The extra members were finally consoled by being granted the next carriage, an equipage drawn by no less than the noble black geldings usually attached to the chief mourners' carriage.
As the President was escorted to his place he remarked that a trolley-car was waiting at the station.
"I see that Wakefield boasts an electric line," he beamed.
"Yes," said Pettibone, "that's some of Shelby's foolishness."
A look from Spate silenced him, but the President had not caught the slip.
The procession formed behind the town band, whose symphony suffered somewhat from the effort of the musicians to keep one eye on the music and throw the other eye backward at the great visitor.
"What a magnificent building!" said the President as the parade turned a corner. Nobody said anything, and the President read the name aloud. "The Shelby House. A fine hotel!" he exclaimed, as he lifted his hat to the cheers from the white-capped chambermaids and the black-coated waiters in the windows. They were male waiters.
"And the streets are lighted by electricity! And paved with brick!" the President said. "Splendid! Splendid! There must be very enterprising citizens in Gatesville—I mean Wakefield." He had visited so many towns!
"That's a handsome office-building," was his next remark. "It's quite metropolitan." The committee vouchsafed no reply, but they could see that he was reading the sign:
| THE SHELBY BLOCK: |
| SHELBY INDEPENDENT TELEPHONE COMPANY |
| SHELBY'S PARADISE POWDER COMPANY |
| SHELBY ARTESIAN WELL COMPANY |
| SHELBY PASTIME PARK COMPANY |
| SHELBY OPERA HOUSE COMPANY |
| SHELBY STREET RAILWAY COMPANY |