Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1908-06-17

tines, and going to fish-frys, and at-
tending camp meetings, and seeing
the circus, and going on Saturday aft
ernoons to the band concert in town
and eating ice cream and drinking ice
cream soda, and playing the organ
Sunday nights, and attending the
dances. and being at, the "box.socials,"
and all the other social doings.
She is vastly interested in ribbons
and side-combs and hats and dresses
and gloves and becoming shoes, and
candy and perfumery and fellows, and
all that sort of thing. And when some
fellow gets to be 81. and goes in and
gets license, and there's a notice in
the paper from "Our Libertyville Cor
respondent" about her and this fellow
getting married, well you can wager
that old Uncle Discomfort will not
reach her for awhile yet. But he will
get her, all right, in time You re-
member about Eve, don't you? Moth
Ing to do in Eden week in and week
out, and yet Eve had to 60 out and
swing on the gate with the blue
racer just because things got monot-
Onous.
For our own individual sources of
discomfort In the country, they were
subtle and rather more in the way Of
an intangible desire to be nearer the
flame of the candle of civilization. If a
particularly fine play was on at the
theaters we used to attend, we missed
1t. II there was some picture at
the art galleries where we once at
tended, and that picture was really
worth seeing, it was something of a
disappointment not to be able to come
in and see it. Two hundred miles or
SO Is quite distance from "the mad
dening crowds ignoble strife" and
car fare was something of an item,
too. The daily paper from the city,
which reached us the same day of it's
appearance, recorded some things
which we missed and many things
which we were glad to escape. But
the music, the theaters, the pictures,
the old book stores, the best of what
the city afforded, we missed that, Of
course. One cannot have ones rural
cake and eat the cake of urban bak-
ing at the same time; at least, not
from distance of 200 miles.
And then, too, there were few peo-
pie with whom we would have liked
to cross palms with occasionally from
the city we had left. We missed these
fellows.
And gradually, after all our de-.
light in the wild and untrammeled
scenery about us, the changing glories
OF the seasons, the really idyllic
charm of much of the life that we
were leading, there came conviction
to us that there were places where all
this could be had in the same degree
we were enjoying it and at the same
time be near to the cities for us to
run In whenever we wished to see
or hear what was so essential to our
city-sharpened tastes and fancies.
Of course, the hunting and fishing
which I had so far away from the
city could not be duplicated close to
any western city. could not expect
to shoot ducks across the fence from
my door-yard, or flush quail from my
garden, jack-snfpe could not be ex-
pected to come into the fields just
across the way, nor squirrels to play
about in numbers all around us. 1t
was evident that if we made change
in our plans and left our present To-
cation to settle down in the country
near some city, I would have to "hang
up the fiddle and bow" so far as hunt
ing and fishing was concerned; at
least to great extent.
The mere fact of not seeing the
best acting, or the best pictures, or
in not hearing the best music, was
! not so essential deprivation as the
tantalizing fact that we were where
it was almost impossible to get in for
that purpose. If We had been near
enough to run in by taking an hour to
going and the same time for return
ing, we would have felt that we could
come or 60 as we chose. But to feel
that something really worth ones
while, from an intellectual standpoint,
is on the tapis, and that you are 'let
OUT from enjoying it whether or no,
that is the sting that battles conscious.
ness, the worm that never dies. Quite
possibly, If we had been in the city.
we should have neglected to go to a
number of these events; quite prob.
! able, also, that if we had been in
the country near enough to run in
handily, we should have set aside the
| opportunity in some instances, proud.
ly conscious that VII COULD have
gone If we had wished to. But to
want to 60, and not be able to, that
was cruel.
So it was evident that if we left
our present stamping-ground, the bur.
den of the sacrifice must fall on me.
for could no longer hunt or fish
every day in the year, and with al.
most unvarying success. l would
have to depend on occasional and un.
certain sallies into the woods and
marshes. would have to chastise
the Indian in my nature. The little
rift in our complete joy was gradually
widening. Like the crack that Quin.
tus Curtius Il believe that was his
name) jumped into, nothing would
close it but sacrifice. 1t was up to
me! Would l jump?
Ornament for Princes Crown.
The apex of the prince of Wales
crown is tuft of feathers tipped with
gold, said to be worth $4,000. The
feathers took 20 years to collect. and