The Washington times., 1911-07-30
SENATOR WILLIAMS
OF MISSISSIPPI IS
F|FTY7SEVEN TODAY
John Sharp" Is Remarkable
Lawmaker, a Farmer, and
Close Student.

Senator John Sharp Williams of Mis-
sissippi, former minority leader of the
House, and one of. the most remark
able figures in either branch OF Con-
gress, is celebrating his f1fty-seventh
birthday today. He would have been
celebrating 1t in Washington had 1t not
been for the strenuous nature of the
campaign being put up by one Varda-
man, in Mississippi. against Senator
Percy. AS It is, John Sharp" has gone
to his own State, and will celebrate his
natal day there getting ready to jump
behalf Of Percy.
The first line of the biography of
John Sharp" as everybody calls him,
in the Congressional Directory sheds q
flood Of light on his makeup. It starts
off this way:
Lives On a Farm.
John Sharp williams, Democrat, of
Benton, r. F.. D. l, Miss" Being inter-
preted, this means that the Senator does
not live in town, but out on his farm,
and gets his mail on rural free delivery.
When one reflects on this fact, and
also on that incident in the Senate the
seen to emerge from the cloak room just
far enough to look out of the door and
see what the Senate was doing holding
his corncob pipe in his teeth meanwhile.
he is bound to gain a certain measure
Of illumination as to the man who is
forging his way to the front in the
Senate and one Of these days is going
to be the leader Of the Democrats in
that body.
Senator Williams has been in the
Senate but a little while, but he has
already measured swords with the
ablest men in that body, and he has
never appeared at a disadvantage.
Bucks "Joe" Bailey.
He is the fist Democrat who has been
about the Senate for a long time that
has had the nerve to go up against
"Joe'' Bailey on the slightest provoca-
ton. Already. 1t is clear. there is keen
rivalry between the two.
John Sharp" lives on his farm,
smokes his pipe, studies his books, loves
life. He speaks German like a son, Of
the Vaderland, for he went 70 Heidel-
berg. He reads poetry and knows ltt-
erature from SansCHtt to the latest
works on the market. He revels IN
scott's poems. and they say he keeps a
fine mint patch. He always is as un-
mindful OF whether his trousers are
creased as any of his agricultural COL
leagues down in the regions near Ben
ton.
Long In Congress.
John Sharp has been around Wash
ington for a good while. but he Isn't
old. He was born July 80. 1854. at Mem
phis, Tenn. His mother having died
and his father, who was colonel Of one
Of the Confederate regiments of Ten
nessee, having been killed at Shiloh. his
family moved to his mothers family
homestead in Yazoo county, Miss. His
education was fair" he says in his
1t reads this way:
Received a fair education at private
schools, the Kentucky Military lnsti-
tute, near Frankfort, Ky: the Uni
versity Of the South, Sewanee, Tenn;
the University of Virginia, and the
University of Heidelberg, IN Baden.
This was before he studied law at the
University of Virginia and in leading
office in Memphis. He began practice
in 1877, and has since then been nam
mering away at law. politics, and states
manship. He has been in Congress most
Of the time since he entered the House
In the Fifty-third Congress.