The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-10-27

s08stimes forgot that the mayoraity
was not a hereditary office IN CroWISS. .
For so many undisputed terms ne hdn
been chief magistrate that at last the
very town seemed to him MS heri-
tage.
The people of the larger city that lay
across the state line from Crowley
in this case the state line was river
were given to much abuse OF nat
begrimed center of mills, railroads, gas
works and oil-tanks. When they
spoke of CroWley's mayor and his ad-
ministrat ions, it was with the trlum-
phant Vindictiveness of those who
maintain their own VirtuouS standing
chiefly by the shortcomings of others.
But all the periodic Outcries of its
great neighbors left Crowley placidiy
unmoved Mr.. Hennessey and the town
agreed admirably with each other. It's
population was a poor one; it was the
shabby sleeping-place of a horde of
petty clerks and workmen, who were
ferried over to the big city in the MORN
ing twilight and back at evening dusk;
it was the abode of its own soiled mill
hands and railroad laborers, of the
employees on the trolley lines, of its
rotund saloon keepers and of their
graduates in the staring, new, rectan-
gular city hall that was its boast.
Habited to makeshifts and blunders,
they accepted without resentment the
caving-in of badlylaid pavements, the
bursting of shell-like sewer pipes, and
the spluttering and Pickering OF illum-
mating gas that did not illuminate
Daniel Hennessey suited them. If he
did not give them good streets, he
made ample amends in the ways of pic
MICS, free to all corners; if he amassed
property at a rate unpleasantly sugges-
tive, wealth did not render him proud.
Moreover, he spent his income in
way that made Crowley as Indifferent
to taxation as a loyal Britain on Cor
onatiOn day. No mayor within a hum
dred miles had more diamonds, raced
better horses or kept 4 more expensive
or more easy "open house" at New
Years and other times when he bade
his constituents hearty welcome.
Even his political associates were
not jealous of Hennessey. He was a
fair man." they said, wagging their
ehIns judicialy; by which they meant
that If Daniel had stock in each new
trolley that won a franchise from the
town, they too held stock in their de-
gree; and that if the company which
mysteriOusiy, in spite of high bid. re-
ceived the contract for opening up a
new street, balanced things by restor-
ing a small proportion of its fee to the
city officials, they, as well as Daniel,
profted
And they continued to let Daniel rule
them and rule Crowley. while the op-
position languished into a negligible
quantity, prating of assessments, civic
honor and the hygienic disposal of re-
fuse, but never organizing a barge
party in the summer or distributing
Goals in the winter.
If CrOwley's center was the disgrace
10 civilization which its neighbors
named it, the outskirts We're indescriba-
BILE. The streets went unpaved, the
roads ungraded. the infrequent street
lamps were erected apparently as tar
gets for stray missiles. Along the river
side toward the north was the road
which the big city was constantly urg-
ing the little one to turn into a boule-
ward or a speedway, so great were its
natural beauties. On one side lay the
winding, isolated stream and on the
other sloping. wooded stretches But
Crowley had small use for speedways:
so the river bank north of the towns
center went quickly To ruin. Here
flood had encroached upon the road and
left great gap of jagged rock and
water; and there a quarrying company
empowered by the city to blast rock,
had left holes and pitfalls. The rains
came and washed down the earth, I'M
covering the old corduroy foundations
until even the sure-fOoted horses from
outlying truck farms were forced TO
seek a new road to town
In the tangled growth of grass and
weeds and trees that slOped up from
the rivers bank, were five or six old
houses. They had been country seats
when Crowley was merely a ferry-slip
ba hrrflt
sClidity which defies time and even
vandalism. The owners had long since
ceased 10 occupy them, and for the
most part they were untenanted The
shingles had fallen from their roofs,
the glass was gone from their win
dows. the doors were fallen from their
hinges, the columns of their hign III
azzas were SCARED and Clipped by the
hands of many picnickers. In the
coarse grass that covered their old
carriage-ways the wheel tracks of the
past were dim, and ragged weeds
choked out the fine grass where lawns
had stretched.
II was one morning in September
that Mayor Hennessey was tempted to
try this ramshackle road He had in
tended to take a spin out of the town
and try his new horse on the good
roads south of his Jurisdiction. but
when he came down the steps of the
city hail he found he was too late for
the run. Yet there was an unwonted
freshness in the air-the wind blowing
the MANY smokes of Crowley away
from him-and he wished to try the
horse. He bent to lift Lady Hamil-
toms hoofs with practised hand, then
rising, flushed with the exertion. he
climbed into the light rig and took the
reins from the siouching hostler.
In the Crowley language, he was "a
fine figure of a man." broad and we'll
padded by nature across the shoulders
and ample of chest Crowley liked the
rudy, jovial face, the fine. fierce iron
gray mustache at which his honor was
wont 20 pull while his little blue eyes
twinkled down upon a voters baby.
They started delicately. Lady Hamil-
ton and her owner. His big hands in
their orange driving gloves grasped
the reins lightly. On the river way
Daniel had purposed TO give the horse
her head, but the twisting road did not
look promising for speeding. Although
along the winding way he kept tight
rein. at a sharp turn he came upon ca
lamity.
An adventurous furniture van-what
idiot could be carting furniture long
the river way?-blocked travel. It's
rear whele hung over a minor precipice
washed out of the road. Some of its