The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-18
Republican Friend h Mis- SOuri Gave Them As
 Token of Esteem
CLARK DEFENDED DONOR
 IN 4 MISSOURI LAWSUIT
Clark on Condition That He Drive Behind Them in Washing
 ton, and He VIII
BY JOHN TEMPLE GRAVES


 Chicago. December Especial )-with the democratic occupation a fixed fact for the ides of March, Champ Clark looms in Congress as the logical and foremost figure of the triumphant democracy. The gallant Missourian seems to bs slated for the speakership without oppo- sition. Talk of opposition candidates is sporadicend indefinite. Mostly from af- lection, but largely from sense of the uselessness of opposition, the leader of the present minority seems to have a walkover for the third office in the re- public.
 Long years of fidelity, a patient cour- age in defeat consistent championship and unfailing cheerfulness in the gloomy 1 days of the party appear to have reaped their due reward in the practical unanim- ity with which MT. Clark will win the first fruits of the first congressional vic- tory that the democrats have known in Is years
 For this reason the representative of the Ninth Missouri becomes the center of gossip
 group of democratic congressman iuHNillS III the f1OuSe restaurant 1ueS- day agreed that the first democratic speaker since Charles F. Crisp of Geor- gia ought to celebrate the resumption of the gavel by his party in some thorough y democratic and impressive way. Big Mules for Clark In discussing what the new democratic speaker should do to indicate the ideals of an earlier simplicity, the little group of democratic partisans revived with great enthusiasm the proposition that the big Missourian should ride to his preferment behind the magnificent pair of Missouri mules, which Luke Elmer son of Bowling Green has presented ,o him for that event. It was the con- sensus of opinion among this half dozen ! men that nothing would more fitly illus trate the unpretending simplicity of the genuine democrat or better typify ths dominant spirit of the great state he came from than the Champ Clark surrey ard the Luke Emerson mules.
 It was the strength and sturdiness of the Missouri mule that plowed the fur rows which arose the waving corn that enriched the granaries of the west It is the mule whose tired energies carried the produce of the farms to the railroad sta- tions or to the distributing centers about these fertile lands. It is the mule rather than the horse so linked to Missouri agri- culture that the two are twins. Under the first thoughtless and irrever- ent treatment of this serious subject Mir. Clark felt impelled to deny that he had declared his intention to ride down the avenue in this democratic chariot. The democratic majority, reveling in triumph and fairly riotous in good nature and l fun, have decreed that the next speaker owes this much to the gayety of Con- gress and to the spirit of the times. Mrs. Clark Approves Mrs. Clark enters with splendid spirit into the wholesome idea and declares her intention to see that her brilliant hus- band, who, not being a suffragette, has failed to consider her civil and religious liberty in political matters, must yield to her feminine will in the programme which his amiable partisans have pre- scribed.
 So as the joint product of democratic simplicity and of domestic persuasion 1t may be set down d fixed fact that the coming speaker will drive Luke Elmer sons mules down the historic avenue. which never was adorned with the like or the equal of these splendid animals before.
 The Emersons are typical Missouriano of the stalwart and bravest breed of the virile west. They are men of nerve. of daring enterprise. of swift and vigorous friendship and of boundless generosity.
 There are two of them-Luke, the eldest, and George. his younger brother. Luke is owner of the greatest donkey farm in all the west and perhaps in all the world Remarkable to relate, the pro prietor of the greatest donkey farm In -1I 4. ought in every political suggestion to b. but is a stalwart republican with not even a baby elephant to show the donkeys how they ought to grow.
 Emerson's Friendship
 A long time ago George. the youngse brother. survived the tragic end of . personal difficulty. and Champ Clark, the leading lawyer of Bowling Green saw him faithfully through the Mis- souri courts to triumphant vindica- tion This turned the Emerson spirit for the first time softly toward the gentle hammered but dauntless Mis- sourian, whose own record has somo stern and eventful features. filled with scars and the serious days of leao peaceful Missourian.
 Just before the Worlds fair at St. Louis. Luke Emerson, the republican proprietor of the donkey farm, to which
  feature grew tired of Missouri solitudeo and went to Europe. Sauntering one night through the outer suburbs of Paris trio of thugs, whom the Parisians called "Apaches,' attempted to hold up MT. Emerson for his money. In the course of the physical discus. sion Luke Emerson in his bland and wholesome Missouri way slaughtered the chief of the Apaches and put the oth. CTS to flight.
 The French police were so little e. customed to the Missouri method as to hold the proceedings a little irregular and haled Luke Emerson before the French tribunals
 Cable to Champ Clark
 All alone In the gay capital of fops eign county and facing this legal in. convenience Luke Emerson bethought him of the greatest man in his own country and in the Emerson Judgment In all the world He cabled to Champ Clark of Bowling Green, stating hio predcament and awaited the result.
 David R. Francis was at that timo an interna .ional figure as head of tho
 
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