ng
towards Allison. After a number of discharges, the heat burned a hole
through the glove that Allison was using, and his thumb, coming in
contact with the hot metal, was withdrawn for an instant, while the
assistants were sending home a charge. There was an immediate premature
explosion. I was sitting astride the gun, and felt it rise up and buck
like a horse. Allison's eyes were nearly ruined, and his face filled
with powder, the marks of which stayed with him the rest of his life.
The two assistants were horribly mutilated, but neither of them was
killed. For a time I thought I never would hear again. My ears simply
shut up and refused to open for some time.

It would seem that this disaster should have been sufficient for one
day, but it was not. That night there was to have been public speaking
in front of the Western Hotel, by many prominent politicians. Opposite
the hotel was a two-story brick building, with a veranda built around
it. All of the offices on the second floor opened on this veranda. It
was crowded with people. The weight became excessive. The iron posts
next to the sidewalk, which sustained the veranda, slid out, and the
platform swung down like a table leaf, spilling everybody onto the
sidewalk. Eight or nine people were killed outright, and many more very
severely injured.

When about twelve years of age I got hold of two greyhounds, sisters,
named "Flora" and "Queen." During the winter time I spent much time
chasing jackrabbits. In summer time the ground got so hard that the dogs
would not run. The ground hurt their feet. But in the winter we had
great sport. There was an immense open plain east of our property, miles
long and miles wide, and level as a floor. There was a dry weed, without
leaves and of a reddish color, which grew in patches all over this
plain. These weed patches were the hiding places of the jackrabbits. The
game was exciting and stirred one's sporting blood. I found a great
difference in the speed of jackrabbits--as much in fact as in the speed
of blooded horses. Occasionally I would get up one that would actually
run away from the dogs, which were a fast pair. I followed the sport so
persistently, and paid so little attention to fences when they
interfered with my going, that I got the appellation in the neighborhood
of "that d