42 THE COUNTRY BOY 



old pioneers that came mostly in 1851, and 

 most of them came from Ohio and Illinois. 



No city, no matter what size, could have the 

 glare and good times that the people of Silver- 

 ton enjoyed. But the main population were 

 highly educated people, and very prosjoerous, 

 as they are to this day. The population still 

 varies, owing to what's coming off in town. 



They had formed a brass band, but it hadn't 

 done very well. They had home talent shows 

 and debating societies, and several lodges and 

 a few saloons, but, above all, Silverton had 

 among its population lots of great characters; 

 men of great learning and wide experience, 

 who spent most of their time playing marbles, 

 and month after month I kept from hard work 

 under the pretext that I was studying the 

 character of the people of a town of three hun- 

 dred. 



My father was, and is now at eighty-three, a 

 man of the highest form of education, a philos- 

 opher, a musician, a teacher, and above every- 

 thing, a man. Considering that we had 

 sacrificed country life for the citj^, he wanted 

 to take advantage of the few advantages the 

 city afforded that the farm didn't ; so I started 



