Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-09-09
A SENSATIONAL DIARIsT-By Frederic j. Haskin

WASHINGTON, D. c., Sept "A book that
wv describes intimately the official and per-
Sona life of a United States senator,
throughout the war and the six or seven years
preceding it, cannot fail to be work of great
interest now, and of constantly increasing value
as time goes on.
Such a book, unknown to the public and
even to many members of the senate, has been
written-and is still being written-by Senator
Henry Fountain AShurSt, of Arizona, one of the
younger members of the upper house OF con-
greSS. And this senatorial diary, which already
fills two enormous bound Volumes is not the
dry and tedious affair that anyone might i'm
agine who was familiar with the general run of
senatorial utterance. This diary is written in a
bouncing trumping, rhetorical style, full of
color, energy and sentiment, often humorous
and always human, 1t is book which will
probably be read in the future, not only be-
cause it contains historical data, but also be-
cause, like the deathleSS diary OF Samuel PepyS,
it is the picture of a man.
Senator AShurSt is extremely modest about
his diary, and refuses flatly to be interviewed
on the subject. He is said to have refused an
offer of ten thousand dollars for the manu-
But he has allowed his friends to read the
book, and the contents of it and the facts about
its origin and growth are pretty we'll known
to small circle
Senator Ashurst spent his boyhood and youth
in Arizona in the pioneering days. He knew
danS before he wore long trousers, but he didn
know what a railroad train looked like. When
the AShurSt family became affluent enough to
buy cook stove, it took six months to get
this luxury, and cost more than $500.
Senator AShurst lives, to most unusual ex-
tent, in the memory of those early days His
diary is full of references to them. And his
dary-keeping habit derives from them, for in
those early days nearly everyone kept diary.
The senator's father lost his life while pros
Pecting in the Grand Canyon and the senator
then very young man, was member OF the
party that found the body When they reached
the camp of the missing and found that
no entry had been made in his diary for three
days, the son knew at once that his father must
be lost, for he had never before known him
to miss making his daily entry. A little later
they found the body of the elder AshurSt.
The senator began his own diary-keeping at
the age of nine, and has been at it more or
less regularly ever since He has not missed a
admitted that he always had an ambition to
be writer, and in this diary his itch for the
pen has found expression
During the war, the senator wrote about lit
tie except the war. His diary becomes his
tory of the war in Washington, with some very
descriptions of exciting days. But the most
interesting parts of the journal are the per-
Sonal touches, which reveal the man.
For example, on Friday, September 10, 1918
the Senator celebrated his forty fourth birth
day at dinner party. Not only is it an I'M
lucky day. as the senator gleefully points out
to his guests, but the ill-omen is intensified
by the fact that he has thirteen letters in his
name. When, in addition, it is discovered that
there are thirteen people at the table, no less
than six of those present show signs of being
disturbed, two of them very seriously And
these two, the senator records, are "sophiSti-
Gated, cultivated successful people,
"There is indeed wide penumbra between
the bright light of sanity and the shadows of
distraction" he comments, Gin which zone or
penumbra there walk many if not most people -
By this the senator means that most of us
are little nutty.
He goes on to say that he would like to be
SuperStitiouS, but that none of the superStitionS
would ever work for him.
SIN my first campaign for the senate" he
records, q wore an opal a black opal and a