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The lights at "Shady Oaks," the comfortable country place on Lake Worth where Publisher Carter & wife do much of their entertaining, generally burn far into the night. The tall, lusty host never serves beer because he dislikes it, but there is always an abundance of Texas corn and Scotch, his favorite drinks, which he usually takes neat. Here the Farley party, joined by Funnyman Will Rogers, was welcomed.
Mr. Carter's generosity as a contributing Democrat is only equalled by his enthusiasm for the cause and, perhaps, by his ambition to hold office. He takes his politics with the same gusto that he plays bridge (he is an expert) and patronizes sport (he goes to all big fights, baseball, football, polo games in his airplane). At Houston in 1928 he threatened to beat up Rev. J. Frank Norris, a Protestant preacher acquitted of murder, who opposed the Presidential nomination of Catholic Al Smith. When Smith was nominated, Amon Carter's exuberance knew no bounds. In his exhilaration he shot his six-gun through the door of an elevator in the Rice Hotel. Last year he was an early passenger on the Roosevelt bandwagon, now supervises Texas patronage distribution. He sends long night letters to President Roosevelt at least twice a week. Once in a while sleepy telegraph operators at Fort Worth are roused late at night with a message back from the White House to Publisher Carter. The political bickering at "Shady Oaks" lasted long after Vice President Garner retired at 10 p. m., a whole hour later than his accustomed bedtime.
The Fergusons were placed on Postmaster General Farley's right at the Dallas banquet next night, so Amon Carter sat at the press table. The itinerant politicians went on to San Antonio, Houston, Uvalde (the Garner home town), saw a rodeo on a border ranch, then headed back to Washington. That, thought some of Amon Carter's friends, was where Amon Carter wished he were going, on official business.