Big Poker Site hazard of new fortunes 36

of the ground, and blazing away like forty, and a fellow ploughing all round it and not minding it any more than if it was spring violets. Horses didnt notice it, either. Well, theyve always known about the gas out there; they say there are places in the woods where its been burning ever since the country was settled. "But when you come in sight of Moffitt--my, oh, my! Well, you come in smell of it about as soon. That gas out there aint odorless, like the Pittsburg gas, and so its perfectly safe; but the smell isnt bad--about as bad as the finest kind of benzine. Well, the first thing that strikes you when you come to Moffitt is the notion that there has been a good warm, growing rain, and the towns come up overnight. Thats in the suburbs, the annexes, and additions. But it aint shabby--no shanty-farm business; nice brick and frame houses, some of em Queen Anne style, and all of em looking as if they had come to stay. And when you drive up from the depot you think everybodys moving. Everything seems to be piled into the street; old houses made over, and new ones going up everywhere. You know the kind of street Main Street always used to be in our section--half plank-road and turnpike, and the rest mud-hole, and a lot of stores and doggeries strung along with false fronts a story higher than the back, and here and there a decent building with the gable end to the public; and a court-house and jail and two taverns and three or four churches. Well, theyre all there in Moffitt yet, but architecture has struck it hard, and theyve got a lot of new buildings that neednt be ashamed of themselves anywhere; the new court-house is as big as St. Peters, and the Grand Opera-house is in the highest style of the art. You cant buy a lot on that street for much less than you can buy a lot in New York--or you couldnt when the boom was on; I saw the place just when the boom was in its prime. I went out there to work the newspapers in the syndicate business, and I got one of their men to write me a real bright, snappy account of the gas; and they just took me in their arms and showed me everything. Well, it was wonderful, and it was beautiful, too! To see a whole community stirred up like that was--just like a big boy, all hope and high spirits, and no discount on the remotest future; nothing but perpetual boom to the end of time--I tell you it warmed your blood. Why, there were some things about it that made you think what a nice kind of world this would be if people ever took hold together, instead of each fellow fighting it out on his own hook, and devil take the hindmost. They made up their minds at Moffitt that if they wanted their town to grow theyd got to keep their gas public property. So they extended their corporation line so as to take in pretty much the whole gas region round there; and then the city took possession of every well that was put down, and held it for the common good. Anybody thats a mind to come to Moffitt and start any kind of manufacture can have all the gas he wants free; and for fifteen dollars a year you can have all the gas you want to heat and light your private house. The people hold on to it for themselves, and, as I say, its a grand sight to see a whole community hanging together and working for the good of all, instead of splitting up into as many different cut-throats as there are able-bodied citizens. See that fellow?" Fulkerson broke off, and indicated with a twirl of his head a short, dark, foreign-looking man going out of the door. "They say that fellows a Socialist. I think its a shame theyre allowed to come here. If they dont like the way we manage our affairs let em stay at home," Fulkerson continued. "They do a lot of mischief, shooting off their mouths round here. I believe in free speech and all that; but Id like to see these fellows shut up in jail and left to jaw one another to death. We dont want any of their poison." March did not notice the vanishing Socialist. He was watching, with a teasing

Hazard Of New Fortunes page 35        Hazard Of New Fortunes page 37