Looters of the Public Domain/Chapter 14
Chapter XIV
THERE has been such frequent allusion to Horace G. McKinley in these pages that I feel it incumbent to satisfy whatever public curiosity has been aroused by giving a brief history of my first acquaintance with the man whose subsequent career has been so closely identified with my own.
During the summer of 1892, while I was still in partnership with Willard N. Jones and dealing in State indemnity lands, I received a call at my residence, in Portland, Oregon, from a young man from La Crosse, Wisconsin, who, after introducing himself, stated that he had learned that I was in a position to furnish base upon which to make lieu selections, and he was desirous of consulting me in reference to a matter in my line. I was much impressed with the personality of my new client, and lost no time in attending to his wants. It seems that he had located some forty or fifty homesteaders on a tract of timber land near Crawfordsville, Linn County, on the Callapooya River, and that the Southern Pacific Company had contested some of the entries on the ground that they were on odd-numbered sections, and as the tract was within the 30-mile limit of the company's indemnity grant, it was contended that the Government had no right to dispose of the lands. Eventually, I succeeded in perfecting title to the claims, and they were sold subsequently to some lumbermen of La Crosse. Thus was begun an acquaintance that has since ripened into the warmest friendship between us.
After dissolving partnership with Willard N. Jones, I continued to transact business for McKinley in the matter of procuring titles for him to lands under the State indemnity laws, and about a year later we entered into a full co-partnership, under the terms of which we operated in timber lands throughout Oregon and Washington up to the time we were both convicted in the 11-7 case.
I found him to be an apt pupil along some lines, although inclined at times to reckless and extravagant habits. He was generous to a fault, and had a faculty of making friends very rapidly wherever he went, and especially with the fair sex, as his good looks and affable manner seemed to appeal to women almost instantaneously. Whatever his failings may have been, I could not help but admire him for his bold and dashing ways, and the confidence he displayed under many trying circumstances. Whether it was a ten-cent piece or a $1,000 bill, he would squander both with equal grace, go to bed contented and wake up in the morning with a happy smile. I have known him, in fact, to engage rooms at the Hotel Portland at a cost of $10 a day, with as much as $5,000 in his pocket; pass the evening at the theater, and before retiring, drop into some gambling resort for the purpose of placing a small bet—"just to win breakfast money," as he would put it. Before leaving the establishment he would lose every dollar he possessed, arise from the table with the same cheery disposition, borrow the price of a meal from a friend and repair to his bedroom, where he would sleep as peacefully as an infant. In the morning he would wake up and dress, seek some downtown lunch counter and relish a 20-cent breakfast with the same gusto he might display at a feast for the gods. He would then brace up to anything; that looked like ready money, close another big deal, and before nightfall be in the swim again with pockets lined with gold, and as ready and willing as ever to repeat his performance.
It was while we were engaged in business along the lines indicated that McKinley first met his present wife. As Miss Marie L. Ware, she was the United States Commissioner at Eugene, Oregon, and the two were brought in frequent contact through official association, as our transactions through her office were quite extensive, and originally upon a perfectly legitimate basis. It was a bad case of love at first sight between them, and anybody but a blind person could readily guess the outcome. Although Horace, was already married, and had a wife living at West Salem, Wisconsin, the cares of matrimony hung very lightly upon his shoulders and did not hinder him in any way from paying devout court to the fair Marie. So attentive to each other did they become, in fact, that Mrs. McKinley finally sought a divorce from her husband, and the ink was hardly dry on the decree before Horace and Marie were made husband and wife. As the facts relating to their marriage have never been published, and as they naturally form an interesting feature of my story, it affords me pleasure to give my readers full details of the affair.
Immediately after the conviction of Senator John H. Mitchell, in the summer of 1905, I had a consultation with McKinley, and as we had some timber deals pending, we decided to go East and endeavor to close them up. Taking the train at Portland, we proceeded direct to Chicago, remaining there something like a month or six weeks, when McKinley returned to Seattle, where he expected to negotiate the sale of some lands, while I went to Detroit, Mich., from which point I operated throughout the State, visiting a number of the larger timber land operators with whom I was acquainted, and also calling on several in the State of Wisconsin with whom I had done business previously. I found them all more or less indifferent to making further investments in Oregon titles, however, and was unable, because of the land fraud trials, which were then in full progress, to consummate a deal of any particular magnitude, although I did succeed, through hard work, in disposing of a few quarter sections of minor importance.
The main question in the minds of Eastern lumbermen at that moment related to the validity of titles to lands which they had already purchased, and few among them felt disposed to make additional investments, because of the stirring up that Francis J. Heney was giving the timber land operators at that particular time, and which, it was believed by many, would affect lands to which they had already received patents. I soon found, in discussing the subject of Mr. Heney's prosecution of the Oregon cases, that more time was being consumed in giving information than was being devoted to the selling of lands, and commenced to feel discouraged because of the outlook of turning an immediate trade. While thus engaged I received a letter from McKinley, written at Seattle, in which he advised me of his wife having secured a divorce from him. and of his intention to wed Miss Marie L. Ware, of Eugene, Oregon, and requesting me to meet Miss Ware and himself in Chicago, where the ceremony would take place. I was much surprised in receiving McKinley's letter, as it was the first intimation I had received that my old partner was divorced and free to wed the woman of his choice and for whom I was aware that for some years past he had entertained a great admiration.
Upon receipt of his letter. I immediately wired my acceptance of his invitation to the wedding, and lost no time in reaching Chicago, where I found Miss Ware and McKinley registered at the Morrison Hotel, they having arrived from the West that morning.
Returning to the courthouse, we consulted with the Clerk of the Court, who conducted us to an official in the same building, who performed the ceremony, after which a few hours were spent in automobiling about the city and taking in the sights. We then returned to the hotel and prepared for the wedding feast, which had previously been arranged for at Kinzie's cafe.
To those of McKinley's friends who are acquainted with the man and with his manner of doing things, it is useless to observe that no detail in the arrangements had been overlooked, and that the spread was a most elaborate one. Even to the orchestra itself, which consisted of the very best talent in the city, he had given his personal attention, going so far as to make selections of the music which they should render for the edification and pleasure of his guests.
The decorations, consisting chiefly of choice flowers of the most expensive varieties, were exceedingly profuse and very artistically arranged. The whole surroundings, in fact, denoted the gala feast of a Western prince, and those who partook of the good things on that occasion will ever remember their host as the liberal entertainer for which he is famed the lengh and breadth of the land.
I had the honor of acting in the capacity of "best man," 'and as such, was given a favored place at the festive board. It might be stated, however, that every gentleman present, being more or less imbued with a sense of chivalrous responsibility, assumed the honor of attending upon the groom and his charming bride. But we had failed to reckon with our host and his accustomed style of entertaining. As the time wore merrily on, and the popping of corks contributed its emphasis to the general hilarity of the occasion, McKinley discovered that quite a number of the regular patrons of the cafe, who had lingered to give audience to the delightful music, were not receiving sufficient attention, according to his ideas of true Western hospitality. He thereupon lost no time in extending an invitation to all hands in the dining room to join in the festivities, the orchestra itself being included in the spontaneous request. As the ranks of those already in the establishment were constantly being augmented by newcomers, who were likewise given the glad hand by the irrepressible McKinley, the affair soon developed into one of the grandest receptions of its kind ever witnessed in Chicago, and that the local newspapers did not get hold of the story is one of the mysteries of modern journalism.
In consequence of the quantity of good things of life consumed, the orchestra took a marked departure from its programme as originally planned with such artistic measure of the proprieties by the genial host. Instead of the sweet strains from Lohengrin awakening all the sentiments of those present they were regaled with "A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight;" and in place of other classic selections, made by McKinley with equal consideration as to the fitness of things, the orchestra had its own ideas on the subject, and furnished the merrymakers with all the latest ragtime music.
Needless to say, Mac was the lion of the hour, and congratulations were showered upon the happy couple from every quarter of the cafe. Some weeks later, cards were out announcing that Mr. and Mrs. Horace G. McKinley would be "At Home" to their friends after November 1, 1905, on their homestead in 11-7. It was a fitting climax to the vaudeville features of the occasion, and illustrates fully with what feathery weight the serious affairs of life rested upon those most concerned. They remained for awhile in Chicago, but later took a honeymoon trip to the Pacific Coast. Leaving Marie in Seattle, Horace returned East, and I met him in Chicago again. Together we went to Minneapolis, from whence Horace sent for Marie, and she joined him there.
While we were in Minneapolis, McKinley informed me that he might have to leave the country for awhile, and that he had consulted Chicago attorneys with that object in view. They had given him a synopsis of the extradition laws, showing that there were few countries he could go to where he would be safe from extradition under the treaty laws for offenses of a conspiracy character. He virtually had his choice between China and some of the South American republics.
"No doubt, Steve," he said, in explaining matters, "we will want to correspond with each other, and this had better be done through my cousin, Allie McKinley, who conducts a saloon at 222 McAllister street, San Francisco, as he can be trusted on account of his relationship to me."
Up to this time I had entertained no thought that McKinley intended to leave the country. Soon after he took his departure, without any of us knowing his destination, and later he wrote to Marie from Omaha, stating that he was en route to either Florida or San Francisco, and it would be uncertain when she would hear from him again. It developed that he went to China, and it was a long time before I received any direct word from him. What I did get bore striking evidence that all the humor in his nature had not been entirely obliterated by contact with disagreeable experiences. One of his communications to me consisted of a photographic postcard, exhibiting the picture of a Chinese in "stocks," the form of punishment for certain offenses in vogue in that country. Upon this, in his familiar handwriting, McKinley had inscribed, "This Chink stole a piece of Government land in China." That was all, but it struck me as amply expressive. He did not even sign his name, but it was unnecessary for him to have done so, as the whole thing spoke volumes, and I could trace his facetious individuality in every word. A facsimile of the postcard is given herewith.
