fur $.sii, wiik-h in-ice, had he taken it, wuuUl 

 liave allowed us $5 per acre for all the work 

 we had put un the land. 



AuK'. 'M, llUl. — The poisons taken into the 

 system in this malarious country manifest 

 themselves in very different ways. Some peo- 

 ple shed tills poison by the real malarial fever 

 and some lose it by "risings'" and some by 

 "chills and fever." and that is the way our 

 youngest boy decided to pass his off, and on 

 this day he shook and shook like a miniature 

 earthquake, and no amount of covers seemed 

 to check the "shakes." His antidote for the 

 poison was quinine and calomel, and by "a 

 round of medicine" he succeeded in getting 

 over the chills for a time. 



Sept. 2, 1911. — As I have spoken several times 

 in this narrative, stock run at large in this 

 lountry, and to tell yours from other people's 

 you are expected to mark them and register 

 your mark. The gentleman — Mr. .Taper Dover — 

 whom I bought out sold me soine cattle and 

 hogs, and as they were marked by his mark 

 I asked him to explain it to me, and for jour 

 benefit, in case you go to "Swamp-east," I 

 will give it to you here, and a number of other 

 marks that I took off the register at the county 

 seat, and if you do not know all about marking 

 aniinals you can study up on them and not 

 have to show as much ignorance on the subject 

 as I did. Mr. Dover's mark was "a swallow 

 fork and under-bit in the right and a slit and 

 overslope in the left." Now, as to other mark- 

 ings, they are practically a variation of the 

 above. 



October 5, 1911. — To show you the great care 

 some people will take to see that they lose 

 nothing, and especially was this true with Mr. 

 C. D. Matthews, on the above date he called 

 me in to talk over my financial affairs with 

 him, and as I had a very good prospect for 

 corn, more possibly than my store account 

 would amount to, and to make himself sure 

 that he would get all of it applied on his ac- 

 counts, he reques^ted me to and I did sign a 

 note and chattel* mortgage to him for .$1,200 

 against my corn crop for the interest due on 

 the land notes. This satisfied him, and as 

 I was not on the beat I had no objections to 

 giving it. 



October 28, 1911. — It seems in this country 

 that there are more pests work oh the crops 

 than in more northern climates — for instance, 

 there is a silk worm that works on the corn 

 that spoils a great deal of the corn. We have 

 so much worm-eaten corn, and naturally spoiled 

 grains which animals eat, and doctors say that 

 is the cause of "pellagra," that causes the 

 death of numbers of animals in this country; 

 and right along at this time my neighbors lost 

 several valuable horses from this disease or 

 from the actions of the animal when sick, which 

 staggers around seemingly unable to see where 

 it is going, and they call it "blind staggers," 

 and when once afflicted with the "blind stag- 

 gers" they seldom, if ever, recover. 



Dec. 8. 1911. — We thought sure that the out- 

 come of this day's work would be the beginning 

 of the end of our stay in Missouri, for early 

 in the day I received word from the Smith 

 Bros. & Co. Land Co. that ere the day passed 

 Mr. C. M. Smith, Sr., with a gentleman by 

 the name of P. B. Harcourt of Rochester, 111., 

 would be out to look over the farm and that 

 I should stick to the price of $100 per acre if 

 I was asked what I wanted for the land. They 

 came and we looked over the land, had dinner 

 and visited together, and when they left Mr. Har- 

 court had the understanding that whatever he 

 cared to do about thfr purchase of the farm 

 that he could arrange with Messrs. Smith Bros. 

 & Co. Land Co. Well, he went away without 

 making a deal for the property, and a short 

 time after I received the following letter from 

 Mr. Harcourt: 



"Rochester, 111., 1/8/1912. 

 "H. Sturdebaker, Matthews, Mo. 



"Dear Sir — Mr. Smith of Sikeston was here 

 last Monday and I asked him if your land could 

 be bought for even money, $20,000, and he said 

 he had quoted lowest price. 



"If you should care to take less than $97.50 



at any time before .March, please advise me. 

 and if I have not jiurchased in the meantime 

 xve might trade. V'ours, 



"F. B. HARCOURT. 



"P. S. — We have cokl weather here at pres- 

 ent; 22 below yesterday a. m. H." 



Now, friend, you will no doubt gather from 

 the above what there would have been in it 

 for the Smith Bros. & Co. Land Co. had they 

 been able to close the deal with I\Ir. Harcourt 

 At $97.50 to them and $85 net to us they would 

 have made $12.50 per acre, while we would 

 have had $10 per acre fqr our cleaning ui; the 

 farm and getting it in shape for sale. $.'0 per 

 acre on 215 would be $2,150; $12.50 per acre on 

 215 would have been $2,687.50 for selling it, 

 to which add the commission I paid of $1,07.^, 

 for being shown to the farm, would have made 

 $.3,762.50 that this farm had paid in commis- 

 sions in a little over three years. But this deal 

 did not go through, and if you are not weary 

 of this narrative by this time read on and I 

 will show you how this farm paid a greater 

 commission than the above when it did pass 

 title. 



Dec. 10, 1911. — This is no country for pul- 

 monary troubles, tuberculosis, or in plain lan- 

 guage consumption, and on this date a young 

 man, Gus Albright, a neighbor, passed away 

 with it, and this leads up to the custom yet 

 . in vogue in this country of taking the corpse 

 to the cemetery in a farm wagon. Of course 

 it does not matter with us when we are dead 

 as to how we are taken or even laid away, but 

 it does look hard to haul off your friend, broth- 

 er or relative to their last resting place just as 

 you would any of the stock on the farm. 



Dec. 30, 1911. — Now for your benefit, friend, 

 not mine, will show you how my business part- 

 ner, Mr. C. D. Matthews, held me up when he 

 was fully aware that I was in his power. Hav- 

 ing sold my corn and going in with him to 

 settle, I turned over all I had and did not have 

 enough to comply with my contract. Now to 

 make it plain to you just what I mean when I 

 say I was held up, I will enter into a little 

 detail of my deal so you will know the facts as 

 well as I. 



I bought this 215.04 acres of land of Mr. 

 Matthews at $75 per acre on the 30th of June. 

 1909, and on the 30th of June, 1910, was to pay 

 interest on the deferred payments — I paid $2,000 

 down — at the rate of 6 per cent and pay 1/10 

 of the amount due on the farm. Well, I was 

 not able to make this payment, and in fact not 

 near all of the interest, and at this time — Dec. 

 30, 1911 — I had had a very fair crop and was 

 able to take up a little more than this year's 

 interest, then to pay him for not closing in 

 on me, which he could do in 25 days under 

 tlie Trust Deed, he demanded an extra 2 per 

 cent on all back payments due and unpaid in- 

 terest, so instead of paying 6 per cent, as I 

 had bargained in the contract and Trust Deed, 

 to keep from being closed out I was compelled 

 to and did pay this extra 2 per cent interest, 

 amounting to at this time about $30.00. 



Now by the sale of this land to me and my 

 working it, Mr. JMatthews changed a property 

 that was paying him $3.50 an acre gross rental 

 on whatever the tenant succeeded in getting in 

 to $4.50 an acre NET rental on the entire acre-, 

 age. He was relieved of the expense of look- 

 ing after it, of the depreciation of the improve- 

 ments on it. Being an owner and wanting to 

 make the farm do all it would, I cleared off 

 the timber and removed at least a thousand 

 stumps; gave him all my store business, even 

 bviying the groceries for my help at his store; 

 sold his mil]iing company all my giain and 

 paid him the interest on all the mone$ I needed 

 to finance my crop, and for the privilege of 

 being able to continue this arrangement to his 

 benefit until I might succeed in getting some 

 one to take it off my hands, at this installment 

 he took something like $30 away from me. This 

 was just a starter, though, as I found out later 

 on, and if you continue to read this sketch of 

 my experiences in the New Madrid Earthquake 

 Country A'ou will find out. 



Jan. 2, 1912.— On the 1st of January, 1912, I 

 had a mule note due for $469.50, given to the 



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