High School of Commerce - Caravel Yearbook (New York, NY)

Page 73 text:

'WT' COMMERCE YEAR BOOK, 1911 in my own head, and that is why I have got you out here to-day: To buy that little dam and this excellent farm for the small and ridiculous price of one million dollars. Why, you crazy l0on, replied the President, losing his temper. What this side of Hades do I want with a rotten old farm and a dinky little dam? I' came out here thinking you could tell me something about the stoppage of the falls, and here you come and spring this crazy proposition on me. Oh, it's no use, I'm ruined -utterly ruined. The President of the Brattleboro Power Company wiped his heated face. W'ell, chuckled Di Vico, I suppose I've got to tell you. I did bring you out here in reference to the falls, and I can tell you in just seventeen words. This dam and similar dams are the sources of the Brattleboro Falls, and I own them all. For a moment the President looked puzzled. Then he nodded his head slowly, and a peculiar look stole over his face. Then he slowly said, lVell, I'll be damned. Say, young man, he continued, you're pretty good. You've got us cornered up here, and we can only accede to your demands, but say, if you'll send your man clown to the store, I'l1 sign the papers and touch off a charge of gun-cotton to that dam in two shakes oi a lamb's tail. FINIS X rt, Lu-if 59

Page 72 text:

COMMERCE YEAR BOOK, 1911 then harnessed, and deep furrows were ploughed through the ground just above the dam. NVhen the water, confronted by the dam, backed up, it sought refuge in the furrows, thus creating an excellent irrigation scheme. When this was finished, Di Vico bathed his hot face and blistered hands in the cool water, and then walked down to his dam. The brook on the other side was nearly dry, and myriads of wriggling worms were crawling about as after a rainstorm. Denvor sat up a bit when it saw Di Vico's irrigation scheme. N XVell, thet young fellcr has something in his head, anyway. Zeke would never o' thought oy that in a hundred years. But where thet young feller's real brightness lay, was yet to be seen. In the meanwhile Di Vico was making all preparations for a hurried departure. lVell, to make a long story short, Di Vico the next day took the train for a small town in New Hampshire. Arriving there, he did the same as he had done at Denvor, and when he had completed the dam, he packed up and did the same in another town in New Hampshire. In five small towns he went through the same procedure, and then, as two weeks had elapsed, he went back to his far1n at Denvor and awaited developments. The following day when Di Vico came down to breakfast, he took up the morn- ing paper which he had sent down from Brattleboro. There, in letters half a foot high, was a headline which brought an amused smile to the face of Di Vico l1Veele. STUPENDO US NA TURAL PHENOMENA. BRA TTLEBORO FALLS HAVE STOPPED Bam-rtnnoao, CoNN., June 23, 1915.-Our world-famous cataract has ceased Howing. The falls supplied the power for this city and the neighboring cities, and all electric power is at a standstill. These cities are in darkness. The cars are not running, elevators are stopped, and the business world is in a panic. The learned scientists have held a conference. Professor Baker, of Brattle- boro University, thinks that the conjunction of Mars with the moon has produced an anti-hydro-affiliation which has caused the holding back of the water. Rev. Dr. Walter Sklars has called a meeting of all the clergymen in the town to have a prayer meeting, to see if prayer cannot help the water to resume falling. If this does not help, God only knows what the result will be. Five days after the falls had stopped, Di Vico sat up and wrote a letter to the President of the Brattleboro Power Company in this wise: DEAR SIR: I have it in my power to make the falls resume falling. I am not crazy, but this is solid business. You must see me personally. D1 Vico VVEELE, Denvor, Vermont. The next day Di Vico received a telegram: 'fWill come at once at :F if Pres. Br. P. Co. I thought that would bring him, chuckled Di Vico. The following morning a tired, hot, worried, haggard, dusty man jumped off the train at Denvor. He inquired l1is way to Di Vico's farm, jumped in a carriage, and in live minutes was there. Di Vico was expecting him and he invited his visi- tor inside, where he prepared a cooling drink. After the President of the Brattleboro Power Company had cooled down, Di Vico took him out to see his irrigation scheme. Now, my dear Mr. Barzilar, I must ask you to refrain from talking business until I have shown you my masterpiece. This little irrigation scheme originated 68

Page 74 text:

COMMERCE YEAR BOOK, 1911 Ulibe Qnlhen ge Long, long ago there was a Golden Age When all mankind lived happy and at peaceg There were no weapons and no battle-rage, And Earth, untilled, yet yielded her increase. Sweet milk and nectar in the rivers Howed, While tawny honey trickled from the treeg And woolly flocks oft heard their shepherd sing, On pastures green above the silver sea, The praises of the fields where Pan abode, Eternal flowers and eternal Spring. That dream has vanished, and the golden page VVhereon it slept forevermore is turned: Why fret our fancy with a fabled age Of innocence for which old poets yearned? How many, many thousand years ago Pandora's girlish curiosity Led her to lift the lid of that black chest, And loose the fatal animosity Of all those swarming ills that cause our woe: Yet winged Hope remained to be our guest! The child of morning, rosy-fingered dawn, Still blushes red when Heaven's gates unbar, And silver cob-webs glisten on the lawn NV hen crooning songsters greet Apollo's car. The hoarse voice of the ocean changeth not, But breaks in thunder on the waste of sandy Drawn by the mystic magnet of the moon The moaning tides encroach upon the land. A Golden Age is still the human lot, And Nature's gifts are still a golden boon. 70