my aged mother, my kind friends, and for their sake I would not yield
to despair. Soliciting the aid of a kind Heavenly Father, I resolved
to do the best I could toward regaining what I had lost. My father was
a minister of the gospel for fifty years prior to his death. He was
not blessed with much of this world's goods. For this reason I began
in very early life to aid myself. I spent seven years in college
preparing for the struggles that awaited me. I earned every dollar of
the money which paid my expenses while securing my education. I
carried the hod to assist in building the college in which I afterward
graduated. Few men can truthfully make this statement of themselves.
While working my way through the institution where I received my
education, I learned one useful lesson--self reliance. I learned to
depend upon my own efforts for success. Every one must learn this
useful lesson before he can become anything in life. After I had met
with misfortune and found myself in a prison cell, I was glad that I
had learned to rely upon my own efforts.

The question: "What shall I do in the future?" now came to me. That
afternoon I laid my plans which I would carry out out in the years to
come. I was financially ruined in the great battle I carried on with
the Atchison ring. I was aware of the fact that, when I got out of the
penitentiary, all the money that I would have with which to make
another start in life would be five dollars. The United States
presents her prisoners, when discharged, with a suit of citizen's
clothes and five dollars. This was my capital. What could I do with
five dollars, in the way of assisting me in getting another financial
foot-hold in life? After my release it was necessary for me to do
something at once to get money. It never entered my mind to borrow. It
will be interesting to the reader to know what I did, after my prison
days were past, to make a "quick raise." Sixteen months of