The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1919-11-15

ana OGeGQ Oh Ddu COMPANY was
Reynolds before she married John
Deems. They named their son John
Francis Deems, and everybody has
always called him Frank; his close
friends do not recognize him except
cordially and lovingly by that name.
To the public he has always been
simply ]. +. Deems.
! 1t was in Washington county,
Pennsylvania. the county that bred
strong men in extraordinary num-
beers, that he first saw the light,
about sixty years ago. Out of that
strong pioneer stock, and with that
environment in childhood, came the
man who in, middle life achieved
great things as an executive.
I His mother may have been lone
some when the boy was out on the
mountain hunting rabbits for days at
a time. for the two were company
for each other. With the father
buried far away on the frontier in
Illinois. it is easy TO imagine the
humble home where money was al
most unknown and rabbits were actu-
ally needed for food sometimes, with
the wise, kindly mother and the very
small boy all in all to each other, al
belt there were eight other children
1t is interesting TO note that when |
expressed some surprise at the casual
information that he had been ad-
mitted TO the bar OF Ohio after he be-
came machinist, he replied:
Il never intended to practice law.
The study was diversion and kept
me at home with my wife OF even
ings"
/ A young machinist studies law seri-
ously while staying at home with
his wife Of evenings In railroad
mans town.
PIGS, HoMINY
,AN0 CHICKENS
He was eleven years old when he
began to help support the family by
earning an income. He began as a
wage Garner as a helper and mule
driver down in coal mine, in the
great Pennsylvania coal fields.
At this early stage In his career,
il. F. Deems began to raise pigs and
chickens, but different from the regu-
lar type Of boy who makes his first
money selling pork or eggs. Hugh
L. Cooper, builder OF the worlds
greatest waterpower In Iowa, made
his first money selling a pig he had
raised. J. T. Deems was denied that
luxury, for the pigs and chickens had
to be eaten in that home TO make a
larder sufficient for the family needs.
One suspects that the pigs were found
more interesting than the chickens
by the boy, for today and for years
at Forestdale farm out of Burlington
there is every approved method of
turning corn into pork, but not many
chickens. The permanency of the
impressions on the boy made in his
pig and chicken stage came out when
Mr. Deems, on his Iowa farm, said ::
The family had to eat them or
nothing, and sometimes it was Dor
dering on nothing. We ate corn
bread, hominy and sart portland
now people say you can't raise
healthy people on corn"
The seriousness Of the retrospect,
rather than smile at the whimsical
} allusion to his own physique was in
his face. The argument in the ex.
, clamation was perfectly visible.
: Clear skin, bright eye, solid muscle
on large frame of bone, easy, sure
motions-all prove the strength and
! health at sixty of that corn fed boy.
After few years of that kind of
2 Work-aiways hard work for a young
g boy-to keep something in that
: pantry at home, the influence of the
e stars above the bed Of leaves in the
6 mountain forests asserted itself
again. The boy determined to amount
l. TO good deal In the world. Even
t then, he felt the power of know.
o ledge az derrick to lift boy out of
e a humble home into the higher
It places.
n SOME SCHOOLS
q AND EDUCATION
l, Over at California, Pennsylvania
8 was a good school called the Gil.
o christ institute. In the shifting OF
educational facilities, we now have
universities where there were then
colleges, and we now have colleges
"a where there were academies and in.
is sututes before and after the civil
e. war. The Gilchrist institute ia now
1t the Southwestern Normal college Of
II pennsylvania, and 1t is still good
is school. But somehow one cannot
ID avoid the impression from studvin
Sc fhe history of successful men. mai
IN the old-time academies and jnstitutee
lie gave little better education fbar
lie modern colleges, on the average
in Probably the real reason for this is
lie that the boys who attended tho did
Is time schools went there with the one
e. dominant idea and the tremendo,,:
sc determination, of getting an educa