The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-09-29
Copyright, 1902, by T. c. Mcclure.


Aunt Sarah Bebee, after whose father
Bebee's Corners had been named, was a
widow past so the day a sporty-looking
man drove up to her farmhouse in fancy
rig and wanted to arrange with her to
cover the front Of her barn with circus
pictures.
"Why, bless your heart, I never went to
circus in all my Hfe!'' she exclaimed in
reply. .-r -. - ~.
"But you are not too old to begin" he
suggested. LET me put the pictures up,
and I'll leave you ten tickets of admis-
sion. You can go and take all your
friends" ..
Land O. massy, but you don't know
Bebees Corners! Everybody around here
is a Methodist or Baptist Of Presbyterian
everybody but me-and they won't even
attend camp meeting If lemonade is to
be sold on the grounds. don't exactly
know what my religion is, but if I went to
circus nobody would ever speak to me
again. ...
Inc circus man wanted his bills on that
barn. and he argued and reasoned for half
an hour. He saw that Aunt Sarah was an
| Independent character and that if he could
get her started she'd be ready to defy pub
| Tic opinion. The result was that she
finally said
! well, go ahead with your pictures. I
never saw an elephant or lion or tiger in
| my life, and I'll go and see the menagerie
part anyhow. There'n be an awful row
around here, and folks will think that Sa-
tan has got hold Of me, but I'll have to
stand it,
The pictures were hardly up when Dea-
con Danforth happened along the highway
and saw them. He turned pale and trem-
bled. Not in twenty years before had a
| barn on the Red Mill road been thus de-
h1 had
| from the shock, he walked to the house
| and confronted the widow. For the first
fifteen minutes the conversation was de-
| voted to Satan, Hades, Lots wife, Judas
Iscar1ot and other interesting subjects.
| But it gradually tapered off to hyenas,
boa constructors and alligat tors, and the
deacon was almost smiling when he left
| the house.
Next day Deacon Bidwell saw those pic
lures as he sat in his buggy behind his
| old white horse. The horse saw them
before he did, and stopped so suddenly
that the deacon was pitched against the
| dashboard. For a long minute the good
old man thought his eyes deceived him,
but the true state Of affairs finally dawned
upon him, and he groaned and sighed and
| drove up to the widows gate.
/ "Widder Bebee, have you sold your nv-
| tn soul to Satan?" was his greeting, and
| then the fur flew. It was nearly an hour
before he left the house, but he wasn't
| signing and groaning he went. On the
| contrary, he looked rather cheerful anC
he called back from the gate:
| Yes; suppose there'll be camels there
with two humps, mebbe with three, and
| they'll be with lookin' att
| There was one: more deacon in the
neighborhood, Deacon Burton He was
1 driving to town to get pitchfork mend
| ed and was humming the air Of II Want
| to Be an Angel when the coIored posters
suddenly confronted him. There were
short-skirted, long-legged damsels poised
on barebacked horses or jumping through
| paper-covered hoops. He stood and gazed
and felt cold chills 60 up his back. He
drove on to the farmhouse, half expecting
| to find the Widow Bebee trying to turr
| handsprings over a kitchen chair
| II wouldn't a believed it. widder-I