Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 14.djvu/149

Rh and action were under the inspiration of independence. He could never have subordinated himself to the severely partisan method of doing things and he would never have made compromises or have entered into bargains. In the senate I think he would have been strong, brilliant, forceful but eccentric and I fear, as regards what are called working results, an impotent figure. Success in the senate is attained by methods wholly outside the lines of his genius and propensity of his habit and his sense of propriety. Mr. Scott often remarked when efforts were made to stimulate in him the spirit of political ambition that he would not "step down" from the editorship of The Oregonian into the United States senate. And this was no boast; for the editorship of The Oregonian as it was carried by Mr. Scott was truly a higher place, a place of wider responsibilities and of larger powers than any official place possibly attainable by a man geographically placed as Mr. Scott was.

All who, like myself, shared in the advantages of close association with Mr. Scott are fond of recalling a thousand trivialities which, small though they are, illustrate certain aspects of his character. No man was ever more scrupulous in all the essentials of personal habit; yet he had always a certain indifference to appearances. When free from domestic discipline that is, during the absences of his family from home he was wont to be exceedingly careless about his dress. Now and again one of us would remind him that he ought to get a fresh suit of clothes. Once in response to this kind of suggestion he appeared brand new from crown to sole and obviously conscious of the quite radical change. "How does this suit you?" he asked as he paused in my doorway. It happened to be at a time when waistcoats were cut high, barely exhibiting the collar and an inch of necktie. But the waistcoat of this new suit was extremely low. "Why," I replied, "hasn't your tailor cut that vest a little low?" "Well," he replied as he sought with a characteristic movement to get it into its proper place, "I thought it seemed a bit low, and I remarked it to the man, but he insisted, and this is what I got. I sup-