The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-06-28
STATESMEN REAL AND NEAR
ny FRED G. KELLY.

Senate wing next March the junior
Senator from Alabama will be Frau
Shelley White Of Birmingham.
White Is lawyer and is g. years
of age, though he looks only about Sc.
In appearance he is a good deal OF the
typical plain business mana neatly
dressed, neat gray mustached, hale and
face and gold trimmed spectacles He
is man Of unusual resourcefulness.
One OF his earliest cases will illustrate
this:
A colored man was arrested for steal
ing two pound section q bacon. He
was supposed to have cut the two
pounds from larger piece weighing
about ten pounds. one or two wit
nesses had almost seen the defendant
take the bacon and there was not much
question OF his guilt. SO White was
advised not to take the case.
You're still new here" his friends
told him. land you should not be identi-
fed with any case that you are not sure
OF winning"
"oh. I'll win IT some way" declared
White.
The case opened and the prosecution
presented its side. convincing every
body present that the prisoner had
taken the bacon.
When II came Whites turn to offer
evidence he babe his client stand up
before the jury and let them look him
over.
Now open your mouth" he directed.
Let every member Of the Jury see your
mouth"
The negro did so. and he had one OF
those waffle Iron mouths that open both
ways. When he smiled 1t looked as II
the entire top of his head would come
off.
That's all the evidence I have to
offer" said White. when all the Jurors
had been given a chance to get good
square look at tho defendants mouth.
Everybody. including the judge.
looked astonished No one could see
what the negros mouth had to do with
the case.
When it came time to address the
jury White spoke briefly as follows:
Gentlemen. you have heard the evil
dence from the other side and you have
seen the size OF my clients mouth.
You have noted, too, his hungry build
leave it to you whether my client
would take two pounds of bacon from
ten pound piece and leave the other
eight pounds there"
And so the jury acquitted him.
Next to John W. Kern the most
serious looking joker in the Senate is
Willard Salisbury of Delaware. Be-
cause both look too solemn to be the
jokers that they are these two are
drawn together by common cause and
scarcely a week goes by that Salisbury
doesn't perpetrate some schoolboyish
prank on Kern.
on the day this is written a messen-
ger hoy delivered to Kern an oblong
paper box. Inside the box WIS a gay
four-in-han tie loud enough to fright
en- a horse. Attached to the clangor-
Gus scarf was a card bearing the in
scription in feminine hand: with
love from Myrt."
Kern hastily crammed the tie back
into the box and glanced about fur
lively TO see IL anybody was looking. In
the offing, chuckling with great glee.
was Senator Salisbury, who was the
"Myrt" of the enterprise.
Acknowledgement McReynolds goes
in on large scale for neatness and ac-
curacy, and especially so In regard to
letters. He insists on just the right
phraseology too. There used to be an
old story about Noah Webster's wife
finding him with his arm about the
waist Of their beautiful maid servant
and exclaimlng Noah. I'm surprised"
Whereupon Noah said: mo, I'm eur
prised: you're astonished"
Mr.. McReynolds Is Just that way de
wouldn't think OF putting in a letter
that he's surprised when he means he's
astqnished.
Besides having his mail neat and ac-
curate, McReynolds goes further and
has II prompt. Some time ago he is
sued an order that every letter to the
Department OF Justice requiring an an
swer at all must be answered within
twenty-four hours. II a man writes
in for information that 1t requires sew
eral days to get they must at least
write him within twenty-four hours
and acknowledge receipt Of his letter.
Mr.. McReynods has a theory, too,
that letter should be not only prompt.
neat and accurate, but polite. Even
when he writes to n stranger he throws
in several nice little polite phrases. For
example, he never starts off: "Your let
ter of the 10th at hand" but is more
likely to say: Permit me to acknowl-
edge your letter" &c, II beg to ac-
knowledge" 1T gives me great pleas
ure to reply" or something like that.
calculated TO make person feel that
he has done McReynolds a great per-
sonal favor and frightened things up
a lot by writing to him.
Representative Kent ( California has
an old friend, a guide. no lives all
alone out In the mountains OF that
State. His nearest neighbor is about
twenty miles away and as a rule he
does not see more than one or two HUI
man beings in a month. And that In
exactly the way the old fellow wants
IT.
lie dotes on the solitude and isolat ton
Of 1t all and would keenly dislike hav-
Ing anybody around to bother him. A
few months ago, for some unaccount-
able reason, things We're n little brisk
up his way and two different men went
by the same week. The old chap told
Kent about II, remarkiLg as he finished:
~ guess I'll sell out here and move"
"Why?" asked Kent. you've lived
here all your life. What would you