Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1912-11-09
jim ham LEWIS, A GEORGIA PRODUCT

secured a shingle swung to the Ore
gon breezes, and Jim Ham" Lewis
began a career that promises to soon
find him one of the senators from the
great state of Illinois.
Later Lewis went into politics. And
when he ran for congress the long
shoremen and other laborers along
the port front lined up to man be
hind the Georgian who had made his
start among them. AS long as he re-
NAMED out there he stood high among
the working men.
Lewis was something of a sensation
in Congress, with his whiskers, his
tight gloves, his artistically arranged
hair, his trousers of hues hitherto I'M
known to the capitol, and other per-
sonal peculiarities that made him a
marked man. But it was not hard to
see that beneath the veneer of this
sort there was genuine strength Of
character He could not be dismissed
with a contemptuous smile as a freak.
He staged himself for effect, but he
held his own with some of the best OF
them when it came to discussion of
public questions. AS one congress
man is credited with saying: Jim
Ham may be joke sometimes, but he
is never a fool"
From the northwest Lewis moved
down into the central west, locating at
Chicago. But before that, when first
elected to Congress, he made trip
down to southeast Georgia and took
unto himself a Georgia girl as wife
The story went that she had told him
when he left Georgia that she would
marry him if he ever became a con-
gresham. Maybe that was the motive
power that kept him going at first
Whether that is piece of romance OF
not the marriage came soon after the
returns assured him a seat in thC
House.
Just as he made good ON the Pacific
slope, so Lewis speedily took root ant
attached himself to the soil of Chicago
speedily developing into politician o
more than local calibre The city at
torney's office became his, lucrative
and responsible He became populal
with the masses of his party all Owe
the great city by the lake, as well al
throughout the vast plains that maxi
up the state. They joked about hi
whiskers and his clothes, but the,
lined up behind the man under tn
clothes and accepted the whiskers a
the finest creation of democratic style
And if the reports are true, and "Jin
Ham" ornaments seat among TIL
august representatives of forty-eigh
states in the Senate chamber, tn
clothes and the whiskers vii be mucl
in evidence, the seat of the puniOr sen
ator from Illinois will be pointed on
~ tho >.'.--ic',-- f..~,,a oil porto of tn,
country-and the citizen of his state
be he democrat or republican, VIII,
thinks it an easy thing to take tn,
seat away from the former Georgian
Will find that the same grit that mad,
him take the job of washing dishe.
down in Savannah when a boy, tn,
same grit that made him take up The
hard work of a longshoreman on tn,
Pacific coast, the same grit that wor
MIN a Georgia bride through the win
nlng of a seat in the House, is still
there, and that under the great thatcf
OF curled hair that looms above his
large forehead there is gray matter OF
no mean powers.
Georgia has sent a bunch of its sons
to the far away Northwest, to help in
building up that great empire where
the Oregon rolls and at one time
heard no scOund save its own MUIR
murings,' but while many of them
nave prospered, become substantial
citizens, and leaders at the bar, or in
the varied walks of business. none
other has become a national character
such as Lewis. In his own unique way
he has illustrated his native state and
the sterling virtues of integrity. in
domitable determination, independence
and courage that have lifted many an
other Georgian from obscurity and
poverty into an honorable affiuence
and renown.