diploma for wonderful things not down in the
list of exhibits.

Many years later, after I had written articles and books, I received a
letter from the gentleman who had charge of the Fine Arts Hall. He
proved to be the Professor of English Literature in the University of
Wisconsin at this Fair time, and long afterward he sent me clippings
of reports of his lectures. He had a lecture on me, discussing style,
etcetera, and telling how well he remembered my arrival at the Hall in
my shirt-sleeves with those mechanical wonders on my shoulder, and so
forth, and so forth. These inventions, though of little importance,
opened all doors for me and made marks that have lasted many years,
simply, I suppose, because they were original and promising.

I was looking around in the mean time to find out where I should go to
seek my fortune. An inventor at the Fair, by the name of Wiard, was
exhibiting an iceboat he had invented to run on the upper Mississippi
from Prairie du Chien to St. Paul during the winter months, explaining
how useful it would be thus to make a highway of the river while it
was closed to ordinary navigation by ice. After he saw my inventions
he offered me a place in his foundry and machine-shop in Prairie du
Chien and promised to assist me all he could. So I made up my mind to
accept his offer and rode with him to Prairie du Chien in his iceboat,
which was mounted on a flat car. I soon found, however, that he was
seldom at home and that I was not likely to learn much at his small
shop. I found a place where I could work for my board and devote my
spare hours to mechanical drawing, geometry, and physics, making but
little headway, however, although the Pelton family, for whom I
worked, were very kind. I made up my mind after a few months' stay in
Prairie du Chien to return to Madison, hoping that in some way I might
be able to gain an education.

At Madison I raised a few dollars by making and selling a few of those
bedsteads that set the sleepers on their feet in the morning,--inserting
in the footboard the works of an ordinary clock that could be bought
for a dollar. I also made a few dollars addressing circulars in an
insurance office, while at the same time I was paying my board by taking
care of a pair of horses and going errands. This is of no great interest
except that I was thus winning my bread while hoping that something
would turn up that might enable me to make money enough to enter the
State Univer