Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-27

The death of the Hon. Yonks Van Dol
sen fell on Wighamton like wet pail. The
blow came suddenly and it was none the
less serious to Wighamton because no one
In the town had ever heard of the late Hon
Yonks
Wighamton is small Iowa town and its
society Is clustered on the Hill Inc
farther up the hill one goes the more re-
fined and exclusive the society becomes
and the Van Dolsens lived on the very top
Beyond the Van Dolsens the hill goes down
again.
Richard Van Dolsen was out of town
when the sad news spread abroad In Wig
hamtou. He was somewhere in the Wllu
Missouri mountains looking up timber
tracts that had been offered at tempting
prices, and Mrs. Van Dolsen had to bear
the brunt of her first sorrow almost alone
She shut herself in her house and for
week received no one but Miss Arsdale
When she next appeared she was in deep
mourning and she Immediately ned east
with her sorrow.
Mrs. Van Dolsen was lady of refine
ment. Her nose was aquiline and her eyes
blue, and she held her position as social
leader through two things-her culture and
the Van Dolsen name She led because she
felt that Il Van Dolsen was entitled to lead
MY dear" she would say to her husband
"why shouldn't we lead? We are van DOL
gems"
NV dear" her jolly fat husband would
reply go ahead and lead If you like It. II
] was half the Van Dolsen that you are
would be too aristocratiC to do business.
She was. indeed, the most intense Van
Dolsen of them all. Even the Long Island
Van Dolsens, who were born to the name
took less pride In 1t. II was she who COM
piled the genealogy She knew every Van
Dolsen, living or dead, and once each
year left Wighamton society leaderless to
make a pilgrimage to the haunts OF the
Van Dolsen ancestors. The most remotely
connected Van Dolsens were dearer to her
than brother or sister.
II was elevating and refining to take tea
with Mrs Van Dolsen and hear her tell in
a soft voice about the eastern Van Dol
sens To be told about Katrina of Syosset
Long Island who lived alone in the old
homestead and Of Piet who dwelt In
Flushing and still raised the ancestral tu-
lips, was to be admitted to the inner cir
Gle. There was really no one in Wigham-
ton who could boast of such ancestry, eX-
cept Hetty Arsdale, and she. poor girl, was
the last OF her line. She could have led
Wighamton society, too, but she was too
poor in purse.
stances. Being an Arsdale. she could not
stoop to do any work she was able to do,
and being an Arsdale, she could not ac-
Cept indiscriminate charity. She had the
Arsdale pride, tempered by necessity. Char
ity she would not permit, but she was
grateful for opportunities to relieve her
good friends of the regrettable necessity
of destroying such things as they no longer
could conveniently keep. In doing this she
felt she was doing them a favor Every one
dlslikes to destroy useful articles that are
outgrOwn or that have become superfluous,
and Miss Asdale saved them the pain of
doing so.
She was a dear. Every one liked her
and every one Schemed to accumulate su-
perfluous and outgrown articles that she
might relieve them of them. The ladies
nf hn nil cot ll1lN 11 I'M ar1Nr
preserves and too much bread and bought
too many potatoes, so that Miss Arsdale
could prevent the utter waste of the sur
plus by accepting 1t. She had her system
of pride systematzed to a nicely, and there
was an absolute line that divided her glad
acceptance from her panied and naughty
refusal The ladies of the nice set being
ladies, were most careful of offending her.