A Lost Lady

Thirty or forty years ago, in one of those grey towns along the Burlington railroad, which are so much greyer today than they were then, there was a house well known from Omaha to Denver for its hospitality and for a certain charm of atmosphere. Well known, that is to say, to the railroad aristocracy of that time; men who had to do with the railroad itself, or with one of the “land companies” which were its byproducts. In those days it was enough to say of a man that he was “connected with the Burlington.” There were the directors, the general managers, vice- presidents, superintendents, whose names we all knew; and their younger brothers or nephews were auditors, freight agents, departmental assistants.