The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1913-03-31
"JIM ham" LEWIS
SURPRISED GEORGIA
His Old Adopted State Always
Refused to Take Him
Seriously.
SO HE DRIFTED AWAY
Savannah's View Changed
When lie Passed 3 Days
There Paying Debts.
20 HE DRIFTED AWAY

ny hutiNlty uhu u pVoi Siuh w
force OF circumstances. the man who
was not taken seriously at home. has
been elected to the United States Sen
ate for the long term.
Being born and reared in tho South
his political tendencies naturally lean
toward that party known in the ver-
nacular as Democracy, unterrified and
unafraid." Lewis furnishes one more
example OF the Georgian away from
home who has won honors In an adopted
State.
In the early sos there drifted from
Savannah to Seattle. Wash, a young
man named Lewis, James Hamilton
Lewis. He had drifted previously from
Augusta to Savannah. The drifting
then was good. for Savannah stands
on the banks OF the river, as does
Augusta. The boats in those days were
not much to look at or to ride on, but
they beat walking.
Lewis would have walked had Il not
been for the boat. because train fare
was too high. He drifted along in Sa-
vannah for a few years, realized that
he was drifting. and took Horace Gree
ley's advice to heart. There was no
more drifting after that. 1t was a long,
hard night upstream against the cur
rent.
In Savannah Lewis was not taken
seriously except by himself and a few
who knew him best. Jim Ham, he was
called. Savannah tried to make a joke
of the owner Of the name Joke or not,
Lewis soon became one OF the we'll
known young men about town. But
he did not get along. He got talked
n k.a laA
thing.
Seattle then was demanding notice
Lewis decided TO drift along to the West
Seattle was long way on and Jim
HAMS funds were low. But there were
few believers in Lewis in Savannah,
and the money FOR the trip was forth
coming.
savannah forgot about Lewis for a
few years. Then some citizen who had
visited the Pacific coast came back. He
had seen Jim Ham" ont there and re-
ported that Lewis was succeeding. Even
In Savannah Lewis always dressed
strlltingly. In the old days he would say
that II he had thirty dollars the money
would go into three suits--not lust one
Jim Ham was dressing at the 800
gait out in Seattle
They smiled in Savannah. They
didn't really believe II. Then came
press dispatches announcing that Jim
Ham had been elected to Congress from
Washington. Savannah began 70 sit
up. Then story after story came out
of Washingtonprodigio yarns de-
| monstrating that the pink whiskered
prodigy from the Pacific coast, as the
newspaper boys had begun TO dub him.
was live one.
He was always about two seasons
ahead of the fashion plates. What
clothes did for Lewis was to get hin,
more publicity than any other member
OF Congress In those DAYS. He wore
mauve spats. which protruded beneath
the most beautiful trousers. and vraced
patent leather shoes. lie had an abun.
dance OF frock coats. with braidings @,
delicate colors. silk hats and canes.
Lewis returned to Savannah one day
and announced that he had come back
to pay his debts He invited every mar
to whom he owed a nickel or more tc
call at once and get his money.
Did they come? They kept Lewis
there three days. and had him tele-
graphing the sergeant at arms of the
House for more money. No wonder
Savannah changed its mind. The visit
to his old home to pay his debts was
characteristic OF Lewis. lie never owed
q debt In his life that he did not try
TO pay And he never forgot friend
That Is what they said OF him out on
the Pacific coast
Later on Lewis left the Pacific coast
for Chicago. where he has resided for
the last ten years He has filled posi-
tions Of high trust. He has attained
prominence in his profession. In the
popular election for United States Sena
tor he had the Democratic field to him.
self, all others having withdrawn. de.
claring that no man could beat Levi,
In Illinois. He polled a quarter of 9
million votes
James Hamilton Lewis was horn ir
Danville, Va, in 1866. He went +,
Augusta when boy and received his aca
demic training in HouRhton Collep,
land the University of Virginia Afte,
coming to Savannah in the early so,
he read law in the offices Of C,h,sbo,p
& Erwin. He was admitted IN nr,ct,c,
lin the Chatham county Sunerior Cour
In 1884 by Judge A. Pratt Adams Tw,
years later he went to Seattle yhoro h,
was elected to the TerritorioI senate