Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1928-05-21

and Laws and Bradfields. The names
over the store fronts around the
Green told the story. There, Just as
they'd always been. unaware you'd
think Of the newly ~polyglot, be-
wilderingly alien America Of the
nineteen-twenties, you'd find the old
English Foxes and Lakes and Deans
and Edens and Poores and Swans.
But however Of the new
forces old Ackland might have been
during their beginnings. that Gar
Cantuan new America had reached
and changed the town. The age or
had taste. back in the eighteen
eighties and nineties, touched II first.
A few bald brick structures stood
out like sore thumbs among the
g~able-roofed, chimney-potted old
buildings around the Green.
The rebuilding ar breckenridge
drug store. a little later. had been
unfortunate. The new fire station
had a strident air. And though the
factory and tenement blight had
luckily skipped the Center 70 alight
At Ackland Corners. two or three
miles away. where there was a rail-
way junction, nothing could have
MtIL N4N AnE NtsMNAAAVWAAGEa &@N
swarmed in with the new century
like n plague Of beetles, bringing aft
cr them macadamized roads and citi-
fled traffic policemen and filling sta
tiOns and hot dog stands and rum
runners and the new young sort of
narcotic-fed criminals. and all the
mixed benefits and the ugly litter Of
what is commonly termed Progress.
Tie = ~r uAws.gVu HuwnvHU arTpa
stirred by night parking along coun-
try lanes. and by whispers Of n
spreading Generalization among the
young poole Of high school age. The
motion pictures got in. over a spirit
ed opposition, bringing a dubious
gospel OF sensationaiism. q new sort
Of talk about sex appeal. and n de-
bauchery Of sober taste that couldn't
be headed off. The radio followed,
with its disarminglv miraculous air,
thrusting Jazz and the twsnging jar
0 Of a chesply restless age within
the four walls Of nearly every home
In town.
Old Ackland staggered, but carried
on as we'll as 10 could. There APP
peared 20 be compcnsations. The
swarming motorists spent money in
the town. Breckenridge's new soda
fountain was twice as big az the
old one. Jim Swan bought the Bea-
don property next door TO the bak-
cry. and built an addition with a
white lunchroom on the street. Real
property values were looking Up.
Old Joe Harmer. who wore a full
beard and smoked fifteen-cent cigars
and ran the coal and feed business
down by the tracks and owned CON
siderable land and was head select
man, didn't appear 10 be worried. In
his quiet substantial way he talked
prosperity. and she grocers and but
chers and druggists and hardware
men listened. And 20, swiftly, a
town that had been beautiful began
TO look. in spots, flimsy and ugly.
In the general hewiiderment only
the Age stood firm. For the flavor
and tone of old Ackland.' Young Ham
Pew. rising to the situation with a
good deal Of the old mans courage
and wit. fought the new disorders
motion pictures. hot dog shacks,
tourist camps. commercial dance
halls-fought them all, and lost.
When. by way Of y sort Of climax.
a pair of swarthy aliens from no.
where applied for \ permit 10 open
a pr~etentious roadhousc actually
within the town. not two miles from
the Center. the historic editorial col
umn Of the Age fairly Numbered.
There were public hearings. in the
town hall, private arguments IN
Breckenridge's and in sam Buttons
barber shop; much anxious comment
in the ~seclusion OF pleasantly digni-
fled homes.
In the course of time the selectmen
gave those aliens a ~victualler's Ii
cense; and n colonial mansion was
rebuilt. with glassed-in porches, IN
a pine grove conveniently aside from
the state road.
The place. LAKELAND, was opened.
Liquor flowed, Of course. Girls Of
the town were lured there. Motor
lists from Boston. from Worcester,
from God knew where. foregathered.
Fights occurred. Nearly every Mon
day brought reports Of drunken road
accidents.
Young Ham refused their adver-
Using ana hammered relentlessly on.
Every week he hit out. But the
swarthy ones shrewdly bought their
provisions az the Center. This and
that citizen began 20 be heard of as
a freduenter of the place.
This r~oadhouse mas much TO do
with the story.
Young Ham seemed, when you met
him, n modern enough product. He'd
been 10 college. He came back from
France a captain Of artillery. He'd
had contacts enough: knew the
world pretty well, indeed. he