The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-08-20

the piece was a success, that 1t marked the beginning of Rog- ers' real prominence, and that our song was deleted frcm the program. ,. The Last Time
 It was many years after that I saw Rogers again and for the last time. Much water had flown under the bridge. He had mounted steadily to the place in the public's eye and heart which he was to occupy until his death last week. He had become a world traveller, a political ob- server of shrewdness and com mon sense, an after-dinner speaker whose fees were very large, the intimate of kings and princes, motion picture sensa- tion and a radio star.
 The occasion was a dinner given by well known New York philanthropist and his wife to raise money for a working girls summer camp. The speakers table was crowded with celebrities, including Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the dining floor was filled with plu- tocrats, myself excluded. Rog- CTS as usual was dressed in a lounge suit and, also as usual, was altogether unimpressed by the boiled shirts and bare backs of the nabobs and nabobecs present. He was never in better form and doubt if there ever was a more generous response made to an appeal which was based solely and simply upon . humorous assault on the celeb- rites present.
 "You all can laugh," he
 ramblcd along, "but you're
 goin' to pay jest the same.
 However, l tell you what I'll do. If John D. Ryan, settin'' over at that table yonder, will
 tell me what Anaconda Cop.
 per Is goin' to do i'm the next
 two months I'll pay the check
 for the hull darn party to.
 night and finance the camp into the bargain!" Just the Same
 After the dinner the young daughter of my host said she would like to meet MT. Rogers and, as I had mentioned the fact I knew him, pleaded with me to AA %ha 1,ASanNa Mo snA at Avnarl- ences with those who had achieved greatness had not been too exhilirating and 1t was with something approaching trcpida- ton on my part that we pene- tratcd the mob of hand shakers surrounding the lion of the eve- ming. "Hiyah, cowboy. I whis- pered to him faintly. He dropped the hand he was shak- ing and turned. It was easily eighteen years since we had met and mems appearance will! alter with the passage of time. But the recognition was instanta- neous and heart warming. "Dog- gone, if 1t aint the big legit," he shouted with all the, old time heartiness. "Where you been all these years? Still fightin' vaude- vile managers? Whyn't you ever come to see a fellah?" I explained that my presence at stage doors to call on friends was not a boost for the friends in the eyes of their employers, and that l had no wish to ere. ate embarrassment. ''Shucks" he exclaimed. You ought to know me better than that. Them things never made no difference l, to me-" &ht . s.
 That was Will Rogers. It
 made no difference to him
 whether one was great or m.
 important, whether tho goose
 hung high OF there was no
 goose at all, whether it was
 profitable to him to know or
 not to know people out of the
 past. Once . friend always .
 friend.
 He is said to have written
 his own epitaph. I don't know
 what it may be but I do know
 what 1t should be: ssHE WAS
 A FRIEND NOT OF A MANS
 FORTUNE BUT OF THE
 HfANfe