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Eulogy of By Durbin Ward.

"The Senator who served twelve years in the Congress of the United States, a great lawyer, a ripe jurist, when he entered that body, and while he was there, without any disrespect to anybody else, was invariably pointed out by the stranger as the great man on the floor of the Senate of the United States. You want an Ajax, with a helmet and spear, to thunder along the line, and deal death-giving blows to the foe whom we meet. Allen G. Thurman is that man, in thought, in intellect, in courage, in statesmanship, in adherence to Constitutional law, in defense of the rights of the masses, in defiance of the power of monopoly, in defiance of the corruptions of the age."-Extract from Mr. Durbin Ward's speech in seconding Mr. Thurman's nomination.

A Blow of His Nose-Signal for Down Brakes.

"Senator Thurman always wears ill-fitting clothes, and blows his nose with a red handkerchief, with a sound like that of the ram's horn around Jericho. They tell a story of Senator Davis, of West Virginia, who used to be a brakeman on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. He used to sit near Thurman in the Senate, and sometimes went to sleep in his chair. Once, when awakened by the blast from Thurman's nose, he seized his desk and twisted it around, dreaming that he was on a train once more, and supposing Thurman's trumpet to be the signal for down brakes."

JOHN MELLEN THURSTON, NEBRASKA.

(1847

The history of the country presents no better illustration of a self-made man than Mr. Thurston. Born in Montpelier, Vermont, August 23, 1847. At sixteen his father died and he was left to shift for himself. He followed many manual pursuits, and educated himself at Wayland University, Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, where he read law and was admitted at twenty-two. In 1869 he located in Omaha, Nebraska, possessed of but forty dollars. During his first years of practice he slept in a buffalo robe on his office floor. He served successively as justice of the peace, alderman, city attorney, and in 1877 resigned from the Legislature, where he had served two years, having held the chairmanship of the judiciary committee and the position of Speaker, to become assistant attorney of the Union Pacific railway. In 1884 he headed the Nebraska delegation to the Republican National Convention, in which body he seconded the nomination of General Logan for Vice President, and otherwise took a prominent part; and in 1888 he was temporary chairman of a similar body, and as such

delivered an address which electrified the country. He was a strong candidate for the United States Senate in 1887; was urged for a Cabinet position by almost the entire West in 1889; was prominently mentioned as Vice Presidential nominee on a ticket with Blaine in 1892, and received the Republican caucus nomination for the United States Senatorship from Nebraska in 1893, and during the exciting contest before the Legislature received his entire party vote, lacking but five of election, being finally defeated by a combination of Democrats and Populists. He will doubtless be made Senator by the present Republican Legislature.

He has been engaged in many prominent trials, notably in assisting the prosecution in State v. Olive, in which he secured a conviction of murder in the second degree; the successful defense of the murderers of William H. Armstrong; and in 1886 cleared John W. Lauer for shooting his wife—the latter being one of the most noted trials in the annals of the State. When in general practice his business was said to be the largest of any lawyer in his section of the country. Mr. Thurston has a wife and four children, and his home is a model of domestic comfort and felicity,

Pen Picture of Mr. Thurston.

"It is to be regretted that Mr. Thurston's conspicuous legal ability early called him from the general practice. About 1886, the most notable and interesting murder trial in the annals of Nebraska took place at Omaha. It was the case of the State v. John Lauer, charged with shooting his wife. Circumstances had woven about Lauer the seemingly plain and unquestionable evidence of guilt. Lauer and his wife being well known socially, the shooting of Mrs. Lauer-as claimed by her husband, through mistaking her for a burglar-aroused not only the interest, but the bitterness also, of the entire community. The prosecution was led by General John C. Cowin of the Omaha bar, than whom there is no more able or brilliant advocate in the West. Mr. Thurston's analysis of the evidence, upon the second trial, was recognized by the entire bar of the State as being a marvel of skill and ingenuity on the part of the lawyer, as it was the masterpiece of a great advocate. Not only the jury, but the whole community, were convinced by Mr. Thurston's argument of the innocence of his client. No better tribute will ever be paid Mr. Thurston, either as a lawyer or an advocate, than the record of acquittal in this case. What

James T. Brady was to the bar of New York and John McSweeney was to that of Ohio, so was John M. Thurston to the bar of Nebraska, while he remained in the general practice.

Although for years in the employ of a great cor

poration, Mr. Thurston is emphatically a man from the ranks of the people, and a man of the people, large hearted and broad minded. Wherever men look for a leader, or human rights need an advocate, no abler, more fearless and upright exponent can be found than John M. Thurston-the pride of the bar and the idol of the Republicans of Nebraska. Take him for all and all, he exemplifies the embodiment of the poet's prayer, 'God send us men.'"-T. B. Minahan of the Omaha bar, in a letter to the author.