The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-09-21

have snap as individuals. John John
 son-they probably called him Johnny
 then-got S1o a month, which he turn
 ed over to his mother. He found time
 to deliver laundry washed and ironed
 by his mother, his splendid, heroic
 mother, and also to deliver papers on
 the carriers route-the town paper.
 After two years of this grocer's boy | life he got a job in the drug store at a | slightly higher rate of pay. From this | time on his mother quit taking in washing. John supported the family. In the years following three of the little sisters died, and John Johnson was in debt to the undertaken. Tho | boy studied hard while working in the drug store. The little public library | was in the same block. He read many books from the library, being chiefly interested in history. Meanwhile he studied pharmacy, too, and eventually he became registered pharmacist. Real Journalist With a Real Job. | After nine years in the drug store John Johnson became journalist In the cities a journalist is sometimes. de scribed as a newspaper man out of a job. In St. Peter John Johnson was real journalist with real job, pay ing for a half interest in the Herald, for which friends who believed in him had put up the money. Johnson had paid off the undertaken. He had bought in the two room family homestead, which was about, to be. sold for taxes, and he had added other rooms and Improvements.
 So this was the story discovered by the St. Paul reporter. It was so mag nificently true that American Minne- sota arose gloriously to the occasion. President Roosevelt carried the always Republican state of Minnesota by a majority of 161 462-a hundred thou sand above the normal majority But, hold! John Albert Johnson, Democrat, was elected governor by majority of 7,s00. Not very large majority that, and yet he turned S4, 400 votes to get it.
 The country editor closed down his desk at St. Peter, probably saying to Henry Essler: .I'n be back in two years. Try to keep the subscribers in line, and don't let the ads. get away from you. Keep the jobwork going"
 Then he went to work at his new job in St. Paul, his office being in Min nesota's fine new state capitol build ing. Did Johnson as governor of a great state pose as a sickly Sentimen- tai friend of ''the common peepul?" Not bit of ;t-not he. Johnson made no pretense of being ultra democratic. He wore good clothes, the prevailing style, and cut just as dignifed figure at gubernatorial reception as he had cut in the editorial sanctum at St Pe- ter. He had sense enough to adapt himself to his environment.
 He Made Good. :.
 Johnson also had the moral and men, tai backbone to make him Johnny -on- the-spot with his new job. He had had. no experience as an editor when he took hold of the St. Peter Herald. But he made good. He made good also as governor of Minnesota. Do you want proof? Then read the election returns of 1906. Normally the Repub- Hcan candidate should have won by about 10000 majority. As matter of fact, Johnson won by 72,OOO major ity. Somebody asked how he did it''
 'I only tried to make good" replied Johnson, .-
 No boomerang was thrown in the second campaign. If Johnson had not made good in his two years term as governor he would have been sent back to the St. Peter Herald office. The washerwoman circular promulgat- ed by the unidentified asylum inmate made him governor, but as governor he made good himself. Those years of struggle, of self effacement, of moth CT love and brotherly devotion in St. Peter gave him the stamina to make good. When some one asked him what he considered the most important re suit of his administration as governor, he replied:
 Flaw enforcement We have brought about conditions by which the state of ficers obey the law themselves and en- force it."
 Made Tax Dodgers Vince.
 But Governor Johnson did not stop at enforcement of the laws on the statute books. By his influence he brought about the enactment of new laws to meet conditions. One thing he ulu WdS to nave the lo2lSldCure give him board of tax equalizers. John- son appointed three of the best men in the state. Under the law this board had only advisory powers. The gov ernor used his discretion The stee. trust has immense mines in northern Minnesota These mines were taxed on a valuation of $3S, 1000, ,OOO when Johnson took office. Now they are taxed on q valuation of $194, 1000, 900, and the poor taxpayer feels better The electric railways uniting St. Paul and Minneapolis are paying twice as much taxes as they paid before the advent of Johnson. The tax dodgers began wincing when Johnson became governor.
 Some persons take pleasure in com pairing John Johnson with Abraham Lincoln. This is due to the fact that both men had Immediate ancestors of the kind that. as . rule. ao not pro: