The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1890-06-11
NUMEROUS OCCUPATIONS.
A Western wag outdid All Competitors
and Then Didn't Get Through the List.

A Western wag Outdid All Competitors
und Then Didn't Get Through the List.
A Kansas gentleman sends to The
Companion report of q conversation
recently overheard in a shop where
several western men were comparing
notes on their different kinds of work.
1t soon came out that nearly every one
present had been born in the state of
Vermont and raised" on farm. But
after going west they had all engaged
In variety Of occupations.
One man said: II went into real
estate; then sold out and tried clerking
it on a Mississippi steamboat; then went
into the cattle business, and tired of it (;
packed up my goods and settled on a
claim in Nebraska; quit that, and went
to Texas to do business in feed store
from there l went ON the road for a
boot and shoe firm, and just now I'm in
the livery business. +"
That's nothing, said another. I've
been a school teacher, post master, a
preacher, lawyer blacksmith, a
notary public, store keeper, sheriff.
a county superintendent of schools, a
cigar manufacturer and q farmer"
There was silence till another man
remarked that he had left the printed
list of his accomplishments and occu-
pations at home because it was too
bulky to carry around, but if he re-
membercd right the list began with a
college president and ended with men,
Der of the legislature.
At this point two or three men re-
marked that it was getting rather close
in the store; they guessed they would
60 home and they went out. Another
man edged up to the door and said in
a lazy tone that he thought his expe-
rience would beat the lot for variety.
Some one asked him to tell it, and he
said:
Il began life as baby From that
grew into a boy. While was q boy
l went to school, clerled it in drug
store, worked on farm, had my arm
broken in two places in saw mill,
taught the district school one term and
sung in the village choir
when grew up 1 served as appren-
tice TO Il tailor in Boston, but at the
end of six months l ran away to sea,
and went around the world three times.
At the end of my last voyage l bought
ticket for Texas, and went onto a
ranch where | stayed two years. I then
had an offer TO edit The Weekly Biz
zard, and held the position just one
week, when the government offered me
a place as Indian agent.
After serving a year at that l went
into the mining business in Colorado,
and made two hundred thousand dol
lars in six months l went TO San
Francisco and invested my fortune in
real estate The investment was I'M
fortunate, for in less than a month /
lost every cent of it, and was obliged TO
seek work as q day laborer on rail-
road.
Il worked up from brakeman TO en-
sineer. and then in collision / broke
my leg and had to go to a hospital.
While there 1 studied medicine. and
when I got out took to practicing,
and was quite successful until l treated
a smallpox patient for erysipelas. Then
l decided to go TO preaching, and got
on we'll at it for several months. But
the pay was not very regular, and l
quit to go into a dentists Office and"-
1t was very quiet in the store, and
the man who had had such AWARDED ex-
perience said softly: Good night, gen
tlemen," and went out He was the
wag of the town, though the strangers
did not know it; but his story was
good comment on the number of occu-
pations that some western men try
Youths Companion.