The Washington herald., 1913-04-04

4 Al6 senate row has al even break IN
| the matter of doctors. Heretolo.S, Z a
Democrat were taken i'll, the only doc
tor handy was Senator Gallinger. Repub-
! lican. Now the Democrats have Harry
Lane. OF Oregon. who also was a doctor
| before he quit pills for politics. He will
serve as a political antidote to Gallinger.
| Lane is the man who succeeds Jona-
| than Bourne.
| \ great many things may be said about
| Lane, but just now We are about to tell
| how he happened to be a doctor. He
was born in Portland fifty-nine years
| ago. when that place was a small viii
lage. AS is usual in a new country,
there was great demand for plain, I'M
iuted manual labor, and by the time
Lane was well along in his teens he
found himself toiling by the day hewing
| down mighty forest trees. He went
along at this, taking it just as n matter
of course. and too busy to think much
about what calling he would follow when
he grew up
The notion to do something else came
to him all Of a sudden. He was then
seventeen years old, and was clearing
land for a roadway. A giant tree fell to
his lot. The trunk was eight feet in
diameter.
And he was to cut it down with an
ordinary ak,
If the boss had provided a cross-cut
saw, Lane might have been a laborer
the rest of his life But cutting through
an eight-foot trunk with an ax-Wow,
Wow thought he.
He made one swipe at the tree, cutting
only piece of bark. and then he stop
ped and looked at the trunk again. 1t
was eight feet through, you understand
And he was a mere lad of seventeen.
Again he raised his AK. still contem-
plating that eight-foot trunk-but did not
strike the defenseess tree. Instead he
laid down his AK and told the boss he
vas going to find something easier to do.
II don't know exactly what i shall do
confided Lane. but, oh, sir, 1 know 1t
will be something a great deal easier
than this" And he dotted his cap AMI
vas gone.
Lane talked things over with his father
and the latter advised him to go into
one of the Professionalism law or
medicine. Being a doctor looked the
easier of the two, Lane thought. law !
yer had to go into court, he pointed out, !
and look things up in books before he
finally got any money, but all a doctor
had to do was to shake a few pills out
of big bottle.
SO LANE StuuleU
for doctor in those days was COM
paratively simple. One mastered the |
names of all the most popular diseases |
from the most complete and up-to-date !
list ebtainable, found out what medicine !
went with each disease, explored the In !
terror arrangement of the human body |
to some extent, and then started to prac- !
tice. In a couple of years Lane had
finished the medical course, and was a |
full-fedged doc before he was twenty.
A number of years ago he was Sc |
lected to be the head of the State in |
sane asylum He explains that it was
not because he knew so much about |
mental diseases. but because he was a !
Democrat While in that job he worked |
a number of reforms that got his name |
up A little later he ran for State Sena- |
tor He was defeated, but ran so well |
in his own county and city that the !
Democrats put him up for Mayor OF
Portland, and he served two terms.
When he left that Office, three years ago,
he intended to go back to his practice, |
and would have done so except for the
fact that he couldn't find his practice.
It had scattered while he was Mayoring. !
Lane is a large-featured man, with a
heavy mass of hair, just beginning to |
turn gray, and face that is complete
ly covered with little lines, like a good
roads map. When he smiles every part
OF his face participates. He must have
been good doctor when he was prao-
ticing That smile alone must have done |
more good than all the potions he could
have crowded into his kit
Postmaster General Burleson is sup
posed to be- absurdly RICH Like lot of /
wealthy men, he is half ashamed of IT. |
even though he made the money himself |
If the question is put UP to him he Is