Show WAITING FOR THE RAILROAD I 1 I 1 ending banding me die clings 1 bolts to its last straw I 1 A PICTURE OF THE DIREFUL FATE I 1 I 1 tb that t in lax bv pliny a down east feyti town now that tha stockings which were IF billed by the lie old west india trade are arc emptied to I 1 the too ISM ISK IT T BACHELLE A r coa oa when mien I 1 first saw ss landing mr me I 1 supposed suppose that the place had been 1 so named because nobody but stubbs had ever been bee n tool fool enough to land there later however I 1 discovered that a considerable sid ti number of people had followed ss unfortunate example and thus there had grown up a thriving village oil second thought I 1 will wi withdraw a tile adjective arid and call it just plait plain t village I 1 1 ica A zi V 1 4 k J J P P 71 N I 1 1 t e r 1 I j V ait g I 1 z I 1 rh y T I 1 r I 1 E I 1 E 1 I 1 1 e I 1 J I 1 ja I 1 1 I 1 an 1 L W 1 THE LANDING OF STUBBS would fah tn the inhabitants I 1 but I 1 cannot tel tella 1 I 1 lie ie kimsal daws not inot livo live thero there now I 1 in it fact idras about 1780 when he arrived and he went away very early in this century Tho village had be beun begun un to prow at that time owing to tho the ast wast india trade biado and stubbs wits was one of 0 those ruen ho cannot stand prosperity nature produces a certain number of such won men for tire tho of securing settlements in places which are r no not b fit 1 to sustain life just is as soon as S stubbs it bs found that ills his landing WM was getting popular arid and there was a char chance for him to mako make a little money by cheating indians indiana in the fur trade lie ho grew uneasy and moved on to goose falls where tho the conditions were less favorable ity by and by something like trado trade showed itself in goose falls and stubbs folded his if tent and withdrew to clam clain cove which promised eternal desolation it ever it a place did but before long somebody got to digging clams and selling them for bait then somebody else started a store and all this activity prated grated on poor old stubbs lie think of a 9 worse place than clam clain cove and ho he was getting rather old to move anyway so lie ho died sly my groat great grandfather was a good deal like stubbs ue ile used to own a big piece of land on which the best part of one of the richest cities in massachusetts stands today to day it worth anything when my ancestor got hold of it but by and by somebody offered him a shilling an acre acm for a little of it and tills this vision of sudden wealth seared scared tho the old fellow so badly that ho he sold tile the whole section and with tile tho proceeds bought what Is now halt half it a county down in fit maine lie ile so tin unlucky ticky as stubbs prosperity dislodge him again our family still hold the feeds deeds ol of this valuable tract arid and wild cats starve to death in it when theros theres a hard win winter ter I 1 sometimes wander through that massachusetts city and look over my great grind grandfathers fathers former estate and then I 1 man lean against a lamp post arid and swear and vainly ask of the night aich t why why it was that all tho those thoo o town own lots got away from me while the old mans talent t for forgetting getting the wrong end of a bargain camo came down to nie jue as good as now new through three generations blut to return to ss landing the town boasts of a very broad deep harbor which dbent do ent frenzo over in the coldest winter so that ve vessels aej of tile tho largest size could come in at any timo it if there thera were anything to bring or lake away but there theowest the west india trade is if dead leaving no signs but the bait obliterated lAt lettering bering on a few old stores and an inherited liking for jamaica rutn in the inhabitants if anybody supposes however that there is no progressive spirit in fit ss s landing lie is much mistaken tile tho question of building a railroad has been discussed there for over civer thirty years arid and will be discus yd for thirty years more so far as I 1 can call see I 1 really think thin k thata that a branch line hie bad ono one chanco chance in fit ten abo thousand asand of being built there about twenty years ago but tho the people harn bava it that way they wanted to bo be a terminus they wore were catel alca to thi the remarkable t terminal lual lac litkei of ss landing Lan diug arall A railroad would simply have to terminate there unless the company should decide to 10 bridge the atlantic ocean the first time I 1 e ever ver landed in the place where tho the immortal stubbs grounded his baric and the hopes of ills his posterity was in it the summer of 1880 everybody frit so sure of tile tho i lail ail road then that any unusual noise liko like a big mast blast in tho the granite grallis a quarries on vinchs mountain would give rise to tho the inquiry wonder if the keers comin in such soch questionings of course were confined to tho the very old people who had never seen a railroad and bad rather queer notions ot of what it would be like the younger men were not cot so green by any means thy they saw opportunities of ot profit in the railroad scheme Wili whenever a now liew turvey ey was made and this was done or rumored pretty often everybody who could do it 11 would haston hasten ha ston to planta plant a potato patch across tho the if alno no fbi r the road and then wait wail calm cOnfidence fin indemnity from the company enterprise i of this ort sort s even adso so far that some I 1 men merely pretended to plant potatoes believing that tile tho railroad would donld como come so fio soon that the fraud 1 could not be b di discovered I 1 I 1 it have been for tb tho 0 lind land chown lin by the these illative husbandmen was so bail bad that it mako make much difference what seed i was as planted in it the crop was al 9 ways wiry grass gras and puw ley 1 meanwhile hilp enthusiasm ran so high that tile the town clork clerk ramo near being put to the trouble of looking back in its ills records to lo find what wis was the t nature and amount of tile tho assistance voted by tho the town to the road in case cam it 11 ever should bo be built ile ifo escape escaped this labor however how evor because tho the gentleman who was moderator of the meeting at which tha aba vote vole was ivas passed as if f anybody could laako a mool ingot landing citi 7 cyns e ns more moderate than nature die dic t happened Lappo nod to remember that tho thi town had not agreed to do anything until raila had bad been laid within sia its corporate limits no rails were v ere laid in ISSO 1880 nor in fit 1885 aheu lea I 1 visited ss landing landine again IV but bill in each of 0 these theia a years consider abIlo railroad excitement had bee it stirred up by a young man named naillee make blake who was born in the town but es escaped apoll from it at nn an early ago age 13 blakes lakes exact place ot of residence I 1 s unknown to the th though ough idey have the advantage ofa ol 01 a visit fram him every few years these are the times when in ills indefinite abiding place visions ot of his dear old home steal upon the sensitive soul doul of 0 blake like and show how him tile tho great possibilities ot of tile tho town and the advantages it would derive from a railroad then lie he talks it over with ilia hi Int intimate imato friends all ot of whom are arc capitalists and having interested them in the project he comes down to tho the landing arid and stirs things up ills his arrival nover dover fails ails to make talk when ho he drives up tip in tho the stage imaginative people lancy fancy that they hear locomotive whistles blowing back in the woods then make blako who Is familiarly called arth because his front name nama IS s arthur throws out oat afew a few lionts about the rall railroad road including Inc ludine the mention of vast suras of money and thus acquires an importance in fo tho the eyes of the people which seems to make him feel rood good I 1 cant find that lint lie he has any other object in fit his railroad talk lie usually spends his time pleasantly in boating and fishing and then apes away again taking tile the railroad with him I 1 have heard beard it said by malicious persons th that it 11 arth his oce occasionally I 1 signally sio nally persuaded a ss landing old timer to togo 9 0 down into the too of a stocking 11 I 1 and no d come up tip with the coln coin new necessary tob lobo oy y a tew few shares of stock in some enterprise in which achis art Ar it his is interested there were rumors aernt a barrel factory the stock in fit which appears to have boca been particularly ticul LiCul arly attractive to stubbs s landing people A native told mo die that hn be guessed 11 arth male made a 3 11 barrels barrel put out of it and that it was tho the only one ever contemplated by the he company it if those stories are true the victims are singe barly patient and uncomplaining arth turned up again last lash august while I 1 was at tho the landing and he made the wheels ot of 11 the tha keers rn I 1 no louder than over ever before in the ear cars s of the inhabitants lie ile had brought little maps of maine shercon stubbs landing and its it hartion harti or arid and the adjacent cant territory occupied a space proportionally tio nally tar far greater than has allotted also the name naino of ss landing was wai printed in large letters while portland arid and bangor were typo type out of the race the ina map further showed how easy it would bo be 4 1 rg 0 i all P I 1 I 1 J ia 1 J S I 1 1 A if 11 r 1 TAI 1 I 11 4 bogl I 1 I 1 ay E I 1 4 i va ji 6 jf i 7 V Z 1 I K I 1 I 1 I 1 ct 11 IP 1 N I 1 I 1 iw t I 1 f 1 AL 1 I 1 5 tm r 14 1 i ART HURS MAP AMAZES THE CITIZENS for the canadian pacific cacir ic to locate locile its principal seaport at the landing there was a picture of an ocean steamer salling sailing out of the harbor which was palpably a very natural thing for an ocean steamer to do as quickly as possible it if she ever sailed into it I 1 these maps mapsy made nado quite a flutter which grow to it real sensation I 1 when lien it was learned that arth had asked the landlord of the little hotel to bo be read ready i at twenty tour four hours notice to serve adin a dinner to four capitalists arid and afterwards arm broide ida them with a private room for a session with plugged kev keyholes holes I 1 heard all about this from irom the barber lie was so interested in the subject that he drew a map of tile the proposed road on my lathered face with his thumb nail and while I 1 was finding out that ho he using his razor lawr tor for that purpose I 1 worked up tip quite an interest too afterwards I 1 asked him to shave me with that thumb nail instead of with his razor because I 1 thought it was sharper harper but ho he hacked backed away just the same talking about tile the railroad all the time and I 1 grew to io wish more arid and more that it would crime come and come soon and that lie he would bo be run over by a freight train of seventeen cars and thus got some idea of how it feels to be shaved by a man who know his bu business sines 1 I tell ye it would be gol darned handy to have a rail boadle re said tho the barber 1 I yvant want to go domere most every year ye arand and I 1 spose theres others it t feels the same sama way ye cant stay allers in a little place like this an it aint handy to take the stage or go crost the bay in a wt bot arth told me yesterday kind 0 confidential but I 1 guess tal talcie cit no harm tellin you that there was waso only two questions to he be decided now one was whether the road could be built for a mile an the other was whether put an bridge across the penobscot river I 1 ventured tp suggest that there were samo some questions which we expect to settle in this world but which wo we hoped to understand after we were freed front from the I 1 limitations 1 in I 1 tation s of the flesh debbo so said he bobbo so araps neither you nor me will live to see a railroad to the la landing but its the only thing thin that could build this town up they talk bout tile tho road up to constitution theres a big box factory there and araps we could start a trade 1 does anybody hero use boxes 11 nots bots I 1 know on cm 1 does ss landing make anything that they use in constitution bless ye we dont make nothing well I 1 replied turning my aured check toward him 11 I 1 hope trade will bo be good 11 the railroad had not made its appearance when I 1 left so I 1 tock the stage and T I 1 af X L na 1 k I 1 I 1 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 wrza y i II 11 I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 i 1 14 4 I 1 I 1 I ya I 1 1 treat art FIELDING 11 LEAVES LANDING eventually reached a place which had bad some cot connection it lection with tho outside world the driver talked railroad into my car all tho the way ifo said aid that it would bo be the ruination of tile the place I 1 told him that I 1 believe it il evar over would ss landing Is in many ways a typical place tile the census shows a decrease qt nearly thirty per cent and I 1 tile the co count t int was Kt raight ight the old families are tor for ag age a is removed by death and youth by ambition nobody comes to tako take the he vacant the money mado made in the west india trado trade Is nearly spent there Is to no commerce no manufactures manufacture no codfish all almost mot no DO agrical agriculture lure for tile tho soil which consists of 0 sand and indians indiana lanes bones Is nearly exhausted all over the country there are arc men inon who have got out into tile living world from broin such places as ss landing they cannot wholly sever tho the ties of sentiment which bind them to their birthplace and they watch tho the advance of 0 its ruin with real sorrow but if any mothers son of them knows what todo to chock check it I 1 am not lie HOWARD |