Tributes to my father and mother and some stories of my life / Jesse Mercer Battle

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Library of
The University of North Carolina

COLLECTION OF
NORTH CAROLINIANA

ENDOWED BY
JOHN SPRUNT HILL

of the Class of 1889

B- l333^t>

TRIBUTES TO MY

FATHER AND MOTHER

AND

SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE

-i^/

JESSE MERCER BATTLE

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PUBLISHERS

The Mangan Press

ST, LOUIS, MO.
1911

Copyrighted 1911

BY

Jesse Mercer Battle

DEDICATION

To my grandson, Eugene Battle Smith, and to my grand-
daughter, Margaret Parker Smith. May my grandson
be as good and useful a man as my father was,
and may my granddaughter be as good a
wife and as good a mother as my
mother was.

CONTENTS

My Father _ 7

My Mother _ 53

Born _ 60

Childhood 63

Looking for a Job 85

Changing My Occupation 89

Another Change 102

Another Change 107

My First Accident 120

Meeting My Future Wife 128

Wandering 137

Back to See My Lady Love .* 170

An Accident on the Yadkin River 191

The Canvasser 200

Success, But Not Complete 220

MY FATHER.

In the September, 1906, number of the
<^Wake Forest Student" I find the following
statement concerning my father. I have been
told that it was written by Professor Collier
Cobb, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It con-
tains a mere outline of a very small part of the
services rendered to the Baptists by my father.
Doctor William Hooper, a life long friend,
w^rote a more extended notice, giving more data
and more detail; this obituary notice was sent
to the Biblical Recorder, a Baptist paper, pub-
lished in Raleigh, N. C, and edited at that time
by a Mr. Richard Mills. It is greatly to be re-
gretted that this paper of Doctor Hooper was
lost, misplaced or purposely suppressed, for it
contained matter of the greatest importance
concerning my father, written by a master
hand and a loving friend. At this time Doc-
tor Hooper was too old and feeble to reproduce
his paper.

Noting that the paper did not appear in the
next issue of the Biblical Recorder, I went
to its office in Raleigh and asked Mr. Mills
for the paper. He said that he was very sorry,
but the paper was misplaced and he could not

8 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

lay his hands on it at that time, if he found
it he would send it to me. I never received
it. The explanation was easy, I understood
the situation well. My father was no longer
a Baptist, and the Baptists were no longer in-
terested in him, living or dead. Another rea-
son which had some weight is that the columns
of a newsi)aper or magazine are w^orth money.
At that time I knew so little about such mat-
ters I did not think to ask what would be the
cost of the space that Doctor Hooper's paper
would occupy. Had I done so, I am almost
certain that the paper would have appeared.
I now give Professor Collier Cobb's paper.

'^Elder Amos Johnston Battle, son of Joel
and Mary P. Battle, was born at Shell Bank,
Edgecombe County, North Carolina, on the
eleventh day of January, 1805. His parents,
being of an influential family and having ample
means, gave to their son the superior ad-
vantages of a good education, which he con-
tinued to enrich by close study and extensive
reading during the whole of his laborious and
useful life.

"Placed above the necessity of manual labor
and possessing talents of a High order, the
world proffered to him success and honors in
the learned professions, the arena of politics
and the emoluments of wealth, all of which
he spurned as possessing inferior attractions

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 9

to the sublimity and divine perfections of the
Gospel of Christ.

'••In his twenty-third year, traveling through
the country on horseback, from North Caro-
lina to his plantation in Florida, He stopped at
a country church called Mount Zion in Georgia.
It was there that he gave his heart to God,
united with the Church and was baptized by
the Rev. Jesse Mercer, founder of the Mercer
University in Georgia.

"Three years after, having returned to
North Carolina, he was ordained to the min-
istry at a convention held with the Baptist
Church at ^Rogers' Cross Eoads,' in the County
of Wake.

"On the seventh of January, 1830, he mar-
ried Miss Margaret Hearne Parker, of Edge-
combe County, N. C.

"In 1834 he was pastor of the Baptist Church
in Nashville, N. C. In 1838 and 1839 he was
pastor of the Baptist Church in Raleigh, N. C.
It was about that time that he was so in-
terested in the building up of Wake Forest
College, giving largely of his means and put-
ting up out of private funds a large and hand-
some building.

"As a trustee he was very active. About
1835 he was elected agent to collect subscrip-
tions, secured by William Hill Jordan and

10 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

John Armstrong. The Institute, as it was then
called, was not able to build houses for the
professors, so they gave permission to any
member who was able to furnish the money
and wait for reimbursement, to erect such
house.

^^Charles A. Skinner and Amos J. Battle ac-
cepted the proposition and each erected a
house and the trustees gave their bond, pay-
able in five years.

"The Institute was crowded with students;
the rooms were unfurnished, Amos J. Battle
was appointed a committee of one to secure a
sufficient number of double moss mattresses.
There was no more useful member of the board
than he. He ceased to attend these board
meetings after 1844, as his time was devoted
to the education of the young women of the
Baptist Church There are trees and shrubs
now growing there that he planted with his
own hands.

"At the same time he was giving largely
for the building of a Baptist Church in Raleigh.

"From Raleigh he went to Wilmington, N.
C, as pastor of the First Baptist Church there.

"Within the first six months of his pastor-
ate there he baptized one hundred and fifty
members into the Church. Among them were
Mr. George R. French, Capt. C. D. Ellis, Mr.

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 11

I. Peterson, Mr. Mitchell and many others too
numerous to mention, who were for fifty years
afterwards prominent workers in the Church.

"Learning that the Baptist Church in Ea-
leigh was about to be sold for the heavy debt
on it, he gave up the Wilmington Church and
for two years (about 1843 and 1844) he traveled
over the State to raise money for that debt.
Some year or two after that, feeling that Wake
Forest College was doing all that could be
done for the young men of his native State,
he turned his attention to the building up of a
college for girls. In the year 1847 he traveled
extensively in the Chowan Association and
stirred up the men of means to start the school
in Murfreesboro, now known as the ^Chowan
Baptist Female Institute.' For the first year
he was steward of the college.

"He was one of the leaders in the Baptist
State Convention. He succeeded William
Roles as Treasurer in 1836, and held the posi-
tion until 1842. He was also Recording Secre-
tary of the North Carolina Baptist Bible So-
ciey from 1837 to 1842. He was popular and
, public spirited. During the Mexican War he
was chosen chaplain of the North Carolina
Volunteer Regiment.

"He deserves to rank along with the noblest
and best of the strong men of his time.

"It was his brother, William Horn Battle,

12 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

who introduced into the House of Commons
the bill to charter Wake Forest College, where
the measure passed with, a good majority.

^'In 1843 he moved to Wilson, N. C, where he
lived until his death, spending his time travel-
ing and preaching as an evangelist, sometimes
in the eastern part of the State, and sometimes
in the mountains. He was preaching at Kuth-
erfordton when attacked with cancer near his
right eye, from w^hich he died in Wilson, Sep-
tember 24th, 1870/'

Someone has said, ^'It is a good thing to be
well born." To be well born means mainly to
have a good father and a good mother, that
is, each one must be healthy of body and of
a sound mind. The healthy body is free from
those malignant diseases which can be trans-
mitted from father or mother to their children.
The sound mind means, first, a mind that can
think, and think straight, and think ration-
ally, and secondly, it means a mind that sees
many truths that remain unseen to the ordi-
nary person.

A sound mind also means good common
sense, which is one of the most uncommon
things in the world. My mother had the com-
mon sense, that is the kind of sense that is
applied to the things of this world.

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 13

She expected and looked for the things
that really come to pass. But not so with my
father. He always looked for the impossible.
He read in his Bible (Luke xviii. 29) '^There
is no man that hath left house or parents,
or brethren or wife or children, for the King-
dom of God's sake (verse 30), who shall not
receive manifold more in this present time,
and in the world to come, life everlasting."
And he believed this passage was a revela-
tion from God, through Jesus, and that it was
true, and was to be obeyed implicitly, and
meant exactly what it said. So, as far as he
was able, he obeyed the command and he did
forsake his house, his parents and his brethren
and his wife and his children for the King-
dom of God's sake, and became a bankrupt as
far as this world's goods are concerned. He
became almost a stranger to his family and
he devoted all his wealth to God and His
Kingdom by giving it away for churches and
school purposes. He gave all his time to the
upbuilding of his Church, the Baptist. He
did literally what he understood to be his
duty, as he read it in his favorite passages
in the New Testament. He was not a fanatic,
he was not insane on the subject of religion.
He simply believed the picked words that he
read were true, and were meant to be obeyed,
and he frequently said that he was God's
child, absolutely, and if he obeyed God's com-

14 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

mandments as given in the words of Jesus,
that God would keep his promises. Yet, after
giving aw^ay all his property and leaving his
family, he did not have "manifold more in
this present time," but he might have "life
everlasting in the world to come." The last
years of his life were made miserable by pov-
erty and an incurable disease (cancer). No
one ever doubted his sincerity. All admitted
that if there was a true Christian that man
was my father. His whole life was devoted
to deeds of charity. No one ever came to him
and asked for help and was turned away with-
out it. All that asked him for help got it,
all that w^anted to borrow of him, obtained
the loan, even without security. His money,
his lands, his negroes, his stocks, his bonds,
his personal property of every description
went as his free will offering to the Church
as a whole, and to anyone of its members
individually, or to those who were not mem-
bers. He just could not refuse to do what
he was asked to do. I have known him to go
away from home, well dressed, with a good
horse and buggy, and have seen him come
home in less than a month looking like a
beggar, dressed in the commonest kind of
clothing, and bringing an old worn-out saddle
on his back. He had given away his cloth-
ing and bought somebody's old cast off cloth
ing. He had sold his horse and buggy and

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 15

given the money to build a church in a sec-
tion of the state where there was none, and
had bought the old saddle for a very small
price and borrowed a horse to do his mission-
ary w^ork w^ith; and when his journey was fin-
ished, he had returned the horse and brought
the old saddle home on his back to use at
some future time. He put his name on the
back of some man^s note as an endorsement,
and w^hen the note came due, the man did not
have the money to pay w4th, and my father
was asked to pay, but he did not have the
money either, and said so, but that he would
pay when he got the money. The man who
held the note asked my father why He put
his name on a note when he had no money,
my father, in his guilelessness said he did it
because he had been asked to do so. This
answer so enraged the holder of the note that
he slapped my father's face, and my father
deliberately turned his other cheek and said
to the man, "You may slap the other cheek if
you want to." I have known many good men,
but I have never seen another one as good
as my father. He was accessible to rich and
poor alike. There was nothing that he pos-
sessed that he would not give away if some
one would ask him for it. There was never
a minute, night or day that he would reserve
for himself or family, all his time was at the
disposal of any one that would come and ask

16 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

for it. He preached, he taught, he worked, he
strived for, he longed for what he called the
'^Kingdom of God.'' This kingdom meant to
him for every body to do and live as he did and
lived. He often said, "He loves God most who
serves his creatures best." This was the key-
note to his life. It was for this that he de-
voted his life and when his days were ended
and we had laid him in his grave, I had put
on his tombstone his own words: "He loves
God most who serves His creatures best."

He was the only man that I ever saw who
implicitly believed the words of the New Tes-
tament, selected by himself to be true and put
those words in practice in his life. He preach-
ed righteousness and he practiced what he
preached. I saw little of him in my young dayvS,
but the last year of his life I was with him ev-
ery day and I must say it was a revelation
to me to know that I had such a father. I
did not know that there was such a man in
the world. He was so entirely different from
any man I had ever known. He was abso-
lutely unselfish, his self-denial was sublime.
He was capable of giving up everything, even
to life itself for his cause.

His conversation was reserved but affable
and lively. He condescended to mix with men
of a lower state. He never condemned on first
information, but always wanted more knowl-

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 17

edge of the case, and the men involved. He
said all were liable to err, and he had erred
many times himself, and it was only through
a knowledge of error that he was enabled
to find the right way and to escape from the
sin. He said without a body there would be
little inclination to sin; but as the body was
the excuse and the inclination to violate law,
it was the one thing that should be watched,
restrained and repressed. That its needs and
requirements were only to be decided by an
enlightened mind; that this enlightened mind
and a cultivated conscience was to be relied
upon to map out a line of conduct and the
manner of living in order to fill one's proper
place in this world and to be prepared for the
world to come. "One may err, but the most
important thing in this life is to be just. Sin,
error and mistakes are a part of this world.
No man or woman is exempt from their con-
sequences. Ignorance is at the bottom of
nearly all the violations of law. He who is
ignorant and violates law is not so culpable
as the one who is responsible for the ignor-
ance. If you do not show to your child or
your neighbor, or his child the difference be-
tween light and darkness, then you are re-
sponsible for the sin, error or mistake made
by them more than they are, for you do know-
that the act is wrong, and your child, neigh-
bor and his child, who does the deed in ig-

18 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

norance, knows it not. You who leave them
in darkness are the most culpable, for it is
your duty to teach them, and the neglect is
your sin."

So he taught, he visited, he w^orked, he ad-
vised, trying to give more wisdom to the ig-
norant. He knew the value of faith, so w^hen
he came in contact with one w^ho was miser-
able through a lack of it, He w^ould say, "Look
at the stars in the sky at night. Think you
that they could travel on their orbits with-
out a calamity if there was no master hand
guiding them.''

"How could you and I love goodness and
hate evil if there w^ere no consequences fol-
lowing our deeds?"

The consequences are found in progress or
retrogression. He believed strongly in the ful-
fillment of God's plans. If anything seemed
to go wrong, he said, "God's plans are too
great to be finished in a day." He said hate
and selfishness were at the bottom of much
of the wrong in the w^orld, but he said, "Hate
is passing away and love is taking its place."
There are some men in the w^orld who do love
their enemies. There are some men who are
merciful to their animals. There are some
men and women in the w^orld who will nurse
the sick without pay. They will even give
their money to build hospitals and asylums

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 19.

for the care of the sick and the insane. There
are some men and women who will give lib-
erally of their means to build schools and
colleges to educate the young men and wo-
men when they have no children of their
own. This he said was progress, for it showed
that the old injunction to love your friends
and hate your enemies, was passing away.
There would be more progress, he said, when
men were better taught; ignorance was at the
bottom of intolerance; men had no patience
with other men, when they were ignorant; they
were more patient as soon as they knew
enough to be so. Those who had suffered
themselves were more apt to help others who
were suffering. Suffering itself taught us a
lesson. It gives us experience, and experience
is what life is made of.

Love and trust to our fellowman and to our
Maker should drive away all fear, except the
fear of broken law. Some law is what we call
natural law: it could not be natural law un-
less it was first supernatural. Some law we
make ourselves, and we could not even do
this, unless we were first made by the super-
natural law.

We obey the laws as we know them, vol-
untarily, and sometimes we are made to obey
them, when we are unwilling to do so. The
law which makes water run down hill is what

20 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

we call a natural law, but it depends on God
for its moving power. The law which sajs
"thou Shalt not kill/- is a law adopted by man
to protect himself and his family from the in-
sane murderer. For the murderer is insane,
in the sense that his sense and judgment are
bad, especially bad for his victims.

And there is a law back of the insanity,
and this law, though unknown to us, is also
a supernatural law.

The law which permits the cancer cell to
ingest and digest the cells of which our bod-
ies are composed, is also a supernatural law
that we do not comprehend.

The bacilli and bacteria, other cells which
are taken into our bodies through our food,
drink and the air we breath, get their power
for harm from the same God that we worship
and call His name Love.

The ability we have to investigate, the cap-
acity we have to invent instruments to dis-
cover these microorganisms, is also given to
us by the the same God that has made the
law which permits these parasites to prey
upon our poor bodies, destroy them and send
them to the grave, where another set of bac-
teria shall ingest and digest them, and when
there is nothing more that the bacteria of de-
truction can find to live on, he goes back into
dust, and even there he is kept alive by the

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 21

same God that gives to us the intelligence to
find him, to see him and to describe him in
our imperfect way.

He knew something of these mysteries; he
wanted to know more. He said to me, ''You
have a great advantage over me, for you were
born just fifty years later, and those who
are born later still will have an advantage
over you, for they will have all the discov
eries and inventions to guide them.'' He also
said, "Every genius who is born in the world
is a revelation from God." Had he lived to
know of Edison, Pasteur, Metchinkoff, Erlich,
Metz and a great army of kindred spirits, he
would have known that his predictions would
come true. While sticking close to the texts
of his Bible, he felt and often said that there
was something back of the men who wrote it;
for said he, "There are some things that God
has not told us yet, not even in the Bible.''

Some of these things we find out without
the Bible. In medicine we have found out
that there are certain substances that we call
poisons; these poisons, as arsenic, strychnine,
prussic acid, opium and its products, digitalis,
belladonna and aconite; all the mineral acids,
alcohol and some others, when taken in suf-
ficient quantities, will kill the human body.

On the other hand, some of these poisons,
given in smaller doses or used externally,

22 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

have been found to be beneficial in certain in-
fections, and have been used in alleviating
the pains and diseases of man.

We have found out that steam confined can
be made the servant and benefactor of the
working classes.

We have found that the thing we call light-
ning is identical with electricity and can also
be used in many ways to serve the human
family.

We have found that the air compressed be-
comes as powerful for good or evil as the ex-
plosion of gunpowder.

We have found that the winds may be
harnessed and made to do our work as well
as the horse and oxen. We have found that
there is a law that we call gravitation, which
may be utilized in many ways for the bene
fit of man.

We have found many other things which
are true, but not reported in the Bible. These
truths, discovered by man, through pains,
trials, longings, desires, plans, purposes and
designs, are all as much the revelations of
God as is the words contained in the book
that we call the Bible.

Pie said there was a time when we had no
art, no pictures, no statuary, no poetry, no
love for the beautiful, but now the world was

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 23

filled with beautiful things, pictures, statues,
poetry, which make life worth living; all seen,
recognized and by man appreciated.

He said there was a time when men did
not appreciate truth, honor, integrity, faith-
fulness, kindness, mercy, gentleness, humility,
virtue and love, but now all of these beautiful
characters were not only appreciated, but were
concluded absolutely necessary as the adorn-
ment of a neighbor and friend.

He said the various sects in religion repre-
sented the many thoughts of men, but no one
of them contained the whole of truth; so each
and every one, if honest, should be glad,
pleased and benefited by looking for the truth
that others held, which he did not possess.
Again, that if you hold a truth which you«
know to be true, it is your duty to offer it
freely to all mankind. He said the whole duty
of the Church through its preachers and
priests, was to give to the world the truth in
its entirety as far as it was discovered, espe-
cially the truths which enabled men to live
healthfully, prosperously, honestly, uprightly,
faithfully, neighborly, kindly and charitably
in this w'orld, and devotedly, trustfully, sin-
cerely and dependently for the world to
come.

He said to do this a man must recognize
that there is much outside of himself, and

24 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

that all that was accessible to him could only
be attained by effort, Health and vigor, he
said, could only be preserved and conserved
by forethought, more knowledge and a will-
ingness to obey the law of one's physical be-
ing.

The ability to stand hard work or study
meant more to one who was willing to do the
work and to study than a capricious talent
used sparingly.

He knew little about the modern interpreta-
tion of ancient philosophies, but he said that
the rocks, the hills, the gold, the lands and
all the things that looked so solid and real
were not so real as the mind and intelligence
that created them.

He said that the one thing needful, the one
thing to desire and work for, was not some-
thing to possess, but rather something TO
BE.

He said that no possibility of experience
could ever be so real as the actual experience.

He said no man or woman was ever com-
pletely himself or herself at any one period
of their lives, for their complete fulfillment
could only be given in eternty.

He said we gain in knowledge and exper-
ience every day, but we loose the buoyant
spirits and the freshness of youth.

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 25

He said that we were created by God, but
that God gave to us the privilege of aiding
in finishing the product; and when it is realiz-
ed and appreciated that the conscious effort
of man in his upbuilding shortens the slow
process of what we call nature, then man will
or should make an effort to be something
higher and better. A contentment in ignor-
ance is highly culpable. We should try to
remember the past; the future may be read
and understood better if we could only en-
joy our full capacities. Why do we dream
while we are sleeping? Do these dreams tell
us something? Are these communications to
be relied on?

Can our loved ones who have gone to the
other world send us love messages or warn-
ings of the dangers which may befall us?

He said these questions can only be an-
swered by discovering the truth involved in
them; that to discover these truths may re-
quire the effort of one, two, ten or a hundred
generations; but the knowledge is in existence
and much of it accessible and only prolonged,
persistent and intelligent effort can get it.
He said this process involved the broad ques-
tion of the development of man, which means
healthier children with better minds and
higher aspirations; these three fundamental
qualities of man will open up better oppor-
tunities, to the end that the meaning of life

26 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

shall be better understood and the purposes
of life better fulfilled.

He said that the greatest trouble with the
whole human family who had any religion at
all, was that man was expected to know all,
without time to learn, and expected to do all
without time to do it in. He said no one was
born grown; that he was a child first, then
youth, then man, then age — then death. He
said that a child was only a child and that
he could learn only a little at the time; that
judgment and the ability to see came only
with maturer years. That some children could
learn much faster than others; that these
bright ones, by persistent effort became the
wise men and women of the world, and they
in their turn to a large extent the fathers
and mothers of the bright ones of the next
generation. That the intelligence of the fath-
ers and mothers, provided better food, bet-
ter clothes, better surroundinfjs, better appor-
tunities for their children, and the children
when grown were so equipped that with the
same desire for progress would give to their
own children the same advantages and oppor-
tunities.

He said that this process was natural and
was right, and was evidently the will of God
and being right, and the will of God, it was
the best and most appropriate way to lift the

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 27

whole human family toward God. That this
elevation or lifting was itself a process, but
being in harmony with the Divine plan, it
was the true way to strive and to work in
this present world.

He said this world is just a part of an-
other whole, and the whole included all the
other worlds, and that each one was controlled
by God and passed on through space according
to His plans and pleasure. He said if it all
w^orks like a machine it is because an all-
wise God could plan it and set it in motion
and put behind it all and in it all that power
and intelligence necessary to keep it as He
wants it to be. In it all and a part of it all
is man with some qualities which belong alone
to him. He can think, plan, do things and
then reflect and meditate on his plans and his
deeds. Sometimes he is intelligent enough to
discover his mistakes, his blunders and is will-
ing to and does make an effort to correct them,
and in some instances does so. This is one of the[
important ways that knowledge comes into the
world. He said that our inability to use our
full capacities made progress in the world
very slow, but said he, this is for not making
an effort with the capacities we do have; small
capacities well used grow to be larger capaci-
ties and capacities or talents neglected are
destroyed by the neglect. It is man's duty
to make the effort whether with small or great

28 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

capacity, the results belong to God. He will
take care of that which is His own.

He said there is an Intelligence greater
than my own. This Intelligence keeps the
sun, moon, planets, stars and the infinite hosts
of heaven in their proper places. It keeps the
hills, the plains, the rivers, the brooks, the
grand old oceans supplied with that power,
that ability to be hills, plains, rivers, brooks
and oceans.

This Supreme Intelligence gives life to all
that lives, and makes it live until it dies, and
it dies because it has lived.

This Intelligence gives to each shrub its own
buds, to each flower its own petal, to each
tree its own leaves and makes them bear in
their season the buds, the flowers and the,
leaves as it pleases Him; they all live and die
in their proper order.

This Intelligence gives to every element a
power to unite with some other element, this
power is measured and exact and is made
honest and faithful to perform its proper
duty by the same Supreme Intelligence that
created it.

That this same Supreme Intelligence has
given to man some of His intelligence so that
man may in ever so little a way or in ever so
great a way understand, use and profit to some

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 29

extent by this knowledge and use of the same,
and may work with this Supreme Intelligence
and some men do, and these are they that we
call the Children of God. This does not mean
that all the others who do not work with this
Supreme Intelligence are not the children of
God. It means that they are neglectful chil-
dren, disobedient children, either through ig-
norance or a purposeful neglect. God knows
and will deal with them fairly. He said, it is
so much better to be working in harmony with
this Supreme Intelligence, for all truth, all
right, all good can actually be found in har-
mony with this Intelligence, that many of our
pains, sorrows, disappointments are in some
way connected with our disharmony or the
disharmony of another.

He said further that this disharmony with
all its pains, sorrows and disappointments are
also a part of the whole; but said he, the Su
preme Intelligence knows that disharmony
is not so good as harmony; so he marks it
with tears, sorrows and disappointments to
show us the difference between harmony and
disharmony, that we may not be contented
with the less good.

Complete harmony with God, he said, in
this world, is never attained, for the complete
harmony includes a harmony with all that
is external to myself, as well as all that is

30 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

is within myself. Man's greatest need is to
find as much of this harmony as his talents
and capacities will permit. The harmony is
one, as God is One, to be in complete harmony
with the whole, would be to possess the whole,
in knowledge and exiDerience, and this is pos-
sible alone for God.

He said, ''I am a part and not the whole,
but I play a part and the part I play is a
part of the whole, and the whole is not com-
plete without the part that I play, whether
the part I play makes what we call harmony
or discord.''

The whole harmony is not played on earth,
that part which contains some of the discords
are found on earth, some in other worlds;
the sweet music, that period of the grand
whole harmony which is completed and fitted
for the ear of the Composer, alone is found
in eternit}^, for neither a thousand years nor
a million years is time enough for God to com-
plete the harmony which He has composed
for Himself.

It is impossible to measure the heights
and depths of a man like my father by any
ordinary rule. While he accepted the Bible
as inspired and believed in it firmly, he said
there were many statements in it which
seemed to have been changed or mistrans-
lated, but he said that no one should waste

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 31

his time on puzzles, as there was enough in
the Bible that was clear and intelligent to
point out a line of conduct that would make
a good man of any one who would follow the
light that was given.

He gave little time to the discussions of
the dogmas of the Church, of his Church, or
any other Church. He was first Baptist, aft-
erward a Christian, or Campbellite. He was
too busy loving his neighbors and doing deeds
of charity to waste his time in discussing the
trinity, atonement, vicarious punishment,
destiny, good and evil, the war of being
against being, human consciousness, trans-
formation through death, of the Ego, the es-
sence, substance, the nil and ens, nature, lib-
erty, necessity.

He purposely avoided discussions of such
subjects as being time wasted.

He would frequently say, "I believe in the
Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost,''
without any comment or explanation of its
meaning.

His love was greater than his faith, un-
less it was his great faith that made him love.
It was his supreme love for all men, high and
low, that made him a mark for all. His love
was not limited to the human family, it ex-
tended to the animals, birds and fishes. It

32 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

was a supreme benevolence spreading over
men and extending even to things.

He looked on deformity with a pitying eye,
putting no blame on the object but seeking
thoughtfully for an explanation beyond and
back of this crippled life. He recognized
friends in some of the reptiles. I remember
his warning to the negroes and to myself not
to kill two large king snakes that lived in our
barn. He said that they were our friends for
they drove away all of the rats and were
worth more in this way than many cats, and
were no expense or trouble to keep.

These snakes lived on the rats and mice,
and could be seen lying on the joists or be-
tween the cracks and sometimes curled up
in the feed basket. When found in the basket
by the negro who was feeding the mules, there
was sure to be an exclamation of horror, for
the negroes, like the rest of the human fam-
ily, hate a snake, and all snakes are alike to
a negro.

While these negroes respected my father
and were devoted to him and obeyed him with-
out question and left unmolested these snakes
for a year or two, one day I found both of
them dead; they had been broken in several
places and had been buried, but murder will
out, for a pig found them and rooted them

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 33

out of the ground, and left the snakes un-
eaten. This is curious, for hogs are fond of
snake meat.

I suspected the negroes of having killed
these snakes. When I told my father, he said,
"Poor, ignorant things, they knew no better.'^

In his mature manhood, his patience, tolera-
tion and gentleness seemed to be boundless,
but an old friend who knew him when he was
a young man, told me that my father, in his
youth and early manhood, was passionate,
hot-tempered and would fight on slight provo-
cation. So his gentleness and even temper
was a matter of conviction with him. He had
curbed his temper, he had restrained his pas-
sionate nature, until he had both under con-
trol He was fond of company and a good
talker. He had much to tell that was highly
interesting, but the matter related almost ex-
clusively to life; life in general and in vari-
ous special lives, good, bad and indifferent,
that he had known. His stories w^ere the re-
lations of actual experience of himself and
others. I do not remember a single instance
where he told a story or a joke simply to make
people laugh.

He was cheerful and bubbling over with wit
and sometimes made his audiences laugh
when he did not intend to do so.

I was present on one occasion when he

34 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

was preaching in a country church. The peo-
ple were all good, kind, simple folk; but many
would go out and come in the church during
the services; this seemed to annoy my father
and in the middle of his sermon he digressed
long enough to beg the people to be more
thoughtful of themselves and of him and went
on and told this story, to show how a thought-
less person could disturb a congregation. He
said that he was preaching in a country
church in Hyde County, North Carolina, and
said, ^'I must have been very dull and unin-
teresting, for I saw one of the men on a back
bench fast asleep. He had settled low down
on his seat, so that his head rested on the
back of the bench; he was breathing through
his mouth, and his mouth was wide open.
The gallery w^as above him, filled with young
people. One of the boys, a very thoughtless
boy, had heard the deep, sonorous breathing
of the man below. At first he could not make
out what it was. So, in his inconsiderate,
thoughtless w^ay, he leaned over the balcony
to see w^hat was the cause of these heavy
sighs that he had beard; He heard the sup-
pressed noise, and connected it with the sleep-
ing man immediately below. I saw both the
sleeping man and the boy. I knew that some-
thing was about to happen. I was so dis-
tracted I almost lost the thread of my dis-
course. If that poor boy and that poor man

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 35

only knew how much they were disturbing
me, and through me the whole congregation,
they would not be so thoughtless, the man
to go to sleep, and the boy to do what he
did do. I saw that boy pull out of his mouth
an old exhausted quid of tobacco, and, taking
aim, dropped it right into the man's open
mouth. The mouth went shut like a steel
trap, and the man waked up.-- The congre-
gation who heard this story, did not hear the
last part of it, for when the piece of tobacco
dropped, they went wild and roared with
laughter. My father was so surprised at this
outburst that he stopped his sermon and dis-
missed the congregation.

He never even smiled. He told me after-
ward that he felt hurt, but the big congre-
gation in the afternoon and the close atten-
tion paid to his sermon and the great interest
taken by the whole congregation in all the
services and the passing in and out of the
church by so many having stopped, he felt
compensated for what he called his "break'^
in the morning.

At home, he was always busy. His days
were filled Avith good deeds, good words, good
thoughts. He lived much out of doors; he was
fond of long rambles in the woods. He would
do some manual labor every day, when the
weather was fine he would work in the vege-

36 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

table garden an hour or so, or if the grass
was getting the upper hand in the cotton or
corn fields, he would go there and work with
the negroes.

If the day was wet and inclement, he would
put in the day answering his letters and mak-
ing what he called his "skeletons" for his ser-
mons. He never wrote out his sermons. He
said, "I must preach, not read to my congre-
gaton." These "skeletons" sometimes covered
less than one page in a small note book.
After making these "skeletons" he would sel-
dom refer to them again. Sometimes he
would go off on a preaching tour and forget,
leaving his "skeletons" at home.

'fe

I asked him once how he got along with-
out his notes. He said, "I do my work mostly
at night, when others are sleeping, when I
am not liable to be interrupted and w^hen I
have gone over a subject and made my notes,
I seem to be able to read them again without
having the paper in my hand, but I loose the
whole discourse, if I do not make the notes."

He said, "There is another peculiarity about
my memory. I do not think that I can repeat
the words of a single hymn without the music,
but as soon as the words are sung, all of the
words of the hymn come to me one by one as
they are sung. So I seldom use a hymn book
in singing."

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 37

He said, "I seldom try to quote Scripture,
for I am liable to change one or two words,
putting in words of my own and leaving out
the scriptural words,'' and he said, further, "I
note that many others do the same thing. So
to avoid this common fault, I read the words
out of my Bible. That is why you see my
Bible nearly worn out."

''This, he said, holding up his well-thumbed
book, ''is the fourth Bible that I have worn
out;" meaning, of course, the physical book,
and not its contents.

At every meal, we all bowed our heads and
my father would lift his hands and say, ''Gra-
cious Lord, accept our sincere thanks for these
and all Thy kind provisions and save us in
heaven for Christ's sake. Amen."

At night, sometimes at the supper table,
sometimes at bed time, depending on who was
at our home. When strangers were with us,
it was at the supper table, if our family alone
were present it would be at bed time, my
father w^ould get his Bible and without a word
of explanation, would open it and read one of
the Psalms or something from the New Testa-
inent; the reading would include the most di-
verse subjects, from evening to evening. Then
he would say, "Let us pray." I note that his
prayer alw^ays followed the subject of thp

38 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

reading. These prayers were impromptu ami
were Tery eloquent, very devout, very humble
and were always supplications. He did not
pray the prayers that I have heard others
pray, wherein they give to God all sorts of
information and then ask Him what He
thought of it.

After these ^'family prayers" were over, he
would go out in the night and be gone an hour
or more, as if the ^'family prayers'' reminded
him that he ought to pray. Out under the
starry heavens, he w^as alone with his God,
there he could lift up his heart in con-
templative, peaceful, adoring mood, with the
windows of his soul open toward the sky, with
the visible splendor of the constellations over
him; he was ready to receive, willing to have,
and anxiously awaiting any and all commun-
ications from the unknown. At such times,
with his heart full of gratitude for all favors
received and sending up to God his whole
soul in pure elevated thoughts, like the per-
fume of the flowers in the night; lost in ador-
ing, dazzling, admiration, hardly knowing
Avhat was passing in his own mind, but he said
that he sent "something away and received
something in return."

His meditations were of tHe grandeur and
majesty of God, of the infinity of the future,
of the eternity of the past, of all the vast

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 39

insoluble mysteries on every hand, and not
trying to unravel the puzzles, he gazed in won-
der at them.

He saw the obdient suffer as well as the dis-
obedient. Saints as well as sinners. He saw
old age and death coming to all alike. He
saw the thorns growing with the flowers.

He saw the human bandits robbing the law
abiding man.

He saw that joy lasts only a day, but tears
and sorrows are with us a whole lifetime. He
saw that there was little in this life to satisfy
one. That all our plans seemed to be cut short.
Yet, he said, ''God is good, and He knows
how it will end. It will end as He wants it to
end. No man can spoil the final plans of God.'
He worshiped, he adorned, he trusted God.
In this trust was centered the reserved force,
confidence or faith which gave to him, above
anv man I have ever known, that power which
served him in every emergency of life and did
not desert him in death.

His life was a life of love. He loved God,
and he loved his fellow men.

The cruelty, hatred and oppression of others
simply revealed to him a greater opportunity
to teach them, to show them in his own life,
the immense difference between love and

40 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

hate. "How can you hate one another," he
said, 'Svhen love is so much better?"

Some men labor for gold, others for lands
and others property. Some for ambition and
fame, but his whole effort, his every energy,
his whole life and purpose, seemed to be di-
rected to one end, to make the rich pity the
poor, to make the high pity the low, to make
the strong pity the weak, to make the intelli-
gent pity the ignorant, to make the good pity
the bad, to make the powerful pity the de-
pendants, to make the gentle pity the vicious,
to make the kind pity the unkind, to make the
joyous pity the sorrowing, to make the peace-
ful pity the malignant, to make the patient
pity the impatient, to make the loving pity
those who hate. This was his gospel, this
was his text for all sermons. He might vary
the words, but he never varied his theme, this
was the burden of every sermon, this was
the pith of every prayer, this was the sub-
ject nearest his heart, this was his life, this
was ''the all" to him; the theme was so high,
so low, so broad, so long that it left himself
at one side neglected and forgotten, but still
looking on in wonder and anticipation, reflect
ing and meditating to find some new plan or
course wherein he could do something more
to bring in the Kingdom, where the strong
would bear the burdens of the weak.

Resolutions of respect, passed at a meeting

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 41

of the Diciples of Christ at Oak Grove, Pitt
County, N. C, October 8th, 1870.

On motion of M. T. Moye, the resolutions
in regard to Elder Amos Johnston Battle were
adopted and ordered to be placed on our min-
utes:

Whereas, It has pleased Almighty God, the
Sovereign Ruler and Disposer of events, to re-
move our well-beloved brother and co-laborer
in the Lord, Elder A. J. Battle from his sphere
of earthly usefulness; and

Whereas, The Disciples of Christ of North
Carolina for whom he has labored so faithfully
in the past, have heard the melancholy tid-
ings of his decease; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED: First, That while as Christians
we are constrained to bow with submission to
the afflictive dispensation of his Father and
ours, we feel that one of our noblest men has
been gathered to his fathers, and that the
Church has lost one of its most eminent
preachers, so eminently qualified by the clear-
ness of his mind and child-like purity and sim-
plicity of his life for the promulgation of the
primitive Gospel;

Second, That the Moderator of this Confer-
ence be requested to appoint some brother to
prepare an obituary notice of the deceased
to appear with the minutes of this Confer-
ence and to become part of its records.

42 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

Third, That we tender our heartfelt sym-
pathies to his surviving partner and other
members of his family in their bereavement,
and assure them of our great and abiding con-
fidence that God will sustain them by His
grace if they lean upon His love;

Fourth, That a copy of these resolutions be
forwarded by the clerk of the meeting to the
Avidow of our departed brother, and that the
"Christian Review" and the ''Christian Stand-
ard,'' of Cincinnati, and the "Wilson Plain
Dealer' be furnished with copies for publica
tion.

JOHN T. WALSH,
MOSES T. MOYE,
PETER HINES,

Committee.

Rev. M. T. Moye was appointed to write the
obituary notice and Rev. John T. Walsh was
asked to preach a funeral sermon on Satur-
day night in memory of Elder Battle, which
was done.

This sermon was very eloquent and beauti-
ful and portrayed the character of my father*
in the most eloquent terms. It was delivered
impromptu and no copy of it was preserved.

The Rev. Moses T. Moye's obituary notice is
as follows, omitting that part copied by Mr.
Collier Cobb, which includes the first three
paragraphs.

AND SOMIE STORIES OF MY LIFE. 43

"In early life he was deeply impressed with
the importance of obeying God and having his
mind greatly confused by the mystic and mud
died doctrines of those who deny to man free
agency. For a few years during his early man-
hood he gave himself freely to the pleasures
and frivolties of the world. These proving al-
together unsatisfactory, and feeling deeply
impressed with the convictions that life should
be devoted to more noble gratifications, he
again directed his mind to the serious con-
templation of the salvation of his soul. Still
mystified by those "mysterious manifesta-
tions" of spirit so often portrayed in the ex-
perience of those who united with the Church
in his vicinity, he sought by prayer and humble
supplication that God would make knoAvn to
him either by an audible voice or by some
mysterious agency, his acceptability and doc-
trine to eternal life, and failing in this to ob-
tain that peace of mind for which he sought,
he turned to the living oracles of God, and
learning therein the Divine will, he became
obedient to the Faith, uniting with the Mis-
sionary Baptist Church at Mt. Zion, Georgia,
in his twenty-third year.

"Three years later he was ordained to the
ministry. Entering upon his ministerial career
with a zeal and fervency which few possess,
he devoted his talents, his means and his life
to the proclamation of the glorious gospel

44 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

which he loved so well, preaching very suc-
cessfully during the remainder of his life with
the exception of a few intervals of short dur-
ation— first to the Missionary Baptists, aft-
erwards to the Disciples of Christ, with whom
he became identified about eighteen years
ago. Warm-hearted, self-sacrificing, zealous
and greatly devoted to pure Christianity, he
endured hardships as a good soldier, even
w^alking from house to house and from church
to church to proclaim the glad tidings of sal-
vation. Patient, hopeful and forgiving, he
meekly received the indignities heaped upon
him, submitting his cause to God in the great
Assize, where the secrets of all hearts shall be
revealed.

In the month of March, A. D. 1869, while
successfully prosecuting his work as evange-
list in the mountains of North Carolina, he was
attacked with cancer near his right eye, which
became so painful that he was compelled, re-
luctantly, to abandon this inviting field, where
the harvest was almost ready for the sickle,
and return home to seek medical aid.

"After applying several prescribed reme-
dies, which failed to arrest the progress of the
disease, he was induced as a last resort to
place himself under the supervision of Dr.
Kline, of Philadelphia, who professed to make
the treatment of cancer a specialty.

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 45

"Here, patiently enduring great suffering,
both from the malignant disease and the se-
verity of the treatment, which caused the loss
of the right eye, at the expiration of five
months he returned home so much improved
that he himself and many of his friends were
encouraged to believe that he would be speed-
ily cured, but in this they were sadly dis-
appointed.

"Remaining home about six weeks, preach-
ing occasionally at the Court House in Wil-
son, the progress of his disease remaining un-
checked, he returned to Kline's Cancer Infirm-
ary. But the skill of the physician proving in-
effectual, he was declared incurable and sent
home to die.

"For five or six weeks longer he lingered,
prostrated by the most intense physical suf-
fering, from which he was' relieved by death
on the 24th of September, 1870.

"During the whole of his protracted suffer-
ing, which extended over the space of more
than eighteen months, no murmuring com-
plaints against the afflictive hand of Provi-
dence were ever known to have escaped his
lips.

Addressing his wife and children a short
time previous to his death, he said:

" ^Do not be so selfish as to have me re-
main here in this suffering condition. Weep

46 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

not for me. Christ was made perfect through
suffering, and I am willing to endure every-
thing that the Lord may see fit to afflict me
with. It will soon be over. And I am so
happy at the prospect of rest and happiness
that nothing disturbs me.'

^'The humble petition to the pitying eye of
God was beautifully answered in his conflict
with the last enemy of man; for he died with
out a murmur; but with the most perfect
resignation as a Christian, he neither mur-
mured nor complained.

"Only one sorrow seemed to brood over his
mind, and that was that he was denied the
happy privilege of laboring in the Master'>^
vineyard.

"He often spoke of this with deep regret.
The highest order of spirituality to be at-
tained on earth was evidently acquired by him
before his death.

"As an evidence of the truthfulness of this
assertion, the complete dedication of himself
to God, found after his death among his pa-
pers, in his own handwriting is hereby in-
serted as follows:

" ^Eternal and ever blessed God! I desire to
present myself before Thee with deepest hu-
miliation and abasement of soul, sensible how
unworthy such a worm is to appear before
Thee, TToly ^fajosty of Heaven, and to enter

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 47

into covenant transactions with Thee, I am
acknowledging myself to have been a great of-
fender. Smiting on my breast, and saying
with the humble Publican, ^'God be merciful
to me a sinner," I come, invited in the name
of Thy Son, and wholly trusting in His right-
eousness, entreating Thee for His sake.'

" ^Thou wilt be merciful to my unrighteous-
ness and wilt no more remember my sins.
Permit me, O Lord, to bring back unto Thee
those powers and faculties which I have un-
gratefully and sacreligoisuly alienated from
Thy service and receive, I beseech Thee, Thy
poor, revolted creature, who is now convinced
of Thy right to him and who desires nothing
in the world except to be Thine. It is with
the utmost solemnity that I make this sur-
render to Thee. I avouch the Lord this day
to be my God, and I avouch and declare my-
self this day to be one of His covenanted chil-
dren and people.'

" 'Hear, O Thou God of Heaven, and record
in the book of Thy remembrance that I am
Thine, eternally Thine.'

" 'I would not consecrate to Thee some of
my powers, or some of my possessions, or give
to Thee a certain portion of my services, or
all I am capable of for a limited time, but I
would be wholly Thine, and Thine forever.'

48 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

" Trom this day do I solemnly renounce all
former lords which have held dominion over
me; every sin and every lust which has most
unjustly usurped dominion over my soul and
in Thy name bid defiance to hell, and to all
the corruptions which their fatal temptations
have introduced into my soul. The whole
powers of my nature, all the faculties of my
mind and all the members of my body would
I present before Thee this day ''as a long sac-
rifice wholly acceptable to God," which I know
to be my reasonable service/

u irp^ Thee I consecrate not only my person
and powers, but all my worldly possessions,
and earnestly pray Thee also to give me
strength and courage to exert for Thy glory
all the influence I may Have over others in all
the relations of life in which I stand.'

'' 'Nor do I consecrate all that I am and all
that I have only to Thy service, but also most
humbly resign and submit to Thy Holy Sov-
ereign will, myself and all that I call mine.'

-" 'I leave, O, Lord, to Thy management and
direction all I possess and all I wish, and set
every enjoyment and every interest to be dis-
posed of as Thou pleasest, contentedly resolv-
ing in all that Thou appointest for me my will
unto Thine, and looking on myself as noth-
ing, and on Thee, O, God, as tlie Great Eternal
All, whose word ought to determine every-

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 49

thing and whose government ought to be the
joy of all rational creatures.'

" 'Receive, O, Heavenly Father, Thy prodig-
al, wash me in the blood of Thy dear Son,
clothe me with Thy perfect righteousness and
satisfy me throughout by the power of Thy
spirit. And, O, Lord, when Thou seest the
agonies of dissolving nature upon me, remem-
ber this covenant, even though I should be
incapable of recollecting it, and look with pity-
ing eye upon Thy dying child. Put strength
and confidence in my departing spirit, and re-
ceive it to the embrace of Thy everlasting
love.'

"Often seated by His bedside to receive spir-
itual instruction, which flowed so freely from
his lips, he often expressed to me his entire
resignation, saying: 'No lingering shade of
doubt of perfect acceptance with God disturbs
my mind. I am perfectly resigned and will-
ing and anxious for my earthly dissolution.
Yet, I do not desire to hasten my death one
minute, nor to prolong my life one moment,
unless it is God's will. He knoweth best, and
doeth all things well.'

50 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

The humble petition to the pitying eye of God
was beautifully answered, in his conflict with
the last enemy of man, for he died without
a perceptible pang, falling asleep in Jesus as
peacefully and gently as a child seeks repose,
nestling on the bosom of its mother.

"M. T. MOYE."

Wilson, N. C, Oct. 26, 1870.

Eev. Peter Hine's beautiful remarks, so
affecting at his burial, touched many a heart,
coupled as they were with the hymn selected
by Bro. Hines.

*'Dear as thou wert and justly dear.

We will not weep for thee;
One thought shall check the starting tear,

It is that thou art free.''

Here is a letter received from Rev. J. J.

Harper at the time that he sent to me the fore-
going minutes and obituary notice. As his let-
ter confirms statements already made about
my father, I insert it in full.

AND SOME STORIES OP MY LIFE. 51

Copy.

Smithfield, N. C, Oct. 22nd, 1902.

Mr, J. M. Battle, St. Louis, Mo. :

Dear Bro. Battle — It gives me pleasure to
have found the proceedings in memory of your
father and to place them in your hands. The
^^Conference'' (then called) at which the action
was had, was held at Oak Grove, Pitt County
(N. C), and the resolutions were passed, and
the obituary notice, ordered on the 8th day of
October, 1870. I also have had copied the
reference to Elder Peter Hines' remarks at the
funeral. Your father was held in high esteem
by his brethren, including my father, at whose
home He was a frequent visitor, I distinctly
remember how unusually devout he was at all
times — how spiritually minded and conse-
crated.

I remember to have heard him tell my fa-
ther about the ^^seasons of refreshing from the
presence of the Lord," that would come to him
as he walked alone the road. He traveled
much in this way. He was a strong preacher,
logical, pathetic and earnest. Some of his fa-
vorite texts were:

"Wilt thou be made whole?''
"Let brotherly love continue."
"Be a good soldier of Jesus Christ."
"This one thin*:: I do."

52 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

*'Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these
three, but the greatest of these is charity,'' and

^'But thanks be to God who giveth us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

I have either heard him frequently quote
these Scriptures or use them as texts, or both,
and others that I could name. I expect to see
him again "some sweet day." God bless you
and yours. Your Brother in Christ.

J. J. HARPER.

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 53

MY MOTHER.

My mother's maiden name was Margaret
Hearne Parker. She was a daughter of Weeks
Parker and Sabra Irwin Hearne, both of Edge-
combe County, N. G.

Weeks Parker, my grandfather, and Sabra
Irwin Hearne had both been married before.
Weeks Parker had one son, John H. Parker,
by his first wife; and Sabra Irwin Hearne,
whose first husband was James Cooke, also
had one son, James Cooke, Jr., who was a
graduate of West Point and commissioned a
second lieutenant in the U. S. army and after-
w^ard was promoted to be a Major, and died in
Wadesboro, N. C, while on his way to pay off
some soldiers at some point in South Carolina.

This second marriage was a happy one; and
all the parties concerned seemed perfectly
satisfied with the marriage; for they all
seemed devoted to each other; the best proof
that there was no dissatisfaction.

The second marriage gave to this loving
couple three children, my mother, then a broth-
er, Baker Simmons Parker, and a sister, Hen-
rietta Sabra Parker. The brother married his

54 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

cousin, Emely Matthewson; one son was born
of this union, and they named him Weeks Par-
ker, for his grandfather. This Weeks Parker
married Miss Anna Pitt of Edgecombe Coun
tj (N. C), and there are six children from this
union.

Henrietta married Benjamin Dossey Battle,
a brother of my father. Two daughters and
two sons were the fruit of this union, Helen,
Dossey, Claudia and Richard.

Helen married Dr. Ad. Ricks and left no
issue.

Dossey married Miss Mollie , adopted

daughter of Judge Reid, of North Carolina.

A boy, Dossey, and a girl, Helen, are the
fruits of this union.

Claudia never married.

Richard married first Miss McDaniel, with
no issue; after his first wife's death he mar-
ried Miss Belle Wingate of Wake Forest, N.
C, and this union was blessed with three chil-
dren, Wingate, Cullen and Richard.

My mother's marriage was blessed with nine
children, five boys and four girls, namely, Car-
oline Parker, Ann Judson, Martha Louise,
James, Walter Raleigh, Katie Johnston,
George Boardman, Cullen Andrews, and Jesse
Mercer, the author of these memoirs. Caroline
married Dr. W. J. Bullock, and left a son Ed-

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 55

ward and a daughter Susan. Ann married
Dr. Wm. B. Harrell and gave to the state a
numerous progeny, namely, Eugene, Ida, Rosa,
Leon, Annie, Claude, Mabel, and Albert.

Martha Louise married Arch Rhodes, and by
this union was given six children, two boys,
Julian and Walter, and four girls, Margaret,
Henrietta, Minnie and Clyde. The first hus-
band dying, she married Blake Rhodes, a broth-
er of her first husband. By this union there
was born several children, of whom only one
survives, by name Rosa. Walter Raleigh
never married. James died in infancy. Katie
Johnston married Rev. Dr. Joseph H. Foy, and
by this union were given two sons and three
daughters. The two sons, Paul and Phillip,
died in childhood, and one daughter, Florence.
Tw^o daughters, Maud and Josephine, survive.
Georo^e Boardman never married. He was
killed at the battle of "Seven Pines," near
Richmond, Va., in the Civil War.

Cullen Andrews married Miss Ida Pugh, of
Kentucky, and died without issue. Jesse Mer-
cer, the writer of these notes, married Miss
Laura Elizabeth Lee, of Clayton, N. C, and
have only one daughter, namely, Helen, who
married Eugene Fleming Smith, of St. Louis,
Mo,, and have by this union one son, Eugene
Battle Smith, and one daughter, Margaret Par-
ker Smith.

56 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

The name of my mother brings back to mj
memory the sad, patient face of a delicate,
frail being, white as a ghost. She was always
thin, very thin, almost to emaciation. She
was tall, and always wore black. I do not re-
member to have ever seen her dressed in any-
thing but black. When she was young she
had red hair. When I first saw her to know
that she was my mother, her hair was streaked
with white, which made her hair look like a
roan, the color made by mixing white and red
hair together. Her face to me was very
pleasant, a very faint smile could be seen, near-
ly all the time. She was reserved and not
easy to get acquainted with, but kind and
considerate to all. She was very patient and
not easily provoked, but was quick to resent
anything like a slight or an aspersion, uttered
against any of her family. She was amiable
at all times and could seldom be throw^n off
her usual composure. Her benevolence .was
so well recognized by all that knew her, that
she w^as the first one to be consulted when
others got into trouble. It was when such ap-
peals were made to her that her sweet, char-
itable disposition could be seen and recog-
nized. She lived in the presence of the un-
seen, and her devotion to her religion made her
a great source of consolation to all in trouble.
She was earnest at all times, and no one ever
suspected her of deception in any matter. She

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 57

was SO serious at all times that it was re-
marked about her, many times, that she could
not see a joke.

When others would seem to lose their faith
in an overruling Providence, she would say
that ^'all will yet work out right."

While she was generous in her own way, she
had been imposed upon so much herself and
had seen her husband, my own father, begged
out of all that he possessed, which brought
real poverty to our family and deprived her of
many of the comforts that she had been used
to all her life, that she had learned that the
people who had the nerve and cheek to ask for
things were not the people who suffered, but
the people who were poor, but too proud to
beg, were the real sufferers. So she did not
always give when she was asked to do so, but
was quick to respond when she could see that
it was a real charity.

She was high-minded and Honorable above
any woman I ever knew, and ascribed to every-
one the highest motives, but was quick to dis-
cover fraud and to drive it out of her sight.
She was quick to forgive an offense, but if the
offense was repeated the offender did not get
much pleasure in her company, for she could
freeze out unwelcome guests in the most pol-
ished manner. She delighted in having a
peaceful home; she would not tolerate bicker-

58 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

ings, quarrels or brawls in the family. The
only time I remember to have been whipped
by my mother was for fighting my brother Cul-
len, and at that time she whipped us both.
To my eyes she was as pure and good as an
angel from heaven. She had no bad habits or
little vices. She w^as a living example of the
highest type of womanhood. In going over her
life for the thirty-seven years that I knew her
I cannot recall a single piece of injustice or '^,
mean action, or the utterance of a single ugly
word by her lips. With such a mother and
such a father, with their examples before me,
how could I be anything but a decent, respect-
able, honorable man?

My dear mother, you have been gone to your
long resting place for many years. Your poor
body has long since gone back to mix with the
elements, but the memory of your dear, sweet
life remains with me. Your fine. Christlike
example has kept me out of temptation's way
many times, and though you are pronounced
dead in the language of earth, you are not
dead to me. You were never more alive to
me than you are to-day. When I have joys I
want to tell them to you, and when trials come
I need your calm words of reassurance to
lighten the burden. From my position on the
earth I cannot see your poor, delicate body
moving around or hear your words of encour-
agement and consolation as in the old days;

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 59

but it may be from your new life that you are
permitted to see me as I am here and to sympa-
thize with me, and it may be that the influence
of your dear spirit hovers near me this Christ-
mas eve and stirs up anew my undying love
for you, that prompts me to write this tribute
to you. It will not be long before I join you,
just a few more days, months or years, and I
will be with you, and my other loved ones who
have passed through the "valley of the shad-
ow of death.'' There is nothing fearful in death
for me. Nature's story, told in simple language,
tells me that everything earthly that lives
must die, and why not I? When the greatest
majority of my loved ones are gone, it would
be folly to choose to remain, where, in a few
more years, I would be left as a stranger in a
strange land. So to doubt the wisdom of the
plan which takes every creature that breathes
to another home is to doubt the goodness of
our Maker. I do not, of course, know that all
is right, but I believe that it is; and this un-
faltering trust in my God gives to me the as-
surance that aids and supports me in my tran-
sition to another home.

60 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

BORN.

It seems that everybody loves a baby. This
seeming is very near the reality. Is it the in-
nocence, the ignorance, or the helplessness
that appeals to so many? Or is it the possibil-
ities of development that whets the curiosity
to watch the growth of the infant, to see what
he or she may become? Whatever the inter-
est is, it is surely in existence. The interest
is in the real or the ideal baby. So there must
be a baby — whether in prospect or in reality.
It does make a difference as to whose baby it
is. Sometimes the baby is waited for with a
loving longing, which is of the most absorbing
interest. Again, the poor little baby, all un-
conscious of the terrible hate, abhorrence and
dread of his or her coming, comes to find any-
thing but a kindly welcome. Sometimes the
purposeful neglect sends the poor little unwel-
come baby to his or her long home before baby
has come to a consciousness of the fact that he
or she was a baby at all. In such a case, it
could not be truly said that all, even seeming-
ly, loves a baby.

Now, when I was born, I have been told that
I was present, and that I had much to say

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 6i

about it all, but my language was incompre-
hensible to all the others that were present.
Many efforts were made to understand my re-
marks, with but little success. I have been
told that nearly everything I said was uttered
in such a tone of complaint that all agreed
that I objected to being born at all. If this
is true, the statement would agree with an-
other statement that the disposition of the
mother, under such circumstances, is given to
the child. I have been told that my mother
objected very much to having another baby
sent to her. And no one could blame her, for
I have been told that she had presented to her,
before me, just eight more babies. So when
she had been told that the Lord loved her so
good that He was going to give her another
baby for good measure, it is no wonder that my
mother sat down and had a real, good, old-
fashion cry. This cry was hardly a cry for joy,
but was a genuine cry of anguish, the overflow
of a heart full of apprehension of coming
events.

The event finally arrived, on November 10,
1850, and I have been told that my mother had
another cry, this was because the baby that
came was another boy. Of the other babies
that had been given to my mother, four were
boys and four were girls, a very equal division,
leaving no grounds for complaint. So it seems
that this last piece of information given to

62 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

me, about what happened at the time, is not
reliable. So I decline to believe that my
mother cried because I was born a boy. There
must have been another reason, that she kept
to herself — but, anyway, another piece of infor-
mation came to me about this most interesting
period of my life, and this is, that when my
father came in and found my mother crying
about the new arrival, he said, "Never mind,
dear; this little boy will take care of you in
your old age." This was really a true proph
ecy, for my mother came out to St. Louis with
me in 1878, and lived with me nearly all the
time till she died in 1887.

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 63

CHILDHOOD.

My earliest recollections recall the fact that
my mother's family lived in Wilson, N. C. We
lived in a large house, and it was called "The
Battle House." It was one block from the
railroad depot, and sometimes strangers who
got off the trains would come up and stop at
our house. At such times, when there were
strangers, I with the other children was made
to wait till the second table. This displeased
me very much, for I could not understand why
my mother, who loved me so much, would make
me wait and let a stranger eat all of the best
things and leave me to eat what was left over.
When I was older I learned that my mother
was keeping a boarding house or a hotel and
earned the money this way to buy the food thai-
we all ate. I know now that this must have
been a great humiliation to her, for my mother
was the proudest woman I ever knew. My
childhood was spent mostly in crying, for real
as well as imaginary troubles. My mother
was very busy, and as white as a ghost. So T
know now that she must have been a very deli-
cate woman. She looked like a strong wind
would have blowm her away. I saw my moth-

64 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

er every day, but was allowed to spend only a
few minutes at a time in her company. I was
taken away, out in the yard if the weather was
warm, or out in the kitchen or wash-house if
the weather was cold. Negroes were my com-
panions. I played with them, and spent my
time with them all day, till I was about seven
years old, when I was started to school. I knew
my alphabet and how to read a little. This
start on the way to an education was given to
me by a good old colored woman I called
Mammy. (Her name was Dinah.) She was a
God-fearing creature. She said her prayers
often. She taught me the Lord's prayer, ''Our
Father who art in heaven," also the other
sweet prayer, ^'Now I lay me down to sleep."
This good woman remained with our family
till 1865, w^hen the Civil War ended, when she
left us and moved down to Greenville, N. C,
where her husband, whose name was ^^Shade,'*
lived. After the emancipation of the slaves
she said that she could never enjoy her "free-
dom" as long as she lived with her master and
mistress.

My father was away from home a great deal.
He was a Baptist preacher, and a missionary,
and he was so busy saving the heathens down
in the coast part of the State that he had no
time left to impart knowledge to his barba-
rian children. I use the word barbarian about
myself advisedly, for I can look back now,

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 65

from the standpoint of a superior development,
and I know that I was but little removed from
the negroes that I played with, and some of
them were like the animals in the forest. My
father read in his Bible that it is "harder for
a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than
for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven"
and that he should "give to him that asketh
thee," and "to him that would borrow of thee,
turn not thou away," and he believed this was
a revelation from God, and was absolutely nec-
essary to be done, so he did it. He was rich
in lands and negroes, but he gave away to
tlose that asked him and lent to those that
wanted to borrow — and their "name was le-
gion"— until he had nothing left to provide for
his own. The first children were all w^ell edu-
cated. They had the best advantages the
schools of the country afforded. Not so with
the last three boys, of which I was one. We
w^ere sent to school some, but increasing pov-
erty, due in a large measure, to the Civil War,
cut short our school days, and sent us out in
the world to earn a living. The living we
earned was a scant one, for I remember teach-
ing school when I was sixteen years old, for
fi^e months, and collected, in all, for the five
months' work the munificent sum of seventeen
dollars and sixty-five cents. When I note that
during this five months I was walking three
miles to school and three miles back home

66 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

again, with a cold dinner eaten out of my tin
bucket that I carried from home, I now realize
how meager were my earnings. At that time
I did not realize w^hat a great service this hard
work and poor pay was doing for me.

It gave to me the one thing important above
all others for the beginner to know, namely,
an absolute faith in myself, that I could do the
thing that I had planned to do. I do not mean
that I actually did do all that I had planned
to do, or that I never failed in my purposes. T
mean that I had confidence in myself, and this
confidence gave to me enterprise and this enter-
prise would start me off on my journey toward
success. Starting toward the goal is as nee
essary as reaching the goal. In fact, there is
a greater stimulation in the starting than in
the finding and reaching the goal. All the
causes of success and failure in a worldly sense
are to be found between the starting and the
ending. Here is where we discover the wide
difference between how we intend our plans to
work, and how they really work. Our plans
are made with all the ability and capacity that
we can command, and if we could command all
the other individuals who are involved in our
plans, and they would obey implictly our com-
mands the results might be more satisfactory
to us, and again they might be less satisfac-
tory. So the various results, all the way, the
working out of our plans, are as various and

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 67

as satisfactory and otherwise, as there are
combinations of capacity and lack of capacity,
and obedience to commands and disobdience
to commands. In other words, none of us
know all of what we want, and none of us
could do it all, even if we knew it. So I now
know that I have often ^'builded wiser than I
knew," and have, on the other hand, thought
that I was building very wisely, and found my
house w^as built on the sand, and it tumbled
down when the storms came.

As a school teacher, I thought at the time
that I was a dismal failure, and have never
changed that opinion. Yet several of my old
pupils have told me that I gave to them the
first impulse to be a man; and that they had
gone on and achieved success. This informa-
tion is very gratifyng to me, but when I sit
down and think of the fool things that I did
about this period of my life, I w^onder that I
could give to anyone an impulse to be a man.
As an example, I heard an old teacher say
once that if a boy wanted to be healthy he
should take a cold bath every morning. We
had no bathtub at my home, nothing but a
washtub, and no way to get water into the tub
but by drawing it from a well in a bucket, fas-
tened to the end of a long pole; the upper end
of the pole was fastened to a long piece of tim-
ber, and this timber worked in a slot cut in the
top of a post in the manner of a "see-saw."

68 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

When the bucket was forced down the well,
the end of the timber farthest from the well
would go up in the air, and when the bucket
full of water came up, the same end of the tim-
ber farthest from the well w^ould come down
and rest on the ground again. It was called a
"well sweep." The labor, to "draw water," as
this movement was called, was too laborious
for a sickly boy of sixteen, who was small for
his age. So this boy, who was myself, in my
foolishness, figured out that the creek w^as the
best and easiest way that I could get the cold
bath that I believed was to give me health
and strength. So, on my way to school, I
would come to a creek, there I would stop, pull
off my clothes, and go into the water. I would
lie down in it. Sometimes there would be thin
ice on the edge that I would break as I went
in the water. It was so cold that I would al-
most faint with the chill; my hands would be-
come numb with the cold, so that I could hard-
ly dress myself, putting my clothes on my wet
body. I did not have sense enough to take a
towel along to dry my body before putting on
my clothes. Sometimes I would remain cold
all day, if the trot that I would take after
the bath did not warm me up. About this
period of my life it seemed that I could never
get rid of having chills. I had a chill nearly
every day for three or four years. I took qui-
nine every day as regular as I tried to eat my

AND SOM3S STORIES OF MY LIFE. 69

meals. Sometimes I had no appetite, and I
weighed less than a hundred pounds. No one
told me that I should not drink this water out
of the creek or out of a ditch, so I kept on
drinking such surface water and having chills
as long as I lived in the country around Wil-
son. I noAV believe that all or nearly all of my
sickness at that time was due to the fact that
I took those cold baths and drank the surface
water.

I went to school in 1865, in Wilson, to Prof.
D. S. Richardson. He was a New Englander,
a fine teacher. He kept every boy and girl in
a spelling class as long as they went to school
to him. He also made each one write from a
copy, for one hour every day, so these were
two of the necessary branches of an element-
ary education that he uniformly gave to nearly
all of his pupils. At this time our family lived
on a farm we called "Walnut Hill," about three
miles from Wilson, N. C, on the railroad to-
ward Rocky Mount.

One day I was walking home to the farm
from school, and Julian Rhodes, my third sis^
ter's son, then about nine years, was with
me; when we got to Toisnot Swamp, where
there were two long railroad bridges, we saw
a negro coming up the embankment from the
water below; he had in his hands two turtles;
we asked him how he caught them. He said,

70 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

"On hooks." What kind of hooks? He said,
*'Large fish hooks/' and he showed us one that
he had in his pocket. What did he put on the
hooks? "Frogs.'' On the way going home
Julian and I talked the matter over, and came
to the conclusion that we must have some
hooks. When we got home we told our story
to the whole family and embellished it the best
that we could, trying to enlist enough sym
pathy with our plan to get the hooks. At last
father said, "I will get the hooks for you." The
next day Julian went home with me again and
continued to do so as long as the interest in
the turtles kept up.

But this interest came to a very sudden stop.
My father not only got the hooks for us, but he
put the hooks on the lines and put some lead
on, too, to help sink the hooks; he showed us
how to put the frogs on the hooks, by hooking
them through the back. He also told us to
put our lines in places so that we would not
forget where they were; but to tie them under
the water so that others would not see them
and rob our hooks. This we did in the morn-
ing as we went on to school; in the afternoon
we were so anxious to reap the fruits of our
planning that we ran nearly all the way to the
swamp. The first day we got two turtles out
of the six hooks that we set. Wo did not know
how to get the hooks out of the turtles' mouths,
for they had swallowed the frogs, hooks and

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 71

all. So we carried our trophies in pride and
jubilation to the farm. Everyone in the fam-
ily were highly pleased; for stewed turtle with
some parsley put in for flavoring certainly does
make an appetizing breakfast. Our good luck
followed us for some time, and we had got up
quite a reputation as fishermen. The enthu-
siasm was dying out a little, for we no longer
ran in our eagerness to get to our hooks, but
went along more like workmen on their way to
work.

One day when we had lifted nearly all of our
hooks without finding a turtle, we came to
one of the hooks that seemed to be hanging
onto something down under the water; we
could pull the hook up a part of the way, and
then there would be a pull on the line like
there was a strong spring working against us.
We could not pull the hook out of the water;
Julian and I both had a trial at it; and
we w^ere about to leave it, when I thought of
one more way. I cut a pole with a fork at the
top; with this pole I straddled the line with
the fork, and, keeping the line taut, followed it
down in the water, trying on each side of the
line to dislodge the hook; at last, I felt the
object on the hook giving way, and I was draw-
ing the hook with what I thought to be a large
turtle to the surface, when quicker than words
can tell it a large copperbellied moccasin came
out of the water with the hook in his mouthy

72 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

He was at least one inch in diameter and three
and a half to four feet long. My hands were
so near his head I was afraid that he would
bite me; I was so excited I really did not know
what I was doing; but to save myself I grabbed
him about the neck with my left hand; the
snake was busy, too; he tried to turn his head
to reach my hand with his mouth; but he did
not have enough free neck to do so; he did the
next best thing that he could; he brought his
long wet body out of the water and threw it
upon my shoulder and around my neck. I had
already got out m}^ big jack-knife and opened
it with my teeth; with this I commenced to
cut off his head; two or three pulls of the sharp
edge on his throat and his head was off, and I
felt the body relax. I dropped my knife, took
both hands and unwound the nasty, slimy,
scaly body from around my neck and threw it
oif with that strength born of panic, and got
out of the swamp as quick as my legs could
carry me. Julian was ahead of me, for as soon
as he saw the snake he made a bolt to get
away; he must have fallen in the water, for he
was wet all over. We sat down on the rail-
road, and after breathing hard for a while be-
came calm; then my fighting qualities came to
my rescue; so I went back, got my knife and
the snake and brought him up on the railroad.
Julian held the body while I pulled the skin
off. We carried the skin home, and stuffed

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 73

it with wheat bran, and this snake skin was
hanging in my room when we moved away in

1868.

This put an end to our turtle fishing. The
shock was too great; we did not want another
like it.

Here is another piece of foolishness of which
I was guilty:

About the last year of the Civil War I was
walking the railroad to school every day. The
railroad bed was well worn, the rolling stock
was in poor condition, and sometimes when a
train would start from Wilmington or Golds-
boro for Weldon it was no certain thing that
that particular train would ever reach its des-
tination. These poorly equipped trains would
frequently overtake me, as I was on my way
to the farm from school. So here is another
place when my foolish calculations came near
ending my days, as well as my career.

There was a freight train that passed Wil-
son about five o'clock p. m. This train would
overtake me frequently as I was going up the
hill after passing over the trestles at Toisnot
Swamp. The train would be running slow on
this up-grade. It was little effort for me to
jump on the last coach as it came by. This
coach was called the "caboose." Now, I fig-
ured it out that I was foolish to walk nearly
all the way home, and then jump on this pass-

74 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

ing train and ride this sliort distance, so I
would go down to the depot and get on the
train as it started from Wilson and ride all
the way home. The train was sure to slack up
in speed w^hen it came to my hill. So I put in
practice my plan for riding home. It worked
fine; for some time the train would come close
enough to five o'clock to get me home by sup
per. But one day the train was late. Old
John Crone was the engineer as well as con-
ductor, on this particular occasion. I w^aited
till nearly dark and still no train had come,
and just as I was about to start on my long
three-mile walk I saw the smoke of my train.
I call it mine, for I had been riding on it so
long I felt that I was really interested in it.
It was but a short time before the train ar-
rived. Old John Crone made one or two shifts
of the cars, and with a very short train for a
freight train, he halloed all aboard, and
quicker than I can tell it, the train w^as in mo-
tion, with me on the caboose as usual. It
seemed to me that I had never rode so fast in
all my life. Before I could realize where we
were, w^e had crossed the bridges over Toisnofc
Swamp and had started up the hill toward
my home. Instead of slacking in speed as
usual, it seemed to me that the train was gain-
ing in speed. I looked for my landmarks, and
there they were, and passing on behind like a

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 75

flash. The telegraph poles looked like a fine-
tootli comb enlarged, in a minute the train
would be to my jumping-oh: place; but, good
heavens, I could not jump from a train running
as fast as this train was running. It would be
certain death. What could I do? I had no
money. The next station was four miles from
my home. It was nearly night. What would
my mother think if I did not come home? So
in my perplexity and dire emergency, I could
see only one thing to do — jump. I must jump;
even if it killed me, I must jump. So, picking
out a place between the old cross-ties that were
on the side of the road, I threw off my books
and my tin dinner bucket. Said one, two, three
and off I went; as my feet struck the red clay
mud my head kept on going forward till my
face and the front part of my head were buried
in the red mud. As I got up I was surprised
to know that I was not dead. I knew that I
was badly hurt, but I did not know the extent
of my injuries. I felt of my nose. I thought
it was broken. I put my hand on my forehead.
I thought there was a hole in it. My mouth
and nose were both bleeding. My mouth was
full of the red mud. I spit out the mud and felt
of my front teeth. I thought that they were
knocked out; but none of these things were
fully true. I was jarred awfully, I was hurt
terribly, but I could discover no broken bones,

76 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

and I could walk, so I went back, got mj books
and bucket, and went on toward home, in the
dark. I knew the path so well I got along
very well. When I came to the little creek or
branch just before getting to the house I
washed my face as best I could. I w^ent to the
kitchen and begged old Mammy Dinah to put
some flour on my face to cover up the blood,
which she did, and after eating a little I went
to my bed in an outhouse, where I slept at
night. My sleep was broken by fever and
dreams of my sad experience. The next morn-
ing early my mother came in to learn what was
the matter. I told her only a part of the truth.
I said that I had fallen down a hill and hurt
my face. I was so sore that I did not get out
of bed for over a week, and even then it took
another week for the scabs to come off of my
face. As big a fool as I was at this time I
learned a lesson that lasted me a long time.
The lesson I learned w^as this, "Don't steal a
ride on a train," and "don't jump off while it is
moving."

Here is another piece of foolishness I was
guilty of about this time:

There was another boy going to the same
school, whose name was Charlie Clarke. This
Charlie Clarke was about my size, though T
think that he was one or two years younger
than I was. There were other boys three or

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 77

four 3'ears older than either of us — Bill Barnes,
Leon Ellis, Frank Deems, the last-named was
a talented son of the noted Methodist preach-
er, the Rev. Dr. Chas. F. Deems, afterward pas-
tor of the Church of the Strangers, New York
City, and editor of the Churchman.

These three boys learned that Charlie
Clarke and I could be induced to fight on very
small provocation. So every few days, at the
midday recess, when all the teachers were out
of the vfay, these older boys, who should have
had more consideration for us youngsters,
would get Charlie and me together, and by put-
ting a chip on my shouder and telling Charlie
that he was a coward if he did not knock the
chip off and when this was done they would
tell me that I was a coward if I did not whip
Charlie for his act. Sometimes the chip was
put on Charlie's shoulder, and the same pieces
of information were given to us. So that it
made little difference where the chip was put,
whether on my shoulder or Charlie's shoulder,
there was sure to be a fight. At first we were
quite equally matched, but as the months
passed by I noted that Charlie was getting
heavier and stronger, so I figured it out that in
a month or so more Charlie would be too heavy
and too strong for me, and would whip me, so I
dreaded such a humiliation, and to prevent it
I got up this scheme. I met Charlie one morn-

78 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

ing and said, Charlie, I like you; don't you like
me? Charlie said Yes, Jess, I do like you.
Then I said. Do you notice how these big boys
get us to tight every few days, just for their
amusement? Charlie said that he had noticed
it. Then 1 said, I'll tell you what we will do.
You and I can whip either one of the big boys.
Now the next time one of the big boys tries to
get us to fight I will grab him around the body
and you punch his face, so when w^e get
through with him this will end our fighting
each other. Charlie agreed to my plan. It
was not long before we had the opportunity to
put into execution our j)lan. Bill Barnes was
the boy we had to tackle, and he w^as the oldest
and strongest of the three, but we were so
quick and attacked him so unexpectedly we
had little trouble in doing him up, and made
him beg for mercy. This ended the fighting
between Charlie and me. As years passed
Charlie grew into manhood and he became a
giant. He was six feet two inches and weigh-
ed about two hundred and fifty pounds. He
was made the Chief of Police, and in a negro
riot in the town of Wilson he was the principal
figure in one of the worst mix-up fights that
ever took place in the town. When I saw
Charlie years after this he had three terrible
scars on his face, where somebody had cut
three long gashes in his cheeks, all the way

AND SOM^E STORIES. OF MY LIFE. 79

from his eyes to his chin. I asked him where
he got these scars. He said, "Oh! a little
scrimmage I got into." The other policeman,
Peter Christman, told me some time after that
a negro cut Charlie's face with a razor, but he
went on and said, '^After the fight was over
there were three dead niggers found where the
fight had been."

I made this remark to myself, "And this is
the Charlie Clarke that I was trying to whip."

As a youth, from ten to fourteen years old,
there are only a few incidents, vividly im-
pressed upon me, enough to come down
through the flight of years. The memory of
my boyhood companions is bright enough. I
can call to mind Jim Clark and Alvin Clark,
who lived diagonally across the street from us.
I used to trade biscuits and ham with them for
pickles.

After supper in the evening at six o'clock
there would be left a long part of the day, in
the summer time. We were allowed to play
until it was dark. I would leave the supper
table with a biscuit and a piece of ham, that I
had picked up and put between two halves of
a biscuit. We were not allowed to eat meat
at supper time when we were small boys.

I would meet Jim and Alvin out at the cor-
ner of out lot, which was a whole block of

so TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

ground. There I would find him or them wait-
ing with a cucumber pickle four or five inches
long and an inch to an inch and a half thick.
I would eat a whole one. These pickles were
made with strong apple cider vinegar, and one
was enough to kill a horse, but I ate it, not
once, but many times. My system must have
been gorged on vinegar at that time, for I
have never been able to eat pickles or take
acids in my stomach since, without pain, not
even lemonade.

Up the street that we lived on were some
other boys: Gus Skinner and Willie Skinner in
one family, with two sisters, Julia and Louise.
Further up the street, opposite where Mr.
Stevens lived, there was a Henry Skinner. Mr.
Stevens had a son named Rozell. This Henry
Skinner and Rozell were both older than 1,
and I did not play with them so much.

The Fountain family lived within a block
of us and I was always fond of Spencer and
William, that the boys called ^^Bill." There
were George Deems, Eddie Deems, Bill Barnes,
Bob Barnes, Leon Ellis, Alex Green, Jim
Tucker, Allen Blount, Albert Bountree, all
good boys. I knew them and liked them well,
but I met them only at school.

The same with Tom Hackney, Dug Hackney
and George, but Jim Clark, Alvin Clark, Gus

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 81

Skinner and Spencer Fountain and Bill Foun-
tain were my chums.

Willie Skinner, Gus' brother, was three or
four years younger than I, and Avas small for
his age as I was, although I was much larger
than he. He thought the world of me, and
so did I of him, till one day he got me into
more real trouble than I had ever had before,
and after this I would never play with him,
the humiliation was too great, and I did not
want another piece of experience like this.

Here is the story and when you have read
it you will say with me that I did right to
cut his acquaintance. He was so young that
he was hardly responsible, but he had some
imagination and powers of invention, so I
think that he must have known that what he
did was w^rong.

His mother was a poor woman, who had a
great struggle to raise these four children.
She worked hard and sewed and took in wash-
ing to earn a living.

This son, Willie, must have seen her put
money away, for he got it all, a five dollar
gold piece, a two and one-half dollar gold piece
and two one dollar gold pieces and several
quarters and dimes. He brought it all down
to me. He first gave me some of the silver;
then he took it back and gave me the five

82 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

dollar gold piece, and then he took them back
and gave me two quarters. He would hand
me a piece of money and then change it.

I thought he was very rich to have so much
money. I asked him where he got it. He said
his mother gave it to him.

At last, night w^as coming on and he said,
^'I must go. ''You had better take this," hand-
ing to me the five dollar gold piece and one
dime, and he said, "If anybody asks you w^here
you got it, tell them that you found it in a
goat's track." I could remember this very
well. The next morning T was showing my
money to Julian Rhodes and Julian's father
came along and asked me where I got it. I
remembered what Willie Skinner had told me.
Willie came up as I was about to speak; I
looked at him and he wiggled his mouth, and
I understood it to mean that I must say what
he had advised me to say. So I said, "I found
it in a goat's track." Another question came,
"Where was the goat's tracks." Then I had
to get out of my trouble the best I could, so-
I said, "Down there by the railroad.'^ Then
Mr. Rhodes, my brother-in-law, said, "Come
on and show me where you found it." I started
off toward the railroad, with Willie Skinner
and Mr. Rhodes following me: when I got near
the water station I found a hog's track. It
must have been a hog's track, because I learn-

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 83

ed later that there was only one goat in town,
and he was at the other end of town and was
kept locked up, so there was no opportunity
for him to make a track in our part of town.
Mr. Khodes said, "Are you sure that you found
it here?-' I said, "Yes.'' Willie Skinner spoke
up and said, "Now, Jess, you know you are
telling a lie, for I gave it to you."

1 never felt so bad in my life. Here I was
caught telling a deliberate lie, and the very
boy who told me to tell the lie gave me away,
and humiliated me before my brother-in-law. I
guess I turned two or three colors; first pale^
then red; but after the first shock and pain
of the revelation passed, I commenced getting
angry and asked, "Didn't you tell me to say
that?" He said, "No, I didn't." I did not
hesitate, but I jumped on him so quick and
beat him so fast, if Mr. Rhodes had not pulled
me off of him, I do believe that I would have
beat him to death, I was so angry.

This broke up our friendship. I did wrong
to give way to my temper. I have watched
it ever since.

I handed the money to Mr. Rhodes and said,
"He stole the money from somebody, give it
back, I don't Avant it."

It belonged to his mother, and my mother
sent it back to her. My mother did not whip

84 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

me for it, but she gave me some sound advice,
wliich in effect was that I did not have to do
or say a mean or wrong thing for any one.

This one vivid lesson has lasted me all of
my life, and I have added another corroUary
to the maxim given to me by my mother.
It is this, if great things are involved, ^'you do
not have to believe anything told to you by
anybody until you prove it to be true.''

Of these, my boyhood companions. Bill
Barnes, Leon Ellis , Rozell Stevens, Henry
Skinner, William Fountain, Jim Tucker, Alex
Green and Albert Rountree are dead. They
were all dear to me. May God receive them
kindly.

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 85

LOOKING FOR A JOB.

After my experience in teaching school, the
hardships and the small remuneration, I con-
cluded that I would try another job. I was al-
ways fond of tools, and liked very much to
build things.

So my father, noticing my mechanical talent,
proposed that I should take a place with a
Mr, John McBride, a Scotchman, who had a
shop in Wilson. He was a watchmaker and
a jeweler and a fine workman, but he had so
many friends in town who visited him and he
had just come from the war; he had spent
four years with Lee's army in Virginia; he
had gotten out of the habit of working and
dreaded it so much that he could never be con-
tented to Avork longer than an hour or two at
the time, just long enough to pick up a few
dollars to buy something to eat and to drink;
something to treat his friends with when they
came to see him. So when my father proposed
that he should take me as an apprentice, I
am sure that at heart he was delighted, but
the thrifty Scotchman came immediately to
the surface. He wanted to know how much

86 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

money my father was willing to pay bim for
teacnmg me to be a watcnmaker and jew-
eler.

My father had no money to pay with and
said so. Then Mr. McBride said that as my
two brothers were in the same company and
regiment with him till one was killed at the
battle of Seven Pines, the other one was with
him for the four years of the war, he, Mr. Mc-
Bride, for the kind feeling he had for my broth-
ers, would take me on trial. He could not pay
me any wages, nor board me, so if I took the
job it meant a six-mile walk every day to the
farm, and a cold dinner out of my old tin
bucket that had been my companion so long
The prospect of being a good workman, and
some day to have a business of my own, in-
fluenced me to accept the position.

I did not really know what years of drudgery
were before me, so I took the job, with no pay,
and I must board myself. Mr. McBride was
uniformly kind to me, and he showed me all
that he could teach me, but he kept me busy.
When I went in the shop there were more than
one hundred clocks left there for repairs and
several drawers full of watches and a bushel
of jewelry. Mr. McBride fixed up a w^ork bench
for me and gave me the tools that he thought
that T would need, and started me off to work
on the clocks. At first I w^as awkward and

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 87

I pinched my fingers with the plyers and
mashed them with the hammers. The drills
would slip oft* the piece of metal that I was
drilling and pierce my hand, and many other
accidents happened to me on account of my
inexperience with tools. But a few months'
use of the tools gave me the experience neces-
sary and I was becoming a good workman.
In one year I had cleaned up, repaired and
delivered nearly all the clocks, over half of
the watches and all of the jewelry.

At first I went home every night, but this
was too much walking to suit me, so I got a
bigger dinner bucket and filled it with such
things as I knew would keep for three days;
after this I went home Wednesdays and Sat-
urdays. One of the friends who visited Mr.
McBride daily was a Dr. Stith, also bachelor
as Mr. McBride was. On one occasion he
brought in Mr. McBride's back room, where
there was one bed, a man who had been in a
fight, and was stabbed in the back just below
the right shoulder blade. Dr. Stith was a good
physician, but a poor surgeon. The sight of
blood made him sick at the stomach, so he
said. I had seen, on the farm, one of the
negroes trim up little boar pigs and spay the
little sow pigs and sew them up with a crooked
needle, and heard all the squealing and fuss
that was made during the operation. So the

88 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

sight of a man with a little hole in his back
did not make me sick at the stomach. So I
volunteered to sew up the w^ound in the man's
back. The doctor was glad to get rid of the
job, so he told me what to do and how to do
it.

He dissolved some corrosive sublimate in a
bowl of w^ater and had me wash the needles
and silk thread in it. I also wet my hands
in the water, and I sewed up the cut in the
man's back and the man got well. This one
act was the turning point in my life. All
night I was rehearsing everything that I had
done, every tiiue I Avaked up I w^ould think up
other cases that I would operate on. So the
long and short of it was that I started in to
read medicine with Dr. Stith. I said, that
I would rather be a doctor or surgeon than to
be a watchmaker and jeweler. How these
plans worked out you will see as you read these
memoirs.

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 89

CHANGING MY 0(XUPATION.

When I had been working with Mr. McBride
for nearly two years, and had become quite an
expert in repairing clocks, watches, sewing-
machines and jewelry, the novelty of the busi-
ness had worn off and I could see several very
disagreeable features connected with my sit-
uation. Most of my troubles were of the phy-
ical kind and were felt in the way of discom-
forts. I was living on cold food almost en-
tirely and this was stale four days out of the
six days that I worked. On Sundays I was at
home in the country and had warm food. I
would fill up like a boa constrictor so that the
quantity I ate on some occasions attracted
the attention of my father, who remarked
that he "believed that boy (meaning me) was
hollow all the way down His legs.'' The re-
mark aroused a laugh at my expense, but it
was no laughing matter to me.

Another very disagreeable feature of my situ-
ation was my sleeping quarters. The back room
had one bed and a short bench, a "fireplace," the
old fashioned kind with andirons for a wood log
fire, a shelf and a looking glass and three

90 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

or four chairs. When more company came
than there were chairs for, some of them would
sit on the bed, some on the bench; if there
were more company still, they would sit on
boxes secured from the stores near at hand.
Almost every night we had a levee or party,
it might be called, not a formal affair, but very
informal affair. It might very safely be called
a ^-smoker," for nearly every one smoked. Mr.
McBride kept on hand a box of Durham smok-
ing tobacco, and a dozen or so pipes, old
fashion clay pipes with reed root stems and
fig stems, a limb of fig as large as your middle
finger and about eighteen inches long. The
pith had been burned out with a red-hot wire.
This made a pipe stem that was very aromatic
and added a delicious flavor to the smoke
of the tobacco. These "smokers'' were a daily
occurrence, and if you can conceive a room
about twenty feet square with eight to twelve
men smoking in it every evening from 8 to 11
o'clock, then you will know the kind of a place
I had to sleep in.

In addition to the smoking somebody would
send out to the nearest saloon and get a bottle
of whiskey or brandy and nearly all would
take one or two drinks during the evening. The
windows and doors were nearly always open;
without this new air coming through the room
all would have been killed with the smoke

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 91

and carbonic acid gas. We had a big fire of
oak logs and each one would back up to the
tire for a warming. When bed time came
about, many would go home, but frequently
we would have as many as six to stay all night.
One bed and one short bench for six to sleep
on. On these occasions, I being only the hired
boy, the floor was my bed, or a chair; some
times I would try the floor for a part of the
night, and when I felt my bones were coming
through the flesh, I would get up, fix the fire
and sit up the rest of the night, nodding as
best I could.

None of us undressed to go to bed. Some of
the four who slept on the bed cross-wise were
just as uncomfortable as I was.

They did not seem to care for the discom-
forts. If I had had a bed all to myself, as I
knew some of these men had, I certainly would
not have undergone the pain and discomforts
that they did to get the questionable pleas-
ures that they seemed to enjoy so much.

I had been with Mr. McBride only a short
time when he discovered that I could handle
a razor almost like a barber, so he was glad to
have me shave him. As soon as his various
friends saw that I could sHave a man without
cutting his throat, they all wanted to be
shaved. These friends would commence com-

92 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

ing in soon after 12 o'clock noon on Saturday,
and would continue to come till the last of our
regulars had come in and got shaved by the
free barber. It is a curious thing that not one
of these men ever offered me a tip or a pres-
ent for all this gratuitous service.

Had these men all been clean and genteel,
my task would not have been such an oner-
ous one, but they were mechanics, bricklayers,
carpenters, cabinet makers and one tinner and
one butcher. They would come to me right
from their work, dirty, sweaty and begrimed,
and I shaved them all alike, though I noticed a
great difference in the odor of their breaths. I
could smell garlic, cabbage, tobacco, whisky,
bile and many other combinations that an ex-
pert chemist could not name. There was one
among the rest who washed his teeth with
Sozodont, and only one man who washed his
teeth at all. This one man had a sweet breath
and he was the only one that I shaved with
pleasure. The others I shaved because they
were McBride's friends.

One Saturday a man by the name of Jack
HajG^n came in with the rest to be shaved. He
was almost drunk and was very nervous. He
kept telling me not to cut him.

He l)ad a very stiff beard and an over-
hanging chin, that is, there were hollow
places under it that made it difficult to shave
him, but I used lots of soap and got his

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 93

beard real soft and had little trouble in giv-
ing him a clean shave. On Sunday I heard
through the man we sent to town for our mail
that Jack Hagin was on a big drunk and had
delirium tremens.

Monday morning, when I came to town, I
passed by the livery stables and saw a crowd
gathered around the office, so I stopped to in-
quire the cause of the commotion and was told
that Jack Hagin Avas in there, that he had
been out in the country since Saturday, that
he must have been running through the briar
patches, for his clothes were nearly all torn
from his body. I got up as close as I could
and looked in. There was Jack Hagin on his
knees, praying, using only the words, "God
have mercy, God have mercy," and kept re-
peating these words. Soon I saw Dr. Stith
coming, and I waited to see what he would do
for Jack. The doctor told some one to take off
Jack's coat and roll up his sleeves, which was
promptly done. I saw the doctor with some
kind of an instrument in his hand, I could not
see what it was, but I saw him take hold of
Jack-s arm and mash it with one hand and
rub it with the other. I know now that Dr.
Stith gave him a hypodermic injection of
morphine. The result was almost magical. A
change came so quick. Jack gradually quieted
down. His prayers became weaker and weak-

94 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

er until I could hardly hear him at all. In less
than fifteen minutes I could not hear him. I
saw the doctor come out. I walked along with
him and asked him if Jack would get well.
He said, ''iS^o, he is dead." I never had a
greater shock in my life. The next day I
shaved Jack again for the last time, and we
buried him. The follow^ing Saturday w^hen all
my free customers came along for their ac-
customed shave, I told them that I had quit
the shaving business, but if any of them died
and I was sent for, that I would come and
shave them, but as long as they were alive
they could shave themselves. This ended my
connection with the shaving business, as well
as the watchmaker and jew^elry business.

I w^as offered a position as a clerk in a
general stock store at a salary of five dol-
lars a month and board myself. As my mother
owned the ^'Battle House" in the town, my
brother and I persuaded her to move back to
town, which she did in 1868.

The man I started to clerk for was Mr.
Joseph Kincaid, a son-in-law of Mr. Josiah
Blackwell. Mr. Blackwell was a Boston man,
and a fine business man. He had trained Mr.
Kincaid in business, and Mr. Kincaid was well
posted in his line, and a very successful man.
He had married Mr. BlackwelPs only daugh-
ter and Mr. Blackwell had taken his name out

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 95

of the firm and it was simply Joseph Kincaid.
I believed then as now, that Mr. Blackwell fur-
nished the money to establish the business.
His interest in the business was untiring. He
was at the store, morning, noon and night.
There was nothing in the store that he did
not know. His energy and industry were
prodigious. Every rainy day when there Avere
few customers coming in, Mr. Blackwell would
begin at one end of the store and throw down
on the counter every piece of goods that was
on the shelves, saying there was a certain piece
of goods he was looking for. When he got
them all down on the counter, he would say
to Albert Davis, the other clerk, and to me,
^^Well, boys, see how well you can wipe off
those shelves and arrange those goods again.''
This was an all-day job. Albert would look
at me and wink and say, "I knew he was go-
ing to do that, he does it every rainy day. We
are in for it, so here goes." Then both of us
would put in a good day's work.

I know now that that was Mr. BlackwelFs
plan to keep the store clean as well as mak-
ing us familiar with the whereabouts of every
article in the store. Sometimes now I go into
a store in St. Louis and ask for an article and
wait and wait for the clerk to find it, and
sometimes I get disgusted and leave the store.
There is, of course, a difference in the size of

96 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

the store, and in the number of articles kept
in stock. When I clerked in that store, I could
go into the store in the dark and lay my hand
on almost any article that a customer would
call for.

Mr. Blackwell was an old man, but he was
a very successful salesman. I would be near
enough to hear him on many occasions when he
would be selling something to a customer.
Whether it was dry goods, hats, shoes, cloth-
ing, groceries or hardware, I noticed that he
always had a story to tell about the material,
or about the process of manufacture. I picked
up many of his stories and would use them
myself in trying to sell goods. Some of his
stories Avould convince my customer and some
of them would not. When I failed, I would say
to myself that I did not get the story exact or
that I could not tell it so effectively as Mr.
Blackwell did. One day a countryman came
into the store and wanted to buy an iron pot.
T started in to tell the man the same story
that I had heard Mr. Blackwell tell on a former
occasion. I told him that this particular pot
was made in Baltimore and had just twice as
much iron in it as the same ware made in New
York City. That nearly all the pots in town but
ours came from New York City, and were made
too light and of course, being so light, would
only last a short time, while our pots, being

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 97

made in Baltimore and very heavy, would last
a life time. The countryman said he did not
know about that, that he had looked at some
pots at Rountree's and he could see no dif-
ference. About this time Mr. Blackwell came
along. He had heard a part of what I had
said and he had heard all of what the coun-
tryman had said. So he came up and patted
me on the shoulder and said, ^'The still sow
gets the swill, Jesse," and he took the case out
of my hands and went on and sold the pot.
After the transaction was over, I saw Mr.
Blackwell and asked him why he interfered
with me while I was trying to sell. I told Mr.
Blackwell that what I had said to the man
was almost word for word what I had heard
him say to another man. Mr. Blackweirs
answer was characteristic. He said, "In the
first place you got your man into the argu-
mentative mood, and he was ready to leave the
store. So to prevent this, I (Mr. Blackwell)
had to side with the man." He said that he
had learned that Rountree's price was
eighty-five cents and he had made the price
eighty cents, and the man had bought to save
the five cents. He said further that if the
man had gotten out of the store and gone back
to Rountree's store, that he would have re-
peated my story and Mr. Rountree or one of
his clerks would have told him that Kincaid's

98 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

man was lying, for the pots were not made in
Baltimore at all, but were made in Richmond,
Va.. and said further that this piece of in-
formation would have done his store much
damage, and when 1 asked him w^hy he would
tell such a story then, he said, ^'When you
want to tell a story, you must pick your man;
get a man who wanted to hear it, and then you
can tell it without doing harm, but never tell
a story to a man when you see that he does
not want to hear it." He said further, ''I can
see that, Jesse, and you cannot; but you are
learning."

One day a countryman came in and wanted
two jjounds of sugar. I went over to the bar-
rel and got a scoop full and putting some pa
per in the scales, I poured in the sugar unti]
the two pounds were weighed, as I thought,
liberally and accurately. I looked over to-
ward Mr. Blackwell and noticed that he was
watching me closely.

When the man had paid me and gone out,
Mr. Blackwell came over to me and asked how
much sugar the man had bought, and I an-
swered, "Two pounds." Ho asked me again
how much sugar I had given the man, and T
answered, "Two pounds."

He said, "Go and bring the man back and
>veigh the sugar over again. I think you made
a mistake."

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 99

My heart jumped up in my throat, and I felt
like telling Mr. Blackwell that if he wanted
that man brought back and the sugar weighed
again, he could go and do it himself, but I
curbed my temper and choked down the words
that were coming up in my throat, and w^ent
out after the man. He was three blocks away
when I overtook him and I said in my sweet

est tones, ^'Mr. , my boss thinks that I

made a mistake in weighing that sugar. Would
you mind coming back to the store with me and
let me weigh it again?''

He did not want to do it, but he saw the
pain and anxiety in my face, so he went back
with me and I weighed the sugar, and it
weighed two pounds and two ounces.

Mr. Blackwell did not take any of the sugar
out of the package. He told the man that he
was welcome to the two ounces, and he thank-
ed him for coming back. After the man was
gone, he turned to me and asked, "How much
sugar was in the barrel?" I looked at the
marks and answered, "Two hundred and
twelve pounds."

Mr. Blackwell then asked if I was selling
the whole barrel of sugar at the same price
and giving two pounds and two ounces each
time I weighed the sugar, how much would
the sugar bring? I had to put on my studying

100 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

cap and after some calculating, I answered,
^'Eleven dollars and eighty-eight cents."

Then Mr. Blackwell asked me what the bar-
rel of sugar cost, and I answered at five cents
per pound, not counting the freight, it cost
ten dollars and sixty cents.

He then asked me how much the barrel of
sugar would have brought had I w^eighed the
whole barrel properly. I answered, "Twelve
dollars and seventy-two cents."

He then asked me what the profit was on
a barrel of sugar weighed as I had weighed
it. I answered, "One dollar and twenty-eight
cents."

He then asked, "What would have been the
profit on a barrel of sugar had you weighed
it properly?" I answered, "Two dollars and
twelve cents."

He then asked what Avas the loss by my way
of weighing, I answered, "Eighty-four cents."

He then said, "Now, Jesse, don't think for a
minute that I am bothering about this partic-
ular eight-four cents. A merchant is not in
business for his health, but for the profit in his
business. There are some things we sell as
an advertisement, and sugar is one of these.
There is no profit in sugar at one cent ad-
vance over the cost, for this one cent or two
dollars and twelve cents per barrel, gives no

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 101

profit after the freight is paid. I do not call
your attention to the bad way of weigh-
ing for the eighty-four cents we lose, but for
the principle involved in the weighing itself.
When you balance the scales you have weighed
the thing you have in the scales, but when
you put in something till the scales go down,
you do not know how much you have weighed.

^'Suppose you were selling arsenic on a doc-
tor's prescription. If you give what is called
^down weight' you kill somebody."

Now, this piece of experience was about the
most humiliating that I have ever been called
upon to endure and at that time it so worked
on my feelings, and I resented it so much that
it was the actual cause of my resignation, but
it made an impression on me that all the in-
tervening years have not been able to blot out.
Now, I can see that it was one of the best
lessons ever taught to me by any one, and I
know it has served me in more ways than one
all these years.

102 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

ANOTHER CHANGE.

The ijain and humiliation given to me by the
last experience started me looking for another
job.

The six months spent under a merchant like
Mr. Josiah BlackAvell is worth more to a clerk
than several years with a less competent man.
So, when Dr. Peacock, of Stantonsburg, N. C,
asked me if I thought I was capable of mark-
ing a stock of goods and keeping a country
store in good condition, I told him, *^Yes, I
could do it." So he hired me at one hundred
dollars per year, and gave me my board. T
slept in the store house and boarded in his
family. I had no trouble keeping the store to
suit him. I did everything connected with the
store, from making out orders for goods need-
ed, to marking them, selling them, collecting
the bills, keeping the books, paying the bills
and all the other little things coming up in
connection with the store, as keeping the ac-
counts of all his farm hands, issuing rations
to them on Saturday evenings and selling to
them on credit to the amount that they would
be entitled to at the end of the year, giving

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 103

to them in goods, a little at the time, as the
value of their labor increased and the season
advanced to a close.

Dr. Peacock told me time and again that he
was much pleased with my work, and he hoped
that 1 would remain with him for some time
to come. This was more than pleasant to
me, for the doctor had a daughter named Mol-
lie whom I thought was the sweetest piece
of flesh I had ever seen, and my admiration
was growing every day. I do not call it love,
for Mollie was only a child, thirteen or four-
teen years old, a school girl, and had never
even thought of such a thing as having a sweet-
heart. I would simply look on her with the
eyes of admiration as being a coming lady that
I would like to kuow more of, but I saw very
little of her, and the year passed so quickly
that the rolling of time and its changing events
carried me on to other places and other oc-
cupations so quickly that she passed out of
my mind and life. Afterward she married a
very handsome young man named Billy By-
num, whose life was ended when he was still
quite young, leaving my first love a widow,
and the pleasant memory has remained, but
T have not seen Mollie in all these years, and
sometimes I wonder if she ever knew that
there was sucH a tender place in my heart for
her.

104 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

My year as a clerk with Doctor Peacock
coming to a close and my attention being re-
quired at home on account of the death of my
oldest brother, I gave up, reluctantly, my po-
sition and went back home to Wilson.

The years 1869 and 1870 I spent in Wil-
son. My mother rented out the "Battle House''
to Mrs. Richard Blount, reserving rooms for
herself, my brother, CuUen, and me. Mrs.
Blount gave to my mother her board and also
the board of my brother as payment for the
rent, and when I came in for board, Mrs.
Blount said that I was not included in the
contract, but my mother insisted that she stip-
ulated he? family, and that I was her youngest
son and child and must be included. So a com-
promise was made, by which I was to get my
board, but I was to visit the night trains and
drum or solicit customers for the hotel. This
I did; for the two years I would be present at
the train that arrived at 11:30 p. m., when it
was on time, and at the train which arrived at
2:30 a. m., when it was on time. But these
Southern trains w^ere then, in 1869 and 1870,
just like the Southern trains now, in 1910, very
liable to be one, two or three hours late. So
sometimes I would not get my clothes off to
go to bod for several days at the time.

I was busy all day helping the railroad
agent, ^Ir. John Daniel, load the cars with col;-

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 105

ton and turpentine and rosin, the staples that
made up the chief articles of shipment from
up and down the Wilmington & Weldon R. R.
Wilson. At night I was assistant telegraph
operator, and did much in this line as a relief

Besides these occupations, I had never fail-
ed to keep up my study of medicine. All my
leisure hours I was reading Gray's Anatomy,
Leidy's Anatomy, Woods' Materia Medica,
Flint's, Thomas' and Bigelow's Practice."

Dr. Stith told me that I knew more about
medicine than many doctors, but he said, "You
must have a diploma to practice medicine.''
I asked him where I must get this "diploma."
He said, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New
York City all had medical colleges, and gave
diplomas to their graduates. I asked him how
much it would cost to attend the lectures and
graduate in these colleges, and he told me
he would find out.

So he wrote to all of them asking for their
terms and learned that Baltimore was the
cheapest, and their price for two years, in-
cluding board, would be six hundred dollars.
It might have been six thousand as far as I
was concerned, for I did not have the six
hundred dollars and saw no prospect of hav-
ing six hundred dollars for some years to
come. I was very economical and saved all

106 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

the money that I could lay my hands on, but
somehow, every time I had about a hundred
dollars on hand, some calamity would come to
some of my sisters or to my nieces and they
would ask for help and my savings would dis
appear like frost before the rising sun. 1 found
it absolutely impossible to get together more
than one hundred dollars at one time. So,
in my despar, I said that I could never get to
be a doctor, because I could never get together
at one time as much as six hundred dollars.
The two years passed quickly by and then an-
other opening or opportunity came to me.

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 10?

ANOTHER CHANGE.

In March, 1871, a lightning rod company came
to town. There were four wagons, all red, with
their long ladders sticking out or protruding
from behind.

One day one of the managers of the light-
ning rod company, a Mr. James W. Lee, came
in the freight office to pay freight on some
rods that had arrived for him. I handed the
bill to him and took his money for the freight.
He looked at me very attentively and said,
"Young man, why don't you get out of here and
get well and be somebody?" I said that I was
looking for a job that would take me out doors^
and give me something to do, so that I could
earn a living and get well at the same time.
He said he needed a salesman as one of his
men had gotten drunk and he had discharged
him. He said if I would sell lightning rods
that he would give fifty dollars per month,
but, if I could not sell lightning rods he could
not give me more than twenty-five dollars a
month, and the last job was that of hostler
or helper to the salesman. I told him that
I was willing to take either job. That I would

108 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

try to be a salesman at first and if I failed I
would take the next job. I knew that I could
not be put in a worse position than that I oc-
cupied at that time. I look back now at what I
did at that time and considering that I was
sick all the time, was never well a whole day
at the time, having chills every day or every
other day and fever at night, it is a wonder
that I did anything or learned anything at all.

Mr. Lee must have had pity on me, for I at
that time gave little promise of any success
for myself or him either. I was very homely,
had pimples all over my face and was the
color of a pumpkin and weighed less than one
hundred pounds, and wore a suit of clothes
made out of a woolen blanket woven by the ne-
groes on my mother's farm. My hat was a
gray one, also a home product. It had gone
to seed, for its crown ran up into a cone, giv-
ing it the appearance of a fooFs cap. My shoes
were, what we called "stitched downs," and
made at home by the negroes. Everything
I wore was "homespun" and I was about as
green a specimen as could be found in the
whole South.

None of these things deterred Mr. Lee. He
said, "Come on," and I went.

My mother said she hated to see me go, for
I was so delicate I needed a doctor all the

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 109

time and I also needed her watchful care to
keep me in the right way.

We got on the lightning rod wagon and
started on the road toward Tarboro, and about
ten miles from Wilson, Mr. Lee stopped at
some house and said to me, ''Go in and see
if you can sell him a lightning rod." So I went
in and when I hollered as loud as I could,
*'Hey, hey, hello," at last I saw a man come out
of the house, and he beckoned me to come on
up to the house. So I went on. My heart was
beating funny and I felt like I would choke,
but I kept on. The gentleman was Mr. Rob-
ert Pitt, whose daughter had been going to
school in Wilson. He met me in a pleasant
way and I told him my name and also told him
why I had given up my job in the telegraph
office and had gone out as a lightning rod
salesman. I told him that the company that
I was working for was a rich one, and handled
a good quality of rods and if he had any idea
of ever patting rods on his house, that now
was a good time. That if he did not have the
money convenient, my company would carry
the account until Christmas. Mr. Pitt said
he never thought of putting up lightning rods
but as we were there he would have it done.
So it turned out that he wanted rods on his
residence and on his barn and gin house, which
all together amounted to over two hundred

110 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

dollars. We worked all the afternoon and a
part of the next morning. Mr. Lee did most of
the work, but I watched him and handed to
him the right tool and the right piece
of the fixtures. When he had put up one
rod, beginning at the top, when the rod
had been brought to the ground, he
wanted a hole drilled in the ground, so he
cut a small hole with his hatchet and filled
it with water and took a section of rod about
ten feet long and commenced to churn it up
and down in the hole with the water in it.
When he had drilled the hole about two feet
down, he said to me, "Now, Jesse, here is
Avhere you can get some strength. You go on
now and drill this hole as deep as you can.''
So I took the tow sack he gave me, wrapped
it around the piece of rod and started to
drill the hole. The soil was sandy on top and
the rod passed on down into clay, but the sand
fell down into the hole that the rod made and
thgugh the hole was kept full of ^ water, the
rod would get stuck and was very hard to pull
out. After w^orking and straining at it for
ten or fifteen minutes I was almost exhausted.
I did not realize how weak I was and before
I knew what was to happen, I felt a dizzines8
in my head and the next thing I felt some one
Aviping my face with a wet tow^el or handker-

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. Ill

chief. I had fainted and fallen on the ground
from sheer weakness. Mr. Lee said, "You poor
little devil, you are not able to work." I
thought this meant that I was to be discharg-
ed. So I said, "I am not very strong, but give
me a chance. I will grow stronger as I work."

After we left Mr. Pitt's place, we went on
toward Tarboro; we stopped at some cross-
roads, where there was a store. Mr. Lee said,
"Jess, go in and see if you can sell the man a
rod.'' I went in and found an old friend, Jim
Frye, clerking for Mr. Farmer, the owner of
the store. Mr. Farmer was not there; he had
gone to Rocky Mount and would not be back
until evening. So w^e fed our horses and made
up the best dinner we could out of what we
could buy in the store, which was crackers,
sardines, cheese, pickles, brandy peaches, eggs,
bacon or ham and sugar and coffee, for desert
we had ginger snaps, brandy peaches and cof-
fee. We carried a frying pan along, also a
coffee pot, so we got along very well and had
really more than we could eat. We drove on
toward Tarboro and stopped for the night with
a Mr. Knight. He was kin to the Lawrence
family of Edgecombe County. He was very
kind to us, and having a fine home and plenty
of room, he made us very comfortable.

The next morning, we had breakfast early
as Mr. Knight said that he had to go to Tar-

112 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

boro. Mr. Lee was anxious to sell him some
lightning rods, so when Mr. Knight quitted
the breakfast table, excused himself and walk-
ed down toward the barn, Mr. Lee said, '^Jesse,
go and try to sell to him some rods.'' My judg-
ment was against making the trial, as I could
see that Mr. Knight was in a hurry to leave,
but I went on to where Mr. Knight was wait-
ing for his horse, I walked up to him and
said, "Why, Mr. Knight, you have no lightning
rods on your house and this is a mighty good
chance to get them." He said he had been
thinking about it. How much were they
worth? What would it cost for his residence,
the barn and the gin house? I had to call Mr.
Lee, who gave him an estimate. Then ]Mr.
Knight asked how long it would take to fin-
ish the work. Mr. Lee told him that we would
finish by night.

So Mr. Knight said, "All right, go ahead
and do the work; I will be back before you fin-
ish," and he jumped in his buggy and was gone
before Mr. Lee could say another word; then
he turned to me and asked what I had said to
Mr. Knight to sell the rods so easily? I an-
swered that I only said that "if he wanted the
rods, now was a good chance."

Mr. Lee said, "If you can sell lightning rods
by saying such words, you will be the great-
est salesman in the business. He said here

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 113

were two big jobs that you have sold without
any help from me. You did not spend fifteen
minutes talking to either Mr. Pitt or Mr.
Knight and both are intelligent men, and you
sold to both of them."

He said further, "You will make a 'cracker-
jack' salesman, but you are not able to do the
work; from here we will go to Kocky Mount
to get more rod. I will run down to Wilson
and will send the rod by the first train and a
good workman to do the work till you get
stronger."

He explained to me how to figure up the cost
of a rod on the different type of houses, and
gave me advice about behaving myself, tell-
ing me not to fall in love with all the pretty
girls that I met. He said he was sure that T
would do well, and he would give me a good
chance. So we finished Mr. Knight's work and
got the money.

Mr. Knight begged us to remain for an-
other night, but Mr. Lee, with over four hun-
dred dollars in cash in his pocket, the fruits
of two days' labor, and a young and beautiful
wife left in Wilson, he had only been married
one month, could not be persuaded to wait an-
other minute, so we hitched up the Horses and
in one hour we were in Kocky Mount, just nine

114 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

miles from Mr. Knight's. He caught the train
and by 8 o'clock he was with his wife in Wil-
son.

I waited two days at Rocky Mount for the
rods and the man who was to help me, but the
time was not lost, for I had many kinfolks
around Rocky Mount, as w^ell as many dear
friends and an old school mate, namely, Spen-
cer Fountain, w^as the telegraph operator and
railroad agent, was married and living with his
family at Rocky Mount. I knew his father,
mother, sisters and brothers; they all lived
there.

I visited my kin in the day time, but when
the evening came I was to be found at Mr.
Fountain's, where the two beautiful sisters of
Spencer were to be found, the evenings were
spent in music and song, and all the funny
stories that we were able to tell.

I must tell a story on Spencer. It was sev-
eral years before this time, when he was doing
his courting. It was at the time when I was
visiting the trains at night in Wilson for Mrs.
Blount, who kept the hotel belonging to my
mother. Spencer Fountain was at that time
the telegraph operator at Wilson. His sweet-
heart lived up the road toward Weldon, either
Halifax, Enfield or maybe it was off the rail-
road at Scotland Neck, but Spencer, at the
time I mention, was very anxious to take the

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 115

train passing Wilson at 2:30 a. m. One Sat-
urday night, so as to reach his sweetheart on
Sunday morning, spend the day with her and
get back to his business Sunday night. He
said to me, "Jess, I want to go on that 2:30
a. m. train. Now don't you let me get left for
I would not get left for $100.00." I told him
not to be uneasy, that I would wake him up in
time to catch his train.

I have always throughout my life been able
to w^ake up at any hour that I would make up
my mind to do. At that time I did not know
how reliable my sub-conscious mind w^as, so 1
had an alarm clock to make sure. I would set
the alarm clock to ring at 2:10 a. m., and I
would wake up at 2:05 or near it and reach
over and turn off the alarm so that I would not
be compelled to hear it ring. This happened
every night, with little variation, for two years.
I do not remember but two times when I failed
to wake up before the alarm clock struck, and
on both of these occasions I was sick and had
high fever, and I know now that I was partly
delirious and hardly responsible for what I
did.

On this occasion, when Spencer wanted to
go to see his sweetheart, I put an extra charge
upon myself, but had my alarm clock set also
to help guard against mistakes. When the
hour of 2:00 a. m. arrived, I was wide awake

116 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

and went over to the bed in the same room
where Spencer was asleep. I told him that it
was time to get up if he wanted to go on the
2:30 train. Spencer raised himself up and
sat in bed, with his eyes wide open, and I
thought he was awake, as he looked at me and
talked with as much reason as he would at any
time. He said, ^^Jess, I have changed my mind;
I do not think that I will go.'' I took this
as a settlement of the matter and would not
have done anything more to disturb his slum-
bers. My brother, CuUen, was sleeping with
me, but was awake. He said, "You have not
waked up Spencer yet." I asked him if he had
heard what Spencer said? He said, "Yes, but
he is fast asleep." I said I did not think so
as Spencer sat up in bed with his eyes open,
and talked with good sense and said "that he
had changed his mind and did not want to
go.'

Cullen said, "I will wake him up," and jump-
ed on Spencer's bed, grabbed him by the
shoulder and gave him a good shaking, and
said, "Spencer! Spencer! the train is coming!"

And you ought to have seen Spencer get
up and get a move on himself. He got dressed
and caught the train and married the girl. I
have often wondered what would have hap-
pened if he had missed that train that night.

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 117

His wife never knew what a part that I and
my brother, Gullen, played that night in their
destiny.

My poor brother has been dead nearly two
years, and Spencer is a grandfather and so am
I, but here these old scenes and words and
acts came before my mind as the scenes of
to-day.

At last, after a wait of two days, the light-
ning rods and the man who was to help me
arrived, and I reluctantly got on my wagon
again, leaving my dearly beloved friends of
the long ago to achieve my fortune.

I went first to the Falls, where there was a
cotton factory, belonging at that time to Wil-
liam S. Battle, a kinsman, his son, James Bat-
tle, was in charge of the factory. I went into
his office and told him that my name was Jesse
Battle, that I was putting up lightning rods,
and if he wanted some put on his factory that
now was a good chance. He said that he
thought there should be some lightning rods
on the factory, and if our prices were reason-
able he would have it done. I gave him the
best estimate that I could, and he told me
to go ahead.

I started in with many misgivings, for my
helper, the man Mr. Lee sent me to do the
work, was a green Irishman, who had only
been in this country for three months, and

118 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

talked with such a brogue that I was com-
pelled to ask him to repeat what he said so
that I could understand what he said. He got
it into his head that I did this to make fun
of him and he was very angry. He swelled
up so that he would hardly answer me at all.
I asked him to get the ladders and bring
them to the buildings: he said that if I wanted
the '^lathers" I could get them myself. I asked
him what kind of work did he expect to do.
He said, "Attend the horses and drive them."
I asked him if he had ever put up any light-
ning rods. He said, "No, what did any per-
son want with such things, that if God wanted
to strike a house with lightning that He would
do it." I asked him if he was a Presbyterian,
and he said, "Yes, I am."

I asked him what did he wear clothes for,
that according to his doctrine, if God wanted
to make him cold that he would make him cold,
clothes or no clothes. He said, "I wear clothes
to cover my nakedness."

I saw that I was wasting my breath talk
ing to such a man. I hired a negro to help
me that afternoon, named Howell Shines. Aft-
er much trouble and awful hard work, I got
these rods put up — I had to do all the work
myself, for my helper would not do it. When I
had finished this job, I took my wild Irishman
and my new found friend, Howell Shines, back

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 119

to Rocky Mount and told my Irishman that he
could go back to Wilson, for I did not want
him. He said that he would not do it, for I
had not hired him and that I could not dis-
charge him. I wired Mr. Lee that if he did
not relieve me of this Irishman that he could
accept my resignation, that I did not want
such a man and would not have him, that I
had found a good negro and would take my
chances with him in preference to the Irish-
man. The next morning the Irishman got or-
ders to report in Wilson, which he did. I have
never seen him since. I have even forgotten
his name.

HoAvell Shines was a very bright darky, I
mean mentally, not in color, he was as black
as ink, a pure, genuine "nigger.'' I called him
"governor," and this "tickled him to death.*'
He was a devoted servant and a good reliable
man and not afraid of work. He stayed with
me for two years and had it not been for his
exalted ideas of property, real estate, he might
be with me yet.

He was a good, faithful soul, but he heard
of a colored girl around Charlotte who owned
an acre of ground, and he told me that he "was
going to marry that gal to get that acre of
land."

He did marry the girl, but I do not know
whether he got the acre of land.

120 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

MY FIRST ACCIDENT.

While in Edgecombe County, N. C, in April,
1871, I was below Tarboro, near Old Sparta, at
a place called Center Bluff on the Tar River.
There was a ferry there. It was an old flat
bottom scow or lighter. It had a fence on
either side and a chain that could be put up
at each end.

The ferryman had a rope fastened on each
shore, running across the river, this rope pass-
ing through two pulleys at the ends of the flat
boat. He used this rope as a propeller. In
addition to this propeller, he used a long pole
to help him get from one shore to the other.
He would remain on the last shore where he
had landed until some one would call him to
the other shore. He would go across, jam-
ming his boat as far as possible up the bank
of the river.

I wanted to cross the river. The ferryman
was on the opposite shore, so I called him and
he responded promptly. When he arrived, I
noted that there was nothing to fasten the
boat to and called his attention to this defect,
answering me, he said, "I have had heavier

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 121

wagons than yours, so come along." This meant
for me to drive on the ferryboat.

The ferryman went to the other end of the
boat and put his long pole down into the water
and stood pulling on the pole to help keep the
boat against the shore when the front wheels
of the wagon struck it. The very thing hap-
pened that I feared. When the wheels struck
the end of the boat the w^eight of the wagon
pushed the boat away from the shore out into
the river. My horses were on the boat, but
the heavy wagon was not. After the boat once
got started, the inclined plane of the shore
and the w^eight of the wagon kept us all mov-
ing toward the middle of the river. I saw at
once a calamity coming. None of us knew at
first what to do; as the boat passed further
from shore, the pole of the wagon went lower
and lower toward the water and at last it
rested on the end of the boat. Would the
boat stop moving now? No, it kept on; as
the weight of the horses held the wagon polo
down at the front end^ and the weight of the
wagon at the wagon end, it was simply a ques-
tion of buoyancy of the boat as to how long it
would continue to float.

It did not float long for the end near us went
right under the water, and as it did so, it
pulled the horses backward till their hind feet
were off the boat. I knew that something

122 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

would have to be done quickly. I was in my
shirt sleeves, for the weather was warm. I got
out my knife, opened it and jumped down be-
tween the horses on the wagon pole, the traces
were slack and it was a small job to unhook
them. I told the man to give the horses a
slack rein and then I walked on the wagon pole
up to the horses' heads and with my knife
cut the breast straps and the reins, which held
them together. It was a job to cut the breast
straps, but I knew that heavy leather had
to be cut on a slant and not at right angles to
the leather, so, with one or two motions across
it with my sharp knife, the deed was done. T
said to the man to turn the horses loose, which
he did. I pushed one horse to the right and
the other to the left and hollered "go,'' and
they obeyed promptly. This is the first time
that either of them had moved their front feet;
had either of them done so they would have
been drowned. They swam to shore, the mud
in the river stopped the progress of the wagon.
We all escaped with small damages done. The
people at the store pulled my wagon out with
a rope. The storekeeper helped me mend my
harness. In an hour I was on my way toward
Mr. Elias Carr's home, where I was kindly re-
ceived.

I had forgotten all about my watch and my
money. When I looked at my watch, it had

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 123

stopped at 3:22 p. m. I took it to pieces, dried
it out, cleaned it, oiled it, put it together again
and it ran as well as ever. Had I left it a day,
the rust would have ruined it.

I had in my pocket about one hundred and
fifty dollars, it was wet and stuck together,
making a somewhat delicate task, but I suc-
ceeded in unraveling or unfolding the vari-
ous bills and put them in between the pages
of a book, w^hich gave them back to me in
good shape, with the exception of some lost
color.

Howell and I worked around Rocky Mount
and Tarboro for about six weeks, bringing the
season to about May 1st. We sold many
lightning rods and took in much money and
many notes. I sent nearly all the money and
all of the notes to Mr. Lee. I was still sick,
having chills and fevers every few days. Dr.
Ricks, who married my cousin, Helen Battle,
and lived at Rocky Mount, prescribed for me,
without cost, but he said, go up into the west-
ern part of the state and you will get Avell. I
made up my mind that if Mr. Lee would permit
it, I would go further up the country. I had
not been home to Wilson, nor had I seen Mr.
Lee since he left me with the four hundred
dollars cash in his pocket. I do not believe
that he had been on a lightning rod wagon
after he left me. There was no occasion to do

124 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

SO, for I had sent him enough money to pay
for all the lightning rods that he bought, and
to pay all his other expenses. To be with his
beautiful wife was pleasure enough for him.
I got letters from him at Raleigh, Hillsbor-
ough, Greensboro and Danville, every letter
would tell me where to send the next instal-
ment of cash.

I wrote to him and told him that my physi-
cian had advised me to go further up the coun-
try and I wanted to go, as I was too sick to
remain in the low flat part of the state.

He wrote me and said that all the upper part
of the state had already been canvassed, and
that I would not be able to make a living in
that section of the state. He said that I was
doing so well where I was that I had better re-
main in the eastern part of the state. When I
got this letter it irritated me so much that I
was almost tempted to resign, but I thought
of my poverty back in Wilson and saw no open-
ing outside of the business that I was in. T
was handling much money and I felt prosper-
ous. It gave me more confidence in myself. If
I had only been well, so that I could do my
work easier, without so much exhaustion and
pain, I would have been better satisfied. With-
out saying any more about it, to Mr. Lee, I
started on May 1st to "Raleigh. I arrived in
Raleigh on May 3rd. That night I put my

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 125

horses in Mr. Wynne's stable, and I put up at
the Yarboro House, at $2.50 per day. After I
got my supper I went around to see Dr. Wm.
H. MoKee, who married my aunt Susan, a sis-
ter of my father. He received me kindly, and
during the evening I told him about my success
and about my sickness; he was pleased with
my success and said. We will cure you. You
did right to leave the low country, he said. He
prescribed for me; he gave me the medicine. I
told him how long I had been reading, how I
longed to be a doctor. He said the reading
was all good enough, but to give up the idea
of being a doctor; for said he, ''it is a dog's
life," mighty hard work and mighty poor pay.
I spoke about the good that one could do. He
said that part was all right, too, but a man
must live and take care of his family. Now,
he said, "Don't you do like your father and
give away all that you make."

I asked him w^hat was the medicine that he
was giving to me. He said each pill has three
grains of blue mass, two grains of quinine and
one drop of oil of black pepper; he said take
one every three hours for the first day and take
castor oil the next day; then skip a day, and
then repeat; then skip two days and repeat;
then skip one week and repeat, and he said,
when you have done this I do not think that
you will have any more chills and ague; this

126 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

was in May, 1871, and now it is 1911 (January),
and I have never had another chill since.

I wrote Mr. Lee about one week after I ar-
rived in Raleigh. He was then at Danville,
Va. I sent him about five hundred dollars in
cash, and near four hundred dollars in notes
for my first week's work in Raleigh. He wrote
me that he was sorry that I had left the east;
but if I could do that well in Raleigh or any-
where else that I was welcome to go anywhere
that I wanted to go. I put in three months'
work in and around Raleigh and did about
$7,000.00 in cash and notes.

I had enjoyed very much meeting all of my
Battle kin in Raleigh, and Dr. McKee, who put
me on my feet, with his chill medicine, was one
of the finest men that I ever met.

My uncle, William Horn Battle, at that time
was one of the Supreme Court Judges, and Un-
cle Richard Battle were both alive at that time.
I saw them almost every day, and it was a great
treat to be with them and hear them talk.
Both had a strong family likeness to my fa-
ther, which made them doubly dear to me, for
my poor, sainted father had only been dead
about one year.

I had here also two cousins, Dr. Kemp
Plummer Battle, with his family; they had a
lovely home on Fayetteville street. I visited

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 127

them often. His oldest daughter Nellie at this
time was about fifteen years old; a beautiful
girl with brown eyes and the prettiest kind of
complexion, as fair and soft as a baby's skin.
I did fall in love with her, but being kin and
my poverty sealed my lips,. so she only knew
that I admired her. There were four boys, too,
all bright, handsome, clean-looking boys. I be-
lieve all of them have given a good account of
themselves and have succeeded in life. My
poor dear Cousin Nellie passed away years and
years ago and left a blank in her parents'
hearts that nothing has been able to fill. An-
other cousin, Kichard H. Battle, that we call
lawyer Dick to distinguish him from Uncle
Dossey's son Richard. This cousin, Richard
H. Battle, married Gov. Ashe's daughter. He
had several children, but all were quite young
at this time, and I did not get very well ac-
quainted with them.

128 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

MEETING MY FUTURE WIPE.

When August came I finished my work about
Raleigh and started on Saturday toward Fay-
etteville; I got out about fifteen miles; we
came to a fork in the road; my faithful old
negro said, ''Which road, Mass Jesse?" I said
it makes little difference to me which road you
take. I want to find a good place to spend Sun-
day. We will have good luck any way. He
left his reins slack and the horses were at lib
erty to take either road. They took the left
hand road; I noticed that this road was bear-
ing toward the railroad, and I knew from my
map that we were going toward a little town
called Clayton. I stopped at a farmer's house
and asked if the road that we were on did go
to Clayton; the farmer said yes, it did. I asked
how far it was? He said about four miles. I
wanted to know if there was a hotel or board-
ing house that I could stop at. He said there
was a Mr. White who took boarders, but he
thought I would have trouble getting feed for
my horses, so he was kind enough to sell me
some. I thanked him and in less than an hour
we were in Clayton. That night after supper

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 129

someone told about the great religious revival
that had been going on in the town for nearly
a month, and it was reported that there were
about thirty candidates for baptism on the
next day. 1 asked who was the great preacher
who had achieved such success among them. I
was told that it was Dr. William B. Harrell. I
said that is funny. He is my brother-in-law.
This attracted much attention to myself, and
some of them seeing me as a beardless boy
doubted what I had said. So I said further
that they were living in Selma in May, and I
had stopped with them on my way to Raleigh.
Somone said "They live here now." Moved
here in July. I asked where they lived, and a
boy volunteered to show me. So off we went.
The boy took me right to their house, and to
make sure that I had told the truth about the
Doctor's being my brother-in-law, he went in
with me and staid till bedtime. We had a
memorable evening, full of music and songs
and gayety. During the evening my niece, Ida,
now Mrs. Hardy Home, of Clayton, said, "Un-
cle Jesse, there is the prettiest girl in this town
that you ever saw." I said, "Come on, let us
go to see her." She said, "You can't see her
to-night; it is too late. We will see her to-
morrow." I asked her name. Ida said, It is
Bettie Lee. We talked about Bettie Lee much
of the evening. I told my nieces that I had

130 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

two horses and a wagon and could fix it up so
we could all go to the baptizing on the morrow,
but they had already made arrangements to go
with Mr. Vic Tomlinson, who had a cart and
a horse. There were at this time few buggies
and no carriages in the country, except in large
towns and cities. The next morning I had the
ladders and the lightning rods taken out of the
wagon and nailed some boxes on for seats and
picked up several young men to go with me to
the baptizing. On the way we overtook the
cart with Vic Tomlinson, my nieces, Ida and
Rosa, and Miss Bettie Lee. I had to keep back
to prevent my horses from throwing dirt in the
cart. So I could not get a good look at Miss
Bettie. When we got to Mr. Stallings' house.
It was at his mill pond that the baptizing was
to be.

All stopped at the well, for the weather was
hot, and the people were thirsty. As I came
up, my niece, Ida, introduced me to Miss Bet-
tie Lee. I drew up the water and with an old
broken goblet gave water first to Miss Bettie,
then to the others. We then went on down to
the mill pond, where there were congregated
at least five hundred people. It was a grand
spectacle, for the country, to see these earnest
faces, to hear their songs, to watch the effects
produced on all who wore standing there.
Every time Doctor Harrell went down in the

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 131

water with one on either side and when he got
a proper depth, almost to the armpits, he
would stop, and with a solemn smile on his face
would lift up his hand and say, ^'I baptize you,
my brother (or sister, as the case might be),
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost. Amen," and with his left
hand supporting the candidate's head, and the
right hand holding the candidate's both hands,
he would push them over backwards till they
passed entirely under the water. Then he
would raise them up and shout, "Another soul
saved, thank God." This process went on till
all were baptized.

The scene and what we heard was too se-
rious and solemn for any compliments or fool-
ishness, so little was said v/hile we were at the
mill pond. I asked Miss Bettie if I might come
to see her; and where she lived. She told me
she was not stopping at home, but was staying
with her sister at Mr. Ashley Home's store.
She said Mr. Ashley Home was her sister's
husband, and that he had gone on to New York
to buy goods; and that she was sleeping at the
store with her sister. I wanted to go to church
with her that night, but she had another en-
gagement. I said if she would let me I would
see her a few minutes before she went to
church. She said if they were not at supper
that she would be pleased to see me.

132 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

I had watched her all the morning, trying to
find some fault with her, but, to me, she was
absolutely faultless. She was so modest, with
no self-consciousness; so beautiful, but did not
seem to know it. She was my dream. I had
seen her form before in my ideal; but not em-
bodied. There was something in her elastic
step, like the movements of a spirit. It was
no trouble for her to get around. She could
run like a deer. She was tall and slim and
most too thin in flesh; but this made her more
attractive. She was a brunette in the color of
her hair and eyes; but no blonde ever had a
fairer or smoother skin; it was almost trans-
parent. Her eyes were large and brown. There
was a peace and serenity in her every look,
with an indescribable smile, w^hich showed the
innocence of the divine soul within. To me
she was almost an angel and yet just a sweet,
lovable and lovely woman.

I was infatuated, enmeshed, caught and de-
livered. I could think of nothing else. I was
^'head over heels" in love. I forgot w^here I
had started, forgot what I was doing. I was
no longer a "lightning rod man"; I was a lover.
I had seen pretty girls before. I had been fas-
cinated, entertained and enjoyed being in their
society, but I would tire of it all, go along
about my business and forget. But this case
was different; I did not want to leave her at

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 133

all. I wanted nothing but just the privilege
of sitting by so that I had her in the light, so
that I could see her lovely face and hear her
voice. What did we talk about? Goodness
gracious, don't ask me. I had no sense left to
talk with. I simply sat and gazed at her. I
did manage to tell her that I had been looking
for her a long time, and I was so glad that I
had found her, for now I would not have to
look any longer; and I said further, you need
not look any further either, for I am your des-
tiny, I am the man. She said little, but that
quizzical smile, while it did not tell me what I
wanted to know, it was not repression and was
not banishment.

I lingered around Clayton for about two
weeks, hoping every day to see my sweetheart
alone; but the boys around town seemed to be
banded against me; for if I went calling on her
in the evening there were sometimes as many
as six present, never less than two. If I went
calling in the morning there sat her mother
cold and stiff, like a Cerberus, guarding this
precious treasure. If I would go to see her in
the afternoon, there would be two or three of
her girl friends, and none of them had any con-
sideration for me, for they never left us alone.

At last I came back to my right mind. I
knew thai something else, besides soft, pretty
words was necessary to possess, and take care

134 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

of this angel. I began asking questions of my-
self: Why all this espionage? I wondered if
she had all this company when I was away?
I did not have to reflect long on such questions
before several good answers presented them-
selves. In the first place, my sweetheart was
just sixteen years old, and going to school;
secondly, this man who had come along and
fallen in love with this schoolgirl was a strang-
er, and what little information that was avail-
able reported that the stranger was poor, wild,
and a gadabout, never contented except on the
wing, traveling somewhere, anywhere, to be
going from place to place.

The mother of my sweetheart, her sister and
all of her friends were determined that this
Avandering stranger should not take this lovely
flower from their midst, hence all of the com-
pany, all of the barriers that I found thrown
across the way of my advancement. The next
question 1 asked myself was this. Do I have to
marry all of my wife's kinfolks and all of her
friends? The answer was, No, I do not have
to marry them, but I do have to placate them,
if I wished to make my wife happy. I could
see already a cloud on her sweet face when I
came in her presence. I knew it was not be-
cause she did not want to see me, for she was
at all times very courteous and never refused
to see me, no matter how much company she

AND SOME STORIES OP MY LIFE. 135

had at the time. I told her that I must go
away and work — work as I had never done be-
fore, so that I might come back with something
in my pocket and in a bank, to build a home
for her if she cared to take the place as its
owner and mistress. She said, "This was best;
that it would give her time to finish school, and
be old enough to know her own mind."

I asked her if I might write to her. She
said, "I will ask my mother." She did so, and
while the mother did not approve of it, she did

not object.

So with a sad heart and many misgivings, I
told all good-by, and started again on my trip
as a lightning rod man.

For several days I would pass house after
house. I was so gloomy I had no heart to sell
rods or to do the work.

I would brood for hours, going over the
same circle of thought. Why was I so poor?
and why did I have to leave? Each question
answered the other. I had to leave her be-
cause I was so poor; and I was so poor and
miserable because I had to leave her. She had
never said that she loved me; she never prom-
ised to marry me.

I do not think that I had even asked her to
be my wife as yet. I was too much in love to
think of such a thing.

136 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

Suppose some other man should come along
and win her while I was away. The thought
set my brain on fire. I would want to kill him
if he took her away from me. No, this would
be wrong, for no man could take her without
her consent; and if she consented to marry a
man it w^ould be because she loved him. If
I loved her as I said I did, I should love every-
body that she loved. Could I do it? Well, I
might love her mother, sister, brother, but the
man that she married! No, no, I could not say
yes, yet; no, not yet. I would have to grow
more like my father to do that.

Such thoughts as these would pass through
my brain several times a day, always ending
up with the first propositions, that I had to
leave her, because I was so poor.

This became my text for every day's solil-
oquy, and the theme for my nightly dreams.
At last it penetrated through my thick skull
that the remedy was success; and without
some kind of success I would surely lose the
darling of my heart, and with this last thought
I plunged forward determined to win or die in
the attempt.

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 137

WANDERING.

I had started from Raleigh to Fayetteville
nearly three weeks before. What had I done
in these three weeks? Very little; to make an
apearance of work I had gone out in the coun-
try all around Clayton, but most of the country
houses were old and unpainted, and the own-
ers would not spend from thirty to forty dol-
lars to put lightning rods on them. Once in a
while I would find a nice painted house, and
all of these had rods. The country I passed
through after leaving Clayton, going toward
Fayetteville, had the same kind of houses, old
and unpainted. My red wagon always attract-
ed attention, but nearly everybody that I met
believed that I was a Yankee, until I told my
name and claimed Raleigh as my home.

Nearly all that I met knew somebody named
Battle, so I found my name my best passport.

Just before sunset every day I would com-
mence to make enquiries for a place to stop all
night. Sometimes I was successful at the first
place that I stopped. Again I would be told
that they did not take in strangers. Then I
would exert myself to be pleasant, putting on

138 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

my sweetest smile, promising to give no trou-
ble and offering to sleep in the barn if he
wished it. All I wanted was something to eat
for my horses, my man and myself, and for this
1 was willing to pay in cash, as I had money
for this purpose.

Sometimes I was successful; again, they
would send me on down the road. I would
enquire at every house; at last I would find
someone to take pity on me and accommodate
me for the night. I do not remember but three
times in the four years that I was a lightning
rod man that I failed to get accommodations^,
at some farm house, while I was traveling
through the country. When I was in a city
I always stopped at a hotel and put my horses
in the livery stables; this was expensive and
not to be indulged in except when I was doing
good work in the city. I preferred the city, as
I could sell as well or better than I could in
the country. The city people had more money,
and I did not have to travel so far to see them.
In the country I always had Avith me my old
banjo, which I played like a professional.
After supper, if there were young people or
children present, they would surely ask me to
play. I would take the banjo out of its case,
tune it up and start off on my more serious
pieces at first, such as "Home, Sweet Home,"
*^01d Folks at Home," "Old Kentucky Home,'^

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 139

"Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane/' "Nellie
Gray/' "Bonnie Blue Flag," "We parted by the
river side/' "Tenting to-night on the old Camp
Ground." I sang these songs the best I could.
I did not have a fine voice for pathetic songs;
so I tried to make up in expression what I
lacked in tone.

I would watch my audience, to see how I
pleased them. If I saw in their faces that they
were really enjoying my playing and singing, 1
would warm up a little and give them "Old
Bob Ridley," "I Am a Good Old Rebel," "Seven
Out," "Rhine Wine Charlie," "The Prettiest
Gal That's Out," "Villikens and His Dinah,"
"A Fine Old Dutch Gentleman," "Devil Take
the Gal That Wouldn't Have Me." If I noticed
my audience was still pleased, I would give
them "The Old Virginia Reel," "Mississippi
Sawyer," "Old Gray Horse Trotting Around
the Wilderness," "Turkey and the Corn," "Mas-
sa is in the Cold Ground," "Off to Charleston
'fore the Break o' Day," "Fisher's Hornpipe,"
"College Hornpipe," "The Old Virginia Nig-
ger," and would wind up with "The Arkansas
Traveler," my masterpiece. This kind of a pro-
gram would last over two hours. I would quit
abruptly and say that I was tired and wanted
to go to bed. This left everybody in a good
humor and not tired of me.

On some occasions there would be no young

140 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

people around, and the old people would not
ask me to play. At such places I did not play
at all.

I was surprised to find so many people who
really thought it a sin to play on any kind of
a musical instrument. Such people, of course,
would think me a wild, thoughtless, irreligious
and necessarily vicious and unreliable man.
With such people joy, mirth, pleasure were
also sins, no matter how innocent the joy, mirth
or pleasure might be. Such people always pre-
dicted that I would come to no good end. They
said that I was on the straight road to hell.
Such predictions would have had a baneful
effect on any other kind of spirit than my own.
But I would smile my sweetest smile and tell
them that as the road to hell was so rough and
gloomy and had so many tears and sorrow in
it that I was doing all that I could to brighten
it up a little, and that they were in the wrong
in not encouraging me in doing so.

I was then twenty-one years old and enjoy-
ing good health. I had my father's disposi-
tion; I was cheerful and looked for the best in
all persons and things. My gloomy periods did
not last long.

I had been baptized when I was seventeen
years old and joined the Christian Church; but
I could not see then, and have never been able
to see since, that a long, gloomy face improved

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 141

a man's character, and I did not believe then,
nor do I believe now, that such a face, nor the
character that goes with it, ever kept anyone
out of hell, if there is such a place. I did not
believe then, neither do I believe now, that
there is such a place in existence. Hell to me
then, and hell to me now, is the invention of
diseased minds, and it is not in harmony with
the diA^ine within me; hence I reject it in all
its uses. These long faces and the characters
that go with them, these men who mumble
prayers, hate music, hate their brothers, in my
opinion, make more misery here and are better
fitted to take their places in the home of cor-
rection than the cheerful souls who make life
worth living and love their fellow-men.

I have taken little stock in the sepulchral
side of life; but have done all I can to brighten
it as I have passed along.

After spending my night at a place in the
country, where I had done the best I knew how
to entertain them, I would ask them the next
morning, Do I owe you something for your kind
entertainment of me last night? In nearly
every instance the answer would be, "No, sir,
you don't owe me a cent. Come again.''

If it was at one of those places where they
thought it a sin to make music, and I had not
played for them, I would ask the next morning,
How much do I owe you? And the answer

142 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

w ould invariably be, Two dollars or two dollars
and a half, or three dollars. This, again, shows
the difference in the men. It also shows what
a difference it made to me. So it did not take
me long to discover that the men w^ho had fam-
ilies, children, many children, were the most
considerate and the most charitable. Those
w^ho had no children, no responsibilities, w^ere
generally less inclined to put themselves out
the least bit to accommodate me for the night
than those whose houses were already full, and
who were not really in condition to accommo-
date me.

I have stopped many times where I slept
with one of the larger boys. So when I had
learned these differences in men, I would en-
quire whether Mr. So-and-So had any children;
and if the answer Avas no, I would pass onto a
house where there were children, if such could
be found in the time left for me to travel in
the day.

I never traveled in the night, except when it
was absolutely necessary.

I arrived at Fayetteville at last, but found
the tow^n so run down that I did mot attempt
to do any work there. The boats that used to
come up to Fayetteville from Wilmington, on
the Cape Fear River, had stopped running, and
there was no railroad coming to Fayetteville
at this time.

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 143

I laid out a trip by my map that would take
me out of Cumberland County into Sampson
County, and through Sampson into Pender
County, coming out at Burgaw. From Burgaw
I went on into New Hanover County, and to
Wilmington, which at that time was the lar-
gest and most thrifty town or city in North
Carolina.

I did right good work in Sampson County,
sold some good jobs, and by giving liberal dis-
counts, got the cash for nearly all the work
that I did.

When I landed in Wilmington I had plenty
of money. I had learned a lesson, too, about
cash. I had sent in to Mr. Lee nearly all the
cash I had on hand and had been put in tight
quarters on account of it many times before.
A hotel man did not like to see a lightning rod
man go off leaving a bill unpaid. Sometimes
we w^ould be stopped by a sheriff who wanted a
license taken out in his county. This w^ould
cost twenty dollars for the year. To be shorii
of cash and a long way from home, among
strangers, with two horses to feed and two
men to be fed and housed, is an experience that
alw^ays made me feel mighty bad. There was
something in it that made me feel like a fugi-
tive from justice. I expected some strange
man to walk up to me and say, "I want you,
come along.'' I was not my true self without

144 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

a hundred dollars or so in my pocket. It made
no difference to me whether the money be-
longed to my company or to me, I needed it to
feel safe and respectable. Without it I was
handicapped. I did not have the nerve, the
confidence in myself or the resolution to prose-
cute my business with the same spirit that I
did when I had it.

Arriving in Wilmington with this goodly sum
of money in my pocket, again disregarding the
instructions of my boss, Mr. Lee, who would
have had me send to him every dollar that I
had except iiYe or ten dollars, I was in good
shape to go to work in Wilmington. I went
straight to the National Hotel, the best in the
town, told the clerk that I would be there
for three months, and asked for rates. He
made me a rate of one dollar and a half per
day. I got board for my man for five dollars
per week. I got my horses in the livery stable
for fifteen dollars per month each.

The first day I w^ent to the depot to get some
rods that I had ordered. We usually unhitched
the outside trace, and left the horses alone, but
this day the man neglected to do so, and some-
thing came along and frightened them, and
away they went down the street toward the
barn. They scattered lightning rods all along
the street for a mile. They turned four cor-
ners, went straight to the stables, slacked up

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 145

just before turning in and went into the barn
decently and in order. They did no damage to
anybody nor to the wagon or to themselves^
which seems almost a miracle, for they passed
through two of the busiest streets in^a run.

The next morning the two papers had the
runaway written up in a very lively style. One
of them said "that it w^as usual to see lightning
rods go up; but yesterday was an exception, as
the rods went down with a vengeance.'' The
other paper wanted to know "what this Mr.
Battle of Raleigh, the lightning rod man, had
against Wilmington? Did he want to stop its
growth by killing off its citizens?" So be-
tween the two papers everybody in Wilming-
ton who read them knew that Mr. Battle, the
Lightning Rod Man of Raleigh, was in town.
This free advertising helped me greatly, for
when I presented myself there was no explana-
tion necessary, for they already knew who T
was and where I was from and my business.
I did over eleven thousand dollars worth of
business in Wilmington.

While in Wilmington I wrote four letters to
my sweetheart back in Clayton. I received
only one in return. This gave me great pain;
but I was too busy to sit down and brood over
my misery.

From Wilmington I started for Columbia,
S. C. I passed through those immense pine

146 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

forests, which at that time could have been
bought for two dollars per acre. Since then
fortunes have been taken out in the turpentine,
and now immense lumber mills are making for-
tunes for their owners in the finest yellow pine
lumber in the whole world.

This brought the summer and fall season to
a close. I landed in Columbia about the mid-
dle of November. I made my arrangements to
spend the winter there, doing all the work
there that I could in good w^eather. The win-
ters in South Carolina are mild and pleasant
except for the many rains which come in the
spring. I did well in Columbia, and when
spring came I was ready to work in the moun-
tains in the western part of the state during
the summer. That is a fine country, through
Greenville, Spartanburg, Laurens, Anderson,
Abbeville and Greenwood Counties, and each
county seat has the same name as the county.
I spent the whole summer in these counties,
except a trip I made into Georgia from Abbe-
ville County. I spent about two weeks in
Georgia. I met there a Mr. Lipscombe, travel-
ing for the same company that I was. He told
me that he had done well in selling rods, but
he said, "I cannot get any money. I put up
the rods on a credit, and then the man will
make me pay hira cash for staying all night.
What do vou think of that?" He wanted to

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 147

credit the amount charged for the night's en-
tertainment on the note that he took for the
rods, but his customer would not permit it.
The explanation of the customer being that
Mr. Lipscombe had proposed to put up the rods
on a credit, and was now demanding a part of
it in cash. He said food was cash, and as soon
as it was out he had to have the cash to buy
more with; hence he wanted cash for the food
that he had supplied to Mr. Liscombe.

This was exactly my experience for the
whole two weeks while I was in Georgia. I
had over one hundred dollars in my pocket
when I went into Georgia. It cost me an av-
erage of three dollars cash per day for every
day that I was in Georgia. When I met Mr.
Lipscombe he had no money, and he intended
to go to Augusta and wait till Mr. Lee sent
him some. I told him if he waited in Augusta
till Mr. Lee sent him some money, that he
would owe a big bill when the money arrived.
So I divided my money with him and told him
to leave Georgia and come over to South Caro-
lina. So he followed me, and we crossed the
Savannah River somewhere near Alpine.
AVhen we landed in Anderson County, South
Carolina, he and I had just fifty cents in cash
between us, with four men and four horses to
feed till we could take in some cash. I told
him that I knew the landlord of the hotel at

148 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

Pendleton and we could make this headquar-
ters until we got on our feet again. So we
made the drive in one day and landed in Pen-
dleton about eight o'clock at night. We had
driven twenty miles over some rough roads
since dinner. We spent the fifty cents for
horse feed, and divided the food between the
four horses. We mixed shelled corn and oats
together, and it gave each one two quarts each.
This was hardly enough foi? horses doing so
much work. It should have been three or four
quarts, but the horses did not complain, and
we had done the best that we could, so our
consciences were easy.

I had some sardines, some bacon, some crack-
ers and coffee, a coffee pot and a frying pan,
and we got along very well; if I had had some
money I would have added eggs and cheese,
but we did not grumble. We were so glad
to get out of Georgia that the fact that we had
done so was very consoling.

The landlord at Pendleton was surprised to
see two wagons drive in so late at night, but I
told him there was a crack in one of my ladders
and I wanted to get it mended before I broke
my neck; that I had met Mr. Lipscombe, who
had come along as company. The women folks
hated to go back into the kitchen and cook an-
other supper, and when I heard them talking
1 went in and said, ^^Ladies, I don't blame you.

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 149

If I were you I would not cook supper for
such trifling men as these lightning rod fel-
lows, who come straggling in at such a late
hour/' but I said further, being one of the
triflers, I was one of the men who would suffer,
"Now, I will tell you what I will do. If you
will give me some flour, lard, salt, some bacon
or ham and some eggs and some coffee, you
may sit down there and see what a cook I am,
and I will tell you a good story on the other
fellow, Mr. Lipscombe, who is very handsome
and has a sweetheart over in Georgia." With
this running gossip I got the ladies in a good
humor, and they accepted my proposition and
gave me everything that I called for. I called
for my negro man, Howell, and asked him to
bring in some wood and start the fire, which
he did, and while I was making up the biscuit
I asked for baking powders, but she had none;
she had some soda; I took this and asked for
some sour milk or buttermilk; luckily she had
some. Then I went to work on the biscuits,
and told her this story: Over in Georgia,
where we came from to-day, in that section of
the country somewhere north of the town of
Hartwell, we stopped with a Scotchman named
McEachin, who had a mighty pretty daughter,
and Mr. Lipscombe had fallen in love with her,
and I heard him tell her that He was going off
to make a fortune, and was coming back to

150 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

marry her if she would have him. He said,
^'Of course I would not ask you to marry me
after knowing me for less than a day; but 1
am a real nice man when you know me, but I
am too poor to marry now, so I must make
some money, and then I will come back." Well,
when the time came for us to go to bed, the old
man showed us out into a shed room; it was
the weaving room, for there w^as a loom set
up in it, and there was a piece of cloth in the
loom. It was a nice piece of gray goods for
men's clothes. Mr. Lipscombe, after Mr.
]\IcEachin left us a candle and went away, said
^^I bet that pretty girl has been weaving on that
cloth to-da}^ Now, I tell you, that is the kind
of girl that I want, one that is not afraid of
work, and ain't she a beauty?" At last I said,
"Shut up, you will make the old man hear you
directly, talking so loud, and he will come out
here and order us off." So this made him lower
his voice, though he kept on talking. At last
Ave got in bed, for we had both to sleep in one
bed. The light was out and still I heard the
mumbling of his voice going on about his newly
discovered beauty. I told him again I had
heard all of that that I wanted to hear that
night. So at last he either stoped talking, or
I dropped off to sleep, for I heard him no more.

When I waked up it was broad daylight, and
as we wanted to make an early start, we both

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 151

got up and were dressed in a few minutes.
AVlien we went to bed he put his waistcoat
under the head of his pillow, and I put mine
down in the bed and slept on it. When he
raised the pillow to get his waistcoat I heard
him say ''Good God! look there!'' I looked and
there was a highland moccasin lying curled up
under his pillow. I got his waistcoat for him
and dropped the pillow back on the snake. Mr.
Lipscombe is very much afraid of snakes.
When we went to breakfast there was the pret-
ty girl, all dressed up, with her hair all curled,
looking much perttier to me than she didithe
day before, but Mr. Lipscombe did not seem
to notice it. He said very little to the young
lady, so little, in fact, that she noted it, and
asked him if he was feeling well this morning.
His mind was still on the snake, and he hardly
heard what she said. I noticed a pained look
on the girPs face; for I do believe that she had
taken a liking to Mr. Lipscombe. I spoke up
and said, "After breakfast I will tell you what
is the matter with Mr. Lipscombe." She said
right away, "I hope it is not something that 1
have done." I said, "No, it is not you, but is
something very serious to absorb his mind like
that." Mr. Lipscombe looked at me and said,
"Now look here, Jess, don't you tell that on
me." This aroused the girl's curiosity to such
a pitch that she could hardly finish her break-

152 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

fast, she wanted to know so much. After
breakfast I told her father that if he could
go and look under the pillow on the front side
of our bed that he would find out what was the
matter with Mr. Lipscombe, and he could tell
his daughter after we were gone.

The old man's curiosity was aroused too,
so he went right out to the loom room and in
a minute we heard him say. Bring me my gun,
quick. A boy carried the gun and a minute
later we heard it explode. We looked at the
girl and she turned pale and fainted and would
have fallen to the floor but for Mr. Lipscombe's
strong arms.

After a while, by bathing her face with cold
water, she opened her eyes, and asked, "Is he
dead?" I said yes, meaning the snake, and
she screamed again, "My poor father," and
then I understood. She thought that her father
had killed himself.

We left them, but do you know that I have
not heard Mr. Lipscombe say a word about that
pretty girl since.

By this time I had finished cooking the sup-
per; that is, I did a part of it for my story and
my willingness to help do the work had won
the good will of the ladies and they had turned
in and did most of the work.

The next morning I tackled the landlord to
let me tear down his old lightning rod and put

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 153

up a new one. He said that he knew it was
in a bad fix, as I had explained to him once
before but he had no money to spend on light-
ning rods, and did not want to go in debt, but
if I was going to be around the neighborhood
long enough to board out the bill that I might
do the work. I said alright and went right
out to Lipseombe and said, "We are saved
again. I am going to tear down that rod and
put up a new one."

He said, "Jess, you beat the devil."

This Mr. Lipseombe was a fine man, well edu-
cated, handsome, sociable and mighty good
company. I got well acquainted with him and
he told me some things in confidence that I
have kept sacred all these years, but as he is
dead and was in no way to blame for what he
did, and not culpable before the law, and the
communication was, and is such a fine illustra-
tion of the real condition of the negroes im-
mediately after the Civil War that I give here
for the first time his story.

He said, "I have not been home for four
years. I live near Danville, Va.; my people
do not know where I am, and my name is not
Lipseombe."

My ears were wide open. I was all atten-
tion, for I knew there was a good story back
of this prelude.

154 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

He continued, "Near where I live is a negro
church, every night and I mean Sunday, Mon-
day, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
and Saturday, these negroes would have
church meetings, preaching, praying, singing,
and I could hear them after I got into my
bed.

"Sometimes I would take a nap and wake
up and I would hear them singing. One day
w^hen I went down to our barn to feed up the
stock, I noticed a curious funnel in the corn
pile. It looked as if somebody had made a hole
in the back of the barn and the corn was run-
ning out of this hole. I went around the back
of the barn and examined the boards, and I
found one had been taken off with a nail pul-
ler. I could see the dents in the wood on both
sides of the nail heads; after the nails had
been drawn out and the board removed, the
nails had been put back into the board, and
the long points broken off, so that they would
no longer hold the board in place; the nail
heads still showed on the outside, as if they
were still doing duty. There were two other
nails driven in below the opening made where
the board was removed. I examined these
two nails and found some tow lint sticking to
one of them. Then I knew that somebody was
stealing my corn. A tow sack or bag had been
used, and here were the two nails that the

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 155

sack was suspended by to expedite the filling
process.

^'I made up my mind that I would investi-
gate; so that night I took my gun and got
into an empty pig pen where I was easily
concealed. About 11 o'clock I saw a man
come, take off the board, hang up his sack
and proceeded in the most leisurely manner
to fill his sack with my corn. I waited until
he had filled the sack, tied up the open end,
picked it up, put it on his shoulder to go away^
then I gave him the contents of both barrels
of my gun.

"It was loaded with fifteen buckshot in each
barrel; the man tumbled over; I got out of the
pig pen on the opposite side where the man
had fallen. I waited a few minutes to see if
he would move; he did not move; so I went
to my room and went to bed. I did not sleep a
Avink that night. I knew exactly the hour
when the singing at the church stopped. It
was five minutes past 1 o'clock, a. m.

"I waited for about an hour and then went
back and looked at my man from behind my
pig pen. He was still lying as he fell. I went
back to my room and waited for some one to
call me and tell me about the tragedy. As
soon as it began to turn light, one of the ne-
groes came to my room and said excitedly that
'there was a dead nigger down there back of

156 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

the barn.' He said, 'That nigger had taken a
board off the barn and stole some corn and
somebody had shot and killed him dead." '
Mr. Lipscombe asked, "Who was the dead
man?'' The negro said, ''It was the preach-
er.'' He said further, ''I was at the meeting
last night and the preacher said, 'Pray on,
brethren, I will join you later.' "

Mr. Lipscombe asked the negro who had
shot the preacher? The negro said, "It must
have been some of the Ku Klux."

The coroner commenced an investigation and
the negroes did all they could to help him
unravel the mystery of the killing, but to no
avail. The verdict was, "Death by a gunshot
wound in the hands of some party unknown,
justifiable homicide."

Mr. Lipscombe said, "I stayed around home
for about a month, then some friends told me
that the negroes had made up their minds
that I killed the preacher and that they were
liable to assassinate me any night when I
went out, and advised me to get a job that
would take me away from home and this is
the reason that I am a lightning rod man."

I parted with Mr. Lipscombe early in the
spring of 1872. I have never seen him since.
I met Mr. Lee years after this and he told me
Mr. Lipscombe was dead.

AND SOME STORIES OP MY LIFE. 157

The work I did for the landlord at Pendleton
kept us both fed and lodged for about ten
days, and during this time I had picked up
over three hundred dollars in cash and about
six hundred dollars in notes.

These counties that I have mentioned were
all prosperous and I did well.

I wanted to go back to Clayton and see what
w^as the matter with my sweetheart, but I said
to myself, "I am not ready to marry yet, so I
had better wait."

So I spent the following summer in South
Carolina. I had some vivid experiences that
summer. The one event more indellibly im-
pressed on my memory was a runaway smash-
up one day, w^hen I was nearly killed. We,
my negro, Howell Shines, and I, were going
down a long red hill. It was cloudy and very
dark; it looked like a storm w^as brewing. T
felt a little anxious about the outcome, as my
horses were very spirited and sensitive to the
whip. I was looking for shelter and expected
to be at a farmer's house in about twenty min-
utes as it was only two miles distant, but the
storm caught us while we were going down
that long red hill; it rained hard for a few
minutes, but we were protected with rubber
coats and a rubber lap robe; soon it began
to hail. I spoke to Howell to get his reins
well in hand, for I knew the horses would try

158 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

to get away from the lashing, as they con-
ceived the hail to be. Howell said, '^ I have
got them.'' I said, ''Keep your brakes on
tight.'' He answered, "I've got 'em as tight
as I can."

In a few minutes I felt the wagon running
on the horses. I said, ''The brakes are worn
out and doing no good." It got so dark that
we could hardly see enough to keep in the
road. The horses got faster and finally broke
into a run. We were going down that hill
like an express train. There was a creek at
the bottom of the hill, just before we got to
this creek, a large tree had fallen across the
road, but some one had cut out, with a saw,
a section wide enough to allow vehicles to
pass; our wagon was too far to the right, and
our right hand wheels went up on the end
of this tree at the speed of a running horse.
The wagon jumped up into the air so quickly
and so high that it turned over tow^ard the
left. Howell, being on the right side, was
thrown against me in the fall. He went clear,
but I went under the wagon. I was being
dragged along the road so fast I felt the top
of my head rubbing against the ground. I felt
my left ankle twist out of joint, and thought
my spinal chord w^as being pulled apart. I
felt that my right shoulder was broken. I felt
water splash in my face, and still I could re-

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 159

alize it all. I knew that I was caught under
that w^agun and wondered how it would end,
and it was done so quickly and came to a
stop just as quickly. That I did not know then,
but learned afterwards. All I knew then was
the wagon was still, something had stopped the
runaway horses; but w^hat was it? I was pin-
ioned under the wagon and could not move. I
heard Howell's voice asking if I was hurt.
I said, ^'Yes, get this wagon off me.'' He said,
*^I will in a minute." I heard him jerk on the
rein of one of the horses and say, "Damn you,
I would like to kill you." I heard the rattle
of chains, then I became unconscious. I knew
no more for nearly a week.

When I became conscious again I was at
the house of the Kev. Mr. Wm. B. Jones, who
lived at the little village in Greenwood County
that I had left before the storm. I was in a
little back room, and Mrs. Jones and her
daughter, Venie, were both sitting there
watching me. I wanted to know all about
it, but they would tell me nothing. Mrs. Jones
said, "Later; now you must be quiet." I lay
there for days and weeks.

I felt that every bone in my body had been
broken. I was so sore. When I got better
Mr. Lee came to see me and explained the
events as they occurred after I became un-
conscious. He said the horses passed through

160 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

the creek, dragging the wagon after them;
that just beyond the creek the horses had at-
tempted to pass on the opposite sides of a large
standing tree and this tree is what stopped
them. The singletrees were both broken, but
the breast yoke had held them together; they
were standing with their faces toward the
wagon. He said Howell had tried to get me
out from under the w^agon, but failing, he had
ridden one of the horses to the farmer's house
two miles away, and brought him and two
or three other men with him. He said they
had found my head between the spokes of the
front wheel and my left foot between the
spokes of the hind wheel. They sawed the
spokes out to get me out. They carried me
first to the farmer's house. I believe his name
was Miller. I was so badly hurt they thought
it best to take me to the village where the
doctor lived, hence my presence in Mr. Jones'
house. Mr. Lee told me that I would get well,
but it would take a long time.

Every movement I made gave me pain for
at least two weeks; after this I commenced
to improve more rapidly and as I grew bet-
ter Mrs. Jones and her daughter, Venie,, then
fifteen years old, did all they could to amuse
me and help to pass away the tedious hours of
convalescence. They spared no labor or pains in
nursing and caring for me; had I been in a

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 161

hospital, I could not have had better care.

Mrs. Jones was a highly cultured woman,
a fine musician, playing almost any piece of
music at first sight on the piano or organ. She
also had a good voice and sang well. The
daughter gave promise of being just as fine
a musician as her mother. Both the mother
and daughter were near-sighted, and wore
those curious glasses which made the eyes
look so exaggerated. When I would look
at Venie's innocent girlish face, with her rosy
cheeks and dark eyes, I would say to myself,
"She is pretty," but then my mind would im-
mediately turn back to Clayton, N. C. I could
see some other brown eyes that were so much
more beautiful that I even ceased to think
Venie pretty.

At last I was well enough to ride on my
wagon again. So with a heart full of grati-
tude for all the kindnesses showm me, and
paying up my debts as far as money could pay
them, I bid my dear, new-found friends good-
bye.

I went out of my way when I was getting
ready to leave the state, just to thank them
again and tell them good-bye. That was the
last time I saw them. I have written several
letters there, to Greenwood, their postoffice,
and all of them came back. So they must have
died or moved away.

162 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

After leaving this place I was hardly able
to work, but I could still talk and sell light-
ing rods. The long rides in the wagon wore
me out. My back would be so tired and ache
so much that at last I had some thick cushions
made to put in between my ladders, and I
would lie down there to ride from house to
house. I would go in, and sell the rods and
have Howell to put them up. So I was still
doing good work when I was not able to sit
up all day.

Out about two miles from Cokesbury, S. C,
I found a farmer and merchant, a Mr. Wil-
liam A. Moore, with a wife, three daughters
and two sons. I met all the members of this
family except the second daughter, Miss Mol-
lie, who was off to a boarding school.

The wife was one of the kindest and most
considerate of women. I came to her house
a perfect stranger, just after my terrible ex-
perience as the result of the runaway smash-
up. She could see what an effort it was for
me to get around, for I still used a cane and
one crutch. She knew that I needed a moth-
er's care and a mother's sympathy. One day
she asked me why I did not go home to my
mother. I told her that I was too poor to go
home to be a burden to my mother. This
seemed to touch her greatly and she told me
to come to her house every time that I was in

AND SOIVTE STORIES OF MY LIFE. 163

the neighborhood and especially on Saturday
afternoon and stay over Sunday. The invita-
tion was also repeated by Mr. Moore, and
given in such a way that I did not hesitate to
accept it. I went there every Saturday after-
noon for several months. Mr. Moore would
never accept any money for the lovely enter-
tainment they extended to me. I tried to even
up by giving presents to little Wardlaw, the
youngest, and Maimie, the youngest daugh-
ter, seven and ten years old.

The oldest daughter was Miss Janie, one of
the loveliest girls that I ever met. She was
beautiful, kind and a very fine musician. I
did love her and for her kindness to me and for
her tender consideration for the poor afflicted
stranger who came to her door, I love her yet.
Had I not met the lady at Clayton, who was
one day to become my wife, it is no telling
what might have happened, for Miss Janie was
one of the most congenial spirits that I ever
met.

She was three years older than I, and for
this reason she never looked upon me as a
beau. She treated me like a younger brother.
She was such good company in a quiet way,
that I never tired being with her. We sang
together, we read books to one another, we
went to church together and read the service
out of the same prayer book. She was an

164 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

Episcopalian. The neighbors who saw us to-
gether so much at church, on the roads driving,
at her house and at the neighbors, where we
visited, thought surely that there was a wed-
ding in prospect, but they only saw two con-
genial souls, who were happy in each other's
society.

Miss Janie knew that I was too poor to
marry, for she heard me say so in the presence
of Mr. Moore and Mrs. Moore one day when I
said, "That a man who had nothing, and was a
bohemian, on the go from place to place, with
no settled home, had no business getting mar-
ried, he would do the lady a great injus-
tice if he knew that he was to take her out
of a life of comfort and put her into a life of
drudgery. It was not only an injustice to
the lady, it was really a criminal act born
not of love, but of a selfish passion." After
this speech, Mr. Moore and his wife never fear-
ed to trust Miss Janie to my care.

It was with the deepest regret that I ap
preached the time when I was to leave this
neighborhood, and to leave these dear friends,
for they were so kind to me. I loved them then
and I love them now. It has been a greater
regret that all during these thirty-nine years
the claims on my time and my duty to those
whose claims cannot be ignored, have not per-
mitted me to see them again. I have intended

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 165

and still intend, that if the opportunity pre-
sents itself, I will see some of them again. If
this is denied me here on earth, I will certainly
look them up in the world to come, if permitted
to do so.

While I am on accidents and their results,
or I might say, consequences, I will mention
two other accidents that happened to me in
South Carolina. One was in Columbia, when
1 got a terrible fall from the top of a two-
story building and escaped being killed. I was
on the shingle roof, working my way down
to the ground. It was a steep roof, about an
angle of forty-five degrees. I had on rubber
shoes, and also had the lightning rod that I
w^as putting up to hold on to. I saw a shingle
with the turpentine oozing out, drawn out by
the heat of the sun. I knew that my foot
would stick on this turpentine, so I put my
whole weight on this one foot; the nail in
the shingle gave way and I was thrown on my
knees and hands, the fall putting me out of
reach of my rod. I had a gimlet in my hand
and tried to stop my sliding downward with
it, but failed. There was only one chance, to
catch the ladders as I passed by, which I did. I
hallowed, "Steady the ladders." The man below
tried to save me, but he was too light; I think
it would have taken a ton weight to keep those
ladders against the house. The ladders turned

166 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

over with me; my weight, the coming of my
body, going down at such speed, carried the
ladders with me. As 1 fell I held to the ladders
like ^^a drowning man will catch at a straw;"
the ladders did me a good turn, they broke the
force of my fall. I landed about twenty-five
or thirty feet from the house on soft ground.
I held on to the ladders until I was near the
ground and then threw them off from me. I
landed on my feet, but I was doubled up so
quickly that it hurt my back, and my left knee
went up against my upper teeth; it almost
knocked my teeth out. It loosened them and
the upper teeth made such a bruise on my
knee that an abscess was formed there which
left a scar to this day.

Another accident that happened to me in
South Carolina was when I fell down a man's
chimney.

It was an old fashioned house, either built
for a road house or a school. It was two stor-
ies and a half high, the chimneys being at the
ends of the house and outside; they were very
tall and there were two at each end; the cone
or apex of the house was between the two
chimneys; each chimney was about eight feet
from the side of this cone. My ladders w^ere
too short to enable me to put in the top fas-
tening, which was put in six to ten brick from
the top. To nail some pieces to my ladders at

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 167

the bottom was one way to do it, and is the
way that I should have done; but I was in a
hurry, and did not want ^ to take any chances
of splitting my ladders by putting in and tak-
ing out the nails.

So I did the work another way, or tried to
do it, and in doing so, came very near going
all the w^ay down that chimney, or becoming
jammed in it, as I went down. I put my lad-
ders up to and on the eaves, the lowest part of
the roof, this enabled me to get on the roof.
With my rubber shoes on my feet and carry-
ing a piece of rope with me, I worked my way
to the cone, which I straddled. Then, throw-
ing one end of my rope to the man who had
followed me to the eaves, bringing with him
the third and smallest section of my ladders,
at my direction he tied his end of the rope to
the ladder and pushed it up toward me. With
this ladder I could, when in the right position,
reach each of the chimney's top. I was figur-
ing that each chimney was a firm, well-built
chimney. This was my mistake. Instead of
being firm, they were very rickety, and I not-
iced that the chimney shook when I put the
ladder across to the first top. This should
have been a warning to me, but I was fearless
and short on judgment. So after fastening the
end of the ladder on the house first, by screw-
ing in some fastenings and tieing the ladder

168 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

to them with inarlin, then I got on the lad-
der on my stomach and pulled myself over to-
ward the chimney. It w^as a hazardous under-
taking. At last I got to the shaking chimney.
I could not reach the point where I wanted to
put in the top fastening, so I had to leave the
ladder and straddle the partition in the chim-
ney. It was also shaky. I took my long fas-
tening out of my pocket and my hatchet out of
my belt and reached over as far as I could and
commenced to drive in the fastening, the
mortar was soft, rotten, and the fastening
went in too easy. Either the end of the fas-
tening w^ent in against one of the bricks in
the partition and knocked it out, letting the
others fall, or it was my weight on them and
the swaying motion of my arm and body dis-
lodged some brick that was an arch for the
others. I don't know what, but I felt the
bricks tumbling under me and I was going
down the chimney. One end of my ladder pro-
jected far enough over the chimney for me to
grab it as I went down; the whole top of the
chimney was swaying but my weight on the
ladder and the fastenings with the marlin
binding at the other end of the ladder on the
roof, saved me from a terrible fall and pos-
sibly from death. I was able to turn myself
around in the chimney and get my face to-
ward the roof. I had gone down with my face

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 169

the other way. By main strength I drew my-
self up out of the chimney and onto the lad-
der, lying flat on my stomach. Then I pulled
myself along in the same way that I had gone
to the chimney, back to safety and to better
sense.

I took my ladder down on the ground and
went to the woods and cut two small trees
as large as my leg and with these lengthened
out my ladders and finished my job.

170 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

BACK TO SEE MY LADY LOVE.

I finished up in South Carolina and started
for Charlotte, North Carolina. It was Novem-
ber and the weather was beautiful. I did not
try to do much work on the way. I would
make thirty-five to fifty miles per day. I had
about recovered from my hurt in the runaway.
The chimney incident happened nearly a year
before this. At last I arrived in Charlotte. I
put my horses in the livery stable, gave my man
a five dollar bill and told him I would be gone
one week. When the train pulled out that
night, for Greensboro and Raleigh, I was on
board, going to see the darling of my heart,
to learn what was to be my fate.

I had been w^orking on a commission for
nearly a year. I got thirty-three and one-
third per cent and paid my own expenses. My
earnings were all in notes and must be col-
lected. I did not know that such notes were
hard to collect, that a man would pay for ev-
erything else that he owed before he would pay
for lightning rods. I had figured that I would
have four thousand dollars for my year's work.
So I felt rich, even though I did not have

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 171

the money. It was with a light heart that I
was going to see Miss Bettie Lee, this is what
her friends called, but her name was Laura
Elizabeth Lee.

I had gone away with a heavy heart in
August, 1871, and this was November, 1872,
just fifteen months later, and here I was com-
ing back with fine clothes on my back, nice
shoes on my feet, a stylish hat on my head,
and money in my pocket, and a little over four
thousand dollars in notes to collect.

I felt fine as a fiddle, was in good health and
had nerve enough to steal my sweetheart like
Lochinvar in the poem if I could not get her in
any other way. I did not know what I had to
contend against before I could ever call this
darling my own, but not knowing this side of
the story, it gave me no pain on this journey.

I landed in Clayton on Saturday morning.
I w^ent to my sister's, Mrs. Harrell, to clean
up. Here is where I got my first bump, which
made a lump come in my throat. I do not
know whether I got angry or sad. Here is
what I heard. My sweetheart had a real beau
and it was reported that there would be a
marriage soon.

This made me real sick at heart. It gave
me so much pain that I almost got angry with
those of my own kin that told me. They said
it was Mr. Kichard or Dick Graham, who had

172 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

shoved me aside, that my sweetheart never
even thought of me again. This hurt me in
a new place. Then I thought of these months
of hardships, of all that I had gone through to
get money, the lack of which Had banished
me from her sight, then I said, "Here I come
back with some money in my pocket and my
queen, my angel, had forgotten me and found
another lover. Fickle woman; how can I trust
thee."

Then I said, "As she is not married yet, J
will not believe one word against her until I
see her and she tells me so with her own lips."

I went straight to her house. She was vis-
iting a neighbor. Where? No one knew.
When would she be home? No one knew. T
saw that my arrival was known and an effort
being made to keep her out of my way. I went
into a store next to her home — a Mr. Bryant's
— and asked him if he knew where Miss Bettie
Lee w^as. He said he did not, but thought that
she went down toward Mr. Home's store. I
waited in the store and when Mr. Bryant was
at leisure, I told him that I had come all the
way from Charlotte to see Miss Bettie, and I
was determined to see her. I told him that I
loved her, and had made money enough to take
care of her, and that I intended to marry her
if she would have me.

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 173

He said, ^'I don't blame you, but they say
that she and Dick Graham will be married
soon."

Here was the same miserable news again;
was it true? Near 12 o'clock I saw her coming
home with Miss Bettie Cox. She came out
of her sister's home. I watched her all the
way down the distance. I had been waiting
for two hours to see her; these two hours were
lost to me forever, and now, here she was
coming along just like she did not know and
did not care whether I was in town or out of
town. Did she care?

I noted that she had grown; she was taller,
and had picked up some flesh; but she had on
one of those old fly bonnets. How I hated the
ugly things! It shut out my view; I could only
see a part of her face, her chin, but it was
beautiful. When she was opposite the store,
I walked out in front of her — a rude thing to
do — ^I extended my hand without saying a
word. She said, "Why it is Mr. Battle!"

I said, "I have come a long way to see you.
I did not know where you were, no one would
tell me, so I waited here in this store."

She seemed pleased, and in pain, too; what
did it mean? Were the reports true? The re-
port which said that she was to marry Mr.
Dick Graham. I could not ask her. I must
wait and let her tell me.

174 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

She asked me to ^'come in" and had a look of
pain in her face, which said, "I hope you will
not/'

This is the way that I read it, and I read it
right. I thanked her and said it was dinner
time and I would not detain her. I saw a
sweet, grateful smile come over her face, which
told me that I had rightly decided the matter.

I asked her if I could go with her to church
on the morrow, and she said, ^'I am sorry,
but I have another engagement."

I asked her if I could see her in the after-
noon. She said she was sorry again, but she
was going into the country with her sister.

Then I asked her if I could see her in the
evening. She said, "Yes, if you can enjoy my
other company." I felt like saying, ''Darn
your other company;" but I smiled with a woe-
begone look, and said I would be delighted to
see her other company. All this conversa-
tion was in the presence of Miss Bettie Cox.
I had forgotten she was present, but Miss Lee
had not. I parted with her for the present,
and it seemed as if I were parting with her
forever.

My conceit was being taken out of me with
lightning-like rapidity. Everything did not
look so rosy or promising. My little worldly
success, which seemed so important to me a
day or so ago, now seemed to be insignifi-

AND S0M:E stories of my life. 175

cant, for I wanted wealth for this beautiful
girl; for her alone. Without her the money that
I had worked so hard to get seemed to be worth-
less. What did I want with a home or money
or line clothes if I could not please and at-
tract this, my first Empress?

With such thoughts as these I left her, and
went back to my sister's.

They must have discovered my disappoint-
ment, for my sister said, "Don't let it worry
you, for if she loves you, nobody can keep her
from marrying you, and if she does not love
you, but loves somebody else, even if she mar-
ried you, you would not be happy, and I know
that you would not want to marry her if you
thought she would be unhappy with you."

These remarks opened up to me the fact that
there were two lives vitally involved in a mar-
riage and besides the two parties there were
a host of others, on both sides, the relatives,
the friends and acquaintances and religious
affiiliations to be pleased or displeased in the
match, all of which plays an important part
in the happiness of two lives who are about to
be joined together. How important, I am
afraid the immature judgment of young people
contemplating matrimony are incapable of ap-
preciating.

A love match, guided by mature judgment,
has firmer foundations than a match made on

176 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

love and passion alone, for passion satiated
and love disgusted, means a wrecked home.
Judgment protects the man and woman against
the influences of outside gossip, it keeps the
evil of the outside on the outside, and it deals
with the evil on the inside with a passionless
appreciation of peace, which keeps the peace.
It knows w^hat consideration and forbearance
mean, and uses both in a useful way to pre-
serve the peace, happiness and serenity of the
home.

Poverty is a great enemy to the human fam-
ily, in the suffering it produces, in the disap-
pointment attending it, but when judgment
takes hold of it, poverty loses its power, for
judgment says that poverty usually comes
from laziness, and laziness can be destroyed
by work; work brings the fruits of labor, and
the fruits of labor means thrift, and where
there is thrift, there is no poverty.

Again, the difference of faith and religion
is a great source of worry and trouble in the
family, especially w^here there are children. If
both parents are strong in their different faiths
trouble is more sure to come than if one is in-
different about religious matters.

The liberal-minded one can bear with the
bigoted one, but the bigoted one is always in-
tolerant toward the liberal one.

Again, parents and relatives are responsible

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 177

for many of the family rows among young mar-
ried people, by giving bad advice to them.
Here, again, is where judgment comes in to
^^pour oil on the troubled waters."

Judgment grows like an education, not by
itself, it must be cultivated and this cultiva-
tion requires time, effort and perseverance.

So judgment is not so common with the
young men and women as with the older men
and women; hence it is a greater obligation
on the older men and women to give good ad-
vice than on the younger ones, for they have
more judgment, better matured.

These thoughts passed through my mind in
a vague way, but they were only thoughts, and
they settled nothing regarding my future.

That night I went again to see the young
lady that I loved. When I got there I
heard voices and laughter within. I knocked
on the door and Miss Bettie came to the door
to let me in. There was no light in the hall,
but the parlor door was open and a flood of
light wrapped my darling in its folds. She was
dressed in white and her beautiful hair was
parted in the middle and brushed back; a
crown of rich brown as a background for this
angelic face. I never saw her look more beau-
tiful; there was a flush on her face, more like
a blush than rosy cheeks.

178 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

I extended to her my hand, which she took.
I gave her hand a gentle pressure, had I
squeezed her hand as I loved her, her hand
would have been lame for a long time to come.

I believed I detected a slight pressure as
a return, but at that time I was not certain.
She looked pleased and this was consoling at
any rate. She took me in the parlor and in-
troduced me to all of her friends, among oth-
ers, my rival and enemy, as I considered him
at that time, Mr. Richard Graham. I had to
confess to myself that he was better looking
than I was, and he had a very fine shaped head
and was dressed equally as well as I was
— I had thought that I was fixed up
about as nicely as a moderate expenditure of
money could provide. I noted that all became
very quiet after I had entered the room. The
buzz of voices and the laughter ceased. So my
arrival did make a difference. How much dif-
ference it made at that time I was not suf-
ficently developed in perception to discover.

I felt too serious to entertain that company,
and I remembered the report made to me about
the reputation I had for being wild. So I sat
still like the balance for about an hour, then
excused myself and left. It was not yet 9
o'clock. During the days that I used to go
calling on young ladies, I made it a rule to go
home at 9 o'clock. I heard a father say one night

AND SOME STORIES OP MY LIFE. 179

when a young man went home after 11 o'clock
p. m., "that he did not have enough sense to
go home/' This expression made such an im-
pression on me that I made up my mind not
to give any father or mother the occasion to
say that about me.

I have seen many persons since who filled
the bill exactly, for they did not have sense
enough to go home.

I learned that Mrs. Lee said, "Well, he has
sense enough to know when to go home."

Old people object very seriously to being
kept up later than their usual bed time; for
I know by experience that to conform to our
regular habits makes us more comfortable and
adds to our ability to perform and perfect our
alloted tasks.

I did not sleep well that night, for I knew
that my sweetheart was going to church with
the other man, a better looking man, a man of
good family, who owned land in the edge of
town and had the most conspicuous residence
in or near the town.

He owned a nice horse and a new buggy,
which he had doubtless bought in prospect of
his approaching wedding.

Here I was with no horse and buggy and had
to walk, and if my sweetheart had accepted my
invitation to go to church, she would have had

180 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

to walk also. I did not blame her, I said in
my misery, ^*Go on, ride; I would ride too;
you are right, ride with the man who can fur-
nish the conveyance; go to church with a man
who can take you there like a lady. Don't fool
away your time with a man who has to walk,
when there is one who is ready to take you
around in a buggy or carriage."

The next morning, Sunday morning, my
dream came true, for I was trudging along,
w^alking to the church. The road was dusty,
the day w^as warm; I was mopping my brow
and cursing my luck. My shoes were covered
with dust, my nice black pants were grey half
way to my knees with the dust. Just then I
looked back dow^n the road and there was Mr.
Graham and mv sweetheart ridino* alono* so
cool and comfortable, overtaking me and in a
minute more would pass me going to church.
I saw myself, a poor devil, walking the road
in dust, and sweat, making such a poor appear-
ance in comparison with this elegant young
man with his fine horse and new buggy. T
said to myself, "Yes, it is best, for all her peo-
ple live here, and the young man lives here,
they are all friends, and have known each
other since childhood, and I am the stranger,
I am the interloper. I am the man who comes
in and wants something that the whole town
seemed determined that I should not have; but

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 181

what if the lady did not love the other man,
and did love me?"

That v^^ould be different. The lady could not
ask me to marry her, I must do the asking.
This settled the matter. I made up my mind
then, come what may, I would know my fate
before I left town, but how could I get a
chance to see her. This seemed to be an im-
possibility, but I could try.

I did try, but no use. At the church I did
like the rest. I went into the church. The
ladies all went on the left side, and the men
on the right. It did not take me long to find
Miss Bettie, but she was busy with her hymn
book and did not turn her head. When recess
came she got up and went out. Mr. Graham
also got up and went out, and soon I got up
and went out. I looked down toward Mr. Gra-
ham's buggy and there they were sitting in
the buggy. He did not leave her during the
day except when he was in the church.

I intended to leave on Monday, going to Wil-
son to see my mother and sister withiher fam-
ily. I must speak to her that I loved, today,
but how? There was no chance, I made one.
I walked up to the buggy, pulled off my hat,
and said, "Miss Bettie, you have so many' en-
gagements since I have been here that I have
been unable to see you. I must leave here
tomorrow. I am going down to Wilson to see

182 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

my mother. I have not seen her for fifteen
months. I stopped oft' here to see you first,
but have seen much less of you than I had
hoped; please don't get married before I see
you again, for I have something to tell you.''

I saw a snap in her big, brown eyes that told
me that she would wait, but she said, "I have
no idea of getting married.''

I looked at Mr. Graham, and he had a sickly
smile on his face, which showed to me the vacil-
lating, good, easy, don't care, indifferent dispo-
sition and character that gave me new hope.

After this, I said, ^'That man would not
make a good husband, he is too indifferent
about everything. He lacks energy, he lacks
enterprise. He is too slow to love real hard,
and what is more, he shall not marry Miss
Bettie Lee if I can prevent it."

I went my way. I had much to do and T
went on and did it, leaving my rival a free field
to win if he was able to do so. I had been
back several times during the winter but had
no better success in seeing the one I loved so
well.

I cam.e again in March, 1873, and went to her
home to see her. I went in the morning. She
and her mother were both at work sewing.
Mrs. Lee was basting and Miss Bettie was
sewing on the machine.

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 183

I was hoping that Mrs. Lee would go out
for something. I waited about an hour, but
still she kept her seat. At last I pulled out
an envelope and wrote these words, "You know
that I love you, will you be my wife?'' and
pushed the envelope and pencil before her
on the machine. The machine did not stop
running, the buzz went on. I glanced over to-
ward Mrs. Lee, her head, with bonnet on,
was over her work. Miss Bettie wrote un-
derneath my writing, "What shall I say?" I
wrote under this, "Say yes." She wrote again,
under this, just one word, "Yes."

I turned around and said to Mrs. Lee, "You
have doubtless noticed me coming to your
house. I love your daughter. She loves me;
we want to be married and I ask your con-
sent." She said, "You are a stranger to me,
and I do not want to give my daughter to any
body. If she finds somebody that she loves
better than she loves me, she can make her
choice; as she makes her bed so she must lie
on it."

I told her that Miss Bettie, if she married
me, would have a soft bed to lie on; that my
mother had five feather beds to give me.

She said, "Something else was needed beside
feather beds."

She said further that "A young man sees a
pretty girl and wants to marry her, but after

184 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

he is married, he learns that there are many
other things that he needed much worse than
he did a wife,'' and this remark I have found
to be true.

I told her that we were in no hurry to get
married, that I already had enough to take
care of a wife and she could make inquries
about me, and if the people she inquired of
told the truth she would find nothing against
me. I told her my record was clean; the worst
that had ever been told on me was that I was
wild. I said this wildness consisted in my go-
ing out with other musicians serenading, the
girls at night, that I had done that six or
eight times in my whole life. "I also play the
banjo and sing, I play the violin and mando-
lin and guitar. I also played accompaniments
on the piano to my songs. I do not drink in-
toxicating liquors, and I have no bad habits,
I have been baptized into the Christian Church
and am fond of the Church and Sunday School.
I feel at home in any church, for my kinfolks
belong to almost every denomination."

She said, "If you are as good as that, you
are good enough for any woman."

So, with no serious objection to our engage-
ment, I left the house with the promise that
the girl who was all the world to me, was to
be my wife.

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 185

Oh, ecstasy! how sweet thou art! I was rais-
ed from the bottomless pit of despondency to
the highest heaven!

I walked out of that yard, stepping as lightly
as a show horse.

Old Mr. McCullers saw me passing his store,
and something in my light, saucy air attracted
his attention, and he yelled at me, and said,
^'Come back here a minute, I want to talk to
you." I stopped and w^ent up to him and said,
"What is it?" He asked, "How are you get-
ting on?" I said, "It is all right." "Have you
got it all fixed up?" I said, "Almost." "When
is it going to be?" I said, "I think about the
middle of next October." He said, "That is
all right, you have done pretty well."

I went to see my loved one that evening,
and had her all to myself for the first time.
What a delightful evening! Why do not all
men love their wives as well and treat them as
sweethearts as long as they live? They would
get so much happiness out of life if they only
would. For thirty-eight years I have had a
sweetheart. I never left her in all these years
to go to some other place for entertainment.
I always took her with me. If the entertain-
ment was not good enough for my wife, neither
was it good enough for me.

I left early the next morning, going to Wil-
son. I remained only two days. I found all

186 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

well, my mother was delighted to see me, as
was my sister. When I told them that I would
be married in the fall, they wanted to know all
about it, and I told them all that there was
to tell.

I stopped over in Clayton one day as it was
on my way to Charlotte, just for one more
taste of heaven before I went back to work.
I had written to my betrothed that I would
spend the next day with her. When I arrived
she met me at the door, and what a happy,
sweet smile was on her face. She took me into
the parlor, saying that her mother went down
to the store, but would be back after a while.
W^e spent the whole day with each other, get-
ting acquainted. I took dinner with her. She
and I alone, with old Aunt Palace waiting on
us. Mrs. Lee did not come back, taking din-
ner with her other daughter, Mrs. Home.
This simple little dinner, out in the kitchen,
out in another house in the yard, as are many
of the kitchens in the south, was one of the
happiest events in my life. There sat in front
of me the one being in all the world that I
loved most. So quiet and matter of fact. We
were almost strangers, for we had seen so
little of each other, we knew nothing of each
other except what the eyes of love revealed.
Yet there we sat as if we had been married all
our lives, with hearts full of love, and guided

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 187

by an unfaltering trust. Each could "read life's
meaning in the other's eyes.'' Here is the
foundation of devoted lives, here is the source
of all earthly happiness, and it may be found
lapping over into eternity. There is nothing
more lasting than love, and nothing more beau-
tiful than trust. These two give the other
one blessed member of the heavenly trinity.
For there we have, "Faith, Hope and Charity."
Our souls were in the "seventh heaven," but
our conversation was about a home we would
build, about how we would furnish it and how
much we would spend for living expenses. I
smile now to think how innocent we were then;
for in our simplicity we figured out that we
could live gn one hundred and twenty-five
dollars per year. If we had done this all our
thirty-eight years of married life we would
have saved in living expenses alone, the snug
little sum of two hundred and twenty thousand
eight hundred and fifty dollars.

The first ten years of our married life our
living expenses were two hundred dollars per
month, which would make twenty-four thou-
sand.

For the last twenty-eight years our expenses
have averaged six hundred dollars per month,
this would be two hundred and one thousand
and six hundred dollars, adding the sum of the
first ten years to the sum of the last twenty-

188 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

eight years, 3^ou will have the grand total of
two hundred twenty-live thousand, six hundred
dollars, and if you will deduct from this
amount the four thousand seven hundred and
fifty dollars, which is one hundred and twen-
ty-five dollars per year for the thirty-eight
years that we have been married, you will
see how near we two silly children came
to calculating what our real expenses would
actually be. If I could have looked down
through the years to come and know^n the
truth, and told old Mrs. Lee and her daugh-
ter, too, how much money I w^ould make and
spend on the daughter, the old lady would have
said that I t\ as the biggest braggart that she
had even seen, and the daughter, would have
thought I was crazy and probably have given
me my walking papers.

It is just as well that we do not know all
the good and evil that is to come to us, for a
knowledge of the evil would take away our
hope and a knowledge of the good would take
away one of the producers of the good, namely,
effort.

If I had told my wife and her mother that
one day I would build for my wife in Clay-
ton, her own home, a house to cost more money
than any house in town and I would put things
into it for convenience and comfort that

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 189

neither of them had ever seen, both of them
would have told me that I was the wildest
dreamer to be found, and this is exactly what
I have done.

The next day I had to leave for Charlotte,
and while I hated awfully to go away so far
from my betrothed wife, duty called and away
I went.

I got my wagon and came on east, intending
to work in Granville County that summer, the
summer of 1873. My plighted love spent most
of the summer in Raleigh, with her sister, get-
ting ready with her trousseau. Every Satur-
day afternoon I would quit work, borrow a
saddle and ride one of my horses thirty, forty
or fifty miles just to see that lovely face for a
few hours on Sunday. The time passed quickly
and at last we set the day for our wedding on
October 22nd, and were married.

I had already commenced to build a home in
Raleigh, but I changed my plans and sold the
house to a Mr. Pool and after forming a co-
partnership to go into a different line of busi-
ness, I continued my lightning rod business
for a year to give me time to collect my notes
and get together as much money as I could
to be properly equipped for my new business.

I had too many bumps and knocks in my
lightning rod experience and had felt too keen-
ly on several occasions the pangs of apprehen-

190 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

sion of coming evils when my pockets were
empty of casli to attempt to establish a new
business without money.

I spent the winter of 1874 and 1875 in col-
lecting. I did this on horseback.

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 191

AN ACCIDENT ON THE YADKIN RIVER.

In January, 1875, I was on horseback collect-
ing notes in Rowan and Davidson Counties,

N. a

It was the policy of the lightning rod com
pany to send a stranger to collect the notes,
instead of the man who sold and put up the
lightning rods.

I had nearly finished my work and was going
east. I came to the Yadkin River at Trading-
ford. The ferryman was waiting on my side of
the river. It was a flat boat, with a railing
on the sides and an extension gate at the ends.
The ferryman worked with a cable passing
through two pulleys. When all was ready,
with me sitting on my horse in the middle of
the boat, the man pushed the boat from the
shore and with an adjustable pulley, let the
end of the boat leaving the shore drop down
stream, the motion of the running water car-
rying the boat across the river. I thought
this a fine arrangement. We got along smooth-
ly for a while. The ferryman said to me, "You
had better get off that horse." I said I did not
want my saddle to get wet, as it was rain-

192 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

ing and I was well fixed for wet weather, as
I had on rubber overshoes, rubber leggins, rub-
ber overcoat and a rubber cover for my hat.
I was as comfortable as a ''bug in a rug."

The weather was cold and there were thin
pieces of ice floating in the river. When we
got further out into the river, the stream was
running swifter, the pulley at the front end of
the boat as we moved being burdened with an
extra friction and increased speed, commenced
to yell like the screams of a lost soul. I never
heard a more unearthly noise in my life. My
horse was more alarmed than I was, and start-
ed to turn around to go back . I gave her a
jerk on the curb bit and must have hurt her
severely, for w^hen she found the high gate be-
hind her closed, she reared up and deliberately
turned to the side railing and jumped over into
the river.

Both of us went under the water, for at this
point the river is deep. When we came to
the surface, my horse struck out to swim down
stream. I dropped out of the saddle, holding
on to the horn with my left hand. I was on
the right side of my horse. I struck her on the
head with my right hand and said, "Get out of
here." This turned her toward the shore,
where I wanted to go. She was swimming
easy. The water, when it first went through
my clothes to my body, was so cold that T

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 193

thought I was freezing, but in a few minutes
my body warmed this water some and I felt
comparatively comfortable.

This same mare, Mollie, was one of the best
I ever saw. I knew her well and was con-
fident that she could take me to the shore in
safety.

I picked out a place to land, nearly a quar-
ter of a mile below the ferry landing. I had
to do this on account of the swift current in the
river.

We landed on a sand bar and went on to the
shore. My clothes were so heavy I could
hardly walk. I tied my mare to a tree and got
a switch and scraped all the water off of her
that I could and then mounted and went on
up through a field to the road.

I looked back and there was the ferryman
still in the middle of the river. I galloped on
for a mile or two and stopped at the first house
I came to and asked for help. I told my
story, showed my wet clothes and made my-
self known as a Free Mason, something that
I had never done before. The gentleman was
named Goodwood, and was a Mason. He said,
"Come right in and we will fix you up in a
few minutes. He brought me some towels and
some of his own clothes, and as there was only
one fire in his house and one in his kitchen,
he asked his wife and daughters to go to the

194 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

kitchen till I could get dressed. I did not take
long. He was a big man and I was a small
one, but his clothes felt so good I could not
complain about the misfit. I had the same
job to do over again that I had done nearly
four years before, to dry out my money and
clean my watch.

I spent the day with Mr. Goodwood, whose
name should have been Mr. Goodman, the lad-
ies dried out my clothes for me and I was soon
on my way east again.

If I had known what a disastrous windup
was before me in the lightning rod business, it
would have given me palpitation of the heart.

At the suggestion of Mr. Lee, I formed a
co-partnership with one Mr. John Bagwell for
the year 1874, in the lightning rod business.
We had four wagons and were to pay ten cents
per foot for the rods and were to turn over
all notes taken to secure this ten cents out
of the first collections. Individually, I turned
over more than ten thousand dollars in notes,
but the other three wagons, with John Bag-
well on one and his brothers on the other two,
turned over less than five thousand dollars for
the three wagons. So being partners with
John Bagnell cost me my whole year's work,
for it took all my individual profit to pay up
partnership debts. Had I worked alone as I

AND SOME STORIES OP MY LIFE. 195

had been doing, my profits would have been
over three thousand dollars.

So I came out of the lightning rod busi-
ness, after four years of hard work, depriva-
tions and dangers with about twenty-six hun
dred dollars.

I was ready to take up a new line of busi-
ness. All the time that I was a lightning rod
man, while I was riding along the road, I had
plenty of time to think. Among other thoughts
w^as the one that led to success. It was this:
I said here, "I am going from house to house
and selling something that I can never sell
again. I tell them good-bye and never see
them again. I want a business that will en-
able me to sell to a customer something that
he will continue to use as long as he lives."

If I had such a business and enough cus-
tomers, it will be only a few years when I will
have all the money that I can desire. These
thoughts were the foundation of my fortune.

The next question was, "What is to be my
business?"

A drummer from Baltimore left at the hotel
in Wilson, Dun's Commercial Book of Credits
for the South. I got hold of this book and com-
menced to examine it, and there I found all
the business men's names and opposite the
name would be a "letter and a figure."' These
letters and figures referred to a table on the

196 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

first page. The letter would tell you what
the man or partnership or corporation was
estimated to be worth, and the figure w^ould
tell you what the grade of his credit was. Thi?<
book was so fascinating to me that I put in
hours looking up various men that I thought
I knew\ Some of them, w^hom I thought to be
well off, had no credit, and some men that I
thought poor had real good credit.

So I said, ^'Money does not give a man cred-
it, but it is his willingness to pay and he does
pay his debts", and this led me to the second
thought that a merchant, when he had little
money, must not buy more than he can pay
for, as the paying gave him the credit and
credit is founded on confidence.

In other w^ords, it is the upright, honorable
and reliable business man who has the con-
fidence of his creditors and this gives him the
credit.

I found that '^A. 1" meant one million dol-
lars, and I found none in North Carolina.

I found several banks in the South worth
five hundred thousand dollars. I found sev-
eral lumber companies w^orth over one hun-
dred thousand dollars. The merchants were
rated from one thousand to fifty thousand
dollars, some milling companies were worth
from ten to twenty-five thousand dollars, the

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 197

railroad companies were rated higher than any
others.

I looked for the wholesale druggists, they
were rated high. I looked for the manufac-
turing chemists, there were very few in the
South at that time. There was one in New
Orleans with about two hundred thousand dol-
lars as a capital.

Out of all of these lucrative lines of busi-
ness, which one could I embark in. I could
not be a banker, for that meant a lot of money,
which I did not have. I could not own a rail-
road for the same reason. So I excluded all
of these lines till I came to the manufacturing
chemist, then I said I can be a manufacturing
chemist, if I make only one bottle of medi-
cine.

Here is where my four years' study of medi-
cine came in again. I was not yet a doctor,
but I knew much about medicine.

I bought some books on chemistry and phar-
macy and started in again to study these
branches of medicine. I took a part of the
money that I had and bought a drug store in
Wilson, N. C, and started in business under
the name of Battle & Co. I took my brother,
Cullen, in business with me, though he did not
have any money, and another gentleman, who
shall be nameless, for business reasons. This?
gentleman was a good druggist, as well as be-

198 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

ing a doctor. He had no money either. I was
the only one of the three who had any money.
In two year's experimenting, we developed the
formulas of lodia and Bromidia. The first is
an alterative and tonic and the last is an hyp-
notic, something to make one sleep.

Up to the time that w^e began to manufac-
ture Bromidia, the doctors used Dover's Powd-
ers and Hydrate of Chloral as sleeping por-
tions, but after Bromidia became known, this
was the favorite remedy to produce sleep.

We sold out the drug store in October, 1875,
and moved our business to St. Louis. We rent
ed two rooms over a bar-room at 100 South
Main street. We remained at 100 South Main
street for two years, and being cramped for
room and having no elevator, we leased No.
116 Olive street for three years.

At the expiration of our lease, our quarters
were too small to accommodate our business.
We next located at 402 North Main street, and
remained at this place until 1887, when we
moved to our own building, which we had just
put up at 2001 Locust street, where we are at
present (1911) located.

In May, 1876, Mr. S. S. Blackwell, of New
York City, who had been in business in Wil-
son, N. C, and who married for his second wife
an old school mate of mine. Miss Josephine
Blount, of Wilson, N. C, came west looking

AND SOME STORIKS OF MY LIFE. 199

for an opening to go into business. He had
some money, We needed him and his money,
so we took him in as a partner with one-fourth
interest, in our business. In 1880 we bought
out the nameless gentleman's interest in our
business. In 1883 we made a corporation of
our company, calling it by the name of Bat^
tie & Co., Chemists Corporation.

200 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

THE CANVASSER.

Mj brother, Cullen, and I started to Chi-
cago on the 19th of January, 1876. I had
just come from North Carolina where the cli-
mate is mild and pleasant. I Had never owned
an overcoat, I did not need it, and to land in a
country where the thermometer registered
around zero was such a change that a man
much less sensitive than I was would have
felt it keenly.

In getting ready to leave St. Louis for Chi-
cago, I went down to the various "scalpers"
offices to see if I could not save some money on
the trip. In those days there were many men
who would purchase the unused part of a rail-
road ticket for a much lower price than the
regular rate, and would sell it again for a
price lower than the regular rate, and still
have a fair profit on the sale. These men were
called "scalpers." So all the commercial trav-
elers were familiar with this fact and availed
themselves of it, to save a dollar or so.

I, with the other travelers, was perfectly
w^illing to "beat the railroads," as it was called,
in buying a "scalper's" ticket to any point to
which I wanted to go.

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 201

The regular price to Chicago was nine dol-
lars for one ticket. I bought two tickets from
a ''scalper/' Mr. Ben Wassermann, for seven
dollars each. I congratulated myself that T
had saved four dollars.

My brother and I went to the depot that
night to take our train for Chicago. I heard
a man halloo, "All aboard for Chicago." I call-
ed my brother, Cullen, and said, "There is our
train getting ready to start, so we had bet-
ter get aboard.'' We went to a train stand-
ing in the old depot, where there were many
other trains getting ready to start. Some go-
ing east, some going west. They were backed
up to a passageway from the middle of the de-
pot. I asked a man in a blue uniform and
brass buttons w^hich was the Chicago train;
he pointed to a train headed east, on the third
track, and said, "There is your train." My
brother and I got on the train indicated by the
railroad man, and settled ourselves for an all-
night ride. We w^ere in the "day coach." There
was a "sleeper" on that night, but this would
cost us two dollars each, and we would not
think of giving ourselves so much comfort at
such a price.

Our train soon pulled out of the depot, and
we passed over the Eads Bridge and also
through East St. Louis.

W^e were going at a lively rate toward Chi-

202 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

cago and must have been at least ten miles
out from St. Louis, when I saw the conductor
coming along. He was collecting the tickets.
When he got to us, he held out his hand for
our tickets. I had them in my hand waiting
for him. I handed the tickets to him. He
lifted his lamp so that he could better see the
tickets, and after looking at them well, ho
said, "You are on the wrong train." My heart
jumped up into my throat, for I thought that
this was one of the schemes of the "city fel-
lows" to rob a poor green man from the coun-
try. I asked, "Is not this the train for Chi-
cago?" He said, "Yes, it is;" and before he
could say any more, I blurted out, "Then w^e
are alright, for we are going to Chicago."

He then said, "But you are not going to Chi-
cago on these tickets," shaking his hand with
the two tickets that I had given him. I asked,
"What is the matter with the tickets?"

He said, "This train is the Chicago and Al-
ton train and your tickets are by the Illinois
Central Railroad, and are not good on this
road." This piece of information disturbed me
greatly. I had not dreamed that there were two
railroads going to Chicago, for down South,
where I had come from, there was only one.
This information simply took away all the
sense I had, and I sat there in that train,
dumbfounded, crushed, helpless and unable to

AND SOME STORIES OP MY LIFE. 203

say another word. The conductor looked at
my brother and me in a pitying sort of way,
waiting for us to speak, but as neither one
said a word, he asked, ^'Well, what do you in-
tend to do?''

I answered him like a little child about ten
years old, by asking another question. I asked
him what I should do? He said, ^^Do what you
please, but do it quick.'' I asked him if we
got off his train and went back to St. Louis,
when would we get to Chicago?

He said, ^^f it takes you as long to get away
from St. Louis as it does to make up your mind
now what you want to do, I do not think that
you will ever get to Chicago."

I asked him if I could pay him in cash and
go on to Chicago on his train? He said, "Cer-
tainly." How much? "Nine dollars each and
twenty-five cents each, because you did not buy
a ticket." I paid the money to him, and he
passed on, but the incident, the worry, the
self denunciation for my stupidity, kept me
awake all night.

The night was long and tiresome. It grew
colder and colder as we proceeded further
north and as the night passed away.

About 3 o'clock in the morning, the fire in
the stove burned low and the frequent opening
of the car door to let the passengers in and

204 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

out chilled the atmosphere in the car more
and more.

I got so cold I thought that the blood in my
veins was turning to ice. We called the brake-
man and asked him to please put some coal on
the tire. He said, "The stove is full of coal
now; this car is not so cold; if you think it is
cold, get out doors at the next station for a
few minutes.'^ No one in the car seemed will-
ing to try the experiment. So we all sat still
and shivered the rest of the night.

We arrived in Chicago about 7 o'clock in the
morning. When I got in the omnibus to ride
up to a hotel, I never felt so cold in my life.
I was dressed in the same clothes that I wore
in North Carolina, my underclothes were half
cotton, and my outer garments were light
weight. I had on an extra sack coat that I
put on, and my brother did the same; neither of
us had an overcoat, such as is worn by all
men in this northern country.

The omnibus at last landed us at Brown's
Hotel on State street. We got the name of
this hotel from a Chicago man whom we met
in St. Louis. When I got out of that omnibus
I was hardly able to get into the hotel. My
jaws were tired from shivering.

My brother suggested that we go into the
bar and get a drink of brandy or whiskey. F

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 205

was so cold that I would have drank anything
suggested in order to get warm.

So we went in and called for whiskey cock-
tails. I had drank so little in my life that I
did not know what a whiskey cocktail was,
my brother gave the order. The bar-keeper,
one of them, there were seven behind the bar,
fixed up the drinks and pushed them over to-
ward us, looking at us with a benevolent ex-
pression of inquiry, which asked very plainly,
without using words, "I wonder where these
srreen ones came from?''

&

We paid for our drinks and went to the
hotel office, engaged our rooms and, after
washing our faces, we went to breakfast. By
this time I was beginning to thaw out, and I
felt real comfortable. My brother did not com-
plain, neither did I, but both of us realized
that these experiences were entirely new.

At the breakfast table the girl that waited
on us brought us some oatmeal, the first that 1
had ever seen served as food for man. We ate
it, as we wanted to appear as if we were used
to such a diet. I thought at the time that it
was a funny time of the day to eat pudding,
as it seemed to be to me, after we had added
sugar and cream to it. We usually ate our
dessert in the middle of the day, and after we
had finished eating our dinner, but here we
were started ofi" on dessert the first thing for

206 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

breakfast. This was a big change in diet for
two green country boys from the backwoods
of North Carolina.

We gradually got used to the manner of
feeding the boarders, and as w^e were out can-
vassing all day, every day, our appetites were
something enormous. We never had indiges-
tion; no matter what we ate, it agTeed with us,
and we had no ground for complaint. We paid
one dollar per day for board, and I have paid as
much as three dollars per day on many oc-
casions and did not get so good fare as at
Brown's Hotel at one dollar.

After we had finished our first breakfast
at this hotel, we went out to map out our work.
We went into a stationery store and bought
a map of Chicago; with this map we could
divide the territory so that we might canvass
the city intelligently and thoroughly. After
doing this, we both started out to see the
many doctors in Chicago. There were about
three thousand of them at that time.

My first day's experience taught me many
things.

The first thing I learned was that I was
not properly clothed, my clothes were too
thin for such cold weather. My boots were
single soled and with thin tops, with high
heels. Walking on the hard streets blistered
my feet. I was going into well heated rooms

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 207

and out again into an atmosphere where the
thermometer registered fifteen degrees be-
low zero. Every time I made such a change, T
thought the wind was blowing right through
me. I suffered so, I knew that I must have
more clothing, but I did not want to spend
the money for clothes, for I was sure that I
would need all that I had, and more, too, in
my business.

So, after much thought, I consented to spend
enough to keep me from freezing and to make
myself presentable when I went into a doc-
tor's office.

I went into a dry goods store and bought
three-quarters of a yard of gray Rock Island
kersey. I cut a hole in the middle of this
piece of cloth large enough to put my head
through. This I used as an extra shirt, put-
ting it on under my white shirt. This put a
thick cover over my chest and over my back.
I bought some boots at a shoe store, wide and
with low heels.

I bought some carbolic acid and some borax
at a drug store. I added water to the car-
bolic acid and bathed my feet at night, and
dusted the borax into my stockings in the
morning. In this way I cured the blisters on
my feet. The piece of thick cloth kept my
body warm, so I was comfortable.

208 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

The first morning that my brother, Cullen,
and I started out canvassing Chicago, the ther-
mometer registered fifteen degrees below zero.
We had never seen or felt such frigid weather.
I noticed that everybody was in a hurry, I
could see many going along in a trot. Down
in North Carolina, where I was brought up,
I never saw so much energy. I remembered an
observation made by a Mr. Richard Freeman,
a drummer from Baltimore, who used to come
to our town, Wilson, N. C.

He asked the question, "What is the matter
with you folks down here? You are the laziest
people that I ever saw. Why don't you get a
move on 3^ou and be somebody?"

These questions made a deep impression on
me, and I thought of them long after Mr. Free-
man had left town. I knew that I was willing
to work, though I felt that I was unable to do
so. After much thought, I came to the con-
clusion that it was not laziness in my case that
kept me from work, but was sickness. I won-
dered why it was that the Northern people had
so much more energy than we people of the
South. When I saw the people of Chicago
trot, I said, "Oh, yes darn you, I have your
secret; I know where your energy comes from.
You have got to move or freeze to death." I
was as good a trotter as any of them.

One day I went to a doctor's office. I rang

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 209

the door bell, an Irish servant girl came to
the door; after looking me over well, she said,
"What do you want?'' in a very short and im-
pertinent manner. I said, in my sweetest
tones, that "I wished to see the doctor." She
snapped out again, "What do you want to see
him about?" I said, "On business." She asked
again, "What kind of business?" I answered,
"Medical business." She asked again, "Are you
sick?" I was warming up a little, so I answer-
ed, "Yes, I am sick of you. When will the doctor
be back?" This put her in a passion, and she
answ^ered, "I don't think that he will ever be
home for you." So I had to leave without see-
ing the doctor.

After I got away I got to thinking it all
over. So I asked myself what was it about me
that caused the girl to talk to me like that?
After much thought, I solved the problem. I
had a little bag in which I carried advertising
matter and samples, and I was wearing a soft
felt hat, pulled down well over my forehead,
and I had on a well worn grey coat over my
fall suit, which altogether gave me the appear-
ance of a peddler, and I am sure that this is
what she took me for.

The next day I bought a high silk hat and
a black overcoat. I had my beard trimmed
to a Yan Dyke style, and after waiting a day
or so, I went back to the same doctor's of-

210 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

fice. I rang the bell and waited. At last my
same girl came. I changed my voice some, and
asked if the doctor was in. She did not rec-
ognize me. She said in her sweetest voice,
"No, he is not, but come right in and wait a
few minutes, he will be in right away." So po-
lite, so solicitous, so anxious to serve the doc-
tor. She took me for a rich patient. So much
for a silk hat and a long black overcoat.

I wore a silk hat and stylish clothes as long
as I canvassed, and I left off the silk hat as
soon as I quit the road.

Canvassing is a business requiring a special
talent, I might say, many special talents. Suc-
cess, brilliant, prolonged success, cannot come
to a canvasser who is in ill health, for the
work is laborious; it is hard, physical endur-
ance that counts. A man who is unable to
stand on his feet all day, walk all day, and
keep going every day is handicapped. So it
is a part of a canvasser's equipment to know
enough of the laws of health and to be willing
to obey them and does obey them, that gives to
him one of the first requisites necessary to suc-
cess.

Another very important part of a canvass-
er's talents is his mentality. His mind must
have had sufficient development for him to ex-
press what he wishes to say in a simple way,
but above all it must be intelligent to his
listener.

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 211

The ability to express himself intelligently
is only a part of his mental equipment. He
must also be a good listener, and this requires
another divine talent, namely, patience.

No man who wants to do all of the talking in
his interviews with men can succeed as a can-
vasser. It is a curious fact, but nevertheless
true, that some of the poorest talkers insist
on being heard; on the other hand, some of
the best talkers are able to sit still and listen
to a man make a fool of himself. This is a
beautiful exhibition of the divine talent al-
luded to above.

To sit still and listen to statements made,
that you know to be untrue, waiting patiently
for your time to speak, and when your time
comes, if it ever comes, you are ready, and you
do speak in a mild, apologetic manner, so as
not to offend your man, you make your man
see your point, so that you have accomplished
what you went to see Him to do. Then, in
this instance, you have had success. It is a
part of your duty to help straighten out all
of the crooked things in the world; but re-
member this, you cannot straighten out all the
crooked things in one day.

Back of the divine talent, patience, are other
divine talents, namely, meeknes, kindness and
gentleness, and I might add, modesty and ami-
ability. For a pugnacious, domineering, dicta-

212 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

torial spirit will soon meet his match and in
the cat-like controversy that follows, patience,
with all the beautiful qualities back of it, are
lost, and each one of these human volcanoes
will go his way, if permitted to do so, thinking
the other one an unmitigated fool and a
counterfeit.

A canvasser may have good health, mental
capacity, using all wdth skill, so that his dis-
cernment and judgment are sagaciously ap-
lied, and discreetly speaking or keeping silent,
avoiding all useless debates on religion and
politics, so that a wise man may recognize a
kindred spirit, yet these beautiful, essential,
divine and humane developed qualities alone
are insufficient to complete all the qualities
needed to make a first-class successful can-
vasser. These most aesthetic characters are
essential and absolutely necessary in their
place, but there are other qualities, more he-
roic, more energetic, more persevering whicii
put more enthusiasm and life into the work of
the canvasser. These are the dynamos that
keep one moving on to the next interview.
These give gameness to the canvasser, so that
he does not sit down and brood over his dis-
appointment when some ill-bred man, w^hom
he has tried to convince and get him in line
for future business, has snubbed him, ignored
him or insulted him.

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 213

All of these troubles are sure to come to the
canvasser. If the canvasser can only say to
himself, *'If I get one customer out of every ten
men, I see my fortune is made/' This thought
is not intended to cut short any interview and
hurry the canvasser on to the next man, but
is intended as a consolation, and a balm to
his wounded feelings.

The talents that I have mentioned are not
all that are necessary to make a successful can-
vasser, but they are good and essential. I would
mention a good memory as highly necessary
to the canvasser, for if the canvasser will only
remember the things said against his position
as well as the things said in his favor, it gives
him time to find a convincing as well as a re-
spectful answer to all objections made to his
views.

A good canvasser calls up to mind in the
evening all of the interviews of the day. He
seeks for the blunders and their remedies, he
keeps all the successful points of his position
clear in his mind, so that he can use them
at Avill. He studies the characters of men, that
he may win them, without offending them. He
studies his own character that he may cut out
all that is weak and offensive, that he may add
to it all that is discovered to be strong and at-
tractive. He is a good general in his plan-
ning, yet he is more than a soldier in his

214 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

intentions, for the soldier plans to kill in order
to accomplish his purposes, but the canvasser
has no plans which include the killing of his
fellow man. He intends and plans only good
for his brothers. His success depends on the
living of those that he interview's, and not on
their death. The longer that they live and the
more of the canvasser's products are used, the
greater the success of the canvasser.

With some such thoughts as the foregoing
notes, I applied myself to the work that I had
to do.

I made many blunders, but I think I found
them out as soon, or sooner, than others.

Sometimes I would lose my temper and talk
very ugly; if an apology would remedy the evil
done, I would quickly make it. Twice I was so
insulted I really wanted to fight, and invited
my man out into the street for this purpose,
but in each instance my man, though not hav-
ing sense enough to treat a stranger with
courtesy did have sense enough to keep out of a
street fight.

When I had time enough to cool off, I would
see the ludicrous side of the encounter, and
I would have a real good laugh over it. A
laugh is always good medicine for wounded
feelings. If I could have made the other man
laugh I would not have been insulted. It is
the too serious-minded, the brooding ones, who

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 215

get angry and insult you. If you can make him
laugh, or even keep him in a good humor, you
are safe from insult or offensive treatment.
Such an undertaking, to be applied to some
men, is a mighty big job, but it is worth it,
for when you have once made a friend, it is
much easier to keep him.

The qualities essential to success as a can-
vasser that I have enumerated, are but a small
part of the talents really necessary. These
talents may be enumerated and described more
or less accurately, but the real, genuine suc-
cess is achieved by the man, the person, the in-
dividual, back of these talents. He being an
individual, is indescribable. He it is who has
the faith to start on the road to success or
failure. He it is who has the perseverance
to continue His work in the face of all ob-
stacles. He it is who cannot be turned aside
from the plans made by himself. He cannot
be side-tracked and left there alone inactive,
while the main part of the train is on the
through line, moving on to other scenes and
pastures green.

He it is who believes in himself and in his
cause, though other men may doubt him and
deride him. He it is "who holds on when there
is nothing in him but the will which says" to
him to hold on.

He it is who trusts, works, hopes and moves

216 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

on, when others around him, falters, hesitates
and stands still.

He it is who values all truth above riches,
above comfort, above worldly success, above
life, above death.

^^It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore
and see the ships tossed upon the sea; a pleas-
ure to stand in the window of a castle and see
a battle and the adventures thereof below; but
no pleasure is comparable to standing upon the
vantage ground of truth'' (a hill not to be com-
manded, and where the air is always clear and
serene) "and see the errors, and wanderings,
and mists, and tempests in the vale below.

"So always that this prospect be with pity,
and not with swelling pride. Certainly it is
heaven upon earth to have a man's mind move
in charity, rest in Providence, and turn upon
the poles of truth."

It is the honor in his nature that prompts
man to honest, square faithful business deal-
ings. A falsehood mixed with truth may make
it apparently work better, like alloy in gold,
but it is not so valuable when so debased.
There is no vice that will so humiliate and
cover with shame a man who thinks, acts and
lives a lie. Falsehood can live only in the dark,
light and truth will come again and destroy it.

In trying to give to you my ideas of what a
canvasser ought to be, and is to some extent,

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 217

you may note that his character . has grown
from an ordinary solicitor, one who asks favors
of the public, to one whose life and purposes
include the good of others as well as himself.
Being good himself in his own life, he is in-
clined to be good to others. Of all the vir-
tues and beauties of the mind, goodness is the
most like my conception of God. Without it,
or some manifestations of it, man is but a poor
apology of what he ought to be. Man may be
deceived about the power that he possesses,
and fail when he attempts to apply it, he may
be proud and puffed up with what he knows
more than others, but there can be no excuse
of goodness or charity. This goodness that I
allude to is something very much alive, it is not
that goodness, where the man is "so good that
he is good for nothing."

One may be good in a negative way, I mean
to say, inoffensive, and become the prey of
those who are "tyrannical and unjust." The
purpose of goodness should not be to destroy
the source of it. We should seek to do good
to other men, but there is no valid reason why
we should become victims to their capricious
injustice.

Pearls are of little service to swine, nor is
a diamond food for a chicken in the barnyard.
Corn would be more appreciated by either.

It is true that God sends "His rains upon

218 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

the just and unjust" alike; but it is not true
that He gives virtue, goodness, wealth and
honor to all men equally. These special bene-
fits can only be attained by the effort of the
man who achieves them, the talent or capacity
to do so being a gift of God.

This goodness shows itself in various ways.
It is courteous to strangers, recognizing him
as a brother. It is compassionate toward
those in affliction. It forgives offenses. It is
above injuries. It is ever grateful to God
for all benefits received. It values men's
friendships and their minds above their money
and other property. It is willing, and often
does give up its all for the good of others,
and this is from the divine life within.

My brother and I stuck to our self imposed
tasks. He was not so adjustable as I was, and
was not so successful as a canvasser, but he
made a good canvasser, and our trip to all
the cities of the United States with more than
ten thousand population, started up a good
trade on our goods. We made new customers
everywhere that we went.

The first year (1876) that we went out can-
vassing we visited only the largest cities. We
went from Chicago to Milwaukee, Detroit,
Cleveland, Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester, Erie,
Pa., Albany, New York City, Boston, Philadel-
phia, Baltimore, Washington, D. C, Harris-

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 219

burg, Pittsburg, Columbus, Indianapolis, Cin-
cinnati, Louisville, Evansville, Frankfort,
Nashville, Memphis, Atlanta, Montgomery,
New Orleans, Little Rock, Ark., Kansas City,
Omaha, Des Moines, St. Paul, Minneapolis,
Duluth, Lincoln, Denver, Sacramento, San
Francisco and Los Angeles.

After this we canvassed all the good towns
in all the Central and Eastern States, and
later w^e sent other canvassers through the
Southern States and Western States.

As the years passed by our business grew,
by careful expenditure of funds in advertising
we kept growing.

We worked and canvassed, putting out
samples as gifts to the physicians, with liter-
ature describing what the remedy was intend-
ed to be, and what it was intended to do. In
six months we were selling goods in gross
lots. In one year we were making a little
money.

220 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

SUCCESS, BUT NOT COMPLETE.

In 1884 we opened up a business in Eng-
land and France, sending over there Mr. Rich-
ard E. Blount, of Wilson, N. C, who had been
our laboratory man for some years. Our busi-
ness prospered there also.

In 1890 we extended our business into Ger-
many, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Denmark,
Sweden and Holland and these branches also
prospered.

In the same year we established our agency
in Canada and later in Mexico and Brazil.

In 1908, we started business in India, Japan
and China, and all these agencies are growing.
So if the business that I have given my life
to, is properly cared for after I am dead, my
one daughter will never lack for bread and
my two grandchildren will have plenty.

My wife came out to St. Louis first in May,
1878. Our daughter, Helen, was then going
on three months old. Miss Frances Wood came
with us as cook and companion. We made our
first home at 1338 North Jefferson avenue. We
paid twnty-tw^o dollars and fifty cents per
month rent. In 1880 we moved to 3034 Easton
avenue, rent $50.00 per month.

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 221

In 1882 Mrs. Lee came out to visit us. telie
was well pleased with what I had done, and
also pleased to know that we lived so well.

She said that it was reported down in North
Carolina that I was in the saloon business and
she was glad to learn that it was not true.

The same year we moved to 2819 Locust
street in a large commodious house. The rent
of this house was one hundred and twenty-
five dollars per month.

We lived there one year. We had a nice
stable and a brougham and a buggy and two
pair of horses and went driving every after-
noon.

One day w^e were driving out on Marcus ave-
nue and saw a very pretty old rock house
with about three acres around it.

My wife said, "How I would like to live
there; it would be so fine for Nell,'' as we called
our daughter. I took the name of the real
estate men who had it for rent. He surprised
me when he said the rent was thirty-five dol-
lars per month if I would lease it for three
years. I reported on it and my wife said, "Go
and get it before some one else does.''

So I leased it for three years.

My brother-in-law, Kev. Dr. Joseph H. Foy,
with my sister, Katie, with two daughters and
my mother, came to St. Louis in 1877.

222 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

As soon as my wife came out in 1878, my
mother came to live with me. We w^ere all
very happy together, but in 1883, my brother
Cullen, w^ho w^as then a bachelor, rented a
house at 3008 Locust street and invited my
sister, Mrs. Jos. H. Foy, and mother to live
with him.

After they left us, we no longer needed such
a big house as 2819 Locust street and this is
w^hy my wife wanted a smaller house, and the
big yard for our daughter to play in. We lived
on Marcus avenue for eighteen months. My
poor wife was stricken w4th pelvic celulitis,
which was very painful. Our family doctor,
Larew, had so much work for his horse to do
that his horse was hardly able to stand these
long trips in addition to all his city work. So
I volunteered to furnish him an extra horse
for this purpose, which Dr. Larew accepted.
For three months my wife suffered, remain-
ing in bed all the time and being given mor-
phine every day to relieve her intense suffer-
ing. At the end of three months my wife was
still in a critical condition and suffering.

One day Dr. Larew called me aside as he
went out and told me that my wife was not
improving and if I wanted another doctor in
consultation, I might call one in. He said,
"I have done all that I know how to do; and

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 223

I would rather have another doctor to share
the responsibility." I asked him did he know
another doctor that he thought knew more
about such a case than he did. He said there
was a Dr. Barrett who had a great reputation
in such cases, and he thought Dr. Barrett'^
advice would be worth having. So the next
dav he brought Dr. Barrett out' with him.

Dr. Barrett took right hold of the case
and after making a thorough examination
called Dr. Larew and myself into the
other room. I report what he said from mem-
ory. He said, "Mr. Battle, as you are in the
medical line, I treat you as a doctor."

He turned to Dr. Larew and said, "You have
treated the case so far very well, the pelvic
celulitis has subsided, but your patient is run
down and a nervous wreck; get her out of bed
as soon as you can, for when you have had as
many patients as I have had go to bed and
stay there, you will know the value of this
advice.

"Stop the morphine as soon as possible. You
will have lots of trouble and lots of tears, but
stop it. There are two ways, one is to reduce
the dose every day until you get the dose down
to one-thirty-second of a grain a day; this is
simply prolonging the misery, like cutting off
the monkey's tail one inch at a time.

224 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

"The second plan is to cut off at once. I be-
lieve there is less suffering this way. The
agony is more acute for a few days, but the
patient gets over it quicker. You, doctor, must
be the judge.

"One more piece of advice, and I am through.

"Mrs. Battle is very weak and growing weak-
er every day for lack of exercise. She is now
too weak to take exercise. You must give her
exercise, passive exercise, give her massages,
either get somebody w^ho understands it or do
it yourself." I asked him to show me what he
meant.

He said, "Pull off your coat and vest and
get on the bed with your patient and begin
with the left arm, take her hand in your left
hand and with your right hand pass from her
shoulder with a slight pressure on the naked
skin toward her hand. Repeat this until you
see a little pink color come into the arm. Cover
every side of her left arm with your chaffing.

"Second, open and shut her left hand many
times, pulling gently the fingers, like milking
a cow.

"Third, start at the left shoulder with your
left hand under her arm and the right above,
now roll the muscles on the bone, not hard
enough to give pain, but enough to make it

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 225

uncomfortable. This stirs up the circulation
of the blood deeper than the surface chafing.

"Fourth, do the same with the right arm and
both of the legs. It is harder work on the
legs, for they are larger; let the process ex-
tend to the body in every instance.

"Fifth, let your patient lie on her stomach.
You begin at the neck. After kneading this
with enough pressure to feel the bones in the
neck, you may proceed down the spinal cord,
follow the vertebrae down the spine, kneading,
and with a strong pressure pushing your hands,
the balls of your thumbs away from the spine.
This helps the circulation all up and down the
back. A warning I give you, don't be in a
hurry, don't puff and blow like it was hard
work. Don't get to sweating too much. Take
your time. Don't wear out your patient, put
five minutes on each limb twice a day to be
gin with, the same time may be spent on the
neck and back. Gradually increase the time
you spend on each limb, the neck and back till
you are putting in fifteen minutes on each one.
This would make one hour and a half. You
should reach this maximum in two weeks, by
that time your patient will be strong enough
to get up and walk and also recovered to some
extent from the morphine."

226 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

He said further, ^'It will be at least six
weeks before she will get off the morphine so
that she will not miss if

He said, ''The breast and belly should be
kneaded to complete the treatment, but as
Mrs. Battle had been so sore, these parts must
be omitted from the treatment."

I quit business and stayed home, devoting my
time to my wife. I became the masseur. I
did as near as the doctor had told me as I
could. I gave the exercise midly and patiently
at first, and as my wife grew stronger, I in-
creased the pressure and lengthened the time.
My wife grew stronger and stronger each day,
but cutting off the morphine made her so nerv-
ous and filled her so full of aches and pains
that she wished that she w^ere dead. She
could not sleep one minute night or day, at last
from pure exhaustion she w^ould doze a few
minutes at the time. She w^ould throw her
arms and hands up against the head board of
the bed until they had many bruises. She
would throw her legs against the wall and
bruise them. So I padded the head of the bed
with pillows and pulled the bed from the wall.
My wife was delirious off and on for three
weeks, but at last, with lots of patience and
perseverance, we were rewarded by seeing our
dear patient come back to the world of good

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 227

sense and show decided signs of increased
strength and appetite. Without any assist-
ance she got out of bed and walked across the
room. It is certainly amazing what wonder-
ful recuperating powers can be and are given
to another by and through what we call mas-
sage. If you, reader, have an invalid, do what
I have told you that I did, and watch the re-
sults. You will be astonished.

At last my wife was well and strong again
but she said, "I have enough of the country,
let us move back to town again.'^ So we look-
ed for a man to sublease our house to, found
him, and in one more month we were settled
at 3034 Lucas avenue. We lived at this place
for a part of 1885 and all of 1886.

My sister, Mrs. Foy, moved to Omaha, Neb.,
and my mother came back to live with me.

Just before Christmas, 1886, I bought the
house numbered 2813 Lucas avenue, and moved
into it at once.

My poor mother did not live long to enjoy
our own new home. She was taken with pneu-
monia and died in a few days on January 4,
1887. It is a curious thing to note that her
own sister, Henrietta, died in Wake Forest,
N. C, just three days before my mother. So
these two dear sisters who were so devoted to

228 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

each other, and had been separated so long,
were joined together through death without
either one knowing that the other was sick.

A letter came announcing the death of my
Aunt Henrietta, but my mother was too far
gone for us to give her the news.

We lived at this house until 1896, w^hen we
traded it off for our present home at 4463 Lin-
dell Boulevard. This has been our home for
almost fifeen years. It is here that we have
had our greatest joys and our greatest sor-
rows; the brightest days and the blackest
nights. It is here our lovely daughter, after
graduating at the Reed School in New York,
and a trip to Europe with her mother and
I, came back to this new, elegant home, to
gather around her a number of friends to make
her life a round of pleasures and joys; it was
here she met her future husband. It was here
her two children were born. It was here that
she spent so many weary days, when she was
confined to her bed as an invalid, and could
hardly stand on her feet for a few minutes at
a time.

It was here that she came back to health and
strength again.

It is here that my dear wife and I have had
our greatest luxuries; where we have had all
that wealth could give us. It is here that we

AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 229

have entertained our many friends and rela-
tives, giving to them without stint all the
pleasures of a city life. It is here that we have
seen four Presidents pass our door, Mr. Cleve-
land, Mr. McKinley, Mr. Roosevelt and Mr.
Taft.

It is here that we saw all the parades dur-
ing the World's Fair in 1903 and 1904..

It was here in our block that we saw the
greatest- gathering of Roman Catholic Card-
inals, Archbishops, Bishops, Prelates and Lay-
men that has probably ever been gotten to-
gether in America. The occasion was the lay
ing of the corner stone of the three-million-dol-
lar cathedral on the eastern corner of the
block.

It was from this house that my poor broth-
er, Cullen, was buried.

It may be from this house that my wife and
I will take our last ride on earth.

And, may we "so live that when our sum-
mons comes to join that innumerable caravan
which moves to that mysterious realm where
each one shall take his chamber in the silent
halls of death, that we will go, not like the
quarry-slave at night scourged to his dungeon,
but sustained and soothed by an unfaltering
trust, we will approach our graves like one
who wraps the drapery of his couch about him
and lies down to pleasant dreams.''

230 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

If my success has given to me a life, "well
lived, filled with joy and love, if I have had
the trust of pure women and the love of lit-
tle children," if I have finished the task my
God has assigned to me and "filled my niche''
and accomplished the good that I purposed to
do; if I "have looked for the best in others and
gave the best that I had, whether in an im-
proved poppy, a perfect poem or a rescued soul;"
if I have never failed to appreciate earth's
beauty, nor failed to express it, if my "life has
been an inspiration" to others, and "my mem-
ory shall be a benediction" to those who come
after me; then I shall not have lived in vain.

With love to God, the Father, and love to
all His Sons, and love to His Holy Spirit, and
love to all of His creatures,

I am, your obedient servant,

JESSE MERCER BATTLE.

fHiS IITLE H4S BEEN MICROFILMED

This book must r
be taken from tl
Library building.

A

Form No. 471