The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1901-12-14

place and the epoch, and, indeed, inns
piled the whole history of Mrs, Baker.
She was the wife of John Baker,
foreman of 1.-The Last Chance" now
for year lying dead under half mile
of crushed and beaten-in tunnel Al
Burnt Ridge There had been sud.
den cutlery from the depths at high,
hot noontide one day, and John had
rushed from his cabin, his young,
foolish, flirting wife clinging to him,
to answer that despairing cry But
She rose suddenly with a pale face and
said: 'Go, John; will wait for you
here" He went; the men were freed
but she had waited for him ever since.
Yet in the shock Of the calamity and
in the after struggles of that poverty
which had come to the ruined camp
she had scarcely changed. But the
men had. Although she was to all
appearances the same giddy, pretty
Betsy Baker who had been SO disturb.
ing to the younger members, they
seemed no longer to be disturbed by
her. A certain subdued awe and re-.
spcct, as if the martyrcd spirit of John
Baker still held his arm around her,
seemed to have come upon them all.
They held their breath as this pretty
woman, whose brief mourning had not
seemed to affect her cheerfulness or
even playfulness Of spirit, passed be-
fore them. But she stood by her ca bin
and the camp-the only woman in q
settlement of forty men-during the
darkest hours Of their fortune, help
ing them to wash and cook and min
istering to their domestic needs. The
sanctity Of her cabin was. however, al.
ways kept rs inviolable as II It had
been his tomb. No one exactly knew
why, for it was only tacit instinct;
but even one or two who had not
scrupled to pay court to Betsy Baker
during John Bakers life shrank from
even a suggestion OF familiarity toward
the woman who had said that she
would wait for him there"
When brighter days came and the
settlement had increased by one or two
families and laggard capital had been
hurried up to relieve the still be-
leaguered and locked-up wealth of
Burnt Ridge, the needs OF the COM
munity and the claims Of the widow of
John Baker were so we'll told in politi-
cal quarters that the post Office Of
Laurel Run was created expressly for
her. Every man participated in the
building Of the pretty yet substantial
edifice--the only public building in
Laurel Run--that stood in the dust of
the great highway, half mile from
the settlement There she was in.
stalled for certain hours of the day, for
she could not be prevailed upon to
abandon Johns cabin, and here, with
all the added respect due to public
fnnctionary. she was a. secure in her
privacy.
But the blind devotion Of Laurel Run
to John Bakers relict did not stop here.
In it's zeal to assure the government
authorities of the necessity of post.
office, and to secure a permanent com
potency to the postmistresS, there was
much embarrassing extravaganza. Dur
ing the first week the sale of stamps at
Laurel Run post Office was unpreccdent-
cd in the annals Of the department.
| Fancy prices were given fer the first is
sue; then they were bought wildly,
reclslessly, unprottably and on all oc.
casions. Complimentary congratula-
tions at the little window invariably
| ended with: "And dollars worth OF
stamps, Mrs Baker," 1t was felt to be
supremely delicate to buy only the
highest priced stamps, without refer
ence to their adequacy; then mere
| quantity was sought; then outgoing
letters were all overpaid, and stamped
In outrageous proportion to thei,
weight and even size. The imbecility
OF this. and It's probable effect on the
reputation of Laurel Run at the general
post Office being pointed out by Mrs
Baker, stamps were adopted rs local
currency, and even for decorative pur.
poses on mirrors and the walls of cabins
Everybody wrote letters, with the re-
suit, however, that those sent were lu
dicrously and suspiciously in excess OF
those received. TO obviatc this, select
parties made forced journeys to Hick
DRY Hill, the next post Office, with let
tcrs and circulars addressed to them
selves at Laurel Run. How long the
extravaganza would have continued il
not known, but it was not until it was
rumored that, in consequence of the
excessive flow Of business the depart.
ment had concluded that postmaster
would be better fitted for the place that
1t abated, and a compromise was eff.
fected with the general office by per-
manent salary to the postmistress.
Such was the history of Mrs. Baker,
who had Just finished her afternoon
levee nodded smiling ''good-by" to
her last customer and closed her shutter
again. Then she took up her own let
ters, but before reading them glanced
with pretty Impotence at the two Of
acial envelopes addressed to herself
which she had shelved. They were gen.
orally a lot of new rules (?) or Motif
cations, or absurd" questions which
had nothing to do with Laurel Run. and
only bothered her and "made her head
ache" and she had usually referred
them to her admiring neighbor at Hick-
Dry Hill for explanation, who mad gen
orally returned them to her with the
brief Endorsement: "rurp stuff; don't