The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-09-29

ceived from the Salina man when they !
were intimate friends: il was not a
pleasant document for Joe to hear read
aloud, and Long believed that it would |
prove a bombshell; but it turned out
nothing more-than a firecracker. and
the fuse went out before anything ex-
ploded. Most of the voters had written
fool letters themselves, at one time or
another, and they didn't mind little
thing like that Bristow epistle. Their
disgust was not aimed at Bristow, but
at Long, who was mean enough TO
make public a letter that had been
written to him in confidence. BriStOw
is not an orator, but he has sincere,
straightforward way of talking that is
pleasing to everyday people who Want
to hear facts and arguments, rather
than pyrOtechnicS.
He is not writer. He is the owner
and editor of the Salina Daily Journal
an admirable daily with an up-to-date
plant andSG great future. He has been
in the newspaper business in Kansas
for many years, but has never written
an article that attracted any attention.
His editorials read like patent office
reports, but he has the wisdom of the
serpent, and hires people who can write,
and so his paper is always interesting
and valuable.
sumo the hail-fellow well-met air if he
tried a thousand years. He can't pre-
tend to be deeply interested in people
he never saw before, and If he tried to
kiss the babies, they would have con-
WILSON'S. He is at his worst when he
is introduced to strangers and tries to
be pleasant and cordial If he is intro
! duced to Tom, Dick and Harry today,
he will have forgotten them tomorrow,
and will treat them as strangers.
| This is the sort of man who met and
defeated Chester l. Long, the smoothest
| political manager Kansas ever had
And it would be a mistake to suppose
| that Long is unpopular; the people adj
| mire him and are proud of him, even
/ in his defeat, and thousands of those
who voted against him deplored the
necessity He didn't stand for what the
| embattled farmers wanted, and so he
| had TO go.
| Bristow Speaks the Kansas Ian
| guage," he is close to the Kansas peo-
pie, he will voice their desires and de-
mands in congress. and so he was
| chosen to represent them. The reputa-
ton for honesty and fearlessness that
he gained when fourth assistant post
master general stood him in good stead
this year. Sincerity is the dominant
note of his character, and it is a quail
| ity that westerners like. The voters
who heard him talk during the cam
paign knew that he was not making
empty promises; they knew that he
would fight TO the last ditch for his
principles, if necessary, and that he
could not be scared or coaxed away
from his belief in what is right. That
is one reason why he was elected; an
| other reason is that he had the enthu-
siastic support of William Allen White,
a man whose reputation for probity
and high character is so great that a
| word of communication from him is
better than decoration from a prince.
Joe BriStow came to Kansas a poor
boy, with plenty of bones and freckles:
he went barefOoted until he reached his
majority, and people who saw his feet
in those days are still talking about
them. Now. it is doing him no injus-
tice to say that there isn't a spark of
genius of any sort in his makeup, I'M
less courage and diligence are COM
ponent parts of genius. He never dis
tinguished himself for any brilliant
play in school or sanctuary or any
where else; he always had an absurd
fOndness for hard work; and when he
was boy on farm there was always
a cloud of dust around him: he was
that way at school; when he was figur-
ing his pencil struck fire on the slate;
he was that way at the Baptist uni
versity, where he was graduated; and
when he broke into the newspaper bust
ness you could see the smoke coming
out of the window of the room he
worked in. He worked his way into
politics. and became secretary to gov.
ernor, and then secretary to a state
committee, and there was always a
cloud of dust and smoke about him. A
man who used to work in the same
: room with him says that it was painful
to be near him, he toiled so diligently
He set a bad example; the other clerks
and secretaries always had the feeling
that they were traitors to the state un-
less they were constantly tearing theil
garments. And so you see what hard
work and eternal plugging at the saw
has done for Joe Bristow of Salina.