The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-07-05
JOHN |. ON
THE 4TH.
He Says 1T is Every Mans Duty
to Celebrate.
Every Speaker Should Hammer
Home the Great Truth
"WE CAN LICK 'EM ALL"
Every Time a Firecracker Goes
Off Yell For Washington.
He INDUCES in Some Personal
"reminiscences.
GIVE CAN LICK 'EM ALP

who seems to still hold the admiration
of at least a large minority of his fell
low citizens was recently requested by
the New York World to write his views
of the Fourth of July, his country and
himself. The result of that request is
the following typical statement:
To the Editor: l am compl1mented
by your statement that the American
public is always interested in my views
and in my doings, and L write you this
Fourth of July with pleasure.
1t is a great thing for any man to be
be able to rivet the attention of such a
nation as this 7o,00o,O00 of people and
getting bigger all the time.
The Queen of England has just had
her jubilee, and no one will grudge a
lady of her age the pleasure that she
took.
But I know her son, the Prince of
Wales. I boxed before him, and ex-
planned to him good many things
about America in our brief conyersa-
ton. He will be king before long, and
he knows as well as L do that when
it comes to a comparison with America,
England is simply not in the race.
We've been losing England as a COM
petitor ever since we first licked her
more than a hundred years ago, and
the better class of E1Qslishmen will ad-
NIT it.
AS a matter of fact. this is the great
est country on earth, for, if China is
bigger, il makes no difference. 1t takes
all the good in a hundred Cinnamon to
besides. they don't know what to eat.
The Russian nation is big, but it is
mixed up crowd I'm told they
sleep on stoves, and there isn't a day in
any week that We couldn't lick Rus
STA.
The other nations don't count. Ire
land is too small, and besides. Ireland is
a part of America The Germans and
the French can speak foreign Ian
guages, but fighting is not in their line
and never has been. In all history
Won "a T1n nd
weight among the French. What is
that? They fight with their feet, and
as poor old Toppy Mcguire used to say,
q man that will fight with his feet will
think with them.
Today makes the one hundred and
twenty-first year of our independence,
as calculate title fro 1897 leaves 121.
We can look around and say without
eXaggeration that we have a right to
be proud.
1t is the duty of every man to ceIe-
brate a day like this and to buy fire.
works. I am in favor of allowing the
children to set part of them off in the
morning, even if it is Sunday. for no
body knows how a boy suffers if he has
frecrackers and can't set them off.
But, Of course, some should be saved
for Monday, the regularly appointed
day for celebrating.
No country can celebrate g. day as
well we can. We have got more
money than anybody else. and we GER
tainly have got enough speakers.
and men thinking up Fourth of July
speeches at this minute, and it is not
too many. 1 hope everyone of those
men will remind the boys who listen
to him that this is the greatest coun-
try earth, and that it can lick any
other.
That is the great truth to keep ham
mering home. Confidence In yourself
and confidence in your own country
should be every Americans motto. and
while he has that motto he can laugh
at kings and tyrants, because he knows
they stand no living chance.
AS for the So-called Americans that
bow down to English royalty and turn
up their pants without cause, I have
no excuses to make for them. They
are unworthy of their country, and
while l have known dudes that could
put up a pretty good fight in a corner,
I advise no man to rely on them.
My advice to Americans, young and
old, is to be patriotic all the time. Yell
for your country and think of George
Washington every time frecracker
goes off; invite your friends to share
with you in moderation whatever you
have, and without being boisterous re-
mind every foreigner you see that Amer
lea can lick his country, whichever it is.
This drives the foreigners to naturaliz-
alton, which is only right, and it keeps
the sacred fame of patriotism alive.
As for myself, my plans, my past, my
future and so on, I have not IRuch to
say. / have been useful in a good
many ways in this world. Some men
have made regulations with the help of
my name, some have used me as a
moral warning, and some have prohted
by my experienee. Some have learned
from me that they cannot fight very
much, and thousands, L suppose, have
been led by my example to cultivate
their muscles and thus get wealth for
many useful works.
I myself have sat looking down on all
this turmoil like any other philosopher.
I have been amused by the attacks on
but throughout my mood has been
rather interpretive. That word, which
learned from professor, means that
I have devoted more time to studying
myself than to what people have
Thought of me.
I am criticised, and don't object. 1t
is true that I have not been in all ways
a model, but my fellow citizens will
kindly remember that 1 did not start
out to be a model. There was nothing
ever said about models in the announce
raents of my fights or shows. 1 start
ed out to knock man out. and I did
what 1 undertook.
There are fighters all over this coun-
try who can testify that did my duty
by them.
Nobody knows better than do that
I have been foolish. A great many
thousands of dollars have come into my
hands and gone out of them again
They went back to the people who paid
them in to me-
/ am often told by my friends and by
men who have mana ged me that could
have $780, 600 or $500 600 laid by just as
well as not. Perhaps I could, and per-
haps couldn't.
I don't think I was built on plan to
make money-savi man. Money came
to me easily and went easily. think
when all the accounts are settled up it
will be found that some of my money
has been spent in ways that will not be
thought disgraceful. but it is not right
for man to praise hiraself, and if it
can do any good to the young would