Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1908-11-25
LENT OVERCOAT
AND TAFT FORGOT
NOW ITS OWNER WOULD LIKE
TO GET TRACE
OF 1T.
NORTH DAKOTA FARMER RE-
sPoNDED TO APPEAL OF
SENATOR McuMBER.
VALUABLE FUR LINED GARMENT
DISAPPEARS IN STRANGE
MANNER.

w dSuluSlOu, NOV. --OuiGSS Sdlut
Anthony speedily answers his pray
ers, or some other agency of the lost
and found intervenes to help him, it
may be necessary for Senator McCum-
Der of North Dakota to insert an adj
vertisement in the newspaper of his
state Should he resolve upon this
course, Mr.. McCumber probably would.
prepare an "ad'' reading about as fol-
lows:
Lost-At Fargo, N. D., on Sept. 2S,-
large fur-lined overcoat. Last seen in
possession of William Howard Taft.
OF little value to anybody except
owner. Finder will confer a favor by
addressing Porter j. McCumber,
United States Senator Cincinnati,
Washington, Atlanta, and Hot Springs,
Va, papers please copy.
In the second week of his strenuous
campaign for the presidency Judge
Taft invaded North Dakota. He was
accompanied by cold wave that met
him at Minneapolis. Great prepare
tions had been made for his enter
tainment at Fargo, where the ar
rangements contemplated a visit by
the republican presidential candidate
to a barbecue near the edge of the
city. All these plans were outlined to
Mr.. Taft by a local committee which
boarded the train at CrOokston.
When Mr.. Taft limited that he had no
garment to protect him from the cold
the local committeeman said they
would see to it that he was provided
with proper habiliments.
When the Taft special reached
Grand Forks, Senator McCumber got
Fargo ON the long-distance telephone,
and said he wanted the chairman of
the county committee to be at the
station with an overcoat that would
fit Judge Taft. A hundred loyal sons
raw prairie blizzard that the next
president of the United States should
be properly clad. The difficulty was
to find man of the Taft physical
proportions who owned an overcOat.
The county chairman was in de-
spair until he happened to think of
Finn Leech, bonanza farmer, whose
ranch is only few miles from Fargo.
Finn weighs $40 pounds. The de-
lighted county chairman lost no time
in getting in touch with Finn. did
Finn have an overcoat?" Sure thing,
and it was lined with mink, and cost
SITS.
Would he lend it to Judge Taft for
use that EVENING"" Would he?
Would a lifelong republican miss a
chance to have his finest garment
adorn the shoulders of the leader Of
his party? Ten minutes later the
overcoat was in the hands of the
county chairman, and Judge Taft was
tucked beneath its ample folds as
soon as his train reached Fargo. He
wore the coat to the barbecue and to-
the meetings following the feast.
And for all that Finn Leech knows, he
may be wearing it now as he follows
the elusive golf ball over the links at
Hot Springs.
The SITS mink-lined coat disap-
peared when Judge Taft left Fargo.
Nobody seems to know where it is.
It's owner has asked Senator McCum-
Der to make an investigation. Colonel
Ransdell, who was in charge of the
Taft special, is at Atlantic City, rest
ing from his forty-two days of travel,
and, in his absence, nobody here can
speak with authority as to the fate of
the coat. Senator McCumber has tele-
graphed his clerks in Washington to
find the coat, but up to date they have
found no trace of it. Mr.. Taft's fell
low travellers are agreed that he
didn't wear the garment after the
Fargo celebration. and none of them
saw it in the train when the Taft
special departed on its way into South
Dakota.
It's colder now in Fargo than it was
when Mr.. Taft visited that city, and
Finn Leech is willing to wager that
this is going to be the most severe
winter ever known on the prairies of
the northwest