Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 01 - Little Journeys to the Homes of Good Men and Great by Elbert Hubbard
page 12 of 261 (04%)
page 12 of 261 (04%)
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The place got too small when we began to bind books, so we built a wing on one side; then a wing on the other side. To keep the three carpenters busy who had been building the wings, I set them to making furniture for the place. They made the furniture as good as they could--folks came along and bought it. The boys picked up field-stones and built a great, splendid fireplace and chimney at one end of the Shop. The work came out so well that I said, "Boys, here is a great scheme--these hardheads are splendid building material." So I advertised we would pay a dollar a load for niggerheads. The farmers began to haul stones; they hauled more stones, and at last they had hauled four thousand loads. We bought all the stone in the dollar limit, bulling the market on boulders. Three stone buildings have been built, another is in progress, and our plans are made to build an art-gallery of the same material--the stones that the builders rejected. An artist blew in on the way to Nowhere, his baggage a tomato-can. He thought he would stop over for a day or two--he is with us yet, and three years have gone by since he came, and now we could not do without him. Then we have a few Remittance-Men, sent to us from a distance, without return-tickets. Some of these men were willing to do anything but work--they offered to run things, to preach, to advise, to make love to the girls. We bought them tickets to Chicago, and without violence conducted them to the Four-o'Clock train. |
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