Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1896-05-08
DIANA AND THE SPIDER,
Mrs. Jacks Tale Of How She Met
Defeat on tho Big Muddy.

The Band, Gusset and Seam" is n
society recruited from an exclusive cir
Gle of Mob Hills young matrons. L.
meets through the winter, with aggra.
waited activity during Lent, at houses
OF the members; its motto, "First fam
nels to the indigent;" its symbol, IL
thimblc OF, crossed by a pair of scis-
sors argent, on a background of fian-
hel gules, surmounted by spool of
thread couchant.
The demure maid who serves bouillon.
tea and chocolate to the society's fair
Dorcases. hears tales from every quar-
ter OF the globe, of life in the summer
colonies along the New England coast,
OF yachting cruises through Norwegian
1iords in the yellow wake of the mid
night sun, of walking tours in the
l.andes, and camping trips in the north
woods. She knows her planet better
than many whose orbits are less circuu.-
scribed, and can safely be relied upon
for information regarding elk in Ore
eon or salmon in the Columbia, the
proper time to hunt the grizzly in AS
s;niboia, and the relative merits of thu
Andalusian donkey and his twin broth
CT. the Rocky mountain burro.
After serving the Bradamante of the
society with cup of tea and caviare
sandwich, she retires to dusky cor
ner of the room, refills the lamps under
the brazen kettle, and rearranges the
Dresden cups and saucers and the
iewel-mounted spoons upon the teak
wood table.
When the fuffyhaired Mrs. Jack,
the society's president and the hostess
OF the occasion, begins her story, there
is a lull in the talk, which the wind fills
In with neatly-executed arpeggio,
Mrs. Jacks mouth droops in wistful
curves, and beside her eyes an infants
would seem sophisticated.
sack says I must go with him to
Africa, but shall never dare to look a
tiger in the face, after my experience
on the Big Muddy"
Mrs. Jacks adventures have familiar.
ICED the society with Tin Cup, Big Bug,
Bundle Bee and Medicine Hat. But
the Big Muddy offers delightful fields
for speculation, for it has not yet found
q place on any map and its only high
roads are the half-obliterated trails left
by the Utes when they unwillingly de-
parted for new huntsng-grounds,
"1oo remember the big horn / shot
after Jack and the guides had tracked
him for ten days over the Rattlesnaka
range In Wyoming?" Mrs. Jack contin-
ues, plaintively.
The society remembers the big horn,
as we'll as the giant shark In the Next
can gulf; the mountain lion and the
cinnamon bear with amber eyes picked
eff by Mrs. jacks rife in the San Fran
c1squito mountains. The idea of her
not daring to look tiger in the face
under any circumstances taxes the
credulity of the society, Has she ever
known fear, ever auailed before beast,
pird or tish--this modern Artemis?
When she accompanies her husband
on his hunting expeditions she wears
the woods autumn livery-leaf-browu
and scarlet-an abbreviated skirt and
leggipgs Of brown corduroy, scarlet
leather shirt with elks' teeth for but.
tons, d hat festooned with trout and
salmon flies and shining leaders, A ear.
fridge belt girdles her slender waist,
with its depending revolver and hunt
ing knife,
1t Is remarkable that Mrs. jack has
escaped the cinnamon bears embrace,
and Bruin might well be pardoned such
On indiscretion.
Jack has always said that my phys,
ical courage first attracted him. But
/ had never confessed to him that there
was one big test to which should be