I therefore desired to sell out, the first chance I got, which I soon did, receiving five hundred dollars for my business, horse and buggy. I also had four hundred dollars' worth of notes I had taken for insurance, which belonged to me as commissions. These I got discounted, receiving in cash three hundred and twenty-five dollars. I then collected my note against the man to whom I had sold the jewelry. Now I had over one thousand dollars in cash, and was ready to start for Chicago. I called on those creditors who held my notes, which were not yet due, and assured them I was on the right road to success, and that with the use of the money I then had, I was certain to win, as I thought of investing in jewelry as a jobber, which business, I had from my first experience, always determined to try again if I ever succeeded in getting money enough. During this same summer, Mr. Keefer traded his fine farm three miles from town for a house and lot in town, and a small fruit farm one mile out, and received some cash besides. They had moved in town about the time I was ready to start for Chicago. My mother said, that while I had so much money, it would be a good to pay back some I had borrowed of them, before I lost it all. Mr. Keefer said there was no hurry about that, he knew I would pay it all back some day, because I had always told him I would, and he believed now I was going to make lots of money. I bade them good-bye, and left for Chicago, where I arrived the following morning, when I immediately set out to investigate the jewelry business. I very soon became satisfied that the few wholesalers I had called upon were "wolves," and convinced that there was a wolf for every lamb, I "hus'led" away "to try the jewelry another day." I then began scanning the "wants" and "business chances" in the different daily papers, when I noticed an advertisement from Colonel O. Lippencott, who was the United States agent for the sale of government goods, such as guns, saddles, harnesses, blankets, soldiers' clothing, etc., which had been left over after the late war. I called on him, and he convinced me that with a stock of twenty-five hundred dollars, I could make money fast. I asked how about one thousand dollars' worth. He said it wouldn't pay with so small a stock, and said I could pay one thousand dollars down, and give a bond for the other fifteen hundred dollars. I told him about Mr. Keefer, and he very soon ascertained that his bond would be good. He then filled one out and I sent it to him marked "confidential," along with a letter explaining "just how it was." It was promptly returned to me with his signature attached. The goods were soon packed and shipped to a point in Michigan. I hired a young man to go with me as clerk. Our success was better than I anticipated. I would rent a room in a fair-sized town and advertise extensively, and remain three or four weeks.