nostrils in great numbers. If you go down 

 there to work a season you will get aciiuainteil 

 with them, all right. 



June 7, 1912. — To town for groceries and it 

 was on the trip home that furnished me witli 

 the opportunity for the opposite picture. The 

 roads or "lanes" of this country are very nar- 

 row — need the ground to farm — and when a 

 mud hole is developed it is not long until it 

 is a case of go through it and here on the 7tli 

 of June stuck in the mud with less than 80ti 

 pounds of a load. 



July 12, 1912.— Wheat threshed and while we 

 were expecting a good yield of from 25 to 3vi 

 bushels to the acre, as the straw was there, 

 yet we had to take 11 bushels and a reduction 

 of 15 bushels to the acre on 120 acres rather 

 iiurt my paying powers for the year's work. 



This was a loss to us of right at $1,800 and 

 \ou know what that means, especiallj' when 

 "you are already close up. 



Aug. 2, 1912. — For some time I had been run- 

 ning along under no special option or contract 

 with the "Smith Bros. & Co. Land Company 

 other than the fact that they carried my note 

 of $500 on land commission of $1,075 that 1 

 had not been able as \-et to pa>' the interest on 

 and the further loan of $500 to take up the 

 mule note of Grant estate, which was made in 

 the form of a one -day note and it looked to 

 me as though any day that I showed a ten- 

 dency to jump sidewise it would be like m\' 

 trust deed on the land — made efferti\'e. 



Well, on this date they called me in and 1 

 follow with the new contract or option that 

 I signed. 



"Sikeston, Mo., Aug. 2, 1912. — This is to cer- 

 tify, the undersigned, Hugh D. fetudabaker of 

 New Madrid County, Missouri, does this day 

 option to C. M. SMITH BROS. & CO. of Sikes- 

 ton, Scott County, jMissouri, all of my following 

 described real estate, lying, being and situate 

 in New Madrid County, Missouri, upon the fol- 

 lowing conditions, to-wit: 



"That said C. M. SMITH BROS. & CO. push 

 the sale of my land so as to net me $85 per acre, 

 paying all their own expenses while showing 

 and trying to sell my land to their prospective 

 land buyers, free of expenses to me. 



"I also further agree to accept half cash, 

 balance on terms to suit the purchaser, bearing 

 six per cent (6%) interest from date of deferred 

 payments as set out in the DEED OF TRUST 

 to the purchaser of C. M. SMITH BROS. & 

 CO. 



"And I also agree to give C. M. S'MITH 

 BROS. & CO all over $85 per acre net to me for 

 their commission and services rendered me in 

 the selling the land herein described, free of 

 expenses to me. 



"Said land is described as follows: 



"All that part of the south half of section 7, 

 township 24. range 14, lying west of the right 

 of way of the St. Louis & San Francisco Rail- 

 road, containing 215.04 measured acres. 



"And it is further agreed by the undersigned, 

 Hugh D. Studabaker, am to have the right to 

 sell the above described land myself but not 

 through any other agents or real estate agency, 

 except C. M. SMITH BROS. & CO.. who are 

 my sole acting real estate agents. 



"I also agree to pro rate the corn rent with 

 said purchaser of C. M. Smith Bros. & Co., at 

 the rate of one-third delivered to market or 

 $6 per acre cash rent, either way said pur- 

 chaser inay elect at date of his purchase. 



"This option to expire .lanuary 1st, 1913, at 

 seven-thirty p. m., on that date, and shall re- 

 main in full force and effect until said above 

 date. 



"Hugh D. Studabaker, 

 "C. M. Smith Bros. & Co. 



"By J. E. Smith, Sr., Mgr." 



You will notice from the above contract that 

 I had the right to sell this land myself, BUT 

 not through any other agent or agents. Still 

 it does not specify just who I dared to sell it to. 



In to see Mr. A. J. Matthews and Mr. Mat- 

 thews gave me his views on life's trials and 

 sucesses — not very many suc;cesses but mostly 

 trials. We talked on general topics for a while 

 and finally he took up the above topic and 



likened our success in life to the feeding of 

 your little dog "Towser." Now, as he said, 

 Towser was a good dog and you thought lots 

 of him but when you came to feed him you 

 could not resist the temptation to have a little 

 fun with him. You would take a piece of meat 

 and hold it up and say, "Come. Towser, let's 

 see how high you can jump," and when Towser, 

 who was yet active and able to jump, was 

 about to get his breakfast you would hold it 

 just a little higher. Trying him out, so to 

 speak. Well, I could not help but apply it 

 locally and wherein he was doing the holding 

 up of the "meat" he would not have to stand 

 up on the rounds of a chair to get it out of 

 most any fellow's reach as Mr! A. J. Matthews 

 is a vei-y tall man. 



Now, if you go down to this country, as 1 

 have been suggesting all along and try rent- 

 ing for a season or work for somebody before 

 investing "your little roll. " You can make the 

 acquaintance of Mr. A. J. Matthews and learn 

 to know him as I know him, yourself. 



On the 5th of August, 1912, Mr. A. J. Mat- 

 thews and his son, Emory, came out in their 

 automobile and took a look at our farm. Com- 

 plained that I had the farm mostly in peas 

 instead of clover and as I told the folks I sus- 

 pect that had I had the land mostly in clover 

 thev would have suggested that it would have 

 been lietter had I had it mostly in peas, for at 

 this time of the year peas show up by far the 

 best. Well, the upshot of their visit was that 

 they offered me $80 per acre for the farm. 

 After our near four years' work, cleaning up the 

 farm, building it up with pease and as North- 

 erners said, making it look like an Indiana 

 farm, thev would offer me only $80 per acre 

 for it. I told them I trusted I would not have 

 to take that for it and while I did finally sell 

 it for $85 per acre to W. P. Lindley of the 

 Hoosier Land & Investment Company, yet the 

 conditions they compelled me to sell to them 

 under, as I will show you when I get to it, 

 did not make me much more than that. 



Now, most of the land in our immediate 

 neighborhood was on the market and my neigh- 

 bor to the north, Joe Weedman, had his farm 

 on the market. Joe was great on "share crop- 

 pin'," as they say down here, and one of his 

 share croppers had a very poor piece of corn. 

 It was "some yaller," it did not look good to 

 a native and you might imagine how bad it 

 would look to a prospective land buyer. Well, 

 as Joe was going to sow wheat here, anyhow, 

 he plowed it under. 



Aug. 9, 1912. — Had a rain and hail storm that 

 did a great deal of damage to the corn. 



Aug. 19. 1912. — Rode to Matthews with Frank 

 Parsons and another one of Mr. Twitty's help, 

 who are all from Indiana and their experience 

 with the chills and fever had them very much 

 discouraged, Mr. Parsons being almost blind 

 from taking quinine. 



Aug. 20. 1912.— Mr. C. M. Smith. Sr., and 

 party of land men hung up in mud hole and 

 worked quite a time to get out. Boys and I 

 then hunted up some scrapers and filled up the 

 holes gratuitously. 



Just to show you or rather emphasize what 

 I told you earlier in this booklet, if you would 

 come liere for a season and rent or work for 

 someone before tying yourself up, you might 

 miss getting tied up along side of some neigh- 

 bor that was like my nearest one. Now this 

 was in August, about the HOTTEST time of 

 the vear here or anywhere else, and a large 

 sow belonging to this neighbor died within 200 

 feet of his front door and do you think he 

 would make an effort to dispose of the carcass? 

 Nd, sir, it layed there and decayed away; 

 chickens picked it to pieces and the wind 

 blowed the red hair and bristles out into the 

 road; the dogs carried the bones away and, say, 

 -^ve were some happy people when the odor was 

 gone as it was most impossible for us to get 

 our mules past. 



Aug 26, 1912. — A Mr. A. J. Woolington of 

 Champaign, 111., had written Mr. C. D. Mat- 

 thews, wanting to buy my farm and that of 

 mv nearest neighbor, Mr. Joe Weedman, and 

 Mr Mattb.ews had turned over the correspond- 



23 



