The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-10-03
BY ANNE PERSON.

By ANNIE PlEROON.
Betty Bascom was here today" said
Mrs. Miller, looking up after she had
finished counting the stitches on her
knitting needles.
Mr.. aThornas Miller laid down his
newspaper
What did the princess royal have to
say for herself?" he asked.
elizabeth is a missionary of culture.
Tom" Mrs. Baseom laughed. She
thinks our lives are narrow, SO shes
going to start a -club-a woman'S CLUB.
It's TO be literary, we're to read ana
enlarge our minds, and write papers.
It'll be hard for us at first to write pa
perS, and maybe We'll be afraid to try,
but Miss Thompson being school
teacher, will probably be able to do
something and she and Miss Thomp-
son will show US how.
I'm sorry for that child" she re-
sumed, in response to a growl from her
husband. John Bascom and his wife
have brought her up as a sort of queen,
always let her have her own way and
taught her that she was way up better
than anybody else in Liberty Center.
It's going TO be real good sport to
watch her, Tom; but, after all, I'm
sorry for them"
Miss Betty meantime was in the
first ardor of a new enterprise. Garden,
house and Bettys own wardrobe
! showed how carefully she had studied
| her Life" and she sat in the most ap-
proved attitudes among the most bill
loWy cushions with her very correct
little tea table at her side, waiting for
4 the other figures, male and female, to
I step out of Life" sit in their chairs,
! sip tea out of her cups and talk gossip
rfar-
her in stylish attitudes of devotion.
But the people of Liberty Center didn't
care for tea, in fact to most of them
it was a nauseous dose, and when they
I came they sadly failed to harmonic
with the stage setting.
Betty began to realize with dismay
that though she had acquired all the
machinery of living, there was really
no occasion to set it going. Her father,
While most indulgent and admiring.
still wanted his breakfast at o'clock
sharp and still insisted on the presence
of his wife and daughter at the early
board. Dinner must continue to be at
Il and tea at G. Mrs. Bascom, in most
things as clay in her daughters hands,
firmly refused TO alter her own habits,
which, indeed, required no alteration,
being the simple, suitable ways in
! which she had been brought up by a
gentlewoman Of a past generation. In
despair she took to philanthropy. She
! would do a great work. she would en-
large the narrow, sordid lives of the
| women She saw about her. This was
just at the opening of the era when
a. wOmans club was to be as much a
part of every village as the church or
the school house, and Betty planned a
club, of which she was to be the guild
! ing spirit. 1t never occurred to her
! that any of these plain neighbors of
hers were already reading a little in
| their quiet way. They had been to
school in Boston.
The women OF Liberty Center de-
baited within themselves and with each
other the propriety of accepting Bet
tvs invitation and allowing themselves
to be Datronized by her. but on the
day fixed for the first meeting they
all assembled; Some because of a GER
tain Ilalf-concealed, respectful admira-
ton for the Slories Of the "Baseom
home" some out of frankly expressed
curiosity to see the new things and the
new doings at 'Bascon's," some be-
cause they liked the idea of a, club, no
matter who started it. and the rest be-
cause in Liberty Center invitations
we're not so plentiful that they could
afford to refuse one. The one person
rendered even shade more conspicu-
Gus by her absence than she would
nave peen Dy her presence was MISS
Dell Roberts, that untamed daughter
Of the prairie, who, with her nigh
spirits and defiance Of all rules. per
vaded the town like a whirlwind; and
when Getty heard that Dell had dubbed
her Queen Elizabeth and was making
some bets on the subject Of the new
club. she held her chin in the air and
said:
Il shall draw the line at Dell Rob
Arts 7 inst cirnnIV can't stand her.
II.
Betty, tail, slender, self conscious
and patroDizirg, with her head hello
nigh and dressed in the prettiest Of
gowns. was the presiding spirit of the
occasion.
Fortified vita much previous study