The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-11-07

conforming to Eastern prejudice and
wearing the high silk hat which was
affected by most of his colleagues.
Most of the Western and Southern
members of Congress are converts to
the silk hat habit and some ludicrous
results are to be seen about the streets
Of Washington and the hotel corri-
dors Of New York. Senator Tom Carter.
Of Montana, lately the chairman af the
Republican national committee, wears
a silk hat in the East. but he returns
to the black slouch when he is among
his own people. Montana would not like
to believe that Tom Carter had be-
mind foppery is indeXed by the silk
hat. Some years ago newspaper man
met Marcus Turelius Smith, delegate
to Congress from Arizona, wearing a
silk hat and putting away at a cigar
ette. Smith" said the correspondent,
I'm going to write letter for a
Western paper describing your ap-
pearance on Pennsylvania avenue,
wearing a silk hat and smoking a Gig
arctic. Do you think your constituents
will take these things as an evidence
Of mental or moral perversion?"
MY boy" said Delegate Smith. you
may say what you please about the
cigarette. The MeXicans down my way
smoke them all the time and no one
love me ignore this high hat. If the
people of Arizona thought l wore a
thing like this in the East they would
retire me to private life at the next
eleCtion-Or sooner"
He was not in jest, either. 1t would
be a pretty serious thing for some men
to be caught by their constituents
wearing silk hats Mr.. Reagan, Of
Texas, once postmaster general of the
(Nnnfp6prorV than n TTnitnI 20
ator, and now railroad commissioner of
the state of Texas used to tell ON HIM
self how he Wore a silk hat unthink-
ingly into a Texas town. He always
carried his s,ouch hat with him and
when he reached the borders of the
state of Texas he put on the soft hat
and consigned the silk hat to a box.
On one occasion he forgot all about the
soft hat and went sailing into his home
town with the silk hat on his head
Mrs. Reagan saw the hat just as the
senator climbed into his carriage. She
snatched it from his head and thrust
1t under the carriage seat. So the sem
ator drove home without hat. But
he always thought Mrs. Reagan saved
his political life by her presence of
mind.
JERRY RUSK'S TRICK.
The late Secretary Rusi was a great
man to get out among the people. He
had been one of them and he could
cooper barrel as we'll as drive "a stage
coach. He told me once that he could
foretell the result of an election with
almost absolute accuracy because he
made it Il habit when he was in Wis
consin TO sit around country stores,
whiting and swapping stories with the
farmers. There was no better barom-
eter of public feeling just before cleo
tion, he said, than the farmer He
told me after Harrison defeat that he
had expected the result because he
found the farmers were against the
Republican party in that election. Mr..
Rusk always made q personal canvass
when he was q candidate for Office in
Wisconsin.
Baby kissing was the speciality Of the
late Representative O'Neill, Of Penn
sylrania; and that has been from time
immemorial a strong factor in election
contests. Mr. O'Neill kept up con-
slant correspondence with his con-
stituents. He knew everyone in his
district by name and could address him
on sight. Colonel Morrison, of Illinois.
who was considered at one time a likely
candidate for the Democratic nominal
tion this year, told me some time after
he had been retired from Congress in
favor of Jehu Baker that he would not
go back to Congress again unless ne
could have assurance of Il longer term.
He said ii wore him out to be cam
paigning constantly and that if he
wanted to be elected he had to be doing
campaign work all the time he was
not attending to Congressional duties
at Washington.
What makes for popularity more than
l. L., I-s., 4. 4
memory for faces. Mr.. Blaine had
remarkable memory. So has Mr.. Har-
irson. Major Mckinley seldom forgets
face. One of his young fellow towns
men told me at Canton not long ago
that one cause of the Majors great
popularity in that community was his
unaffected cordiality toward ali, and
the fact that, however long his absence
from his old home, he always seemed
to remember even the most casual of
his acquaintances there.