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lightning-rod man, one Jas. E. Culon, to take a half-interest with me 

 after convincing him that there were milHons in it. Why, I could see 

 before me such grand realizations of wealth that I began to be worried 

 as to what safe investments I could make. From Ripley we went to 

 Georgetown, Ohio ; from Georgetown I went back to Ripley, taking 

 the whole troupe with me, and sto])ped again at the Latona House, in 

 order to catch my breath and take in wind enough so as to make an- 

 other grand flight. Portsmouth was the next point, thence to Chilli- 

 cothe, to Ironton, through West Virginia, to Huntington, and thence 

 to Staunton, in the Shenandoah Valley, meeting with ill success in all 

 of the aforesaid places. I thought that in the best towns in the Shenan- 

 doah Valley the many friends 1 had made in my old profession of 

 horse -training would flock to see me in my new roh as propiietor and 

 manager of ' Gleason's Nobody's Child Company.' But here I found 

 myself again mistaken, and on reaching Winchester the actors com- 

 menced clamoring for their salaries, which, of course, it was impossible 

 for me to pay at that time, and they would not go on the stage and give 

 another exhibition without their money. 



" Talk about your kicking horses being bad to subdue and handle. 

 Here I encountered more than my match. I could not handle them, 

 they kicked too hard, and all kicked at one time. There was only 

 one way to subdue them, a device not my original invention, conse- 

 quently I had no patent on it and could not control it — ' money.' So 

 I let the concern go to pieces and we dissolved at this place, leaving 

 me and my lightning-rod partner without a dollar in the world. 



I went off by myself to meditate, and, being among strangers, I 

 thouo-ht the best thino- for me to do was to 2:0 where some knew^ me. 

 It occurred to me that the landlord at Martinsburg, W. Va., knew me 

 well as a horse-trainer. I thought I would go and see him and borrow 

 some money of him to get another start. So I hired a carriage to take 

 us over to Martinsburg, it being about 15 miles away, and on arriving 

 there I went in and he greeted me as of old, supposing he was going 

 to have a moneyed customer. But after our friendly meeting I took 

 him to one side and told him I wanted him to go to the door and ])ay 

 the cabman for bringing us there, as I had no money. He laughed, 

 but readily consented, and also loaned me some money to go to Cum- 

 berland and there give an exhibition of horsemanship. On arriving 

 there, my money being all exhausted once more for transportation and 



