Evening star., 1935-04-01

AAil Qcdu. Ouukc rOlCOIuD, b DdCu-
elor, claimed that whenever q New
Concord husband caught his wife
looking at him with peculiar gleam
In her eye he knew that he was being
compared to DR.. Jim and that the
comparison was hideously unsatis-
factory.
The women shifted at these Jokes
Of the judge. Like certain royal
contemporary, they were not amused
and made no bones about showing it.
They actually seemed to feel a vicari-
Gus pride in DR.. Jim's almost delib-
crate death and never seemed to tire
Of discussing it.
Beyond irritating their husbands
this would have been harmless
enough. If the interest in the father
had not inspired them to an interest
in his son. 1t was the third James
Stimson's great misfortune that the
women Of New Concord, particularly
the intimates of his Aunt Sarah,
maintained for more than 20 years
an actively and possessively maternal
concern in his development, his
career and, most Of all, in his mar
riage.
Probably no little orphan was ever
more tenderly loved and cherished.
The night Of his fathers funeral
Sarah, his grandmother, said to her
husband. THE tenderness Of God has
left us little James"
The Governor made no answer.
In his heart was the bitter cry that
a god capable of tenderness would
have taken him and spared his son.
Later. when time had softened that
bitterness, he remembered and was
comforted.
THE tenderness of God" he would
whisper. watching the child asleep
in his cradle or playing by his side.
Sometimes as the boy grew older he
seemed both son and grandson. He
was called James to distinguish him
from his father. But more often than
not the Governor thought of him
as Jim.
The Governor was born romantic.
James was to carry on the name,
continue the family tradition of serv-
Ice and leadership, live i'm the house
his grandfather had built with such
loving pride and care, hand it on to
his children. Life would have been
unbearable to both old James and
old Sarah If they had not little James.
The Governor was born in Massa-
chusetts. In the early ifties, while
ne was still studying law at Harvard,
he had been fired with an ambition
ito 60 West and grow up with the
country" However, young Stimson
had neither the ambition nor the
desire to 60 West and grow up with
the country alone, so he married
pretty Sarah Stockwell almost before
the ink was dry on his sheepskin.
Their honeymoon was their Journey
westward. They had no definite in
tention when they set out of settling
In Kansas. They planned vaguely
to take look at St. Joseph, Mo, or
possibly 60 on to place In the Wilds
Of Western Kansas known as Denver
1t was by merest chance that their
paddle-wheeled river steamer, on its
way to st. Joseph from st. Louis de-
veloped engine trouble and tied up
for three days at the wharf of q
struggling trading post on the left
bank of the Missouri River. The
young homeseekers relieved the tedium
of the three days stay by climbing
the heavily wooded banks on the
Kansas side and exploring the fertile
wooded country beyond.
Thrushes and meadow larks sang
their clear yearning love songs hour
after hour. The young Stimsons
stopped to listen hand in hand at
the top of a high bluff overlooking
the Missouri, just where the river
began a magnificent mile-wide bend,
Well stay and build a home on
this very spot" they decided. They
stayed, but it was many years before
they had their hearts desire and
builded the mansion of their dreams
on the river bluff.
They were at first happy years,
even gay years. New Concord failed,
alas, to become the metropolis of
James dreams and developed instead
into a pleasant little residential city
Of $4,000 souls. James soon extended
his interests beyond local affairs.
He was one of those instrumental
in making Kansas into a free State.
Later he fought to keep it free and
lost an arm at the second Battle of
Bull Run. Some years after the
close of the war he was elected Gov
ernor and might have gone to the
United States Senate. But his health
had never been good after the loss
Of his arm. He returned to New
Concord and his law practice.
The two James StimSons used to
ride together almost every fine after
noon, the Governor astride Dan, his
Kentucky PAGER, and James, Sd, on
Bird, his pony, named after Miss Bird
Strong, one of his neighborS and
closest friends.
The start of their daily ride was
In event in the rather dull routine
IF the Stimson household. Mrs. Stim-
ION used to claim proudly as the
'wo r lie OH bowling and waving, that
hey were the two handsomest men
n the entire State of Kansas-which
meant, Of course, in the whole world
Ind as far as her husband was con-
,erned Mrs. Stimson was not far
wrong.
All the countryside knew and was
Interested in the two Jameses and |
heir rides often partook of some |
hing Of the nature of a triumphal |
,rogress. The Governor, as owner
4 several fine farms, was keenly in
crested in the crops and the weather
nd all that pertain thereto, so that
le and his farmer friends had q
reat deal to discuss.
It was small wonder, then, that
title James preferred the River road,
vhere 1t was lonelier and there were
ever long talks about manure, the
ondition Of the wheat and other
things not designed for