IN THE SADDLE AGAIN 169 



My chief thought by day and my dreams at 

 night were how to make fruitful those mortgaged 

 acres in Elizabeth. I moved our house to one 

 side and sent the main street of the town far past 

 it to the south. I gridironed a hundred acres 

 with streets and sidewalks by the mile. They 

 were curbed and sewered and in many cases 

 wooden pavements laid by the city, while water 

 and gas pipes were extended beneath the flagged 

 sidewalks. The city advanced much for the im- 

 provement of the streets but for every dollar ex- 

 pended by it I spent many. I built houses by 

 the score, as was never before done in a town like 

 that, houses that cost to construct from five thou- 

 sand dollars to a hundred and fifty thousand 

 each. I supported a club stable, gymnasium, 

 and stage line for residents. Not often has an 

 enterprise been so advertised. From firework 

 celebrations on land to ocean steamship excur- 

 sions there was always something doing. I 

 worked hard to persuade the Singer Sewing Ma- 

 chine people to establish their factory on the Kill 

 von Kull, near property that I controlled, but 



