In spite of this escapade, I gradually became a proficient in bare-back riding, vaulting, on the slack-rope and in the trapeze-performance, excelling all the boys attached to the circus, and in consequence became the pet of Old Dan, with whom I remained for three years. My youthful ambition to shine in this career was, however, brought to an untimely close. An uncle of mine discovered me on the Mississippi, and immediately wrote to my father, who, at the time I left home, had been the landlord of the United States Hotel in Galena. Making a somewhat wrathful pilgrimage in search of his missing offspring, he caught up with me at some small place in Kentucky, reclaimed me from the vocation of my choice, and after taking me home and chastising me in a truly parental fashion, bound me out as an apprentice to the village blacksmith. It would be needless to say, that the forge was by no means as pleasant an occupation, to my youthful mind, as the daring life on the sawdust of the arena.
Some six months after, I forgot the parental scourge, and wrote a letter to the manager of Older and Orton's Circus, which was then performing at Portage City, Wisconsin.
What sort of a letter it was, I can now scarcely tell. But my education had not been remarkable in its extent, and it may be presumed the orthography as well as the calligraphy, possibly, astonished him who received it. If so, he never mentioned the fact to me, but returned me a favorable answer. Consequently, I once more made tracks, and joined them for the season.
Here I was so successful, and became such a general favorite, that I received the offer of a star-engagement from Levi North, with whom I remained until an injury received on the occasion of my benefit, in the execution of an unusually daring feat of horsemanship, brought our connection to an end. The company were obliged to leave me behind them in Chicago.
My recovery was slow and tedious. Although my professional brethren displayed great kindness to me, in every way, the means I had made, even with their assistance, were insufficient for my needs. Once or twice, I thought of writing to my relatives in Galena.
The supposable wrath of my paternal proprietor, however, deterred me from doing so. The shiver of filial fear at his retributive justice induced me to make an effort to support myself in a new field. This was in a grocery store at the corner of Randolph and Deerborne streets, kept by a man named Martin. It was a widely different sphere of exertion from that in which my previous employment had been cast, as well as one even more different from that in which I was afterwards to make my mark. Often, since, I have laughed over this period of my life. In the Forge and the Circus, I had learnt much which might fit me for my future. But, it is somewhat curious for Buckskin Mose ever to have figured in peddling or carrying out tea and sugar, potted fruits and whiskey, with other such necessaries and luxuries, from a corner-grocery.
But I was not destined to continue at this work for any length of time. One day, a fire occurred on the premises, and in endeavoring to rescue a keg of brandy from the flames, I slipped upon the ice in front of the store—it was then midwinter—and broke my arm.
This untoward accident threw me again out of employment, and I remember my angry feelings while the doctor was placing my maimed limb in splints, and I was thinking what I could do for a living. Some few days after, when, worn out by the suffering and compulsory inaction consequent upon this accident, I was wandering through the streets, I stumbled upon another uncle of mine.
He was one of the millionnaires of Chicago. As many men have grown rich by the sudden growth of the cities in which they live, rather than by their own efforts, he had gained his dollars. But in doing so, he had forgotten his love for those who bore his name. At any rate, he had done so for me, as far as extending me any helping hand in my immediate necessity.