The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-06-09
CONTEMPORARIES

Senator Reed Smoot, who rushed
into the Iimelight when he was hus-
tied up from the wings in his SAD,
dropping mustache TO read the. report
of the committee on credentials, has
slightly snubbed nose. His report is
the one that determines whether del
egates shall sit down, stand up or get
out and it's the one that precipitated
the free-for-all battle In 1912.
1t may have been misapprehension
superinduced by disturbing 1912 mem
cries, or possibly only habit. but the
senator braced himself and kept his
right hand on his pistol pocket all the
time he reported.
Both Chauncey M. Depew and I'm
Gle Joe Cannon, 81 and 80 respective
ly, or 1872 years all told, demonstrated
paired their lung power. Both of
them can be heard in the Coliseum as
well as Chairman Harding, a much
younger and huskier man.
Senator Lodge, to whom one of the
keenest delights for years has been the
exclusion of newspapermen from the
sessions of the resolutions committee,
scowled and growled and was real
peeved when he learned that some of
them had slipped in this time. The
middle name of the senator's family
for centuries has been secrecy.
Senator Borah, who parts his hair
and delivery in the middle, uses but
one oratorical punctuation mark when
he makes speech. He talks with his
hands in his pockets, but occasionally
he hauls a couple of forefingers out of
his trousers pocket, shakes them at
the crowd and puts them back again.
The senator hasn't had haircut for
long time and he looks fine.
When House Officer Abrams of the
La Sale wanted to clear a corridor of
argumentative Hughes and Roosevelt
boomers, he distributed a few squirts
of ammonia about their edges. The
Hughes delegates, who got the first
whiff moved away with the remark
that the Roosevelt sentiment was get
ting too strong for them and the rest
of the crowd quickly followed.
Clifford Pinchot is a striking figure
even among hundreds of women in
the midst of the mobs here.
More than a thousand sixteen-can-
die power electric bulbs are going full
blast in the Coliseum convention hall
ceiling even during the midday ses-
sions of the Republicans. The vaulted
interior of the long high Coliseum
looks like the under side of a railraod
culvert trimmed in white and yellow
and thousands of yards of it.
Billy Breckman of Joliet, ILL.,, has
at last been identified as the wearer
of the felt hat which is so high that
the rim of it began arriving eighteen
hours before Breckman got there.
Alice Roosevelt Longworth is wear
ing gowns of her own original blue
almost exclusively at the conventions.
Rose colored raincoats are all the
| rage among society women at the
political jambourees. Among those
who are attending the conventions in
them are: Mrs. John Hays Hammond,
Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, IT.. Mrs
Charles Yerkes, Miss Ruth Mccall,
daughter of the Massachusetts, COVER
nor, Mrs. Warren G. Harding, Mrs.
Charles D. Hilles and Mrs William
Alden Smith.
An absent-minded society editress,
doing the gowns of well known women
at the Republican convention sessions.
quite calmly stated that MRS Edward
Hines was dressed in purple flowers
A large quantity of Roosevelt,
Hughes, Burton, Fairbanks and other
enthusiasts have had to walk around
in the rain since the police barred glee
clubs and military bandits from the
hotel Hobbies along Candidates Row.
Harding Grapes himself in a fresh
boiled shirt and a different colored
tie several times a day He is partial
to robins egg blues and silver and old
gold sym phonies; and when he strolls
down the platform through a forest
OF pink peonies and pinker national
committeeman, he's a riot with the
1adieS-a riot.
Governor Franklin Murphy of New
Jersey has developed a habit of stand
ing forward on the Coliseum platform
Shrouded in thought and a mouse-col-
ored waistcoat
Right in front of Mr.. Harding, on
the little blue-boarded peninsula that
juts out from the platform, some
safety first soul has caused the ar