The Star And Newark Advertiser

"Big Bill" Taft
All St.
Bald Spot Fascinates Interviewer as She Watches Him Address Throng.

SENATOR ALDEN SMITH
SINGS LEADER'S PRAISES

Declares He Takes with Women Wherever He Goes All Over Country.

BY ADELINE STANLEY CARRICK.

BIGNESS, very big bigness, topped off by a round, genial face with an iron gray mustache and a pair of twinkling, small, gray eyes.

This is William Howard Taft, Republican candidate for President. I make a motion, Mr. Chairman, that if Mr. Taft gets elected the presidential chair be strengthened by iron rods, so affixed as to support great weight. This country cannot afford a President who is liable to fall down, even upon the capitol floor.

Enthusiasm is a peculiar thing. It lifts a mob out of itself wholly and completely; makes a man forget his opinions, even his ideas, and cheer with the rest; causes sentimental people to weep, and carries everybody on to an emotional outburst.

There was a burst of such enthusiasm when "Big Bill" entered Blaney's Theatre this morning, by the stage door, attended by worshipful dignitaries, big and little, though they all looked little compared to him.

He's used to welcomes, evidently. He waved his big right arm in a ponderous salute, took a drink of water, advanced to the front of the platform and began. There's nothing like system, even in a political campaign. One learns not to waste time. Well, like all the rest, Mr. Taft opened his remarks by announcing that he had been in Newark before and how much he liked it. All candidates love their country—before election—especially that part of it in which they are scheduled to speak. Hence, "Big Bill's" opportune expression of admiration for this excitable city.

Of a truth that man is "a size," as Samanthy Allen would put it. He just filled up the space reserved for him to speak. Hands clasped behind his back, he said what he had to say, and no more, occasionally wiping his forehead and brushing back his curly gray hair with an immense white handkerchief. He's a modest man, for his dark gray suit was adorned by no button of himself, though he faced a couple of dozen lithographs labeled with his name, whose main object evidently was to show how he didn't look. A sober garnet tie ambled down his corpulent chest to meet his waistcoat, across which was strung a little gold chain, his only ornament. His feet are long, and his toes turn up like those of the orator in "Tom Sawyer."

Beaten By a "Purp."

A little fox terrier, evidently a Democrat, upset one of "Big Bill's" theories completely by advancing to the front of the platform, and yelping with all the strength of his doggy lungs. Mr. Taft tried to continue, and so did the dog. It was a contest, and the dog won. Mr. Taft paused, declared he just knew that was not a Democratic dog, and the dog maintained that he was by yelping some more and capering around in wild circles, which performance was put to a sudden end when the "purp" was unceremoniously seized by the nape of the neck and assigned to oblivion. He got the hook. Then Taft went on.

I sat just a little distance behind him and memorized his little round bald spot so well that I'd know it among a hundred. As he waxed eloquent it grew pinker and pinker, and his hair grew curlier and curlier with each access of perspiration.

I chatted in whispers to Senator William Alden Smith, of Michigan, who has accompanied Mr. Taft all over the ground and who thinks the sun rises and sets on "Big Bill." Now that I come to think of it, the sun couldn't very well do anything else. It would be pretty hard to get past "Big Bill" if he was on the horizon.

"Ah, Mr. Taft is magnificent," exclaimed Mr. Smith, with fervor: "the whole country is very much in love with him. He's as big-hearted and full-blooded as he is big in size, and he is frankness itself. You should have seen his Southern audiences. He created a triumph down there.

"You know," Mr. Smith continued, "the committee did not want Taft to go South, but he insisted upon it; said he did not want to be President of half his country. He went down, and won. He had an audience of ten thousand right in Richmond, composed of the elite of that Democratic city."

Candidate No Egotist.

"Is Mr. Taft at all egotistical?" I asked.

"Not a bit. He's too simple-hearted. Everybody likes him. It is nothing short of wonderful, the number of women he attracts to his meetings. Why, look out there!" I looked into the audience, and fully one-fourth of those present were women.

"Isn't it dreadful to think that women cannot vote?" I said with a grin.

Mr. Smith laughed.

"But every woman has a husband or a sweetheart or even a brother," said he, "and she has what counts tremendously, influence."

There's something in that, but I know a great many impressionable women who entirely agree with every candidate they hear, be he Democrat or Republican, Socialist or "New Idea."

"Taft made twenty speeches in one day, down South," remarked Mr. Smith. "I was with him and made fifteen. It is small wonder that his voice is almost played out."

Truly, Mr. Taft was hoarse. At times he could hardly hear himself speak.

Pretty soon the speech ended. The ponderous arm went up in a salute and "Big Bill" unceremoniously said "Good-bye," and turned on his heel.

But first he was introduced to me. Mr. Smith had the pleasure of performing the introduction. My hand was lost in "Big Bill's," not because mine is so small, but because his is so tremendous.

He said he was pleased to meet me, and I remarked, with great originality, forgetting the bright speech I had been rehearsing, that the pleasure was mine.

"How did you like your day in the White House as 'boss'?" I asked.

"Big Bill" laughed. "It was all right," said he. "I enjoyed it immensely."

"Would it take you very long to become acclimated?"

"I don't think so," boomed the big voice, and then the worshipful dignitaries were upon us, each one endeavoring to shake hands—with "Big Bill," I might add, not with me.

Some of the little dignitaries got no chance at all. I mean the little in size, but only a few were slighted. Mr. Taft's arm worked like a pump-handle until he reached the extra strong automobile that was waiting to take him to the extra strong train.

"Big Bill" Allows He Doesn't Feel at All Strange in the White House

Adeline Stanley Carrick Is Impressed by Candidate's All-Around Bigness.

WASTES NO MOVES AND
IS BRIEF IN SPEECH

Like All Seeking Election, Says He Likes City and Has Been Here Before.