The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-03-04
JONATHAN P. DoLIIVER.
Story of Mountain Boy Who Became
a Senator.
CSuccess1

CSuccess.)
He wasn't much of a boy to look at,
this Dolliver boy of 10, trUdging off to
school every morning in the West Vir-
ginia hamlet of KingwOod,. where the
mountains are so brown in winter and
so green in summer. To the master Of
the little subscription school he was
Jonathan Prentiss Dolliver; to the
comrades of sport and study he was
just plain ''Prent," a sturdy little chap,
whose hair refused to stay cOmbed
whose clothes showed the rouSh-and-
tumble of play, whose love for the
mountains far exceeded his love of
arithmetic.
Somebody lost a copy of the Con-
gressional Record about that time-a
bound volume, containing many
speeches of senators and representa-
tives. ''Prent' found it His boyish
Imagination was fired. Hour after hour
memory many of the passages in the
speeches.
One day the school committee called
an suspicious event in the little
school house. Young DolliVer was
asked to give a defamation. To the
his task with force, vigor, clearness
and almost elOquence- Where did he
get it?
"Oh. can talk" he declared; dads
a preacher, you know"
Thus climbed into his FIRST forum the
witty, eloquent, magnets Dolliver, a
United States senator from the state
of Iowa at 40 years of age.
The match of ambition having been
thus applied. the young lad studied to
greater advantage. A superb mother
made sacrifices to aid him. How these
American mothers have ever helped.
He took a course at the state univer-
Sity at MOrgantown, w. Va. This was
in 1876, and Prentiss was only II when
he stepped forth with his diploma in
AIg hama.
At Is he was a country school teach
err himself. The scene is laid in Victor
Center, his, in a yellow school house:
and while it is only a stepping stone in
a career full of more exciting episodes.
- is worth while to note that the youth
of Is was able to do what his prede-
cessors had failed to accomplishments
an orderly, successful school out of a
very turbulent lot of youngsters. On
one occasion he quelled fight by sim
ply looking at the combatants.
The law, and the wide, free west cap
tured the young men a few years later.
the former for a profession, the latter
for a home Fort Dodge, Ia. welcomed
the little family in 1880, and there the
future senator wrestled with life's seri-
Gus problems in earnest Inevitably he
which always has use for men of ac-
tive brain and silvery tongue DoIIi-
yer had both James G.. Blaine. for
whom he delivered scores of speeches.
predicted in 1884 that this dark-haired
young orator OF the west would eniov
a conspicuous future. The prophecy
was not long in reaching fulfIIment.
From 1890, when he was first elected
to congress, until 1900 when he took
his seat in the senate, he rose steadily
in INN r,V-fe3 f1fan
debater, until he had no superior in
the great forum of the nation:
His wit is one of the most attractive
of his gifts. He can tell a story with
wonderful effect. His keen sense of
humor would have made him a com
edian if nature had not cast his other
faculties in a more serious mood.
Therefore, his fun only crops out at
times.
% % 81
When 1 asked him when and where
he first began to consider himself fam
Gus, he said:
MY first term in congress gave me
my first sense of exaltation. The peo-
pie up in the Iowa hills had a little
lake, and they named it after me.
Then a new poStotfice was named in
my honor, and a colored woman named
her baby after me- began to think of
engaging a niche in some temple OF
fame
But, in my second term, l was disil-
lusioned- A climatic disturbance dried
up the lake, free delivery wiped out
the postoffice, and the child died-and
l found myself back at the very place
where L had started."
A few years ago Mr.. Dolliver was in
vited to deliver a, lecture in st. Paul
and Minneapolis, Mimi, before the
Young Mems Christian Association Ly-
ceum- In each city the hall was crowd
ed wherein he spoke, some 1.50O young
men attending. His topic was: Chances
For Young Men"
THAT" said he to me, was a favor
lite topic with me. AS in the case OF
your own publication, I believed in
young men, and liked to talk with
them, knowing full well that if one
can stir them up to energy and ambi-
ton, he is doing grand work in the
world.
well. ] have not changed my opin-
ion since the delivery of that lecture
bit, when 1 got back TO washington