican., 1904-08-10
George Graham Vest.

Senator Vests prolonged illness had prepared the country for this morn fng's announcement of his death He had been an invalid for several years. and Tor months prior to his retirement from the United States senate (March 8, last Year) he had been seen but sell dom in public. Always an uncompro- uVising democrat, MT. Vest had deep convictions on the tariff question, and be was moved profoundly by the belief thas all protection was an iniquity. He followed with intense interest the events of the anthracite coal strike of 1S92, and against the protests of his aaTnily and physicians he dragged him. self to the senate a few weeks before his term expired and made a powerful appeal for the removal of the duty on anthracite. He won the battle, and perhaps It was of the chamber felt that they were listening to him for the last time He had been almost blind for months, and his eloquent appeal was addressed to men whose faces he could but dimly see.
 Following his retirement from the senate he went 10 his home near Kan sas City, and although he fully ap- preciated that he was in the grasp of death, he began the arduous labor of preparing a book of "reminiscences of his public career. The chapters as finz ished have appeared in the Saturday Evening Post of Philadelphia, and they have been read with pleasure by a null titude of his countrymen. He had served twenty-four years in the Unit ed States senate. and before that was q member of the Confederate congress two years in the house and one year in the senate-and was the last sur viving member of the famous senate that sat at Richmond. He was equip ped, therefore, with an inexhaustible fund of information concerning the men who made the history of this country during the last half of the -NllA~AEtlINll NellluIy- ILdCil CDdpleI OL his unique work has dealt with a not ed statesman, and the elegance of style and pungent comment which charac- terized these "reminiscences proved that his extraordinarily brilliant intellect remained undimmed to the last.
 Senator Vest was unquestionably the ablest debater that had been seen on the democratic side in a generation. He was equally at home Tn a set speech or in the impromptu fire of a run ming debate, and his readiness of retort and his caustic tongue made him a ter TOT to the republican side. Senator h. gals alone had been a match for him in his peculiar style. But Vest was superior to Ingalls, in the ability to car " off the honors of a sharp controver- sy on the floor without leaving bitter ness behind.
 Republicans as well as democrats loved without reserve the cumulative senator from Missouri. With an un- erring instinct for detecting the pomp- ous humbugs on either side of the chamber. his merciless wit unhorsed many a ponderous statesman and let his victim houndering in misery. But there was no malice in Vest, and that accounted for his popularity among his most implacable political enemies. He was big-hearted and generous, and sane in his philosophy. An inimitable story-teller. and gifted with rare sense of humor, he was one of the most | conpanionahle men in all Washington. | He was broadly generous when seri- | oasly estimating the worth of his fel- | lO@ senators. and this quality is man. ifested anew in his "reminiscences. AL | though a partisan of partisans, his par