The Washington times., 1923-09-10
By Charles G. Norris.

W. tremendously excited by
the possibilities of the
new state of thingse in the
real estate market. More prop
erty changed hands in three
months following the fire than
during the whole time that Bald
win & Lansing had been organ
lied. Wilbur was among the
first to see the temporary val
ues suddenly created in prop
erty that lay along the edge OF
the burnt district. and he was
able to secure some advantage
Gus leases before the situation
became generally apparent. Act
ing on his urgent advice, Philip
wired his brother in Vacaville to
borrow as much money as he
could from Dermot Phelan and
90 Immediately to Sacramento to
buy all the building material he
could find. Wilbur at once COM
menced to remodel the houses
he had leased, adapted them for
commercial needs. and erecting
cheaply constructed stores on
ground that had been made va
cant by the fire. Rents climbed
steadily.
Advice.
Cash in, now, while the. 60
ing's good" was Wilbur's daily
slogan. There's a slump COM
ing as sure as God made little
apples. Why? Because where
one house stood before the fire,
apartment houses are going up,
and twenty to thirty families
eventually will be living on ex-
actly the same number Of square
feet of ground formerly occupied
by one. Just as soon as they
begin building downtown again,
I'm going to sell every square
foot Of dirt own. That's your
Uncle Dudley"
Philip was too much engrossed
In adjusting his insurance claims
to give much thought to real
estate. He permitted Wilbur to
handle that end of their enter
prise without interference. He
had been left by the fire with
three or four useless pieces of
property upon his hands, but
his Fillmore street building fur
nished an excellent income.
While affairs at the office
kept him 50 busy, he was obliged
to stay in the city one, two,
sometimes three nights a week.
He explained to Wilbur and
Lucy he was living across the
bay with Constance in Pied
mont so as to see something Of
Paul 1t would have been awk-
ward to explain Mrs. Grotenberg.
He shrank from exposing either
himself or her to criticism. Their
intimacy was their own affair.
So far they had kept the mat
ter of their relationship to them
eelves.-nobody knew-and there
was no reason to believe any
one would ever know. Mrs. Grot-
enberg stuck closely to her little
peaked-roofed cabin, pottering
about the garden, digging up the
weeds, raking the gravel path,
watering her sickly carnations
and struggling nasturtiums, and
gave no time TO her neighbors
or held speech with them. Every
morning she walked down to the
markets and did her buying, pay
ing cash for what she bought.
During the long hours Of her
lonely day she planned but for
one thing: Philips return. What
she should say to him, what she
should do to amuse him, what
she should give him to eat oc-
cupied her mind. She had a
barrel of bottled beer sent out
from Oakland,-for Berkeley was
q temperance town,-and the
beer was always ready for him,
chilled to just the pleasant tenn
perature he liked.
A Popular Place.
When Philip worked late at
the office, he did not cross the
bay, but spent the night at Will
bur's house. No matter what
the hour of his arrival, he usual.
ly found his sister entertaining
. lew friends who had dropped
in for the evening. Her home
had been a popular refuge at
the time of the fire. When it
became apparent that the old
Pleasanton Hotel lay in the di-
rect path of the conflagation
and was doomed to the fiery
finish long predicted for it, Mrs.
Perry Hoyt and old Mrs. Tom
II