My father
was a sea-captain, and my mother found me on the China sea--but they
were both Swedes just the same. I had two sisters older than myself, and
in order to better our chances, father moved to New York when I was less
than five years old.
"He soon secured work as captain on a steamer in the Cuban trade, and
died at sea, when I was ten.
"I had a bent for machinery, and tried the old machine-shops of the
Central road, but soon found myself firing.
"I went to California, shortly after the war, on account of a
woman--mostly my fault.
"Well, after running around there for some years, I struck a job on the
Virginia & Truckee, in '73.
"Virginia City and Carson and all the Nevada towns were doing a
fall-rush business, turning every wheel they had, with three crews to a
mill. Why, if you'd go down street in any one of them towns at night,
and see the crowds around the gamblers and molls, you'd think hell was
a-coming forty-mile an hour, and that it wan't more than a car-length
away.
"Well, one morning, I came into Virginia about breakfast time, and with
the rest of the crew, went up to the old California Chop-house for
breakfast.
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