ge of words, we will close the
classes in carpentry and open a class in oratory."

This, then is the introduction to my views and to my policies. They
are now to have a fair trial, like that other iron worker in the Elwood
police court. I know what the word "previous" means. I can give an
account of myself. So, in the following pages I will tell "where I was
before I came here."

If my style seems rather flippant, it is because I have been trained
as an extemporaneous speaker and not as a writer. For fifteen years I
traveled over the country lecturing on the Mooseheart School. My task
was to interest men in the abstract problems of child education. A
speaker must entertain his hearers to the end or lose their attention.
And so I taxed my wit to make this subject simple and easy to listen to.
At last I evolved a style of address that brought my points home to the
men I was addressing.

After all these years I can not change my style. I talk more easily than
I write; therefore, in composing this book I have imagined myself facing
an audience, and I have told my story. I do not mention the names of the
loyal men who helped work out the plans of Mooseheart and gave the money
that established it, for their number is so great that their names alone
would fill three volumes as large as this.

J.J.D.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I THE HOME-MADE SUIT OF CLOTHES

II A TRAIT OF THE WELSH PEOPLE

III NO GIFT FROM THE FAIRIES

IV SHE SINGS TO HER NEST

V THE LOST FEATHER BED

VI HUNTING FOR LOST CHILDREN

VII HARD SLEDDING IN AMERICA

VIII MY FIRST REGULAR JOB

IX THE SCATTERED FAMILY

X MELODRAMA BECOMES COMEDY

XI KEEPING OPEN HOUSE

XII MY HAND TOUCHES IRON

XIII SCENE IN A ROLLING MILL

XIV BOILING DOWN THE PIGS

XV THE IRON BISCUITS

XVI WRESTING A PRIZE FROM NATURE'S HAND

XVII MAN IS IRON TOO

XVIII ON BEING A GOOD GUESSER

XIX I START ON MY TRAVELS

XX THE RED FLAG AND THE WATERMELONS

XXI ENVY IS THE SULPHUR IN HUMAN PIG-IRON

XXII LOADED DOWN WITH LITERATURE

XXIII THE PUDDLER HAS A VISION

XXIV JOE THE POOR BRAKEMAN

XXV A DROP IN THE BUCKET OF BLOOD

XXVI A GRUB REFORMER PUTS US OUT OF GRUB

XXVII THE PIE EATER'S PARADISE

XXVIII CAUGHT IN A SOUTHERN PEONAGE