Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1905-03-31
CHAPTER I.
ASHES OF EMPIRE.


when the boom broke and the junto
was born, though its beginnings as
halt camp ran back to the days OF the
later Mormon migrations across the
thirsty plain; to that day when the ad-
vanced guard of Zophar Smiths OK
train dug wells in the damp sands OF
Dry creek and called them the waters
Of Merom.
Later, one Jethro Simsby, q Nor
mon deserter, set up his rod and stan
on the banks of the creek, homesteaded
O quarter-section Of the sage-brush
plain, and in due time came to be
known as the Dry creek cattle king.
And the cow-camp was still Simsby's
when the locating engineers OF the
Western Pacific, searching for tank
stations in q land where water was
scarce and hard to come by, drove
their stakes along the north line OF
the quarter-section; and having named
their last station Alphonse, christened
this one CASTOR.
From the stake-driving Of the engi-
neers to the spike-driving OF the track
layers was a full decade. For hard
times overlook the Western Pacific at
Midland City, 80 miles to the east
ward; while the state capital, two
days bronco jolting west of Dry creek,
had railroad outlets in plenty and no
inducements to offer newcomer.
But with the breaking Of the cloud
Of financial depression, the Western
Pacific succeeded in placing its exten-
sion bonds, and little later the earth
began to fly on the grade of the new
line to the west Within Sundayless
month the electric lights Of the night
shift could be seen, and when the
wind was right, the shrek Of the loco
motive whistle could be heard at Dry
creek; and in this interval between
dawn and daylight Jethro Simsby sold
his Quarter-section for the nominal sum
Of $4,000, spot cash, to two men who
buck-boarded in ahead of the track-lay-
ers.
This purchase Of the "J-lazy-S"
ranch by Hawk and Guilford marked
the modest beginning OF CASTOR the
marvellous. BY the time the temporary
sidings were down and the tank well
was dug in the damp sands, 1t was her
aided far and wide that the Western
Pacific would make the city on the
banks of Dry creek-a city consisting
as yet only of the Simsby ranch shacks
its western terminus. Thereupon
followed one Of the senseless rushes
that populate the waste places OF the
earth and give the professional city
builder his reason for being. In fort
night after the driving Of the silver
spike tie dusty plain was dotted with
the black-roofed shelters of the Argo-
nauts; and by the following spring the
plow was furrowing the cattle ranges
in overwhelming circles, and CASTOR
had voted a bond loan Of 100000 to
pave its streets.
Then under the forced draft Of
skillful exploitation, three years of high
pressure passed quickly; years named
by the promoters the period of develop
ment. In the Year One the very heav-
ems smiled and the rainfall broke the
record of the oldest inhabitant. Thus
the region round about lost the word
"arid" as a qualifying adjective, and
the picturesque fictions OF the pros
pectus makers were miraculously JUS
fhorn lnCG
rain, but still an abundant crop; and
Jethro Simsby, drifting in from some
unnamed frontier Of new cow-coun-
try, saw what he had missed, took to
drink, and shot himself in the lobby OF
the Mid-Continent hotel, an or
nate, five-storied, brick-and-terra-cotta
structure standing precisely upon the
site CT the "J-lazy-S" branding corral.
II was in this same Year Two, the
fame of the latest of western Meccas
for young men having penetrated to the
provincial backgrounds OF New Hamp-
shire, that David Kent came.
BY virtue Of his diploma, and three
years Of country practice in the New
Hampshire country town where his IA
ther before him had read Blackstone
and Chitty, he had his window on the
fourth floor of the FarQuhar building
lettered Attorney and Counselor at
Law" but up to the day in the latter
part of the fateful Year Three, when
the overdue crash came, he was best
known as a reckless plunger in real
estate-this, mind you, at a moment
when every third man counted his
gains in front feet" and was shouting
himself hoarse at the daily brass-band
lot sales.
When the bottom fell out in the au-
tumn OF the Year Three, Kent fell with
II. though not altogether as far or as
hard as many another. One OF his pro-
fessional hold-fasts-it was the one
that afterward became the bread
tackle in the famine time-was his
position as local attorney for the rail-
way company. By reason OF this he
was among the first to have hint OF
the impending cataclysm. The west
ern Pacific, after so long pause or
the banks of Dry creek, had fioatec
its second mortgage bonds and would
presently build on to the capital, leav'
ing CASTOR to way-station quietude
Therefore and wherefore
Kent was not lacking in native
shrewdness or energy. He foresaW
not the pitable bubble-burst which en-
sued, indeed, but the certain and In
eyitable end of the speculative era
Like everyone else, he had bough
chiefly with promises to pay. and th'
paper in the three banks aggregate
f-.to