"Perfectly sure. That railroad is imperatively needed. It will develop a
very rich agricultural region which has been practically shut off from
the world. There is traffic enough for the road already within sight to
make it pay. When it is built, it will compel a cheapening of freight
rates to the advantage of the whole country."

"You are right, of course," answered Duncan reflectively. "I have gone
over that subject very conscientiously. I am convinced that the road can
carry the debt that must be incurred in building it, and that it will
pay its way. If I had any serious doubt of that, I should have nothing
to do with the thing."

"As it is," responded Hallam, "you've got the heavy end of the log to
carry, so far as work is concerned. When are you going to begin your
campaign?"

"Almost immediately. I've got everything in the bank into satisfactory
shape now, and three days hence I shall begin a speaking tour in the
interior counties. I'll make it even more a talking tour than a speaking
one. For while a public speech, if it is persuasive enough, may
influence many, it is the quieter talking to individuals and small
groups that does most to win votes. I've already secured the
co-operation of all the country editors, but they need stirring up, and
worse still they need somebody to tell them what to say and how to say
it in their newspapers. Of course you and Stafford and Tandy will take
care of Cairo and Alexander county."

This proposed railroad was one clearly destined to be of the utmost
consequence to Cairo and to the region through which the line must run.
The method by which it was planned to secure its construction, was the
one then in general use throughout the West. It may be simply explained.
Everybody concerned was asked to subscribe to what might properly have
been called an inducement fund. The subscriptions were meant to be gifts
made to secure the benefit of the railroad's construction. More
important than these personal subscriptions, and vastly greater in
amount, were the subscriptions of counties, cities, and towns. Under the
law as it then existed each county, city, or town, if its people so
voted, could "lend its credit" to an enterprise of this kind by issuing
its own bonds. When a sufficient sum was raised in this way, an effort
was made, usually in New York, to secure the forming of a construction
company. The whole volume of the subscriptions was offered as an
inducement to such a constr