The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1906-08-16

I a
financially and materially, Belltown
was sunk into the Slough of Despond.
| William McClenahan was something
more than the mere mayor OF Bell
town. He was the sole proprietor OF
/ the White Store in New York. He
! had good stuff 10 sell and he knew how
10 talk about it: and people listened,
/ and came AMI bought His White Store.
a store built upon a mammoth scale,
was the result. None but McClenahar
knew that the receipts Of the store
barely balanced expenses; that the
store hung quiyering on the brink OF a
precipice.
/ McClenahan was a bachelor, tall.
broad-shouldered young man of IS or
Whereabouts. He enjoyed the luXuries
OF life; he wantei comfort. He had
looked about him for home, and his
eye had rested upon Belltown. He
thought he saw in Belltown a place Of
possibilities. But he had not lived
there six months before there settled
down upon him the pail of discourage
ment that all the other Belltowners
felt The place was dead.
What Belltown needed, first, was
money; and later, people. The oat-
side world must take an interest in
Belltown, or it was doomed. But it
needed money to put it into shape
I've got to get that money" whis-
pered McClenahan TO himself, "anC
I've got to get it on the outside. !
can't spend a cent OF my OWL can't
afford il; and these chaps in BelltOwp
won't hand out a dollar. I've got 10
get II somewhere. on the outside"
Two days after mis- election as mayor
of Belltown, he swung into the private
Office of the president of Food" a
corporation on Broadway. Food, the
corporation, knew how TO advertise
Food, the product 1t had been the
advertisements that had attracted Nc
Clenahan, past master in the art Of
advertisement.
I'm William McClenahan of the
White Store. and mayor of Belltown,"
announced McClenahan to Barker, he
head Of the Food corporation. Il used
to advertise for the Manhattan, and /
want TO make a deal"
McClenahan didn't stop there. He
told him many things. And when ne
had finished, the president rose and
tapped McClenahan on the shoulder.
by George, Mr.. McClenahan!" he
said the very thing, the very thing,
by George!"
Two days later, all Belltown, and all
New York, We're electrified by a Food
corporation advertisement that was
spread thickly and literally upon the
sheets of dailies, upon the outsides Of
the weeklieS, and over all the available
stumps and posts and fences.
1t announced in substance, that for
a period of two weeks before Christ
mas, William McClenahan. proprietor
of the White Store, and mayor of Bell
town would walk daily, in Belltown.
TO his train in the morning and from
his train in the afternoon. clad as a
sandwich man, between boards plas-
tered with the gaudy advertisements Of
Food, itself The ivertisement stated
further that the mayor would receive
be paid by Food into the Golfers Of the
town of BelltOwn beautiful but bank
rupt town. The whole thing was to
be done in the interests of Belltown;
for that town McClenahan was raising
money in the only way it could be
raised.
The newspaper reporters besOugh.
McClenahan for a statement, but he
refused to be interviewed. He main
tanned q silence that was discreet. if
not significant.
The performance was to commence
on the morning OF Monday, the 18th
On Saturday, he was once more in
terviewed at his store and az his
home.
Now" he said, finally, what are
you fellows talking about? What adj
vertisement?" They produced the an
nouncement when he had already
looked upoP hundred times. He read
1t through again.
ITS a lie," he said, from the be-
ginning to the end. What,-I? Catch
me as sandwich man, for any half
baked food concern? Not much!"
This terse sentence spread like Wild
fire. The mayor of Belltown had re-
fused to carry out the conditions of
the contract-at least, so he had said.
The public waited until Monday
morning New York waited. Bell
town waited
When the 7:49 train pulled into the
little town that morning its passen
gers from up the road pushed up re-
fractory windows and leaned far out
to see the fun. The station crowd at
Belltown had trebled in numbers. FIX
element was rampant.
But, where's the mayor" queried
the crowd. No one knew. But sud-
denly, as the train once more started
up, neat little trap darted around
the corner, a man jumped out, sprinted
across the platform and caught the last
car OF the train. 1t was McClenahan,
clad only in customary garments, and
without the sign of poster or a sand
witch board about him.
Again was he besought by as many
OF the press crowd as had climbed
aboard.