PEGASUS AIDS EDUCATION.
Rosedale Boy Who Expects to Pay
Way in College Writing Poetry.
JAMES P. CANNON.
James Cannon, a member of the junior class of the Rosedale high school, hopes to win his way through the Kansas university next year by writing verse and short stories for the magazines. Some of his work has already been published and found favor, especially with the faculty of the school where he is known as "the judge."
The boy is 19 years old and when considerable younger developed a remarkable aptness in getting up short sketches of Kansas life, stories of the legal profession and essays on serious subjects. One poem entitled "The Day of Judgment," written a year ago, brought many favorable comments to the youthful author. It follows:
There shall be exact fulfillment
Of the prophecies of old.
Every act of simple kindness
Shall be paid a hundredfold;
Every stranger that we've sheltered
From the cold, and wind, and rain,
Shall become our intercessor
After we have plead in vain;
And the foods wherewith the beggars
In our charity we've fed
Shall be offered in atonement
As the Sacred Wine and Bread;
And the poor shall be exalted
O'er the lords of greed and gold --
There shall be exact fulfillment
Of the prophecies of old.
Cannon became known as "the judge" in rather a peculiar manner. Last winter three boys who became acquainted with him while he was working in a restaurant at 920 Southwest boulevard were arrested for gambling with dice and thrown into the Rosedale holdover. They had no money to employ counsel for their trial in police court and as a last resort sent for Cannon who, with a very limited knowledge of law, won the case over the city attorney. "The judge" has stuck with him since and bids fair to remain his permanent sobriquet. He says that if he ever becomes known in the literary field it will be his nom de plume and that he intends to make it famous.
Last Friday night when consternation reigned in the High school over the non-appearance of Juvenile Judge Ben B. Lindsey, of Denver, to fill a Chautauqua date with an assembled audience of about 600 patrons of the school, Cannon was elected by the principal to take his place. His knowledge of current events made this possible and when he at last sat down after a half hour's discourse on the delinquent magistrate he was greeted with a demonstration that would have been complimentary to any orator.
James Cannon is the son of John Cannon, a real estate agent of 1709 Kansas City avenue, Rosedale. At the death of his mother several years ago he left his home with the object of making his way in the world and incidentally in literature.
