Adventure, February 1917 — page 211: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

+ The Camp-Fire. It would take a ream to hold the account of all the little, hair-raising but insignificant adventures of my early boyhood, such as driving cattle home after dark from a distance of five miles, part of the way in a tiny path among the thick woods, and hearing the whoosh of an excited bear close to me- and his crashing retreat. And the way the wolves used to perch on the roof of our covered hog-pen and howl until we opened a door or window to get a shot at them and then would vanish like shadows. I LIVE entirely alone, as all my children are married and my wife has been on the other shore for just five years. There are advantages in that way of living, though I can’t say that I like it. I am never disturbed in my writing, except by the telephone. = In the early sixties we were often visited by bears, wolves, panthers, wildcats, lynxes and skunks. Oh my lord, the skunks! Our farm was a quarter-mile by a mile in extent and lay between two beautiful lakes where fishing was always well rewarded. There were six within a radius of three miles. The beauty of the forest region before men chopped the trees down was wonderful and I have always been glad that I lived there. IN THE following pages I have summed things up in brief paragraphs that give you a fairly good idea of how lacking my life has been in note- worthy adventures, yet I had lots of them in my work that put my life in more danger than the aver- age big-game hunter faces. They are not worth writing about, though. I was born in northern Ohio, went with my pa- rents to Minnesota in June, 1862, lived on a farm in the hardwood-timber belt until I reached my major- ity, moved then to Minneapolis, where I lived for the next two and a half years. Then I went back to Ohio for a year and a half, at the end of which timé I came to Los Angeles. This city has been my headquarters ever since and in all probability will be until I die. I plan to radiate from this center during the rest of my days, seeing all I can that is of interest, MY LIFE has been that of a worker, learning the carpenter trade in Minneapolis and Ohio, following it until 1893 when I began to take con- tracts. I continued as a contractor until June, 1915, when I made up my mind that I would try the thing that had been the dream of my life, writing. The . idea of sometime doing this had been constantly with me since my twelfth birthday. For years I used to make up stories, thinking out a chapter as I milked the cows, carrying seven to ten characters in my head and running them through twenty-five to thirty chapters, When I had finished one story I at once took up another, and the build- ing of these romances was a delight to me. MY ADVENTURES have been only those in- cident to my life as a worker. I have broken through ice and had to swim and break ice to get out, finally getting under and lifting till I smashed my way to the air again. That was done by swim- ming in till I was in water shoal enough to let me eae with my shoulders under the thin ice and eave. : I have fought a bull with my bare hands, shut up in a long stable with him, the door hooked on the 209 inside with a hook that fitted so tightly that I had to bump it up with a fork handle to get the door open. I suppose it is hardly necessary to state that Iwon. I would not be here to write this had I lost. I have fought a bull with a club about like a base- ball-bat when he had me cornered against a high fence; I have had a round with a maik stallion in a box-stall, I have fought a raging dog with my bare hands and killed him, and he was a good fighter with lots of size and muscle, ] HAVE sat in a house when a cyclone played marbles with it. I have ridden across a lake in a sailboat when a tornado was chasing us and we had four husky men sitting on the windward gun- wale, their feet hooked under the thwarts, and lean- ing outboard as far as they could hang, while two others bailed for dear life. I have disarmed a bad man who had three notches in his gun and proved him a bluff, when I was only eighteen years old. I have been left hanging to the gutter of a building by one hand when all the scaf- folding went down with a crash, I have lifted so hard to save the life of my father that I was crip- pled for many weeks and my muscles contracted under the strain to such a degree that they split a bone. I have had tthe privilege of saving the lives of six or seven people and never getting hurt while doing it. I have hunted the woods over for years and never shot a deer yet. All small-game hunting for me. Oh, yes, I once stood guard over a friend who was about to be taken out by a gang of toughs and given a coat of tar and feathers because he had expressed his mind freely about their actions. As I had sent word to them that my shotgun held buckshot and was waiting to be emptied into their hides they shied off and quit. ‘THE best job I have ever done was to raise two boys that go over six feet and over-two hun- dred pounds each and are as clean and decent fel- lows as there are in America today. The best sport I have ever had was shooting small game with a rifle of small caliber. The winning of a contest that gave me the most pleasure was the beating of a pro- fessional crack shot, who traveled with Buffalo Bill in two contests with .22 caliber rifles, straight and fancy shooting. ae The next best was beating seven officers of the local militia in a revolver contest, they to use .38 service revolvers, Colts, I to use my 32.20 Smith & Wesson, and shoot 75 yards to their 50, five shots apiece. Made good by three points. AM just a plain man, with no glamour hang- ing about my aura. Date my American an- cestry back to 1637 on father’s side, to 1652 on mother’s. Am fifty-five, stand six feet two and a half, am healthy, happy and husky, my digestion is perfect and lungs sound. Average weight 245 pounds and have lifted 972 pounds at one load, dead weight. Never struck the first blow in a fight since I was ten years old and have not been licked since I was fifteen. My chief amusement when young was wrestling. That is one very large rea- son why I have never been licked since I got my growth. I found it rather easy to wrap them up in a small and@ compact bundle when they got ugly. It does not look half so bad and hurts the other fel- low just as much as it would to black his eye, comichbook (E©)