The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1933-01-04
THOUGHTS OF
A FISHERMAN
BY Ike Walton, Redivivue

| had a dream about Brother
Hoover last night-New Years
night. This is the sober, honest
to goodness true record OF that
dream.
We were in fine housc-not
the White House, but a sort Of
elegant bungalow-and Brother
Hoover was dressed in fine
business suit, and / was in my
shirt sleeves, and we were sit
ting at splendid long mahaog-
any table. There were a num-
Der of people walking round the
big room, and Mrs. Hoover was
sitting at the table, dressed for
walk, and her eyes were fixed
upon me in the saddest way |
ever saw, when we began to talk.
AS soon as we started, the peo-
pie left US three there alone.
Brother Hoover struck me as be-
ing extremely handsome ney-
er saw him, but l was impressed
with his clear brown eyes look
ing hard and straight into mine.
He was not sad-lOoking like his
wife at first, but very serious,
and little misunderstanding.
He said he had asked me to
come to see him because he had
heard that l had been wishing
to give him some counsel. He
said he felt that he needed some
from the common people, so IL
was all right that l was in my
shirt-sleeves.
/ said that 1 had come in a
hurry when | received his invi'
tation, so please excuse my cloth
es. Then / went on:
Brother Herbert, as a fellow
fisherman, l have long had a
peculiar interest in you; even a
sort of kindly affection, in spite
of what / had to say about you.
In fact, | have never thought
that man who honestly wished
to abolish poverty, and who had
vision that it might be done
could be a bad man at the bot
tom of his soul. Moreover, you
did so much for the poor in
Europe: you feed millions: you
tried to produce more gold, so
as to make it PLENTIFUL you be-
long to the religion o. the peace
full sect; you rose from branch
fishing in the bottoms of Iowa to
sail-fish in the Florida surf; you
marched from the blacksmith
shop to the throne of captains
and Of kings; you illustrate the
old scripture saying, behold a
man dilgent in business, he shall
stand before kings, he shall not
stand before mean men; and
perhaps in your soul now you
feel the sting that picrceS the
soul of a man who feels that he
tried to do good, and his fellow
men turned upon him and rent
him. / know what that means.
Most of us do. There is nothing
in all the universe which tears
the inner being like the Cry of
the multitude concerning a bene-
factor'-crucify h i'm, cruelty
him."
He was turning pale. His
brown eyes were opening wide.
He fixed a sort of filmy stare
on me. I wondered if he were
becoming resentful, or if he ap-
preciated that l meant every
word I said.
"But there was only one man
who never either sinned or made
a mistake Of whom that cry was
made. The rest of us must adj
NIT some basis for such clamor."
He moved slightly, and rested
his head on an arm.
II know how that is too. We
may feel badly about ingratitude
and interpretation, and misun-
derstanding; but by far the
worst of it is our realization of
the part we have ourselves con-
tributed to those attitudes. The
man studies that side of the
question. I doubt if you are
through. You are too young,
too strong, too stoical. If you
reach the years of William, Henry
Harrison or of Andrew Jackson,
you have two decades of action
before you, What are you go
ing to do with them?
"First of all, don't rush preci-
pitatelv into action. Go off
somewhere and think. l hope
you do not consider me presump-
tuous in advising this. You