Evening star., 1928-03-18
ny ANNE HARD.

/ BsERVING DR.. William NJ. Jar
! dine, the Secretary OF Agricul-
ture, you begin to examine
~ YOUR sense Of humor.
| or course. you think you
have one. Every one thinks he has one
| What kind is yours? Are you the sort
of person who thinks humor begins and
ends with funny story?" Are
you the sort who Is bored by
| an ancedote, but enlivened by
witty answer? Or are you the sort
of person who loves that humor which
| lies deeper than words. which often cam
not be expressed in wordS-the humor
Of character and the irony of life? II
you are this last sort OF person, you will
| thoroughly enjoy the conversation OF
Secretary Jardine~-known TO his old
friends as Bill"
First off. he has humorous face.
His deeply buried brown eyes are the
small eyes of the humorist not the
large eyes of the idealiSt. His wide cars
stand out back of his countenance as
II to hear everything going on behind
him as we'll as before him. His thin,
wide mouth stretches back into smile
as he talks. The voice that issues has
plangent vibration, carrying quality.
Muscular arms end in two large
hands. with thumbs fiattened on one
edge. They are the living history Of the
time when he was the champion mixer
of his section A muscular body carries
two broad shoulders energetically--
reminiscent of the days when he was a
l65 ful!back.
His college mates say that If he had
happened to enter one of the Big Five
or an Eastern college he would have
been nationally famous foot ball hero.
You can we'll believe 1t when you
know Jardine. for this very humor OF
his Is fighters humor. He likes to
hear good story. but doesn't remember
an anecdote TO repeat 1t himself. The
sort of story he remembers is one like
his own tale of what he saw happen to
q Swede.
When he was boy he was over in
the Big Hole country in Montana. Be-
side the cabin ran a swift mountain
stream, which froze at the bottom and
became coated with ice at the top.
There was also a sow with litter of
pigs--a very ugly SOW. In April when
the thaw was beginning. he and the
Swede built fine new sty and the
Swede told him to get her into 1t. He
tried to explain to the Swede about that
SOW. but the Swede wouldn't listen.
You yoost put some milk in the
trough" he said to the boy. "an' I'll
show you how to do it,
So Bill got the milk and the SOW put
her Snout into it. The Swede came up
behind and seized her legs.
With roar she was on her feet, the
Swede went out from under and hit the
slide for the brook. He never stopped
till he was on the thin ice. AS he went
under the chill water, the SOW was off
for the woods with line OF pigs after
her. the air filled with the snortS Of the
SOW, the squeals OF the pigs. the unsym-
pathetic outlaws of the boy, and the
dialected imprecations OF the Swede as
he observed such a lack OF sympathy
%& y X
That is the kind OF humor that the
realiSt can enjoy. II Is the humor of
men who deal with life at first hand
rough stuff humor that neither takes
nor gives odds. the humor Of experience.
When you see Jardine about Wash
ington. when you see the well valeted
Secretary with his tall, slender, gracious
wife. laying his topper In the hall and
proceeding up the red carpet to the gold
plate dinner, it Is very hard indeed to
picture him in that early setting.
1t Is doubtful II red carpet and gold
plate ever get the real Jardine at all