Bisbee daily review., 1911-01-13
ELK|NS STARTED HIS CAREER IN
 NEW MEXICO
Accompanied Arizona's Firss Territorial Officers from
 New York
Simultaneously Began Study and Practice of Law,
 Making Good from Start

The following concerning the life of the late Senator stephen B. Elk lns. who was prominent in New Mex leo while he way a young man is from the New York Sun:
 After resigning from the army young Elkins went to st Joseph, when the western railroad then ter minated. and travelled east for the first time to New York Tae Ter ritory of Arizona had just been created. and in New York he met R.C. Mccormick. who had just been made territorial Secretary. and Good win. the first governor of the terri- tory. They persuaded Mir. Ell-ins to go west. and the young man took their advice in 1863. He crossed the plains in wagon train, which was accompanied by a military escort The party was three months in cross ing what had been known as the Great American Desert to the Rio Grande River. Mir. Elkins first set tied in Albuquerque. \. M.. but soon moved to the town of Mesilla, where he again took up the study of law without any teacher. as he had been doing in his last years a- the Univer- sitv of Missouri He intended to stav in New Mexico for a while with the ultimate intention of returning to st. Louis to practice law.
 Not without interest is Senator Elkins's own account of his strug- sles in his early days in the west. He jumped right. into the practice of the law while he was still study ing it's practice.
 Suddenly" he said. T was called into a case as a lawyer A ferryboat had been seized by the military. was to plead the dominion of the law. It was do CT die. and l went right in and made an impression. and other cases came to me because that case was semi-poiitieal. and had attracted general attention. About five counties were in that circuit and the lawyers used to ride from court house to court house. just as Lincoln rode the circuit in Illinois
 .Political parties es such were moi vet formed. By far the larger part of the population was Spanish and spoke only Spanish. Among my labors I had studied the spanish language. had studied part of it while coming across the plains in these three months. Finally l got 10 sanrs Fe and I was in possession or $500 to s4OO. which I had made talk ing up cases as l went along. 1 saw that a library would help me and bought that of Judge Knapp for abou- $500. havins only s1OO to pay on it. I continued to pitch right m' was aggressive and the first thing knew they had nominated me Tor the Territorial Legislature in 1854
 T got into the best kind of cases The inevitable practice cut there Is in land cases. There were many ana large grants of land which were constantly in litigation and my knowledge of Spanish broungh me a clientage. found myself possessed i near The close of the war. of about ss o00 or s9 900, and money then commanded 3 per cent. a month. and not less than 20 per cent, year Suddenly there broke upon my mind perception of 1he earning power of money. In the way l was brought mn in Missouri it was considered vulgar to lend money and let n earn anything. But saw another day had come
 T had been Attorney-General ol the territory, appointed by the gov ernor and confirmed by the territorial Senate. Next Andrew Johnson made me United states Attorney of New
 Mexico. and the finst time l evei saw washington was when he was being impeached-
 q was making by my practice
 SIT. GOO a year when they sent ms to congress as Territorial Delegate in 1873. found that Maxwell had
 designed to start a bank at Sant' Fe for. his own convenience and said to him, T had contemplated dc | ing that thing and unless you wan
 two banks you had better sell m' vonrs So I started the First Nation al Bank of Santa Fe. and there began banking ss well as continuing th'
 practice of law"
 Mir. EIkins had returned east t'
 Lexington, Mo. in 1866 and hal
 there married his first gife. saill
 Jacobs. After the first few year
 struggle his rsse in wealth and poll
 ticat prominence wss rapid He wa