The Palatka news and advertiser., 1917-03-30


been cut and tnat they had drifteo
twenty miles down stream. On get
ting back to town and learning tnat
Vest was the author of the mischief
ana the cause Of their exposure, they
went after him in approved boy fash
ION. Seeing that 1T was but a hop,
skip and jump, as it were, over the
river into Missouri, Vest bade his "Old
Kentucky home Goodnight" skipped
from "the Old Kentucky Shore" and
jumped at once into a lucrative law
practice in the beneficent new coun-
try Of Missouri, where credentials
were not required. The change was
favorable all around. In this land,
upon whose mule, according to Cover
nor Folk, "the sun never sets," the
obstinate determination of that classic
animal was speedily acquired by the
fugitive Vest, if we may credit an
other anecdote related of his early
| life, which states that soon after ar
irving he boldly defied an angry mob
who, being infuriated against one of
Vests earliest clients, illogically
sought to take Vests life.
Ill 1COl-N N1Is NcoC Wdo d oOlulcI VI
the Confederacy. In 1868 he entered
the Confederate States Senate, where,
though short in stature, he measured
we'll with the "giants in those days."
among whom were numbered Steph-
ems, Hill, Toombs, Rhett, Reagan,
House, Mason, Rives, and many an
other great son of Dixie.
After the war, definitely, speaking,
September 5, 1908, Mr.. Vest, in a
monograph on Alexander Stephens,
entitled "a Senator of Two Repub-
lics," published in the Saturday Even
ing Post a statement concerning the
historic conference in HAMPTON Roads
on board a man-of-war, which set
tied the question of what were the
terms of peace offered by President
Lincoln to the Confederate govern
ment in February, 1865.
Senator Vests son, Mr.. Alexander
Vest, now a resident of New York
City, is a part of that tide of South
! erners who have been for the last
| two decades taking quiet possession of
the North. 1t behooves the North
to watch her step lest she become lib
| erallZeQ una"afeS.
The rapid spread of George Graham
| Vests fame as ready advocate was
due largely to his Grafton on the vir-
tues of the dog. In few phrases his
glowing words bring vividly to mind
every good dog one has ever read or
heard about. Back from stored-up
memories comes "Old Dog Tray. Ever
Faithful" Up limps the dog tramp,
Roger, with his frozen paw, while
humming in the brain are the lines
from "The Vagabonds":
give years we've tramped through
wind and weather,
And slept outdoors when nights were
cold,
And ate and drank-and starved
together"
And here comes reeling Rip Van
Wrinkle under the influence of "that
wicked fagon," imagining that "his
very dog has forgotten him." libel
on the meanest cur in America and,
likely, of England, spite of Lord
Byron's cynical plant:
perhaps my dog will whine in vain
Till fed by stranger hands,
But long e'er come back again
He'd tear me where he stands"
Vests appreciation of mans hum
blest, truest friend brings also to re-
membrance Mark Twain's story of "a
Dogs Tale" in which is related the
unfaltering trust of the little dog All
leen Mavourneen, whose father was a
St. Bernard, and whose mother was
a collie, but who was herself Pres
byterien-her mother had told her so
and who could never realize that