Cleveland County herald., 1920-06-17

had been considerable of a jackass ! myself"
 "Yes," Bryce admitted, "there can be no doubt but that you cut off your nose to spite your face"
 His thoughts harked back to that first season of logging in the San Hedrin, when the cloud-burst had caught the river filed with Cardigan logs and whirled then down to the bay, to crash through the leg-boom at tidewater and continue out to the open sea.
 The old man appeared to divine the trend of his sons thoughts. Yes, Bryce, that was disastrous year, he declared. "The mere loss of the logs was a severe blow, but ip addl- ton I had to pay out quite q little money to settle with my customers. was loaded up with low-priced orders that year, although l didn't expect to make any money. The orders were merely to keep the men employed You understand, Bryce! had good crew, the finest in the country and if had shut down, my men would have scattered and-well, you know how hard 1t is to get that kind of crew together again. Besides, l had never failed my boys before, and l couldn't bear the thought of failing them then. Half the mills In the country were shut down at the time, and there was lot of distress among the unemployed. I couldn't do It, Bryce"
 Bryce nodded And when you lost the logs, you couldn't fill those low priced orders. Then the market com menced to jump and advanced three dollars in three months-
 Exactly my son. And my GUS toners began to crowd me to fill those old orders. I couldn't expect them to suffer with me my failure to perform my contracts, while unavoidable, never theless would have caused them serious loss, and when they were forced to buy elsewhere, 1 paid them the difference between the price they paid my competitors and the price at which they originally placed their or ders with me. And the delay caused them further loss.'
 He smoked meditatively for min- ute. i've always been land-poor," he explained apologetically. "Whenever l had idle money, I put it into timber in the San Hedrin watershed, because I realized that some day the railroad would build in from the south, tap that timber and double it's value. I've not as yet found reason to doubt the wisdom of my course; but''--he sighed -'sthe railroad is long time com- ingl
 John Cardigan here spoke of most important factor in the situation. The crying need of the country was feeder to some transeontinental railroad. By reason of natural barriers, Humboldt county was not easily accessible to the outside world except from the sea, and even this avenue of ingresS and egress would be closed for days at stretch when the harbor bar was on a rampage. With the exception of strip of level, fertile land, perhaps five miles wide and thirty miles long and contiguous to the seacoast, the heavily timbered mountains to the north, east, railroad that would connect Humboldt county with the outside world a pro- foundly difficult and expensive task
 Don't worry. Dad. It will come" Bryce assured his father. Its bound to-"
 "Yes. but not in my day. And when it comes, a stranger may own your San Hedrin timber and reap the re- ward of my lifetime of labor"
 Again a silence fell between them broken presently by the old man. ''That was mstake-logging in the San Hedrin," he observed T had my lesson that first year, but I didn't heed it. If I had abandoned my camps there, pocketed my pride, paid Colonel Pennington two dollars for his Squaw creek timber, and rebuilt my old logging road, I would have been safe to-day. But was stubborn I'd played the game so long, you know-I didn't want to let that man Pennington outgame me It's hard to teach an old dog new tricks and be- sides, I was obsessed with the need of protecting your heritage from at- tack in any direction"
 John Cardigan strengthened up in his chair and laid the tip of his right index finger in the center of the palm of his left hand. Here was the sit :. uation, Bryce: The center of my palm represents Sequoia; the ends of my fingers represent the San Hedrin timber twenty miles south. Now, if the railroad built in from the south you would win. But if it built in from Grants Pass, Oregon, on the north from the base of my hand, the terminus of the line would be Sequoia. twenty miles from your timber iii the San Hedrin watershed !'
 Bryce nodded. "In which eyent,' he replied, "we would be in much the same position with our San Hedrin timber as Colonel Pennington is with | his Souaw creek timber We wouId