THE GALL OF A DISTANT PAST 275 



heavily-laden cars, but it did, and presently we 

 were in Peoria. All was bustle and confusion. 

 ADAM RANKIN of Monmouth was unloading a show 

 herd of Berkshires when we arrived at the fair 

 ground siding, and a lot of his pigs were uncrated 

 on the platform to be driven across to the swine 

 department by way of exercise. They got it. So 

 did our entire party. Overjoyed, I suppose, at their 

 unexpected liberty, with heads and tails up, they 

 broke away from all control, and steeple-chased all 

 over the fair grounds with our whole company in 

 hot pursuit. That was my first real demonstration 

 of Berkshire activity, cunning and real agility. 

 Needless to say it took the ringleaders in this 

 escapade three or four days to recover from their 

 ''spree," much to their owner's disgust. 



Such was my father's entrance into showyard 

 campaigning. Such was my own first taste of life 

 in the great world that had been discovered outside 

 of Keokuk county. Several happy and prosperous 

 years followed, so far as the stock-keeping ventures 

 were concerned; but the financial panic of Y3 

 wrecked the St. Louis and Cedar Rapids railway 

 corporation, and the savings of twenty years went 

 by the board. Meantime, GEORGE W. RUST and JOHN 

 P. REYNOLDS of Chicago, noting the possibilities 



