HISTORY OF THE PICTURE THAT ELECTED HERMANN TO CONGRESS.
One of the most brazen efforts to gain cheap notoriety ever recorded is portrayed in the illustration, revealing President Roosevelt in the act of delivering- a rear-platform speech, with Binger Hermann, the disgraced former Land Commissioner, standing complacently by his side, as if ordained to assist in courting the plaudits of the multitude.
Those unfamiliar with the relations existing between the two at the time would very naturally assume that the Ex-Commmissioner of the General Land Office was the favored companion of the President upon this auspicious occasion, and that the Chief Executive found an affinity-like pleasure in his presence. As a matter of fact, he was simply a skeleton at the feast, and had appeared unbidden upon the scene at a moment when the photographer for a local newspaper was about to snap his camera.
During President Roosevelt's tour of the West in the Spring of 1903, his itinerary included a visit to Portland, Oregon, and by some unexplained hocus-pocus, Hermann, who resides at Roseburg, in the southern part of the State, and was a candidate upon the Republican ticket for representative from the First Congressional District of Oregon, had smuggled himself on board the Presidential train, and with an exhibition of that rare quality of pure and unadulterated audacity that has invariably been the Ex-Land Commissioner's principal stock in trade, had ensconsed himself in the private car of Mr. Roosevelt, who, but a short time previously, had unceremoniously ousted Hermann from office on account of his crooked transactions.
As the train moved into the depot at Portland, a vast concourse of citizens had assembled to pay its respects to the distinguished visitor, and, in response to the popular demand, the President appeared upon the rear platform and proceeded to deliver one of his characteristic addresses. At this juncture, H. M. Smith, a member of the art department of the Evening Telegram, set his camera in position, with a view of taking an interesting scene. The arrangements of the photographer were not lost to the eagle eyes of Mr. Hermann, who discerned in the situation a golden opportunity for retrieving his rapidly fading political fortunes.
With an acumen worthy of a better cause, Hermann timed his arrival coincident with the photographer's operations, and the two men are shown as if on terms of the utmost intimacy.
Not content with the veneering of fame thus obtained, Hermann had enlarged copies of the picture circulated broadcast throughout his Congressional District, with the result that he was triumphantly elected, as President Roosevelt has always been such a popular idol in the Oregon country that Hermann's constituents were under the impression they were doing the Chief Executive a personal favor by sending the deposed Land Commissioner to a seat in the legislative halls of the nation; general publicity to the reasons for his removal from office not having been given at this time.
Hermann's connection with the incident mentioned, is on a par with his conduct at the time he first appeared before the Federal Grand Jury of Oregon that returned indictments against him afterward. He had been called to give testimony in his own behalf in one of the several cases under consideration against himself, and as Hermann entered the Grand Jury room, he threw his right arm familiarly over the shoulders of Special Assistant Heney, who preceded him, as if the latter were his bosom companion, and in this manner stalked majestically into the presence of the inquisitorial body, much to Heney's unconcealed disgust. In fact, the most plausible explanation as to why the Ex-Land Commissioner refrained from maintaining a continuous loving embrace of the Government prosecutor throughout the entire proceedings exists in the belief that the rear portion of Heney's neck was becoming too warm for further comfort.Page 387
