The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-02-21

| tOucnlnS. FOR IL was peculiar to tho
place and the epoch, and, indeed. i'm
piled the whole history of Mrs. Baker.
She was the wife of John Baker.
foreman of The Last Chance" now
for year lying dead under half milo
of crushed and beatcn-in tunnel Mt
Burnt Ridge. There had been n sud-
den outcry from the depths ut high,
hot noontide one day, and John had
rushed from his cabin, his young,
foolish, flirting wife clinging to him,
to answer that dcspairing cry. But
She rose suddenly with pale face and
said: go, John; will wait for you
here" lie went; the men were freed
but she had waited for him ever Since
Yet in the shock Of the calamity and
in the after struggles of that poverty
which had come to the ruined camp
she had scarcely changed. But the
men had. Although she was to all
appearances the same giddy, pretty
Betsy Baker who had been so disturb
ing to the younger members, they
seemed no longer to DO disturbed by
her. "A certain subdued awe and re-
spect, rs if the martyred spirit of John
Baker still held his arm around her,
seemed to have come upon them all.
They held their breath as this pretty
woman, whose brief mourning had not
seemed to affect her cheerfulncss or
even playfnlness of spirit, passed be-
fore them. But she stood by her cabin
and the camp-thc only woman in n
settlement of forty men-during the
darkest hours of their fortune, help
ing them to wash and cook and min
istering to their domestic needs. The
sanctity of her cabin was, however, al
ways kept as inviolable as if it had
been his tomb. No one exactly knew
why, for it was only tacit instinct;
but even one or two who had not
scrupled to pay court to Betsy Baker
during John Bakers life shranlS from
even a suggestion of familiarity toward
the woman who had said that she
would wait for him there"
! When brighter days came and the
settlement had increased by one or two
families and laggard capital had been
hurried up to relieve the still be-
leagucred and locked-up wealth of
Burnt Ridge, the needs of the com
munity and the claims of the widow of
| John Baker were SO we'll told in politi-
cal quarters that the post office of
| Laurel Run was created expressly for
her. Every man participated in the
building of the pretty yet substantial
edificc-thc only public building in
Laurel Run-that stood in the dust of
the great highway, half mile from
! the settlement There she was in
stalled for certain hours of the day for
she could not be prevailed upon to
abandon Johns cabin, and here, with
all the added respect due to public
functicslary, she was as secure in her
privacy
But the blind devotion of Laurel Run
to John Bakers rclict did not stop here
In its zeal to assure the government
authorities of the necessity of n post
office, and to secure permanent com
potency to the postmistrcss, there was
much embarrassing extravaganza. Dur
ing the first week the sale of stamps at
Laurel Run post office was unprecedent-
cd in the annals of the department.
Fancy prices were given for the first is
sue; then they were bought wildly,
recklcssly, unprofitably and on all oc-
casions. Complimentary congratula,
tions at the little window invariably
ended with: "And dollars worth Of
stamps, Mrs. Baker" 1t was felt to be
supremely delicate to buy only the
highest priced stamps, without refer
encc to their adequacy; then mere
quantity was sought; then outgoing
letters were all ovcrpaid, and stamped
in outrageous proportion to their
weight and even size. The imbecility
of this, and it's probable effect on tho
reputation of Laurel Run at the general
post Office being pointed out by Mrs.
Baker, stamps were adopted as local
currency, and even for decorative pur-
poses on mirrors and the walls of cabins.
Everybody wrote letters, with the re-
suit, however, that those sent were lu-
dicrously and suspiciously in excess of
those received. To obviate this, select
parties made forced journeys to Hick-
DRY Hill, the next post office, with let
ters and circulars addressed to them
selves at Laurel Run. How long the
extravaganza would have continued is
not known, but it was not until it was
rumored that, in consequence of the
excessive flow of business the depart
ment had concluded that postmaster
would be better fitted for the place that
it abatcd, and n compromise was eff
fected with the general Office by a per-
mancnt salary to the postmistrcss.
Such was the history of Mrs. Baker,
who had just finished her afternoon
levec. nodded a smiling ''good-by" to
her last customer and closed her shutter
again. Then she took up her own let
tiers, but before reading them glanced
with pretty Impotence at the two Of
fetal envelopes addressed to herself
which she had shelved. They were gen