Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-12-03

did. Why don't you Are EN- bodily:
tell 'em their number is 23-skiddoo.
Aren't you the Sublime Porte--the
court of last resort--the big boss
over here?"
Ford pulled his horse down to d
walk.
4 Kenneth, let me tell you: behind
those barkeepers arc the contractors:
behind the contractors is Mr.. North;
behind Mr.. North, the president, Ny
little lever isn't long enough to turn
the world over
'Pshaw." said Kenneth. Mr. Col
BIRTH wouldn't stand for anything like
that. Why. he's perfect fanatic on
the whiskev question
That's slI right, said Ford acidly
ut doesn't go as far as Mr.. Colbrith
lin the matter of the debauchlng par
iticulars. It stops in Denver; and Mr..
Colbrith approves Denver in the lump
sings the vouchers without looking
at them, as Evans would say. tell
YOU what | believe-what I am com
PEELED to believe. These individual
saloon keepers are supposed to be in
here on their own hook. on suffsrance.
/ They are not: they are merely the
employees of a close corporation.
Among the profit sharers you'll find
the MacNorroghs at the top. and Mr..
North's little ring of Denver officials
close seconds
do you can't prove It, of course.
Ii could. I'd go 10 New York and
fight it out. And the whiskev isn't
all of it, or even the worst: there are
women in some of these camps. and
There would be more if Leckhard
didn't stand guard at Saints Rest and
turn them back"
"Heayens--what a cesspOol! said
the attorney. Does a laboring man
ever get out of here with any Of his
earnings?"
mot if the MacMorroebs can help
it And YOU can figure for yourself
what the moral atmosphere must be
We are less than two months old on
the work. but already the Western
Extension is a streak of crime; crime
unpublished. and at times tacitly Ell
couraged You may say that my de-
partment isn't esponsible-that this
is the contractors day and game. If
that is true now-which it isn't--it
will no longer be true when We come
in with OH own employees, the tracy
layers
But now Kenneth was shaking his
head.
81 can't believe it. Ford. You're
blue because Mr.. Colbrith has thrown
Mr. North into your boat as ballast
4 l don't blame you; but you mustn't
let it make you color blind
Ford said nothing The day was
vet young, and the long journey was
still younger. It was at the noon halt,
made at It subcontractor's camp near
a great earth cutting and hugayf fill,
that Kenneth had his object lesson.
They wele standing at the door of
the timekenper's shanty-they had
been the t;mekeeper's guests for the
noon meai-and the big gang OF
Italians, with it's inevitable Irish fore
man, was already at work. Out at the
head Of the great fill a dozen men
were dumping the carts as they came
in an endless stream from the cutting
Suddenly there was a casting down
OF shovels a shril alteration, q
clinch. a flash of steel in the August
sunlight, ard one of the disputants
was down, his heels drumming On the
soft earth N the death agony.
Good Cod" said Kenneth Its a
murder" aud he would have rushed III
if Ford and the timekeeper had no,
held him back
The object lesson was sufficiently
revolving. without one to kneel be.
side the dying man; indeed. without
waiting until the drumming heels
were still; the men callously put their
shovels under the body. slid it over
the lip of the dump and left it to be
covered, by the tumbling cataract of
earth pouring from the tip carts whose
orderly procession. had scarcely been
interrupted by the tragedy.
Kenneth was silent for many min
utes after they had left the camp of
the Italians. He was a wester ninan
only by adoption: of Anglo-Saxon
blood, ann so unable to condone the
Latin's disr egard for the sacredness
of human life.
THAT was simply terrible, Ford, >
he said finally, and his voice was
/ still in sympathy with the shaking
hand that held he bridle-reins.
Es"Will nothing be done?"
Nothing: unless the murdered
man chances to have relatives or
clansmen in one of the nearby camps
in which case there'll be another
killing"
But the law" said Kenneth.
There is no law here higher than
the caprice of Brian Marlborough Be
sides, it's toe common-a mere cpl
sode; one of those which you said
you couldn't believe, g, little while
hack
"But cao't YOU make the MacGor-
roghs do a little police work for
common decency's sake?'
Ford shook his head. They are
quite on the other side of the fence.
as told .rou in the beginning. BY
winking at lawlessness of all kinds,
their own particular brands of law
lessness, by which they and their
hackers make money, go unquestion-
ed. So far from helping, they'd make
il exceedingly difficult for any sheriff
who should have the temerity to come
"a - 4 re lt f1,It,