The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1900-05-11
THE WORLD AGAINST HIM
CHAPTER l.
BY WILL N. HARDEN


room drowsed, nodded or stared at
him with lack-luster eyes. He usually
held forth on Sundays when the law
and the Lord prohibited work and there
was nowhere to go.
On this sultry afternoon his theme
was his own misfortune in being bur-
dened with a family that contributed
naught to his desires. He had never,
In exact words, voiced their shortcom-
ings, but in his secret soul he would
have had them perhaps less like him
self, certainly less like his wife, who
weighed 200 if she weighed a pound.
The two girls, Mary Lou, aged IS,
and Ann Josephine, 20, threatened, as
their bedslats continued 10 break, TO
surpass their mother in the flesh they
were heir to, and in addition TO this
impeachment to activity and encourager
Of sloth, they had come honestly by a
combination of their fathers tow-col-
ored and their mothers red hair, which
little suited their ford compilations.
They had, aleo, freekles as big as pock-
marks, which a diligent application Of
stump water had failed to dim.
Fanshaw had two sons. Ronald, the
eldest child, was not in the room.
David, lusty fellow built on his IA
TIERS plan, but with more cheerful
face, was lying on the high-posted bed
In the corner of the room. He always
hurled into his fathers TRADES against
his family comments in favor of his
brother, whom he admired intensely.
"You cayn't complain of Rom" he
said this afternoon, as he famed the
fiies from his face with his big straw
hat lined with blue calico. He looks
after his own business. Mr.. Hague
said Saturday before last that he'd
ruther have Ron rent land from I'm
than any man in the country. he
lowed Ron paid every dollar he con-
tracted 10 pay an that the niggers
liked I'm so much that they'd work
twice as hard for i'm as they would for
anybody else
"That don't do me no good" snarled
Fanshaw.
"No, reckon not" admitted Dave,
"but you won't ever be ashamed of
i'm, IL you are Of the rest of us. He's
been readin' and studyin' every spare
minute sence he was knee high 10 q
grasshopper. For the last six months
Mr.. Redding, the best lawyer in Dan
ube, has been providin' i'm with books,
an my idea is that he is goin' TO make
a lawyer out'n hisse'f. You eaynt
hold i'm down; he'll rise like a cork;
an as fur good looks, geewhilikinsl
DID ever tell you-uns what happened
at sampmeetin'? l was a settiu' I'M
des the bush arbor about four benches
from the front last Sunday was q
week when Ron come In dyked out
In his best Sunday clothes You ort
10 a-ssed how the folks turned their
heads A young dude behind me axed
O msn next to i'm who In the thunder
that was, an the fellow said he wasn't
certain, but he lowed II was some
chap Hsitin' at Col. HaSbrooke's from
Boston Or New York. Then II was my
put in. bent over an informed 'em
that IL was Ronald Fanshaw, the old
est son of Jason Fanshaw. An you
ort to a-heerd 'em giggle. Then the
man that had axed the question come
back at me fairly slobberin' in the
mouth to keep frum laughin' out loud
"'You're away off, my friend SEE
he; you shorely amt acquainted bout
heer. Old Fanshaw is the daddy Of the
sorriest layout on the face Of crea
ton. l hain't never been to his side
snow myself but know heap o. folks
that has paid Their way an never axed
fur the money back, nuther,'
"Then l j>st punched my face over
to his ycer an said, did: Il ort &c
know i'm | says, tetchin' the butt
O. my pistol. He's my brother, an
when meetin' is over men you'll "a
into the sideshow fur a minute; the
tents stretched right out thar in the
bushes an the latest addition to it Is
a Buffalo Bill dead shot
"He wilted an got as white as the
inside Of cucumber, an then the
preacher aXed every body TO kneel dowr
and pray. l was akin the Lord &c
bless my purpose when them two ri'
an poled il out over the straw. / hall
way got up, but the preacher broke
off in his prayer an begun to tall
about the law agin disturbin' public
worship, an l sunk down on my knees
an seed them two mount an gallop of
like the woods was aiire."
"You ort to a-mashed is teeth dowI
his throat" said Mrs. Fanshaw
"Folks has polSed too much fun at u'
TO suit me. In war times you wouldn'
R-stood it, Jade" She called her hus
band Jade, not because he was tired
or was a horse, but because it was thu
only abbreviation of the name sh'
knew.
An expression of hot fury lay oil
Fanshaw's wrinkled face as he looked
out into the yard where half a hundred
ducks, turkeys, guinea-hens and pea
cocks were feasting on the remains O.
the watermelon the family had jus
eaten. my Lord" he grunted, "ef
took folks TO taw ever time they iokeC
about you-uns, I'd have my hands full