Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-01-04
THEY MAKE THELAWS
MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AND
SENATE WRITE AuToRloG-
RAPHIEs
The Congressional Directory Contains
Sketches of the Members of the
Two Houses, Written by Them
selves-AlI Are Interesting,

ESPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE.
Washington Bureau of the Courier.
Washington, D. c., Jan. 8.
The congressional directory which
contains the autobiography of every
senator and representative in congress
is veritable well-spring of interesting
Information, Informing and amusing. 1t
also furnishes food for speculation, de-
duction and meditation as we'll as
teA.s for sermons on this or that
phase of human life.
It is fact generally known that the
directory of congress is not edited. Ev-
cry member says what he pleases
about himself anG it appears in print
just as he wrote it. Many curious
statements are made relative to the
experiences of the members, one Of
the most noticeable being that sena-
tors and representatives delight to in
vite attention to the fact-if 1t be a
fact-that they are self-made men, hav-
ing had limited educational or other
opportunities in early life.
For example, the directory, which
includes cabinet members has the fol-
lowing with reference to Leslie NJ.
Shaw, secretary Of the treasury, an
Iowa man who in eight short years
has achieved great distinction in ma
tional affairs:
when he was years Of age his
people moved to Stowe, Vermont,
where he received common school
education with few terms in the vii
lage high school and in Peoples Acad-
envy at Morrisville' When 81 years Of
age he went to Iowa and there gradu-
ated from Cornell and subsequently
from the Iowa college of law, having
earned the means with which to edu-
cate himself"
Hepburn's School Print Shop.
Col. W. P. Hepburn tells that he was
taken to the Territory of Iowa when
he was 8 years old; that he was edu-
Gated in the schools of the territory
and in printing Office"
Speaker Cannon makes no mention
of his early education. skipping in his
biography that period from his birth
until his election as states attorney in
| 1861.
John H. Bankhead of Alabama one
of the recognized democratic leaders,
iSSoAdo llldC iS VI uG
| Is farmer and served four years in
the confederate army, being wounded
three times
Senator Perkins of California, as
serts that he attended the public
school in his Maine home town until his
thirteenth year, when he shipped on
board sailing vessel for New Orleans
and thereafter followed the sea until
1855 when at the age of 16 he landed
on CALIFORNIA; soil and embarked on
what became business and political
career.
Leonidas Livingston of Georgia. the
ranking democratic member on the APP
preparations committee, has several IT,
ties to the inheritance of the meek.
He says that he was educated in the
common schools of the country which
must have been pretty bad sixty-five
years ago, and that he is farmer by
occupation and has always lived on a
farm, and finally that he was private
soldier in the confederate army from
1861 to May 1865.
knopf Was Teamster.
| Philip Knopf relates that at the age
of 10 he came to Chicago and attend
ed Bryant & Stratton's commercial
college for one year. From this he
graduated into the teaming business
which engrossed his attention for
eighteen years prior to his election to
congress
w. A. Reeder Of Kansas better
known as irrigation Bill'' tells how at
the age of IA, he began teaching in
the public schools, a vocation which
he followed until he was 80 years old.
Victor Murdoch of Kansas began the
printers trade during vacation at the
age of 10 years, became a newspaper
reporter at Is, and at 20 moved to Chi
cago, three stages of life separated by
five year periods, not included in
Shakaspeare's seven ages of men. Muir
dock seems to have been generally
precocious; he was married when 10,
at % became managing editor of the
Wichita Daily Eagle and at 80 was
elected to congress. If he keeps on at
this rate he may bring up in the White
House before his career is ended
Rhinock's Confession.
j: L. Rhinock of Kentucky, who con-
fesses in his autobiography that he has
for years been acknowledged one of
the foremost business inen and politi-
cal leaders in Covingtcn and Kenton
county, relates that although he re-
ceived his education in the public
schools, he at an early age entered
actively into public life When Car.
negie library was proposed for the
city it was through his efforts that the
present handsome 100000 edif1ce was
secured, the only place in the congress.
sional directory where Carnegie IL
brary is mentioned as stepping stone
to distinction. He also tells in this
sketch of four other candidates for the
nomination who were working equally
hard to land the congressional plum.
Russell A. Alger relates that at the
age of II his parents died and that the