New Britain herald., 1926-11-12
close cropped beard, the upper lip

Qleu ana the DOQy was adopted Dy two elderly Quarkeresses, both spinsters, and reared in the Quaker faith. He married a Quakeress. but Joe and his two brothers in- herited the fighting spirit of their Scotch-1rish grandfather.
 When Joe Cannon was four years old his father, a country school teacher and self-taught doctor migrated from North Carolina with ten other families, because he hated slavery. Following the old Ma tional Road in prairie schooners, they eventually settled on the banks of the Wabash, near Terre Haute, Ind.
 There the father, while swimming the swollen river to aid a sick neigh bor, was drowned, and Joe was left the main support of the family. He went to work Ia country store, where he spent four years.
 Those were the four most valu- able years of my early life" he said shortly after he had announced his retirement from congress. Within three months l had mastered book keeping and ~'as handling the stores records. tt was there 1 learned the value of a dollar. I began reading law in a friends office while I was working at the store, and slept in the law office at night to save lodg- ing.
 When I went to Cincinnati Law school l explained to the dean that I had enough money to pay dollar week for my board, but that l couldn't pay the tuition fee. He said, Very well, we'll take your note and you can pay it when you are able. So got through law school and when II graduated I had to walk back to Indiana because I couldn't afford railroad fare.
 T practiced in Indiana short Illinois, where I hung out my shingle at Tuscola."
 In 1860 he ran for states attor- ney, but was defeated. The next year the legislature created a new f judicial district, and he ran again. and was elected, serving for eight years.
 | In all his political career he had | but three defeats at the polls, the other two times being in races for congress.
 16 Years of Service In 1922 Uncle Joe" announced his retirement, after 46 years of service, land when congress adjourned late in 1 September, carried out long cher l ished ambition to go west again over l the route he travelled in his mothers Iarms S2 years before. He started from Washington by automobile, but | because fatigue was forced to abandon the trip at Indianapolis. 1 I've had enough he said in dis cussing his retirement to private | life. Its 50 years since I first went 1 to Washington. and with the excep- tion of those two unsought vacations | (referring to his two defeats,) I've been there ever since. I decided to
 retire voluntarily" but. he added a i bit woefully, ~ am just a bit sorry now"
 l When he first went to Washington, Mir. Cannon was induced to put S1, | 1000 into a scheme for the transfus- ion of metal and he never saw the money after that. Later, Alexander Graham Bell, then experimenting with the telephone. invited Cannon into the company Ion the ground floor,' brt after being "stung" once. as he expressed it, he resisted the temptation, only to see other friends take up this and other stocks to be- come millionaires many times over. I But Mir. Cannon's own bank and lother business ventures were success l ful. and he amassed considerable wealth.
 1 The fact probably has been forgot ten by most publishers that 1t was i Cannon. while . member of the post office committee, who fought for re- form in the postal laws and put through the bill providing for low rate on second class mail matter, which is still in effect. In his clos ing years, mindful of this service, he often remarked that the newspa pers. which had lampooned him. had gain cd much through a law giving them the right of sending their publica- lions at less than the letter rate. In 1908, when in the glory of his rule as boss of the house, MT. Can- mon looked toward the republican nomination for the presidency. When leaders proposed that he take sec ond place on the ticket he refused emphatically.
 Love For Children The old warriors love of children was greater than his love for cigars. He once told a friend that of the multitude of cartoons. friendly and viciou". the ono he liked best pictur- cd him as baby in swaddlng clothes. with the Lincoln-like fringe on his face, and the cigar in his mouth pointing skyward. The orig inal of this cartoon, with many others presented to him by cartoonist friends. hung on the wall of his study at Danville.
 Time softens an old mans heart" he said recently, land when I think of tEe house doing me such great honors. not forgetting how it once tried t) tear me up and feed me to the wolves, I ought to 20 to my grave with a serene countenance. knowing that my heart was glad with the last faint beats."
 Ills Last Years.
 Mir Cannon spent the latter years of his life lcisurely at his home at Danville, III, where he was a fa- miliar figure upon the streets. He made daily visits to the Second Ma tional bank, which became known as the Cannon Bank" and also at tended the weekly dinners of the kiwants club. And almost 10 the end he smoked his big black cigars.
 While returning to his home after retiring from congress the story was sent Throughout the country that
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