The independent-reporter., 1910-07-14


and read with avidlty by people all
over the State He developed vein
of humor In his writing which made
his legislative reports models OF
their kind and after few sessions
the great Toby Candor himself was
content to sit at the feet of Kinds
and get second hand the news which
his Industrious and painstaking COM
petitor had gathered.
In the interim of the legislative ses-
sions Asher Kinds did local work in
Portland. One of his best pieces OF
work was in writing up the magnih-
cent Grand Army of the Republic pa
rade as it passed down Cumberland
street, with such men as John A. Lo-
gan, Gen. Sherman and Gen. Sheridan
in the ranks. This story was written
as the parade moved along, Kinds sit
ting upon the top of bay window on
Cumberland street, with pad OF pa
per on his knee writing the story as
it was set up and printed in the af-
ternoon edition of the Advertiser. For
those days this was considered a
great piece of journalistic enterprise.
MAINE AT GETTYSBURG"
After a few years Asher Kinds went
to work upon the Press as associate
editor with the late L. H. Cobb. He
wrote editorials and did local work,
reporting meetings, sermons and the
local happenings generally. In the
Press office he inaugurated system
of indexing the news which was
model of it's kind. This always SEEM
ed to be sort of fad with him and
as long as he worked on the Press he
kept it up with diligence. Perhaps
one of the best things the young
newspaper man did at this time was
the writing of the history of the
Maine regiments at Gettysburg, from
which account was afterwards taken
much of the material now incorpor-
ated in the book Maine at Gettys-
burg" which is the official record of
Names part in that greatest of mod
ern battles.
One trait of Asher Kinds while he
was the associate editor of the Press
appealed strongly to his fellow work
ers. He was never afraid of work
himself and never inclined to sit in
the office and issue orders for other
people to follow. In the case of
big story Kinds was always ready to
take to the field himself and there he
took orders from the men who had
preceded him to the scene OF the
catastrophe or whatever it happened
to be and worked as any other re-
porter would have done to get out
the best story possible.
The sensational or yellow journal
ism never appealed to him. What he
wrote could be relied upon as the
facts in the case. He was forever
delving for facts, for the underlying
truths, and when he had obtained them
he was content to allow them to
speak for themselves without embel-
lishment or an attempt at sensation
alism.
This kind of work carried on con-
scientiously for years brought Kinds
to the attention of such men as Thorn
as b. Reed The great Speaker took
him to Washington as one of his
clerks. There for ten years Kinds
labored in his own way, unobstru-
sively and almost unknown. All of
this time he was making study of
the conditions of men and particu-
larly of parliamentary law. When the
final test come Kinds sprang with
and it is no exaggeration to say that
today among well informed men all
over the country his work as the par
liamentarian of the house is much
better known and understood than it
is here among his own friends at
home.
THE SAME ASHER.
Asher Kinds today has not changed
greatly from the Asher Kinds who
found his first newspaper work at Au
gusta so hard in 1885. He is still the
careful painstaking worker, always
and continuously delvihg after the
facts. When he speaks concerning any
subject it is only after he had fam
iliarized himself with that subject
and exhausted 1t. He makes intimate
friends slowly but retains their
friendship after it has once been
gained. He loves to meet people, to
talk with them about their business
and their experiences ard he can tell,
on occasion, some very good stories
of his own.
AS a newspaper man Kinds success
was won because he won the conf
dence of those with whom he came in
contact 1t will be the same as
public official. He Is solid, substan-
tial and never chases .rainbows.
Where he plants his feet there he is
to be found. What he talks about he
understands and when he makes an
assertion his newspaper friends long
ago discovered he has the facts at
hand in some one of his many index
schemes to absolutely back him up.
He is a dangerous man to enter into
an argument with because Kinds
talks facts and does not rely on
visions to support him in any con-
troversy
At Great Chebeague island. Asher
Kinds has built summer home and
there he has passed many of his sum-
mers while at home from his duties
at Washington. Besides his studies,
his wide range Of reading, Asher
Kinds loves to dig in a garden, to go
fishing with his boy in some big safe
boat, to tramp through the woods
and fields and to sit with friends and
listen to their stories of other days
and of the time when all of them were
boys, playing pranks at college or at
work in Portland laying the founda-
ton for their future work. He has
many intimate friends but they are
not all college classmates. Among
them are men with whom he worked
|