502 TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 



tion. It just seems as though I can hardly realize the change that 

 has taken place in the brief space of time. 



I am going to tell a little story on the Secretary. I had asso- 

 ciated with the Secretary for so long that really I thought he had 

 almost an infallible judgment in selecting men for any place; 

 that he knew men so well that he could not make a mistake. 

 But somehow, I confess, I got jolted along that line last summer 

 when I was down in Washington one time. Mr. Cunningham and 

 I happened to be down there on some business and of course we 

 wanted to see the Secretary. He pretended that he wanted to see 

 us, and I guess he did. So he invited us to his home one evening 

 and we had a nice visit and just about the time we were taking 

 our leave he said, ''Boys, wouldn't you like to take a ride over 

 the city tomorrow?" That was Sunday. I don't know, the Sec- 

 retary used to go to church out here on Cottage Grove when I 

 used to live in Des Moines. I don't know whether he does in 

 Washington or not. But he really asked us to take a drive over 

 the city of Washington that Sunday morning, and of course we 

 were glad to accept the invitation. He said, "I will send my car 

 around for you to the hotel and will pick you up in the morning 

 at about such and such a time." 



So, sure enough, here came the Secretary's car and the chauf- 

 feur called us up and we came down, and the Secretary wasn't 

 there. Of course we inquired where the Secretary was and the 

 chauffeur said that he wanted to see us a few minutes over at his 

 office. So we proceeded to drive over to the office and were there 

 informed that he had an important matter to take up with one of 

 his bureau chiefs and that he was trying to get hold of him on the 

 phone ; it was a matter that he had to look after at once, and that 

 he would just turn us over to the chauffeur and he would give us 

 the drive, as he would have to wait there at the office. So he did 

 so. He told the chauffeur some of the points that he wanted him 

 to take us around to, and among other places was the old Sol- 

 diers' Home. Of course we were very much pleased. 



By the way, the chauffeur was a colored gentleman, a splendid 

 fellow, too, a high class chap, and he could drive an automobile. 

 He drove us around and he pointed out the various places of in- 

 terest to us, and we came to the Old Soldiers' Home and he was 

 telling us of this and that, and in regard to what had happened 

 there and who was there, and all those things. And he drove 

 down a certain street or lane through a sort of a farm or pas- 

 ture, and there was a fine herd of dairy cows just off to our right. 



