We were both Odd Fellows.  This held me back from being too hasty although he kept his hands in his pockets.  I had to keep close to him.  He would not quit cursing and so I struck him a blow on the nose and his upper lip.  The blood flowed freely from him.  He did not try to defend himself.  I kept the two strangers in front of me and I gave them no chance to get behind me again.  They both left quickly.  YONCE was holding his head down so the blood would not get on his clothes.  In a short time he went down to Dr. FINLEY's office and I went back into the office to talk to him.  I decided to go to the doctor's office and apologize to him because we were both Odd Fellows.

When I went into the doctor's office, he was sitting in a chair having his lip sewed up.  It seemed that the blow had cut his upper lip clear through near his nose and about 1 inch long.  After the doctor got him sewed up I said to him, "Jim, I want to apologize for striking you."  He answered, "We will make you pay for this."  I answered back, "All right, go ahead."  In a few days a suit was brought against me for using brass knucks.  The Knights of Labor were backing the suit.  They had scored me much in their Labor Journals about fighting and using brass knucks.  In my evidence before the court, I told them I never had any knucks in my hand.  When the testimony was all taken YONCE and his two companions had planned to make trouble at the office window.  The court dismissed the case.

About four months after the trial, one of the mine foremen cane to me and said if I was willing for YONCE to work, he would come back to the job.  Yes, I said, "It is all right with me."  On Monday morning I went to the mine to make an examination.  I went to the shop door. YONCE was sharpening his pick.  I spoke to him and said, "How are you, Jim?"  He said, "All right, Mr. FRANCIS."  He seemed glad to be at his job again.

Years after this, I was attending an Odd Fellows meeting at Fountain City.  An editor who scored me many times in the Knights of Labor Journal came down to me where I sat in the audience and would have me say a few words.  I went on to the platform with him.  He introduced me to the audience saying that he had known me for a long time and that I was a true friend to the working miner and he said many other nice things about me.  It is strange!  "First Rocks and the Bouquets."

In the year 1900, a cousin of mine, James THOMAS, from Pennsylvania came to visit me.  About this time there was an active demand for blasting powder.  He gave me the thought that a mill would do well.  After thinking it over and talking it over with others, a company was formed to build a stamping mill at a cost of ten thousand dollars.  I went to Hamburg and found a man who was a builder of powder mills.  He came to Jellico and located a place for the mill.  I received a telegram from Howell DAVIS at Louisville who was manager of the Jellico Coal Company, then operated by the DUPONTs.  The telegram stated that he wanted some stock in it.  So the company was formed with a working capital of $30,000.00 to make powder by modern methods, but it was more dangerous than the stamping method.  The mill was built and operated a short time.  An explosion occurred, caused by carelessness of an employee.  One man was killed and two burnt slightly.  We replaced the building at a cost of $3,000.00.  The Dupont Powder Company began to cut prices below cost in the Jellico region.  This caused the Jellico Powder company to close and quit and to sell all of its machinery.  My loss in the powder mill investment was about $10,000.00.  The company was not able to compete with the DUPONTs.

In the year 1902, when the explosion occurred at Fraterville, causing the death of 184 miners; when the morning explosion happened, they wired for me to come at once and to bring experienced miners with me.  This I did.  When I arrived at the mine, all was confusion.  A few bodies had been brought out.  Men, women, and children were crying at the entrance of the mine.  It was heart-rending to hear them.  I met a Mr. DAVIS who had charge of a mine nearby.  He said he wanted me to take charge of getting the bodies out.  There was no map near, but he drew a plan of the mine on the ground for me to go by.  He told me he was sick and could not help but the risk was a lingering fire in the mine and may cause another explosion that would destroy all resources in the mine.  This did really happen a few months before; one in West Virginia and one in Wyoming, taking all the lives that were in the rescue party.