The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1911-08-26
SENATOR c. 5. PAGE
Saturday Evening Post Gives Sketch
Of Junior Vermont Senator

ton, who's Who-And Why the
Saturday Evening Post publishes a
sketch of IT, S. Senator Carroll s.
Page of Vermont. The sketch fol-
lows:
There might be a quib concealed in
the environs of the fact that Carroll
Smalley Page, Senator from Vermont,
deals extensively in raw calfskins and
lives at Hyde Park; but this life 10
serious business, after all, and every
body knows what happens 70 the
jokesmiths.
Deals extensively" is perhaps too
conservative an utterance Deals
universally would be better. The
truth is that every calf born in Yer
mont and not permitted to grow to
manhood and ladyhood, as the case
may be, is born to have Its pelt &C
quired by Carroll Smalley Page. There
is no escape. Immutably that Calls
epldermis goes to Page. 1t is as
much the Senator's as II the calf
were born under his protecting care
and in his own cowbarns. 1t Is as
much his as if ON each calf there was
birthmark-"Property of G. s.
Page" He gets them all. He, they
say, is the largest dealer In raw calf
skins in the country-that is, he isn't
so alfred large himself, but he deals
largely.
Likely as not, when you buy pair
of calfskin shoes you are buying a
piece OF leather that originally. In Its
raw state, belonged to Carroll Small
ley after, of course, it has belonged
to the calf in the first instance and
the farmer In the second Nor does
Vermont confine his operations He
buys calfskins wherever calfskins are
to be bought and sells again with, as
we might say, slight modicum OF
profit. He is a dealer is the Senator
"a trader. There may be some other
person in this country who can buy
calfskins as adyantageously to him
self and sell as advantageously TO
himself as the Senator, but he hasn't
shown up yet. That person is work
/ ing along other lines. In short, the
I Senator is the Calfskin King. Being
named C. S. Page he is known in his
native state as Calfskin Page, which
| is a term of endearment; for with all
his calfskins, they love him still.
The careless considerer of cause
and effect may think there is no anal
ogy between calfskins and a United
States Senatorship, but there is. The
analogy is there, bigger than a house.
| make bold to say that If Carroll
Smalley Page had not dealt in calf
skins from his early days he would
not have been a Senator in the full
flower of his youth, as he is at pres
ent-aged sixty-eight and the spryest
Yankee you ever saw. You see, he
started out to buy cafskins when he
was a boy, and as his equipment con
sisted mostly of what he had on him
in the shape OF coin and few knick-
knacks. such as farmers with calves
that have been cut of in their infan-
cy might desire, 1t was necessary for
him TO go where the calfskins we're
instead of having the calfskins come
to him.
In other words, the Senator was an
itinerant dealer in this commodity,
pedler, If you please; and he trav-
eled I'D and down Vermont-which,
by the way, is what you have TO DO
lin Vermont-travel up and then
down: and he glad-handed every far
mer in that commonwealth, glad
handed him and bought his calfskins.
1t was mutual proposition. First,
the farmer skinned the calf and then
skinned Page, or vice versa, as the
case may have been. Incidentally,
though, the farmers were expert at
skinning the calves, they didn't do
much along the line OF skinning Page.
When Yankee meets Yankee In deal
somebody is bound to be skun. That
is a truth as imperishable as the
Green Mountains. However, c. ).
Page seems to be moving along calm
| ly and with considerable laid by in
the bank
From time to time there have been
Yankees in the Senatorial yam
KEGS. Senator Proctor, also OF YER
mont. was one who served long and
ably. but who died before he had
brought to success his cherished pro-
iect of having the government build
its battleships of Vermont marble, OF
which the Senator owned some few
pounds that could, on a pinch, have
been devoted to other purposes than
headstones and public buildings. Real
Yankees in the New England repre-
sentation are infreQ .ent. Most OF
those statesmen have traits that are
not typical, though all OF them are
imbued with the regulation THRIFT.
Senator Lodge, for example Is an or
nately veneered Yankee and Murray
Crane is pussy-footed YANKEE; ;
while Doctor Gallinger was born In
Canada and Senator Wetmore lives
at Newport. Page is real Yank-
Vermonter, born aud bred and
every person who has ever been In
Vermont knows exactly what that
means.
He had the trading instinct highly
developed even when he was iad
and began travelling through the state
Idickering for calfskins. Moreover, he
lhad a good Vermont wit and faculty
for making his customers his frlends'
and as he progressed he built up q
large constituency. 1t wasn't lonl
before the farmers saved their cali
skins for the young chap from west
field and he reciprocated by payint
Them the best market price and by
contributing to their township cele
lbrations and enterprises
There is good deal OF politics II
Vermont. and along with his sian
for calfskins Page had a slant To-
this diversion. SO, while he canvass
ed for his raw material he laid up
few friends here and there on whom
he could depend for votes at the pro
per time. SO long ago as 1869 he ha'
himself elected to the legislature SCI
wing the Lower House for four year
and two years later going to the stat