The Self Styled Lord of Cables
Dec. 17th, 2003 04:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mishalakThere is a faded wraith that "lives" near Denver Civic Center where his home once stood. I do not remember what his given name was, but he called himself The Lord of Cables. He was a wizard in the Masonic tradition that was expelled from the local covenant and his Masonic Temple for some decidedly strange and disturbing beliefs. He believed that man was creating machine gods in the giant works of the cities. These new idols of steel and turning wheels could be awakened, made into a sort of life through blood and worship. Then their followers would become part of or like the divinities themselves, gaining great power.
Denver was just the sort of place for this bizarre idea in the last decades of the 19th century. The state was abuzz with new inventions, including the first industrial site powered by Tesla's alternating current at Ames in 1891. And Denver had the biggest and most extensive system of cable cars, trolleys, and horse drawn carriages on tracks in all the world. Most important to the tLoC Denver had the longest cable car line ever built at 7 miles in length. This was his project, he used influence over the cable car company to have it built and he operated one of the cars on the line until his disappearance in 1892. It is believed by many that several other local lunatics, including Arlie Grosman thwarted a midnight sacrifice by the Lord of Cables on the tracks at the corner of Broadway and 17th Street. But that was not the end of him.
I've seen him myself a dried up old husk of a man with a sour expression wearing a decaying cable car operator's uniform. He can most often be seen around where his home used to stand before it was demolished in the 1900s. I even had a disturbing conversation with the old spook one evening in 1999. He complained about people walking over his bones not even knowing they are there, which leads me to believe that the victors in that battle, however it was fought, buried him in his own backyard. Fortunately for all of us he's slowly fading away and his dreams of a living engine of cables, tracks, and gears to cover all the earth will then stay buried with him.
Denver was just the sort of place for this bizarre idea in the last decades of the 19th century. The state was abuzz with new inventions, including the first industrial site powered by Tesla's alternating current at Ames in 1891. And Denver had the biggest and most extensive system of cable cars, trolleys, and horse drawn carriages on tracks in all the world. Most important to the tLoC Denver had the longest cable car line ever built at 7 miles in length. This was his project, he used influence over the cable car company to have it built and he operated one of the cars on the line until his disappearance in 1892. It is believed by many that several other local lunatics, including Arlie Grosman thwarted a midnight sacrifice by the Lord of Cables on the tracks at the corner of Broadway and 17th Street. But that was not the end of him.
I've seen him myself a dried up old husk of a man with a sour expression wearing a decaying cable car operator's uniform. He can most often be seen around where his home used to stand before it was demolished in the 1900s. I even had a disturbing conversation with the old spook one evening in 1999. He complained about people walking over his bones not even knowing they are there, which leads me to believe that the victors in that battle, however it was fought, buried him in his own backyard. Fortunately for all of us he's slowly fading away and his dreams of a living engine of cables, tracks, and gears to cover all the earth will then stay buried with him.
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(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-17 02:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-17 03:11 pm (UTC)Eventually I'll index this one with the rest in The Ministry of Memory and Culture (http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=mishalak&keyword=Ministry+of+Memory+and+Culture&filter=all).
(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-17 03:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-17 03:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-17 04:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-17 10:15 pm (UTC)He's both, his bones lie in the earth. Yet at the same time he gets up and walks upon it still. If I wanted I could touch him when he comes to lurk about my window, though I would not. Creatures like him are best ignored. He will rest in fitful dream more and more, until someday he'll be seen no more.