The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-06-19

AOA oGOIluS nay, ABOUT winch ne naO
Dragged to all the neighbors; and after
paying his heavy fine he thought pen
sively of moving farther West until they
had got done laughing.
AS if he had been dreaming through
fifteen years of slow prosperity, the farm
er was reused by the great railroad ex-
citement. Suddenly the old pastoral days
of herding sheep, smiling at the queer
mules habits, taking refreshing drives
after the semi-weekly mail, were gone,
and feverish speculation succeeded them.
The farmer threw himself with fervor
into the contest for the road; instead of
crossing his land, however, it merely
skirted him on one side, but the station
left him only mile and half in the
cold. immediately another railroad
crossed the first, and in one night vii
lage of wooden houses grew around the
junction. Old settlers, tingling with
this sudden charge from the worlds
battery, jumped up to contest the best
lots with Eastern capitalists. Real es-
tate rose hourly. Before the happy set
tiers could believe their eyes monster
tlour-mill called for their grain, abolish
ing forever their long periodical Jour
neys to the mill on Myersville Branch.
Horsepower elevators entered the con-
test. A hotel with mansard roof and
grand piazzas entertained thronging
strangers, and a handsome bank rose
up to treasure the new towns wealth.
Latest styles in dry-goods Haunted be-
fore the eyes of the farmers calico
clothed wives and daughters. Lumber
yards offered them building material
from beyond the Lakes; three or four
churches reached for them spiritually;
enterprising people from dozen States
pressed in; and one whole autumn was
festival of prosperity, of excursions
and of generous donations to the public
good. The old, bilious settlers, who
had worked long and hard to reclaim
this plain, had killed the rattlesnakes
and had shaken with the chills, set up
as an aristocracy by right of precedence.
They revelled in society, and every body
revelled in buying and selling lots. Two
enterprising young men started paper
over a saddler's shop while the first few
buildings were rising, and in q few
months they had a subscription
which might have put old city dailies to
the blush. The whole town hurried, the
ancient settlers cantered. There was
controversy between the north and
south, the east aad west, sides of the
railroads, nobody knowing where bust
ness would focus itself. Long snakes OF
freight-trains slid across the prairie, lift
ing Kissing heads, probably to the aston
ishment of the last rattlesnake. Mules
that had borne being begged in slews
lifted their ears and prayed fearfully at
the pert, irresistible passenger-engine
and its glittering coaches.
Among the passengers left upon the
new platform one day when the prairie
distances were blue and amber, the
town buzzing its loudest and the hotel
runners most vociferous, was a shabby
woman. She had the hollow face and
sprawled hands of laboring woman
whose health is broken, but whose spirit
is not. Nobody accompanied her; her
baggage was a bundle, and she stood be-
side it anxious and undecided.
&c Hotel, ma ampn sang runner, Civ
ing her side look as if doubtful of her
resources, but in that seething time the
capitalist frequently looked the seediest.
Hubbard House-frst-class accommo-
dations.''
"I'm looking for my husband" she
replied, with the plaintive and appeal
ing confidence of women unaccustomed
to travel. "He came out here month
or two ago, and l was to come as soon
as he got place. But didn't get no
word, and it made me SO Uneasy l start
ed anyhow"
First-class accommodations at the
Hubbard House; your husband can find
you there, y suggested the runner, lead
ing off his generous catch of guests.
But the lone woman stood still,
squirting her troubled eyes in the sun
as she looked over that FACILITATING land
of promise. She represented years of
hard work and hopeless poverty. Per-
haps her ideas were not lofty; she
never expected to be "independent
rich," but had hoped they might make
SHELTER livin''' in this new place.
"What's the matter, ma'am? Lost
somethin'P" asked platform lounger,
turning his attention to her after the
excitement of the train had passed, for
no man is more chivalrous in intention
than the prairie-dweller.
"Does any of you know man by the
name of Thomas Nolan?'' she inquired
timidly.
He turned to the others.
s'Thomas Nolanp" said one. "There
was man buried here last week named
Thomas Nolan. First person in the new
graveyard" ....
They were startled by her head
humping the platform. When she
came out of her long fainting-fit, sur
rounded by compassionate strangers,
there was no bright ending to her story,
such as writers are able to give to their
tales of separation and suffering. He
was dead, and under hummock in the
new cemetery. She found some work
and melted silently into the new COM
munity.
Its prosperity marched on. The town
was christened for the Oldest inhabit-
ant. Massive brick blocks grew in due
solidity; modern pavements lifted it out
of the waxy black soil; and, to the dis
gust of its old neighbors, who had plod-
ded no farther since Chicago sprang in
to being much as this town did, it was
soon incorporated and claiming to be
the county-seat of county of its own.
The farmer nov had his market and
telegraph-of al his door. Great wind