Putnam patriot., 1910-04-15
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The Gentleman From No. ,.
THE OLDEST sKwpoRrEKl

THE OLDEST NEW PURTERa
 But for his great, great, double great and twice again great grandfather, Horace Nichols Hassard would have been a Connecticut Yankee, likely enough making laws over al Hartford for the benefit of the unsuspecting Nut meggers among whom he was born. Asit is, Horace is everybody's friend down in festive Newport, and chair man of the committee on corporations in the lower branch of the General As sembly of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. That's what a mans great, great, double great, and twice again great grand father can do for him.
 Also and moreover, please observe, your Uncle Horace, individually and by himself alone, is part of the fun damental law of this neck of woods. If it wasn't for him, il would almost be necessary to hustle around for an- other constitutional amendment in order to have any session of the Gen eral Assembly at all.
 For the answer to this interesting fiddle, turn carefully to Section of Article of that precious document yeiept the constitution of the State. Read down to the last sentence of it, and notice that "the senior member f.s5,., tha te..n af Naxyp0rf if apy ha present, shall preside in the organiza- iien of the House..
 And the senior member from the town of Newport, if any be present, is none other than the Honorable Horace Hassard. Which is why, at the begin hing of each annual session, he clim bs into the chair reserved at other times for the Honorable Speaker, biffs the desk a lusty biff with the mallet and informs the honorable Assembly that il Is high time to get down to business
 Nobody knows just exactly what that section of the constitution means, to the extent of telling whether il re- fers to the oldest member in point of years or the oldest in point of service. Some time, perhaps, the Supreme Court will have to make guess at it. But not as long as Horace is on deck. Because, when 1t comes to seniority, he has got 'em all chained to the as. phalt either way you look at it. He took his three.score-and-ten diploma last April, though you'd never guess it to look at him, and as a member of the House he has been on the job with only one lapse since 1904.
 As result of this unique distinction, which is one of the leftovers from the days when Newport was a good-sized fraction of the capital of Rhode Island, NIT. Hassard has two supreme interests in life. He has others, to be sure, quite bunch of them. But these two are supremer than any of the rest of them. One is to be on hand every year at the opening session, in order 10 do the gavel-swinging stunt; the other is to have his name pronounced right.
 Because, whatever anybody else may choose to call it, and however his an-
 
 \. of Newport wants it pronounced distinctly thus: HaSSard. Not Haz- ard. Multiply all the s's in it by three and emphasize each one of them slow ly and earnestly as you go along; then you'll earn the distinguished gratitude of the gentleman from Newport.
 Confidentially, he is cousin to a whole lot of Hazar is, the plain, ordi- nary kind that stand fnr the "z.o But as for him, pronounce it with a hiss in the middle or don't pronounce it at all. Down in Newport they don't pro- nounce it at all. They cali him Hor- ace instead.
 It was q generation or so ago that the letters got shifted. Originally all of the family were Hazards. And that brings us back to the great great double-great, etc., grandfather, to whose foresight we owe it that our chairman of corporations is legislating under the marble dome in Providence instead of under the gilded dome at Hartford. He was born over the line, in East killingly, was the chairman, and put quite lot of earnest effort in- 10 the uplift of Connecticut by building mills and other noble structures for It.
 But about a quarter of century ago the call of ancestry grew louder than that of his Nutmeg associations, and he came trooping back to Narragansett bay to install himself as one of the First Family Newporters. Nor is there any exaggeration about that. He is the first family there is, for the good and sufficient reason that there weren't any Newport families at all till the aforesaid great, etc., grandfather moved into town, along with the late William Coddington and others.
 Since that time the Hazards have had good deal to say most of the time about the administration Of affairs Tn the State. Robert Hazard, or Haszard {for they had begun to monkey with the spelling even them, was Deputy Governor of the colony in 1550 or there aoouts, and the other generations have been quite some when it came to hay- ing opinions on public questions. Is II any wonder that Horace, after stand Ing it as long as he could over Putnam way should want to come back 10 Rhode Island and maintain the tradi. tons of the family?
 As Newporter Horace fitted in as if he'd never been off the island in his life. And today, if you want to know what the boys are thinking and talk ing about, all you have to do is to get the genial chairman off in a corner and ask him.
 He knows Vox Populi by heart. He knows how the government ought to be run, just how Bill and George and the rest of them think it ought to be run, and can point out the mistakes of said Bill and George with comprehen- siye accuracy.
 He doesn't say very much about 1t oa the floor of the House, but he