Article November 7, 1914 Issue

"Sermons in stones"

LOUISE KNIGHT WHEATLEY

It was once decided to build a union terminal station for all the railroads in a certain city, and a site was selected which from the view-point of convenience was entirely suitable, but which in other ways presented so many natural obstacles to the enterprise that the reclaiming of it seemed, to the ordinary looker-on, a tremendous undertaking. So uninviting, indeed, was its general aspect, that the city had long since discreetly passed it by to settle itself comfortably upon the rolling hills beyond, and for years it had lain, as often happens in the new and rapidly growing West, a jarring note in the general harmony of an otherwise beautiful environment.

When it became known that this unsightly tract had been chosen for the location of a building to cost several million dollars, there was general approval; yet when the work of preparing the ground for the construction actually began, things seemed to grow worse instead of better. Passive ugliness had been bad enough, but it was a joy compared with ugliness suddenly grown aggressively active. Queer little temporary buildings sprang up like mushrooms in a night, narrow cuts were made in the hills through which trainloads of dirt and stone crawled all day like tireless worms, derricks reared their gaunt outlines against the sky, tiny rivulets were drained, rock-crushing machines set in motion, and the whole scene was one of noise, dirt, and general confusion.

To the average spectator it seemed impossible that anything good could come out of such turmoil. There seemed to be no system about anything, but everything seemed to be happening at once, and without any apparent reason,—hills coming down, valleys filling up, rocks tumbling over, streams disappearing, everything changing and readjusting itself as best it might to the new order of things. This continued for what seemed a hopelessly long time; then at last the much-anticipated building began to outline its mammoth proportions, growing slowly but surely, until finally the completed structure stood revealed in all its symmetry and beauty.

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