IRLF 
 
 BIWLING BA 
 
I LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OP 
 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
DOUBLING BACK 
 
Doubling Back 
 
 Autobiography of An Actor 
 Serio Comical 
 
 By EDWARDS HOAG MEADE 
 
 Containing 
 
 Plain Anecdotes of The Stage 
 
 How I Became an Actor and the Result 
 
 Stories While Barnstorming 
 
 and 
 
 Some Original Verse 
 
 Illustrated 
 Bij VADE GARTON 
 
 Price One Dollar 
 
COPYRIGHT 
 NINETEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWARDS HOAG MEADE 
 
 HAMMOND PRESS 
 
 W. B. CONKEY COMPANY 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
Sincerely yours, 
 
 ED. MEADE 
 

 PREFACE AND DEDICATION 
 
 T WISH to dedicate the following work to my many 
 A friends who will be my chief purchasers, memories of 
 whom have formed my chief inspiration in this, my first 
 attempt to appear before them in other capacity than that 
 of the show business. In addition to the friends of my 
 childhood and youth there are several thousand people 
 throughout the rural districts of the middle west and Pacific 
 west whom I regard as my friends, because they were kind 
 enough at some time to attend my show or some show of 
 which I was a member, and to whom I may have afforded 
 a good laugh or two God's way of rejuvenating the aged 
 and redeeming the victims of the demon worry. 
 
 Before beginning the sequential tale told in "Doubling 
 Back," I must tell my readers a few things about myself 
 which will at the same time explain wljy I now meet my 
 friends in print instead of in the good old show way of 
 earlier years. In August, 1912, while taking my company 
 from California to keep several engagements in Oregon, as 
 had long been our custom in the early autumn, I experi- 
 enced a profound stroke of paralysis. I was taken to 
 Fabiola hospital in Oakland, and for twenty-one days I 
 did not move nor speak, and for thirty-one days I did not 
 eat a mouthful of food. From there I was transferred to 
 Dr. Anthony's private residence in San Francisco, and 
 after weeks of the best medical treatment known to science, 
 I hobbled out on both legs, but I had not and never have 
 
 9 
 
 123 
 
10 PEEFACE AND DEDICATION 
 
 since had the complete use of my right side. My right 
 shoulder, arm, hand and leg are so much dead weight upon 
 the living portion of my body and mind. 
 
 Through a friend I read the book "Brain and Per- 
 sonality," by W. Hanna Thomson. The teaching of this 
 book, which is thoroughly scientific, is to the effect that 
 if a person would use his left hand more he would develop 
 the dormant cells on the right side of his brain and thus 
 increase or even double his thinking capacity. Having 
 sustained the stroke of paralysis with full mental powers, 
 but with one-half of my body dead, I, on Thanksgiving 
 day, 1912, determined that I would learn to write with my 
 left hand and thus develop the heretofore but little used 
 side of my brain. For two years I read much and prac- 
 ticed writing with my left hand. The constant use of my 
 left hand and the concentration of my thoughts on one 
 object, namely writing, led me to write this story of my 
 life. In doing this I have had in mind two objects, first 
 to find daily renewed interest in life by enjoying my 
 friends, through memory, and second, to again draw the 
 mind of others from their daily cares by legitimate pleas- 
 ure not, to be sure, by presenting to them a good show, 
 but by providing them with a book as good in its way as 
 was my show in its way. 
 
 I write this book with my left hand, never so used until 
 I was past fifty years old, and transcribed it to the type- 
 writer with only one finger of my left hand. 
 
 I regret that I cannot find words to express the grati- 
 tude I feel towards relatives, friends and acquaintances 
 for all the good things I have received at their hands. 
 
PREFACE AND DEDICATION 11 
 
 I also wish to thank every purchaser of a ticket to my 
 t. r" or a "six bitter," whether 
 
 5 in mountain town, valley town, prairie town or city, 
 and i include all coiu^Lmentar^ -claiming friends and re- 
 cipients of free tickets. 
 
 I thank God for His mercy and I truthfully say that 
 I am now, as ever, a peaceful, happy, contented, jolly and 
 good-natured "Meadie Old Boy." That was my sobriquet. 
 Alba Heywood, with whom I had my start in the show 
 business, never called me anything but "Meadie," when I 
 started in the show business as a property man with him 
 but (I'll tell you that later). 
 
 Memories "they abound in delightful faults" but I 
 know my friends will be lenient, and if a stranger critic 
 should read them, remember that my right-handed brain 
 is over fifty years old and has never been thoroughly 
 "broke in." 
 
MEMORY'S DOUBLING BACK 
 
 In doubling back along life's trail, noting the landmarks bold, 
 Fll see some things I'll not dig out, they are better left untold, 
 So I'll forget the bitter scenes and pass them by, full sail, 
 And while my memory's doubling back I'll write a jolly tale. 
 This trail of over fifty years, not made entire of smiles; 
 I made the grades with perfect ease, while I trudged the weary 
 
 miles. 
 
 I had some wrecks, made some mistakes, but still I'm here intact, 
 To make this repeat journey, now my memory's doubling back. 
 
 Don't think by "perfect ease" I mean the trail was always smooth, 
 That I rolled along the roadway like a marble in a grove; 
 Tho my trail was lined with roses, sharp thorns were hiding 
 
 there; 
 
 There were chasms dark and dreary that were rocky with despair, 
 But I bridged the chasms over with whatever I could get, 
 Oft some dangers only threatened, and at some I'm smiling yet. 
 "Old Scout" is still upon the trail, though he totes an empty 
 
 pack, 
 Come share with him the pleasure of his memory doubling back. 
 
 Memory doubles back with pleasure all along the trail of life; 
 And I live in glorious visions all the hours of joy and strife, 
 I'll be telling things that happened on a trail where .all the tears 
 Fell so very soft and gentle that they never clogged the gears. 
 'Tis a pleasure to be viewing all the roses, thorns and smiles 
 On a trail that surely covers over a half a million miles. 
 But my mind is prone to wander to and fro along the track. 
 All who read will please remember my memory's doubling back. 
 
 13 
 
14 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 MY ANCESTRY AND BIRTH 
 
 Some of my ancestors came to this country about the 
 time of the Pilgrim Fathers ; others were here when Colum- 
 bus discovered America. My mother was Mary Elizabeth 
 Hoag. The Hoags were Quakers, and I have seen their 
 names enrolled upon the records in the old meeting house 
 on Mizzen Top mountain, in Duchess County, New York. 
 My great grandfathers were all Revolutionary heroes and 
 one of them was a member of "The Boston Tea Party." 
 I saw his grave at Cope's Hill Cemetery, Boston. My 
 father was James Morris Meade. The Meades of Virginia 
 were descendants of Pocahontas, and many of us show a 
 trace of the blood down to this generation. I used to 
 think that my father was joking whenever he mentioned 
 it, but as I grew older I saw that he was proud of the 
 fact that he descended from Chief Powhatan and his 
 daughter, Pocahontas. 
 
 The Edwards part of my name is from Jonathan Ed- 
 wards, a noted divine, who died in 1758. He preached 
 the doctrines of foreordination, original sin r punishment 
 after death, etc. When my uncle was born, after whom 
 I was named, a very old lady and family friend wanted 
 to name him Jonathan Edwards Hoag. My grandmother 
 did not fancy the Jonathan part of it, but out of respect 
 for the dear old lady they compromised and named him 
 Edwards Hoag. Therefore I was christened when I was 
 born, Edwards Hoag Meade. 
 
 It has always been a question as to whether I was born 
 on the 31st of July or the first day of August. It was 
 
DOUBLING BACK 15 
 
 midnight and when the doctor looked at his watch it was 
 11:47 or thirteen minutes to twelve. Grandfather's six- 
 foot clock in the kitchen said 12:13. The neighbors and 
 relatives got into an argument with the doctor and mother 
 settled the dispute by saying that she would like my birth- 
 day to be August 1st. The doctor examined his watch and 
 discovered that it had stopped and the event was cele- 
 brated. I took milk and the guests partook of tea, coffee 
 and sandwiches. I think they must have had sandwiches 
 because the event happened at Sandwich, Dekalb County, 
 Illinois, 1863. I weighed eight pounds. 
 
 CHILDHOOD 
 
 About the first thing that I can remember is that I 
 crawled under the gate and across the road to the school- 
 house, which I entered on hands and knees and began to 
 cry for my sister. The pupils and the teacher were con- 
 vulsed with laughter and the kind-hearted teacher told 
 Nellie to take me home. 
 
 My father was in the war at the time of my birth, 127th 
 Regiment, Company F, Illinois Volunteers. He got a fur- 
 lough to come home and see his " bouncing soldier boy," 
 as he always called me. But I cannot remember him until 
 long after the war had closed when he returned from the 
 Physio-medical college, Cincinnati, Ohio, with a trunk full 
 of toys. He also brought several big boxes of big books 
 full of pictures of skeletons and bones. These were a 
 source of great interest to me. 
 
16 
 
 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 Soon after this we moved from Sandwich to the little 
 village of Lee Center and father began the practice of 
 medicine. I recall but a few things that happened at this 
 time, but among them was the eclipse of the sun when 
 chickens went to roost and cows came home to be milked 
 at midday. I heard people say the end of the world had 
 come and I thought we were in for a big celebration. I 
 also- remember that about this time father took me to 
 Amboy and introduced me to General Grant, whom he 
 said was going to be president of the United States. 
 Father also told me a great war was over and a grand 
 and glorious nation had been saved and that thousands 
 of men had been killed and millions of dollars worth of 
 property had been destroyed. These things made but little 
 
 impression on my childish 
 mind. I was much more in- 
 terested in throwing coal at 
 old Brindle, the cow, in her 
 stall, and stealing brandied 
 cherries from the glass fruit 
 jar that was setting upon 
 the office table. There and 
 then my father gave me a 
 good spanking and told me 
 something about the evils of 
 intemperance. He also be- 
 gan to teach me my A, B, 
 C's. When he planted the 
 garden he sowed lettuce and 
 radish seeds in the form of 
 
 DRD'S SOLDIER BQYHX63 
 
NELLIE EDDIE 
 
DOUBLING BACK 17 
 
 letters that spelled my name. When the little green 
 sprouts began to poke their noses through the soil we could 
 spell EDDIE, NELLIE, growing right out of the 
 ground. Father explained that God had made everything 
 that we could see the plants, the stars and every living 
 thing. It was a wonderful mystery to my childish mind 
 and I have never forgotten the lesson. It is 
 
 STILL A MYSTERY 
 
 The ocean, animals and streams, 
 
 Icebergs, mountains, tropic; 
 In fact the entire universe 
 
 Is all so kaleidoscopic. 
 The whole is only made of clay, 
 
 Man, earth, tree, bird and sea, 
 Yet all the planets and the soul 
 
 Are one great mystery. 
 
 Who can tell me how the bee 
 
 Knows how to sip the honey 
 From the rose, and who made the rose? 
 
 Now doesn't it all seem funny? 
 Great elephants, tiny insects, 
 
 Of natural history, 
 And how they walk, talk, think and eat 
 
 Is still a mystery. 
 
 What gives color to the flowers, 
 By the million everywhere? 
 
18 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 What makes plumage for the birds 
 
 Of various colors rare? 
 What makes all the rubies, diamonds, 
 
 Pearls and gold so secretly? 
 We view the clay, but what creates 
 
 Is still a mystery. 
 
 I now began to attend the public schools and had an 
 awful time to learn to spell those big words, " could," 
 " would" and " should," and it was a long time before I 
 grasped their meaning. Father said: "Come right 
 straight home just as soon as school is out," and I prom- 
 ised him that I would, but there were many times that I 
 lingered by the way just to show him that I could. Then 
 talk to me and whip me he would. I could not believe 
 he would until I had received the second thrashing or that 
 he should until years later, and I learned the meaning of 
 those words always to obey my father and mother. 
 
 In 1869 father took me to a circus "just to see the 
 animals," but we saw the parade, the tumblers, the riders 
 and the elephants, also snake charmers, fakers, speelers 
 and contortionists. The next day I thought that I would 
 try to do some of their tricks and managed to get both 
 of my feet over my head; then I fell over and could not 
 get them back. After lying on the barn floor for an hour 
 and a half my mother found me in my helpless condition. 
 I think that another half hour would have finished me. How- 
 ever I loosened all the bones and muscles so that forever 
 afterward I could put both feet back of my head and get 
 them in place again with ease. It was this act which 
 
DOUBLING BACK 19 
 
 caused me to have a terrible headache about this time. I 
 suffered greatly for several days and was sick for several 
 weeks. Upon my recovery it was discovered that my hair 
 was turning white at the age of six. This bit of boyhood 
 fun may also be the cause of my recent stroke of paralysis. 
 In 1870 my parents moved to Piano, Kendall County, 
 Illinois. This is the town where William Deering, the 
 famous harvesting machine man, began the manufacture 
 of self binders and where I found the largest piece of cash 
 that I had ever seen. It was nicely folded up in an old 
 leather purse and proved to be a great big brand new 
 greenback, one dollar bill. I ran to the store as fast as 
 my little legs would carry me and invested it all. I bought 
 forty sticks of gum, some molasses taffy, cookies, peanuts, 
 jaw-breakers and fishhooks. I went to school at 1 o'clock 
 with the entire load and proceeded to give it away to all 
 kinds of urchins. There were Italians, Swedes, Bohemians, 
 Dutch, Dagoes, Americans and colored kids. School was 
 called at 1 :30 p. m., and I was called to the front at about 
 1 :40. The teacher asked me if I gave the children all of 
 that truck and I answered bravely and proudly that I was 
 the boy, whereupon the teacher gave me a chalk box and 
 told me to collect all the gum and other truck and bring 
 it to her. I did so; then she told me to put all that they 
 had been chewing into one chunk. I again obeyed her; 
 then she placed a fool's cap upon my head, set me on a 
 high stool beside her, and forced me to sit there all the 
 afternoon and chew upon that great big wad of conglom- 
 erated gum. Not only this, but she insisted that I smile 
 and look happy while doing this, which was really my 
 
20 
 
 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 first performance in public. When I related the whole 
 story to my father he was so enraged that he went on the 
 war path and, being a descendant of Big Chief Powhatan, 
 he proceeded to get that teacher's scalp. I have never 
 really enjoyed chewing a piece of gum since. 
 
 Father had a drug store in Piano and practiced medi- 
 cine. After the great fire in Chicago, in 1871, he took in 
 a partner and opened a drug store on North Clark street 
 in the big city. This occasioned my first visit to the great 
 railroad center of the United States. It was a wonderful 
 sight to me. Buildings of all kinds were being constructed, 
 temporarily and otherwise, and I have never seen such 
 a busy crowd of people since that time. I remained in 
 Chicago several weeks during that summer's vacation from 
 
 school. Within a few 
 months father's partner 
 proved to be a rascal and in 
 some manner succeded in 
 getting the firm in a mix-up. 
 They dissolved partnership 
 and father went to the Cliff 
 copper mine, at the end of 
 Keweenaw Point, almost in 
 the center of Lake Superior, 
 and became the mining 
 company 's physician, sur- 
 geon and apothecary, while 
 my mother, two sisters, a 
 baby brother and I went 
 to Sandwich, my birth- 
 
 SMILE- EDDIE- SMILE' 
 
DOUBLING BACK 21 
 
 place, five miles distant from Piano. This arrange- 
 ment pleased me very much for nearly all my rela- 
 tives were there Grandmother Hoag and Aunt Char- 
 lotte, Cousin Meades, the Delanos and dear Cousin 
 Curtis, who was my favorite, and with whom I played 
 horse, stole grandma's cookies and got fishhooks caught 
 in my hand. 
 
 That fall, 1872, my little sister Gertrude was taken 
 suddenly ill and died. My father started from the old 
 Clark mine at Copper Harbor, Michigan, but the travel- 
 ing facilities at that time of the year were so bad that he 
 did not arrive until after the funeral. After making us 
 as comfortable as possible, with plenty of coal and pro- 
 visions for the winter, he returned to the mine on the shore 
 of Lake Superior, at the end of the "ThuuJb." 
 
 I DISCOVER THE NORTH POLE 
 
 Charlotte Hoag (Aunt Sholl), youngest daughter of 
 Daniel Hoag, the pioneer, scout, guide and Indian fighter 
 of California from '49 to '68, lived with us until I was 
 nearly ten years old. She was like a mother to me, but 
 she married and went to Prairie du Chien, "Wisconsin, at 
 about this time to live. On Saint Patrick's day, 1873, 
 mother, sister Nellie and baby brother Hubert and I left 
 my native town and started for the North Pole. At least 
 that is what I thought. I had been studying geography 
 and mother had often pointed to the little thumb of land 
 that extends out toward the center of Lake Superior and 
 
22 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 told me that my father was away up there at the end of 
 it and it seemed as though it was the end of the earth. 
 
 We saw the great Saint Patrick's Day parade in Chi- 
 cago and left that city via the Chicago & Northwestern 
 B. B. at 9 p. m., on the 17th of March, 1873, for the Cliff 
 mine, Keweenaw County, upper peninsula of the state 
 of Michigan. We traveled straight north through the 
 state of Wisconsin. When he reached Escanaba, Michigan, 
 our train was blocked in a snowdrift. When we left 
 Illinois the wild flowers were in bloom and the farmers 
 were plowing. 
 
 Leaving Escanaba we kept going north. The railroad 
 across the peninsula had just been completed a few months 
 previous and the locomotives were all of the old-fashioned 
 wood burning type, so they had to stop every few miles 
 to "wood up," while the section hands shoveled frozen 
 snow off the track. We were seven days making the jour- 
 ney, which is now easily made In thirty-six hours. Father 
 came from the end of the thumb, or peninsula, to a place 
 called LaAnse with a team of horses and a big bobsleigh 
 to meet us. LaAnse was the end of the railroad, on the 
 main land across Keweenaw Bay, to the southeast of the 
 thumb, over one hundred miles by wagon road. This dis- 
 tance was made shorter in the winter when freight and 
 stage teams crossed on the ice to Portage lake entry, a 
 small lake that penetrated the base of the thumb. 
 
 We filled the big box of the bobsleigh with robes and 
 hot stones and started out upon the ice. One thing I dis- 
 tinctly remember is that we passed little canvas wind 
 shelters with an Indian sitting on a box in each of them, 
 
DOUBLING BACK 
 
 23 
 
 catching fish through a hole in the ice. I took these 
 Indians to be Esquimos and could imagine that I was 
 slowly freezing to death. I was a happy boy when we 
 arrived at the old log half-way house, which had a great 
 big box stove that held a dozen sticks of four foot wood 
 at a time, and remained red hot nearly all winter. It was 
 a great relief to know that we were no longer riding on 
 ice, but were safe on the land once more, although it was 
 covered with six feet of snow. "We ate a steaming hot 
 dinner, warmed our toes, piled into a sleigh again and rode 
 twenty-five miles more through the forests and over the 
 snow to Houghton. Houghton is the county seat of 
 Houghton County, is situated at the base of the thumb 
 of land and in the great 
 Michigan copper belt. "We 
 arrived at our destination 
 on the next night at the 
 Ciff mine, Keweenaw Coun- 
 ty, Michigan, almost in the 
 very middle of Lake Su- 
 perior, and I actually 
 thought that I was at the 
 North Pole. If I had a 
 good voice I would go on 
 the lecture platform and 
 convince the public that it 
 was not Dr. Cook or Lieu- 
 tenant Perry that discov- 
 ered the Pole. It was 
 
 flHEHO OF COOK OND PERRY- 
 
24 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 Eddie Meade at the age of ten years, and if I was 
 there today (August) I could show you the iceberg between 
 the rocks where I planted the American flag on the Fourth 
 day of July, 1873. 
 
 LITTLE BIG THUMB 
 (To Fred Nichols, Hoton, Mich.) 
 
 I'll not double back to childhood, 
 
 After memories ga-lore; 
 They might not prove of interest, 
 
 Though I have a thousand more; 
 But I must be telling something 
 
 'Bout that little strip of land, 
 That is shaped just like your left thumb 
 
 When you open out your hand. 
 It's surrounded with the water 
 
 Of that great fresh water lake 
 Superior and that's the name 
 
 Upper Michigan should take. 
 "Little Big Thumb-him-heap-rich-um," 
 
 Quoth the tribe of Chippewa, 
 "Silver copper birch bark skookum," 
 
 Grunts the big chief Keweenaw. 
 
 The summer days are charming, 
 But the winter's mighty cold. 
 
 Prom Portage Lake to Lac la Belle, 
 There are mines of wealth untold; 
 
 The lOsceola, Tamarack, 
 Pewaubic, Copper Falls, 
 
DOUBLING BACK 25 
 
 Quiney, Calumet and Hecla, 
 
 Among high cliffs and buried walls. 
 These are the richest copper mines 
 
 There are upon the earth. 
 No one knows how far they go, 
 
 So no one knows their worth. 
 There is one thing Pve often heard, 
 
 Which I'm going to tell you now: 
 How the great mine was discovered 
 
 By Agassiz and a sow. 
 
 It so happened the professor 
 
 And some students just from Yale, 
 Who were studying the geology 
 
 Of the thumb, from hand to nail. 
 One morning at the Halfway house, 
 
 Where they boarded for a while, 
 Wanted roast pork for their dinner 
 
 You should have seen that landlord smile, 
 He said, "There are pigs in plenty 
 
 On that side hill among the rocks, 
 But to catch 'em that's the trouble, 
 
 They're as cunning as a fox." 
 The boys said they would catch 'em 
 
 Just as sure as sure could be; 
 So they started out to get em, 
 
 In the greatest sort of glee. 
 Agassiz joined in with them, 
 
 For he liked to see the fun, 
 To say nothing 'bout the dinner, 
 
 When the noble work was done. 
 The first thing the professor saw 
 
 Was an old sow he tried to stop herj 
 
26 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 She upset him right then he found 
 
 The first big chunk of copper. 
 Thus Calumet and Hekla, richest mine of all, 
 Was discovered by Agassiz when he got that awful fall. 
 
 BACK TO ILLINOIS 
 
 Mother's health was not very good in a country where 
 there were six feet of snow for six months in the year, 
 and so, on the first of September, 1876, we sailed on the 
 steamer J. L. Hurd for Chicago. The steamer arrived 
 safely in Chicago via Marquette, the pictured rocks, 
 through the Sault Ste Marie River and canal across the 
 head of Lake Huron, through the Strait of Mackinac, 
 along the west shore of Lake Michigan and up the dirty 
 old Chicago River to Canal street dock. 
 
 Chicago was now a city of about five hundred thou- 
 sand inhabitants and there were still many piles of ruins 
 that remained from the great fire. 
 
 I attended the Ogden school and applied myself dili- 
 gently. I visited Sandwich before school commenced, dur- 
 ing the Christmas holidays, and again in the spring before 
 we sailed back to the mining country and the " Little Big 
 Thumb." While in Chicago I met with very few boyhood 
 adventures, but saw the new president, Rutherford B. 
 Hayes, and the defeated candidate, Samuel J. Tilden. I 
 often went skating in Lincoln Park, read Oliver Optic's 
 boy stories, Rolla's Travels and a few of "Frank Merri- 
 welTs" stories. In May, when navigation on the great 
 lakes opened, we sailed on a steamer for Hancock, Michi- 
 
DOUBLING BACK 27 
 
 gan, a town situated on the north side of Portage Lake, 
 opposite Houghton. While enroute upon the steamer I 
 had the pleasure of shaking hands with gallant General 
 Phil Sheridan, who was going out to Montana, via Duluth, 
 to get some of the Indians that took part in the battle of 
 " Little Big Horn." We arrived safely in Hancock. I 
 lived there for years and met with many of the experi- 
 ences that fall to the lot of a boy between the age of 
 fourteen and eighteen. Among these was one very provi- 
 dential escape, which I will tell about in another install- 
 ment. 
 
 "FOUR YEARS MORE" IN COPPERDOM 
 
 Hancock, in 1877, was a town of about twenty-five hun- 
 dred inhabitants. The Cliff mine had closed down. Father 
 had opened an office in Hancock to practice medicine. The 
 town is twenty-five miles south of the Old Cliff mine and 
 is supported by the numerous mines that are situated 
 along the top of Quincy Hill. This hill, about a mile high, 
 extends along the shore of the lake to the east and west 
 for several miles. At that time there were several stamp 
 mills at the foot of the hill with a tramways, consisting 
 of a double track. While two ore cars went down the hill 
 at the end of a cable they would draw two empty ones up 
 to the rock house at the brow of the same hill. Here the 
 ore was brought from the mines with a mule, horse, man 
 or steam engine. The mills were gradually filling up the 
 channel of the narrow lake. Since those days Uncle Sam 
 has forced the mining companies to move their mills to 
 
28 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 the shores of Lake Superior. There are copper smelters 
 here where native copper is melted and cast into ingots, 
 also copper works where they manufacture everything from 
 a copper tack to a copper head. 
 
 The regular school term was about to close for the 
 summer vacation when we got to Hancock, so father told 
 us that we need not go to school until fall. That pleased 
 me immensely. I became a telegraph messenger boy and 
 was the only one in the town. There was no such thing 
 as a bicycle at that time. I delivered messages to all the 
 mines and rode up and down the different tramways. 
 Sometimes the cars would become uncoupled, the cable 
 would break or two cars would jump the track. It was 
 very dangerous to be riding at that time, and people were 
 often hurt and even killed, but I escaped, although I often 
 saw the cars run away and watched them go crashing 
 through the mills out into the lake. I learned telegraphy 
 in my new job, but quit in order to attend the public 
 schools in September. I became very much interested in 
 the school at Hancock and didn't even play hookey. 
 Samuel E. Whitney, the big chief and school superin- 
 tendent, had all the kids "buffaloed" with his big round 
 eyes. He could also make a kid howl. When he would 
 shut one eye and peel the other he looked just like a wise 
 old owl. There was one pupil that I will never forget. 
 He is now a famous physician, Dr. Anthony, in San Fran- 
 cisco. Samuel never called a pupil by his name and every 
 pupil was numbered and this particular pupil was No. 1 
 while I was No. 6. No. 1 was a kind of a ringleader and 
 under Samuel 's predecessor had kept the high schoolroom 
 
DOUBLING BACK 
 
 29 
 
 in some sort of a turmoil all the time. When Samuel took 
 hold of the reins it was different and No. 1 became the 
 best pupil in the school and was a shining example for the 
 rest of us. Samuel visited him in San Francisco a few 
 years ago and told the doctor that he could never have 
 managed that bunch of bad boys without him. The wise 
 old owl had seen the ability pupil No. 1 possessed, and by 
 appealing to the boy's pride had cultivated the intellect 
 until No. 1, instead, of being a ringleader in michief, 
 became the great example for us all. Nor did he know 
 how it was done until more than thirty years afterward. 
 
 A CIRCUS (?) 
 
 During the 1878 summer 
 vacation, ably assisted by 
 my school chum, Fred 
 Nichols, I made myself quite 
 an enviable reputation as 
 the manager of a circus. I 
 had seen Barnum's Fore- 
 paugh's and Franklin's cir- 
 cuses in Illinois, so the boys 
 elected me manager. I now 
 had been in Hancock over a 
 year and was a member of 
 the local Turnverein, be- 
 coming quite an athlete. I 
 well remember getting my 
 feet over my head and I was 
 
30 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 soon showing the turners that I could do it. I became 
 something of a contortionist and could almost spell my 
 name in human letters with my frame. If Eingling 
 Brothers' world's greatest shows had been in existence in 
 those days they would have engaged me as a good cash 
 extortionist. 
 
 We built our tent out of burlap bags, old canvas, 
 calico and colored rags. It looked like a crazy quilt with 
 colors so rare that Barnum's greatest show on earth could 
 not compare with it. "We had a stupendous, glittering 
 parade, the hot roasted peanuts and the red lemonade with 
 a concert afterward. Tickets sold for one cent. Our boy 
 clowns, fake elephants and freaks made the copper mining 
 town stare. We did well and raised the admission price 
 to five cents, nor did we have to pay license or commission 
 to a trust either. But alas! some great big jealous, tough 
 boys, burned our kaleidoscopic canvas and our circus per- 
 ished in the dust. I have dreamed of those days many 
 times and thought it was very unjust. But that was noth- 
 ing, the "show biz" and I have very often, in the last few 
 years "went busted," through what seemed then unjust 
 treatment. 
 
 "SIX BOYS DISAPPEAR MYSTERIOUSLY" 
 
 "Six boys disappear mysteriously." That is what 
 might have happened and that is the way the newspapers 
 would probably have headed the sensational story of our 
 disappearance. 
 
DOUBLING BACK 31 
 
 Julius Caesar Lapp, youngest son of William Lapp, 
 candle manufacturer, undertook to initiate four other boys 
 and me into the mysteries of underground copper mining. 
 His father had built a candle factory at the mouth of an 
 old prospect tunnel that extended for fifteen hundred feet 
 into the Quincy hill from a little gulch on the outskirts 
 of the town and used the tunnel, which was well timbered, 
 as a storehouse for the candles. 
 
 Julius was exhibiting the kettles of grease and the 
 candle dipping contrivances one afternoon when business 
 was dull and there were no men folks about the plant. He 
 finished by showing us the warehouse, or mouth of the old 
 tunnel, where hundreds of boxes of candles were stored 
 ready for shipment to the different mines. 1878 was before 
 the days of electric lights at the mines and all the miners 
 used candles. "When we saw the tunnel and the candles 
 we thought it would be great fun to explore the tunnel. 
 Julius supplied us with plenty of candles and led the way 
 around the boulders, over the fallen and unused timbers, 
 through slimy pools where the ice cold water from over- 
 head trickled through the crevices in the rock or dripped 
 from the edges of the massive timbers that supported the 
 tons and tons of earth and rock above us. We exam- 
 ined the slopes, drifts and passes, found some old drills 
 and hammers. We tied the candles to our hats with 
 twine. Finally we came to an old shaft that extended in 
 a perpendicular manner to the surface of the earth, five 
 hundred feet straight up. It was just like being at the 
 bottom of a well and we were almost afraid to look up. 
 Not one of us had ever been at the bottom of a well and 
 
32 
 
 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 when we finally mustered up courage enough to look 
 upward we saw the stars. Our eyes were larger than 
 teacups. We uttered cries of astonishment and stood 
 there a long time just star gazing. It was a little 
 bit chilly, too. Boys don't dress very warm in the 
 summer time in Michigan and we had a regular shivering 
 bee five hundred feet underground. After a close exam- 
 ination of the crib work we continued along the main 
 tunnel and came to the end of it about one hundred feet 
 from the old shaft. Then we proceeded to use our ham- 
 mer and drill. In about half an hour we began the return 
 journey, took one more long look at the stars and arrived 
 at the candle factory grimy, slimy, wet, cold and dirty. 
 "We cleaned up at the factory and felt as though we had 
 
 made a wonderful discovery 
 and could not keep from 
 talking about it, but we 
 never mentioned the experi- 
 ence to another person. The 
 next day we made up the 
 same party and intended to 
 have another good look at 
 the stars in the daytime and 
 also work one more shift at 
 the end of the old tunnel be- 
 yond the shaft. Imagine 
 our horror when we beheld 
 the mass of timber and rock 
 that blocked our way. The 
 shaft had caved in at some 
 
 WHflT MIGHT HRVE BEEN 
 
DOUBLING BACK 33 
 
 time soon after our visit of the day before. We did not 
 waste any time in getting out of that tunnel and we never 
 visited it again. 
 
 I did not sleep well for several nights. "What might 
 have been" our fate if that shaft had caved in when we 
 were at the end of the tunnel using the drill or at the 
 time we were gazing up at the stars! No one but Him 
 that knows all things could ever have told where those 
 six boys had disappeared to so mysteriously. 
 
 LAST WHIPPING 
 
 I got along very nicely in the high school during the 
 term of 1878-79. Samuel nailed a few facts into my brain 
 which I managed to hang on to. Along about that time 
 I took my first lesson in love-making. In fact, I hugged 
 and kissed my first sweetheart just on one side. I talked 
 with her, walked with her and wrote a billet-doux every 
 day. 
 
 Among my father's most stringent laws were rules 
 that I report at home immediately after school, never be 
 out after 9 o'clock without his consent, and always come 
 straight home after service on the Sabbath evening. But 
 my sweetheart got me all mixed up. No matter how hard 
 I tried, father's laws were disobeyed. For Jolly Belle I 
 would have gladly laid me down and died. 
 
 Belle Moralee, handsome, tall, 
 With a waist so slim and small, 
 To me she looked the best of all, 
 Jolly, sweet and smart. 
 
34 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 She had such a lovely smile 
 And she wore it all the while, 
 No wonder that it did beguile 
 My boyish heart. 
 
 Oh, she dressed so prim and neat, 
 With such dainty little feet, 
 She was a beauty hard to beat, 
 Dressed all in pink. 
 
 Her eyes were bluest blue, 
 She could flirt some with 'em, too, 
 When she looked right straight at you 
 And slyly winked. 
 
 Oh, the joy that she could bring 
 When she'd laugh or when she'd sing, 
 It was like the birds in spring 
 To hear her voice. 
 
 How she loved a lively talk, 
 Better yet a nice long walk 
 With some soft and spoony gawk, 
 I was her choice. 
 
 My father had read a strict law that said, "Remember, 
 son Eddie, be home at nine." 
 
 Home late, 
 
 Shoes slipping, 
 Sneaked in, 
 
 Toe tipping, 
 Dad waits, 
 
 Last whipping 
 I sure got mine. 
 
DOUBLING BACK 35 
 
 YOUTH 
 
 I was sixteen years old in the summer of 1879, although 
 I was only four feet eleven and weighed sixty-nine pounds 
 on the Turnverein scales. I was a wiry kid, as a certain 
 Houghton boy found out when he ran up and kicked me 
 from behind. I had been well trained at the Turnverein 
 and that boy got all that was coining to him. Afterwards, 
 when I joined the Houghton Military company, Jack Hiar- 
 ris, whom I had knocked out in less than ten rounds, was 
 a good friend. The evening I joined and entered the 
 awkward squad Harris was the instructor. I had not seen 
 him since the day of the fight. He recognized me and 
 said: "You are the little cuss that licked me last winter, 
 ain't you?" I answered rather modestly, "Might be. M 
 Then he told me that I was all right, and when we met in 
 Boston, in 1891, where he was attending the Institution 
 of Technology, we celebrated the memory of that fight sev- 
 eral times. 
 
 I began to tire of algebra, ancient history and so forth 
 at the high school, so when Mr. Kibbee, editor of the 
 Northwestern Mining Journal, asked me how I would like 
 to learn to be a printer and offered me a job in his office 
 I accepted. On Christmas, 1879, he presented me with a 
 copy of Gulliver's Travels with the following inscription: 
 
 "One of the best books, hitting hard licks at some of 
 the funniest follies of men, to one of the best boys that I 
 have ever met, hoping that he will become a successful 
 man. Yours, F. P. Kibbee." 
 
 I remained in the printing office with Mr. Kibbee as 
 
36 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 a printer's devil until the spring of 1881. One evening 
 when we were late in getting out the weekly sheet the fore- 
 man, being slightly intoxicated and in a great hurry, pied 
 one of the forms while placing it on the bed of the old 
 Hoe press. It made him so angry that he threw the fly, 
 shooting stick, mallet, planer and furniture at me while 
 I was putting ink into the fountain with a large wooden 
 spatchel. I struck him on the side of the face with ink, 
 spatchel and a coal oil can just to show him that the fore- 
 man could not beat the devil. Mr. Kibbee quieted the 
 foreman by paying him off. It happened to be the editorial 
 page. After cleaning up the pi, the editor wrote a stickful 
 of copy, explaining the mishap and the amount of wisdom 
 those editorials contained. We ran it right in the center 
 of the page and had the Northwestern Mining Journal in 
 the postoffice before midnight. 
 
 In January of this year my father accepted the position 
 of physician and surgeon of the Quinnesec Iron mine, at 
 Quinnesec, Michigan. This was about one hundred miles 
 south of the copper belt, at the lower edge of the upper 
 peninsula, which was known as the Menominee Iron Range, 
 near the "Wisconsin State line. As soon as navigation 
 opened, home for me was a thing of the past. My mother, 
 sister and brother Hubert took the steamer for Chicago 
 and went to Sandwich for a visit among relatives. 
 
 Previous to this time I had left the employment of Mr. 
 Kibbee and, in company with Arthur Noble, an amateur 
 editor; Matthew Kelly, a printer, and I myself as general 
 assistant and devil, we purchased a second-hand outfit and 
 started The Calumet News at the Calumet & Hecla mine, 
 
DOUBLING BACK 37 
 
 which, was situated twelve miles north, of Hancock. In 
 1881 The Calumet News was printed on a Washington 
 press once a week and we had two hundred subscribers 
 among the population of about two thousand people. 
 Today it is The Calumet Daily Mining News, with a sub- 
 scription list that extends to all parts of the world. It 
 also is the authentic organ for all copper mining news in 
 the Lake Superior district. 
 
 Why didn't I stay with it? Well, partner Noble went 
 away on business about the first of July, Partner Kelly 
 got on a big spree and partner Meade got out the paper 
 alone, with the assistance of a boy to run the big roller 
 on the Washington. In the meantime I telegraphed to 
 partner Noble, who returned to Calumet, and after dis- 
 solving partnership with Kelly we sold out to Fred 
 Mackinzie. The last that I knew he was still the owner and 
 was not far from being a millionaire. 
 
 I got mighty homesick after I got out of work. After 
 visiting a few days at Hancock and Houghton, including 
 my Houghton girl with whom I spent the Fourth, I joined 
 my father at Quinnesec. 
 
 Blithful Birdie Mclntire, 
 
 Oh! my! how she could skate. 
 When first I saw her on the ice, 
 
 I thought Fd met my fate; 
 When the lake was frozen over 
 
 For the first time, she would say: 
 "Oh! mother, may I go out to skate?" 
 
 "No, no, my ponderous daughter, 
 The ice is too thin to support your weight, 
 
 You'd suffocate under the water." 
 
38 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 The above verse was composed by Jo Hambitzer (P. 0. 
 Clerk, Hancock, 1878). 
 
 The change from Copperdom to Irondom was so great 
 that I contracted typhoid fever, after I had been with my 
 father, at the Quinnesec hotel a few days. Father pulled 
 me through all right. One day after I began to walk about 
 some, father presented me with a rifle. Dr. "Walker, a 
 dentist stopping at the hotel, told me to walk down to the 
 Menominee River, a mile and a half distant, and perhaps 
 I would see a deer or a bear. He said that deer were 
 plentiful and that a bear had been seen quite recently 
 right by the river. 
 
 After dinner I took my rifle and strolled along toward 
 the river. I was not very strong and when I arrived at 
 the top of the steep embankment I saw the beautiful 
 Menominee River for the first time, as it rushed along 
 about three hundred feet below the cliff upon which I was 
 standing. While gazing at the beautiful river, flowing 
 along swiftly among the gray rocks, with great pine trees 
 and tangled shrubbery, brush, vines and wild flowers grow- 
 ing along its banks, I saw something moving through the 
 brush, near an old stump, close to the river. My heart 
 began to beat very fast. I sneaked along carefully and 
 managed to get a large tree between myself and the object 
 sought. I rubbered around the tree with one eye and a 
 long neck. Soon I saw a large black bear sniffing the 
 balmy air and the wind was gently blowing right toward 
 him from my position behind the tree. My heart was 
 thumping loud enough to have been heard above the roar 
 of the falls, which were half a mile away. I know that 
 
DOUBLING BACK 39 
 
 bear heard the bumping, because, just as I took another 
 look, he roared, shook his right ear and seemed to be get- 
 ting ready for battle. I tried to raise my rifle into a 
 shooting position, but it was too heavy. I must take a 
 shot. It would never do to* go back to the hotel and say 
 that I saw a bear and was afraid to take a shot at him. 
 So, I wiped the perspiration off my face, raised the ham- 
 mer of the rifle and thought : ' ' That bear will never know 
 from whence the bullet comes, and if I wound him, and 
 he starts toward me, I'll hit him in a vital spot and he'll 
 die before he can ever get to this tree which I can climb 
 if necessary." 
 
 As I leaned against that tree and took a careful aim, 
 
 The bear stood up with an angry snort, 
 
 And I heard the clink of chain I 
 
 Oh! the clinkity-clink of that iron chain, 
 
 I never heard a sweeter strain; 
 
 I was rigid till I heard it again 
 
 Then the truth flashed through my brain, 
 
 Then I turned cold and nearly fainted, 
 
 While my eyesight, it grew dim; 
 
 ; Twas a tame bear securely chained up 
 
 That belonged to "Limber Jim." 
 
 It was an awful sensation for a half sick walking- 
 typhoid-fever man to experience. When I told the doctor 
 how near I came to killing ( ?) that bear, he and all the 
 guests at the hotel had a very hearty laugh at my expense. 
 The bear was not chained securely after all. It was only 
 a few days afterward that he escaped one night, visited 
 
40 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 a boarding house that contained a lot of ladies ( ?) near 
 the railroad track, two miles from town, and made a scat- 
 tering. 
 
 The sequel to this little story is, that a traveling man 
 purchased "Limber Jim's" bear and shipped him to Chi- 
 cago, with an agreement that he was to receive pay when 
 the animal was delivered at Lincoln Park and placed in 
 the pits, in first-class condition. It seems that when they 
 fed the bear, upon his arrival at the freight depot, the 
 traveling man failed to fasten the door of his cage per- 
 fectly, so when the wagon that was conveying the bear 
 turned the corner at Clark and Madison streets, Mr. Bear 
 hopped out and climbed a telephone pole. A very large 
 crowd gathered to see the sight. Bruin became entangled 
 among the wires, and business in the city was suspended 
 for the rest of the day. The streets were blocked with 
 firemen, policemen, engines, hook and ladder apparatus, 
 and would-be wild animal trappers and trainers. There 
 were pickpockets, thieves and wild-eyed stock speculators, 
 runaway horses and repair outfits of all manner and 
 description; but none of them could climb the pole and 
 capture the bear. Finally a town marshal from some 
 western state (I think he was from Coos County, Oregon) 
 cleared a space of about twenty feet at the foot of the 
 telegraph pole, and after securing a long piece of soft 
 rope, he lassoed the bear. "With the assistance of a few 
 hundred bystanders and the police, he dragged him to the 
 ground and into his cage, where bruin very quietly lay 
 down to rest, almost strangled to death. When the streets 
 were cleared the traveling man could not be found. The 
 
DOUBLING BACK 41 
 
 bear was taken to Lincoln Park, placed in a strong cage, 
 recovered and lived to amuse the children for many years, 
 showing them how easily he could catch and eat their 
 peanuts. 
 
 From the day I nearly shot the bear I gradually grew 
 stronger. Father and I became great companions. I rode 
 horseback, clerked in a drug store, shot at deer, drove a 
 delivery wagon and held a job as "newsy" and "peanut 
 butcher" on the local. 
 
 In December I went to Illinois to see my mother, who 
 was visiting at Sandwich. After a few days I went out 
 to visit my Uncle Calvin Hlough on the farm, together 
 with my Cousin Curtis. One day we were amusing our- 
 selves with an old muzzle loading shotgun by trying to 
 shoot some squirrels that were in the grove a short dis- 
 tance from the farmhouse. I succeeded in getting a shot 
 at a very large silver gray squirrel. The little fellow ran 
 into a hole that was about twenty feet from the ground, 
 in an old oak tree that was nearly ten feet in circumfer- 
 ence. Being determined to get that squirrel we built a 
 scaffold with some rails which we secured from a neighbor- 
 ing fence. Curtis climbed to the top of this scaffold and 
 with one foot on the limb of the tree and the other braced 
 against the top end of a rail, while his left arm was cir- 
 cled about a limb that was just above his head, he called 
 for a pole with which to poke into the hole, where Mister 
 Squirrel had entered. I handed him the pole, got the shot- 
 gun and stood close to the tree, so that the squirrel could 
 not see me when he would run out of the hole, a few feet 
 above the one that Curtis was jabbing the pole into. He 
 
42 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 yelled, "look out," and just as I looked up the fence rail 
 that he had been bracing himself and standing upon with 
 his right foot, struck the gun that I was holding, knocking 
 it against my face so that the muzzle of the left barrel, 
 which I had discharged at the squirrel a few moments be- 
 fore, hit me plump upon the left eye. The charge of powder 
 and shot that were in the right-hand barrel cleaned every- 
 thing off the left side of my forehead, leaving the bone 
 well exposed with several very perpendicular red lines in 
 the membrane of the bone, just to show how close the shot 
 could get to my brain without getting me. Providence 
 had once more interfered and it seemed that I was being 
 preserved for some purpose. I had now experienced two 
 very narrow escapes from death. I recovered in a few 
 weeks, but was blind in one eye for several months. With 
 my head in a bandage I returned to Sandwich where I 
 secured the position of time clerk with the Sandwich En- 
 terprise Manufacturing company. I attended church reg- 
 ularly, fell head over heels in love with lone Hummel and 
 thought I was settled for life. Mother, sister, my ten-year- 
 old brother and I had a nice home. Father visited us from 
 Michigan occasionally. My sister Nellie married Edward 
 Harvey, in 1882, then mother went to Quinnesec with 
 father. I continued to love sweet lone and worked in the 
 office of the corn plow shop nearly ten hours for six days 
 in each week. 
 
 After mother returned to Michigan I made my home 
 with my sister and formed a great attachment for her 
 husband. They left me in 1883 and went to California, 
 when their son was six weeks old. They named him Paul. 
 
DOUBLING BACK 
 
 43 
 
 He has since became a famotts actor. I did not see him 
 from 1886, or my dear sister, until 1901, a period of fif- 
 teen years. . 
 
 A BUMBLING ACTOR BEE 
 
 While I was in high school at Hancock I frequently 
 took part in entertainments of various kinds that were ar- 
 ranged by the pupils and teachers. There must have been 
 a bumbling actor bee buzzing around even at that time and 
 I didn't know it. Again in 1883 it was buzzing and I 
 took part in a number of amateur theatrical performances 
 with some success. Friends began to say that I was going 
 to be an actor. I never thought of being a show man and 
 seeing nearly all the towns that are found upon the 
 U. S. map, although I did 
 eventually. 
 
 A TWELVE-POUND 
 CHERUB 
 
 (The Birth of Paul Harvey) 
 Ed Harvey and I were smok- 
 ing and he was in a mood 
 for joking, 
 
 While a bird above was soar- 
 ing and the people al- 
 ways roaring, 
 
 In California as well as in 
 New York. 
 
 fl 12 
 
 CHERUB 
 
44 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 He said there'd be a brilliant ending of my job of office tending, 
 And that I better cease the blending of love and money spending, 
 And help him celebrate the coming of a stork. 
 
 From the sky that stork came wending its way to earth de- 
 scending, 
 
 With a soul safely defending His cries the air was rending; 
 I saw Paul after bathing that bleak September day. 
 
 "Wire messages Ed was sending, friends and neighbors all were 
 
 lending 
 Advice for babies and their tending I looked down with one 
 
 knee bending 
 At that cherub as in blankets soft he lay. 
 
 Twelve pound cherub kept on growing, always laughing, cooing, 
 
 crowing, 
 At his Uncle Edwards' clowning, so he never saw me frowning, 
 
 His mother said that he'd been marked for me. 
 As to that I am not saying, but with parents he went straying 
 Off to California playing, leaving Uncle Edwards praying 
 
 That once more this cherub he would see. 
 
 THE GIRL THAT I LOVED BEST 
 
 I really was in love with. lone Hummel and though 
 other girls, previous to the year of 1882 and up to the 
 present, occupied my attention, she was the girl that I 
 loved best and while I was in Sandwich, from December 
 31, 1881, .until August 1, 1884, we enjoyed each other's 
 society at every opportunity. Her father used to take 
 off his shoes at nine o'clock on the evenings that I called 
 
DOUBLING BACK 45 
 
 and bang them against the door of his sleeping apart- 
 ment, as a gentle hint that it was bedtime. He liked me 
 as a young man but did not want me for a son-in-law. 
 I finally became discouraged and lost my job. I believe 
 that it was lone's spirit that prompted me to write this 
 biography. Just before attempting it I dreamed about 
 lone and the next morning I wrote the following verses 
 in memory of Sweet lone, who gave her life for a life, 
 even as her mother gave her life when a child was born 
 into the world. 
 
 SWEET IONE 
 
 I awakened at midnight in the house all alone, 
 
 And imagined I saw your spirit, lone; 
 
 My mind pierced the darkness on a screen it was thrown, 
 
 A vision quite perfect of you, Sweet lone. 
 
 I scarcely breathed as I whispered your name; 
 
 And the smile on your lips was ever the same, 
 
 As when I last saw you, within your own home 
 
 My memory still loves you, my own Sweet lone. 
 
 lone, my own, yes, my own, Sweet lone; 
 
 My first love was given to you, Sweet lone; 
 
 Your soul it hath gone unto that unknown, 
 
 Yet, your spirit still lingers quite near, Sweet lone. 
 
 lOften in day dreams, when I am alone, 
 I remember the hours spent with you, Sweet lone; 
 The sleigh rides, the parties, the evenings at home, 
 The music and dancing; Oh! why did I roam; 
 
46 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 Then your marriage soon after your soul passed away 
 A life for a life you gave on that day, 
 When a child came to place you on motherhood's throne, 
 And now you're God's message to me, Sweet lone. 
 
 A MAN (?) 
 
 Thus ended twenty-one years of moving about. I was 
 not destined to remain long enough in one spot to get 
 thoroughly rooted, and yet I tried hard. My life had 
 been spared several times and I was now old enough to 
 have some sense. I had known love, romance and some 
 adventure, but I was more like a boy of sixteen than a 
 man, for my experience had been mild and innocent. 
 I think the spirit of my Quaker grandfather, Daniel Hoag, 
 was directing my footsteps and in time led me to Cali- 
 fornia, where I was to ferret out the cause of his silence 
 since the year of 1859, and learn something of his life and 
 death. At the time I was of age I did not know enough 
 to ever be grateful for having attained man's estate or 
 I might have done something to show my gratitude. 
 
 AN ILLINOIS SANDWICH 
 
 This big Sandwich is in Dekalb County, northern part 
 of the State of Illinois. What large village does it help 
 to support? How did it get its name? What is it noted 
 for? These questions and similar ones have frequently 
 been asked by people who have heard of the place but 
 are not acquainted with the geography of the State, in 
 
DOUBLING BACK 47 
 
 and about the environments of one of the greatest cities 
 of the world Chicago. 
 
 Sandwich is a town of about 3,000 inhabitants and as 
 it cut quite a figure in my history and was a landmark that 
 I passed frequently on my trail, I must give it a little write- 
 up. I have not known many people, who were born there, 
 that ever became famous, unless it was the humorist, Brick 
 Pomeroy, and I doubt if he was born in the little agri- 
 cultural inland city. 
 
 The place is agricultural because it is surrounded with 
 cornfields and manufactories of all kinds of corn planting, 
 cultivating, harvesting, and feed grinding implements, 
 windmills, pumps, barb wire and binders. It is sixty- 
 three miles from Chicago, on the C., B. & Q., that makes 
 it famous, as I have been told the "Q" owns and controls 
 more miles of railroad than any other railroad company 
 in the world. 
 
 It received its name from a colony of New Yorkers, 
 my grandfather Hoag among them, who settled upon the 
 beautiful prairie. There being a colony of settlers on the 
 east and another ten miles west, they named the district 
 Sandwich and it was not many years until Sandwich 
 outgrew both Somonauk and Piano, with its large agri- 
 cultural implement manufacturing plants, schools, churches 
 and shade trees. 
 
 I was there at birth, babyhood, boyhood, youth and 
 manhood, although I never lived there more than four 
 years all told. I visited relatives and friends there a 
 great many times, while living east of the Rockies and I 
 had lots of fun and sorrow in dear old Sandwich. My 
 
48 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 memory doubles back that far very often, for it is a land- 
 mark that has always directed me in the right path, but 
 there were some obstacles around there that proved mighty 
 hard to climb over love, disappointment, death. 
 
 THE LADY WITH FORMS 
 
 (1884.) 
 
 I'm telling the truth when I say that I was discharged 
 from the office force of the Corn Plow works at Sandwich 
 for being more attentive to my sweetheart than I was to 
 my job. My prospective father-in-law was a stockholder 
 in the company and he did not want me hanging 'round, 
 so it was an easy matter to have me fired. He thought 
 I would then leave town, but I secured a job in the print- 
 ing office and kept hanging around until I bought a pros- 
 pectus of " forms." It was then, I imagined, that I would 
 be on the road to fortune. That was what the lady told 
 me, anyhow. 
 
 One day the postmaster told me there was a grand 
 lady who wanted to see me. Then the druggist, whom I 
 assisted evenings, said there would be a lady at the store 
 to see me at seven o'clock that evening, on a very im- 
 portant matter. I saw the lady she was magnificent! 
 She had a flow of language equal to the greatest of all 
 silver-tongued orators. In a few minutes I had signed 
 up and agreed to travel with her and her troupe of book 
 agents into the State of Kansas. I paid her seven dollars! 
 for a prospectus and a copy of "Kelley's Compendium of 
 
DOUBLING BACK 49 
 
 Forms." She explained how easy it was to sell the work 
 and that I should start immediately, so as to get familiar 
 with my duties and thus be prepared to join her and the 
 little troupe inside of ten days. "Within a year I was to 
 be general agent for some state and have an income that 
 would be equal to that of a United States senator. 
 
 I quit my job with the druggist and took the train the 
 next morning for Dixon, an adjoining town, to try my 
 luck. Alas ! the first call I made was at a modest looking 
 cottage. The lady of the house said she did not have time 
 to talk to me and slammed the door in my face, at the 
 same time my enthusiasm was slammed into my stomach, 
 I was faint and hungry. I saw that I was not cut out 
 right for a book agent. After thinking the matter over a 
 while I concluded that I would try to sell the farmers. 
 "Kelley's Compendium of Forms" was just what they 
 needed. I started for the country, sold seven books in 
 seven days, delivered them and quit the book agent busi- 
 ness forever. 
 
 ON THE ROAD 
 
 I meet William J. McKinley. 
 
 While a book agent at Dixon I also sold campaign 
 lithographs of Grover Cleveland to help pay expenses, 
 and all the time I was a black Republican just because 
 my father was. Isn't that reason enough? I cast my 
 first vote for James G. Elaine. 
 
 Just before leaving Dixon I accidentally met Albert 
 Alonzo Root, an advertising man. He explained that he 
 
50 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 employed agents to solicit advertisements from the mer- 
 chants in different towns, placed them in the form of a 
 directory and paid the agents a good commission. He and 
 his wife made the directories with the auto shading pens 
 and were quite prosperous. I became an agent for him 
 and traveled as far east as Borne, New York, and visited 
 towns in the states of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsyl- 
 vania and New York. 
 
 I shook hands with Grover Cleveland in Buffalo, 
 James G. Elaine in Rochester and General Ben Butler in 
 Borne, New York. I passed through Mehoopany, Meshop- 
 pen, Shickshinny, Wilkes-Barre, Oil City, Erie and Pitts- 
 burgh. I saw Buffalo Bill at Erie and the Black Crook 
 at Meadville. I visited Ashtabula, Cleveland and Can- 
 ton, Ohio. 
 
 We made a business directory in Canton, and William 
 J. McKinley, then an attorney in that city, assisted me in 
 soliciting some of the ads. I could prove this if Bill was 
 alive. He introduced me to several merchants but he 
 never said a word to me about the tariff. 
 
 I first saw incandescent lights in Canton; it was also 
 here that I drank my first glass of lager beer. In fact, 
 Canton, Ohio, is quite a landmark on the trail, and my 
 friend Bill was a good fellow. 
 
 BACK TO CHAMPAIGN (ILL.) 
 
 We journeyed westward in the spring of 1885, through 
 Ohio and up into Michigan. Detroit, Ypsilanti, Battle 
 
DOUBLING BACK 51 
 
 Creek and Lansing cities that used to make burglar-proof 
 safes, wagons, threshing machines and windmills instead 
 of automobiles, flying machines, featherbone and break- 
 fast foods. From southern Michigan we traveled south 
 across northern Indiana, stopping at the state prison in 
 Michigan City; thence into Illinois and rested in Cham- 
 paign for a few weeks. 
 
 Of course I was anxious to see my sweetheart at Sand- 
 wich and took a run up there for a few days. Soon I 
 discovered that " grass had grown in untrodden places. " 
 Her father and Sid Hobbs, during my absence, had fixed 
 things so that Sid was her accepted suitor. They were 
 to be married in a few days so I took the "Q" back to 
 Champaign. 
 
 Champaign was a dry college town. I remained there 
 several weeks. Mr. Boot and I got up a band tournament 
 and had a good time. The Boots kept me busy and tried 
 to console me in my disappointment, as did the landlord 
 of the little hotel. His name was Peregrin White and he 
 was a descendant of the first white child born among the Pil- 
 grims, after they landed in America. I told him that I 
 only wished that I was one of the originals at that moment 
 so people wouldn't talk to me. We had a Plymouth Bock 
 chicken for dinner and after that I felt better. 'We 
 straightened up our affairs with the different bands, then 
 went to Celina Lake, Ohio (the largest artificial lake in 
 the world), arranged another band contest, fished in the 
 lake, read dailies, dime novels and tracts until the band 
 contest broke up in a row. Then we departed for Three 
 Oaks and Warren's Featherbone factory in Michigan. 
 
52 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 A BAND CONTEST 
 
 The Swede's opinion: 
 Say you fellar, stop, 
 I tale you sure pop, 
 
 That Swede band she's the best one sure thing 
 When she make dat bully noise, 
 Than she fulls me full of yoys, 
 
 That I feel youst like I dance and sing. 
 I feel youst like balloon, 
 Want to fly right o'er the moon, 
 
 And light with both feet in the sand. 
 My neck she all swell up 
 Youst like a bull dog pup, 
 
 When I hear dat bully Swede boy band. 
 
 The Italian's opinion : 
 
 Well! I guessa fora de big musicka place, 
 
 Italy he sura taka some cake! 
 I willa not makka some fun of your face! 
 
 But this Italiana banda is Jake! 
 I feela de dago red shoota tru ma vein! 
 
 Ana ma blood beena all on fire! 
 I forgetta ina name! 
 
 I loosa all pain! 
 
 Mya brain floata higher an' higher. 
 
 The street kids opinion: 
 
 Say! cull! der ain't no odder band in de frame, 
 
 Of dis American United States, 
 From Portland, Ore., to dat odder Port., in Maine, 
 
 What will ever play inside de Pearly Gates. 
 
DOUBLING BACK 
 
 53 
 
 I'll bet, when de angels sings der heav'nly song 
 Of welcom to all us kids, what's good; 
 
 You'll hear de Streed Kid's band 
 
 Playin' in de big grand stand, 
 
 An' these odder bands will all be splittin' wood. 
 
 THE ACTING BEE BUMBLING 
 (1885.) 
 
 I became first interested in snow acting people in July, 
 1885, at Dowagiac, Michigan, when I met 0. W. Heywood, 
 advance agent and manager for Alba Heywood, imper- 
 sonator, humorist and comedian. 
 
 "We became quite well ac- 
 quainted at the hotel where j 
 we were staying over Sun- 
 day. "We took a long walk 
 together, visited the ceme- 
 tery on purpose to read the 
 inscriptions on a famous 
 monument that had been 
 erected by a wealthy old 
 infidel, who was still living, 
 and here is one of them: 
 
 "Here lies A B , 
 
 who died (date) as he lived 
 disbeliever in God and 
 
 *!5 PER flONTH BND COKES 
 
 the Bible." I am sure the 
 man is now dead and per- 
 
54 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 haps he is sitting on the top of a red hot monument, writ- 
 ing red hot articles on Atheism, with a red hot pencil, in 
 the place where infidels ought to go. 
 
 I explained my business to Mr. Heywood and he told 
 me their season was just closing and that he would like to 
 enter into some kind of an arrangement with me so that 
 he could keep busy and at the same time make a little 
 money and enjoy a vacation from the show business. I 
 left Alonso's employ and met Heywood at the Sweets 
 hotel in Grand Rapids, by appointment. Together we 
 made directories in all of the small towns near the city 
 and enjoyed the boating, fishing, skating rinks, girls and 
 carriage rides until he was called to headquarters, in order 
 to reorganize the show for the '85 and '86 season. I went 
 with him to the Heywood farm, near Kalamazoo, saw the 
 mother, father, sisters and three younger brothers with 
 bare feet and cheeks of tan, also the great Alba Heywood 
 [himself. 
 
 They all interested me so much that I wanted to join 
 the show and it resulted in my signing up for fifteen dol- 
 lars a month and cakes. My name went on the posters as 
 manager, while in reality I was only a property man. I 
 registered the troupe's names in auto shading pen letters, 
 attended to the baggage, swept the stage, rustled furni- 
 ture, gathered lithos, looked after the photos, took tickets; 
 at the door and peddled bills all over the towns; and I 
 think I earned my salary. 
 
 The company numbered five, all men, there being a 
 piano player, flute player, female prima donna imperson- 
 ator, Mr. Heywood and I. Mr. Heywood was the whole 
 
DOUBLING BACK 55 
 
 show, impersonating all kinds of characters, reciting and 
 singing poems and songs in dialect from "Miss Killman- 
 segg and Her Golden Leg" to "Peekaboo." He began, 
 calling me "Meadie, Old Boy," and it was not long until 
 it was "Meadie this" and "Meadie that." We opened in 
 their little home town and proceeded to tour Michigan 
 with the Alba Heywood company, all one night stands. 
 
 A LICORICE JUICE LANDLORD 
 
 Chewing tobacco is a filthy habit. One morning the 
 little troupe of five arrived at the hotel in Homer. We 
 went into the office and I began to do the grand register- 
 ing act. The landlord was out in front of the hotel, near 
 the curb, washing out the spittoons. A fellow townsman 
 passed along and said: "Good morning, Bob, cleaning out 
 the snipes, eh?" Bob said: "Yep, got a show troupe in 
 this mornin'. They're ginerally good terbaccer chewers, 
 so I got to prepare. 'Spose they'll spit all over the floor 
 and the wall anyhow and never see the spittoons. ' ' 
 
 Mr. Heywood overheard this short dialogue and it 
 made him a bit angry. Not one of us chewed tobacco and 
 I was the only member that smoked. Mr. Heywood wanted 
 to show the landlord that he was mistaken, so he went up 
 the street and returned in a few minutes with five large 
 sticks of black licorice and he said: "Boys, stick around 
 the hotel office this morning and chew licorice to beat the 
 band. Fill up the spittoons and you need not be particular 
 about hitting them every time. If there is any damage 
 
56 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 I'll pay it, but chew licorice and spit." In a few minutes 
 the cuspidors were well decorated and the office looked a 
 little bit bar-room-a-fied. Mr. Heywood walked up to 
 the landlord, who was standing by the desk, and with re- 
 markable coolness said: "Fine day," and shot a great 
 mouthful of licorice juice at the spittoon, where it gently 
 glanced and spattered all over the landlord's feet. The 
 balance of us were expectorating promiscuously in all 
 directions. With an oath "Bob" said: "What in hell 
 are you trying to do? Ain't them spittoons large enough? 
 Do you take this office for a barroom ? I never saw a show 
 troupe yet that wasn't at home in a barroom." We did 
 not answer, but Mr. Heywood went to the wash room, 
 rinsed out his mouth, returned to the landlord and said: 
 "My name is Heywood. These four gentlemen and I came 
 into your hotel this morning and just as we entered I 
 overheard the remark you made about show troupes and 
 tobacco chewers. Now, then, we do not use tobacco and we 
 are as well behaved and respectable as any gentlemen 
 guests that have ever stopped at your hotel. That is licor- 
 ice. What are the damages ? Make out my bill and we will 
 move to the other hotel." 
 
 The landlord was dumbfounded. He apologized "pro- 
 fusely" and begged us to remain, saying he would give 
 us the best the house afforded. We did not move. He gave 
 us the best rooms and insisted upon our sitting at the 
 drummers' table at troupers' rates. 
 
DOUBLING BACK 57 
 
 FATHER'S PROPHESY. 
 
 During my engagement of three months with the Alba 
 Heywood company I learned nearly all of Mr. Heywood 's 
 numbers, from listening to them while on the door. I was 
 very much interested in the acting business and would 
 like to have continued, but fifteen a month and cakes was 
 rather small pay for the amount of work that I was doing 
 and I looked upon the engagement as more of a pleasure 
 tour than anything else. I knew that Mr. Heywood could 
 not afford to pay me any more. I told him that I would 
 have to go to work with my pens again. My sister had 
 returned to Iron Mountain, Michigan, for a visit with 
 father. I concluded that I would visit father and step- 
 mother at the same time and have a look at "sis" and the 
 twelve-pound cherub, whom I had not seen for three years. 
 With many regrets I said good-by to the little troupe and 
 railroaded via Chicago to Iron Mountain, Michigan. 
 
 The acting bee was always bumbling and I would amuse 
 father and the folks with extracts from some of Heywood 's 
 specialties and father would always say: "Ed, you will be 
 a fool yet." 
 
 AN AMATEUR IMPERSONATOR 
 
 Father insisted that I should take a part in the enter- 
 tainment given by the Foresters at their hall, up at the 
 Chapin mine. He introduced me to the chairman of the 
 committee and told him that I would help them out, at the 
 same time remarking that "he is a regular fool." It 
 
58 . DOUBLING BACK 
 
 pleased father very much when I told the gentlemen that 
 I would go on for one number. 
 
 I dressed up like an old woman and used the end of a 
 cow's tail for a wig, reciting a little character recitation 
 entitled "My Josiar." It happened that the captain of 
 the mine was named Josiah James, a Cornish man, and 
 the audience thought I had made up the verses for the 
 occasion. The consequence was that I made a tremendous 
 hit. Mr. James came to me and said : "I thought 'e were 
 my hold woman thee art some caution, sure henough." 
 
 During my visit in Iron Mountain there was a big 
 masquerade ball at Stub Bundle's hall. Herb Armstrong, 
 Stub Bundle, Emil Carrier and I attended as "White 
 Caps." No one would have known us because we were 
 all dressed alike. But while waltzing around, Herb got 
 tired and wanted to walk alone for a few minutes. That 
 settled it ; Molly MacDonald shouted so that every one in 
 the hall could hear: "There goes Hlerb Armstrong. I 
 know him by his snowshoe gait." 
 
 I also enjoyed some fishing on the Paint Biver. One 
 day I landed the biggest trout that was ever hooked in 
 the Paint Biver. I can prove this by several noted indi- 
 viduals ; from the cook, Joe Ganzwill, who was an exiled 
 Bussian count, to State Senator Byron S. Waite, Fabian J. 
 Trudell, prominent lawyer; Herb Armstrong and Ed 
 Kingsford, all of whom were with me. 
 
 Armstrong and Kingsford had some timber to cruise 
 up on the Paint Biver and invited Messrs. Waite, Trudell 
 and me to go along and enjoy some good trout fishing. We 
 loaded a small skiff into the wagonbox, with plenty of 
 
DOUBLING BACK 59 
 
 blankets and edibles. Herb would pole the skiff up stream 
 alone for about a mile, then two of us would get into the 
 same, tie an anchor to the skiff and when we reached camp 
 there was trout enough to last for several days. But I 
 wanted to catch a big one, so one morning I went up the 
 river to the Old Fraser dam and climbed down underneath 
 the cribbing where I could lie on my stomach and gaze 
 down into the still water inside one of the cribs. I could 
 not use a pole, but I baited a fair-sized hook with a choice 
 angle worm and gently lowered it into the water. The 
 largest trout that I had ever seen came out from under a 
 log, moved like a battleship toward that worm, turned up 
 his nose and glided back out of sight. I raised and lowered 
 that hook four times a minute for three hours. The flies 
 and mosquitoes nearly ate me up; I smoked until I got 
 sick at my stomach, which had a pain on the outside caused 
 by a knot that was in the log I was lying across. Time 
 and again I raised the hook. I put another worm on, 
 until it began to look like a ball of yarn. And every time 
 I lowered it Mr. Trout would come out and take another 
 smell. When I had just about given up all hopes he 
 quietly slid out, opened his jaw and shut down upon that 
 bunch of worms. I pulled, hooked him good, crawled out 
 and ran all the way to camp before I took him off the 
 hook. I heard Herb Armstrong tell this story to George 
 Seibert, Hugh McLaughlin and other great fishermen, who 
 were not George Washingtons (they say George went fish- 
 ing, although he never told a lie) and Herb always swore 
 that "Ed Meade caught the biggest trout that he ever saw 
 pulled out of the Paint River/' 
 
60 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 f NEWSPAPER CLIPPING 
 
 "Ed Meade and a party of young people attended the 
 performance of Monte Christo in a body the other evening 
 and Ed scored a hit. In the prison scene, where D antes 
 learns of the treasure and plans to escape, Ed was over- 
 come and it was all so realistic to him that he jumped up 
 and cried out in a very loud voice, 'By jove, I hope he'll 
 get away.' The intensity of the scene and the splendid 
 manner in which Mr. Edwin Clifford portrayed the part 
 of Edmond Dantes seemed to completely charm Mr. 
 Meade, and for the time being he forgot where he was. 
 The remark was so spontaneous and well meant that it 
 nearly threw the entire audience into convulsions. They 
 were obliged to ring down the curtain, and it was fully 
 ten minutes before they could proceed with the perform- 
 ance, which Mr. Clifford refused to do until the young 
 man apologized to him and the audience. Ed made an 
 apology and the young people with him will ever remem- 
 ber that performance of Monte Cristo." Range. 
 
 THE ROAD AGAIN 
 
 The fourth of July, at Iron Mountain, 1886, wound up 
 with a grand ball at the town hall, given by the volunteer 
 fire department. They had covered themselves with glory 
 that day by saving a widow's home from burning to the 
 ground. The roof and part of the upper story burned 
 and of the lower floor there was very little left. I lost 
 
DOUBLING BACK 61 
 
 my watch in trying to save a straw mattress and a wash 
 boiler at the same time. The lady thanked us all kindly 
 for saving the cellar. We ran back a half mile with the 
 hose cart, thinking we had accomplished a most wonderful 
 feat; this too when we had on our parade uniforms. 
 
 The next day after the Fourth another young man and 
 I started for the west. We made business directories' from 
 Michigan to Winnipeg via Wisconsin, Dakota and Minne- 
 sota. He left me to go to college at Duluth, about October 
 1st. After securing a new partner, Mr. E. E. Frazier, a 
 bonny Scotchman, a hustler and good companion, I pro- 
 ceeded with him upon a successful tour through the same 
 states over another route. We had two very strange ex- 
 periences, to be related later. The three months previous 
 did not produce an event that I can recall that is worthy 
 of mention. 
 
 A $25,000 MISS 
 
 Superior City is just across the mouth of the St. Louis 
 River from Duluth, Minnesota, in Wisconsin, but in 1886 
 there was no Superior City and the little town of West 
 Superior was platted and the improvement company was 
 draining the land, selling town lots and otherwise en- 
 deavoring to lay the foundation of a rival city to Duluth. 
 
 About ten miles east of Duluth was the old town of 
 Superior, and it seemed that the citizens and owners of 
 the town knew there would be a large town there at some 
 time so they held their property at such enormous prices 
 that investors and capitalists would not buy. Therefore 
 
62 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 a corporation was organized. They purchased a large 
 tract of the swamp land, drained off the water and made 
 West Superior, Wisconsin, with whaleback ship yards, 
 grain elevators, railroad shops and factories. 
 
 We went to old Superior, a town of about a thousand 
 inhabitants, made a directory, and some booster for the 
 new town induced us to stop there and try to make one. 
 We found the hotel surrounded with mud and water. The 
 company's agents had their offices in the building and were 
 doing business. By extra hard work we managed to get 
 twelve ads on our directory, including the town site com- 
 pany, whose hustling agent tried his best to sell me a 
 twenty-five foot lot on the main street, opposite the hotel, 
 for $250.00 one-third down and the balance in five years 
 but the water, the bull rushes and the red clay mud 
 frightened me out. 
 
 Three years later I visited the city of Superior and 
 sold a good many carloads of building material. The First 
 National Bank was building a granite structure on the lot 
 that the agent tried to sell to me for $250.00. I inquired 
 and was told that the purchase price was $25,000.00. Were 
 you ever real seasick ? I was right then and there. 
 
 ANOTHER MISS 
 
 Mr. Frazier and I made a successful eight weeks' tour 
 in Wisconsin and arrived in Ashland, just before the close 
 of navigation, intending to take the steamer Mo/nistee to 
 Duluth. 
 
DOUBLING BACK 63 
 
 While in the city of Ashland we met an old Hancock 
 boy, Dan Coughlin, who was later connected with the 
 Clan-a-Grael and the murder of Dr. Cronin, in Chicago. 
 He walked down to the steamer with us and borrowed a 
 "five spot" on the way. I think he needed the money. 
 Upon our arrival at the steamer Mr. Frazier remarked that 
 she was loaded pretty heavy, and we went on board to see 
 the clerk about a stateroom. The clerk told us that they 
 were crowded and that we would have to sleep in one 
 bunk. Frazier (he only weighed 265 pounds) said: 
 "Not for me. Come on, Ed, we will go back to the Che- 
 quamegon hotel and go by rail." 
 
 We walked back to the hotel, ate a good supper, made 
 out a new route via St. Paul, through Minnesota and Da- 
 kota and retired to our beds. The steamer sailed out of 
 the harbor. In the morning as we were entering the dining 
 room, Dan Coughlin approached us and said: "Who gave 
 you fellows the tip ? The steamer Manistee went to pieces 
 on the Apostle Islands last night and everybody on board 
 perished." We were so faint that Dan had to support us 
 into the barroom, where we took two drinks before either 
 of us could speak. Wouldn't you call that a miss? It 
 was Providence and we nearly missed that first drink on 
 account of the trembling. The liquor revived us and with 
 a prayer of thanks to the Great Preserver, we went to 
 breakfast. All that was ever found of that ill-fated steamer 
 was the pilot house, with the name painted upon it in 
 small letters, "Manistee." 
 
64 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 ALONSO AND ST. LOUIS 
 
 Mr. Frazier continued to bring me good luck, but the 
 weather became blizzardy at "Watertown, Dakota, and he 
 was obliged to say good-by and depart for the Turtle 
 mountains, where he owned a wheat farm (homestead) and 
 I railroaded to Sandwich for Christmas, via St. Paul. I 
 stopped over at Prairie du Chien, where I had a nice two 
 days' visit with dear Aunt Sholl, and after a few daya in 
 Chicago I arrived in my native home for the holidays. 
 While there I received a letter from Alonso Boot who 
 wanted me to join him, and away I went for St. Louis, 
 Missouri. 
 
 January, February and March, 1887, were the longest 
 three months of winter that I ever experienced. It was 
 sunshine, rain, sleet and icy sidewalks with icicles drop- 
 ping off the buildings down the back of your neck. Other- 
 wise St. Louis was all right. I had the pleasure of seeing 
 Frank James, the noted outlaw. I also visited Uncle David 
 Hoag, and all his family. He and I had some good times 
 together. At one time he had been a great political wire 
 puller and owned a large cafe on Olive street, consequently 1 
 he was well acquainted and showed me the town from 
 Mayor Francis to a cigarette factory. 
 
 Mr. Alonso Root wanted me to manage his directory 
 office for him while he made a three months' trip into 
 Kansas on some very important advertising business. I 
 accepted the job, but was not kept very busy, therefore 
 had plenty of leisure for all kinds of fun. 
 
DOUBLING BACK 65 
 
 THE ACTING BEE BUMBLES AGAIN 
 
 While in St. Louis I experienced an incident in con- 
 nection with the legitimate, Shakespearean actor and tra- 
 gedian, Lawrence Barrett. This experience is worth men- 
 tioning as it proves that actor folks, as a rule, are very- 
 generous, conscientious, kind hearted and true. 
 
 Four young men, from Pike County, Missouri (I think 
 it was Pike County), were rooming at the same hotel I was 
 stopping at, and I became a little bit acquainted with them. 
 They were looking for work and read the help wanted 
 column every day. One morning they came to me and 
 wanted to know what the following ad meant: " Wanted 
 Fifty men at the stage door, Grand Opera House, at eight 
 o'clock, Monday morning." 
 
 I told them what I knew about supers for soldiers, 
 sailors, mobs, carrying spears, broad axes, etc. They asked 
 me to go down with them in the morning and investigate. 
 They thought they could work at night and perhaps get 
 enough to pay room rent while looking for another job 
 in the daytime. I had a hankering to be a super myself, 
 so I went with them and we were all engaged by the stage 
 director for six nights and two matinees of "Rienzi, the 
 Last of the Tribunes," as produced by Lawrence Barrett 
 and his big New York company, including Miss Mina K. 
 Gale. 
 
 We rehearsed all the morning and the stage director 
 told us that we would receive $2.50 each for the eight per- 
 formances and could get our money at the box office on the 
 
66 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 following Sunday morning at nine o'clock. Everything 
 was 0. K. until that day and hour. We called for our 
 money and lined up at the window, when a man approached 
 us and stated that he had orders to pay us off at one dol- 
 lar and fifty cents each. We made a big holler and said 
 nixy-nix. We held a council of war and appointed a tem- 
 porary chairman and he selected a committee of three. 
 All the others agreed to abide by our decision. I was one 
 of the three and proposed that we find Mr. Barrett and 
 report the case to him. Then if he could not do anything 
 for us we would be obliged to accept the one dollar and 
 fifty cents or nothing, as the man at the box office had 
 told us. 
 
 We found Mr. Barrett at the Southern hotel and sent 
 our card and compliments with a note that we were 
 obliged to see him upon very important business. He 
 came down to the office of the hotel and we told him our 
 troubles. He looked out upon the street and saw a real 
 healthy mob, called his manager and told him to go with 
 us to the theatre. At the same time he said: "If these 
 young gentlemen are telling the truth see that they re- 
 ceive the one dollar and fifty cents at the box office then 
 return here and call for me." 
 
 We went to the theatre, received our one fifty per and 
 returned to the hotel. The manager called Mr. Barrett, 
 who lined us up on the sidewalk in front of the lobby of 
 the Southern hotel and gave each one of us a big silver 
 dollar out of his own pocket and we were ' ' paid in full. ' ' 
 
DOUBLING BACK 67 
 
 A KENTUCKY FISH STORY 
 
 Mr. Root returned from Kansas and while he was away 
 one of his agents, who had made a trip from St. Louis 
 to Memphis, from there to northern Ohio, had left a great 
 deal of advertising along the route that had not been paid 
 for. Alonso asked me if I would like to go over the route 
 and try and make a few collections and he would meet me 
 in Sandusky about the first of July. 
 
 I agreed and started, made the collections, enjoyed the 
 blue grass, arrived at Maysville, Kentucky, and while wait- 
 ing for the steamer Bonanza I visited one of the famous 
 distilleries, went fishing in the Ohio River, which resulted 
 in my catching quite a large pike. I took it to the hotel, 
 hired a colored boy to dress and clean it and watched to 
 see how he would do it. Upon cutting the fish open Lo ! 
 and behold! he found another pike nearly as large as the 
 original. The boy said : ' ' Boss, you done ketched two fish 
 wid one hook." When the boy cut that one open there 
 was the third pike. The boy was about to quit and thought 
 I was playing a trick on him, but after giving him ten 
 cents extra I succeeded in getting him to cut the third. 
 Very carefully he proceeded and upon opening the fish 
 we found a ladies' beautiful gold watch and chain. At this 
 moment the landlord's daughter came along enroute to 
 the kitchen, in tears. The colored boy was holding the 
 watch in his hand and the young lady spied it: "Where 
 did you get my watch? I just lost it in the river, not ten 
 minutes ago." I looked at the watch and it was ticking 
 time. 
 
68 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 A Kentucky colonel told me that story when he es- 
 corted me through his distillery, and he said the young 
 lady was tickled to death when she found out that it was 
 really her own watch. 
 
 A CONFEDERATE BILL 
 
 I left Maysville, Kentucky, on the Bonanza, up river. 
 I had quite a roll of Mr. Boot's money in my pocket. When 
 I heard that one of the passengers had been robbed I be- 
 gan to feel a little bit scared. The captain stated that 
 everyone on board would be searched. It seems the victim 
 had been robbed of some jewelry and a roll of greenbacks, 
 and he said that he could recognize it because there was 
 an old ten dollar Confederate bill wrapped around the out- 
 side and held there by a small rubber band. Then I did 
 get frightened. They searched me and upon finding my 
 roll of bills they discovered the Confederate bill and the 
 rubber band. I made a scene and insisted that they con- 
 tinue the search and proclaimed my innocence with so 
 much vim that they finally concluded to finish the search 
 but the captain took my roll and locked it up in the safe. 
 
 Everybody was searched, then we proceeded to search 
 every stateroom and in the drain pipe to the wash bowl 
 in No. 13 they found the jewelry and the roll of bills, 
 with the ten dollar Confederate bill nicely wrapped around 
 the outside. All on board apologized to me and said they 
 really thought I was guilty in spite of the big talk that I 
 made. The captain went with me to the safe, took out my 
 roll of bills, examined it very closely and said: "Young 
 
DOUBLING BACK 69 
 
 man, that was a narrow escape. I see that yon happen 
 to have a twenty dollar Confederate bill instead of a ten. 
 Where did you get it?" I told him that Mr. Russell, pro- 
 prietor of the Russellville hotel at Russellville, Kentucky, 
 gave it to me the day before. He gave the roll to me and I 
 thanked him with tears in my eyes. 
 
 THE FOURTH AT PUT-IN-BAY 
 
 I reached Sandusky and turned the roll of cash over 
 to Alonso, who met me there. He, his wife and I spent 
 the Fourth of July at Put-in-Bay and saw Perry defeat 
 the British fleet, the same as he did on September 10, 1813. 
 It was a sham battle, arranged especially for the celebra- 
 tion and was attended by many thousands of people. It 
 was the grandest Fourth of July celebration that it has 
 ever been my pleasure to witness, but it was all spoiled. 
 The next day a vigilance committee lynched, to the nearest 
 telegraph pole, a negro who confessed to a heinous crime. 
 Was the sin that negro committed any worse in the sight 
 of God than the sin committed by the white men who mur- 
 dered that negro? 
 
 I have never had a good word to say for that town 
 since. We took the first steamer that sailed for Detroit, 
 intending to go to Port Huron, Michigan, for the summer. 
 While at Detroit I called upon my old high school chief, 
 Samuel E. Whitney. He greeted me thusly: "How are 
 you, Number Six?" He certainly had a good memory to 
 remember me by my old number after seven years, and 
 not mix me up with any of his other number sixes. 
 
70 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 We remained in the beautiful city of Detroit for sev- 
 eral days and sailed on the steamer Grayhound for Port 
 Huron. I want to tell you that you will see some of the 
 most magnificent scenery in the world when you sail from 
 Sandusky and Put-in-Bay up Lake Erie, Detroit River, 
 Lake Saint Glair and River Saint Clair, viewing the cities, 
 parks, landscapes and floating palaces. 
 
 PORT HURON ITS PROMINENCE AND ITS PIKE 
 
 How many gallons of pure fresh water will pass a given 
 point at the docks of this city, every twenty-four hours, in 
 the River Saint Clair? It is six thousand feet wide, has 
 an average depth of fifty feet and flows at the rate of eight 
 miles an hour. 
 
 Port Huron is situated where the waters of three of 
 the great lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron form the 
 River Saint Clair. One of the greatest railroad tunnels 
 in the world passes underneath this river here at Port 
 Huron connecting the United States and Canada. The tun- 
 nel was built by the Grand Trunk railroad. Thomas A. 
 Edison lived in Port Huron when a boy. He was a 
 "newsy" on the local trains. It is said that his papers, 
 peanuts and electric apparatus were kicked out of the bag- 
 gage car when the conductor received a shock. Port Huron 
 claims to be the first city in the world to adopt an electric 
 street car system, which was done in honor of the great 
 Thomas A. Edison. 
 
 There are more wall-eyed pike to every cubic foot of 
 
DOUBLING BACK 71 
 
 water, when the wind is blowing from Lake Huron and 
 the north that is when the pike are traveling down stream 
 than at any other place in the world. When the wind 
 is from the north there are more minnows traveling up 
 stream than there are pike traveling down stream and 
 that is the time to get the minnows and prepare for the 
 big days of fishing. When the wind changes the pike be- 
 gin to travel north into the lake again. At this time there 
 are more pike caught with a fifty foot line and hook and 
 bobber, by the citizens and visitors in the city, than at any 
 fishing resort on the face of the earth. 
 
 I had sixty days of this sport, making all my expenses 
 by selling what fish I caught at two cents per pound. I 
 was usually lucky enough to have plenty of minnows when 
 the pike were traveling north, and I used to sell a great 
 many at good prices. 
 
 Long live Port Huron, also its people, prominence and 
 its pike. 
 
 SOME RIBBON BUT NOT A RIB 
 
 I left Mr. Alonso Root and his wife at Port Huron in 
 September, 1887, and proceeded to Chicago via Battle 
 Creek, where I had a nice visit with my old friends, the 
 Hfeywoods, who now lived in that city and had become 
 quite prosperous in the show business. The actor bee bum- 
 bled as of old in my bonnet, but as they had no place 
 for me at that time I journeyed to Chicago, obtained a job 
 making display cards and helping in the ribbon depart- 
 ment of a large retail dry goods store. 
 
72 
 
 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 I sold ribbon, rolled ribbon, displayed ribbon, measured 
 ribbon and while displaying a new assortment of ribbon 
 along a high and overloaded shelf, covered myself with 
 ribbon and nearly broke a rib. I recovered in a few hours, 
 but it took three clerks seven hours to wind up the ribbon 
 and place it where it could be displayed in the big show 
 window) with artistic signs noting its /greatly reduced 
 price. 
 
 MORE ACTOR BEE, ARETUS AND MARINETTE 
 
 Business became slack after the holidays of '87 and '88 
 and the firm let me out. I went to see father at Iron 
 
 Mountain and as some of 
 the young people were put- 
 ting on a play for the bene- 
 fit of the library fund I 
 took a part, and I guess 
 some of the old timers 
 would say, * * Hello, Muggs, ' ' 
 to this day if they should 
 happen to see me. The bill 
 was B a r 1 1 e y Campbell 's 
 "Fate" and the actor bee 
 was busy. 
 
 One day father intro- 
 duced me to Aretus Dumm- 
 ville. He was a contractor 
 and builder from Marinette, 
 
DOUBLING BACK 73 
 
 Wisconsin, who had just completed the contract of moving 
 a bunch of buildings from the Keelridge mine into the City 
 of Iron Mountain and was celebrating. Said he needed a 
 bookkeeper and in a joking, slightly intoxicated way of- 
 fered me the position of being his private secretary and 
 said: "Come down to Marinette next Sunday evening. 
 Come right to my house and you can begin work Monday 
 morning. ' ' 
 
 Father said it would be a good job and a chance for 
 me to settle down into something. So to please him I ac- 
 cepted Aretus's offer and went to Marinette, February 1, 
 1888. I found Mr. Dummville's house without much trou- 
 ble. He was not at home, but his wife asked me to come 
 in and wait. About nine o'clock he came in, but alas! 
 failed to remember me. Said he met so many young men 
 that day that he did not know which one he hired for a 
 bookkeeper. I told him who my father was and said that 
 as there was evidently some mistake I would return home. 
 He said: "You'll not, you'll stay right here at my house 
 and begin work in the morning : I 'm perfectly sober now. 
 I need a bookkeeper and you get the job. Come on and 
 I'll put you to bed." 
 
 Aretus proved to be an eccentric man, his books con- 
 sisted of a time book and a check book. All he could do 
 was to sign his name. He always took a receipt for money 
 paid out and did all of his figuring in his head. 
 
 He introduced me at a stationery store and told me 
 to get everything I wanted, which I did and became a 
 regular private secretary, arranged everything systematic- 
 ally, kept track of time and material and for the first time 
 
74 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 in his business career Aretus knew exactly how much he 
 made or lost on every contract. 
 
 That summer he took a large contract to move an old 
 planing mill and rebuild it into a sash and door factory. It 
 was to be a branch to the Paine Lumber company of Osh- 
 kosh, and the superintendent's name was P. W. Hollister. 
 I became acquainted with Mr. P. W. and in a few weeks 
 he wanted a bookkeeper and as Mr. Dummville was a stock- 
 holder in the new mill, I got the position and at the same 
 time did all of Mr. Dummville 's bookkeeping in half an 
 hour in the evening. I was settled for life and started in 
 to learn the sash and door business. 
 
 Father said: "Set your teeth into the rail of a sash 
 and hang on/' After I had hung on for eighteen months 
 along comes Alonso Root and a "family excursion shop- 
 ping card." He got me terribly interested and gave me 
 the rights to have them printed, etc., for the State of Mich- 
 igan if I would manage it myself. I thought I was going 
 to make a fortune off of the "get-rich-quick scheme," so 
 I got a partner and went to Kalamazoo. I did not like it 
 and wished that I was back with my teeth in a window 
 sash. I began to try to accomplish it. One day in Lan- 
 sing a young man who was assisting me offered to trade 
 me a farm in South Dakota for all my rights and privil- 
 eges. I took him up quick, made the trade and journeyed 
 back to Marinette, Aretus, P. W. Hollister and my sweet- 
 heart. Upon my arrival I learned that Mr. Dummville 
 had been thrown out of a wagon and killed. P. W. Hol- 
 lister said that I must not expect to secure my old situa- 
 tion, but that if I could sell goods enough to earn my 
 
DOUBLING BACK 75 
 
 salary he would put me on the road. P. "W. was all right, 
 but he had one peculiar characteristic. Whenever any- 
 thing would break down in the mill and there was a big 
 rush order, instead of getting angry and swearing he would 
 always say: "Well, well, well! Everybody has trouble but 
 
 AND THE ACTING BEE KEPT BUMBLING 
 
 P. W. and I got along fine. I scooped competitors and 
 continued to more than sell enough goods to earn my sal- 
 ary, enjoyed Ella 's society, assisted in a great many enter- 
 tainments and was altogether satisfied with life until July, 
 1890. At this time I learned that one of my old school 
 chums at Hancock, in the Little Big Thumb, was return- 
 ing from Boston, where he had been studying vocal music 
 for two years, for a short vacation. I had been working 
 pretty steady and P. W. said I could have a two weeks' 
 vacation. I took advantage of it and after visiting with 
 father, who was failing in health, I landed in Hancock at 
 about the same time as my old chum, Byron Eldred Noble, 
 first tenor of the Apollo Male Quartette of Boston. 
 
 All of the citizens of his home town wanted to hear him 
 sing, and the young men's club arranged for a compli- 
 mentary concert and invited all of the prominent people 
 throughout the two counties to attend. I told the boys 
 that I had often appeared as an impersonator on various 
 programs and they put me down for a number and desig- 
 nated it as a "character sketch." When the printer, who 
 
76 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 was on the committee, saw " character sketch " he called up 
 one of the other boys and upon talking it over thought that 
 it was a little bit "incongruous" on such a very classical, 
 musical program. Therefore they came to me and wanted to 
 take it off altogether. I told them to go and see Noble, 
 that he knew what it was and if he said take it off they 
 could scratch me out and that I would not be the least bit 
 offended. 
 
 They did not "scratch me," and Noble told me that all 
 he said was, "if you scratch Ed's name off you can also 
 scratch mine." 
 
 There was nothing more said about it until the night 
 of the concert. It had been arranged for me to go on be- 
 tween Part I and Part II. "Ed Meade Character 
 Sketch." No one saw me, except Noble, until I, appeared 
 upon the stage. There was an ovation equal to that which 
 Noble himself had received. I recited the "New Church 
 Organ" in the makeup of an old lady, and to say that I 
 made a hit is putting it mild, indeed. We could not keep' 
 the stage clear of old schoolmates and friends for the re- 
 mainder of the evening. A little comedy always goes well 
 with so much classic and it was not so very "incongruous" 
 after all. 
 
 Mr. Noble congratulated me many times and told me 
 that if I ever made up my mind to enter the dramatic 
 profession to come to Boston and he could and would help 
 me materially to advance and would be glad to do so. 
 Dear old chum he made good. 
 
DOUBLING BACK 77 
 
 A DEATH AND A FIRE 
 
 Back to the road with sash, doors and building mate- 
 rial until the fourth day of August when a telegram sum- 
 moned me to the bedside of my beloved father, who passed 
 into eternity on the 8th of August, 1890. After the 
 funeral I returned to Marinette and while in the office 
 making out my route, I heard the fire alarm and every- 
 body about the plant got busy. There was a strong wind 
 blowing and in spite of water and men the lumber yard 
 and factory burned to the ground. P. W. walked coolly 
 up to where I was standing and remarked: "Well, Ed, 
 it 's all gone. Everybody has trouble but me. ' ' I answered 
 with a sad smile, "Me too." 
 
 About this time I received a letter from Alonso Boot, 
 who was in Oshkosh, where he had just completed the 
 building of a shanty boat in which he and his wife and a 
 young man from Baltimore were about to embark upon a 
 cruise to New Orleans, combining the directory business 
 with pleasure. I wired and asked to go part way with 
 them and the answer read: "Yes, come quick, put your 
 bunk awaits." 
 
 Fate and that fire forced me to make up my mind to 
 enter the dramatic profession. I would say good-by to my 
 sweetheart, gentle Mary Ella, earn some more money with 
 the little shading pens and join my old chum Noble in 
 Boston. 
 
78 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 WILL YOU ALWAYS LOVE ME JUST THE SAME AS 
 MOTHER LOVED MY DAD? 
 
 (To my niece lonella) 
 
 To his sweetheart in a precious home, 
 
 Near a clear and laughing stream; 
 Where the fir trees and the myrtles, too, 
 
 Are an everlasting green; 
 Ralph sings these words to lone-Ella, 
 
 When she's lonely, gay or sad; 
 "Will you always love me just the same 
 
 As mother loved my dad?" 
 
 Will you always love me just the same 
 
 As mother loved my dad? 
 Do you listen to my loving song? 
 
 And is your dear heart glad? 
 And I often hear you singing 
 
 To your loving, trusting lad, 
 "Yes, I'll always love you just the same 
 
 As mother loved my dad." 
 
 There's our baby that has linked two lives 
 
 Together strong and true; 
 Soon little Lyndell will be singing 
 
 Loving songs like me and you. 
 Therefore we must teach our darling, 
 
 How to tell the good from bad. 
 lone-Ella loves me just the same 
 
 As mother loved my dad. 
 
DOUBLING BACK 79 
 
 SHANTY BOAT SAILING 
 
 There are three water routes from Lake Michigan to 
 the sea, and I sailed over one of them, from Oshkosh, Wis- 
 consin, to Memphis, Tennessee. You can leave Lake Mich- 
 igan .at Green Bay, go up Fox River and reach Lake Win- 
 nebago, then up the Wolf River from Oshkosh to Lake 
 Beautsdesmorts, across this lake and you are at the Wau- 
 paca River, up the Waupaca to Buffalo Lake, through a 
 home-made canal into Mud Lake, up Portage Creek to the 
 town of Portage, Wisconsin, through another miniature 
 "Panama" and you are in the picturesque Wisconsin 
 River. The current took our shanty boat around a large 
 rock and we started for the Gulf of Mexico via the Missis- 
 sippi, while some of the water from the Wisconsin that 
 whirled around that same rock at Portage, traveled 
 through the little "Panama" and in time reached the 
 Gulf of St. Lawrence. Thus two steamers could separate 
 at Portage, Wisconsin, travel in opposite directions and 
 meet at any seaport in the world. 
 
 I had a grand time and it would make a long story to 
 tell of fishing traps, wild fowl shooting, eating "twenty- 
 four blackbirds baked in a pie ' ' and one baked in a potato. 
 (Blackbirds in a spud, properly seasoned! Try one some 
 time when you are out camping.) 
 
DOUBLING BACK 
 
 A CANVAS HK)RSB 
 
 We floated down the picturesque and beautiful Wis- 
 consin River to where it joins the great Mississippi. Here 
 we were obliged to use our big sixteen foot oars constantly 
 and we worked like galley slaves, but could not keep our 
 boat away from the banks when the wind was blowing 
 east or west. The boat was very light and built of choice 
 yellow pine and was about thirty feet long. We saw that 
 it would be necessary to have power of some kind or we 
 would be tied up to the bank nearly all the time. Neces- 
 sity is the mother of invention. We put our heads to- 
 gether and built a canvas horse and were often seen by 
 jealous shanty boatmen reading a newspaper and floating 
 gently down the stream. 
 
 We harnessed the current of the "Father of Waters" 
 and could glide along in the main channel if a cyclone 
 were blowing, and not have to exert ourselves in the least. 
 It was the only horse of the kind that I ever saw, very 
 powerful and very gentle. 
 
 We used five yards of canvas, five feet wide, eight 
 wooden pulleys and about one hundred feet of rope. A 
 four-inch wooden cylinder, sixteen feet long, was sewed 
 into a pocket of the canvas in order to act as- a backbone 
 and a float. A one-inch iron rod was sewed into another 
 pocket at the opposite edge of the canvas and acted as the 
 feet; then a pulley at each corner of the canvas and the 
 other four pulleys were fastened in a bunch in the center 
 of the bow of the boat, and we drove the animal with four 
 lines. When we desired to ' ' hard a port" we slackened the 
 
DOUBLING BACK 81 
 
 two lines at starboard and tightened on the port and vice 
 versa for starboard; then if we wished to stop we would 
 slacken the two lines that controlled the two lower corners 
 and the horse would then float gently on the surface of the 
 stream. Talk about power it was greater than a twenty- 
 mule team. 
 
 Some jealous shanty boatman, who saw us floating 
 along down stream while he was tied up to the shore on 
 account of the wind, reported us to the authorities at Keo- 
 kuk, Iowa, and one of Uncle Sam's inspectors called upon 
 us and stated that he wished to see what kind of a pro- 
 peller we used as he had been informed that we had steam 
 power and an engine of some kind on board, and must 
 have the necessary government papers, which he would 
 also like to examine. 
 
 We told him that our power was in the current of the 
 river and that we utilized this current in connection with 
 a horse, and if he had time we would be delighted to take 
 him for a short drive across the river and back, agreeing 
 to land him safe and sound at the lower outskirts of the 
 city. He agreed and we hooked up the horse, pushed the 
 boat away from the dock, sank the powerful brute in to 
 the river, tightened the port lines, slacked gently on the 
 starboard and away we went for the Illinois shore with 
 the wind in our teeth. 
 
 The gentleman thanked us and said it was the greatest 
 invention of the kind that he had ever seen and it would 
 not be necessary for us to have any government papers 
 to sail our craft upon the waters of the Mississippi. He 
 reported us to the editors and they and many others not 
 
82 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 only called upon us but gave our little floating palace a 
 big write-up, praised our ingenuity and wished us a pleas- 
 ant cruise to the sea with our now famous canvas horse. 
 
 BOSTON AND THE BUMBLING ACTING BEE 
 
 Upon our arrival at Memphis I bid good-by to canvas 
 horse, Alonso, his wife and Bill, also the shanty boat Rus- 
 tler, and journeyed to Boston via Sandwich, Chicago, Port 
 Huron, Montreal, across the St. Lawrence River through 
 New Hampshire and Vermont, arriving in the historical 
 and cultured city January 1, 1891. 
 
 Boston was a disappointment and a pleasure. Every- 
 thing was smaller than what I had imagined it would be, 
 from all that I had heard about it. The streets were nar- 
 rower, the buildings less pretentious and everything seemed 
 to be old fashioned and moldy. I studied elocution, dra- 
 matic art, voice culture and mastered a complete set of 
 gestures, in fact, I became an impersonator and the actor 
 bee gathered some honey, because I appeared profession- 
 ally with quartettes and concert companies as a reader 
 and entertainer. 
 
 BILL NYE 
 
 I laughed at the cartoons (McDougal's) of Bill Nye, 
 sized up my form and face and made up mind that I could 
 make myself look exactly like those cartoons. I got into 
 correspondence with Mr. Nye through a member of the 
 staff on the Boston Herald and received the following let- 
 
DOUBLING BACK 
 
 83 
 
 ter, giving me permission to impersonate this very dry, 
 sarcastic, serio-comical character: 
 
 11 BUCK SHOALS, N. C., July 20, 1891. 
 MR. EDWARDS H. MEADE, 
 
 Boston, Mass. 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 You're welcome to do it if you'll do it well that's all 
 the condition I ask. It has been tried by several and your 
 success will depend upon your ability to knock out all 
 rivals. 
 
 Hope to see and hear you sometime let me know if 
 you are near. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 I made good and knocked 
 out some rivals, received 
 flattering press notices from 
 some of the most famous 
 journals in the United 
 States, including the Boston 
 Herald, New York World, 
 Detroit Free Press, etc., etc. 
 Afterwards I met Mr. Nye 
 and corresponded with him 
 to some extent until his 
 death and came very near 
 " starring" in the play, 
 "The Cadi," which would 
 have resulted in making Bill 
 quite famous, but at the 
 
 E.W. NYE." 
 
 "BILL NYE'E EHDST 
 
84 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 time I lacked the dramatic experience, although I had 
 the right shape and the ambition, but was short on fame 
 and pull. 
 
 Bill wrote me one time that he was engaged in writing 
 a comic history of the United States in which he intended 
 to give Christopher Columbus and Opper, the artist, good 
 reading notices. 
 
 EDGAR NYE 
 EDGAR POE 
 
 Two famous literary geniuses figured directly and in- 
 directly throughout my career as an impersonator; comic 
 stories from the pen of Edgar Wilson Nye, directly, and 
 the following satire on "The Raven " Edgar Allen Poe, 
 indirectly. I have received many requests for a copy of 
 this satire, which I recited in the character of a tipsy 
 young man, with great success: 
 
 THE RAVEN 
 
 (A Satire-Smaley) 
 
 How distinctly I remember, 
 
 Late one evening last November, 
 
 I was sitting on a barrel, 
 
 That the moonlight gloated o'er- 
 
 'Twas an empty cider barrel, 
 And it's useful now no more 
 
 Worthless now forever more. 
 
DOUBLING BACK 85 
 
 While a few lone stars were blinking, 
 I betook myself to thinking, 
 
 And I thought of that old raven 
 Mr. Poe has told about 
 
 That was quite a high old raven- 
 Mr. Poe has told about. 
 
 The stars kept blinking, blinking, blinking, 
 I kept thinking, thinking, thinking; 
 
 And the more I thought about it 
 
 I was more and more in doubt 
 Edgar's logic knocked me out. 
 
 Here's the lamp upon the table, 
 And the raven on the door, 
 
 And the lamplight o'er him streaming 
 Threw his shadow on the floor. 
 
 Think of where that lamp was sitting, 
 And you cannot help admitting 
 
 'Twas an awful crooked shadow, 
 If it ever reached the floor 
 
 'Twas a humpback, cross-eyed shadow, 
 If it ever reached the floor. 
 
 So I thought a clear solution, 
 To that shadow's dire confusion, 
 
 And my only strong conclusion 
 Was, that Edgar had the snakes; 
 
 I am sure he had been drinking 
 And he must have had the snakes. 
 
 So, perhaps the raven, sitting 
 On the cornice, never flitting, 
 
 With his fiery eye a burning 
 
86 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 Into Edgar's bosom core- 
 Was the whisky he'd been drinking, 
 
 Just before he fell to thinking 
 Of his lively lost Lenore 
 
 It was bug- juice ever more. 
 
 So perhaps the maiden, deeming 
 Such a fellow too bemeaning, 
 
 Had preferred to share the fortune 
 Of her friends who'd gone before 
 
 And had perished, broken hearted, 
 As fair maids had done before; 
 
 Maybe he disgraced and slighted, 
 'Till she felt her life was blighted 
 
 And her lonely soul benighted, 
 Wandered to a fairer shore- 
 Maybe Edgar's drinking killed her, 
 As it has killed girls before 
 
 It was whisky, nothing more. 
 
 You get most anybody frisky, 
 
 On a quart or two of whisky, 
 And he'd think he saw some lamps 
 
 And some tables and some floors 
 And the lights would get befuddled, 
 
 And the shadows awful muddled 
 And he'd see a crazy raven 
 
 Perched on forty-eleven doors 
 And he wouldn't know a shutter 
 
 From a dozen lost Lenores. 
 
 It is my profound opinion, 
 fc-i ';.. That if Poe had kept dominion, 
 
DOUBLING BACK 87 
 
 O'er his mind and o'er his reason, 
 
 As it used to be of yore 
 That if he had been less frisky, 
 
 And had guzzled down less whisky, 
 He'd have never seen that raven, 
 
 On a bust above his door- 
 Very likely that same evening 
 
 He'd been on a bust before, 
 And got sober never more. 
 
 I BECOME A ONE MAN SHOW 
 
 I remained in Boston until April, 1892, filling numer- 
 ous engagements through, the lyceum bureaus and made 
 the mistake of my career when I left that city and the 
 lyceum work. 
 
 I visited my grandparents* native home in Duchess and 
 Putnam Counties, on the east side of the Hudson River, 
 near Poughkeepsie, New York. While there I gave an 
 entertainment in the little village, so that all of the Hoags, 
 Pecks, Judds, Ganungs and many that I had never seen 
 could see "their Cousin Eddie perform." It was quite a 
 success and from that experience I became a one-man 
 show. I made my own dates, was advance agent, bill pos- 
 ter, property man, doorkeeper and show. But the strain 
 was too great. I traveled as far as Detroit, with an occa- 
 sional walk on the ties, while my trunk was checked 
 through the kindness of the baggage man, without a ticket. 
 In Detroit I found my friend, Alonso Root. I made the 
 city a very short visit. I did not get time to mix up in 
 
88 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 any more of Mr. Boot's advertising schemes. But I had 
 the good fortune to meet Julian Jordan, author of "The 
 Song That Reached My Heart." He was much pleased 
 with my work we happened to be on the same program 
 at a Y. M. C. A. concert. He asked me to accompany him 
 to his home at Mount Vernon, New York, and join hands 
 with him for the summer, in giving entertainments in the 
 parlors of the large hotels at Newport, and the various 
 resorts in and about New York City and the Atlantic coast. 
 I accepted, saying good-by to Alonso forever. 
 
 "THE SONG THAT REACHED MY HEART" 
 
 I could not sing the song but Julian could. I have 
 seen him enter the parlors of one of the large hotels and 
 commence to sing that song. In a very few moments 
 there would be several hundred people thronging the open 
 windows and doors, on a balmy summer eve. He would 
 sing several songs, then Professor Meade would spiel a 
 little "Bill Nye" or a "Raven," a little more of Julian's 
 silver tenor and after about five numbers we would take 
 up a collection. Some times it would amount to a goodly 
 sum. It was not unusual to find a five dollar bill buried 
 in silver. "We did well. Mr. Jordan was quite famous at 
 that time and this same song was being sung at Manhattan 
 Beach every day by Miss Ida Klein, with Gilmore's band. 
 Therefore, whenever Mr. Jordan entered a hotel and 
 presented his card to the manager, everything the house 
 afforded was ours for twenty-four hours. I certainly en- 
 joyed myself seashore resorting. 
 
DOUBLING BACK 89 
 
 In the meantime Sol Smith Russell and Alba Hfeywood 
 were putting out " Edge wood Folks." Alba had promised 
 me the part of "Skinner," a village Yankee character 
 part, and wanted me to make up like Bill Nye. He sent 
 me a letter of introduction to Mr. Russell. I called upon 
 that gentleman and received many pointers regarding the 
 part and he thought the make-up would be appropriate 
 and an improvement. I received the part, but alas! my 
 time hadn't come. Mr. Jordan had entered into an agree- 
 ment with Major Pond's lyceum bureau to book the Julian 
 Jordan Concerts, and had included me in the arrange- 
 ment. I cancelled my contract with Mr. Heywood and 
 returned that first part with some regrets. 
 
 Some member of Mr. Jordan's family was taken very 
 sick and the Jordan concerts did not materialize. Pond 
 was out, Jordan was out and I was out. Jordan signed 
 up with Primrose and West as a ballad singer. He se- 
 cured an advance agent for me, and after two weeks as a 
 one-man show, with an agent that was better at gambling 
 than he was at rustling, I landed at my Uncle Elizer's 
 farm, in Putnam County, New York, broke. 
 
 UNCLE ELEZERr-LOAN AGENT 
 
 Uncle Elezer Henry Ganung was very fat, very rich 
 and very economical. It was winter. I was eating an 
 apple and sitting beside the kitchen stove amusing uncle. 
 I finished the apple and threw the core into the stove. 
 Uncle said: "Don't do that any more. There's a swill 
 bucket just outside and that core is good for the hogs." 
 
90 
 
 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 I had answered an advertisment that I saw in the New 
 York Clipper: " Wanted A neat comedian. Oakes Swiss 
 Bell Ringers. ' ' I sent photos, press notices etc., with my ap- 
 plication and in about ten days I received a wire to join them 
 at once at Verndale, Minnesota. I had no money, but after 
 a long consultation with uncle he loaned me fifty dollars, 
 took my note, interest four per cent, and said: "My boy, 
 you have given me a good many hearty laughs, in my old 
 age, and if you was under age I'll be gol darned if I 
 wouldn't adopt and keep ye here till I died, jest fer to 
 'muse me. Here's the money. Be sure to send it back 
 when yer gets it." 
 
 I said good-by and journeyed to Verndale, in the north- 
 ern part of Minnesota, and 
 joined my first show in four 
 feet of snow and the ther- 
 mometer at twenty-five be- 
 low zero, January, 1893. 
 Heretofore it had been se- 
 lect, refined and cultured 
 audiences in the lyceum 
 work, while now it was to be 
 mixed audiences and a real 
 show in the west, where the 
 man who can turn flip-flops 
 on a barb wire and juggle 
 butcher knives at the same 
 time, makes the biggest hit. 
 
 UNCLE ELEZER'B LORN 
 
DOUBLING BACK 91 
 
 SOME COLD 
 
 "Some cold," said the little koster singing comedian, 
 who met me at the train, 10:30 p. m., after my eighty 
 hour ride from New York. He introduced himself and 
 escorted me to the town hall. * ' Some cold, ' ' said he again, 
 and he put a lighted cigar in his overcoat pocket, uncon- 
 sciously, and threw the overcoat on a chair before intro- 
 ducing me to Mr. and Mrs. Oakes, their daughter, and 
 other members of the bell ringing troupe. "Some cold," 
 he said, and he started to help pack up and discovered 
 that his overcoat was on fire. "We had a good laugh at the 
 little Englishman's expense and I soon became acquainted 
 with the merry troupe, which consisted of seven persons 
 and an advance agent bell ringers, crystal chimes, harpist, 
 four comedians, with the grand concert harp and a flute 
 for an orchestra. The program was an oleo of specialties 
 and closed with a farce, in which I played my first part 
 professionally. I learned to shoot myself in a looking 
 glass, ring swiss bells and do two good turns to the satis- 
 faction of the boss, who told me they played everything 
 from schoolhouse to city. 
 
 The third night that I was with the show we played 
 to a chilly house. It had been a skating rink. There was 
 one large stove in the center of it and a small stove in the 
 ladies' dressing room ( ?). The audience assembled around 
 the stove, which they kept red hot, while we gave a show 
 with frost on our eyebrows and icicles on our chins. After 
 the show Nat Blossom, the old time Coal Oil Johnny mill- 
 
92 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 strel, song-and-dance-man, pulled off his undershirt, and 
 after breaking the ice on the bucket with a hammer, started 
 to wash up, and remarked that in all of his forty years' 
 experience as a black-face comedian he never caught cold 
 if he used cold water. I thought quite a while and finally 
 said : ' ' That water must be l some cold. ; 
 
 y tt 
 
 THE ADVANCE AGENT 
 
 A. G. Allen was a hustling agent, tall, all bone and sinew, 
 square- jawed, long skirt-tailed overcoat, silk hat and ear- 
 mufflers. Each man with the show was obliged to wear 
 black clothes and a silk hat. It was in the contract and gave 
 the show a distinguished and genteel appearance. But A. G. 
 did not look just right. He had been educated for a minis- 
 ter, but turned out to be a Barnum. Mr. Oakes found him 
 in a little coal mining town in Colorado and taught him the 
 
 Oakes organized his little show in 1877 and was some- 
 what old-fashioned, but he got the money and Allen was a 
 hustler and lay awake nights trying to figure out some 
 odd place to stick up a three-sheet. One time he was com- 
 pelled to lay over in some town on a branch line on account 
 of snow blockades and blizzards. The one-night bell ringers 
 were getting close. He could not get a driver with a team 
 to venture out for love or money, and it was twenty miles 
 to the junction of the main line, where the trains were 
 running on time. He took a bundle of paper, strapped it 
 on his back, walked the twenty miles along the railroad 
 
DOUBLING BACK 93 
 
 track, using the telegraph poles for guide posts. Skirt- 
 tailed overcoat flying, ear-nraffers, silk hat and mittens, 
 with twenty-dollar gold pieces jingling in his pockets, he 
 reached the main line and the show never did catch up with 
 him. __ 
 
 SLEEPING IN THE SNOW 
 
 About this time the bell ringers themselves were having 
 some blizzard experiences. "We were billed for Watertown, 
 North Dakota, and were at a town about twenty miles east, 
 with the train stalled in heavy snow. There had been a 
 slight thaw, then a cold wave, which had formed a hard 
 crust upon the snow, before the tracks were cleared from the 
 last big storm, so we would be delayed at this point for sev- 
 eral hours. 
 
 The depot agent suggested that we drive fourteen miles 
 to Clear Lake, which was on the "Q" and we would then 
 reach Watertown from the south and be there in time to 
 show. 
 
 Oakes engaged two teams with sleighs, and with the sun 
 shining we glided over the frozen snow, happy as clams, 
 while the sleighbells, chains and harness jingled gloriously. 
 Six miles out clouds appeared and the beautiful snow began 
 to fall. The wind got busy and inside of thirty minutes we 
 were in a Dakota blizzard. 
 
 The driver was an old-timer. He unhooked the teams, 
 unloaded the passengers, made all hands get busy and dig a 
 hole in the snow, fill it with the straw and robes from the 
 sleigh, forced all of us into it, then he and his partner turned 
 tEe sleigh box over us, at the same time telling us to remain 
 
94 
 
 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 there until the storm passed, if we valued our lives. He 
 said he would get the horses to Tredegow's farm two miles 
 distant; that it was impossible for us to walk there in the 
 storm and heavy snow. 
 
 We remained there twenty-three hours before the storm 
 passed. Then the other driver, who had stayed with us, 
 crawled out and brought us the glad news that he could see 
 Bill a comin ' with a sleigh and four horses. Until that mo- 
 ment we did not know whether we would be dug out that 
 morning or some time next spring. However, they took us 
 to the farmhouse, rubbed us down, warmed us up, fed us 
 good and made us remain there until the next morning; 
 then we went back to our outfit and in a few hours we were 
 in Clear Lake, a county seat, where they were holding court. 
 
 Mr. Oakes could only get 
 one room at the hotel, so the 
 balance of the troupe slept 
 in the town hall on the floor 
 around a hot stove. Al- 
 though it reminded us of 
 the snow berth, it was some 
 improvement. We stood it 
 for two nights, showing 
 there each night without 
 billing; then we made a 
 jump and were back upon 
 our regular route, none the 
 worse from our blizzard- 
 town - hall - hard - floor - sleigh- 
 riding experiences., 
 
 HERE COMES BILL"- 
 
DOUBLING BACK 95 
 
 THE WORLD'S FAIR AND BACK 
 
 (1893.) 
 
 Mr. Oakes closed his show for two weeks, after July the 
 Fourth, and we all went to the World's fair in Chicago. I 
 met lots of relatives, friends, neighbors and schoolmates. 
 I saw machinery, curiosities, exhibits, whaleback steamers, 
 the Midway, forty beautiful women of all nations, Buffalo 
 Bill, "America" at the Auditorium, "1492" and many 
 brass bands. Speaking of brass bands, three of the Hey- 
 wood boys were playing in the Iowa State band, the ones 
 whom I had seen at the little farm, with bare feet and cheeks 
 of tan. They invited me to stay at their cottage, near the 
 grounds, which I did. Every day they fitted me out with a 
 uniform coat and cap ; also a brass horn of some kind and 
 I would pass into the grounds with them, deposit the 
 instrument in the bandstand, then I paraded the grounds 
 and took in the big shows. Many people took me for an 
 official and I was obliged to become posted on the location 
 of certain exhibits in order to answer questions. One old 
 gentleman wanted to know what "an exit" was; said he 
 had been in and out of the grounds several times and had 
 to pay every time to get back and that he couldn't find 
 ' ' a exit ' ' where them signs read ' ' exit. ' ' 
 
 The Oakes Bell Ringers reopened the season at Clinton, 
 Illinois; crossed the river to Iowa, and played three hun- 
 dred and fifty towns in that state, and only crossed the 
 state line into Missouri once and that was a warm day 
 in April. 
 
96 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 WHILE THE SILVER BELLS WERE RINGING 
 
 'Twas a warm day in April. Iowa was dry, so we 
 crossed the state line to a wet town in Missouri. We were 
 a temperate troupe, but that cool Bock beer on the first 
 real warm day in April was refreshing. Oakes invited 
 us in to have a drink several times during the afternoon, 
 and would always say to the bartender: "Give us five 
 beers," without asking what we would have and he must 
 have taken a good many beers by himself when we did not 
 see him, because when it came show time he was a little 
 bit unsteady and when we began to play the opening over- 
 ture on the bells, Oakes, who played the heavy bass bells, 
 at the extreme left, could not grip them firmly with his 
 left hand and every time he would lift a bell, just as he 
 made the hammer strike, the bell would go ringing on 
 to the floor off the stage to the left and it kept one of the 
 boys, who was dressing, pretty busy handing the bells back 
 to the table from behind a wing. Every day, for the bal- 
 ance of the season you would often hear some one singing : 
 "While the silver bells were ringing Oakes would throw 
 them on the floor." 
 
 OUR BAGGAGE DID NOT BURN 
 
 We went back to Iowa the next day to a town that was 
 at the end of a branch line. We were very proud of our 
 baggage. It was all white with jet black trimmings. Each 
 trunk was the same size and with nine of these and the 
 
DOUBLING BACK 97 
 
 big harp case they made a big ad for the Oakes Bell Ringers 
 and the Taylor Trunk Works. 
 
 "We played in the town hall at this town, and were 
 obliged to take the train at five o'clock the next morning. 
 So we secured the key from the caretaker, who bid us 
 good-night and left us to pack up and put out the lights. 
 There was a large pair of heavy doors at the foot of the 
 stairs and the baggage had to be taken out the front way. 
 Therefore we got it all ready so that the baggage man 
 would have no trouble in the morning. "We took pains to 
 fasten the double doors with the iron bar. We slid a 
 trunk downstairs on the plank which they had for the pur- 
 pose, and let the trunk rest against the doors at the bot- 
 tom and so on until we had the nine trunks, each one 
 resting against the other, clear to the top of the stairs 
 in a straight line. We put out the lights and left the 
 building by the little back stairway on the outside of the 
 same. 
 
 At about 2 A. M. we were awakened by the night clerk 
 with an alarm of fire and he said he thought it was the 
 town hall. Out we hustled, but Oakes was ahead of us 
 by four minutes. He rushed up the back stairs, ran to 
 tne front of the house, pulled that top trunk to one side 
 .and sent it down the stairway. It smashed those double 
 doors to splinters and the comedians arrived just in time 
 to see that beautiful bunch of trunks glide gracefully out 
 upon the sidewalk and at the same time discovered that 
 the fire was just around the corner. 
 
 The drayman came and we were soon out of town and I 
 never did find out who paid for that pair of splintered 
 doors. 
 
98 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 OAKES BUYS A CARPET 
 
 We always stopped at the best hotels and Oakes paid 
 the bills. One morning a landlord told him that he would 
 have to pay ten dollars for <a carpet which his daughter's 
 pug dog had ruined. Oakes had paid dog damages on 
 carpets before. He said: "I'll take the carpet and pay 
 you the difference sixteen yards, ninety cents a yard, 
 fourteen dollars and forty cents." He made the landlord 
 take up the carpet, pack it down stairs and place it on 
 the transfer wagon. The landlady was in an awful tem- 
 per and the landlord was worse, while perspiration and 
 curses were mingled with shouts of laughter, as we rode 
 away in the bus toward the station, carpet, dog and all. 
 
 NELLIE BROWN OF OTTUMWA TOWN 
 
 How could you do it? How could you be so cruel? 
 You! You! You! Break up a whole family! Oh! Oh! Oh! 
 
 That what I innocently and ignorantly did broke 
 up a love match, separated father and mother, the girl ran 
 away, the lover came near going to the pen, the home was 
 sold at auction and little children cried dreadfully, and 
 it was all caused by a man that had more curiosity than 
 a woman. That man was not I, and although I was indi- 
 rectly guilty yet I was innocent. 
 
 It was in a little town near Ottumwa, Iowa. The hotel 
 was very bad and we went to a private boarding house 
 that was kept by a widow and her daughter, the place 
 
DOUBLING BACK 9S 
 
 having been highly recommended. The lady received us, 
 introduced us to her daughter and a Miss Nellie Brown, 
 who was visiting from Ottumwa, for a few days. 
 
 Mr. Blossom and I spent a very pleasant afternoon 
 with the young ladies and the landlady with piano, books 
 and cards. We helped them to wash and wipe the supper 
 dishes and through Mr. Oakes secured complimentary 
 tickets for three to the show. After the performance they 
 waited for us and we all walked home together and the 
 landlady gave us a little lunch and told us that Miss 
 Nellie was engaged to marry Mr. John Stover, a postoffice 
 clerk, at Ottumwa. "We joked Miss Nellie about "her 
 John" and told her that he might not like the way she 
 was cutting up with "us actor folks." We said good- 
 night and left the next morning before Miss Brown had 
 breakfast. 
 
 Some three or four days afterward I was at the depot 
 when the eastbound train arrived and heard some one say, 
 *" Howdy-do, Mr. Meade." I looked toward the train and 
 saw some one waving her hand at me. At first I could 
 not imagine who it could be ; then I recognized Miss Nellie 
 Brown. She said that she was on her way home ; the con- 
 ductor called, "All aboard," we said good-by, shook 
 hands and I remarked that I might write her a letter some 
 time, and she said, "All right, do." 
 
 When I got back to the hotel I sat down and wrote 
 her a little note and about all I said was that I forgot to 
 tell her at the depot to give my regards to John. I ad- 
 dressed the envelope with a shading pen and forgot all 
 about the matter. 
 
100 
 
 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 Two months afterwards I met a gentleman from Ot- 
 tumwa and naturally asked him if he knew Miss Nellie 
 Brown and he told me this story: 
 
 11 Nellie met some theatrical people while visiting some 
 friends out of town. A strange looking letter passed 
 through the postoffice addressed to Miss Nellie and the 
 man she was going to marry, being a clerk in the office, 
 undertook to deliver the letter. His curiosity got the bet- 
 ter of him and he opened and read it. It made him so mad 
 that he accused her of flirting with an actor and treated 
 her shamefully. She quit the choir, her father and mother 
 quarreled over her refusing to marry Stover and she ran 
 away from it all. She first reported the matter to the 
 postmaster. Stover lost his job and the federal officers 
 
 came near getting him. The 
 family are all separated, the 
 home has been sold and 
 there was quite an exciting 
 time. If Stover had only 
 given her a chance to ex- 
 plain, for it happened that 
 there was nothing to it after 
 all. A show troupe had 
 stopped at the hotel where 
 she was visiting and Nellie 
 had been introduced to 
 them/' 
 
 I did not tell him that I 
 wrote that letter, but I re- 
 marked that it was a case 
 
DOUBLING BACK 101 
 
 where the actor might have caused a tragedy and would 
 have been both innocent and guilty. 
 
 Miss Nellie Brown went out of town, 
 
 To visit her friend Miss Mizzic; 
 When she returned, John's love she spurned, 
 
 And it gave them all the Phthisic. 
 
 .A GEO. M. INCIDENT 
 
 It was spring, 1894. George Cohan was traveling with 
 his folks, "The Cohan Family, " in comedy and concert 
 and Georgie was Jerry Cohan's son, the greatest song and 
 dance youth that Iowa had ever seen. 
 
 The Oakes company got off the train at a little junc- 
 tion town one morning and there upon the platform was 
 Edwin Patterson, a young man with whom I had con- 
 versed and corresponded in regard to taking out a con- 
 cert company, the " Lyric Orientals, " and after shaking 
 hands he told me that he was in advance for the "Cohan 
 Family " and said, "Come over to the depot and I'll in- 
 troduce you. We are waiting for the train to Des Moines. ' ' 
 Well, I was introduced to the now famous George M. 
 Cohan, theatrical magnate and author of many of the 
 most popular musical comedies of the age. 
 
 Two years ago I met a George Tyler, who was at one 
 time a principal member of Mr. Cohan's "Little Johnnie 
 Jones" company. He recited and gave me the following 
 verses and said they were from the pen of George M. ; 
 
102 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 but the Tyler man was in such an emaciated condition, 
 caused from morphine, that I don't know whether all that 
 he told me was truth or fiction. However, they sound like 
 George and "they're my sentiments, too." 
 
 KNOCK ME WHEN I'M DEAD 
 
 I have noticed when a fellow dies, 
 
 No matter what he's been, 
 A saintly chap or one whose life 
 
 Was deeply steeped in sin; 
 His friends forget the bitter words 
 
 They spoke but yesterday, 
 And now they have a multitude 
 
 Of pretty things to say. 
 I fancy when I go to rest 
 
 Someone will bring to light, 
 Some kindly word or kindly act 
 
 Long buried out of sight; 
 But if it's just the same to you, 
 
 You may give to me instead 
 The bouquets while I'm living, 
 
 And do your knocking when I'm dead. 
 
 Don't save all your kisses to imprint 
 
 Upon my marble brow, 
 While countless maledictions 
 
 Are hurled upon me now; 
 Just say one kindly word to me, 
 
 While I mourn here alone, 
 And don't save all your eulogy 
 
 To carve upon a stone. 
 
DOUBLING BACK 103 
 
 What do I care when I'm dead 
 
 If the Bloomingdale Gazette 
 Gives me a write-up with my picture 
 
 In mourning borders set? 
 It would not flatter me a bit, 
 
 No matter what it said. 
 So kindly throw your bouquets now 
 
 And do your knocking when I'm dead. 
 
 It may be nice when we are gone 
 
 To have the folks talk so, 
 To have the flowers come in loads 
 
 From relatives, you know. 
 It may be nice to have these things 
 
 From those we leave behind. 
 But just as far as I'm concerned 
 
 I really do not mind; 
 I'm quite alive and well today, 
 
 And while I linger here 
 Give me a helping hand at times, 
 
 Lend me a word of cheer; 
 Just change the game a little bit 
 
 And kindly switch the decks, 
 For I'll be no judge of flowers, 
 
 When I've cashed in my checks. 
 
 FROM MISSOURI TO "EDGEWOOD FOLKS," VIA 
 AI/BA HEYWOOD 
 
 I closed my engagement with the Oakes Swiss Bell 
 Ringers after the Fourth of July, 1894, and negotiated 
 with my old friend, Alba Heywood, to play the part of 
 
104 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 " Skinner" in Sol Smith Russell's play of "Edgewood 
 Folks." Mr. Hey wood wanted to see what I could do, so 
 I said good-by to the grand old Oakes at Kirksville, Mis- 
 souri, and journeyed to Owosso, Michigan, where I joined 
 the Heywood company for a short visit just before they 
 closed their '94 season. I showed him that I was just 
 from Missouri and what I could do, signed a contract to 
 open with him in August and we all took the steamer from 
 Grand Haven to Chicago. 
 
 AN ACTOR WITH A REAL SHOW 
 
 The acting bees quit bumbling. I signed up for the 
 seasons of '94 and '95 with Alba Heywood and played 
 the part of "Skinner" in Sol Smith Russell's Comedy, 
 "Edgewood Folks." We opened the season in Joliet, 
 Illinois, fifty miles southwest of Chicago and closed the 
 season in Elkhart, Indiana, fifty miles southeast from the 
 Windy City. 
 
 I did not get along very well at first, and the brother, 
 0. W. Heywood, was in favor of letting "Meadie" go and 
 getting an actor that could play the part; but he apolo- 
 gized to me, after ten days, for I really began to "hog 
 the show" in a legitimate characterization of the village 
 Yankee. I made up as near as possible like the cartoons 
 of Bill Nye and when "Skinner" and the old maid en- 
 tered the parlor, at the reception given to the young 
 minister, people in the audience would exclaim 'aloud, 
 
DOUBLING BACK 
 
 105 
 
 "There's Old Bill Nye." I received flattering press no- 
 tices in all of the cities that we visited and made good 
 for the season of thirty weeks and ten thousand miles of 
 one-night stands. Frederick Truesdale and Robert El- 
 liott, two Broadway actors, made their professional debut 
 with the same show. 
 
 At New Iberia, Louisiana, part of the company visited 
 Joseph Jefferson at his plantation, near the little station 
 of "Shore Acres;" and we gorged ourselves with oranges 
 and pecans right off the trees, while Joseph, his house- 
 keeper (a colored French mammy) and the white overseer 
 entertained us magnificently. 
 
 We visited New Orleans; St. Augustine with its 
 Ponce de Leon hotel ; Chattanooga and the battlegrounds of 
 Lookout Mountain; Atlanta, 
 Ga., Louisville, Ky,, etc. 
 
 We named the mascot 
 " Jaglenfrock" and had a 
 very successful, merry, 
 financial and enjoyable sea- 
 son and the last I heard of 
 Alba Heywood and his 
 brothers was in 1901 when 
 they struck oil at Beau- 
 mont, Texas, and became 
 Heywood Brothers, oil mag- 
 nates, estimated to be worth 
 twenty million dollars. ( See 
 Saturday Evening Post, 
 February 19, 1916.) 
 
 l " WITH I 'EOBEWDDD "FOLKS' 1 
 
106 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 A PLEASANT SURPRISE COMPANY 
 
 I endeavored to secure an engagement while in Chi- 
 cago, but it was spring and the wrong time of the year. 
 I should have gone to New York, with the reputation I 
 had made and signed up for the following season with 
 some New York company. Instead I met A. G. Allen, 
 the bell ringer's hustling agent and we organized a com- 
 pany, with piano player, sketch team and I myself as the 
 show. We lasted one week and closed at Sandwich with 
 enough cash to send the people back to Chicago, all except 
 the piano player. We were broke. I borrowed ten dollars 
 from a cousin, gave half of it to Allen, reengaged the 
 piano player and Allen and went ahead with the one-man 
 show and a piano orchestra. 
 
 We made it stick after many close calls, and we blos- 
 somed out into a first class concert show. At times we 
 even had to carry our trunks to the depot after dark to 
 save cartage, so that we could purchase tickets for two 
 to the next stand, while Allen would walk into a town, 
 bill it and walk out again. One time he even preached a 
 sermon for an old classmate in a country church, in order 
 to get the preacher to drive him across country when he 
 did not have car fare. We schemed and saved and finally 
 secured Carl Herrman, the famous boy violinist, then 
 Jennie Robinson, prima donna soprano. We then changed 
 the name to The New York Ideals, and toured the central 
 states until June, 1896. 
 
 I married the piano player, Georgiana Van Gordan, of 
 
DOUBLING BACK 107 
 
 Dunkirk, New York. Some months afterward we closed 
 the company for a time, at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and I 
 went with my wife to her father's home for a visit with 
 her parents. 
 
 IN JAIL ON A FLUKE 
 
 The New York Ideals gave an entertainment under 
 the auspices of the Young People's Society of Christian 
 Endeavor at Leroy, Minnesota. The contract read "fifty- 
 fifty" and the society was to furnish hotel accommoda- 
 tions for five persons one day. 
 
 The next morning I displayed my contract to the land- 
 lord (a county commissioner) and he said, "All right, go 
 ahead." We proceeded across the state line into Iowa, 
 played four engagements and passed back through Leroy 
 into Minnesota again. When the train left Leroy I was 
 surprised by the sheriff who called on me. He stated that 
 I had left my hotel bill unpaid at Leroy and furthermore 
 told me that it was up to him to collect it and the costs, 
 and that if I would settle the bill there would be an end 
 to the matter. I refused and showed him my contract. 
 He said I was in the right but that the church people 
 had refused to pay and he was obliged to hold me until 
 there was a settlement. 
 
 I wired Allen. The sheriff went with us to our next 
 stand, took tickets on the door at night, and the next morn- 
 ing took me to the county jail while the costs were accu- 
 mulating. 
 
108 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 Allen met us at the jail. The sheriff locked me up and 
 returned to Leroy with Allen. He took the contract, 
 found the minister and the chairman of the entertain- 
 ment committee, assembled them in the justice's office 
 and they soon came to terms. It cost the Christian En- 
 deavor Society thirty-seven dollars and fifty cents to set- 
 tle what was originally a five dollar board bill. The sheriff 
 wired his deputy at Austin to release me and the little 
 concert show went on its way rejoicing to the next stand. 
 
 Some children saw me through a window and asked 
 me what I was in jail for? They had been playing in the 
 yard and just noticed me for the first time. I made up' 
 as fierce a looking face as I could and said, "I killed the 
 president." And they air-o-planed. 
 
 DUNKIRK, NEW YORK TO MOOSEJAW, SAS- 
 KATCHEWAN, NORTH WEST TERRITORY 
 
 From the city of Dunkirk, New York, where they 
 make the Brooks locomotive, to Moose jaw, Saskatchewan, 
 N. W. T., dominion of Canada, where they make cold 
 weather and grow good beef cattle, is over two thousand 
 miles. My wife and I traveled that distance to join the 
 Carrie Lee Stoyle English Comedy Concert company, via 
 Chicago, St. Paul and Pipestone, Minnesota ; Grand Forks, 
 North Dakota, Winnipeg and Manitoba. Pipestone, Min- 
 nesota, is where the Indians used to come for hundreds of 
 miles around to get the pipe stone for the pipes they 
 used in peace or war. 
 
DOUBLING BACK 109 
 
 The Ideals had been forced to close their long season 
 of one-night stands at Oshkosh, on account of continuous 
 bad business. Owing to this fact I changed partners about 
 two months before the crash came. It happened that my 
 wife wanted concert and my business partner wanted an 
 all-around vaudeville show. So Mr. Allen and Mr. Meade 
 were obliged to dissolve partnership. I secured another 
 partner through advertising. We played towns in the 
 ' ' Little Big Thumb, ' ' Marquette, Iron Mountain and Mari- 
 nette, where we did a nice business. However, after sixty 
 days I closed with the new partner who was "N. G." I 
 thought it wise to quit before he should break me alto- 
 gether. I now planned to go to Chicago, then visit my 
 wife's people at Dunkirk, reorganize the Ideals and tour 
 the eastern states. 
 
 We remained in Chicago only a few days. We went 
 into a booking agency and left our names, then went to 
 visit the old folks at home. After we had been at Dun- 
 kirk about ten days I received a telegram from the agent 
 at Chicago which read: "Join Stoyle English Concert 
 company, Grand Forks, North Dakota. Tickets and one 
 week's salary here.'' 
 
 We thought it would prove to be a good engagement 
 and started as soon as we could pack and say good-by. 
 We secured our week's salary and two tickets at Chicago, 
 which had been advanced to the agent, and in due time 
 arrived at Grand Forks, where we met Miss Stoyle and 
 her manager (?) as we were getting off the train. They 
 put us back upon the same train and took us to Moose jaw, 
 Saskatchewan, via Winnipeg. After a good sleep at the 
 
110 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 hotel, Miss Stoyle arranged and rehearsed a program and 
 said we were billed to open there the next night and that 
 we would rehearse again tomorrow. In the meantime we 
 proceeded to get rested after our long journey. 
 
 After supper we went to the opera house and rehearsed 
 again. Then we arranged our wardrobe, made up for our 
 first turn and waited, watched and waited again. After 
 what seemed 20:45 o'clock, the manager (?) came to my 
 dressing room and notified me that there would not be a 
 performance that evening. It seemed there were just six- 
 teen persons in the audience, and Miss Stoyle was drink- 
 ing brandy and sodas in her dressing room. She informed 
 me that the people in town had not yet returned from 
 the railroad men's picnic and that as she would have to 
 pay ten dollars for the use of the piano, ten dollars for 
 the hall and ten dollars for license she had concluded not 
 to show and would see me in the morning. 
 
 In the Northwest Territories, in '96 they counted time 
 from one to twenty-four and at 13 :39 (1 :39 P. M. in U. S.) 
 Miss Stoyle summoned me to her room. She was in bed 
 and looked as though she had been somewhere, some place 
 and had some time. She looked at me through her eye- 
 glass (as big as a sixteen size watch) and informed me 
 that luck was against her, that it was two hundred and 
 eighty miles to the next stand and she did not think that 
 it would be wise to take me and my wife any further 
 from home. She gave me twenty dollars and said that was 
 all she could spare and that as soon as her next remit- 
 tance came she was going back to England. It was a 
 joyful situation and I made the best of it. My wife 
 
DOUBLING BACK 
 
 111 
 
 roared slightly. "We took the train to Regina, where the 
 Northwest Mounted Police have their headquarters. There 
 we gave a concert and entertainment under their auspices. 
 With the assistance of several local persons we played to 
 a very large house at the fort, and found them all to be 
 gentlemen of culture, refinement and education. 
 
 I DOUBLE IN BRASS 
 
 While arranging with the N. W. M. P. I met the ad- 
 vance agent of the Robert Buchanan Dramatic company 
 that was touring the territories with their private car, 
 brass band, orchestra and famous actors, comedians, plays 
 and canvas opera house. 
 
 When the show arrived, 
 the next day after our con- 
 cert at the barracks, I 
 struck the boss for a job. 
 He wanted an actor and a 
 piano player. So we were 
 all in luck. Mr. Buchanan 
 gave us a room on the car, 
 which we proceeded to oc- 
 cupy and decorate to suit 
 our fancy. Meals were 
 served in each stateroom. 
 The cook, porter, male and 
 female actors, proprietor, 
 advance agent and band 
 leader were a jolly crowd, 
 
112 
 
 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 while the canvasmen, stake drivers, scenery shifters and 
 property men doubled in brass or marched in the noon-day 
 parade. 
 
 It was week stands, mostly, repertoire under canvas 
 until it became too cold. That happened in Calgary, 
 where Buchanan stored our tent and the paraphernalia 
 that went with it and I believe it is there yet. 
 
 In one town we showed in a large butcher shop for a 
 week, with quarters of beef hanging all around the room. 
 At another place it was in a granary, with the audience 
 sitting upon great piles of wheat. And still at another 
 freight division point we actually gave a performance 
 in a round house, and half of the audience were 
 friendly wild Blackfoot Indians. The troupe went out 
 
 to their camp, smoked the 
 pipe of peace with the 
 seven big chiefs, while big 
 chief Black Feather and his 
 bride escorted us back to 
 town where we gave them 
 reserved seats on a board 
 across the ash pit for a wed- 
 ding present. At the end 
 of the week everybody in 
 troupe had Indian trinkets 
 galore, which the Indians 
 had traded for tickets at the 
 door. We paid cash to Mr. 
 Buchanan for them and ob- 
 tained many nice souvenirs 
 
 THE INDIRNS 
 RND THE 
 ROUND-HOUSED 
 
DOUBLING BACK 113 
 
 at greatly reduced Indian prices. They could not under- 
 stand the plays but enjoyed the knife fights and the 
 music. 
 
 On another occasion, when the train was blocked at the 
 summit of the mountains, we put up scenery in the end 
 of the long dining room of the hotel and furnished enter- 
 tainment to the trainload of passengers for three days 
 before the crew and plows could get the tracks cleared. 
 We played Vancouver, New "Westminster and crossed the 
 line into the United States of America at Elaine, Washing- 
 ton. After playing about Puget Sound for a few weeks 
 I closed with the Robert Buchanan company at Seattle. 
 My wife took a steamer for 'Frisco and went to Visalia, 
 California, to visit my sister. I joined a dramatic com- 
 pany that was going south into California in a few weeks, 
 where I, too, would visit my sister, and my wife and I 
 would be reunited. This was in January, 1897. I had 
 been with the Buchanan show about six months and all 
 the time I doubled in brass, playing the bass drum, march- 
 ing in snow, ice, rain and slush, beating the drum with 
 one hand and doubling the cymbals with the other. 
 
 GROVER'S ALCAZAR STOCK COMPANY 
 
 I came very near going to Juneau, Alaska, with a stock 
 company. The Klondike rush had just begun. My wife 
 did not want to go. So I joined "The Grovers" stock 
 company direct from the Alcazar, San Francisco, which 
 
114 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 was playing a stock engagement at the old Third Avenue 
 theatre in Seattle. They could not use my wife at the 
 time, so she took a vacation and I was to join her later 
 at my sister's home. 
 
 "The Grovers" played short stock engagements at 
 Seattle, Tacoma and Portland. I remember that I went on 
 for a specialty at a performance in Portland and scored 
 quite a hit as "Bill Nye." The Oregonian gave me about 
 fifteen lines and the show nearly six. Old man Grover, 
 "The Governor/ 7 as every one called him, did not like 
 this any too well, but complimented me highly. At a 
 social session of the Elks one evening (he belonged to 
 No. 1) where he presided as toastmaster, he called upon 
 me as "Bill Nye" to entertain for a few moments. Of 
 course I responded and retired to my corner amid great 
 applause. 
 
 Instead of going south into California, the show went 
 east to Walla Walla, Boise, Salt Lake City, then north to 
 Butte. My wife joined me there and was engaged as 
 musical director. Southern California did not agree with 
 her health. 
 
 The show did not do very well and it kept me busy try- 
 ing to draw my salary. I even tried to quit the show at 
 Pocatello, Idaho, but Grover held our trunks and would 
 not give up the checks. They were doubling back west 
 to Walla Walla and intended going to Spokane, to the 
 Auditorium for summer stock. So I stayed, but after 
 the second week "The Grovers," father and son, got into 
 a fight with one of the actors, Guy Durrell, and just about 
 knocked Durrell out with a billy. He had them arrested. 
 
DOUBLING BACK 115 
 
 They were fine seven and three hundred dollars dad 
 seven, son three hundred and this was the means of 
 breaking up the summer engagement. We were obliged 
 to take to the road. We played the Coeur d'Alenes. My 
 wife was taken sick at Wardner and I quit the show. 
 Old man Grover gave me two dollars, which was the largest 
 sum of money that he ever gave to me at one time while 
 I was with him. They secured a three-day Fourth of 
 July date at the Auditorium in Spokane and being short 
 of people they wired me to come for three days, "salary 
 sure." I answered: "Send round trip ticket and salary/ 1 
 which they did. After the three days I returned to Ward- 
 ner. The Grovers, father and son, went east and I have 
 never seen them since. It was a case where the father 
 did the gambling and the son took to drink. 
 
 THE AUTO PENS GET TO WORK 
 
 I dug my auto pens out of my trunk and with the as- 
 sistance of another actor and his wife, who had quit the 
 show at the same time, made several business directories 
 in the neighboring towns. We also gave a benefit perform- 
 ance in Wardner, with a little local assistance. 
 
 My wife had now recovered and could help. The four 
 of us worked our way to Butte, Montana, by playing the 
 small towns enroute with a four-people show and the auto 
 pens. Lockwood and his wife had a little money. He 
 got some more from home and they departed happily. 
 I went to work in a vaudeville theatre in Butte, doing- 
 
116 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 two turns a night. Here I learned to eat limberger 
 cheese with some of my old acquaintances from Hancock, 
 Michigan, who had moved from copperdom in Michigan 
 to Butte, Montana, the copper mining, smelting, barren, 
 smoky, drinking, sporting, prosperous, big, union town. 
 
 After a four weeks * engagement in Butte I secured two 
 weeks at Great Falls in the same kind of a joint. Of 
 course I took my wife along and she secured a piano job. 
 
 There was a very large copper smelter situated at 
 Great Falls. A great many of my old schoolmates from 
 Hancock were connected with the plant. I was in hopes 
 they would not discover me, but one evening the stage 
 manager reported there were some gentlemen in the audi- 
 ence who knew me and wanted to see me. They came into 
 my dressing room and we had a jubilantly-ten-year-re- 
 newal-of-acquaintance-of-a-time. They wanted to know 
 what I was doing in such a place. I told them that I was 
 trying to get enough money to buy tickets for myself and 
 wife back into civilization. They wouldn't stand for it, 
 but secured a clerical job for me at the smelter, so I quit 
 the stage and commenced the ore weighing business. 
 
 THE B. & M. SMELTER A WEIGHER 
 
 During the second week of my engagement at the 
 vaudeville theatre at Great Falls, Montana, the stage man- 
 ager billed me as "Hancock Meade" and the smelter boys 
 were present nearly every night to see their old school- 
 mate from Hancock. This resulted in my becoming per- 
 manently established at the Boston & Montana Consoli- 
 
DOUBLING BACK 117 
 
 dated Silver and Copper Mining company's smelter, as 
 a clerk and weigher. I never lost a shift and put in seven 
 hundred and ninety shifts in two years and sixty days 
 (November 1, 1897, to January 1, 1900). 
 
 The smelter was situated on the Missouri river, on a 
 spur that extended from the main line of the Great North- 
 ern Railway, at Great Falls. There were four trains every 
 twenty-four hours, from the Falls to the smelter, consist- 
 ing of different grades of ore, lime, coal and supplies for 
 the plant. 
 
 For one year I acted as weigher and clerk at the track 
 scales, two weeks night shift and two weeks day shift. 
 It was my duty to weigh every carload of material and 
 keep a record of every car from the time it entered the 
 yard until it went out, with the gross, tare and net 
 weights. The record stated whether the car was unloaded 
 at blast furnace No. 1 ; reverberatory furnace No. 2, at the 
 concentrator, sample mill, electrolytic plant furnace, re- 
 finery or warehouse. At the end of the year I was trans- 
 ferred to the timekeeper's office and thence to the furnace 
 refinery, where I weighed all the refined copper that was 
 shipped, keeping the records of cathodes made from an- 
 odes, by means of the electrolytic plant, with weights and 
 numbers. The entire plant was run by electricity. The 
 currents were generated by a two or three hundred thou- 
 sand horse power hydraulic plant from the currents of the 
 Missouri. 
 
 The first few months, while acting as a weigher of 
 copper, etc., I also weighed another matter, in my mind, 
 very seriously, and concluded that my wife and Edward 
 
118 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 must part. She expressed a wish to go east on a visit. 
 Accordingly I arranged matters in a few weeks and pro- 
 vided her with money and a ticket to Dunkirk, New York. 
 "We corresponded for a few months, then drifted apart. 
 This is a landmark on the trail that I do not wish to dwell 
 upon. She went to Cleveland, visited the Buffalo expo- 
 sition, witnessed the assassination of President McKinley, 
 and played with a ladies' orchestra in one of the buildings. 
 That was the last that I have ever heard of Mrs. 
 Georgie Van Gordan Meade. She may be alive, divorced, 
 married again and the mother of a large and famous fam- 
 ily of musicians. I truly hope so. 
 
 I remained at the smelter as a copper weigher, mingled 
 with Senator Paris Gibson; Charles M. Russell, the cow- 
 boy artist, and spent my salary among the boys trying 
 to drown a few sorrows until January 1, 1900. Then I 
 joined Andy McPhee's bloodhound-Uncle-Tom 's-Cabin- 
 troupe. I slept in a two foot bunk with a real double-in- 
 brass-bloodhound-actor for two weeks. Then I received 
 my two weeks' notice because I could not do Eva and a 
 bloodhound at the same time. I quit the Private Palace 
 Car at Spokane with five dollars in my pocket and the 
 thermometer at twenty below zero. 
 
 I stepped lively and called at all the theatres. While 
 talking to the manager of the last one on the list (the 
 toughest free and easy joint in the city) the telephone 
 rang and the manager answered the same, then turned 
 and asked me if my name was Meade. I answered "yes" 
 and he told me that some one wanted to talk to me at 
 Davenport. I did not know there was a town by the name 
 
DOUBLING BACK 119 
 
 and thought he meant Davenport's famous restaurant. 
 However, I took the receiver and said, ''Hello!" 
 
 When I had received my notice to quit the McPhee 
 outfit I immediately sat down and wrote to my old friend, 
 Robert Buchanan, who had recently organized a dramatic 
 show in Spokane, and was on the road. I had taken a 
 chance and my letter had been forwarded. He now 
 wanted an actor and had been chasing me by telephone 
 all around Spokane. I was glad to hear him say: "Is 
 that you, Meade? This is Buchanan. When can you 
 join? Fifteen and cakes. Will send ticket. Call at rail- 
 road office. Come on first train to Davenport, Washing- 
 ton." I said "good-by," hung up the receiver and double- 
 quicked it to the railroad office, got my ticket, and the next 
 morning I was on board Buchanan's private car. When 
 I shook hands with old "Bob" I remarked, "Once more 
 you have proven to be the Good Samaritan." 
 
 We had various experiences with good and bad busi- 
 ness, ice, snow, colored cooks, high-toned piano players 
 and too-proud-to-paste-up-bills advance agents. At one 
 town the city marshal walked up the aisle, climbed over 
 the footlights, during the death scene of Little Willie in 
 East Lynne, and wanted to know what we had done with 
 Kelly's cook stove. It seemed that the property man had 
 borrowed a little sheet iron camp stove, to use in a garret 
 scene in some play, and had forgotten to return it. That 
 marshal had a nice voice for the occasion, too. 
 
 I did not have to double brass, 
 Do props or manage stage; 
 
120 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 I rolled in the sunshine on the grass (snow) 
 
 Played characters, any age; 
 Then, when the agent quit, perchance, 
 
 I also was the big advance. 
 
 Business was better after the high-toned piano player 
 and the proud agent quit. We were doing nicely when 
 Buchanan was taken seriously ill with pneumonia, at 
 Weiser, Idaho. We were obliged to close and most of the 
 actors quit. 
 
 While waiting around the hotel I became acquainted 
 with some traveling men who told me about a wonderful 
 town named Burns in Oregon that was situated one hun- 
 dred and fifty miles from the railroad. They stated that 
 if we could get a small company together, go to Burns 
 and play for a week or two, we would make more money 
 than we could ever spend. I obtained all the information 
 I could, and learned that Burns was a wild and woolly, 
 wide open, interior, stock town. But that it also con- 
 tained a great many refined, cultured, wealthy and tal- 
 ented people. To get there we would have to ride over 
 the mountains for one hundred and fifty miles by stage. 
 It looked good to me and I was longing for adventure. 
 I talked with Mr. Buchanan's brother, Ed. He talked 
 it over with Bob he was nearly well by this time; and 
 Ed, being in favor of the trip, we managed to convince 
 Bob that by using whiskers and wigs we could fix up a 
 repertoire of some ten or twelve plays that we could pro- 
 duce with five men, two women and a boy. This was all 
 that remained of the big show of twenty persons, band 
 
DOUBLING BACK 121 
 
 and orchestra. The bay was Archie Buchanan, aged ten, 
 and he could play boy and girl parts very creditably. I 
 was good for an old maid, a hag, an old lady, or any odd 
 thing. 
 
 The finances were getting low. Bob and Ed managed 
 to spare enough cash to get me, as advance agent, to 
 Burns, via stage, from Ontario, Oregon. At the first town, 
 Vale, Oregon, we met Mr. Julian Byrd, editor and pro- 
 prietor of the Burns Times-Herald, and State Representa- 
 tive Geer. They witnessed one of our performances at 
 Vale and pronounced it first-class for a small company 
 and urged us to go on to Burns. They told us that with 
 their endorsement success would crown our efforts and we 
 would never regret or forget our experience. 
 
 I left Vale one morning on the stage ''as the big ad- 
 vance/ 7 and after riding over rocks, ruts and corduroys 
 for fifteen miles I arrived at Westfall, population fifty, 
 consisting of cow punchers, stockmen, etc., with about 
 seventy-five more within a radius of twelve miles. I billed 
 the town, arranged hotel accommodations, rented the town 
 hall (no scenery), ate a square meal and talked like an 
 auctioneer while the stage driver was changing horses and 
 the other passengers were eating. We rode fifteen miles 
 more to a stage station at the foot of a lofty mountain, 
 arriving there after dark. It was April and somewhat 
 chilly. We waited for the stage from another direction, 
 hooked on four horses and proceeded to climb the moun- 
 tain. 
 
 'Twas the longest ride I can remember! 
 O'er beds of lava, mountains hills! 
 
122 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 I dreamed that Burns was one great fountain! 
 
 Showering actors with ten dollar bills! 
 
 I woke when e'er the wheels struck a chuck! 
 
 To hear the driver yell, "Git up, Buck!" 
 
 While I was suffering without a peep, 
 
 He whistled sarcastically, "Sleep, Baby, Sleep." 
 
 I rode nearly forty-eight hours and billed Drewsey and 
 Harney while the driver and passengers ate and changed 
 horses. They were small places, like Westfall. I arrived 
 in Burns the second night at twelve o'clock and realized 
 that I had been experiencing something. I went into the 
 barroom of the hotel, put dates on some half sheet posters 
 to send back by the stage driver to Harney, then asked 
 the bartender for a drink of brandy. His name was Baldy 
 and he asked me if I was a preacher. I said, "Put me 
 to bed." 
 
 "We did a wonderful business. Each one of us doubled 
 many parts with all kinds of whiskers and wigs. Bob 
 Buchanan said that we did not need more actors, but we 
 needed more whiskers. We went north from Burns by 
 Btage to Canyon City, Oregon, then to Sumpter, Idaho, 
 and by rail back to Weiser and the private car, which had 
 been left there in care of the cook. 
 
 The trip proved a financial and healthful success, so 
 much so that Buchanan took the car and troupe to Boise, 
 sold the car, purchased wagons and horses, and we covered 
 two thousand miles of mountain roads, through Idaho, 
 Utah, Nevada and California, that summer. 
 
 Our first stand out of Boise was at Idaho City, an old 
 time gold mining town, where the scenes of the play, 
 
DOUBLING BACK 123 
 
 " Golden Giant Mine/' are supposed to have taken place. 
 It was the Fourth of July, 1901. We were billed to play 
 "Two Orphans " (seven persons and a boy). The chief 
 of the local fire department said, "I have heard that a 
 great many theatres have burned where that play and 
 Kate Claxton appeared, and if you do not object I would 
 like to station a couple of fire laddies on the stage, so 
 that when the fire scene occurs they might be handy/ 7 
 We did not object, but had a good laugh and although 
 Miss Claxton burned up some theatres, I think the fire 
 chief meant the snow scene. 
 
 We had a camping outfit with us and for six weeks 
 camped along the old state military road from Idaho City 
 to Salmon City, in Idaho. The only town we saw for the 
 three weeks was Banner, an old deserted silver mining 
 town, where we saw one man who was the company's 
 watchman. Hie lived in a small house and used the town 
 for a cattle ranch. The stray cattle (mavericks) he 
 branded as his own, and was getting rich. He smiled con- 
 tinuously, played with his kittens and directed us on our 
 way. We spent a week at Red Pish lakes, in the Saw 
 Tooth mountains, fished in a hundred streams, shot grouse, 
 deer and fool hens, crossed the railroad at Idaho Falls, 
 visited the Teton mountains and kept clear of railroad 
 towns from Pocatello, Idaho, until we reached Elko, Ne- 
 vada. By this time it was too cold to travel by team. 
 After placing the horses in the care of a rancher at Elko, 
 we took the railroad to Truckee, California. 
 
 I gave the usual two weeks' notice to Mr. Buchanan 
 after playing a few small towns in the Sacramento Valley. 
 
124 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 We closed at a little town near Colfax. Speaking of Col- 
 fax reminds me that we billed the town and when it was 
 8:30 and time to ring up the curtain for the first act, 
 fhere was only seventeen persons in the house. So in order 
 to advertise ourselves as having a good show, we announced 
 that we would give a free performance and sent a bunch 
 of small boys through the streets to announce it. The re- 
 sult was a very good audience, well pleased, and we played 
 to a paying business during the balance of the engage- 
 ment 
 
 ONE MAN AND ONE SHOW 
 
 ALSO 
 THE SOUTHERN STOCK CO. 
 
 (1901) 
 
 Before closing with the Robert Buchanan company, 
 E. H. Buchanan and I had entered into an agreement 
 to take out our own company. Therefore we went direct 
 to San Francisco, engaged some actors and while E. H. 
 was attending to some other business matters in 'Frisco, 
 I took a trip to Visalia and visited my sister, Nellie, whom 
 I had not seen since 1887. I only remained in Visalia a 
 few days. Sister arranged a one-man show uder the auspi- 
 ces of the W. 0. W., and with the assistance of some local 
 musical talent I gave an entertainment in the Armory 
 Opera House to a very large audience. The affair was a 
 tremendous success, financially and otherwise, "Bill Nye," 
 "The Raven, " "Grandma" and the jump polka dance 
 
DOUBLING BACK 125 
 
 scoring exceedingly strong with the women and children. 
 My share, at fifty-fifty, after all expenses were paid, netted 
 me one hundred dollars at twenty-five and thirty-five 
 cents admission, and the next day I was on my way to 
 join my partner, E. H. Buchanan, and our Southern 
 Stock company, at Colfax, California. There we rehearsed 
 and opened the season for a long tour through the moun- 
 tains with horses and wagons. 
 
 Our company consisted of E. H. Buchanan and wife, 
 Fred Moore and wife, Albert Welch, Harry McAuliff and 
 Juliet Chandler, with I as general teamster, manager, ac- 
 tor, property man, advance agent and treasurer. Mr. 
 Buchanan directed the plays and managed the stage. 
 
 We opened at Coif ax to light business ; then railroaded 
 to Nevada City and did not see a railroad or a train of 
 cars again for nearly two thousand miles, except when we 
 crossed the Southern Pacific at Ashland, Oregon. For the 
 first two weeks we played to light houses, and our capital 
 was nearly exhausted. We were in debt to the stage com- 
 pany for transportation when we arrived in Downieville. 
 At Downieville we played to good houses, replenished our 
 exchequer and went by livery team over the mountains to 
 Sierraville. We continued to meet with financial success 
 until the close of the season. We purchased horses and 
 wagons at Quincy, Susanville and Alturas. At Susanville 
 we opened the Emerson hotel and opera house. The farm- 
 ers came for miles around and visited Charley Emerson 
 and his new brick hotel while the show entertained them 
 for fifty and seventy-five cents admission. 
 
 The people at Alturas were too much excited over the 
 
126 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 Lookout lynching affair to patronize the first good dra- 
 matic show that had visited Modoc County for several 
 years. In fact they had not had a good show since Billie 
 Ellyford had been there. He became the big railroad ten, 
 twenty and thirty-cent show of California. 
 
 We visited Surprise Valley, with its four little towns 
 snuggling up to the east slope of the mountains, that faced 
 Nevada, in the northeastern corner of the state, and then 
 to Lakeview, Oregon, for a big five days' celebration of 
 the Fourth. The celebration consisted of horse racing, 
 broncho busting, Indian war dances, sheep shearing con- 
 tests. The opera house was over a livery stable, where 
 the people purchased four square feet of floor space for 
 a reserved seat to our show and furnished their own 
 chairs. "We did a rollicking business at Lakeview and the 
 saloon men got jealous. Before we left town they had 
 rented the livery stable opera house for the next year's 
 celebration so that no show could take all the money out 
 of town. Too bad, wasn 't it ? The men folks that came to 
 the celebration and brought their families could patronize 
 the saloons and the gambling, but the poor wife and chil- 
 dren, as well as gentlemen who did not care to be enter- 
 tained in a saloon, could not spend a dollar to see a good 
 moral play. They even had the town license for theatrical 
 companies greatly increased. But the next year we fooled 
 them. We rented Charley Snider 's furniture store, built a 
 plank stage, hung our own scenery and the citizens packed 
 the place to the doors every night and we were two thou- 
 sand feet from a livery stable. The city council even re- 
 duced the license. 
 
DOUBLING BACK 127 
 
 From Lakeview it was a long ride, one hundred miles 
 west to Linkville (Klamath Falls) then a small town of 
 about six hundred inhabitants. Here we found a real 
 opera house. The manager, Mr. John V. Houston, was in 
 San Francisco having his kidney cut out, so we did not 
 meet him until the next year, but we showed under the 
 management of his brother. Mr. Moore's wife was taken 
 very seriously ill here and we were obliged to close tempo- 
 rarily and leave Mr. and Mrs. Moore behind. We went 
 over the mountains to Ashland, Medford and Jackson- 
 ville, Oregon. Mr. Buchanan went to Portland and se- 
 cured two new persons, a Miss Corinne Snell and Herbert 
 Miller. "We played at Jacksonville and Grants Pass; from 
 there we went to Crescent City, Cal., one hundred miles 
 distant, over one of the most beautiful summer mountain 
 roads in existence. 
 
 We opened on Monday night in Crescent City at En- 
 dert's opera house which had been built for eighteen years. 
 We played to a large and well pleased audience. The 
 next morning at 2 A. M. the opera house burned to the 
 ground with all of our wardrobe, scenery, wigs and whis- 
 kers. We rented a small dance hall, built a plank stage, 
 made plank seats, painted diamond dye scenery, the citi- 
 zens furnished wardrobes and the local amateur dramatic 
 club furnished wigs, grease, paints and whiskers. After 
 losing two nights we were again playing to a packed 
 house. The hall was entirely too small. 
 
 We traveled up the Oregon coast to Gold Beach, Port 
 Orford and Bandon; then to Marshfield on Coos Bay. We 
 went through Curry and Coos Counties, but did not do 
 
128 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 very well. Hal the Healer had just been through Coos 
 County, and picked up all the easy money. Buchanan 
 did not like the country but I made up my mind that I 
 would go back some day, to that old Coos Bay. 
 
 We played Munch 's hall at Bandon and stopped at 
 Bedillion's hotel. By way of amusing ourselves we fished 
 for crabs and boiled them in a big black kettle in the yard 
 back of the hotel. Judge Toppan listened to Buchanan, 
 who was a solo cornet player that pleased the judge. I 
 smoked a cigar with Bill Dungan at the Blanco hotel in 
 Marshfield where we played a week. On Monday night 
 we played East Lynne in Myrtle Point and started down 
 the coast for 'Frisco. We stopped three nights at Crescent 
 City and opened Endert's new opera house to the largest 
 business in the history of that neat little theatre. 
 
 Next we toured Humboldt County, California, and by 
 inaugurating ''ladies free" we managed to do a nice busi- 
 ness, continuing along the coast playing Fort Bragg, Ukiah 
 and Santa Rosa. At Petaluma (the chicken town) we 
 loaded our rolling stock upon a boat and sailed by steamer 
 into San Francisco where we disposed of the same at a 
 sale stable on Seventh street at a good figure. 
 
 We reorganized our show for railroad purposes and 
 against the wishes of my partner I took my seventeen- 
 year-old-six-foot-two-inch nephew, Paul Harvey, who had 
 never been on the stage in his life, to assist me. It was 
 not long until we had him playing parts. He took to the 
 acting business like a fish to water. After this Buchanan 
 and I did not get along very well as partners. We went 
 east into Nevada and after playing Eureka, we drove over 
 
DOUBLING BACK 129 
 
 to Ely, Cherrycreek and north to Wells through snow, 
 sage brush, wind and sand. Riding in wagons over the 
 mountains in the summer time is glorious, but in the win- 
 ter time, especially in Nevada, it is misery. So after 
 playing Wells, I dissolved partnership with Buchanan, 
 and Paul and I returned to San Francisco by rail. 
 
 With the help of a silent partner I organized a new 
 Southern Stock company in the spring of 1902 in San 
 Francisco. We opened the season at Point Richmond. 
 The only public hall was over a livery stable. The editor 
 of the town paper was from Lakeview, Oregon, and re- 
 membered us. We played to business that was ten points 
 above freezing for six evenings without a matinee. Then 
 we played the Armory hall on Park street in Alameda, so 
 that the silent partner might visit the show and see Miss 
 Chandler, the leading lady, act. The rent had to be paid 
 to the caretaker every night before the show. Eddie 
 Mitchell witnessed and wrote up the performance in his 
 own champaign-ginger-beer style, in the Alameda Daily. 
 
 Charles Gunn was leading man, Frederick Gibert, 
 heavies, and Paul Harvey, utilities. We went by steamer 
 to Eureka, California, for a week of comedy at the Ingo- 
 mar, and opened in a New England pastoral comedy drama 
 that was too dry for the manager. The Ingomar manager 
 would not let us show the next night unless we would 
 guarantee his share to be seventy-five dollars. He said 
 that if we had a good comedy he would take a chance and 
 play us on sharing terms Saturday night. Consequently 
 Miss Chandler was taken very sick for five days without 
 a doctor, but by Saturday had recovered sufficiently to 
 
130 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 appear as ' ' Triss " in ' ' Beyond the Rockies. ' ' "We played 
 to a good house and the manager said ""Why didn't you 
 play that the first night? You would have done a good 
 week's business and your leading lady would not have 
 been forced to get sick." You would have to witness a 
 performance of both plays to appreciate that manager. 
 The opening play was very similar to " Shore Acres" 
 while "Triss" is somewhat less artistic. 
 
 THE SUMMERS OF 1902 AND 1903 
 
 "We went by team from Humboldt County to Crescent 
 City, California. There we met the Georgie Harper com- 
 pany consisting of six persons from the east. They were 
 resting after a tremendous tour. Our company was in- 
 vited up to their cottage one evening after the show. One 
 of their members came in quite intoxicated and got into 
 a fight. The women screamed and Mr. Gilbert interfered. 
 The intoxicated gentleman took offense and after getting 
 both eyes blacked returned to town. That same night his 
 wife went out to try and find him. Some other drunken 
 man insulted her and her escort struck him pretty hard. 
 At about 8 o'clock the next morning we discovered the 
 two who had been struck pretty hard, consoling each 
 other over a drink. One was the actor while the other 
 was a farmer The farmer said, "Who struck you?" and 
 the actor replied, ' * The same man that hit you. Our four 
 eyes all look alike., don't they?" 
 
 "We left Crescent City with Frank Bosch and his two 
 
DOUBLING BACK 131 
 
 teams which we engaged for the summer season and ar- 
 rived at Grants Pass, Oregon. We were billed to play 
 there three nights, but at noon on the day of our opening 
 an old lodging house caught fire and with a strong wind 
 blowing, the fire nearly burned up the town. Being 
 obliged to cancel our engagement we started for Klamath 
 Falls. We hired an extra team at Ashland to pull us to 
 the top of Ashland mountain. It was in the middle of 
 the night when we arrived at a ranch used as a station. 
 The bedbugs were so ravenous that we all crawled out of 
 the bunks and slept in the haymow. 
 
 Just before reaching Klama,th Fall$ we released a 
 drunken cowboy and his horse from a barb wire fence. 
 Bolh were bleeding profusely and the cowboy cursed us 
 poetically for our pains. 
 
 This time at Klamath we met the jovial John and 
 played a pleasant engagement over the Kerosene sage- 
 brush circuit to Lakeview and thence to Alturas. Here 
 we found a scarlet fever scare and the authorities would 
 not let us show, but they provided us with a camping 
 outfit. We went up into the mountains and camped at 
 Blue Lake, Modoc County, until the scare blew over two 
 weeks later. 
 
 At Surprise Valley the people at Cedarville tried to 
 influence us not to go to Eagleville, informing us that 
 there was a bad bunch of cowboys down there that would 
 shoot up the show. I had been around where there had 
 been bad cowboys before, so was not afraid. When I ar- 
 rived I went into Bud Brown's famous Monday morning- 
 blood-washing-saloon, bought a drink and told them I was 
 
132 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 going to give a show in the town hall that night and that if 
 there were any cowboys who wanted to shoot the roof off 
 after they had paid their seventy-five cents to see the show, 
 they were welcome to do so. Bud made the boys get out 
 and help us carry our baggage into the hall, closed up his 
 saloon after supper and all hands went to the show. We 
 had a good time. After the performance we adjourned 
 to Bud's place. The next morning Bud and I were lashed 
 together with a long piece of barb wire and they called 
 us the Siamese Twins. 
 
 We found the town at the north end of the valley, 
 Fort Bidwell, nearly deserted. A sheep herder had dis- 
 covered gold in the mountains near by and everybody was 
 out prospecting for the lost mine. I did not inquire whose 
 lost mine it was or I would have discovered something 
 that would have been very much to my advantage. We 
 did a very small business there and left before the week 
 was out for a two hundred-mile drive north across the 
 mountains, desert and sage brush, to Burns, Oregon. It 
 required seven days to make the trip. We went over a 
 mountain where the road was almost at an angle of forty- 
 five degrees for a quarter of a mile. We unloaded our 
 baggage, and walked to Fluke's ranch. It required five 
 men and four houses to get our baggage again. A deaf 
 lady and two children were at home at Fluke's ranch. 
 We could not make the lady understand how such a large 
 party could be traveling across such a deserted place. 
 It was dark and the shack was small. She fed us and 
 managed to make us understand that we could occupy the 
 kitchen for the night and help ourselves to the woodpile. 
 
DOUBLING BACK 133 
 
 We slept on the floor and took turns keeping fire. We 
 arrived in Burns in time to show seven nights during their 
 annual fair. Our only complaint was the opera house 
 was not big enough. 
 
 Prineville is over a hundred miles west of Burns and 
 that was some drive. We stayed all night at a ranch. The 
 next morning before breakfast the boss killed a man in 
 his dooryard with a shotgun, then calmly saddled a horse 
 and went to Prineville to give himself up. It was a good 
 breakfast we had but we did not enjoy it a bit. The man 
 that was killed was trespassing and had been ordered not 
 to come another step or to make any more threats to kill. 
 He continued to approach the house, threatening to kill 
 the boss and as he stepped upon the doorsill met his death. 
 The Coroner said, "Not guilty." 
 
 The little stone public hall at Prineville was too small 
 to make our engagement there a big financial success, but 
 it was a pleasant one and we departed for the railroad 
 via the Three Sisters mountains down the McKenzie River. 
 We arrived at Eugene, closed the show and all hands went 
 their separate ways. I joined the Georgie Harper com- 
 pany and so did Juliet Chandler, at Corvalis. Miss Chan- 
 dler did not stay long. Her specialties and dancing made 
 a bigger hit at most of the towns than Mrs. Harper 's act- 
 ing and that meant professional jealousy. It did not af- 
 fect me, only in this way, I did not get my salary after 
 the first few weeks very regularly. When the spring of 
 1903 began to approach, little Jay Van Cleve and I went 
 to work with the auto pens. After working and doing 
 well for about ten days, Joe Detrich, of the Harper com- 
 
134 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 pany, called me up from a neighboring town and said 
 they had booked some big time on the Cort circuit; and 
 asked us to return and help them out for a few weeks, 
 or until they could secure some one else. I returned but 
 Van would not. 
 
 The big time failed to materialize and the Harper 
 show continued to do bad business. I had a talk with the 
 boss (Mrs. Harper). They agreed to give me an interest 
 in the show if I would do the advance. I was to make 
 the arrangements and they were to play my choice of 
 towns. I took them to Burns, via Condon, Fossil, the 
 John Day River and Canyon City. After I played the 
 big Fourth of July stunt which lasted six days at Burns, 
 I closed with them and took up a homestead in the moun- 
 tains thirty miles from Burns, on Goose Flat. 
 
 Goose Flat consisted of about a thousand acres, situated 
 along the Silvies River in a canyon. At some points be- 
 tween the rim rocks it was two miles wide with some- 
 where near three hundred acres of good bottom land. 
 After living on it six months, I discovered that it was im- 
 possible for me to make a living on the place without 
 plenty of cash capital and a few strong men and teams 
 to grub sage brush. The altitude was five thousand feet. 
 One day a rattler bit me on the finger. I sucked the poi- 
 son out and walked thirty miles to town. I was alone at 
 the ranch and my nearest neighbor was four miles. 
 
 My sister Nellie and three children had moved from 
 Visalia, California, to San Francisco. When I arrived in 
 Burns from the ranch I received a letter from her stating 
 fhat she had left her husband and did not know what she 
 
DOUBLING BACK 
 
 135 
 
 was going to do. I wired for her to start for Alturas, 
 and that I would meet her and the children there with a 
 wagon and team, which would convey us to the city of 
 Burns. I also wrote particulars and sent money. I ex- 
 plained that we could make a good home in Burns and 
 that altogether we could take care of the children and give 
 them a start in life, as well as some good schooling. She 
 answered that they would come. 
 
 I drove two hundred and twenty-five miles from Burns, 
 Oregon, to Alturas, California, and on the second day 
 after my arrival, the father and family came in on the 
 stage from Redding. I was not expecting the father, Rob- 
 bins, and it gave me something of a shock. He had a 
 severe attack of remorse and wanted to go with us. I se- 
 cured an extra horse, rigged 
 up a spike team and upon 
 the tenth day out from 
 Alturas we arrived in 
 Burns, without having any 
 serious mishaps. The only 
 inconveniences we suffered 
 was when we had to sleep in 
 the haystacks to avoid the 
 bedbugs at Alkali Lake. At 
 some of the other smaller 
 ranches, beds were scarce. 
 Papa Robbins, sis and the 
 children enjoyed the hard- 
 ships, sage brush, creeks, 
 rocks, mountains and tim- 
 
136 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 ber. Their appetites were keen and they thought the ranch 
 food was as good as they had ever tasted. 
 
 At Burns I established the "Cafe de Meade," which 
 consisted of one lunch counter and four stools. Sis started 
 a little home bakery and notion goods store and father 
 Bobbins, being a first-class barber, secured a partnership 
 in a shop on a fifty-fifty basis, without having to furnish 
 anything but tools. Thus we were very comfortably situ- 
 ated and got along very nicely until spring. Father Bob- 
 bins became dissatisfied and got the horse racing fever. I 
 had been putting on plays with amateur talent, assisted 
 by my sister and the children. Our other business was 
 not flourishing. In order to make some cash with which 
 to stock the homestead ranch I organized a dramatic com- 
 pany. To do so I sent for Paul, my sister's oldest son, 
 who was now a professional actor. With sister, the three 
 children and three good amateurs from Burns, Paul Har- 
 5 vey and myself, we drove over nearly all of the wagon 
 roads in Oregon and wound up at Klamath Falls. The ama- 
 teurs returned to Burns. "We sold our outfit and with Sis 
 and the family (except father Bobbins, who joined us at 
 Bend and left upon our arrival at Klamath for San Fran- 
 cisco), took a stage ride to Pokegamma and a train ride 
 to Visalia. I have never seen that homestead since, but 
 relinquished it to Uncle Sam, with its rock rim, river, sage 
 brush and rattlesnakes. 
 
DOUBLING BACK 137 
 
 REMINISCENCES ENROUTE FROM BURNS, ORE- 
 GON, TO VISALIA, CALIFORNIA 
 
 We got stuck in the Strawberry mountain mud. The 
 sheriff, four horses, two deputies, one murderer and five 
 horse thieves, en route from Burns to the state prison at 
 Salem, pulled us out. 
 
 Hank Felton, the cowboy, amateur actor and his team 
 ran away while descending the mountain into Bear Valley 
 and scattered our whiskers, wigs and wardrobes in grace- 
 ful piles for a mile and a half. We saved it all but one 
 stick of red grease paint that belonged to Hubert Robbins, 
 the inf antile-old-Kentucky-pickininny-impersonator, my sis- 
 ter 's youngest son. 
 
 We went stone-broke at Prairie City. A lady who had 
 met with an accident with a runaway horse about four 
 miles from Burns, several months previous, and whom I 
 assisted in town with my spike team at the time I brought 
 sis and the family from Alturas, staked me with enough 
 cash to get me to the next stand. She just happened to be 
 visiting at Prairie City. 
 
 I was obliged to stand the landlord off at another time 
 for thirty dollars' worth of board. I did not have a baby's 
 keep-sake-golden-locket or any other thing to shed a few 
 tears over and leave as security, never to be redeemed, 
 but paid him out of the next week's receipts. 
 
 At a baseball game while in Condon, between Fossil 
 and Condon, we all rooted for Condon. There happened 
 to be a delegation of Fossilites sitting in the grandstand 
 
138 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 that fell down during the excitement. When we opened 
 for a week's engagement in Fossil on the following Mon- 
 day evening there was no one present except the man who 
 owned the hall, the editor and his family; landlord, cook 
 and waiter from the hotel; the livery stable man, where 
 our horses boarded; the drugstore man and his wife, who 
 sold reserved seats for us, and some bill boys all compli- 
 mentaries, besides some that were given away for furni- 
 ture and props. I think there was three dollars in cash. 
 I held a private consultation with the hall man (a nice 
 fellow) and he said that he would only charge me one 
 dollar for the hall if I did not show and three dollars if 
 I did. The constable wanted five dollars license. I con- 
 vinced him that if I gave the three dollars I had to the 
 hall man I would be giving a free show and he couldn't 
 charge license and besides I had to pass him and his fam- 
 ily into the show. He told me to go ahead and we did. 
 I made an announcement (very strong) that we would 
 give a free show on the following night and hoped to see 
 the hall packed to overflowing. I also thanked those pres- 
 ent for their patronage, and proceeded to do the last act, 
 giving as good a performance from the first to last as we 
 knew how, just as if we were perfectly satisfied. The 
 next morning we left Fossil before daylight and drove to 
 Clarney's Ferry on the John Day River and rested for 
 the balance of the week. I returned to Fossil several 
 years afterward and played to good business and did not 
 give out but two complimentary tickets. They did not 
 recognize me as the man who advertised a free show and 
 failed to give it. I then thought and still think the town, 
 was well named. 
 
DOUBLING BACK 139 
 
 At Clarney a rancher turned his house over to us and 
 we gave him a free show every night. He was a widower 
 with no children and gave us a good time. He also 
 assisted us in curing up a very sick horse. The ranch, 
 with home-made bathing pools and the river, were charm- 
 ing, but we could not linger. I crossed the John Day 
 River at this point a few years after. The ferry and the 
 rancher were gone. A bridge had replaced the ferry. 
 
 Prineville, Oregon, July the Fourth, 1904, was a merry 
 day. After it was all over we purchased a camping outfit 
 and departed for the Desehutes River at Bend. We wit- 
 nessed worlds of beautiful scenery, camped, fished and 
 gathered wild strawberries; traveled miles and miles 
 through sand and sage brush that has since been grubbed 
 out and through irrigation made to produce acres upon 
 acres of ever green alfalfa. This irrigation comes from 
 the wonderful Deschutes River, which never misses the 
 water that has caused the transformation of the country. 
 After about two weeks of real camp life we drove to Sil- 
 ver Lake, intending to give a show and stop at the hotel 
 for a few days, in order to sleep in a real bed and get 
 rested up for a hard trip across the Klamath reservation. 
 
 Upon our arrival at Silver Lake we discovered that the 
 only public hall the town had ever boasted of burned down 
 several years before, on a Christmas eve, when all the fam- 
 ilies for miles around were assembled. It seemed that 
 some man at the rear of the hall wanted to get a better 
 view of the little folks that were gathered around the 
 Christmas tree, and when he stepped upon the bench his 
 head knocked a large coal oil lamp out of the bracket upon 
 
140 
 
 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 the floor and in two seconds men, women, floor, benches, 
 Christmas tree, toys, gifts and children were all on fire, 
 with only one small door through which to make their 
 escape. The two hundred people that were assembled 
 became frantic and forty-three human beings perished. 
 Almost every family within twenty miles mourned a lost 
 one, consequently, the town never rebuilt the hall and 
 never had had a general public gathering within doors 
 since that fatal night. But the landlord of the hotel had 
 an empty barn on the corner of his lot, with a long row 
 of stalls on one side, and by throwing what little hay there 
 was from the part where the hay was kept upon the 
 ground, we saw that we could convert that part of the 
 barn into a real opera house. After consulting several 
 
 citizens we proceeded to 
 sweep the old hay, that was 
 full of sneeze weed, up into 
 two corners and built a 
 temporary stage with horse 
 stalls for dressing rooms) 
 and lanterns for footlights. 
 "We advertised with small 
 bills, hung a row of Jap- 
 anese lanterns on the side 
 of the barn toward the 
 street; made seats out of 
 kegs, boxes, blocks of wood 
 and old boards. But we 
 neglected to sprinkle the 
 ground so as to lay the 
 
DOUBLING BACK 141 
 
 sneeze weed. Imagine the result. "We played "The 
 Fatal "Wedding" while the actors, the audience and 
 the horses were sneezing. Every horse sneezed ten 
 times a minute. The audience was sneezing, crying 
 and laughing, which formed a loud and boisterous chorus, 
 and the actors were playing codas at the end of every 
 speech. But the audience came back the next night with 
 many neighbors and we played "Old Kentucky" with 
 Black Bess. The sneeze weed had been well moistened 
 and kept its place. 
 
 We crossed the Klamath reservation to Crater Lake, 
 played in an agricultural implement warehouse at Fort 
 Klamath to well educated and behaved Indians, then con- 
 tinued to Klamath Falls. There we sold our outfit and 
 arrived in Visalia, where we reorganized. 
 
 SHORT LIVED SUCCESS 
 
 We opened the Meade & Hiarvey show at Visalia and 
 toured the valley towns very successfully. But the 
 soubrette's (Mattie Lloyd Luce's) mother wanted to 
 become an angel for us and said that if we would close 
 and come to San Francisco for the holidays she would 
 finance the show to the extent of five hundred dollars for 
 a fourth interest and be a silent partner. This looked 
 like a good thing. We closed the show while doing well, 
 went to 'Frisco, had several talks with the angel, but the 
 five hundred did not materialize. Our capital disappeared 
 while holding up actors. So Meade and Harvey joined 
 the Tom Bates company, in support of Claire Washington 
 (some relation to George). 
 
142 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 TOM BATES SAND CRABS SUCCESS 
 
 Tom Bates, who advertised himself as the homeliest 
 advance agent on the Pacific coast, organized a dramatic 
 company. In this company were two good actresses, Miss 
 Margaret lies and Miss Merle Stanton. There were also 
 in the company Paul Harvey and I. Bates used the 
 Meade & Harvey's scenery, props and specialties. We 
 all gave excellent support to Miss Washington, the star 
 of the company. The show was a success, financially and 
 otherwise, from January until June 1905. About that 
 time Miss Washington, Miss lies, " General" (?) Tom 
 Bates and I had a very wordy battle on board the train 
 one day, in which the Irish-English actress came off vic- 
 torious. This battle resulted in crippling the Bates show, 
 however, for I gave notice and quit, taking with me my 
 scenery and props. Margaret lies and Paul Harvey also 
 gave notice and quit. 
 
 Miss lies and I now formed a partnership and organ- 
 ized a dramatic stock company known as the Margaret 
 lies company. On June 17th (Bunker Hill Day) we 
 opened a summer season at Coronado (tent city) across 
 the bay from San Diego. Here we entertained the guests 
 at the Coronado hotel and the tent cityites for four weeks 
 in connection with Olhmeyer's famous band. Our mutual 
 friend, Tom Bates, was playing an unsuccessful engage- 
 ment in San Diego and termed us the * ' sand crabs. ' ' Upon 
 finishing our engagement at Coronado we opened a stock 
 engagement with R. Beers Loos, in a small theatre the 
 
DOUBLING BACK 143 
 
 "Bijou" with seating capacity of less than five hundred 
 people. This stock company was a success from the start. 
 The "sand crabs" crabbed Tommy Bates' business while 
 the police stopped Brother Loos from selling tickets for 
 "standing room only" every night in San Diego. 
 
 ANOTHER ANGEL BUTTS IN 
 
 Mr. A. Fountain was a good restaurant-man-on-the- 
 small-scale, in Los Angeles. The owner of the lease on 
 the "Bijou" also lived in that city. R. Beers Loos was 
 the local manager. On the strength of the business we 
 were doing, the owner at Los Angeles caught Mr. Foun- 
 tain, another angel who wanted to become a show man, 
 and sold him the lease with the contents of the theatre. 
 Fountain investigated, found everything as represented, 
 paid one thousand dollars down and took charge of the 
 box office. Loos was out of a job and we engaged him as 
 our manager. We had been playing on a fifty-fifty basis 
 and now we wanted a new contract with the new manager, 
 Mr. Fountain, and it must be sixty-five thirty-five. When 
 Mr. Loos told him this and stated that our present con- 
 tract would expire in another week, Fountain nearly ex- 
 pired on the spot and after getting his breath he gasped: 
 * ' I thought the stock company went with the lease and the 
 theatre." 
 
 Fountain made an awful howl, but saw that he would 
 have to come to our terms, realizing that he had no claim 
 upon us. We agreed to stay an extra week with him, on 
 
144 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 the old terms and at the same time began to look about for 
 a new location. Fountain went to Loos and in some man- 
 ner he compromised with the original owner and got most 
 of his money back, but he treated us shabbily. He returned 
 and kept silent, let us finish the week out and when we 
 came to the theatre on Monday evening, at seven o'clock, 
 we discovered the following notice on the door, " Closed 
 for repairs." The " angel" had flown to parts unknown. 
 
 CONTINUED SUCCESS AND 
 
 The Margaret lies company played a successful stock 
 engagement in San Diego until December, 1906, in a 
 theatre which we made out of a large blacksmith and 
 machine shop. It was mission style, nicely equipped and 
 named "Rudwin," but is now known as the "Empire." 
 
 Our success was so great that the two vaudeville 
 houses the Pickwick and the Grand decided to put in 
 dramatic stock. The Isis was leased for a short term to 
 the Frank Cooley company. Four stock companies in 
 a city the size of San Diego was going some, but we held 
 our own. "We engaged high priced actors, met competi- 
 tion by putting on royalty plays, increased our expense, 
 improved our theatre and played to capacity. The added 
 expense, however, kept eating into our bank roll. George 
 Clancy wanted to buy our lease and transfer the house 
 into vaudeville and we sold to him. The Margaret lies 
 company closed temporarily. Clancy opened with vaude- 
 ville on a bleak December evening, but succumbed to poor 
 business at the end of three weeks. The theatre then went 
 
MAEGAEET TLES 
 
DOUBLING BACK 145 
 
 into the moving picture business, while Meade and lies 
 went defunct, as Clancy couldn't pay. 
 
 I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I went to 
 'Frisco and accepted an engagement as a producer for a 
 stock company at the Park theatre, in Alameda. Miss lies 
 joined the Constance Crawley company and went east, 
 playing stock in New Orleans and other southern cities. 
 
 It was hard after being popular and successful to have 
 competition close you out for the want of capital. After 
 we had worked a few months for a salary, Miss lies re- 
 turned to San Francisco and we reorganized with the aid 
 of John Houston, of Klamath Falls. We opened on his 
 1 ' Kerosene circuit" in June, 1907. With a very strong 
 company we played to big business in Klamath and the 
 surrounding towns. 
 
 "MARGARET. ILES 
 
 With Miles of Smiles." 
 
 Mighty hard sledding for a good many years, 
 
 A good many hardships and very few tears, 
 
 Right willing to smile 'midst it all; 
 
 Good natured at all times, in spite of a fall. 
 
 Allowing for mishaps, faults and all that, 
 
 Real merit exists and we take off our hat, 
 
 Especially now, when climbing- so fast 
 
 The ladder that brings some fame at last. 
 
 Indeed let us hope that great fortune comes too 
 
 Long may God's blessing rest upon you; 
 
 Ev'ry day that's my prayer and I tell you, "pard" 
 
 Separation and affliction, just now seems hard. 
 
146 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 DAN MALLOY HIS CHECK AND HIS GROG 
 
 I first knew Dan Malloy, sheepman of Lakeview, in 
 1901. He was following an imported pugilist from one 
 saloon to another, getting more and more groggy at every 
 step. Finally Dan got so drunk that he insisted on having 
 a fight with the gentlemanly pugilist and kept slapping 
 him at every opportunity, until at last the pugilist landed 
 on Dan just once. He came to the next morning with the 
 most beautiful pair of black eyes that were ever seen in 
 Lake County all due to grog. 
 
 Dan was passing through Klamath Falls in 1907. 
 While we were playing there on the "kerosene circuit." 
 Dan, being slightly under the influence of grog, insisted 
 that I should come to Lakeview and play a week's engage- 
 ment. He said : ' ' The livery stable opera house has been 
 replaced with a regular opera that has opera chairs from 
 Grand Rapids and a stage with scenery from Chicago." 
 I told him that I could not afford to take the company 
 a hundred miles overland and run chances of not doing 
 business. "How much do you want?" he asked, and I 
 replied: "I can not take the chance unless I am pretty 
 sure of playing to seven hundred dollars on the week." 
 He pulled out his check book, wrote me a check for that 
 amount and handed it to Mr. Houston with this remark: 
 "Put that in your safe and if Meade doesn't play to more 
 than seven hundred dollars in a week at Lakeview, you 
 give him that check." We went to Lakeview and I think 
 that we played to over a thousand dollars. 
 
DOUBLING BACK 147 
 
 We toured Modoc, Lassen and Plumas Counties with a 
 four-horse team and wagon. While in Modoc County I 
 heard about the Hbag mining district and asked several 
 people how it happened to be named Hoag, but every one 
 that I inquired of happened to be a new comer and could 
 not tell me the story that would have been of great ad- 
 vantage to me and mine. 
 
 WINTER OF 1907-08 
 
 After touring Modoc, Lassen and Plumas Counties, we 
 reached the main line of the Southern Pacific at Truckee ; 
 spent a day at Lake Tahoe and for several weeks toured 
 south as far as Bakersfield and west to Coalinga, where 
 we met with a peculiar circumstance. 
 
 I discovered Coalinga as a good show town in 1904 and 
 played there in an old barn, before any dramatic show 
 or one-night stander ever booked in there. Consequently, 
 I thought I owned the town. On this occasion, which was 
 my second visit, the town had grown and improved a great 
 deal and I was elated at the signs of the big business we 
 were about to experience. The owner of the old barn had 
 made it look very much like an opera house and rented 
 it for ten dollars per night. 
 
 We had a fellow nicknamed "Simp" with the show, 
 who was always rubbing some one the wrong way and was 
 always getting himself or some one else into trouble. I 
 was on the door and the people had not flocked to the show. 
 At 8 o'clock there was just sixteen dollars and thirty-five 
 
148 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 cents in the house when the constable called and requested 
 that I should pay him the license. I asked him how much 
 it was and he replied that it was "ten dollars." "Simp" 
 let out a yell and repeated the remark with a loud guffaw. 
 That made the constable angry and me, too, but I did not 
 show it. I asked him if he charged a license to people 
 who gave a free show. He said, "No, of course not." I 
 wanted to try an experiment, so asked him to wait a few 
 minutes. I left "Simp" on the door, went back on the 
 stage and made a short speech to the audience, holding 
 a hat with the sixteen dollars and thirty-five cents in my 
 hand. I told them that the constable was at the door try- 
 ing to hold me up for ten dollars license and that in addi- 
 tion to the ten dollars for hall rent, was more than I had 
 taken in, therefore I would give a free show. I also told 
 them that I was going to distribute the sixteen dollars and 
 thirty-five cents promiscuously through the audience and 
 after the second act I would pass the hat and if they liked 
 the performance they could contribute something to help, 
 the actors to pay their board. I distributed the silver, 
 went back to the door and found "Simp" and the con- 
 stable in a hot argument. A large crowd had gathered to 
 see the fun that was anticipated. I told them that it was 
 all off, that I had given everybody their money back. 
 Then I called out "free admission" and invited the con- 
 stable and the entire crowd in to see the performance, con- 
 tinuing to cry out "free admission, free admission." I 
 also sent "Simp" and a bunch of small boys over the 
 town and instructed them to yell everywhere that the 
 show was free. It wasn't long until the opera house was 
 
DOUBLING BACK 149 
 
 pretty well filled and we proceeded with the play. It was 
 a good play and after the second act four actors carrying 
 hats passed through the audience and we collected seventy- 
 one dollars and fifteen cents. We played to capacity busi- 
 ness for the balance of the week, while the town council 
 reduced the license to five dollars a night because we 
 charged only fifty cents admission. 
 
 About December 15th we went into stock at Swain's 
 theatre, in Santa Cruz, for six weeks. We had a "josh" 
 Christmas tree to amuse ourselves. There were fifteen in 
 the troupe and ten cents was the limit that any one could 
 expend for a present. With a big feed, it made one of 
 the merriest Christmas parties that I have ever known. 
 
 Mack Swain could only give us six weeks as he had 
 booked Charley Pyle's Dramatic company. Charley had 
 represented that his company was very superior to the 
 Margaret lies company and agreed to play at fifty-fifty 
 when we were playing at sixty-five thirty-five. We had 
 built up a nice business and Swain could have canceled 
 Pyle, but Pyle had more wind than I did, so we went to 
 the Marguarita theatre, at Eureka. Pyle opened in Swain's 
 and Mack closed him before the week was out, while we 
 sailed along nicely at the Marguarita for twelve weeks. 
 
 EXPERIENCES IN COOS COUNTY, OEEGON 
 
 We left Eureka, California, May 1, 1908. We then 
 toured Humboldt County and took an overland trip up 
 the coast to Crescent City. From there we went over the 
 
 10 
 
150 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 mountains to Grants Pass and north on the railroad to 
 Drain. From Drain we staged it to Marshfield, Oregon, 
 wagons to Scottsburg, a steamer to Gardiner, and down 
 the Umpqua to the beach; along the beach on the wide- 
 tired wagons that carried us past wrecked vessels to Coos 
 Bay, and the little gasoline launch Gasco landed us at 
 last safely upon the wharf at the thriving little city of 
 Marshfield, Coos County, Oregon. 
 
 After our opening night, at the Masonic opera house 
 in Marshfield, our week was a grand success. "We made 
 many acquaintances and friends and established ourselves 
 thoroughly as a good show. 
 
 At Bandon, Myrtle Point, Coquille and North Bend 
 we did the same thing. We played a week's successful 
 engagement in each town and then took a lay off of four 
 weeks and went upon a camping, fishing and hunting ex- 
 pedition up the South Fork of the Coquille River, with 
 John Warner, of Roland Prairie, as guide. We had a 
 glorious outing with much fish and some deer. 
 
 "HE'S UNRAVELING" 
 
 We were all pretty green at deer shootin' and were 
 very anxious to get a shot at one. So Mr. Warner ar- 
 ranged this nicely for us. He stationed six of us along 
 the river about two hundred feet apart, then he took his 
 dog and went up into the timber. In about an hour we 
 heard the dog barking and the brush cracking. In a few 
 minutes down the hill comes a big buck plunging into the 
 

 
DOUBLING BACK 151 
 
 water, and running down stream in the shallow water he 
 escaped around a bend in the river. Each one of us fired 
 not less than five shots apiece at him without ever scratch- 
 ing his hide. It was so much fun and "Warner laughed 
 so hard that we begged for another chance. The next day 
 we tried it again. This time "Warner himself got a shot 
 at the deer before it struck the river and wounded the 
 buck. By the time the animal arrived in the water, just 
 opposite to where Joe Thompson was stationed, it was 
 somewhat out of wind and stopped to catch its breath. 
 Joe took two or three shots; Herb Cramer took two or 
 three more shots from down the river and Wallie Howe 
 took about as many from up the river. Joe ran out upon 
 the sand bar and shouted: "Don't shoot, don't shoot, I've 
 got him, I've got him. He's unraveling. Can't you see 
 he's unraveling?" The deer's entrails were hanging out, 
 but he started up the river. A cartridge was caught in 
 Joe's gun. The rest of us had come down the river to 
 help, and we all took a few shots. The dog caught the 
 deer in the shallow water and the poor animal, exhausted 
 from fright and loss of blood, plunged into deep water 
 and the dog drowned him in a whirlpool. It is the biggest 
 wonder in the world that one of us was not killed. Joe 
 claimed the buck, dressed him, slung him across his back 
 and carried him into camp as the champion deer slayer 
 of the Margaret lies show. 
 
152 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 EOTATION STOCK 
 
 After our camping trip we arranged to play Coos 
 County for an indefinite period, playing each town once 
 a week, with headquarters at Marshfield, where we played 
 every Friday and Saturday nights. 
 
 Bandon was a favorite town and we performed there 
 every Wednesday night, in the old upstairs opera house 
 over Gross Brothers' place of business, under the man- 
 agement of genial, jovial, rustling Jimmie Mars. Our 
 business in Bandon was a great success with Jamison, 
 Page, Munck and their families occupying the front row 
 of reserved seats, where they could see the play and join 
 in the hilarity. Behind them sat the Gallier guests, the 
 life-saving crew and all the river steamboat men, logging 
 and saw mill employees and their families. 
 
 All of the towns in the county were mighty good to 
 us and never failed to accommodate us but once, and that 
 was on Tuesday night in Coquille. We were playing Rip; 
 Van Winkle at Coquille. The electric lights went out just 
 as Rip lay down to take his long sleep, and they refused 
 to come on again. The band boys, under whose auspices 
 we were playing, telephoned, but they could not get any 
 one to repair the damage. However, they supplied plenty 
 of candles at our request and old Rip awoke by candle 
 light and finished the play after walking on a few tacks, 
 barefooted, that could not be seen by the dim light of 
 the candles. The telephone repair man sent word that 
 he had gone to bed and the show people must get along 
 
DOUBLING BACK 153 
 
 any way they could. I had neglected to give him a com- 
 plimentary ticket, so he did not have much respect for 
 Coquille citizens. 
 
 We were having such continued success that one of the 
 members of our company thought he could do as well. 
 Accordingly he sent to 'Frisco for a bunch of actors. At 
 the same time a retired actor at North Bend got some 
 backers and went to San Francisco and returned with a 
 full acting company. I thought it best to let the company 
 which our ex-member had organized and the retired actor's 
 company fight it out between themselves. The rainy sea- 
 son was coming on and one company could not more than 
 make expenses, let alone three. 
 
 THE LOST CHANNEL MINE 
 
 While we were out camping we met Oscar Whittier 
 Morris, hermit, scout, guide, hunter, trapper and miner. 
 He got me interested in his Lost Channel Mining claims 
 and had entertained me wonderfully by washing out some 
 gold dust and escorting me over a humming bird trail and 
 a bumble bee's path. He made me a proposition in regard 
 to the claims. When the other two troupes landed in the 
 county, I accepted his offer and the Margaret lies com- 
 pany went up in the mountains and became gold miners. 
 One of the other companies broke up in a drunken row at 
 the end of the first week and the other one broke up at 
 the end of three weeks on account of rain and bad 
 
154 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 We stored three tons of provisions in an old shack at 
 the end of the wagon road and packed it in to the claims 
 on pack horses, a distance of three miles. We lived four 
 months in the shacks at the placer claims, and enjoyed 
 the hospitality of Morris Brothers' ranch and of Frank 
 and Whit Morris in particular. 
 
 We built flumes, dug tunnels and ditches, ground sluiced, 
 killed an elk and a few deer, and spilled the wheelbarrow 
 which Joe Thompson cut down to fit the tunnel over the 
 dump. The women folks rustled hot coffee for Whittier 
 and the boys, and during the sixteen weeks we ate up all 
 of the provisions, besides the fresh meat we killed. We 
 burned down an eight foot white cedar tree, two hundred 
 and eighty-five feet long. We got less than one ounce of 
 gold, but we had a good time in the forest. We found a 
 much needed rest if we did not find gold. The Lost 
 Channel is still there and some one will find it some day. 
 It was a common thing to pick up a small boulder that 
 looked like it was worth $15,000, but was not worth a 
 penny. 
 
 We came out of the mountains in March, 1909, and 
 played the county with a week stand in each town. Then 
 we went overland down the coast. 
 
 THE COACH AND FOUR 
 
 We played Klamath Falls railroad week, June, 1909. 
 Then we purchased four horses and a big coach from the 
 retiring stage company and covered all of the wagon roads 
 
DOUBLING BACK 155 
 
 in Plumas, Lassen and Modoc Counties of California, as 
 well as Klamath, Lake, Harney, Grant and Crook Counties 
 of Oregon. In Modoc County I again heard about the 
 Hoag mining district near Fort Bidwell, but I was too 
 busy with the four horses, training the actors, building 
 stages and opera houses, putting up scenery, securing 
 props, packing up and unpacking, to think of anything 
 else, so again I missed discovering something that would 
 have been of great value to me and mine. The greatest 
 pleasure I had was in driving those four horses from four- 
 teen to fifty-four miles a day. Even that used to get tire- 
 some. We had a grand and successful tour. After play- 
 ing the fair date at Prineville we hired a man to drive 
 our coach and four to Coos County, while we railroaded 
 into Portland and sailed on the steamer Breakwater for 
 our beloved Coos Bay. We played rotation stock and vis- 
 ited the Lost Channel mines for a few weeks. Then we 
 sold our coach and four. In May, 1910, we left Coos 
 County again and went up the coast and out to the rail- 
 road via the Siuslaw River to Eugene. After we played 
 Eugene, Albany and Salem we jumped to Condon, Mor- 
 row County. Here we again purchased four horses and 
 a wagon and repeated our successes, covering the same 
 territory. We played the fair date at Prineville, drove 
 to Condon, traded our teams and wagon for town lots and 
 went into stock at the Bijou theatre in Walla Walla, 
 Washington, in November, 1910. 
 
156 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 THE FATE OP DANIEL HOAG 
 
 (My Grandfather) 
 
 My grandfather, Daniel Hoag, was born May 8, 1808, 
 in Duchess County, New York. He was killed by hostile 
 Indians in Coleman valley, near Fort Bidwell, California, 
 on May 28, 1868. 
 
 My grandfather left his family in Illinois in 1849 and 
 crossed the plains with an ox team to the gold fields of 
 California. He mined on the Yuba Eiver, near Marys- 
 ville, and wrote very loving and affectionate letters to his 
 wife and family until the breaking out of the Civil "War. 
 From that time until August, 1910, all trace of him was 
 lost. His wife and children and other relatives in the 
 east never heard of him again except in this way : About 
 the year 1870 a man named Whittemore, from California, 
 visited Sandwich, Illinois, and reported that a man named 
 Daniel Hoag had been killed by the Indians in California, 
 but he did not tell any of the details. The relatives heard 
 this bit of news only after Whittemore had departed for 
 the west. 
 
 The Hoag family met and did all in their power, with 
 limited means, to gain some information, but to no avail. 
 The years passed and all of Daniel Hoag's family died 
 except the youngest daughter, Mrs. Charlotte Kelts, of 
 Chicago. 
 
 In August, 1910, I was sitting at the supper table, at 
 the hotel in Fort Bidwell, where the Margaret Hes com- 
 pany was playing an engagement. I got into convena- 
 
DOUBLING BACK 157 
 
 tion with an expert mining man who sat at the same table. 
 I asked him how the Hoag mining district was getting along. 
 Miss lies, who had heard my sister, Helen Harvey, and me 
 speak about the Hoag mines, spoke up and said: "That 
 was your grandfather's name, wasn't it, Mr. Meade?" I 
 replied that it was and asked the gentleman if he knew 
 how the district happened to be named ' ' Hoag. ' ' Then he 
 told me this little story: 
 
 "It was named after an old scout, guide and pioneer 
 settler of Coleman valley named Daniel Hoag. He was 
 employed by the government to find Indians, report their 
 whereabouts to the fort and guide the soldiers to their 
 hiding places. He was also an old prospector and found 
 some very rich gold deposits on one of his trips. H,e 
 brought some of it into camp and afterwards made many 
 trips to the spot, but always went alone and at night. I 
 think it was in May, 1868, while he was returning from 
 one of these trips that he discovered a bunch of hostile 
 Indians which he reported. He told two of his most in- 
 timate friends that when he came home from this expedi- 
 tion with the soldiers he would guide them to the gold 
 ledge, and said: ' There was gold enough for them all.' 
 Alas! while riding through Coleman valley about fifty 
 yards in advance of the squad of soldiers, a shot was heard 
 and he was seen to fall from his horse. He had been shot 
 in the back of the head from an ambush and was supposed 
 to have been killed by an Indian. Since that day men in 
 this county have searched for the Hoag mine. A sheep 1 
 herder once found some quartz a few miles from Bidwell. 
 The people of Modoc County staked out claims all over 
 
158 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 that mountain. Out of respect for the old fellow whose 
 mine they have never found they named it the Hoag Min- 
 ing District." 
 
 I could hardly recover my speech. Thus had I dis- 
 covered the fate of my grandfather. I found a great 
 many old settlers in and about Fort Bidwell who remem- 
 bered, loved and respected the old gentleman. They told 
 me all they could about him; of his many Indian battles, 
 of his gold mine, and how they had searched for it in vain. 
 They said he was a very quiet and melancholy man and 
 never mentioned his past. 
 
 His business partner in cattle, government land and so 
 forth, was W. B. Whittemore. They lived in a log cabin 
 and kept travelers. After Hoag's death Whittemore lived 
 in the same cabin on the one hundred and sixty acres of 
 land that would have been my grandfather's. After 
 grandfather's death the land was surveyed, Whittemore 
 was the squatter and sold a relinquishment to the man 
 that proved up on it, for eight hundred dollars. 
 
 I searched the records at Yreka and found grand- 
 father's will, dated January 5, 1868, in which he left all 
 of his property, consisting of live stock and cash to his 
 partner, W. B. Whittemore, providing he carried out the 
 contents of said will. Otherwise everything was to be sold 
 and the returns given to the first Masonic lodge organized 
 in Surprise valley. 
 
 The will never mentioned his family, and two years 
 after his death Whittemore entered the will for probate. 
 It was denied by the court and pronounced illegal by the 
 judge. In the meantime Whittemore took all of the cattle 
 
DOUBLING BACK 159 
 
 and the cash, and when the Masons organized a lodge at 
 Cedarville he presented Daniel Hoag's rifle and bullet 
 mould to the lodge as a gift from Brother Hoag, who was 
 killed by the Indians in May, 1868. 
 
 The old pioneers told me that Whittemore had nothing 
 when Daniel Hoag died, but he became a very rich man 
 before he died and it cost his estate thirty thousand dol- 
 lars just to settle it, as he left no direct heirs. I am afraid 
 that I made my discovery too late, although I wrote my 
 Aunt (Daniel Hoag's daughter) all about the matter and 
 she came to Modoc County and placed the case in the 
 hands of a lawyer and it is still unsettled. 
 
 It was a clear case of fraud on the part of Whitte- 
 more. He having been a business partner with my grand- 
 father for years, intercepted letters from Illinois that led 
 grandfather to believe that his family had forgotten him. 
 It was either that or the letters were lost in transporta- 
 tion and the long years of separation caused him to for- 
 get early ties and a family left behind, as many of the 
 early settlers were known to have done. 
 
 Some of the old timers even told me that it was; 
 thought that Whittemore hired a disreputable soldier to 
 kill Daniel Hoag and a certain soldier was heard to re- 
 mark that he would get the old man on some Indian ex- 
 pedition, as the soldiers did not like chasing Indians in 
 all kinds of weather. At the time of grandfather's death 
 a soldier was suspected, arrested and placed in the guard- 
 house, but he escaped before his trial and Whittemore was 
 suspected of helping him to get out of the country, as 
 the prisoner escaped and was never heard from again. 
 
160 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 I was in and out of the country of Modoc a number 
 of times from 1901 to 1910. It is a lucky thing for Whit- 
 temore that I did not make these discoveries before he died 
 in 1908, and lucky for his heirs that I did not discover 
 it before the estate was settled. It will also be lucky for 
 me and mine if the lawyer succeeds in securing anything 
 out of it for the rightful heirs. 
 
 THE BIJOU AT WALLA WALLA 
 
 It required persuasive powers, sweet oil, perseverance 
 and hard work to secure and hold a theatrical stock en- 
 gagement at the Bijou theatre, in Walla Walla. 
 
 After closing our summer tour at Condon, we took a 
 short vacation. Miss lies, Joe Thompson and I went to 
 Walla Walla. The balance of the company went to Port- 
 land to do a little painting, visiting and shopping. 
 
 I called upon the manager, A. Wesley Eiler, of the 
 Bijou, and made him a proposition to put in a dramatic 
 stock in his theatre for a few weeks. He nearly took my 
 head off. But he showed us over his house and explained 
 that when he opened the theatre, he engaged a stock com- 
 pany and guaranteed them seven hundred and fifty dol- 
 lars for one week. They gave such a poor show that he 
 paid them before the week was out and closed them. He 
 had then turned the house into "movies" and further 
 announced that nothing could induce him to change. I 
 talked to him for two days and half of one night. I finally 
 
A SUCCESSFUL STOCK CO. 
 
DOUBLINa BACK 161 
 
 discovered that the stock company which he had engaged 
 to open his new theatre was a musical comedy-hitch-up- 
 quick-trick that some crooked agent in Seattle got together 
 for the occasion, in order to fleece Mr. Eiler, which he did 
 successfully. 
 
 I could do nothing to convince him that I had a good 
 show, so after making him several propositions, I went to 
 Baker City, Oregon; made a contract with the manager 
 there, wired our members of the company and opened for 
 two weeks. At the end of the first week I received a letter 
 from Manager Eiler containing the following proposition : 
 
 "Will pay you one week on a fifty-fifty basis, provid- 
 ing you change the bill every day, play a matinee on 
 Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, and give two per- 
 formances on Saturday night and two on Sunday night, 
 at seven and nine o 'clock. ' ' I accepted and wired him that 
 we would come, and shipped paper. 
 
 Seven members of the Margaret lies company had been 
 together at this time for five years and were up in a reper- 
 toire of over one hundred days. Josephine Thorn, aged 
 ten, had been with us about two years and played child 
 parts in a number of plays with excellence. 
 
 We opened in "An American Girl." Margaret lies, 
 Little Josephine and the entire company scored a hit and 
 we became great favorites from the first scene. We were 
 obliged to give two performances of "Little Lord Faunt- 
 leroy" on Saturday afternoon to accommodate the chil- 
 dren who came to see the child actress, Jo Thorn, in the 
 title role. We turned people away at nearly every per- 
 formance. This continued during our stay at the theatre 
 
162 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 and after the first week we put on three plays a week and 
 gave twelve shows until we exhausted our repertoire and 
 ourselves. We had made a great many friends and some 
 money. 
 
 1911. 
 
 We all needed a rest so in the spring, 1911, we played 
 week stands at Pomeroy, Dayton and Lewiston. Then 
 went into stock two bills a week at Everett, Washing- 
 ton. The theatre here was too good, the manager too bad, 
 the public too poor, so after trying it for two weeks we 
 jumped to Marshfield, Oregon, where we played a success- 
 ful Fourth of July week under the management of Vince 
 Pratt. We then opened a new opera house at Bandon, and 
 went down the coast to Crescent City, automobiled to 
 Grant's Pass, went to Yreka by rail, motored through 
 Scott's Valley, California, and after touring the Klamath, 
 Modoc and Lakeview Counties, we automobiled via South- 
 stone Brothers from Lakeview to Prineville without a mis- 
 hap. Here we played the fair date once more to big busi- 
 ness. Margaret lies now departed for New York and 
 Chicago for the purpose of study, which she had long been 
 intending to do. She remained there until April, 1912. 
 In the meantime I sold all our manuscripts, scenery and 
 props to Messrs. Howe and Thompson, who took the show 
 without me to Bellingham, Washington, for stock. I went 
 to Walla Walla for a long rest from the worries of direct- 
 ing plays, building stages, putting up scenery, getting 
 
DOUBLING BACK 163 
 
 props, learning new parts, riding over mountains, billing 
 towns, making out routes, breaking in new actors, taking 
 tickets, paying bills, and all the trials and tribulations 
 of a "Rep/' show manager. 
 
 1912 
 
 I could not rest; my nerves were shattered. I tried 
 to sell insurance and real estate, but without success. I 
 perfected my invention that I had dreamed of and played 
 parts with the stock company that was playing at the 
 Bijou. ffl 
 
 In April Miss lies returned from New York and we 
 reorganized with part of the old company which had 
 failed under the management of Thompson and Howe. We 
 opened for six weeks at the Bijou with our old friend, A. 
 "Wesley Eiler. Then railed to Prairie City, Oregon, staged 
 to Burns and liveried to Paisley. From Paisley we auto- 
 mobiled to Lakeview. The new leading man (Harrington) 
 was all right, but his wife got on my nerves. The show 
 was not up to snuff and that jogged my nerves too. Busi- 
 ness was pretty fair, however, and that helped some. The 
 new people refused to ride three in a seat, so I sat them 
 and their baggage out upon the sidewalk and left them 
 there. We played rotation stock from Lakeview to Alturas 
 via Modoc County and Surprise Valley. We traveled with 
 automobiles that we purchased from my old friend, 
 Charley Lamb, at Cedarville. The machines were always 
 breaking down, which did not help to quiet my nerves. We 
 
164 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 returned to Paisley and after playing a big Fourth of 
 July three-day celebration we started for the coast via 
 Klamath. We engaged a driver who thought he could act, 
 but he could not even drive a car let alone act. While 
 climbing the first mountain, after leaving Klamath, I sat 
 on the running board and held a large rock in my lap. 
 Every few minutes the car would stop, and in order to 
 prevent it from backing over the grade I would place the 
 rock behind the wheel, because the driver could not handle 
 the clutch, wheel and brake at the same time. At the top ; 
 of Ashland mountain something went wrong with the 
 transmission case. When Ralph Southstone, our own 
 chauffeur, took the wheel and opened the throttle, the case 
 went to pieces and the oil was spilled upon the ground. 
 Just then a severe pain penetrated the back of my head 
 and continued with every beat of my heart for about six 
 weeks. 
 
 We laid over a few days at Ashland, hired a man 
 and team to haul our machine from the top of the moun- 
 tain and wired for repairs. After engaging passage for 
 five people on the auto-stage from Grants Pass to Cres- 
 cent City, we proceeded on our way. All the time I was 
 suffering with those awful pains in the back of my head 
 and doing everything to relieve them, from Chiropractic, 
 Osteopathy and medicine to all the old woman headache 
 cures that we had ever heard of. We quit trying to give 
 a show and went down the coast to the mouth of the 
 Klamath River and camped out, while I did nothing but 
 rest. I had never been troubled with headache since I was 
 a child, at the time my hair turned white. Finally my 
 
DOUBLING BACK 165 
 
 sister, who had been with me, together with her three chil- 
 dren, almost continually since 1903, became alarmed. She 
 and Miss lies insisted that I go by boat from Crescent 
 City to San Francisco and consult with the famous special- 
 ist, Dr. J. C. Anthony, who had been my schoolmate in 
 Hancock, Michigan. I made a flying trip by machine from 
 Eequa, California, and took the steamer Del Norte from 
 Crescent City. When I arrived at the doctor's residence 
 in San Francisco he found my nerves and blood in very 
 bad condition, but said that I would be all right with rest 
 and treatment, so I began a treatment for blood and nerves. 
 I felt well with the exception of the terrible headaches. 
 My nephew, Paul Harvey, and his wife, were visiting his 
 wife's family in Oakland. They telephoned me to come 
 and see them. I crossed the bay at noon on the 9th day 
 of August and met Paul at his father-in-law's bank. While 
 walking with him I had a paralytic stroke and he laid me 
 out on a drygoods box and sent for a doctor. After about 
 twenty minutes I fully recovered and went with him to 
 his home. Later, while laughing and joking with Paul 
 and his wife, I was stricken with a cerebral hemorrhage. 
 Dr. Anthony was notified, also my home lodge of Elks, as 
 well as all my relatives. The Elks wired to No. 171 of 
 Oakland to take care of me. I was taken to Fabiola Hos- 
 pital and for three days I thought every minute would be 
 my last. I had no fear but placed my faith in God and 
 his servants. I was removed to Dr. Anthony's private 
 residence in San Francisco at the end of twenty-one days, 
 and after fourteen weeks was able to walk with the aid 
 of a cane. 
 
 11 
 
166 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 The Margaret lies company closed and my beloved sis- 
 ter came to me. We resided in Oakland for a few months 
 while I received two hyperimic treatments a week for 
 paralysis from Dr. Anthony. 
 
 The following is quoted from the San Francisco Post, 
 October, 1913: 
 
 PHYSICIAN CURES PARALYSIS BY STARVING 
 PATIENT 
 
 TOTAL ABSTINENCE FROM FOOD FOR THIRTY-ONE DAYS SUCCESS- 
 FULLY OVERCOMES DREAD MALADY 
 
 Man Given Up, Now Able to Walk and Eat. Dr. J. C. Anthony 
 Demonstrates His Work to the Doctors Throughout State 
 Total abstinence from food as a cure for paralysis has been 
 demonstrated to the satisfaction of physicians of this state in 
 the case of Edwards Meade of Marshfield, Oregon. Six weeks 
 ago Meade, who was visiting in San Francisco, suffered com- 
 plete paralysis following two strokes, his respiration only being 
 unimpaired. Today he has recovered the complete use of his 
 left side, can use his eyes, can speak practically as well as usual 
 and has so far recovered the use of his right side so as to be 
 able to walk. 
 
 Meade has been under the care of Dr. J. C. Anthony, of 
 1901 Post street. Dr. Anthony, who has successfully tried his 
 treatment on eleven other cases, believes that abstinence from 
 food is the only way of successfully combating hemorrhage of 
 the brain, which causes paralysis. Meade is enthusiastic about 
 the success of the treatment. 
 
DOUBLING BACK 167 
 
 STARTS STARVATION CURE 
 
 Immediately after his paralytic strokes the patient was taken 
 to Fabiola hospital in Oakland. As he and Dr. Anthony had 
 been friends in boyhood, and as he had already taken several 
 treatments from Dr. Anthony for the purpose of relieving head- 
 aches, that physician was sent for immediately. He ordered 
 total abstinence from food, the theory being that if the body 
 is overtaxed with the effort of eating and digesting food, it will 
 be retarded in the absorption of the clot of blood that causes 
 the paralysis. 
 
 At the time Meade was taken to the hospital practically no 
 hope of his recovery was held by any one who saw him. For 
 twenty-three days he was kept absolutely without food, the treat- 
 ment during that time consisting mainly of packing the body 
 in cold compresses and bathing. The improvement began to 
 show about the sixth day, when some life returned to the left 
 hand. 
 
 On the twenty-third day the patient was given a little malted 
 milk six ounces in the morning and six at night and that con- 
 tinued for two days, when he was again left without food until 
 the twenty-eighth day after his illness. Then he was again given 
 malted milk and a little watermelon. It was not until the thirty- 
 first day that he tasted any solid food, a small piece of bread 
 having been added that day to his diet. 
 
 BREAD Is FIRST SOLID FOOD 
 
 "That piece of bread was the finest thing I ever tasted," 
 Meade said yesterday. "It took me half an hour to eat it, but 
 I never enjoyed any food more in my life. However, I must 
 say that during the days of fasting I did not miss food. Even 
 
168 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 had I wanted to eat I would not have been able to do so, as 
 the muscles of my throat were so paralyzed as to prevent me 
 from swallowing anything. 
 
 "I am now getting back to a normal way of eating as I 
 regain my strength, and when I leave San Francisco next week, 
 I expect to be well enough to travel alone, and eventually will 
 regain my lost strength." 
 
 Meade's diet now consists mostly of fruits, vegetables and 
 cereals. He eats nothing before ten o'clock, and then takes a 
 normal breakfast. During the past few days he has walked 
 around his room and is able to read with perfect ease. 
 
 Meade is a theatrical man. His nephew, Paul Harvey, also 
 is an actor, having played last year with Virginia Harned. He 
 is at present in Sacramento. 
 
 "BACK TO COOS" 
 
 On the twenty-third day of June, 1913, I sailed with 
 my sister for Coos County, Oregon. My old friend of early 
 Michigan days, Herbert Armstrong, had located in that 
 county. He leased me a hundred and twenty acres of 
 logged off and burned over land and built me a small 
 liouse. That is where I am living at this writing, July, 
 1914. 
 
 My beloved sister is with me and when I stroll out in 
 the brush, fall down and get tangled up, I blow a police 
 whistle and she comes to my assistance. We live among 
 the myrtles, firs, poison oak and wild blackberry vines. 
 The spring brook, chickens and garden supply water and 
 food. When the sun shines I am contented and happy; 
 
DOUBLING BACK 169 
 
 especially while "Doubling Back" in memory o'er the trail 
 of life and typewriting these incidents, grinding out verse, 
 listening to the wild birds, babbling brooks and viewing 
 the beautiful green valley that stretches away toward the 
 flowing Coquille River, which winds itself out into the 
 Pacific Ocean, twenty-five miles away. 
 
 June 17, 1914 (Bunker Hill Day), and I look like a 
 rancher, and while writing these lines I have been greatly 
 entertained, at times, with Aason Brothers' logging crew, 
 while the ' ' Shrieking Donkey ' ' jarred my nerves and upset 
 my equilibrium quite frequently. However, on the whole, 
 all has afforded the old sport, who is still trudging along 
 the trail, looking for nuggets and sunshine, a great deal 
 of joy. 
 
 AFTER FIFTY YEARS 
 
 Fifty years I have doubled back, 
 
 My recollection is still intact 
 
 Of a rough trail here, a smooth one there, 
 
 Roses and briars everywhere; 
 
 One day mixed in a school boy's fight, 
 
 Where I licked a kid with all my might; 
 
 The next day licked by my angry dad, 
 
 Which made me feel both sore and sad. 
 
 So the years rolled on with breakneck speed, 
 
 While I roamed the country I did indeed, 
 
 Had a grand good time as good times go, 
 
 For I gave my friends a first class show. 
 
 I was praised, applauded, laughed at, cheered, 
 
 Liked and loved, but never feared. 
 
170 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 All in all on this trail of mine, 
 I had a perfectly corking time. 
 
 Over prairies to Atlantic's shore, 
 
 Over mountains to Pacific's roar, 
 
 From Mexico to Hudson's Bay, 
 
 I traveled the trail from day unto day. 
 
 On land or on sea or in mountains grand 
 
 God held me always within his hand. 
 
 Crippled and broken but living still 
 
 I work with one finger the typewriter quill. 
 
 I'm keeping right on at the same old pace, 
 
 Not making much time, but still in the race; 
 
 Happy, contented, where there is something to do 
 
 To keep my mind busy so I cannot get blue, 
 
 I slide along gently this old trail of mine, 
 
 And think I am having a corking good time. 
 
 The little logged off ranch, near Coquille, was too lonely 
 for the old sport. I could not work at clearing land. 
 Chickens also refused to work on short rations. I could 
 not be feeding them all the time, and, although my brain 
 said ' ' go to work, ' ' my legs and arms would get the crimps 
 and refuse. One morning I grabbed a handful of nerves 
 from somewhere in my anatomy, put on a boiled shirt and 
 walked into town, a distance of two miles, in one hour and 
 forty minutes. I saw a lawyer, who was a brother Elk. 
 He read this manuscript, which I had been amusing my- 
 self by writing for nearly a year, and I believe advised 
 well when he told me to have it published as my autobiog- 
 raphy. So I borrowed four dollars from my sister Nellie 
 and started for Marshfield, where, upon the shores of Old 
 Coos Bay, there roams a noble band of Elks. 
 
DOUBLING BACK 171 
 
 "HELLO! BILL!" OF OLD COOS BAY 
 
 (Apologies to Mr. Kipling) 
 By Edwards H. Meade 
 
 Marshfield Lodge, "1160," Benevolent, Protective Order of Elks, 
 Through the efforts of some old bucks, quite a noble band of Celts, 
 Was instituted in that City, 19-10, and they say: 
 Come you back, you Yankee brother; come you back to Oldcoos- 
 bay 
 
 Come you back to Oldcoosbay, 
 Where the B. P. 0. E.'s play; 
 I could hear their voices calling 
 From my bed at Frisco Bay 
 Hellow, Bills, of Oldcoosbay, 
 Where the B. P. 0. E.'s play, 
 And the sun comes up in splendor 
 From the mountains 'cross the bay. 
 
 My business was 0. K. and the little show serene, 
 
 Riding in our automobiles just the same as any queen, 
 
 But the old machines were bucking and my nerves were bad to 
 
 boot, 
 
 And my system needed treatment so to 'Frisco I did scoot 
 Blooming pains were in my head, 
 Doctor's diagnosis said: 
 Treatment for the nerves was needed, 
 While my blood was none too red 
 Hello, Bill, of Oldcoosbay, 
 Where the B. P. 0. E.'s play, 
 All the Bills from o'er the county, 
 Always stand in on each fray. 
 
172 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 While in Oakland and was calling on the folks at "Mussy's" 
 
 home, 
 
 I was stricken with paralysis that surely knocked me prone 
 To the hospital they took me and I thought my days were o'er. 
 The doctor and the nurses made me sweat from ev'ry pore; 
 Muscles dead, I could not speak, 
 Money going ev'ry week; 
 But the Bills o' 'leven sixty, 
 Were the elephants with teak 
 Hello, Bill, of Oldcoosbay, 
 Where the B. P. 0. E.'s play, 
 Jolly Bills from o'er the Nation 
 Often visit Oldcoosbay. 
 
 Now that's all away behind me long ago and far away, 
 And there's no use of my growling, I have come to Coos to stay, 
 But I'm living near Coquille, where the fir and myrtle dwells; 
 My health it is improving I don't need for anything else- 
 No, I don't need for anything else 
 Don't have melancholy spells 
 And there's one grand word explains it 
 "Grat-i-tude" ring out the bells- 
 Hello, Bill, of Oldcoosbay, 
 You ne'er failed with that bouquet, 
 It came regular, and cheered me, 
 Also "Threes" of Frisco Bay. 
 
 I am sick of earning nothing round these rolling, wooded hills, 
 And am now engaged in writing up some "Memories" spite of 
 
 ills, 
 
 And I hope to sell some stories to the "Post" or to the "Strand," 
 I want to do some reimbursing all good Bills will understand. 
 "Beat it back" that sounds real grand, 
 
DOUBLING BACK 173 
 
 A full grown buck must have some sand 
 
 I've a reasoned, seasoned notion 
 
 That I will "Come Back" and land- 
 Brother Bills, of Oldcoosbay, 
 May advise "don't get too gay, 
 "But come back and be a brother;" 
 So, Hello! Bill! of Oldcoosbay. 
 
 To go somewhere on a visit where I'd see I'm not the worst, 
 Where there are no shrieking donkeys and I could always- 
 
 quench my thirst; 
 
 I know the boys have all been wishing for a full recovery, 
 And they've aided more than any one of them can see. 
 Nearly gone at 'Frisco Bay, 
 Brother Bills helped me to stay, 
 And the Infinite will bless them 
 'Leven Sixty, of Oldcoosbay. 
 Hello, Bill, of Oldcoosbay, 
 Where the B. P. 0. E.'s play, 
 May good fortune smile forever 
 On "HELLO BILLS" OF OLDCOOSBAY. 
 
 "MARSHFIELD, OREGON, June 4, 1914. 
 BROTHER E. H. MEADE, 
 
 Coquille, Oregon. 
 Dear Sir and Brother: 
 
 I take pleasure in informing you that this lodge has granted 
 with pleasure your request to publish in your book of memories 
 the poem which you sent for our approval. 
 
 It is a fine poem and has been read by a number of the 
 brothers with pleasure, and I trust that you will meet with ft 
 good sale of your book. 
 
174 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 The best wishes of Marshfield Lodge No. 1160 are tendered 
 along with this letter. 
 
 Yours fraternally, 
 
 THOMAS B. JAMES, 
 
 Secretary. 
 
 I arrived safely in Marshfield, Oregon, after a twenty 
 mile ride upon the steam cars, on October 1, 1914. The 
 boys and acquaintances of my show actor days all re- 
 ceived me with a very glad hand and I could feel the 
 melancholia begin to squirm. I began to poke him un- 
 mercifully, day and night. I planned and talked with 
 every one with whom I had ever been acquainted. All the 
 time I was afraid that I was becoming an awful boor; but 
 I persevered and finally I found myself the proprietor of 
 a small candy and cigar store which I named the "Kandy 
 Nook." I was as proud as John Wanamaker and while 
 the little store kept me busy, at times, I occupied all my 
 spare moments in planning for the future and how I could 
 succeed in getting this little volume published. I finally 
 forwarded the manuscript to a publishing house in San 
 Francisco. They kept it three months before they made 
 me a proposition. I became enthused, got a circular and 
 mailed one to every person that I could think of. The 
 letters, advertisements, write-ups and orders for books 
 from all parts of the country kept me enthused. They 
 entertained me, and filled me with hope. They also fur- 
 nished me with many a good laugh and caused a few tears, 
 which were mostly for joy. The melancholic spells disap- 
 peared and I blossomed out with an old time smile. I 
 received a letter from Jule Hummel, the man who did not 
 
DOUBLING BACK 175 
 
 want me to marry his daughter (lone). God bless him. 
 He is a jolly old man over seventy and I hope I will have 
 the pleasure of seeing him and asking his forgiveness for 
 any bad thoughts that I might have had about him some 
 thirty years ago. About this time I received a letter from 
 my wife, Georgie Van Gordon Meade, whom you may re- 
 call went home on a visit in 1899 to Dunkirk, New York, 
 and whom I had not heard from in fifteen years. We had 
 drifted apart and lost each other 's address. I made up 
 my mind that she must have seen my advertisement in the 
 "Billboard" or else visited the Hall of Fame and saw my 
 name on a three sheet. She wrote me a letter anyway, and 
 I answered it cheerfully, without love, sentiment or for- 
 giveness. I have tried all my life to get my name on a 
 three sheet before the public, as an actor and, although 
 paralysis knocked me out of the show business, I am still 
 trying to get my name and my face on a three sheet. 
 
 IS YOUR NAME ON A THREE SHEET? 
 
 Is your name on a three sheet, 
 
 Up in the hall of fame? 
 Just look the billboards over, 
 
 Read each and every name; 
 Perhaps they overlooked you, 
 
 And it's the bill boy's fault; 
 He left you in the bill room, 
 
 Down in that old stone vault. 
 
 There's Christopher Columbus, 
 Americo Vespucci, 
 
176 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 Italians, French and English, 
 
 Patti, and Caruso. 
 John Smith and Pocahontas, 
 
 Washington, Jefferson, 
 Some white and colored pugilists, 
 
 And inventor Tom Edison. 
 
 There's a three sheet of Lincoln, 
 
 And humorist Mark Twain; 
 Another of Theodore, 
 
 And the atheist, Paine. 
 You'll find all the presidents, 
 
 And the plumed knight Jim Elaine; 
 Reverend T. Dewitt Talmage 
 
 And George Francis Train. 
 
 There are three sheets and lithos 
 
 Of men loved and hated, 
 And of statesmen and soldiers, 
 
 Since the world was created; 
 Musicians, actors, artists; 
 
 Men who fly through the air, 
 Yet the great hall of fame 
 
 Has some billboards to spare. 
 
 Man, get your name and your face 
 
 On a three sheet to stay. 
 Be a live one of some kind, 
 
 Jump right into the fray; 
 Make the big chief bill poster, 
 
 Know that you are "some drop/' 
 Get your face on a three sheet, 
 
 With your name on the top. 
 
DOUBLING BACK 177 
 
 The little candy shop, the letters from friends and 
 schoolmates of forty years ago, the encouragement from all 
 who know me have succeeded in nearly driving all signs 
 of melancholia to the four winds of Heaven, and at this 
 moment, 10:13 a. m., September 13, 1915, I am full of 
 enthusiasm, hope, courage, kindliness and gratitude. In 
 spite of the fact that my "Kandy Nook" went into the 
 hands of a receiver (two creditors confiscated most of the 
 goods and laid themselves liable to the penitentiary), I am 
 very happy and have enough pleasant thoughts in my right 
 brain, if formed into sentences with my left hand, would 
 entitle the old sport to a reception, when he crosses to the 
 other shore. 
 
 THE OLD SPORTS' RECEPTION 
 (At the Elks' Heavenly Home) 
 
 Well! By thunder! 
 What's your number? 
 
 Hello! Bill! Where from, my old sport? 
 I'm the picket, 
 Where's your ticket? 
 
 It requires a "comp." to see this court. 
 What's that you say? 
 Willing to pay? 
 
 Don't want to be an exception? 
 Well, now, look here, 
 My white haired dear; 
 
 This is an Old Sports' Reception 
 
178 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 For all old sports who have tried to be sincere, 
 
 Who never with intent have caused a tear; 
 
 Who were always real kind to the sick and the blind, 
 
 And would never sanction deception; 
 
 Tonight they are all to be rewarded, 
 
 Their names in gold will be recorded; 
 
 So, move on, old gent, we are quite intent, 
 
 Upon giving the old sports this reception. 
 
 Old gent replied: 
 "Kind sir, I've tried 
 
 Since the Creator gave me life, 
 To be civil 
 To the divil, 
 
 And will not enter into strife; 
 Pll pass along 
 And sing my song, 
 
 I know that I am not perfection; 
 Yet, Peter said: 
 "Go right ahead 
 
 To where it reads 'Old Sports' Reception/" 
 
 The picket quickly moved the golden glimmer, 
 It's glare fell full upon the aged sinner. 
 He said: What's your name? Are you walking lame? 
 I beg your pardon. You need protection. 
 Come in put on this crown and purple cloak- 
 Have a drink o' nectar you're about to choke- 
 Never mind your name, I know you are game; 
 Welcome, Bill, to the Old Sports' Reception. 
 
 WTiile sitting here in my little room, thinking of all the 
 blessings that have been bestowed upon me and all of the 
 
DOUBLING BACK 179 
 
 happiness and pleasure that I have experienced in fifty- 
 two years, I begin to imagine that I have really lived one 
 hundred and fifty-two years. When I compare my trail 
 of life with a great many men, whom I know are three 
 score and ten, I believe that some good spirit hath always 
 been hovering near. Maybe it is that of my grandfather's, 
 the good old Quaker, directed by Providence. Perhaps He 
 is preserving me so that I may right the wrongs of Daniel 
 Hoag, so that all his grandchildren may come into their 
 own. It is my great desire to win a crown upon this earth 
 and when my soul passes to the great beyond, I hope to 
 appear as an actor upon the platform at "The Old Sports' 
 Reception," and upon that occasion I will thank God for 
 all his goodness to all mankind, and sing 
 
 A SONG FOR THE ELKS 
 
 In the forests on the mountains, 
 
 O'er this grand old U. S. A., 
 Great bands of Elk, in years gone by, 
 
 Roamed as monarchs of the day. 
 The cities now, through God's decree, 
 
 Contain a mighty throng 
 Of Elk, who are B. P. 0. E.; 
 
 Their soul in work or song. 
 
 The jovial boys of Elkdom, 
 
 Descend from the "Noble Few;" 
 
 They work and play, cheer all mankind, 
 And fight for th' Red, White an' Blue. 
 
180 DOUBLING BACK 
 
 All baby Elks that come to earth, 
 
 By way of "Fairy Storks," 
 Will love their own B. P. 0. E., 
 
 And reverence "Jolly Corks." 
 
 The song of the Elks is a song of the soul, 
 
 To be sung when our Ruler calls the last roll. 
 
 'Twill reveal all their virtues and famous "high jinks," 
 
 That were always amusing and inethinks, 
 
 The home of the Elks, up in Heaven, will be 
 
 Crowned with "Old Glory" around B. P. 0. E. 
 
 And, while angels are singing o' Peace and Good Will, 
 
 Our song will be echo-ing, Hello! Bill! 
 
 I am ready for the press June 17, 1916. 
 
 EDWARDS HOAG MEADE. 
 

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