The Pig in a Poke 



of the bewhiskered candidates for fu- 

 ture aldermanic honors was neverthe- 

 less held that night in the corner gro- 

 cery to discuss the matter; and over 

 the "navy plug" the relative prospects 

 of the two communities came up for 

 argument and adjudication. Those 

 few faint-hearted ones who manifested 

 any doubt as to the assured supremacy 

 of Atlas were soon silenced, and before 

 the court had adjourned it had been 

 unanimously determined, once for all, 

 that "Quincy never could amount to 

 a damn anyhow, because it was too 

 near Atlas!" Alas, poor Atlas! you 

 know what happened to her; or rather 

 you know what happened at Quincy, 

 where one of the West's leading rail- 

 way systems built a great steel bridge 

 and shops and made a thriving city, 

 while Atlas withered and decayed until 

 finally one day a strong wind blew 

 it off the map. One of a thousand 

 similar victims of pioneer railway en- 

 gineering. 



