Frank Williams memoir, page 24

Los Angeles came the news of the Santiago naval battle which clearly indicated that the war was about over. Had I joined the 7th Regiment, it would have meant little to me, as this regiment was held in San Francisco until about the close of the year and then discharged without ever leaving the state.Later I could have enlisted in another unit for the Philippine insurrection but I did not enthuse over that war. Many others felt as I did about it.Returning to Vanderbilt late in July, I was chosen as a precinct delegate to the Sen Bernardino County Democratic Convention. I allowed myself some hopes of securing the nomination to the State Legislature but found that I could not land it. I was offered a chance to run for County Probate Administrator, but since the prospects of winning against the incumbent looked very doubtful, I declined to undertake it. The result of the November election fully confirmed my doubts. Our party did, however, win in the legislative contest.Returning to Vanderbilt, I hired to a corporation that was starting up in the new camp of Searchlight, Nevada. I worked for then about four months. During this time a post office was established there. A few days after beginning my work, the camp was rocked by a drunken debauch in which a man named Walter Deaks was killed by a young man named James Bolton, a brother of the owners of the Searchlight mine. This created quite an uproar and a lynching was narrowly averted. Colton was taken to Delamar, Nevada, the nearest justice of the peacecourt and acquitted.In December of that year I went to work for wages on the