The Beatrice Daily Express

"Just before Montana became a state," said a citizen of Helena, "the Clark-Carter contest occurred, and most bitterly was it fought out. Anything that could be turned or twisted into a campaign argument was sought out and brought to the front. Commissioner Sparks, at that time head of the general land office, had made a ruling that thereafter no trees less than eight inches in diameter should be cut down for agricultural or mining purposes in territory belonging to the United States.

"This ruling had aroused a storm of indignant protest in Montana and had straightway assumed a prominent place as one of the main issues in the Clark-Carter campaign. I was speaking one night at Bozeman, and, as was natural, I attacked this ruling of the land commissioner and showed, at least to my own satisfaction, what injury and injustice it did to both farmer and miner, and so I worked up to what had always previously proved an effective peroration by asking the question. 'What, my fellow citizens, can the farmer do with eight inch trees?'

"The answer to this had previously invariably been silence, but this time a shrill voice in the rear of the hall blurted out, Why, split 'em, of course. ye confounded fool!' and I sat down amid the ribald and derisive jeers of that vast audience."-New York Tribune.