Seeking Fortune in America

The Western States and Provinces of North America thrive on our “thousand-pounders” and “remittance-men.” Some years ago in one small prairie town of Iowa there were 105 young B...

Leaving the Agricultural College at Guelph on the start of the summer holidays of 1891, I took advantage of settlers’ cheap rates and went to Calgary, at the foot of the Rockies...

Montana, just across the line from Fort McLeod, was for years an example of what the North-West Territories might have been if it had not been for the mounted police and prohibi...

I may here record a little experience I had in Calgary, which, while it turned out all right in the end, caused me considerable excitement at the time. I and George Berney were...

The first thing that strikes any one on arrival is the hurry and rush. Everybody seems to be going somewhere in a terrible hurry, but after you have been there a few months you...

During the winter of 1892-93 and the spring of 1893, thousands of men had flocked to Chicago from all parts of the United States, owing to the reports of work and good wages, an...

Do not imagine from what I have just written that I stepped from one of these positions into another. Far from it; there are successive gaps between filled with fruitless search...

It was certainly a hard struggle which ended in my breakdown in Chicago and going to Iowa, but I have never regretted going through it. I got small helps—first and last $150—and...

This young hobo friend of mine was about the smoothest card-sharp I ever came across. He never played for money, as a man does not live long cheating at cards in the west or sou...

At that time (1894) Golden consisted of three frame hotels, a smelter, post-office, a sawmill, the usual quota of saloons and dance-halls, and probably fifteen houses. Still, al...

Immediately on arrival I reported to the superintendent in charge of the mines at Cline. He told me to go to the men’s boarding-house and take any cot I found vacant, and also o...

I was absorbed in the beauty and strangeness of the scene when suddenly the peacefulness was broken by the “bang-bang” of a pistol, almost in our ears. Everybody jumped, but it...

About a mile above the Cline mines there used to be a splendid swimming-hole, some 12 or 14 feet deep, with a sandy bottom, and a large flat rock on the bank to dress on. Many a...

A few weeks after I arrived at the mines, some of the men wanted to get up a fishing party one Sunday to go over to the Nueces River, and I was asked to make one of the number.

I was telling a coyote story for which I cannot vouch, but I myself had an experience with a coyote one night when I was on a fishing trip on the Nueces River.

Henry Burns had once to arrest a man who was a “periodical.” He would not touch a drink for weeks, even months, at a time, then he would go on an awful spree, paint the town red...

Elections used to be exciting events in Uvalde, Texas, during the first few years I was there, as the Mexican vote controlled the county, and the rival candidates used to give d...

Besides Henry Burns, the sheriff, there was also another man whose re-election I opposed. He was the city marshal of Uvalde, and a regular “grandstander,” as they call a man who...

I had plenty to attend to when I was promoted to be foreman, but was so pleased that I tried to do the whole job by myself; I succeeded for some three or four months, nearly bre...

I mentioned some of the lawless and extraordinary things done in American business. When I was in California an oil company was building a pipe line to carry their product to ma...

The chief drawback to the fine Texas climate is the “Norther” or cold north wind, that is really sometimes pretty bad. You can hear the wind roar for minutes before it reaches y...

The Uvalde Asphalt Company started a paving company to use up their products, and, as I was getting very tired of the mines, and also seemed to have reached the maximum salary t...

Winston Churchill’s _Coniston_ and _Mr. Crewe’s Career_ explain the methods of bosses and railway presidents, and their conflicts or combinations for the robbing of the public i...

My resignation being refused, I decided to stay and finish up the streets we were on. Of course after this the inspector had it all his own way, and he certainly led us a dance....

I think I can safely say that twenty per cent. of the opposition the Barber Company gets in the States is from men who were formerly in its employ. This is right enough in most...

As a workman the Mexican is surprisingly good, considering the poor food they are able to buy with the small wages they get. They have not much initiative, but can be taught to...

There is one kind of bull-fighting that I have often attended and thoroughly enjoyed. In the first act they bring out a young bull, or steer, which is then roped and thrown, and...

What I have said about the Mexican troops does not apply to the regiments of Federal Rurales (Irregular Horse), who are an entirely different class of men. Originally they were...

Tequila, which is the common drink in Guadalajara, is fermented and distilled pulque. Pulque is the fresh sap of the maguey or “century” plant (one of the big-leafed cacti), tas...

Mexicans, like the natives of India, have a great dread of hospitals. During our first year’s work one of the men got his finger caught in the roller and had the end joint cut o...

_Incomunicado_ (solitary confinement) is one of the bad features of Mexican law. The accused is placed thus for the first forty-eight hours (in some cases up to seventy-two hour...

I spoke of carrying pistols; I am not in favour of it, but when working a large body of men, as we do here, and of the class of these people, I think it wise, as the very fact t...

During June and July the average mean temperature in Guadalajara is 68.85° F. in the sun; the average maximum for these months is 88.52°, the average minimum is 56.48°, and the...

One of the curious customs in Mexico is the blessing of animals on the 17th of January, the feast of Saint Anthony. On this day at the Merced (Mercy) Church of this city, from f...

Any one seeing Mr. Denny (the vice-president and biggest stockholder of our company) now would think him only a quiet man of affairs, yet some years ago he was known as one of t...

In March 1908 the doctor advised me to send my wife north for a change, as she had lived too many years in a southern climate, so I sent her back to Guelph, Canada, where she wa...

In 1909 I went to Puebla, to take charge of a large contract there, and came in contact with another kind of governor from our old friend Don Miguel Ahumada. He also was an old-...

or the man without capital. I have written my life to date, attempting at the same time to depict my surroundings, and if any one has got half the pleasure out of reading these...