The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-12-09

way he walked in and sat down at the
chief clerks desk, without opposition
so to speak. But he did the work that
caught the dog that worried the COW
with the crumpled horn before he en-
tered the house that Jack built.
He is a hustler, this man Akers. a
/ dynamo with voltage direct from the
big central power house. He may have
a list of shortcomings and left handed
talents, but the word hustle" is there
in black capitals and one is apt to
overlook the other items. even that
Star-Spangled theory that the Russian
thistle is as good to eat as pancakes
or peaches or pudding
A coiled watchspring charged with
electricity and loaded with lyddite is a
hard proposition to get the start of in
a contest where action and speed count
for anything. SO is Akers. It looks
easy, this system the man employs who
makes good. He just seems to have
grown in that gold pot where the sun
shines the brightest and the dew falls
at night to water the leaves. But it
is hard to tell how he does it. Back of
the routine Of success and good opin-
ion and a long list of friends lies the
hillside road. and the lean years and
the smile that could shine through
tears.
The man that makes a country
printshop pay is a commercial genius
who would have become rich in any
other line of endeavor. Ask the thous-
ands who have tried that little task
and failed.
Members of the last legislature
talked about the young man from
Stafford. They called him the best
chief clerk that ever happened. They
thought it strange. But it wasn't. A
good newspaper man is a good any
thing. Any old job is white meat and
oyster dressing after fighting the
no 10 nd
the "sore" subscriber. Akers had the
class and he won a home here. When
Charlie Gibbs left the governors office
to go to the board of control as secre-
tary last March Akers was the man
the governor picked to succeed him.
The place came as easy for him to get
as had the clerkship of the house, or
that printshop. or that list Of Seventh
district friends.
Say, it's queer that this man Akers
should be so polite and courteous and
obliging and patient and gentle with
every one he comes in contact with. He
has red hair that spells war, his COM
plexion is of that sandy hue that shows
up best in conflict, his nose is tiptilted
to the exact angle of pefect aggressive
ness, his eyes are small like a lance
point and his mouth has about the
same soft curve as that presented by a
masked battery. But these racial
points by which men were judged in
the old hghtlng days before the press
agent supplanted war, doesn't count
now Akers, like Taft, is for peace.
The Seventh district does not wear a
belt now nor carry a six-shooter. Its
representative now in the governor s /
office talks about wheat. and grapes, |
and hogs, where Stafford leads the
state. on yes, he has another failing. /
He wants Stafford county men APP
pointed to every office in the gift Of
the governor. For J. p, constable, /
delegate to the congresses and conven- |
ions, regents, commissioners, any old /
hing, Akers always has a Stafford /
nan handy who is the best ever. They 1
10 say that Akers wanted a Stafford !
nan appointed judge in place of I
Charlie Lobden.s resigned, and Stafford /
S not in Lobdell's district And he /
wanted 3 Stafford man to get the job I
# sheriff of Cherokee when that Of \
acial was ousted. If a poet laureate