Here I was, adrift again, with a little money, but my health not at all restored and my case before the supreme court of the United States still hanging fire. I looked around for some light, open-air business and invested in a wheel of fortune, some cigars and a license to run the thing. Probably the reader is familiar with the instrument, though it is not so much in evidence now, I believe, as it was in those days. The anti-gambling laws of many of the states have made it a less profitable investment. This wheel had six rows of numbers, from one to five, encircling it. I charged five cents a turn and guaranteed a prize every time. For number one I gave one cigar, for number two two cigars, and so on up to number five. Even if a man would win five cigars, which did not occur often, I was not dangerously hurt, as I bought my stock low down, the average profits on the thousand being an enormous per cent. There was not “big money” in the wheel, but for a small venture the returns were pretty fair, and with it as a companion I wandered over a wide range of country, recovering my health, seeing the world and gaining more experience. A little adventure in the west will give you an idea of the sort of thing I was apt to meet with. I took the stage for the small town of Gurnsville, and when I arrived all was excitement on account of a wagon circus which was showing there. I had not struck the show before, but imagined I was going to turn a pretty penny off the crowd which would be in attendance. To my disgust I found the authorities were not going to allow anything that even looked like gambling. Circuses have an unholy reputation for fleecing the public with all sorts of catch games, and the city had resolved that the innocents should be protected, and reserved for the faro banks and keno tables of the town, of which I understood there were more than a sufficient supply usually in full blast. I could not get a license to run my wheel of fortune with cigars. In those days the majority of the citizens of Gurnsville, if they smoked, used pipes. A cigar was considered to be the mark of a dead-game sport, for the cheapest thing you could get was fifteen cents, or two for a quarter. The storekeepers and merchants had pooled their issues to a certain extent and united in a sort of trust to keep up prices. Wages were high, so they could ask big prices, not only for cigars, but for everything else. I had about three thousand cigars with me and did not want to lose the day, so I took out a license to sell on the street in the ordinary manner. About this time I was more particular about the license than before or since. I rented a small glass case and opened a stand right near the show grounds.