Evening star., 1940-04-28
By WALTER M. HARRISON.

Interest It contains TOR Star
readers.
BY WALTER M. HARRISON.
Next to desk portraits of the wife
and children, what is your guess as
TO the most popular ornament in
the ofiice Of q Senator or a Repre-
sentative?
The stationery room provides at
cost q plaster copy of Houdon's bust
Of Washington which is the best
seller. Next come images of Lincoln
The rise and fall Of the G. o. P.
may be gagged by the number of
new Lincoln busts ordered when a
session opens.
Framed originals of the cartoons
of Clifford K. Bergman occuply far
more wall space In the Senate and
House Once Buildings than all
worship Of the founding fathers and
everything else.
For SO years Cliff" Bergman has
been drawing good-natured cartoons
Of the Washington scene. Most of
that time his daily cartoon has been
on the first page of the conservative,
venerable Washington Star.
He's a Part of Washington.
Kindly, gray, gentle, humorous
"Clff" Bergman is as much a part
of the Washington scene as the
cherry blossoms and the Monument.
When a new member of the House
or the Senate gets into one OF the
Bergman cartoons. he sticks out his
chest. He has arrived. Oldtimers
such as George Norris of Nebraska;
the late, great Borah; Senator
Ashurst, the audacious; Capper, the
perennial Kansan; bettle-browed
Jack Garner, Vice President; Dear
Alben" Barkley; Shutting Cotton
Ed" Smith and amiable Pat Harrison,
literally have their walls covered
with Bergman cartoons in which
they appear.
Mr.. Bergman passed his list
birthday anniversary April 2 with
nothing more than a wave OF the
hand. He goes to the office and
does a cartoon every day. He has
filled a three column hole on page
one longer than any other cartoonlst
in the business.
Moreover, he probably has hurt
the feelings of fewer men whom he
has lampooned than any other
craftsman in India ink. He is the
greatest living demonstration of the
fact that a cartoon does not have
to hit with a club. like Nast's or
Fitzpatrick's bludgeon.
In 1908, when the late Crosby
Noyes hired Bergman for the post,
Cliff" thinking he would please the
editor, played to Mr.. Noyes' distaste
for Theodore Roosevelt. He drew a
vicious picture of T. r. as Dickens
ugly character, Sykes.
That's a great cartoon, Berry
mani Mr.. Noyes, said, but that
isn't like you. That isn't the kind OF
thing I brought you down here to
draw"
Now He Stays in Character.
Mr.. Bergman tore the bristol
board into pieces, returned to his
easef and resolved never again to
get out of character. He got the
idea OF kindliness from his father
from the homely maxim that you can
catch more flies with sugar than
with vinegar-and he has held to 1t
In at least 100000 cartoons.
would have been disappointed
If Cliff" Berrymans office had been
clean and chromium. 1 wasn't. He
works in a cubby hole. You have
to 90 through the big city room
on the seventh floor, then thread
the art department, to get to it. The
only unshaded window is the north
light, artists fetish. The remainder
of the room is mess. Chairs
piled high with newspapers and
junk You have to push off pile
of files to find place to sit. Some
antecedent's Civil War musket, with
dull and rusty bayonet attached,
stands in a window corner. Book
cases, untidy, drip tones from
every section. Maybe nobody else
can find what he wants in that
rubble heap, but it's Mr.. Berry
mans accumulation of the ages.
He is economical, although The
Star wouldn't care If he blocked
out his drawings on a whole sheet
Of Bristol board like Jay Darling
does. MIR. Bergman sketches on a
piece of cardboard about the size
OF ordinary letter paper.
In Mr.. Berryman's own opinion,
the best cartoon he ever drew was
one printed about the turn of the
century. The late William j. Bryan
was the cartoonist's meat. Mr.. Ber-
ryman made scores of sketches with
the commoner in them. One time
the peerless leader came to Wash
tngton and some interviewer ques-
toned him on where he stood on
the silver question. He answered:
II stand where I have stood for
the last 10 years."
Caption on Next Days Feature.
That quotation appeared over the
Bergman feature the next day. Mr..
Bryan, in seersucker and wide hat,
With his bird's-nest haircut sticking
out behind, was standing outside
the high-barred fence, looking in
at the White House from the Penn
sylvania avenue side. The cartoon
was reprinted from coast to coast.
It is typical Of the Bergman tech
nique.
Probably the artists greatest Gre
. alton was the teddy bear" He
never made an extra dime out of
It. For that he has no regrets. A