Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1913-11-12
. RISTOBAL, Canal Zone, Oct 27.
\ -Editor Keowee Courier: Last

year | sent The Courier letter
| about our senior Senator. In this
| letter | wish to write Of the visit OF
| our senior member of the House Of
| Representatives. to the Canal. Ac-
Companied by Mrs. Lever and by
Mrs. and Judge O'Hair, Of Illinois,
who defe,.t'd EX-Speaker Cannon at
the last election, Mr.. Lever gave me
! the pleasure OF taking him for q
motor boat trip on the Chagres. Mrs.
Lever is an exceedingly lovely and
attractive lady, Of pronounced
blonde type, while Mrs. O'Hair is a
beautiful brunette. |, evidently pays
to be n successful statesman in more
ways than one, but | will venture
that it was more the man than the
statesman which won out in both
these cases, for these gentlemen i'm
pressed me with their simple manli-
ness before found out that they
| also richly deserve the title of
statesman"
- SoON ''i"i'S SS"i "So iltdi u
Mr.. Lever, in Columbia, commence a
speech with the statement that he
made no pretenSeS OF being a
statesman" This was so refreshing
ly in contrast with good many ut
terances | had heard that | sat up
and paid attentions; and when he
finished | commented to myself that
there is more Of the statesman in
him than he or most of us know"
He has grown since those days. Now
chairman Of the Committee on Agri-
rulture-custOdian of the expendi-
lures Of hundreds Of millions of dol
three or four most important posi-
tions in Congress- this unassuming
| little man is really the Little
| Giant of the Palmetto State. His
size reminds me of the story of AL
eXander Stephens and Bob Tombs.
You all know how Tombs told the
people that he could swallow the lit
tie fellow Stephens whole, when the
| i'iNiSi iSDlISu, CO, anu you "Oulu
have more brains in your belly than
you've got in your head" Well, Mr..
Lever has brains-real, i've, active
grey matter, too. He showed it on
this trip. His interest took in
, everything. He wanted to know
about the rainfall on the Chagres
told him that the rain on the water
shed in year would fill a ditch as
big as Gatun locks G10 by 80 feet)
which would extend from the North
to the South Pole, Cover 300 billion
cubic fcet. He asked about the
relative size Of the river. | told him
it was the smallest river of equal
fame in the world-the Jordan is
just little larger. At the entrance
to Culebra Cut it is about the size
OF the Tiber at Rome. Among Amer
lean rivers it approximates the Mer-
rimac. He asked about the vege-
tation on its banks, and | showed him
a giant wild fig tree, bigger than lie
oaks; the guyacean, whose timber
is the hardest and heaviest in the
world; the espave, which is of the
mahogany family, worth $50 a thou
sand; the cOrOZo palm, which bears
GO pounds of oil per annum, richer
than Oleomargarine; the Panama
hat palm, which produces a fiber
stronger than cotton; and orchids
whose beauty miiiionaires buy at
high prices at home. There was
para grass, rich food for cattle, COW
ering the bottom Of the Canal like
carpet; guinea and bermuda grass
cocoa trees in the woods and all sorts
Of tropical fruits around the viii
lagos in the valley.
The ladies seemed to have eyes
open for everything. Mrs. OHair
photographed a big fig tree growing
out of an old abandoned French
dump car. Mrs. Lever took the
wheel and became the first lady from
South Carolina to navigate with her
own hands the waters OF the Canal.
Mrs. O'IIair also taking her turn and
showing that ladies from Illinois can
do other things beside vote and look
pretty.
Mr.. Lever gave interesting com
ments on matters political as we
went along. He showed how tariff
reform alone was not all we needed:
that crying necessity was a better
means Of the distribution OF pro-
ducts. He commented on Mr.. Cal
bnnp'o 10 re