Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1899-09-14

{ HOW MOTHER DUFFIELD GOT
THE BETTER OF THE BOOM.

mighty column of flame shot up into
the air. the earth trembled and peo-
pie looked weird and ghastly in the
uncanny light as they read one an
others lips, for no voice could be
heard; but there was no confagra-
ton.
How'll they ever put it out?'
Jake's lips asked.
''How?" the Squire's lips repeated
as he shook his head.
Up to that night Squire Duffield
had ranked as an ultra conservative
among the boomers, but the sight of
that tremendous NANTES tation of
power had shaken him out of his old
ideas and habits. He felt dazed and
uncertain for several days, when he
became restless and had an irrepress-
ible desire to go to town and hear
more of the wonders that were COM
ing to pass. All of the farmers near
town were planning to plot their land
for house lots or factory sites and the
Squire sighed, rejecting that his land
was too far from town for any such
purpose.
There was to be shoe faceory, a
plate-glass factory, an optical glass
factory and ever so many othey works
that would employ hundreds of men
and bring in thousands of dollars
The greatest enterprise of al! was to
be the rolling mill which the suave
and imposing Major Gloss was ex-
| Al
company which he said he had formed
represented capital of half a million
dollars. A billion could scarcely have
impressed the Swantonians more.
Squire Dufields brother-in-law had
sold his farm at IA fancy price for the
site of the new mill, and massive
buildings were being erected for the
accommodation of the machinery, the
largest and heaviest of its kind in the
world, which was being brought from
Furnacetown, Major Gloss assuring
the Swantonians that he could not
think of remaining in place where
there were only 10000 people when
he saw opportunities presented by
city with such future as Swanton.
The rolling mill and the Buckeye De-
velopment and Improvement Com
pany were the biggest things in sight,
and some people intimated that the
two were one; that is, that the same
men were promoting both.
"Well, what of it?" returned the
boom spectators. "Ain't they
prominent men and capitalists? OF
course, they want to be on the inside
wherever there are millions to be made,
and they're lucky who can get in
with 'em."
There was wild scramble for this
privilege-it was the stock exchange
transferred to virgin field. Swanton
never had seen 80 much cash or
dreamed of so many notes, deeds and
legal documents of various sorts as
foated about in these days. The
County Recorder had to hire extra
deputies and clerks, notaries and real
estate dealers sprang up on every cor
ner. A pawnshop was started to en-
able the boomers to turn their last
possession into cash. Loutish coun-
try boys and commonplace town clerks
were alike stung with the mad desire
for speculation, and older heads were
lost with equal precipitation. paper"
was indorsed readily and unquestion-
ably, and promptly discounted by the
bank, which had hired an extra room
and three times as many employees as
ever had been required before.
Ready made houses were brought
to town in sections and set up like
ridiculous toys on twenty-five foot
lots in Snyder's subdivision, a w91'th-
less piece of swampy land between
the creek and the canal which the
Buckeye Development and Improve
ment Company had bought and plot
ted, theirs also being the ready made
houses. Mass meetings were held in
the town hall andin the public square
and enthusiasm was without bounds.
Squire Duffield could withstand the
allurements of the craze no longer.
His boarded $4,000 and all the money
that he could raise by mortgaging the
land, including what he had acquired
through frugahty and industry and
the homestead that had come to him
from his father, were invested in the
rolling mill and in allied enterprises
promising a speedy return of dollars
for cents. Farm work was neglected
for the first time i'll his life-it was
not worth while to grub living Ia
boriously from the soil when for.
tune was to be had b. such facile
means.
The Squire's sons We're swept of
their feet, and from steady, hard.
working young fellows, took to driv.
ing recklessly about the country at ali
hours of the day and night, drinking
and gambling and pursuing general
mode of life detrimental to their man.
ners, morals and finances. Miss Fan.
ME, the Squires only daughter, saw
at last the coveted avenue of escape
from social isolation and household
drudgery and adopted late rising and
dawdling over her toilet as the first
requisites for life of refined and ele-
CANT leisure.
Only Mrs. Duffield, untiring in her
industry, frugal in her habits and
i L