Douglas daily dispatch., 1926-11-13

Dor, was drowned, and Joe was left
the main support of the family He
went to work in a country store, where
he spent four years.
Those were the four most valuable
| years of my early life" he said shortly
after he had announced his retirement
from congress. within three months
/ had mastered bookkeeping and was
handling the stores records 1t was
| there l learned the value of dollar.
/ began reading law in a friends Of
| flee while l was working at the store,
and slept in the law office at night to
save lodging.
when / went to Cincinnati Law
school I explained to the dean that I
had enough money TO pay a dollar a
week for my board, but that I couldn't
pay the tuition fee. He said, Very
well, well take your note and YOU can
J pay it. when you are able SO I got
through law school, and when / gradu-
ated 1 had to walk back to Indiana
because I couldn't afford railroad fare.
II practiced in Indiana short time
and then decided to come to Illinois,
where I hung out my shingle at Tus-
cola"
| In 1860 he ran for states attorney,
but was defeated. The next year the
| legislature created a new judicial dis
trio. and he ran again, and was elect
ed, 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.
|. In 1922, "Uncle Joe" announced his
retirement, after 46 years of service,
and when congress adjourned late in
September, carried out a long cherished
ambition to go west again over the
route he Travelled in his mothers arms
so years before. He started from
Washington by automobile, but because
of fatigue was forced to abandon the
trip at Indianapolis
rive had enough he said, in dis
cussing his retirement to private life
ITS SO years since first went to
Washington, and with the exception
of those two unsought vacations Gre
ferring to his two defeats) I've been
there ever since. I decided to retire
voluntarily, but" he added a bit wist-,
fully, II am just a bit sorry now"
When he first went to Washington,
Cannon was induced to put $1,000 into
a scheme for the TRANSMISSION of metal,
and he never saw the money after that.
Later, Alexander Graham Bell, then
experimenting with the telephone, in
vited Cannon into the company "on
the ground floor" but after being
"stung" once, as he expressed it, he
resisted the temptation, only to see
\. H.
stocks to become millionaires many
time over
But Cannons own bank and. other.
business ventures were successful, and
he amassed considerable wealth
The fact probably has been forgotten
by most publishers that il was Can
non, while member of the postoffice
committee, who fought for reform in
the postal laws and put through the
bill providing for low rate on second
class mail matter which is still in ef-
feet. In his closing years, mindful of
this service, he often remarked that
the newspapers which had lampooned
him. had gained much through a law
giving them the right of sending their
publications at less than the letter
rate.
In 1908, when in the glory of his rule
as boss of the house, Cannon looked
toward the republican nomination for
the presidency. When leaders pro-
posed that the take second place on
the ticket, he refused emphatically.
The old warriors love of children
was greater than his love for cigars.
He once told a friend that of the null
titude of cartoons, friendly and vicious,
the one he liked best pictured him as
baby in swaddling clothes, with the
Lincoln like fringe on his face and the
cigar in his mouth pointing skyward.
The original of the cartoon, with many
others presented to him by cartoonistI
friends, hung on the wall of his study
at Danville.
"Time softens an old mans heart"
he said recently, land when I think of
the house doing me such great honors,
not forgetting how it once tried to tear
me up and feed me 10 the wolves,
ought to go to my grave with a serene
countenance, knowing that my heart
was glad with the last faint BEATS"