The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-08-05

Pen Picture of Nomii-
nee Of Idaho Repub-
licans for United
States Senator.
BY JOEL L. PRIEST.

Fifteen years ago a smooth-faced
blue-eyed young fellow, with a wide
mouth, thin lips and a determined set
70 his jaw, stepped off q train at Boise
Idaho. He was looking around for a
location, for place in which TO hang
out his shingle and begin the practice
or law. The young man had little idea
of settling in Boise. His goal was the
Pacific coast But Boise looked good
TO him, as 1t has looked good to SO
many people since. The determining
factor, though, was the financial ques-
ton. The young man had enough
money to pay months rent of law
office, enough TO pay his board during
that time. He was afraid that if he
went on to the coast his modest bal
ance would be eaten up by travelling
and other expenses, leaving him
rtranded in a strange country. So he
stayed at Boise.
Last Wednesday evening, near the
close of perhaps the most interesting
convention ever held by the Repub-
licans of the state of Idaho, that young
lawyer, no longe, brief1ess, no longer a
stranger in a strange land, was pro-
claimed the unanimous cnoice of his
party for a United States seratorship.
If the Republicans control the next
Idaho legislature he will be elected
young lawyer. is w. E. Rorah than
whom no Idaho Republican. among the
young men of the party, has a stronger,
a more loyal following.
Borah hitched his wagon to star
when he stopped in Boise. 1t Is entirely
probable that he had not been there
year before the ambition to win place
IN the senate of the United States was
born in him. For years he has shaped
IL, H. n. L Is
all but won four years ago. Only
few votes In his party caucus separated
MIN from the senatOrship. But w. B.
Hepburn had a majority. BOrah's
friends declared he won it by CHI
canery' Boran's legislative supporters
were willing, even anxious, to organize
a bolt that would certainly have pre-
vented the election of Hepburn. Borah
however. declined to permit this
Given His Reward.
Clever politician that he is, he real
ICED that he had everything to lose,
nothing to gain by encouraging or per-
hitting a bolt. BY all the rules of poll
tics he would have been a political dead
duck throughout his natural life In
Idaho. He was young, he could afford
TO bide his time. So, though the dis
appointment must have been keen,
Borah swallowed the bitter medicine
and even succeeded in looking pleasant.
Hepburn In the open session, of the leg
islaJure pUlled the full strength of his
party and was elected. Borah was look
ing pleaSant-and waiting. Neither he
nor his friends have ever forgiven Hey
burn-Heyburn of Spokane-but that is
a DEPRESSION.
w E. Borah was born fOrty-one years
ago, June %, 1866, in Fairfield, H., i'll
the section of the state known as
Egypt" His parents had no album
dance of the goods of this world, and
from his boynood Borah was obliged to
work As his parents could not give
him the education he desired, the boy
determined to educate himself. BY
working at odd jobs in the summer and
by sucn employment as NE could find
outside of scnOol hours in the winter
and spring. young Borah fought his
way through the Southern Illinois acad-
envy, a Presbyterian institution at En-
field, H. After he graduated he was
still unsatisfied SO he went to the Kan
saS State university. Another fight for
an education enSued.
The struggling student taught in
summer schools he did rough farm
work anything and everything by
which ne might honestly earn a dollar.
And then came the great disappOint-
ment Of his young manhood. After
more than three years of hearth break
ing trials he was unable TO graduate.
A few months before he was to have
been given his degree he became des
perately ill., So i'll that for a time it
was thought he would die. The result
was that his money was all used up
and when he recovered his strength it
was too late for him to think of going
back to the university.
Studies Law in Kansas.
Borah had determined % be g lawyer.
All his ambition urged him along this
line. Therefore, when he was elected
principal of the schools of the little
town of Lyons, Kan, he cast about
him for an opportunity to continue his
law studies This opportunity was af-
forded him by A. M, Lasiey, rromi-
nent attorney of the town. Until far
into the evening light streamed from
the windows of the Lasley office and
passersby knew the young teacher was
at work In eighteen months he was
ready for the examination, and he
passed il with honors. He was %
wears old For six months more he
stayed with Mr. Lasley, familiarizing
himself with the actual practice of his
profession Then he turned his race
towards the great west, and, in 1891, as
Mr.. Borahs subsequent history is Ia
niiiar 10 most Of the Dc"pl" of I'laho.
II I'D not take him long to establish
paying law practice, a practice that
has grown until lov he has all the
work he can attend to. He is what the
lawyers call d hard worker, a good
fighter. He gives TO every case the
best that is in him. An instance of
> this faculty is found IN the trial of
Paul CorcOran, charged with being the
instigator of and an active partici-
pant I'm the destruction of the Bunker
Hill mill In the Occur d'Alene country,
BY dynamite in 1899.
The case of the prosecution, repre-
scented by Mr. BOrah and Colonel James
II. Hawleyfi rested upon the identifica-
ton of Corcoran by witnesses who de-
clared that they saw him riding on top
of a freight car sitting with his arms
folded in the train that carried the
. dynamiters from Burke TO Wallace
Several experienced train men took the
stand and sWore that ii was impossible
for a man to sit on top of a freight
car and travel at the rate of speed
maintained by the train on the night
In question They said he would in
eyitably be thrown off at one of the
sharp curves The outlook for the
prosecution was very bad. Borah saw