Conventionale

Odds. In Wall Street bets were laid at 2-to-one and 5-1:0-2 that Hoover would beat Smith (if nominated). Odds that Smith would be nominated fell from 9-to-i to 7-tp-i.

Smith. At a certain moment, last week, Alfred Emanuel Smith said: "Well, he ought not to be so hard to beat."

Moses. After the Curtis nomination, Senator Moses said: "That makes me the next chairman of the Senate Rules Committee."*

Reed. Senator James A. Reed of Missouri, hard-bitten silver-topped Democrat, was in Kansas City during the G. O. P.'s convention. Asked why, he drawled: "To bring up the average." He began denouncing at once. The G. O. P. platform, he said, was a "miserable straddle on everything."

Mellon. A man in the convention press-stand sitting next to H. L. Mencken turned around and said: "I saw Mellon sweating!" "Blood from a turnip!" replied H. L. Mencken.

Rogers. Chewing gum constantly, smiling professionally, Will Rogers spent the week dining out; playing polo with Fred Harvey whose team the Rogers' team of California cowboys could handily trounce; addressing knots of bystanders who collected about him. He bought a new suit (brown) in Kansas City.

Mrs. McCormick. Prior to the convention, the most conspicuous woman in Kansas City was Mrs. Ruth Hanna McCormick. She rooster-boosted for Candidate Lowden gamely. It was so apparent that her candidate had no chance, that Correspondent J. Herman Seidlitz of the New York World smartcracked:

"The widow McCormick is supposed to be the brains of the movement against Hoover. They are calling her Joan of Arc, but that is all wrong because Joan of Arc had a white horse and Mrs. McCormick hasn't even got a dark one."

Pun. Hooverite Henry J. Allen, onetime (1919-23) governor of Kansas, made a Pun for Mrs. Ruth McCormick. He said: "Your only objection to the ruthless steamroller, Ruth, is that this time it is indeed Ruth-less."

Willebrandt. The most conspicuous woman in Kansas City after the Convention began was Assistant U. S. Attorney General (Mrs.) Mabel Walker Willebrandt. Young-looking, shapely, smartly dressed, full of vitality, she took the rostrum early to report for the Committee on Credentials, of which she was chairman. She spoke in a strong voice, got tangled up on some state names but finished with plenty of stingo. She got an ovation. Later, during the Hoover demonstrations she jubilated near the platform in an evening gown with orchids quivering on the shoulder-strap. Mrs. Willebrandt, a Los Angeles lawyer, used to teach school. Her husband, much older than herself, is an invalid. She has an adopted daughter, five, and intends to adopt a small boy. Many a forecaster said that if there is a President Hoover, his Attorney General will be Mrs. Willebrandt, the first woman cabinet officer. Her duties in the past few years have included the federal prosecution of Volstead Act violations.

Walb. A passage in the Watson-nominating speech by Representative Wood from Indiana caused titters in the audience. Mr. Wood declared that Indiana's politics had received national attention lately, were conspicuous. While in Kansas City, several of the Indiana delegates took the opportunity of motoring 27 miles across country to the Federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, to visit Clyde A. Walb, Indiana's last Republican State chairman, who was convicted this spring of a banking felony.

"That Strange Man." Correspondent Edwin C. Hill of the New York Sun drew out Senator Borah on many subjects in an interview. On the subject of President Coolidge, the Senator said: "Mr. Hoover was plainly puzzled and perhaps a little vexed by the President's persistent silence . . . that strange man in the White House locked fast his mind and nobody could get into it ... one of the important members of the Cabinet came to me and said: 'Borah, I wish you would go and see the President . . . for heaven's sake and get from him what he is really going to do. . . .' I told him . . . that I would just as soon go ask a maiden lady what her real age was. ..." Interviewer Hill asked: "Senator, after so many years are you to be ranked now as a regular?" Borah: "No, I'm too old to change. . ." Interviewer: "Still the lone wolf, eh?" Borah: "You can call it that."

-* Most potent Senate Committee. Its chairmanship also implies leadership of the majority party in the Senate.

* *Most potent Senate Committee. Its chair manship also implies leadership of the majority party in the Senate.