Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1915-10-29
How Harrington Rose.

We Americans do not take our notables
over serious in fact. we rather are in the
habit of kicking them around. Usually.
we think little of the distance they have
Travelled on the road of endeavor; we rather
are critical because they have not reached
a farther point and because they have not
carried more with them ON the way.
Possibly this is not bad attitude for
the public to maintain. 1t may prod and
spur public men to greater effort. All the
same, the fact is that Indifferent and
critical as we may be. many of our public
men are fellows who have travelled far and
have carried a good deal with them as
they have travelled fellows under handi-
cap who have fought and overcome to at
tain whatever elevation above the mass
they may have.
All this is by way of prelude to brief
consideration of Comptroller Emerson c.
Harrington, the Democratic candidate for
Governor. We speak of him familiarly,
almost carelessly; find fault with the way
he wears his clothes, the cut of his hair the
style of his oratory and what not. We seem
to seldom think that a man who makes
his way unaided from the obscurity of a
Dorchester county farm to the nomination
Of the dominant party for Governor has
done deal of travelling, has faced and
overcome great odds and, of necessity
must possess some quality or qualities that
are potent in the contests Of life. tbs the
safest bet in the world that ninety nine
times in hundred the man who travels
that far has something"
What is Mr.. Harrington's something p
II is not family prestige, for. as stated, he
has made his way from the obscurity of a
Dorchester county farm. Mr. Harrington
people were nice, clean-lived country peo-
Pile, without prestige or power. except in
very circumscribed locality. 1t is not
money. Mr.. Harrington's family and Mr.
Harrington himself have been only mod.
estly prosperous. II is not striking, pic
turesque personality. Mr.. Harrington looks
the average man, 1t is not his tongue
Mr.. Harrington has none of the usual
oratorical gifts. II is not brilliance of in
tellect. Mr.. Harrington has never and will
never make mankind cape because of an
overmastering brain. although he possesses
unusually solid attachments,
What is Mr.. Harrington's something
that has carried him within sight of the
Chief Magistracy Of his native STATED 1t is
good, stout mind good. stout heart
a good, stout body-driven and guided,
but principally driven. by an indomitable
will to achieve leadership and supported
by an unusual courage. A brief account
of his life will be given. and that will tell
the story of the indomitable will and the
courage.
Harington's father was retired ship
captain. who lived ON a farm in Dorchester
county and was engaged partly in farming
and partly in storekeeping. There were
several sons, all of whom, except Emerson
C., received the ordinary education of
country boys. Emerson C,'s father pro-
badly expected that son to receive the
same education the sort of education that
fairly well-to-do farmers sons were given
in that community.
But the boy went up to Cambridge one
day, took the examination for scholar
ship in st. Johns College that was vacant
and won ii. That fall he crossed the bay
to Annapolis. He spent four years there
as student and was graduated the second
man in his class. His standing at gradua
ton, however. is not the significant thing
in his college life. Some one is graduated
second every year.
The significant thing is that he was one
Of two students who put stop to the
roueher forms Of hazine while they were
in college. The other was Richard B. Tip
petit, the Baltimore lawyer Like Cousin