The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1897-04-02
THE BEGINNING OF THINcs.
copyright. 1895. by J. B. Lippincott Company

In the days before the new era, ALA
coochee was a dead-alive village with q
single street climbing from the ferry
lSnding on the river bank up to the
weather-beaten courthouse on the first
slope of Johns mountain. If it differed
from other inland county seats in
northern Alabama it was on the side
of drowsiness and shabby inconse-
quence. Its reason for existence was
purely geographical; the Chiwassce
valley divides Chilmath county into
halves, and the ferry was point ac-
cessible to the farmers in the valley
and to the dwellers on Jubal noun
tain on the east and Johns mountain
on the west. In the sprinkling of
weather-worn buildings strewn upon
the hillside facing the river, but three
were relatively notable. One was the
courthouse, wooden, two-storied, with
classic porch out of which tumbled
a cataract of steps flowing down to the
head of the street. Another was Cat
ron's store, low and windowless in the
rear and self-assertive and pretentious
in front, with high forehead of
Notwithstanding rising above the
wooden awning over the sidewalk
The third was the Mountain house, lust
across the street from Catron's. 1t had
been planters mansion in the days of
masters and slaves, and in falling from
its better estate the square brick house
had brought down some reminders of
ancient stateliness and solidity. There
was suggestion of comfort in its deep
verandas, roomy Railways and wide
freplaces, but the hint was lost in the
general aspect of decay and neglect,
and the Mountain house, together with
everything else in the village, pointed
toward a gradual and painless relapse
into condition of moribund disuse.
In the nature of things, the old ALA
coochee saw few visitors. 1t was 20
miles down the valley to Prattville,
uhe nearest railway town, and Abel
French's blackboard was the only means
of communication French drove down
twice week for the mail, but he sell
dom brought back a passenger, and,
save on First Mondays" and other
court days, the Mountain house was
usually without guests. One pleasant
evening in February, however, French
broke the record. He brought two
strangers up with him from Prattville,
and there was consequent stir of spec
ulative curiosity among the loungers
whose rallying point was the shelter
of Catron's awning. French, being
promptly interrogated, confessed reluc-
family that he had been unable to find
out his passengers business; and, hav-
ing run 2o-mile gauntlet with the in
quisitive mail carrier, the strangers
had no trouble in evading the less skill
full approaches of the townsfolk. For
two weeks they spent their days driv-
ing up and down the valley, and their
evenings sitting upon the veranda of
the Mountain house, asking questions of
everyone and contriving to dodge all in
1uries aimed at the object of their visit
One evening when the sun had gone
down behind Johns mountain the new
comers took their accustomed places
on the veranda, drawing their chairs
together and lighting their after-sup-
per cigars in full view of the open-air
court in session under Catron's avn
ing. One of them was heavy-set man,
with a smooth-shaven face, hard but
He had the mannerism of
quiet aggressiveness which belongs to
superiority, but the bully in
him was force rather than an expires
sion. Certain little idiosyncrasies, such
rs the habit of slipping his hands into
his pockets and rocking his chair gen.
tly on two legs as he talked, suggested
the lawyer cross-eXamining a witness,
and the hint pointed truthfully to the
gentleman's profession. Among his
legal associates in New York, Lawyer
Sharpless was respected as an able at
torney and one whose loyalty to h-
clients was never hampered by incon
venient questions of conscience. His
companion was a wiry little man whose
clothes were shabby with the wear of
activity. He talked volubly, punctuat-
ing his speech with a lean finger laid
IN the palm of the opposite hand, and
throwing one leg over the arm of his
NIelT dS lc NdlinSu W HIS SuDJcCU' Ills
calling was not so obvious, but that
was because he had followed so many
occupations that none of them had left
ITS impress upon him. A pettifogging
lawyer, land agent for railway COM
pany, a broker in real estate, and lat
ierIy a professional boomer, Mr.. Jenkins
Fench was a man of many parts, well
L Il, &l,
prise in which he was at present as
Sociated with the New York lawyer.
Sharpless enjoyed the first inch of
his cigar in silence before he nodded to
the group across the street. THE
guessers are hard at it again over there;
you don't suppose they have heard any
thing, do you?"
Hardly" replied Fench; there
hasn't been anything they could get
hold of, yet"
"No-not unless Gates has been talk
ing"
"He hasn't anything to talk about.
All he knows is that we want to buy
his land, and that proves nothing"
perhaps not, to these people," re-
joined the lawyer, tipping his chair to
the cross-eXamination angle. What do
they say about the engineers camp up
ON the Little Chiwassee?"
Fench chueklcd. "They think it's an
party for new railroad; even