The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-02-07
How Joe CannOn's Sweetheart
Joined the MOrmOnS.

washington Dispatch to Chicago Inter
OCEAN,
Captain Robert Harrison of Lebanon,
Ind, who brought the electoral vote
of Indiana to Washington, sat in the
private gallery of the house with Con-
gresham Lands the other day. Con-
gresham Cannon of Illinois was speak
ing on the naval bill, and Captain Har-
risOn watched MIN with much interest
He is the same ice Cannon that he
was fOrty-five years ago" the captain
remarked. He speaks and acts Just as
he did when we were MEMBERS of the
same mock legislature at the old Quaker
academy at Annapolis. Ind, way back
in the sos. He goes at his adversary
in the same way. as though he were
going to fight. He shakes his head in
the same way, and he uses the same
kind of hOmely but effective language.
Uncle Joe has not changed as much in
these fOrty-five years as most men DO
1 have not seen him in many years, but
1 would have recognized him by his
gestures and mannerisms had no one
told me it was Joseph G.. Cannon.
Joe was a poor boy in the academy
when I knew him. He had TO leave be-
cause he ran out of money. One day on
the bali field he took me aside and
said he would have to give up his hope
of an education. He had used up all
his money and would have to quit
school ana go to work He felt blue
about it, and there were tears in his
eyes as he was confronted with this
necessity of giving up his ambition to
educate himself. But ne did not within
per or complain. He left the academy
and went to work in d small store. No
one in the academy then expected to
see Joe Cannon the leader of the ma
jority in congress and controlling the
expenditures of the United states gov
eminent.
But there he is, and he is the same
Joe Cannon who quit school Snd went
to work when his money gave out, near
y half a century ago.
A Romance of School Days.
Uncle Joe Cannon had his first ro-
nance back in the days which he spent
at Annapolis. a good many men VINO
see only the fighting side of Uncle Joe
would hesitate to believe that he was
ever sentimental, but it is true It is
also quite true that he speaks Of home
and family questions with as much ten
derness and sentiment as any man IN
public life.
1t was Just after he quit the academy
and went to work in a store on a small
salary that Joe Cannon fell in love
Like many other boys, he did not realize
the condition of his heart until it was
too late. He went to the country dances
and danced on the puncheOn floors to
the music of an OLD fiddle, and he went
sleigh riding and to spelling bees with
a pretty girl; but he had no thought of
love or matrimOny until one night the
girl told him she was to be sealed to a
Mormon.
The Mormons were as much adver-
tised them as they have been since, and
this girls mother, q widow, had decided
to go to Utah. The one idea this con-
veyed to the girl was that she would
be compelled to become a plural wife,
and she told her fear and grief 70 the
poor clerk who had been her escort Joe
wanted to be gallant and rescue the
girl from her impending fate, but ne
had been compelled to give up his ambi-
ton for an education, and his business
prospects would not justify him in as
suming the obligations of matrlmouy-
He resolved to do it rather than see
the girl sealed to a Mormon pOlygamist-
But before he could put his plans IN
execution the family departed for the
west. and his sweetheart was lost to
him forever. for she had gone to the
MorD1ons Then the world became
homeless for a day or two, and Joe came
to the conclusion that he had lost the
annie of his eve and would never again
love a woman. His sentiment was
probably more due to the fact that the
girl was being carried off to Titan
against her will to be married to a
Mormon, than to any deep affection
But, whatever the cause, he remem-