Connecticut western news., 1919-11-06

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 "Shoot!' he said again, but this time with less impatience.
 "That's better" said Conward. "Have you ever thought of the future of this tOwn?"
 "Well, can't say that I have. I've been busy with it's present"
 That's what 1 supposed. You've been too busy with the details of your little job to give attention to bigger things. Now let me pass you few pieces of infOrmation-things you must know, but you have never put them together before. What are the natural elements which make a coun- try or city desirable place to live? I'll tell you. Climate, transportation, good water, variety of landscape, Op- portunity of independence. Given these conditions, everything else. can be added. Then there's transpOrta- tiOn. This is one Of the few centerS in America which has q North-and- South trade equal to it's East-and-West trade. We're on the crossroads. Every settler who goes into the NOrth-and 1t is q mighty Ncrth-mc"ns more North-anG~South trade. 1 tell you, Dave, rnp movement is on now, ana before long it'll lit us like tidal wave I've been a bit of a gambler all my life. hut this is the biggest jackpot ev,.r was, and I'm going to sit in. How about you?'
 >"Td like to think it over. Promo ton doesn't come very fast on this job, that's sure"
 "Yes, and while you are thinking it over chances are slipping by. Don't think it Over-put it over. l tell you, Dave there are big things in the air. They are beginning to move already. Have you noticed the strangers in town of late? That's the advance guard"
 Advance guard of a real estate bOom?"
 ''Hish! That's a bad word. Get away from it. Say Industrial deyel- opment.'
 Let me elaborate. We'll say AlkaH Lake is a railway station where lots go begging at a hundred dollars each. In drops a Well-dreSSed Stranger-bUyS ten lots at a hundred and fifty each and the old-timers are chuckling over sticking him. But in drops another stranger and buys a block of lots at two hundred each. Then the old timers begin to wonder if they didn't sell too sOon By the time the fourth or fifth stranger has dropped in they are dead sure of it, and they are try ing to buy their lots back. All sorts of rumors get started, nobody knows ! how. New railways are coming, big factories are, to be started, minerals have been located, there's a secret war | on between great mOneyed interests. The town council meets and changes l the name to Silver City-haVing re- gard no doubt, to the alkali in the slough water. The old-timers, and all that great, innocent public which is forever hoping to get something for nothing, are now glad to buy the lots at five hundred to ten thousand dollars each, and by the time they've bought | it up the gang moves on. It's the smootheSt game in the world, and every community will fall for it at
 
 "Of course, it's little different in this case, because there really is some thing in the way of natural advantages to support it. It's not all hot air. "Now, Dave, I've been dipping in a | little already, and it struck me we might work together on this deal. l Your paper has considerable weight, and if that weight falls the right way you won't find me stingy. For instance, an item that this property"-he pro- duced slip with some legal descrip- tions-"has been sold for ten thousand i dollars to eastern investors very conservative investors from the East | don't forget that-might help to turn another deal that's just hanging. Sorry to keep you so long, but perhaps you can catch the press yet" And with one of his friendly mannerisms Con- ward departed.
 Dave sat for some minutes in a ] quandary. He was discouraged with l his salary, or, rather, with the lack of | prospect of any increase in his salary. 1 COnward'S words had been very unset ting. They pulled in opposite direc- tions. They fired him with a new en- 1 thusiasm for his city, and they inti- 1 mated that. a gang of professional 1 land-gamblers was soon to perpetrate an enormous theft, leaving the public holding the sack. Still, there must be a middle course somewhere.
 At any rate, he could use Conward's story about the land sale. That was neWs-legitimate nevs. Of course, it might be a faked sale-faked for it's news value-but reporters are not paid for being detectives. The Evening Call carried a statement of Conward's sale, and on that statement was hung a col umn story on the growing prosperity of the city and it's assured future, ow- ing to it's exceptional climate and natural resources, combined with it's