Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-06-15

of which he had told me, and thus was
born my ambition to be a shoemaker.
Once 1 had become an accomplished
master of the bristles. the awl and the
last, 1 thought, l could travel over land
I could entertain other little boys as he
did me. ], too, would see some latter
day heroes like Sand
The Vice President paused moment.
adjusted his wide-rimmed glasses and
chuckled to himself.
81 reckon I've pulled Carl Ludwig
Sand on more audiences than any other
man I ever heard Of" he explained.
"and that old shoemaker was to blame
for it ALL
But how did you come to fail to real
ize your ambition to master the shoe
makers trader" he was asked.
WELL SIR, he went on, Il learned
never could hope to cut the leather cor
rectly. You know, I'm such poor me-
chanic that 1 can't draw straight line
with ruler.
four purposes-to feed myself, to dress
myself, to write my name and spend my
money. If I had been compelled to de-
pend on my hands to make my living :!
suppose I'd be poorer than l am TODAY.
Following his failure to become cob
bier the Vice President decided he would
make mighty fine newspaper man so
his uncle who was running the Moberly.
Mo. beHlOCTdt, tolu " 'chio oiN
start reporting. The Vice Presidents
first assignment was to cover the
cleaning out of the city water reservoir
At the first haul the bodies OF seven ne
groes were raised. The young reporter
took one look at them, hurried back to
the office, grabbed his grip and caught
a passenger train on the wing BACK Tor
Indiana. Then he started to study law.
When Senator, James Hamilton Lewis
of Illinois wass.a lttt.erbit of a fellow
way down ,yonder.in old Georgia he
used to cuddie up+close to his big. black
. nanny and saysto her pleadingly:
49,. Nanny. sing lie the" patty-cake song,
: please
Her great bosom would swell and she
:. would sing for the little auburn haired
boy:
..t = Patty cake patty cake, bakers man.
Patty-cake, pattyicake. fast as you can
: Then would the lads heart be filled
= with joy. He wanted to be a baker.
1T was not sbecause~1 had any special
love for the bakers trade that caused me
to desire to wrestle huge plies of dough.
beat cake batter and crimp PIE crust,
the senator explained. Il longed to be
a bak r so that l could get all of the
cakes and pies / wanted at cost. and also
eat just as many as l liked without being
criticised by anybody"
If .nator Thomas Sterling Of South
Dakota could have had his way. he now
! ,bably would be one of the officers or
tie United States Army instead OF
wearer of the upper house toga.
Il had just begun to learn to read when
tn; civil war broke out" the senator ex-
planned and as l read everything with
avidity, and the newspapers of that day
carried little else but war reports, con-
sumed many stories of battles. Soon
there came into my mind an overpoWer-
ing ambition to be a soldier. l did a
great deal of marching, and wooden gun
and tin sword carrying, but as was only
about ten years old my militant actions
did not cause much alarm over In NC
Lean county, Ill, where my forces were
gathered.
BY the time had reached the age OF
a soldier the war was over. and / had to
turn my mind to something else. In a
very short time thereafter l was in COM
mand of a schoolroom A course in law
followed, and soon / was battling, all
right. but this time in politics. 1 held
public office in Illinois. drifted to South
Dakota. and both taught and held office
there until | was elected to the Senate
4
David Harum would have been SELL
ing platter compared with Representative
Frank T. OHair, successor to Uncle
OHairs brother was a horse dealer out
in Illinois, and a big one, too handling
sometimes as many as 1900 or 5000 ami
mails a year. The representative used
TO be around the sales barns a good deal
when he was a lad, and of course he de-
veloped a fondness for horses and the
swapping business. Thus did he find
himself longing to shine as a 'hoss trad
err"
He confided his ambition to his brother
who told the future representative the
best way to become a trader was to start
to ''swappin' just as quick as he could
Besides giving young OHair advice the
older brother gave him a sum of money,
and the youth set out to make his for
tune.
His first deal was with a friendly far-1-
err, who. paradoxical as 1t may seem, was
an honest horse trader. The old fellow
sold O'Hair a horse at a price which gave
the ambitious boy a chance to maze some
money. This stroke of good fortune con-
WINGED OHair that he was a sure enough
trader, and he longed to operate In wider
fields.
The upshot of his aspiration was that
his brother gave him check book, a
saddle and bride. and told him to 90
as far as he liked and bring back all the
horses he could buy; That night oHair
took q train for southern Illinois. and all
the world seemed bright and fair.
Alighting in Land unknown to him,
the following morning, he quickly bought
a horse on which to ride through the
country and also to use as trading stoc &.
He paid a big price for the animal. and
when. few hours later, he discovered
that the quadrIped was club-foo.ed.
moon-eyed and afflicted with the heaves.
: