Men that are good and men that are bad, as good and as bad as I.
I would not sit in the scorner's seat,
Nor hurl the cynic's ban.
Let me live in a house by the side of the road
And be a friend to man."




CHAPTER I

BOYHOOD DAYS


I have often been asked the question, "Why don't you write a book?" And
I have said, "What is the use? What good will it do?" I have thought
about it time and time again, and have come to the conclusion to write a
story of my life, the good and the bad, and if the story will be a help,
and check some one that's just going wrong, set him thinking, and point
him on the right road, praise God!

I was born in Hudson City, N. J., over forty years ago, when there were
not as many houses in that town as there are now. I was born in old
Dutch Row, now called Beacon Avenue, in a two-story frame house. In
those days there was an Irish Row and a Dutch Row. The Irish lived by
themselves, and the Dutch by themselves.

Quite frequently the boys of the two colonies would have a battle royal,
and there would be things doing. Sometimes the Dutch would win out,
sometimes the Irish, and many's the time there was a cut head and other