CHAPTER XXII
J. RUFUS PREFERS FARMING IN AMERICA TO PROMOTING IN EUROPE
The Battlesburg Blade was full of the big consolidation for a week following the providential visit of Mr. Lott. The Lewisville, Battlesburg and Elliston traction line was not merely an assured fact—it had always been that since the coming of Colonel Wallingford—but it was now even a bigger and better thing than ever, the key to a vast network of trolleys which, with this connecting link, would have its ramifications across more than the fourth part of a continent. The only drawback to all this good was that they were to lose as a permanent resident their esteemed fellow citizen, Colonel J. Rufus Wallingford—since he had sold his right of way, franchises, concessions and good will—and every issue of the Blade, from n
