The Minneapolis journal., 1903-04-25

broken off whatever affair there may have
been between you ~and that music hall
person. Really, you know, tho they talk
so about us, a young man can't mess
about with that sort Of thing in New York
as he can in London. So I'm glad she's
gone back, ,Eand as she is in no position
to harm you I;7sholild> pay no attention
to her threats. What under heaven did
the creature expect? Why should she
have wanted to marry YOU? ...-,. -.-..
I shall see you probably in another fort
night. > = :. =
You know that Milbrey girl must get
her effrontery direct from where they
make it She pretended that at first she
took young Bines for what we all took
him, an employe Of the, mine. You can
almost catch them winking at each other,
when she tells 1t, and her dear mamma
with such beautiful resignation; says.
my Avice lis so impulsively democratic
Dear Avice, you know, is really quite as
impulsive as the steel bridge our train has
just ratified over. Sincerely,
Josephine Preston Drelmer.
FROM MISS AVICE MILBREY TO MRS.
= CORNELIA GEIST; NEW YORK. -.
Mutterchen, dearest, feel like that
green hunter you had to sell last spring
the one that would go at a fence with the
most perfect display Of serious intentions,
and then balk and bolt when it came to
jumping. Can it be that I, who have been
trained from the cradle to the idea of
marrying for money: will bolt the gate
after all the expense and pains lavished
upon my education to this end; after the
years spent in learning how to enchant,;
subdue, and exploit the most useful of all
animals, and the most agreeable. barring
a ,few?CE And yet right when / am the
fittest-twentyf four years old, knowing all
,fc and Icf 1,@r1 TO-
most admiration for each, able nicely to
calculate the exact disturbing effect of the
ensemble upon any poor male and feeling
confident of my excessively eligible parti
when I decide for HMM this situation,
striven for so earnestly, I feel like bolt
ing the bars. How my trainer and jock
ey would weep tears of rage and despair
if they, guessed; it! - ,.,:.. 2. s'~.
There, there-I know. your :. shrewd
green eyes are cracking with curiosity
and you want to know what it's all about
whether to scold me or mother me- and
will please omit the entrees and get: to
the roast mutton. But you dear, dear old
aunt you, there is more yagueness. than
DETAIL and know I'll strain your patience
before I've done. But, to- relieve your
mind, nothing at all has really happened
After all, it's mostly a troublesome state
of mind, that I shall doubtless find gone
when we reach Jersey City,-and in two
ways this western trip Is responsible for
it. Do you know the journey itself has
been fascinating. Too bad so many of us
cross the ocean twenty times before we
know anything Of this country. We loiter
in Paris, do the stupid German watering
places, the Norway fiords, down to Italy
for the museums, see the chateaux Of
the Loire, or do the English race tracks,
thinking we're unused; and all the. time
out here where the sun goes down is an
int ,cnIx iy,f1 +f&,rr
try of our own that we overlook. You
know I'd never before been even as far
as Chicago Now for the first time I can
appreciate lots Of those things in Whit
man, that ! =.
Il think heroic deeds were all conceived
In the open air, and free poems, also.
Now see the secret of making the best
persons:%...5
1t is to grow in the open air and to eat
and sleep with the EARTH .'
l mayn't; have quoted correctly, but you
know the sort of thing I mean, that
sounds so breezy and stimulating. And
they've helped me understand the immen-
sity Of the landscapes and. the ideas out
here, the big, throbbing: rough young life,
and under it all, as Whitman says :.a
meaning-democracy. American democ-
racy' Really it's been interesting, the
jolliest time Of my life, and it's got me all
unsettled. More than once in watching
some scene typical of the region, the plain,
busy. earnest people, I've actually thrilled
to think that this was my countrywide
that queer little tickling tinge that locates
your spine for YOU. I'm sure there's no
ennui here! Some one said the other day,
"Ennui is.a disease that comes from living
on other peoples money! / said no, that
Id often had as fine an attack as, if T. d
been left a billion, that ennui is when you
don't know what to do next and wouldn't t
r. Oyo1
do know what to do next, and as one of
them told me, 'We always get up early
; the day before to do it. ~ ,.sna.
{, Auntie, dear, the trip has.made me more
restless and dissatisfied than ever It
makes me want to do something-to risk
something, to want to want something
more than I've ever learned to want.
. That's one reason I'm acting badly. The
sother will interest you more
It's no less a reason than the athletic
young Bayard who cheated those cab
horses Of their prey that night Fred didn't
drink all the Scotch whisky in New Y ork
Our meeting, and the matters treatment Of
was, are too, delicious =. to write.
i must wait to tell you.
It's enough to say now that: tho I heard
his name it recalled nothing to me, sand
took him from his dress to be a work
ingman In the mine we were visiting,
tho from his speech and manner Of a
gentleman, some one in authority. Dear,
he was so dear. and SO westernly breezy
and progressive and enterprising and so
appallingly candid. (, I've been the lone
woman to him, "the unknown but re-
membered idear' since that encounter OF
course that was to be said, but strangely
enough he meant it. He was actually and
unaffectedly making love to me. He's
not SO large or tall, but quick and springy,
and muscled like a panther. He's not
beautiful, either, but pleasant to look at,
one Of those broad, high-c checked faces
one sees so much in the west, with the
funniest quick yellowish gray eyes, and
the most disreputable mustache ever
saw, yellow and ragged. If he must eat
it. wish he would eat it off even clear
across. And he's likely to talk the most
execrable slang, or to quote Browning
But he was making real love and you
know I'm not used to that. I'm accus-
toned to go my pace before sharply cali
culatfng eyes, to show if I'm worth the
asking price. But here was real love
: . y 4