The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1908-08-26
double-barreled shotgun they had

double-barreled shotgun they had
ever seen.
Before he was elected to the sem
ate, Ankeny had held only two politi-
cal offices. In the early days he was
mayor of Lewiston, and later he was
an alderman in walla Walla.
Ankeny's press agents are sending
out for publication during his cam
paign many stories of his generosity.
Some Of them may be true. 1t is GER
tain that lot of them are fictitious.
All his life he has been a money
lender and note-shaver, and the
court records of Walla Walla are
cluttered with foreclosure suits in
which Ankeny's name appears as the
creditor, and in which two per cent.
per month is the basis on which the
interest is largely figured. The SUI
creme court of Washington, in the
case of Van Buren, Clark against Levi
Ankeny, judicially found Ankeny's
business methods questionable. The
house in which the senator lives he
took for debt, and his bank in
Walla Walla, out of which alone he
has made a million dollars, occupies
rented quarters, and always has. "He
has never put one brick on top of
another, never had two boards nailed
together at his expense in the state
of Washington" declare his political
enemies, in reply to the fulsome
eulogy Of his oress agents.
Personally. Ankeny is a kindly
old man. who would rather do one a
favor than an injury, and though
there is much that is criminal in his
political career, there must be some
good in that kind of human nature.
But in business, Ankeny was canny,
and never lost sight of the pound of
flesh He did what other close
listed lenders have done, no more
and no less, and he has profited in
lands and cattle and in the Difference
that men pay to tho single virtue Of
wealth.
Ankeny is deficient in every quail
ity that makes for statecraft. He can
not preside at meeting and put a
motion properly. He can not make a
speech. In order to accommodate his
political managers. he good-natured-
ly tried at a semi-public function in
Seattle lately. Every word that An
keny has uttered in six years in the
senate, put together and typewriter,
would not cover one foolscap sheet.
A Wrecked Memory and a Vast
Ignorance.
Senator Ankeny does not even
know by sight many of his colleagues
in the senate. He is member of
the committee on interoceanic
canals; SO is Senator Knox of Penn
sylvania. During a certain session of
the committee, after Ankeny had
served long while in the senate, and
after Knox had served as attorney
general, Knox was very active in ex-
aiming witnesses. After the ses-
sion was over, Ankeny was walking
down to the senate chamber with
fellow senator whom he has known
for years. did you notice that lit.
tie fellow that sat at the end of thu
table?" asked Ankeny, referring to
Knox. 81 don't know what his name
is, but he's mighty bright fellow. /
predict that some day he will make
his mark in the world"
When the Alaska-Y ukon-Pacific
exposition bill Ito Seattle the most
important bill, perhaps, since An
keny mas been in the senate) was
called up last winter, Ankeny was
asleep in his chair. In order to make
amends for his inattention, and for
the purpose of securing the goodwill
of senator's when the bill should be
SdilCu up dSdlH, anhcHy gave q SclIii-
public dinner at the New Willard
hotel to his colleagues in the senate
and to Speaker Cannon. Much wine
was drunk. a half dozen of the SEN
ators guests, as well as the host him.
self, being particularly boisterous.
This was the famous dinner at which
Speaker Cannon characterized Presi-
dent Roosevelt as abnormal" and
at which Senator Charles w. Fulton
Of Oregon designated the president as
a dangerous menace to the repuh-
lic."
These are few of Ankeny's lido.
syncrasies. On one occasion be
called at the White House to recon-.
mend the appointment of a certain
candidate to prominent federal Of
fee in the state OF Washington, but
by the time he had reached the exec
utive mansion he had forgotten the