Evening star., 1934-09-17
DOWN EAST WIT
ELECTSDEMOCRAT
Maine Sends New Deal Sup
porter to "Land of
AppIesauce."
Special dispatch to The Star.

EpeCiAl .IlSpatCH 10 i nc Cbol.
SOUTH PORTLAND, Me, Septem-
Der II (N.AN.A).-Some hens had
got ou;.
"ror't let that hen get by you
brotl,er. Slow. Take it slow. A
hens Ike a woman; you get along
faste- L you take her SLOW"
Thus was the greeting at his barn
door b., the first Democrat since the
Civil Var to be elected to Congress
from N aine's rock-ribbed old first dis
trict.
And what a Democrat! "Cy" to
young and "Sime" to old, Simon
Moulso,l Hamlin is down-east Yam
kee, ~ as nobody supposed existed
any m re outside of a Will Rogers
dram at zation of David Harum.
How Will would love to meet this
man Fl ON old Maine whose speech
Is spice with rustic wit, whose hand,
rs biz rs half ham, closes on you
like "a barn door, whose election was
won b. talking hoss sense in the
barnvar is and at the crossroads OF
the Nj inc town where he's fished,
farmed and tended school for rising
30 years.
Man of the Soil.
Simon Hamlin is a man of the
soil who's awakened to the cackling
OF his hens and gone to bed when
the apple log burned out on the fire.
place sll of his working life.
Now, al So, he's taken his first plunge
from his farm into national politics
TO wn such an incredible triumph
es nc Democrat in his lifetime ever
celebl ated in this corner of Maine.
We |, as soon as we had shooed the
hens back in, he was apologizing for
the clutter in his barn, where he
was lrting tomatoes for market. But
] beel so darn busy lately saving the
country" he chuckled Nov I got to
wipe tomatoes to pay my fare to
Wash ngton."
"Ytu'll find me physically all
right" ne said, pulling off his field
bonntt and giving his braces a hoist
before heading for the porch. 1--WE
won't speak of the mental. That's
dangerous"
"A Great Old Rooster"
6IHE kICdb Ot4 IOOobCI,
chuckled the oldsters in Portland.
''The only one to put spark of hu-
NOR nto the campaign down here.
The others were all serious as the
devil.
"He seems to have been alone in
believ ng he could turn the trick. He
told MS rallies-sometimes four in
q night with 100 miles to drive him
self over country roads-that he was
on his way to Washington, the land
Of mi K and honey-and applesauce.'
We got the hens in and he sprinkled
corn IN the ground.
He led the way through the ragged
grass with its untended clumps of
peonies, lilacs and phlox, toward the
wide veranda, where a comfortably
brokell-down hammock offered refuge
behini the woodbine on the railing.
It is I'm old yellow house, with barn
and everything all hitched on" Set
on q hill, with widows walk on the
roof, 1t commands view far out to
sea.
We get into the front room, where
an open fire is burning in honor of
the visitors from Boston-and from
there finally into the tiny den that is
croweci with the great bulk Of Ham
lin In 1t.
Talks With Guests.
"I'nl all in an uproar here" he ex-
plains the vast tumble in his roll-top
desk. The pictures of his school days
the trophies of an outdoor life, memo
randa of the campaign and the &C
counts of the farm are cluttered with
his st-ewn books, his glasses and his
cigar wrappers.
A Tsowdoin pennant hangs behind
the alright stove. Rife and shotgun
hang or antlers over an old couch.
He talks with the gusto of man
who has found life well fiavored-"l
have had a good life," he says in the
direct way of man whose simplicity
comes from the soil. "and it is q
satisfs ction to have this come"
He tells of his lifelong passion for
fishing, of his life as a teacher in
many country schools, of his late
start N education-he was "a before
he finished college-and Of his wife
Annie, who died last year.
Plain Talks Help.
Hanllin's chance to run for Con-
gress came to him almost by default
Nobody else believed there was 8
chance for any Democrat to shake
loose the Republican control in the
district made famous by the fame o1
the great Speaker it gave Congress
in Thoma B. Reed. Hamlin's plair
talks at every four corners in the big
district made the first New Deal cam
paign the district had heard.
This New Deal woke me up. It's
done me good" Hamlin says. 81
never was interested in national pol
itics oefore-except to read it.
been interested to read it all my
life. I been Democrat from birth
Why? Because I'm honest This
last with a grin.
He's been city clerk, and in 1888
he was mayor of South Portland. Ir
q city of $4,000, overwhelmingly Re-
publican, Hamlin is able to boast
that Il never tried for anything
didn't get, less it was the itch"
He drove the visitors back to towr
just at sunset along a country roac
gorgeous with the pinks and purples
of September gardens and the red anc
gold Of Autumn orchards. That: