328 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS 



bottles and tried a number of devices for the 

 better sealing of them. My dreams were of 

 diamonds and I became secretive about my work 

 for I think my subconscious self was warning me 

 that I was losing my wits and wasting my money 

 in pursuit of a will-o'-the-wisp. It was a hard 

 struggle to overcome my hallucination, but in a 

 moment of sanity I began smashing everything 

 connected with the experiment and thereafter 

 avoided the painful subject. 



About this time it happened that Generals 

 Corse and Barnum, with George Alfred Town- 

 send, perhaps the best known of our great war 

 correspondents, were spending the night with me. 

 It was an occasion never-to-be-forgotten by me. 

 Townsend's capacious memory, which never al- 

 lowed a fact to escape, was drawn upon to coax 

 from Barnum the story of the Battle of Malvern 

 Hill, the last of the great Seven Days' Fight, up 

 to the time when he was carried from the field. 

 Corse's reminiscences, especially of the Battle 

 Above the Clouds were thrilling. Here it was 

 that he was so nearly surrounded that when an 



