The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1894-06-16

was, j fear, q consciousness in her face
whenever she passed a man in the road,
and it is equally to be feared that her
prudent chastity had but little sugges-
ton of snow or crystal In it, but as belle
Of Shutdown she reigned supreme, and OF
course the greater part of her female
friends cast ~aspersions upon her. She
kept all her admirers I'm a state of mind
which had in it much torment, with oc-
casional glimpses of beatitude. Charles
Hanks, ESQ, stage driver, started out
upon his trip with o large fortune Of
happy thoughts and discussed the OBJ
ject nearest his heart with the box pas
senger for 90 miles at nee But when
he returned Sary would no more speak to
him than If, as he complained, he had
been q yaller dog" But Mr.. Hanks had
NO special cause of complaint, for he
Jared as all his rivals did.
Father Grimes reputation was that
he was ''allus good TO that gal o.
his'n." He was never known ON any
occasion to use q petulant expression to
any person or thing. The popularity
more often remarked in him than any
other was that he did not swear. It was
o wonder he did not, for nobody doubt
ed that he had a hard life of it. With
regard TO Grimes, the half has not been
told. We have seen men who had sur
vived some great disaster, some horrible
mangling, and went crawling through
life thereafter lame, SCARED, deformed,
the hideous semblance Of q human
creature. Such was this poor, rich old
man. His limbs were drawn awry.
His shapeless hands almost refused to
grasp his staff, and every line Of
his face denoted IN experience of pain,
happily past for the time, but ever
leaving o grim promise to return and
wiring the distorted limbs anew until
the hour of his relief. Yet Grimes
had not been the victim of any sudden
accident or great calamity. Fire, nor
falling walls, nor the rebellion of mans
gigantic servant against his master in
rushing steam and falling fragments
had been incidents i'm his hard life.
And yet his fate had been little better.
His days had been days of pain, and his
nights had been spent in torture and in
waiting and praying for daylight or
death. It 10 common enough, but Ariel,
bright spirit of enchanted air, suffered
and groaned no more in the cloven pine
than q strong man may beneath rheu-
matic torture.
Thus it was that the old mans gen.
tleness was q marvel to those who re-
viled him daily. Worn and deformed
with his battle of years with his enemy,
he sat at his cabin door i'm the sun and
placidly nodded at those who passed by
and whispered to himself and smiled.
Sometimes he had been asked If it had
not hurt him while in slow torment his
limbs had been. twisted and drawn
TINS. "Oh, yes!'' he said, "it did
hurt" But hesmiled as he thus answer
ed q question which would have been
both ~superfuOus and cruel il the old
man had not seemed to possess some
panacea which enabled him to almost
defy pain.
This distorted figure, this pain writ
ten face and these strange ways Father
Grimes possessed alone. They were
strange in the land, for sturdy, bearded
manhood, reckless ways, loud words
and a blood curdling blasphemy were
the rule with his associates and nea1
neighbors. While they knew that he
had within him something which they
neither possessed o understood, they
only said Gurus creetur'' and passed
ON: Whatever it was, they had no res
pect for it. They thought him a little
crazy. He had done strange things that
they knew of. Had he not once tried to
interfere with a very promising horse
race ON a Sunday? Did he not como
down to the traders store one night last
fall and lift up his quavering voice in q
Methodist hymn and try to get up q
prayer meeting right there among the
boys, land a hundred dollars In the
pot, and me with three queens in my
hand?'' It was Charles Hanks, Esq,
who described this scene and added
He's an old fool, with q stavin purity
gal. Twas just that which saved his
meat-a-interferin hathaway
It was not strange that with these
queer ways Father Grimes was alone
in. such a place, with only his heart te
keep him company. There vas a chap.
lain at the post, but he seemed as yet te
have discovered no affinity for this &c
centric old man. he preferred soldiers
Of the cross Of more robust tendencies
and in line. II being q Christian was
what was the matter with Grimes
dazed head, he had an entire monopoly
Of the complaint. On bright Sunday
mornings there was a formal service or
the parade ground. and plumed heads
bowed slightly in the etiquette OF mill
tary devotion. But Father Grimes wa
az much ont of place there al he was al
the suffers and stood afar of, failing
to understand perhaps what all this hat
in common with a camp meeting in fal
western Virginia Dr. with such piety
and worship as would have been accept
able to his fellow believers of the Unit
ed Brethren in Christ.
OF course he had little control OF thu
hoydenish Sary. That young womal
shared somewhat in the current be
lief regarding her fathers mental con
A. AaAa Ne EME AEA n