They laid out the town liberally, not lacking room,
leaving space for the railroad to come in, and for
the river as it was to be when improved.
The engineers reported that the railroad could come
in, by taking a little sweep and crossing the stream
on a high bridge, but the grades would be steep.
Col. Sellers said he didn’t care so much
about the grades, if the road could only be made to
reach the elevators on the river. The next day
Mr. Thompson made a hasty survey of the stream for
a mile or two, so that the Colonel and Harry were
enabled to show on their map how nobly that would
accommodate the city. Jeff took a little writing
from the Colonel and Harry for a prospective share
but Philip declined to join in, saying that he had
no money, and didn’t want to make engagements
he couldn’t fulfill.
The next morning the camp moved on, followed till
it was out of sight by the listless eyes of the group
in front of the store, one of whom remarked that,
“he’d be doggoned if he ever expected to
see that railroad any mo’.”
Harry went with the Colonel to Hawkeye to complete
their arrangements, a part of which was the preparation
of a petition to congress for the improvement of the
navigation of Columbus River.
Eight years have passed since the death of Mr. Hawkins.
Eight years are not many in the life of a nation
or the history of a state, but they maybe years of
destiny that shall fix the current of the century
following. Such years were those that followed
the little scrimmage on Lexington Common. Such
years were those that followed the double-shotted
demand for the surrender of Fort Sumter. History
is never done with inquiring of these years, and summoning
witnesses about them, and trying to understand their
significance.
The eight years in America from 1860 to 1868 uprooted
institutions that were centuries old, changed the
politics of a people, transformed the social life
of half the country, and wrought so profoundly upon
the entire national character that the influence cannot
be measured short of two or three generations.
As we are accustomed to interpret the economy of providence,
the life of the individual is as nothing to that of
the nation or the race; but who can say, in the broader
view and the more intelligent weight of values, that
the life of one man is not more than that of a nationality,
and that there is not a tribunal where the tragedy
of one human soul shall not seem more significant
than the overturning of any human institution whatever?
When one thinks of the tremendous forces of the upper
and the nether world which play for the mastery of
the soul of a woman during the few years in which
she passes from plastic girlhood to the ripe maturity
of womanhood, he may well stand in awe before the
momentous drama.
