The Duluth rip-saw. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1917-19??, 1919-12-27

that Page Morris has boosted that he
is ineal descendent Of Charles Stu
art which, if true, explains much.
Page Morris evidently was given a
good education in the classics. Gradu-
ating from provincial military school,
he undertook to teach the young idea
how to shoot down in Texas, where
shooting is vocation, an art and a
recreation.
But Page Morris was too tempera-
mental for the Texans. What exactly
befell him in the Lone Star state is
apochryphal, but it has been whispered
that his exodus therefrom was quick
and informal.
Admission to the bar in st. Louis in
1880 brought neither professional sue
cess nor money. The subject Of this
narration initiated the Prodigal Son to
the extent of turning his back on the
Missourian husks and returning to an
cestral Lynchburg. There admission to
the Virginia bar was effected, but
very little midnight oil had to be
burned in taking care Of the legal prac-
tice.
something Like satan.
Satan preferred to be supreme in
hell rather than second in heaven.
Something of that spirit must have
possessed Page Morris. He deserted his
aristocratic kinsmen and associates and
hooked up with Bill Malone, a former
general in the rebel army, who headed
movement to repudiate the Virginia
war debt, something intolerable to the
honorable but mistaken Confederates
who helped to make that burdensome
obligation. The followers of Malone
were called "Repudiators and when
he tied up with the national republicans
and dispensed republican political ia
vors in Virginia, the political career
Of both Malone and Morris ended
cold.
Page Morris ran for congress in Vir-
ginia in 1884, as he states, and was
defeated worse than he later defeated
Window in Minnesota. His tempera-
mental actions as "Repudiator"
brought him political and social ostra-
cism. One so temperamental as Mr..
Morris could not endure that terrible
ostracism, so he migrated to Duluth,
declaring that he had done with Vir-
ginia for all time and that he would
not permit child of his to be buried
on Virginia soil.
Page Morris legal ability failed of
recognition and appreciation in Duluth.
But the republicans still waved the
bloody shirt here and Mr.. Morris sto-
ries of how he had been prosecuted for
the sake Of the G.. o. P. in Virginia,
the land Of rebels and democrats,
brought him sympathy, certain consid.
GRAFTON and few friends.
Tales Touched Lewis.
Capt. Ray T. Lewis, a retired mar
liner from Maine, was touched by Page
Morris tale Of woe. Marrow and par
tisan in politics, but rather kindly in
heart, Capt. Lewis made Mr.. Morris
his protege and he did much to secure
the Virginian' 8 nomination and cleo
ton to the municipal bench, where he
served from 1889 to 1892. An irascible
temperament and an exaggerated ego
caused friction with the party leaders,
therefore they decided to discipline the
Indifferent lawyer and aspiring politi-
clan.
| Judge Morris had greatly offended
the colored voters by spurning a mum.
Der Of them who asked leniency for
some petty offence. In the republican
convention in the winter Of 1892, a
colored employee of the Spalding hotel
presented Judge Isaac E. West for
municipal judge and the convention
nominated him, turning down Morris.
The colored delegate also freely
roasted Judge Morris. His speech had
been written by Monroe Nichols and
then committed to memory by the ora
tor. It was a masterpiece of biting
sarcasm. Referring to the time the
eolored men asked for lenience. the
speaker represented Morris as spurning
them with the words:
"Begone, you dogsl There are no
noble men but Romans.''
The whole thing was a scream, but
Morris took it most seriously. He had
one of the worst brainstorms of his
brainstormy career. In a frenzy he
shook the long, thick locks that he
wore in those days and, pointing his
long, bony finger at "that gentleman
of color,' as he termed him, wildly
boosted Of what he had done for re-
| P~S.1N0nAoAA NuO WudI IL udu COSC Q1m.
AS Bede states in his expression on
Morris, the defeated candidate twitted
the opposing republicans "because of
the poverty Of their intellects.'
But that defeat was a Waterloo for
Page Morris.
Some Weary Waiting.
The politically ambitious Virginian
was kept on probation for two long,
weary, hungry years. During that pc.
riod, he aspired to a seat on the dis.
trict bench, but the members Of the
bar, by vote of about IS to l, decided
that he did not have ga judicial mind, -
as Bede expressed it.
When Capt. Ray T. Lewis was elect
ed mayor in the winter of 1894, he saw
to it that Page Morris was made city
attorney, thereby continuing his min
istrations as Morris good angel.
} Although Capt. Lewis was Morris
} consistent friend and benefactor for
; many years, the latter never rendered
qu1d pro quo. Some years later,
when Morris was a congressman and
Capt. Lewis was alone in the world,
through death Of his wife, the ancient
| mariner wisho1 on onpo;n&roon4 L. .