Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-09-10
BY HERBERT COREY.

! COLUMBUS, Ohio, September TO-
There is nothing exciting about the
work of printers devil. This state
ment may be confirmed by the first
devil one meets. 1t is all hard work,
smudges of ink, an odor of benzine,
and very little money on Saturday
night.
In the case of young James M. Cox
To-day the democratic nominee for
the presidency-being the devil in the
| printing establishment of his brother
1n-laW at Middletown had certain COM
plications, however. For one thing.
the brether-in-law published the Mid
dletown Signal, and the devil worked
at everything from sticking type to
| collecting bad debts.
There is a tale which may be apoc-
ryphal but which is nevertheless
told OF persistently delinquent sub
scriber:
IF you do not pay up, I'm going to
lick your boy" said young James NJ.
Cox.
The delinquent Illuminated. He did
not believe that Jimmy could lick his
boy. If he did succeed he, the de-
linquent would lick him. Jimmy.
Also he would stop his paper.
Delinquent Paid.
But II you do not pay up I am go
| Ing to lick your boy" said the per-
sistent James, refusing to be diverted
from the principal issue. In the end
! the delinquent paid up and did not
| become big man in Ohio he used to
tell the story, adding to it a state
ment of his conviction that Cox would
have licked him-the delinquent-also
! II 1t had been necessary.
He is a gritty little euss," said the
l X.de iS M hod
man to get into fight with. He
| never quits"
Thanks to the job in the Signal office
he managed to get through the Middle
town schools. Then he won a license
| to teach school In those days the
| county school boards were not exacting
| in their demands upon applicants for
| school teaching positions Usually the
teacher was the son 'or daughter of sofhe
| influential person in the school district
| Cox had made himself sufficiently well
! known to get the job-teach;ng was a
Job" then-by his own efforts. He was
| not a particularly scholarly boy. Too
much of his time had been taken by
the effort to get living
HE could read and write and spell
| correctly" said an oldtimer. But he
certainly did raise cain with the die
| tionary. He found some mighty funny
| meanings in lot of those long words. +"
Taught School at Night.
But he taught school, and got $40 a
month for it, in the village of Heno.
BY this time he was sixteen. Forty
dollars a month was not enough, and
SO he got a Job to teach night school
in Middletown. That was only worth
$40 month, as the school board thought
night school teaching was only side
issue of the teacher. At any rate, it
was while teaching night schools that
he met Paul Sorg. the millionaire to-
came his warm personal friend, en-
ployer, and finally hacker.
Still that was not enough money.
So he became the Middletown corre-
lspondent of the Cincinnati Enquirer.
THAT merely involved wandering
with every one. for which he had a
natural faculty. Even today there
are scores of old inhabitants who are
Pete and Billy to Mr.. Cox. and to
whom Mr.. Cox is and always will
be Jim. He had a few other side
issues. There were things to be done
for the county commissioners and the
other county officers now and then.
He made a deal in calves on one &C.
casion which profited him SIS. He
the most widely known inhabitants
of Middletown. His memory for
| names is phenomenal he was genial
approach, and he can remember what
the other man has been doing, and
asks about it.
! He always seems to be more in
terested in what you are doing than
| in what he is doing" said one.
| Vigilance Wins Scoop.
| The Enquirer did not expect much
from it's Middletown correspondent
except the Sunday morning contribu-
ton 10 the Ohio valley items, in
which the joys and sorrows of the
citizenry were to be faithfully re-
counted. But what happened in Mid
dIetown was always faithfully re-