man of the committee on internal improvements, and a member of the committees on agriculture, accounts and expenditures, counties and county boundaries, library, and miscellaneous subjects.

HE fifth senatorial district is represented in the twenty-fifth session of the legislature by Hon. William D. Schaal, of Springfield, Nebraska. He was born in Missouri in 1860 and raised upon a farm. In 1865 became with his father's family to Sarpy county, Nebraska, where he has since resided with the exception of five years spent in Hitchcock county. He taught school six years, and has devoted the rest of his time to agricultural pursuits. He has a wife and four children, to whom he is devotedly attached. Mr. Schaal early espoused the principles of the populist party, but has never been disposed to press his personal claims for recognition in political councils. Preferring the quiet of home life and provident industry to the allurements of office-chasing, he has from choice remained with the rank and file. In 1895 he yielded to the demand of his friends and neighbors, and ran for county clerk, accepting defeat without complaint. In 1896 the senatorial conven-

tion of his district, which includes the counties of Sarpy and Saunders, tendered him the nomination, and he was elected by a flattering majority. Senator Schaal is chairman of the committee on highways, bridges, and ferries, and a member of the committees on accounts and expenditures, school lands and funds, labor, banks and currency, and asylums.

NE of Lancaster county's well-known representatives is the Hon. Edson R. Spencer, of Firth. He was born in New York in 1861, his parents soon after emigrating to Jo Daviess county, Illinois, where Edson was educated. At the age of seventeen he became a public school teacher, and in the spring of 1879 drifted with the tide of emigration to Nebraska, locating in Richardson county. From here he removed to the town of Firth, where he now lives. He has long been engaged in the banking business, and has other important business connections. This is his third term in the legislature, he having been twice honored with election to the lower house. He is a republican of intense convictions, but makes few speeches in the senate, contenting himself with practical work in committee and on roll

call when the votes are taken. He has an exceedingly strong hold on the rank and file of his party in Lancaster county and is generally accorded whatever he asks. Senator Spencer is a member of the following committees: Highways, bridges, and ferries, internal improvements, education, and enrolled and engrossed bills.

HE twenty-third senatorial district of Nebraska has an able and conscientious representative in the person of Senator Calvin F. Steele. He was born in Illinois in 1843, and was educated and reared in that state. In 1861, at the tender age of eighteen, he enlisted in the Second Illinois Cavalry, and served four years and five months in the great rebellion, enduring tintold privations and rendering hard and faithful service. At the close of the war he resumed his studies, attending school less than two years. When the stream of drifting population was at high tide toward the west in 1871, he came to Nebraska and located in the promising little city of Fairbury. Embarking in business and giving strict attention to the best methods, he finally built up an extensive trade as a furniture dealer. The people of Jefferson county have repeatedly shown him their

confidence in the most tangible form. By their suffrages he was twice elected sheriff, and subsequently served four years as county treasurer. He has always been a republican, but is a public-spirited citizen on the broadgauge plan. Senator Steele is a conscientious and faithful member of the following committees: Public lands and buildings, soldiers' home, irrigation, privileges and elections, military affairs.

DAMS county is represented in the senate by a veteran Union soldier, Hon. Tracy P. Sykes, a farmer by occupation. He was born at Strykersville, New York, May 29, 1843. At the age of seven he removed with his parents to Henry county, Illinois, and lived near the present city of Kewanee until the breaking out of the war. He enlisted in the Twenty-fourth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, which regiment was assigned to General John A. Logan's division of the Seventeenth Army Corps. He was with his regiment during the entire Vicksburg campaign, that being the second regiment to enter the city after its capitulation, In December, 1863, he was transferred for disability to Company E, Fourth Regiment, Veteran Reserve Corps, where he