PRELIMIXARY. 13 



that I made an effort to exchange my deck for a cabin passage. 

 Watching my chance, I ascended to the celestial regions to see 

 the clerk about it, but his manners and figures had such an 

 altitude that I was fain to retreat before, mistaking my errand, 

 the mate accelerated my steps. Like all tribulations, mine 

 passed away, however, and with several dollars saved for fut- 

 ure needs by my privations, I at last landed at Leavenworth 

 on the 7th of June, feeling just as well as if I had fared on the 

 high living of the upper cabin, instead of on the husks, in the 

 shape of bread and bolognas, I ate on the lower deck. 



I had come these hundreds of miles to hunt work, but with 

 dull times and no friends to help me, I was sore beset to find 

 anything to do. I tried around the city, then a place of from 

 one to two thousand people, but I did not seem necessary to 

 the growth of the town any more than I was to that of Chicago. 

 At that time there was one business open to young men of easy 

 conscience, and that was to go out in the country, take up 

 claims, make affidavits that they pre-empted them for their own 

 exclusive use, and then sell out for a stated sum to their em- 

 ployer. The law required that a habitation twelve by twelve 

 must be built thereon before the claim could be held. This 

 was accomplished by the erection of a Liliputian residence of 

 twelve inches square, or by a simple rail pen of the required 

 dimensions in feet. A young Kentuckian, similarly situated 

 financially as myself, and I walked a long distance out of town 

 one day to see a real estate agent who gave men this question- 

 able employment. On this journey I learned how they made 

 country calls in Kansas thirty years ago, of which I give an 

 illustration drawn from life. We did not go up to the door 

 and ring the bell for two reasons: there was no bell to ring, 

 and we were afraid of the dogs. We just stood out in the road 

 and shouted "Hello!" If no response were made we would 

 scream, "Call your dogs off," this soon becoming a necessity 

 If the party called on had any politeness, they would rush out 



