The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1916-09-15

Notwithstanding the preliminary ru-
mors which Bongras and many others
had sought so anxiously to verify, the
Metropolitan awakening to realization
that once more the tide had turned to
bring new pillows Of prosperity turn-
bling into the valley Of the Niquoia
came with a sudden and triumphant
shock.
The first of the quickening waves
fell upon the government reservation.
Between sunrise and nightfall, on q
day when the cloud Of depression had
grown black with panic threatenings,
the apathy which had lately character
lied the work on the great dam disap-
peared as IL by magic. The city found
its billboards posted with loud calls
for labor; the idle mixers were put in
commission; the quarries and crush
ers began to thunder again; and the
stagings once more shook and trembled
under the feet Of busy army OF pud'
dlers.
While the revival was as yet only IN
the embryonic period, fresh labor be
gan tc come in gangs and in carloads
and presently by special trains. Swarm
ing colonies Of Greeks, Italians and
Bulgarians were dumped upon the city
through the gate Of the railroad sta
ton, and once more Chigringo avenue
at night became cheerful midwa!
answering to the speech OF all ma
lions.
Change, identification, termination
instantly became the new order o
the day; and again Mirapolis flung II
self joyously into the fray, reapin
where it had not sown and sowin
only where the quickest crop could b
gathered. For now the dullest Of tn
reapers saw that the government wor
was really the Mirapolitan breath
life. Neither the Quickening Of tn
citys industries nor the restarting
the gold oredges in the Quadjeni
canals, the reopening Of the Real e
tate exchange nor the Buckskin col
pany's sudden resumption Of the prof
less prospecting on Jacks mounta
served to obscure the principal facts
that without the money the reclaim
ton service was disbursing the ne
prosperity structure would collap
like a house Of cards.
This new ard aforementioned CO
SictiCn wrought an eager change
men and In methods. Credit vanAh
and spot cash was tacitly acknoN
edged to be the only way to do Blu
ness in a live community. Forum
changed hands swiftly, as before,
now there was little bargaining al
with hot haste for the foreword, lit
time for it. To the western motto
Go to it and get the money" "
added: "And don't come back wi
out IT," 1t was said with a laugh,
behind the laugh there was q mena
ii Among the individual transform
tons wrought by the new condition
the young chief Of the reclamati
service afforded the most striking
ample. From the morning when he
summarily cancelled the lease for
offices in the Niquoia building and b
returned his headquarters to the
log buildings on the government res
walton and thence had issued his d
series Of orders for the resumption
full-force work on the dam and CAM
those who had not known him best {
covered that they had not known /
Il at all. Even to Grislow and the n
OF his staff he was curt, crisply man
tory. almost brutal. For one and
I there was rarely anything beyond
shotlike sentence: Drive it, M
drive It; that's what you're here 70
drive it,"
The time he took to eat his hurT
meals at Bongras' could be measa
in minutes, and what hours he g
to sleep no man knew, since he !
the last to leave the headquarters
night and the frst on the work in
morning Twice, after the rene
activities on the great wall had
come a well-ordered race against Il
and ths concrete was pouring into