Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1906-06-21

The political m1CrODc is IN tnc
air. 1t has developed within a
week, and a dozen or more local
patriots are already down-if not
out-with the burning fever with
which this spiritual disease spread
ing bug afflicts the human species.
Federal Judge Beatty was in
town last Friday and displayed up-
mistakab1e symptoms of well de-
veloped case. That was the first to
be noted here. A quarantine would
have done no good, however, for it
is clearly demonstrated that the
malady is not contagious, because
many who did not come in con-
tact with the visitor are suffering
from a virulent type. Nothing
can be done to stop its ravages.
We will merely have to patiently
wait for it to run its course; as we
do with the measles and whooping
cough.
Judge Beatty is cherishing, nur-
turing the laudable ambition to
represent Idaho in the United States
senate. That would round out his
ner entirely in accord with his de-
sires. His trip here Friday was,
ostensibly, a social visit with per-
sonal friends of long standing T;
stopped off between trains while
on his way to Boise from his for
mer home in Haley, to talk with
the old boys about the long ago
and all that. Somehow, no wcvcr,
the conversation always drifted from
the past to the present, to the fu-
ture. The United State senatorship
vas discussed, and at the psycholog-
ica1 moment the Judge would con-
fide to the individual ear that his
ambition trends towards the national
capital. Then would follow a eau
Gus on ways and means, an express
sion of hopes and fears.
Judge Beatty has the senatorial
situation sized up about like this ::
The republican convention will not
endorse Mr.. Borah; the Brady dope
and the Gooding machine have ac-
complished that much. In the prob
able event that the next Legislature
is republican, Borah, according to
his own statement, will not be a
endorsement; Brady will receive
only such votes as Governor Good
ing can secure for him, which will
not be enough. The Borah p9rti-
sans will be strung and quartered
before they will support Brady.
Judge Beatty will have some votes
of his own, that will stay with
him till the cows come home, votes
that have aroused the antagonism
of neither faction, votes that will
attract, not repel. 1t is a promis-
ing situation, one that lures the
Judge into a peaceful slumber and
copjures up a dream of ambition
attained, from which he is occasion
ally aroused by that dread spectre,
Dubois, and the possibility of the
people slipping a mental trolley,
going daft on the Mormon question
and returning democratic majority
to the Legislature.
The county candidacy that is re-
ceiving more attention from the
curbstone orators this week than
any other, is that of ]. A. Siffert
for county auditor. He is the eff
cient deputy and wishes to succeed
his chief, Dan Shelter, who, rumor
sayeth, aspires to fry some heftier
fish-not necessarily of the political
species. Anyway, so the story
goes, Mr.. Siffert let his cat out of
the bag while at the Ferry last
week. The reason for the wide
spread interest manifested in his
wish to hold do wn this county job
is that he is what they call over in
Oregon Johnny-come-late
which, being interpreted, means
that he runs under the heavy
handicap of not having been on
the ground when the Short Line
was surveyed.
That quality in the human mind
and heart that draws men together
who have in bygone days been asso-
ciates, however remotely, is not
easily explained; though it is tie
as strong as friendship, an influence
second in potency only to self in
terest. Men who were educated
at the same institution of learning,