A meeting was held on the street at the corner of Second and Egan to denounce Mr. McFadon. A prominent citizen and sometime spellbinder was to be the chief orator. But before beginning his speech he required a stimulant. Someone, in a spirit of mischief, doped the stimulant. The speaker began his flight of oratory, raised one hand toward heaven, and collapsed, fell into the stree+. was carried home on a stretcher, and the crowd faded away into the darkness. Hurst was a confidence man. Disappointment rested heavily upon everybody but Mr. Mc- Fadon. and the sugar beet business was abandoned.

About this time a corporation was organized by Chadron people for the purpose of building a large hotel and went broke with the building half completed. Later, private parties finished the structure, which is now our popular Hotel Blaine. Chadron, like all other cities, had its ups and downs.

The first five years were fairly prosperous. In fact, we think they may be called the boom days. But with the advent of the nineties came also a drouth that continued for four or five years. The panic of 1893 added to the distress already caused by the prolonged dry spell. Money was not to be had. No security was sufficient to obtain a loan. Many business houses were forced to the wall and several banks closed their doors. People drifted away until half the houses seemed empty and property depreciated in value and in many instances sold for less than half the first cost. In these days it was a wide open town. Saloons, gambling houses and restaurants were open at all hours. At first money seemed plentiful. It was stacked in heaps on the gambling tables, but finally their business began to wane. While Chadron seemed to be going to the bad, there was still an optimistic spirit in the breast of its real people.