Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1904-03-02

n
-ssg~5q 4. the editor in chief of the
es..~sSsJ Carlow County Herald tool
I his hand out of his hair, wiped his per
on his last notice from the White Caps
put on his coat, swept out the close
little entry and left the sanctum fol
the bright June afternoon.
He chose the way to the west stroll
white, hot, deserted Main street and
thence onward by the country road into
which its proud half mile of old brick
store buildings. tumbledown frame
shops and thinly painted cottages de-
generated. The sun was in his face
where the road ran between the sum-
mer fields, lying wayeless. low, gra-
cious in promise; but, coming to a
4 wood of hickory and beech and wal
nut that stood beyond, he might turn
4 his down.bent hat brim up and hold
his head erect. Here the shade fell
deep and cool on the green tangle OF
rag and iron weed aud long grass in
the corners of the snake fence, al
though the SUI. beat upon the road so
close beside. There was no movement
of the crisp young leaves overhead.
High in the boughs there was quick
flirt of crimson where two robins hop
ped noiselessly. The late afternoon,
when the air is quite still, had come.
yet there rested somewhere on the
quiet day Il faint, pleasant, woody
smell. 1t came to the editor of the
Herald as lie climbed to the top rail
Of the fence for seat, and he drew
q long> breath to get the elusive odor
more luxuriously, and then 1t was gone
altogether
"a habit OF delicacies," he said aloud.
addressing the wide silence complain
ingly. "One taste and they quit" he
finished. gazing solemnly upon the
shining little town down the road.
1t was a place Of which it's inhabit-
ants sometimes remarked easily that
their city had population of from
5000 to G000 souls. but 1t should be
easy to forgive them for such state
ments. Civic pride is a virtue. The
town lay in the heart Of that fertile
stretch Of fat lands in Indiana where
eastern travellers, glancing from car
windows. shudder and return their eyes
to interior upholstery, preferring even
the swaying caparisons OF Pullman to
the monotony without. The landscape.
runs on unfortunately level lines-bleal
in winter, desolate plain OF mud and
snow: hot and dusty in summer. miles
on miles Of fiat lonesomeness with not
one cool hill slope away from the sun.
The persistent tourist who seeks for
signs Of man in this sad expanse per-
ceives q reckless amount Of rail fence.
at intervals large barn, and here and
there man himself, injurious, patient,
slow, looking up from the fields apa-
thetically as the limited flies by. Now
and then the train passes village
built scatteringly about courthouse,
with mill or two humming near the
tracks. This is a county seat, aud the
and the local papers refer
to it confidently as ''our city"
Such county seat was Plattville,
capital Of Carlow county. The social
and business energy Of the town con-
centrated on the square, and here in
summer time the gentlemen were wont
to lounge from store to store in their
shirt sleeves, and in the center of
the square stood the old red brick |
loosely fenced in shady |
grove Of maple and elm 'slipp'ry
the courthouse yard"
When the sun grew too hot for the dry |
goods box whittlers in front Of the
stores around the square and the occu-
PANTS of the chairs in front OF the Pal
ice hotel OH the corner they would go
across and drape themselves over the
'ence and carve their initials on the
OPP board. From the position Of the
Iun the editor Of the Herald Judged
hat these operations were now In
Progress, and he was not deeply elated
" the knowledge that whatever desul-
DRY conversation might pass from man
0 man on the fence would probably be
inspired by his own convictions ex-
'ressed editorially In the Herald.
He drew a faded tobacco bag and