Evening star., 1936-06-17
The Story of Aft M. Landon
Chapter III-Bread and Padlocks.
BY RICHARD b. FOWLER

~ NE hot night In Oklahoma,
some 20 years ago. camp of
I pipeline workers was up past
~ the usual hour, engaged in an
agitation by moonlight that was close
to a minor crisis for the big superin-
tendent. He strobe around past the
silent groups of dark-skinned men
from Southern italy, cursing his luck
in the kind of oaths men learn on
pipeline jobs.
He had sent a young college boy,
ALI Landon, to the village, 10 miles
away, to meet the train bringing the
usual shipment of black bread from
Kansas City. Plentiful rations Of this
bread were stipulated in the agreement
with the laborers, fresh from their
homeland. Without 1t they would
throw their Shovels into the Canadian
River. Nerves we're on edge anyway
in this beastly hot weather.
Some time after 10 O'Clock the su-
perintendent let out whoop which
announced he had heard the rumble
of a wagon. The wagon ratified into
camp; the men gathered around
silently in the moonlight and young
Alf Landon pulled to a stop. AS seen
in the half light he was a *ocky,
good-natured young fellow, entirely
sure of himself.
Didn't Get Black Bread.
'"The bread, have you got the bread?"
shouted the foreman.
Not black bread" said young Lam
don, they didn't have it on the train.
Somebody failed to make the connec-
tions in Kansas City"
mo bread! You mean you didn't
get any black bread? Why, damn it,
what about all these men?"
Young Landon, standing on the
wagon seat, beckoned to the dark
skinned interpreter to come out OF
the crowd to stand beside him.
Nobody took down the speech that
he made that night. but as the super
intendent later told it to his father,
it ran something like this:
81 have brought you bread-not the
kind you like, but the only kind I could
get. The black bread wasn't on the
train. There were only a few loaves
of white bread at the two stores. Did
you ever eat biscuit? They are good.
Every woman in the village baked
biscuits for me, great pans Of biscuits.
They won't taste bad for a day, and
then we will have black bread"
Young Landon stood on the seat
watching the faces Of the men as the
interpreter repeated In Italian what
he had said. Silence. Landon saw a
flash of white teeth. Then came yell.
Somebody laughing. Shouts In Italian.
A whoop from the interpreter:
"They say you a good honest keed
and got bread wen you go for bread.
They will eat dat beescut If 1t kill
himi"
Superintendent Saved Story.
The story would have been lost If
the superintendent had not told 1t
to John Iandon, because the son has
forgotten it these many years. There
are, however, things about that Sum-
mer that he does remember. He re-
members the sun boiling down on the
backs of men who labored in the
bitches, 100 degrees in the shade. He
knew what 1t was to labor in ditch.
The Summer before he had worked
with shovel and pipe tools on SINH
lar Job in Kansas. This Summer he
a gang of so laborers.
It was the Alfred Landon Of that
time who is remembered by hundreds
of persons In the Middle West, the
young man who had come out from
Ohio just in time to enroll as fresh
man at the University Of Kansas.
Adventure-new country, new faces.
Few people ever could have taken a
more glamorous ride on a train than
the trip ne made alone from Marietta,
Ohio. His father had gone ahead to
their new home at independence,
Kans.
The Westl The rhythm of the train
beating on the rails shouted of a new
land where anything might happen,
where a young fellow might get rich
and be q Congressman or something.
The August day in 1904 he STEP
ped of the train he saw scene that
was wholly pleasing. He saw his father
walking across the platform to meet
him. He heard the sound of saws and
hammers on q nearby building. He saw
street moving with wagons and car
riages. He was in the center Of the
midcontinent oil field part Of
something that had only begun to
grow.
Made Impression on Frat Men
A few days after arriving at Inde-
pendence he went to Lawrence to
enter the University of Kansas. The
first afternoon he stood between the
limestone buildings on the hill, called
Mount Dread by old K. U. grads, over
looking many miles of rolling country
side. With him was a group of boys
who talked his language. Landon's
easy smile and way with people made
q good impression on the young men,
members Of the Phi Gamma Delta
fraternity.
He liked the boys and they liked
him; he was ut home In Lawrence. It
was an easy life In q town where the
arbitrary social distinctions some