"commercial panic": when I broadly consider these things, I am not vain
enough seriously to blame myself.

These thoughts are more than ever in my mind to-day, as I look back over
the decade of years which have elapsed since our Waterloo at the Elk
Fork trestle. I look out from the same library in which I once felt a
sense of guilt at the expense of building it, and see the solid and
prosperous town, almost as populous as we once saw it in our dreams. I
am regarded locally as one of the creators of the city; but I know that
this praise is as unmerited as was that blame of a dozen years ago. We
rode on the crest of a wave, and we weltered in the trough of the sea;
but we only seemed to create or control. I hold in my hand a letter from
Jim, received yesterday, and eloquent of the changes which have taken
place.

"I am sorry," says he, "to be unable to come to your business men's
banquet. The building of a great auditorium in Lattimore is proof that
we weren't so insane, after all. I suppose that the ebb and flow of the
tide of progress, which yearly gains upon the shore, is inevitable, as
things are hooked up; but, after the ebb, it's comforting to see your
old predictions as to gain coming true, even if you do find yourself in
the discard. It would be worth the trip only to see Captain Tolliver,
and to hear him eliminate the _r_'s from his mother tongue. Give the
dear old secesh my dearest love!

"But I can't come, Al. I must be in Washington at that time on business
of the greatest (presumptive) importance to the cattle interests of the
buffalo-grass country. I could change my own dates; but my wife has
arranged a tryst for a day certain with some specialists in her line in
New York. She's quite the queen of the cattle range--in New York: and,
to be dead truthful, she comes pretty near it out here. It is rumored
that even the sheepmen speak well of her.

"These Eastern trips are great things for her and the children. I'm
riding the range so constantly, and get so much fun out of it, that I
feel sort of undressed and embarrassed out of the saddle. In Washington
I'm pointed out as a typical cowboy, the descendant of a Spanish vaquero
and a trapper's daughter. This helps me to represent my constituents in
the sessions of the Third House, and to get Congressional attention to
the ax I want ground. I am looked upon as in line for the presidency of
the Amalgamated Association of American Ax-grinders.

"If we can make i