PREFACE 7 



The old oak, as everybody called it, was a 

 stately giant, and the early settlers of Silver- 

 ton looked a fitting people to group them- 

 selves under it and around it, and, as I have 

 said, it was the superb character of both men 

 and women that made Silverton, the old town, 

 so distinctly different. 



The tree and town were nearly all destroyed 

 once by fire. A merchant named Alex Ross 

 let a lighted candle brush against his beard 

 and from his whiskers the blaze leaped madly 

 into the lace curtains of his store window and 

 one of the handsomest city blocks was soon 

 burnt to the ground. The town then got a 

 hook and ladder company, and a fire brigade 

 was organized with a tower and a fire bell on 

 top of it. Years passed and passed and the fire- 

 men grew older and less attentive at the annual 

 fire drill. The fire department consisted of a 

 hose, hook and ladder wagon with some fine 

 axes with gilding on the blades, some long 

 leather buckets, a long hose, and some fire hel- 

 mets. Some ten years after the first fire an- 

 other broke out, in the old brick store ; possibly 

 from a cigar stub as a man was seen smoking 

 one that day in the store. At any rate the old 



