The Washington herald., 1914-02-17
Statesmen, Real and Near.
By FRED c. KELLY.

Representative Percy Edwards Quin, Of
Mississippi. once spent a summer dis
tributing copies Of childs edition Of the
Bible.
But he was not prompted to do this
through religious fervor-even though he
sets forth In his Official biography that
he Is Baptist son Of a Baptist min
| lister.
Quin frankly needed the money and
he exchanged child's Bibles for pieces
or silver. The consequences OF those
sales were far reaching. but he wist not
| OF that at the time. Little did he know
that those Bibles would place him In
the halls Of Congress. All he thought
OF then was merely the sordid dollars in
| volved- He had been trying to get
through college on a basis distressingiy
free from vulgar wealth. Throughout
his first two years he was Obliged to
wash his own clothes and hadn't even a
jeweled fraternity pin to call his own.
IL was no fun--or at least not much
fun-and when the representative OF a
publishing house came along talking of
the great riches to be derived from SELL
ing books, Quin harkened unto the siren
call of money.
out with a prospectus under his arm
TO place the childs Bible within the
reach OF ALL He rapidly learned Of the
ways OF book agents and when he met
mother unwilling to buy the Bible. he
found some excuse to get one Of the chill
dren at his elbow and displayed a few
OF the colored illustrations Whenever
little golden-haired boy saw the pic
ture Of Lots wife in three colors with
haantlflfl he alu
he set up a cry until his mother agreed
to take the book
In that way Quin sold a great many
Bibles and made enough money to take
him the rest of the way through COL
lege.
That was in 1891 and the territory was
largely in what now comprises Quin's
Congressional district
When he began his campaign for a
place as lawmaker at the nations Cap
ital. Quin started out on horseback to
call on the people in their homes
He had not proceeded far until he en-
tered a house where he saw a chiId's
Bible lying close by conch shell on a
marble topped table.
Il used to sell a Bible like that re.
marked Quin. That opened up a discus
sion and it came out that he had sold
them that Identical Bible. more than
twenty years previous. The little boy
for whom the Bible had been intended
was now there with children Of his ows
They. too, had been brought up on the
illustrated Bible Quin had placed in the
family. This naturally placed him in an
intimate relation with the household and
all the men folk said they would vote
for him, besides speaking a good word
among their friends.
After that whenever he stopped at a
house, Quin looked about TO see II there
was a child's Bible with which he could
stir up interest in himself
In the course OF his travels he found
several hundred young men who had oeen
raised on the Quin Bibles. Every one of
these young men not only voted for ouin
but became a voluntary cog in his cam
paign machinery. With this Biblical or
ganization verify Quin walked through
the opposition like unto the children of
Israel walking through the Red Sea
At one OF the big White House recep-
tons recently a guest expressed a curl |
osity to see William Jennings Bryan.
II was known that Bryan was present. |
but he did not seem to be around where |
the rest Of the Cabinet officers wefe.
81 haven't seen him." said a man who |
knows Bryan, but It is just possible |
that he might be out by the lunch |
counter in the state dining-room. You
know he dotes on the various kinds Of
food that prevail nowadays. 1t might |
pay you 10 look out there"
Sure enough, Mr.. Bryan had romped
away from the rest OF the Cabinet crowd. |
and throughout the evening was to be
found I'm the dining-room, where. with
a sandwich or two in each hand, he was
food with gay abandon.
Minority Leader James r. Mann was
asked about what he thought of a GER
tain member on the Democratic side.
Hes a pretty energetic fellow" said |
Mann. generously. You know he was
a lawyer before he came to Congress,
and understand that he was an un-
active attorney. ] was talking |
to man from his town the other day
and he told me that whenever anybody
our friend yonder would reach the scene
even before the doctor got there
Senator Root has great power OF con-
centration. He would have made great
war correspondent. No matter how much
shot and shell might be flying about him,
he could sit and jot down what is In his
mind without paying any attention 20
anything else One day Root was in TIE
midst Of going through some papers that
contained information he was sitting out.
The matter was one that called for much
quiet thought and reflection.
A caller arrived in the outer office.
A clerk went in to the Senator and told
him:
'Mr. Soandso's here for an II o'clock
appointment. II is now three minutes
Of H.
"All right. Show him in at H." directed
Root.
And during those three minutes he be-
came lust as much engrossed in the task
before him as IL there were nothing else
In sight.
Copyright 1915. By Fred C. Kelly. All rights re-
servedD
Scientific Burglary.