The Indianapolis Sentinel

THE NEW CALIFORNIA SENATOR.
The people of the Pacific Coast country must be devout worshipers of the golden calf if we may judge them by the material of which they are wont to make United States Senators. California and Nevada have preferred men for the Senate who are almost as conspicuous for lack of brain as for abundance of "boodle." The latest California man, Leland Stanford, would, without his millions, have no more been thought of for a Senatorship than for a bishopric. At the time of his election he was known to be a broken down man, mentally as well as physically. It is an open secret that he has no further capacity for public business, and that the probabilities are largely in favor of his proving an absentee. Reports from San Francisco since the death of his son indicate Senator Stanford to have fallen into a state of mind but little less than idiotic. For his sufferings from this bereavement of course the public will extend sympathy. But the mental weakness which has developed into idiosyncrasy was known to exist when his election occurred. It is alleged that he is so infected with spiritualism as to find little pleasure in talking of anything else. He forces the subject upon comparative strangers and tells of his assurance that his son is near him. It is told of him that a few days since he met a stranger on the street and without an introduction began telling of his belief that his sole hope was in his firm confidence in the immortality of the soul and that he had no further aims in life. When spoken to by a friend concerning the Senatorship he declared that he took no interest in the matter; that he had passed the time of life when such honors had any attraction for him.
Neither California nor Nevada have had cause for gratulation over their representation in the American House of Lords and will not have so long as money is the prime requisite for election to the Senate. Have they not statesmen, or at least men of brain, whom they might substitute in time for their accidental millionaires?