RANA GERUMP SAYS 



259 



The World is Full of Interesting 

 People. 



During' one's travels deeper and 

 deeper becomes the impression that 

 fine people are everywhere. But 

 occasionally he discovers fineness of 

 an unusual character. In the southern 

 part of Indiana, in Tell City, of which 

 not many easterners have ever heard 

 I recently had the pleasure of meeting 

 a big-bodied, big-souled and whole- 

 hearted man who is not only good but 

 good for something'. He is at the head 

 of one of the largest chair manufac- 

 tories of the city. He sells thousands 

 of chairs every year, of a pattern not 

 known in the East. For a reason to 

 me unknown the sales are almost 

 wholly in the West and South. The 

 frame is formed of round sticks, and 

 the seat of splint. The man who sells 

 these chairs has a name as small as 

 he is big. It contains only four let- 

 ters, F-e-n-n. It would not be nec- 

 essary to put anything else on our let- 

 ters to him, because there is only one 

 Fenn, but occasionally, 011 formal 

 occasions, we put Albert P. in front 

 of it. I do not know when I have met 

 so perfect an example of "a jolly good 

 fellow," so whole-hearted, so kindly in 

 spirit, so jocose by nature, and yet so 

 thoroughly efficient. To me on my 

 first acquaintance he appealed as an 

 unusual type of man. He seemed so 

 jolly, so kindly disposed and his phy- 

 sique is so huge that it made even the 

 writer take second place, and the 

 writer is not a small man. When I ex- 

 pressed my admiration to some of his 

 friends, they said, "You have seen only 

 one phase of him. When he gets into 

 politics he is a born fighter." Then my 

 admiration slid up the scale for at 

 least thirty degrees. Any man who 

 stands for principles that he thinks are 

 worth while must fight for them. The 

 trouble with some men is that they are 

 like the father who told his boy when 

 the boy asked to be paid for doing 

 something good, "See here, son, prin- 

 ciple is worth more than money. You 

 want pay for doing good, while all my 

 life I have made it a rule to be good 

 for nothing." 



When you meet a man who is really 

 good, worthy, respect for him in- 

 creases when you find that he is a born 

 fighter along legitimate lines. Some 



things must be had by fighting, others 

 are obtainable only by loving. Every- 

 body in Tell City appreciates Mr. 

 Fenn. Nothing that the writer can 

 say will add to his honor there. Mr. 

 Fenn is possessed of comfortable sup- 

 ply of this world's goods, but he is- rich 

 in better things, for he has drawn 

 everybody to him, except perhaps some 

 stray mortal whom you find in every 

 community who misunderstands the 

 strong man. He is always eager and 

 waiting to help a fellow being and nev- 

 er too busy to do it. He will perhaps 

 be the most astonished man in all In- 

 diana when he sees this laudation in 

 type. My acquaintance with him was 

 for only a short time, but long enough 

 to convince me that he is the type of 

 man that should be plentiful in every 

 place on earth. Many times I was told 

 that he would stop in the rush of his 

 business to do a kind or a charitable 

 act, or to speak a word of encourage- 

 ment. Everybody appreciates a kind 

 word, but most local publishers wait 

 until a public-spirited man like Mr. 

 Fenn is dead before they speak such 

 words. In Tell City everbody takes 

 Mr. Fenn's kindness as naturally and 

 thoughtlessly as they accept the sun- 

 shine. They have always known it. 

 so they seldom speak about it, but even 

 the sunshine should be commended at 

 times. We want to express our thanks 

 for the existence of such a man before 

 the man dies as we suppose he must, 

 although we hope he won't. We 

 should like to be present when he reads 

 these paragraphs, and hear him say: 

 "I declare, I would like to know what 

 possessed that Connecticut Yankee to 

 say such things about me." 



'The Journal of Heredity" for Sep- 

 tember has a short note on an oak 

 (Quercus insignis), which the United 

 States Department of Agriculture is 

 introducing into this country. The 

 tree, which is native to Mexico, grows 

 rapidly, attains a height of eighty feet, 

 and bears abundant, edible acorns that 

 are often two and a half inches in di- 

 ameter and weigh more than two 

 ounces apiece. It is hoped that, either 

 by introducing this oak directly, or by 

 grafting it on our native oaks, or by hy- 

 bridizing with them, a cheap and valu- 

 able food for stock may become avail- 

 able. 



