Show I w s THURSTONS DOWNFALL TRACED TO A S C Philadelphia North American Out in Nebraska as very bitter fight light Is ig going on over two Onie OJe man is to be elected to till nil a vacancy caused by the death of Senator Hay Ha Hayward Haward I ward The other Is to succeed the present senior senator from Nebraska John M itt Thurston Mr Thurston has served his state but six years and in the natural naturi natu course of events vents politically he would at least be a candidate to succeed him himself self But his name has not even even been I be mentioned the delegation from his home county is Instructed for tor another man and the he heul political prestige P that r ul fn U gave e him a it unanimous 8 election six years cars since has all vanished The principal reason seems to lie He in inthe Inthe the fact that Mr Thurston mingled poesy TV With Ith his practice pra of statesman statesmanship statesmanship man manship ship It Is true ll but one poem but bui it was a love Jov lo pow and his een eon have Mert b err toe too busy bu y redeem Ing a v irgin virgin soil soli to become sentimental or to appreciate sentimentalists I I I I I I I I S jl I S I I J S I I I I Mr fr Thurston hurston has since explained I that tine the poem was written in his cal cat callow catlow low days d y that it was vas not the product tion t tion of years but the circum circumstances circumstanceS stances were against him and the un UnbelIeving S believing neving public as represented by his Nebraska constituency has hardened Ite itic heart h rt tits S 4 G 0 1 Six eight ten years ago Mr Thurs Thura Thurston Thurston Thuraton ton a brilliant orator an able lawyer I the friend and associate of the great t 1 men meni of the nation was the popular idol idolor l ot or Nebraska Republicans He would have bave been sent to the senate in LIPS i had a not a solitary legislator to loyal to toa toa fu JOY JOYe a a mend fiend whose interests had been e lightly treated and whose wh se services to his hie party part had been scornfully spoken of or by the dominant faction prevented a combination with gold Democrats The following year ear he h was pitted ag William Jennings Bryan then the tile rising star of the western Dem Deni Democracy DemO O He won In a canvass of the thee I state stee e When the legislature met in 1390 Mr Thurston received every Re Republican Republican publican vote ote the first time In the turbulent political history of the state that a had been rewarded without a desperate fight His elo do eloquent fluent quent tongue and splendid presence won him new friends at Washington He became the friend of McKinley and championed his cause in the contest of 1896 At St Louis LouisI I 1 he was made m de chairman ot of the national convention When McKinley became I president no man was aas as closer to him him than Thurston 0 S SIn In his lite youth Mr Thurston had mar married marrIed ried lied The wedded life of the Thurstons was WaB Idyllic The wife was wrapped up hi in her bel husband she studied what he studied and it was her tact and judg judgment judgment ment that guided aright his political star When in 1898 lIPS he went to Cuba to study conditions there she accompanied accompanied j I him There she fell feU HI ill and andI I died Later in congress the magnetic t orator electrified the senate by a a bril brit brilliant brilliant plea for the Cubans beginning his impassioned oration by saying I 1 i speak at the behest of lips now silent Ip In Nebraska where Mrs Thurston was generally beloved the tribute he her In this was highly ap appreciated appreciated appreciated His people there were sh shocked to find some months later that he was as paying devoted attention to Miss 2 Lola Purman Putman a Washington belle They resented it a little but they the were silent Later the tan papers conveyed to the senators people the news that his devotion had hadJ expressed Itself in a poem of passion passionI a bit of tender verse yer e of the fervor of the Ella Wheeler Wilcox production The story as they told it was that the thet t senator had made one of a theatre party In Philadelphia Miss lIss Purman was another e member In her corsage she ha carried c a mb hunch h of white t reses mute ev evidence of the senators thought As a token of appreciation for the floral tribute she site took one of the roses and pinned it on the lapel of his dress coat When the senator re returned ret reI t I turned to his hotel he wrote a little to tei it The first verse ran ranS I S r said to J M Oh John dear John JohnWill JohnWill Will you ever eyer do it again Whan you Fou u sing to the rose pray do it I Vin In prose Therell Theren be no parodies then i Miss Purman then Mrs Thurston took it all aU as a joke and made a col collection lection of the parodies It was different with her husband Proud sensitive and ambitious he deeply resented the ridicule ri heaped beeped upon him He felt It Ita ita a R poor return r turn for his services to the state He was humiliated and in his anger angel declared that he would retire at the end of his term termo o 4 4 0 From the day of the publication of the poem Ht m Mr Thurstons political star I I t went rapidly down towards the hori hon horizon horizon i I Ison zon son year he expressed a desire to go to Philadelphia as a delegate from Nebraska A powerful opposition arose and It was only by a i scant ma majority majority after a fight of unusual bitter bitterness bitterness ness nese that he won and then only after he had been humiliated by being denied the he honor of delegate from his i own ward to the state convention His young wife was a witness to his tri tn triumph triumph and as the story goes sought afterwards to induce him to seek a re no What he replied Is but the delegation from Douglas Dougl s coun county county county ty where he lives is pledged to his bitterest t enemy Edward Rosewater the editor of the Bee and not a single legislator has even given him the com compliment n of a R 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