Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-20
ILLINOIS BATTLE TAKES
NATIONAL SPOT LIGHT
Picturesque Lewis and Widow of Old
Foe Have Many Whims of Politics to
Encounter in Senate Campaign.


interest attending the two contenders.
OF Mrs. Mccormick, much has been
written lately. OF her opponent, much
will be written shortly, for he is eS-
sentially picturesque person with an
arreSting personality. To many older
persons, the most alluring aspect Of the
Illinois fight is the remergence into
place in American public life of a char
acter extraordinarily vivid, engaging
and colorful. Especially colorful, for 1t
is the color of Ham" Lewis whiskers
and rairnent that leaped to the tip of
every newspaper paragrapher's pen
when, after being IL years out of the
Senate and out of the public eye, he
leaped with Characteristic grace into the
biggest headlines on the first page.
Twelve years is a long time, as the
pace Of American interest in its public
men now goes. There must be near
10000, 900 voters in America-all those
below, say, the age of 80, who never
heard Of Lewis and must have been
puzzled by the outburst of newspaper
photographers which dealt with the
like "orifiamme" and 'irideScent" about
the color Of his whiskers and the beauty
Of his raiment.
But all the older voters must have
smiled with pleasure. MIR. Lewis Is not
an old mamie was born after the end
Of the Civil War and If he should reach
the Senate now would not be noticeably
more elderly than the run of his fellow
solonS. But Mr.. Lewis has been before
the public eye, of and on. for a period
much longer than any other important
man now In public life. AS Congress
man in the nineties, Mr.. Lewis was a
contemporary Of figures now legendary:
Mark Hanna CHS opponents father,
now ~ years gone; Grover Cleveland,
VIII William INC Mckinley In , John Sherman Of
miral Dewey. Funston, the message to
Garcia" Butcher 'Weyler, Aguinaldo,
Garry Nation, Hobson and the kiss that
gave an unfortunate and undeserved
turn to his justified title to fame, Tom
Reed Of Maine. How many Illinois
voters under 40 years of age can today
identify those characters who were the
contemporaries Of Lewis In his early ap-
pearance in public life?
Choices Of His Youth.
1t was an era of individualism, when
men were more willing to be differ
ent," were less in bondage to the crowd
IN matters Of manners, dress and ia
cial forestation-the day when an i'm
portant Army officer was called He'll
roaring Jake Smith," q governor of
Colorado was called Bloody Brides"
Waite, when Senator from Kansas
through a phrase, purity in politics is
an iridescent dream" when a Speaker
OF the House, Reed of Maine, was dis
cussed in terms Of his rotundity, and
another was known universally as
Uncle Joe"-the day Of "Sockless
Jerry" Simpson, Of "Whiskers" PETER,
"Pitchfork" Tillman.
iul Lewis chose to make his personal |
brand out Of the pink beauty Of his |
CURING Whlskers, the mauve and siolet |
OF his ties, his vests, his clothes.
Inc gorgeousneSS of raiment, the
eiaporatenesS OF manner, was chosen
intelligently enough. He was O young
lawyer In Seattle without money, friends
or practice. Spectacular personal APP
pearance would be ballyhoo for him.
It served the same purpose as a nanv-
coiored electric sign. And when he got
the public into his shop he had goods
tnat interested them. One difficulty
was That due partly to the chaotic tides
OF politics In those days, and partly to
Lewis, own temperament, the goods in
ms shop were changed from time to
time. The public would come back for
more populism, and find the proprietor
WIN new line on his shelves.
PRESENTLY Lewis moved from Seattle
to Chicago. He dropped out of Con-
greSs Ito come to the Senate later)
ana had to make himself known In
new line In new community, His
Deard and his raiment continued to be
ms brand. AS time passed, newspaper
paragraphers observed with querying
nreVerence-though always with humor-
Gus friendliness-that the whiskers con-
tinued to be just as crisp and curly and
pink. To Lewis, the speculation was
meat for his own wit. He knew per-
Iectly well that as he passed through q
pubic dining room and was pointed at
the diners dropped their voices and
started interested discussions as to
whether the blackness of that curly
hair and the pinkness of those curly
whlskers were precisely the same black
ness and the same pinkness that they
had had when they and James Hamil-
ton Lewis emerged as a young man from
somewhere in Georgia, or whether that
blackness and that pinkness had had
preservative, not to say regenerative,
care. or even that largess of care which
would gid the lily. To talk about this
Is not too personal. James Hamilton
other peoples thoughts as any other
human being now upon the surface of
the earth. One may be sure that he
knew people thought this way and that
he chuckled over it.
Man Of Dozen Careers.
Lewis has had dozen careers and
a hundred interests. All of them he
did with facile success, but never for
long enough to give him the permanent
niche in the world that his talent de-
served. He was always able to take the
trick, but he never cared enough to 60
on and win the game. His frequent
changing Of his interests did injustice
to the decidedly considerable qualities
OF his mind, for he was and is an able
man.
He was a criminal lawyer; he became
Representative from the State of
Washington, denouncing West Pointers,
in true Populist style, as "gilded mill
tary satraps tasseled society sapheads."
Then he was business man, and you
heard of him as president Of a Seattle
manufacturing company. During the
Spanish War he was a soldier, a most
ornate and refulgent colonel of the
Washington State National Guard. In
1900 1t was politics again, and he was
mentioned for the Vice Presidency" A
year or two later 1t was corporation law,
and you met him on his way to Paris
as counsel for the Transalaskan-Si-
berian Railroad, which was going to
dig a tunnel under Boring Strait and
run through trains from New York to
Paris. When exposure Of wealthy male
factors was vogue. he was a lawyer
for the people, pursuing rich tax dodg-
ers in Chicago. He tried authorship.
and think he wrote a novel or two.
anonymously He wrote books on inter-
national law. He did 1t all with fin
ished air, and liked it all, but he always
liked new thing better. His interest
never lasted long enough either for him
| tn StamD the thing or the thing In
stamp him.
When he was in the Senate, from
| 1918 to 1919, he did dozen things well.
He made q prepared speech well: he