FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113  
114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   >>   >|  
d broken out at the post, and five or six men were dying daily. It was difficult to tell which was the greater danger--fighting Indians on the prairie, or facing the cholera in camp; but the former was decidedly the more inviting. CHAPTER XIII. A MILLIONAIRE. Soon after returning to Fort Hays, I was sent with dispatches to Fort Harker. After delivering the messages, I visited the town of Ellsworth, about three miles west of Fort Harker, and there I met a man named William Rose, a contractor on the Kansas Pacific Railroad, who had a contract for grading near Fort Hays. He had had his stock stolen by the Indians, and had come to Ellsworth to buy more. During the course of our conversation, Mr. Rose incidentally remarked that he had some idea of laying out a town on the west side of Big Creek, about one mile from the fort, where the railroad was to cross. He asked my opinion of the contemplated enterprise, and I told him that I thought it was "a big thing." He then proposed taking me as a partner in the scheme, and suggested that after we got the town laid out and thrown open to the public, we should establish a store and saloon there. Thinking it would be a grand thing to be half-owner of a town, I at once accepted his proposition. We bought a stock of such articles as are usually found in a frontier store, and transported them to the place on Big Creek, where we were to found our town. We hired a railroad engineer to survey the site and stake it off into lots; and we gave the new town the ancient and historical name of Rome. To a "starter," we donated lots to any one who would build on them, but reserved the corner lots and others which were best located for ourselves. These reserved lots we valued at fifty dollars each. Our modern Rome, like all mushroom towns along the line of a new railroad, sprang up as if by magic, and in less than one month we had two hundred frame and log houses, three or four stores, several saloons, and one good hotel. Rome was looming up, and Rose and I already considered ourselves millionaires, and thought we "had the world by the tail." But one day a fine-looking gentleman, calling himself Dr. W.E. Webb, appeared in town, and dropping into our store introduced himself in a very pleasant way. "Gentlemen, you've got a very flourishing little town here. Wouldn't you like to have a partner in your enterprise?" "No, thank you," said I, "we have too good a thing here to wha
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113  
114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

railroad

 

enterprise

 

thought

 
partner
 
reserved
 

Indians

 
Ellsworth
 

Harker

 

corner

 

Gentlemen


engineer
 

flourishing

 

located

 

pleasant

 

valued

 
survey
 

ancient

 

Wouldn

 

historical

 
donated

starter

 
dollars
 

dropping

 

stores

 

transported

 

houses

 

calling

 
gentleman
 

saloons

 

considered


millionaires

 

looming

 

hundred

 

mushroom

 

appeared

 

introduced

 

modern

 

sprang

 

scheme

 

delivering


messages

 

visited

 

dispatches

 

MILLIONAIRE

 

returning

 

contract

 
grading
 

stolen

 

Railroad

 

Pacific