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Show I : 1 i Bad to the 01' Home Town Where Cox Was Born kid r:? .s te -. " .... f Ji ', i ' ' COX WANTS TO BE PLAIN lJI' TOJfl PALS "None of That:" He Tells-the Home-1 own Folk Who "Mister'' Him JACKSONT.UHG O Jacksonburg 16 pess'.ng away. Ius two hotels are sone. rts thriving pork Industry has departed H.s porrrlation has dwindled to 50 or thereabouts The tragedy of Its passing Is Hlce that of n thousand thou-sand othr American Villages. Its children chil-dren have gone away to the cities to 'see life;" to make money; to work in factories and In offices; to practice medicine and law; to teach and to marry But the othr day Its favorite son Jimmy cox. came back as a candidate for president of the T'nlted States' ,ii "JIM" in I ii D HOM ) : And he stopped at the houso ot Agnes Marcerum fnow Breitenbocher with whom he went to school and who lives Just across Ihe road from tne house In which he was born. "'all again, Vr. Cox." said Agnes .Marcerum. "None f that, Agnes," said Jim Cox, r.iilniT b reproving hand. "I am not Mr Cox here." "Jim," she answered softly and though her eyes were a bit filmed with tears they could see s plainly us anything down through the years when b'- and Jimmv were the leading actors ac-tors in "The Hoosier Schoolmaster," that WPS given for the benefit of the school Jimmv playing the part of "Mr. Plerson," the one-!gged veteran, while :-he wi.s "Mrs. Plerson." Jacksonburg today g a little cluster of houses on a road rix miles from Midd'.etown and at the far rid -tands the house ln which Cox was born. And Alf Tbomns. Cox's cousin, points out the very room on the first floor front where the candidate for president firs', raised his voice, crying shrilly, Alf Thomas works on Cox's farm and hi-" shoes are caked with soil And, so, before he approaches tho room, he taken off his shoes and enters in his stocking feet, lest he scratch th-polished th-polished woodwork floors with which Cox has replaced the old rough timbers. tim-bers. "This Is the very room." says Alt reverently, "The very room he was born In." "Its like a shrine to Alf: tho scene of a great miracle. He Is awed by tne wonder of this: That the little boy ne husked corn With on thia very farm some -10 years aifo should have eomr u p from tho soil to contest for tne ruleship Of the republic. He lookB across the broad acres and! beyond the years to the place and tne ! time he und Jimmy a barefoot child scarcely 12 drudged together ln tne . field under the hot summer's sun It was work, work frjm morninB I to night and never a complaint rrom I the boy, he says L'p a: daybreak ami at work till dusk That was the end- less program for Jimmy Cox and Aif j Thomas, with no vacations. And on Sunday morning to church to dust ihe pews, and sweep out and, , In tho winter time. tjj. start tho tlr.-I tlr.-I for Jimmy Cox was Janitor of the- United Brethcrn Congregation. J i I'lease read this carefully, young fellow you who complain when your j mother calls you to run an errand that , will Interfere with votir ball-game.) GOES IN STOCKING FEET. Then Alf Thomas, still in his stock - Ing feet leads the way to the second ( floor to the room thr.t was, Jimmy's bedroom. But it's much changed now and, indeed, the whole house Is changed, chang-ed, except for the great flieplaoe in . the- room that was the kitchen where Jimmy Cox popped corn and oxi ep: for the mantel in the room that he I was born In. He has spent much to improve the i house, but these cherished thingj have remained untouched With antique furniture (tlie bedsteads are great four posted affairs) and with antique pictures pic-tures and antique chlnawaro and kettle ket-tle and andirons, he has kept thero the spirit and the style of the time in which his grandfather, Gilbert Cox. t built the, house. j Gilbert Cox died in 186S and sleeps in rhe ancient churchyard back of the United Brethren's house and the quaint epitaph on his tombstone says oi him "Respected when living, lamented when dead; Ills sanctified spirit to Jesus bus fled " And Alf Thomas points out the painted picture of'Gllbert Cox that haim-s on the wall of the room wherein where-in "ox was born, while close by hangs S portrait of Cox's grandinothe-r and on another wall a likeness of jim-Inij jim-Inij Cox himself at three "Knowing the Democratic candidate candi-date to be an excellent man, 1 cannot do otherwise than vote for him, explains ex-plains Alf Thomas, as he puts his shoes back on. for he Is now out again ln the Held when he and Jim-niy Jim-niy used to work till the sun set and iJlmmys eyes were heavy With sleep LIKF Till-; OLD KKADK'K STORY And perhaps Agnos Margerum re- m embers I he old stor in McGuffej I reader Ln which the old mother waits 'for the return of her favorite boy who j has gone to far countries to win fame land fortune I Then when she is on her death-' bed he comes back rich and famous and she dies content because hei eyes have seen the glory of her dreamy f"u! filled That's Jacksonburg. I ill her come the pilgrims now to View the tiny, lorgoiten humlet where pre.HMloiifal candidate porn. am, "" call on Agnes Margerum, she svho inow Is Mrs. Breltenbechcr, and who went to school with Jimmy Cox, to i ask her what sort of a boy he was and I what in? looked like and was he smart at school. xs REAJu INO BITJVE BOY. "We were In the same room In school." 3ho says. And then she goes on io tell how he was always at the head of his class; and how he was ever asking tho teacher questions when others were saying nothing, i nd how he vould pore over Yenable's School History of the United States and read about the presidents and th-Civil th-Civil war which was then btlll a new-story, new-story, und how after school he would often call on an old soldier to consult with him about tho battles and to argue ar-gue disputed points. "He's a forward kind of a boy," the veteran once said to a relative of Jimmy. "l'ou don't understand that boy," replied Jimmy's relative. "He's Just set on learning'." And Agnes Margerum Breltenbechcr says its wonderful', truly, that in its d i lining years, Jackbonburg fhould win national renown because of this boy who was born here and become a place of pilgrimage to which come ihotc who still love the tradition of the home-spun, . old-fashioned America that grew iir. great men on farms. Then, after they have spoken to her and Inspected the house Jimmy Cox was born in, these pilgrims wander down the road to James Shafer's gen-leral gen-leral store to chat with Shnfer about those Jimmy days. Shafer Is un authority on Jimmy. To his store tho boy would como to i buy groceries for his mother and to 'listen to the debates that went on around the cracker barrel or the stove, land occasionally to venture a question; ques-tion; or to listen to ghost stories that I c Id-timers told, until, as Shafer says, Jimmy Was afraid to go homo alone And thero are Items that show thnt 'on Keb. 12. 1885. Jimmy bought a pen lor a cent, and on April 2G, he bought l.lue for 20 cents. Here are tho very items: To pen by James, $ 0 1 To Boal Glue by James. $.20. "That was Jimmy himself," explains Shafer. ! Then the visitor goes to the hurch where COS was Janitor and wanders back into the churchyard where his grandparents rest and scan the fading epitaphs on their tombstones, the one inscribed to his grandmother, reading thus; 'Sweet Is the sleep our mother takes. Till in Christ Jesus she awakes. Then will her happy soul rejoice To hear the blessed saving volco." HOTELS VRE GONE Jacksonburg'.s hotels are gone; and also tho blacksmith shop and the pork industry but "what matters that, after af-ter all?" ask the village folks. Jack-'! flonburg'S pride I In the children who have gone away and made good, whether In the factory, or as doctors.i or lawyers, ox in the household, and, maybe, In the presidency of the United States. |