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Then there was old 'doc Creekbaum. He went to Ceresco to practice. I have seen him sit and talk to two people and at the same time write two different letters one with the right and one with the left hand.
I'm the feller who started the populist party and also fixed for the big meeting in St. Louis. The Farmers Grange went in with us.
But I didn't go to the meeting. Yep, I was the 'daddy' of the populist party, 'the sons of liberty.' I talked to Billy Bryan one day at the court house, says I to him 'How about the money question,' 'Well he says 16 '. Well I says the green back was the best money ever printed.' 'Yes', he says, 'but the [intrinsic?] value is nothing.' I says 'there is only three things in this world with [intrinsic?] value sunlight, air and water.'
They way we came to organize the Populist party, a bunch of us got together and called a meeting.
They later called a big meeting at St. Louis. They wired the Farmers Grange which was meeting at Okallah Florida. After that they had a conference at Omaha.
'danged if I know who all went to it.'
A feller borrowed my old violin and never brought it back I tried to pawn it once for $2.00. Old Loestadter took it to fix and switched on me. I played one time at the Masonic Hall here and two couples wanted me to play a tune so they could dance 'the Old French Four.' I played the "Rocky Road to Dublin in 3/8 time. It was a grand dance and [theyswung?] and passed through around and around in great style.
One night I played at a wedding dance in a new house. It was so cold we played with gloves on. When we dedicated the old Bohanon Hall at 10th and [N st?]. here it was so cold there and we wore gloves. That was the night of the Big Blizzard in January 1888. Lots of people came. There was a good many fellers who wanted to scrap in those days. I was never in many scraps but when they jumped me they got fooled, sure as the devil. If these fellers who want to scrap would use that energy for good creative work they'd do lots more good.
I saved three tains from getting wrecked on the old Atchison road just west of the penitentiary. I was down there by Salt Creek cutting wood and came up the tracks. Some feller had put a stone in the switch frog of a side track. I yanked it out. It happened twice after that once with a block of wood and once with part of a car link. I came along and found it.
I used to belong to an order called 'the Red Men.' They bought a block in Wyuka next to the Soldiers Circle. (G.A.R.)
The Adventists in College View had the day all set for the end of the world to come. Some of them started on foot for Los Angeles that day. They drilled for oil there, once, but closed the well without shooting it.
Where the high school stands now, used to be a swamp. On the edge of it was a haunted house. People would move into it and move right out. Everyone said there was ghosts there and were scared of it. I got some of the boys to go out there one day and we pulled off boards and tore up some of the floord. At last we found out what the noise was. Some loose shingles on the roof would groan and rap when the wind caught them.
A feller here had a sure enough cure for rheumatism. He cured a man in three weeks, with a tea made from dandelion roots.
A sure cure for rattle snake bite is the bunched roots of the black snake plant. This grows along creeks has a square stem and looks like a Milkwee, with three little prongs on each limb with yellow centers. Wash the roots and boil in sweet milk. Drench 'em with it, that is get them to drink it.
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