CHAPTERS FROM MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY .-- XII.
BY MARK TWAIN.
[Sidenote: (1864-5.)] _Orion Clemens--resumed._ [_Dictated April 5, 1906._] There were several candidates for all the offices in the gift of the new State of Nevada save two--United States Senator, and Secretary of State.

Nye was certain to get a Senatorship, and Orion was so sure to get the Secretaryship that no one but him was named for that office.

But he was hit with one of his spasms of virtue on the very day that the Republican party was to make its nominations in the Convention, and refused to go near the Convention.

He was urged, but all persuasions failed.

He said his presence there would be an unfair and improper influence and that if he was to be nominated the compliment must come to him as a free and unspotted gift.