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AH EX-|VIIIiIiIOHAlHE 

EIiECTRICAIi WORKER, 

-OR— 

....IilViNG OVEl^-TIIVIE.... 

T^ OBE RT Gr .^WTrkTHT 

(OLD CHIP.) 

AUTHOR OF fl FOHTABIiE GlilWilX, ETC 



ME>ri3T:K Ol-" 



I. T^. K. W. OF A. 








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An Ex- Millionaire 

Electrical Worker 

OK 

Living Over Time, 

R()IU:RT Gr. TV^RKiHT. 

(<)H> CKIP)lf* 

Author of **A Portable Climax," Etc. 

r p "i^ MEMBER OF 

I. B. E. W. OF A. 
PRK E, 25 ( ENTS. 



PUBLISHED BY 

THE RECORD AND CmRONICLE. 
Denton, Tex., Sept. 4, 1900. 



45683 



LJbrtMy ©f Con(ire«s 

■• wt Copies Receiveo 
SEP 10 1900 

Cofynght entry 

SECOND COPY. 

OeMv«r«4 t« 

0«0E« DIVISION, 

SEP 12 190U 

Copyrig-hted 1 900 



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A 



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BY 



Robf:rt G. Wkight. 



7453? 






To the members of the International Brother- 
hood, Electrical Workers of America, many of 
whom, have so nobly assisted me in numerous ways 
since I was stricken down by the heavy hand of 
misfortune, this little volume is specially dedica- 
t.ed by The Author. 



PREFACE. 



In this day ot progressive books, 
where the reading- public are so dili- 
gently seeking the truth, to offer this 
little booklet, would seem to demand an 
apology from the one offering it. 
Therefore 1 humbly make the apology 
for this volume, and in connection with 
the apology and in justice to myself. I 
desire to call the readers attention to 
the fact that even in composing a small 
Booklet like thi<, 1 can only accGr:plish 
the wi.rk with great difficulty, for the 
reason that my physical strength is so 
limited, being an invalid without the use 
of hands, spine or limbs, and suffering- 
continually with excruciating pain, I 
shall hope that the proper allowance 
will be made by those who read this 
brief work. That every one who shall 
read these brief pages will derive some 
benefit therefrom and that they shall 
each retain their h^ealth and vigor 
anH be free from the chains of affliction 
and sorrow is the sincere wish of the 
writer. 




BEFORE THE INJURY. 

The only available photo taken in 1892 , weight 
178 pounds. At the time the above photo was 
made was engaged in athletic exercises and mak- 
ing a Specialty of Heavy Weight Lifting^ 




AFTRK THE INJURY. 
Injury occurred in November 1895. In this 
photo^ taken August 19, 1900, the body is held 
erect by braces reaching up to point of shoulders, 
not shown in cut. 



ERRATA. 

Page 11, in fifteenth line from top, the word 
'■'■hipnotic' ' should be ' 'hypnotic' ' 

Page 19, tenth line from bottom, '■'to' ' should 
be inserted between '•'•degree''^ and ''■our. ' ' 

Page 26, seventh line from bottom, the word 
'■'■smoothe' ' shonld be '■'■soothe.' ' 

Page 27, eighth line from top, should read 
'■'■the ^'■author' ' instead of an '■'■author.' ' 

Page 33, third line from top, the word '■'■the' ' 
should be inserted between '-'■after' ' and "■truth.' ' 

Page 33, seventh line from the bottom^ the 
word '■'■the' ' should precede "wolf.' ' 

Page 34, second line from top, the word 
"propenquity' ' should read '■'■ propinquity.' ' 

Page 34, fifth line from bottom, the word 
'■'■prognostiate' ' should read '■'■prognosticate,'' 
and in the thirteenth line from bottom the word 
'■'the' ' precedes "man. ' ' Tenth line from bottom 
first word should read- "brother.' ' Eighth line 
from bottom second word should read "scarcely. ' ' 
Seventh line from bottom the ivord "and' shoidd 
precede "desstruction.' ' Sixth line from bottom 
the word" surrounding' 'should read" surround. ' ' 

Page 42, eighth line from bottom the word 
"sedertary' ' should read "sedentary. ' ' 

Page 45, third line from top the word '^eti- 
quity' ' should read "exiguity.' ' 



CHAPTER I. 

"Where There Is a Will There Is a Way." 

That there is an undying truth embod- 
ied in the above adage, and that the al- 
truistic potency of this truth is unlimited, 
and that any limitations placed upon this 
truth is an error that must necessarily 
exist until the one so eriing can attain a 
full understanding of the universal law 
underlying this great truth, is one of the 
few questions with which 1 sh.ll hope to 
entertain the reader of these brief pages. 

Having drank at the fountain of exist- 
ence fur a period of more than thirty 
years, and in that length of time having 
sipped the crystal drops of Health, 
Plenty, Ecstasy and Joy, and likewise 
sipped the stagnant drops of Affliction, 
Poverty Sorrow and Discontent, per- 
haps, then, it will not be venturing out- 
side the bounds of probability to suppose 
that in relating a few reminiscences of 
my past life, together with a few from 
the lives and history of others, that I may 
be enabled to more clearly point out to the 
reader a line of substantial evidence in 
support of the premise at the beginning 
of this chapter. If we accept as true the 
statement, or assumption, that a man's 



belief on a subject is the strongest influ- 
ence that can be thrown around him, 
then it would follow that it is just as im- 
portant a matter to know that a thing is 
false as it would be to know that a thing 
IS true. Perhaps not a few of those that 
will read this little booklet are aware of 
the fact that I am, and have been for the 
past five years, an invalid, as the result 
of a fall which injured my spinal column 
in the upper-dorsal region, to the extent 
that total paralysis ensued from the 
point of injury downward to the extrem- 
ities of the body. If the reader will 
glance at the engravings in the front of 
this booklet, he can at once perceive the 
deep abyss which separates fortune from 
misfortune, observed from a physical 
point of view. 

Now, from a material or purely phys- 
ical standpoint, the picture would seem 
to present to the robust, healthy observer 
who has never tasted the dreg^ of affliction 
and poverty, who has ever been able to 
rise with the morning and go forth hap- 
pily and joyfully to his every-day labor, 
to him, I dare say, the picture on the one 
side v^ould scarcely more than remind 
him that the person portrayed presented 
nothing more than an amateur gymnast 



or something of the kind. And from the 
other side of the picture he would, per- 
haps, observe that the gymnast was in 
rather poor health. But to the afflicted 
mortal this picture would truly present 
on the one hand a multi-millionaire pos- 
sessing everythig- that heart could desire, 
every luxury that wealth could command, 
a man of wealth who cruld conceive of 
no material desire that his stor^Jiouse of 
resources could not easily and immedi- 
ately -satisfy. And on the other hand it 
would present to him the poorest pauper 
in all the land, a ghastly evidence of the 
deepest misfortune; a king stripped and 
robbed of his crown, dethroned and cast 
aside; a soldier disarmed and relegated to 
the prison of the enemy to revel in a 
mnltiplicity of tortures, perhaps there to 
die and be forgotten; he would liken this 
side of the picture to the motherless waif, 
cast out upon the great ocean of misery 
and want, to be cast about by every puff 
of wind, to be driven by che ugly storm 
of human selfishness, to lift its innocent 
eyes from the gutter of poverty in a vain 
attempt to arrest a ghost of a smile from 
the passers-by, and perhaps to finally 
perish because it knew n )t to whom it 
could turn for succor. But then this is 



the afflicted observer's view from a mate- 
rial point only. If only lie can be 
brought to a realization of the ofnniscient 
life and there seek to unrlerstand the uni- 
versal law in which the spirit life is sub- 
merged, then we will have stripped the 
second side of the picture of its presup- 
posf'd horror, tiansforming it into a phiin 
chart from which we can hope to budd 
up another strong man with all of his 
former wealth, and then the afflicted ob- 
server can better understand the incalcu- 
lable value of the adage, "Where there 
is a will there is a way." and we can bet- 
ter understand the undying words of 
Christ when he said, ''To him that be- 
lieveth, all thiag-s are possible," It' when 
a man is overtaken by the storm of afflic- 
tion he could then and there perceive the 
well-known maxim that, '"In course of 
life's pathway, successful progress is not 
attained by never falling, but in rising 
every time we fall,'' then material mis- 
fortune will have lost its volume of bit- 
terness and man would no longer be a 
"creature of circumstances," but would 
have "builded his house upon a rock," 
and instead of looking downward and 
back wad and gradually sinking into a 
deep chasm of ingratitude and oblivion 



and wjiiidering ia the dark forest of dis- 
content, he would lift his tearful eyes up- 
ward and look out into the immeasurable 
sea of possibility before him. I cannot 
conceive of any greater vital weakness or 
barrier to the universal progress of man- 
kind than the time-worn "I can't" in 
man. I here is not a day in a lifetime 
that we cannot hear some one say, "1 
can't." It has been my experience that 
every time I would stand aloof and say 
*'I can't" just thiit sure would I exclude 
even the shadow of a possibility of "I 
can," for if a man is controlled by his 
belief on a subject and he believed he 
could not do a thing, to the extent that 
he would not even try, and he refused to, 
because he did not believe he could do 
the thing, then it would seem to prove 
the assumption that a man's belief is the 
strongest influence that can be thrown 
around him. From this, then, we may 
conclude that if a man would succeed he 
should assume everything to be true un- 
til he could, by actual trial, prove it to 
be the contrary. For, to believe in some- 
thing that is really false is to do one's 
self a great injustice. Suppose, dear 
reader, that you should become very sud- 
denly disabled physically, as in my case. 



and your friends would begin to pity yon 
and say, "Poor fellow," "he's going to 
die," "his days of usefulness are over," 
"I'm awful sorry," etc., do you know 
that while your friends mean well they 
are unconsciously your enemies? They 
are surrounding y(»u with an atmosphere 
of "I can't," which, if accepted by you, 
will lead to unbelief in any chance for 
your recovery or possible future useful- 
ness. At this point I desire to inform 
the reader that I am a staunch believer in 
the universal law of suggestion; that is, 
I believe that the subjective mind of the 
human being is constantly amenable to 
suggestion sent out either by its own ob- 
jective senses or the objective or subject- 
ive senses of some one else. My belief is 
not founded so much on what I have 
seen, read or heard from otheis, as it is 
upon my own experiences, a few of which 
vve shall note further on, and I ask the 
reader to throw off his cloak of prejudice, 
superstition, luck, etc., and if you are 
really desirous of investigating, I shall 
hope to repay you for your time and 
trouble in reading these few chapters. 



CHAPTER II. 

Being aware of the the stern fact that 
a majority of mankind are rather pi one 
to look at most things from a mere mate- 
rial point of view, and that in making 
some premises herein contained, I shall 
meet with an overwhelming volume of 
contradiction from a few persons who are 
addicted to interpreting things spiritual 
t\:i heincT those of the material. They seem 
to forget that when ^lod created man 
and placed him upon this earth that he 
did not intend that man should become a 
"creature of circumstances;" that is to 
say, that it was not and is not his will 
that any one man should partake of the 
blessings of this life any more than any 
other man, because he created man in 
his (God's) "imaae and likeness," and 
then every man being in the ''likeness" 
of his maker w^ould be equal to every 
other man, because things that are equal 
and alike to the same thing are equal to 
each other. Therefore any inequality ex- 
isting between man and man must neces- 
larily come from Milan's misapplication or 
misunderstanding of the divine law that 
God decreed when he made man Then 
he being our creator and the diviner of 



8 

all things, being- the designer and ruler 
of the universe, then it would devolve 
upon man to subniit to and accept the 
law, for if we did not accept the law as 
stated we would be making an open as- 
sertion that God had not acted wisely in 
creating one man equal to every other 
man. Now I believe that all men are 
created equal. But some one will ask, 
what about the idiot, that is totally void 
of objective reasoning power? and in re- 
ply to such a question it should be suffi- 
cient to say that all, or nearly all, of the 
leadins: scientists cf nearly every country, 
for ages, have proved beyond the shadow 
of a doubt that such cases as that of the 
idiot were, in every instance, traceable 
to a breach of the law ot nature by either 
the parents or some of the ancestry of the 
idiotic child. And if any further evidence 
was required, then, I would point mv 
inquiring friend to that passage in the 
first chapter of Genesis, twenty-sixth and 
and twenty-seventh verses, " ^nd God 
said, let us make man in our image and 
after uur likeness," and again in the next 
verse, "So God created man in his own 
image, in the image of God created he 
him," etc Therefore any inequality be- 
tween men at birth most certainlv is the 



work of man and not of an all-wise Credi- 
tor, as is believed by so man> people 
at this da}' and time. The case of the 
idiot, howev^er, is one of mental defect 
only, while cases of physical deformity 
of every description would represent 
more materially the defects of the phys- 
ical. Now again some one will say, 
'•Yes, all men are born equal, but all 
men do not remain equal." This is true in 
a material sense, but not so in the spirit- 
ual sense, because while there are T3roba- 
bly no two men exactly alike tnaterially, 
on the (;ther hand from the spiritual 
sense all men are necessarily alike and 
equal, coming, as they do, from the^same 
source, and existing by virtue of the uni- 
versal law of their Creator. Having sat- 
isfied ourselves that all men are created 
equal spiritually, let us proceed farther 
into the possible attainments of every 
man I believe that the human mind is 
dual in its nature; that is to say, man has, 
or appears to have, two minds, each en- 
dowed with separate attributes and pow- 
ers. One character of the mind is known 
as the objective senses; viz., the senses of 
sight, hearing, smelling, feeling and tast- 
ing, and the other character is known as 
the subjective mind, or soul, and is con- 



10 

stantly amenable to the power of sugges- 
tion The idea that ruan possesses a dual 
mind is by no means new. In fact, phi- 
losophers of all ages have recognized the 
truth of the proposition. The early 
•Christian fathers proclaimed it also, as is 
shown by the writing** of several differ- 
ent writers. T. J. Hudson in his "Law 
of Psychic Phenomena" says, " . he ob- 
jective mind takes cognizance of the ob- 
jective world. Its media of observation 
are the five physical senses. it is the 
outgrowth of man's physical necessities. 
It is his guide in his struggle with his ma- 
terial environment. Its highest function 
IS that of reasoning. The subjective 
mind takes cognizance of its environment 
independent of the physical senses. It 
perceives by intuition. It is the seat of 
emotion and the storehouse of memory. 
It performs it highest functions when the 
objective senses are in complete abey- 
ance." Therefore we can very readily 
understand why some people can exert 
such a marked influence over others. For 
instance the hypnotist will secure an 
agreement with some person who is pas- 
sive (some one who can readily concen- 
trate his will power on one subject to the 
exclusion of all others), in which the 



11 

subject agrees to be put to sleep by the 
hypnotist, and the ci)nsequenceis that the 
opi'i'ator suggests to the subject that he is 
geltiug sleepy, etc., and the moment the 
subject can believe he is going to sleep he 
will go into a state of somnambulism, and 
while in that state his subjective mind, or 
^piiitual entity, will accept any sugges- 
tion offered by the operator, provided it 
is not one that would jeopardize or en- 
danger the life or honor of the subject, 
in which case the subject will alwaya 
awake, thereby disproving the theory ad- 
van<'ed by somepeople thata mancould be 
made to commit a crime while in the hip- 
notic Slate, except in cases where the 
subject's character is such that he would 
commit the crime of his own volition in 
the waking state. By this time the reader 
may have concluded that I have digressed 
from the subject at issue and taken up 
the sul)ject of hypnotism. But while 1 
will concede that it may seem to be di- 
gression, I do not lose sight of the fact 
that in the beginning of this little work 1 
predicated, or premised, that "Where 
there is a will there is a way," and in my 
sear jh for evidence for proof I cannot 
consistently be any respecter of routes, 
onl\ in so far as they will lead to the 



12 

truth, and I will therefore just request 
the reader to assume the thiDo:s I say to 
be true until the truth or falsity of them 
are successfully established, because I 
know thac Vhe truth is the truth, regard- 
less of wjio tells it. It would, indeed, l)e 
a very imprudent investigator who would 
refuse to accept a truth because the per- 
son who imparted it had not yet, in the 
eyes of the investigating, established a rep- 
utation for vci-acity. It is a fact that 
some men are progressing, while 
others are continually failing. It is a 
fact that some men wield a powerful in- 
influence with the affairs of government 
as well as in minor affairs, while others 
seem to have very little influence wdth 
anything or anybody. Now, there cer- 
tainly ifi a cause for these consequences, 
and let us seek diligent|y until we have 
found the whole truth. 



13 
CHAPTER III. 

From a physical point, I was a million- 
aire for a period ot twenty-six years. 
That I was unconscious of my almost 
unlimited aggregation of physical re- 
sources, is onl}^ too true, and is further 
evidenced by the fact that I was not al- 
together unlke the rest of the human 
race; viz., addicted to grumbling, con- 
tinually complaining to myself, as well 
as to others, of seemingly burdensome 
affairs, attributing them to bad luck, 
chance, etc., and in a good many in- 
stances attributing the cause to the 
wrath of God, iguorantly concluding that 
he had become very indignant at some 
of my short-comings and was retaliating 
by visiting- his wrath upon me, when, in 
fact (as I can now fully understand), 
these seemingly burdensome affairs 
(but in reality only trivial ones), were 
not attributable to luck, chance, or the 
wrath of God, either; that is, in the sense 
thai I bad so ignorantly supposed. But, 
on the contrary, I had either consciously 
or unconsciously violated the universal 
divine law of nature which God decreed 
in the beginning. Therefore, the very 
'act that the law had been violated 



14 

would, of necessity, bring- some degree 
of punishment. Here some one will say, 
"You have the cart before the horse., 
You have asserted that you have vio- 
lated the law, but you have not proved 
or stated in what way, or the particular 
part of the law in question that had been 
violated." Without making any retro- 
spective researches into the past for 
some particular instances with which to 
prove that the law had been violated in 
any particular part, or way, as stated 
above, it should be sufficient to quote 
from Job, thirty-fourth chapter, elev- 
enth and twelfth verses, which says, 
"For the work of a man shall he render 
unto him, and cause every man to find, 
according- to his ways." "Yea, surely 
God will not do wickedly, neither will 
the Almighty pervert judg-ment." From 
these passag-es it would seem to prove 
that if God caused these seeming- mis- 
fortunes to be visited upon us, that in- 
stead of being- wrath, in the sense that 
we g-enerally accept that term, it is his 
love and wisdom istead. Because "He 
doeth all thing's wisely," and 'tGod will 
not do wickedly," therefore the violation , 
of the law would seem to me to be in 
man's unbelief in God's wisdom in the 



15 

matter, accusing- his Creator of wrong- 
doing-, when he plainly says he can do 
no wrong. There is not an instance of 
suffering- in my past life that I cannot 
now realize was caused . either by a 
breach of the laws of nature or in uncon- 
sciously complying with the law of sug-- 
gestion; that is, b}^ predicting- disaster 
and makidg it inevitable, as did Job of 
old, when he said, "For the thing- which 
T greatly feared is come upon me, and 
that which I was afraid of is come unto 
me." (Job iii. 25.) If you will observe 

' the person who is continually courting- 
or fearing- disaster, they are the ones 

'^that are most g-enerally experiencing- it. 
A g-reat many people have suggested to 
me that God caused me to fall a distance 
of some hfty feet, and thereby left me a 
a helpless cripple, for the purpose of 
causing me to live a more Christian life. 
This may or may not be true. But hav- 
ing- g"iven a great deal of thought to this 

I particular part of my case, and having- 
given it some consideration from sev- 
eral points of view, it has occurred to 

i me that to admit or conclude that he did 

' this for the purpose above stated, then 
he has done me a special favor that he 
has not granted to others who have re- 



16 

tained their health and vig-or all throug-h: 
a lifetime, lived very wicked lives andj 
at last died unsaved, because God had 
neg-lected to transform them into help- 
less invalids. To conclude that God 
would g-j ant you or me or anyone else 
any special providence or favor for the 
purpose above noted, would be unscrip- 
tural, becrause he has plainly said in 
Colossians iii. 25, "But he that doeth 
wrong shall receive tort the wrong- 
w^hich he hath done, and there is no res- 
pect of persons.'' And ag*ain in Romans 
ii. 11, "For there is no respect of per- 
sons with God." Therefore, I do not 
now believe that he would visit misfor^ ' 
tune on myself or anyone else for the 
purpose of causing us to forsake our 
wickedness, because, if my understand- 
ing of God's plan of salvation is not rad- 
ically wrong, it devolves upon every 
man to "w^ork out his own salvation-/' 
that is, the law has been set before us 
with the conditions plainly set forth,, 
that, "Except ye repent ye cannot enter 
into the kingdom," etc. In fact, condi-: 
tions of the law, or plan of man's salva- 
tion, are so plain and uniform that there 
could be no valid excuse for mismter- 
pretation of it. For God to intercede in: 



17 

my behalf, as indicated in the above par- 
agraphs' would be granting- to me spe- 
cial providences, which would be a plain 
contradiction of what Paul meant, or at 
least what he said, ''Work out your own 
salvation with fear and trembling-." 
(Philippians ii, 12.) In fact, there is no 
reason for supposing- that there would 
be any divine interception in any case, 
for the law has been g-iven to man with 
seeming-ly adequate emphasis upon the 
subject to leave no doubt in the minds 
of "men seeking- for the truth," as to 
whether it was intended for man to ac- 
cept the "plan of salvation" of his own 
volition, or whether God was to provide 
some special means for the salvation of 
some souls. In my opinion ig-norance, 
and especially ignorance of the divine 
law g-overning- man, is today, and has 
ever been, the g-reatest barrier to human 
prog-ress and civilization. It has caused 
more disaster, suffering-, poverty and 
g-rief than all the wars and pestilences 

■ through all the ages. Ig-norance makes 
■■ millionaires, likewise by the same virtue 
I it makes paupers. It causes misappro- 
I priation and misappli. ation of proper 

■ economics in the affairs of government, 
i It is the media throuj/ i which one man 



18 

comes to believe he is better, and there- 
fore possesses more transcendent power 
than others of his fellow men. It is ig-- 
norance that causes oppression, depre- 
dation and povert}^ to be visited on one 
class of people at the caprice of another 
class. Ignorance is the cause of any 
material inequality existing- between 
man and man. In short, if we will make 
a fair and unprejuced retrospection into 
our past lives, there is not a "mother's 
son" of us that will not (if he is consci- 
entious) quickl}^ confess that all his past 
ills and failures were either directly or 
indirectly attributable to his ignorance 
in one way or another. However, I have;^ 
noted one particular trait amonsf most 
people (and in myself as well as others) 
who are inclned to confess their "lack 
of knowledg-e in the past (and present 
as well); that as a rule they are decid- 
edly more ready to confess their ig^no- 
rance in material thing-s than they are 
to confess their ignorance of spiritual 
things. For instance, ask some irrelig- 
ious, uneducated man why he has no ed- 
ucation, and he will invariably enter into 
an explanation at once, saying, "that he 
did not or would not go to school, re- 
fused to study," etc., in fact admitting 



19 



that he had '^wasted many opportuni- 
ties," that he could now see clearly 
wherein his ig-norance of the staple value 
and beuetits arising- from education was 
the prime cause of his refusing- or neg- 
lecting- the golden opportunities. In 
fact it is not often that we encounter 
people, especially those who are ad- 
vanced in years, who will not unhesitat- 
ingly confess that they would "give mil- 
licms" if ihey could only retrace their 
footsteps "just a few years;" if they 
could only "start life's journey over 
ao-ain" they would live such a different 
li*fe; thev would have wealth, health, 
character, and in fact everything. Thus 
we can see, when we thus reflect, that 
our hardships, our losses, our diseases, 
and the multitude of ''evils that doth 
beset us" are, in every instance, attribut- 
able in some degree our ig-norance in 
buch cases. Now if we ask the same ir- 
relig-ious man why he is not a Christian, 
and ihe greater portion of his explana- 
tion will be an attempt to excuse himself 
in some wav, and to try to shift the 
blame onto the shoulders of someone 
else, and in some cases will g-o so far as 
to assert that • -a man will live till he 
dies, anyway," and that "I am as g:ood 



20 

as Jones," or someone else, admittiop- his 
Ignorance of material thing-s, and assum- 
ing- to be omniscieut concerning- the 
spiritual If we could only be bioug-ht 
face to face" with ourselves as we 
really exist and perceive the latent spir- 
itual as well as the material possibili- 
ties that are occult within us, then we 
could beg;in to more fully appreciate 
what Christ said in the parable of the 
mustard seed. (Matthew xiii. 31- 32). 



i 



21 
CHAPTER IV. 

Some apparently inactive men make a 
grand success, while others, that appear 
to be unusuallay energetic, are continu- 
ally making decided failures. Some peo- 
ple we meet are always happy and just 
beaming with smiles, whde others are the 
very pictures of desolation, discontent 
and sorrow. Nv.w I believe there is a 
cause for every effect. And it a man is 
very successful, there is a cause for it; if 
he is continually failina:, there is a cause 
for it. If we have some friend or ac- 
quaintance that is always overflowing 
vyith kind words, smiles and agreeable- 
ness, there is a cause for it, and, if on the 
contrary, we have ocquaintances who are 
continually clothed with an atmosphere 
of uuhappiness, unkindness and unwill- 
ingness, there is a cause for it. There is, 
perhaps, no better teacher or instructor 
on this subject of "cause and effect" than 
our experiences of the past, together with 
some interpositions of history. I 
know of no strong-er influence "that can 
be brought to bear on the mind of man 
than those resulting from actual ex- 
perience. Because if a thing is tested by 
experience, then we are able and willing 



22 

to bear testimony a8 to the truth or fal- 
sity nf the results. It has been said that 
^'determination (will power) is the great- 
est weapon that man can wield," and I 
believe it is true, for I have had the 
pleasure of testing it with the fire of ex- 
perience. When 1 fell and was crippled, 
the first thing that entered my mind was, 
the idea that the injury was fatal, and 1 
seemed to realize at once that I was dying. 
I saw the Angel of Death standing near 
me, as if impatient to bear me away. Be- 
ing perfectly conscious (strange to say)j 
I realized all that was happening. The 
blood was gushing from nostrils and 
mouth, it was fast -dawning on me tha^^, 
the things which I saw were not imagin-", 
ary; I was face to face with a stern real- , 
ity: I could feel myself being borne away 
and could hear the roaring torrent; I was 
**nearing the river:" the voices of those 
around me seemed to die away in the dis- 
tance, things which had only seemed to 
be were fast becoming real; something, 
was going to happen, and to tell that I 
realized it fully would be putting it mild- 
ly, indeed. At this point it began to 
dawn on me that I could not afford to 
die, that I was not preoared, and that I 
must free myself. I thought of, "Where' 



23 

there is a will, there is a way," and de- 
termined to put it to the test. Then and 
there the determination was made, and 
immediately the picture of death began 
to recede, the crisis was over, the pall of 
death had been lifted and the tiny rays of 
hope began to shine through my dark- 
ened temple, and it is my greatest pleasure 
to say to you, dear reader, that the sun 
of hope is still rising higher and higher 
into the deep blue sky of expecta- 
tion. And while I am yet a helpless in- 
valid, and sometimes the sky is darkened 
for a moment with clouds of impatience, 
I am so glad that the beautiful sunshine 
«f hope is becoming more and more radi- 
ant as the days and weeks come and go, 
and all because I know that "Where there 
is a will, there is a way. 

Now, some one will exclaim that "I 
only imagined that I was dying;" that 
those things of which I was so cognizant 
w^ere only hallucinations that were super- 
induced by fear or fright. But, if my 
memory serves me rightly, this so-called 
imagination was so laden with the odor of 
reality that I shall ever remember it as 
one of the decidedly real things of the 
past instead of the so-called imaginary 
ones. Someone else will say, "It was not 



24 

ray will povver or determiDation that 
caused me to rally," bu: that "God 
granted me SPECIAL providence" In 
this I heartily concur, with the exception 
or omission, of the special part of it. 
Instead of God granting me any 
sp::cial attention or providence on the 
above occasion, it was (in my opinion) 
the rever-e. That is, I was granting Him 
MY special attention. That is to say, that 
I simply complied with the law^ My 
life was in jeopardy, the inevitable result 
was fast becoming apparent, and the mo- 
ment that I placed my sub-conscious 
mind or soul en rapport with God, the 
work was done, the crisis was past, anc*^^ 
the principal deductive conclusion from 
the occurrence is, that there was no spe- 
cial intercession in my behalf, but hav- 
ing complied with the conditions neces- 
sary in such cases, the very results fol- 
lowed that could not be obtained other- 
wise than by a full compliance wilh the 
required conditions. For God is with us 
always, "even unto death." And again, 
"And said unto him, if thou canst be- 
lieve, all things are possible to him that 
believeth," which proves that all that 
was necessary for me to do was to be- 
liete in the law and thus receive 



j 25 

ceive the reward of my faith. God did 
NOT grain me any special favor, but sim- 
ii ply redeemed his promise, ''Lo I am with 
i thee always, even unto the end." A 
! nund)er of persons have asked liie if I 
\ prayed during the time that I was so near 
li death. To say that I prayed would be 
I giving it very mild emphasis. I didn't 
! do anything else BUT pray. But I did it 
I secretly, of course. in relating my 
! *'aimost miraculous" rescue from the 
. jaws of deal h to a number of different 
I people, it has brought forth a number of 
' (to me) very odd, and not in a few ' in- 
stances, very impertinent questions. One 
rtuinister whom I met in Indianapolis, In- 
diana, and towhom [ was i^^latiag the 
i cause of my^affictionj said, "Are you a 
sinner?" and after receiving a reply in 
the affirmative, he informed me that 
"sinners could not expect providence so 
long as they were unconverted." I a- ked 
I him what must a man do to be converted? 
and he replied, "Believe in the Christ, 
I the Savior, and' confess him openly before 
' man ^ I asked him if a confession s^^ 
eretly between the sinner and his ^rod 
would not do as well as before man. He 
I replied that he had no confidence in a 
man who had not or did not expouml 



26 

and exhort the religion of God upon the 
highways, in the streets and in the 
churches. Upon parting he bade me 
adieu, with a "regret" that "he could not 
tell me more," and "so sorry" that "I 
could not hope to recover and to trust 
the Lord," for he had "maimed me for 
life," and that I should be reconciled to 
it because "G)d bad willed it." He did 
not ASK me whether I was a converted 
man or not. He evidently concluded 
that becau-je I confessed that I was a sin- 
ner, and was not a member of any church, 
that I must surely be unconverted and 
without hope. His intentions and con- 
victions were no doubt conscientious." 
But to send such a man (a man with such 
an ultra-opinion concerning the laws of 
God) out into the world to gladden the 
hearts of the downcast, to dry the tears 
of weeping mothers and orphans, to con- 
strain the wicked men to turn and live 
ariaht, to speak encouraging words to 
distressed souls, and to smoothe the fe- 
vered brow of the afflicted with the ten- 
der hand of sympathy and hope, would 
be an expedition that the unfortuates 
throughout the land would probably not 
hail with any great degree of enthusiam. 
There was a cause for the man's narrow- 



27 

nevss of opinion, and that it was broaci ig- 
norance, will not be gain-said. 

No man who is sauc in mind will deny 
that there is hope for every living man. 
To predicate that an unconverted living 
sinner, is without hope, is to make an as- 
sertion, the absurdity of which is only 
exceeded by the ignorance of an author. 
However, in the case above noted we no 
doubt have an exceptional one, for there 
are very few religiously-professing people 
who do not hold forth some degree of 
hope for their more unfortunate fellow 
men, and more especially do they hold 
forth some emblem of hope to the way- 
faring smner. I believe the spirit of God 
is in everv man, regardless of sect, color 
or race, and that every man can and will 
have power to do good just in proportion 
to the degree in which he recognizes the 
OMNIPOTENT LAW of his CREATOR. I be- 
lieve every man is horn with the divine 
spirit within him. I believe that with 
the proper recognition of the God-spirit 
within, that every man can be the master 
of hi^ circumstances. I believe that with 
an equal recognition of the power of God 
within us, there could be no one man any 
more powerful than another I believe 
that every man will be saved from his 



2a 

sins the moment that he recognizes the 
Christ-spirit within him. But some will 
s^y, "Could not a man recognize tiie in- 
ward spirit without repenting of his 
sins?" I say no. For belief (faiih) leads 
to repentance, and without repentance a 
man could not be brought to a recogni- 
tion of the God-spirit within him. There 
fore, if a man believe (have faith; first, 
the repentance and recognition would 
follow. 



..i'ic?' 



29 
CHAPTER V. 

All men l)eing horn equul, according to 
the divine law of the Creator, then hy 
virtue of tliis Law of Creation, every man 
living has an undisputable right to lay 
clainr to his legitimate and insei)arabre 
relation to his Creator. If man df es not 
demand his rights, and concedes that some 
other man is mor'^ entitled to divine re- 
liitionsiii|) than him-^elf, ha is sin)ply 
cheating himself outof his spiritual birth- 
right. 

. J do not concede to any man any greater 
possibility of- religious attainment than I 
claim for myself;. I do not claim for myself 
any religious rights or possibilities that I do 
not cheerfully concede to every other man. 

It Uu^ been said that man's weakness 
was a "tirst cou^ifi to man's .ignorance^-; 
But after having given the subject some 
study it has u ecu red to me. that the rela- 
tionsiiip is much closer than that of "first 
cousin." Insteudof using the terms "ig- 
norance" and '^weakness," it seems to 
me that it would sound more appropriate 
to say, "ignorance senior" and ''ignorance 
junior," because ignorance begets weak-i 
ness.. If it was not for our ignorance: 
of things, AVQ would, not be weak in any-. 



30 

thing. There is no valiH excuse for any 
man to be oppressed, or weak, after he 
has recognized the divine hiw nf his Cre- 
ator. To recognize the law does not 
mean that you should merely *'take it for 
granted" that these things are true and 
then sit down and wait for results. In- 
vestigate the question; decide within 
yourself that there is nothing within the 
bounds of individual aVtainment that you 
cannot !successfull> reach; if some man 
with whom you are acquainted is enjoy- 
ing life <nore than yourself, resolve that 
there is no blessing to good for you, and 
if you enter religiously and conscien- 
tiously into the matter, armed with an 
unprejudiced determination to probe the 
depths of the mystery, your efforts will 
undoubtedly be crowned with success. A 
man's efforts must be religiously insti- 
tuted and directed, before he can hope to 
obtain the reward of truth. V\'hen a 
man has recognized the law of God, he 
has repented of his sins, he has forgiven 
and expelled from his soul (not hi'- heart) 
every thought of malice or unkind feeling 
toward every living man. In my opinion, 
to forgive a man is to concede to him ev- 
ery possible blessing that life affords, and 
if we forgive a man in this manner we have 



31 

placed ourselves in a position or attitude 
to receive a priceless reward. Forgiveness 
of this kind will stand forever; it will not 
be annulled. We cannot expect to be 
happy so long as we have one iota of ma- 
licious feeling in our minds against any 
living person. One hour of spiritual hap- 
uiness is worth more than a lifetime spent 
in rejoicing in the misfortune and down- 
fall of a fellow man. Such rejoicing may 
seem delightful for a spell, but ultimate- 
ly it will assume the distinct flavor of re- 
morse and soriow. 

Every thought which animates from 
the mind is going to bear fruit, either for 
the good or the bad. If we live in im- 
pure thoughts , we will be impure in our 
lives. I believe there is only one way to 
get religion, and if my view of it is wrong, 
I stand ready to forsake it the moment 
some person or cause will point out to me 
the defects or impotency of its effective- 
ness. I am open to conviction; I am 
willing to adopt Watt's couplet: 

**Seize upon truth, wher'er 'tis found. 

Whether on Christian, or on heathen 
ground." 

Before a man can do a thing, he must 
BELIEVE he can do it. Therefore, If a 
man is desirous of becoming religious. 



32 

the first thing to do is to believe that he T 
cae do so, and if he will believe he can, f 
just that certain he will obtain it. As 
soon as he has believed, he has also re- 
pented of his sins and his soul is made 
happy, because he has realized the "spirit 
within hitn," he has realized that he is 
SOUL and not flesh; he Las found the ^ 
fountain of eternal happiness. He, is no 
longer a "weak .worm," but is at once 
ready to demand his rights to his inherit- 
ance. He does not concede to any mor- 
tal any power that he does not claim for 
himself, and he will not claim any rights 
or power that he will not concede to all 
other men. 

I believe, in fact I, know that the work 
of becoming religious is a matter that can 
only be obtained by a: direct correspond- 
ence with God. It must be arranged be- 
tween man and his Creator, regardless of 
any other person. or influence, because 
God's laws are immutable and unchange- 
able, and he has madeit plain and compre- 
hensive that we must "work out our own 
salvation with fear and trembling." If a 
man tells me lam wrong about a thing, 
that my views are wrong, etc., it is not 
right, then, that I should become angered 
and vilify and otherwise abuse him. If I 



33 

am a seeker of the truth, an hones' inves- 
tigator, ever ready to search diligently 
after truth or f.ilsity of a thing, I will at 
once (if 1 am not positively sure of the 
matter in question) institute a rigid and 
ardent search, and if I find that my views 
or methods are wrong, then it would not 
be fair if I did not at once confess the 
unvarni!r«hed truth of the results. A truly 
Christian man is constantly finding some 
good to do; he is at all times ready to 
lend a helping hand; he has no time to 
engage in ignominious disputes; he does 
not brand a man as an impostor because 
of his idiosyncrasies; he does not perch 
himself* on a goods box and while his 
opportunitiesaway, whittling and cursing 
It is not the Christian man that roams the 
streets in idleness from dayto day, waiting 
to be knocked off his feet by adisf»ngaged 
streak of "good luck," while his diligent 
and faithful wife is bending her frail and 
aching body over the wash tub in a feeble 
but earnest effort to fight "wolf from the 
door," and possibly have enough left with 
which to partly clothe the innocent but 
ragged babes. It is not the Christian 
man who spends his last dollar for drink 
and then kicks because "flour is so high." 
It IS not the Christian man who howls ca- 



34 

lamity every time the crops fail, and 
prophesies our propenquity to the millen- 
nium everv time he hears a clap of ^hun- 
der during a pleasant sutnmer shower. 
The Christian does not make a contour 
of half a dozen blocks to avoid a meeting 
with some of his creditors. He does not 
speak unkindly of his neighbors because 
they are accumulating and ho is not. He 
does not bore his fellow men by inadvert- 
ently dogmatizing on his particular view 
of religon, and at the same time deny to 
his fellow man the right to worship ac- 
cording to the propensity or dictation of 
his own conscience. He does not contin- 
ually and unhesitatingly prognostlate on 
the ''inevitable damnation" that will be 
visited upon man who does not belonn to 
the church. He does not turn a deaf ear 
to an honest appeal for help, because 
Brtoher "So-and-so" did likewise. He 
does not visit the sick and afflicted, and 
then scarely \vait to be seated before he 
begins to preach eternal woe, destruction 
and otherwise, surrounding the patient 
with an atmosphere of lachrymose imag- 
inations. He does not go in debt for 
"fine linen," and then wear it to churches 
and theaters with the sole ambition of 
outshining some other person who is am- 



35 

ply able to afford the same gorgeous at- 
tire at ton tiQies the price. He does not 
donate liberally towards the building of 
gorgeous church edifices and then refuse 
to buy ;t pencil from an orphan girl be- 
cause ^'business is s»i dull or times so 
hard." He dues not go to the dramshop 
and imbibe the ruinous drug, "treat the 
crowd" M time or to, and then go home 
"in THE morning" and administer atro- 
cious tnut unlawful abuse upon his neg- 
lected wife because she reminds him that 
she is seriously in need of a few yards of 
goods with which to make a cheap dresj 
to wear while out doing the milking and 
while I.c sits by the fire and whittles and 
wonders why it is that "times don't get 
better.' 

Nay, indeed, .he man who is doing 
the things indicated in the preceding 
paragraphs is far from a Christian. 
The Cluistian is too busy doing good to 
spend his time drawing pictures of the 
"fathomless depths ofeternal death" that 
is sure to be meted out to the man whose 
style of worship does not accord with 
that of his own. The Christian man finds 
no lime to whittle white-pine and de- 
nounce the government. He is not pro- 
crastinating from time to time, waiting 



36 

for the traditional "streak of good luck,'' < 
and if he has studied closely the laws of ' 
the "natural" things, or very closely ob- ^ 
served the every-day phenomena of ^ 
"cause and effect," he will be too wise to J 
believe in "luck, chance," etc. He is too ' 
industrious and ambitious to su:ffer his ' 
wife to "tight the wolf" with the "hum 
of the washboard." 

He does not appropriate his money for 
drink at any time, regardless of the price 
of food. He does not anticipate calam- 
ity; he is always looking forward, not 
backward. He will not consciou-dy avoid 
his honest and legitimate debts. He does 
not envy his neighbor and speak un- 
kindly concerning him because of his 
neighbor's honestly-acquired accumula- 
tions. He concedes to every man the pos- 
sibility or, and the potency of the law of 
salvation, without respect to church, 
creed, color or race. He has a mind of 
his own, and will allow his own power of 
reasoning to predominate (more espec- 
ially in matters of vital import), instead 
of being so unfair as to subordinate his 
own mind to that of some one else. He 
has always a word of cheer and sunshine 
for the afflicted, the disconsolate and the 
wicked. He understands the Divine Law 



37 

of Creation, aad therefore, is fully aware 
that fine clothes will not add anything tu 
him, as a true citizen, a true gentleman, 
or as a true Christian. He does not turn 
a deaf ear to the sobs of the orphan or 
the helpless, but listens with a compas- 
sionate Soul, and the least ot his contri- 
butions to such a cause is a kind word of 
cheer from his sympathetic soul. He sur- 
rounds his family with an air of sunshine 
and happiness, he does not heap atrocious 
hardships and abuse upon any living soul, 
or impose a rebuff upon the honest and 
righteous ambitions of any one. But is 
ever ready with his word of cheer, his 
smile of sunshine, his pleasant attitude 
and his helpinghand, to concede to every 
man the same volume of Divine blessings 
that he, himself, enjoys. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Is it rig-ht, or wrong, for a man to 
work? This is a question that can only 
be successfully answered by a direct 
yes or no. To say that there are a g^reat 
many people throughout the land who 
are clamoring for some legitimate ex- 
cuse, that they could offer, and one that 
would be acceptable to the great mass ^ 
of toiling millions, as proof, that it was 
wrong to work, would be nothing short ; 
of the truth. To engag-e in, or practice 
a course ot honest labor, is either entirel}" 
right or else it is entirely wrong. There ' 
is no half-way house on the road, as we 
cr )ss the broad plain that separates right 
fr.m wrong. It seems to me that there 
could be no higher or more noble ambi- ■ 
tion within an Honest man's desire, than • 
that of honest labor. ' 

In Genesis, iii, 19, God told Adam that ' 
"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat ^ 
bread!" If God had not made the com- 
mand to Adam, there would still be no 
ground for a belief that it is not right 
and just to work. In fact there is such 
an unlimited amount of unimpeachable ' 
evidence available, to prove the righte- 
ousness of honest labor that it 'really ' 



39 

I seems absurd to raise such a question. I 

.cannot conceive of a more unhappy man, 

jior a more complete failure, than the man 

I that has no work to do. A man that can 

jj conclude that there is nothing; for him 

j! to do but to sit idl}^ and wait throug-h a 

,; whole lifetime and wonder why it is that 

jlifeisso empty and utterly void, until 

jl remorseless Time with his ''ag-ed locks" 

appears and beckons to him that litV is 

, o'er, such a man would indeed present 

the most unhappy spectacle that one can 

imagine. 

Honest labor means a great deal more 
than is g-enerally understood, and not 
until all mankind can righteously unite 
j in bestowing- upon honest labor that 
volume of universal honor, distinction 
and g-oodness, to which it is entitled, just 
that long will honest toil be looked upon 
by a band of Plutocrats, Demagog"ues and 
Hobos, as being- an^^thing but honorable 
I and upright. 

! We can look about us at any moment 
in life and see innumerable monuments 
of unquestionable evidence that bear 
witness to the honor and virtue that is 
obtained throughlabor. Work, of course, 
is necessarily divided into, two general 
classes, viz: Mental and Physical. When 



40 

we refer to "A working- man" it Is most- 
frequently construed to refer to Physical } 
exertion. Mental exertion or brain work^ 
as it is g-enerally accepted is not apart ' 
and aside from that of Physical exertion, ' 
as it is g"enerally but thoug^htlessly con- 
strued to be by many people. There is 
no task of Physical labor that does not 
carry with iL in a greater or less degree 
the task of mental exertion. In fact, I 
do not think there can exist, or at least, 
I do not think there is extant, a legitimate 
style or class of Physical exertion that 
requires as much force and tedious labor 
to accomplish as does most problems of 
a mental character. 

The man engaged in the pursuit of 
agriculture hnds that in order to obtain 
dividends from the business, he must 
exercise his mental man as much or more 
than the physical. Hence we notice that 
out of a number of men engaged in some 
particular line of business, that success 
does not necessarily attend the one that 
institutes the most laborious physical 
exertion, but more frequently we note 
the phenomenal success of the ones that 
have given their business the mental 
study and attention that is necessary to 
bring any vocation or business to a sue- 



4 1 

[cessful attainment. There are several 
j types of men whom some of us 
ji meet every day that are hostile 
I to honest work in any form whatever. 
Some of them are not so much ag-ainst 
honest labor as they are ag'ainst the men 
or people that are doing" honest labor. 
This element of people are most g^ener- 
ally to be found among men of affluence, 
who have so far departed from the paths 
of Rig-hteousness, and who have allowed 
their sense of reason and their respect 
of liberty to be usurped by an inhuman 
and g-reedy desire to accumulate g'reat 
wealth, irrespective of the principles of 
honesty and integ^rity, induced princi- 
pally because they have not learned the 
honest virtue embodied in the pursuit 
of labor (and perhaps they never did an 
honest da3^'s labor in their lives), and in- 
duced partly by disresrarding their true 
God, and substituting" one made of g"old 
I and silver. 

! It g"oes without saying" that when a 
man can or will consent to subordinate 
his living- God to one that is as inor- 
j g-anic, impotent and void as one made of, 
I and by, *'the hands of men," and falls 
down and worships at its shrine, that 
such a man or person could not be ex- 



42 

pected to respect or recognize, in any 
degree or form, the honesty and virtue 
of honest labor. Neither is it logically 
reasonable to suppose that, such a man 
would have any degree of respect for the 
welfare or happiness of the "toiling 
mUligns. " 

V\^hen people speak of or use the 
word, hobo, the}^ generally refer to a 
class of idle men who make a practice of 
roaming, in an incorporeal manner, from 
place to place, and seemingly with no in- 
tentions or ambitions higher than that 
of self-imposed idleness. Now, in my 
opinion, there is another class of men 
(people) that I consider have laudably 
earned, and rightly deserve, the benefit 
arising from the right and title of 
''hobo," and 1 can cite the reader to 
some very substantial evidence in sup- 
port of my opinion on the subject. The 
class of men or people to which I refer 
are the inactive or sederetary young and 
middle-aged men who are really too dila- 
tory to make a roaming hobo. They are 
the men who are always fortunate, or 
rather unfortunate, enough to have a 
father or widowed mother, or * at least 
some relative or friend, upon whom they 
can impose for their sustenance, and 



43 

aside from ihe efforts they are of neces- 
sity compelled to make to eat, etc., they 
seem to be inert and completely non- 
proiarressive. 

They are the men (more especially 
young- men) who, for some c&.use or 
other (lack of ambition in many case.-), 
have st<me time in the past held a con- 
sultatii n Avith his mag-niiied imag-ina- 
tions and concluded that '"it never was in- 
tended for me to work;'' ''I was cut out for 
this or for t])nt, etc.'" Instead of rivet- 
ing- his intentions and determination on 
'•success at any price," he has settled 
himself into a statei of inactivity and in- 
dolence and there remains until he dies, 
or if he is inclined to be ^*' long--winded" 
about ii. until his source of sustenance 
or matt rial supplies are for some reason 
discontinued. 

In a g-(»od many instances this is the 
•'straw that broke the camel's back." 
For when his supplies are no Ibng-er 
forthcoming-, he has either to g-o td work 
and earn his livelihood, or secure .it by 
unfair and dis honest methods. Then 
comes the crisis. He has hever done 
any work; he is a strang-er in the field 
of labor; he has never earned his bread 
by the sweat of his brow; he has never 



44 

learned that any great success must be 
attended with, and attained through, 
g-reat labor. However, he tries to se- 
cure first an easy position; next he 
seeks for something- not so ''easy," and 
finally succeeds in g^oing- to work at hard 
labor. Thereupon he discovers that he 
cannot fulfill the task given him by his 
employer. In fact, he has dissipated 
his strength and vitality through long- 
continued idleness, and while his phys- 
ical dimensions and general make-up in- 
dicate muscle and strength, in reality 
he is weak and debilitated. After a few- 
days' or weeks' trial, his employer dis- 
charges him. He tries repeatedly m 
different localities, but meets with dis- 
couragement; he can find employment, 
but he is unacquainted with any kind of 
work; he is entirely inexperienced; and 
after a few repetitions, followed by con- 
tinued rebuffs and reprovals, he at 
last concludes that he must look else- 
where than in the field of labor for means 
of acquiring a livelihood; he decides that 
work (labor) is too hard. But what can 
he do? He is not an artisan; he has no 
legitimate profession, and his unscrupu- 
lous and pugnacious disposition wins 
him no friends. 



45 

Seeing- his deplorable circumstances, 
he beg-ins to despair;he is indeed now be- 
g"inning" to realize his etiquity; his purse 
is depleted, and he decides to end his 
troubles or, in many instances, he re- 
sorts to or undertakes to secure funds 
throug-h some conspiracy or fraud, he is 
detected, imprisoned and convicted, and 
thus ends his unhappy career in dis- 
honor, disappointment and disg-race. 

There can be no doubt but that a larg-e 
per cent, of the criminals and suicides of 
this age are persons who never learned 
to work. As indicated in the last few 
pag-es, they have spent their youth in 
loitering- idleness and inactivity, because 
they were not required to work and hus- 
tle for a livelihood. We can and do see 
this type or class of persons every day 
They are to be found almost entirely in 
the cities and towns. They are to be 
found in every class of society. Now, 
while there are a multiplicity of tribu- 
tary causes for the unpleasant condi- 
tion of these inactive hobos, in ray opin- 
ion the prime cause is their ignorance of 
and misconception of the honorable 
character of honest labor, both mental 
and physical. It would be very unfair 
(in the majority of cases) to censure 



46 

these unfortunates, for the reason thai 
nine out of ten such cases the parents 
or relatives, upon whom he has been al- 
lowed to depend, are primarily to blame. 
The}^ have thoug-ht that they were 
doing- good, when, in fact, they were un- 
consciously and unintentionally doing- 
harm. 

These unfortunates are not to be 
looked upon in a despicable manner by 
the more fortunate people. These un- 
fortunates w^ere born equal to every liv- 
ing man. They are possessed with a 
will-power sufficiently strong and potent 
lo make them- just as noble and progres- 
sive as any man, if they could or would 
believe it, and then set to work to con- 
trol their circumstances, instead of al- 
lowing their circumstances to control 
them. 

We must not despise our fellow men 
because of their ignorance on a subject, 
for to do this would be substantial evi- 
dence of our ignorance of the law of cre- 
ation. . "Judge not, that ye be . not 
judged. If we will make a tour of in- 
trospection into our own inwardness, 
we will find that "there are others." We 
must not conclude that we are better 
than our fellow man, We must not de- 



47 

spise or look unkindly upon a man be- 
cause he works, or upon a cripple be- 
cause of hismisfortune. 
. We must ap{)reciate that, to work is a 
command of God, and that the man who 
works is obeying- that command, and 
can be as honorable, as rig-hteous and 
intellig-ent as any other man, reg-ardless 
of their financial or social standing-. 

Let us hope for the happy time when 
no man can or will seek to under-valne 
or detract in any way from the God- 
g-iven honor and virtue that rig-htly and 
justly belong-s to and attends honest 
labor, whether it be mental or physical, 
for if it is rig-ht to work, then it is rig-ht 
for ALL to work, and all should ag-ree 
that, "if a inan is not rig-ht. then he 
must be wrong-." 



48 
CHAPTER VII, 

What does a person need to do to be- 
come wise, or, as a great may call it, 
'*Smart?" We often hear some one say, 
**There goes a smart man," or, •'Such- 
and-such a person is surely a smart fel- 
low." Instead of undertaking to enu- 
merate the many factr»rs that are assimi- 
lated in the make-up of a man's wis^Jom, 
I will assume to say that for a person to 
make a successful start toward gaining a 
knowledge of wisdom, his first step would 
be to convince himself that he wasn't 
'*too old to learn." The next step would 
be to firmly believe that whatever other 

MEN HATE ATTAINED IN THi: WAY OF WIS- 
DOM, HE CAK ATTAIN ALSO. 

The importance of these first two steps 
cannot be over-estimated. Because if a 
man has already concluded that '*he has 
learned all, " or that **he is too old to 
learn," and if in the second place he does 
not BELIEVE he can attain what other 
men have attained, he could not then do 
so, "for a man's belief on a subject is the 
strongest influence that can be thrown 
around him." Correct knowledge of a 
thing is truth, and truth demonstrated, 
either by thought power or logical action, 



49 

is wisdom. In my opinion (babied upon 
my own experience) there are too 
many of us that havi* a vvrons: con- 
ception of wisdom. A g-reat' manv 
of us would not recognize wisdom if 
we should "meet it m the road." 
Some of us think that when we have 
taken a course at college and have 
learned that "the difference between any 
two numbers ndded to their sum, equals 
twice the greater," or when we have read 
Latin sufficiently to Fay "ferro ignique," 
or when we have "mastered geometi-y," by 
discovering that "all the anglesonone side 
of a straight line are equal to two right- 
angles," etc., we then think (in many in- 
stances) that we have "svisdom to burn;'' 
wp then think that we have "fought the 
fight;" that we ara now ready to start on 
our mission of imparting vvisdom to those 
who "doch not yet understand." 

We have all noticed the young, man 
who has gone awa¥ to some college and 
taken a "special course," upon returning 
home or "locating' in some town or vil- 
lage he proceeds forthwith to "hang out 
his shingle" as Doctor So-and-so, or Pro- 
fessor Brown, etc. Now there is no ob- 
jection to be raised, so far, to the genu- 
ine intentions of the young graduate or 



50 

student because he really deserves credit 
for having embarked into some profes- 
sion or artisanship. But the objection 
would be made to the results that follow 
in many cases. 

There is probably no community, vil- 
lage or Hamlet in the land in which we 
cannot find some persons who are willing 
to concede that they are weak, and that 
**they haven't a mind strong enough to 
do this or that." If a man comes along 
wearing a long-tailed coat and '*stove- 
pipe" hat, and is known in the commu- 
nity as being Doctor or Professor So-and- 
so, and if he is only fairly successful in 
his line, the people begin to look upon 
him as being an extraordinary; that he 
has been blessed with a **special endow- 
ment of mind-force;" that he possesses 
mental power in excess of anyone in the 
community. 

Fathers will say in the presence of 
sons and daughters that **Doctor or Pro- 
fessor Jones is one out of a hundred ; Son, 
if you were the possessor of such a *fine 
head' as Doctor or Professor So-and-so, 
you could make your mark in the world," 
etc. The people will, in this way, influ- 
ence children, who really possess an am- 
bition to be smart, to abandon their aspi- 



51 

rations for wisdom on the conclusion 
that thev are not bris:ht enough to 
reach the goal of their day-clreanl^.'' I 
have often heard parents make similar re- 
marks of, and to, their children. While 
it is not advisable for parents to over- 
estimate the mental possibilties of chil- 
dren, it is certainly radically wrong to 
under-estimate them. 

Everybody looks up, as it were, to the 
professor or doctor, and in a great many 
ways contribute to his gradually-increas- 
ing stock of conceit, and ere long he be- 
gins to feel himself above the common 
people. He actually believes he is enjoy- 
ing a ^'special endowment" of brains. 
Laboring under this delusion he loses his 
respect foj his own associates, the very 
ones upon whom he depends for his 
emoluments. In many instances he feels 
so highly elated over his extraordinary 
abilities that he proceeds straightway to 
dissipate in some way or another, there- 
by losing HIS OWN self-respect. 

We can understand, without further 
comment, that the cause of these results 
is primarily attributable to the self-im- 
posed weakness of the people, in conced- 
ing that they were not rts capable or sus 
ceptible to wise attainments as was the 



52 

youDg ''gentleman of learning,"- whose 
so-called phenomenal abilities they had 
unintentionally and unconsciously used 
to convince themselves, as well as others, 
that "all men were not created equal,' 
which is to say, that one man was born 
with more "mind-power" than another. 

VVe cannot censure the young professor 
or mechanic for having distinguished 
himself from other young men by learn- 
ing and practicing any profession or 
trade, but it is indeed very wrong for a 
pet son to believe himself better than 
others because he has a "handle" to his 
name and they have not. There are a 
great many young men who get a "smear" 
of book-learning at some village school 
or elsewhere, and by first one person or 
another they are led to believe that they 
are educated. They accept such sugges- 
tions as being true, and having been 
taught by parents or friends that as 
&oon as they had acquired their educa- 
tion they would forever be exempt from 
wurk, and laboring under such a delusion 
they at unce sever all past and present af- 
filiations with 'Work Bros. & Co.," get 
a new suit of clothes, dress up and pro- 
ceed to the city or town where there are 
"easy Jobs" galore. ■■'• 



53 

The result (in many instances) is, that: 
it requires many months, sometimes 
many years, for these unfortunate young 
men to discover that they are not edu- 
cated; that there is yet a great volume of 
wisdom to be added to them; that they 
would have acted much wiser had they 
been engaged in hard labor instead of 
looking for something easy. It wouhl be 
wrong to censure these inexoerienced 
young men for their action. The bh)\v 
of criticism could onlv be directed at the 
prime cause; viz., the influences or envi- 
ronments which caused them to believe 
that they had accomplished something 
which they had n6t. Tliese young men 
possess a sufficient volume of mind-foiDe 
to do all that they liave imagined, and 
more, if they will only learn to proceed 
in the right direction and with a righteous 
determination, instead or ia!)Oriug under 
the delusion that they have "learned it 
all." 

The parents who teach their sons and 
daughters that a common-school, or even 
a college education carries with it an ex- 
emption from work, are certainly very 
unwise. No man has ever been prcjgres- 
sive without work. The more hejearnv the 
more wisdom he acquires, the more work 



is necessary in order to succeed. It is not 
the wise raan that thinks that he is enti- 
tled to special blessings from on high. 
It is not the man that savs **I can't," nor 
is it he. that will assert a thing to be false, 
before having made a fair investigation 
of it. 

It is not the wise man who will condemn 
a man because he is not a member of the 
church, neither is he wise who condemns 
the science of Hypnotism. Mental heal- 
ing, Spiritualism, Clairvouance, Mind- 
reading, or any other phase of Psychic- 
Therapeutics, withont first having insti- 
tuted an unprejudiced investigation into 
the truth or falsity of their existence. 
It is not the wise man who will unhesitat- 
ingly concede that he is weaker minded 
than some one else, neither is he a wise 
man who condemns his fellow man upon 
whom has fallen the heavy hand of mis- 
fortune exclaiming **lhat had he been a 
christian or a member of some church, he 
would not have been a victim of cruel 
mishaps etc." 

It is not the wise man who will deny 
that he has an undying s.>ul to save, when 
he has never emerged from the dark for- 
ests of Materialism long enough to di;*- 
cover the fact that he possessed a soul 



55 

Neither is he wise who will recognize a 
truth coming from one source, and deny 
the same truth coming from another 
source He is not a wise man who teaches 
his fellow man how to die, without first 
teaching him how to live, neither is he 
wise who continunlly promulgates the 
**Weak worm" theory to his constituents 
and others, thereby seeking to contradict 
the words of our Saviour, (Mark ix; 23,) 
"All things are possible to him that be- 
lieveth," preaching eternal weakness to 
men and women who could everyone be 
master of their circumstances if only they 
could have some one to teach them that 
God has given to every man wnthin, a 
soul, *the proper recognition of which 
would add unco them all strength, happi- 
ness and all other blessings which they 
might religiously desire. 



Loft 



56 
CHAPTER VIII. 

In this, the closin'^ chapter, I shall 
hope to direct the reader's attention to a 
few points of advice, which if heeded by 
the young people as they emerge from 
childhood into manhood and womanhood 
would save them from many knocks and 
bruises as they journey along the pathway 
of life. It has been said that advice is 
much more easily given, than taken, 
which fact is only too true, and I speak 
from my own past (experience. 

When a\oung man starts out in life, 
the first thing of vital importance that he 
should understand and accept as true, i-s 
the fact that all men are born equal, and 
if he will at all times look upon his fel- 
low men in this light, he can be depended 
upon to act vvith honesty and fairness 
toward every man with whom he meets, 
either in circumstances of business, or 
the stninger upon the highways. The 
young- man should by all means have an 
object in view, something to accomplish, 
for, in my opinion there could be no more 
serious mistake in making a start, than 
that of leaving to circumstances, **luck 
or chance" the work of pointing out the 
direction of our future journey; it would 



indeed be an unwise teamster who would 
drop iiis reiQs, und depeud upon his team 
to choose tlie direction of his journey. 

When a young man has marked, or 
Miapp-'d out his course of travel and pur- 
suit, when he has chosen the prize that 
he desires to win, he must next under- 
stand the law of ''cause and effect' suf- 
ficiently well to dispel from his mind the 
idea of "chance, luck etc." Because to 
presume that things come or ^o by chance, 
is to diametrically oppose the laws of na- 
ture, which teach us that there is a cause 
for ev^ry effect. This delusion of chance 
and luck has been the ruin of thousands 
of people. There is no such thing as 
chance There must be a cause for every 
thing that occurs. 

The young man must understand that, 
•'Success is only attained by intense devo- 
tion to business. He must next learn 
that there is nothina to fear in life, if he 
will arm and equip himself with the in- 
strument of righteous determination (will- 
power), which is the true safegaurd 
against failure and disaster in any form. 
The work of accomplishing this is not 
intricate, it is just simple recognition of 
the "Divine law of Creation" to recognize 
the God-spirit within you, to know that 



58 

your sub-conscious mind, or your soul is 
divine, and that if you will give yourself 
suggestions of strength, and fearlessness 
instead of suggestions of weakness and 
fear, that then you can attain anything 
that you may righteously desire. 

There can be no greater rebuff offered 
to good intentions than that of fear, and 
lack of determination. I can now recall 
many instances in my past life where if I 
could have had the element of fear elimi- 
nated for the moment, and used instead, 
the element of determination and fear- 
lessness, I could have transformed failure 
and remorse into success and happiness. 
The young man starting out in life needs 
more determination, and less fear. He 
should have more purpose and less belief 
in his own weakness. No man young, or 
old, can be "weak" if he will diligently 
exercise his will-power in the proper di- 
rection, by honestly believing that he can 
do a thing and then follow it up with an 
honest trial. 

The practice of jumping (as we some- 
times express) trom one thing to another 
in the matter of vocation, is, in my opin- 
ion, a practice that is certainly producive 
of failure for the one who is careless 
enough to practice it. For instance, in 



59 

the short space of ten years, I changed 
uiy vocation more than a score of times, 
these chaus^es were not prompted by fear 
or hick of determination so much as they 
were, l)y my ignorance and desire to get 
something "easy." I finally decided to 
lenrn the Electrical trade, (thinking it 
was easy loo), I had not proceeded far, 
untd I \v:is convinced beyond the shadow 
of a doubt, that it wa^ anything but 
"easy." 

It reminded me very forcibly, that if I 
succeeded in mastering it to the extent of 
my an)biiion, that I would need just as 
much or more industry, nerve and appli- 
cation of Mental-power, as had been 
found were required in each of my previ- 
ous undertakings. I found that I would 
need to refer back to my Algebra, Arith- 
metic, Geometry, etc., — learn the Metric 
system, and in short, that to successfully 
master the profession or trade, it would 
require years of studious application and 
practice. 

One branch of the Electrical trade I can 
truthfully say with no exceptions, is the 
hardest physical work that I have experi- 
enced, it is that of Line-work. W' hen 1 
refer to Line-work, I do not mean play- 
Line-work, but rather to that class of 



60 

Line work where \ou "don' your 
"Klein's" at Sun-nse and "Scale" every 
third "forty" for ten hours a day, when 
"She is eight and ten below." 

I have served fifteen years on a farm, 
plowed, hoed, and cut cordwood, jug- 
gled a Four tine at the stnail end of 
"Nichols and Shepard," punciied c nvs 
inTexasand New Mexico, slept on the 
prairie with the soft side of a mck for 
abed, and a slicker sleeve for a pillow, 
worked at book-keeping, clerked in stores, 
drove delivery wagons, worked in ma- 
chine shops, followed the show business, 
sold patent medicines, electri belts, and 
bed-bug poison, picked cotton, macie 
railrood ties and worked in the Athletic 
business, run electric street cars, been in 
the U. S. mail service and shoveled dirt 
in the streets, edged brick, carried the 
hod, and drove mules in the mountains 
of Colorado, have been a drummer, jug"- 
g-led a coal shovel in boiler rooms, as 
well as the slash-bar on a locomotive on 
the Union Pacific, and many other thing-s 
too numerous to mention, but have never 
found any physical exercise that sounds 
as much like genuine work to me as does 
that of linework. 

One thing- is certain, if a man would 



61 

succeed he must believe that he can, 
and determine that he will. Choose 
some profession or vocation with which 
to earn a livlihood and strive to find the 
truth that enters into every proposition. 
My advice to every man, young- or old, 
is to "concede to no man any greater 

POSSIBLE RELIGIOUS ATTAINMENT THAN 
YOU CLAIM FOR YOURSELF, AND DO NOT 
STRIVE TO ATTAIN ANY RELIGIOUS POSSI- 
BILITIES THAT y6u do not CHEERFULLY 
CONCEDE TO EVERY OTHER LIVING MAN. 

If you should have the misfortune to 
g-et crippled and in a manner "knocked 
out" don't g-et frightened or scared at 
anything. Some of your friends, rela- 
tives or neighbors will unthoughtfully 
remark that you are done for, and other 
remarks, tnat would have a very dis- 
courag-ing- effect in most such cases, but 
just rely upon your will-power, don't 
lose sight of the fact that God is with 
3^ou all the time, remember that your 
soul is part of God. and that even though 
you are a sinner and not accustomed to 
praying loud enough to disturb the 
peace and quietude of the inhabitants of 
the next township, that you are born 
equal to every other man, and that God 
is as much your helper as he is to any 



62 

one else. 

Remember that there is a broad dif- 
ference between reputation and charac- 
ter. For the former is what you are 
thoug-ht to be, while the latter is what 
you really are. It does not require a 
continual public demonstration for any 
man to be Christian. We can't deceive 
our Creator, he knows whether we are 
rig-ht or wrong-. People may forsake 
you and look the other way when they 
pass you because you are a bit disfig-ured 
and roug-hly clad, they may call n'OU a 
hypocrit or an atheist because you are 
not continually promulgating- universal 
weakness, and everlasting- destruction 
and death, but just hold 3^our temper, 
be patient, and ebserve everything- 
closely. Do all the g-ood you can to 
everything and everybody. Under no 
circumstances permit a person to be 
more kind to you than you can be to 
them. Do not waste your money by 
buying unnecessary articles. 

Give every dollar you can to help to 
clothe and feed innocent, ragged and 
impoverished women and children. 
Never turn a hungry man from your 
door, if you have a crust divide it, if 
you havn't then prove your generosity 



63 

by g"iving him a kind word- If there is 
anythinsf g-ood and riofhteous laying- 
around loose g-et your share of it. Do 
not allow any man to be more of a gen- 
tleman than yourself, if you do he is 
getting the best of the bargain, you are 
allowing yourself to be clieated out of 
what rig-htly belongs to you. 

Do not heed this advice because I give 
it, because good advice is good regard- 
less of who imparts it. Now dear 
reader, in concluding these brief re- 
marks, allow me to insist that you rely 
upon your will power for the attainment 
of your righteous desires, do not be 
afraid to trust yourself in any legitimate 
udertaking, what others are doing 3^ou 
can do, if you believe you can do a thing 
you can surely do it. If you will learn 
to exercise your will as I have indicated, 
herein you will beg-in to understand 
why I have been able to live over-timi-: 
for a number of years, and if you should 
get crippled up and you were a * 'g-ood 
union man" you could demand time-and- 
a-half. Because being- a "union-man" 
you would not think of of living- over- 
time for less than the scale called for. 

Now in closing- I desire to direct one 
special remark to electrical workers. 



5LP 10 i9o:: 

^ 64 

whose line of work the world admits is 
indeed hazardous, if you fall or other- 
wise g-et injured don't g-ive up, remem- 
ber that death has no sting-, do not g;ive 
up to die until you hear the clods falling- 
on top, and if you decide that youhav'nt 
the streng-th left with which to kick 
them off, then you may consistently en- 
tertain a proposition to give up.