miraculous changes exhibited by the advanced hand of civilization.




CHAPTER I.

In 1861 He Starts as Mail Driver.

In the spring of 1861 I went home to Burlingame, Kansas, and went to
work on the farm of O.J. Niles. I had just turned the corner of
twenty-one summers, and I felt that life should have a "turning point"
somewhere, so I took down with the ague. This very ague chanced to be
the "turning point" I was looking for and is herewith related.

Mr. Veil of the firm of Barnum, Veil & Vickeroy, who had the mail
contract from Kansas City, Missouri, to Santa Fe, New Mexico, stopped
over at Burlingame, Kansas, and there met Mr. Niles, the man for whom I
was working. Mr. Veil told Mr. Niles that he wanted a farmer boy to
drive on the Long Route because the stage drivers he had were cowards
and not satisfactory. Niles told him that he had a farm hand, but, he
added, "he won't go, because he has the ague." "Oh, well," Mr. Veil
replied, "that's no matter, I know how to cure him; I'll tell him how to
cure himself." So they sent for me, and Veil told me how to get rid of
the ague. He said, "you dig a ditch in the ground a foot deep, and strip
off your clothing and bury yourself, leaving only your head uncovered,
and sleep all night in the Mother Earth." I did it. I found the earth
perfectly dry and warm. I had not much more than engulfed myself when
the influences of the dry soil began to draw all the poison out of my
body, and I had, as I most firmly believe, the most peaceful and