Carl Sandburg and Conrad Byloff attended the Seventh Ward Grade School in the late 1880s. Their teacher was Miss Margaret Mullen, who taught in that school from 1885 to 1890. In the sixth grade the boys sat across the aisle from one another.

 

One day Carl decided to write a note and pass it to Conrad. Miss Mullen saw the arm motion and gave Carl a stern look. She quickly walked to the desks where the boys sat. She took the paper and read it. Carl had written six words on the piece of paper, one of which was a four-letter word. It's hard to say which bothered Sandburg more—being caught or having Miss Mullen read that word. Years later, he couldn't remember why he wrote the note, but he still remembered those six words.

 

On his report card for that month Miss Mullen gave Carl a “poor” grade for deportment. He had to take the report home to show his parents. There must have been some reaction, but Carl chose not to describe it in his autobiography, Always the Young Strangers.

 

He had even more time to regret his action as Miss Mullen made him stay after school. He had to write a quotation on the blackboard two hundred times. The quotation was “Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle.” The quotation is from Michelangelo, the great Italian sculptor. The assignment of such a quotation was surely meant to make a strong impression on a young mind.

 

Byloff had been born in 1875 in Sweden. His father had been a captain in the Swedish army. They moved into the Sandburg neighborhood in 1878.

 

Conrad went on to become a boilermaker for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. He married Lulu Dossett on December 30, 1897, in Lee County, Iowa. He also became a member of Company C, Sixth Regiment of the Illinois National Guard.

 

Byloff was First Lieutenant in Company C when Sandburg enlisted in April, 1898. The men in the company admired and respected him. He had a natural ability to lead the men. Sometimes, before beginning company drills, he would quote the speeches of Spartacus to his gladiators in ancient times. The volunteer soldiers were very impressed by it. They were inspired to do their best for him during drill.

 

Conrad Byloff had moved his family to Chicago by 1910. Later in life he moved to California. He died June 29, 1948, and is buried in a section reserved for Veterans of the Spanish-American War, in the Angelus Rosedale Cemetery, Los Angeles. California.