Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 December 1891 — CAUSED BY OVERWORK. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CAUSED BY OVERWORK.

SENATOR PLUMB SUDDENLY STRICKEN DOWN. Multiplying Official Duties Had Overtaxed His Power*, but He Continued to Labor in Spite of Medical Advice—Apoplexy tlie Cause. An Able Kansan Gone. Senator Dumb fell dead in Washington the 01 her day. \\ h-n this startling news ran thiough the citv it interrupted

everywhere the usual quiet rout'ne. Plum b, that sturdy type of the Western Senator, has gone. People were shocked to know that tho , ltfe of the distinguished Kansan had ;been snuffed out in a moment. Flags were soon at halfmast It was the ta k in the streets, at the hotels and in

every home, to the exclusion of other topics, for Plumb had. in a senatorial service of fourteen years, become one of the best knowu figures in Washington. Death came from apoplexy, the result of exhaustion of the brain, it was a clear case of overwork and inattention to the laws of .nature The Senator had b cn known for vear3 as the most energetic, hard-working member of the Senate. A year ago he began to fail. Physicians warned him that a continuance of his labors meant death, but lie refused to heed their warning. He continued to work with the energy of a steam engine, and, when still apparently in full vigor and with many years of life before him, he died. A few of Mr. Plumb’s most intimate friends knew that he had been ailing for some time, but no le wore prepared for the worst. Ho had been in the Senate last week and appeared to be as well as ever. He attended to his duties with his usual briskness and vigor. A few days ago he said to a Senate employe who congratulated him on his appearance that he was younger than the employe who was his junior by twenty years. As evidence of his vitality ho Ambled up his forearm. His biceps muscles were hard and compact Notwithstanding his activity and his own assertion cf his vigorous health he had been complaining of sleeplessness and vertigo. He complained of persistent pains in his head, impairment of memory and growing inability to choose his ideas in proper and appropriate words. The Senator had previous y been remarkably fluent of speech and his words came so freely that he was the terror of stenographers. When the terrible intelligence was conveyed to the invalid wife of the dead Senator at their ho ne in Emporia. Kan , she seemed like one stricken to the death and for a time her life was dispaired of, owing to her feeble state of health. She, however, rallied and is now bear.ng tip under her crushing grief witli a fortitude wonderful to behold. Hut one of her children was at home, her daughter Mary, and she was sick in bed. Miss Ruth was in Topeka visiting and was immediate y summoned. The other children are in Pennsylvania—Amos H.. the eldest son, at I hiladelphia under treatment for a nervous affect on, and the two youngest, Preston K, Jr , and Carrie, attending school at .Nazareth. Senator Plumb was born in Delaware County, October 12, 1837, so that he was in his fifty-fourth year at the time of his death. He was not a co lege graduate, but left the common s-chools for the printer's case, and in pursuance of his vocation as a journeyman printer, in 185(3, In the b oody days of the history of the newly organ zed territory of Kansas, walked into that territory, and with the vigor and energy wh'ch has brought his life to an end the young man plunged at once into the thick of tho political strife which then was waging over the slavery ciuestiou. He went to the front and soon beanie a member of tho Leavenworth constitutional convention of 1859. He was admitted to the bar in 1861, when the place of his adoption became a State of the Union; served in the Legislature in 1802, was Chairman of Ihe Judiciary Committee and subsequent y Reporter of tho Supreme Court When the war broke out he entered the army as second lieutenant in the Eleventh Kansas Infantry and served successively as capta n, major, lieutenant colonel of the regiment and was commissioned a colonel of the regiment in August. 1802. After tho war Mr. Plumb returned to Kansas, was elected a member of the Kansas House of Representatives, and in 1870 was chosen United States Senator to succeed James M. Harvey, Republican. He took his seat in 1877 and has represented his State as a Senator ever since that time. His term of-office would have expired March 3, 1895. It is settled that Cov. Humphrey of Kansas will appoint a successor to Plumb. A prominent lawyer of Topeka says that a year elapses before the next Legislature is to meet, and so an extra session must be called at once. Other authorities say, however, that the Governor must make an appointment to be effective until another Legislature meets in regular order. In this case sev ral possibilities are spoken of. Those most frequently mentioned are: »Ex-Uoveruor George T. Anthony, ex-Congressman E. N. Morrill, and ( hies Justice Albert 11. He rton. Other names mentioned are: S. K. Hurton, a young attorney of Abilene, who was a bitter opponent of Ingalls; ex-Congress-man 8. K. Peters, of Newton; George R. Pock, General Solicitor of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company: J. I\. Hudson, editor of the Topeka Capital; and ex-Gov. Thomas A. Osborne, Hayes’ Minister to Brazil. The Legislature which will elect a successor to Cov. Humphreys’ appointee convenes in Januarv, 1893. and will be elected next fall. There will be no holdovers either in the lower house oi Senate.

PRESTON B. PLUMB.