A CO-PARTNERSHIP FORMED IN THE AUCTION BUSINESS--HOW IT ENDED--A NEW FRIEND--HIS GENEROSITY--EXHIBITING A TALKING MACHINE--IT FAILED TO TALK--HOW I ENTERTAINED THE AUDIENCE--IN THE ROLE OF A PHRENOLOGIST. On my return home I met an old acquaintance who had just sold out his grocery and was anxious to invest with me in the auction business. We very soon formed a co-partnership, he furnishing one thousand dollars and I five hundred. We opened at Upper Sandusky, in a store room, with a stock of notions, hosiery and underwear, but from the very first began losing money. The roads were very muddy, and it rained day in and day out. The weather was warm and there was no demand for our goods. We moved from one town to another with but poor success, hoping for cold weather and a demand for sox and underwear. However, "luck," as we called it, was against us, and when spring came we invoiced and found ourselves with about six hundred dollars' worth of stock on hand. I then made clear to him that at the rate we had been losing money, we would probably have about five hundred dollars cash after winding up provided we commenced at once and sold out as soon as possible. I suggested that we do so, and I would turn that amount over to him, which would leave us each just five hundred dollars out of pocket for the winter's work. Hank said he was perfectly satisfied, and I should go on and close out, and he would go home and attend to other business. I worked into Indiana, and succeeded in finishing just about as we had figured on, for after sending him the last remittance to make up the five hundred dollars, I had about four dollars in cash and an old trunk left. Elkhart, Indiana, was the town I closed out in, and while stopping there at the hotel I became acquainted with a physician and surgeon from Chicago, Dr. S. W. Ingraham, whose office is now on South Clark Street. He had been called there to perform a surgical operation, and being obliged to spend an hour or two in the hotel office before taking a return train, he became an interested listener to several stories told by a couple of drummers and myself. He finally told one or two which convinced us that we had struck an old-timer. After we had related some personal experiences I learned, to my great delight, that the Doctor's experience had been almost as varied as my own. He began by relating the different kinds of business he had engaged in while a young man; but he was unable to mention a single thing that I hadn't embarked in and of which I could show up a smattering of knowledge. Finally he said: "Now, Johnston, I am going to head you off right here." "What is it, Doctor? I am anxious to know what it is." "Well sir, I'll bet you never made a political speech, and I stumped Ohio during one campaign and made one speech a night for ten consecutive weeks." "I can beat that. I stumped Ohio for Hayes and Tilden, and made two speeches on the platform for one consecutive night."