THE author was born in Virginia, on a little
patch of land, so poor we had to fertilize it
to make brick. Our family, while having cast
their fortunes with the South, was not a family
ruined by the war; we did not have
anything when the war commenced, and
so we held our own. I secured a common
school education, and at the age of
twelve I left home, or rather home left me
--things just petered out. I was slush cook
on an Ohio River Packet; check clerk in a
stave and heading camp in the knobs of
Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia; I helped
lay the track of the M. K. & T. R. R., and
was chambermaid in a livery stable. Made
my first appearance on the stage at the National
Theatre in Cincinnati, Ohio, and have
since then chopped cord wood, worked in a
coal mine, made cross ties (and walked
them), worked on a farm, taught a district
school (made love to the big girls), run a
threshing machine, cut bands, fed the machine
and ran the engine. Have been a
freight and passenger brakeman, fired and
ran a locomotive; also a freight train conductor
and check clerk in a freight house;
worked on the section; have been a shot gun
messenger for the Wells, Fargo Company.
Have been with a circus, minstrels, farce