On the Hunt

In Uvalde, Texas, chunky John Nance Garner took inquisitive Cartoonist Reg Manning, of the Phoenix Arizona Republic, into the chicken yard behind his buff-brick house, pointed a stubby finger at his fowls (that come a-running when he calls), said: "If I am called, I will run."

Few days later, the Vice President decided he had been called. It was the coldest day of the year: South Texas hunters knew deer would be running by the next dawn. While Lucas Zamora, the Mexican yard man, hung precariously in the tops of the live oaks, hacking out deadwood, and "Bertie," the cook, bustled about the kitchen "fixin' company dinner"; while Mrs. Ettie Garner tended her correspondence in the little office-house in the back yard; in the Garner garage Uvalde's garageman, Ross Brumfield, for 20 years the "Boss's" hunting companion, stowed away hunting gear in Mr. Garner's 1926 Chevrolet roadster--only car the wealthy banker-cattleman owns.

On cane chairs and a sofa in the bright-colored little sunroom, where Mr. and

Mrs. Garner wage war at rummy, sat the Vice President and the "company," well-groomed Roy Miller (well-to-do sulfur man), R. W. Norton, ranch owner and Texas oilman, and cigar-crunching Newshawk Bascom Timmons, Washington correspondent for ten Southern papers, longtime friend of Mr. Garner.

At 11:30 a.m.--the Garners eat dinner at noon in Uvalde--Mr. Garner snapped his chopper-chin up & down on 44 words:

"I will accept the nomination for President. I will make no effort to control any delegates. The people should decide. The candidate should be selected at primaries and convention as provided by law, and I sincerely trust that all Democrats will participate in them."

Then John Garner and Ross Brumfield piled into the old jalopy, headed it for the 26,000-acre Garner ranch in Webb County.

Said Mrs. Garner: "They're hunting deer as usual. [But] I'm hoping they'll bring back a turkey."

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