The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1897-06-04

W1thered leaves and ripened fruit, n
thinly-peopled train on the Chiwassee
Valley Extension debarked two OF its
passengers at the ornate station which
aforetime had been too small to ac-
commodate the throngs besieging it
at train-hours. There was no lack of
room now, however, and when Philip
lifted Helen to the platform the empty
train-shed echoed their steps as if pro-
testing against the invasion of its soli-
tude. AT the arched entrance, where
the crowd of vociferous hackmen used
to fight for patronage, they were met
by single decrepit negro.
"Hotel, sah?" he asked, dofing his
battered hat and bowling with a touch
OF unspoiled courtesy.
eyes; you may take US to the Johan-
nisberg."
"Cayn't do dat, sah-no, sab; Gaze
hit amt runnin' no mo-. Dee amt no
hotel in de new town now, sab. Tab
to take you-all to de Mountain house"
Philip put his wife into the shackly
vehicle. rs your horse good for Six
mile drive, uncle?"
"Oh, yass, sah-he suttinly am dat;
eff hits anywhars on de plain dirt
road
"All right. Put the top down so we
can see, and drive us around town
bit; then I'll tell you where to 60"
Three hundred yards from the sta
ton the carriage turned into Broad
way. Nature reasserts herself speedi-
ly in a se1ni-tropical climate, and the
rank grass sprouting between the paw
ing-stones deadened the sound of the
horses hoofs and muffled the jingling
of loose bolts in the
worn-out hackney-coach.
"Protheroe didn't stretch it much,''
said Philip, uneonsciously lowering his
voice in Difference to the sepulchral
quiet Of the street. you'd hardly be-
lieve that 1 have stood on the sidewalk
just here, waiting my chance to dodge
across through the endless stream of
carriages and wagons and electric
cars"
"It doesn't seem possible"
mo, it doesn't. And in that last
when I was breaking my
heart to catch the New York train,
the Johannisberg omnibus was actually
stopped in jam of vehicles somewhere
along in this square, and I was afraid
we'd miss it."
On either side of the grass-grown
streets were the costly monuments of
the sham city's brief day of activity and
life. Lofty buildings, empty from Gel
lar to roof; rows of vacant store-rooms.
lined with dusty shelving and Uttered
with the forlorn debris of hasty re-
movals; shattered glass on the side
walk; withered grass festooning the
cornices; and, in front of the disman-
tied Bank of Allacoochee, the skeleton
of an electric car left to dissolve peace.
fully on the rusty tracks in the road
way. Here and there the desolation
was emphasized rather than relieved
by scanty and shop-worn display in
the windows of some merchant who
had been unwilling or unable to join
his neighbors in the general exodus
following the crash; pitiable fotsam
and jetsam left by the high tide of
commerce to bleach and molder on the
rocks of an uncharted island in the
ocean of traffic. Of these stranded
the most notable was the store
Of dealer in hardware just across
from the Chiwassce national bank.
THAT is where 1 bought my pistol
on the night Of the garroting," said
Philip, telling the driver to pull up at
the curbstone.
The proprietor of the place was sit
ting on a spool of barbed wire in front
of his own door, and he rose and crossed
the sidewalk in response to Philips
"Oh,l it's you, is 1t, Mr
Thorndyke? l didn't know you at
first. Come back to take q look at the
"It amounts to that, I'm afraid" said
Philip, sympathetically.
1T does, for a fact-just that. All
VIC need now is a good, od-fashioned
earthquake: not the fever-and-ague
kind you read about nowadays, but the
sort they used to put in the Biographies
when we went to school-a shake with
= big crack in the middle of it to bury
The wreck decently out of sight"
Its dreadful" said Philip, not
showing what else to say. why didn't
you get away with the rest of them?"
The man made pathetic gesture of
helplessness. There were two rea-
sons. In the first place, bought my
stock and paid for it, SO l missed the
lelp of the deputy sherfrs and the
they made the move easy for
most of 'em, l tell you. Then, again,
1 costs money to move n stock Cf hard
ware. even if you know where to take
I, and l don't"
Il think you're more to be pitied than
the Others" ven.ured Philip.
You're right about that. It's ter
'ible thing to be anchored in a dead
town, and that's what l am-both an
,hors down and stuck in the mud, with
The windlass broken, at that" The man
smiled at his own joke and went back
% his seat on the spool of wire when
Philip told the driver to turn down into
he manufacturing district.
In the space between the railway and