Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 73, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 March 1912 — “Woman from Wolverton” [ARTICLE]

“Woman from Wolverton”

Wife of a Congressman Relates Her Experience in Official Life at Waahington. Washington.— Put a plain, simple, honest little woman from the west into the whirl of officialdom at Washington, photograph her thoughts and impressions of it all, and .you get -an unprejudiced view of the lives our national law-makers and statesmen lead at the national capital. Isabel Gordon Curtis has accomplished the photographic process, and in her book, “The Woman From Wolverton,” -she presents a vivid picture-of "Washington life as it is rather than as we usually hear of it -i—Wolverton is a village of the fer west and the woman Is Mrs. Lemuel Shlpe, whose husband has been elect ed to congress. Plain, simple, homeloving people, they go to the capital city all ignorant of Its customs and manners, and many a heart-ache comes to the lovable little woman despite her courage, education and inborn gentility. She tells her own story, with a keen sense of humor when dealing with the female snobs who sought to squelch her and the grafters who sometimes got the better of her, and with real pathos when relating such incidents as the visit from old Uncle Si, the worsMpper of Lincoln's memory, or the death of Mrs. Daggett, who had done so modi to make her life there endurable. Lemuel once called his wife “a congressman’s conscience,” and that is the key to a number of for the little woman In her simple hon-

esty could not comprehend the tortuous ways of politics, or when all* did comprehend them, could not tolerate them. So with gentleness she steered Lemuel out of some complications that would have been troubling memories. Through a trying but successful campaign for his reelection she gave him invaluable aid, and proved that they had lost no vrhit of the affection and esteem of the home town folk, and when, two years later Lemuel was dereated, the entire population of the village met them at the station, with a band playing that they had indeed conquered though they had. lost