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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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Q:

Was Byrnes the kind of man who would assume, as so many Southerners do, that they're good judges of women, liquor, horses and men - just because they were born in the South?

Perkins:

No, because you see, he's not a Southerner, he's an Irishman. He was a Southern immigrant. He was brought up in the South. He was brought up in Charleston - not Charleston, he was brought up in Columbia. I know the kind you mean - no, he's not that kind. He's too Irish for that. He's got too much Irish in him, and he's got too much of his Irish mother who earned nor living by the sweat of her brow after the old man died. You can compare him to the New York Irish who have succeeded, who were on the make and came up in the world. I mean, he's go that quick-witted broth of a boy attitude, and that quick-witted judgment of things. He'll make a judgment that people will accept. Expedient is the word - yes. They'll all accept it, particularly if he talks about it, dresses it up pretty, you know, and it doesn't appear what it is.

But that isn't to say that he doesn't have his sober side too. He has a pretty good mind, pretty good equipment, but he isn't very well educated, you see. Hasn't had much education. He went to work when he was very young. Then he went to night school to learn stenography, and then he got





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