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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 143, 4 November 1912, Page 4

PRESIDENTIAL PERSONALITIES. A writer in the World's Work compares the three Presidential candidates in ar. entertaining and somewhat unusual manner. Their educational accomplishments are first reviewed. Dr. Wilson graduated at Princeton forty-first in a class of one hundred and twenty-one. Mr. Taft graduated at Yale, second in a class of one hundred and twenty-one. Mr. Roosevelt took his degree at Harvard with honors in natural history, and held for a short while the light-weight boxing championship. Wilson has had eighteen months in public office, Roosevelt eighteen years, Taft twenty-one years, Taft is fat, Wilson is lean, Roosevelt is muscular. Taft "waltzes divinely," Roosevelt is "no fairy on his feet," and Wilson's one attempt at a cake-walk was accompanied by almost fatal results to a small audience. Taft drosses well, almost "flashily," Wilson dresses quietly and carefully, generally in grey, while Roosevelt is '"'distinctly slouchy" in his attire. All three are lilue-eyed. Taft plays golf and is an enthusiastic baseball "rooter," Wilson was told at college he would make a baseball player if he were not so "damned lazy," and Roosevelt's sport is "killing things." All three are abstemious men, though the rumor that Roosevelt drinks will probably never die, for his demeanor and actions are so frequently those commonly exhibited by an intoxicated man. All three are fond of merriment, and all three are good jokers. Wilson laughs but seldom, but lie has always a read}' smile for <a clever word an original turn of thought or an oddity or whimsicality. Taft likes his jokes "good and strong." but Roosevelt, although a master of vituperation, never crosses the line of conventional modesty: Taft and Wilson receive callers courteously, and listen attentively to what they have to say. Roosevelt never listened to anyone in his life. It is a very lucky visitor who has a chance "to get a word in edgewise" with Roosevelt. Taft can get irritated over trifles. Wilson pays attention to little details, but does not permit them to annoy him. Roosevelt's life contains no little things. There can be no little thing if it affects Roosevelt. It is at once a crime against high heaven. Dealing with opponents, Roosevelt storms, Taft jests and Wilson reasons sympathetically. Roosevelt is the best advertiser and Wilson appreciates the value of advertisement, but Taft, who, by the way, is the only one of the three who ever worked on a newspaper, has a contempt for publicity and popularity.