FAILS ME--I RETURN TO OHIO--A PHYSICIAN GIVES ME
BUT TWO YEARS TO LIVE--HOW I FOOLED HIM.

As cold weather was approaching, my wife concluded to return to Chicago,
and I proceeded towards the Northwest. At Duluth I received two large
packages of new goods, which came C.O.D., and which took nearly my last
dollar.

I carried with me a leather trunk in which to keep my reserved stock,
and as I had but a few moments' spare time, after receiving the goods
at Duluth, before the train left for Aiken, Minnesota, I put all of my
new goods in the leather trunk, leaving but a small stock in my sample
case. I then checked the trunk to Aiken, where I arrived at one o'clock
in the morning.

From force of habit I had become accustomed to stepping forward towards
the baggage car, whenever I alighted at a depot, to see that my baggage
was taken off; and this time not being an exception, I remained standing
by till I saw my trunk taken off and set to one side, when I proceeded
to the hotel.

I expected to have a porter return to the depot and assist me in
carrying it to the hotel, but on reaching there found a cheap
fourth-rate house, with not less than fifty or sixty drunken woodsmen,
and at once decided that the jewelry would be safer at the depot than
there, and retired without it.

The next morning I presented my check and was informed that there was no
piece of baggage there with a corresponding number. I told the
baggage-man that I saw him take it off and set it on the platform.

He was sure he had never seen it, and at once accompanied me to
Brainerd, where the general baggage-agent's report showed that the trunk
had been reported taken off at Aiken; the agent at this place then
produced the duplicate to my check, and stated that the conductor of the
train on which I had come from Duluth had found it on the rear end of
the hind car, just after leaving Aiken. The superintendent took
immediate steps towards having the matter ferreted out, and very kindly
gave me a pass over the road.

It was plain to be seen that the baggage-man at Aiken had gathered up
some other pieces of baggage and carried them inside, and left mine on
the outside, when a couple of men picked it up, and putting it on the
rear end of the car, rode a mile or two upgrade to an Indian camp, where
they threw it off and then jumped off themselves. These men were traced
to the head of the Mississippi River, where they took a canoe and
started down stream. N