mother died about forty years ago--forty-two or three
years; she's been dead sometime. My wife has been dead now for twelve
years.

"I didn't get but a little schooling, for my father used to send me
after the mules. One day the wheelbarrow had a load of bricks on it. It
was upset. They had histed the bricks up on a high platform. It turned
over as I was passing underneath, and one fell on me and struck my head.
It was a long time after that before they would let me go to school
again. After that I never got used to studying any more.

"My first teacher was Lottie Andrews (Charlotte Stephens). I had some
more teachers too. Lemme see--Professor Fish was a white man. We had
colored teachers under him. Then we had R.B. White. He was Reuben
White's brother. R.B. White's wife was a teacher. Professor Fish was the
superintendent. There ain't no truth to the tale that Reuben White was
put in a coffin before he was dead. Reuben White built the First Baptist
Church here and Milton White built a big church in Helena. They were
brothers. Them was two sharp darkies.

"When I first started working, I drove teams. I raised crops a while and
farmed. Then I left the country and come to town and got up to be a
quarry man for years. Then I quit that and went to driving teams for the
Merchant Transfer Company for years. Then I quit that and run on the
road--the Mountain--for four years. Then I taken a coal chute on the
Rock Island and run it for four years. Then I quit and went to working
as an all-'round man in the shop. I stayed with them about nine years.
Then I taken down in the shape that I am now.

"I have been out here to this hospital for twenty-four years going on
twenty-five. Been down so that I couldn't hit a lick of work for
twenty-five years. I have been in this building for eleven years. I get
along tolerable fair. As the old man says, we can just live.

"I think the young people are going wild and if something isn't done to
head them off pretty soon, they'll go too far. They ain't looking at
what's going on up the road; they just call theirselves having a good
time. They ain't looking to have nothing. They ain't looking to be
nothing. They ain't looking to get nothing for the future. Don't know
what they would do if they had to work part of the time for nothing like
we did. I see men working now for ten dollars a month. I could take a
fishing line and go fishing and beat that when I was young. Times is
getting back al