The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-08-14
JERRY SIMPSON Is SICK.
Kansas Statesman Has Been In
Search of Health In Missouri.

Search of Health In Missouri.
Congressman Jerry Simpson has
been at Excelsior Springs for his health
and a Kansas City paper has the fol-
lowing to say of him:
When Mr.. Simpson arrived at the no
tel two weeks ago he registered as fol-
lows: Jerry Simpson, Wichita" The
news reached the parlor, which adjoins
the office, and several feminine guests
hustled out to look at the signature.
Oh giggled one of them. addressing
the clerk,'I wonder if he wears sOcks?''
Mr.. Simpson was standing hard by
and overheard the remark The women
all laughed at this well worn witticism,
but they stopped suddenly when Jerry
quietly said to the clerk: st wonder if
they wear stockings?'' The women then
fed to the parlor and their comments
on the Kansas man were not very fiat
tering.
Jerry Simpson is now the editor of a
paper in Wichita. This paper is one of
politics and is called Jerry Simpsons
Bayonet. He uses it to prod his politi-
cal enemies He likes to be an editor
man, he says, and he has a better opin-
ion of newspaper men since he went in
to the business.
Simpson is a very sick man, and has
cancelled number of speech making
dates to go to Washington to have an
operation performed. His illness is
caused, he says, by many years of
drinking the alkaH and gypsum waters
of his part of the country. He says that
after a man has drunk gypsum water
for 20 years his machinery gets eaten
up This beverage of the short grass
country will eat the bottom out of tin
bucket in a week and deVOur a lOcomo-
tive boiler in a relatively longer time.
There is not the sparkle to Jerry's con-
versation that there was, and he does
not care to talk much about politics.
slow weak also.
and about the only exercise he takes
is a walk to his wash-wOman's to deliv-
er his laundry and to call for it again.
And once he went into the plunge and
the populace flOcked to see him absO-
lutely SOckleSs.
He is getting gray very rapidly, and
his mustache is white. His face is
deeply lined and his eyes, behind the
double glasses he wears have a tired
look. But when he becomes interested
or is telling stories of his encounters in
congress he smiles in a wholesome and
really merry way. His smile does not
exhibit any curve of lips, it is square
smile. Simpson has a square face and
a square figure; his hands are big and
rough and square also. He is
thorough New Brunswick Scotchman
thinly diluted with Kansas spirit
Simpson was not social favorite at
Excelsior Springs. He repealed the adj
vances of the people and resented their
curiosity about himself. He was seldom
in evidence, and when he did come out
at him as he sat modify in a chair
tanning himself. He was very simple
in his manners and when he took his
coat off to get cooler he exposed a shirt
with a white silk bosom; otherwise his
attire was very plain.
He unbent one afternoon, however,
and chatted with two or three men foC
half hour and seemed to enjoy it,then
the doctor called him away and he
went to his room again. His talk was
largely reminiscent and the few opin-
ions he expressed were positively Popu-
nstic. One thing he thoroughly believes
and that is that w. J. Bryan will be
elected president of the United States
in 1900. And when he is" said he, Il
am going to ask him to give me the
postoffice at Medicine Lodge. I think
ought to get that much out of it"
There were several old fellows in
congress I used to like to get a joke
on" he said, and one of these was
Cannon of Illinois. I had made an
anti-expansion speech and Cannon got
up and said that if I had made that
speech in Manila I would have been
tried by a drum head court-martial
and shot. When he had finished I got
up and said that I would just as soon
be shot in Manila for making a speech
of that kind as to be shot in congress
by an old smooth bore, brass Cannon
from Illinois. Tom Reed enjoyed that
very much, and he shook all over with
suppressed laughter. He came up to me
afterward and said: That was all right
jerry. forgive you a lot of things for
thatl
1T is my opinion that Tom Reed is
the biggest man in the Republican
party, but none of the party's big men
have got the presidency of late years,
and neither will Reed. He will be set
aside, or rather he viii step aside, for
Mckinley. He is q bitter anti-eXpan-
sionist, and that sort of thing is not
popular with the party. Tom Reed is a
mighty smart man and he is an honest
one.
about that Dingley hat episode! It
was not I who discovered Dingley's
hat, it was a Republican member. Ding
ley used to wear a fine plug hat that
was a regular cloud of smoke by day
and a pillar of fire by night We Pop
ulists used to take a shot at it every
once in while When he was in the
house Dingley always kept it sitting
on the corner of his desk. One day a
Republican happened to look into it and
said to me, Jerry, go over and look in
Dingley'S hat did so but didn't find
any eggs or anything, and said so. I
was told to look again. Then saw the
word London" and sailed into Dingley,
the high priest of protection, for wear
ing a London made hat, 1 was in fun,
but Dingley took the matter very Sc
riously and spluttered and fumed and
said It's all rot. That hat was made
in Connecticut and the London was put
in it to catch the dudes Then I said,
We'll, caught a dude from Maine with
it He wouldn't speak to me for
month on that account, but one day /
went up to him and SAID: See here
Dingley, how much longer are you go
ing to sulk about that old hat business p
and he laughed and put out his hand
and we became good friends again
Reed enjoyed this joke on Dingley i'm
mensely. He knew it was a joke and
that his fellow statesmen had simply
been tripped up
Simpson in the plunge was an entirely
different man from the one at the hotel
The evening he went in there was big
crowd of spectators, not many of whom
knew Simpson when he came out in his
bathing suit. An Excelsior Springs
bathing suit is a weird garment and a
complete disguise to the figure 1t hut