Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1917-06-07


Smith Knew What He Had Done.
"Stanton, the real-estate man?"
'The same"
Again the president stared thought
fully at the glowing end of his cigar.
There's another of the COMPOUNDED
mysteries" he grOwled. 'Who is Craw-
ford Stanton, and what Is he here for?
/ know what he advertises, but every
body in Brewster knows that he hasn't
made a living dollar in real estate
since he came here last summer. VIII
Hams, do you know, I'm beginning to
suspect that there is q mighty big
niger In our little wood pi1ef"
"YOu mean that all these stubborn
holdups have been bought and paid
for? You'll remember that is what
Billy Starbuck tried to tell us when
the first Of the missing mining-claim
owners began to shout at US"
"Starbuck has a long head, and what
he doesn't know about mining claims in
this part of the country wouldn't fill a
very big book. / remember he said
there had never been any prospecting
done in the upper Timanyoni gulches,
and now you'd think half the people in
the United States had been nOsing
around up there with a pick and shovel
at one time or another. But it was a
thing that Starbuck told me no longer
ago than yesterday that set me to
thinking" Baldwin went on. "As you
know, the old Escalante Spanish grant
corners over in the western part of this
park. When the old grants were made,
they were ruled off on the map with
out reference to mountain ranges OF
other natural BARRIERS"
Williams nodded.
'Well, as say, one corner of the Els,
calante reaches over the Hophras and
out into the park, covering about eight
or ten square miles of the territory
just beyond us on our side of the river.
Starbuck told me yesterday that a big
Eastern colonization company had got
a bill through congress alternating that
tract"
The chief of construction bounded
OUT of his chair and began to walk the
floor. by GeOrge" he said; and
again: "By GeorgeI That's what
were up against, colonell Where will
those fellows get the water for their
land? There Is no site for q dam lower
down than ours, and, anyway, that land
lies too high to be watered by any
thing but nighttime ditchI'
growled Baldwin. 'If we hadn't been
q lot of hayseed amateurs we might
have found out long ago mat someone
was running in a cold deck on US.
What's your notion? Are we done up,
world without end?"
Williams laugh was grim.
What we need, colonel, is to go out
on the street and yell for a DOCTOR" he
said. ITS beginning to look as If we
had acquired pretty bad case of ma
lignant strangle-itis."
Baldwin ran his fingers through his
hair and admitted that he had lost his
sense of humor.
This Eastern crowd is trying to
freeze us out, to get our dam and reser-
voir and ditch rights for their Esca-
lante scheme When they do, they'll
turn around and sell us water-at fifty
dollars an inch. or something like
that I"
What breaks my heart is that we
haven't been able to surround the sure
enough fact while there was still time
TO do something" lamented the ex-
reclamation man. 1.-THE first thing we
know, Stanton will own a majority of
the stock and be voting US all out of
a job. You'll have TO come around to
my suggestion, after all, and advertise
for doctor" It was said Of the chief
of construction that he would have
joked on his death-bed, and, as a fol-
lower for the Joke he added; why
don't you Ca Smith In and give him
the job?"
"You don't really mean that, VIII
liams. do your growled the colonel.
mo, didn't mean 1t when I said it"
was the engineers admission: 81 was
only trying to get rise out of you. But
really, colonel, on second thought, ]
don't know but it is worth considering.
AS I say, Smith seems to know the
money game from start to finish. What
is better still, he is fighter from the
word go-what you might call joyous
fighter. Suppose you drive out tomor-
row or next day and pry into him a
little"
The rancher-president had relapsed
once more into the slough of discour-
agement.
''You are merely grabbing for hand
holds, Bartley-as I was minute ago.
We are In a bad row of stumps when
we can sit here and talk seriously
about roping down a young hobo and
putting him into the financial harness.