Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1902-10-22
His Soul and
His Body~~
BY S. RHETT ROMAN.

TENNETH'S body lived in a small
II bustling western town, anc
worked all day from six a. m. to si1
p. m. in a big beet factory, until the
days watch alternating, he woul6
work from six p. m. to six a. M, anc
10 hours out of the ~, which was
every two weeks.
James Kenneth boiled all the sug
ars of the refinery, and boiled then
we'll, and looked after the working
of the house ut night with consci
entious care, when the superintend
ent slept.
1t was skillful, arduous toll, &C
complisfed with mathematical pre-
cision, just like the throb of the en-
CINE, the beat of the piston-rod and
the slow grind OF the mill, which
never stopped, never relaxed and
never fastened it's motion.
Kenneth's body slept it's scant al
lowance of hours, and watched and
labored the remainder of the time
and went the rounds of the vast re.
finery among the complicated and
whirring machinery, keenly regard
full of the interests of the owners OF
the big plant and surrounding beet
fields. He gave orders to those un-
der him, and saw that the thin sliced
beet-roots were boiled to a pulp, the
juice extracted and converted into
different grades and kinds of sugars,
never varying in the excellence of his
work, or his vigilance, and conse-
quently holding a high place in the
superintendent esteem as being the
most valuable and valued man in the
Pacific coast refinery, which is the
best in the state of Oregon.
But James Kenneth's labors were
all mechanical. His sugarmaking,
like the rest of his life, was done by
force of habit, and the routine of
his days followed in grooves, and on
lines, traced by long training, by ne
cessity, and the exigencies of condi-
lions accepted as inevitable.
From buoyant, light-hearted and
recklessly gay, in early youth, Ken
meth had grown to be grave and mel
ancholy, in his thirtieth year, al
though no complaint crossed his lips,
nor was his silence morose, nor his
words Indicative of the inward strug-
gle always going on, between deep
rooted and profound depression and
life habit of proper reserve, which
inculcated that our griefs and loves,
and joys, and SORROWS are our own,
not to be desecrated by display or
paraded for careless scrutiny and
comment.
Kenneth's body lived in the hust-
ling Pacific coast town, where trade
was brisk, cowboys and stalwart min
ers we're frequent visitors, and the
free, primitive life of the great west
ern plains was being rapidly merged
into the feverish struggles of over
wrought civilization, whose ambition
is always and ever the beautiful,
shining dollar.
But Kenneth's soul and memory
dwelt persistently in a. city near the
sea, where the winds blow gently
from the south in summer, and keen,
cold and invigorating from the north
when winter and it's bright days
come.
They dwelt among palms and flow
ers, surrounding an ancient brick
house, facing an avenue where ran a
long line of trees; around an old
home in whose rooms fingered the
scent # verbena and musk roses.
and in whose halls the echo of a
rich, gay voice reverberated, and
careless laughter was frequent.
If it was thoughtless and egotisti-
cal laughter, Kenneth was not aware
of it. If the ease and comfort which
reigned in the shaded and finely old
fashioned rooms, where a fretful
handsome, eldedly woman went back
and forth and Mignon's gay voice re.
sounded. Kenneth neither realized
nor saw it, but bent to his task with
still more assiduous ,ardor, for did
not Mignon's needs grow as each
year added grace to her light zorm
and beauty to a face lit with violet
blue eyes?-a face whose red lips
could be compressed into lines Of
cruelty when the whim ana desire
of the moment was not grats6ed.
''Kenneth2 Oh, he's sucE plod
der!" Mignon complained, carelessly
to q silent listener. HE takes nc
interest in anything outside of his
work. He loves machinery, and is
never happy unless he is potterine
about in a big sugar mill. Ask nam
ma. He would not come home al
all last year, you remember. He JUS
went from one place to. the other
Came Lack from Cuba, and went ou1
west, and never stopped here to Sc,
Us. But he sent me a lovely pin fo1
Christmas, and let me order furs il
New York. Ken's q dear. And hav'
nv French maid, too. Nobody cal
Is properly. dressed without q Frencl
maid. Felicie does hair divinely.
GOT her because she. left New Yorl
81 account Of her health. overwork
ne says. Il wrote to Ken that
positively must have her. She doe
ivssr ny ball gowns and makes then '' =