252 AT THE SIGN OF THE STOCK YARD INN 



and leads up to the vortex of contemporary western 

 business life. 



Inheriting, along with his brothers CHARLES and 

 BENJAMIN, a princely domain in the very heart of the 

 cornbelt, gifted by nature with a fine mind and sub- 

 jected to the usual allurements of young men of 

 his class in the middle west, he yet clung to the 

 simple life, resisting steadfastly to the end the 

 ceaseless calls of the city. In the noonday and in 

 the evening of his years the soft, cool touch of the 

 blue grass, the rustle of the ripening corn, the chatter 

 of the squirrels in the giant oaks, the highly-bred 

 cattle in the park, the burly bullocks grazing in 

 luxurious pastures, provided for him a sure and safe 

 defense against all the vicissitudes inevitably attend- 

 ing the passage of man's allotted three score years 

 and ten. Happy indeed the man who is permitted 

 to live out a long life in sweet content, honored 

 and respected far and near in the midst of such 

 prodigal pastoral wealth and beauty as surrounded 

 WILLIAM BROWN at Grove Park from the cradle to 

 the grave. 



He might have won success, as the world meas- 

 ures success, in law or medicine or politics. He 

 might have sought, as so many others born under 

 similiar conditions have done, "the bubble reputation" 



