Dawes Insulted

Riding forth in a shiny automobile on Independence Day went Vice President Charles Gates Dawes. It was in his own home town of Evanston, Ill. It was a parade. Beside Mr. Dawes in the front motor sat Evanston's Mayor Charles H. Bartlett. Each was going to make a patriotic speech. There was a holiday atmosphere in the air. The parade was following them. There would be a crowd at the gathering place in an Evanston park. The dignitaries paid small attention to passing motors full of citizens with golf clubs, bathing suits, pop bottles, eyeshades, shirt sleeves. It was Independence Day. They were going to make speeches.

But at the park, the parade behind the Vice-Presidential motor proved to be incredibly small. All told the audience that assembled numbered scarcely 200. The Evanstonians had, apparently, slipped off golfing, bathing, picknicking, rubbernecking that day, or were all sleeping late. The Vice President was vexed, and Mayor Bartlett, too. They scowled at the paltry assemblage, left the speakers' stand without a syllable, drove home.