The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-01-29
TOM REED.
\ Pen sketch of the Big Round Congress
man. His Wife and Daughter.


Washington, Jan. 22.-From a Hagen
back standpoint the gallery onlooker can
see much to interest him in the house.
There's Tom Reed, speaker-purely
aquatic is Reed. HN.r
There is the very essence of the ocean
i'm him: his tones are like a breeze, his
very gait when he walks put one in mind
of a grand swell. and, more than any
thing else, Reed looks like a seal, or per-
haps. the seals big brother. the walrus.
Reed is not so fat as he is big; he is
full-chested and with a round back like
a porpoise; and these, with his little seal
ish eyes, the rolling walk, a fiipper-like
fashion of carrying his hands, makes a
whole effect which is oceanic.
There is the suggestion of activity
about Reed, too, which makes one very
sure that if any fish of white house
nomination were thrown into the tank
he'd have il before it had accomplished
one frightened circuit.
All this ocean in Reed is perfectly be-
coming and natural For two centuries
and over his people, inhabiting the Casco
bay country, have been fishermen and
occan-goers. They have been whalers
and codhshermen and merchantmen. One
time and another a Reed has searched
every inch of coast on the map, save
where the Arctic ice forbids it.
Reeds father was a sailor: at one time
a fisherman and again the captain of a
coaster. The salt winds have conferred
much stamina and power on the Reeds,
and every sign would point TO the pres
ent speaker living to an advanced age.
His father died at SO and his mother
at SO.
Reeds own family is made up of his
wife and daughter, Kitty, the latter a
girl of perhaps 20.
Mrs. Reed is the daughter of a congre-
-
tastes are domestic and she avoids the
rough-and-tumble of Washington society.
She is a woman of wide culture and edu-
cation and great reader. Withal, Mrs.
Reed is a profound French and German
scholar and three or four evenings a
week she has the big speaker before her
like a schoolboy, giving him lessons in
these languages.
Unlike many women to whom power
and position are as the breath to their
nostrils. Mrs. Reed cares but little for
the eXaltation of her husband in politics.
One day a newspaper worker out To write
an article on Reed asked the Maine man
If IL would be possible to get a picture of
Mrs. Reed.
II don't know about that" said Reed,
closing one eye with an expression a
cross between a quiz and a thought. I've
never. between you and me. been able to
get Mrs. Reed to more than tolerate my
political career. She in no wise approves
of il. For which reason she will hesi-
tate, and probably refuse to let you
print her picture. Kitty. however, is
quite a politician and. | believe, indorses
me i'm my public character. l think per-
haps she'd like to see her picture in an
article"
One would suppose that when success
had beaten upon a man like storm:
when he was holding the second greatest
office i'm the government. with a remark
ably fine chance of holding the first, he
would have neither misgivings nor re-
grets at having plunged into public af-
fairs. And yet there are doubts in Reeds
mind IL he did well in ever holding an Of
flee. In conversation within two months
Reed said
It's to be much questioned II I were at
all wise i'm getting into polnics. The
chances are IL I'd attended solely TO my
law business I'D be comfortably of and
the master of a good practice. Politics
can hardly be said TO pay anybody" All
this he uttered with thoughtful, half
sad air. and IL expresses what he really
feels.
worth of a career in politics come from
the fact that he's poor. Reed has no
money. That needn't daunt him. how
ever. i'm his path; no matter what trail
he might have taken. whether public or
private. he'd not have any money. Reed
was born with his hands open and saves
money Ike a seine saves water.
When Reed relaxes he usually goes