Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 142, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 June 1916 — Page 2

The City of Numbered Days

SYNOPSIS. —l2 Brouillard, chief engineer of the Niquofa irrigation dam, meets J. Wesley Cortwright and explains the reclamation work to him. Cortwright organizes a company nit government contracts to furnish power and material. Steve Massingale threatens to start a gold rush if Brouillard does not use his influence to bring a railroad branch to the place, thus opening an easy market for the “Little Susan" mine ore. Brouillard tells Amy Massingale of his need for money to pay off his dead father’s debts. She tells him to' be true to himself. He decides for the extension. Mirapolis, the city of numbered days, booms. Cortwright persuades Brouillard to become consulting engineer of the power company in return for SIOO,000 stock. Stoppage of work on the railroad threatens a panic. Brouillard spreads the Massingale story of placer gold in, the river bed and starts a gold rush, which promises to stop the reclamation project Amy tells Brouillard that her father Is in Cortwright’s financial clutches. He tells her he has made SIOO,000 and declares his love. She loves him, but shows him that he has become demoralized. A real gold find is made. Brouillard *Hs his stock but does not pay his father's debts. Cortwright’s son shoots Steve Massingale. Brouillard threatens Cortwright with exposure if he pushes Massingale to the wall. The magnate promises to give the old man a free field. Stories of the dam’s abandonment revive. Foreclosure on the “Little Susan” is impending and Brouillard loans Dave Massingale his SIOO,OOO to clear him. Massingale gambles away the entire amount.

Once more Brouillard Is tempted by Cortwright. If he accepts Cortwright’s offer he can make money and stand a chance of defeating the crooked capitalist’s purposes In the long run. If he refuses, he loses not only his Job but his savings. What would you do—considering that acceptance is wrong?

CHAPTER XVlll—Continued. For the better part of a fortnight the tidal waves of prosperity, as evinced by increasing speculative values, kept on rolling in, each one apparently a little higher than its immediate predecessor. Then the flood began to subside, though so slowly that at first it was only by a careful comparison of the dally transfers that the recession could be measured. Causes and consequences extraneous to the city itself contributed to the almost imperceptible reactionary tendency. For one, the Buckskin Mining and Milling company reluctantly abandoned its pastime of plowing barren furrows on Jack’s mountain, and a little later went into liquidation, as the phrase ran, though the eastern bondholders probably called it bankruptcy. About the same time the great cement plant, deprived of the government market by the slackening of the work on the dam, reduced its output to less than one-fourth of its full capacity. Most portentous of all, perhaps, was the rumor that the placers at Quadjenal were beginning to show signs of exhaustion. It was even whispered about that the two huge gold dredges recently installed were not paying the expenses of operating them. Quite naturally, the pulse of the Wonder city beat sensitive to all these depressive rumors and incidents, responding slowly at first but a little later in accelerated throbbings which could no longer be Ignored by the most optimistic bidder at the "curb” exchanges.

Still there was no panic. As the activities in local sales fell off and the Mirapolitans themselves were no longer crowding the curbs or standing in line at the real estate offices for their turn at the listings, the prudent ones, with Mr. Cortwright and his chosen associates far in advance of the field, were placing Mirapolis holdings temptingly on view in distant markets; placing them and selling them with blazonry of advertising worthy of the envy of those who have called themselves the suburb builders of Greater New York.

It was after this invasion of the distant market was fully in train that Cortwright once more sent for Brouillard, receiving the engineer this time in the newest offices of the power company, on the many-times-bougbt-and-sold corner opposite Bongras’. "Hello, Brouillard!" said the magnate jocosely, indicating a chair and the never-absent open box of cigars in the same gesture. “You’re getting to be as much of a stranger as a man might wish his worst enemy to be." “You sent for me?" Brouillard broke In tersely. ' More and more he was coming to acknowledge a dull rage when he heard the call of his master. "Yes. What about the dam ?Is -your work going to start up again? Or is it going off for good?” Brouillard bit his lip to keep back the exclamation of astoundment that the blunt inquiry threatened to evoke. To assume that Mr. Cortwright did not know all there was to be known was to credit the Incredible. "I told you a good while ago that I was only the government’s hired man," be replied. "You doubtless have much better information than any I cah give you." "You can tell me wbat your orders are—that's,what I want to know." The young chief of construction frowned first, then he laughed. ’ "What has given you the impression

By FRANCIS LYNDE

that you own me, Mr. Cortwright? I have often wondered.” “Well, I might say that I have made you what you are, and —” “That’s true; the truest thing you ever said,” snapped Brouiiiard. "And, I was going to add, I can unmake you Just as easily. But I don’t want to be savage with you. All I’m asking is a little information first, and a little Judicious help afterward. What are your orders from the department?” Brouillard got up and stood over the stocky man in the office chair, with the black eyes blazing. "Mr. Cortwright, I said a moment ago that you have made me what I am, and you have. lam Infinitely a worse man than you are, because I know better and you don't. It is no excuse for me that I have had a motive which I haven’t explained to you, because, as I once told you, you couldn’t understand it in a thousand years. The evil has been done and the consequences, to you, to me, and to everyone in this cursed valley are certain. Facing them as I am obliged to face them, I am telling you—but what’s the use? You can’t make a tool of me any longer—that’s all. You must cook your meat over your own fire. I’m out of it.” "I can smash you,” said the man in the chair, quite without heat. “No, you can’t even do that,” was the equally -cool retort. “No man’s fate Is In another man’s hands.” He was moving toward the door, but Cortwright stopped him.

“One more word before you go, Brouillard. It is to be war between us from this on?” “I don’t say that. It would be awkward for us both now. Let is be armed neutrality if you like. Don’t interfere with me and I won’t interfere with you.” “Ah!” said the millionaire. “Now you have brought it around to the point I was trying to reach. You don’t want to have anything more to do with me, but you are not quite ready to cash in and pull out of the game. How much money have you got?” . The cool impudence of the question brought a dull flush to the young man’s face, but he would give the enemy no advantage in the matter of superior self-control. “That is scarcely a fair question—even between armed neutrals,” he objected. “Why do you want to know ?” “I’m asking because you have just proposed the noninterference policy, and I’d like to know how fairly you mean to live up to it. A little while back you interfered in a small busi-

Brouillard Got Up and Stood Over the Stocky Man in the Office Chair.

ness matter of mine very pointedly. What became of the one hundred thousand dollars you gave old David Massingale?” “How do you know I gave hint a hundred thousand dollars?” “That’s dead easy," laughed the man in the pivot Chair, once more the genial buccaneer. “You drew a check for that amount and cashed It, and a few minutes later Massingale, whose account had been drawn down to nothing, bobs up at Schermerhorn’s window with exactly the same amount in loose cash. What did he do with it —gamble it?” “That is his own affair,” Brouillard countered briefly. "W’ell, the future —next month’s future —is my affair. It you’ve got money enough to interfere again—don’t. You’ll lose it, the same as you did before. And perhapk I sha’n’t take the second interference as good-naturedly as I did the first." "Is that all you have to say?” Broutllard asked Impatiently. “Not quite. I don’t believe you were altogether in earnest a minute ago when you expressed your desire to call it all off. You don’t want the Mirapolis well to go dry right now, not one bit more than I do.” "1 have been trying pretty hard to make you understand that it is a matter of utter indifference to me.” "But you haven’t succeeded very

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

well; It isn’t at all a matter of indifference to you,” the magnate insisted persuasively. "As things are shaping themselves up at the present speaking, you stand to lose, not only the hundred thousand you squandered on old David, but all you’ve made besides. I keep in touch —it’s my business to keep in touch. You’ve been buying bargains and you are holding them — for the simple reason that with the present slowing-down tendency, in the saddle you can’t sell and make any money.” “Well?” “I’ve got a proposition to make that ought to look good to you. What we. need Just now in this town is a little more activity—something doing. You can relieve the situation if you feel like it.” “How?”. . .c_ ■—- “If I tell you, you mustn’t go and use it against me. That would be a lowdown welcher’s trick. But yoif won’t. See here, your bureau at Washington is pretty well scared up over the prospect here. It is known in the capital that when congress convenes there is going to be a dead-open-and-shut fight to kill this Buckskin reclamation project. Very well; the way for you fellows to win out is to hurry—finish your dam and finish it quick, before congress or anybody else can get action.”

For a single instant Brouillard was puzzled. Then he began to understand. “Go on,” he said. “What I was going to suggest is this: You prod’your people at Washington with a hot wire; tell 'em now’s the time to strike and strike hard. They’ll see the point, and if you ask for an increase of a thousand men you’ll get it. Make it two thousand, just for the dramatic effect. We’ll work right along with you and make things hum again. We’ll start up the cement plant, and I don’t know but what we might give the Buckskin M. & M. folks a small hypodermic that would keep ’em alive while we are taking a few snap-shot pictures of Mirapolis on the jump again." “Let me get it straight,” said Brouillard, putting his back against the door. “You fully believe you’ve got us down; that eventually, and before the water is turned on, congress will pass a bill killing the Niquoia project. But in the meantime, to make things lively, you’d like to have the reclamation service go ahead and spend another million or so in wages that - can be turned loose in Mirapolis. Is that it?”

“You’ve surrounded it very neatly,” laughed the promoter. “Once, some little time ago, I might have felt the necessity of convincing your scruples, but you’ve cut away all that foolishness. It’s a little toiigh on our good old Uncle Samuel, I’ll admit, but it’ll be only a pin-prick or so in comparison to the money that is thrown away every time congress passes an appropiration bill. And, putting it upon the dead practical basis, Brouillard, It’s your’Awn and only salvation —personally, >mean. You’ve got to unload or go broke, and you can’t unload on a falling market. You think about it and then get quick action with the wire. There is no time to lose.” Brouillard was looking past Cortwright and out through the plate glass window which commanded a view of the great dam and its network of forms and stagings. “It is a gambler’s bet and a rather desperate one,” he said slowly. “You stand to win all or to lose all in making it, Mr. Cortwright. The town is balancing on the knife-edge of a panic at this moment. Would it go up, or down, with a sudden resumption of work on the dam?”

“The careless thinker would say that it would yell ‘Fire!’ and go up into the air so far that it could never climb down,’’ was the prompt reply. “But we’ll have the medicine dropper handy. In the first place, everybody can afford to stay and boost while Uncle Sam is spending his million or so right here in the middle of things. Nobody will want to pull out and leave that cow unmilked. In the second place, we’ve got a mighty good antidote to use in any sure-enough case of hydrophobia your quick dam building may start.” “You could let it leak out that, in spite of all the hurrah and rush on the dam, congress is really going to interfere before we are ready to turn the water on," said Brouillard musingly and as if it were only his slipping into unconscious speech, “Precisely. We could make'that prop hold If you were actually putting the top course on your wall and making preparations to drop the stop-gate in you? spillway." “I see,” was the rejoinder, and It was made In the same half-absent monotone. "But while we are still on' the knife-blade edge ... a little push . . .‘ Mr. Cortwright,-if there were one solitary righteous man left In Mirapolis—” “There isn't," chuckled the promoter, turning back to bls desk while the engineer was groping for the door knob —“at least, nobody with that particu-

lar brand of righteousness backed by the needful inside information. You go ahead and do your part and well do the rest.”

CHAPTER XIX $ The Man on the Bank

Brouillard, walking out of Mr. Cort•wright’s new offices with his thoughts afar, wondered if it were by pure coincidence that he found Castner apparently waiting for him on the sidewalk. "Once more you are Just the man I have been wanting to see,” the young missionary began, promptly making use of the chance meeting. “May I break in with a bit of bad news?” "There is no such thing as good news in this God-forsaken valley, Castner. What’s your grief?” "There is trouble threatening for the Cortwrights. Stephen Massingale is out and about again, and I was told this morning that he was filling himself up with bad whisky and looking for the man who shot him.” Brouillard nodded unsympathetically. “You will find that there is always likely to be a second chapter in a book

“There Is No Such Thing as Good News in This God-Forsaken Valley, Castner.”

of that sort—if the first one Isn’t conclusive.” “But there mustn’t be this time," Castner insisted warmly. “We must stop it; it Is our business to stop it.” “Your business, maybe; it falls right in your line, doesn’t it?" “No more in mine than in yours,” was the quick retort. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” said the engineer pointedly, catching step with the long-legged stride of the athletic young shepherd of souls. “Not if you claim kinship with Cain, who was the originator of that very badly outworn query,” came the answer shotlike. Then: “What has come over you lately, Brouillard? You are a friend of the Massingales; I’ve had good proof of that. Why don’t' you care?" “Great heavens, Castner, I do care! But if you had a cut finger you wouldn’t go to a man in hell to get it tied up, would you?” ( “You mean that I have brought my cut finger to you?” “Yes, I meant that, and the rest of it, too. I’m no fit company for a decent man today, Castner. You’d better edge off and leave me alone.” Castner did not take the blunt intimation. For the little distance intervening between the power company’s new offices and the Niquoia building he tramped beside the young engineer tn silence. But at the entrance to the Niquoia fie would have gone his way if Brouillard had not said abruptly: “I gave you fair warning; I’m not looking for a chance to play the Good Samaritan to anybody—not even to Stephen Massingale, much less Van Bruce Cortwright. The reason is because I have a pretty decent backload of my own to carry. Come up to rny rooms if you can spare a few minutes. I want to talk to a man who hasn’t parted with his soul for a money equivalent—if there is such a man left in this bottomless pit of a town.” Castner accepted the implied challenge soberly, and together they ascended to Brouillard’s offices. Once behind the closed door, Brouillard struck out vicipusly.

“You fellows claim to hold the keys to the conscience shop; suppose you open up and dole out a little of the precious commodity to me, Castner. Is It ever justifiable to do evil that- good may come?” “No.” There was no hesitation in the denial. Brouillard’s laugh was harshly derisive. “I thought you’d say that. No qualifications asked for, no judicial weighing of the pros and .cons—the evil of the evil, or the goodness of the goodjust a plain, bigoted ‘No.’" The young'miuslonary left his chair and began to walk back and forth on his side of the office desk.

Will the clean-minded young missionary persuade the engineer to refuse Cortwright’s offer, or will he see the ultimate possibility of Brouillard’s winning and counsel him to accept?

(TO CONTINUED.)

DEMONSTRATION WORK FOR ONE COUNTY

Farmers Inspecting Yearling Gilts While on Tour of Christian County, Ky.

(Prepared by the United States Department of Agriculture.) The revolution that was effected in the life of an entire county by co-op-erative demonstration work is described in an article in the new Yearbook of the department of agriculture published under the title of "How the Whole County Demonstrated.” In Christian county, Kentucky, a business men’s association was formed four years ago for the development of the resources of the county. There had been other organizations of the sort before, but these were interested, chiefly in attempts to secure factories and other industries for the county. The new organization devoted itself chiefly to agriculture. One of its first steps was to secure funds with which, in co-operation with the United States department of agriculture, to pay the salary of a county agent. Later, when the agricultural extension act became effective, the county agent was recognized as the representative of the college of agriculture of the State University of Kentucky and of the United States department of agriculture. The first agent appointed began work in July, 1912. Since that time 18 community clubs with 700 members have been formed, a good roads association is responsible for the farmers owning 250 split log drags with which 400 miles of road are kept in good condition, new crops have been introduced, the yields of the old ones increased, demonstration farms have been established, dairying and the

Automobile Ready to Carry Passengers on Tour of Inspection of Farms In Christian County, Ky.

feeding of beef cattle promoted, hog cholera effectively comrolled and a wider market for farm products secured. The farmers were not at first very cordial toward what was to this county an Innovation. The whole movement was described by one as “absolute foolishness.” With the assistance of the progressive men who conducted demonstrations on their own farms, this attitude was gradually overcome. One of the first acts of the county agent was to form little community organizations, which were used to promote all kinds of educational work relating to agriculture. Whole families belonged to these clubs and their number gradually grew as their usefulness became apparent. Today there are 18 such clubs with a total membership of more than 700. The next step was the organization of a good roads association In which the business men of the county seat took a prominent part. They gave a barbecue to the farmers of the county, succeeded in obtaining funds for the purchase of split log drags which were given to the farmers co-operating with them, and turned out to work on the highways when a “good roads day” was proclaimed by the governor. On one of the principal roads, it is said, at least 90 per cent of the workmen on that day were city men.

In dealing-■vyith strictly agricultural problems, the county agent was equally successful. When he assumed office the county did not produce enough corn to supply its own needs and the average yield per acre was only a trifle over 24 bushels. In 1913 the demonstrators who had adopted this method of cultivation in every community throughout the county secured an average yield of 38.8 bushels per acre. The next year they averaged 40 bushels. The lesson of these demonstrations was learned so thoroughly by one section of the County that Instead of Importing 40 carloads of corn last year, as had been the custom, it exported eight carloads. In the opinion of many persons, however, perhaps the greatest accomplishment of the. agent in crop demonstrations was the introduction of crimson clover for the Improvement of the land and as a cover crop. In 1913, 350 acres were sown In crimson clover In demonstrations on various farms. In

1915 the total acreage in the county was 7,800, whole neighborhoods having sown it very generally. The value of liming in the production of red clover was also demonstrated and practically all farms in the county are now able to grow the crop successfully, whereas in former years failures had been very general. Another important Innovation was the introduction of barley. This crop was desirable for a number of reasons, but chiefly because in Christian county it yields almost twice as much as wheat, furnishes more grazing, makes possible a second crop of corn, beans, peas, etc., and gives a better distribution of labor. The census of 1910, however, showed that only ten acres of barley were grown in the county. In 1913 250 acres were sown in demonstrations in various localities. In 1915 there were 7,000 acres in barley in the county. With tobacco, the chief cash crop of the county, demonstrators produced -an average yield of more than twice that of the county. In these demonstrations the object was to increase the profit in the production of tobacco by readjusting farm practices in order to equalize the labor load, produce home supplies, maintain soil fertility and have a number of other cash products for sale.

The control of hog cholera Is perhaps an even more striking example of the effectiveness of community organization. In 1912 a careful survey showed that the losses from this cause in the county were $225,080. The county agent arranged with 11 doctors to inoculate hogs free of charge, and with the state farm plant at Lexington to supply serum tn the required quantities. Farmers were then asked to report all cases of sick hogs to the president of each local farmers’ club. He arranged for prompt Inoculation of the hogs and disinfection of the premises. By this method of procedure the disease has been brought under absolute control in three years. From $225,000 in 1912 the loss was reduced to SI,OOO in 1914. There are now more hogs In the county than ever before In its history. The cattle Industry also has been promoted. In 1912 there were only 250 beef cattle fed in the county. In order to arouse a greater Interest in this important branch of agriculture, the county agent took a party of representative farmers to a nearby county where they had an opportunity to study feeding methods. As a result of this trip, there were 1,800 beef cattle fed in 1915, and the number of purebred cows In the county has risen from 10 in 1912 to 100 in 1915. Demonstration work of this kind In practical agriculture has been accompanied by a corresponding Increase in the activity of various organizations for local betterment. For example, there are today 12 social clubs which meet regularly In the county, 15 par-ent-teachers’ and mothers’ clubs and every school in the county has some form of community meeting. A fair association has been formed, a public library and hospital built and instruction In hygiene Introduced into the schools. In 1915 several hundred farmers from other Kentucky counties visited Christian county to inspect the work of the last three years. Farmers and business men united to welcome the visitors.

USE SWEET CLOVER FOR GREEN MANURE

Because of Its Rank Growth Legume Is in High Favor— Restores Fertility. While sweet clover can be grown as a substitute for red clover and generally furnishes more feed per acre, the most valuable use of the legume is for green manuring, according to F. W. Stemple of the farm crops department, Ohio state university. Because of Its rank growth it Is in high favor as a green manure. The roots are large and aerate the soil in a greater degree than either alfalfa or clover. Those who have grown corn after both, sweet clover and alfalfa, claim that the former contributes more to the fertility than does the alfalfa. It is claimed that sweet clover seeded with oats makes a satisfactory growth after the oats are harvested and will produce the following year green manure equivalent to 20 tons of barnyard manure. It is especially valuable for restoring the fertility on hili* sides. , ' *