Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1906-08-02

Il
heir days in the center of the deser
| IF Cobb, she would have faced that lif,
with as little sense of personal con
2ern and with no more misgivings.
Down out of the maze of hills thu
,rain wound; and then by easy grade!
after two days of travel down off the
great plateau to where the plains OF
Nebraska lay away to far horizon in
brown pillows of withered grass.
Then came the crossing of the sullen
sluggish Missouri, that highway Of ar
earlier day to the great northwest; and
after that the better wooded and bet
ter settled lands of Iowa and Illinois
Now we're getting where Christians
live" said Percival, with warm appre.
citation.
why, Percival," exclaimed his moth
er, reprovingly, do you mean to say
there aren't any Christians in Mon
tana City? How you talk! There are
lots of good Christian people there"
And even Mrs. Bines was not with
out sense of quiet and rest induced
scape through which they now sped.
The country here does seem lot
cozier,", she admitted.
The hills rolled away amiably and
reassuringly; the wooded slopes in
their gay coloring of autumn invited
confidence. Here were no forbidding
stretches of the gray alkali desert, no
grim bare mountains, no solitude Of
desolation. 1t was a kind land, fat
with riches. The shorn yellow fields,
the capacious red barns, the well-con-
ditioned homes, all told eloquently of
peace and plenty. So, too, did the vii
lages-those lively little clearing
houses for immense farming districts.
To the adventurer from New York they
seem always new and crude. To our
travellers from a newer, cruder region
they were actually aesthetic in their
suggestions of an old and well-estab-
lished civilization.
In due time they were rafting over
tangled maze of switches, lodging
interminable professions Of freight
cars, barely missing crowded passen-
ger trains whose bells struck clear and
then fatted as the trains flew by; de-
filing by narrow waterways, crowded
with small shipping; winding through
streets lined with high, gloomy ware
houses, amid the clang and clatter, the
strangely sounding bells and whistles
Of thousand industries, each sending
up its just contribution of black smoke
to the pail that lay always spread
above; and steaming at last into a
great roomy shed where all was sys-
tenn, and where the big engine trem-
bled and painted as if in relief at hav-
ing run in safety a gantlet SO hazard
Gus.
Anyway, I'd rather live in Montana
City than Chicago" ventured Mrs.
Bines.
Whatever pride you may feel in
your discernment is amply justified"
replied her son, performing before the
amazed lady a bow that indicated the
lowest depths of slavish Difference.
81 am now," he continued, "going
out to pace the floor of this locomotive
boudoir for a few exhilarating breaths
of smoke, and pretend to myself that
I've got to live in Chicago forever. A
little discipline like that is salutary to
keep one from forgetting the great
which a merciful Providence
has conferred upon one"
ST'l1 wall hit with I,
sister, donning her jacket and a cap.
Lest my remarks have seemed in
determinate, madam" sternly contin-
ued Percival at the door of the car,
permit me to add that if Chicago were
Heaven | should at once enter upon
life of crime. Do not aAect to misun-
derstand me, l beg of you. I should
leave no avenue of salvation open to
my precious soul. l should incur no
risk of being numbered among the
saved. l should be bad, and should
sit up nights to invent new ways Of
evil. If / had any leisure left from
being as wicked as l could be, l should
devote it to teaching those loved how
to become abandoned. l should doubt
less issue a pamphlet, How to Merit
Perdition Without Master. Learn to
Be Wicked in Your Own Home in Ten
Lessons. Instructions Sent Securely
Sealed from Observation. Thousands
of Testimonials from the Most Accom-
plished Reprobates of the Day. trust
that you will never again so far forget
yourself as to utter that word Chi
cago' in my presence. If you feel that
you must give way to the evil impulse,
go off by yourself and utter the name
behind the protection of closed doors
where this innocent girl cannot hear
you. Come, sister. Otherwise l may
behave in a manner to be regretted in
my calmer moments. Let us leave the
woman alone, now. Besides, I've got
to go out and help the hands make VI
that New York train. You never car
tell. Some horrible accident might
happen to delay us here 80 minutes
Cheer up, ma; it's always darkest jus
before leaving Chicago, you know"
Thus fippantly do some of thu
younger sons of men blaspheme thi!
metropolis of the mid-west-a city thu
creation Of which is, by many persons
of discrimination, held to be the chic
romance and abiding miracle of tn,
nineteenth century.
Let us rejoice that one such partisan
was now at hand to stem the torren
of abuse. AS Percival held back tn
| -.
little ruddy-faced man with trim gra