Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-04-16
NATIONAL TOPLINERS

JOSEPH L. BRISTOW was born in a
county called Wolfe, and has never for
gotten it. He has trained himself physically
into the long, lank, strong lines peculiar to
the wolf, and he hungers for fights, con-
ficts, and trays. Moreover, he represents
in the upper house of Congress the State Of
Kansas, a section of the country noted for
its cyclones and insurgency.
BriStOW is the Senate most savage Cy-
clone, and when the storm mood grips him
he gives the impression that it is high time
for other people to hunt their cellars and, If
possible, get busy about the digging of sub
cellars, in order to be prepared for extra
hard blows. He is an insurgent from in
clination, environments and conviction.
He was elected to the Senate in January,
1909; but in his short service in that body
he has forged to the front as Il worker and
leader of the insurgent band. His prepare
ton for the Job was thorough. He has
owned and edited three newspapers, dab
blcd in politics nearly all the time, held the
position of special commissioner Of the
Panama Railroad, and had the Job of Fourth
Assistant Postmaster General.
Bristow is full of "pop' and ginger
Roosevelt realized this, and in 1903 APP
pointed him to make a special investigation
of the Postoffice Department, where, it is
alleged, certain brainy and crafty gentle
men were getting away with more than their
share of the Government money. Bris-
tow's instructions were to probe the depart
ment. But probe was not handy enough
as a weapon He went through the works
with that cyclOnic motion, and in his hand
he bore batteax with which he dealt from
time to time such blows as seemed to him
fitting and proper. Unfortunately for the
men he was after, they had not dug the sub
cellars, and he got them.
In 1900 he conducted similar investiga-
ton of the postal frauds in Cuba.
This cyclonic Senator is fOrCefu speaker
and convincing writer. He learned lot
about the usage of the English language
when he was editing "The Salina Daily Re
publican "Thc Ottawa Herald and "The
Salina Daily Republican, Journal
As might be supposed, he is great friend
and admirer of Theodore Roosevelt, and fire.
qucntly visits the Colonel at Sycamore Hill.
The Junior Senator from Kansas is hard
student. He burns the midnight oil Wrest-
ling with the problems of the tariff and the
high cost of living But he is optimistic
He can never be found among those who
sit in dark corners weeping and waiing and
dcspairing of the fate of the Republic. Back
in the rccesseS OF his brain he may carry the
conviction that if necessary he and his com
panions in revolt will step boldly to the
front and save the Ship Of State if there is
any sign of danger that she will go to pieces
on the rocks.
Moreover, he does not Joke about his in
surgency; for he takes it too seriously. One
day he stepped into an elevator on the SEN
ate side of the Capitol, and friend greeted
him with:
"Well, Senator, what sort of an insurgent
are you today, a good one or bad one?'
Bristow simply glared at his intcrlocutor,
and the question went unanswered.
In ordinary circumstances, however, he is
kind and good fellow, with laughing eyes
and a humorous mouth. His whole life has
been spent in newspaper offices, with the ex-
ception of the time he has been in politics
In general appearance he would pass as a
well to do farmer; but his easygoing manner
disappears when he gets into action in the
Senate or in Investigations of those who have
done as they should not have done.
STRANGE to say" remarked Mr.. Fair
~ banks, the former Vice President "when
was travelling in the Far East | never dis
covered any yellowness in the newspapers
of that part of the world Then he added,
"But that may have been because couldn t
read word of the languages in which the
papers were printed"