Bisbee daily review., 1912-12-15
Davy Lewis Started Life as Underground
 Toiler Now Mentioned for Cabinet Place
Ry Robert F. Wilson

for DaVy ilewis-thc Hon David |. { Lewis. member or congress from che sixth district of Maryland be the postmaster genesal in President Wilson's cabinet Coming 10 Nash ington as an unknown less than two years ago, Davy Lewis. who was a child labor victim and who toii2l 1 under ground in the coal mines until l he was Of age has made such a pro. found impression on pubic life in his single term in congress that he is being seriously considered for one Of the highest and most important posts in the American government.
 Lewis folks came to America nom a Welsh mining village with jaw breaker name as long as your arm. Dayy was born In Clearfield county, Pennsylvania. and when he was nine years old the poverty of his family forced him into the mines as la- borer. Those were the days before l-tor inspections The miner was paid by the weight uf coal he pro. duced, and it was customary for him 10 take his children with him ma the mine as his assistants So there was DaVys father a brawny man. cutting the NoshLnnon coal ''on the face" with mighty strokes Of his biz pick and hoistin@ il into the mine car with his big shovel: and Dayy with his little pick chipping of the ledges his father left and helping throw on the load with his little shovel
 Sometimes he drove the mine mules, aBd sometimes he was smuttr faced breaker boy The net physical result of cutting on his natural childhood at the age of nine was to stunt his growth so that .E height he is little more than five feet, but to thicken his bone and muscular structure into the squat powerflslucss of an OK. His shogl ders are those of a giant: his torso arms and legs are mighty Seeing his gnomelske stature. his slightly saturnine cist of conntenance. and hearing the big voice boom from his barrel of a chest. it is easy 70 imagine him a dwelleF in subterra- mean cayerns
 Thirsts or Knowledge.
 Somehow in that childhoOd spent in the darkness he managed 10 learn 10 read-probably al Sunday school. the only school he ever attended. He developed an unsuitable thirst for reading. lie used to pack a book in his dinner bucket and read it by the light Of the lamp on his cap when. ever there was opportunity in the mine
 He dr,ftsd 10 Cumberland. Md, | where ambition sought him ont when he was seventeen years old He chose 10 study the unusual combina. tion Of Latin and law A kindly preacher helped him with the Latin: a lawyer who sympathized with his struggle 10 reach the light, lent him the legal textbooks lt took sig years of forcing his flagging brain @ study after eNhausting days Of Is- bor in the mines-bUt at the age O. twenty-three he was admitted to the bar
 Those unsang philosophers who compose the notices or Chice cards and calendars advise the young man. whatever his station in life, 70 take up one subject for study and tO learn everything there is to he learned about it Young Lewis did that. though he probably had never seen motto card. But be chose for study about the hardest, most intricate and abstract subject anyone could find the subject of railroad economics.
 This young lawyer. doing A justice .of the peace court business. settling petty squabbies and executing an oc- casional deed or will. in a mountain town of Maryland. burned the mid night oil probing such atstrUse sub jects as railroad and express rate faTg would think he ever could find use for his knowledge?
 Goes to Congress.
 Let us jump now to the spring Of 1911. when Lewis. al the age Of forty two, and after hard fight which had put his district in the democratic column for the first time in twenty. two years. was in congress He hal asked and obtained permission to make a ten-minute speech 9u par cells post. As is usual when a new congressman arises to make his maiden speech. most Of the bored -older members flee 10 the cloakroom. But a few who had curiously ob- served the powerful stunted figure Of the man fingered to hear what ne hab 10 say. At the expiration of his fen minutes they were still lingering. a15 Oscar Underwood. the demo- cratic floor leader. moved that The time of ths gentleman from Mary land be eXSnded to one hour
 kt the end Of the hour there was d close-packed group about the sssezkeT. whose head scarcely rose hfsher than his desk, and the gal leries were filing. while there was rapt silence in the chamber. Then Underwood asked that the gentle mans time be extended another hour. At the end Of the second hour the chamber was crowded with listeners. Underwood then suggested 10 Repre- sentative Mann, the republican floor i leader. that he move for another hours extension of time. And Mann. instead of asking for an hour. asked that Lewis time be extended in. definitely
 Lewis began his ten-minute speech at ? D. ID. and he finished shortly after [ o'clock that evening, and he held his crowd the whole time. In that speech he told congress more about the postohice and the express systems than 1t ever knew before He amazed veteran members Of the post office committee by telling them that