The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1902-11-11
THE MAN IN THE DRESS SUIT.

In those first days Of the thrush al Nome
| acquaintance of a day were reckcned as
friendships. Net men on the street,
shook hands, bought drinks and were
sworn allies forever after. After SIX
| months Tom Culver was regarded as one
o. the Oldest and foremost citizens He
was g years old, and had been there
| four months Few knew whittier nc had
! come, or what he meant 70 do. but he
had money, spent it like a true-blue Klon-
diker and, in spite OF his tenderfoot ways,
vas beloved Of men
The struggle for quick erninence in a
mining town is as feverish as the de-
sire for sudden wealth. Nome was full
OF men who didn't know a shals sink
from a true fssure. Not half Of them
were miners in tho real sense but they
we're there for business, and meant 10
do il. Politics IS almost as good as min
ing If you get away right and can boss
the digg1ngs. There are restaurants in the
klon0ike that pay better than prize
claims One saloon up there made nearly
100000 in seven months and some OF the
Iuckiest prospectors in Alaska went broke
across its roulette wheel
Caste is unknown. II you are a man.
you are a man. Woman is a transfig-
ured creature. deified by memories and
almost forgotten longings, apothesized in
proportion 70 her beauty, her youth, her
virtue and her isolation. A beautiful girl
III an arctic mining camp is a radiant
presence, the embodiment of all good
and tender memories, the reorganization
OF all sacrifices made all heroism endured
and all hopes contemplated. She assumes
an exaggerated value which is the culnli-
nation Of dreams, the guerdon of toll, the
prize of wealth, the purpose OF all suffer-
ing life. Even bad, homely, coarse, uer-
cenary woman achieves something of this
exalted condition in the regard OF men
In such environment her sex stands for
something winsomely reminiscent of man.
She has the same form as his mother, sis
ter, sweetheart Of the old days. II IS for
some one of her sex that he is here. And
the bad seem les. bad, and the good an
gelic.
Tom Culver met the Killian girl in the
streets of Nome one day. She was
young, fair, modest. intelligent. She to
him seemed excessively beautiful Thorn
ton introduced them. and she invited him
10 her party. Perhaps she looked APP
plovingly upon his tall form and comely
face. Thornton didn't. but they sat ell
bow 10 elbow in 3 stud-poker game at the
Chilkat palace, and the men were there
fore friends. The Kilian house was just
finished, and it had eight roor1s-a pal
ace for those days In that place. Every
body was there who could claim the pro-
lection Of the law. Culver came AT 0.
and the festivities stopped to give the
guests time to contemplate him. The
company did not agree TO pause for this
contemplation. Ii was unavoidable. in
voluntary. purely emotional.
Tom Culver was in full dress
To enhance the eclat OF his appearance
he wore a white chrysanthemum IN his
lapel, Neither dress suit nor chrysan-
themum had ever been seen before in
Meme Heaps Of gold dust washed from
remote places. nuggets of yellow quartz
from the hills, forlorn and fainting az
gonauts who rad traversed the pass with
out dogs, men who had lived upon dos
meat, women who had braved the avail
aEche and the endless nights-all Of these
were already old stories in Nome But a
dress suit A fresh flower, Thornton
VINO was with Miss Kilian when Culver
CO me in, looked if he would faint The
girl beamed upon him. with an excess 81
radiance. His presence alone in that
array, would have made her party the
event of the season" She made much Of
him, favored him. danced with him more
than with anyone.