“When Hank found that green mineral, he came to me to see if I could identify it. It resembled something I had heard of when I was in school but we wanted to be sure. I sent a sample to some friends at Yale College so they could examine it.” Gus held up a piece of paper. “This telegram from Yale came yesterday and it confirmes my suspicion. Hank found a deposit of uranium ore several miles west of town.”
The crowd murmured confusedly.
“'Ranium?” Hastings asked. “What’s that for? Is it like phosphate? Like fertilizer?”
(Jeff, uranium is green? Guess you learn something on SDMB every day…)
Gus Anderson continued speaking.
"If you folks will bear with me I’ll explain a little about uranium. I don’t want to take too long, because we want to get started dancing here, and I don’t want to give the bride and groom a chance to get away.
Basically, uranium is what the science guys call an element. It’s a solid, like gold or silver. It was discovered about a hundred years ago, in a part of Germany called Bohemia, by a German guy named Martin Klaproth. Coincidentally, he isolated it out of the tailings of a silver mine that was almost played out. Anyway, instead of naming it for himself he named it after the planet Uranus, which had been found eigth or nine years earlier."
Here Gus noticed his audience starting to fidget so he decided to forge ahead to the good stuff.
“Anyway, turns out it has a lot of uses, and can be really valuble”(At the word “valuble” people started listening again) The Austo-Hungarian Empire, which has kept a pretty tight hold on business uses for the stuff, but if we can get a uranium concern going, as well as the silver, we can make a lot of money. I heard from that guy at Yale that they’re already mining it up in Utah, and sending a lot of processed uranium to Germany and France. It gets used as a pigment in setting glazes on china and in glass. And in photography it gives pictures that golden color, and makes the glass negative stronger. I’ve even sent a letter to the American ambassador to the empire, as an initial inquiry about getting trade established. It’s kind of funny Belle, his name is John A. Kasson, maybe you all are related way back."
Belle shook her head “I don’t rightly know. Pa never talked about our kin. There’s some papers in an old trunk I brought back, but there’s been too much to do to look at them.”
Gus concluded “To make my long story just a little longer, what all this means is that if we play our cards right, Anderson’s Gulch can rest a whole lot easier. We’ll have the farming and ranching, but the silver should hold out a while longer, and who knows what else they’ll find to do with our “green stuff” besides what is done now? We have us a three of a kind hand folks!!”
With visions of prosperity dancing in their heads, the room erupted in cheers. The music started playing and folks started dancing. As Jesse whirled Belle around the floor he leaned closer to whisper in her ear “How soon do you think we can make a getaway this time, Mrs. Parker?”
THE END
One trivia note here. A man named John Adam Kasson really was an ambassador to Austria-Hungary, in roughly the period this story covers. I wouldn’t have had the slightest idea his name would ever come up in this thread, but when the uranium storyline was introduced it worked out.
Finished! And finished wonderfully!
Congratulations to all the authors!
Fabulous job! I love this western story. Thank you to everyone here in this thread for working so well together on this tale.
I want to thank Baker and Jeff and everyone else who contributed to this thread. It turned out very nicely, and I forsee a Return to Anderson’s Gulch sometime in the future…to see what flavor baby Caroline and Charley have, how Jesse and Belle do with their homestead…and why Connell’s brother has shown up in town…
We did good, guys! Your imagination humbles me.
I want to add my thanks to jeanster and rjk for their compliments on this thread!
Also, sometime tomorrow on May 1st, ivylass and I are planning to try starting a “Finish the Sci-Fi story” thread. Anyone who like this thread is welcome. We will be trying to play it straight, not peculiar, and keep an inner consistency, as this one did for the most part.
Tune in tomorrow if you like to write sci-fi.
You’re welcome, Baker. The compliments you all receive on this thread are well deserved.
Don’t know if you saw this thread I started, but you’re welcome to join in to add a post or more in it:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=180674
You can be peculiar or serious, depending on how you feel like writing it.
I’ll check out the “Finish the sci-fi story” thread when it’s up and running.
Uranium itself is silver-white but takes on a greenish hue (or brownish or black) when it oxidizes.
As do I. I’ll be in the sci-fi thread whenever inspiration strikes.