Arizona republican., 1912-06-08
.COL. TOM FITCH TARR|EO A DAY
Came Over From Tucson for the Sole Purpose of Taking His First Ride Back to California Via the A. & c.

i Col Thomas Fitch of Los Angeles ] lawyer and literateur and pioneer of a ] dozen states, spent yesterday in Phoe- 1 nix He came here just because, but more particularly to go away again. l He went tO Yuma and Tucson because 1 he had tO, having some legal business | to attend to in those towns in the pre- 1 paration of a case for the supreme court And finding himself in Tucson
 with his work finished, he decided he 1 would add d little pleasure to his busi- ness trip and call on his old friend ] Phoenix. returning to Los Angeles via l the Arizona x California railway, over which he had never yet had the pleas 1 re of travelling. He spent part of the 1 day looking over the city which has 1 been his home at intervals for the last thirty or forty years, and put in the rest of t flaming himself at the Hotel 1 Adams and giving out entertaining in 1 terVicWs to the neWspapare reporters. 1 He told one ofternoon paper the usu- 1 al story about his probably coming 1 back hera to locate. or at least he was so quoted. He told the same story to l The Republican reporter, except that ! he added that before he came it would 1 have to b. a darn sight cooler than il 1 was yesterday He was not surprised l however for he has lived here many summers off and on and had a good i working knowledge of the climate. l Asked if he did not rejoice in the ! achievement of statehood the colonel | said he ,iid and that he gloried in the part he had played securing it. He said he stayed here twenty years wait l ing for il and preaching and praying | for it but seeing the people were de- 1 termincd not to get it as long as he | stuck around. he moved away and then ! they got it. He feels now that it was well worth the sacrifice he made.
 Nr. Fitch is best known as the Silver i Tongued orator of the coast. title 1 that was accorded him many, many years ago. when the art of saying 1 things in beautiful metaphor and well rounded figures was not so desperately overworHed as it is these days, long | before the boy orator of the Platte be
 gan juggling with crowns of thorns and crosses of gold. and before the soap box cloquence of the l. W. W. had staenatpd traffic in the popu1ous cen 1 ters and thrown the police reserves lh- to panic. In those days oratory was used for two purposes. one Was to | inspire men to deeds of noble acton l and the ether was to make them vote | the ticket straight Generally It was l th,. republican ticket when Mr. Fitch 1 had anything to do with it and though one would hardly think so from the present political aspect hcreabout. it is i true that in those days a republican was elected in Arizona occasionally | speaking of oratory. the writer remem- bere having coughed up dollar once 1 to hear Col Fitch say lot of fine | things about music. It was in a httIe ] brick church that used to stand on the 1 present site of the Ford hotel and tine 1 Iecture vas well worth the money, es- | peciallv as most of it went to the | church The colonel took hS audience 1 through all the symphonies from the | long meter doXology to Mendelss"hn
 ! and then suddenly jumped to the stars.
 When he finished he left them all sing
 inc together in a chorus the melody ol
 which has never been forgotten.
 The whole country west of the Rock
 1 ies is seeded down to anecdotes con
 1 corning col Fitch. the things he has
 done anI the things he tried to do. one
 l Phoenix rcminiscence is worth repeat
 ing for the benefit of those who find
 the monthly electric light bili con
 stantlv recurring nuisance. The colo
 naI and his wife at that time mad'
 l Phoenix their home and one summer
 they went to Europe. When they re
 turned the electric light company pre-
 sented a bill that staggOred him. Alter
 1 exhausting his linguistic resources in
 expOstuiqtion and condemnation of the
 l meter system employed the colonel
 took q ICok around and in an inner
 | varIrobn he discovered an electric light
 1 that had been working day and night
 all summer long. spending money on
 | this sid, of the world about as fast as
 he could slough it off while hobnobblng
 l with kings and potentates on the other
 side And too, all that happened in the
 1 old days before the rates were reduced. | About the only thing that seemed to
 worry col. Fitch yesterday was his | doubt about what is to transpire in Chicago on the 18th He is too good 1 republican to think that any possible 1 candidate will bolt the convention or that any possible democrat can be bet ter than the most impossible republi- can. But also, he is too careful man
 to say who he thinks will be nominat- ed.
 Though Col Fitch has been a very successful lawyer he has always had l a penchant for using his pen and in his days has turned out a few novels and many shorter stories both fiction and reminiscence, while he has incidentally ! devoted some time to moulding public opinion through the agency of the edi | toriaI column He says he is still em- blowing Himself in all these vacations, | doing what most appeals to him at the
 time, but keeping up his law practice to an extent, looking especially after the 1 interests of his older clients.
 EnoIieb 1 ii+beran Church