A Farmer Denies a Backroom Deal — and Pitches His County's Wheat
W. C. Bush of Bush's Prairie says he may run for the senate to help Thurston County's World's Fair exhibit, but flatly denies the rumor that Judge Robinson ever promised him the seat.
Farmer W. C. Bush, of Bush's Prairie, was in the city this morning. He said he had been too busy at work to think of politics, and yet some of his friends in the county wanted him to run for the senate in the fall, and if his election would help along the cause of Thurston county in the world's fair exhibit at Chicago, he certainly would be a candidate. He had taken an active interest in the Centennial exhibit in 1875, and this county had carried off the prize for the best wheat.
"Have you seen the statement made by the Weekly Capital today that it was an open secret that you have been promised the senatorship by Judge Robinson?" was asked.
"No, I have not seen it," he replied, "but it is a downright falsehood. I have not talked politics to the judge."
"How are things looking out in the country?"
"Splendidly. There are every indications of fine crops. The spring was early, but I have seen many of them just as early. In fact, it is not spring, it is these mild winters we have in this fine country. If this cool rain does not turn into frost and hurt the early fruit we will be all right. There is as much snow in the Black Hills now as there has been at any time during the winter, and we may get a heavy frost, but I hope not."
“It is a downright falsehood. I have not talked politics to the judge.”
A candidate-in-waiting denying a leaked backroom deal in the local press is a scene as old as newspapers themselves — the 1892 version of a planted rumor and an indignant denial. The mix of senate politics, a county's pride in its wheat, and the worry over one late frost still sounds familiar to anyone in Thurston County.
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