Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-03-24
CHAPTER I. ASHES OF EMPIRE.

In point of age, Gaston the strenuou
 was still no more than lusty infar
 among the cities of the brown plai
 when the boom broke and the junt
 was born, though its beginnings as
 halt camp ran back to the days of tn
 later Mormon migrations across tn
 thirsty plain; to that day when the ad
 vanced guard of Zophar Smiths OK
 train dug wells in the damp sands 0
 Dry creek and called them the water
 of Merom. ........
 Later, one Jethro Simsby, a Nor
 mon deserter, set up his rod and stat
 on the banks of the creek, homesteadet
 ! Quarter-section of the sage-brusl
 plain, and in due time came to b,
 known as the Dry creek cattle king
 And the cow-camp was still Simsby'.
 when the locating engineers of tn.
 Western Pacific. searching for tanl
 stations in land where water was
 scarce and hard to come by, drove
 their stakes along the north line oi
 the quarter-section; and having named
 their last station Alphonse, christened 3his one Gaston.
 z From the stake-driving of the engi.
 neers to the spike-driving of the track
 layers was full decade. For hard
 times overlook the Western Pacific al
 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 ef financial depression, the Western Pacific succeeded in placing it's exten- sion bonds, and a 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 shriek 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 $2,000, spot cash, to two men who buck-boarded in ahead of the track-lay- CTS.
 This purchase of the "J-lazy-S" ranch by Hawk and Guilford marked the modest beginning of Gaston the marvellous. By the time the temporary sidings were down and the tank we'll was dug in the damp sands, it 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 tits 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 the dusty plain was dotted with the black-roofed shelters of the Argo- nauts; and by the following spring the blow was throwing the cattle ranges in overwhelming circles, and Gaston had voted bond loan of s300,00O to pave it's 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 tiied. In Year Two there was less rain, but still an abundant crop; and ] Jethro Simsby, drifting in from some frontier of new cow-coun- i try, saw what he had missed, tooksto drink. and shot himself in the lobby of l the Mid-Continent hotel, an or nate, flve-storied, -cotta structure standing precisely upon the site of the "J-lazy-S" branding corral.
 It was in this same Year Two, the lame of the latest of western Meccas or 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 country town where his fa- sher before him had read Blackstone md Chitty, he had his window on the ourth floor of the Farquhar building ettered Attorney and Counselor at 4aw;;" but up to the day in the latter ,art of the fateful Year Three, when he overdue crash came. he was best Inown as a reckless plunger in real 'state-this, mind you, at a moment when every third man counted his ,ains in front feet" and was shouting Iimself hoarse at the daily brass-band ot sales.
 When the bottom fell out in the au- umn of the Year Three, Kent fell with l. though not altogether as far or as ard as many another. One of his pro- essional hold-fasts-it was the one hat afterward became the bread ackle in the famine time-was his oeition as local attorney for the rail- ray company. By reason of this he ras among the first to have hint of be Impending cataelysm- The West rn Pacific. after so long a pause on he banks of Dry creek, had fioated ts second mortgage bonds and would resentiy build on to the capital, leay- lg Gaston to vegetation quietude. therefore and wherefore Kent was not lacking in native hrewdness or energy. He foresaw. ot the pitsble bubbIe-burst which en- led, indeed. but the certain and in ,