Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1920-07-13
STORMS, SAYS WRITER

George F. Burba, Columbus
new spaperman, probably knows Cox
better, personally than any other man.
For nearly 20 years Burba was as
sociated with Cox as editorial writer
on his Dayton newspaper and thcn
as private secretary during the gov
ernor's first term.
"One of Cox's most interesting
pleasures says Burba, sis to walk
in the teeth of storms. He loves to
tramp through the fields and along
the highways when it's raining tor
ents. or in a snow or sleet storm.
Many time he has called at my
house in Dayton during a storm and
asked me to go tramping with him.
Sometimes we'd walk for four or five
hours, and cover as much as 0 miles
Of territory.
His wonderful vitality is due, in
measure to the fact that he can
sleep few minutes any time he
wants to. I've been hunting with
him and. after eating lunch. he
would say: Call me in Is minutes
and he'd be asleep almost instantly.
ION his hunting trips to the wilds
Of Michigan, he always sleeps one
night out of doors, in the dense woods
with only blankets over him.
years before he became prosper
Gus, he used to dream of owning a
certain tract of land in the Miami
Valley, four miles below Dayton, and
building a home there.
1.-THE tract is the present site of
Trails End his magnificent home.
1t overlooks the valley and is the
end of an old Indian trail. He loves
the wild woods SO much that he won't
allow the forests surrounding his
home to be touched"
Got His First Job at Age of 12; His
Salary Was IS Gents a Week.
Cox got his first "pay job" when
he was IL yeats old. The United
Brethren church at Jacksonburg,
Butler county. Ohio, hired him at 80
cents week to be sexton. and few
weeks later he went on the payroll
of the local schoolboard at rs cents
a week as janitor of the district
school.
1.-THE church was in a cemetery
and in those days the kids all be-
lieved in ghosts" the governor tells.
II used to be half scared to death
as would approach the church on
dark Sunday nights to unlock 1t and
light the lamps.
"And then I'd have to sit in the
church alone until the first communi-
cant arrived. 1t was always an old
Mrs. Keister."
BY the time he was IL. Cox had
received all the schooling he could
get in his immediate neighborhood.
At the same time he had become tired
of the farm work. His father. how
ever. had a farmers career mapped
out for him.
So the Cox boy ran off" to Mid
dleton and got q job. at 81 a week,
as devil" in the Office of the Middle
ton Signal. running the press and
sweeping out the Office, after school
hours.
A week or so later his father To-
Gated him, but didn't take him back
to the farm. go ahead and be
printer IL you want to-" he said.
At Sixteen He Got license and Re-
gan Teaching School.
At Is. young Cox secured a teach
er's license and began teaching in
the village Of Heno at $40 month.
At the same time he taught q night
school at Middletown.
It was while teaching In the night
school that he met Paul Sorg, q
millionaire tobacco man, who was
president of the school board.
AFTER teaching several years, Cox
got a job on a Cincinnati newspaper.
He was "fired." however. for writing
story that displeased a railroad
oHicial. and then Sorg. by this time
q congressman, made Cox his private
secretary.
Here in Dayton, they will still tell
the story of how Cox. Is years ago.
escaped from a hospital.
He had been working day and
night for months, trying to put
rundown newspaper on its feet and
he had been acting as editor. editorial
writer and business manager. When
the nervous breakdown came the
doctors said he'd have to stay IN the
hospital for at least three weeks. He
entered the place on Sunday.
Money to Meet the Payroll All That
Was Needed to Cure His "Ner.
vous Breakdown"
Early the next Saturday morning
they discovered he had left during