Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-05

from visits of the anurine will-o' -the-wisps
that beguiie geniuse1 He vas so deeply ooS
cupted that he did snots mark the fight OF
time and was surprised ehen g. boy came
with a message fren Porter that he was
ready to go to luncheon. - - +,
You mustn't overdo fs,e thing, young
man." said the banker nmiably, as he
closed his desk. stDonE you adopt our
western method Of working all the hours
there are. do 1t now because my neigh
bors ana customerssW would talk about me II
! didn't. and say mat shad lost my grip
In my old age"
They started up tie sloping street. which
was intensely hot.
"In my last Job worked twenty hours a
day." said saxton, "and lost money In
spite of it,
'You mean up in Wyoming; the Neponset
people wrote me that you were reformed
cattleman."
Eyes. / was winter-killed at the BUSH
ness" He assumed that Porter would not
care particularly for the details of his fail
ure. Western. men are, he knew, much
more tolerant of failure than eastern men;
but he was relieved to hear the banker
drawing on with comment on Clarkson,
its commercial history and prospects.
At the twentieth anniversary of the
founding of the Clarkson chamber of COM
merce, the local boy orator, who made a
point of quoting Holy Writ in his speeches.
spoke of Clarkson as mo mean city," just
as many another orator has applied this
same apt Pauline phrase to many another
metropolis. The business of Clarkson had
to do with primary employments and needs
The cattle of thousand bills and of many
rough pastures were gathered here; and
here wheat and corn from three states were
assembled. In exchange for these products,
Clarkson returned to the country all of the
Several important railway lines had their
administrative offices here. Ores were
brought from the Rockies from Mexico and
even from British Columbia to the great
I,xS,~
the town. Neither coal wood nor iron lay
near at hand SO that manufac turing was
almost unknown; but the packing houses
and smelters gave employment to many
laborers drawn In great measure from the
SlaVOnic races. ~ rt+t ,t-.s
Varney street cut through the town at
right angels to the river bisecting the bust
ness district. 1t then gradually threw off it's
commercial aspect until at last 1t was
lined with the homes of most of Clarkson's
Weafthlest citizens. An exaggerated esti-
mate of the value of corner lots had caused
many of them to be left vacant: and weeds
and signboards exercised eminent domain
between booms. North and south of Var.
ney street We're other thoroughfares which
strove to be equally fashionable, and her
citizens had sometimes built themselves
houses that We're, as they said, as good as
anything in Varney street. Everywhere
ragged edges remained; old implanted frame
buildings fingered in blocks that otherwise
contained handsome houses. Sugar-loaf
cubes of clay doomed lonesomely, with
houses stranded high on their SUBMITS
where property owners had been too poor to
cut down their bits of earth to conform to
new levels. The clay banks were ugly, but
they were doomed to remain until the next
high tide of prosperity.
The Clarkson Club stood at the edge of
the commercial district, and its Milwaukee
brick walls rose hot and staring in the
July sun at Porter and Saxton approached
Here we are" said Porter, leading the
way into the wide hall "We'I arrange
IIntrf l,,-
a very bad lunch ready upstairs and we'll
go against that first
There were only few men in the dining
room. seated at a round table. Porter ex-
changed salutations with them as he
passed on to small table at the end of the
room. Those who were of his own age
called Porter, Billy and he included them
all IN the careless nod of old acquaintance
Porter offered Saxton the wine card, which
the young man declined with instructive
knowledge that he was expected to do so
They took the simple table d'hote. which
was. as Porter had predicted, very bad
The banker ate little and carried the burden
of the conversation.
They we; from the table for an inspec-
ton of the club, and arranged with the clerk
In the office for a room on the third floor
which Mr.. Saxton was to have so Porter
told the clerk, until he didn't want it any
more.
IT'S all right about the rules. he said
IF the house committee kick about 1t ,Jsend
them to mas". They stopped in the lolingipg
room, where the men fromGrhe rotnd table
were now talking or looking at newspapers
Porter introduced Saxton to all of them
stating in his humorous way. with varia-
tons in every case, ythat this was new
In town; that Victims were scarce in
hard times, and that they must make the
most of him. Several of the men who shook
hands with SaXtoA. were railroad officials
but nearly every line of business was rep
resented. All. seemed to wear their. business
consciously, and Saxton was made aware of
t..elr several employments in one way or an
other as he stood talking to them. He felt
that their own frankness should elicit re-
Spouse on his part and he stated that he
had come to represent the interests of
eastern people''--a phrase which, in that
territory, has weight and significance.
This, he thought, should be sufficiently ex-
plicit and he felt that his interlocutors
were probably appraising him with selfish
eyes as a possible customer or client.