Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-05-18
CHAPTER V.-Continued.

Wayne pondered this when he had set
tied himself at his own desk. In normal
circumstances he saw little of his father
during the day. Col Craighill usually
took luncheon with half a dozen men of
his own age who represented the solid in
terests of Pittsburg He prided himself
on his knowledge of the general business
conditions he liked, as he put it. to
keep in touch with the life of the city,
and he SO managed his hour ard a half
at the Allequippa as to gain information
from authoritative sources on all man.
ner Of subjects He was more Or less
conscious of the fact that he touched
life on more sides than the majority of
his fellows. They talked of iron and coal
because. they We're, like himself, inter-
ested in FORCES and mines; but he could
discuss cotton with knowledge of the
conditions In India. or wheat with the
Argentine forecast in his mind. He SUBJ
scribed for English. reviews which he
occasionally passed Ona to business
friends whose narrower horizons wire
otherwise amply illuminated by the
newspapers.
The Allequippa Club, at the luncheon
hour, became q seething board of trade
whose unrecorded transactions ran to
large figures. Stock subscription papers
were handed from table to table as care
lessly as the wine card. Through these
years OF the great prosperity 1t was as
easy to count millions as to count heads.
In fact. Mr.. Richard Wingfield, watching
and listening in his corner, announced
that million had become contemplate
sum that hardly assured ones daily
bread.
Wayne Craighill was, i'm the fullest
sense. a child of the city. It's oldest
blood was in his veins. His mother had
been Wayne, the daughter Of a mer-
chant whose great-grandfather had
fought in the Confidential army. and
whose grandfather had shared Perry's
glory On Lake Erie. The Craighills were
not so old on this soil, but the name
was not negligible one in local history.
Wayne's grandfather Craighill had sat
and when Roger Craighill married the
only daughter Of the house of Wayne
and the last of the family, the best blood
OF the state was united. The Craighill
building. rising towerlike in the steep.
narrow street of this many lowered ba-
bel, spoke not merely for present aff1u-
ence. but for the prescience that had Sc
cured and held the iron hills surrounding
Eastern Pennsylvania is better known
in song. story and history than the
states western hills but the greater city,
big: brawny. powerful, sprawled over
valley and hill,' where the broad rivers
gather new courage for their adventure
seward. hides in its iron heart many
said that Pennsylvania is our most
typical state and Pittshurg our most
typical city. for here the weakness and
strength Of democracy wage daily war.
Here political corruption has been venom
ously manifested. Those who seek to ac-
count for the unaccountable ask whether
the old Scotch clan-instinct has not re-
asserted itself in the politics of the state.
The question is suggestive; but 1t may
not be discussed in these pages The
spirit of democracy. brooding upon the
hills. and looking down upon the City of
the Iron Heart must smile often, WON
dering that a people so highly favored
and with antecedents so honorable tame
~ submit to plumber and bend their
nscks 80 meekly, to the spokesman. But
new era was even now at hand. There