Cecil Barr-Smith, his brother.

Avery Pendleton, of New York, a railway magnate; head
of the "Pendleton System."

Allen G. Wade, of New York; head of the Allen G. Wade Trust Co.

Halliday, a railway magnate; head of the "Halliday System."

Watson, a reporter.

Schwartz, a locomotive engineer on the Lattimore & Great Western.

Hegvold, a fireman.

Citizens of Lattimore, Politicians, Live-stock Merchants,
Railway Clerks and Officials, etc.

Scene: Principally in the Western town of Lattimore,
but partly in New York and Chicago.

Time: Not so very long ago.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

ALADDIN & CO

CHAPTER I.

Which is of Introductory Character.

Our National Convention met in Chicago that year, and I was one of the
delegates. I had looked forward to it with keen expectancy. I was now,
at five o'clock of the first day, admitting to myself that it was a
bore.

The special train, with its crowd of overstimulated enthusiasts, the
throngs at the stations, the brass bands, bunting, and buncombe all
jarred upon me. After a while my treason was betrayed to the boys by the
fact that I was not hoarse. They punished me by making me sing as a solo
the air of each stanza of "Marching Through Georgia," "Tenting To-night
on the Old Camp-ground," and other patriotic songs, until my voice was
assimilated to theirs. But my gorge rose at it all, and now, at five
o'clock of the first day, I was seeking a place of retirement where I
could be alone and think over the marvelous event which had suddenly
raised me from yesterday's parity with the fellows on the train to my
present state of exaltation.

I should have preferred a grotto in Vau Vau or some south-looking
mountain glen; but in the absence of any such retreat in Chicago, I
turned into the old art-gallery in Michigan Avenue. As I went floating
in space past its door, my eye caught through the window the gleam of
the white limbs of statues, and my being responded to the soul
vibrations they sent out. So I paid my fee, entered, and found the
tender solitude for which my heart longed. I sat down and luxuriated in
thoughts of the so recent marvelous experience. Need I explain that I
was young and the experience was one of the heart?

I was so young that my delegateship was regarded as a matter to excite
wonder. I saw my picture in the papers next morning as a youth of
twenty-three who had become his party's leade