My Boyhood and Youth 



phrenology craze, when the fences and barns 

 along the roads throughout the country were 

 plastered with big skull-bump posters, headed, 

 "Know Thyself," and advising everybody to 

 attend schoolhouse lectures to have their heads 

 explained and be told what they were good for 

 and whom they ought to marry. My mechani- 

 cal bundle seemed to bring a good deal of this 

 phrenology to mind, for many of the onlookers 

 would say, "I wish I could see that boy's 

 head, he must have a tremendous bump 

 of invention." Others complimented me by 

 saying, "I wish I had that fellow's head. 

 I'd rather have it than the best farm in the 

 State." 



I stayed overnight at this little tavern, wait- 

 ing for a train. In the morning I went to the 

 station, and set my bundle on the platform. 

 Along came the thundering train, a glorious 

 sight, the first train I had ever waited for. 

 When the conductor saw my queer baggage, 

 he cried, "Hello! What have we here?" 



"Inventions for keeping time, early rising, 

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