The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-06-27

Those who have the patience to read
clear through the hard luck tale now
starting here. will be in on a sequel
to the old story of the Boy and the
Burning Deck" with William C. McAdoo.
now Secretary of the Treasury, as the
hero
When McAdoo was a wee youngster
he was taken to the courtroom to hear
his father prosecuting some of the Ku
Klux crowd. and from then on he said
he was going TO be a lawyer when he
grew up. His father felt that boy
who intended to be a lawyer ought to
know how to make speeches, and he
compelled the helpless little chap to get
up and deliver declarations. Little Nc
Adoo did not mind this after he got,
used TO II, and learned TO declaim with
a great deal Of fervor. The piece that
he could say best. though, was the one
about the brave lad who stood on the
burning deck whence all but he had
fied-how the boy from a needlessly
acute sense of obedience stayed on deck
and just naturally burned up, rather
than move out OF the path of the
flames-simply because his father had
told him to wait there until he issued
further Instructions
Little William McAdoo was able to say
the piece so well that his father called
on him occasionally when there was COM
pany. and by the time he recited IL
semi-publicly a few times, the thought
II embodied had sunk deep into his soul
One afternoon little McAdoo took his
toy express wagon and set out for the
grocery. some two or three blocks from
his home As he did so, his father re-
marked:
Just wait there til I come. and well
walk home together
Then the elder McAdoo got interested
in something else and forgot all about
his intention of dropping by the grocery.
His young son bought the groceries he
had gene after, loaded them into his little
red wagon, and was about to start back
home when he happened to think.
He thought simultaneously of his IA
theirs remark and of the boy who stood
on the burning deck.
Obviously there was Just one thing for
him to do. He would wait. His father
had said TO wait, and that ended II. He
was going to be so obedient that some
day, perhaps, he, too, would be the sub.
ject of dandy little poem recited IN all
the red. dog-house-shaped schoolhousss
throughout the land.
1t came time to shut I'D the grocery
for the night. and gradually darkness
threw her mantle over the little town.
but still the future Secretary of the
Treasury waited for his father. He was
hungry and considerably afraid, huddled
up on the grocery step IN the dark, but
he knew well that boys who are driven
to disobedience by the coming Of night
fall are not the kind that poems are writ
ten around. Even IL his fame should not
be so widespread as that of the burning
deck boy, he would, at least, be hero
in his own home, and that would be some
thing.
Along about 10 o'clock a searching
party, armed with a battery of lanterns,
came down the street. They had been
in quest of little McAdoo for three or
four hours, but no one had thought to
look so close to home. Now they came
toward where he sat. and he knew that
his moment of triumph was at hand. He
had defied darkness to obey. Visions of
himself borne aloft on mems shoulders.
the envy Of all his playmates. came to
him as the searchers approached.
But here was the disappointing fea-
ture: Instead of making a fuss over
him as a youthful hero, his father up-
braided him for causing the family so
much anxiety. and as soon as they
reached home switched him within an
inch Of his young life.
And McAdoo was not even a martyr,
iOi nc was dsiidihcu 10 tel why ne ndQ
sat so long on the grocery step, whence
all but he had gone home
The hero business had proved a su-
preme fizzle.
Dan r. Anthony. of Kansas. is the
last of the giants-so far as the House
of Representatives is concerned. 1t used
to be that there was Anthony and Cy
Sulloway, Of New Hampshire. and Ollie |
James Of Kentucky, all Of them giants, !
and they were company for one another. !
Then Sulloway was defeated and James |
went to work over in the Senate, leav-
ing Anthony to do the giant business |
unassisted. Anthony stands about six |
and half feet high. with nothing on |
his feet but pair of hole-proof socks.
Uncle SAM witherspoon, of Missis-
sippi. is noted for having whiskers like |
the Uncle Sam pictures, q corncob pipe, |
and for making q three-minute speech In
the House about the nag that was really