Wichita eagle., 1889-05-11
q COSTLY DISPATCH.
Two Lives Sacrificed by a Journalists II
Timed Stroke of Enterprise"

~. IL
About nine miles to the South of Venice is
Barker City, a metropolis whose boast is
that it was built in ten days, which enter
prising claim its noble structures, gu.ltless
alike of either paint or plane, do not con-
tradict Between the two places, at the
time of which / am writing, ran Ben Hodg-
sons stage, and very good stage it was,
as such institutions go. Every thing in
Dakota tends to make you say your pray
ers and prepare for the worst
am going to tell you about Ben Hodgson
and Ralph Kimball and Annie Lee. Annie
Lee was the girl Ben was going to mar
~. She lived in Sleepy Eye, Mimi, and
used to write him twice day. Every
woman loves a romance, and Ben and
soon became fast friends, simply on ac-
count of Annie. He would talk about her
by the hour together, sure Of my sympathy
and attention.
1--WE thought on it ever since l was
turned fifteen" he broke out one morning,
as he waited for his stage his eyes glued
TO the toes Of his enormous boots, and a
smile playing upon his lips. ''Annie Lee
was the girl | always meant to marry If
ever got start. She's never been over
well, Annie hasn't, and at first she was
sort Of backward about it, but lately its
'bScu STOElug WIN nSE SSIG4uS
better and my good luck. So now Pm 60
ing to Sleepy Eye soon's / come back from
this trip, for I've asked her and she says
she will -
This is hoY Ben announced to me that he
was going to be married. 1t was in Mrs.
Driscoll's stuffy little parlor. Ben had
barely time to tell me of the prospective
change in his condition when Kimball
came in. We all boarded at Mrs Driscolps
it being the only place in Venice where
you could be sure Of the ingredients ofyour
food-moderately sure.
Kimball and Ben were warm friends,
despite the difference in their nature and
education. The one was an active, breezy,
wide-awake newspaper man, and the other
only a slow-going stage driver; but Ben
regarded Kimbafi as one of the lights of
the age, and KimbaA reserved for Ben the
softest side of his heart. We always are
fond Of those who idolize u.s.
"What magnificent day for your run!"
exclaimed Kimball sauntering to the win
dow and gazing up into the bright sky,
typical Dakota sky, as cold, glitterng and
brilliant as woman without heart.
Dakota weather's mighty Uncertain"
answered Ben, gathering himself together
and preparing to make his usual onslaught
upon the scarcely broken DAY.
'''Twas jest seen a day as this when that
blizzard that ended old Timothy Farrar
came up. You can't tell nothing bout a
blizzard, more'n woman, some women, l
mean. not all,' with an deliberately apollo
getic glance in my direction.
81 want blizzard the worst way" re-
marked Kimball My papers are nagging
me all the time to send them one They
20 yo traD,apdof,sIv dor,rn
Now, jest you look here" interposed
Hodgson, earnestly. Don't ever you let
on to them Eastern papers bout any bad
weather you hit up in this section. Out
here in Dakota they don't allow no blizzard,
nor cyclones nor nothing to get East. Be-
cause you see it would stop the migra-
tion''
BLESS his benighted hearth exclaimed
kimball, turning to me with smile as the
door closed on Ben. That's the kind of
loyalty that preserves the universe"
| shall have to confess to something of
weakness for Ralph Kimball. In the first
place he was possessed of extraordinary
beauty, and VINO among US is so superior as
TO be insensibfe TO a superb physique!
Then, unlike the majority of handsome
men, he seemed quite unconscious of his
personal charms, and thereby increased
them tanfold. His whole being was alb
sorbed in the Tornado, the new daily paper
which had been bold enough to open its ex-
istence in a metropolis as yet great only on
paper, and whose present disabilities, it
must be admitted, were not inconsiderable
But Kimball had not reckoped without his
host and much stupendous courage was
not allowed to go without reward-next to
drinks, the Tornado was the most popular
thing IN town.
Its editor and proprietor was typical
newspaper man-keen, absorbed, unscru-
pulous, man certain of success. With
only $500 in his pocket, but with an eSpe-
rienoe which he considered cheap at so, 600,
Kimball had setttedi an this forsolzen region
with but one end in view-a rapid rise to
wealth and power. The means to this end
might someti mes be questioned, but Kim
ball knew the world--he knew that success
IS seldom called to account. Once in a
while he would wax confidential. and then
what disallusions would be mine regarding
the process of modern journalism-what
enlightenment as TO the real origin of GER
tain specials from New Orleans, ST.
Petersburg, Bombay, the true handspring
of some of his Hottest editorials. What a /
confused brain was mine when he told me
that every word of the communication
from the Khedive of Egypt which had Gre /
ated such tremendous sensation through |
ont the whole country, was simply the re-
suit of his own fertile imaginatlonl
But this is depression. 1 started to tell /
what happened this day that Ben went to
Barker City. In the middle of the after 4
noon a blizzard came upon US so suddenly. 4
seemingly out of the almost clear sky, that /
not until the little PARTICLES of ice began [
driving horizontally, rendering vision diff /
cult and pedestrianism well-uigh imposSi- /
BILE. did Venice realize with what she was
afflicted. / attempted to walk to the post /
office, less than four blocks away, but was
driven back ANONYMOUSLY with eyes
blinded, flesh sttnging and senses confused. /
We gathered around the huge coal stove.
that standing testimony to the depravity of .
a Dakota winter, and gazed at one another
with anxious eyes, discussing Ben. As he
must have started for home before the
storm, his situation was decidedly serious.
We were all wise enough to be fearful for
his safety out on the trackless plain in that
atmosphere of whirling ice.
Yet it was idle to think Of an attempt at
rescue. The relentless storm bound each
one's hand as with bands OF steel 1t was
with the utmost difficulty that Ralph cut
his way TO the office of the Tornado. But
one fate awaited him who ventured on the
open praiIies.
Midnight found our little group strangely
silent Discussions had ceased and con-
lecture died away. Nothing was heard but
the shriu whistle of the wind We felt
that We stood in the presence Of death
IS Towards one o'clock that night tall this
was told me months afterwards, in an
anguish of shirt which 7 shall remember I