South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1913-12-12
The FIRST DOLLAR <
EVER EARNED. x
BY III sIBLEY.
= = y \ = X = x X 4 =
NO. l-AIEX STAPLES.

The FIRST dollar ? earned" said
Alex Staples. laying aside his cane
and settling himself comfortably i'm
| his chsi~. was only 20 cents-and IL
/ took me two DAYS To earn il, too. i
| carried water for the harvest hands
out on old man Perkins farm about
/ where the Oliver Chilled Pillow works
stand Now. OF course that was way
back before the war-must have been
ten years or 50 before the war-and
| / was just a little tyke then. And !
| tell you. those ten-cent pieces looked
| pretty big to me then"
Didn't they have 'shin-plasters'
. ut that time. Mr. StapIes2''
No-that was quite awhile before
shin plasters We're issued: those came
/ out after the war. We had all silver
coins when j was a boy. but / don I
believe we had any nickels or three
cent pieces at the time. OF course we
/ had pennies"
! "How's happen you only worked
twp days-wOrk get too hard. or didn't
] - pay satisfy you2"
''Oh. the pay was al right 7 didn't
expect any more than ten cents a daF
hone Of the boys did. and the work
was all right. but my job only lasted
! that long I probably would have
worked a month doing the same thing
/ IL Id had a chance.
with all that money. but ne didn't re-
member exactly, though he thought
ne probably saved II till ne got more
and then bought some clothes
Some time after my water carry
| Ing job Mr.. Staples continued. II got
. a job loading wood on engine tenders
If a. the Lake Shore. and was paid
$40 a month and my board. The en-
gines all burned wood Extraordinary
/ stove wood sawed in twC-fOot lengths.
j and near the depot was a big wood
shed full OF 1t. The wood was hauled
! IN from Terre COupee on flat cars.
piled ia the wood shed ard then an
other fellow and ] loaded il on push
cars. trundIed it over To the station
platform, and then threw il i'm the
tender whenever a train came along
a man by the name of Miller cut
! the wood out on Terre COupec for
/ the railroad. and he got transporta-
ton over the whole line. Whenever
he wanted 20 go 20 Chicago or to
some point east. he simply stood out
. on the track at his farm and Jagged
1 the train. They always stopped for
him. and he never even had TO have
a pass.
II remember the first time / saw "A
i cOal-burning locomotive with its
. straight stack thought it was the
ugliest looking thing 7 ever saw. The
wood burners. you know. had "a great
fiaring funnel shaped smoke stack
about two and a half or three feet
wide at the top, and being used TO
them, OF course we thought they We're
fine. They usually had screen over
the, top 10 keep sparks from dying
sparks from those wood burners
would fly quite a distance If some
tning wasn't provided TO keep them
in
Mr. 5taples then went on TO tell OF
tne increase OF land values out i'm the
southW est part Of town: of how old
man Perkins had bought large tract
where the Oliver factory now stands,
and for which he paid $40 an acre.
Everybody predicted that this deal
i would break Perkins up-but when he
i finally sold out he realized several
II hundred per cent on MS investment.
II The land at present is probably worth
II many hundred times what Perkins
N sold ff for