Stories of Five Decades by Hesse Hermann

Author:Hesse, Hermann [Hesse, Hermann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-05-23T16:00:00+00:00

The City

1910

“NOW WE’RE GETTING SOMEWHERE,” cried the engineer when the second train carrying people, coal, tools, and food arrived over the stretch of track that had been laid only the day before. The prairies glowed softly in the yellow sunlight, on the horizon the great wooded mountains were bathed in blue mist. Wild dogs and buffaloes looked on as work and bustle moved into the wilderness, as heaps of coal and ashes, paper and tin appeared on the green countryside. The first power saw sent its piercing scream through the terror-stricken wilds, the first gunshot burst like a thunderclap and rolled over the mountains, the first anvil rang under swift hammer blows. A tin-roofed shanty sprang up and next day a wooden house, and then others day after day, soon followed by stone buildings. The wild dogs and buffaloes kept their distance, the land was tilled and bore fruit. The very first spring the plains were covered with green grain; farms and stables and granaries were built; roads cut through the wilderness.

The railroad station was completed and inaugurated, soon followed by a government building, and a bank. Several sister cities, barely a few months younger, shot up nearby. Workers poured in from everywhere, peasants and city-dwellers; merchants and lawyers came, preachers and teachers. It was not long before the town could boast of a school, three religious congregations, and two newspapers. Oil was discovered in the west, prosperity came to the new city. Only a year later there were pickpockets, burglars, pimps, a department store, a temperance society, a tailor from Paris, a Bavarian beer hall. The competition of the neighboring towns acted as a goad. Nothing was lacking, from election campaigns to strikes, from movie houses to spiritualist séances. French wine, Norwegian herring, Italian sausage, English woolens, and Russian caviar all became available. Second-rate singers, dancers, and musicians came through on tour.

Little by little a culture grew up as well. The city, which had begun as a mere outpost, became a permanent dwelling place. There was a manner of greeting, of nodding to those one met, which differed ever so slightly from that prevailing in other towns. Men who had participated in founding the city came to be popular and respected; they were the nucleus of a small aristocracy. A young generation grew up, to whom the city seemed an old home that had been there just about forever. The days when the first hammer stroke had resounded, the first murder had been committed, the first divine services held, the first newspaper printed lay deep in the past and were looked upon as history.

The city had come to dominate the towns round about; it was now the capital of a large region. Where once the first shacks and shanties had bordered on ash heaps and puddles, now there were broad smiling avenues lined with imposing banks and public buildings, theaters and churches. Students sauntered through the streets on their way to the university or the library; ambulances threaded their

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