The Detroit times., 1913-05-31
How should l know" demanded

| ochpou SHARPLY.
| Il did not know but that you
might have formed some opinion
ventured the Judge with a slightly
embarrassed air.
| He became silent He settled his
stock, and took his tall hat from the
table at his elbow. and Benson fell
TO pulling over the papers on his
desk.
| When you are ready. Jake, TO look
into what | have done In your alb.
sence-' remarked the Judge. about
to take his leave.
In day or two. have had
pretty long holiday, you know"
We'll. whenever you are ready"
said the Judge. quitting the room.
Benson turned frowning TO the pa
pers on his desk
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIx.
When the railroad came to Ben
son, It reached down from lake
port, feeble little tentacle of iron
which joined another feeble tentacle
that had pushed up from river
point. Theoretically, its coming was
In response to the towns need, be.
! cause OF its mills and warehouses.
and the bounty of its waving fields
OF grain; SO Colonel Sharp declared
in an editorial which contained
much Latin, some very superior Eng.
lish. and numerous illusions to des-
tiny; and the town. lacking not In
local pride. and having had dreams
| OF civic greatness, was prepared to
believe that its Importance as a COM
| m tnv tka No.
drew the road thither.
But Jacob Benson and. some others
knew that the real reason the rail
road came, was that they had ex.
| changed certain dollars for uncertain
stock; that but for this. the line
would have sought the town OF Car
thage, distant some twenty miles to
the east, where the air was heavy
with the reek of soft-coal smoke. the
| chimneys Of the blast furnaces blazed
INCREASINGLY In the night, and
small but active population worked.
drank, and fought. beyond what was
habitual to any other population OF
its size In the state
While the general public was fav-
. orable to the road there were Ger.
tain wise ones who chung with salts.
faction to the memory OF days when
| the pioneer turned the corn OF his
clearing into whisky: his wheat into
-four; and RATED his produce down
the Little Wolf river, and thence BY
the Ohio and Mississippi TO New
Orleans. where boat and cargo were
exchanged for Spanish silver These.
obviously regarding what the world
| In its short-sighted folly was pleased
10 call progress. pointed out that
even yet. all the town traded In,
found its way conveniently enough
| by the stage road to lake or river
point; SO it mattered not that the
Little Wolf had become a failing
! stream. flowing through depleted for.
| est lands; so shallow. where it had
| once fioated great RATS, that now
the slightest skin was steered with
| difficulty among the encroaching
sand.
, These ancient oracies. looking back
over forty years through haze OF
pleasant memories, took no stock In
Colonel Sharps mouth-filing SEN
fences. They declared that the ad-
vent of the railroad meant the town
ruin, for how could a town reasonably
er one end or the other OF a line?
For full ten years there had been
talk of this railroad, but when 1t did
come and when the first brief wonder
OF II was past. IL was at once as IA
miliar thing; even In the full efful-
gence Of its newness. II was not quite
miracle; 1t had been a miracle wher
! nifty miles away: II was still q mir
acle when this distances had been re-
duced to ten miles; and then when
the first train steamed into Benson,
! the wonder seemed almost AS remote
as the day when the first horse was
broken and ridden by the first man.
that prehistoric genius who had found
his own legs all too short for the
work they must do.
The railroad came to the town OF
Benson the year Benson, the man. re-
turned from the West II came visibly
one cold February day in furry or
snow, and with the fall OF twilight;
puffing, painting engine, OF even
then obsolete type, drawing single
dingy coach. once spectacularly deck
ed with streamers and flags. now wet
and bedraggled. II rumbled out of
the deep cut north Of town, at a rate
of speed variously estimated by the
crowd OF men at the station at from
10 to 80 miles an hour.
Young Jacob Benson, as stock.
holder, with certain other public
spirited citizens. who between them
had taken some hundreds OF shares I'm
the enterprise, formed little group
with Mr.. Cammack, the mayor; Cap
tain Tompkins, the sheriff; Mr.. Bent
ly. the postmaster; the members OF
the town council, Colonel Sharp OF the
Pioneer, and Judge Brady, whose
presence could be counted on at any
public gathering. where there was the
slightest possibility OF argument or
oratory, for both OF which. SO emf
nent an authority as Colonel Sharp
had declared him singularly fitted.
This opinion having been carried TO
the Judge. It had provoked a sentiment
lof such tropic warmth on his part,