The free lance. (Fredericksburg, Va.) 1885-1926, 1905-07-01
ISTHMIAN CANAL CHIEF
Stories About T. p. Shonts,
Panama Commissioner.
INCIDENTS OF HIS EARLY YEARS

INCIDENTS OF HIS EARLY YEARS
Parents Tell Ira HOmeIy Words of His
Childhood Accomplishments which
Are SIN the Theme Nearest Their
Hearts. and Treasure Toys the Man
Long Forgot-Why They Are Sad at
Their Boys Success.
Among the oak and beech groves,
where The hazel bushes line the wind
Ing roadside and where In summer tho
COWS stand in the meadows. In the sub
urb Of Lcyerly Hills stands row OF
four cottages. Each OF the four cot
tagcs j. occupied by a branch Of tho
ShOuts family. says the Chicago Trib-
uuc Ia lie gray one ana half story
house where the June roses climb up
Oh the porch and try to look IN AT the
window Il venerable couple. Mr.. and
MIS-. Henry d. Shonis, live. Their son,
Theodore Perry Shonts Of Chicago, IS
the newly appointed chairman Of the
Panama canal commission.
Instead Of being the proudest mother
in Illinois 40 the honor that has been
conferred upon her son Mrs Shonts
at the announcement "wept bitter
tears" They were as big as that ar
table" explained her husband. with u
chucklc. 40; we don't think much Of
the boys new job. Too many skeeters
and yellow fever germs in Panama
The good couple. both Of whom have
completed more than fOurscore years.
stu regard Thcds as the boy who in
his Sunday school days remembered
200 verses of Scripture IN a week"
Proud Of that record. 10 future con
quests OF the new commissioner quite
can equal that prodigous feat. Theds
himself stands six feet in his stockings
and. from appearances AT least, should
be both yellow fever and mosquito
proof
Nevertheless the old folks are I'M
reconciled They do not share the en-
thuslasm that prompted Miss Eva
Shonts Of the Young Peoples Christian
Temperance union to send a telegram
TO her big brother congratulating him
upon the patriotic mission that he is
about to undertake.
"Theds was good boy when he was
young" said Mrs Shonts. with depre-
catory shake of her head. "Ie never
went out nights then or went chasing
away to foreign parts. don't know
where he got those ideas In his head.
We didn't teach them to him. Theds
was fine boy once
He was brought up United Pres
byterlan. and when he was six years
old we took him with Us from Pennsyl-
vanla. where we were raised, across
the mountains into the wilderness OK
Iowa. There wasn't any Presbyterian
Sunday school In Crawford county, 50
we sent him to the Methodist school.
Every morning he would learn thirty
verses from the Bible, and when Sun.
day came, with the POO verses in his
mind. be would rccte them In his class
at Sunday school They used to give
him cards and banners for his good be-
hayior. But I'm afraid he doesn't get
many cards and banners now.
"Only once he went 70 sleep In
church. II was at the end Of a long
sermon. We went home without him,
and we couldn't imagine where he was.
We knew he never went out nights.
Finally we found him curled up on the
cushions Of the family pew and sound
asleep in the dark church"
The religious strain In the Shonts
family dates back to the sixteenth cen
fury. The great great great-and-more-
eat-grandparents Of the Panama
commissioner were pagans. They had
a pretty golden haired maiden
IN the wars. This little maid. they dis
covered, always was reading. They
found the book one day under u stone,
where she had hidden It, 1t was the
gospel Of st. John. The great-great-
great-and- more eat-grandparents read
this book and became converted
They were locked up In castle by the
sea. The TALLER also came under the
religious influence and assisted them
to drop down from a window into
a boat that tossed IN the dark waves.
Theodores earliest heroine was the
golden haired maid who read the gos-
pei Of st John out in the meadows
while she watched the sheep. As he
heard his father tell the story by the
open fireside Of the country home he
often imagined her TO have been a
stolen princess. the daughter Of a bat
tie king Later, when he was sixteen
years old, according to his father, like
many other boys Of the same age, he
fell in love with an "old maid"
"Why. she was ten years older than
he was" declared Mrs. Shonts. He
had begun to teach school out IN the
where the pupils, both the boys
and girls, were older and bigger than
be was. 1heds got along fine. He al
ways did with anything he undertook.
1--WE sent him to college when he
was quite young I'm afraid he didn't
study as hard rs he should have. He
could have got through in three years
IL he had tried one Of our greatest
pleasures was when he used to come
home and read his Hebrew testament
TO us. He doesn't read that Hebrew
testament much now.
"He was the only one in all his class
that didn't drink or smoke. He was
too young for that. We sent him
violin to keep him out Of mischief. |
When he was young he couldn't sing I
Or whistle at least we thought so. |
Blu. he used to scrape away OH that |
Did fiddle by the hour He played in
I little orchestra with Professor |
and the Rev. Waddle. He |
vas a beautiful penman and would 1
spend hours practIcihg his DIS and |
rs. He wrote with a great flourish.