constant droning of a big
steam saw and the whir of the heavy stones in the new grist mill. It was
the beginning of that amazing diapason of industry which accompanied the
building of the cities of the West.

They got out in the livery stable of the City Hotel and at the desk of
the latter asked about the price of board. It was three dollars a day and
no politeness in the offer.

"It's purty steep," said Samson. "But I'm too hungry for argument or
delay and I guess we can stand it to be nabobs for a day or so."

"I shall have to ask you to pay in advance," the clerk demanded.

Samson drew out the pig's bladder in which he carried his money and paid
for a day's board.

Samson writes that Harry spent half an hour washing and dressing himself
in the clean clothes and fine shoes which he had brought in his
saddle-bags and adds:

* * * * *

"He was a broad-shouldered, handsome chap those days, six feet and an
inch high and straight as an arrow with a small blond mustache. His
clothes were rumpled up some and he wore a gray felt hat instead of
a tall one but there was no likelier looking lad in the new city."

* * * * *

After supper the office of the hotel was crowded with men in tall hats
and tail coats smoking "seegars" and gathered in groups. The earnestness
of their talk was signalized by little outbursts of profanity coupled
with the name of Jackson. Some denounced the President as a traitor. One
man stood in the midst of a dozen others delivering a sort of oration,
embellished with noble gestures, on the future of Illinois. His teeth
were clenched on his "seegar" that tilted out of the corner of his mouth
as he spoke. Now and then he would pause and by a deft movement of his
lips roll the "seegar" to the other corner of his mouth, take a fresh
grip on it and resume his oration.

Samson wrote in his diary:

"He said a lot of foolish things that made us laugh."

Twenty years later he put this note under that entry:

"The funny thing about it was really this; they all came true."

The hotel clerk had a _Register of the Residents of the City of Chicago_
wherein they found the name and address of John Kelso. They went out to
find the house. Storekeepers tried to stop them as they passed along the
street with offers of land at bargains which would make them millionaires
in a week. In proceeding along the plank sidewalks they were often
ascend