The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-01-12
How Alfred Henry Lewis Writes
of Victor Murdoch.
Refers to Wichitan as Pride of
SunfIOwer State.
AN IDEALIST, HE SAYS.
One Who Champions the Beaten
Folk, Writer Declares.
But Who, Like Hugo, Has mo
Time for EmperOrs."

New York, Jan. 12.-Writing in a
New York newspaper upon the sub
ject, 1.-THE Sunfiower Hope and PRIDE
Alfred Henry Lewis says of Victor
Murdoch:
Let us begin with the cradle days
of our hero, for he at least may claim
to have been hero in his wars with
Speaker Cannon. Mr.. Murdoch was
born in 1871 in Burlingame, Kan. His
father was an editor. and like most
editors poor. Thus the boy, Murdoch,
had the inestimable advantage of be-
where you will, look where you choose
the country boy has carved his mark
deepest in history.
In Politics as Duty.
Mr.. Murdoch is in congress. And
yet he is out in the rush of things po-
litical rather through a sense of duty
than an inclination toward hurly
burly or an ambition for a mob sue
cess. While he knows men and how
to move them, [ should not say that
he possess any native liking for the
mad scramble of party. He is essen
TALLY an idealist. I think he likes Sc
clusion, alcoves, books. He is prac-
teal, but his practically requires an
effort. The door of his interest swings
easily to the touch of beaten folk who
have lost their worldly way. And yet
like Hugo, he might "have no time
for emperOrS.'
kansas is political, and her sons
take after their mother. Being alto
gether of Kansas, Mr.. Murdoch. even
as a boy and youth, possessed a con-
Stunning interest in every question
which affected the public. AS show
ing how ardently uppermost were
questions of politics in the mind of
Mr.. Murdoch, his enemies tell story
which L do not believe.
Story of the Town Drunkard
''Wichita's town drunkard, they say,
had died and was carried into the
church for the funeral. The parson
felt stifled, tonguetied by what he
knew about the man. After an attempt
or so to speak he gave it up. In a
happy burst he asked if there were
any present who would like to come
up and take his place.
Surely said the parson, there
| must be something good which a
| friend or neighbor might say of our
dead brother
There was pause; in all that
crowded church no one stepped for
ward. At last-so runs the tale-Mr.
| Murdoch, 16 years old and then, as
now, full of the popular spirit, arose.
CHANGING earnestly about, he address
ed the parson.
| MIR. Preacher said Murdoch, par
| don me, but If no one cares to talk
about the corpse, I'd like to be heard
| L0n IlluuleS OH the SuD-Ir0dSuTy.
| Can't Cut Wood With Him.
"Mr. Murdoch is a politician and
| has his politics. The latter, however,
| is the politics expressed in the terms
| American and man and he is par
| tisan only in his patriotism. He
cares nothing for pedigree, everything
| for performance. He does not believe
| that your great grandfather, dead and
under the grass roots, gives you your
only Importance. He believes that the
path by which humanity should clint
| is politics; wherefore he is in politics
But he is not hidebound of party
holding the name to be too often but
an alias for boss or ring, and the final
purpose of either to be graft. He is
not a Socialist. He does not insist up
| on puritanism. He looks with unfav-
orable eye upon the organized hypo-
crisy of pirate money and those &C.
ophants who lick its boots. He has
no use for solemn owlets who sit
preening the respectable feathers OF
their vanity on perches of gold.
THE house is a rough theater of eff.
fort and the Murdoch fitness for the
work involved is still problem. Fine
overweight Mr.. Murdoch is like {
| Toledo sword blade. He is clean, keen
utterly tempered, holds an edge. AnG
yet, while you could toss a veil OF
gauze in the air and slice it into rib.
bons with Mr.. Murdoch, you-and dc
your best-couldn't cut wood with