The Washington herald., 1914-02-25
Statesmen, Real and Near.
BY FRED C. KELLY.

| This story necessarily has to include
an unconfirmed report OF a remark made
by William Sulzer. the deposed governor
Of New York, at the time Of his i'm
peachment trial.
Sulzer was In a conference with a man
and took occasion-so the story has it
to observe to him:
Yes. and when history is written. some
years hence. IL will say: The four great
men of the United States have been
George Washington. Thomas Jefferson.
! Abraham Lincoln and William Sulzer'"
Now. mind you. the story is not en-
tirely confirmed. Maybe Sulzer never
said IL. Let US hope he did not. even
though he was modest enough to put
himself last. But at any rate. the con-
\ versation was reported and was told
little while ago to a group Of New
York Congressman, including Senator
IO'Gorman.
We'll" smilinsly commented OGor-
\ man. who Is reasonably tolerant Of the
views OF others. III suizer did say 1t. he
wasn't far wrong. at that. He picked
three out Of four"
Candor is one of the prevailing char
acteristics of Representative Herman
A. Metz. OF Brooklyn. Metz always
! says precisely what he thinks. II you
were to walk up to him and ask his
opinion about a highly priced new
necktie. and Metz thought IL looked
like a Welsh-rabbity dream. he ouId
frankly tell you so. Similarly. IL a
beautiful woman should ask him for
frank opinion about the ft OF a gown.
she would get the whole truth. He
might regret having TO hurt her feel
Inn hat
tell lie for the sole purpose Of being
agreeable.
Metz is equally opposed to needless
formality, and he declines to do those
things which are done for no other
reason than to follow custom.
Some time ago. Metz was one Of
committee of American manufacturer
appointed to arrange about exhibits at
n big Berlin exposition. One of those
chiefly interested in the Berlin exposi-
tion was the Princess Charlotte. elder
sister of Kaiser Wilhelm, and Metz had
occasion to enter into some correspond |
ence with her. He received a letter or |
two from the princess written in her |
own handwriting. Now the princess, |
while delightful woman personally. |
and well connected, writes just fair |
hand when you get letter from a |
woman who writes only moderately |
well to start with, and does it all in |
German characters. you have bumped |
into a serious proposition
Metz devoted about a week to trying |
to decipher the woman's writing and by !
the time he was ready 10 make reply. !
he was utterly disguised with letters |
written in pen and ink So he called |
a stenographer and asked her to take |
letter to the Princess Charlotte"
The whole office force went right up
into the air.
Goodness gracious sakes alive"
they told him: don't you know it
would be the height OF discourtesy to
write to a princess of the royal blood
on a typewriter. She probably never
got a typewriter letter in her life"
Then" said Metz, shes about to
write her one"
At the close OF his note to the prin-
cess. he added this postscript:
You will kindly pardon my breach OF
custom in addressing you on the type
writer. but / write a villainOus hard and
I desire to save you the annoyance in
making out my handwriting that I suf-
fered trying to read yours"
That admirable candor made a great
4
wrote Metz an invitation to visit her at
her palace.
Metz did so. a little later on. and the
princess made a great fuss over him.
He attended banquet at the palace one
night in honor of a number of distin-
guished guests, and occupied a seat near
the princess herself. Everybody else at
the table invariably addressed the pTin-
cess as Your royal highness." but that
seemed needlessly long to Metz, and he
spoke to her simply as you" All the
other guests were Mortified at this. but
the princess leaned over and patted Metz
on the shoulder, saying: You're all
right" :
They got as thick as thieves and the
princess confided to him how amused
she had been when she attended the
Of her cousin George as Kink
of Britain. The thing that amused her
was the way the Queen took out lit
tie pocket mirror and consulted 1t to
see IL her crown was on straight.
In the course o. the evening the prin- .
cess asked Metz how he liked the palace
where she dwelt. :
well. to tell you the truth" replied
the candid Metz, "it is a nice place to
visit for a couple of days and am highly .
for II at all as a steady diet"
Senator Thomas ]. Walsh. of Montana.
has devoted a great deal OF energy for
4 number Of years to fighting the Amalga-
mated Copper interests in his State. He
has fought them across trial tables and
politically. One day. notwithstanding
their disrelish for him personally, the {
came to Lawyer Walsh S
and wanted to know II he would sell {
hem legal opinion on a certain matter. {
Certainly. That's my business" re- c
piled Walsh. But I'll probably charge I
you a pretty steep fee" b
wen pay it, they told him. f
He prepared an opinion that covered
only twelve typewriter pages, but the e
story is that II cost his rich clients about v
1900 page. Which is even more than
Is received. on the average. by news
paper writer's.
Copyright. fsii. by Fred G. Kelly. All rights re-
serTcdJ