Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 131, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 June 1916 — Page 3

The City of Numbered Days

BYNOPBIS. Broulllard, chief engineer of the Nlqtiola Irrigation dam, meets J. Wesley Cort■wrtght and hie daughter, Genevieve, and explains the reclamation work to them. Cortwright sees In the project a big chance to make money. The financier tells Geneyleve that the engineer “Will come down and hook himself If the bait Is well covered.” Cortwright organises a company and obtains government contracts to furnish power and material for the dam construction. A busy city springs up about the site. Steve Masslngale threatens to start a gold rush If ®rouillard does not Influence President Ford to build a railroad branch to the place, thus opening an easy market far the ore from the •‘Little Susan” mine. On a visit to Amy Masslngale at her father s mine Broulllard finds she understands him betiter than he had thought. He tells her of Ihls need for money to pay off his dead father's debts and that to be free he would sacrifice anything save his love for one woman. Though hi# Influence Is vital to the building of the railroad extension she tells him to be true to himself. He decides for it. Mlrapolis, the city of numbered days, booms. Cortwright persuades Broulllard to become consulting engineer of the consolidated electric power company In return for SIOO,OOO stock.

What do you think of a hlghsalaried government employes who would “sell out" hia public trust for private gain—even If he did so in order to win happiness for the girl he loved? Isn’t this country suffering right now from too much of just that sort of thing?

CHAPTER IX

The Speedway

It was In the days after he had found on his desk a long envelope inclosing a certificate for a thousand shares Of stock In the Niquoia Electric !PoweSk Lighting and Traction company that Brouillard began to lose his nickname of "Hell’s-Fire” among his workmen, with the promise of attaining, in due time, to the more affectionate title of “the Little Big Boss.” At the envelope-opening moment, however, he was threatened yith an attack of heart failure. It was scarcely believable. But a hastily sought interview with the company’s president cleared the air of all the incredibilities.

“Why, my dear Brouillard! what in Sam Hill do you take us for?” was the genial retort when the young engineer had made „ his deprecatory protest “Did you think we were going to cut the melon and hand you out a piece of the rind? Not so, my dear boy; we are not built on any such narrow-gauge lines. That's what we are willing tb pay for a good, reliable government brake. It’S going to be your business to see to it that the reclamation service gets exactly what its contract calls for, kilowatt for kilowatt." "I’d do that, anyhow, as chief of construction on the dam.” "You mean you would try to do it. As an officer of the power company, you can do it; as an official kicker on the outside, you couldn’t feaze us a particle. What? You’d put us out of business? Not much, you wouldn’t; ■we'd play politics with you and get a man for your job who wouldn't kick.” “Well,” said the inheritor of sudden wealth, still matching the promoter’s mood, "you won’t get me fired now, that’s one comfort. When will you want my expert opinion on your auxiliary dam?”

"On our dam, you mean. Oh, any time soon; say tomorrow or Friday—or Saturday, if that hurries you too much. We sha’n’t want to go to work on It before Monday." Being himself an exponent of the modem theory that the way to do things is to do them now, Brouillard accepted the hurry order without comment. Celerity, swiftness of accomplishment that was almost magical, had become the Mirapolitan order of the day. Plans conceived overnight leaped to their expositions in things done as if the determination to do them had been all that was necessary to their realisation. "You shall have' the report tomorrow,” said the newly created consulting engineer, “but you can’t go to work Monday. The labor market is empty, and I’m taking it for granted that you’re not going to stampede my shovelers and concrete men.” “Oh, no," concluded the city builder, “we sha’n*t do that. You’ll admit—in your capacity of government watchdog—that we have played fair in that game. We have imported every workman we’ve needed, and we shall import more. That’s one thing none of ns can afford to do—bull, the labor market. And it won’t be necessary; we have a trainload of Italians and Bulgarians on the way to Quesado today, and they ought to be here by Monday." “You are a wonder, Mr. Cortwright,” was Brouillard’s tribute to the worker of modern miracles, and he went his way to ride to the upper end of the valley for the exploring purpose. On the Monday, as President Cortwrlght had so confidently predicted, the train load of laborers had marched In over the War Arrow trail and the work on the auxiliary power dam was begun. On the Tuesday a small army of linemen arrived to set the poles

By FRANCIS LYNDE

and to string the wires for the lighting of the town. On the Wednesday there were fresh accessions to the army of builders, and the freighters on the Quesado trail reported a steady stream of artisans pouring in to rush the city-making. On the Thursday the grading and paving of Chigringo avenue was begun, and, true to his promise, Mr. Cortwrigbt was leaving a right of way in the street for the future trolley tracks. And it was during this eventful week that the distant thunder of the dynamite brought the welcome tidings of the pushing of the railroad grade over the mountain barrier. Also —but this was an item of minor importance —it was on the Saturday of this week that the second tier of forms was erected on the great dam and the stripped first section of the massive gray foot-wall of concrete raised itself in mute but eloquent protest against the feverish activities of the miracleworkers. If the protest were a threat, it was far removed. Many things might happen before the gray wall should rise high enough to cast its shadow, and the shadow of the coming end, over the miraculous city of the plain. It was Broulllard himself who put this thought into words on the Sunday when he and Grislow were looking over the work of form raising and finding it good. “Catching you, too, is it, Victor?” queried the hydrographer, dropping easily into his attitude of affable cynicism. “I thought it would. But tell me, what are some of the things that may happen?”

“It’s easy to predict two of them: Some people will make a pot of money and some will lose out.” Grislow nodded. “Of course you don’t take any stock in the rumor that the government will call a halt?” Brouillard was shaking his head slowly. “I don’t pretend to have opinions any more, Grizzy. I’m living from day to day. If the tail should get big enough to wag the dog—” They were In the middle of the high staging upon which the puddlers worked while filling the forms and Grislow stopped short. “What’s come over you, lately, Victor? I won’t say you’re half-hearted, but you’re certainly not the same driver you were a few weeks ago, before the men quit calling you ‘Hell’s Fire.’ ” Brouillard smiled grimly. "It’s going to be a long job, Grizzy. Perhaps I saw that I couldn’t hope to keep keyed up tp concert pitch all the way through. Call It that, anyway. I’ve promised to motor Miss Cortwright to the upper dam this afternoon, and It’s time to go and do it.” It was not until they were climbing down from the staging at the Jack’s Mountain approach that Grislow acquired the ultimate courage of his convictions. -

“Going motoring, you said —with Miss Genevieve. That’s another change. I’m beginning to believe in your seven-year hypothesis. You are no longer a woman-hater." "Oh, bally! There are times when you make me feel as if I had eaten too much dinner, Grizzy! This is one of them. Put it in words; get it out of your system.” "It needs only three words: You are hypnotized. A month ago this citybuilding fake looked as crazy to you as it still does to those of us who haven’t been invited to sit down and take a hand in Mr. Cortwright’s little game. Now you seem to have gone over to the other side. You hobnob with Cortwright and do office work for him You know his fake la a fake; and yet I overheard you boosting it the other night in Poodles’ dining room to a tableful of money maniacs as if Cortwright were giving you a rake-off.”

Brouillard stiffened himself with a jerk as he paced beside his accuser, but he kept his temper. “You’re an old friend, Grizzy, and a mighty good one —as l have had occar sion to prove. It is your privilege to ease your mind. Is that all?” "No. You are letting Genevieve Cortwright make a fool of you. If you were only half sane you’d see that she is a confirmed trophy hunter. Why, she even gets down to young Griffith and uses him to dig out information about you. She—” "Hold on, Murray; there’s a limit, and you’ll bear with me if I say that you are working up to it now." Brouillard’s Jaw was set and the lines between his eyes were deepening. “I don’t know what you are driving at, but you’d better call it off. I can take care of myself.” “If I thought you could —if I only thought you could,” said Grlslow musingly. "But the indications all lean the other way. It would be all right if you wanted to marry her and she wanted you to; but you don’t —and she doesn’t. And, besides, there’s Amy; you owe her something, don’t you—or don’t you? You needn't grit your teeth that way. Yeu are only getting a part of what is coming to you. ’Faithful are the wounds of a friend,’/ you know."

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

“Yes. And when the psalmist Bad admitted that, he Immediately asked the Lord not to let their precious balms break his head. You’re all right, Grizzy, but I’ll pull through.” Then, with a determined wrenching aside of the subject: “Are you going up on Chigringo this afternoon?” "I thought I would—yes. What shall I tell Miss Masslngale when she asks about you?" **‘You will probably tell her the first idiotic thing that comes into the back part of your head. And if you tell her anything pifflous about me I’ll lay for you some dark night with a pick handle." __ Grislow laughed reminiscently. “She won’t ask,” he said. “Why not?” “Because the last time she did it I told her your scalp -was dangling at Miss Genevieve's belt.” They had reached the door of the log-built quarters and Broulllard spun the Jester around with a shoulder grip that was only half playful. “If I believed you said any such thing as that I’d murder you!" he exploded. “Perhaps you’ll go and tell her that—you red-headed blastoderm!” “Sure,” said the blastoderm, and they went apart, each to his dunnage kit.

CHAPTER X

Table Stakes

There were a dozen business blocks under construction in Mirapolis, with a proportional number of dwellings and suburban villas at various stages in the race toward completion, when it began to dawn upon the collective consciousness of a daily increasing citizenry that something was missing. Garner, the real estate plunger from Kansas City, first gave the missing quantity its name. The distant thunder of the blasts heralding the approach of the railroad had ceased between two days. Up to the period of the silenced dynamite thunderings new industries were projected daily, and investors, tolled in over the high mountain trails or across the Buckskin in dust-en-crusted automobiles by methods best known»to a gray-mustached adept in the art of promotion, thronged the lobby of the Hotel Metropole and bought and sold Mirapolis “corners” or “Insides” on a steadily-ascending scale of prices. A strange mania for holding on, for permanency, to have become epidemic. Many of the working men were securing homes on the instalment plan. A good few of the villas

“It Looks Bad—Devilish Bad.”

could boast parquetry floors and tiled bathrooms. One coterie of Chicagoans decided to build a - six-storied office building, with a ground floor corner for the Niquoia National bank with modern conveniences and that the chosen .building material shouid be of nothing less permanent than monolithic concrete. In harmony with the same spirit the newly incorporated Buckskin Gold Mining and Milling company plowed deep furrows to bed-rock across and back until the face of Jack's mountain was zigzagged and scarred like a veteran of many battles. In keeping was the energy with which Mr. Cortwright and his municipal colleagues laid water mains, strung electric wires, drove the paving contractors, and pushed the trolley line to the stage at which it lacked only the rails and the cars awaiting shipment by the railroad. This was the situation on the day when Garner, sharp-eared listener at the keyhole of opportunity, missing the dynamite rumblings, sent a cipher wire of inquiry to the East, got a "rush” reply, and began warily to unload his Mirapolitan holdings. Being a man of business, he ducked to cover first and talked afterward; but by the

time his hint had grown to rumor else Mr. Cortwright had sent for Broulllard. "Pull up a chair and have a cigar,” said the great man when Broulllard had penetrated to the nerve-eenter of the Mirapolitan activities to the Metropole suite and the two stenographers had been curtly dismissed. “Have you heard the talk of the street? There is a rumor that the railroad grading has been stopped." Broulllard, busy with the work of setting the third series of forms on his great wall, had heard nothing. "I’ve noticed that they haven’t been blasting for two or three days. But that may mean nothing more than a delayed shipment of dynamite,” was his rejoinder. "It looks bad —devilish bad.” The promoter was planted heavily in his piyot chair, and' the sandy-gray eyes dwindled to pin points. “We are up against it, that’s all. Read that,” and the promoter handed a telegram across the desk. The wire was from Chicago, was signed “Ackerman,” and was still damp from the receiving operator’s copying press. It fead:

"Work on P. S-W.’s Buckskin extension has been suspended for the present. Reason assigned, shrinkage in securities and uncertainty of business outlook in Niquoia.” Mr. Cortwright’s frown figured as a fleshly mask of irritability. “Let it once get out that the railroad people don’t believe in the future of Mirapolis and we’re done." Brouillard’s retort was the expression of an upflash of sanity. “Mlrapolis has no future; it has only an exceedingly precarious present.” For a moment the sandy-gray eyes became inscrutable. Then the mask of irritation slid aside, revealing the face which Mr. J. Wesley Cortwright ordinarily presented to his world — the face of imperturbable good nature.

"You’re right, Brouillard; Mirapolis is only a good joke, after all. Sometimes I get bamfoozled into the idea that tt isn’t—that it’s the real thing. That’s had for the nerves. But about this railroad fizzle; I don’t relish the notion of having our little joke sprung on us before we’re ready to laugh, do you? What do you think?” "It is not my turn to think, Mr. Cort? wright” “Oh, yes, it is; very pointedly. You re one of us, to a certain extent; and if you were not you would still be interested. A smash just now would hamper the reclamation service like the mischief; the entire works shut down, no cement, no lumber, no power; everything tied up In the courts until the last creditor quits taking appeals. Oh, no, Brouillard; you don’t want to see the end of the world come before it’s due.” It was the consulting engineer of the power company rather than the reclamation service chief who rose and went to the window to look down upon the morning briskness of Chigringo avenue. And it was the man who saw one hundred thousand dollars, the price of freedom, slipping away from him who turned after a minute or two of the absent street gasing and said: “What do you want me to do, Mr. Cortwright? I did put my shoulder to the wheel when Ford was here. I told him if I were in his place I’d take the long chance and build the extension.” “Did you—and before you had a stake in the game? That was a white man’s boost, right! Think you oould manage to get Ford on the wire and encourage him a little more?” "It isn’t Ford; it is the New York bankers. You can read that between the lines in your man Ackerman’s tele? gram." , The stock gentleman in the pivot chair thrust out his Jaw and tilted his freshly-lighted cigar to the aggressive angle. “Say. Brouillard, we’ve got to throw a fresh piece of bait into the cage, something that will make the railroad crowd sit up and take notice. By George, if those gold hunters up on Jack’s mountain would only stumble across something big enough to adver£}gg ** Brouillard started as if the wishful magic had been a blow. Like a hot wave from a furnace mouth it swept over him—the sudden realization that the means, the one all-powerful, earthmoving lever the promoter was so anxiously seeking, lay in his hands. "The Buckskin people, yes,” he said, making talk as the rifleman digs a pit to hold his own on the firing line. "If they should happen to uncover a gold reef Just now it would simplify mat? ters Immensely for Mirapolis, wouldn’t it? The railroad would come on, then, without a shadow of doubt. All the bankers in New York couldn’t hold It bftck* 11 Now came Mr. Cortwright’s turn to got up and walk to one of the windows. "Come here,” he called curtly, with a quick finger crook for the engineer, and whan Brouillard joined him: “Can you size up that little caucus over yonder?” The “caucus” was a knot of excited men blocking the sidewalk in front of Garner’s real estate office on the opposite side of the street The purpose “or the excited ones was not difficult to divine. They were alMrying to crowd into the Kansas City -man's place of business at once.

What steps will Brouillard and Cortwright take to stop the threatened panic and save themselves—or do-*'you think they will be able to get out of the mess without losing their Investments?

~7to~ be'continuedj*

PIT SILOS ARE CHEAP AND EASILY FILLED

(By A. S. NEALE, In Charge of Silo Construction, Extension Division, Kansas State Agricultural College.) During the past year a great many pit silos have been built in western Kansas. This type is suitable only to semiarid or arid sections. There Is a large proportion of the territory lying between the ninety-ninth meridian and the Sierra Nevada mountains that is suitable for the construction of these silos. East of the ninety-ninth meridian they should not be built except in very rare locations, where the land is

Starting a Pit Silo.

quite well drained and there is absolutely no danger of the soil becoming saturated with moisture to such an extent as to cause seepage water. These are round silos, built by digging a trench six to eight inches wide and two feet deep, which is filled with cement, making a concrete collar or curb. The dirt is then excavated inside the curb and on down to the

ARSENATE OF LEAD KILLS CHERRY SLUG

When Cherries Are Half Grown Use Either White Hellebore or “Black Leaf 40.” (By C. P. GILLETTE, Agricultural College, Fort Collins, Colo.) Whether or not the cherry trees bear a crop, they should be protected against the loss of foliage from the attacks of the pear and cherry tree slug. When the cherries are very small, the trees may be sprayed with arsenate of lead in the proportion of one pound of the paste to each 30 gallons of water. Instead of using the arsenate of lead, after the cherries are half grown or more, use either white hellebore in Jhe proportion of one ounce to three gallons of water, or “Black Leaf 40" in the proportion of one part to 800 parts of water, and make a thorough spraying for the purpose of covering the upper surfaces of the leaves. The “Black Leaf 40” will only, kill the slugs with which it comes in contact, while the hellebore will kill all slugs that eat it for several days after the application is made. The advantage of using the hellebore or “Black Leaf 40" after the fruit is well grown is that they do not endanger the people who eat the cherries after they are ripe. If one has only a few small cherry trees, the slugs may be quite easily removed by thoroughly dusting the foliage in the heat of the day with air-slaked lime or fine road dust

Keep Horse Comfortable.

The horse that is compelled to fight flies continually cannot get In a full day’s work, or at least if it does there is loss in stamina which eventually tells on the life-work of the animal. Neither can it do its best with an illfitting harness. The horse that is comfortable and in good spirits is the one which makes the record. ft - ■■■■- 1 :

Fresh Water for Pigs.

Keeping a generous supply of fresh water at hand for the young pigs is important. This can be easily done If an automatic fountain is used. The bedding should be clean an<L>dry even If the weather is warm. Dijpping the pigs occasionally, and disinfecting the quarters frequently will prevent disease. ‘

sheep Provide Food.

Sheep should—be kept to supf>ly meat for the household. The farmer Is much prone to confine his meat diet ■to salt meat, as for Instance to salt pork, and largely for the reason that in this form meat is most easily kept.

Look After Early Chicks.

Look well after the early chicks. They will pay well ff good treatment, otherwise it is best not to hare any'at aIL

Pit Silo Nearing Completion.

depth desired, keeping the wall perpendicular and smooth, and plastering with cement plaster to a thickness of three-fourths to one inch over the dirt. These silos can in most cases be built at a total cost of not to exceed SI.OO per ton capacity for labor and materials, and when properly constructed in suitable locations, are per-* manent. They cannot be constructed according to the above plan where the soil 1 is so sandy that it will not stand up. In such cases it is necessary to put in a retaining wall of masonry, the expense of which will usually be ss much as the construction of a silo above ground. These pit silos are not only very economical to build, but they can bo filled very cheaply, as only light engines and cutters are necessary for this purpose. They are particularly to be recommended for the small Isolated farmer of the great plains region, who wishes to own his silo-filling machinery, and whose available capital is limited. To take the silage out a hoisting apparatus, either a swinging crane or an overhead track is used, lifting tho silage in a container with a hinged bottom, so that the feed may be dumped into a wagon box or silage distributor, as desired. In cases where an overhead track Is used, the feed may be taken directly from the container and placed before the animals. The experience of farmers who have been using the pit also Is very satisfactory, and this will undoubtedly be the principal type of silo built in the future in the semiarid sections.

SUGGESTIONS MADE FOR TESTING MILK

Sample Should Be Taken Quickly in Order to Get Correct T*st— Plan Outlined. (By C. P. UNWIN, Oklahoma Experiment Station.) Testing milk Is the process of finding the amount of butterfat it contains. In order to make an accurate test a correct sample must be taken in this manner: The milk should be poured from one vessel to another and the sample quickly taken, for if the sample is not taken at once, more or less cream will rise, and a sample would not be correct. After getting the sample for testing the next step would be to measure 17.5 cc with the milk pipette into the milk bottle, and then add about the same amount of sulphuric acid, depending on the strength of the acid. The specific gravity of the acid should be 1.83 to 1.83 for the best results. The acid should be added with the acid cylinder, revolving the bottle while adding the acid. Mix acid and milk by rotary motion. Place them in tester so that the machine is balanced. Run the machine for about five minutes. Then add hot water until the fat rises into the neck of bottles. Then run the tester about two minutes and add enough water so the fat has risen above the zero mark on the neck of the bottle. The bottle may then bo read by using a pair of dividers to measure the fat column.

POINTS IN SEEDING ALFALFA FOR STAND

Soif is Plowed in Spring or Fall and Limed if Keep Weeds Down. For the beginner seeding the alfalfa alone gives the best results. The soil is plowed in the fall or early spring and limed if necessary. Then the field is disked and harrowed often enough up to the Ist of June or July to clean the land of weeds. On average fields this weed killing process need not be continued later than the first week in June, but with a weedy soil It Is well to harrow and disk until July or August. The field is then inoculated and the alfalfa seeded at not less than 20 pounds per acre. With a favorable season one crop or two crops of hay are sometime# secured before September I, but this is entirely dependent on the rainfall and soil conditions.

Watch the hogs, especially the little pigs. and keep them from becoming lousy. •' ■ :-ipgg

Lice on Pigs.