Twenty Years of Hus'ling

Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Charles Aldarondo, Martin
Pettit and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
https://www.pgdp.net






Twenty Years of Hus'ling


BY

J. P. JOHNSTON,

AUTHOR OF
"THE AUCTIONEER'S GUIDE."


PORTRAYING THE PECULIAR INCIDENTS, COMIC SITUATIONS, FAILURES AND
SUCCESSES OF A MAN WHO TRIES ALMOST EVERY KIND OF BUSINESS AND FINALLY
WINS.


_FORTY-EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS_

BY

DENSLOW


THOMPSON & THOMAS
CHICAGO
1902


COPYRIGHT, 1887,
BY J. P. JOHNSTON.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

COPYRIGHT, 1900,
BY THOMPSON & THOMAS.


     TO THE "HUS'LERS" OF AMERICA, OR THOSE WHO ARE DETERMINED
            IN THEIR EFFORTS TO STRIKE FOR INDEPENDENCE
             AND SECURE SUCCESS BY ENERGY, PERSISTENCY,
               AND HONESTY OF PURPOSE, I RESPECTFULLY
                        DEDICATE THIS VOLUME.




MY APOLOGY.


After finishing all that I had intended for publication in my book
entitled "THE AUCTIONEER'S GUIDE," I was advised by a few of my most
intimate friends to add a sketch of my own life to illustrate what had
been set forth in its pages.

This for the sole purpose of stimulating those who may have been for
years "pulling hard against the stream," unable, perhaps, to ascertain
where they properly belong, and possibly on the verge of giving up all
hope, because of failure, after making repeated honest efforts to
succeed.

The sketch when prepared proved of such magnitude that it was deemed
advisable to make it a separate volume. Hence, the "TWENTY YEARS OF
HUS'LING."

                                               J. P. JOHNSTON.




CONTENTS.


CHAPTER I.

Date and place of birth--My Mother's second marriage--A kind
step-father--Raising a flock of sheep from a pet lamb--An established
reputation--Anxious to speculate--Frequent combats at home--How I
conquered a foe--What a phrenologist said--A reconciliation--Breaking
steers--Mysterious disappearance of a new fence--My confession--My trip
to New York--The transformation scene--My return home with my fiddle.


CHAPTER II.

My mother wishes me to learn a trade--My burning desire to be a
live-stock dealer--Employed by a deaf drover to do his hearing--How I
amused myself at his expense and misfortune.


CHAPTER III.

Selling and trading off my flock of sheep--Co-partnership formed with a
neighbor boy--Our dissolution--My continuance in business--Collapse of a
chicken deal--Destruction of a wagon load of eggs--Arrested and fined my
last dollar--Arrived home "broke."


CHAPTER IV.

Borrowing money from Mr. Keefer--Buying and selling sheep pelts--How I
succeeded--A co-partnership in the restaurant business--Buying out my
partner--Collapsed--More help from Mr. Keefer--Horses and Patent rights.


CHAPTER V.

Swindled out of a horse and watch--More help from Mr. Keefer--How I got
even in the watch trade--My patent right trip to Michigan and
Indiana--Its results--How a would-be sharper got come up with.


CHAPTER VI.

My new acquaintance and our co-partnership--Three weeks' experience
manufacturing soap--The collapse--How it happened--Broke again--More
help from Mr. Keefer--A trip to Indiana--Selling prize soap with a
circus--Arrested and fined for conducting a gift enterprise--Broke
again.


CHAPTER VII.

Eleven days on a farm--How I fooled the farmer--Arrived at
Chicago--Running a fruit stand--Collapsed--My return home--Broke
again--A lucky trade.


CHAPTER VIII.

Three dollars well invested--Learning telegraphy--Getting in debt--A
full-fledged operator--My first telegraph office--Buying and selling
ducks and frogs while employed as operator--My
resignation--Co-partnership in the jewelry and spectacle business--How
we succeeded--Our dissolution.


CHAPTER IX.

Continuing the jewelry and spectacle business alone--Trading a watch
chain for a horse--Peddling on horseback--Trading jewelry for a harness
and buggy--Selling at wholesale--Retiring from the jewelry business.


CHAPTER X.

Great success as an insurance agent--Sold out--Arrived at
Chicago--Selling government goods--Acquiring dissipated habits--Engaged
to be married--Broke among strangers--How I made a raise--My arrival
home.


CHAPTER XI.

More help from Mr. Keefer--Off to see my girl--Embarked in the
Agricultural-implement business without capital--Married--Sold out--In
the grocery business--Collapsed--Running a billiard hall--Collapsed
again--Newspaper reporter for a mysterious murder.


CHAPTER XII.

More help from Mr. Keefer--Six weeks as a horse-trainer--A mysterious
partner--Collapsed--How I made a raise--Home again--Father to a bouncing
boy.


CHAPTER XIII.

Engaged in the Patent-right business--My trade with Brother Long--The
compromise--My second trade with a deacon--His Sunday honesty and
week-day economy--A new partner--The landlord and his cream
biscuits--How we headed him off--A trade for a balky horse--How we
persuaded him to go--Our final settlement with the landlord.


CHAPTER XIV.

Our trip through Indiana--How I fooled a telegraph operator--The old
landlord sends recipe for cream biscuit--Our return to Ohio--Becoming
agents for a new patent--Our valise stolen--Return to Ft.