Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1906-12-19
THE WINNING GRAFTON.
A Brief synopsis of the Grafton
Delivered by Francis W. Cobb,
Of Elsie.
T0LEDO'S GOLDEN RULE MAYOR
Mr., Cobb Will Represent Alma at the
State Contest at Hillsdale
Next March.

1t is my privilege TO speak to YOU to-
night concerning the honor we owe to
great men. Less than theee years ago
there died in the city of Toledo great
hero and patriot, Samnel Milton Jones,
the Golden Rule Mayor, one of the no
blest characters of his age. He was the
son of on emigrant, not an ordinary child
but one who was wonderfully dreamy and
thoughtful. His father is a Welch la
borer who has left his rude little stone
cottage amid the mountains of Bedd
Gelert, North Wales, and sailed with his
family for America. They make home
in strange country and send the boy to
school. He attends but two years and a
half III all so his future greatness, like
that of many another who has won glory
among us, is entirely self-gained.
He early gives evidence of two sided
nature. At the age of ten a farmer hires
him as a choreboy but, in his memoirs.
he says his employer called him lazy.
Whether he was lazy or not he evidently
understands that the work is uncongenial
and unfit. He catches dim conception
of the fact that the boy who desires to
handle machinery should not drive horses,
and the boy who desires to drive horses
should not run enl ines; for you will have
i'll the one case runaway, i'll the other
an explosion. He is little philosopher;
but not shirk, a dawdler; not an or
binary, idle boy; there is stern stuff in
him. He works for the farmer three or
four years and then is employed by a
Sawmill owner His mental attitude
changes at once; new force is acting on
him; his dreams break; his thoughts
tingle with enthusiasm; his inventive
genius begins to play life is earnest bust
ness to him now and he tolls like a Trojan
He has the genius's mind, power of
great conceptions balanced with power of
full achievement. As he enters the
greater arena of life shall 1--WE not under
stand more clearly why he changes his
course and becomes philanthropist such
as the world has never seen Before? Let
us deal with him as a philanthropist and
consider not so much his methods as the
reasons why he undertook the work. The
question is why the man who is a finan-
cier and the man who is a philosopher,
should blend into the helper of humanity.
The first reason his larger heart, his
vaster synpathies sympathy for all
unfortunate men makes a philanthropist,
sympathy brings all his powers to force
the mighty end. The second reason is
his desire for achievement. His ministry
is to lift men from the deep-worn econo-
mic rut wherein they have been crushed
since time began by the onward rolling of
the wheels of progress And the third
reason driving him forward is the Christ
in him. the fear of God, the obedience to
a great command, aimed, as he thought,
toward the one man destined to fulfill il
perfectly. 1t is the Golden Rule. With
that lever he raises the world, il but bv
an inch.
Now this is what we want, al express
sion of the man himself. A man deeply
concerned for the welfare of others; see
ing, understanding and meeting the
wants Of other living souls; giving time
and talent that other men may live