“When he moved to Marion, he left behind a mule, because the mule was so well known in the vicinity that it could not be sold at a profit and so valuable that he could not afford to sacrifice it. “I started out early one afternoon; but this mule had only one gait. You couldn’t put him in second or third, and couldn’t step on the gas or anything. The shades were falling fast as I reached Roberts’ Mill, four miles out of Marion. The situation was looking dark to me, and I stopped to ask an old fellow smoking a pipe how far it was to Marion. Without cracking a smile, he replied, ‘Well, if you are going to ride that mule, it is a further distance than you’ll ever get.’” But notwithstanding the slow pace of his temperamental mule, he arrived in Marion and set about finding a job. The study of law attracted him for a time, with insurance on the side. He frequently insisted that the first real money he ever earned was when he secured the fire insurance on the Hotel Marion from Amos Kling, who later became his father-in-law. In this transaction, his commission was $150, and his first purchase was a “slip horn,” and then he joined the Marion Silver Cornet Band. This horn is still a treasured possession in the family. The proudest memory of his life, Mr. Harding once admitted, was when he became the leader of that band. One of the great events of those days was the band contest at Findlay, Ohio, to which competitors came from great distances. Upon the occasion that the Marion Band was to compete, its enthusiastic young leader had managed by dint of great strain upon his resources to procure brand-new uniforms, so that his musical flock would make a fine appearance. He was banking on winning prize money for reimbursement. The rival bands all got ahead of the Marion contingent in getting before the judges, and their efforts were so well appreciated by their followings that the Marion bandsmen lost heart and quietly departed, not wanting to suffer the mortification of public defeat. Finally, when their turn came, only the leader, who blew an alto horn, the bass drummer, and the clarinet player were left to perform. But they did their best with their depleted ability, and their delight and surprise may be imagined when the judges called Harding forward and announced that he had won a prize of $200. This was more than enough to pay for the new uniforms, and no prouder group participated in the review of winners than that little trio. Neither selling insurance nor the intricacies of law held the appeal of journalism, and young Harding decided to follow the press, securing a job on the _Mirror_, a Democratic paper. Being an ardent Republican and already a firm party man, he fell out with his employer over the stand the editor took in the James G. Blaine campaign for the Presidency. Being a Blaine supporter, the young man found himself without a job.