The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-08-19
By WILLIS THORNTON

By WILLIS THORNTON (NEA Service Stan Correspondent
 "He cont aCrite my hfe.
 Nobody cdn. I have Gl'Oays
 been e lone a0olf. I haUe GI, qoGys traveled alone ana
 done things alone. Nobody
 knoaVs much about me." THAT was the reply of Will | Rogers when he heard that an old friend in Tulsa was going to write his biogra- phy.
 A strange reply, when you come to think of it. Why, Will Rogers knew more people than any other person in the United States! Will Rogers was Everybody's Pal! He was the Official Jester in the Court of American Public Opinion. This was the face ("not hand some, but practical" he called it that launched a thousand ban uuets, and burned the land and sky roads of the country in q rest less urge to be everywhere, see everything, meet everybody.
 Indian Blood in His Veins
 But it was in the early years that Rogers learned to be lone wolf, It was 40 years ago that his character welded itself into something that was not to change, even when money, success, pupllc adoration, personal happiness, everything man could ask, came his way. It was in the Cherokee blood that flowed red in the Rogers veins.
 wills father, Clem Vann Rogers, was part Indian, descended from that most remarkable of Indian tribes. the Cherokees, whose all phabet, oratory, and general state of civilization marked them off from the savage tribes.
 The elder Rogers was a man of substance, owned a good and pros porous ranch, and helped write the constitution of oklahoma when the Indian Territory was ad- mitted as a state. The county about Claremore, Okla., was named for him. A lifelong ambition, to be elected chief of the Cherokee nation, was denied him because he wcs not a pure -blooded Indian.
 School Incurred Dislike
 Thus young Will, christened William Penn Adair Rogers, started life in above-average cir cun1stances for tho little dusty, lalse.front, tin-roof town that was oologah in the 'Sos. He was proud of his Indian blood--"When them people come over in the Mayfiower we was already here to say hello to 'em," he liked to say.
 His normal course would have been to go dutifully through school, run his fathers ranch, be- come a power in the community, perhaps enter politics. Wasn't he born on election day. November 4, 1873?
 ' BUJ Ln6t WuS uOL IOk yOuHb Nlii' Rabbit" as the boys called him, didn't like school. He liked to ride and rope, but as to school the only thing he liked was arguing with the teachers.
 Even at military school, resort. ed to in an effort to break him to discipline, he lasted only 8 short time. If all my footsteps while marching in the bull pen at Kcm- per could be laid end to end. they would make another bunion derby" he wrote later.
 Adventure Called Early
 Young Will broke away on his own, and Hone wolfed 1t" into the Texas oil fields. His father brought him back to run tho ranch, but he didn't stay long.
 He set off on a cattle boat to be a gaucho in the Argentine. And wound up in South America, break ing horses at $10 a month for the British army, which was just con- cluding its war against the Boers.
 That war over, Rogers was broke and jobless. He joined up with travelling Wild West show, demonstrating the peculiar Amer ican style of roping as "The