and supported himself by managing a boarding house for students in term time, and by canvassing for books and doing other kinds of work during vacation. With the help of prizes for his attainments in scholarship, he succeeded in paying his own way through college; and he was graduated with high honors. But hard work in self-support and close application to study had made heavy drafts upon his naturally strong constitution, and he was compelled to defer his cherished plan of entering upon the study of law. For two years he did the work of a cowboy on the plains, with marked improvement in his health. He then established himself at Indianapolis as a student in the law office of McDonald and Butler. His means were limited. He studied incessantly, and made himself so useful to his employers that a year after he entered their office, he became their chief clerk. In 1887 he was admitted to the bar; and in the following year he entered upon the practice of law in Indianapolis.
It is a remarkable fact that until he entered the senate of the United States Mr. Beveridge never held a public office. But although young, be had become widely known as an able and successful lawyer, as a man who was thoroughly informed regarding political affairs, and as a brilliant public speaker. In his school days he had been greatly interested in politics; and while he was at the university his fame as an orator was firmly established. His first political speech in a presidential campaign was made in favor of Mr. Blaine, in 1884, to a little company that had gathered in a blacksmith shop. His next effort in this direction was at a country meeting in a barn. The republican managers soon heard of his remarkable influence over an audience, called him to Indianapolis, and appointed him the principal speaker at some of the largest and most important political meetings in the state. In subsequent campaigns his services have been in great demand and he has made speeches in many states, from Connecticut to California.
Although widely recognized as a lawyer of ability, an orator and a manager in political affairs, he was not brought forward as a candidate for office until the term of the Honorable David S. Turpie, the democratic senator from Indiana, was about to expire. His friends then united in a movement in his behalf, and secured for him the nomination for this high position, and in January, 1899, when he was but little more than thirty-six years of age, he was elected to the senate of the United States.
