The Tupelo journal., 1904-03-25
Copyright, 1908. by Daily Story Pub. COZ
By EDWIN j.

nERHAPS the young men of ABB
beyville, relying on the fact that
they had known the girls of that
pretty little village since childhood,
had grown somewhat careless and in
attentive. Possibly the girls of Abb
beyville were too particular and de-
manded more than was their due
though an unprecedented observer
would have said this would have been
almost impossible in the case of such
attractive girls. Whatever may have
been the right of the case originally,
the girls of Abbeyville, under the
leadership of Laura Hopkins, decided
that they had not been treated in a
satisfactory manner. Something must
be done to cause the young men OF
Abbeyville to repent and to remorse-
fully regard and regret their lost OPP
portunities. Clearly an offensive and
defensive league of the prettiest girls
in Abbeyville would quickly bring
about this much-to-be-desired result.
And this was the reason for the forma-
ton of the Abbeyville Bachelor Girls
trust.
Laura Hopkins, as the leading spirit
in the movement, was chosen president
of the new trust. Laura had just quar-
relied with the man who thought her
as near perfection as a girl can be-
which in his opinion was very, very
near-and in whom she had taken
more than a sisterly interest. Per-
haps this was the reason why she
plunged into the work of forming the
Bachelor Girls trust in such an eager,
not to say vindictive manner, needless
of the fact that all the evils claimed
by the opponents of man-made trusts
would be small compared with those
which would be wrought by this new
n if it should become firmly estab-
lished throughout the country.
I'VE can have a club as well as the
men" declared Laura, in sterner tones
than one would have expected from so
pretty a girl. I'VE can have our own
dances, little parties all by ourselves,
and all kinds of fun. We will show
the men of Abbeyville that they are
not n little bit necessary to our
scheme of life, liberty and the pur-
suit of happiness"
They did. From the first the Bach
elor Girls trust had a career Of tri-
umph compared with which the ca
reers of man-made oil, coal, steel,
rubber and other trusts were check
cred. The trust had scarcely been
started ere it's victims were anxious
to capitulate. They pleaded that
manufacturers and producers who
were crushed by other trusts were at
least allowed to take stock in them.
But the Abbeyville Bachelor Girls
trust was differently managed. 1t
would hear of no compromise. It's
victims must be crushed and thor
oughly punished for their previous
neglect of the fair members of the
trust. Soon the poor victims were
ready to listen to any terms. And
then, just when the trust seemed to
have everything in it's own hands,
when a complete and unconditional
victory seemed assured, the trust was
ruined, and ruined by the ~treachery
of Nettie Williams, one of its prettiest
and most prominent members.
Nettie had originally regarded the
trust project with much favor. But
with the advent of Jack Wilson in the
village of Abbeyville things had grad
ually changed. Jack was a distant
cousin of hers. She had met him at
a college commencement two years
before. She had watched him plunge
through the Yale line in the big foot