Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-11-30

O1 OleIs III lnlS C0an IL
~ any southern city
and many Of them are fiourishing in a style
they never dreamed of during the ''unpleas
antness." All, if one could only trace the
changes Of ife's phases which bring so many
men here who have made failures elsewhere
what stories he could write But observe
that the old fellows who locate in New York
are much more ready to talk of others queer
experience than their own. Especially is this
the case with lawyers and next to them with
southern men generally. l have just lis.
tened to one narrative by western lawyer,
illustrating the Kentucky idea Of blood, and
TO avoid the interview style, give it here in
direct narration.
''Thay amt no use o. trim, SQUIRE said
an old client 10 this lawyer at the close of a
long conference, "the blood will tell I've no
sort notion O. havin' any of my grandchil-
dren go to the penitintiary, and that's just
what this marriage will lead to if it goes on.
j know the blood-there's thief in that blood,
and thief it'n be to the fourth generation -
The speaker was an Indiana farmer of the
old fashioned type, one who had learned to
talk in his boyhood's home in Kentucky,
and had grown up a firm believer in the
Blue Grass doctrine that ''there's everything
in blood" Arriving in the Wabash valley
In an early day he had acquired large
landed possessions; honesty and industry had
given him high character, and the progress
of the country had aided to make him wealthy,
but his early peculisrities of dress. speech and
manner were but slightly changed
Il know that family" he continued. His
grandfather WIS a sneakin' Carolina
Tory in the Revolution, his grandfather was
a bushwhackin' thief, and his father was list
able to keep straight and only jist-three
straight generations O cussedness, an apos-
tolical succession, as the preachers say.
They's jist got to be another generation of it,
I tell you-one more generation anyhow
and I'm in no mind to let my blood mix in
with that stock"
But the young man seems quiet and well
behaved" replied the lawyer, land surely
Mr. Manson, you are not the man to refuse
because he is poor?"
A flush of what might have been anger
Redeemed the farmers cheek, and, as all to-
bacco chewers do under great excitement, he
crunched a mouthful of the weed with rapid
working OF the jaws, wsle striving to re-
gain his self control; then everted his leath-
cry lips and with "thlurp" that made the
gill of nicctian juice into the fireplace, after
which came the words:
you've no call to say that, squire, and
you know it. But Off my girl shall go, soon
as her mother can get her things ready.
She's always been a-talkin' about long
visit to her cousins in Kaintucky, and now
she'll 60 while he's out o. the neighborhood,
and she'll stay till feel easier in my mind.
An / want my will made right away, an
want you to sort o. hint around, not straight
out, you know, but jist enough to make peo-
pie talk lively, that everything goes to my
old woman and boys-not red to Susan,
not in fee, jist an allowance and the fee to
her children. You don't need to tell nothin,.
a hintll set 'em to talkin' fast enough"
As Lawyer Allen had said, there was moth
ing in the appearance of Nathan Mowry TO
suggest an evil nature, and certainly nothing
in his conduct since no came to that section
He was tall, fair and blue eyed, just such Q
lad as would have attracted the fancy of any
sprightly brunette like Susan Manson; but it
would perhaps have been passing fancy
but for one of those accidents that make or
mar SO many fortunes. Nathan had to go
through the seasoning which most immi-
grants from the older states then suffered in
the west. Hew employed on her fathers
farm when the "fever an sger tuck him."
and by tho social common law of the coun-
try there was the place for him to go through
his spell" A pale and fairly good looking
youth, wrestling alternately with ague and
quinine wearing away dull days in a quiet
farm house; handsome, vivacious brunette
cheering his days of slow recovery while ma
larious September gave place to brown Octo-
Der and till frosty weather restored him
Need the rest be toldi The conjunction of
sickness and youth, of beauty and suscepti-
bility, was as the astral conjunction of Venus
and Mercury-it meant mischief. So Farmer
Manson suddenly woke up TO the fact that he
had a serious question TO wrestle with.
The old Kentuckian was entirely too wise
to storm or threaten, much less to abuse the
young man outright TO his daughter. He had
seen too many matches FASTENED in that
way. He had, as he told the lawyer, known
the young mans family in Kentucky; he knew
their record, and he almost hated the lad be-
cause he had not yet done anything to main
tain that record. He could not have told
YOU why, but as he looked into Nathan
Mowry's face he saw there a some
thing that reminded him of the old "bush-
whacker from Carolina" and of that BUSH
whacker's son in Kentucky, who was only
just able to keep honest. An acute physiog-
nomist would have pointed him to the weak,
almost infantile chin and The remulouS I'M
certainty of the lip, which scientists Of his
sort claim to be signs that the subjects char
acter and career will be determined entirely
by the company he falls into; but the farmer
could not so localize the matter. He only
saw a sign OF something against which his
deep instinct warned him, and his knowledge
of the family made him suspicious O the
breed"
Wen, hearts do not break if their way
ward impulses are guided in time, and Susie
Manson was SO delighted with her Kentucky
cousins that the winter passed rapidly away;
her view of the world was vastly enlarged,
and she met many young men as tall and
fair as Nathan Mowry, but without the in
fautile chin and indecisive lip. And. as the
shrewd father had calculated. hint from
the lawyer about that viii had been ample
motive power for many tongues. 1t is as
tonishing how many people will talk about a
mans last will and testament. You couldn't
start q subject CT more universal interest in
a ruraI neIgnDornood, perhaps because it is
one everybody can understand. They may
be a little foggy on the tariff, and altogether
at sea on moral and social science but on the
division Of land and money every man and
woman Of them is philosopher.
And did Nathan Mowry break his heart or
Ego to the badr Not at all He simply
drifted on in his indecisivs way, took the
hue of the honest people about him, married
a well to do farmers daughter, and long
aft IVAN lai ,vN r.ah o Of