The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1885-12-18
THE LEXFORD SCANDAL.
From San Francisco Argonaut.

From a Francisco Argonaut.
Society in Lexford was agitated to
it's foundations. Parties were formed
sides were taken, discussions and con
ierences were held, and so high was the
well-bred interest manifested by the
partisans that even vague rumors OF
the agitation were allowed to filter
through the neighboring towns of Carl-
ton, Oldburg, and Summerfield; this
albeit, much to the discomfort ofLex-
ford's patrician danes, who had so
long held high their heads above the
level of neighboring responsibility.
Sad, indeed, it was for them-for, for
the first time since the dark age when
the Puritans smote the savages and
scourged them from their lands that a
town might be erected to the fear of
God and the persecution of Quaker,
papist, and pagan, a scandal had
arisen. and was assumingsuch proper
tions a. to endanger family unity and
the peace of the community.
Now, the descendants of the first
settlers of Lexford had habitually in
termarried for SO many generations
that more than half of the t~ownspeo-
pie were related to each other, and
cousin was so familiar a term of adj
dress that it might have been fired in
to a crowd in the dark and brought
down the bulk of them. OF all the old
families, the greatest in point of num-
bers and of ramifications was the
Power family. So much, indeed, had
they multiplied and intermarried that
they had ven o~utgrown the corpora
ton limits and spilled over into Carl
ton, 0ldburg, and other surrounding
towns of equal antiquity, but less
aristocracy, as compared with Lex
ford. This in Lexford was naturally
regarded as loss of caste; but so an
Cient and stainless was the Power es-
cutcheon that it was overlooked, save
that the nonresident scions were es-
teemed in the light of poor relations,
whom it was a duty to recognize and
entertain, since hard fate had cast
their lots in exile from the ancestral
roof-tree. Judge then Of the wild ex-
element which thrilled the communi-
ty when q scandal developed itself,
with Appointment Power as chief actor,
involving the honor of the entire fami-
ly.
Among the most popular and infiu-
entail residents of Lexford was Mrs.
Ormiston, a wealthy widow with one
daughter, agirl nineteen, who was an
advanced student of the Concord
School OF Philosophy sort. Mrs. Orm-
iston's high standing was something
almost unprecedented, for she was
ne. 5her native to the soil nor was she
related to any Of the great families;
but, coming as she did from the best
Boston stock, that fact and her
daughters intellectually were held as
compensating for the lacking local
genealogical stamp.
At the head of the male youth OF
the family stood George Power, a
handsome bachelor fifty, who looked
2 thirty-ive, q prosperous merchant in
Boston and q gay cavalierfor the fair
sex at home. He was q witty, jovial
man, of correct habits and unfailing
good temper, and was regarded by
parents as perfectly safe, especially as
most of thegirls were his cousins, more
or less removed. Even mild Irritation
had been unknown in his career, and
matchmaking had long since given
him up as possibly useful material. A
scandal, therefore, involving him and
Amelia Ormiston took thetown aback
like a rumor of the cholera, or
nihilism, or any other of the UNI
pleasant realities Of the time, which
were wholesome castigations for the
b~enighted foreigners, but above which
Lexford, in New England, was set
high in its righteousness. Nothing
Isl sure to happen savethe unexpected"
bnt the good ladies of the town had
too long believed III their immunity
from social diseases to bringthis truth
homet to themselves; their prayers for
~:deIiverance from plague, pestilence,
and famine" had been offered only
through a stern sense Of duty In yicari-
ously aiding ia the averting Of attic
lions from the outside world. Not
that a choice BIT Of gossip was at all
xepugnant to them, but it was easily