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Show I. it lie Stories About W ell-Known I'eople: I'carson and Allen like to tell this story about F. D. R. . When he was a young lawyer he was retained to handle a difficult civil case. The rival attorney was an effective jury pleader and he completely outshone his youthful rival in the argument to the jury. However, he made one fatal mistake. He orated for several sev-eral hours. As he thundered on, Roosevelt noticed the jury wasn't paying much attention. So when his turn came he rose and said: "Gentlemen, you have heard the evidence. ev-idence. You also have listened to my distinguished colleague,- a brilliant bril-liant orator. If you believe him and disbelieve the evidence, you will decide de-cide in his favor. That's all I have to say." The jury was out only five minutes min-utes and brought in a verdict for F. D. R.'s client. This Is the reason for the H. L. that goes before Mencken's name. As a youth he had a little printing business and used to print cards with his name on for advertising purposes. But his father smashed all his black letter lower case "r's" so he had to print his name H. L Mencken instead of Henry L., and that's the way it has remained. Years ago In Wisconsin, a young man was chopping wood and accidentally acci-dentally hit himself in the foot with the axe. He moaned and groaned and his face was contorted in pain while his shoe was slowly being removedso re-movedso the wound could be treated. treat-ed. However, when the shoe was taken off it was revealed that he wasn't even scratched. One of the onlookers commented that he had a wonderful imagination and would make a great actor. His name Alfred Lunt. When the piano Beethoven composed com-posed his music on was exhibited in a European museum, visitors were given the thrill of sitting down and playing it. Everybody took advantage advan-tage of that honor except Paderew-ski. Paderew-ski. When the museum guard asked him why he didn't sit down and play, he replied: "I do not feel worthy enough to touch it." Henry Clay, the eminent statesman, states-man, knew how to say the right thing at the right time. A pretty young thing once reproached him for failing to remember her name . . . But Clay was equal to the occasion, oc-casion, replying gallantly: "I didn't recall your name, because when we last met I was sure your beauty and talent would soon compel you to change it." 1 This is one . of the best squelches we have ever come across. A friend once told Voltaire: Vol-taire: "It is good of you to say such pleasant things about an enemy when he always says such nasty things about you." To which Voltaire replied: "Perhaps we are both mistaken." mistak-en." When Marshal Focii visited America Amer-ica he went to see the Grand Canyon. Can-yon. As he stood looking down into the depths of the amazing natural wonder, reporters all around him waited breathlessly for a comment that would go down in history. After Aft-er a few minutes of dramatic silence, si-lence, the Marshal observed: "What a beautiful place to drop one's mother-in-law!" Among other things, Oliver Wendell Wen-dell Holmes was a doctor, but he wasn't very successful in that profession. pro-fession. Seems that people were a bit doubtful about the flippant medico medi-co who posted this sign above his shingle: "Small fevers gratefully received." re-ceived." Among the better talcs about Cal-pin Cal-pin Coolidge's brevity is this: A reporter re-porter was interviewing him. "Do Foil wish to say anything about pro-aibition?" pro-aibition?" he asked. "No." "About the farm bloc?" "No." "About the World Court?" "No." The reporter turned to go. "By Ihe way," said Coolidge, "don't guote me." Albert Einstein once had the misfortune mis-fortune to be a guest at a very dull party. Throughout the evening fawns ran wild ... At the end of lie affair, the host remarked sympathetically sym-pathetically to him: "I'm afraid you aere terribly bored" . . . Einstein smiled and replied: "No. On occasions occa-sions like this I retire to the back of my mind, and there I am happy." For the last five months of her life Marie Dressler's illness let her be up for a few days, then down again getting worse all the time. Each week, no matter how busy he was, Louis B. Mayer used to take a brief case full of scenarios to her home. Her illness was never mentioned. men-tioned. Mayer merely discussed sto ries and plans for the future, exactly ex-actly as if she were still working. Right through the last week of her life, Miss Dressier remaired cheer-ful cheer-ful and hapry because of Mayer's thoughtfulness. |