Death of Curtis

In Washington last week, where he had been obscurely practicing law since 1933, a heart attack brought death at 76 to one of the few men who ever genuinely enjoyed being Vice President of the U. S. For 36 years his colleagues in House and Senate knew Kansas' Charles Curtis not only as a modest, hardworking, ultraconservative, non-speechmaking Republican wheelhorse, but as a friendly, back-slapping good fellow, a crack poker player and lover of horse races.

The office which he won as Herbert Hoover's running-mate in 1928 overwhelmed this onetime jockey and grandson of a Kaw Indian with a vast new selfimportance. He presided over the Senate with imposing dignity, began making dull speeches on all public occasions. Punctilious in his role as the Capital's No. 1 diner-out, he allowed his exuberant half-sister and official hostess to make a finish fight of her war for social precedence with the Speaker's lady, Alice Roosevelt Longworth. "Call me Mr. Vice President," he commanded his oldtime friends.

Last week plain "Charlie" Curtis still had a warm place in those friends' hearts. As for a niche in U. S. history, his best chance seemed to be by reason of the facts that he had been: 1) the first man of Indian blood to become Vice President; 2) the half-brother of Dolly Curtis Gann,

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