Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-09-15
w..
Cold Storage.

II courage of the kind fitted to lead for
lorn hopes or marchings undaunted up to
the muzzles Of loaded cannon be a matter
of gifts and temperament, It is also in
some degree matter of environment
Stuart Ford was western born and bred !;
product Of the wider breathing spaces.
Given his proper battlefield. where the
obstacles were elemental and the foes to
be overcome were mere men of flesh and
blood fighting freely in the open, he was
a match for the lustiest. But New York,
with It's submerging. jostling multitudes.
Its thickly crowdinz human vastness and.
more than all. its atmosphere Of dollar
chasing. apparent and oppressive even to
the transient passerby. disheartened him
curiously.
1t was not that he was more provincial
than he had to be. for that matter there
is no provincialism so rampant as that of
the thronging, striving. self-suff1cient city.
But isolation in any sort is a thing to be
reckoned with. The two pioneering years
In the Rockies had done their work-of
narrowing. as we'll as of hroadening-and
the plunge into the chilling sea of the
money-mad metropolis made him shiver
and wish he were out.
This feeling was really at the bottom
Of the late rising and the leisurely break
fast. making him temporize where he had
meant to be prompt, energetic and vigor-
ously aggressive. Having pocketed the
young woman's unsigned note. he glanced
at his watch and decided that it was still
too early to go in search of President
Colbrith.
Il don't suppose he'll be in his office
tor an hour yet he unused. refiectively.
and. anyway. I guess I'd better go over
the papers again. so l can be sure to
speak my piece right end to. BY Jove,
didn't suppose A couple of thousand miles
of casting would take the heart out of
things the way it does. If I didn't know
better. ! should think I'd come here to
float the biggest kind Of fake. instead
Of lifeboat for the shipwrecked people
in. the Pacific Southwestern. 1t is be-
ginning to look that way in spite of all
can do
Going once again over his carefully
tabulated argument did not help matters
greatly. He was beginning to realize
now how vastly. antipodally different the
New York point of view might be from
his own. 1t came to him with the be-
numbing effect of a blow that his own
ambitions had persistently looked beyond
the mere money making results Of his
scheme. Also. that President Colbrith
and his fellow investors might very easily
refuse to consider any other phase of tho
lay before them.
BY 10 o'clock postponement was no
longer tenable city of refuge--the plunge
had to be taken. Accordingly. he Jared
forth to present himself at the Broadway
address given in the Pacific Southwestern
printed matter as the New York head
quarters of the company.
The number proved to be n ground floor,
with the business Office of the eastern
traffic representative in front, and three
or four private desk rooms in the rear,
one Of them labeled president in incon-
spicuous gilt lettering. Entering. with
less assurance than If he had been the
humblest of place seekers out of a job.
Ford was almost relieved to find only a
closed desk and a young man absently
scanning morning paper.
Inquiry developed a few facts. tersely
stated but none the less enlightening.
Mr.. Colbrith was not In: the Office was
merely his nominal headquarters in the
His residence? II was in the borough of
the Bronx. pretty we'll up toward Yonk-
ers-locality and means OF access Obl,g-
ingly written out on a card for the caller
by the clerk. Was Mr.. Ford's business
Of a routine nature? If SO. perhaps Mr.
Ten Eyck the general agent could at
tend to it. Ford said 1t was not of a
routine nature. and made his escape to
inquire his way to the nearest subway
station. To pause now was to lose the
precious impetus Of the start.
away blindly out of the sitting human
vortex of the lower city: but Ford's first
glimpse of the Colbrith mansion depressed
him again. The huge. formal house had
once been the country residence of re-
tired dry goods merchant. II fronted the
river brazealy. and the fine old traes of n
park shamed its architectural