In 1926, my dad's dad, my Grandpa Judge, ran for Attorney General of Kansas. He was Assistant Attorney General at the time and was a good friend of William Allen White, the newspaper publisher from Emporia.
Before the Republican primary (that's right, folks, my grandpa was a Republican, but he was the good kind. The kind that is really a Democrat. A voice for the poor, the working class, the disenfranchised. That was my grandpa.), he got this letter from William Allen White.
On August 3, 1926, William Allen White wrote my grandpa, and my brother framed the letter and gave it to my dad. Somehow I ended up with it.
Here's what it said
"Dear Bill Smith:
The show is closed, the tents down, and the performance goes to the next town. I want you to know that the Kansas newspapers have been particlarly generous in printing my stuff about you, and a dozen of them have taken three articles which were as convincing as I could make them. Win or lose, I am proud to be with you but I think you have got a fair chance to win. You don't owe me a thing on earth, least of all gratitude.
If you are elected, go ahead, make the best attorney general you know how, and if you are defeated, shake hands with yourself and thank God you are a free man.
Sincerely,
W.A. White"
The letter was addressed to "Captain W.A. Smith". Grandpa Judge was in the Kansas National Guard and was a captain.
I love this letter.
Many, many times, I have decided to shake hands with myself and thank God I am free. And I remember White's words as each polictical campaign ends: The show is closed, the tents down and the performance goes to the next town.
Kansas is Kansas because of my family.
Well, not the Kansas of today. The Kansas of today is screwed up. And my grandpa would be pissed.
Seriously pissed.
