COMES STANLEY, THE CHIEF ENGINEER
Megory was still on the boom, not quite as much as the summer before,
but more than it was some time later, for as yet New Calias was still
regarded as a joke, until one day Stanley, the same wiry-looking
individual with the black mustache and the piercing eyes, got off the
stage at Megory and began to do the same work he had started west of
Oristown the year before.
Oh, it was a shame to thus wreck the selfish dreams of these Megoryites
upon the rocks of their own shortsightedness. Stanley was followed a few
days later by a grade contractor, who had been to Megory the summer
before and who had became popular around town, and was known to be a
good spender. They had bidden him good-bye along in December, and
although nothing was said about it, the truth was, Megory did not wish
to see any more railroad contractors, for a while, not for five or ten
years anyway.
It is a peculiar thing that when a railroad stops at some little western
burg, that it is always going to stay ten or twenty years. This has
always been the case before, according to the towns at the end of the
line, and at this time Megory was of the same opinion as regarded the
extension to New Calias. So Oristown had been in regard to the extension
to Megory. But Trelway built the road to New Calias, and built it the
quickest I ever saw a road built. The first train came to Megory on a
Sunday in June--(Schedules always commence on Sunday) and September
found the same train in Calias, the "New" having been dropped.
Megoryites admitted very grudgingly, a short time before, that the train
would go on to Calias but would return to Megory to stay over night,
where it left at six o'clock the following morning. Now at Megory the
road had a "Y" that ran onto a pasture on a two years lease, while at
Calias coal chutes, a "Y", a turning table, a round house, and a large
freight depot were erected.
And then began one of the most bitter fights between towns that I ever
saw or even read about.
Five miles apart, with Calias perched on another hill, and like the old
site, could be seen from miles around. Now the terminus, it loomed
conspicuously. It was a foregone conclusion that when the reservation to
the west opened, Calias was in the right position to handle the crowds
that came to the territory to the west, instead of Megory. Megory
contended, however, that Calias, located on such a hill, could never
hope for an abundance of good water and therefore could not compete with
Megory, with her natural advantages, such as an abundance of good soft
water, which was obtainable anywhere in town.
There are certain things concrete in the future growth of a prairie
town; the first is, has it a railroad; the next is, is the agricultural
territory sufficient to support a good live town (a fair sized town in
either one of the Dakotas has from one thousand to three thousand
inhabitants); and last, are the business men of the town modern,
progressive, and up to date. In this respect Calias had the advantage
over Megory, as will be seen later.
Megory became my postoffice address after Calias had moved to its new
location, and about that time the first rural mail route was established
on the reservation. Megory boasted of this. The other things it boasted
of, was its great farming territory. For miles in every direction
tributary to the town, the land was ideal for farming purposes, and at
the beginning of the bitter rivalry between the two towns, Megory had
the big end of the farm trade. They could see nothing else but Megory,
which helped the town's business considerably.