Joseph “Uncle Joe” Cannon illustrates to guests at a Republican National Convention banquet how toothpicks can stand in for buttons on suspenders. During his nearly 50 years in the House, the legendary Cannon served as chairman of the Rules, Appropriations, and Expenditures in the Post Office Department Committees, as well as Speaker of the House, and was a gleefully irreverent figure for his entire service, calling himself “the hayseed from Illinois.”