The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-03-08

In discussing other questions rails
| ed by the Democratic votes which
brought about his election, he took
his hearers back to his boyhood days
introducing them to his chum "HinIy
+! Dink'' Kenna:
John Griffin voted for me. John
Griffin lives in the neighborhood that
I went into forty years ago, and i
cannot remember just when 1t was
that I made his acquaintance, 1t is SO
far back; and we have been friends
all that time, but that was not the
single reason why Griffin voted for
| me.
When I was a boy and started out
| In the world, the first dollar I made
was by selling newspapers. had
| beeen we'll taken care of at home. no
responsibility, nothing to look after.
brought up as mothers would bring
up their boys if they had aught to
| do with it; almost at mothers apron
strings all the time, and when the
| time came that it became necessary
! to get out and earn a living, I was
| ten years old.
| Beginning as n Newsboy.
II had no experience, knew MOTH
| ing about where to turn, and my
| friends in the neighborhood suggested
| that l might make a dollar by selling
papers In the morning. and I began
peddlfng papers and blacking boots.
After had been at the work for
| a time-I remember it as we'll as if
| it was yesterday went over to the
| Tribune Building and down into the
basement, and bought fifty Tribunes
! folded as they are now They were
| counted out---frst the heading and
| then the supp1ement-and showed out
| of the window to the boy purchasing
them. He went off into a doorway
! or hallway and folded them and put
them together.
1 But one Sunday morning, as
came up out of the basement a crowd
of boys surrounded me. Some held
me by the hands and others by the
| out from under my arm and then
let me go. They disappeared. was
standing there brooding not only over
the dollar that 1 might have made
out of the sale of those papers but
the dollar and half that I had paid
for them, because the supplement was
| of no value without the heading.
Another boy came along with an
armful of papers and said to ms.
What is the matter? Why. are you
so downcaste I told him the story
He looked at me for a moment and
handed his papers over to me and
said. Stand back here in the door,
way. Stay there until come back
He went away and in about five min
utes he returned and he had my
are your papers. Now seeA to it that
they don't take them away from you
again.
81 went off. Out of that little in
cident grew a friendship to the ex-
tent that almost every week I helped
him. We had in our town at that
time a Saturday afternoon paper cali
ed the Gazette. In the territory
that I worked. 1 sold all of mine, and
this boy usually had some left over.
\ = a
ting stuck He gave them to me
and I took them up in my territory
and sold them for him. Sometimes
there was only one. but it saved him
five cents and he made the profit on it
of another five cents. Sometimes
there were half dozen, and he saw
ed thirty cents and made a profit of
thirty gents.
THAT friendship grew upon that
basis. A dollar and half he had
saved for me. and a dollar and O half
was more to me. Senator Root, i'll
those days that 81 100000 would be to
many of the people of this country
to-day.
What grew up out of that little In
cident was a friendship and graf
itude that has lasted for over forty
years. This man that I speak of as
a man now, was a boy then. He was
sort of a hero with the newsboys,
sort of a king of the crowd, and
what ne SAID they did.
His Friend '.Hinky Dink.''
II have no doubt that Senators in
this chamber have heard his name,
because the newspapers of my town
are ringing with it every day In
those days we called him 'Hinky
Dink.' His name was. Michael Ken
ma. The nickname has followed him
to this day. He is the leading Dem
ocrat in the neighborhood in which
l.,
district.
when the papers published the
story that Lorimer would probably be
a candidate for Senator, he came 10
my office and sat in my office anu
said to me substantially this: Bill, 4
understand YOU are going to be CAN
didate for United States Senator, and
that you cannot be elected unless you
get Democratic votes. You can de-
pend upon it that if your name is pre-
scented, John Griffin will vote for you
if no other member of the Legislature
does
Gan the Senator from New York
understand a situation Of that kind?
Has he ever come up through condi-
lions OF that sort that bind men to-
gether more firmly than all the things
that can be done to him when he
has grown to manhood, after he has
been successful?
when we quit selling papers, Mich
ael Kenna went one way, and I went
another. He became a Democrat
and L became a Republican. But
there never has been time in forty
years when ], without solicitation, or
he, without solicitation, could help
each other, that we have failed to
do it, and almost invariably without
notifying the other of our perfor-
nance of what we considered our du-
ty unless it was necessary to do So.''
Another case cited was that of Pc
ter F. Galligan, who has been a DEM
ocrat all these years. and a leader in
the Democratic party, and for many
years a member of the Legislature"
Peter was so partisan that he would
never ask a favor of Lorimer
(''though he would go any length TO
serve me"), until "about fifteen years
ago, when everybody was broke" Pc
ter's wife was sick, and he had no
money for doctors bills or medicine
or fuel. He came to Lorimer, who
secured for him an appointment out
of which he received fair salary
:. He had called on all his Dem
ocratic leaders for help, but he had
called in vain" And from that day
to this the gratitude of Peter F. Cal
ligan has made him almost my slave.
There is nothing in the world within
the bounds of decency, there is no
honorable thing that he might do
that I would ask him to do that he
would not do with the greatest of
pleasure.
'eWhen he cast his vote Cfor Lori
mer for Senator). Mr.. Lorimer con-
cluded, che did not think he was
was called, Republicans and Demo-
ho or hot hot