The Washington herald., 1921-06-05

0 T THE age Of seven," Mr.. Mondell was
saying, Il was living part Of the time
with q family that dwelt on one side OF
little town in northeastern Iowa, and part
of the time with a family that lived on the
other side Of the town.
'T had no claim on these people. They
were distant relatives of my stepmother,
who took me with her to the village after
the death Of my father and who died there
after a lingering illness. As / went back
and forth through the village I attracted
the attention Of a fine pioneer minister,
splendidly typical of his time. At his re-
guest my former guardians released me and
was gathered into the BOSOM Of his
family"
had led Frank Wheeler Monden to talk
Of himself because had guessed that there
might be Q dramatic yarn back Of this mans
climb To the position of Republican floor
leader Of the House Of Representatives,
which he now holds It is just coming to be
realized, under the system that has been
evolved since the ONCE Of speaker was shorn
of its power by the changes Of the rules
of the House which occurred under Speaker
Cannon q decade ago, that the majority noor
leader is the most powerful man on Capitol
Hill.
The power in the House of Representa-
tives has passed from the speaker to the
floor. The majority floor leader is charged
with mapping out q program for the House
and then with driving that program through.
This leader, on the all powerful Republican
side, is Frank Mondell, Of Wyoming. /
wanted to know whence he came and how.
l went to see Mr.. Mondell in his home in
Washington in the evening. he has an
Office just OF the cloakroom Of the House
chamber at the Capitol, but there he Is
too much beset for quiet conversation. i
found he had a comfortable, middle class,
three story home with grown daughters re-
ceiying company in the front parlor while we
talked in a little smoking room. A medium
sized, blue eyed, brown haired man oil
sixty, but looking much younger, is Mr.,
Mondell, with a hawk nose and great
huency Of speech.
ENIY FATHER was Of Huguenot French
If1 ancestry" he told me, ''and M
mother was New York Dutch and Scotch
They came to the upper Mississippi region il
the late thirties, together with others o
their kind, mostly of French descent NJ!
father, in his early life spelled his nam
'Mondelle,' but later dropped the final letter
In the days before was born be operate'
the Mondell House at Prairie du Chen
Wis, and it became q famous hostelry II
those days Of the settlement OF tha
region.
In the late ffties my father moved Z
St. Louis and 1 was born there, on the da
that Abraham Lincoln was first electe
President. Ny father served in the Unio
armv as captain in a Missouri regimen
during the Civil War. During the war
cholera epidemic swept St. Louis and durin
its prevalence lost my mother and my eldes
sister. Ny father was invalided home tror
III. war. He later married but died With
q few months
.sThen the family vas divided. ! had d
brothers and sisters all older than l. Ou
,tepnother took me with her and the othei
remained at St. Louis to shift for them
..lvs. Soon 1 found myself in the fami
Of tne pioneer congregational minister, vi
read his Bible from the original Greek N
Hebrew and who found no essential connl
between his sincere Christian faith and
d.v.lopments and discoveries OF Dode'
scienee. / owe much 70 him
I'VE pushed on to the lake country
northwestern Iowa, and there / lived Uni
Ivas seventeen. The settlements were ve
-eattered and our touch with the outsi
world was quite ineonadsrable- Ny fost
father did the preaching and did the farm
ing. I worked through the summer, but
III. winter time got some schooling. II
farming was for some years an almost con
nl.te failure because Of the attacks of gras
hoppers. The baby grasshoppers came o.
Of the ground in the spring and ate yo'
,arly crops and the migratory variety fs
mon you in the fall and got what was lef
Had il not been for the abundance