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Show Why Is Washington a "Deadly Dump"? 11IAD a letter today that delighted me greatly, writes Clinton W. Gilbert Gil-bert in "The Dally Mirror of Washington," Wash-ington," Philadelphia Public Ledger. Led-ger. I reproduce It here without the name of the writer, since It was personalIn per-sonalIn spite of the fact that I have had to sacrifice my natural modesty by putting It Into print. It is: ' "Your dally column is a pip. Any guy who can write interesting stuff dully from that deadly dump deserves a' diamond medal." The writer la a famous cartoonist. Now, why is Washington a "deadly dump?" Just because the crushing hand of uniformity has pressed It Into the pulp It now Is. When I first came to the capital a few years ago there were picturesque personalities still left In the senate and the house. There was Ollle James, bigger ttian any two men ought to be, with his frog's mouth, his gargantuan appetite, his rollicking humor, the source of endless stories. There was Boles Penrose, Pen-rose, another giant, with his feudal lord's contempt for the virtue of respectability re-spectability and a great stomach for ! life. There were John Sharp Wil liams, Jim Marline and Uncle Joe Cannon at his best, and a little before that was the picturesque though really very regular and proper Theodore Roosevelt. These are only a few. Who Is there now that It's really fun to write about? I asked Russell Barnes, wtio knows the house well, the other day, "Is there a picturesque or Interesting or outstanding figure In the house?" lie thought a long time, "Well," he replied, "there's So-and-So (I've forgotten his name already), who wears his hair a little longer than most people do." Why, I can't even think of a big man like Ollle James or Boles Penrose. It seems as if the collective will to make everybody exactly ex-actly alike was even exercising its effect ef-fect upon the pituitary glands. There isn't a really fat man so far as I know. Of course, there Is Jim Reed wlio Is a personality. But I'm going to tell j him right now that Jim Reed will pay 1 for his personality' by not being nominated nomi-nated for the presidency. Caraway has a quaint, savorsome backwoods-ness backwoods-ness about hhn. Arkansas Is the last outpost of Individuality. |
