HISTORICAL NOTES: Of Men & Cats

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In the third installment of his memoirs in Collier's, ex-Vice President John Nance Garner revealed that:

¶ He was delighted when John L. Lewis called him (in 1939) "a labor-baiting, poker-playing, whiskey-drinking, evil old man" because "the majority of people will feel that anyone Lewis can't control is all right."

¶ When a 1939 poll showed him leading the field of possible Democratic presidential candidates (in case F.D.R. did not run), "[Roosevelt] quit inviting me for luncheons at his desk."

¶ The late Harry Hopkins once told him: "I would like to be President."

In the 27th installment of his memoirs in the New York Times, Cordell Hull told a homy story about his wartime (1943) flight to Moscow. It was the first time he had ever been in an airplane, and he was being shown the emergency escape panels in case the craft had to come down on water. Related Hull: "The fact of several exits reminded me of the old gentleman in Tennessee who kept three cats. A friend, visiting him one day, noticed three large semicircular holes cut in ... the front door. 'What are those for?' he asked. 'To let my cats out,' was the reply. 'But why won't one hole do them?' 'Because,' the old gentleman retorted emphatically, 'when I say Scat! I mean Scat!' '