The Triumphant Life of Theodore Roosevelt edited by J. Martin Miller

BIOGRAPHY OF HON. CHARLES W. FAH^BANKS 313
Smiths, of whose influence upon Senator Fairbanks this sketch
has treated.
BURNS DOWN THE HOUSE
Many statesmen, Hke Fairbanks, began their Hves in log
cabins, but few of them enjoy the distinction of having set
fire to their log cabins at the tender age of four. This
Senator Fairbanks did, with no more serious result than the
destruction of the rude domicile on his father's farm in
Union County. He ignited some shavings and the wind and
the law of combustion did the rest.
After receiving what learning he could from the country
schools, Senator Fairbanks was sent to Ohio VVesleyan
College. His parents were able to do this, for they had been
thrifty, as had all the Fairbanks for generations. But he
prepared many of his meals himself, being compelled by
economy to forego the luxury of a cook.
Among the boys at college Fairbanks was considered a
very serious fellow, and like all young men who take life
seriously he was the butt of many college pranks. He was
not a brilliant student, but was thorough, earnest and
moderately successful in his class work. His strong will,
inherited from Puritan ancestors, kept him seriously at his
tasks, and helped to make him the idol of the particular
co-ed for whose good opinion alone he might have
struggled.
ORGANIZED INDIANA FOR McKINLEY
The first really significant work which Senator Fairbanks
did in politics was in 1S96, or rather shortly before the
convention of that year, when he allied himself with his
friend William McKinley, and organized Indiana for his