"WHICH TOWN WILL THE R.R. STRIKE?"
The drummer's information soon received corroboration from other
sources, and although it seemed almost unbelievable, it was discussed
incessantly and excitement ran high. These pioneers, who had braved the
hardships of homestead life had felt that without the railroad they were
indeed cut off from civilization. To them the advent of the surveyors in
Oristown could mean only one thing--that their dreams of enjoying the
many advantages of the railroad train, would soon materialize.
They fell to enumerating these advantages--the mail daily, instead of
only once or twice a week; the ease with which they could make necessary
trips to the neighboring towns; and most of all--the increase in the
value of the land. With this last subject they became so wrought up with
excitement and anxiety as to the truth of the report, that they could
stay away from the scene of action no longer. Accordingly, buggies and
vehicles of all descriptions began coming into Oristown from all
directions. I hitched Doc and my new horse, Boliver, for which I had
paid one hundred and forty dollars, to an old ramshackle buggy I had
bought for ten dollars, and joined the procession.
Three miles west of Oristown we came upon a crowd of circus-day
proportion, and in their midst were the surveyors.
In their lead rode the chief engineer--a slender, wiry man with a black
mustache and piercing eyes, that seemed to observe every feature of
surrounding prairie. Behind came a wagon loaded with stakes, accompanied
by several men, the leader of whom was setting these stakes according to
the signal of the engineer from behind the transit. Others, on either
side, were also driving stakes. They were not only running a straight
survey, but were cross-sectioning as they went.
Even though the presence of these surveyors was now an established fact,
these were days of grave uncertainties as to just what route the road
would take. The suspense was almost equal to that of the criminal, as he
awaits the verdict of the jury. The valleys and divides lay in such a
manner that it was possible the survey would extend along the Monca,
thus passing through Calias. On the other hand, it was probable that it
would continue to the Northwest through Kirk and Megory, thus missing
Calias altogether.
When the surveyors reached a point five miles west of Hedrick, they
swerved to the northwest and advanced directly toward Kirk. This looked
bad for Calias.
When Ernest Nicholson had learned that the surveyors were in Oristown,
he had left immediately for parts unknown and had not returned. He was
in reality the founder of Calias and many of the inhabitants looked to
him as their leader, and depended upon him for advice. Although he had
many enemies who heaped abuse and epithets upon him--calling him a liar,
braggard and "wind jammer" when boasting of their own independence and
self respect--now that a calamity was about to befall them, and their
fond hopes for this priceless mistress of prairie were about to be
wrecked upon the shoals of an imaginary railroad survey, they turned
toward him for comfort, as moths turn to a flame. It was Ernest here and
Ernest there. As the inevitable progress of the surveyors proceeded in a
direct line for Hedrick, Kirk and Megory, the consternation of the
Caliasites became more intense as time went on, and the anxiety for
Ernest to return almost resolved itself into mutiny. It became so
significant, that at one time it appeared that if Ernest had only
appeared, the railroad company would have voluntarily run its survey
directly to Calias, in order to avoid the humiliation of Ernest's
seizing them by the nape of the neck and marching them, survey, cars and
all, right into the little hamlet.
Now there was one thing everybody seemed to forget or to overlook, but
which occurred to me at the time, and caused me to become skeptical as
to the possibilities of the road striking Calias, and that was, if the
railroad was to be built up the Monca Valley, then why had the surveyors
come to Oristown, and why had they not gotten off at Anona, the last
station in the Monca Valley, where the tracks climb the grade to
Fairview.
Many of the Megory and Kirk boosters had taken advantage of Ernest's
absence, and through enthusiasm attending the advent of the railroad
survey, persuaded several of Calias' business men to go into fusion in
their respective towns. The remaining handful consoled each other by
prophecies of what Ernest would do when he returned, and plied each
other for expressions of theories, and ways and means of injecting
enthusiasm into the local situation. Thousands of theories were given
expression, consideration, and rejection, and the old one that all
railroads follow valleys and streams was finally adhered to. I was
singled out to give corroborative proof of this last, by reason of my
railroad experience.
I was suddenly seized with a short memory, much to my embarrassment, as
I felt all eyes turned upon me. However, the crowd were looking for
encouragement and spoke up in chorus: "Don't the railroads always follow
valleys?" It suddenly occurred to me, that with all the thousands of
miles of travel to my credit and the many different states I had
traveled through, with all their rough and smooth territory, I had not
observed whether the tracks followed the valleys or otherwise. However,
I intimated that I thought they did. "Of course they do", my remark was
answered in chorus.
Since then I have noticed that a railway does invariably follow a
valley, if it is a large one; and small rivers make excellent routes,
but never crooked little streams like the Monca. When it comes to such
creeks, and there is a table land above, as soon as the road can get
out, it usually stays out. This was the situation of the C. & R.W. It
came some twenty-five or thirty miles up the Monca, from where it
empties into the Missouri. There are fourteen bridges across in that
many miles, which were and still are, always going out during high
water.
It came this route because there was no other way to come, but when it
got to Anona, as has been said, it climbed a four per cent grade to get
out and it stayed out.