[Sam Davis, A Political Corpse, Sunset, September 1903]

 

A Political Corpse

By SAM DAVIS

Illustrated from drawings by Stanley Clisby Arthur

 

            ONE frequently hears of the "political corpse" in a campaign, but I never knew of but one real political corpse in my life, and that was the one which "Cleve," the political manipulator from White Pine county, Nevada, rang in on the Republican convention at Winnemucca.

            He actually resurrected the body of old Dr. Mathewson, who had been under the sod for more than twenty years, and swapped it off for thirty votes. Being a member of that historic body myself I write of the circumstance advisedly and from personal knowledge of the facts.

            Judge McAnerney was then on the Supreme bench of Nevada and had been there so long that he regarded himself as a permanent fixture at five thousand dollars a year. His head was massive, with a brow that was decidedly Shakesperian and this cranial conformation, coupled with a studied reticence of speech and a look of profound wisdom, gave him for several years the nomination for office and the triumphant election.

            The legal profession all knew that he didn't really know the difference between a writ of replevin and a habeas corpus, but the public didn't.

            The only interest the Judge ever had in politics was when the ticket had his name on, but in the intermediate campaigns he never had been known to subscribe a dollar for the party and with "the push" he became persona non grata.

            When the Winnemucca convention met he was, of course, a candidate and there was no one to oppose him, for his name and prestige carried great weight.

            But Cleve of White Pine, had it in for him and was plotting his overthrow all the way from Ely to Winnemucca, which is many hundred miles by slow stage, and if there is any one place where a politician has time to hatch up jobs it is on a slow stage over a Nevada road, and he the solitary passenger.

            When Cleve reached the convention he had the whole plan ready to spring, and the general architectural construction of it was entitled to take rank with any political job ever contrived by man. Even to this day the politicians of the sage brush—including the victims of it—point to it with pride and recall it as a genuine work of art, qualified to rank with "the old masters."

            The situation was quite simple. There were six delegates entitled to represent the state in the National Republican convention in Chicago and only five counties had candidates for those honorable but non-salaried positions.

            This enabled Story county to have two candidates; Lon Hamilton, a brother-in-law of United States Senator Jones, and

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Billy Sharon, as he was affectionately called, a nephew of the late Senator Sharon, who had passed to the majority (silent).

            These men were bosom friends, although they represented factions who had waged political warfare on the Comstock for more than a quarter of a century.

            Cleve studied it out that all he had to do was to get these two factions fighting and he could lay Judge McAnerney out as cold as a wedge with a third man. His first move was to throw a man into the fight as a candidate for the Judgeship and assure him that all would be well when the time came.

            Next he let his friend, Sam Dowling, into the plot and told him to circulate the report that Dr. Mathewson of White Pine, wished to attend the Chicago convention as a delegate. He confided to his accomplice that the doctor had been dead for over twenty years, but no one else about the convention knew anything of it.

            Of course, it was easy to see that if a county from the "great east" wanted to send a man to Chicago, the claim could not be denied and the natural consequence would follow that either Sharon or Hamilton would have to retire gracefully.

            The intelligence, first circulated by Dowling, that Cleve was working for "Dr. Mathewson of White Pine," spread through the town in about ten minutes and when it reached the Story county delegation it set Hamilton and Sharon thinking. Sharon, sizing up the situation, hunted up Dowling at once.

            "Say, Sam, who is this man Mathewson of White Pine, who wants to go to Chicago ?"

            "Don't know much about him, Billy. I hear he's the chairman of the county central committee out there and has always spent his own money for the party. I guess he's some kin to Cleve."

            "Well, you see, Sam, his being in this fight for a delegate to Chicago is raising the deuce in Story, and it will result in my having to down my friend Hamilton for the place. Of course, it will be a disagreeable task, but when the Jones faction bucks up against the Sharon faction there can be but one result. The Jones's get it in the neck as you know.

            "Now the only way to ease up the situation is to have Cleve pull his man out. Better see him and suggest it, not coming from me, of course, you understand that I don't want him to feel bad."

            When this message was communicated to Cleve he gave a long whistle and lit a fresh cigar.

            "Got 'em nibbling," was all he said, and sent Dowling down along the line again. Dowling soon met Hamilton coming down the street, as if he was looking for someone, and meeting Dowling he unfolded himself.

            "I say, Sam, this thing of sticking a man into this convention to go to Chicago, to a national convention from the backwoods of White Pine county strikes me as ridiculous. What the mischief does the fellow want?"

            "Well, Lon, he's a great friend of Cleve's you see. He's been an old-time workhorse of the party and never asked for anything before. Cleve says the whole county wants Doc Mathewson and won't take no for an answer."

            "Of course, I know Doc has always done the right thing by the ticket, but if he stays in, Story can't have but one delegate and that will have to be me. I will have to down Sharon and Billy is a very particular friend of mine. Of course, you know as well as I do that if it comes to a fight that the Jones people never al-

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"Dog gone near twenty-five years dead," was Sharon's ejaculation

lowed the Sharon crowd to dictate to them on the Comstock. I wish you would see Cleve and have him pull that man out and save me the pain of putting the kibosh on Billy, for I hate the idea of being compelled to resort to a jam on him."

            Inside half an hour the two rivals from Story were fighting at long range, and later on they had their tomahawks swinging in the air, all their knives were out and the delegation was split wide open. The noise of the conflict aroused the convention and it was reported that the fight might imperil the success of the whole state ticket in the fall elections, and Nevada out of the Republican column might give the Presidency to the Democrats.

            The Story delegates appealed to Cleve and presently the convention was on their knees to him. Cleve was obdurate. He said the eyes of White Pine were on him and he could not betray a trust placed in his hands by the Republicans of his county. It was impossible to get word to Dr. Mathewson and ask his withdrawal, as there was no telegraph line nearer than thirty miles from Mathewson's place, so Cleve said, and no one disputed him.

            Finally, Story county offered him thirty votes for anything he wanted, and Cleve reluctantly consented "in the interest of party harmony," he said, adding with a sigh that the White Pine people "would hurl dead cats" at him on his return and he would have to spend a week or two in San Francisco until it blew over.

            The trade was made. The thirty votes of Story were transferred from McAnerney to Cleve's man in short order, and the Shakespearian browed candidate was turned down and forever, for immediately after the convention he migrated to Colorado.

            Cleve, however, exacted a solemn

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promise from both Hamilton and Sharon that Dr. Mathewson was to be their first choice for the next national convention, and they pledged it over a big bottle of wine.

*           *           *           *           *

            Two years later Hamilton and Sharon had occasion to visit White Pine on a mining trip, and as they passed through Ely they met Cleve, and Sharon suggested that as they were so near Dr. Mathewson it might be the correct thing to call on him.

            Cleve said he would take them over to the place where Mathewson was stopping, and the two men headed by their guide walked out to the grave yard where the bones of Ely's pioneers lay in restful repose.

            The Story county politicians were a little puzzled, but said nothing until presently Cleve paused before a moss-covered stone and with a low bow, said in his blandest tones:

            "Gentlemen, allow me to present my old friend and candidate to the National Chicago Convention, Dr. Mathewson."

            Leaning over they deciphered with some difficulty, as they poked aside the tangled growth of weeds and vines, the following:

            "Dog gone near twenty-five years dead, and Cleve swapped him off for thirty votes," was Sharon's ejaculation.

            Hamilton announced that he had no comments to make, as his limited knowledge of the English language barred him from expressing himself.

            Cleve, as he took the two up town and treated, remarked that he had known Dr. Mathewson since he was a boy and that was the only time he ever knew him to carry the slightest weight in politics.