The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-01-11
THE EVENING STORY
One ODD Maid.
(By Lee Mitchell.)

During a certain period, lasting
about three years, If any one nad
| asked what was the chief feature %
the village of Harpersville he WouIo
have been told it was gossip and scan.
dal. 1t had come to such point At
last that hardly any two fam1lleS WerS
on speaking terms, and NUMBER u
people had sold out and moved away
in disgust.
The social state of affairs could not
have been much worse when the ReV.
Henry Bates received a call 10 NIL the
pulpit of one of the two churches. he
was man of 80, and single. and ne
promised to be popular. 1t WASH
month, however. before there WeLS
stories floating around to his oetrl-
ment. He had come from the west,
and it was said that his congregation
had been pleased to get rid OF AIM,
and there were other sly statements
and innuendoesy calculated to make ms
position uncomfortable.
There is more or less gossip IN every
village in the land. but as to VINO
starts it. is always. one of those Things
that can't be found out: MRS. Wnl.e
hears it from Mrs. Black. ana MIS-
Green from Mrs. Brown. and SO II
goes, and the fountain-head is seldom
located,
When the Rev. Mr.. Bates came to
find out what hatbed ne naa got ,i il.io
he cut short his sermons to do a Httie
outside work. When he came to deiVe
into the situation he was more tnan
astonished. There was just one Single
woman left in Harpersville VINO nam
been talked about to her detriment,
and she was an old maid named sarah
Lee. She was not only an old maid.
but she was extremely homely, and
long before he thought he had located
the fountain-head. In another week
he sure of it.
The old maid was not a church
member but the pastor called on her
lust the same, and threw out broad
hints that the gossip and the scan
dalizer would have hard work to
squeeze into the better land when the
time came. Sarah agreed with him,
and two days later cooked up another |
canard.
She was in command of the situation |
up to a certain point. She was we'll
to-do, and she had wealthy relatives
to stand by her. The minister saw
There are clergymen who study the
subject of religion alone. There are |
others who study human nature as
well. The Rev.Mr. Bates was one of
the latter.
IAN old maid,' he reasoned, lis a
young woman who has been overlooked |
in the scramble or got left in the shut
fe. This fact has soured her temper
and made her envious and jealous. The
only way she can get even is to use
her tongue. She Is down on all her sex
and on the married men of the other.
up more mischief than five ministers
can smooth over"
When the pastor had reasoned that
far he took a rest for a few minutes,
What is the remedy for a tattling.
gossiping, slandering old maid? Re-
move the cause and the disease is
married off the spirit of spite will be
laid and she will have no reason to in
terfere with the peace of mind of 9TH
erS." a.
The line of reasoning was up-to-date
and the philosophy weighed full 16
ounces to the pound. One may reason
A thing to logical conclusion, how
ever, and yet find that only one diff
Bates was pitted against Sarah Lee. 1t
was Lee VS.. Bates. He realized that
ne would have to go at the end of a
year or Sarah Lee would have to be
provided with a husband. Not only
was the instinct of seIf-preservation
to, but If the question had
been submitted to any lay mind the
answer would have been that one min
ster was worth ten times as much
to any community as an old maid. The
Rev.@Mr. Bates did not turn conspira-
did not take any one into his coun-
sell.
His very first move almost brought
about his downfall. He made second
ne brought the conversation around to
he subject Of matrimony. 1t was the
luty of men and women to marry; the
world would be a savage desert with
)ut homes; race suicide would end in
l state of barbarism. For good reasons
If her own, he supposed, she had neg
ected this great duty; but he hoped
md trusted that those reasons would
soon be removed. He himself was still
single, but he was happy to state
Before he could make his statement
r. ~ Il i - IL |
lave been if he had not quickly in
,reased the distance between them. She
made it pretty plain that she was will
ng to be his n and would do her best to
make life happy for him. When he
,losed the conversation by saying that
lie was engaged to a lady in the west j
lie was almost turned out doors, and !
Mss Lee started three or four new
tories about him.
The master felt sure that he had !
truck the keynote, however, and a
week or two later he was writing let
er to an acquaintance in his former )
PARISH. The man he wrote to was not :
church member. He was an old
bachelor who paid pew-rent, contribute t
d to the heather, attended Sunday I
chol picnics and let it go at that The
'astor had once talked with him on 1
he subject of matrimony, and had been
iven to understand that there had been .
10 marriage because the right woman t
ad not been found. q
referring 10 a subject once DISCUSS Il
d between u.s. wrote the Rev Bates
let me say that there is young wo- T
nan resident here who seems to have =
1any of the qualifications to fit her for q
7ifehood. That is. she has the best of t
ealth, is worth several thousand dol f
ars, and she has assured me that she
Tould do her best to make a husband o
Apply. Were you to pay me visit and Is
1eet her she might prove to be the one
on long have sought. Did you not y
now my radical ideas on the subject d
race suicide / should not have men