THE CITY OF *
NUMBERED DAYS
6/ FRANCIS LYNDE - • -
ILLUSTRATIONS by C.O.RHOOE5 • • •
. COPYRIGHT BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
I
SYNOPSIS.
CHATTRU I ntoulllard. chief engineer
on the Niquoia irrigation dam, goes otit
frum camp to investigate a strange light
and finds an automobile party camped at
the canyon portal.
CHAPTER II Brouillard meets J Wes
ley Cortwright and his daughter Gene
vieve of tin- auto purty and explains the
reclamation work to them.
firouillard's eyebrows went up in a
little arch of surprise. Harding, the
topographical engineer who had made
all the preliminary surveys and had
Spent the better part of the former
summer ir. the Niquoia, had reported
on the Massingales, father and son, and
his report had conveyed a hint of pos
sible antagonism on the part of the
mine owners to the government proj
ect. But there had been no mention
of a woman.
"The Massingale mine, eh?" broke
in the appraiser of values crisply.
"They showed us seme ore specimens
from that property while we were stop
ping over in Red Butte. It s rich—
good and plenty rich—if they have the
quantity. And somebody told me they
had the quantity, too; only it was toe
far from the railroad—couldn't jack
freight it profitably over the Timan
yonis."
In which case it is one of many,'
Brouillard said, taking refuge in the
generalities.
But Mr. Cortwright was not to be sc
easily diverted from the pointed par
ticulars—the particulars having (r, do
with the pursuit of the market trail.
“I’m beginning to get my feet on
bottom, Brouillard,” he said, dropping
the courtesy prefix and shjving his fat
hands deep into the pockets of the
dust-coat. “There's a business prepo
sition here, and it looks mighty good
to me. I tell you, I can smell money
in this valley of ycurs—scads of it.”
Brouillard laughed. "It is only the
fragrance of future reclamation-serv
ice appropriations,” he suggested.
“There will be a go >d bit cf money
spent here before the Buckskin desert
gets its maiden wetting."
“I don’t mean that at r’l,” was the
impatient rejoinder. “Lot me show
you: you are geing tc have a popula
tion of some sort. That’s the basis.
Then you’re going to need cement,
lumber and steel. It can be manufac
tured right here on the spot.”
“The cement and the lumber can be
produced hero, but not the steel,”
Brouillard corrected.
“That's where you’re off,” snapped
the millionaire. “There are fine ore
beds in the Hophras and a pretty good
quality cf coking coal. Ter. or twelve
miles cf a narrew-gauge railroad would
dump the pig metal into the upper end
of your valley, and there you are.
With a small reduction plant you cculd
tell the big steel people to go hang.”
“Unquestionably But this is a case
of can’t-help-it,” Brouillard argued.
“You couldn't begin to interest private
capital in any of those industries you
speak of.”
“Why not?” was the curt demand.
“Because when the dam is complet
ed and the spillway gates are closed,
the Niqoyastcadje and everything in it
will go down under two hundred feet
of water.”
"The—what?1’ queried Miss Cort
wright.
"The Niqoyastcadje — ‘Place-where
they-came-up’ ” said Brouillard, eluci
dating for her. ‘‘That is the Navajo
name for this valley. Our map mak
ers shortened it to ‘Niquoia’ and the
cowmen of the Buckskin foothills have
cut that to Nick wire.’ ”
This bit of explanatory place lore
was entirely lost upon Mr. J. Wesley
Cortwright. He was chewing the ends
of his short mustaches and scowling
thoughtfully out upon the possible site
of the future industrial city of the
plain.
“Say, Brouillard,” ho cut in, “you get
me the right to build that power dam,
and give me the contracts for what
material you’d rather buy than make,
and I'll be switched if I don't take a
shot at this drowning proposition my
self. I tell you, it looks pretty good
to me. What do you say?”
"I say,” laughed the young chief of
construction, “that I'm only a hired
man. You’ll have to go a good few
rounds higher up on the authority lad
der to close a deal like that. I'm not
sure It wouldn't require an ac£ ol
congress.”
“Well, by George, we might get even
that if we had to,” was the optimistic
assertion. “You think about it.”
“I guess it isn't my think,” said
Brouillard, inclined to take the retired
pork packer’s suggestion as the mere
ravings of a money-mad promoter.
“As the government engineer in
charge of this work, I couldn't afford
to be identified even as a friendly in
termediary In any such scheme as the
one you are proposing.”
“Of course, 1 suppose not,” agreed
the would-be promoter, sucking his
under lip in a way ominously familiar
to his antagonists in the wheat pit.
Then he glanced at his watch and
changed the subject abruptly. “We’ll
have to be straggling back to ttie
chug-wagon. Much obliged to you.
Mr. Brouillard. Will you come down
and see us off?”
At the final descent in the trail, with
the Buckskin blanknesses showing
hotly beyond the curtaining pines,
they passed at a step from romance to
the crude realities.
The realities were basing themselves
upon the advent of two newcomers,
riding down the Chigringo trail to the
ford which had been the scene of the
fish slaughtering; a sunburnt young
man in goatskin “chaps," flannel shirt
and a flapping Stetson, and a girl
whose face reminded Brouillard of one
of the Madonnas, whose name and
painter he strove va* ly to recall. Ten
seconds farther along the horses of
the pair were sniffing suspiciously at
the automobile, and the young man
under the flapping hat was telling Van
Bruce Cortwright what he thought of
cartridge fishermen in general, and j
of this present cartridge fisherman in
particular.
“Which the same, being translated
into Buckskin Rnglish. hollers like
this,” he concluded. “Don't you tote
any mere fish ca’tridges into this here
rese’vation; not no more whatsoever.
Who says so? Well, if anybody should
ask, you might say it was Tig Smith,
foreman o’ the Tri’-Olrc’ outfit. No, 1 •
ain't no game warden, hut what 1 say j
goes as she lavs. Savez?"
Brouillard walked his companion
down to the car and helped her to a
seat in the tonneau. She repaid him
with a nod and a smile, and when he
saw that the crudities were not
troubling her he stepped aside and un
consciously fell to comparing the two
—the girl on horseback and his walk
ing mate of the canyon passage.
They had little enough in common,
apart from their descent from Kve. he
decided—and the decision itself was
subconscious. The millionaire's daugh
ter was a warm blonde, beautiful,
queenly, a finished product of civiliza
tion and high-priced culture; a wom
an of the world. And the girl on horse
back? A rather slight figure, a face
winsome, masses of copper-brown hair,
eyes . . . He caught himself won
dering if her cowboy lover—ho had
already jumped to the sentimental
ccnclusion—had ever been able to look
into those steadfast eyes and trifle
with the truth.
When the fish-slaughtering matter
was finally settled—not by the tender
1 ft money that Mr. Cortwright had
made—the man Smith and his pretty
riding mate galloped through the ford
and disappeared among the barren
hills.
“Au revoir, Mr. Brouillard,” said the
princess, as the big car righted itself
for the southward flight into the des
ert. “If I were you I shouldn’t fall in
love with the calm-eyed goddess who
rides like a man. Mr. Tri’-Circ’ Smith
might object, you know."
There was something almost heart
warming in the bit of parting badi
nage; hut the warmth might have
given place to a disconcerting chill if
he could have heard Mr. J. Wesley
Cartwright's remark to his seat com
panion.
“He isn’t going to he the dead easy
mark I hoped to find in the son jf the
old bankrupt hair-splitter, Genie, girl.
But he’ll come down and hook himself
all right if the bait is well covered
with his particular brand of Sugar.
Don't you forget it."
CHAPTER IV
Sands of Pactolus
*- * —
If Victor Brouiilard had been dis
posed to speculate curiously upon the
possibilities suggested by Mr. J. Wes
ley Cortwright on the occasion of the
capitalist's brief visit to the Niqucia,
there was little leisure fe.r it. Fairly
confronting iiis problem, Brouiilard
did not tind himself hampered by de
partmental inertia. While he was rap
idly organizing his force for the con
structive attack, the equipment and
preliminary material for the upbuild
ing of the great dam were piling up
by tlie trainload on the sidetracks at
Quesado, and at once the man and
beast kilMng task of rushing the exca
vating outfit of machinery, teams,
; scrapers, rock-drilling installations,
steam shovels, and the like, over the
War Arrow trail was begun.
During the weeks which followed,
! the same trail, and a lift if* later that
from the Navajo reservation on the
south, were strung with antlike pro
I cessions of laborers pouring into the
shut-in valley at the foot of Mount
Chigringo. Almost as if by magic a
populous camp of tents, shelter shacks
and Indian tepees sprang up in the
level bed bottom of the future lake;
campfires gave place to mess kitch
ens; the commissary became a busy
department store stocked with every
thing that thrifty or thriftless labor
might wish to purchase; and daily the
great foundation scorings in the but
trosBing shoulders of Jack’s mountain
and Chigringo grew deeper and wider
under the churning o, the air drills,
the crashings of the dynamite and the
rattle and chug of the steam shovels.
It was after the huge task oT Toun
dation digging was well under way
and the work of constructing the small
power dam in the upper canyon had
been begun that the young chief of
I construction, busy with a thousand
details, had his first forcible reminder
of the continued existence of Mr. J.
j Wesley Cortwright.
It came in (he form of a communi
cation from Washington forwarded by
special post-rider service from Que
sado, and it called a halt upon the up
river power project. In accordance
with its settled policy, the reclamation
service would refrain, in the Niquoia
as elsewhere, from entering into com
petition with private citizens; would
do nothing to discourage the "invest
ment of private capital A company
had been formed to take over the
power production and to establish a
! plant for the manufacture of cement,
and HroiflTlard was instructed to gov
ern himself accordingly. For his in
formation, the department letter
writer went on 1o say, it was to be
understood that the company was
duly organized under the provisions of
an act of congress; that it had bound
itself to furnish power and material
at prices satisfactory to the service;
and that the relations between it and
the government field-staff on the
ground were to be entirely friendly
“It s a graft—a pull-down with a
profit in it for some bunch of money
leeches a little higher up!” was the
young chief's angry comment when lie
had given Grislow the letter to read.
“Without knowing any more of the
details than that letter gives. I'd be
willing to bet a month's pay that this
js the fine Italian hand of Mr. J. Wes
ley Cortwright!”
Urislow s eyebrows went up in j
doubtful interrogation.
"Ought I tc know the gentleman?”
he queried mildly. "1 don’t seem to
recall the name.”
“No, you don't know him. It was
his motor party that was camping at
the Kuckskin fcrd the night we bfbke
in here—the night when we saw the
searchlight.” #
"And you met him? I thought you
told me you merely went down and
took a look—didn’t butt in?”
"I didn’t—that night. But tho next
morning they wanted to see the val
ley, and I showed them the wyay in.
Cortwright is the multimillionaire pork
packer of Chicago, and he went up
into the air like a lunatic over the
moneymaking chances there were to
be in this job. 1 didn’t pay much at
tention to his chortlings at the time.
It didn’t seem remotely credible that
/py
I .“What I Say Goes as She Lays.
Savez?”
anybody with real money to invest
i would plant it in the bottom of the Ni
I qimia reservoir.”
“But now you think he is going to
make his bluff good?”
“That looks very much like it," said
Brouillard sourly, pointing to the let
ter from Washington. “That scheme
; is going to change the whole face of
| nature for us up here, Grislow. It
j will spell trouble right from the
Jump.''
i “Oh, I don't know,” was the depre
! catory rejoinder. “It will relieve us
j of a lot of side-issue industries-^cut
j 'em out and bury 'em, so far as we
; are concerned.”
j' "That part of it is all right, of
course; but it won’t end there; not by
a hundred milos. Jobson says in that
letter that the relations have got to
be friendly! I'll bet anything you like
that I'll have to go and read the riot
act to those people before they’ve
been twenty-four hours on their job!”
Grislow was trying the point of his
mapping pen on hit! thumb nail. "Cu
rious that this particular fly should
I drop into your pot of ointment on
your birthday, wasn't it?” he re
marked.
"O suffering Jehu!" gritted Brouil
lard mgofully. "Are you never going
to forget that senseless bit of twad
(l onmiued Next Week )
. asr.i—_— _ . • —
Texarkana Host to Editors
Twin City of Two States—Center of Wealth
and Industry
"Texarkana is 'the gateway to the
Colden West,' but it is my belief it al
so is the very center and heart of a
section of golden opportunities,” re
marked one of the editors at the for
ty-fourth annual convention of the Ar
kansas Press Association in that city
the early part of this week, and this
belief seemed to prevail generally
among the editors, their wives and
their guests, who were given an op
portunity to judge for tl.eiuseP.es as
to the exceptional opportunities which
are found in the 'i win Cities.
“Opportunity knocks but once." is
an old saying, but literally this does
not apply to Texarkana, inasmuch a:
the opportunity is ever present there,
rather seeking the man than that tHe
man should seek It.
Following the Monday afternoon
business session of the press conven
tion. through the generosity of ,the mi
tomobile owners of Texarkana—and
auto ride to many of the forty-nine
manufacturing establishments in Tex
arkana, and that the editors were sur
prised and amazed at their size and
the volume of annual output is putting
it mildly. These 49 manufacturing
plants turn out finished products to
a number greater than one hundred
One of the greatest advantages of
Texarkana as an industrial center is
the fact that the territory contiguous
urnishes an apparently inexhaustible
supply of wood and other fuel, such
•is natural gas, oil and ligni'e. The
available timber supply can be safely
estimated at 1,500,000 acres, principal
ly of hardwoods, such as hickory, oak,
ash, and gum—all within convenient
distance of the city.
The 49 factories employ approxl
matcly 2 000 men. It is estimated
there are employed as wage earners
wi'hin the Twin Cities a total of 5,00u
persons, entailing a monthly pay roll
II ISO A I) MlMilir, LOOK IN O WEST.
The two large building are the State National Hank building and the
Texarkana National rmk building, w I irh is thi taller. Between them runs
State Hine, dividing the two cities. The view extends west on Broad street.
Into Texas.
there are many generous ones among
them—the editors were taken on an
automobile ride over the Twin Tities,
shown the wonderful improvements
made since last the editors were
there, told of the many wonderful im
provements in the way of paving, in
creased water mains for better nre
protection, more fire houses, substan
tial business houses, etc, that are
about to be begun, and then were taken
on a tour of inspection to several
of the forty-nine manufacturing insti
tutions in the city.
Texarkana is situated in proximity
to four great states—Arkansas, Texas,
Oklahoma and Louisiana, the dividing
line of two of these states forms a
geographical division of the ei'v it
of $250,000. The total value of the
products from the Texarkana facto
itcs in 1914 was $3,126,000, and the
present year bids fair to show an in
crease of almost 25 per cent over
those figures.
With its geographical location at.
the corners of four states. Texarkana
is blessed with railroad facilities such
as no other city of like sire in the
United States enjoys. Other cities
may have more carriers entering
them, but none with lines diverging
to a more resourceful territory. '£here
'are nine separate lines entering Tex
arkana, affording ready shipping facil
ities in any direction and placing the
output of Texarkana factories n»id
Pr*rms in close and constant touch
I
iMM.sm I I Itl \N HOOK SiuKK,
Whero tb>' Press Association met in its hrge A is^mbly 11«II. This N one n
the largest book and stationery establishments in the South, and fills orders for
all kinda of church supplies, as well as stationery and hooks.
self, eutailtng the necessity of sepa
rate municipal governments, eacti
with its own mayor and city council,
police department, elc., and each en
joying its own peculiar individualities
and growth, yel united in a common
cause—the upbuilding of a greater
Texarkana. There is a commendable
commercial and soctnl co-operation be
tween the two cities that augurs well
for the future.
Texarkana is rapidly forging to the
front, ai d there are five- logical roa ;
sons, briefly summarized as follows: I
Texarkana is a city of homes, a city j
of factories, a city of schools, a city j
of churches and a city with ideats. |
There are supplemental reasons with- ,
cut number why Texarkana is, ana i
why Texarkana will continue to be,,
the greatest city of its size In the
entire South. As to the homes on j
both sides of the state line, wealth is ;
to bo found in abundance
As to banking facilities, few cities i
are in a class with Texarkana. There ■
arc six bunks there, each #of them j
sound as the rock of Gibraltar, and !
the aggregate deposits amount to he- i
tween live and six million dollars, j
Tht \ have ample reserve bank conncc- i
tions.
The editorial party was taken on an :
with the marketing centers of the
world
Thus Texarkana, while actually the.
gateway to the great Southwest, also
is virtually the gateway to the four
states, and as a result there can be
procured there a combination of
freight rates, interstate or intrastate,
that makes for the shippers an east
bas's on which to get their goods
through this inland port of entry. It
is conservatively estimated an aver
age of 3f.,00n to 4r.,noo people daily
pass through this city in their travels
north or south or east or west.
Texarkana is a city of beautiful
and costly homes, of well kept lawns,
neatly cleaned streets, and of parks
.h< rover there happens to be a va
cant lot, most of which Is due to the
Civic League, the members of which
are never idle. With the aid of the
Boy Scouts, and from subscriptions
liberally made each month, the Civic
League ladies keep a “white wing”
officer who attends to the task of
keeping the streets elean and the
parks in iirst class condition.
Many improvements are about to
he undertaken in Texarkana. The*
Texarkana Water Corporation is now
engaged in laying larger and addition- <
al water mams for better tire prot.se
tion, this work to coot $30,000; ths
St. Louie, Iron Mountain and Southern
Railway is preparing to pare four
blocks along Its right of way in tha.
wholesale district, a work which will
cost approximately $40,000; the en
tire Arkansas side of the city ban
been included in a street paving dis
trict, and 52 blocks are to be paved,
guttered and otherwise improved at
an estimated coat of between $300,
000 and $400,000. This work la to
start within the next four to six
weeks, it was stated. Other improve
ments, either now under way or con
templated, include the double track
ing of their line to Fulton by the Iron
Mountain; the building of 60 miles
of improved highway from Texarkana
to the Red River crossing at Fulton;
another highway to the Louisiana
Due, and in Bowie county, the Texas
side of the city, an expenditure of
more than $100,000 is to be made in
the building of public highways, so
that Texarkana will soon be the hub
of a perfect network of good roads.
Four national highways are to pass
through Texarkana.
One of the greatest advantages ac
cruing to Texarkana is the fact that
it is situated in the very center of
one of the greatest producing belts in
this entire section. The variety and
quantity of products cannot be ex
celled anywhere. The soils are gray
| sandy loam, loam and clay, merging
1 into brown and black sandy loams,
and clay in the river bottoms. Fruits,
j vegetables, garden truck of every
known variety, feed stuffs—all are
I prolific producers in this soil. The
growing of grapes Is an industry
; which has had a wonderful progress
during recent years, and this luscious
fruit bids fair to become one of the
chief products of the soil in that sec
tion.
Farm lands in the vicinity of Tey.
arkana range in value probably lower
than anywhere In the United States
in proportion to their productiveness.
The average value per acre In Miller
county is $14.13, with a yield of $22.04
per acre, while in Bowie county the
average Is forty cents per acre higher.
During their stay in Texarkana the
editors were very forcibly Impressed
with the conviction that Texarkana Is
on the map, commercially, financially
and socially, and that the Twin Cities
are well prepared to meet newcomers,
entertain them and hold them after
getting them there. The Texarkana
commercial organisations are working
Industriously to make Texarkana
known to the world as one of ths
premier cities of the great 8'outh by
reason of its natural environment and;
the aggressiveness of its citftens In
dividually and collectively.
A very pleasing part of the editors*
meeting there was a reception snd
organ recital tendered the guests .In
the Congregational Church. Mrs. (?iv
zia Hynson Case, sn organist whose
well-earned reputation is not confined
to the boundaries of Arkansas. Tsxas,^
Oklahoma and Louisiana, conducted
the recital on the echo organ, one o<
the finest Instruments ever introduced
in this section of the country, and the
second one In the entire South, the
only other one being at Dallas. Mr.
Edward Johnston, manager of the
Little Rock branch of the Western *
Newspaper Union, sang several solos
that added greatly to. the occasion,
and the ladies of the first families of
the Twin Cities were in the receiving
line to bid the visitors welcome. The
recital was such as few cities could
present, and the visitors and their
wives were profuse in their express;
sions of appreciation.
Tuesday evening the magnificent
Texarkana Country Club wag thrown
open to the editorial delegation, and
a dance and reception wag enjoyed.
The banquet Monday night was one of
the greatest affairs of its kind ever
attempted by Texarkana, and wa» a
crowning success to the efforts of the
|j local newspaper men there. Hon. Lee'*
( J. Roundtree, president of the Na
' tional Editorial Association, was
■ among the visitors, and made a brief
I talk at the banquet, as well as at tbo
business sessions of the convention.
Another prominent visitor at themeet
| Ing was Walter B. Whitman, publisher
<i*f Holland’s Magazine and president
of the Texas Press Association.
The citizens of Texarkana showered
themselves with laurej wreaths in
their entertainment of the Arkansas
TKXARKANA CASKET FACTORY.
Birds-eye view of one of Texar~
.fcaaia’s fifty industrial lnsUlutiona. in
iklrtttlon to the manufacture of casket*
and all kinds of undertakers' supplies,
it produces the finest line of orna>«
i red cedar chests, which are In wide
. demand. Its shipments cover several
' states.
editors, and each one who attended
t this year's meeting in Texarkana wfll
look forward to next year's Joint se$
eion there with the Texas Press Aa
] aoctatlon with a vast deal of pleasant
j anticipation.