The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1917-06-08

chase those thousands of acres of forest,
mountain, and stream which now be-
longed to them, a speculative lumber
man with no capital, named O'Hara,
built the white house across the river on
Few acres Of inherited property, settled
himself comfortably with his wife and
child, and prepared to acquire all the
timber in sight at few dollars an acre
.... on credit. For thus thought he,
is the beginning Of all milhonaires.
SO certain was O'Hara of ultimately
cornering the standing timber that he
took his time about it. never dreaming
that a rival might disturb him in the
wilderness of Sycamore County.
He began in the woodland which he
had inherited which ran for a mile on
either side of the river This he leisure
~ cut, hired few drivers, ran a few
logs to Foxville, and made money,
Now he was ready to extend business
on greater scale; but when he came to
open negotiations with the score or
more of landholders, he found himself
IN the alarming position of a bidder
against an unknown but clever rival,
who watched, waited, and quietly fore
stalled his every movement.
1t took a long time for O'Hara to
discover that he was fighting a COM
bination Of fifteen wealthy gentlemen
from New York. Finally, when the
Sycamore Club, limited to fifteen, had
completed operations, OHara sudden
ly perceived that he was bottled up in
the strip of worthless land which he
had inherited, surrounded by thousands
of acres Of preserved property
wltted, powerlcss, completely hemmed
in. And that, too, with the best log
driving water betwixt Foxville and
Canada washing the very door-still of
his own home.
At first he naturally offered to sell,
but the clubs small offer enraged him,
and he swore that he would never sell
them an inch Of his land. He watched
the new clubhouse which was slowly
taking shape under the trowels of mas
ons and the malets of carpenters; and
his wrath grew as grew the house.
The mans nature began to change; an
inextinguishablc hatred for these people
took possession of him, became his
mania, his existence.
His wife died; he sent his child to
convent school in Canada and remain
ed to watch. He did the club what
damage he could, posting his property
and as much of the river as he con-
tfolled But he could not legally pre-
vent fishermen from wading the stream
and fishing; SO he filled the waters with
sawdust, logs, barbed-wire, brambles,
and brush, choking it so that no living
creature, except perhaps a mink, could
catch fish in it.
The club protested and then offered
to buy the land on O'Hara's own terms
O'Hara cursed then and built dam
without a 6shway, and sat besides it
nights with a loaded shotgun.
He still had few dollars left; he
wanted millions to crush these rich men
who had come here to mock him and
take the bread out of his mouth for
their summers sport
He had a shrewd young friend in
New York, named Amasa Mum.
Through this man, O'Hara began to
speculate in every wildcat scheme that
squalled aloud for public support and
between Mum and the wildcats his
little fortune spread its wings of gold
and scared away, leaving him a wreck
on his wrecked land.
But he could still find strength to
watch the spite dam with his shotgun.
One day better scheme came into his
unbalanced brain; he broke the dam
and sent for Mum. Between them they
laid plan to ruin forever the trout-fish-
.,,,r IN tho and Mum folripU