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Thai Flourished Until TSie Aladdin Lamp was Ricked Over
-:rial caf
IttuBir&iions by ly.A.
IM, THANK YOl", NO! I'll ot across this ilarned buzz
wagon stampede hy myself, or go down shouting for luck.
Any man thai has swum the Missouri and herded nervou
cattle on a cross-eyed cayuse aint not a right to he afraid of
no Fifth Avenue street. Hey? Whoa! steady there!
That one shore grazed us. Why don't you put a tijlit rope
oer such a eanyun for the use of folks that travel on their
feet (!ive 'em a chance.
Yep, thanks. 1 Ml stop right here and have something in
1 want to rest up heforo I tackle Sixth Avenue. Which
a nice leather chair.
way do they net worse, up or down'
What 's that .' Want to live here? Me Hell, no! Hut don't get riled, dim.
I aint running the place down, you know. It 's a wonder, Noo York is, hut
it 's too big for me. I could live here and keep it from stepping on me, if 1 was
as lively as all net out, hut it wouldn't leave a heap of time for sleep. 1 aint
got any proprietary interest in the town. 1 couldn't feel like a father to it,
and help it grow up and spank it when it got onruly, and heat some other fellow
over the head when he tried to shove it with his town. 1 could n't lie awake at
night (iggering how to make it into a rip-roaring metropolis with 7,000 people.
It 's heen done already. 1 could n't handle this joh. It aint my size. 1 like a
town I can take hold of and shake up and improve. 1 want to stand oil' and
look at it with one eye shut, and see how it sets oil' against the scenery, and then
go and rustle up another eating house to fill up a hald spot, or move the whole
durn thing somewhere else, if necessary.
had a pet town of my own like that, once, Jim, and I 'm free to tell you
that since 1 lost Jupiter City, which I started myself, and nursed in my bosom,
and taught to eat out of my hand, so to speak, I aint had much .heart in towns.
1 can't seem to take any interest in 'em. I'm a disappointed man as far as
metropolusses go. I aint ngninsl 'em, hut I can't work up enthusiasm, and
sweat over 'em, the way 1 used to.
Novci hoard of Jupiter City, eh? No, 1 suppose not. There's more you
human ants hack here aint heard of than could he jammed into a hook as hig as
Hike's Peak. Heard of Pike's Peak, aint you' Well, don't get grumpy now.
1 met a fellow yesterday that didn't know about South Dakota, ami didn't
care either.
My pal, Ike Sanders, and I, founded Jupiter City about ten years ago. Yre
did it sort of accidental. Hadn't gone out to South Dakota to bring up any
infant towns by hand. We. 'd gone out to farm. A smooth agent up in Northern
Nebraska had sold us a farm that would n't raise anything but cattle, and being
as we only bad one cattle and no credit, business wasn't what you could call
magnificent. We built a dugout for ourselves, and a nice one-room house for
the cow, and were setting around waiting for some blind man to come along and
buy us out, when ike got to reading some circulars he 'd got out of the postolllce
over at Thunder Creek one day, and all of a sudden he let out a yell.
f(J OOK here, Hill," says he, "we aint going at this business right. We 're
wasting our opportunities. "We've got a chanest to get rich right under
our noses, and we aint takin' it. Look at this hero advertisement of New
Chicago. See what it says: Magnificent
situ, stretching hundreds of miles on each
side, (jiving ample, room for growth; four
teen railroads n,cing for the town, un
equalled opportunity for cement block
factory, waterworks, woolen mills, steam
laundry, and general store. Population
has doubled in two years, but corner lots
on State Street can still be bought for
one hundred dolLirs. 1 seen New Chicago
last fall and it did n't hae forty people in
it. Look at us here, setting around twid
dling our thumbs. Why aint wo starting
a town?"
"Sure, why not?" T asks sarcastic. "Wc
got a hammer and plenty of nails."
"Aint this as good a place as any?" Ike
asks, waving his arm around. "Aint there
an awful demand fer towns in this section?
Aint there 10,000 square miles of beautiful
land all around here? Didn't that dam
land agent tell us so hisself? Aint there
railroads all around us, both approaching
and fading away? Don't we need a steam
laundry wuss'n New Chicago? Wo aint
had a clean shirt for a month. Darn it
nil, we can lay out a half section info
streets and blocks, and stnrt a roaring
town and get richer'n mud. Here wo was
going to let this farm slip out of our hands
for $")70, er $200, if wo could n't git that.
It '11 bo worth a million, when the city hall
goes up.
He 's such a convincing cuss, Ike is, that
he got me lit Up in Spite of myself, and we We named the town Jupiter City, from my hunting dog
Both irrigation plants went out of business
That was a hard blow
sat up most all night discussing our town. Next day, wo laid oil' a street past our
dugout, and some side streets, ami staked out the city hall. We mimed the town
Jupiter City, from my hunting dog. and hy that time 1 was so enthusiastic that 1
was plumb sore because I could n't lind our town on the map. That afternoon we
went after Pete Fleming, who was farming it on the next seel ion and was going
to build a house. He was reluctant at lirst, hut after Ike had talked most all day,
he gave in and took a lot. Ike was sure eloquent about Jupiter City. I listened
to him talk to Pete and it got me so hypnotized that 1 half expected to see tho
olliee buildings looming up before we 1 crossed the river on our way home.
Next week, Pete hauled a load of lumber from Thunder Creek and built his
house. It took him all dav, and it was a dream porch and
window and everything complete. When it was done, Ike and
I went out and walked around Jupiter City, solemn but exalted,
viewing it from all sides, suggesting improvements and predict
ing her future. Nothing was too good for her. We loved her
already. Asphalt streets and boulevards were hers by birth
right. The more we talked and rode clouds around, so to speak,
the more disgusted we got with our house. It had been a good
bouse before Jupiter City came, but now it gave us a pain to
look at it. It was too darned provincial. We kept on criticising
it and running it down until we could n't stand it, so we chased
the cow out of the barn and moved in ourselves. It would be a
sight colder in winter than the dugout, but it was good looking,
and we owed it to thc-dignity of Jupiter City to live in a frame
house.
LUCK was with us right from tho stnrt. Three days later,
tho boys over at Thunder Creek got sore at Ying Lee, who
was trying to run a laundry on a cash basis in that totally un
promising field, and drove him out of town. Wo noticed Ying
traveling past, and annexed him kindly hut firmly, pointing out
the great advantages of getting into a town heforo the rush of
rival laundries. That made four hustling citizens for the town,
and Ike and Pete nnd I were delighted. Wo painted signs on
tho sides of cracker boxes and laid out a lot of new streets that
week, and what with advising Ike on the circular he was trying
to compose, and holding town meetings every (fight, nnd pre
vailing with Ying, who had a couple of icebergs for feet and
could n't see any prospects for business, we were as busy as bees
and a blamed sight happier.
Tho next week n regular windfall struck us. H was nothing
less than Sam Linthicus. Sam owned the next section to the
south and wasn't visiting in Thunder Creek, owing to a slight
coolness between him and the inhabitants, ho having sold them
the town site two years before. When Sam discovered our town