The victim and writer of this book was born in a log house, and of Irish parents who pioneered the for ests of Steuben county, New York, and there from the wilds of nature. Hewed out a home for themselves. When ten years of age the victim commenced his literary career by learning to read from Websters Spelling Book, purchased with the proceeds of a sheep pelt that he had skinned from a sheep found hanging dead in a stump fence.