Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 84, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 April 1916 — INTERESTING ITEMS FROM THE CITIES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

INTERESTING ITEMS FROM THE CITIES

“Millionaire Kid” Friend of All in Boom Town HOPEWELL, VA. —Out of Washington obscurity, where he toiled unostentatiously, little Joseph J. Oulahan has sprung to fame. Hopewell, Va., the wild-west town which was created in a night, knows Joseph. He is hailed

everywhere by rough-bearded, acidscarred gun-toters; by Greeks and Slavs and Irishmen, and by a myriad men who have no nation. He reached the Miracle City of Virginia almost without a penny. Something about this sturdy youngster, who had dived into this raw town to shift for himself, appealed to the men who had swarmed there. They helped in little ways. Then came the day when he hit upon a scheme of finance which won him his

name. Out-of-town newspapers were scarce; soft drinks scarcer. Hopewell Is a dry, not to say arid, town. So he romped off to Petersburg, returning with stacks of papers and gallons of soft drinks. Joe’s goods went like wildfire and at prices that rivaled the skyward flights of our leading war stocks. At once Joe showed another side of his nature. When he was making S2O a day—and it is said he made even more than that for a while —he spent S6O at one clip for a sick companion, first putting him in the Hopewell hospital and afterward paying his fare back to Washington. Needy, seedy strangers in Hopewell, who approached Joe for a small loan always got it. In a trice his sobriquet was attached to him. In the press of fierce competition, caused by the entry of other boys into the newspaper selling field, Joe took to selling papers in the trains. One day 125 of Hopewell’s sturdy citizens were packed in one of the grimy cars when the conductor, irritated by the pranks of the men, tried to vent his wrath on Joe. The whole 125 jumped for him and one of them said: "Mister, if you think you can whip the whole Du Pont works you roughhouse that kid; otherwise, you leave him be.” Since that historic day Joe has sold his papers in peace.