The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-01-31
@ me eeaas5MeeezL coDeEHy

De CeFLAlQ aDOuI LOmOrTOW. lime enough to know that tomorrow meant Tucsonl What was that threadbare proverb in the Overland Pacific that Tod Marshall always keeps his men until they lose their teeth? That de fined the men who made themselves necessary
 His eyes were resting on the banall- ties of the modern city that had robbed "old town" of it's flavor. Were ir not for the beauty of the distant hills, the roar called to nearby pleasure cities, twinkling lights and crowded theaters, stretches of parks and recreation grounds, he, who loved the thrill and confinement of an engine, who had found enticement in desert, a cha~- ter of adventure in the barrancas of Mexico, would stife In Tucson Amer ican progress was as yet too thin veneer on Mexican indifference to make the place endurable-Hs city.
 ''I'm good for lifetime here, if want it." his thoughts would work back to the starting place. If knuckle down to 1t, let him grow to
 depend on me, it's as good as settled that l am buried in Tucson" Hadn't he heard Marshall himself say that he didn't keep kindergarten-that his office wasn't q training school for men" He wanted his men to stay
 That, one of the reasons of the great mans power; detail rested on the
 shoulders of his employees. It kept his own brain clear, receptive to big achievements.
 Perhaps as the work unrolls, as see more of what he wants of me, why he wants me, I may like 1t, may get to shout for Tucson! p It was impos- sible enough to smile over! Childs work, compared to Mexico.
 The distinction of serving Marshall
 well certainly had its drawbacks. He wanted to sweep on. Whether he had
 q definite terminal, a concrete goal, had he ever stopped to think? Spe-
 cialization had always a fascination for him. It vas that which had thrown him out of his instructorship into the tirebox of a western engine. 1 It had governed his course at college ! to know one thing well, and then to | prove that he knew it welli Content
 ed in the Mexican barracks, here he i was chafing, restive after few weeks of Tucson. For what was he getting here? Adding what scrap of
 experience to the rounding of his pro ! fession2
 1 Retrospectively engineering could 1 hardly be said to be the work of his 1 choice. Rather had It appeared to choose him. From boyhood engineers l had always been, to him, the soldiers l Of modern civilization. To conquer
 and subdue mountains, to shackle wild
 rivers, to suspend trestles over dizzy heights, to throw the tracks of an ad-
 yancing civilization along newly
 blazed trail, there would always be a
 thrill h it for him. It had changed
 the best quarterback of his high school
 into the primmeSt of students at col lege. Only for short time had he let
 hIs vanity sidetrack him, when the
 honor of teaching what he had learned
 stopped his own progress. A rut l.
 He remembered the day when 1t had
 burst on him, the realization of the
 rut he was in. He could see his Law
 renee schooIroom, could see yet the
 face under the red-haired mop belong
 ing to Jerry Afatson-queer he remem-
 bered the name after all those years
 nation when he threw down his book
 and announced his desertion.
 He had handed in his resignation
 the next day. A month later and he
 was shovelng coal on the steep grades
 of Wyoming.
 Marshall keeps his men with him '
 The engineers glance travelled around
 the fleckless office. A stranger to Mar shall would get a wrong idea of tht man wliu worked in 1t! Those preclS' files, the desk, orderly and polished the gleaming linoleum-and then tn man who made the negro janitor's Tiff : q proud burden! Ills clothes alway crumpled-spots, too, unless his Clau dia had had chance at them! Blacl
 string tie aSkew, all the outward wis ible signs of the southern gentleman l Of assured ancestry. Not even a vale would ever keep Tod Marshall up t the standard of that office. What di } he have servants for, he had demand r ed of Rickard if it were not to jun l after him. picking up the loose end ? he droppedf
 = Curious thing, magnetism. ThG ? mans step or the stair and ever ? ! man-jaCk of them would jump to a | tention, from Ben, the colored janito ? who would not swap his post for s mcclure so long as Tod Mashalrs on 5 lung kept him in Arizona. to Smyth ) the stoop-Shouldered clerk, who ha = followed Marshalrs cough from Sa l Francisco. It was said in Arizona {. he himself had met the statement Tucson-that any man who had ev' 1. worked for Tod Marshall would ratht 2 be warmed by the reflection of h - greatness than be given posts of De 7 sonal distinction.
 r Was it office routine Marshall i | tended him for? He admired withol l stint Tod Marshall, but he preferrt {; 10 work by the side of the other kin T the strong men. without physical ha 5, dicar. the men who take risks, u l. me- who live the life of soldiers. Tn }. was the life he wanted. He wou