Daily Arizona silver belt., 1909-03-19
EVERYBODY LOVES THE FAT MAN


 It's long lane that has no turning. The fat man has been for years and years pufing and panting down a long lane; but on March that lane definite ly turned. Big Bill Taft is the man who switched the trick.
 Always the fat man has carried with him rounded bow on which the be- holder saw in his minds eye the pla- card: "I am built thus because am lazy" But Big Bill Taft, the 800 pounder, is one of the worlds hardest workers. He does things.
 Always the fat man has stood con victed in the chancery of the world s opinion of being greedy. The world did not know that he could get fatter on a breakfast bath-mitt and soft boiled egg than could the lank scoffer on beeTSeaks, potatoes and buildings. The world did not know that the fat Insn habituaIly eats less than the cad aver who laughs at him. But Big Bill Taft makes epic the fat mans troubles with tho tendency of the little fcod he eats to turn into avoirlupois.
 Always the fat man has been looked down upon by the ovor-earneEt because he laughs and smiles aud does not take himself or his work wiGh such deep and tragic seriousness that his brow is wrinkled or his forehead clothed with gloom And the world has believed that fat man is an easy mark because hc is good natured and phleglnatic and sluggish of thought. But Big Bill comes into the limelight in tho glare or which he proves for all fat men that they don't wrinkle their forehesds because the outward pressure of the flesh is such ss to move them right out again, and that a fat man can't look tragic or cross if he tries. But under that jellied surface the will may be as tense as steel and Gs hard as flint, and that great wor kmay be done without any such puffed-up conceit as that of the worker who strikes an attitude and says "Go to. am doing @ great work! See my Hamlet like browl Don't look the part?''
 Big Bill shows us that when a man is puffed up with fat he can't very well hold so much pride, and that while he may strike from tho shoulder, it's con foundedly hard to strike an attitude.
 The only fat villain in fiction is Count Fosco, who is dead ringer for William Howard Taft, in adipose and ability. But it's hard for fat man to be a villain The lean and hungry villain almost makes himself. Fat men have al. ways been forces in the world. Henry VIII was as fat as Taft, but he had faults relating to the domestic relations that have made him unpoular. But he was the brainiest man in Europe in his day, and Elizabeth, who was as thin as a rail, got her statecraft from him-her father. Gibbon, tho historian of Rome, was as fat as Big Bill, and he did more work in a week than the sprinters could do in month. Many more instances might be cited, but these are enough. If more are desired, ask at the nearest browery, and you will find that the nest underated, overworked, efficient, potent men cf the world have always been Gre fat man.
 And hero cones Big Bill able, force frl aciye, iUdgnatiual, strong-willed, Good looiknC-and fat, oh Lord, how fat! Bpt remember what Sam Blythe aaa2 1r ao.1s fat mon tho fat predomi. n2t-s. and ip some the man predo-li- Istss. In Taft the man predomiuatos, So it Coes in lots of fat men. And take -s from as cold, this ls the era of the fat nan Tho futzre historian vii sag; With the administration of Faf