The Washington herald., 1911-01-21

Representative James M. Cox. Of Day
ton. Ohio who looks a trifie like Willie
Hearst, though he will act annoyed II
told so, and who. like Willie. publishes
chain Of newspapers, was once here
as secretary to Representative Paul SorF.
from the same Ohio district. The Other
day at 3 o'clock Cox happened to
think Of story that the folks back
home tell in connection with the time
SorG beat Andy Harris, who since served
a term as governor of Ohio. for Congress.
When the returns first came in it looked
as if Uncle Andy had been elected Even
up to midnight the returns pointed thai
way. and so Andy's friends decided to
hold a jollification. Andy owns a big
farm down in that district and the fence
rails surrounding the same were the most
available fuel for big bonfire in ceiebra-
ton Of his victory. The flames of the
bonfire grew higher as the favorable
returns continued to pour in. and by ]
along one side of the Harris farm to
corral crippled chicken. But Uncle
Andy just laughed and remarked in high
glee that it would be no trouble to build
more fences-that. in fact. he'd been in
tending to get new ones anyhow.
Well. next morning it was learned that
Andy Harris hadn't been elected after
all, but that Paul Sorg was the victor.
Several of the Harris supporters went
out to his place to offer consolation.
''Pretty tough, getting beat after hav-
ing ones expectations forced up SO high
by those early returns remarked one,
sadly.
''Oh, rats" snapped Uncle Andy. uifle
irritably. Il don't mind getting beat I'd
heap rather be here on the farm than
down in Washington. anyhow. 'Tain't
that But, jeeminy whittiker, Look at
what they did to my fences last night
Senator Carroll S. Page, of Vermont
noted for being the largest dealer in raw
calfskins in the world. startled his polit-
ical advisers a few years ago with a
proposition to grade Vermont humanity
just as he did his calfskins. His system
of sorting raw calfskins according to
quality is the accepted standard. and he
didn't see why he shouldn't apply his
caifskin experience to politics.
Here is what he did: He got a little
book and wrote in it the names Of all the
voters in the whole State of Vermont-all
graded in the order of their loyalty TO
him. A particularly loyal friend was
classed and indexed as "A: some one not
quite so loyal was marked 4; others
were graded as B. c. and D, the DIS
being those that couldn't be depended
on al all. Vermont is not large State.
and it IS said that he had pra actically
every voter classified in his little book
with an almost uncanny degree of accu-
racy. And now he wouldn't think of going
into a campaign until he had first given
the voters of Vermont a thorough sort
ing out and applied the proper labels.
His system seems TO have worked. too.
for this last fall was a great season for
the Page family. The Senator was re-
Sio>teu uhaiiiihooSiS cS " i'SiSio'u uic tiiot
contained his own son: and the younger
Page had been sent TO the legislature by
acclamation from both parties SO that
he might help elect his father. Which
even the most captioUS onlooker must
confess is doing first rate for one family.
The life of Senator Page. by the way,
has been strangely mixed up with cir
cuses. oh. no. no; he never Travelled
with a circus or anything like that, but