The Red Cloud chief., 1905-01-27

E@,zZyr- 4, the editor in chief of the
Exs.xJ Carlow County Herald took
his hand out of his hair, wiped his pen
on his last notice from the White Caps,
put on his coat, swept out the close
little entry and left the sanctum for
Tue bright June afternoon.
He chose the way to the west, stroll
Ing thoughtfully out of town by the
white, hot, deserted Main street and
thence onward by the country road into
which its proud half mile of old brick
store buildings, t|umbledown frame
shops and thinly painted cottages de-
generated. The sun was in his face
where the read ran between the sum
mer fields, lying wavelcss, low. era.
cious in promise; but, coming to o
wood of hickory and beech and wal
nut that stood beyond, he might urn
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 and long grass i'll
the corners of the snake fence. al
though the sun beat upon the road SC
close beside. There was no movement
Of the crisp young leaves overhead
High in the boughs there vas Il quick
f1irt of crimson where two robins hop.
ped nOisclessly. The late afternoon,
when the air is quite still, had come,
yet there rested somewhere on the
smell. 1t came to the editor of the
Herald as he climbed to the top rail
Of the fence for a seat. and he drew
q long breath to get the elusive odOr
more luxurbusly, and then it was gone
altogether.
"a habit Of delicacies," he said aloud,
addressing the wide silence complaint
ingly. zone taste and they quit" ne
finished. gazing sOlemnly upon the
shining little town down the road.
1t was IA place of which its inhabit'
ants sometimes remarked easily that
their city had a population of from
5000 to 6.OOO souls. but it should be
easy to forgive them for such state
mpnts. Civic pride is Il virtue. The
town lay i'm the heart of that fertile
stretch of fiat lands in Indiana where
eastern travellers, glancinG from cal
windows. shudder and return their eyes
to interior upholstery, prcferrinS ever
the swaying caparisons of Il Pullman tt
the monOtony without. The landscape
runs on Unfortunately level lines-bleaE
in winter. II dcSUlatc plain of mud anC
snow: hot ana dusty in summer, mics
on miles of fiat loncsomcness, with no
one cool hill slope away from the sun
The persistent tourist who seeks fol
SIGNS of man in this sad cXpansc per
cciyes n reckless amount of rail fence
at intervals a large barn, and here an,
there man himself, injurious, patient
slow, looking up from the ficlds apa
thctically rs the limited tlics by. Now
and then the train passes Il village
built scatteringly about n courthouse
with "A mill or two humming near TIT
tracks. This is Il county seat, and th'
inhabitants and the local papers rcfe
to it confidently as ''our city
Such Il county seat was Plattville
capital of Carlow county. The socia
and business energy of the town con
centrated on the square, ana here II
summer time the gentlemen were won
TO lounge from store TO store III the
shirt sleeves, and in the center o
the square stood the old red brio
courthouse, loosely fenced In Il shad,
grove of maple and elm-"slippr
ellum"-callcd the courthouse yard.
When the sun grew too hot for the Dir
goods box whittlers in front OF III
stores around the square and the occt
pants of the chairs i'm front OF the Ia
ace hotel on the corner they would &
across and drape themselves over tn
fence and carve their initials on I'll
top board. From he position OF III
sun the editor of the Herald judge
that these operations were now l
progress, and he was not deeply elate
by the knowledge that whatever desu
tory conversation might pass from MA
to man on the fence would probably I
Inspired by his own convictions e'
pressed editorially in the Herald,
He drew a faded tobacco bag and
brier pipe from his pocket and, aft'
flling and lighting the pipe, twirled Il
Douch mechanically about his fng9
then, suddenly regarding 1t, patted
caressingly. 1t had been Il giddy htJ
bag long ago, gay with embroidery y
the colors Of the editors universit
and although now it was frayed to Y
verge of ~tatteps, it still bore an air
pristine jauntiness, an air of which
owner in nowise partook. lie LOON
from it toward the village in the cid
distance and sighed softly as he ~
the pouch back in his pocket and' res
Ing his arm on his knee ana his cum !