The herald., 1896-01-19
ANGIE BRIGGS A AWAKENING
M~@&NNN%@MNI%EMN@%M@
BY DONSILA E. STEELE

II don't know what to do alb out the
hay, it must be got in somehow" said
Silas Briggs one golden Sunday after
noon, as he looked out upon the yell
low shocks and thought how impossi-
BILE it would be for him to turn them
in and attend the sitting of the jury.
"Did you try in G. for help?"
asked his wife.
"Yes; ali tho extras are at work on
the mesa. I'll have to pick up man
in town, suppose"
Silas Briggs preferred to hire men
that he knew, especially now that he
was subpoenaed on the term trial jury
and would be away from home good
deal, but his neighbors' preferences
we're identical and all extra help had
been called into requisition, so there
was no choice between letting the hay
rust and taking his chances with the
"unemployed."
just why the term unemployed"
should be coordinate with nameless
dread and uneasy misgivings in the
minds of ordinary folks is question
for the economist and social philoso-
phsr. But certain it is that such ap-
prehensions do exist and find express
sion in various grades of law and order
theories and belabored efforts of re-
spectacle journalism to prove the in
sufficiency of the protective tariff; the
direful necessity of free trade; the eff
cacy of free silver or the triumphant
solution in the single gold standard, or
the return of this or that party to
power.
While Mrs. Briggs ideas of the un-
employed we're not more distinct or fa-
vorable than those of the average we'll
to-do, she was somewhat prepared for
any emergency that might arise, her
preparation having come about in this
wiss: A city friend had loaned her a
book on occult science, and from it's
psrusal she had been forming certain
vague theories about divine-natural
laws governing all Xigencies-even the
slightest occurrence-and being of
rather a passive temperament as we'll,
she concluded not to worry about the
hay. Howbeit, her theories be true or
false, certain it was that not half
hour had elapsed before her husband,
who had gone out to open the irrigating
ditch into the row of orange trees by
the roadside, was accosted by burly-
looking tramp, who said:
"And mister, could you tell me who
might be wantin' to hire hand?"
why yes, I've been looking for one
myself"
I'm just your man then, sir; guess
I'm broke in; me hands is pretty soft
yet; l got 'em blistered down here
workin' for this mnn-Thompson's his
name-below here about three miles;
they was awful soft; see me hands;
nothing for three months; guess Pm
broke in now.'
swell, l will see my wife," Briggs
turned toward the house but met her
coming out, and asked what she thought
OF hiring him.
She looked rather sharply at the
man, the more 80 as the idea of The
Laws was running through her mind.
He does not look dangerous, thought
the, although he is certainly not clean,
md his shoes are out.
"How do you do ma'am. was ask
in your husband if he knew of any,
oody a wantin' hand; me name is
Billy McMullen and L come from Sc
Attle down here and me hands are sum-
mat hardened now; I guess 1 am pretty
we'll broke in."
II think he may as we'll stay" said
Mrs. Briggs, turning to her husband.
She would have been ashamed to say as
much to Silas flor he didn't take much
stock in occultism] but her mind was
occupied with the immanence of the
occult. Everything is governed by