The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-19
BRISTON AND HIS WIFE
FOURTH ASSISTANT P. M. GEN.
 ERAL AND HIS RISE.
Started as e Hard-working Farmer, Educated Himself and Was Inspired by His
 Wife.

CnlCdRO heCOTu ffeTdiu.
 Joseph L. Bristow, Fourth Assistant Postmaster General. the man whose fear less report in the postoffice scandals has made his name familiar from one end of the country to the other, and has brought him into prominence as Vice-Presiden- tial possibility, comes from State where the fearlessness of her sons, as well us her disasters and 'isms. has made component part of her history-the com monwealth of Kansas Although in the postoffice bluebook MT. Brlstow Is accred- ited to the Sunflower State he was not born within It's borders. He had his orig inal view of the light of day during the first year of the war of the rebellion on fiourishing plantation of Kentucky. There he spent his boyhood attending the little country school the three winter months of the year and occupying the other nine with his duties on the farm.
 Married at Nineteen.
 At ls years of age MT. Bristow married the pretty daughter of a neighboring farmer whom he had known from boy hood, and putting her with the rest of his earthly possessions In big prairie schooner" drawn by two stout Kentucky horses. he turned his face westward to seek his fortune in a newer country. In Elk County, Kansas, he bought nome steader's claim for a song from settler who had grown weary of frontier life. He soon established himself and his bride in the frontiersman's three-roomed cabin, and began an Arcadian existence. Neigh bors were few and far between. and not q mile of railroad came within a days drive of his $40 acres but the rolling prai- ries were virgin and the soil so rich and deep that within two years the young farmers bountiful crops had netted him clear $1,90O for his pains.
 Seeks an Education.
 But despite his success the future Fourth Assistant Postmaster General was not born farmer" even though, he had followed the blow ever since he was tall enough to reach its handles. He loved books above anything else in the world, and as a boy he had bored over them many a night, long after all the rest of the household were asleep. When he counted LID the money which the Kansas farm had brought him he determined to give himself the education which he had been deprived in his boyhood. Dame For tune Is fickle. but she evidently smiled on his plan for just at that juncture a man came along who wanted the farm. and the would-be student soon made bargain with him for it's transfer. He then turned his face eastward in quest of the school he was to enter. He had been raised by devout Methodist parents, and this led him to decide upon a college of that de- nOmlnaIlOn-bdker CTlNeTStty dI IodIu- win, Kas., one of the best institutions of learning in that section of the country. There he took the full four years course, putting into 1t the same energy and hard work which had characterized him as farmer and which has characterized ev- erything he has done since.
 Turns to Politics.
 If he was not "born farmer he cer- tainly was born a politician. and yet 1t was almost an accident which first threw him into politics. One evening soon after his graduation at Baker he was walking down the village street of Baldwin deep in thought of what he should do to make the bread and butter for the wife and the little son who had come to them by this time. Just then he met a friend who was on his way to the town primaries. They stopped for a moments chat. Come, go with me to the primaries, Joe" said his friend. We Republicans must nominate a ticket which We can elect. Come and help us make it."
 MT. Bristow had no particular interest in the matter. nor did he dream of such thing as being a nominee himself. but he turned back with his friend to the town hall. The nominations ran along smoothly until 1t came to County Clerk, when there was split in the choice of the candidates, and 1t soon promised to be a serious rupture As a compromise some one suddenly proposed MT. Bristow's name. and in a very few moments the two factions united on him without dis senting voice. The campaign which fol- lowed was a lively one. and 1t was then that MT. Bristow gave evidence of the good fighting material there Is in his makeup. With the entire ticket he was elected in the fall. This was his intro duction into politics. but from that day to this he has been an active factor in the Republican Party of Kansas.
 Switches to Journalism.
 After the expiration of his term of off, flee as County Clerk Mir. Bristow went out to Salina, where for five years he was editor of The Salina Republican. the leading party paper in that part of the State. He then removed to Ottawa. where he purchased The Ottawa Herald, daily paper which he still owns. and which he edited for several years. From 1886 to 1S9O he was the Clerk of the District Court of Douglas County. and from 1894 to 1898 he was secretary of the Kansas Republi- can State Central Committee When MT Morrell was elected Governor of Kansas he appointed Mir. Bristow as his private secretary. but it was when Major Mo Kinley made his trip through the State. during the campaign of 1896 that MT Bristow attracted the attention of the National Republican Committee, and it was in recognition of his efficient ser vices at that time that he was appointed Fourth Assistant Postmaster General