The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-04-27
Q. HOPE JONES.
He Begins His Tenth Annual Lecture
Tour.

After taking a needed rest for three
months opened my tenth annual lecture
tour at Huckleberry Corners three nights
ago and was more than gratified to find
that the public had not forgotten me-
Owing to the fact that chicken.pox was
a small, but what 1t lacked in numbers II
more than made up in intelligence ana en-
thusiasm. There were men ana women e..
there who had heard of the Mexican war
the murder of Benjamin Nathln-tne
battle of Bunker Hill and the passing
away of Susan B. Anthony. There was
enthusiasm when / rose I'D and when i
sat down-even when passed the contrl-
button box around. In consequence, was
at my best when I stepped FORWARD ana
began:
Ladies and Gentlemen: The subject OF
my lecture this evening is: Is Life worth
the Struggle? Just now the momentous
question seems to be agitating, the whole
world clear to the back townships OF AZ
RIGA. and is being answered poIn IN une
negative and the affirmative. The strug-
gle of life begins in infancy: The chicken
pox, whooping cough and the measles ne
later comes his first tooth and the cohc.
Then he swallows thinbles. pins, JACK,
knives and spools of thread: When OLD
mud-puddles and frog-ponds to menace
him and the trees to coax him in climb
ing At the age of ten he falls IN Iove
Three years later he is taken with the
swell head, and If not licked three tlmes
a week there will be- an e Io a o 10
he is in love again and comes down WIN
dull thuds, and when manhood at lenStn
ta ret b he boofs halfsoied and go to the
circus at the same time
HE has struggled up like 'tater,top
and what does it hold for him? Is he go
ing to climb or fall? VIII he eventuauy
reach happiness and contentment, or WIZ
he make a failure and be tucked away AT
last in one of the back streets OF the VII
my friends, bid you hope. I am one
struggle 1 have passed through It my,
self, and I have Witnessed the battle and
the victory close at hand, on5 Was I p9fm
kneed child. I was slab-s1ded, sptay-
footed youth. At the age of twelve they
offered me SIS a week to go with circus
as wild hodag from Borneo.
did life seem to me to be worth the
struggle? Did hope allure me o o1lsr RET
further away from home than the idloI
asylum? was advised to give up ana
hang myself A kind-hearted lightning
rod man offered to take me away and
drown me without expense to my fatner
After six months OF patient Trying the
schoolmaster said that I would never pc
able to add two and three together. The
rosiest future that anyone could preolct
for me was that might possibly pc apie
to take tickets at the door for a side-shoW
exhibiting a papier mache whale with q
tin tail I had summed 1t up that way
myself Wnen all OF g. SuOucH TIE fCSoAu
ton came to me to struggle on: l realized
the harldicaps and the difficulties in the
path, but set my face like Hint ana
the results are before you. climbed. l
was not satisfied when became a clerk
in q grocery at s. month. was not sat
isfied when I became tin peddler was
not satisfied when l was elected town
clerk and owned the only dictionary in
ssFrom position to position I went. 1t
was upwards, step by step. There were
but few to encourage me, and many VINO
wished to pull me down. had made up
my mind that life was worth the strug-
gle and 1 put my whole soul into it.
am here before you this evening as a
consequence, but the apex has not yet
been reached. nor will it be until the four
act tragedy I am now writing mas peen
the words Lecturer, Philosopher and
Dramatist' after my name.
. Had given up when I was advised
to-had felt that the handfcaps were TOO
great for me-had turned to the whale
with the tin tall you had never heard
an acfline, void, but that void could not
have been filled. As it is, you can go
home to your families tonight, and you
can walk the streets tomorrow and proud |
" say: I have seen J-o-n-e-s-Jones-Q.
Hope Jones',
tfe mill the same as did. He was told |
that there was nothing In lie Tor him. He |
was fold SO often that he got to believing !
If and there was talk of sending him to |
tbe poorhouse to play the fiddle for the
amusement of the inmates, when a bull /
ambition He entered upon the struggle |
He had to overcome thousand dinicul-
ties but nothing daunted him. Last year /
he reached what some folks would cali