The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-04-14
j. s. COXEY'S COUSIN.
The Celebrated Crank's Near Rel
alive in Topeka Today.
he TELLS INTERESTING THINGS
About the Character of His Now Fa-
nous relationships COxey is Worth
G.lSO ARO

About the Character of His Now Ea-
nous Relationships COxey is Worth
$25O.OOO.
A cousin of J. S. Coxey, the comman-
der of the Commonweal army, is in To-
peka today, in the person of w. d. Coxey,
the press agent of Ringing Brothers
circus which will show here next month.
Mr.. Coxey is staying at the Chesterfield
hotel, and was seen today by a JOURNAL
reporter.
Mr.. Coxey is a pleasant gentleman with
light gray eyes smooth face and good
clothes. He has more the appearance of
minister than a nearrelative to a IA
nous crank. He talked entertainingly
about his notorious relative.
sour relation as l understand it, is that
my grandfather and Coxey's father were
brothers. He is my fathers first cousin.
l know him well and l have visited at
his house in MassiIlon a great many
times, but the last time was two years
ago.
s'Our family is an old English one and
our characteristic has been conservatism.
They have all been strict hard-shell
Baptists, and Jerry is the only crank L
have known in our whole list of
relatives. l really do not know
what to think of his Common
veal idea. 1t is visionary and can
result in no good, and there is no telling
how much bad may came from it. Kelly
and Frye all claim they are not con-
nected in any way with Coxey's army,
but if they all get there, even few
thousand of them, the results are liable
to be disastrous. The prisons are not big
enough to hold them, and the men will
steal before they will starve.
"When Coxey first started out thought
he was trying to get nOtoriety SO that
he could secure the Populist nomination
for governor of Ohio. Then / thought
he was doing it to advertise his horse
| business l will tell you a fact that
] hasn't been printed before. Jerry gets
| about a thousand letters a day. now.
When he replies to one from person he
has reasons for thinking has lots of
money, he always incloses a price list of
| his horses.
II asked Jerry's sister who lives in
/ Philadelphia few days ago what she
thought of her brothers commonweal
| idea, and she said, Il think he has
wheels He is the most remarkable
member of our family. He had been as
/ ISOLATED with his father in business but
| few years ago they had quarrel and
Jerry is now running the business alone.
Carl Coxey, Jerry's 19-year-old boy, is
with the army Carl is a very bright
young fellow but passionately fond of
adventure. He ran away to sea
when he IA years old. He
| looks on the commonweal army as
huge joke and sees in it a chance to
!
big list.
'sJerry has a fine home in Massillon.
| He is worth not less than $250,000, al
though many papers refer to him a
poor horse-trader. He did own a big
stock-farm in Kentucky, but he sold it
over year ago at big profit. He has
abou 140 horses at Massillon, and some
| of these are fine animals. His home is
not luxurious. but furnished much above
the average of the locality, and it is sug-
| gestive of refined tastes. He has a nice
wife and family, and personally he is
temperate in all things, and does not use
| liquor in any form. He was divorced
from his first wife, but l don't know any
| thing about the particulars of the case.
and I do not wish to say anything about
that
Press Agent Coxey is the author of
| "Yon Yonson" and several other plays.
He says that while all of his productions
in this direction have been a success he
! has not been able to make money out of
| any of them. Mr.. Coxey SAYS his regu
| lar position when not with the circus, is
! doing desk work on the Chicago Evening
| Journal
The Superiority