WHEN I was a boy I was full of fear; afraid of everything. I dreaded the dark; was afraid of ghosts, hobgoblins, churchyards and graves. Being a sickly child, I was afraid of other boys; their rude ways and rough treatment scared me away from them, hence I had no boy companions -- Lone but girls.

When I began to read miscellaneous stories, I learned of vampires, giant spiders, and the like, and they gave me many hours of terror for years. Physically I was afraid of high places, of horses, cows, drunken men, and I never saw an animal killed until I was a man grown without fainting when the blood began to flow. The sight of a knife, a razor, or a revolver turned me cold