HERBERT CAVANESS

HERBERT CAVANESS was born at Chetopa, Kan., but refuses to reveal the date of that event. He has had rather a peculiar career in Kansas, saying that he was handicapped in life by being a preacher's son. The older members of his father's congregation yet tell how he used to run horse races with the old sorrel mare which his father used to ride on the circuit. His father went into the newspaper business, and Herbert was put to work learning the printer's trade. He says his early ambition was to be a bus driver, but he was forced into the newspaper business against his will, and made to wrap papers, set type and take proof, when he would much rather have been down at the old swimming hole.

Mr. Cavaness is president of the Tribune Publishing Company, which publishes the Chanute Daily Tribune. The Tribune was established in 1892, and was consolidated July 1, 1909, with the Chanute Sun. The Tribune is one of the influential papers of the state.

Mr. Cavaness was postmaster of Chanute eight years. He says his most noteworthy achievement has been that he graduated from Baker University without getting married or becoming a preacher. When asked what other callings had appealed to him, he made the following reply:

"I have had a narrow escape from two other callings—educational and the Chautauqua platform. Two members of a country school board promised to vote for me one time, but another fellow was elected by a unanimous vote, thus preventing me from becoming an educator. When in college I entered an oratorical contest in which there were eleven contestants. It ended my proposed Chautauqua career, as the judges unanimously awarded me eleventh place."

It is not, however, as bad as Mr. Cavaness makes it. He is an interesting speaker and one of the brightest newspaper men of Kansas.

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