The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1898-02-11

nisberg."
"Cayn't do dat, sah-no. sab; Gaze
hit amt runnin' no mo-. Dee amt no
hotel in de new town now, sab. lab
to take you-all to de Mountain house."
Philip put his wife into the shackly
vehicle. rs your horse good for a 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 a
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-
~ in semi-tropical climate, and the
rank grass sprouting between the pa"-
ing-stones deadened the sound of the
horses hoofs and muffied the jingling
accompaniment of loose bolts in the
WORKOUT hackneycoach.
"Protheroe didn't stretch it much.
said Philip, unconsciously 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"
1T doesn't seem possible"
NO. it doesn't. And in that last
afternoon, when 1 was breaking my
heart to catch the New York train,
the Johannisberg omnibus was actually
stopped in a jam of vehicles somewhere
along in this square, and 1 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-
movas; 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 a scanty and shop-worn display i'll
the windows of some merchant who
had been unwilling or unable to join
his neighbors in the general exodus
following the crash; pitiable flotsam
ard 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
wrecks, the most notable was the store
Of a dealer III hardware just across
from the Chiwassee 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
of his own door, and he rose and crossed
the sidewalk in response to Philips
salutation. "Oh, it's you, is it, Mr..
Thorndyke? 1 didn't know you at
first. Come back to take look at the
corpse?"
ut amounts to that, I'm afraid" said
Philip, sympathetically.
cit does, for a fact-just that All
VIC need now is good, old-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, shake with
q big crack in the middle of it to bury
the wreck decently out of sight"
Its dreadful" said Philip, not
knowing 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 missed the
help of the deputy sheriffs and the
creditors; they made the move easy for
most of 'em, tell you. Then, again.
it costs money to move a stock of hard
ware, even if you know where to take
it, and don't"
81 think you're more to be pitied than
the Others" ventured Philip.
You're right about that. It's a ter
rible thing to be anchored in a dead
| town, and that's what I am-both an
| chors down and stuck in the mud, with
the windlass broken, at that" The man
smiled at his own joke and went back
| to his seat on the spool of wire when
Philip told the driver to turn down into
| the manufacturing district.
In the space between the railway and
the river the air of desolation was even
more oppressive than in Broadway.
Tall chimneys standing guard over
| many-windowed factories whose walls
had never vibrated with the jar Of the
expensive machinery left to rust and
crumhlo within them. niles of COSTLY