y boyhood to
the time when he was elected Governor of Minnesota, what an example
he was to the youth of that day as well as this. The short sketch ran
thus: John Johnson was the eldest, I think, of four children. His
father was a blacksmith and a good mechanic. Both father and mother
were Swedes. Although a good mechanic, he developed into a lazy, bad
man, who neglected his wife and children, and eventually landed in
the poorhouse. Being left to themselves, the mother took in washing,
and after school, John, the eldest, took home the clothes and took
out parcels for a tradesman. John was thus able to help to keep the
family. He was ambitious, wanted to learn, attended night school for
that purpose, engaged with a chemist, gave it up, went into a
lawyer's office, then into politics, and after filling several
important positions got elected Governor of his native state. What I
admired in John Johnson was his devotion to his mother, brother and
sisters; also his self-denial. What would you think of an alpaca
coat to resist the rigors of a Minnesota winter? Well, John, by
working at night in various ways saved up enough to buy an overcoat,
he having none, and having to be out late at night delivering the
clothes his mother had washed during the day. Through unforeseen
demands on his mother's earnings the poor boy was forced to give up
the overcoat and hand over the hard-earned money for something he
thought was wanted more, and went through the winter with nothing
warmer than an alpaca jacket. I cannot but believe that these
hardships laid the foundation for a delicate constitution, and every
time I looked at his picture hanging in my dining-room I thought,
"How delicate he looks; will he live to be an old man?" I was so
taken with the story of his early life, his trials bravely endured,
and his final triumph, that I wrote to him and congratulated him
on his election. This election was a great victory for him, as his
opponents used the fact against him that his father had been an
inmate of the poorhouse and had died there a pauper, to defeat him.
These disgraceful tactics were repudiated by many of his opponents,
who showed they did so by voting against their own candidate and for
John Johnson. This gain of votes from his opponents elected him by a
good majority. Well, I told him in my letter that I was a British
subject living in Victoria, Canada, and as such I congratulated him
on his victory, that I was glad his old moth