60 THE ITINERANT HORSE PHYSICIAN 



out but my efforts were cut short early the fol- 

 lowing spring. In treating a case of puerperal 

 infection in a cow I became virulently infected 

 and was put out of the running. After several 

 months' treatment my physician advised a course 

 of water treatment at Hot Springs. I collected 

 what bills I could, paid what we owed and sold 

 my half interest for two hundred and fifty dol- 

 lars, leaving for Hot Springs, Arkansas, the 

 same day. 



I had not made any money on this venture but 

 I did not lose any, either. I at least paid off a 

 few of my debts with my earnings of the first few 

 months. When I left El Paso this time I had 

 about a hundred and seventy-five dollars in my 

 pocket. I bought a ticket to Hot Springs, via 

 Fort Worth and Dallas. 



I arrived in Dallas in the evening of the next 

 day and could have made immediate connections 

 and gone right through to Hot Springs. I 

 wanted to see the country, however, and so 

 decided to stay in Dallas over night and take an 

 early morning train. I left Dallas the next 

 morning at half past seven on the "St. Louis 

 Cannon Ball," a fast train. 



About ninety miles east of Dallas, just after 

 we had passed through a small station called 

 Edge wood, the rails spread as we rounded a curve 

 heading into a bridge and we had a real wreck. 

 I came out with a few scratches and torn clothes, 

 for which I collected seventy-five dollars from the 

 railroad company when I reached Hot Springs. 

 I made myself useful at the scene of the wreck 



