The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-07-07
WHO AND WHAT WAS TEN
YEARS AGO"

| That's the story of Cicero, my friends,
and what he did can be done over again
any day in the week. You needn't even
| be red-headed or squint-eyed to do it.
And now let me briefly refer to Caesar,
who also lived about that time and was
chumrpy with Cicero. If Caesar had
been loafing about this town of Sny-
der'S Gap at 20 years old he couldn't
have earned so cents a day at hoeing
corn. He was knOck-kneed and he
seemed to be empty headed 1t is not
| on record that he even knew how to
play the game of checkers, and flies
lighted on his straw hat by the dozen
and stayed there for half a day at a
time Had he lived today he would
have stood in the middle of the road
with his mouth open and let an auto
mobile run him down. But young Cae-
sar was nobody's fool. He waited around
for awhile until he had sized UP the
world, and then he struck his gait and
went to the top like a cat climbing the
roof of COW shed. He went at it and
became statesman, a ruler and a gen.
eral In five years he had knocked the
spots off of everything around and was
ready to tackle the free trade question,
and you who have sat up nights to
read his history know what transpired.
He went into the king business before
he died. and he conducted it in bang
up style. The people loved him so that
for three days after his death all the
front doors of the saloons were closed.
and no vaudeville performances were
given.
Let me make one more point and
bring it directly home. Who and what
was l ten years ego? 1 was then
known as Q. Hope JONES' the same as
now, but I doubt if fifty people could
! have pointed me out to a stranger.
My toes turned in, my back bumped
up and 1 had wobble to my knees. If
anybody had interest enough in me to
predict my future it was that 1 would
| fetch up in an idiot asylum within a
year. But like Caesar, 1 was sizing I'D
my surroundings. Cicero, Caesar,
Shakespeare, Milton, Napoleon and
| Washington were gone, and there was
a clear field for me. might have gone
to work in a tannery at Sc per month
and board, but I didn't CO. I aimed for
the top, and when I got started moth
ing stopped me, and 1 stand before you
| here tonight a living, breathing exam
| pie of what an ambitious young man
can do. Wherever 1 go the name of Q
| Hope Jones has preceded me on yellow
posters, and whenever I depart from a
| place my memory continues to lingel
| around for weeks after
I say to that old man over there with
the long goatee-I say to that young
man in his shirt-sleeves and his feet or
4 the bench before him-I say to the wo
man in the poke-bonnet and the CIR
in the garden hat-rclimb up! There |:
room at the top. Any one can be pan
cake or a pumpkin Seeu, out tHe WoFlt
wants great men and women-Othe
Ciceros and other Cleopatras- There ar
\ places for you, and you have but to fl
them. Begin your careers right her
and now The hat is about to be cir
cuiated among you for controbu
lions. Begin by dropping quarter int
it and securing my good will and bless
ing. and I predict that not a montl
shall have passed away before tn
world will have stood aside to give yol
a place to plant your ladders.-(Copy
right, 1903. by c. B. Lewls.)