Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1911-01-12
CHAPTER VII.

CHAPTER VII.
From the grave and thoughtful van
tage- ground of 10, Thomas Jefferson
could look back on the second Illness OF
Ardea Dabney as the closing incident
of his childhood. The industrial
changes which were then beginning,
not only for the city beyond the noun
tain, but for all the region round about.
had rushed swiftly on Paradise; and
the old listless life of the unhastine
period soon receded quickly into far
away past, rememberable only when
one made an effort to recall it,
First had come the completion Of the
Great Southwestern. Diverted by the
untiring opposition of Major Dabney
from it's 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 animosities, the part which Calet
Gordon and his gun crew had played
in the right of-way conflict was ig-
nored. The way station at the creek
crossing was named Gordonia, and II
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 coking coal
on Mount Lebanon, the installation oil
cooking 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-
| mentarily. on the station platform IL
| South Tredegar, the expanded, hailed
from Cleveland, Ohio; was, as he wa,
| fond of saying pompously, citizen o.
no mean city. His business in the re.
awakening South was that of an in
termediary between cause and effect
the cause being the capital of confidiut
investors in the North, and the effec
the dissipation of the same in variou,
an0 sundry development schemes IL
the new iron field.
| To Paradise, in the course of his go
| ings to and fro, came this purger o
| other mems purses, and he saw tn,
fortuitous grouping of the possibilities
| at glance: abundant iron of goot
quality; an accessible vein of coal, sec
| ond only to Pocahontas for cooking
land cheap, water free, and a persuad
able subject in straightforward, sim
hearted Caleb Gordon.
Farley had no capital, but he ha,
moter's field; namely, the ability T.
reap where others had sown. His plan
| outlined to Caleb in a sweeping cavai
ry-dash of enthusiasm, was simplicit
| itself. Caleb should contribute the raw
material-land, water and the or
Quarry-and it should also be his par
to secure a lease of the coal land from
Major Dabney. In the meantime he
Farley, would undertake to float tn
enterprise in the North, forming
company and selling stock to provid
the development capital.
A company was formed, the charte
was obtained, and the golden strear
began to flow into the treasury; int
1T and out again in the raceway chan
nels OF development. Thomas Jeffer
son stood aghaSt when an army @
workmen swept down on Paradise an
began to change the very face of ma
ture. But that was only the begin
ming.
For time Chiawassee Coal and Iro
figured buoyantly in the market quo
tations. and delegations of stockhold
ers. both present and prospective. wer
personally conducted to the scene c
activities by enthusiastic Vice-Presi
dent Farley. But when these ha
served their purpose a thing happene,
Change that Chiawassee iron woul
not Bessemer, and that Chiawasse
coke had been rejected by the Souther
Association of Iron Shelters.
Following a crash which was neve
! very clearly understood by the simple
! hearted soldier iron-master, though
was merely a repetition of lesson we
conned by the earlier investors
, Southern coal and iron fields. Caleb
; craft was the making of iron; not IL
J financing of top-heavy corporation
So. when he was told that the compan
: had failed, and that he and Farley ha
been appointed receivers, he took 1t {
a financial matter, of course, some
what beyond his ken, and went abol
/, his daily task of supervision with
t mind as undisturbed as it would ha,
been distraught had be known som,
' thing of the subterranean mechanis
8 by which the failure and the receives
( ship had been brought to pass.
(To be continued.)
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