alre or an art collector. Both romance and fate began playing 
their parts in his life almost before he had outgrown his 
boyhood. 
When about twenty-fiveFreer was working in Logans- 
/ 
port, Ind., as a clerk on a railroad of which he afterward 
became auditor. At this time his chum and room-mate was 
Colonel Frank J. Hecker, who afterward became a Panama Canal 
Commissioner. Fortune did not smile upon these two for a 
long time. They worked on the Eel River Railroad, an' enter¬ 
prise that consisted of thirty miles of track, sixteen 
freight cars, six passenger coaches, and two locomotives, 
one of them in the repair shop for such long periods of time 
that it was not really considered a part of the rolling 
stock. In those days Freer and Hecker "kept bach,' 1 and cooked 
their meals over an alcohol stove in their rooms to curtail 
expenses. Both were exceedingly attached to the little road, 
and by the time Freer became auditor, Hecker was its super¬ 
intendent. Their one train wobbled daily from Logansport 
through Mexico and Chili, two Miami county tovms tropical 
only in name. There was only one conductor, and often one 
of these two men would help him out. The train stopped at 
cross-roads, cornfields, anywhere that a passenger might 
choose to stand and wave his hands. So Freer learned the 
names of hundreds of men, women and- children; their habits 
and the location of their homes. This life was very pleas¬ 
ant to Freer for several years. Then there came the romance 
