of every difficulty and against all opposition. Mr. Sutherland received a plurality of 2,700 votes.

     WILLIAM ROBERTS JACKSON was born May 17, 1860, in Marengo, McHenry County, Illinois. He worked on the farm in the summer and attended school in the winter. Having decided when quite young to prepare for teaching, he entered the high school at Marengo and was the foremost of his class. After teaching a few years he entered Evansville Seminary, where he spent five years, and received his A. B. and A. M. degrees in the University of Nebraska. He was married in 1886 to Miss Bernice M. Thompson of Crystal Lake, Illinois, and they have five children. Mr. Jackson came to Nebraska in 1888. He taught three years in rural schools, two years in a seminary, was principal of one high school six years, County Superintendent of Holt County two terms and State Superintendent of Public Instruction for Nebraska two terms. He superintended the preparing of the Nebraska educational exhibit at the Trans-Mississippi Exposition, held at Omaha, in 1898. He has served as President of the Nebraska State Sunday School Association, and is at present a member of the executive committee of the International Sunday School Association. Since 1902 he has been professor of education and principal of the Normal School of the Nebraska Wesleyan University.

      JOHN MELLON THURSTON was born in Vermont in 1847, of revolutionary ancestry. His father died in volunteer service as a private in the First Wisconsin Cavalry in 1863, leaving the son to work his own way through college. He was educated at Wayland University, Beaver Dam, Wisconsin; was admitted to the bar, and located in Omaha in 1869. During his early life in Omaha Mr. Thurston served as Alderman and subsequently for some years as City Attorney. In 1875 he was a member of the Nebraska Legislature, holding the position of Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and Acting Speaker. In 1884 he headed the Nebraska delegation to the Republican National

Convention and was chosen temporary chairman of the Republican National Convention of 1888. In 1887 he was a strong candidate for United States Senator and in 1893 lacked but five votes of an election to that office. January 15, 1895, Mr. Thurston was elected to the United States Senate, and immediately on his entrance into Congress he was made Chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

     CONSTANTINE J. SMYTH is a native of the Emerald Isle, having been born in Ireland December 3, 1858. He came to America at the age of eleven years, locating in New York City, where he resided until he came to Nebraska. He located in Omaha in 1877 and educated himself at Creighton College, paying his expenses from wages earned as mail clerk on the Omaha Herald. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1885. The year following he was elected to the House of Representatives. For three and one-half years he was a member of the Omaha Board of Education. In 1894 he was selected as Chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee, and served two years. He was one of the four delegates at large and Chairman of the delegation from Nebraska to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1896, and played a prominent part in bringing about, the nomination of Hon. William Jennings Bryan. Mr. Smyth was nominated in the Omaha Democratic Convention of 1896 for Attorney General, was endorsed by the Populist Convention held at Hastings, and elected by a large plurality. He was re-elected in 1898, and served a second term. In 1889 Mr. Smyth was marired (sic) at Omaha to Miss Katie Murphy. He was a law student some years ago with Hon. J. D. Howe and H. J. Davenport.

     DAVID H. MERCER was reared and, for the most part, educated in Nebraska. His first school days were in the Brownville High School, where he prepared for the Nebraska State University, which institution he entered in 1877, graduating in 1880. He studied law for a year, and then entered the senior class of the Law Department of the Michigan State University, receiving the degree of LL. B. in 1882. He returned to Brownville and began practicing law, served one term as City Clerk and Police Judge, and refused a nomination for Mayor. He was twice elected Secretary of the Republican State Central Committee. He moved to Omaha in 1885, where he practiced his profession until appointed Master in Chancery of the United States Court. In 1892 he was elected by the Republicans for Congress and re-elected in 1894 and also in 1896. June 6, 1894, Mr. Mercer was married to Miss Birdie Abbott, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, the ceremony being performed in Washington at St. John's Church.