Silverton

“ There was every class of people in Silverton but negroes; there were Chinamen, and Indians lived there in small numbers; but, for some strange reason, no coons. The founders of Silverton were all old pioneers that came mostly in 1851, and most of them came from Ohio and Illinois.
No city, no matter what size, could have the glare and good times that the people of Silverton enjoyed. But the main population were highly educated people, and very prosperous, as they are to this day. The population still varies, owing to what’s coming off in town. ”

“ But the people of Silverton appreciated the Silverton Appeal; they many times remarked that they liked it lots better than the Portland Oregonian, as it always had more home news in it.
I used to drift around into the shoe shop. Simeral was a ball player, so he used to sit in his shop and talk over the errors of the latest games. If you have ever sat in a shoemaker’s chair, you are bound to admit that it is the most comfortable seat you ever fell into. I used to sit there and whittle leather and talk with the shoemaker ”

“ There are any number of people who don't mind how much you're inconvenienced if it suits them," said Mrs. Silverton tragically. "But we're not going to stay another minute if you've got to get ready for company." She gave Winifred an affectionate little tap as she jumped up. "My dear, don't look so intense! It never pays to take too seriously what a man does. If I had taken Edward Silverton seriously I should be in my grave now, after five years!"
"Well, I believe in making husbands see when they have been thoughtless," said Mrs. Roberts meaningly, with a careful precision of speech. ”

“ Davis, the portly butler, advanced and opened the front door.
"Being above the snow doesn't keep me nice and warm, Mother," called back Rosella as she ran laughing down the steps into the icy north wind, which blew her dark hair out to its full length and heightened the warm colour in her cheeks.
"Make haste, and you'll be there in half-an-hour." Mrs. Silverton returned to her boudoir, and standing at the bow-window followed with loving eyes the graceful little red figure, until at a bend in the road it turned, gaily waved a farewell, and was lost to sight. ”

“ When it is added, that in this open space the band played morning and evening, all the world will be aware that if not the centre, it was decidedly the heart of Silverton, for to and from it the stream of human life was ever flowing, and all its tenderest affections were nourished there. ”

“ Miss Silverton wavered.
“I always hate going back after I’ve walked out on a show,” she said. “It seems so weak!”
“Not a bit of it! They’ll give three hearty cheers and think you a topper. Besides, you’ve got to go to New York in any case. To take Percy to a vet., you know, what!”
“Of course. How right you always are!” Miss Silverton hesitated again. “Would you really be glad if I went back to the show?”
“I’d go singing about the hotel! Great pal of mine, Benham. A thoroughly cheery old bean, and very cut up about the whole affair. ”

“ They had home talent shows and debating societies, and several lodges and a few saloons, but, above all, Silverton had among its population lots of great characters; men of great learning and wide experience, who spent most of their time playing marbles, and month after month I kept from hard work under the pretext that I was studying the character of the people of a town of three hundred. ”

“ Silverton now,” she said. “If you want to wait on the chance he’ll see you when he comes out, you may.”
“How long will that be?” Dan asked.
“Mr. Silverton usually leaves his office at four-thirty.”
“That’s fifteen minutes yet,” Brad said, glancing anxiously at the wall clock. “We shouldn’t delay. Please—”
“I’ve already explained that I cannot disturb Mr. Silverton. Now if you don’t mind, I have work to do.”
The receptionist busied herself typing a letter. However, the boys saw her gaze with disapproval at the enlarging pool of water which dripped from their slickers onto the floor. ”

“ Silverton insisted he had never in his life been any one else but himself, Rosella gaily recounted her meeting with the Snow Man at his Snow Castle. "And King Frost said, Grandfather," concluded Rosella, "that the credit of the Castle was his for providing the snow and not yours." ”

“ The first generation were not the stuff of their parents; conditions had changed, some of the younger men were bigger business men than their fathers yet they lacked a lot of a certain kind of character that made the fathers more interesting than any of their sons. The railroad and interurban trolleys change the conditions of things greatly, and Silverton has been no exception to this rule. The departure and arrival of the old Salem stage used to be an event, more than the trains coming and going to-day, but to me Silverton will always remain the same with no other memory second. ”

“ This made him the most popular actor with the stage director.
In Silverton, before we went to Portland, Duff did more tricks than I could tell you of in a day’s talk. He carried in stove wood; he rode up on the hay fork holding to a sack; he sat on the cowcatcher of the locomotive; he was the retriever, the bird dog, the shepherd, the clown. He could catch a coin or a baseball that was laid on the top of his nose. He would turn a back somersault just for the asking. What is more, he understood any plain language, the kind we used in Silverton. ”

“ At the present time stages make daily trips each way over the toll road, and the trip from Silverton to Ouray is a favorite one with the tourists on account of the beauty and grandeur of the scenery on the toll road.
There is every reason to expect that the earnings for the year 1892 will increase in the same proportion as in the past, and will continue for a great many years. The Silverton Railroad is also authorized to build up the Animas River. ”

“ No, he couldn’t be sold; there was something in Duff that showed in his eyes and prohibited a price.
The Silverton Appeal was the one newspaper in Silverton. It was a weekly, that the editor told me might some time be changed to a daily, if the town ever responded to its encouragement; but the town didn’t respond, so that the Silverton Appeal is still a weekly. For a time it got to look like it would be a monthly. The editor always set type and smoked long stem pipes ”

“ Grant, when that evening they sat together in the handsome parlor at Linwood, for Morris kindly invited him to spend the night with him.
“I stay in Silverton, first, because I think I can do more good here than elsewhere, and secondly, because I really 49like the country and the country people; for, strange and uncouth as they may seem to you, who never lived among them, they have kinder, truer hearts beating beneath their rough exteriors, than are often in the city.” ”

“ Silverton, I heard that they were short of a brakeman at the Portland end, so I beat my way back to Portland, and, walking into the office, offered myself.
“‘What!’ said the man. ‘What do you know about braking? I would like to know who sent you on such a fool’s errand?’ and he raved and stamped, and swore he would discharge everyone on the train. But on the next train, I went out as head brakeman. All the elements got together,—it rained and snowed and froze, and when I got to Silverton, almost frozen, I slipped from the train and tramped home, a much disheartened young man. ”

“ By C. W. Gibbs, M. Am. Soc. C. E.
WITH DISCUSSION.
The Silverton Railroad is a short line but 17.5 miles long, and has the reputation of being the steepest (5 per cent. grade) , the crookedest (30 degree curves) and the best paying road in Colorado; and is owned by one man, Otto Mears. It also has a turn-table on its main track, and it is the purpose of this paper to describe it and explain why it was so placed.
This road leaves the Denver and Rio Grande at Silverton, and runs over a divide 11 113 feet above sea level, then down into the rich mining country beyond. ”

“ Silverton was a queer place socially; while the townspeople were all of one set and there was little of any class hatred, the rich seldom ever lined up against the poor. Still if a very beautiful girl came to town all of us boys sort of took it for granted that she would turn us down if we did attempt to take her any place, so no one ever gave her the opportunity. We admired her and talked of her at the swimming holes and in fact everywhere we met, but no one ever had the nerve to approach her with a proposal of a “Let’s go to the dance, or the party or the entertainment.” ”

“ Silverton!"
A slight titter went around as it was seen that she also was alone. "How perfectly dear you look!" she announced in a rich, magnetic voice, holding both of Winifred's hands; "and how nice just to have a hen party! I've been hearing about it upstairs. Arthur had a 'phone from Will Laurence before I left home, saying that he and Mr. Iverson and a lot more were going into town with the boys after the show, and have a supper there before putting them on the midnight train. There are about thirty of them. What good times men do have, don't they?" ”

“ Silverton, pale with anxiety, sent other messengers in various directions, and then started off herself. On the moor she met another search party headed by old Mr. Silverton and his faithful collie dog. And the moor rang with anxious cries of "Rosella! Rosella!" uttered by whitened shadowy figures that looked like phantoms in the falling snow.
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"I must try and find my way to Grandfather," repeated Rosella falteringly, realising that she didn't know in the least how to proceed. She never had a notion that a Snow Castle was so intricate inside, with a hall, a lift, a grotto, and things ”

“ They were poor young men when they stopped their covered wagons on the banks of a stream called Silver Creek, and began to look around for better country. They made a few short rides around the valley and mountains, but they came back and finally settled and called the settlement Silverton, and finally people stopped there and took corner lots without crowding. These men were great workers and knew the art of saving. They bought the first crop of calves in their neighborhood and kept them until they grew up, and then sold them for big prices. ”

“ He’d promise never to get him back again; but inside of twenty-four hours, he came with just as broad a smile and said, “Well, I’ve got back the big bay.” And it was through that kind of operations, the rake-off, as it were, that went to the kitty, that Uncle Ben got a good financial start. He traded and retraded the horse for years. Every time he passed out he was called “Old Broadfoot,” and every time he came back he was the “Big Bay.”
Silverton kept growing more and more, and traveling men with bigger diamonds began to come to town. ”

“ Her olive-trimmed [153] gown is very simple, but is caught by a conspicuous jade belt.
These, with the other guests who gradually depart, suggest the atmosphere of a conventional tea.)
Omnes
(Enthusiastically to Silverton)
How delightful! How wonderful!
(George Silverton is medium-sized, in the late thirties, with a fine, sensitive face and short-cropped hair. He is retiring in manner and seems ill at ease in the present company. Towards Patricia, however, this disappears and it is evident he has known her well.) ”

“ Silvertongue might be a little offended. You know he is a personal friend of mine, and——
Mr. Kosts (promptly, with a bow) . I trust your Grace will not give the matter another thought—Mr. Silvertongue shall be instructed. (Preparing to go.) Of course, your Grace’s young relative, the Honourable Charles Needy, will act as junior?
The Duke. Certainly, Mr. Kosts. Give Charley as much of my work as possible. My wife’s cousin, I am afraid, is not overburdened with briefs.
Mr. Kosts. I am afraid not, your Grace. And yet Mr. Needy is a sharp and clever young gentleman. ”

“ In my joy at leaving the barn I had forgotten that my chickens did roost on the hind axle of the buggy, and as we drove out we took the hen roost also, so that naturally when we went over a rock or rough place with the hind wheel, we dislodged all or most of the chickens and they would catch by their necks and flutter back on the axle; thus they frightened the horse that never even shied before at anything; so when I said to the handsomest girl in Silverton, “It’s chickens roosting on the hind axle,” she exclaimed, “No wonder ”

“ I have scarcely seen one of the faces that used to be familiar in the Bois two winters ago.”
“Paris isn’t as bad as London for change,” Silverlake remarks. “In town there’s a lot of cads who suddenly appear—no one knows whence—make a great flare up with carriages, horses, opera boxes, powdered footmen, and as suddenly disappear, goodness knows where, and sink into utter oblivion. Cads who speculate, you know, make fortunes by some species of swindling, and then lose them again.”
“People who are not cads manage to get through their money pretty well,” drawls Shropshire.
At which Delaval laughs. ”

“ But he was receiving the blows on his gloves and shoulders, rocking back and forth to the force of them like a tree in a storm, while the house cheered its delight. It was not until she understood this applause, and saw Silverstein half out of his seat and intensely, madly happy, and heard the "Oh, you, Joe's!" from many throats, that she realized that instead of being cruelly punished he was acquitting himself well. Then he would emerge for a moment, again to be enveloped and hidden in the whirlwind of Ponta's ferocity. ”