Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1903-11-20
A QUEEN. OF COOK )

that is, In the days when the diggers
dreamed not of prohibition and when
one was much more certain than now
to get in mining town a dram of de-
cent stuff incapable of blowing the cork
out
Plainly there was something astir.
Everybody had ON his best new
barmaid had arrived Ghere is 40 hope
for the wretches who would rob the
digGsrs of. that comfort at Widow
NJ rs pub. In twos, threes or skies
the whole place dropped in four or five
times an hour to have another gaze"
She was the sole topic of converse
ton. "Ain't she clean?' said one
THAT wur slashing feed we had to-
day." said another. "Best tucker ever
l struck" added third, with furtive
glance from beneath the rim of a hat
that seemed intended as a cover for his
face
By the end of the week the newcomer
was no longer a stranger Everybody
knew her. She was a woman of over
thirty, marvelously preserved and had
been queen OF. many gold rushes She
had never heen married
The man who has spent a quarter of
q century in the Australian provinces
has seen ten civilizations anyway
There is ground for belief that later
civilizations have degenerated.
The woman of today is not the cook
of the past. There is an air of cinder-
ed chops about the present hapless
creature. Today too many matrons
want their daughters to play 1.-The pi-
amer" Too many mothers wash the
clothes ard get the languid girls to
bring them in. Thus the man passing
by the clothesline is deceived There
fore our civilization is comparable to a
needle which has been too finely sharp
ened and too much reduced at the sid, g.
This reduction has been visible
throughout Australia for twenty years
past.
Now, the consequences of this fatal
relapse of woman are manifold and
terrible. The bad cook is only Il slow
muEderess.
Bun there was grit in our barmaid
She was none of these She could pro.
duce a meal worthy of man, and dig.
%Sing breeds men. She was tidy to q
hair. She was trim and she was hand.
some.
OF course the whole district became
infatuated with her. Diggers go that
way. They sit in the solitude of theil
huts and dream of the ideal in the
guise of the handiest flesh and blood
substitute. In the night 1t is their
companion. In this way do single min.
ers love million times-it is their po
lygamy. They love with distant
worshipful love-''the desire of the
moth for the STAR"
They are pleased If she visits their
claim and watches the water flying
from the sluicing nozzle. They show
her the rainbow under the Jet; they
bring her nuggets. And If she speaks
to them, be it only t'Good day." they
fancy that their affection is making
Roadway and rejoice in every fiber OF
their being.
Out Of her admirers the charmer re.
duced the cluster to two, and between
these the contest was terrible. They
hung about the place like unto dogs
CHAINED. She ran against one or the
other or both each minute She spoke
to them singly or in a pair forty odd
times an hour. 1t was evident to the
boys that something was looming up.
The aspirants were named Louis and
Charles, both Frenchmen and over for.
ty. The worst of Frenchman Is that
France hangs like plumb bob before
his nose, and everything has to be re.