Evening star., 1925-04-26

quet to the celebrated ant
Hon. Milt Letting, when
4 got to telling what / reall!
knew about him, and the gen
tlemen l was talking to said
just absolutely had to write it al
up and get it multigraphed and give
each a copy, why, ! was pretty vel
stumped till 1 thought of debating
the thing to my Stenographer, ST
that's the way I'm going about ii
However. / think my friends will fine
the details of the peculiar facts the
same as / told them when we wert
sitting around smoking on the mez
canine floor of the hotel, after the
banquet to the Hon. Milt.
Now, TO philosophize a minute al
the start. It's begun to strike me
lately that the story of the rise oi
Milt Letting is the story of the moving
of our country in contrary d1rec
tion, as it We're; and by that l near
It seems to me our country has beer
moving downward in certain ways
instead of up, as we all used to think
IL was going TO move in all ways
The young people won't understand
this. of course. Young people nearly
always think the times of their owr
youth are way in advance of the
times that have just gone before
Times they don't really know any
thing about at all, of course. III
bet my wife'S best hat that if you
could have talked to the young peo
pie that We're getting out of college
when the Roman Empire was crack
ing all to Lieces they'd have told you
their papa and mammaS were moss
backs-an~ that the past generation
lived in aSsfully backward times, com
pared to -heir own.
j.,
politics, one way or another. As OF
those years. SO, naturally 1 knew
Milt Letting when he started, because
he's still a comparatively young man
Right at the start we saw he was
going TO give us trouble; he wouldn't I
begin like anybody else, the regular
way, and work up from the ranks
not Milt. All his life he's been a
great hand for the short cut to sue
cess-no plodding for him,
And of all the men l ever knew that
have what's called the gift of CAB
Milton Letting is certainly the gifted
est. Boys that went TO school with
him say he was born with il. Not
that he was an orator, particularly
he didn't take any prizes for speech.
making. No, sir; the fellow that took
all the big prizes in oratory at the
university in Milt Lettings time
was George Brooks-George Thomas
RrookS-he and Milt We're classmates.
Pretty much everybody in the State
has heard George Brooks speak since
then and knows what really fine
orator he is; and, what's a great deal
more important, the intelligent people
of the State know what a fine man
he is, too.
George Brooks isn't merely man
with a talent for speaking; he's a
hard worker, a scholar. and he thinks
for himself. AS everybody knows
George Brooks has always been both
able and upright, and when you add
that he looked what he was, why, no
wonder everybody thought he'd be
governor or United States Senator by
the time he was 40-and who knows
what after that. In those days Milt
Letting wasn't considered to be any
body at all alongside of George
Thomas Brooks.
MILT was around selling insurance
-A and getting acquainted with peo-
pie a couple of years While George
was in law school, but they both got
elected TO the Legislature on the same
ticket the year after George began to
practice in his fathers Office. That
was the year Josie Iettibone came
home from Europe. and about Is of
our most promising young bachelors
land all the widowers) started right in
to marry her. She was Truett Petit
bones granddaughter. the only kin
that old rascal had left to him, and
everybody knows Pettibone's paints.
The Pettibone Works is one of the
biggest industries in the whole State
today. but nobody ever accused either
George Brooks or Milt Letting of be-
ing after Josie on that account.
used to pass old man Pettibone' s
big house on my way home from the
Office every afternoon about o'clock,
and I certainly saw a few symptoms
OF Josies being a popular girl =
Some days it looked as if even Petit
bones big front porch couldn't hold
the boys, there d be SO many of EN-.
And moonlight nights in our neigh
borhood-I only lived three doors from
there-well, as / say, on moonlight
night in Summer it wasn't any use
to go to bed and try to sleep-not until
after II O'Clock, anyhow.
Still, she was a mighty nice sort OF
a girl. and it was easy to see why
there were so many wanting her. OF
course, plant like old man Petit
bones made a mighty fine setting for
such a jewel and a lot of money be
hind a girl does show her off to ad-
vantage: but / think there'd have been
almost as many suitors if she hadn' {
had a cent. And l certainly felt sorry
for George Brooks when he saw he
wasn't going to get her.
] met him one afternoon as / was
going by there. He was coming out
Of their big wrought-iron front gate,
and he walked along with me, because
he lived just up above me little way,
on the same street, though l don t
think he wanted to be with anybody
just then. He was looking mighty
solemn and a little pale.
We'll, George" l said. Il hope
You're making neadWay in yonder."
I'm afraid not" he told me, and I
asked him if it was Milton Letting he