His eye gave him trouble
for the balance of his life. Sometimes it is worse than others. He had
to go to the St. Louis Hospital quite often for about three or four
years.
"When the house on Third and Cumberland was burnt, he rebuilded it, and
the owners charged him such rent he had to move. He rebuilt it for five
hundred dollars and was to get pay in rent. The owners jumped the rent
up to twenty-five dollars a month. That way it soon took up the five
hundred dollars. Then we moved to Eighth and Main. My brother Jimmie was
in an accident there.
"He was pouring powder on a fire from an old powder horn and the flames
jumped up in the horn and exploded and crippled his hand and burnt his
face. Dr. Duel, a right young doctor, said he could cure them if father
would pay him fifty dollars a piece. My sister was burnt at the same
time as my brother. He had them make a thin dough, and put it over their
faces and he cut pieces out for their eyes, and nose, and mouth. They
left that dough on their faces and chest till the dough got hard and
peeled off by itself. It left the white skin. Gradually the face got
back to itself and took its right color again, so you couldn't tell they
had ever been burnt. The only medicine the doctor gave them was Epsom
salts. Fifty dollars for each child.
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