between this incident and the Majors-Howe
fued is that at that time Tom Majors was
"assessor of internal revenue," and he was
called to Lincoln to assist in the defeat of
the measure. It is said that Majors' serv
ices were not necessary under the peculiar
circumstances by which arrangements were
made for the defeat of the bill. But when
Roberts was reported on the sick list Tom
Majors started out for a little fun on his
own hook and he led a quartet of the dis
guested champions of the defeated bill to
the apartment where Roberts, Church
Howe's warm friend, was enjoying himself
on a liberal hunk of well cooked material.
In 1880 Howe was once more elected to
the senate, and in 1882 he again passed un
der the rod of Tom Majors' antagonism and
came out triumphant. By this time Howe
had finally secured his hold in the republi
can party again, and in 188-1, while he was
a member of the republican national com
mittee, Howe was again nominated for the
state senate, and while he was absent in the
south, laboring in the interests of the na
tional party, he was re-elected to the sen
ate. At the Beatrice convention in 1886 Howe
was nominated for congress over Connell
and was defeated at the general election by
McShane by more than 7,000 majority. At
the same election Majors was the nominee
for state senator. During this campaign
the two adversaries came nearer together
than ever before or perhaps ever since. On
one occasion during this fight Majors ac
tually took supper at Howe's home and at
the election voted for Howe, the only vote
Tom Majors ever cast for his interesting
fellow citizen and neighbor. But Howe was
beginning to go down once .more in the pop
ular scale, and while Majors carried his
county by 600 majority for the senate
Howe's majority was only 190.
In 1888 the republicans of Nemaha county
wanted Church Howe to run for the state
senate. Particularly did the prohibition re
publicans want Howe in the senate; and
Howe wanted to go, but he pretended that
he was greatly averse to going.
Finally Howe agreed to accept the nom
ination provided that Majors was nominated
on the same ticket for the lower house. This
was regarded as a great scheme by the re
publican leaders of Nemaha, and though
Majors protested long and loud he was nom
inated and accepted. But no sooner as the
campaign well opened than the friends of
Majors commenced to open their eyes, and
the optics of Thomas himself actually
bulged out when he realized that the anxi
ety of Howe to have him on the ticket was
for the simple purpose of slaughtering the
pride of Peru precinct and leaving him out
to "moulder in the mildew."
The nominees of the lower house were
Tom Majors of Jeru precinct and John Pohl-mai-rof
Washington precinct. The demo
crats nominated one Swan and Emor Lash,
the latter a resident of Tom Major's own
precinct. The fight went merrily fen, and
because of Howe's tie-up with the opposi
tion Majors was compelled to hustle right
lively to gather his political crop. Howe
carried the county by 800 majority ana
Majors came hopping along slightly dis
figured but still in the ring with a major
ity of 300. Lash was elected, but instead
of defeating Majors he knocked out Pohl
man, Majors' colleague, and gave to Peru
precinct two representatives.
For many reasons the Howe-Majors'
fight has been remarkable. Neither has
adopted the childish plan of never speaking
as they pass by. For twenty years they
tore down each other's political fences and
entertained for each other most cordial
hate; yet they greeted each other with a
cordiality that would put rear friends to.
blush. Only once during a twenty years'
fight did these antagonists get down to out
right personal encounter, and that was at
the session when Paddock was elected to
the senate for the first time. Howe opposed
Paddock and Majors, who was still in the
internal revenue service, was at Lincoln
working for Paddock. Majors knew Howe's
colleague well, so one day he walked delib
erately into the house while it was in ses
sion and moved up to the deck occupied
by Nemaha county's representative. Grasp
ing Howe's colleague by the arm, Majors
boldly invited him to participate in a Pad
dock caucus. Howe sprang to his feet. "Mr.
Speaker," he exclaimed, "I call your atten
tion to the fact that legislation is being in
terrupted, and ask that the sergeant-at-arms
be directed to put that man out," (pointing
to Majors). Majors didn't budge. He stood
in the aisle and unravelled plain Anglo
Saxon, decorated with old-time Nemaha
rhetoric, at the head of Captain Pollocks'
"political marvel." Things waxed warm,
and during the hubbub which followed Ma
jors escaped with Howe's colleague and car
ried him off to the Paddock caucus, where
he was pledged for Majors' candidate.
It would require studied mathematical ef
forts to decipher which of the two Nemaha
adversaries was the "under dog" the greater
number of times during those twenty years.
Each triumphed and each bit the dust. The
war between the two was "carried into
Egypt "whenever there was a shadow of an
Egypt to take it to. If one met defeat at
the polls he went to Lincoln and made life
miserable for the victor by hanging on the
ragged edges of the legislative session. Each
has smiled and smiled and still been an
enemy. In 18S4 Tom Majors and his
friends were for Blaine. But when Church
Howe aired his ambition to become a dele
gate from Nemaha county to the state cor
vention in order to go to the national con
vention and mounted the Blaine horse, Ma
jors and his friends forsook their first love
and took up the advocacy of the Grant boom
simply because Howe was supporting
Blaine. Nemaha county instructed , for
Grant, not that they loved Grant so much
more, but that Tom Majors loved Church
Howe so much less.
Only one. really personal encounter, it was
said, have these statesmen experienced; but
they have probably participated in several
thousand bits of pleasantry over which
other men might tear shirts and take to the
four-ounce gloves.
Some of the passages-at-arms between
these two are of interest. In one county
convention where both sat as delegates,
Majors made a bitter attack on a proposi
tion advanced by Howe, and said something
ostensibly addressed to an imaginary per
son, but really directed at Howe. When
Majors concluded Howe sprang to his feet
and shouted : "Mr. Chairman, if nature in
bestowing her gifts had been less liberal
with the larnyx and more liberal with brains
in the making of some would-be statesmen
a reply to the gentleman might be neces
sary." On another and a similar occasion, where
Majors had slipped in as a delegate by the
skin of his teeth, Howe was exasperated be
yond endurance by Majors always voting
contrary wise. Finally Howe jumped up
and exclaimed : "Mr. Chairman, Caesar had
his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell,
and Nemaha county has a Tom Majors."
A stillness reigned for a moment, then
Majors arose and drawled : "Mr. Chairman,
I am aware that Caesar had his Brutus,
and Charles the First his Cromwell, but I
submit, sir, that they were fortunate in not
each having had a Howe."
Majors' greatest triumph over Howe was
when Church Howe presided as chairman
over the republican state convention that
nominated Majors for lieutenant governor
and was forced to announce Majors' nom
ination. Then it was that the blue-shirted
statesman smiled, while Howe turned pale
and announced the result in a voice that
trembled with emotion a rather warm emo
tion, too.
Majors was nominated for governor in
1894 and went down to defeat before Silas
A. Holcomb. For a season he was obscured
to the political vision, but two years ago
showed up as senator from Nemaha. About
the time Majors was nominated for gover
nor Howe was appointed minister to Pal
ermo, Italy. Later he was in a similar
capacity in Germany and Canada, and is
now, in the consular, service and stationed
at Manchester England.
All is comparatively quiet in Nemaha
these degenerate days.
This is the history of the famous fued.
And is it any wonder that Salathiel, or
whatever the old fellow's name may be, re
tired to a dark corner and shed a few salty
tears over days that are departed?
How John O. Yeiser Won
John O. Yeiser, who is representing Gov
ernor Aldrich in the investigation into the
charges of political corruption in Omaha,
recently pulled off one of the shrewdest
moves ever pulled off by an attorney. It
was fully equal to the famous almanac
story told by Abraham Lincoln in his de
fense of the Clary Grove boys. It will be
remembered that Lincoln was defending the
Clary boys, who were charged with murder.
Two or, three of the witnesses testified that
they saw the crime committed and recog
nized the murderers by the light of the
moon. The date of the murder having been
fixed" Lincoln proved by the almanac that
the time was at the dark of the moon.
Yeiser's bomb was the equal in ever respect
to that of Lincoln's.
Mr. Yeiser was attorney for the defense
in the case wherein one Erdman was
charged by the state with attempting to dy
namite the home of Tom Dennison. Two
young girls testified that they saw Erdman
in the immediate vicinity of Dennison's
house within a few minutes of the time the
bomb was exploded. When asked how they
happened to be in that vicinity at that par
ticular time of day, and how they rememb
ered the exact dajte, the girls testified that
they remembered it because it was the day
they had attended a church picnic a couple
of miles away. They remembered the pic
nic, because after dinner the crowd posed for
a photograph. The time of the bomb's ex
plosion was definitely fixed. Yeiser secured
an adjournment of court and hustled out to
get a copy of that photograph. He suc
ceeded, and immediately took it to Father
RigTg"e astronomer and a professor at
Creighton university. Father Rigge is an
acknowledged authority on things astron
omical. He took that photograph and an al
amac, and carefully figuring out the time of
day as denoted by the shadows thrown in
the photograph, proved beyond dispute that
the two girls could not possibly have cov
ered the distance between the picnic grounds
and the Dennison home, by any known
means of lomocotion in the short time be
tween the taking of the photograph and the
explosion of the bomb.
If that isn't equal in every respect to
Abraham Lincoln's coup, then Will Mau
pin's Weekly misses its guess.