“The civilizing influence of literary pursuits and universal respect soon told upon Johnson’s personal appearance.  He began to wash his face and hands.  His self-respect seemed to grow, like love, by what it fed on; and the more he became respectable, the more his ambitions spread out and flourished.  The next time he had big luck in a poker game, instead of spending his money in a spree, he bought a brand-new suit of store clothes.

“His new position in society by that time demanded more money to support it properly than his literary efforts brought in; and as poker games were not always on hand, and sometimes turned out the wrong way, Johnson actually decided to work.  His free, proud soul had been so effectually tamed by respectability and harnessed by civilization that he accepted every odd job of work that came along by which he could earn money.  He looked quite decent and respectable, and, by virtue of really trying to do it, he managed to get a fairly good command of English.

“The civilizing process had been going on two or three years when Johnson’s mind got an illumination as to the value of knowledge.  He decided that the young Piutes ought to go to school, though Johnson himself never had showed any great desire for knowledge.  He has since learned to read a little, and can write his own name, but at that time he was satisfied with ‘making the paper talk’ through my agency.  However, he set his heart on having a school for the young Indians.  I suppose he realized that they could n’t all achieve social position and influence in the field of journalism, as he had done, but must be provided with some of the implements of civilization to start with.

“There was some Government money with which the school could be run after it was started, but there was no building in which it could be held.  The thing lagged along for a while, and Johnson tried to set several schemes going, without success.  Finally, one fine morning, the proprietor of a lumber yard thought some of his piles of lumber had been tampered with.  He saw some tracks, which he followed, and in the outskirts of the town, near a bunch of wickiups, he came upon two other lumber-yard men, also following tracks.  A little farther on they found Johnson, even more important and dignified than usual, superintending the construction of a schoolhouse.  Half a dozen Indians were at work, and Johnson was bossing them as if he had been building schoolhouses all his life.

“The men boned him about stealing the lumber, and he frankly said yes, he had stolen it.  That is, he had bossed the job, and made the other bucks do all the packing.  He explained that he had to steal it, because he could n’t buy it, and they would n’t give it to him, and he had to have that schoolhouse.  His frankness amused them, and they told him, all right, go ahead, and if he needed any more lumber he might have it.