The Washington herald., 1912-06-07
STATESMEN, REAL AND NEAR.
By FRED c. KELLY

Senator Nixon OF Nevada has in his
sCrapbook a telegram that he has re-
fused to part with even in exchange
for large sums Of negotiable paper. 1t
was one of the fast messages Nixon
ever transmitted when he was a strug-
Cling yOung telegraph operator more
than thirty years ago. He was then
working at Humboldt. New. which was
a dinner station hack before the days OF
dining cars, when one could get a bite
to eat for less than a dollar.
One noon a weirdly garbed. bIaSe
young EnElishman stepped OF the train
and came in to send a message. He wore
purple Cutaway coat with a chrys-
anthemUm in the buttonhole and cute
little knee pants. Everybody wondered
who the stranger might be. Nixon found
out when the man handed him the fol-
lowing message addressed to a well
Francisco:
"Dreadfully dull journey. verv lonely
without you. OSCAR WILDE"
When lie was in London last sum-
mer Nixon happened to have the mes
sage with him. nd collectors who heard
about IL tried to bribe. coax. and Cajole
him into parting with IT, But to one and
all he said nav. nav; that II might
be a long time before he would send
another message for Oscar Wilde, and
he proposed to hold fast to his little
souvenir.
II is said Of Senator Hoke Smith OF
Georgia that he gets confidential with
strangers more easily than any states
man we have. He has little to say or
dinarily. but there is something about
the motion Of a train that makes him
communicative. II he meets an afable
stranger in a Pullman car, he is just
as likely as not to unfold his past, show
the man his bank book. marriage GER
tificate. and rent receipts. and discuss
pending senatorial legislation with the
abandon of a boy returning home from
college.
One Of his colleagues asked Senator
Bailey the other day what he thought
of the political situation.
"Oh. please excuse me from trying to
tell what's going to happen this year in
either party" sad Bailey. It's like
the old saying about Texas weather.
When I first went to Texas l used to
offer casual predictions about the
weather. for the sake Of making con-
n
ed that anybody who undertakes to
say what the weathers going to be in
Texas is either a fool or a newcomer"
Senator Overman. Of North Carolina,
has views about the civil war that,
coming from a Southerner, are note
worthy. He thinks that in a great many
respects the war was the best thing
that could have happened to the South.
His opinion is that with things break
ing so nicely as they had been with
slave-holdinE families, and no need of
the Young people having to work, there
would have been a decided tendency in
time for the South to have produced a
race Of plnheads. There would have
been so much ease-loving aristocraCy
that the common type Of man would
have been a person without enough
brains to carry nuts to squirrel As
IL is thanks to the war. the South Is
turning out vast numbers OF real men
and women who. under the old order OF
things, might have been as useless as
a prize won at a charity card party.
Joe Fordney. one Of the Michigan Con-
gressmen, has been inspired by what he
terms the strange conduct OF one T.
Roosevelt tc relate this little parable:
mar went to a celebrated artist and
said he was willing to pay any price
within reason for a good portrait Of his
father.
"AI right" agreed the artist fellow.
Get me a good photograph of your
father and I'll &C TO work at once"
But we have no photographs of him.
the man said. I'VE have no pictures OF
him at all. That's why I want you 10
paint one