Los Angeles herald., 1905-08-06

ornate elocutlon had no limit in their
appreciation of the gallant Colonel
Ned Kewen, and were speculating in
advance on the effect he would be sure
to produce in congressional marble
halls. There were no bounds to his
popularity in Los Angeles and South
ern California, and El Molino, his
mansion on the San Gabriel valley,
was the home of a princely hospitality.
AS a matter Of fact, taking the gem
eral run of things, It was hard to figure
UP defeat for Kewen, and yet he was
beaten and badly beaten, by his cold
blooded and imperturbable opponent
and the reason why propose to tell.
Brilliant as he was, II Col. Kewen had
accepted his nomination and settled
down in FL Molino and stayed there till
the end of the campaign he would un-
doubtedly have been elected. His great
gift of speech was accompanied by an
inability to remember, as Goethe says.
sometimes be golden.
The people of Los Angeles then as
now were devoted to their harbor.
Mainly through the strenuous efforts
of the late Gen. Phineas Banning, con-
gress about that time had made con-
siderable appropriations for the i'm
provement of Wilmington harbor,
which were being expended very much
n thA r1lao NJ tba nf I n
Angeles, city and county. The peo-
pie of San Diego, on the other hand,
were very jealous of such governmental
outlays. They looked at any attempts
to set up harbor at Wilmington or
San Pedro as something to be depre-
Gated.
Early in his campaign Col. Kewen
went down to the city of ebay and
climate" to make a speech. A great
concourse for such small place gath
cred to hear him. They were laying"
for the good Angeleno. He had not
proceeded far in his speech when some
determined San Diegan yelled out:
The Fatal Question
"How about the Wilmington break.
water, colonel?"
How about the Wilmington break
water, my friend?' replied Kewen..
well, all I've got to say about the Will
mington breakwater is that 1T is blk"
Swift indeed was the bird which con-
veyed the news Of this indiscreet speech
lI,nl1 ~ ~
sooner uttered than it was regretted by
the impetuous orator. But like Gen.
Scott's "hasty plate Of soup" and other
felicitous utterances of the kind it
could not be recalled and did good work
as a maker of votes for Houghton. 1t
secured that gentlemans election to
congress, and his skilled course in that
body resulted in his reelection until
Santa Clara county was cut out of the
district.
I made Colonel Kewen's acquaintance
during that campaign and can TESTIFY
that a more charming gentleman never
figured in the district. Success or de-
feat were the same to him, and when
the famous and magnificent Ell Molino
estate passed out of his hands by the
compound interest abracadabra he had
the satisfaction of knowing that more
good champagne had been drunk in it
than in any other house in Southern
California, unless that General Ban
ning's was the exception, and that more
pretty damsels had passed over its
portals. The colonel was gallantry it.
self, and, coming or going, no lady
ever crossed the threshold of his house
without being kissed. I believe this
was a good old Mississippi habit which
he brought with him from the south
and as to which we may apply the
royal motto, "Honi sol qui NAL y
pense."
There was another very curious con-
gressional election which occurred in
Los Angeles about twenty years or so
ago, in which one Wallace Leach was
the Democratic candidate. When Leach
ran the district was reliably Democrat
ic, and Leach, like Kewen, beat him
self.
He was a very different kind Of a
man from Kewen. In fact, he was
most extraordinary creature from all
points of view. He went to San Diego
from Idaho, where he had been a COM
posite of Yahoo lawyer and jour-
nalistic Honyahym. He was smart, :
in the American sense, and could talk
a brass knob off house. He was so
small that you could put him in your
vest pocket. BY some inscrutable cir
cumstance such people occasionally
force themselves to the front, gener-
ally, as in his case to their own ulti-
mate discontinue.
short of stature, but, unlike Leach, he