The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-11
kENNESAW M. LANDS.
Picturesque Personality of the Judge
 Who Questioned Rockefeller.

ican.
 Judge Landis, the federal judge who made John D. Rockefeller, the president of tho Standard oil company, appear be- fore him, was well known for many years in Washington, when he was private sec retary to Secretary of State Gresham under President Cleveland's second ad- ministration. Judge Lands name is Ken nesaw Mountain Lands. His father was a soldier in an Indiana regiment, and he was badly wounded at the battle of Ken nesaw mountain. When he reached his home he learned that little stranger had arrived on the same day that he was wounded, and so the little boy was named Kennesaw Mountain. In spite of this han dicap Landis succeeded in life.
 Judge Landis Is one of the five Landis boys so well known in Indiana and Wash ington. The oldest brother is Charlie Landis, one of the most eloquent mem bers of the House of Representatives. Representative Landis was formerly very fond of speaking of his brother Kennesaw with an air of profound sorrow. "Kennc- saw" he would say, with a heavy sigh, lis the black sheep of the family. All the rest of us are republicans, and all of us have good jobs under the govern ment. Kennesaw Is a democrat, and has really never gotten anything good except for a little while when he was secretary to MT. Gresham" Kennesaws appoint ment to a life position on the federal bench reconciled his brother
 Of the four republican Landis boys two of them have served in Congress, Charlie Landis Is still in Congress. His brother Fred was defeated last fall, but all indi- cations point that he will be returned at the congressional election. Another brother Is chief of the postoffice inspec- tors at Porto Rico, and the fourth brother is a land examiner out west. Kennesaw was out fin the cold after Mir. Gresham died, but about two years ago President Roosevelt, believing evidently that 1t was a shame that there should be a Landls boy without a good federal job, appointed him judge In Chicago, and Judge Landis made good in his new position, just as he had done when he was MT. Greshams private secretary.
 NO greater contrast can be imagined than the difference in appearance be- tween the republican congressman and the democratic judge. Congressman Lam dis is round dapper perfectly groomed little man, with beautiful gray hair and always looking as neat as though he had just stepped from the bandbox. Judge Landis, on the contrary, Is the typical HOOginr of ha lanky, always wearing black, with a shoestring necktie and hair that always needs cutting and combing. He mas shown great ability and fearlessness on the bench. and his course of bringing the Standard oil and other big corporations to strict accountability to the law has won him the warmest commendation of the administration. He is quite a yorfng man.
 It was while he was private secretary to MT Gresham that the term "shlrtsleeves diplomacy was coined in Germany. as describing the direct and unconventional diplomatic methods of this country Neither Secretary Gresham nor his pri- vate secretary had any patience or regard for the conventionalities that up to that time and afterwards formed the princl pal feature of the solemn decorum of the state department. Young Mir. Lands us ualiy sat in the secretary's magnifcently furnished room at the state department in his shirt sleeves, with his feet on the secretarys gorgeous table and a largo cigar in his mouth. Secretary Gresham in public was the picture of dignity but se was very fond, when busily engaged with some important problem, of retiring to a small room and taking off his coat and collar and making himself entirely com fortable. One day MT. Gresham was hard at work and had even taken off his waist coat, and his suspenders dangled loosely by his side. The German ambassador Count von Hollevan, than whom there was no more dgnified and ceremonial diplomat in Washington, called at the state department attred in spite of the sweltering heat, in full conventional cos tume-frock coat and silk hat. Landis, without stopping to think, ushered the precise German ambassador into the It, tie room where sat the Secretary of State literally in his shirt sleeves. The German ambassador was mortified, though, of course, he concealed his amazement; but undoubtedly he reported to his imperial master at Berlin the fact that the Ameri- can Secretary of State had received him In most unconventional costume, for 1t was not long after that one of the Ger man newspapers, in an evidently Inspired editorial, referred to the "shirt-sleeve di-