The Lewiston teller. (Lewiston, Idaho) 1900-1905, 1905-02-17
portland Oregonian.)

,ars of the tnlted S'"'eS Si'No 'iie
f,.o,ment of Senator Mitchell some
rs ago. is a fairly accurate outline
strange career. 1t is probable
tho larger part of the present
-.,uIation of Oregon mas llttie or no
u,,edee of his history, or of the SEN
..,on produced in Oregon 81 years
when the revelations of his re-
t,.ohla life down to that time were
NV ,oda Some other details of his
..asr since that time appear in the
.,,,ovng article, but they are meager.
~ ,ba whole. however. it is an accu-
rate outline;
.,r4ar without parallel in Ameri-
no,ftics is that of John II. Mitchell,
,-rited States senator from Oregon,
..,o with his associates, has dominat-
a that state more than forty years;
,,o has been elected to the senate four
times. who has been charged with
startling domestic infidelities and SEN
sotonal political debauncheries, which
no has never disproved and which
would have wrecked the fortunes of
.nv other person in public life; and
who. now in his 10th year. at the height
ot his influence at the national capital,
is indicted by federal grand jury at
Portland, Ore, for having accepted an
alleged bribe of $4,000. foi abetting
States of it's public lands.
Rows have grown to manhood and
their children. too, while Senator
Mitchell has reigned in Oregon. Poll
tcians have come and gone-all but
Senator Mitchell. He is the one re-
naming link between the old regime
and the new.
Revolts against his domination have
been often attempted; sometimes they
seemed to thrive, but they always sue
eumbed-the last being that of the
gold republicans, who partly de-
hroned him in 1896. but lost the mast
cry of the ensuing five years. at the
climax of which Senator Mitchell was
triumphantly reelected. t%tt
Mitchell went to Oregon nearly
forty.fve years ago. at the age of %
years. He was agile and vigorous
then; now he is bent with years. his
limbs are wasted. his eyes are dimmed.
But within his atrophled form. and be-
hind his specialized eyes, still dweils
his. masterful power over men-not
eloquence, for he never had that gift.
but persuasiveness-a faculty Of politi-
cal perception and organizations; an art
Of winning admirers by a handshake
or afslaAce, and OF inspiring faith and
confidence with a touch or a word-all
this in spite Of his impaired ability to
remember names and faces as once he
used to do
In what state in the Union has one
man ruled politics so long? None.
Mitchell was in control of Oregon when
Boss Tweed owned" New York. That
was more than 80 years ago.. and still
Mitchell is on the stage, and nearly oil
the federal offices in the state are oc-
cupied by his friends. and many state
and county and city offices. too. He
has controlled courts and juries. as
well as legislatures: he has been fret
'ed' but not defeated, by charges of
corruption which he never met; his
friends have been ousted from once for
alshonesty or incapacity-several of
'hem lately by President Roosevelt
'u' IN spite of all the evidence brought
against him of conjugal infidelity and
VI political debauchery, his mesmeric
power has defied and swept away his
political enemies, until today he is
patriarch fthe United States senate
ana chief of the interoceanic canal
committee of that body.
1t romance-this story of 25
sear-old youth, who deserted a wife
anu TWO children at Butler, Pa, in
l'0V' went to California with Maria J
or'hKer, a school teacher; quilted her
a. san Luis Obispo shortly after ar
,''ai there. and went to Oregon, where
ne renounced his Pennsylvania name
apple and assumed that of Mitchell
Married Martha Urice there, and while
united to her declared his love for her
'ei' carrie; was confronted with
s"arses that he took money corruptly
senator for work done in connection
IN surveys of public lands in Oregon
u never aswered them; and now
'ueh infirmities of age creep upon him
"uie'ed by IA federal grand jury?
romance-this tale of a mar
'' mas conquered more vicissitudes
= Ni any other person in western poll
and defeated more enemies: who
80 associated with the greatest poll
a'ahs of the country in the past gen
all? 'heiii neg -
'ashington county, PENNSYLVANIA
>, s Mitchelrs birthplace: time. june
Va He WAS born under the name
m mpple; that was his fathers name. hi.
maiden name being Mitchell
svon0 OF the senator's, a dentist
IN Ohio, by name Nipple The
lob given name in boyhood was
lsr a. He grew to manhood at But.
snoo ana was educated at Wither.