The war of the Carolinas

Excerpt.....“IF anything really interesting should happen to me I think I should drop dead,” declared Ardmore, as he stood talking to Griswold in the railway station at Atlanta. “I entered upon this life under false pretenses, thinking that money would make the game easy, but here I am, twenty-seven years old, stalled at the end of a blind alley, with no light ahead; and to be quite frank, old man, I don’t believe you have the advantage of me. What’s the matter with us, anyhow?”

“The mistake we make,” replied Griswold, “is in failing to seize opportunities when they offer. You and I have talked ourselves hoarse a thousand times planning schemes we never pull off. We are cursed with indecision, that’s the trouble with us. We never see the handwriting on the wall, or if we do, it’s just a streak of hieroglyphics, and we don’t know what it means until we read about it in the newspapers. But I thought you were satisfied with the thrills you got running as a reform candidate for alderman in New York last year.[8] It was a large stage, and the lime-light struck you pretty often. Didn’t you get enough? No doubt they’d be glad to run you again.”....