The Wagner leader. (Wagner, Charles Mix County, S.D.) 1912-1912, 1912-03-29

Senate is years-to be defeated by a
man without ans OF these accomplish
ments GEMS incredible. And the W
paper treated at from A to z The sit
uation was so uncommon. so unrea-
sonable. that the c~ar1oonises tool il up.
and used my beard as an emblem Of the
populist party.
The first days meeting of the two
houses OF the legislature in joint con-
vention made IL clear that a large ma
jority of the body favored my election.
and the senator's trepublicanl agreed
among themselves after adjournment
that they would not meet the next day
with the house and in that way would
defeat my election But 1t so happened
that an eminent lawyer. a republican.
too. and an honest man. Kasin tho city.
and learning OF the senator's resoiu-
ton kindly brought me a book which
treated OF such cases and left 10 with
me. | o up the case which fitted
our SITUATION exactly. and wrote a let
ter 20 the editor OF the Daily Capital.
expecting he would insert n
calling attention to the case. but he
did better than that He had the letter
printed just as ] wrote IL. The senator
attended like little men and answered
As their names were called and when
the vote was read. my majority was
as
Thus. perhaps for the first time in
the history Of the state. there was a
guileless senatorial election in Kansas.
and a man was sent TO the Senate
whose campaign for the Office had been
wholly unconscious. The Office had
sought the man at last II was an
iroEica@ thing that in accomplishing
the result there had been banished
from public life the brilliant Ingalls,.
Many stories have been told to Illus
trate b simple honesty Of PETER. his
II nan E~n
tired from the Senate he lived in
Washington for many years. There he
conceived the idea OF compiling an in
dex 10 n Congressional Record. He
wrote q number of senators about his
project among them Senator Galliger,
of New Hampshire. The senators be-
rlieyeG the idea an excellent one. PETER
thought he could do the work in two
years. and a compensation OF $1,000
was agreed On II took PETER seven
years 10 complete the work and he was
compelled TO examine more than 400
GOO pages OF debates 10 accomplish IL
For seven q ne walked To the con-
Eresssonsi library in Washington every
morning al 9 o'clock and until s
O'Clock In the evening pored over b
yoiuminous records that congress
made in more than lee years of its ex-
lstence- Time and again Gallingsr and
other senator's insisted that PETER ac-
cept more than the $1,000 originally
agreed on for the work. But PETER
was o5durate-
The job was worth a lot more than
| got for it" PETER said this week. but
$4,000 was all / was entitled TO. That
was b agreement I made, and I would
have carried ii out If il had taken 60
years"
Ex-senator PETER told for the first
time OF the only attemp. .hat was made
TO bride him while a emp OF the
Senate
~One evening at a night session b
clerk OF a New York senator came to
me and said ne would like TO speak to
me privately, n we went out into the
marble room He led me into the
shadow OF n Of the. great columns.
and l guessed what allied him. Now.
he said, yo know / wouldn't ask you
10 do anything wrong-' There was a
railroad bill pending that / was cppos-
ing. and the senator whose clerk he was
was a railroad a and a very rich
one Isn't there some way you could
be persuaded 10 withdraw your objec-
ton 10 that bill2 Is there no induce
nent~e No. / said. and started away
Then he calIed me back and he made
il clear to me that it would be worth
anywhere from s1e.0 600 TO $4,000 to me
to look at the matter right / have
never been able 10 decide yet whether
I did right in not exposing that boy.
but / concluded to let ii CO. / decided
that he was subject TO the orders OF
his employer. and that he had to do as
he dictated. u that anything / might
say about il probably would be mis-
understood anyway. That was the only
time during my service in the Senate
that l was offered an outright bride"
The beard made famous by the ar
to0nists. and which the ex-senator
wears today. has been growing without
interruption since 1867. 1t is sparser
now that ii was in the DAVIS when it
was ~caricatured upon h front pages
of nearly every newspaper in the
United States, and it is streaked with
gray.
There Is 2 story in connection with
my beard that has never been told in
an of the hundreds of newspaper arti-
cles that haye bee written about it."
ex-senator PETER said Il was reared
on a farm. and b farmers all shaved
themselves. One day on our farm down
in Tennessee I was shaving myself. and
Mrs PETER was a spectator. The razor
was no very sharp and il pulled my
beard. and Mrs. PETER suggested that
/ cut on my whiskers- So we decided
10 have a vote or the subject. and the
children ard NY mother were called in.
We voted. n the result Of the election
was that / should cut OF my beard l
got he scissors n had cut of a part
OF my whisSers when / noticed that my
mother was crying. She took on so
about ii that I promised her Their and
there that / would never cut of my
beard as long as I lived. And / have
kept that promise.
And so the aged ex-senator sits alone
with oblivion. He is happy, and six
years OF merciless ridicuie. which lie
far behind him. have left no wounds.
He seldom speaks OF it There is no
bitterness in his heart With him
lives a devoted o n who is his fathers
companion in his leisure time Some
times an old friend GENES in his mot
or car. and the old war horse of pOpul-
ism takes an airing in this emblem Of
plutOcracy. And in b room Of the
aged ex-senator are the 30 scrapbooks,
containing the 10000 yellow clippings.
a mute reminder Of the memorable law
that fame Is a hauble and notoriety a
ladder of mist
As an evidence OF the mercilsss
ridicuie which was heaped upon the
whiskers of Mr. PETER during his term
in the Sanara thou0 nn~ur-1Hh~ n-