The Way of the West - Softcover

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1902. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XII. Long years--another decade--rolled by, bringing many a change in dramatis personae and new, strange features to the scene of thethrilling drama played to that stirring close in the Lancewood valley. The Road that sent its surveyors probing a pathway to the Rockies had long since followed with its tentacles of steel, binding East and West together in bonds like those of Roman fasces, that turned scattered factors into coherent mass. Spurning long leagues of prairie from their flashing tires, spanning mountain gorges, bridging roaring torrents, bursting through black miles of granite, its gleaming trains shot to and fro, whirling the traveler from the sandy shores of Michigan to the grandeur and beauty of the Garden of the Gods. Men who had -tugged at rod and chain and blinked through transit and level in the old days, figuring their westward way with pencil in one hand and pistol in the other, sat at seventh story windows in great office buildings above the rush and whirl of the thronging street, planning the further path of civilization or the daily routine of an army of employes that far exceeded in numbers their oldtime comrades of the army of the frontier. Massive in form as ever, rugged in face and feature, gray sprinkled as to hair and beard, big Don. McAlister, long since become chief engineer, presided over the destinies of a great department in his own road, even while called into consultation by corporations all over the land. Magnate that he was in the profession, his was but a limited monarchy at home, for there a bonnie housewife held sway, even though the unquestioned chieftain of the clan, the idol and pride of McAlister's heart, the imperious ruler of the domestic hearth, the alternate delight and torment of her adoring mother, was Ma...