* * * * *
Mr. Debs made his first political speech for the Democratic party in
1878. He was tendered the nomination for Congress by that party and
declined it.
In 1885 he was elected to the Indiana legislature and ran on the
Democratic ticket with the avowed purpose of securing needed legislation
for the working class in general, and railway employes in particular. In
was this year, 1885, June 9, he was married to Katherine
Metzel,[5]—“Kate” he affectionately calls her. She is one of the noblest
types of women. She was born in Pittsburg, but her parents were
Kentuckians. She is in thorough sympathy with him on social and economic
questions and aids him materially in his work. She is always ready to
give him up to the Cause and in every way adds to his strength, helping
to keep his vast correspondence in order and all his books and papers
are instantly accessible. No children have blessed their lives. A little
nephew has his home with them and Gene is a lover of children and always
has time for their companionship.
Gene is distinctively a “home man;” belongs to no social lodge or club,
simply because he wishes to spend his evenings at home. The Sunday
evenings are home meetings and three generations met Sunday evenings
when father and mother were living. He said, “My father and I were boon
companions,[6] and I tell you, I miss it when I cannot have my Sunday
evening talks with him. When I am out traveling, every day seems alike,
but when Sunday evening comes, I invariably feel something tugging at my
heart strings.”
He said, without hesitation, “The dominant influence in my life has been
my ‘mother.’ Whatever of good there is in me I owe to her. Do you know,”
he said, “I care absolutely nothing for the praise or condemnation of
the world so long as my wife and my mother think I am in the right.”