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 weighed the merits of the offered attractions. But before he had arrived at a decision the telephone bell tinkled and he crossed the room and answered it. There were four newspaper reporters downstairs who would like to see him, he was told. He instructed the desk to send them up. He was quite ready for them, having spent a part of the morning preparing, with his secretary's aid, a typewritten interview in which the incomparable merits of the Central and Western were fully set forth. When the four young men were seated about the room, each with one of Gordon's best cigars in his mouth and a whisky-and-water at his elbow, the Tribune representative acted as spokesman and for twenty minutes Gordon, responding to skillful questions, held forth on the crop condition, the rumored shortage of cars, the probability of a dawn of new prosperity, immigration, the reorganization of the C. and W. and Chicago as a metropolis. They scorned his prepared interview politely, but bore copies of it away with them, promising to use as much of it as possible. By the time they had filed out it was too late for the theater, and Gordon, now mentally alert, viewed the thought of slumber distastefully. From the windows the