Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 May 1899 — Tom Reed's Double. [ARTICLE]

Tom Reed's Double.

Tom Reed has a double. The General and I were riding from New York to Boston in the smoking compartment of the Bay State Limited. Enter the double. He sat opposite, smoked a good cigar, and when we ordered refreshment followed suit. At New Haven he inquired, “What place is this, sir?” I told him, and the conversation was started—as usual under such circurastances. When we had gotten warmed together I said that he reminded me of an old friend. He laughed. “You mean Speaker Reed?” he said. **l have never met him. The other day I visited Washington and was arrested in Pennsylvania avenue by a man wh<. took me by the hand and exclaimed: 'Why. how are you, Mr. Speaker? When did you get backT 1 informed him that he had made a mistake; that I was not tbe Speaker. ‘Oh. you can't fool me, Tom,' he continued. ‘What's the matter? Up to some quiet game?’ I had the hardest kind of work convincing him I was not Mr. Reed. Since coming East I have had scores of people to point me out as the big man from Mttine.”