My Boyhood and Youth 



Many years later, after I had written articles 

 and books, I received a letter from the gentle- 

 man who had charge of the Fine Arts Hall. 

 He proved to be the Professor of English 

 Literature in the University of Wisconsin at 

 this Fair time, and long afterward he sent me 

 clippings of reports of his lectures. He had a 

 lecture on me, discussing style, etcetera, and 

 telling how well he remembered my arrival at 

 the Hall in my shirt-sleeves with those mechan- 

 ical wonders on my shoulder, and so forth, and 

 so forth. These inventions, though of little 

 importance, opened all doors for me and made 

 marks that have lasted many years, simply, 

 I suppose, because they were original and 

 promising. 



I was looking around in the mean time to 

 find out where I should go to seek my fortune. 

 An inventor at the Fair, by the name of Wiard, 

 was exhibiting an iceboat he had invented to 

 run on the upper Mississippi from Prairie du 

 Chien to St. Paul during the winter months, 

 explaining how useful it would be thus to make 

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