The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-08-12
Q. HOPE JONES.
He Lectures on the Private Lives Of
Great Men.

Copyright, 1902, by C. B. Lewis.)
My Dear Fellow Citizens-Most of
you have at one time or another proba-
was man without a middle name.
How this oversight came about was
never explained by his parents, but it
is quite likely that he was laid aside
and forgotten until too late. Had he
been born a hundred years later his
visiting cards would have borne some
such address as G. Sumner Washing
ton, and Mark Hanna and others would
have been ready to dispute his title as
the Father of His Country.
1t is well to know both SIDES of a
great man, not that you will rever-
ence him the less, but that you may
understand him the better. In public
life George Washington had such an
austere demeanor that people were in
clined to look upon him as a man with
out emotion. They wronged him. In
his private life this great man differed
very little from other men. When he
sawed his neck on the clothesline In
the back yard that frigid demeanot
was replaced by redhot emotion, and
ais language was plain and to the
point. Now and then ne pounded HE
thumb with the hammer, and he never
failed to let Martha know that he was
Ill there and ready with an grafton
lie had the same experience in trying
= Hriv hoo mt ~ the rdo that
We have all passed through, and his at
sempts to start balky mule called out
he same expressions that may be
heard in all parts of the land today.
George Washington had boils, and he
went about with a chip on his shout
to punch the head Of the man who step
ped on his feet. His shirt collars didn't
fit, his socks wore out at the heel, and
he found buttons missing. He struck
icy spots in the winter and felt some
hing drop, and he went about in his
shirt sleeves in the summer and asked
MS neighbors if it was hot enough for
them. He stumbled over the deormat.
dumped down the cellar stairs and had
his coattails caught in the kitchen
ioor the same as his neighbors, and
We may even 60 SO far as to believe
hat he found q rock under the old hat
| he kicked on April FOOLS day. These
,hings are not against him. however
in the contrary, they go to prove that
he was one of US in thought and feel
| ing and bring him closer to our hearts
fvxxa rwsv ton. CT hat
lis historic tomb and stretch forth a
| hand and say:
Here lies . man who might have
been swerved from his duty - Z pa
| riot by the kick of COW, but who
continued forward to the end and reap
| ed his reward"
History has pictured Cesar as lead
| ing his armies to victory or sitting on
| his throne as dictator, and It would
| have US believe that he never laughed
or smiled like other men. Ecu insen-
sibly get the idea that his wife hid I'M
der the bed and the baby went into nts
every time Cesar came home to sup
| per and that when he wasn't engaged
IN making Pempey hunt for the bushes
| ne was saving up the bodies of his
| prisoners for stovewood Let me throw
| a calcium light on the ether side Of this
| great man To begin with. he was .
kind husband and . loving father.
Now and then he had little til with
| his wife because the roller towel was
missing or the bootJack had been left
out in the back yard. but they would
| be over it in half an hour. He may
have used strong expressions when
routed out at night by sQualling ba-
| by, but he handled that same young
| I'm on his fatherly knee next day and
| bore it no malice for his loss of sleep.
That Caesar went a-nshing when he
| could get q day Oh have the most in
! disputable evidence, and We cannot
| doubt that he attended horse races and
| made use Of his deadhead tickets to the
| circus. Between his military campaigns
be loafed around home. AID who shall
/ say that he didn't help clean house and
| touch up q little with the paint brush 2
| [ take it that he fell over the sawbuck
and barked his shfns; that he cussed in
1 mild way when he found the hogs