“How art thou this morning?” “My rheumatics is very bad. I could hardly get here.” “Thou must be very old. How does’st thou intend to vote?” “I am past eighty, but have always voted the Democratic ticket since I first voted for Andy Jackson.” “Thou art old and hath but a brief time on earth and should make thy calling and election sure. Thou had’st better vote the Republican ticket.” “I don’t know that the way a man votes has much to do with his future spiritually,” was the indignant reply. “But does’st thou not know that the Good Book says that ‘no Democrat can enter the kingdom of heaven?’” “Well, it seems to me that the Bible does say something like that.” “Well, thou had’st but a short time and if the Good Book is true thou takest an awful risk. Thou had’st better vote the Republican ticket.” “No, I will not. In fact, if John Kern was here he could explain all that away.” Stories of this general nature taken from his Kokomo days might be multiplied, for Kern stories have been plentiful in Howard for half a century. His popularity never waned. CHAPTER IV REPORTER OF THE SUPREME COURT--1884-1889 I At the age of thirty-seven Kern took a survey of his life and an inventory of his resources and found himself dissatisfied with the result. He had a local reputation as a young man of unusual promise and ability as a lawyer, was extraordinarily popular among his Howard county neighbors, and was known as a forceful and eloquent speaker among the Democratic leaders of the state. But his worldly stores were not in keeping with his ability, and he faced the fact that he had not properly realized on his capacity. Thus it was that in 1884 he decided to be a candidate for a state office. Actuated partly by the fact that it was in the line of his profession and partly because it was at that time a highly remunerative office he concluded to be a candidate for the nomination for reporter of the supreme court. Already well and favorably known in his section of the state and among the politicians from every section his availability was impressed upon the democracy of every community through the publication in local papers of editorials “made in Kokomo” in the office of _The Kokomo Despatch_. This publicity factory was under the management of his friend, Oscar Henderson, afterward auditor of state. And it did effective work.