CHAMP CLAEK By Wallace D. Bassfokd a the seventh day of March, 1850, Webster — * ' Daniel the Godlike ' ' — rose in his place in the Senate and de- livered a great oration, destined to live in history, in literature, and on the tongues of men. That surpassing effort has always been and ever will be known as **the seventh of March speech. ' ' On that same eventful day was bom down in the hill-country in Kentucky a blue-eyed, flaxen-haired man child destined to play a great part in the history of his country and to hold an abiding place in the hearts of his countrymen, loved by millions, trusted by his most active opponents, re- spected even by his enemies. This child was named James Beauchamp Clark, for his grandfather. Judge James Beau- champ. One of the first marked evidences of the fine decision and vigor of his character occurred when he was but a youth, when, with the remark that ' ^ one 's name is his personal prop- erty, and he has as much right to change it as he has to have his hair cut,'* he sliced off the first part, leaving it plain Champ Clark. As full of character and human interest as an ^gg is of meat, it is unfortunate that no modem Boswell has lingered lovingly at Clark's heels, with pencil and note-book ready to jot down each mot^ each characteristic utterance or anecdote that might give future generations a true insight into this big man's real character. The parent stock from England, transplanted in turn from Virginia to Kentucky, found there a fertile field for its perfect development. It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that there is no spot in the westem hemisphere of like population that has produced as many public men of equal eminence and at- tainments as the section of which Lexington, Kentucky, is the center. The mention of a few names will call to mind many others of equal or approaching calibre. This region produced Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis — the rival presidents
