Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1910-06-03

period soon receded quickly into far
away past, rememberable only when
one made an effort to recall 1t.
First had come the completion Of the
Great Southwestern. Diverted by the
untiring opposition of Major Dabney
from its chosen path through the val
ley, 1T skirted the westward hills, pass
ing within a few hundred yards Of the
Gordon furnace. Since business knows
no animositfes, the part which CALEB
Gordon and his gun crew had played
in the right of-way conflict was lg-
nored. The Way-station at the creek
crossing was named Gordonia, and It
was the railway traffic manager HIM
self who suggested to the iron master
the taking of a partner with capital
the opening Of the vein of cooking coal
on Mount Lebanon, the installation OF
coking- ovens, and the undermining and
charging Of the furnace and foundry
plant-hints all pointing to increased
traffic for the road.
With the coming Of Mr.. Duxbury
Farley to Paradise, Thomas Jefferson
lost, not only the simple life, but the
desire to live it. This Mr.. Farley,
whom we have seen and heard, mo-
menta rily, on the station platform N
South Tredegar the expanded, hailed
from Cleveland, Ohio; was, as he was
fond of saying pompOusly, q citizen or
no mean city. His business in the re-
awakening South was that of an in
termediary between cause and effect;
the cause being the cap al of confidilg
investors in the North, and the effect
the dissipation of the same in various
and sundry development schemes in
the new iron field.
To Paradise, in the course of his 60
ings to and fro, came this purger Of
other mems purses, and he saw the
fortuitous grouping of the possibilities
at a glance: abundant iron of good
quality; an accessible vein of coal, sec
ond only to Pocahontas for coking;
land cheap, water free, and a persuad-
able subject in straightforward, SIM
ple-hearted Caleb Gordon.
Farley had no capital, but he had
that which counts far more in the pro-
moter's field; namely, the ability to
reap where others had sown. His plan,
outlined to Caleb in a sweeping cavaI-
ry-dash of enthusiasm, was simplicity
itself Caleb should contribute the raw
material-land, water and the ore
quarry-and it should also be his part
to secure a lease of the coal land from
Major Dabney. In the meantime he,
Farley, would undertake to float the
enterprise in the North, forming a
company and selling stock to provide
the development capital
A company was formed, the charter
was obtained, and the golden stream
began to flow into the treasury; into
it and out again in the raceway chan
nels of development. Thomas Jeffer-
son stood aghast when an army Of
workmen swept down on Paradise and
gegan to change the very face of ma
ture. But that was only the begin
ming.
For a time Chiawassee Coal and Iron
figured buoyantly in the market quo
tations, and delegations Of stockhold-
ers, both present and prospective, were
personally conducted to the scene OF
activities by enthusiastic Vice Presi-
dent Farley. But when these had
served their purpose a thing happened,
One fine morning it was whispered on
Change that Chiawassee iron would
not Bessemer, and that Chtawassee
coke had been rejected by the Southern
Association of Iron Shelters.
Following crash which was never
very clearly understood by the simple
hearted soldier iron-master, though II
was merely a repetition Of lesson we'll
conned by the earlier investors in
Southern coal and iron fields. Caleb's
craft was the making of iron; not the
financing Of top-heavy corporations,
60 when he was told that the comnanV
had failed, and that he and Farley had
been appointed receivers, he took 1t as
a financial matter, of course, some
what beyond his ken, and went about
his daily task Of supervision with 2
mind as undisturbed as 1t would have
been distraught had be known some
thing Of the subterranean mechanism
by which the failure and the receiver
ship had been brought to pass.
(To be continued.)