Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1899-06-08
bors; but they were all queer and that
nhrasp MEANT Ettla

bors; but they were all queer and that
phrase meant little.
He was thoughtful, and the long
winter nights gave him opportunity for
much reading. In some way his atten-
ton became fixed on the transportation
problem, and it absorbed him. He
brooded over it summer and winter, and
it would not let him rest. Bit by bit q
plan came to him, and at length he un-
folded it to friends and relatives. They
told him that it was wild and i'm
practable, but their words disturbed him
in no way. Night after night he would
rise from his bed, and gazing from the
one window OF his shack, far into the
north, where the aurora is seen to play
most brilliantly many times in the year.
he would give himself up to planning for
the success OF his railroad scheme.
This meeting at Lansing was the first
enc, and it had attracted great crowd.
But 1t was a silent, undemonsrative
throng to which he poured out his hopes
end plans. The road was to be called
the Farmers Railroad, and it was to be
built by the farmers OF the Red River Val
ley themselves. The grade once built,
The remainder of the task would be easy.
The project was to earn no profits, except
to keep up repairs and equipments, and
was to be wholly cooperative and owned
by the people along the line, But the
message was too good to be true, and
the audience would not receive it, They
did not rend him to pieces. Their eruci-
fiction took another form. When he had
done, he asked any who cared. to pro-
pound questions to him; but no one re-
piled. All sat perfectly quiet. until one
| arose and left, and then, one by one. all
the remainder followed his example. not
even the mayor, who cordially liked
Minds, caring to talk to him when he
was. most probably, in condition OF
mind 20 downcast. Yet they were all
self-convicted towards. They believed
Minds was right and that his scheme was
possible, but they were afraid to say so
to one another. Even their boisterous
laughter and ridicule, which hoated up
to Minds as they poured down into the
street, they We're saying to themselves.
'We build the road? l believe we really
can. but it sounds foolish, and am not
going to expose myself to my associates
redicule, when it is evident that they all
think Minds is crazy.
Minds sat quietly in his chair until
they were all gone, and then arose, and
said nothing as he helped the ianitor put
out the lights. AS they walked down
the stairs he made some remark about
the weather. and with CHEEKY "Good-
by" he went to his hitching rack, and
was soon off on his pony for home. His
thoughts may have been very bitter as
he rode across the trackless. treeless,
fenceless, and almost houselsss country
from Lansing to the boundary, thirty
miles away. But not at that time, nor
at any other time, did anyone hear him
speak bitterly or hopelessly. To his
wife's anxious inquiry he said:
"We he'd big meetin', but they
wouldn't say anything. l guess they
did mt think much of the talk; but when
they think over the railroad scheme,
they'll change their minds
Mastered and led by his damon, he be-
gan systematic canvas OF towns along
the proposed route to the river. The re-
suits were apparently the same His
fame had proceeded him, and he was
pictured as harmless vision-chaser. In
several OF his meetings he was interrupt
ed by jeers, but his good nature did not
leave him. At Brighton, however, on
the river, he met his first encouragement
| Judicions and respectful questions We're
asked OF him, and several leading ciuizens
remained to talk with him after the
| meeting was over.
He had felt, for some time great
longing to go to ST. Paul, the head
quarters OF the Northwestern railways,
and learn how those great roads We're
managed. This feeling became tostrong
| for resistance When he arrived at
Brighton. But he had little money, and
could not ride his pony SO far without
danger of hurting permanently. SO he
threw the bride back over the pony's
head, slapped the rump, and started the
little animal back to the HanniAg farm.
Then he crossed the river and, began a
4OO-mile walk to st. Paul.
The Great Mogul was busy at his desk
when his office boy came in and, with
some hesitancy, said:
There's rough-looking fellow out
here who wants to see you
1t was one OF the Mogul's cheerful DAYS.
Prospects for the intercontinental ANAL
gamation scheme were becoming ,xcel.
lent. The bank across the water had
written most encouragingly, and i,
looked to the Mogul as if one more visit
to Europe would place the two great
lines in his grasp. So he said quickly:
ooh, well, let him i'm
! Minds entered.
1t was late spring, just before seeding,
and the Northwest was mass OF mud
\ portion of the mass seemed to have
chung to Minds. His face was unshaven
aud worn. his trousers were torn, and
their sides glistened with mud which had
dried there. HIS winter cap looked
heavy anc wet, and his hair was dis.
heveled and knotted.
At his desk sat the Great Mogul, tall
portly, forceful. and with the magnetic
tone aud air of success. Thirty years
before, he had worked as a day laborer
in that city. He had seized a slender
chance. and had risen slowly, until his
genius for railroad building was dis
covered and developed. He grapped
this line and that one, and extended
them first to Duluth, then to Winnipeg,
and then on to the West, until by buying,
Selling, leasing, building, by any means
getting lines and connections. his trains
reached the Pacific.