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

Tenth street in Topeka sits q gray.
thin old man alone. He has few callers
All day Ions the silence is broken only
by the loud ticking OK an alarm clock
or the raucus scratching OF the old
mans Pen as he sits and writes. slowly.
iaboriousiy. Sometimes he reads the
newspapers. before the adyent of the
early winter evening. for his sight II
failing and these newspapers comprise
almost his sole communication with
outer world And such is fame Tween
ty years ago this gray. thin old man
vino sits alone was the o talked
about person in America About him
millions OF word were written and
printed and he was the subject OF hum
dreds of cartoons The newspaper
which went to press without q story
about him didn't feel that II was CIV
ing Its readers a Qua deal But for
Is years he has been walking in the
bypaths Of oblivion
The man who sits alone is wikiam
A PETER. h in 1881. captured the
spotlight, boots. breaches and baggage.
and held IL for six years. when IL dick
cred cut AZ suddenly as it came PETER
rode into the Senate of the United
States on the crest OF the populist wave
that swept over the Kansas prairies In
h late SOS n early COS The phe-
nomenon of the upriSng in itself was
30 new AIE strange AA2Sl II MOAA0 nave
attracted widespread attention to Its
beneficiary. But the newly elected SEN
ator had other claims to distinction
When he walked down the aisles of
the Senate to take the oath of office
he Vas accompanied by the most
iuxurfant growth of whiskers In cap
tivfty. and from that the beard
Of the populist senator from Kansas
became the standard national JOKE n
h emblem OF the populist party. True.
there mad been other wsiskers in the
Senate The whiskers of Senator Stew
art. of Nevada. at that time in their
heydey. tad been the subject of Quips.
not To mention bon mOts. But when
the whiskers of the Kansan doomed
large on the Senate horizon. competi-
ton was stified. rivalry smothered and
monopoly was born In Senator PEI
fer's room today 80 scrapbooks. con
taining l0,009 clippings. are piled high,
their contents t~estifying TO the efficacy
OF whiskers as a press agent without
spot or blemish-
Today ex-senator PETER at So. looks
across the wide street into the park OF
the College Of the Sisters Of Bethany
and smiles the slow. tedious smile that
used to infuriate them in the Senate.
He is less robust these day. and his
voice QuaveT sometimes. and he Is
wen thinner and seems taller than in
b days when his thinness and his
tallneSs we're subjects OF ribald jest
But his mind is clear. He wears q
skull cap and his ~patriarchai appear
ance, which used TO be the target for
many filings and arrows. Is accumulated
He smiles his slow, tedious smile and
says:
II am writing my memoirs. and /
have just finished a chapter relating
to my term in the n / ave here
a list of the bills and resolutions that
I introduced and advocated There is
the bill providing for postal savings
banks: the bill TO inquire as to whether
the government may take. possession
of Goa beds. q resolution to investi-
gate Dor issues n sales. a bill to
provide for b election Of a president
by direct vote: an amendment provid-
ing for woman's suffrage. a resolution
to provide for a postal telegraph sys-
tenn. a bill TO prevent unjust discrim-
nation in freight rates. a bill q elect
United States senators by q direct vote
OF the people; G bill for the initiative
and referendum: a bin for the CONSOLE
dalton of the railroads. a bin to limit
the office Of president TO one term"
There is nothing exUltant in his tone
as he reads the list-he is as tedious
and imperturhable as OF old. and he
leaves you 10 infer that he is recalling
the fact that most of these are progress
sive measures now. and that many OF
them have been enacted into law. and
hat oniy the other day Postmaster
General Hitchcock himself advocated
postal telegraph ines Perhaps, too.
there is a note of the exuitant in his
tone, when he says,
when / saw Br1stow's statement
about the election of presidents By q
direct vote. Of the people the other day.
I dug up my bill introduced nearly 20
years ago. and sent IL TO a Kansas re-
publican daily newspaper, and asked
them to print It. But it has never APP
peared-"
Perhaps it was well that Mr.. PETER
was imperturbable and st~ing-proof in
the DAYS when he was in the Senate.
for no man was ever more mercilessly
caricatured more bitterly assailed.
more unsparingly ridiculed. The ex-
senator told a story which illustrates
the position which he held for nearly
six years as IN lonely man of the
Senate.
There was a doorkeeper OF the SEN
ate who somewhat resembled me, be-
cause he had a long beard. n M day
when / came over from the House TO
the Senate. / saw him standing just
outside the Senate chamber. Two men
were passing and / overheard one of
them say. as he passed h doorkeeper.
pointing his nnger at MIN the While.
There's that damn rascal that bsai
Ingalls, The doorkeeper overheard il.
too. and he was overcome with chagrin
and humiliation to be taken for PETER.
The next morning he appeared at his
post without his beard. he had been
shaved clean. the obliquy of being mis-
taken for PETER was more than he
could bear.
Whatever the estimate OF Senator
PETERS capacity may nave been-a1d
there were many even in his own party
who believed that he was a weak lead
er-it Il doubtful IL . man ever sat in
the Senate OF the United States whose
motives were less open TO question:
whose honesty Was more generally con-
ceded. The Kansas nat was re-
garded as the soul Of integrity. Even
his political enemies conceded PETERS
character to be above reproach. He
was ~unsAiIled in politics and he Is per-
haps the only man ever elected to the
Senate whose campaign for the place
was wholly unconscious For years
while the Farmers Alliance movement
was taking form. PETER was editor OF
the Kansas Farmer. at Topeka. and
during the campaigu which recu,tod