Mexico weekly ledger., 1909-01-21
CHAMP CLARK
by Alfred Henry Lewis.
in the N. Y. World.


public duty that developed upon him
and discharged it well. There are
no errors against him personally on
the official score card. 81
Personally there are no conceal
ments to Mr.. Clark. No hint Of
moonlight in his policies. What he
does he does by daylight. The diree-
ton he takes is ever straight ahead.
His atmosphere is open, frank. At once
confident and confiding he neither
doubts or is doubted. He isn't eat
en- Of suspicious, has no thought Of
treasons. doesn't leok to be betrayed.
ness, coupled with his six feet and
This manner of confident frank
more OF physique, has had deal to
do no doubt with Mr.. Clark's po-
litical advancement. 1t is the old old
story of the eye as an avenue OF Of
impression. The world is ever ready
to believe that any gentleman six
feet tall is as deep as the ocean, pro-
found as the skies If he be but five
feet six, for all its Caesars and all
It's Napoleons, the world insists upon
stack of affadayits to thatQuestion
before 1t is willing to agree that he is
fit to go clerking in a store.
The eye?
Man, there isn't a statesman In
Washington who will not be more
guided, more controlled by the un-
written word Of one constituent than
by the spoken word of twenty. There
for write. Don't--in the teeth of Mr..
Fisk-send word.
Mr.. Clark has read hungrily and
remembered much. There is music,
poetry in him {. Homer, virgil---he has
the ancients at his tongues tip.
The english2 From Chaucer to Milton
from Pope to Gray and Gray to By
ron, and Byron to Whitcomb Riley /,
he knows them all. On slight ocea-
sion likewise he will bury you be-
meath their quoted pages. There is
nothing affected much that Is old
fashioned in his thus oratorical lug
ging in the admired ones Of past
times. Likewise, it is pleasing /, con-
vincing and not without value when
1t comes to driving home some mai
Of truth.
Not only has Mr.. Clark read liter
ature in the purer sense, but he is
all that is polite. Not that l should
wise in the worlds story and in that OF
his own country. He thinks as well,
too, standing up as he does sitting
down. which Is more than some Of
us can say--and every scrap of the
learning he posses is at ready, In
stant hand. He can reach it on the
moment find 1t in the dark.
Does Mr.. Springer know much?"
repeated gentleman, replying to
an inquisitive individual. This was Is
years ago.
"Man he knows SO much it is in
his way"
This is not the description of Mr.
Clark. What he knows is never in
his way; always in the way of his
opponent.
'Ts Macauley a learned mani" asked
one.
HE is so full", said Sydney Smith,
'of learning that he oyerflows with
| it and stand perpetually in the
slops."
No more than was the other is this
the picture Of Mr.. Clark, for, with all
of the book equipment, he lacks of
that soul-snobbery required to make
the pedant. r.
Taken by and large, Mr.. Clark may
be mentioned for his honest strength
and modesty. He has but the one
manner and meets all alike. He does
not lord 1t over the humble to bow to
the proud. He has his heroes, but
he is able to contemplate them with
out subtractIng from his own man
hood.
No money-grabber, no money-get-
ter, Mr.. Clark is conservative, not rae
ical, not one to harm rich man
simply because he is rich. And yet
his sympathies go seeking naturally
to the poor man with his burdens. II
is good to have the Clarks in Con
gress, for they are big enough and
strong enough to see and do justice
1t is they who keep the ship of state
in trim and do not tip it over.
There Is little of lutte and lady's
bower about Mr.. Clark, little Of the
carpet cavalier. Rather he is a man
man than woman's man. Not bui
what he is the urbane sublimation o.
find fault with him were he other
wise. For myself, I'm rather partia
to the cactus, hedgepig kind of man
They are always honest. Their rasp
ing savageries of department ar
proof positive that they have no de
signs upon you. When you find hin
smooth as honey, suave as cream
watch out for gold bricks. Ais