The October 13, 1909 NYT has a headline you won't see today:

SENATOR FLINT WILL RETIRE.

MUST LEAVE THE SENATE, HE SAYS, TO EARN MONEY FOR HIS FAMILY.

Turns out the good Senator from California felt that there wasn't enough money in being a Senator and that he had to go out in the real world to earn some scratch:

Senator Frank P. Flint announced yesterday that when his present term expires, on March 4, 1911, he would not be a candidate for re-election.

"If I were a rich man," said Senator Flint," I would like nothing better than to remain in the Senate all my life. But I feel that I owe it to my family to get out of politics and gain a competency while I am able.

"My associations in the Senate are very congenial, indeed. I have practically no opposition for a renomination, and the sole reason for contemplated retirement is the urgent necessity of providing for my family.

It is quaint that a U.S. Senator would suggest that there wasn't enough money in national politics to make it worth his while. Perhaps there was a time when this was true. Perhaps Mr. Flint was "clean" and didn't partake of the largess his position would seem to attract.

On the other hand, perhaps this is a thinly veiled jab at the lobbyists of the day. In essence, Flint throws down the gauntlet saying "pay up or I'm outta here and I'm taking my political capital with me."

Do you wonder, as I, whether Flint really retires from public service in 1911? Oh wait, I can look that up (see below the fold for the spoiler)....

Sure enough, Flint doesn't pursue the General Store he might have implied was on his horizon in 1909.

From the March 5, 1911 NYT:

Vice President Sherman to-day appointed Senators Flint of California and Taliaferro of Florida, neither of whom will be members of the next Congress, to vacancies on the National Monetary Commission.

More on the National Monetary Commission from Wikipedia.