Empty Mansions

part of the headline.
    A grand jury began investigating even while the legislators started voting for senator on January 10, 1899. Clark was in fourth place on the first ballot, receiving only seven votes to thirty-six for the leading Republican. No candidate had a majority, so the voting continued. Nearly every day for three weeks, there was a new ballot. W.A. crept into third place, then second. By January 23, he was in the lead. On January 26, the grand jury failed to indict anyone.
    In a precursor to the alternative realities displayed a century later by competing cable news outlets, Clark’s
Butte Miner
hailed the grand jury’s decision:
    HIS VINDICATION IS COMPLETE.… CONSPIRATORS FOILED
    Daly’s
Anaconda Standard
lamented:
    THEY SIMPLY FELL DOWN FLAT
    The day after the grand jury failed to issue an indictment, Republicans began crossing party lines, tilting toward the Democrat Clark. Not all were persuaded by money; some went over to W.A. because he had declared himself to be a protectionist, favoring tariffs to aid Montana products such as wool, lead, and hides.
    On January 28, Clark won on the eighteenth ballot, by a vote of 54 to 39. The young state had elected its fifth U.S. senator and its first Democrat. At long last, W.A. would be Senator Clark.
    A QUIET DINNER

 
    To celebrate his election to the U.S. Senate, W.A. gave a banquet for a couple of hundred friends and supporters, held at the Helena Hotel on Tuesday evening, February 7, 1899. A copy of the menu, printed in French, survives. It is presented here with an English translation in parentheses. Alcoholic beverages were listed in capital letters.
    Caviar à la Russe (caviar with egg, cream, and vodka)
Huîtres à l’écaille (oysters on the half shell)
Céleri (celery)
HAUT SAUTERNE (French sweet white wine from Bordeaux)
Green Turtle (soup)
XERES AMONTILLADO (Amontillado sherry)
Cheese Straws
Radis (radish)
Pompano Planche (planked fish)
Pommes Parisiennes (Parisian potatoes)
Ris de Veau en Caisse (veal sweetbreads dressed in paper)
PONTET-CANET (French red wine from Bordeaux)
Côtelettes d’Agneau (lamb chops)
Petit Pois Français (French peas)
PUNCH A LA ROMAINE (lemon, orange rind, egg white meringue, wine, and rum punch)
Cailles Farcies aux Truffes (quail stuffed with truffles)
Salade Laitue (salad with lettuce)
DRY MONOPOLE–EXTRA (champagne)
Asperges à la Vinaigrette (asparagus in vinaigrette)
Biscuit Glacé (a dessert with cream or ice cream, fruit)
Fromage—Dessert (cheese—sweets)
Café—LIQUEURS (coffee—liqueurs)
    Clark’s
Miner
rejoiced:
    VOICE OF THE PEOPLE HEARD.
    Daly’s
Standard
summed up:
    THEY TOOK THE ARCH-BOODLER’S GOLD.
    Handbills were distributed:
    THERE WILL BE A HOT TIME. GRAND CELEBRATION TO-NIGHT TO ENDORSE THE ELECTION OF HON. W. A. CLARK TO THE UNITED STATES SENATE. PROCESSION. FIREWORKS. MEETING AT THE AUDITORIUM. EVERYBODY WELCOME.
    W.A. again bought drinks for the town. His son Charlie spent half the next day signing checks to the bars.
“I DESTROY ALL MY CHECKS”

 
    A S SOON AS W.A. TOOK HIS SEAT in the U.S. Senate in 1899, a delegation of citizens from Montana petitioned to throw the rascal out, to have his election invalidated on account of bribery. After a delay of nearly a year, the Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections held a trial lasting from January to April 1900.
    Witnesses were caught in lies. Others were paid to testify. A few were paid by one side, then changed their testimony when paid more by the other. And who put up unlimited sums to pay for the detectives to produce evidence, the attorneys to prosecute the case, and the newspapers to editorialize about it? Marcus Daly, who testified he had no interest in politics.
    The evidence that hurt W.A. the most was the changed economic circumstances of the Montana legislators who voted for him.
    W. W. Beasley, a Republican who started voting for Clark on the eighteenth ballot, ended the session with $5,000 in his pocket, including at least one thousand-dollar bill, which he claimed to have taken to Helena and kept in his vest pocket the entire session, even as he owed his boardinghouse $400.
    H. H. Garr, who began the legislative session with $75 and had to borrow $25 for the trip to Helena, ended it with enough money to buy a ranch for $3,500, in the name of his wife’s aunt. He testified that he didn’t know what it meant when he wrote his initials on the back of one of those fat envelopes.
    John H. Geiger, who had no regular