ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



75 



resources are inexhaustible. Let me relate a circumstance tliat 

 occurred in St. Louis. I think it was in '73, at least there were 

 two things very prominent that year, one was a money panic 

 and the other was the prevalence of epizootic among horses.^ 

 Some of you remember they had to stop some of the street cars- 

 in St. Louis and they used oxen to run their drays. In conse- 

 quence of the panic thousands of men were thrown out of employ- 

 ment and with very many the question was serious. This parti- 

 cular case was a bookkeeper in a bank. He had been there for 

 years. His salary was sufficient to keep his family in good style: 

 and he had used it up as is apt to be the case. When the force 

 was cut down and he had lost his place he had nothing to live 

 on. He had no relations to go to nor had his wife any relations 

 to fall back on. It was a cold winter, fuel and provisions were 

 to be bought, but he had no money, no credit, no trade and no 

 apparent resources. He walked the streets day after day, calling 

 on business men, but always with the same result — no place. He 

 couldn't leave town, there was nothing to leave on. He dropped 

 into D. A. January & Company's wholesale grocery house and 

 with a look of determination on his face that could not be mis- 

 taken, he approached the manager, stated the case and em- 

 phasized the fact that he had to have work. The man told him 

 that he had none. But he said ''I must have work. I am will- 

 ing to do anything." Finally the man said, "We need a man to 

 drive a dray. Can you do that?" He said, ''I never have, but I 

 can learn ; I have to work." He asked him ''Can you drive oxen 

 and can you swear?" The man replied, ''I never have, but I can 

 learn." He was told he could not drive oxen without swearing. 

 So the deal was made and the man was told to come around in 

 the morning and go to work. It is needless to say the man was 

 on hand bright and early, with smiles all over his face. He was 

 given his team which consisted of two yoke of not very well 

 broken oxen, hitched to an immense big dray. He started in and 

 got along very well until he got down on Second and Third 

 streets. Some of you, possibly all, know how very narrow these 

 streets are, and at the same time, the immense amount of busi- 



