The Palatka news. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1905-1908, 1907-08-02
Dan Simmons Bid For Fame

IL was not uay In IallanHSSee.
and quiet. The streets were nearly
deserted as so also was the capitol,
except for IA few over-worked pen
sion clerks in the comptroller's
office, and a private secretary or
two-there was ''nothin' doin'.
The clerks in the executive Office
had all gone to lunch save Daniel,
the private secretary. Daniel had
lost his appetite. He couldn't eat.
The governor had gone to Washing
ton to get himself interviewed on
patent mesh device for capturing
octopi, and his eXcellency had in
structed Daniel to be vigilant lest an
enemy of the administration should
insidiously introduce q high ball or
ether device for the purpose of steal
! ing away its brains. The RESPONSE
bility of the situation weighed heavi-
| ly upon Daniel. Great questions of
state were liable to come up at any
| time and there was no one to advise
with him save Dunn, another secre-
tary with an office on the floor above
and Dunn was already overworked.
Groom was i'll, Crawford couldn't
be interested, Knott was on vaca-
ton, McLin was busy with the hay
ing, Ellis was regarded with suspi-
cion, and Holloway was plotting a
bunch of school marms through
California.
Perturbed in spirit, crushed under
the weight of his possibilities,
Daniel sat gazing into vacancy
through the open executive window,
while great wet beads of perspira-
tion trickled from his massively mo-
bile features.
II ha Of
state, not so much for the vulgar
dollars that attached to this par
ticular Job, as for the opportunities
the place afforded for making for
himself a name in statecraft that
would eventually raise him as logi-
cal candidate for appointment to
vacant shrievalty, or some other
position where dollars were suffi-
GENTLY numerous to make subordi-
nation of the ideal to the practical
something of an inducement. He
remembered that his predecessors,
Dickinson and Brown and Emmett
Wolfe had done we'll His time
would surely come. All that he
needed was to perform some act of
which would get his
name favorably mentioned in the
organ over feminist the
corner of the street and thus link it
with the stars of destiny. He
thought the governor could be trust
ed to do the rest.
Perhaps the opportunity would
come during the governors absence.
And Daniel, who had been something
of prophet over in West Florida,
silently invoked Heaven for percep-
ton to recognize it when it entered
the door, as well as power to grap-
pie. He felt better. That shaky
feeling began to quit his frame. The
flow of beady sweat ceased. Daniel
was himself again.
Just then the boy entered with the
Atlanta papers. Taking his paper
from the lad, Daniel glanced through
that the president was likely to ap-
point an outsider to the vacant Fed
eral Judgeship IN Florida.
"Ah," said Daniel, "this is indeed
too bad; the governor has his own
favorite state republican to reward
and thereby emphasize his power to
punish those democrats who have
prostituted their eminent abilities
to the work of buckin' him. All!
Happy thought! I'll wire the presi-
dent what | think about this"
And Daniel picked up telegraph
blank and wrote the following,
which he sent at the expense of the
contingent fund for running the eX-
ecutiVe office:
Tallahassee, Fla, July %, 1907.
Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, President,
Oyster Bay, New York:
I'm the absence of Gov. Broward,
and in behalf of the sovereign peo-
pie of Florida, I implore you to spare
us the humiliation which would be
ours if the vacant iudgeship in the
Northern district should be filled by
the appointment of man beyond
our borders. DANIEL A. SIMMONS,
Private Secretary.o
1t is said that Daniel studied some
time over the form of address but
that he finally concluded that as the
president had once been a member
Of the New York legislature he was
entitled to be addressed as "Hon.
Theodore Roosevelt"