 Chapter 1 of the Conquest This is a LibreVox recording. All LibreVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information on how to volunteer, please visit LibreVox.org Recording by Jeff Blanchard The Conquest by Oscar Mejo Discontent, Spirit of the Pioneer Good gracious! Has it been that long? It does not seem possible, but it was this very day nine years ago when a fellow handed me this little, what would you call it, Ingles call it opportunity? I've a notion to burn it, but I won't. Not this time. Instead, I'll put it down here, and you may call it what you like. Master of human destiny am I. Fame, love, and fortune on my footsteps wait. Cities and fields I walk. I penetrate, deserts and seas remote, and passing by. Hovel, and mat, and palace, soon or late. I knock unbidden, once at every gate. If sleeping, wake, if feasting, rise before. I turn away, it is the hour of fate. And they, who follow me, reach every state. Mortals desire, and conquer every foe. Save death, but those who doubt or hesitate condemn to failure, penury and woe. Seek me in vain and useless implore. I answer not, and I return no more. Yes, it was that little poem that led me to this land, and sometimes I wonder, well, I just wonder, that's all. Again, I think it would be somewhat different if it wasn't for the wind. It blows and blows until it makes me feel lonesome, and so far away from that little place and the country in southern Illinois. I was born 29 years ago near the Ohio River, about 40 miles above Cairo, the fourth son and fifth child of a family of 13, by the name of Devereux, which of course is not my name, but we will call it that for this sketch. It is a peculiar name that ends with an E-A-U-X, however, and it is considered an odd name for a coloured man to have, unless he is from Louisiana, where the French crossed with the Indians and slaves, cause many Louisiana Negroes to have the French names, and many speak the French language also. My father, however, came from Kentucky and inherited the name from his father, who was sold off into Texas during the slavery period, and is said to be living there today. He was a farmer and owned 80 acres of land, and therefore considered fairly well to do, that is for a coloured man. The country in which we lived bordered on the river some 20 miles and took its name from an old fort that used to do a little cannonading for the federal forces back in the Civil War. The farming in this section was hindered by various disadvantages, and at best was slow, hard work. Along the valleys of the numerous creeks and bayous that emptied their waters into the Ohio, the soil was of rich alluvium, where in the early spring the back waters from the Ohio covered thousands of acres of farm and timberlands, and in receding left the land plastered with a coat of river sand and clay, which greatly added to the soil's productivity. One who owned a farm on these bottoms was considered quite fortunate. Here the corn stalks grew like saplings, with ease dangling one and two to a stalk, and as sound and heavy as green blocks of wood. The heavy rains washed the loam from the hills and deposited it on these bottoms. Years ago, when the rolling lands were cleared and before the excessive rainfall had washed away the loose surface, the highlands were considered most valuable for agricultural purposes, equally as valuable as those bottoms now are. Far the back from the river, the more rolling the land became until some 16 miles away it was known as the hills, and here, long before I was born, the land had been very valuable. Large bands and fine, stately houses now gone to wreck and deserted stood behind beautiful groves of chestnut, low cuts and stately old oaks, where rabbits, quail and woodpeckers made their homes, and sometimes a raccoon or a possum found its den during the cold, bleak winter days. The orchards, formerly the pride of their owners, now dropped their neglected fruit, which rotted and mulched with the leaves. The fields where formerly had grown great crops of wheat, corn, oats, Timothy and clover were now grown over and enmeshed in a tangled mass of weeds and dewberry vines. While along the branches and where the old rail fences had stood, blackberry vines had grown up, twisting their thorny stems and forming a veritable hedge fence. These places I promised mother to avoid as I begged her to allow me to follow the big boys and carry their game when they went hunting. In the neighbourhood and throughout the country there had at one time been many coloured farmers or ex-slaves who had settled there after the war. Many of them had built up nice homes and cleared the valley of tough rotted hickory, gum, pecan and water oak trees and the highlands of black, white, red or post oak, sassafras and dogwood. They later grubbed the stumps and hauled the rocks into the roads or damned treacherous little streams that were continually breaking out and threatening the land with more ditches. But as time wore on and the older generation died, the younger were attracted to the towns and cities in quest of occupations that were more suitable to their increasing desire for society and good times. Leaving the farms to care for themselves until the inevitable German immigrant came along and bought them up at his own price till the land improved the farm and roads straightened out the streams by digging canals and grew prosperous. As for me, I was called the lazy member of the family, a shaker who complained that it was too cold to work in the winter and too warm in the summer. About the only thing for which I was given credit was in learning rapidly. I always received good grades in my studies but was continually criticized for talking too much and being too inquisitive. We finally moved into the nearby town of Empels, not so much to get off the farm or to be near more colored people as most of the younger Negro farmers did as to give the children better educational facilities. The local colored school was held in an old building made of plain boards standing straight up and down with batten on the cracks. It was inadequate in many respects. The teachers very often inefficient and besides, it was far from home. After my oldest sister graduated, she went away to teach and about the same time my oldest brother quit school and went to a nearby town and became a table waiter much to the dissatisfaction of my mother who always declared emphatically that she wanted none of her sons to become lackeys. When the Spanish-American war broke out, the two brothers above me enlisted with a company of other patriotic young fellows and were taken to Springfield to go into camp. At Springfield, their company was disbanded and those of the company that wished to go on were accepted into other companies and those that desired to go home were permitted to do so. The younger of the two brothers returned home by freight. The other joined a Chicago company and was sent to Santiago and later to San Luis de Cuba where he died with typhoid pneumonia. Empels was an old town with a few factories two flour mills, two or three saw mills, box factories and another concern where veneering was peeled from wood blocks softened with steam. The timber came from up to the Tennessee River which emptied into the Ohio a few miles up the river. There was also the market house such as are to be seen in towns of the southern states and parts of the northern. This market house or place as it is often called was an open building except one end enclosed by a meat market and was about 40 by 100 feet with benches on either side and one through the center for the convenience of those who walked carrying their produce in a homemade basket. Those in vehicles back to a line guarded by the city marshal forming an alleyway the width of the market house for perhaps half a block depending on how many farmers were on hand. There was always a rush to get nearest the market house a case of the early bird getting the worm. The townspeople who came to buy mostly women with baskets would file leisurely between the rows of vehicles hacks and spring wagons of various descriptions looking here and there at the vegetables displayed. We moved back to the country after a time when my father complained of my poor service in the field and in disgust I was sent off to do the marketing which pleased me for it was not only easy but gave me a chance to meet and talk with many people and I always sold the goods and engaged more for the afternoon delivery. This was my first experience in real business and from that time ever afterward I could always do better business for myself than for anyone else. I was not given much credit for my ability to sell however until my brother who complained that I was given all the easy work while he had to labour and do all the heavy farm work was sent to do the marketing. He was not a salesman and lacked the aggressiveness to approach people with a basket and never talked much was timid and when spoken to or approached plainly showed it. On the other hand I met and became acquainted with people quite readily. I soon noticed that many people enjoy being flattered and how pleased even the prosperous men's wives would seem if bowed to with a pleasant good morning Mrs. Quanta, nice morning and would you care to look at some fresh roasted ears ten cents a dozen or some nice ripe strawberries two boxes for fifteen cents. Yes ma'am, thank you and oh Mrs. Quanta would you care for some radishes, cucumbers or lettuce for tomorrow? I could deliver late this afternoon you see for maybe you haven't the time to come to market every day. From this association I soon learnt to give each and every prospective customer a different greeting or suggestion which usually brought a smile and a nod of appreciation as well as a purchase. Before the debt swamped my father and while my brothers were still at home our truck gardening, the small herd of milkers and the chickens paid as well as the farm itself. About this time father fell heir to a part of the estate of a brother which came as a great relief to his ever-increasing burden of debt. While this seeming relief to father was on I became very anxious to get away. In fact I didn't like Amples nor its surroundings. It was a river town and gradually losing its usefulness by the invasion of railroads up and down the river. Besides the coloured people were in the most part wretchedly poor, ignorant and envious. They were set in their ways of their localisms and it was quite useless to talk to them of anything that would better oneself. The social life centred in the two churches where praying, singing and shouting on Sundays to backbiting, stealing, fighting and getting drunk during the week was common among the men. They remained members in good standing at the churches, however as long as they paid their dues contributed to the numerous rallies or helped along in camp meetings and festivals. Others were regularly turned out mostly for not paying their dues only to warm up at the next revival on the mourners bench and come through converted and be again accepted into the church and for a while at least live a near righteous life. There were many good Christians in the church however who were patient with all this conduct while there were and still are those who will not sanction such carry on by staying in a church that permits of such shaming and hypocrisy. These latter often left the church and were then branded either as infidels or human devils who had forsaken the house of God and were condemned to eternal damnation. My mother was a shouting methodist and many times we children would slip quietly out of the church when she began to get happy. The old and less religious men hauled slop to feed a few pigs cut cord wood at 50 cents per cord and did any odd jobs or kept steady ones when such could be found. The women took in washing cooked for the white folks and fed the preachers when we lived in the country we fed so many of the elders with their long-tailed coats and assuming an authoritative heirs that I grew to almost dislike the sight of a coloured man in a Prince Albert coat and clerical vest. At 16 I was fairly disgusted with it all and took no pains to keep my disgust concealed. This didn't have the effect of burdening me with many friends in emples and I was regarded by many of the boys and girls who led in the whirlpools of the local coloured society as being of the too slow to catch cold variety and by some of the elders as being worldly a free thinker and a dangerous associate for young Christian folks. Another thing that added to my unpopularity perhaps was my persistent declaration that there were not enough competent coloured people to grasp the many opportunities that presented themselves and that if white people could possess such nice homes, wealth and luxuries so in time could the coloured people you're a fool I would be told and then would follow a lecture describing the time worn long and cruel slavery and after the emancipation the prejudice and hatred of the white race was to prevent the progress and betterment of the negro this excuse for the negro's lack of ambition was constantly dined into my ears from the cable corner loafer to the minister in the pulpit and I became so tired of it all that I declared that if I could ever leave emples I would never return more I would disprove such a theory and in the following chapters I hope to show that what I believe 14 years ago was true End of Chapter 1 Chapter 2 of The Conquest This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Lyndon Godsell The Conquest by Oscar Mayer Leaving Home a Maiden I was 17 one I had last left emples I accepted a rough job at a dollar and a quarter a day in a car manufacturing concern in a town of 8,000 population about 800 being coloured I wasn't able to save very much for work was dull that summer and I was only averaging about 4 days work a week besides I had an attack of malaria at intervals of a period of 2 months but by going to work at 5 o'clock a.m. when I was well I could get in 2 extra hours making a dollar 50 The concern employed about 1200 men and paid their wages every 2 weeks holding back one week's pay I came there in June and it was some time in September that I drew my fullest pay which contained 16 dollars and 50 cents about this time a fire eating coloured evangelist who apparently possessed great converting powers and unusual eloquence came to town these qualities however usually became very uninteresting towards the end of a stay he had been to emples the year before I left and at that place his popularity greatly diminished before he left the greater part of the coloured people in this town were of the emotional kind and to these he was as attractive as he had been at emplos in the beginning coincident with the commencement of reverend McIntyre's soul stirring sermons a big revival was inaugurated and although the little church was filled nightly to its capacity the isles were kept clear in order to give those that were steeping in hell's fire as the evangelist characterised those who were not members of some church an open road to enter into the field of the righteous also to give the mourners sufficient room in which to exhaust their emotions when the spirit struck them and it is needless to say that they were used at times they virtually converted the entire floor into an active gymnasium regardless of the rights of the other person or of the chairs they occupied I had seen and heard people shout at long intervals in church but here after a few soul stirring sermons they began to run outside where there was more room to give vent to the hallucination and this wandering of the mind it could be called nothing else for after the first few sermons the evangelist would hardly be started before some mourner would begin to come through this revival warmed up to such proportions that preaching and shouting began in the afternoon instead of evening men working in the yards of the foundry two blocks away could hear the shouting above the roaring furnaces and the deafening noise of machinery of a great car manufacturing concern the church stood on a corner where two streets or avenues intersected and for a block in either direction the influence of fanaticism became so intense that the converts began running about like wild creatures tearing their hair and uttering prayers and supplications in discordant tones at the evening services the sisters would gather around a mourner in the midst of weakening and sing and babble until he or she became so befuddled they would jump up throw their arms widely into the air kick strike then cry out like a dying soul fall limp and exhausted into the many arms outstretched to catch them this was always conclusive evidence of what the fanatons saw far into the night this performance would continue and when the mourner's bench became empty the audience would be searched for sinners I would sit through it all quite unemotional and nightly I would be approached with aren't you ready to which I would make no answer I noticed that several boys after court found the mourner's bench a convenient vehicle to the homes of these girls all of whom belong to church girls over 18 who did not belong with subjects of much gossip and abuse a report in some inconceivable manner soon became spread that Oscar Devereux had said that he wanted to die and go to hell I was approached on all sides by men and women regardless of the time of day or night by the young men who gloried in their conversation and who urged me to get right with Jesus before it was too late I do not remember how long these meetings lasted but they suddenly came to an end when notice was served on the church trustees by the city council which irreverently declared that so many converts every afternoon and night was disturbing the white neighbourhood's rest as well as their nerves it ordered windows and doors to be kept closed during services and as the church was small it was impossible to house the congregation and all the converts so the revival ended and the community was restored to normal and calm once more prevailed that was in September one Sunday afternoon in October as I was walking along the railroad track I chanced to overhear voices coming from under a water tank where a space of some eight or ten feet enclosed by four huge timbers made a small secluded place I stopped listened and was sure I recognised the voices of Douglas Brock his brother Melvin and two other well-known coloured boys Douglas was betting a quarter with one of the other boys that he couldn't pass you who know the dice and its vagaries will know what he meant this was mingled with words and commands from Melvin to the dice in trying to make some point it must have been four he would let out a sort of yowl can't you do it I went my way I didn't shoot craps nor drink neither did I belong to church but was called a dreadful sinner while three of the boys under the tank had not less than six weeks before joined church and were now full-fledged members in good standing of course I did not consider that all people who belonged to church were not Christians or that many were not the following January a relative of mine got a job for me, bailing water in a coal mine in a little town inhabited entirely by Negroes I worked from 6 o'clock p.m. to 6 a.m. and received $2.25 therefore the work was rough and hard and the mine was very dark the smoke hung like a cloud on top of the tunnel-like room during all the night this was because the fans were all but shut off at night and just enough air was pumped in to prevent the formation of black damp the smoke made my headache until I felt stupid and the dampness made me ill but the $2.25 per day looked good to me after six weeks however I was forced to quit and with $65 more money than I'd ever had I went to see my older sister who was teaching in a nearby town I had grown into a strong husky youth of 18 and my sister was surprised to see that I was working and taking care of myself so well she shared the thought of nearly all of my acquaintances that I was too lazy to leave home but especially in the wintertime after a while she suddenly looked at me and spoke as though afraid she would forget it oh Oscar I've got a girl for you what do you think of that smiling so pleasantly I was afraid she was joking you see I had never been very successful with the girls and when she mentioned having a girl for me my heart was all of a flutter and when she hesitated I put in eagerly ah go on quit your kidding on the level now or are you just chiding me but she took on a serious expression and speaking thoughtfully she went on yes she lives next door and is a nice little girl and pretty the prettiest colored girl in town here I lost interest for I remembered my sister who was foolish about beauty and I said that I didn't care to meet her I was suspicious when it came to the pretty type of girls and I had observed that the prettiest girl in town was oft times petted and spoiled and a mere butterfly oh why she spoke like one hurt then I confessed my suspicions oh you're foolish and awfully appearing relieved besides she went on brightly Jesse isn't a spoiled girl you wait until you meet her and in spite of my protest she sent the landlady's little girl off for Miss Rooks she came over in about an hour and I found her to be demure and thoughtful as well as pretty she was small of stature had dark eyes and beautiful black hair and an olive complexion she wouldn't allow me to look into her eyes but continue to cast them downwards sitting with folded hands and answering when spoken to in a tiny voice quite in keeping with her small person during the afternoon I mentioned that I was going to Chicago now Oscar you've got no business in Chicago my sister spoke up with a touch of authority you're too young and besides she asked do you know whether W.O. want you W.O. was our oldest brother and was then making Chicago his home ha! I snorted I'm going on my own hook and drawing up to my full six feet I try to look brave which seem to have the desired effect on my sister well she said resignedly you must be careful and not get into bad company be good and try to make a man of yourself end of chapter 2 chapter 3 of the conquest this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Jeff Blanchard the conquest by Oscar Mejo Chicago chasing a willow the wisp that was on Sunday morning 300 miles south of Chicago and at 9.40 that night I stepped off the New Orleans and Chicago fast mail into a new different world it was I believe the coldest night that I had ever experienced the city was new and strange to me and I wandered here and there for hours before I finally found my brother's address on Armour Avenue wandering and anxiety matted little for I was in the great city where I intended beginning my career and felt that bigger things were in store for me the next day my brother's landlady appeared to take a good deal of interest in me and encouraged me so that I became quite confidential and told her of my ambitions for the future and that it was my intention to work save my money and eventually become a property owner I was rather chagrined later however to find that she had repeated all this to my brother and he gave me a good round scolding accompanied by the unsolicited advice that if I would keep my mouth shut people wouldn't know I was so green he had been travelling as a waiter on an eastern railroad dining car but in a fit of independence which had always been characteristic of him had quit and now in midwinter was out of a job he was not enthusiastic concerning my presence in the city and I had found him broke but with a lot of fine clothes and a diamond or two most folks from the country don't value good clothes and diamonds in the way city folk do and I, for one didn't think much of his finery I was greatly disappointed for I had anticipated that my big brother would have accumulated some property or become master of a bank account during these five or six years he had been away from home he seemed to sense this disappointment and became more irritated at my presence and finally wrote home to my parents who had recently moved to Kansas charging me with the crime of being a big, awkward, ignorant kid unsophisticated in the ways of the world and especially of the city that I was likely to end my career by running over a street car and permitting the city to irreversibly lose me for something equally as bad when I heard from my mother she was worried and begged me to come home I knew the folks at home shared my brother's opinion of me and believed all he had told them so I had a good laugh all to myself in spite of the depressing effect it had on me however there was the reaction and when it set in I became heartsick and discouraged and then and there became personally acquainted with the blues their undivided attention for some time after that the following Sunday I expected him to take me to church with him but he didn't he went alone wearing his $5 hat $15 made to measure shoes $45 coat and vest $11 trousers $50 tweed overcoat and his diamonds I find my way to the church alone and when I saw him sitting reservedly in an opposite pew I felt snubbed and my heart sank however only momentarily for a new light dawned upon me and I saw the snobbery and folly of it all and resolved that someday I would rise head and shoulders above that foolish foreflushing brother of mine in real and material success I finally secured irregular employment at the union stockyards the wages at that time were not the best common labor $1.50 per day the hours very irregular some days I was called for duty at 5 in the morning and laid off at 3 in the afternoon or called again at 8 in the evening to work until 9 the same evening I soon found the mere getting of jobs to be quite easy it was getting a desirable one that gave me trouble however when I first went to the yards and looked at the crowds waiting before the office in quest of employment I must confess I felt rather discouraged but my new surroundings and that inevitable interesting feature about these crowds with their diversity of nationalities and ambitions made me forget my own little disappointments most all new arrivals whether skilled or unskilled workmen seeking jobs in the city find their way to the yards thousands of unskilled laborers are employed here and it seems to be the mecca who wander thither in a last effort to obtain employment the people with whom I stopped belong to the servant class and live neatly in the Armour Avenue flat the different classes of people who make up the population of a great city are segregated more by their occupations than anything else the laborers usually live in a laborers neighbourhood tradesmen find it more agreeable among their fellow workmen the name is true of the servants and others I found that employment which soared the clothes and face and hands was out of keeping among the people with whom I lived so after trying first one job then another I went to Juliette Illinois to work out my fortune in the steel mills of that town I was told that at that place was an excellent opportunity to learn a trade but after getting only the very roughest kind of work to do around the mills such as wrecking and carrying all kinds of broken iron and digging in a canal along with a lot of jabbering foreigners whose English vocabulary consisted of but one word their laborers number it is needless to say that I saw little chance of learning a trade at any very early date payday happened every two weeks with two weeks held back if I quit it would be three weeks before I could get my wages but I was informed of a scheme by which I could get my money by telling the foreman that I was going to leave the state accordingly I approached the renown imbecile and told him that I was going to California and I would have to quit and would like to get my pay pay days every two weeks so be sure to get back in time he answered in that officious manner so peculiar to foreman I had only four dollars coming so I quit anyway that evening I became the recipient of the illuminating information that if I would apply at the coal shoots I would find better employment as well as receive better wages I sought out the fellow in charge a big coloured man weighing about 200 pounds who gave me work cracking and heaving coal into the chute at a dollar fifty per 25 tons graces I expostulated a man can't do all that in a day poo and he waved his big hands depreciatingly I have heaved 40 tons with small effort I decided to go to work that day but with many misgivings as to the cracking and shoveling 25 tons of coal the first day I managed by dint of hard labour to crack and heave 18 tons out of a box car for which I received the munificent sum of one dollar and the next day I fell to 16 tons and likewise to 89 cents the contractor who super intended the coal business bought me a drink in a nearby saloon and as I drank it with a gulp he patted me on the shoulder saying now after the third day son you begin to improve and at the end of the week you can heave 30 tons a day as easy as a clock ticking the time I thought he was going to add he would be shoveling 40 tons like big gym the fellow who gave me the job but I cut him off by telling him that I had resigned before I became so proficient I had to send for more money to pay my board my brother, being my banker sent a statement of my account showing that I had to date just 25 dollars and the statement seemed to read coldly between the lines that I would soon be broke then I felt very serious about the matter and when I returned to Chicago I had lost some of my confidence regarding my future Mrs. Nelson, the landlady boasted that her husband made 20 dollars per week showed me her diamonds and spoke so very highly of my brother that I suspicioned that she admired him a great deal and that he was in no immediate danger of losing his room even when he was out of work and unable to meet his obligations my next step was to let an employment agency swindle me out of 2 dollars this system was quite unique and I presume legitimate they persuaded the applicant to deposit 3 dollars as a guarantee of good faith after which they were to find a position for him a given percentage was also to be taken from the wages for a certain length of time some of these agencies may have been alright but my old friend the hoodoo led me to the one that was an open fraud after the person seeking employment has been sent to several places for imaginary positions that proved to be only myths the agency offers to give back a dollar and the disgusted applicant is usually glad to get it I myself being one of many of these unfortunates I then tried the newspaper ads there is usually some particular paper in any large city that makes a speciality of want advertisements I was told as was necessary to stand at the door when the paper came from the press grab a copy, choose an ad that seemed promising and run like wild for the address given I had no trade so turn to the miscellaneous column and as I had no references I looked for a place where none were required if the address was near I would run as fast as the crowded street and the speed laws would permit but always found upon arrival that someone had just either been accepted ahead of me or had been there a week I having run down an old ad that had been permitted to run for that time about the only difference I found between the newspapers and the employment agencies was that I didn't have to pay three dollars for the experience I now realise the disadvantages of being an unskilled labourer and had grown weary of chasing a willow the wisp and one day while talking to a small Indian looking negro I remarked that I wished I could find a job in some suburb shining shoes in a barbershop or something that would take me away from Chicago and its dilly-dally jobs for a while I know where you can get a job like that he answered thoughtfully where? I asked eagerly why? out at Eaton he went on a suburb about 25 miles west a fellow wanted me to go but I don't want to leave Chicago I found that most of the coloured piv with whom I had become acquainted with who lived in Chicago very long were similarly reluctant about leaving but I was ready to go anywhere so my new friend took me over to a barbersupply house on Clark Street where a man gave me the name of the barber at Eaton and told me to come by in the morning and he'd give me a ticket to the place when I got on the street again I felt so happy and grateful to my friend for the information that I gave the little mulatto a half dollar all the money I had with me and I had walked for the 40 blocks to my room here I filled my old grip and the next morning beat it for Eaton arriving there on the 1st of May and a cold bleak spring morning it was I found the shop without any trouble a dingy little place with two chairs the proprietor a drawn unhappy looking creature and a hawkish looking German assistant welcomed me cordially they seemed to need company the proprietor led me upstairs to a room that I could have free with an oil stove and a table where I could cook so I made arrangements to batch I received no wages but was allowed to retain all I made shining I had acquired some experienced shining shoes on the streets of Emples with a homemade box getting on my knees whenever I got a customer shining shoes is not usually considered an advanced or technical occupation requiring skill however if properly conducted it can be the making of a good solicitor while Eaton was a suburb it was also a country town and this shop was never patronized by any of the metropolitan class who made their homes there but principally by the country class who do not evidence their city pride by the polish of their shoes few city people allowed their shoes to go unpollished and I wasn't long in finding it out and when I did I had something to say to the men who went by well dressed but with dirty shoes I had to argue with them into stopping if only for a moment I could nearly always succeed in getting them into the chair business however was dull and I began taking jobs in the country from the farmers working through the day and getting back to the shop for the evening this however was short lived for I was unaccustomed to farm work since leaving home and found it extremely difficult my first work in the country hay side by side with a girl of sixteen who knew how to pitch hay I thought it would be quite romantic before I started but before the night came I had changed my mind the man on the wagon would drive alongside a big cock of sweet smelling hay and the girl would stick her fork patley to one side of the hay cock and show me how to put my fork into the other I was left handed while she was right and with our backs to the wagon we could make a heavy lift and when the hay was directly overhead we'd turn and face each other and over the load would go on to the wagon toward evening the loads thus balanced seem to me as heavy as the load of atlas bearing the air I am sure my face disclosed the fatigue and strain under which I laboured for it was clearly reflected in the knowing grin of my companion I drew my pay that night on the excuse of having to get an overall suit promising to be back at quarter to seven the next morning then I tried shocking oats along with a boy of about twelve a girl of fourteen and a farmer's wife the way those two children did work whew I was so glad when a shower came up about noon that I refrained from shouting with difficulty I drew my pay this time to get some gloves and promise to be back as soon as I dried the next morning I felt so sore and stiff as a result of my two days experience in the harvest fields that I forgot all about my promise to return and decided to stay in Eaton it was in Eaton that I started my first bank account the little twenty dollar certificate of deposit opened my mind to different things entirely I would look at it until I had daydreams during the three months I spent in Eaton I played the foundation of a future simple as it was it led me into channels which carried me away from my race and into a life fraught with excitement a life that gave experiences and other things I had never dreamed of I had started a bank account of twenty dollars and I found myself wanting one of thirty and to my surprise the desire seemed to increase this desire fathered my plans to become a porter on a PN car a position I diligently sought and applied for between such odd jobs about town as mowing lawns washing windows scrubbing floors and a variety of others that kept me quite busy taking the work if I could by contract thus permitting me to use my own time and to work as hard as I desired to finish I found that this plan I could make money faster and easier than by working in the country I was finally rewarded by being given a run on a PN car by a road that reached many summer resorts in southern Wisconsin here I skimped along on a run that went out every Friday and Saturday returning on Monday morning the regular salary was $40 per month but as I never put in more than half the time I barely made $20 and although I made little on the side in the way of tips I had to draw on the money I had saved in Eton End of Chapter 3 Chapter 4 of the Conquest This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Phyllis Vincelli The Conquest by Oscar Michaud Chapter 4 The Pea Company The Pea Company is a big palace dining and sleeping car company that most American people know a great deal about I had long desired to have a run on one of the magnificent sleepers that operated out of Chicago to every part of North America that I might have an opportunity to see the country and make money at the same time and from Monday to Friday I had nothing to do but report at one of the three Pea offices in my effort to get such a position One office where I was particularly attentive operated cars on four roads called on this office about twice a week but a long, slim chief clerk whose chair guarded the entrance to the superintendent's office would draw out lazily we don't need any men today I had been to the office a number of times before I left Eaton and had heard his drawl so often that I grew nervous whenever he asked me that district employed over a thousand porters and there was no doubt that they hired them every day one day I was telling my troubles to a friendly porter whom I later learned to be George Cole former husband of the present wife of Burt Williams the comedian he advised me to see Mr. Miltsow the superintendent but I can never see him, I said despairingly for that long imbecile of a clerk jump him some day when he is on the way from luncheon talk fast tell him how you have been trying all summer to get on the old man, he said referring to the superintendent likes big stout youngsters like you so try it the next day I watched him from the street and when he started to descend the long stairway to his office I gathered my courage and stepped to his side I told him how I had fairly haunted his office only to be turned away regularly by the same words that I would like a position if he would at any time need any man he went into his office leaving me standing at the railing where I held my grounds in defiance of the chief clerk's insolent stare after a few minutes he looked up and called out come in here you as I stood before him he looked me over searchingly and inquired as to whether I had any references no sir I answered quickly but I can get them I was beside myself with nervous excitement I watched him eagerly for fear he might turn me away at the physiological moment and that I would fail to get what I had wanted so long well he said in a decisive tone get good references showing what you have been doing for the last five years bring them around and I'll talk to you thank you sir I blurred it out and with hopes soaring I hurried out and down the steps going to my room I wrote for references to people in M who had known me all my life of course they sent me the best of letters which I took immediately to Mr. Miltsow's office after looking them over carelessly he handed them over to his secretary asking me whether I was able to buy a uniform when I answered in the affirmative he gave me a letter to the company's tailor and one to the instructor who the next day gave me my first lessons in a car called the school in a nearby railroad yard placed there for that purpose I learned all that was required in a day although he had some pupils who had been with him five days before I started and who graduated with me I now thought I was a full fledged porter and was given an order for equipment combs, brushes, etc a letter from the instructor to the man that signed out the runs a very apt appearing young man with a gift for remembering names and faces who instructed me to report on the morrow the thought of my first trip the next day perhaps to some distant city I had never seen caused me to lie awake the greater part of the night when I went into the porter's room the next day or down in the hole as the basement was called and looked into the place I found it crowded with men and mostly old men at that I felt sure it would be a long time before I was sent out however I soon learned that the most of them were men who had been discharged and who appeared regularly in hopes of getting a car that could not be supplied with a regular man there was one by the name of Knight a pitiable and forlorn character in whose breast hope sprang eternal who came to the hole every day and in an entire year he had made one lone trip he lived by mooching a dime quarter or fifty cents from first one porter then another and by helping some porters make down beds and cars that went out on midnight trains it was said that he had been discharged on account of two strict adherence to duty every member of a train crew whether porter, breakman or conductor would make a book of rules more as a matter of form than to show to passengers as Knight had done a trainman should and does depend more on his judgment than on any set of rules and permits the rule to be stretched now and then to fit circumstances Knight however courted his rule book and when a passenger requested some service that the rules prohibited such for instance as an extra pillow to a berth and if the passenger insisted or showed dissatisfaction Knight would get his book of rules turn to the chapter which dwelt on the subject and read it aloud to the already disgruntled passenger thereby making more or less of a nuisance to the traveling public but I am digressing Fred the sign out clerk came along and the many voices indulging and loud and raucous conversation so characteristic of porter's off duty gave way to respectful silence he looked favorably on the regular men but seemed to pass up the emergencies as he entered the poor fellows didn't expect to be sent out but it seemed to fascinate them to hear the clerk assign the regular men their cars to some distant cities in his cheerful language such as hello Brooks where did you come from from San Antonio well take the car Litchfield to Oakland leaves on number three at 11 o'clock tonight over the B and R and have the car already eight lowers made down and from one to the other he would go signing one to go east and another west respectfully silent and attentive the men's eyes would follow him as he moved on each and every man eager to know where he would be sent finally he got to me he had an excellent memory and seemed to know all men by name well Devereux he said do you think that you can run the car? yes sir I answered quickly he fumbled his pencil thoughtfully while I waited nervously then went on and you feel quite capable of running a car do you yes sir I replied with emphasis I learned thoroughly yesterday well he spoke as one who has weighed the matter and is not quite certain but willing to risk taking his pad and pencil he wrote speaking at the same time you go out to the Fort Wayne yards and get on the car al Tata goes extra to Washington DC at three o'clock put away the linen put out combs, brushes and have the car in order when the train backs down yes sir and I hurried out of the room up the steps and on to the street the event to my elation to Washington first of all places oh glory and I fairly flew out to 16th street where the P, F and W passenger yards were located here not less than 700 passenger and P cars are cleaned and put in readiness for each trip daily and standing among them I found the al Tata oh wonderful name she was a brand new observation car just out of the shops I dared not believe my eyes and felt that there must be some mistake surely the company didn't expect to send me out with such a fine car on my first trip but I should have known better for among the many thousands of P cars with their picturesque names there was not another al Tata I looked around the yards and finally inquired of a cleaner as to where the al Tata was right there he said pointing to the car I had been looking at and I boarded her nervously found the linen in lockers but was at a loss to know how and where to start getting the car in order I was more than confused and what I had learned so quickly the day before had vanished like smoke I was afraid too that if I didn't have the car in order I'd be taken off when the train back down and become an emerging myself this shocked me so it brought me to my senses and I got busy putting the linen somewhere and when the train stopped in the shed the car as well as myself was fairly presentable and ready to receive then came the rush of passengers with all their attending requests for attention ah poida, put my grip in thoi teen and ah poida will you raise my window and put in a deflector holy smithereens I rushed back and forth like a lost calf trying to recall what a deflector was and I couldn't distinguish thoi teen from three then ah poida will you tell me when we get to Valparaiso called a little blonde lady you see I have a son who is attending the univocity there now poida don't forget please she asked winsomely oh no ma'am I assured her confidently that I never forgot anything my confusion became so intense had I gotten off the car I'd probably not have known which way to get on again the clerk seemed to sense my embarrassment and helped me seat the passengers in their proper places as well as to answer the numerous questions directed at me the G.A.R. encampment was on in Washington and the rush was greater than usual on that account by the time the train reached Valparaiso I had gotten somewhat accustomed to the situation I called my promise to the little blonde lady and filled it she had been asleep and it was raining to beat the band with a sigh she looked out of the window and then turned on her side and fell asleep again at Pittsburgh I was chagrined to be turned back and sent over the P.H. and D. to Chicago at Columbus Ohio we took on a colored preacher who had a ticket for an earth over a southerner who had the lower the southern gentleman in that holier-than-thou attitude made a vigorous kick to the conductor to have the colored sky-pilot as he termed him removed I heard the conductor tell him gently but firmly that he couldn't do it then after a few characteristic haughty remarks the southerner went forward to the chair-car and sat up all night when I got the shoes shined and lavatory ready for the morning rush I slipped into the southerner's berth and had a good snooze however longer than it should have been for the conductor found me the next morning as the train was pulling into Chicago he threatened to report me but when I told him that it was my first trip out that I hadn't had any sleep the night before that on account of my restlessness and anticipation of the trip he relented and helped me to make up the beds I barely got to my room before I was called to go out again this time going through to Washington the pf and w tracks passed right through Washington's black belt and it might be interesting to the reader to know that Washington has more colored people than any other American city I had never seen so many colored people in fact the entire population seemed to be Negroes there was an old lady from South Dakota on my car who seemed surprised at the many colored people and after looking quite intently for some time she touched me on the sleeve whispering Porter aren't there anything but colored people here I replied that it seemed so at the station a near mob of colored boys huddled before the steps and I thought they would fairly take the passengers off their feet by the way they crowded around them however they were harmless and only wanted to earn a dime by carrying grips two of them got a jujitsu grip on that of the old lady from South Dakota to say that she became frightened would be putting it mildly just then a policeman came along and the boys scattered like flies and the old lady seemed much relieved having since taken up my abode in that state myself and knowing that there were but few Negroes inhabiting it I have often wondered how she must have felt on that memorable trip of hers as well as mine after working some four months on various and irregular runs that took me to all the important cities of the United States east of the Mississippi River I was put on a regular run to Portland, Oregon this was along in February and about the same time that I banked my first one hundred dollars if my former bank account had stirred my ambition and become an incentive to economy and a life of modest habits the larger one put everything foolish and impractical entirely out of my mind and economy, modesty and frugality became fixed habits of my life at a point in Wyoming on my run to Portland my car left the main line and went over another through Idaho and Oregon from there no birth tickets were sold by the station agents and the conductors collected the cash fares and had for many years mixed the company's money with their own I soon found myself in the mire along with the conductors getting in was easy and tips were good for a hundred dollars a month and sometimes more good conductors a name applied to color blind cons were worth seventy-five and with twenty-five dollars salary from the company I averaged two hundred dollars a month for eighteen months there is something fascinating about railroading and few men really tire of it in fact most men like myself rather enjoy it I never tired of hearing the t-clack of the trucks and the general roar of the train as it thundered over streams and crossings throughout the days and nights across the continent to the pacific coast the scenery never grew old as it was quite varied between Chicago and North Platte during the summer it is one large garden farm dotted with numerous cities thriving hamlets and towns fine country homes so characteristic of the great middle west and is always pleasing to the eye between North Platte and Julesburg, Colorado is the heart of the semi-arid region where the yearly rainfall is insufficient to mature crops but where the short buffalo grass feeds the ranchers herds winter and summer as the car continues westward climbing higher and higher as it approaches the Rockies the air becomes quite rare in Cheyenne the air is so light it blows a gale almost steadily and the eye can discern objects for miles away while the ear cannot hear sounds over twenty rods I shall not soon forget how I was want to gaze at the herds of cattle ten to thirty miles away grazing peacefully on the great Laramie Plains to the south lay the great American Rockies their ragged peaks towering above in great sepulchral forms filling me alternately with a feeling of romance or adventure depending somewhat on whether it was a story of the roundup or some other article typical of the west I was reading nearing the continental divide the car pulls into Rawlins which is about the highest driest and most uninviting place on the line from here the stage lines radiate for a hundred miles to the north and south near here is Medicine Bow where Owen Wister lays the beginning scenes of the Virginian and beyond lies Rock Springs the home of the famous coal that bears its name and which commands the highest price of any bituminous coal the coal lies in wide veins the shafts run horizontally and there are no deep shafts as there are in the coal fields of Illinois and other central states from here the train descends a gentle slope to Green River Wyoming a division point in the UP south on the D and RG is Green River Utah arriving at Granger one feels as though he had arrived at the jumping off place of creation like most all desert stations it contains nothing of interest and time becomes a bore here the traffic is divided and the OSL takes the Portland and Butte section into Idaho where the scenery suddenly begins to get brighter indeed the country seems to take on a beautiful and cheerful appearance civilization and beautiful farms take the place of the wilderness sagebrush and skulking coyotes thanks to the irrigation ditch after crossing the picturesque American Falls of Snake River the train soon arrives at Minidoka this is the seat of the great Minidoka project in which the United States government has taken such an active interest and constructed a canal over 70 miles in length this has converted about a quarter of a million acres of Idaho's volcanic ash soil into productive lands that bloom as the rose it was the beautiful valley of the Snake River with its indescribable scenery and its many beautiful little cities that attracted my attention and looked as though it had a promising future I had contemplated investing in some of its lands and locating if I should happen to be compelled by stress of circumstances to change my occupation this came to pass shortly thereafter the end came after a trip between Granger and Portland in company with a shrewd Irish conductor by the name of Wright who not only knocked down the company's money but drank a good deal more whiskey than was good for him on this last trip when Wright took charge of the car at Granger he began telling about his newly acquired dear little wifey also confiding to me that he had quit drinking and was going to quit knocking down after that trip oh yes Wright was always going to dispense with all things dishonest and dishonorable at some future date another bad thing about Wright was that he would steal not only from the company but from the porter as well by virtue of the rule that required the porter to take a duplicate receipt from the conductor for each and every passenger riding on his car the passenger has a ticket or pays cash fare these receipts are forwarded to the auditor of the company at the end of each run Wright's method of stealing from the porter was not to turn over any duplicates or receipts until arriving at the terminus and he would choose a time when the porter was very busy brushing the passengers clothes and getting the tips and no time to count up or tell just how many people had written I had received information from others concerning him and was cautioned to watch so on our first trip I quietly checked up all the passengers as they got on and where they got off as well as the birth or seat they occupied arriving at Granger going east he gave me the wink and taking me into the smoking room he proceeded to give me the duplicates and divide the spoils he gave me six dollars saying he had cut such and such a passengers fare and that was my part I summed up and the amount knocked down was thirty one dollars I showed him my figures and at the same time told him to hand over nine fifty more how he did rage and swear about the responsibilities being all on him that he did all the collecting and the dirty work and connection therewith that the company didn't fire the porter he said before he would concede to my demands he would turn all the money into the company and report me for insolence I sat calmly through it all and when he had exhausted his vituperations I calmly said nine fifty please I was clear of his doing any of the things threatened for I had dealt with grafting conductors long enough to know that when they determined on keeping a fare they weren't likely to turn in their portion to spite the porter and right was no exception but getting back to the last trip an old lady had given me a quart of old crow whiskey bottled in bond there had been perhaps a half pint I thanked her profusely and put it in the locker and since Wright found that he could not keep any of my share of the knocked-down fares he was running straight that is with me and we were quite friendly so I told him of the gift and where to find it if he wanted a smile in one end of the P where the drawing-room cuts off the main portion of the car the beginning of the curved aisle and opposite to the drawing-room is the locker when its door is open it completely closes the aisle thus hiding a person from view behind it before long I saw Wright open the door and a little later could hear him ease the bottle down after taking a drink when we got to Portland Wright was feeling about Wright and the bottle was empty he divided the money with me he cried, let her run on three wheels it was the last time he divided any of the company's money with a porter when he stepped into the office at the end of that trip he was told that they had a message from Ager the assistant general superintendent concerning him every employee knew that a message from this individual meant, off goes the bean I saw Wright afterwards for they got me to that trip the little Irish conductor who was considered the shrewdest of the shrewd had run a long time and knocked down a great amount of the company's money but the system of spotting eventually got him as it does the best of them I now had two thousand three hundred and forty dollars in the bank and left the remainder on deposit packed my trunk and bid farewell to Armor Avenue and Chicago's black belt with its beer cans drunken men and women and turned my face westward with the spirit of Horace Greeley before and his words go west young man and grow up with the country ringing in my ears so westward I journeyed to the land of raw material which my dreams had pictured to me as the land of real beginning and where I was soon to learn more than a mere observer ever could by living in the realm of a great city Injustice to the many thousands of pea porters as well as many conductors who were in the habit of retaining the company's money let it be said that they are not the huntsmen but the huntsmen and the huntsmen and the huntsmen and the huntsmen and the huntsmen and the huntsmen and the huntsmen let it be said that they are not the hungry thieves and dishonest rogues the general public might think them to be dishonest as their conduct may seem to be they were victims of a vicious system built up and winked at by the company it self before the day of the interstate commerce commission an antipass and 2 cents per mile legislation And when passengers paid cash fares, it was a matter of tradition with the conductors to knock down, and nothing was said, although the conductors, as now, were fairly well-paid and the company fully expected to lose some of the cash fares. In the case of the porters, however, the circumstances are far more mitigating. At the time I was with the company, there were, in round numbers, 8,000 porters in the service on tourist and standard sleepers who were receiving, from a minimum of $25, to not to exceed $40 per month, depending on length and desirability of service. Out of this, he must furnish, for the first ten years, his own uniforms and cap, consisting of summer and winter suits, at $20 and $22, respectively. After ten years of continuous service, these things are furnished by the company. Then there is the board, lodging, and laundry expense. Trainmen are allowed from fifty to sixty percent off of the regular bill of fare, and at this price most any kind of a meal in an a la carte diner comes to forty and fifty cents. Besides, the waiters expect tips from the crew as well as from the passengers, and make it more uncomfortable for them if they do not receive it than they usually do for the passenger. I kept an accurate itemized account of my living expenses, including six dollars per month for a room in Chicago, and economized as I would, making one uniform and cap last a whole year, I could not get the monthly expense below forty dollars, fifteen dollars more than my salary, and surely the company must have known it and condoned any reasonable amount of knockdown on the side to make up the deficiency in salary. The porters knockdown, usually coming through the sympathy, goodwill, and unwritten law of knocking down, that the conductor divide equally with the porter, all of which, however, is now fast becoming a thing of the past, owing to recent legislation, investigations and strict regulation of common carriers by Congress and the various laws of the states of the Union, with the added result that conductor's wages have increased accordingly. Few conductors today are foolish enough to jeopardize their positions by indulging in the old practice, and it leaves the porters in a sorry plight indeed. All in all, the system, while deceptive and dishonest on its face, was for a time a tolerated evil, apparently sanctioned by the company, and became a veritable disease among the colored employees who, without exception, received and kept the company's money without a single qualm of conscience. It was a part of their duty to make the job pay something more than a part of their living expenses. Ignorant as many of the porters were, most of them knew that from the enormous profits made that the company could and should have paid them better wages, and I am sure that if they received living wages for their services it would have a great moralizing effect on that feature of the service, and greatly add to the comfort of the traveling public. However, the greedy and inhuman attitude of this monopoly toward its colored employees has just the opposite effect, and is demoralizing indeed. Thousands of black porters continue to give their services in return for starvation wages, and are compelled to graft the company and the people for a living. Shortly before my cessation of activities, in connection with the P company, it had a capitalization of $95 million, paying 8% dividend annually, and about two years after I was compelled to quit, it paid its stockholders a $35 million surplus, which had accumulated in five years. Just recently a melon was cut of about a like amount, and over 8,000 colored porters helped to accumulate it, at from $25 to $40 per month. I wonder it is that their condition does not breed such actual dishonesty and deception that society would be forced to take notice of it, and the traveling public should be thankful for the attentive services given under these near slave conditions. As for myself, the reader has seen how I made it pay, and I have no apologies or regrets to offer. When that final reckoning comes, I am sure the angel clerk will pass all porters against whom nothing more serious appears than what I have heretofore related. While I was considered very fortunate by my fellow employees, the whole thing filled me with disgust. I suffered from a nervous worry and fear of losing my position all the time, and really felt relieved when the end came, and I was free to pursue a more commendable occupation. And going out of the superintendent's office on my farewell leave, the several opportunities I had seen during my experience with the P company loomed up, and marched in dressed parade before me. The conditions of the Snake River Valley, and the constructiveness of the people who had turned the alkali desert into valuable farms worth from fifty to five hundred dollars an acre, thrilled me so that I had no misgivings for the future. But destiny had other fields in view for me, and did not send me to that land of Eden of which I had become so fond in quest of fortune. Such a variety of scenes was surely an incentive to serious thought. What was termed inquisitiveness at home brought me a world of information abroad. This inquisitiveness, combined with the observation afforded by such runs as those to Portland and around the Circle, and perhaps, coming back by Washington D.C., gave practical knowledge. And Western sheepmen, who were ready talkers, returning on my car from taking a shipment to Chicago, gave me some idea of farming and sheep-raising. I remember thinking that Iowa would be a fine place to own a farm, but quickly gave up any further thought of owning one there myself. A farmer from Tama, that state, gave me the information. He was a beautiful decoration for a pea-birth, and a neatly made bed with three sheets, and I do not know what possessed him to ever take a sleeper, for he slept little that night, I am sure. The next morning, about five o'clock, while gathering and shining shoes, I could not find his, and being curious, I peeped into his birth. What I saw made me laugh indeed. There he lay, all bundled into his bed in his big fur overcoat and shoes on, just as he came into the car the evening before. He was awake, and looked so uncomfortable that I suggested that he get up if he wasn't sleepy. What say? he answered, leaning over and sticking his head out of the birth as though afraid someone would grab him. As this class of farmers liked to talk and usually in loud tones, I led him into the smoking room as soon as he jumped out of his birth, to keep him from annoying other passengers. Here he washed his face, still keeping his coat on. Remove your coat, I suggested, you'll be more comfortable. You bet, he said, taking his coat off and sitting on it. Lighting his pipe, he began talking, and I immediately inquired of him how much land he owned. He answered that he owned a section. Gee, but that's a lot of land, I exclaimed, getting interested. And what is it worth an acre? The last quarter I bought I paid eighty dollars an acre, he returned. That is over a thirteen thousand, and I could plainly see, that my little two thousand dollar bank account wouldn't go very far in Iowa when it came to buying land. That was nine years ago, and the same land today will sell about one hundred and fifty dollars an acre, and the end is not yet. I concluded on one thing, and that was, if one whose capital was under eight or ten thousand dollars, desired to own a good farm in the great central west, he must go where the land was new or raw or undeveloped. He must begin with the beginning, and develop with the development of the country. By the proper and accepted methods of conservation of the natural resources, and close application to his work, his chances for success are good. When I finally reached this conclusion, I began searching for a suitable location, and which to try my fortune, and the harrowing of the soil. Chapter 6 of the Conquest This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. And where is Oristown, the town on the Missouri? It came a few days later in a restaurant in Council Bluffs, Iowa, when I heard the waiters, one white man, and the other colored, saying, I'm going to Oristown. And where is Oristown, I inquired, taking a stool and scrutinizing the bill of fare. Oristown, the white man spoke up, drawing away at a pipe which gave him the appearance of being anything from a rover to a freight-breakman. It's about two hundred and fifty miles northwest of here, in southern South Dakota, on the edge of the Little Crow Reservation, to be open this summer. This is not the right name, but the name of an Indian chief living near where this is written. Oristown is the present terminus of the C and Rw Rye, and he went on to tell me that the land in part was valuable, while some portions were no better than western Nebraska. A part of the reservation was to be open to settlement by lottery that summer, and the registration was to take place in July. It was now April. And the registration is to come off at Oristown, I finished for him with a question. Yes, he assented. At Omaha the following day, I chanced to meet two surveyors who had been sent out to the Reservation from Washington, D.C., and who told me to write to the Department of the Interior for information regarding the opening, the lay of the land, quality of the soil, rainfall, etc. I did as they suggested, and the pamphlets received stated that the land to be opened was a deep black loam, with clay subsoil, and the rainfall in this section averaged twenty-eight inches to the last five years. I knew that Iowa had about thirty inches, and most of the time was too wet, so concluded here at last was the place to go. This suited me better than any of the states or projects I had previously looked into. Besides, I knew more about the mode of farming employed in that section of the country, it being somewhat similar to that in southern Illinois. On the morning of July 5th at UP Transfer, Iowa, I took a train over the CP and St. L, which carried me to a certain town on the Missouri in South Dakota. I did not go to Orristown to register as I had intended, but went to the town referred to, which had been designated as a registration point also. I was told by people who were hitting in the same direction and for the same purpose that Orristown was crowded and lawless, with no place to sleep, and was overrun with tinhorn gamblers. It would be much better to go to the larger town on the Missouri, where better hotel accommodation and other conveniences could be had. So I bought a ticket to Johnstown, where I arrived late in the afternoon, of the same day. There was a large crowd which soon found its way to the main street, where numerous booths and offices were set up, with a notary in each to accept applications for the drawing. This consisted of taking oath that one was a citizen of the United States twenty-one years of age or over. The head of a family, a widow, or any woman upon whom fell the support of a family was also accepted. No person, however, owning over one hundred and sixty acres of land or who had ever had a homestead before could apply. The application was then enclosed in an envelope and directed to the superintendent of the opening. After all the applications had been taken, they were thoroughly mixed and shuffled together. Then, a blindfolded child was directed to draw one from the pile, which became number one in the opening. The lucky person whose oath was contained in such envelope was given the choice of all the land thrown open for settlement. Then another envelope was drawn, and that person was given the second choice, and so on until they were all drawn. This system was an out-and-out lottery, but gave each and every applicant an equal chance to draw a claim, but guaranteed none. Years before land openings were conducted in a different manner. The applicants were held back of a line until a signal was given and then a general rush was made for the locations and settlement rights on the land. This worked fairly well at first, but there grew to be more applicants than land, and two or more persons often located on the same piece of land, and this brought about expensive litigation and annoying disputes and sometimes even murder over the settlement. This was finally abolished in favor of the lottery system, which was at least safer and more profitable to the railroads that were fortunate enough to have a line to one or more of the registration points. At Johnstown, people from every part of the United States of all ages and descriptions gathered in crowded masses, the greater part of them being from Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, North Dakota, Kansas, and Nebraska. When I started for the registration I was under the impression that only a few people would register, probably four or five thousand. As there were twenty-four hundred homesteads I had no other thought than I would draw and later file on a quarter section. Imagine my consternation when at the end of the first day the registration numbered ten thousand. A colored farmer in Kansas had asked me to keep him posted in regard to the opening. He also thought of coming up and registering when he had completed his harvest. When the throngs of people began pouring in from the three railroads into Johnstown, and there were two other points of registration besides, I saw my chances of drawing a claim dwindling from one to two, to one to ten, fifteen and twenty and maybe more. After three days in Johnstown I wrote my friend and told him I believed there would be fully thirty thousand people apply for the twenty-four hundred claims. The fifth day I wrote there would be fifty thousand. After a week I wrote there would be seventy-five thousand register, that it was useless to expect to draw, and I was leaving for Kansas to visit my parents. When the registration was over I read in a Kansas City paper that one hundred and seven thousand persons had registered, making the chance of drawing one to forty-four. Received a card soon after from the superintendent of the opening, which read that my number was six thousand five hundred and four, and as the number of claims was approximately twenty-four hundred, my number was too high to be reached before the land should all be taken. I think it was the same day I lost fifty-five dollars out of my pocket. This, combined with my disappointment in not drawing a piece of land, gave me a grouch, and I lit out for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis with the intention of again getting into the P. Service for a time. Off times, porters who had been discharged went to another city, changed their names, furnished a different set of references, and got back to work for the same company. Now if they happened to be on a car that took them into the district from which they were discharged, and before the same officials, who of course recognized them, they were promptly reported and again discharged. I pondered over the situation, and came to the conclusion that I would not attempt such deception, but avoid being sent back to the Chicago Western District. I was at a greater disadvantage than Johnson, Smith, Jackson, or a number of other common names by having the odd French name that had always to be spelled slowly to a conductor, or anyone else who had occasion to know me. Out of curiosity, I had once looked in a Chicago directory. Of some two million names, there were just two others with the same name. But on the other hand, it was much easier to avoid the Chicago Western District, or at least Mr. Miltsow's office, and by keeping my own name, assume that I had never been discharged than it was to go into a half a dozen other districts with a new name and avoid being recognized. Arriving at this decision, I approached the St. Louis office, presented my references, which had been furnished by other M. businessmen, and was accepted. After I had been sent out with a porter, who had been running three months to show me how to run a car, I was immediately put to work. I learned in two trips, according to the report my tutor handed to the chief clerk, and by chance fell into one of the best runs to New York on one of the limited trains during the fare. There was not much knocking down on this run, but the tips, including the salary, were good for three hundred dollars a month. I ran on this from September 1st to October 4th, and saved three hundred dollars. I had not given up getting a Dakota homestead, for while I was there during the summer I learned if I did not draw a number I could buy a relinquishment. This relates to the purchasing of a relinquishment. An entryman has the right at any time to relinquish back to the United States all his right, title, and interest to, and in the land covered by his filing. The land is then open to entry. A claim holder who was filed on a quarter of land will have plenty of opportunity to relinquish his claim for a cash consideration so that another party may get a filing on it. This is called buying or selling a relinquishment. The amount of the consideration varies with quality of the land and the eagerness of the buyer or seller as the case may be. This are the largest stock in trade of all the real estate dealers in a new country. Besides, everybody from the bank president down to the humble dishwasher in the hotel, or the chore-boy in the livery, the ministers not omitted, would, with guarded secrecy, confide in you of some choice relinquishment that could be had at a very low figure compared with what it was really worth. Chapter 6 Chapter 7 of the Conquest This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org, recording by Jeff Blanchard. The Conquest by Oscar Mejo. Chapter 7, Oristown, The Little Crow Reservation When I left St. Louis on the night of October 4th, I headed for Oristown to buy someone's relinquishment. I had $2,500. From Omaha, the journey was made on the C and RWs, one train a day that, during these times, was loaded from end to end with everybody discussing the Little Crow and the buying of relinquishments. I was the only Negro on the train and an object of many inquiries as to where I was going. Some of those whom I told that I was going to buy a relinquishment seemingly regarded it as a joke, judging from the meaning glances cast at those nearest them. An incident occurred when I arrived at Oristown, which is yet considered a good joke on a real estate man then located there by the name of Keela, who was also the United States Commissioner. He could not only sell me a relinquishment, but could also take my filing. I had a talk with Keela, but as he did not encourage me in my plans to make a purchase, I went to another firm, a young lawyer and a fellow by the name of Slater, who ran a livery ban around the corner. Watkins, the lawyer, impressed me as having more ambition than practical business qualities. However, Slater took the matter up and agreed to take me over the reservation and show me some good claims. If I bought, the drive was gratis. If not, four dollars per day, and I accepted his proposition. After we had driven a few miles, he told me Keela had said to him that he was a fool to waste his time hauling a denigger around over the reservation. But I didn't have any money and I was just stalling. I flushed angrily and said, show me what I want and I will produce the money. What I want is something near the west end of the county. You say the relinquishments are cheaper there and the soil is richer. I don't want big hills or rocks nor anything I can't farm, but I want a nice level or gentle rolling quarter section of Prairie near some town to be that has prospect of getting the railroad when it is extended west from Orristown. By this time, we had covered the three miles between Orristown and the reservation line and had entered the newly opened section which stretched for 30 miles to the west As we drove on, I became attracted by the long grass, now dead, which was of a brownish hue and as I gazed over the miles of it laying like a mighty carpet, I could seem to feel the magnitude of the development and industry that would someday replace this state of wilderness. To the northeast, the Missouri River wound its way into which empties the Wedstone Creek, the breaks of which resembled miniature mountains falling abruptly then rising to a point where the dark shale side glistened in the sunlight. It was my longest drive in a buggy. We could go perhaps three or four miles on a table-like plateau, then drop suddenly into small canyons like ditches and rise abruptly to the other side. After driving about 15 miles, we came to the town, as they called it, but I would have said village of Hedrick, a collection of frame shacks with one or two houses, many roughly constructed sod buildings. The long brown grass hanging from between the sod giving it a frizzled appearance. Here we listened to a few boasters and mounty banks whose rustic eloquence was no doubt intended to give the unwary the impression that they were on the site of the coming metropolis of the West. A county seat battle was to be fought the next month and the few citizens of the 60 days declared they would rest it from fair view. The present county seat situated in the extreme east end of the county. If it cost them a million dollars or one half of all they were worth, they boasted of Hedrick's prospects, sweeping their arms around in eloquent gestures in alluding to the territory, tributary to the town, as though half the universe were Hedrick territory. Nine miles northwest where the land was very sandy and full of pits, into the buggy wheels dropped with a grinding sound and where magnesium rocks cropped out of the soil was another budding town by the name of Kirk. The few prospective citizens of this burg were not so enthusiastic as those in Hedrick and when I asked one why they located the town in such a sandy country he opened up with a snot about some pinhead engineer from the government who didn't know enough to jump straight up and locating the town in such an all fired sandy place but he concluded with a compliment that plenty of good water could be found at from 15 to 50 feet. This sandy land continued some three miles west and we often found springs along the streams. After ascending an unusually steep hill we came upon a plateau where the grass, the soil and the lay of the land were entirely different from any we had yet seen. I was struck by the beauty of the scenery and it seemed to charm and bring me out of the spirit of depression the sandy stretch brought upon me. Stretching for miles to the northwest and to the south the land would rise in a gentle slope to a hogback and as gently slope away to a draw which drained to the south. Here the small streams emptied into a larger one winding along like a snake's track and thickly wooded with a growth of small hardwood timber. It was beautiful. From each side the land rose gently like huge wings and spread away as far as the eye could reach. The driver brought me back to earth after a mile of such fascinating observations and pointing to the north said there lays one of the claims. I was carried away by the first sight of it. The land appeared to slope from a point or table and to the north of that was a small draw with water. We rode along the south side and on coming upon a slight rise which he informed me was the highest part of the place. We found a square white stone set equally distant from four small holes, four or five feet apart. On one side of the stone was inscribed a row of letters which ran like this. SWC, SWQ, SEC, 29 dash 97 dash 72 W, fifth PM and on the other sides were some other letters similar to these. What does all that mean? I asked. He said the letters were initials describing the land and reading from the side next to the place we had come to see read the south-west corner of the south-west quarter of Section 29 Township 97 and Range 72 west of the fifth prince's palace. When we got back to Orestown, I concluded I wanted the place and dreamed of it that night. It had been drawn by a girl who lived with her parents across the Missouri. To see her, we had to drive to their home and hear a disagreement arose which for a time threatened to cause a split. I had been so enthusiastic over the place that Slater figured on a handsome commission but I had been making inquiries in Orestown and found I could buy relinquishments much cheaper than I had anticipated. I had expected the price to be about $1,800 and came prepared to pay that much but was advised to pay not over $500 for land as far west as the town of Magory which was only four miles northwest of the place I was now dickering to buy. We had agreed to give the girls $375 and I had partly agreed to give Slater $200 commission. However, I decided that was too much and I told him I would give him only $75. He was in for going right back to Orestown and calling the deal off but when he figured up that two-and-a-half days driving would amount only to $10. He offered to take $100 but I was obstinate and held out for $75 finally giving him $80 and in due time became the proud owner of a little crow homestead. All this time I had been writing to Jesse I had written first while I was in Eaton and she had answered in the same demure manner in which she had received me at our first meeting and had continued answering the letters I had written from all parts of the continent in such the same way. For a time I had quit writing for I felt she was really too young and not taking me seriously enough but after a month my sister wrote me asking why I did not write to Jesse that she asked about me every day this inspired me with a new interest and I began writing again I wrote here in glowing terms all about my advent in Dakota and as she was of a reserved disposition I always asked her opinion as to whether she thought it a sensible move I wanted to hear her say something more than I was at a cantata last evening and had a nice time and so on. Furthermore I was skeptical I knew that a great many coloured people considered farming a deprivation of all things essential to a good time in fact to have a good time was the first thing to be considered and everything else was secondary Jesse however was not of this kind she wrote me a letter that surprised me stating among other things that she was 17 and in here senior year high school that she thought I was grand and noble as well as practical and was sorry she couldn't find the words to tell me all she felt but that which satisfied me suited her also and I was delighted with her answer and wrote a cheerful letter in return saying I would come to see her Christmas