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

first met him casually for q
minute or two at a railroad stauon
and an hour later heard him make
chautauQua address that was dlrerent
from the usual thing under the dig
tent. II was a good while after that,
that | heard a story which made me
want to know the man. After several
hours at his home on his farm west
Of Burlington, it was very evident
that Deems is one Of the most inter
esting men in the country-not
merely because he is a very success
full. practical farmer; not because ne
was an executive over thirty tnou-
sand men in troublous times and
made them love him; not because ne
was food administrator OF state
without a superior among the otner
forty-seven; not because he is a sell
made man who is modest, and a. very
successful man who wears the same
size hat-but because his whole NE
to across the crest of the hill is one
connected, logical, interesting romance
OF American manhood at its best IN
the middle west
When one begins to study this man
and analyze him like specimen IN
the laboratory with cold blooded dls-
sections of reasons and Characters
tics. the investigation, as often, runs
10 his mother and his foroears.
He was born poor boy with ms
mother widowed by the death OF his
father a few months before his birth
and he was a different kind OF
boy who had to go to work between
his infancy and childhood, as plenty
of others had to do He Is very
difficult subject for the newspaper or
magazine writer to work upon, TOT
he lodges telling the most interest
ing things and talks most about
things that interest him the most
and these are farming and mechanl.
cal engineering. Whether he toiled
as boy for pitiful wages and In
scant clothing, nobody can ind out
from him. But after all, what ne
did say about his boyhood was more
Illuminating than figures OF wages
and descriptions of the kind OF
school house in which he studied for
a few months.
THE BOY IN THE
MOUNTAIN FOREST.
81 when ! was nine or ten years
ago" he told me, 81 would go out
into the vast oak forests IN the noun
tains of Pennsylvania with my dog
| would stay three or four days al
a time During the days, | would
catch rabbits, not only enough for my
own camp fire cooking, but usually
/ took a good load home, where they
were very acceptable TO replenlsh
the pantry.
"At night, the boy and the dog
curled up in the leaves beside some
big log and slept the sleep OF tired
boys and tired dogs. | enjoyed these
excursions into the mountain forests
more than anything else that ever
came into my life.
my mother encouraged these trips
into the woods, saying that whan
was with my faithful dog l was IL
good company. That dog and I loved
each other, and my mother was 6
wise mother who loved her son viii
all her heart"
Given a small boy with an intense
love of nature and good dog, anc
nut him into the depths or the de1s,
oak woods on the Pennsylvania noun
tains, hunting rabbits by day ant
sleeping together on a pile of leave
with his dog at night-tO keep hin
out Of BAD company which his mothe
dreaded-and you are seeing NOR
than a picture. You are watchin
plastic brain cells settle into perme
nent molds and forming what tn
learned call reaction noues, and tn
wise unschooled call HABITS Of life.
The boy at sunset in the mour
tains cooks the rabbit ne has caugh
for his supper and then lies down
think himself into dreamland Will
looking up through openings in giar
oak trees beside the Appalachia
brook-such a boy can no more b
come a man subject to petty inf
ences and yielding to sinister motive
than lion whelp can become nous
cat.
SHAPING THE
SAPLlNG
His wise mother may have sense
the value of mountains and oaks ;
substitutes for the man IN the hous
For j. F. Deems never had the bene1
of masculine oversight until he we
to work in coal mine later. II
parents were of pioneer stock, ar
his father was a boat builder who
ancestors came from Wales early
the history of Pennsylvania. AS Il
boy loved the mountain woods, Il
father loved the frontier and died
Illinois while prospecting a new hon
for the family when every Illino
town was little more than a villag
The mother of such common SEN