The Minneapolis journal., 1906-07-08
"Hoot Mon

Colonel Stevens hunted bears with George Brackett
and attended the meetings of the board of trade with
head to run for office. The place he selected
that of county auditor. 1t then fee office and
Joe, who had been on stated salary SO long that
ne believed it would never pay expenses imbibed the
idea that the authorship would give him practice
In bookkeeping which would enable him to cast up
his accounts quicker By standing on the corner of
Third and Nicolle four days and haling his personal
friends ne was able to up list of delegates which
astonlshed the oldest politicians. Now after fourteen
years ne IS trying it again. He has moved to the
corner OF Fourth and Nicolet and his is pro-
ceedlng with amazing swiftness.
Between the two periods Joe has been mayors
secretary, travelled around the world signed with the
legislature and made record there. None of the
personal friends have been lost. The primary nom
nation system is in his favor and his newspaper
friends may be pardoned it, despite feeling of re-
spect for the present incumbent they wish Joe we'll
Tho still young man Mannix is connecting link
between the pioneer Minneapolis and the present city
He began reporting for the local newspapers when
man and boy constituted the staff For years he
covered the police for the Pioneer Press and
never missed fire or an inquest. Living the life
OF morning newspaper reporter, Joe drank
smoked, and his present head Of gray hair is due
neither to dissipation old age 1t arises from
curious cause In his youth Mannix inveterate
reader OF Mark Twain. He began with ''Sketches
Old and New,' read the 'Gided Age,'' "Roughng
IT, tom Sawyer "Huckeberry Finn 'fJoan
OF Arc' and "a Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Twain couldn't write fast enough for him, tho he
did his best and used to send Joe his writings in the
proof The main result of all this reading was that
Joe began to look more and more like Twain His
hair turned gray and kinky at the bottom Just like
Marks. The likeness has been so vivid since 1860
that he has often been mistaken for the great
humorist. One who met Mannix abroad said he
could now understand how that Twain wrote so
much BY merely putting down the answers to the
questions he asked there why he should
not achieve great library, all his When Twain
got to hear of it he asked Mannix please read the
Ladies' Home Journal for awhile.
Joe's resemblance to Mark Twain is not his only
recommendation to the American people. ue
sembes another great man. George Washington, in
being first in number of things. He was the first
man in Minneapolis to fall from ninefoot Columbia
bicycle. He also the first man on the wall Of
the old Morrison building which burned the night the
car driver Tollefson murdered by the Barrett
boys This came out in the trial. The Barrett boys,
In their attempt to create aibi, had testified to
being in front of the building about the time the
wall fell. This made it important to determine the
exact time that occurred. What more natural than
to take the advice of of the competent
porters9 j. T. Mannix's resounded thru the
courtroom and the Pioneer Press representative took
he asked.
eyes, sir,' said Joe, ''I was on that wall before
it contemplated falling.''
This was too much for Bill Erwin and, rising with
quizzical expression, he asked Joe his opinion
that wall happened to fall; it from the weight
Of its own contemplation
HPartly that, Mannix answered. ''and partly the
weight OF the insurance on the stock inside
The sane and safe Fourth of July has gone and to
most of those citizens who have passed the age when
powder and noise attracts it has done nothing
than to recall "reminiscences of the days when they
enjoyed those things. To be burned by powder and
to have your extremties lacerated by explosions
ceases, in of time, to be joke. We ought to
have revision of our patriotism The burning of
fireworks is Chinese custom. Our liberty came
with the ringing of bell why should it go out in
the roar of cannon7 In the country towns the old
'Glorious Fourth celebration began with the firing
of the national salute at daybreak By clock all
household duties had been accomplished and the FAM
lily in best bib and tucker its way to the
procession which formed near the postoffce and
wended its way to the where, later in the day.
the powerful orator would relate what we did to
George III. The parade included floats of beautiful
young ladies representing the thirteen original states
the and speaker in carriages the silver eornet
band and, lastly, the ragamuffn guards, sometimes
mysteriously described the Calathumpians. This
last the feature of the procession. Mounted on
any fourfooted creature which would CO. the boys Of
the village clad in Happy Hoogan disguises brought
up the Of the march, For weeks outlandish cos
tunes had been studied. AS much care taken by
the boys to make themselves ridiculous the young
ladies took to make the thirteen original states
supremely attractive. At the grove there the
reading of the Declaration of independence, singing
Of "America' by large chorus and lastly the
oration which generally vainglorious recital of
national greatness by somebody who had his eye
congress who wanted to be sheriff next year.
Of course there were fireworks but no such orgies
of powder indulge in nowadays. The fact that
there something else to do the Fourth perhaps
tended to limit the number of dangerous explosions,
tho many serious accidents occurred thru clumsy and
unscientifc attempts to turn anvs into cannon.
The spirit of the old Fo-rfh of July celebration
was better than ours, matter how much we
be inclined to sneer at it. primitive enjoyment
was prompted by feeling of patriotism In its
provincial way it taught history thru eye and
How would you like to Fourth of July with
every drinking place in the country hermetcally
sealed, gunpowder put away and the whole population
turned out to hear patriotic music patriotic speeches
and to indulge itself in innocent pleasures which
not dangerous to life and limbS AS far fireworks
concerned the suppression of them is not neces-
sary, but it would appear be wise to fireworks
displays in public places where the young enjoy
the sounds and the old the sights without dangerous
explosives being put in the hands Of the unsophsti-
Gated in the ways of sudden eruptions.
james Gray.