The Washington herald., 1913-03-16
srATEsMEH-REAL AND NEAR
By FRED Q, KELLY

Little children are not entitled to vote
in Nevada.
Yet the children reelected Representa-
tive Roberts to Congress-and every other
Republican on the State and national tick
cts was defeated.
Roberts keeps one clerk in his Office here
who does nothing else but answer letters
[ from cEiidi en-. send them souvenirs, ard
help him to make hit with them.
And when he made his campaign h.
did not waste time speaking acbuI The
tariH and other dry topics of interest
only to people with ruts across their
foreheads. Instead, he talked to the
school kids and told them that he never
saw a railroad train or had his hair Gu,
in a barber shop until he was more than
cut his hair, he said. by putting a soup
bowl on his head and shearing around IT,
thus getting a nice~circular edge.
| The kids-who were always present In
lgreat numbers-liked everything that Rob-
erts had to say. and went home to talk
about him. which, so far as Roberts was
concerned, was the object Of the meeting.
1t was entirely by chance that Roberts
got the hunch a year or so ago to
| rope in with the children of his State.
He was the first Republican Congressman
from his State in twenty years and he
came to Washington knowing that he
might get only a single term. One day
he got letter from a little schoolgirl.
| asking him IL he wouldn't send her a
little souvenir of Washinton.
Right then and there he got his idea.
He dictated circular letter to all the
| newspapers in his State, saying that he
| would mail a nice little souvenir of the
National Capital to every little boy or
| girl who would write to him. Then he
| hustled around and bought several hun
dred souvenir booklets of Washing
ton. and lot of souvenir post card :,
| He got his full quota of every govern
| ment pamphlet that could interest chill
| dren. The letters began to pour in from
youngsters in every nook and Granny of
Nevada He fired back maps. booklets,
| post cards, colored pictures of BIRDS
| and personal letters written on the most
ornate stationery the government pro-
| vides.
Now IL the writer's had been grown
| ups, that would have been the end of
the correspondence. but the youngsters
| wrote back to thank the Congressman,
| after which he wrote back to thank them
| for thanking him, and so on
Thus brisk. voluminous. and intimate
correspondence grew up between the
Congressman and the youngsters of his
| State. He writes twice as many letters
| to children as he does TO their fathers
and uncles.
II little girl has chicken-pox. a new
doll or broken slate. she writes and
| tells Roberts about it. She confides in
him the grades she gets at school. and
| the mean tricks the boy next door played
on her cat.
Frequently one Of these letters says:
Father and Uncle Joe and Mr.. Thomas.
who boards with us. think the book you
sent me is lovely'-or something similar.
That Is enough for Roberts. He knows
that a whole lot Of voters out in Nevada,
who never Thought much about him be-
fore are hearing his name mentioned
| almost every meal.
At several towns wheres Roberts spoke
last fall. so many youngsters turned out
|, to greet him that he felt like q circus
about to unload.
And every. little while some lifelong
member OF he opposite party came up
to him and said:
Il don't feel as IL l ought to vote for
you, but my two kids have been pester-
ing the life out of me and i had 10
promise 'em l would"
The question arises: What chance will
anybody else have to run for Congress In
Nevada after all these enthusiastic young
friends of Roberts grow up?
When the late Vice President Sherman
was about to be nominated at the Chi
cago convention, in 1905, young news
paper man rushed into Sunny Jim's hotel
suite and asked for signed statement
Il ON him.
What paper?" asked Sherman.
The young man told him. and it was
a paper for which Sherman had a great
dislike.
No" said Sherman, Il wouldn't give
that paper a signed statement wouldn't
even waste that much ink on them"
Yet the next morning when Sherman
picked up that paper-a public man al
ways reads the papers he doesn't like, to
see what they've said about him-right
there on the first page was just the sort
of signed statement he might have
given. with his facsimile signature at
tached.
Whom thunder is responsible for
this?" stormed Sherman.
81 am" spoke up Harry Devendorf.
Sherman's secretary. Il took the lib
erty OF giving that young man the state
ment he wanted and l signed your name
to it. You see. his paper was very anN-
ious to get it and / was afraid If he fell
ie iOSt ms Joo- anu ~
might take him a good while to get an
other one. He shouldn't be punished just
because you don't like the man that
owns the paper"
well. Harry" said Sherman. after a
brief pause. I'm inclined to think that
you did exactly right"
Representative Tribble of Georgia Is a
man who shows a flushed face and great
emotion every time he makes a speech.
The other day he was talking against
an item in the naval appropriation bill.
One lone man sat in the press gallery.
He walked into the room in the rear
where several correspondents were seat
ed and remarked
''Tribble is choking to death again"
Representative Houston of Tennessee
met q colored man from his district on
Washington street corner the other
day.
b "Ah just paused here to light a cigar"
said George. prosperously.
We'll, l don't see you smoking OBJ
served Houston. why don't you light
it?"
Nobody amt flung one away jest yet"
replied George.
copyrighted 1913. by Fred C. Kelly. All rights
reserved)
wfthering Rebuke.